Hitomi and Yakamo
This story begins with Mirumoto Satsu, a Dragon Clan samurai. Although he is not his clan's daimyo, he is considered a promising man with a great future, and he is allowed to carry the Ancestral Sword of the Dragon Clan. This is an ancient and powerful artifact carried by the original Togashi, a god who fell from the sky a thousand years ago.
Unfortunately for him, Satsu enters a duel with Hida Yakamo, a towering samurai of the Crab Clan. Yakamo kills Satsu in the duel, driving Satsu's little sister, Hitomi, into a furious rage. She accuses Yakamo of cheating, but the accusations of a young girl cannot besmirch the honor of a samurai warrior.
Mirumoto Hitomi takes up her brother's sword, armor, and memory. She shaves her head to demonstrate her dedication to bushido, the way of the warrior. Equipped with the Dragon Sword, Hitomi slices off the hand of Yakamo, her brother's killer.
Kuni Yori, a shugenja (magic user) of the Crab Clan, tends to Yakamo's injury, grafting a huge, horrid claw to the stump of his arm in place of the hand that had been there.
Yakamo is now equipped with a powerful claw that has the power to crush steel in its grip. This is a portent of things to come . . . .
Hitomi and Yakamo meet yet again, dueling in the midst of a storm. Although Yakamo cannot kill Hitomi at this time, he breaks the Dragon Sword and crushes Hitomi's hand in the grasp of his claw.
During Mirumoto Hitomi's convalescence, she receives an ancient, dark artifact. Why she receives it is not clear to her for a long time, but its effects on her are immediate . . . .
Hitomi becomes darker and more brooding, as is hinted in her illustration. She is more powerful, but the effects of the Obsidian Hand--and perhaps of her own vendetta--have diminished her sense of honor.
The mutual hatred between Yakamo and Hitomi grows, and they continue to face off against each other whenever Fate draws them together.
Meanwhile, back in Crab lands, Kuni Yori, the aforementioned Crab shugenja with evil schemes, opens one of the Black Scrolls at the behest of Yogo Junzo, the undead leader of the Shadowlands armies. Corruptive energies course through Yori's body in the illustration. The Black Scrolls are magical items used to trap the evil god Fu Leng a millennium ago. As each one is opened, Fu Leng's power becomes greater, and an evil taint is felt across the land.
Kuni Yori has seen happier days, but even getting his face turned inside out does not seem to stop him. Not only has he paid the price for his dark knowledge, but he has paid it willingly. At this point, Yakamo begins to regret having followed Yori's advice to graft a claw onto his arm.
Hida Yakamo takes the Jade Hand, an ancient artifact, and claims it for his own, as a symbol of his dedication to fight against the evil that now sits upon the throne of Rokugan. This involves chopping off the claw that was on his arm, which shows how far he will go to right the wrongs his clan has caused. The Hand is connected to a prophecy, and now that someone has claimed the Hand, the prophecy begins to unfold.
Only now has it become clear what has happened in the Empire. By cooperating with the evil creatures of the Shadowlands, Kuni Yori and the Crab Clan have helped the evil god Fu Leng to possess the body of the Emperor himself. Fu Leng has sworn to destroy the Empire, and Yakamo leads the Crab against their former Shadowlands allies.
Armed with the Jade Hand, Yakamo leads a great crusade against the Shadowlands, increasing his fame and honor at every turn. He also has been able to carry over some of his experience with the claw, as he has the ability to crush any opposing Shadowlands creature in his grip.
The Day of Thunder approaches, the day that Fu Leng becomes fully manifest and fights against the Seven Thunders, reincarnations of ancient heroes of Rokugan. Togashi Yokuni, the Dragon Clan daimyo, reveals himself to be the original Togashi, the god that fell to earth a thousand years ago. Fu Leng and Togashi are brothers, and Togashi has been manipulating events to bring them to the events he had foreseen.
The prophecy of the Jade Hand is at last complete, as Hida Yakamo is revealed to be one of the Seven Thunders. Not only that, but he is willing to fight the Shadowlands Horde any time, any place.
Mirumoto Hitomi is also revealed to be a Thunder. In order for Fu Leng to become fully manifest (and therefore mortal), Hitomi must open the Twelfth Black Scroll. The problem is, it's hidden in the heart of her daimyo, Yokuni. She plunges the Obsidian Hand into Yokuni's chest, rips his heart out of his body, and crushes it to dust, stealing Yokuni's power. She then opens the Twelfth Scroll (shown in her hand), allowing the Thunders to fight and defeat Fu Leng.
Even with the death of Fu Leng, the story has not ended. Finding his homelands have once more turned against evil, Kuni Yori flees Crab territory for the Shadowlands and begins to marshal an army of his own. Kuni Yori has never once regretted the price he had to pay for the knowledge he gained, and his writings are gaining him a following in that dark land.
With the death of Togashi Yokuni, Hitomi claims the Dragon Clan as her own. She abandons the name Mirumoto, intending to start her own house, the house of Hitomi, with samurai sworn to serve her. Notice that her Obsidian Hand seems to be growing up her arm . . . .
Once Hitomi takes control, she does a little house cleaning. She wants to ensure that anyone who remains is loyal to her alone and bears no lingering loyalty to the late Togashi Yokuni. It also helps to get rid of any outsiders, so that she can continue her experiments without interruption.
Hitomi, brazenly wearing two sets of swords (one hers, one Yokuni's), reforms the Dragon Clan in her own image. She begins to create her own tattooed people, each one tattooed with her own obsidian-corrupted blood. Among those who receive her tattoos are samurai from the Crane and Unicorn Clans, both of whom go mad and swear fealty to her.
Meanwhile, the Crab are at war in the Shadowlands. During one battle, Hida Yakamo (still sporting his Jade Hand) comes face to face with Kuni Yori, who has improved his appearance slightly by means of a porcelain mask. Yori demands that Yakamo swear fealty to him. Yakamo, of course, refuses, and is killed.
When Yakamo's body is recovered, the whole Empire mourns, for Yakamo was both a Thunder and a true hero. The Crab Clan holds a great funeral and prepares to cremate his body so that, even though he was killed in the Shadowlands, he will not rise again.
Upon her brother's death Yakamo's younger sister O-Ushi takes over as Crab Clan daimyo and prepares Yakamo's body for cremation.
It appears that Hitomi is at last free of her nemesis. Or is she? As the funeral begins, the serpentine Naga come and steal Yakamo's body away. Infuriated, the Crab attack the Naga for this desecration.
The Naga shugenja called "the Shashakar" uses his magics and a rare artifact to begin a great ritual. The Naga know a great secret-one they have been unable to make clear to the humans.
The priceless Black Pearl is the rarest and most powerful of the magical Naga pearls. With it, a single life can be saved--at the cost of a life. The Shashakar sacrifices his eternal soul, cutting himself out of the Naga cycle of rebirth, so that Hida Yakamo can live again.
Once more Yakamo walks to war, with the eyes of a serpent, the tenacity of a Crab, the courage of a Thunder, and the soul of the Shashakar guiding him. Neither serpent nor human, he leads the combined Crab and Naga armies to war against evil.
Meanwhile, Hitomi has her own problems. She has determined that the evil that infests the Empire from within (see Toturi's Saga) stems originally from the Moon. Her hand of obsidian gives her the strength of a god, but she still has the blood of a mortal and therefore the chance to change destiny. Deep in the mountains, she summons the Moon and challenges him to a duel.
Hitomi at last faces Lord Moon, but too late she finds that her obsidian-tainted blood, the source of power for herself and her tattooed followers, will not provide her any help against Lord Moon. Indeed, the Obsidian Hand that taints her blood is Lord Moon's hand, chopped off at the dawn of time. For a moment, it seems she is doomed..
Nevertheless, Hitomi perseveres, and for the briefest instant, Lord Moon is distracted. In that split second, Hitomi strikes with all of the power at her disposal, committing her fate to the single best stroke she can make.
Onnotangu, Lord Moon, falls and dies. Hitomi takes no pride in this, for Onnotangu was the father of the Empire, but it was necessary for her to do this to save the Empire he helped to create..
As soon as the Moon dies, the Sun goes into mourning for the death of her husband. For twenty-seven days, the sky is black at night and blood-red during what passes for daytime. The entire Empire trembles in fear. Crops die, animals hide, and food becomes scarce.
The story is far from over. Hitomi, slowly turning to obsidian, now wanders the Empire, taking tea with each clan. Yakamo has his own troubles to face and is too busy to pursue his vendetta. But the kharmic ties that brought these two together will never let them go . . . .