"Father, please!" the young man on his knees exclaimed, turning pleading eyes to the brooding man on the mother-of-pearl throne that towered above him.

"No." The single word cut through his son's pleas like a knife as Kawasemi Otado stroked his daughter's hand where it lay on his knee. His daughter Miniko looked up at him from where she reposed, a silk butterfly lying at his feet. Her eyes were full of puppy-dog love.

"But father!" his son Johatsu protested again. "The Lion are marching on us even now. Matsu Gohei means to add our lands to his personal holdings, and if he brings his army here, we will fall like rice shoots beneath his feet. Let me take a few trusted men and poison his supplies! Please!"

"I will not." Otado shook his grizzled old head. "It is not honorable. I will not permit my household to be sullied by dishonor."

"Even at the cost of all our lives?!"

"A true samurai is never afraid to die, boy." Otado's eyes bored into Johatsu's face, full of scorn.

Johatsu slowly rose to his feet, his face creased with a snarl of contempt. "A true man is not afraid to live, either, you craven old woman." Deliberately, he spat at his father's feet, then turned and stormed out of the throneroom, several bushi falling in behind him.

In the silence that remained, Otado drummed his fingers on the arm of his mother-of-pearl throne. Miniko reached up a silken hand to quiet them.

"It is just his fancy, father. He will return and apologise when he has calmed."

He did not.

Treading the halls, Miniko learned what had happened from frightened bushi. Johatsu's rage had passed to icy calm as soon as he left the throneroom. Leaving their armor and dressing like heimin, he and fully half the garrison of Shiro Kawasemi had quit the castle, declaring they would not remain for the slaughter of the Kawasemi line.

Worst, before he left, Johatsu had made one detour: to the room in which Miniko now stood, taking only two things. The Kingfisher Clan's ancestral daisho, /Hayai/ and /Shunbin/, "swift" and "keen", were gone. No doubt her brother wore them on his back.

Miniko traced the genealogy of her line etched into the wall behind the ancestral sword's empty racks. From the ronin Kawasemi, hero of the war against Akuma, who had been granted this land by the first Yoritomo Emperor, to Kawasemi Hijuki, who had stood by the side of Doji Tanae and saved Doji Palace from destruction at the hands of the Matsu, to now. "Kawasemi Otado," she read. "Married: Kawasemi (Kakita) Aeko, died 1974. Offspring: Kawasemi Miniko, Kawasemi Johatsu." At the last, she ground her knuckle into the tile bearing Johatsu's name. "You stupid little boy," she bit out, the words filled with contempt. "You stupid, stupid little boy."

Using one fingernail, she prised the tile with Johatsu's chop from the genealogy and let it fall to the floor. It shattered into a million pieces.

The days passed, and the Lion army wound ever closer. The days merged into a week, and on the last day of that week, the Lion's banners were clearly visible ringing the castle. Miniko no longer dared to walk the walls for fear of gunfire. Come morning, she knew, they would descend on her home. And she would die. Again she cursed Johatsu's impetuousness. Had she had a little more time to work on Otado, she had no doubt she would have swayed him.

As the sun rose, the warriors of House Kawasemi looked over the plains at their Lion enemy, not even bothering to open fire. They simply watched, and waited to die.

Three Lion soliders dropped to their knees just out of gunshot range and swung portable rocket launchers up to their shoulders. With a huge roar of smoke and flame, the main gate blew into a thousand pieces, and battle was joined.

As the garrison finally opened fire, the Lions charged. The automatic machine guns in the guardposts mowed them down by the dozens, but for each Lion that fell, two kept going. Miniko drew away from the window and turned to find her way out. Like most castles, this one had been built with a bolt-hole running under the walls to outside. If she could get to it before the Lions broke into the inner keep, she would be safe. Her idiot father could stay here and die in his throne room like the noble samurai he always wanted to be.

Suddenly, a hand clasped over her mouth and a strong arm grasped her by the shoulders, preventing her from turning. "Hush, girl," said the voice of the man holding her. Johatsu's voice. He released her and she turned. "I came back for you," Johatsu said in a tone that brooked no interruptions. "We are leaving by the bolthole. Now."

As she looked around, she realised the room was full of black leather-jacketed men wearing masks emblazoned with a mon she did not recognise. Johatsu wore the same jacket, and an identical mask was slid up over his head. "Friends," he said. "We have somewhere safe to go."

From the hill outside, Miniko and Johatsu watched as the Lions efficiently and brutally expurgated the last of the Kawasemi soldiers. "Our house is no more," Miniko said.

"See what honor has wrought," Johatsu snarled and spat. "Hate the Machine."

"Pardon, Johatsu?"

"You will learn soon enough, Miniko-chan," Johatsu said, turning away and walking down the hill. Suddenly he paused, and turned his head back towards her. "By the way, Mini..."

"Hai, Johatsu?"

Johatsu slid the mask down over his face. "Please do not call me that anymore. My name is Sekkou."

INAGO SEKKOU (Kawasemi Johatsu)

Earth 3
Willpower 5
Water 2
Perception 4
Fire 5
Air 4
Void 2

School/Rank: Kingfisher 1 (see below); Locust 3

Skills: Iaijutsu 5*, Kenjutsu 3, Marksmanship 3, Computer 8, Leadership 4, Lore: Iaijutsu 1, Demolitions 5, Commerce 4, Engineering 5, Stealth 7, Driving (cars) 3, Lore: Locust Clan 3, Athletics 3, Keunai 7 * See the notes on Hayai.

Honor: 0.3
Glory: 0.0 (Locust)

Advantages: Way of the Land (Otosan Uchi), Quick, Technophile
Disadvantages: Brash, Driven, Enemies (dozens, within the Locust and without)

INAGO MITNI (Kawasemi Miniko)

Earth 2
Willpower 5
Water 3
Perception 5
Fire 3
Intelligence 4
Air 5 Void 3

School/rank: Kingfisher 1, Kakita Programmer 3* * Mitni has never actually attended the Kakita Programmer school in person. She has, however, hacked into their network and learned from what she has downloaded.

Skills: Computer 9, Manipulation 6, Commerce 3, Etiquette 5, Acting 5, Hand-to-hand 3, Iaijutsu 3, Marksmanship 4, Ancient History 1, Modern History 2, Seduction 6, Law 3, Sincerity 5

Honor: 0.1
Glory: 0.0 (Locust)

Advantages: Technophile, Wealth (vast, scattered across hundreds of dummy bank accounts), Connected 7, Opportunist, Major Allies (Snake Clan), Minor Ally (Shinjo Katsunan), Privileged Information (the Paradigm)
Disadvantages: Cruel, Insensitive, Vain

New Advantage: Privileged Information Your character has his hands on something that most people don't know or aren't cleared for. Maybe he's a research scientist on a project for Dojicorp, or maybe he works as a servant at Doji Meda's favourite geisha house. This works a lot like the Forbidden Knowledge advantage, but if it is misused it will draw the attention of corporate lawyers or possibly enforcers rather than Isawa Inquisitors.

So, what's Mitni's Privileged Information advantage about? What's the Paradigm? For that, dear reader, you'll have to wait and see. :)

Hayai and Shunbin: Sekkou rarely carries these swords; he only has them if he has a way of concealing them. The rest of the time, they remain in his quarters. Both only function for a character trained in Kawasemi's technique; the only people alive, therefore, who can use either sword are Sekkou and Mitni. Hayai, the katana, gives the user an effective Iaijutsu skill of two higher for all purposes (thus, Sekkou has an effective Iaijutsu of 7 when using this blade, and Mitni's would be raised to 5) and does 4k4 damage in an iaijutsu duel. (It does 3k2 otherwise.) Shunbin, the wakizashi, gives the user a number of free raises equal to his Intelligence (but not more than his Void) for any combat-related mental roll (Battle rolls, any Lore, recognising an opponent's technique, etc, but *not* for rolling to hit). When both are worn together, they also add +10 to the user's TN to be hit.

Kingfisher School: Kawasemi was an Iaijutsu fanatic, and his technique, though astonishingly archaic in this world, has been faithfully hewn to by his descendents for the duration of their existance. When rolling initiative in skirmish combat, the Kawasemi can reroll the die any number of times if it is less than or equal to his Fire Ring, but only if he is fighting with a katana. Also, in iaijutsu duels, the Kawasemi's Void is treated as being one higher for all purposes; this does not, however, give the Kawasemi an extra Void Point.