Dark Tide Rising
By Shawn Carman & Rich Wulf

Seven months ago…

Yoritomo Rui moved quickly through the streets of Clear Water Village. The name of the ‘village' belied its large size, and the streets were brimming with people. It was a port city, and therefore Rui knew exactly how to disappear into its depths. Any true Mantis possessed such talents, though some chose not to exercise them. No one noticed another drab, faceless body moving close against the storefronts. A few did happen to notice the odd wind that seemed to follow in her wake. Most glanced up at the sudden stirring, shrugged, and continued whatever menial task they were performing.

The young captain soon arrived at her destination. The Bloated Carp was not a particularly reputable establishment, even in the seedier districts of a place like Sunda Mizu Mura, but it was known for privacy and exceedingly low prices. This ensured that there was always an ample supply of drunks and shady strangers clogging the dark corners of the sake house. When Rui's contact had told her this was the place to meet, she had not been surprised. While she did not seek out allies of such questionable character, she certainly did not refuse them if the advantages they offered were genuine.

She stepped inside the squalid sake house and quickly found a quiet seat where her back would be protected. A grotesquely obese serving man approached, but she sent him away with a handful of zeni, ensuring that she would not be bothered. She did not wait long. A figure rose from what had previously appeared to be a drunken stupor and moved to her table, sitting across from her in the shadowed corner. A basket hat covered much of the man's features. “You have the sum we agreed upon?” he asked in a raspy voice.

Rui lifted a small bag and placed it on the table with a metallic click. “I do.”

“Good,” the man grunted. “Let's do this and be done with it.” He lifted a scroll and placed it on the table, then cautiously reached for the bag.

“Wait,” she said, ignoring the man's defensive body language. “Why are you doing this?”

“Heh,” he replied. “Obviously I made a mistake.” He grabbed the scroll and began to rise.

“Easy,” Rui said softly, placing a dagger on the table with her other hand. “We have a deal, friend, and I always complete my deals. Choose not to answer my question if you like, but let us complete our business,” She smiled as he sat slowly back down. “In any case, I'm only curious. Assuming what you offer is genuine, the price seems almost… criminal.” She smiled again at the turn of phrase.

“The Osaku Route is real enough,” he answered. “Why would I offer such a thing?” He paused for a moment. “Revenge,” he finally said. “You don't need to know for what. I have heard you are someone who cares about results, not the means. I'm sure I can find someone else if you aren't interested.”

Rui tossed the bag across to the man and drew the scroll from his hand. “I want to be clear on one thing,” she said as she unrolled the parchment and studied it intently. “If this map turns out to be false, pray that I die on the ocean.”

“Perhaps I will regardless,” he hissed as he rose to leave.

Rui was up and around the table in an instant. She grabbed the man's neck in one hand and drove his head down to impact sharply against the table. The other hand plunged her dagger through the rim of his basket hat into the table, pinning him there. “Mind your tongue when you speak to me, filth,” she said through clenched teeth. “Our business is complete, do not expect me to tolerate your insults.”

The man quickly retreated further into the sake house. She caught a quick glimpse of his face, uncovered by the straw hat, but did not recognize him.

A few moments later, Rui was back at the docks, preparing her ship to leave. She directed her crew when necessary, waiting for a sign. When the breeze gusted suddenly, she found it. “Well?” she asked.

The strange swirling of air strengthened, then abated, and suddenly an older man was standing at her side. His clothing was that of a Mantis, tinged with red and bearing a centipede motif. “You were not followed. Your contact left and returned to an inn nearby.”
Rui grunted. “It seems to easy, Iongi. There must be a catch.”

“We shall see soon enough, I suppose,” the older man said. “Captain,” he added when she glanced at him sidelong.

One Month Later…

The Seas of Shadow were a region no sane man dared to venture. The seas of Rokugan were hazardous at the best of times; when combined with the foul touch of the Shadowlands they became an area of unimaginable danger. A man who fell overboard in a storm was almost certainly dead, or may as well be. The storms that blew over the black waves possessed a malevolent hunger. Creatures beyond description skulked beneath the water, constantly seeking living prey to torment and consume. Even the Mantis Clan, who claimed greater mastery of the sea than any other clan, did not challenge the Seas of Shadow.
Until today.

Dark skies were visible to the northwest and southeast, but as Rui stood on the prow of the Fire Blossom, she could see nothing in their path to the southwest. The Osaku Route looked as if someone had cut a path through the Sea of Shadows with some gigantic blade, its keen edge hewing away every trace of corruption and malice. “Magnificent,” she sighed, breathing in the magnificent scent of fresh sea air.

“It is impressive,” her first mate replied. “Truly a marvel of the kami.”

“Kami, Fortunes, blind luck,” Rui shrugged. “The source matters little to me. All I know is that if this current takes us straight through the Sea of Shadows as the map says, it will take months off of our travel time to the Ivory Kingdoms.”

Iongi winced at the mention of their destination, but he said nothing. Rui did not doubt his loyalty for a moment, but she knew that the nature of their activities made him intensely uncomfortable. She liked the old man, though she did not understand him. Honestly, at his age, spending so many years at sea with Mantis sailors, it was a miracle he had kept such naive idealism.

Iongi glanced sidelong at Rui, perhaps curious at her speculative stare, but again he said nothing. Instead he focused on the horizon, his brow furrowing in concentration. “There is an island ahead, captain,” he said.

Rui turned her attention to the sea ahead. “I don't see anything.”

“The kami assure me it is there,” Iongi returned. “It appears to lie in the middle of the path.”

“Will going around it force us into the Sea of Shadows?” Rui asked, her voice suddenly dark with concern.

“No,” he replied, “it is far too small.” He frowned.

“What?” Rui demanded.

The old shugenja shook his head. “There is something… different. Something hidden. I cannot tell what it is, but the island is special.”

“Special, eh?” Rui said, a familiar gleam in her eyes. “Special can be profitable, my friend.” She turned to back to the ship. “Prepare to land!” she shouted. “Make ready to go ashore!”

“Are you certain that's a good idea?” Iongi asked.

“Not certain,” she answered candidly, “but what is gained without risk? Let's find out.”

“Please do not do this, captain.”

It had taken less than an hour to find the small island in the midst of their present course. Iongi was a small island, perhaps no bigger than half a third of a mile across at its widest point. There was no sign of any vegetation or wildlife of any sort, and yet the old shugenja was refusing to set foot off the kobune. The look on his face was such that Rui took a second look at the island to make sure it was not crawling with ravenous tigers or some other similar threat. “Why not?” she demanded.

“Look at the stones,” Iongi said. He gestured at the squat, square stones that lined the beach. Each was roughly knee-high and engraved with strange kanji. “This place is sacred, warded against evil. We must not disturb it.”

“Well, I'm not evil,” Rui asked as she stepped into the knee-deep water. “And the blood of Osano-Wo runs through my veins. That means I'm sacred too.”

Iongi winced at her.

“Stay, if you wish,” Rui said with a dismissive wave. “I am going to have a look.” She promptly waded ashore, accompanied by a pair of her sailors. They trudged onto the bare, rocky soil with little fanfare but she could not deny a strange air of… what could it be called? Menace? Serenity? Whatever it was, the atmosphere on the island was most abnormal. She checked her obi to make sure the jade finger she always carried was still there, just in case. She waited for a few moments, but nothing happened. Cursing herself for a superstitious fool, she set out to look for anything unusual.

The island was a mass of volcanic rock, clearly created from some particularly potent undersea explosion. The island's center was marked by a particularly large spire of rock that reached upwards toward the heavens. Rui noticed that it was strangely blackened and pitted at the top, but was soon distracted from this by the sight of something unusual at its base. She walked over and dropped to her knees to have a closer look.

A small shrine stood at the base of the spire. An ancient scroll case lay within, beside a long cloth bundle. Carefully, she unwrapped the aged, delicate cloth to see what was contained inside.

A smile spread slowly over her face.

Moments later, Rui returned to the ship with the scroll case and mysterious bundle in her arms. She ordered the crew to set sail once more, and refused to acknowledge Iongi's perplexed, angry stares.

“Attention, Mantis vessel!” the Crab shouted across the distance between the two ships. “Stand down! Prepare to be boarded!”

Rui's eyes narrowed dangerously. There was no reason that her ship should not be permitted in these waters. They were not within sight of Crab shores, and even if they were, what of it? The Emperor's law insisted that the sea was the Mantis Clan's domain, and no muscle-bound Hida imbecile would command her otherwise. Yet as soon as they had almost exited the small island cove they found a Crab ship, blocking their path.

“Will you stand down?” came another shout.

She leapt atop the railing to face the larger Crab vessel, balancing easily on the narrow perch. “Go to Jigoku!” she screamed across the sea, brandishing her kama above her head. Her long black hair blew wildly in the wind.

For a moment, from her vantage point, she caught a clear view of the Crab captain's face. She was not truly surprised when she recognized him as the man who she had met Clear Water Village. As Crab kobune sailed closer she saw that it was crewed by heavily armed ronin and peasant soldiers. This meeting was no coincidence, and even her veteran crew would not survive this boarding.

“Iongi!” she shouted. “Set fire to their sail!”

“As you command, captain,” he answered. Crackling energy began to form around his clenched fists. “You realize this may well destroy their ship.”

She looked at him coldly.

The Moshi muttered something under his breath and unleashed a blinding flash of lightning that leapt across the divide and struck the Crab ship's mast dead center. There was a loud crack, and the mast broke, crashing down onto the deck in a shower of sparks. The sail lit quickly from the sparks and began to burn. “We must flee,” Iongi said above the roaring shouts of victory from Rui's men. “The smoke will bring others!”

Rui nodded, but could not stop laughing. She gestured to her men to return to their posts. She was still laughing even when the Crab ship was nothing more than a column of smoke on the horizon.

Today…

There was a terrible cracking sound as the gigantic Crab koutetsukan's spiked metal hull ground against the weaker wooden exterior of the Fire Blossom. Rui cursed explosively, drawing glances from her men even as they rushed to maintain control of the ship and prepare for battle. The hull had held from the glancing blow, but a direct impact from the iron turtle's deadly side would send it to the bottom for eternity.

Rui cursed again, furious with herself for falling into such a blatantly obvious trap. The Crab had been so bumbling in their attempts to catch her that she had lost all respect for their naval prowess, treating her darting trips through the Osaku Route, as the Crab called it, like a game. Now, of course, she wondered if all their pitiful ploys to catch her had been a ruse, a gambit to lull her into overconfidence. A number of smaller vessels had attempted to pursue her, and she had engaged in normal evasive maneuvers to escape. She had grown lazy and arrogant and now found herself outmaneuvered by one of the Crab's gigantic iron vessels, the koutetsukan. Under normal circumstances, there was no chance such a large, heavy vessel could possibly keep up with a kobune on the open sea, much less the lightning fast Fire Blossom. The Crab ship had instantly set upon her sail with a precise volley of arrows, however, and the sail was so damaged that it cut her speed in half. Now the hull was damaged on an unseen reef, a reef she was fairly certain the Crab had driven her toward on purpose.

She had two choices, leave the safety of the Osaku Route and flee into the Sea of Shadows, or face the Crab.

Rui considered herself a daring sort of person, but she was not foolhardy enough to consider the first a serious option.

A shadow passed over the deck for the briefest of seconds. Rui had only time to realize that something had fallen from the deck of the koutetsukan before the form of truly massive Crab warrior landed on the deck of her ship with a thunderous crack. The timbers cracked under the force of the man's arrival, but did not break. The Crab drew up to his full height, holding an enormous tetsubo at the ready. “I am Hida Sadaharu,” he said in a booming voice, “captain of the Stone Storm. I seek captain Yoritomo Rui.”

“How dare you attack my ship?” Rui demanded.

“You think this is an attack?” he sneered. There was no trace of anger in his voice. “Surrender now and there will be no need for you to suffer.”

“You are quite generous,” she hissed, gesturing with her left kama.

Two of her crew leapt toward the huge Crab, their weapons drawn. Sadaharu's tetsubo moved with incredible speed. With a savage crack one man fell backward on the deck and did not move.

The second man whirled his kama at the end of a long chain, keeping a careful shield between him and the Crab as he studied his opponent. Sadaharu squinted for a moment, then poked his tetsubo through the twirling chain to strike the Mantis squarely in the jaw. He too fell to the deck and did not rise. His weapon tangled around the end of the Crab's weapon; Sadaharu wrenched it free and tossed it over his shoulder into the water with a splash.

Several more crewmen gathered, moving slowly toward Sadaharu. The Crab scowled. “I have sixty more bushi aboard my ship,” he said, looking directly toward Rui. “This is between the two of us. Do not make me kill your crew.”

“It makes no difference if we fight or not,” Rui said. “The punishment for piracy is death, and you believe we are pirates.”

“If I believed you were pirates, I would not be on this deck,” Sadaharu said. “This deck would be in flames and your lungs would be full of seawater. I know you sank Yasuki Tsukioka's ship, but I am not convinced piracy is the reason.”

“You would not believe the truth,” Rui replied.

“I see,” Sadaharu said. He turned back toward the boarding plank. “I apologize for wasting your time, Yoritomo-san. I shall return to the business of sinking your little kobune.”

“Sink my ship, and this goes to the bottom of the sea with me,” Rui said quickly.

Sadaharu peered back at her. She was now holding a gleaming tetsubo, marked with an image of the coiled Thunder Dragon.

“Where did you get that?” Sadaharu said, turning around fully to face her again.

“An island in the midst of the Osaku Route,” she replied. “It was Tsukioka's map that led us there. He attacked us shortly after we landed there and found this.”

Sadaharu frowned. “There is only one island in this route. It was where Hida Kenzan, Osano-wo's son, the Crab Champion and brother of Kaimetsu-uo, went to mourn following his father's death. A Crab vessel left him alone there for three days and three nights. At the end of this time, lightning struck a spire in the center of the island… Osano-wo, telling his son to set aside his grief and get back to work.” The Crab chuckled at the story. “Kenzan left his tetsubo in the island shrine as an offering to his father. The Kuni proclaimed the island sacred, and warded it so the Shadowlands would not take root there. It was believed that Osano-Wo favored the shrine so much that he kept the waters around the island pure, yet if your story is true the shrine has laid pillaged for months. In fact, if anything, the Osaku Route has become wider of late.”

“Perhaps Osano-Wo is pleased that his son's weapon no longer lies forgotten,” Iongi said.
“I think perhaps you are right, shugenja,” Sadaharu replied. “Tsukioka was acting strangely, even before his death. I think perhaps Tsukioka heard the Shadowlands call and became corrupted, yet he could not pillage the shrine due to the Kuni protections. It is ironic that his actions only brought about his death. You have my thanks for that, Rui-san.”

Rui blinked in surprise. She had not expected such a thing from a Crab.

“Not sentiment, only just sincerity,” he continued, “But with that said, I cannot permit you to continue using this passage. There are greater dangers here than you know.”

“I can take care of myself, Crab,” Rui said.

“So could Tsukioka,” Sadaharu answered. “He was no fool, Rui. He was trained to fight the Taint, yet he became its pawn in the end. The Crab risk much so that the rest of the Empire might be safe from the Shadowlands. Do not spurn our protection.” Sadaharu was silent a long moment, studying Rui's face. “But if reason is not enough, then look to this.” He drew a scroll from his obi and unfurled it, holding it out for Rui to study. “This is an edict from the Emerald Champion, explicitly forbidding the Mantis from continuing to travel the Osaku Route without permission from the Crab Clan.”

Rui clenched her teeth in anger and snatched the scroll from the Crab. She shoved it in her obi without looking at it. “And what of me, then? What do I gain from all this?”

“Nothing,” Sadaharu said, “though it would be my pleasure to recommend you for favored status in all Crab ports, in recognition of your aid.”

Rui shook her head. Normally favored status in the Crab ports would be a great prize indeed, but in light of losing use of such a marvelous trade route, it seemed meager in comparison. “I suppose you want the tetsubo as well,” she said bitterly.

“Want it?” Sadaharu replied with a laugh. “It is cursed!”

Rui blinked. “Cursed?”

“In a manner of speaking,” he said. “It resonates with the Thunder Dragon's power, but he who holds it inevitably begins to hear the voice Osano-Wo. The Fortune of Fire and Thunder is a powerful being, but he is an unforgiving master. Kenzan came here to grieve for his father, but also to be rid of the weapon. But do not think I merely seek to discard a treasured relic of my clan merely because it carries an uncomfortable burden. Obviously the Thunderer has not found you wanting. He did not strike you down for setting foot on his sacred island. No evil has befallen you for what most would consider desecration. And some believe the route is widening.” He shrugged. “Perhaps Osano-Wo meant you to find his weapon. You are, after all, his descendant just as we Crab are.”

“You are too kind,” Rui said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The Crab either did not notice or chose not to acknowledge Rui's dark mood. “My ship will escort you back to the route's entrance.” He put two fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly. A thick rope fell onto the deck from the koutetsukan above. “I trust we will not meet on the open sea again.”

“Certainly not.” Rui waited until The Crab had returned to his ship and started to pull away from the Fire Blossom, then cursed again, more explosively than ever.

Iongi emerged from below deck. “That went well,” he observed quietly.

“Did it?” Rui demanded. She shook her head in disgust and cast the tetsubo down at the shugenja's feet. “Take this thing from my sight. I never want to see it again.”

“What shall I do with it?”

Rui shrugged. “I don't care.”

Toshi no Inazuma

Moshi Iongi sat quietly in his meager quarters within one of innumerable barracks assigned to the hundreds of sailors that came and went from the city on a daily basis. The tetsubo Rui had given him sat on a low table near the center of the room. The shugenja regarded it with a troubled expression. What in the world would a man like him do with such a weapon?

As if in answer to his silent question, there was a rap at the door. Iongi looked up in surprise. He could not remember ever receiving visitors since his arrival in the Mantis islands. “Enter,” he said softly.

The screen slid open and an older man stepped into the room, his kimono a swirling pattern of black, brown and green. “Greetings, Moshi Iongi. I had heard the Fire Blossom was in port.”

“Hai, Komori-sama,” Iongi said with a deep bow. He glanced at the strange patterns on the older shugenja's kimono. “What is that strange mon you wear?”

“You have been away for some time,” Komori observed. “You are, I'm sure, unaware that the Emperor has bestowed upon me the right to create a Minor Clan.”

Iongi blinked in surprise again. “I had not heard, Komori-sama. Congratulations on this incredible honor.”

“Thank you.” Komori inclined his head respectfully. “I have also been given leave by Kumiko-sama, Nobumoto-sama, and Amika-sama to recruit a small number of followers from within the ranks of the Mantis as I see fit.” He stopped to regard Iongi carefully. “I have selected you to join me, I you would.”

Iongi rose to his feet. A chance to return to a temple and conduct study, or perhaps even rituals of blessing for simple peasant families. A chance to return to the research and routine that he loved so much. A chance to finally leave the endless nights spent aboard a noisy, leaking kobune on the open sea. “I would be greatly honored to accept, Komori-sama.”

“Excellent,” Komori said. He regarded the tetsubo with a curious expression, eyes widening as he sensed the magic within it. “This is a most unusual weapon.”

“It is indeed, Komori-sama,” Iongi agreed.

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