Shadowlands
The second chapter of the Saga begins with the end of the Battle at Beiden Pass. After her duel with Yakamo, Hitomi left behind Toturi and his army to seek out the wounded Crab. Unfortunately for her, she found him. With the magic of his new "appendage", Yakamo was not only able to defeat the Dragon samurai-ko, but also able to snap her brother's sword - the Ancestral Dragon sword - and crush her right hand. However, Yakamo did not kill her when he had the chance, but allowed her to escape from the Crab camp. She was discovered by a wandering shugenja who took her to the Imperial Palace, where she was introduced to the lovely bride of the Emperor. Kachiko's servants mended Hitomi's wounds, and the Lady Scorpion also ordered her high advisor to perform a magical ceremony that would attach to Hitomi an ancient artifact: a hand made of rune-carved black glass.
Meanwhile, in the lands of the Crane, a new Lion arm - this time led by the Lion Champion herself - descended on the unprepared Doji Palace. Toturi had only left behind a small garrison to protect the Palace, augmented by the Phoenix army led by Shiba Tsukune. However, the unorthodox tactics of the Dragon and Phoenix caught the overconfident Matsu Tsuko off guard. The defenders of the Crane were able to hold out against the superior forces of the Lion for three days, but on that third day the Crane Champion returnedÉ with an army of Shadowlands madmen. The False Doji Hoturi marched his army against his kinsmen as Matsu Tsuko watched. The Lion Champion now had a choice: she could stand with the False Hoturi or against him. She chose to do neither, and watched the Shadowlands army decimate the dwindling forces of the Crane. Tsukune retreated - along with the Dragons and an untrained army of the Cranes led by Daidoji Uji - south to the ancient shugenja temples of the Asahina family.
In the meantime, Toturi had been chasing the retreating Crab army across Rokugan. When word reached him of the Lion's attack, he called off his march and moved his army back toward Beiden Pass. When he reached the Pass, however, the Unicorn cavalry - commanded by Shinjo Yasamura - would not let him by. Toturi refused to draw his sword on Yasamura, but now he was forced to move his army north through the provinces of the Lion. Toturi gritted his teeth and prepared to meet the army he used to command from the other side of the battlefield.
As Toturi planned his movements through Lion territory, a single rider approached his army. Bearing no insignia, but wearing ill-fitting armor a generation old, the ronin, who called himself "Akiyoshi," delivered a slight and sickly Doji Hoturi. "She will harm him no more," the ronin said cryptically and rode back to the east. The drugged and half-starved Hoturi explained to his childhood friend the situation in the Palace as best he could, but his fevered mind could not muster any details. Toturi sent the Crane Champion along with a small contingent of samurai back to the Crane provinces. Yasamura gave Hoturi passage, explaining to Toturi 'I have orders not to let your army through. Nothing in my orders mentions the Crane Lord." When Toturi asked who had given him those orders, the Unicorn refused to answer.
Far to the north and east, in the temples of the
Phoenix, Shiba Ujimitsu was faced with a difficult decision. The
shugenja known as "The Nameless One" (who had once been
the Master of the Void, but was now twisted and corrupted by his
dealings with the Shadowlands) reported that he had sensed the power
of the Shadowlands growing. Ujimitsu sent out Isawa Tadaka, the
Master of Earth, to investigate. He returned with dark news. One
of the black scrolls - guarded for a thousand years by the Scorpion
Clan - had been opened. He had taken it upon himself to go to the
Shadowlands to discover who was responsible. His journey had changed
him considerably. His eyes were now filled with a black fire, and
his body burned with energies he had never encountered before. Yes,
there was a force in the Shadowlands, a force of such energy that
not even the combined might of all of Rokugan's craftiest shugenja
could counter. They would have to gain an understanding of this
energy source to destroy it, but in order to do that, they would
have to embrace its energy and take it within themselves. So began
the corruption of the Phoenix Clan.