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 Post subject: Columns of Smoke, Pillars of Fire
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 3:00 pm 
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Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:58 am
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Nikesake

Asako Itsuo followed his Champion two steps behind even though he was technically the one to guide Shiba Sawayanagi through the newer premises of the Blue Tiles College.

"You've built a wonderful temple of knowledge here, Itsuo-san. Hisau's lecture and the following debate has impressed me. But if you count on this swaying my decision, you may be disappointed. It is not political. I understand your argument how the ire of Lion traditionalists is offset by support for progressive factions for what you're doing here. I realise this is more than it looks because of your and your mother's connections. I am a man of peace, but not an appeaser and I realise that concessions won't get us anywhere anytime soon."

The Champion stopped and watched how students were undergoing their examination in the courtyard. He took note that many of them were Nasu.

"It is economic. With the refugee crisis, I need to consider every koku. And as much as it pains me, I cannot afford this. The Blue Tiles are not essential to our survival right now. You need to close it down, just for a year or two. Then we'll see. Besides the less we have to defend in the southwest, the greater our chances in the next invasion. You know one of the first things Toru would do is burn it all down."

Itsuo listened in silence, watching his students setting the test, their brushes moving methodically. When he spoke, it was not to argue.

"How bad it is, Sawayanagi-dono? The crisis?"

"Tens of thousands of famished heimin. May be hundreds of thousands soon. The Isawa had deprived them of all of their grain before seeding, and asked them to go south. Some try to live off the forest, but it won't work for these numbers. And it is just a few weeks before we will not be able to feed them with the most modest rations... Do you know about the petition?"

Sawayanagi's hand rested on the hilt of Ofushikai. He closed his eyes.

"News have reached me, sire. I don't think the Emperor or the Court would approve of this. Not as long as the Matrons or Jama hold any sway. The Lion would only ridicule themselves if they tried to make claim on stewardship over our lands based on the Ki-Rin precedent. I think they know that too."

"We both know your optimism is unfounded, Itsuo-san. The Emperor is very ill, and both brothers have been grabbing around for influence and support for quite a time. Unless something unexpected happens, Hohiro will be Hantei the Tenth. And if he does not find us virtuous enough, he might agree to the unthinkable. And you're not virtuous in the minds of many. And in those minds this place is a hive of moral disintegration and vice."

Itsuo chuckled.

"Is it the sentiment you will share with the public when you close down my college? That it has been that?"

Sawayanagi tensed. He did not like the man to show mirth in these dire straits. He turned to face the scion of the Hantei bloodline, but not the name.

"I will do what I have to so that there is another to bear the Soul of Shiba."

Itsuo bowed low to his Champion.

"Sire, it cannot come to this. You are right I refuse to acknowledge it. My oath to you is to master knowledge. And I know there are options."

"Then it is high time you presented them to me, Itsuo-san, so that I can see whether they are not something I have many times considered already."

"Like you said, my mother's connections reach far beyond the Asako, sire, and we have many quiet friends."

"None of them will come to our aid when push comes to shove."

"Maybe, maybe not. But isn't famine your most immediate concern?"

---

Kenkai Hanto

Shosuro Nodage watched the man who in turn watched the night time panorama of Sunda Mizu Mura from their vantage point, with his eye armed with a foreign spyglass. And the faint contours of the decoy ship that was quietly crossing the waters of the Earthquake Fish Bay toward the city's port. The spyglass had an inscription on it in a language Nodage didn't understand. He knew a bit of Merenaese, but while the alphabet was the same, the words made no sense to him: Sic Parvis Magna.

"It is time to signal my people, Daidoji-sama."

Hira nodded and tucked the spyglass into his obi. He stringed the daikyu, held the arrow by the embers until it lit up, then without ado he sent it over the bay. His arrows knew their way, and this fiery one was no different. It hit the deck doused in flammable substance and the vessel soon became a floating torch.

"Two hundred heartbeats?"

"Two hundred heartbeats it is, Daidoji-sama. I've trained my people well. We're thankful for this opportunity."

"It's just a matter of time before you start making your own, or you have already started. It's the operational training you so relish here."

Nodage smirked under his mask.

"And you, the seamlessness of infiltration, I suppose. We both stand to benefit. We're not here together for the sense of kinship or camaraderie, are we?"

"No, we're not. I still wonder what will happen if your Crab allies learn your role in this."

"They won't, unless you tell them. And they haven't been our allies ever since their boor of a Champion beat our Champion's beloved sister into unconsciousness. They just don't know about it yet, and the later they learn the better for your Clan and mine. We don't want half the Empire to cry foul when they learn some Scorpion aid some Crane in their efforts to help some Phoenix, do we?"

"You talk so much you may miss the show, Shosuro-san. Ten beats."

Within ten beats the ship hit the docks, though there had been a failed attempt to block its passage with another vessel. And then, various port buildings started exploding, painting the night sky with vivid red. Dots of bodies and parts of buildings thrown into the air by the power of the blasts were adding some black features on the mushrooming wall of fire. Conflagration was taking over the port of the Clear Water Village at a rapid pace. The scale of destruction was frightening.

Nodage took a deep breath, and noticed the air was far too hot already. Hira grinned maliciously.

"All right, Hida reinforcements are sealed off, we have a day of free plunder on Kenkai Hanto. We haven't had this good a day with Yasuki scum in a while. Yasuhira, join troops for two hours of cover fire on the outskirts of Yasuki Yashiki, then fall back toward the river line to ensure we don't let anything pass from Sunda Mizu. Shigehira, ride to Niwa Shita no Kage Toshi to signal the grain junks. Michihira, draw out of the Friendly Traveller as much of the garrison as you can manage."

"Hai, father!"

The three hitherto silent boys - the youngest maybe 14, his voice still girlish - shouted back, then ran to the horses.

"I never asked, actually, Daidoji-sama. Are you starting a war?"

Hira ushered Nodage back to the horses as well. There was no point beyond cruel aesthetics to stare at what was going on in the Clear Water Village.

"Only if they have the guts to respond. But they know I want them to come. Besides, with allies such as you, the Sparrow and the Mantis, do they even need enemies like us?"

"Still, I find it all a bit excessive. The feud with the Yasuki, your mother's call to help your cousin Itsuo... It is all understandable, but you have that rice. You don't have to rob the Crab of their harvest."

There was more genuine curiosity than critique in Nodage's words. Hira responded with dark emphasis.

"There is no such thing as an excess of shock and awe, no such thing as an excess of fear. I am what stands between the life of my Clan and the uncouth brutality of its enemies. As long as I am demon from their nightmares, the Crane can prosper. They know not when I come or who of them I will kill. But they know I am somewhere there in the dark, waiting for them to loosen their guard. And we will take all their grain from the Friendly Traveller because this will hurt them like few things. The boors won't have much for their sake this year, and their leaders will be afraid to admit it before their own men."

"So much depends on just one man..."

"I have sons I've trained. But you can alway try, Scorpion."

"Oh, apologies, Daidoji-sama, forgive my choice of words. I am not plotting to kill you. I am taking notes."

---

Nikesake

"So all I have to do is not to ask where this grain is coming from, and keep the existence of the supply unofficial? I don't like it, Itsuo-san."

"Sire, this is a special arrangement between my mother and her sister. You surely realise why the Crane have to keep their relations with us unofficial. Their gift is offered in goodwill. Are we really in position to refuse it?"

Sawayangi pondered as they walked down the corridor, then finally nodded.

"I don't like it still, but I suppose I don't like the alternative much worse. That is a relief, but not a solution. Fed or not, they are a huge source of instability."

"Then settle them, sire, in Toshi no Omoidoso."

"This will not bring back the city. It will create an unsustainable, festering refugee camp."

"Perhaps. But it is a risk worth taking."

"How so?"

Itsuo waited with the answer until they entered a small room where Hisau was waiting for them. He was kneeling, and a long bundle lay before him. Sawayanagi frowned. It had to be a weapon. The inventor bowed deeply, but it was Itsuo who was doing all the speaking for now.

"As you know, sire, we still have some friends among the Tortoise who have decided to help us with war materiel. Thanks to trusted intermediaries in the Dragon's Guard we managed to move them via the Treacherous Pass, escaping Lion or Imperial surveillance. My suggestion, my lord, is to draw ashigaru levies from the refugees. Extensive ones, by the thousands, arm them and train them."

Sawayangi scoffed.

"You don't mean to say your ingenious friend has invented a spear simple enough that a peasant could wield it that will help that peasant stop a charging Matsu?"

Itsuo's eyes flared up.

"This is exactly what I mean to say, my lord."

"Pardon?"

Hisau grasped the clothed thing and offered it with both hands to his Champion. Sawayanagi removed the wrap and stared. He stared long.

"What is this, Itsuo?'

"This, my lord, is the reason why you should keep funding the Blue Tiles. It's been made here, we train people who will then train the peasants. It's simple to make and effective, and now we have the supplies to make more. By next year you may have thousands of these."

He paused.

Hisau-san named it kakiyari."


* * *

"So how did the meeting go, my boy?"

Itsuo withdrew from kissing his venerable mother's cheek. Even in her sixties, Ryohime was still a beautiful woman. She liked to tell stories that Retsuhime had married her out not because she was afraid of her claim to the Throne, but because she couldn't stand her sister being more beautiful then her. One of the late Empress' lovers had allegedly lost his wits in conversation with her when Ryohime was dancing in the Imperial Gardens, and Retsuhime removed them both from her presence out of spite. Itsuo didn't fully believe his mother as she giggled every time telling the story, but he couldn't dismiss it either. Of all people, who better than siblings knew about the flaws, indiscretions and instabilities of their once reigning eldest.

"Good. He didn't say yes, but I know he will."

"Perhaps you should have waited a bit more? We still have other options. Restoring old ties with the Scorpion and the Crane is going good, and it seems even my dear Renhime-chan has finally coaxed her stubborn bastard of a son to consider making amends with the Crane for the stupid raiding. Arming throngs of peasants, teaching them to fell most fearsome samurai - this is something that may come back at us, my boy. Heed my words."

Itsuo chuckled.

You have no idea, mother.

"You know, mother, one of my friends would agree with you. He often says that all good things come to those who wait. Me, I think we've waited long enough."



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