Ran was on board the husk of a ship as the sun rose, in a contemplative sort of mood. Her thoughts returned more often than not to her father. She yearned for him, to tell him about her life, to hear his voice again... she had not seen him since she was a child. And yet she had lived her life in his shadow, everything she had done had been because of him, wanting to be like him.

Until Dragon's Guard City, where she put her hands on the steering wheel of her life, and ended up here with a new clan, a new husband-to-be, a new purpose.

But still her past called to her. She had terrible dreams about the path she had given up.

中

Intell/Lore:Spirit Realms (Sage), Void 1k1, 1 FR (Asako tech): 5d10o10k4 19

Except maybe she didn't? Ichigo rumbled in her grasp, stretching its paddles forth, toward the water, in quiet yearning.

A large part of her wanted to tuck Ichigo away to safety inside her sleeve, and run home to the Winehouse so he would never be tempted to leave her. But the answers she sought were not at the winehouse.

And if you loved something, you let it go...

She moved to where the ship met the water, and gently set Ichigo free.

The small turtle boldly joined the surf, but kept close to the shore. Somehow, between the emerald water and the golden sun, he looked translucent, showing only his cosmic contours, little star-like tears connected more by the perception of the spectator than by the fractures of reality. Perhaps he was just a turtle because this way his concept could be comprehended by mortals. But of all people, Ran knew how to pull back at the veil of reality and see the true world beneath...

She scrambled off the wreckage and into the water as well, giving Ichigo his space, but looking out beyond him. Beyond both of them.

D9 EM The Mean Path: Perc/Investigation (Notice): 6d10r1o10k2 16

Edit: I'm afk for the day so my next roll is D9 EM The Mean Path: Sense Void spell, TN 10: 3d10o10k3 23

When she focused her preternatural sense she was able to trace a string of light connecting drifting Ichigo with skies high above. The turtle in itself was but a form given to a force that was touching the Heavens.

Ran followed, looking up, tracing what she saw. Her breath catching at the beauty of it. "Lady Sadahako?" she asked.

Then with just a whisper, "Otōsan?"

"Neither I'm afraid. I am Seisuka. I think you know me, Ran."

The woman's form coalesced from the life between Ichigo and the Heavens.

"...Hai," Ran lowered herself to her knees in the waters, and bowed low to the otherworldly woman. Seisuka, the most prominent of the Naka - "I am humbled by your presence, Seisuka-sama. It is an honour."

"I need to tell you things, Ran-san."

The ishiken's glowing eyes were unmoving.

"The most important is that the next Grand Master won't be found because he cannot be found."

She paused.

"He, however, can be made. We have been wrong. There is no predestined pathway we can walk. We need to find the way to help him emerge."

Her gaze remained low in respect, "Hai Suisuka-sama...." she heeded the words of the ishiken, but considered them.

"Point me in a direction, and I will walk it." Ran was conflicted. "Where do I look for him?"

"It can be anyone and no-one, Ran-san. The circumstances you create may lead to the emergence."

She said.

"But seek him or her beyond Rokugan. Nothing but dark times await you at home."

Finally Ran's gaze rose, and she regarded the ishiken, "There is nothing at home that calls to me. I have no intention of returning to Rokugan," her words were heavy.

"Then I won't burden your heart with what has transpired. There are terrible battles we must fight on our own. Make the emergence possible, Ran-san, for the sake of us all. For your father's sake."

"I always look ahead, but remember where I came from and what has shaped me. I have walked in my father's shadow for so long, and hoped to find him again one day." She was saddened. "I admit I do not fully understand, but the Phoenix plight is still my own. I would do everything to help them be reborn." She licked her lips, and her eyes fell to Ichigo.

"It is the nature of the rebirth that I fear most, Ran-san... Very well..."

Seisuka started losing contours; in her place, a landscape slowly formed. A one Ran knew, of Michita Yasumi, a place she knew well from her childhood. It would be exactly like she had remembered it, except... it was burning, and swarming with thousands of troops. Some she could easily identify as Lion. The others were fur-clothed, wild, using unfamiliar weapons. The fire came... from a flying draconic snake, mounted by someone in... orange robes of the Phoenix. The man on the wyrm raised hands and... earth itself parted, breaking the city asunder, collapsing buildings, tearing the Lion army into shreds, casting them to their knees as the earth kept shaking. The broken ground kept elevating, fractions of temples and libraries falling down. The Lion general sounded retreat, but the moment the earth started cresting, Ran knew it was too late. An avalanche of colossal proportions collapsed onto the Lion troops, swallowing hundreds, thousands even... And when the massive killing that could break the heart of any pacifist seemed to be receding, another orange-robed wyrm rider flew in, and changed the masses of land into a flowing river of heavy mud that chased the retreating Lion with deadly inevitability. The men in furs cheered as they descended to kill off the remnants, as their arrows pincushioned the Lion general. A slaughter of proportions Ran never witnessed before, an elemental hecatomb. The Lion were defeated, the wyrm riders and their armies were triumphant. Except now she saw it were not just Lion. There were emerald armours among the dead, and sashimono with chrysanthemums. The fallen general was not just a commander of the Lion. His broken gumbai bore the mark of the Shogunate. It was not just the Phoenix against the Lion. It were the Yobanjin against the Empire. And they were winning.

Ran was overcome, and were she not already on her knees in the surf, she would've crumbled at the sight. Born a Phoenix - she was a pacifist, and this was devastating. So much loss, and death, and destruction.

Her home...

She swallowed, and tears escaped, streaking down her freckled features.

The weight of what she saw was soul-crushing.

"What do I do?" she whispered.

Continue bravely. The voice was just in her mind now, and had no image. You know the stakes, but you cannot fight all battles. Win your own.

She scooped up Ichigo and held him close to her chest, the voice in her mind rang clear. "Hai, Seisuka-sama; I will heed your warning. Do not despair."

And with that, she returned to the beaches.

Ichigo clung to her.

/scene