Higawa fumbled with the lock while the other two Locusts stood watch behind him. Night had fallen again on the city of Otosan Uchi, the jewel of the Diamond Empire, and the darker souls of the city had come out of hiding from Lady Sun. The small group of Locust thugs were attempting to break into a restaraunt that was known as a favorite among the magistrates. Around them, the city itself was practically dead, for the hour was well past midnight. While Inago and his direct agents plotted the downfall of an Empire, servants like Higawa were sent to confuse, annoy, and distract the Emperor's men.

On a rooftop across the street, a long man clad in midnight black peered down on the three men from behind a smooth black and red mask. Without a word, he crouched, took two steps, and leapt from the rooftop to the one across the street, above the thugs. The Father, Bayushi Taigo, landed in absolute silence, and made his way down the side of the building without a sound.

On the street level, the door's lock finally gave way to Higawa's moderate skill, and opened with a slight click. Just as the two other Locusts turned to follow him into the restaraunt, a faint noise came from the alley next to the building. It sounded like the momentary scraping of steel on brick.

"Setsu," Higawa hissed, "find out what that was. Your brother and I will plant the explosives." Setsu, standing a good half a foot taller than Higawa, nodded quickly and drew a pistol. He crept to the corner of the building, and flattened himself against the wall, then slowly edged into the alley.

"Come on," Higawa said to Taitsu, the remaining young Locust. Higawa had been involved with the gang long enough to know that Inago considered every minor detail important, down to even his low profile assignments. They were not to be seen, and to kill anyone who happened to break that rule.

In the alley, Setsu crept quietly along the wall, looking about. It was a dead-end alley, with two trash dumpsters on either side, and a fire escape ladder reaching up to the top of the restaraunt's roof. If someone was here, they could only hide behind one of the two trash bins. The Locust leaned down to get a better look behind the one he was closest to. The silence was nearly deafening; it was so dark, he could be staring right at someone pointing a gun to his head and not know it.

Setsu nearly jumped three feet as a cat took off from uner the opposite trash bin, hissing loudly and kicking up several bits of trash. His gun trained on the movement instantly, but he barely contained himself from firing off several shots in panic. He stared in shock back out the alleyway for a moment, then nearly laughed out loud at himself.

"Stupid cat," he said, a little shakily, as he put his gun back into its holster.

The Locust never saw the black robed figure melt out of the shadow behind him. Setsu didn't feel a thing as the Father broke his neck with ease. The ninja let the body fall to the pavement slowly, and studied his face for a moment. Taigo quickly removed his mask, showing a face that was a perfect mirror of the dead Locust on the ground.

"Stupid..." he whispered, his voice deepening a little, then raising, "Stupi... stuuu... Stupid cat." Taigo cleared his throat, concentrated a moment, and said finally, "Stupid cat," his voice matching Setsu's perfectly. The Father stripped the corpse, then quickly disposed of the body in one of the dumpsters.

Higawa and Taitsu emered from the restaraunt and the senior Locust locked the door behind them. "Setsu," Higawa called out quietly.

"Here," came the response as the Locust appeared from the alley. "It was just a cat," he said. "Some stupid cat."

"Figures. Let's go, man," Higawa said, and the three Locusts took off down the street, into the night.

Across the city, two men had sat up all night, exchanging stories of the ancestors with each other. In the home of Bayushi Shiro, a magistrate of the Diamond Emperor, and a sniper for his forces, Shiro listened as the gaijin named Calin MacLir finished the long answer to a question the Scorpion had posed an hour ago.

"Ten years ago, Sano announced he was leaving the Isle of Man for his home, Rokugan. He would not say why, but I knew the story of my ancestor's promise to yours, and I knew I would have to join him." Calin paused a moment to take a small drink of the steaming tea Shiro seemed to have an endless supply of. Oddly, the sniper's apartment nearly matched the description of a Rokugani home that Amadan had written in the MacLir Histories nearly a thousand years ago. "It was then that I met the man named Bayushi Dairyu, the leader of your Clan at the time."

Shiro nodded, "Yes. Dairyu-sama was a wise and clever man. His loss was felt deep within the Scorpion."

The gaijin took another sip, smiling inwardly to himself. "Dairyu lives yet, Shiro-san." Calin said after a short silence.

"What?" The Bayushi's face twisted into confusion at Calin's words.

"The forces that seek to undo the Empire were at work already then," Calin continued. "Perhaps even before then. Sano and I saved Dairyu's life, but to all the world, we made it appear he had died. If the forces of this darkness we now face knew he had lived, and why we saved him, his end would have come shortly after that night."

Shiro looked out the window to the city of Otosan Uchi. "Where is Dairyu-sama now?" he asked.

Calin shrugged, "Around. He plays parts that will be as important to this Empire as those who will fight on the Day of Thunder. Just as you and I will play such parts. On the first Day of Thunder, the fight with Fu Leng would have been for naught if Hantei and his generals had failed to hold back the Horde for as long as they did. On the second Day, The Empire would have been lost if Yoritomo and the armies outside the Capitol had fallen to the dark beasts they fought. A woman named Akiyoshi saved the life of one Thunder. Who is to say her role was less important than that of Toturi?"

Shiro nodded. "I see," he whispered, taking a bottle of sake out from the small cabinet on the floor near the tatami they sat upon. "So it falls to us then to play roles off the stage of Thunder, and should we fail, it could mean the loss of the Empire."

"No. It will mean the loss of your Empire." Calin said, his eyes deadly calm.

"What is it we must do?"

The gaijin laughed a little to himself. "That I do not know. Only Sano could tell us, and he is a captive of a maho tsukai in this very city."

"A tsukai?" Shiro asked, his eyebrow arching. "In my city?" The Scorpion reached under a pillow, and from seemingly nowhere produced a intimidating firearm. "When will you be ready to keep up with me?"

Bayushi Shiriko's head swam. The foul taste in her mouth was of stale blood, and her eyes practically refused to open. As she regained conciousness, she felt her aching wrists, her battered torso, and knew that one of her legs was broken. Shiriko felt the familiar cold stone floor that she had been captive on for... she couldn't count the days.

"It's good to see you're awake," came the voice she had learned to recognize instantly. Yogo Ishak stood before her bound, kneeling form, his dead eyes gazing over her somewhat passively.

"Why am I alive?" she asked, her eyes aching at the small amount of light afforded by the lamp in the room. Her voice was raspy, showing the sparse amount of food and water Ishak had been giving her. Just enough to keep her alive.

"That's a very typical young woman's attitude. 'Me, me, me'. 'Why am I alive?', 'Ishask, I'm in pain.', 'My leg can't move,'" The akutenshi snorted amusedly to himself. "You do whine alot for the leader of a Great Clan."

Shiriko tried to calculate the days she had been missing. A week? Something like that. It was still too early for the Scorpion back in the Crab provinces to start alerting the Empire. They would wait for a week to hear from her, then begin a search for another week.

"Anyway," Ishak said, reaching into his black trench coat. "You're alive for a very good reason. You may serve a useful purpose for the first time in your life." He removed an old, weathered book from his pocket, and Shiriko's open eye widened at the sight. "Yes," the tsukai said, "I found your father's little black book. You shouldn't leave things this important just lying around. My agents had no real trouble finding it. But then again, I suppose we can just add that to your ever-growing list of incompetent mistakes." He flipped a few of the pages lazily, "I could read enough of it to understand who wrote it, and what it probably contains. Unfortunately, your father was a great deal more intelligent than you, and the actual information here is encoded."

"Do you really think I'm going to read it for you?" The Scorpion Champion said, spitting a little blood from her mouth onto the ground. "You've tortured me for the guns, and I haven't spoken yet. Kill me now, Betrayer, or I'll find some way to destroy you."

"You see," Ishak said, his voice dropping to a menacing calm, "that's your problem. You can't see the big picture. I've hardly begun to make you suffer. All things come to the patient man, Shiriko-chan, and I'm not getting any older. Look at you," he motioned at her with an open hand, "I've taken your dignity, your pride." He pulled a long katana from under his trench coat.

Itsuwari.

"I've taken your Clan's blade, Shiriko.With this book, I've taken your last connection to your revered father. There's nothing you have that I cannot take from you. Give it time, girl. You may learn something, before I let you die."

Shiriko let her head drop in a sign of defeat, but it only hid the slight smile she could not contain. Ishak held Itsuwari. It was only a matter of time before the Scorpion found her now. She prayed to the Fortunes that she would be alive to see that day.

Asako Sano's wrists still hurt. Or so he thought. The ancient Phoenix closed his eyes and tried to clear his head of the whisper he heard from time to time now. When he opened them again, he was lightheaded for a moment. He could feel the goblin statue's blood mixing with his own. He fought with every ounce of willpower he had to retain his pure mental state. He could not afford to relax at any point. If Sano allowed the corruption to gain a foothold in his being, he would be lost forever.

Slowly, in his mind, Sano began a prayer to each Fortune, lesser and greater. Calin was running out of time if he were to save the Henshin.

The morning had just begun, and already, the boy was giving him a headache.

As Heichi Tetsugi stared at the pile of papers on his desk, he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand, and continued signing and moving documents with his right. The world was an odd place, where a man could betray the Emperor to his death, and be appointed the personal bodyguard of the new Emperor. His fingers ran over the hilt of the new sword at his side. He was the Emerald Champion now. He had lands to attend to, and instead of working under Doji Meda and the Emperor, he was probably the second most powerful single man in the Empire.

Tetsugi then looked at the daisho that lay on the stand near his desk. The ancestral blade of the Boar. A dead Clan. The last person who had a true claim to the blood of Heichi died a millenia ago. Tetsugi's clever plan was now coming back to haunt him. Shiriko had found out a small part of his secret, much sooner than he thought she would. For some reason, however, the young Scorpion Champion never acted upon her new knowledge. She had simply let Tetsugi know she had discovered the truth, and allowed it to hang over his head.

Now, as Emerald Champion, it would only be a matter of time before other people actually started looking for other members of the Boar Clan. Until this time, the Boar had been just another in the seemingly endless sea of minor Clans.

That matter could wait, if only for a little while longer. The Day of Thunder approached soon, a Day he had been planning against for years. Perhaps the captive Minor Clan Daimyos could wait just a little longer, and Heichi Tetsugi could die on that Day. Then, the person Tetsugi truly was could be free to walk Rokugan again.

Until then, he would continue to act as he always had. Tetsugi stood and adjusted the Sword of the Emerald Champion on his obi. He was about to make a surprise inspection of the Fantastic Gardens and its master, Asahina Munashi. The Darkest Day was close.

Closer than any thought.