The Battle of Beidan Pass
The Dragon army made relatively quick time across southern Dragon lands, and were not impeded in crossing Lion lands on their way to Beidan pass. As in their previous journey across Lion lands, the lands were empty of samurai, and those few who challenged Hitomi's army allowed it to pass when told she was marching to confront the Crab in Beidan Pass. A small group of magistrates, of course, was nothing but driftwood in Hitomi's wake.
As Hitomi approached, she found the Lion army arrayed around the pass. Hitomi and her top commanders met under parley the Lion command, but the magistrates were no part of those negotiations. They did spend some time with the Lion troops, though the troops were well disciplined and tight lipped. From them, the magistrates learned that Matsu Tsuko held command, and the army had been there, near the pass, for days. It took some careful prying, but the magistrates were also able to learn that the Lion had been ordered by the Emperor to allow the Crab army approaching the pass move through and into Crane Lands, to target the Kakita. The order wasn't sitting well. The majority of the Lion samurai were angry and frustrated. They had seen a small group of Crab hold the pass for the better part of a week against a larger Crab army, one with whom the Shadowlands walked. Even if that army targeted the hated Crane, this was not right...
Soon the negotiations between Hitomi and Tsuko were completed, and the Lion army was ordered to allow the Dragon to pass. They moved aside, and the Dragon made ready for war.
The Dragon charged down upon the pass, moving past the keep without stopping to take the Crab by surprise. The magistrates stayed back from the battlefront, their own orders different, and turned into the defended kuyden as soon as the pass was clear enough of Yakamo's forces to enter safely. They were hailed from within and allowed to enter.
In the keep, they were greeted immediately by a familiar face. Kuni Ren had been a frequent correspondent of Hiruma Izuko through all her days in the capital. They had been friends since Izuko's first stint on the Wall. It was she who had sent Izuko the jade netsuke and warned her of the Obsidian Crab. It was clear from her face that Ren was at the brutal edge of grief and weariness, and that the morale of the Crab samurai was the same. After she and Izuko embraced and the rest of the magistrates were introduced, Ren made the Crab's desperate situation clear.
The Jade Crab, who held the keep, were Crab who disagreed with Hida Kisada, the Crab Clan Champion. Kisada had, with the guidance of Kuni Yori, found a way to use the power of the Shadowlands to support his troops. Kisada believed that the Empire was weak, the Emperor was weak, and once he, as one of the strong, claimed the Throne of Rokugan, he could then turn against the Shadowlands with the force and resources of all the Empire, and the Shadowlands own strength, and crush it as well, leaving the Crab victorious over the Shadowlands and the Empire and bringing peace. Kisada's sons were split on Kisada's decision. Hida Yakamo embraced his father's vision, willingly leading his armies, with Kuni Yori's support. Hida Sukune, his younger son, had disagreed. After long and vehement protests, Sukune had formed the Jade Crab, uniting those who believed that the Shadowlands must be fought at every turn and to the bitter end, even if it were to destroy the Crab. First through passive protest, then active conflict, and finally with open rebellion, Sukune held the Jade Crab together, while those who sided with Kisada claimed the Obsidian Crab to declare their loyalty, and had the greater forces. Forced to retreat, Sukune withdrew to Beidan Pass, determined to make one last stand to prevent the Shadowlands from being unleashed against the Heart of the Empire and to make the Empire aware of the threat his brother posed. And Yakamo came after him.
Ren was frantic. Hida Sukune had gone out under flag of parley with promised insurance of his safety, to try to persuade Yokamo to turn from his course, but had been dishonorably kidnapped. Most of the other leaders of the Jade Crab had died in the previous days of combat. With Sukune's tactical genius and the Crab skill at defense, the Jade Crab had held the Pass, but they would not have held for another day if Mirumoto Hitomi had not arrived. Even now, she doubted Hitomi had brought enough.
The magistrates and the wounded Jade Crab listened to the sound of fighting, seeing the dust and fire of warfare just over the crest of the pass. Then a great shout went up from the battlefield, and they could see from the keep the forces of the Dragon falling back towards the keep itself. The Jade Crab opened their gates to allow the Dragon in.
Less than a third of the Dragon made it back into the kuyden, and, guarded on all sides, they carried the body of their Daimyo, Mirumoto Hitomi.
She was clinging on to life with an unbreakable tenacity, and one of the few remaining Dragon Shugenja had kept her alive with his prayers to the kami. But she was grievously injured. The greatest injury, which Ayame saw when she came to offer her skills at healing, was that her swordhand had been completely removed, the flesh around it mangled, as though rather than being sliced off by a blade, it had been pinched off by a mighty claw. The stories the remaining Dragons told confirmed this.
Hitomi had led her army straight into the teeth of the Crab's army, determined to take down Hida Yakamo, both out of her own enmity and as the best strategic move. It was costly, but the Dragon had driven a wedge through the Crab forces. There, at the heart, Hitomi confronted Yakamo in a duel. But Yakamo...was no longer fully human. His arm, which Hitomi had claimed in a duel during the Scorpion Clan Coup, had been replaced with a mighty, grotesque claw, like that of an Oni. It was this claw that had born down and severed Hitomi's arm. Once she had fallen, further tainted creatures of the Shadowlands poured out from behind the Crab forces and overwhelmed the Dragon's position. The Dragon were forced to withdraw into the keep. They had done enough harm that Yakamo had also withdrawn, for a time, but there was no doubt that the end would be soon now.
The Dragon and the Jade Crab were granted the sweetness of a quiet night in the keep, even though from beyond the ridge they could hear the sounds of Yakamo's army and could see the light of its fires. The magistrates were snatching what little sleep they could, sleeping in a room near where Hitomi lay, until they were wakened near dawn by a soft cough.
"Time to wake up, magistrates," a cheerful voice offered. "You're about to be attacked."
The magistrates were startled out of sleep, the bushi immediately reaching for their weapons while Ayame quickly lit a lamp. Nothing could have prepared them, however, for the lamplight revealed the sly smile of none other than Mai, the fifteen year old Red Cloud Yakuza they had known in Otosan Uchi. The girl straightened from her crouch. She was dressed in black, and a pink scarf hung loosely now about her shoulders. "You are good at finding trouble, aren't you?"
Koshi was the first to speak. "Mai! What are you doing here? How did you even get in? There's three armies here in the pass."
"Four." Mai laughed. "When I realized you were here, I had to come in and let you know I'd kept my promise."
"Which promise?" Ayame asked. "It's very dangerous here."
"My promise about the ronin. I thought it might surprise you. I like surprises. Still, I'm not lying about the attack. It's almost dawn, and you need to go fight if you're going to hold the keep."
Even deep within the Kuyden, the magistrates could hear the sound of battlehorns and gongs. The bushi began lacing into their armor as around them, the defenders of the keep awakened.
Mirumoto Kenuchio's lips pursed to a narrow line. "You're right. We will have to talk after this is over. I'm not sure who you are, Mai-san, but you're too young for this." He started to walk away, towards the battlements,then paused in front of Hitomi's room, abandoned of almost all her guards as her bushi had gone to hold the walls. He paused, and turned to Mai. "But...if you did have a secret way in....maybe you have a secret way out. We're not important, but if the tide of battle turns against us, Hitomi-sama must live. If we have ever helped you...I don't care what it costs....if the keep will be overrun, please take her from here. Take her and protect her and return her to the High House of Light. She's my daimyo, and she has many guards and advisors far more important than I. But if they fall..."
Mai stopped smiling, her eyes narrowing in careful consideration of Kenuchio and the others. "Not wise to not care what it costs. But...I have a way. And I know when to take a deal when one is offered. Very well. I promise I will protect her and return her safely to the High House of Light. You have my word."
Kenuchio nodded. Mai drew the scarf about her face. A battlecry sounded from the wall, drawing the magistrates attention, and when they turned back, Mai was gone.
The magistrates reached the battlements in time to see a tide of samurai and ashigaru crashing past the Kuyden Walls, but this tide was going against their aggressor, Hida Yakamo. They fought with few clan markings, but were a unified fighting force none the less, and above them rose the banner of the Wolf. Their battlecries...'For Toturi!' 'For Rokugan!'....rose as they crashed into the waiting claws of the Crab army that beset them.
The magistrates helped as they could. Some of the remaining Dragon sallied at a moment when Toturi seemed particularly close to pressing his advantage, eager to deliver revenge to Yakamo in Hitomi's name. But it was soon clear that the army of Shadowlands and Crab was just too great for the number of forces Toturi had. Horns and tessan signaled a retreat. It seemed a rout, the ashigaru and ronin falling back in a seemingly disorganized fashion. They did not retreat into the keep, however, instead continuing further, down towards the Lion army.
The Shadowlands and Obsidian Crab army surged, following the retreating ronin. The Jade Crab and Dragon peppered them with arrows, but it made little difference. The land around the keep was strewn with smoke and blood and pain and the bodies of the dead and dying. Then, it appeared...cresting the ridge as it was carried forward into battle. Kuni Ren gasped.
Borne on a mighty and monstrous standard waved over the troops of the Obsidian Crab hung the broken, bleeding body of Hida Sukune, leader of the Jade Crab and brother to Hida Yakamo.
The sacrilege and disrespect, the frustration of waiting, the grief of the Jade Crab who had fought so honorably, and the vile horror of the enemy was too much for Mirumoto Kenuchio to bear. A broken siege tower still leaned haphazardly against the walls of the keep, temporarily abandoned of its attackers. With a cry 'For Honor!' Kenuchio leapt from the battlements into the siege tower and scrambled down, followed a mere second later by Hiruma Izuko. Kuni Ren, her voice an incoherent cry of grief, followed them nearly as recklessly. Asahina Ayame drew to herself the kami of air and water, causing a mist to rise from the battlefield around her. She took a deep breath, mustering her courage, and asked quietly for Moto Koshi to help her down. He did so, following himself. The mist cloaked her, settling around the group of magistrates and blending into the fire and dust of ware as they engaged the battle.
Hiruma Izuko led them unerringly towards their goal, the Cursed Standard that bore the body of Hida Sukune. Kenuchio and Koshi fought right and left, slicing any who would make their way through the mist towards them and protecting Ayame and Ren. Ayame maintained her mists with gentle prayers to the kami, while the Kuni unleashed her rage in strikes of pure jade at any tainted beasts that ventured near.
The greater part of Yakamo's troops had their full attention on Toturi and his rout, and did not notice how close to the keep the standard had come or the force that struck from the kuyden to take it. The fighting was bitter and bloody and fast and fierce, and none of the magistrates escaped unscathed, but the group was able to reach the standard and, for a moment, cut it down.
When they did so, they realized that the sacrilege that had been performed was even greater than they realized. For Hida Sukune lived. His face was fixed in a tortured grimace, he could barely lift his head. But he lived. Kenuchi cut him free of the vile standard, and Izuko gathered him up in her arms without emotion. Ayame expanded the mists around them as they fought their way back to the keep. The Jade Crab within lowered ropes and a sling to permit them entry again without opening the gates.
The magistrates solemnly carried the body of Hida Sukune to an inner chamber of Beidan Keep. Still, there was no time to rest. Ayame and Kuni Ren stayed with the wounded Crab, battling for his life as if one life would make a difference in what was to come. The others returned to the walls, though they all bore significant injuries now. Toturi's army had fallen back into the Lion forces, but Yakamo had not followed. He retained enough control of his monstrous army that when the signal went forth, the Obsidian Crab and oni and goblins and all did not follow Toturi, but instead turned their vengeance to the keep proper.
The wounded remnants of the Jade Crab and Hitomi's Dragon were few, many dying. The Dragon were able to wield their fires against the Crab siege towers, though were forced to use restraint away from their mountain fortresses of stone. Jade Crab knew how to hold a wall against ladders and climbing oni. But the otemon, the main gates, had fallen, and the enemy had entered the sotoguruwa, the outer courtyards. Death was certain.
The keep was falling, and so it was that the magistrates did not see what was happening among the Lion.
If they had been able to turn back, they would have seen how a third of the Lion army cast off their mons and accepted a fate as ronin, sacrificing their name and honor to join with Toturi in defense of the Empire, here at the end.
If they had been able to turn back, they would have seen how a third of the Lion forces left the battlefield, marching with their banners raised towards Crane Lands and leaving the Shadowlands to enjoy free passage into the Crane Lands just as the Emperor had ordered. Victorious conquest against hated enemies at the Emperor's command drove them...and for that, they would allow the Shadowlands to pass into the Empire. After all, they were following orders. That was sufficient for their honor.
But the magistrates were unable to turn back. And therefore they were unable to see the Lion army that remained lined rank upon rank in respectful silence as they watched the pass. They were unable to see Matsu Tsuko, robed in white, walk out in front of her forces. Unable to compromise, unwilling to break, she was willing to sacrifice all for the sake of honor and for the sake of the Empire. The Lioness knelt on the ground, drew her wakizashi, and shouted one, final command to her troops. Then, striking swiftly and deep, she made the three cuts. The Black Toturi stood as her second, made the final cut of mercy.
That was not the end.
Immediately, one of the Kitsu completed the ritual that had been days in the making. The spirit of Matsu Tsuko, fortified by the ancestors and especially the power of the Lion Thunder, Matsu, rose before the full witness of the Lion army, and her voice rang across the battlefield like the roar of the ancients. The first rank of Lion, a hundred long, responded to her battlecry and knelt on the ground, drawing their wakizashi. Three cuts, in perfect silence, while those in the rank behind them gave the final cut. The second rank knelt to do the same. Rank on rank of the Lions most elite, most loyal, and most honorable troops committed seppuku. To protest the orders of an Emperor gone mad. To show their honor to the end. And, then, to rise. The ritual of the Kitsu did not end with Matsu Tsuko. As each rank fell, the Kitsu Shugenja bound their honorable spirits close to the earth, raising their prayers to Tengoku to grant their reprieve. A Legion of the Dead was formed, filling the field of the fallen around Matsu Tsuko, blinding in their glory.
The magistrates caught up in their battle were unable to see...until the spirits of these newly released Lion samurai were unleashed. Together with the reinforced Toturi's army, the ghostly legion fell crashing down upon Yakamo's forces like a great wind. The oni and the Shadowlands were blinded by the purity of their honor, scarcely able to touch them. But the power of Tengoku was with the Lion, and their blades sliced through all things tainted by Jigoku with the strength of steel and the purity of jade. The ronin who fought beside Toturi plowed into the Obsidian Crab with their full power unleashed, unwilling to compromise a single step further and driving the Obsidian Crab before them. They swept into Beidan Keep and tore through the attackers, freeing the few remnants of the Jade Crab.
Yakamo did not have enough loyal troops left for an organized retreat, and many of the Shadowlands forces with him resisted his call. They scattered across the countryside, fleeing in every direction away from the pass. Those further from the keep were able to avoid the Lion and Toturi's forces, but they were fleeing, hiding, entrenching themselves into the mountains and the dark places of the earth. The Obsidian Crab were cut down. Hida Yakamo was barely able to escape with his life.
This defeat the magistrates were able, with thanks to the Lions' sacrifice, to live to see. And, as they stood shoulder to shoulder with Toturi's ronin on the battlements, they watched the spirit of Matsu Tsuko and her Legion of the Dead meet with Toturi and his highest command in the middle of the battlefield before them. They saw her raise her hand in farewell, and Toturi bow deeply in a gesture of greatest respect. And they could see the spirits of the fallen samurai turn, and with Matsu Tsuko at their head, march into the west and out of sight, joining their own radiance to the red-gold light of the setting sun.
The Dragon army made relatively quick time across southern Dragon lands, and were not impeded in crossing Lion lands on their way to Beidan pass. As in their previous journey across Lion lands, the lands were empty of samurai, and those few who challenged Hitomi's army allowed it to pass when told she was marching to confront the Crab in Beidan Pass. A small group of magistrates, of course, was nothing but driftwood in Hitomi's wake.
As Hitomi approached, she found the Lion army arrayed around the pass. Hitomi and her top commanders met under parley the Lion command, but the magistrates were no part of those negotiations. They did spend some time with the Lion troops, though the troops were well disciplined and tight lipped. From them, the magistrates learned that Matsu Tsuko held command, and the army had been there, near the pass, for days. It took some careful prying, but the magistrates were also able to learn that the Lion had been ordered by the Emperor to allow the Crab army approaching the pass move through and into Crane Lands, to target the Kakita. The order wasn't sitting well. The majority of the Lion samurai were angry and frustrated. They had seen a small group of Crab hold the pass for the better part of a week against a larger Crab army, one with whom the Shadowlands walked. Even if that army targeted the hated Crane, this was not right...
Soon the negotiations between Hitomi and Tsuko were completed, and the Lion army was ordered to allow the Dragon to pass. They moved aside, and the Dragon made ready for war.
The Dragon charged down upon the pass, moving past the keep without stopping to take the Crab by surprise. The magistrates stayed back from the battlefront, their own orders different, and turned into the defended kuyden as soon as the pass was clear enough of Yakamo's forces to enter safely. They were hailed from within and allowed to enter.
In the keep, they were greeted immediately by a familiar face. Kuni Ren had been a frequent correspondent of Hiruma Izuko through all her days in the capital. They had been friends since Izuko's first stint on the Wall. It was she who had sent Izuko the jade netsuke and warned her of the Obsidian Crab. It was clear from her face that Ren was at the brutal edge of grief and weariness, and that the morale of the Crab samurai was the same. After she and Izuko embraced and the rest of the magistrates were introduced, Ren made the Crab's desperate situation clear.
The Jade Crab, who held the keep, were Crab who disagreed with Hida Kisada, the Crab Clan Champion. Kisada had, with the guidance of Kuni Yori, found a way to use the power of the Shadowlands to support his troops. Kisada believed that the Empire was weak, the Emperor was weak, and once he, as one of the strong, claimed the Throne of Rokugan, he could then turn against the Shadowlands with the force and resources of all the Empire, and the Shadowlands own strength, and crush it as well, leaving the Crab victorious over the Shadowlands and the Empire and bringing peace. Kisada's sons were split on Kisada's decision. Hida Yakamo embraced his father's vision, willingly leading his armies, with Kuni Yori's support. Hida Sukune, his younger son, had disagreed. After long and vehement protests, Sukune had formed the Jade Crab, uniting those who believed that the Shadowlands must be fought at every turn and to the bitter end, even if it were to destroy the Crab. First through passive protest, then active conflict, and finally with open rebellion, Sukune held the Jade Crab together, while those who sided with Kisada claimed the Obsidian Crab to declare their loyalty, and had the greater forces. Forced to retreat, Sukune withdrew to Beidan Pass, determined to make one last stand to prevent the Shadowlands from being unleashed against the Heart of the Empire and to make the Empire aware of the threat his brother posed. And Yakamo came after him.
Ren was frantic. Hida Sukune had gone out under flag of parley with promised insurance of his safety, to try to persuade Yokamo to turn from his course, but had been dishonorably kidnapped. Most of the other leaders of the Jade Crab had died in the previous days of combat. With Sukune's tactical genius and the Crab skill at defense, the Jade Crab had held the Pass, but they would not have held for another day if Mirumoto Hitomi had not arrived. Even now, she doubted Hitomi had brought enough.
The magistrates and the wounded Jade Crab listened to the sound of fighting, seeing the dust and fire of warfare just over the crest of the pass. Then a great shout went up from the battlefield, and they could see from the keep the forces of the Dragon falling back towards the keep itself. The Jade Crab opened their gates to allow the Dragon in.
Less than a third of the Dragon made it back into the kuyden, and, guarded on all sides, they carried the body of their Daimyo, Mirumoto Hitomi.
She was clinging on to life with an unbreakable tenacity, and one of the few remaining Dragon Shugenja had kept her alive with his prayers to the kami. But she was grievously injured. The greatest injury, which Ayame saw when she came to offer her skills at healing, was that her swordhand had been completely removed, the flesh around it mangled, as though rather than being sliced off by a blade, it had been pinched off by a mighty claw. The stories the remaining Dragons told confirmed this.
Hitomi had led her army straight into the teeth of the Crab's army, determined to take down Hida Yakamo, both out of her own enmity and as the best strategic move. It was costly, but the Dragon had driven a wedge through the Crab forces. There, at the heart, Hitomi confronted Yakamo in a duel. But Yakamo...was no longer fully human. His arm, which Hitomi had claimed in a duel during the Scorpion Clan Coup, had been replaced with a mighty, grotesque claw, like that of an Oni. It was this claw that had born down and severed Hitomi's arm. Once she had fallen, further tainted creatures of the Shadowlands poured out from behind the Crab forces and overwhelmed the Dragon's position. The Dragon were forced to withdraw into the keep. They had done enough harm that Yakamo had also withdrawn, for a time, but there was no doubt that the end would be soon now.
The Dragon and the Jade Crab were granted the sweetness of a quiet night in the keep, even though from beyond the ridge they could hear the sounds of Yakamo's army and could see the light of its fires. The magistrates were snatching what little sleep they could, sleeping in a room near where Hitomi lay, until they were wakened near dawn by a soft cough.
"Time to wake up, magistrates," a cheerful voice offered. "You're about to be attacked."
The magistrates were startled out of sleep, the bushi immediately reaching for their weapons while Ayame quickly lit a lamp. Nothing could have prepared them, however, for the lamplight revealed the sly smile of none other than Mai, the fifteen year old Red Cloud Yakuza they had known in Otosan Uchi. The girl straightened from her crouch. She was dressed in black, and a pink scarf hung loosely now about her shoulders. "You are good at finding trouble, aren't you?"
Koshi was the first to speak. "Mai! What are you doing here? How did you even get in? There's three armies here in the pass."
"Four." Mai laughed. "When I realized you were here, I had to come in and let you know I'd kept my promise."
"Which promise?" Ayame asked. "It's very dangerous here."
"My promise about the ronin. I thought it might surprise you. I like surprises. Still, I'm not lying about the attack. It's almost dawn, and you need to go fight if you're going to hold the keep."
Even deep within the Kuyden, the magistrates could hear the sound of battlehorns and gongs. The bushi began lacing into their armor as around them, the defenders of the keep awakened.
Mirumoto Kenuchio's lips pursed to a narrow line. "You're right. We will have to talk after this is over. I'm not sure who you are, Mai-san, but you're too young for this." He started to walk away, towards the battlements,then paused in front of Hitomi's room, abandoned of almost all her guards as her bushi had gone to hold the walls. He paused, and turned to Mai. "But...if you did have a secret way in....maybe you have a secret way out. We're not important, but if the tide of battle turns against us, Hitomi-sama must live. If we have ever helped you...I don't care what it costs....if the keep will be overrun, please take her from here. Take her and protect her and return her to the High House of Light. She's my daimyo, and she has many guards and advisors far more important than I. But if they fall..."
Mai stopped smiling, her eyes narrowing in careful consideration of Kenuchio and the others. "Not wise to not care what it costs. But...I have a way. And I know when to take a deal when one is offered. Very well. I promise I will protect her and return her safely to the High House of Light. You have my word."
Kenuchio nodded. Mai drew the scarf about her face. A battlecry sounded from the wall, drawing the magistrates attention, and when they turned back, Mai was gone.
The magistrates reached the battlements in time to see a tide of samurai and ashigaru crashing past the Kuyden Walls, but this tide was going against their aggressor, Hida Yakamo. They fought with few clan markings, but were a unified fighting force none the less, and above them rose the banner of the Wolf. Their battlecries...'For Toturi!' 'For Rokugan!'....rose as they crashed into the waiting claws of the Crab army that beset them.
The magistrates helped as they could. Some of the remaining Dragon sallied at a moment when Toturi seemed particularly close to pressing his advantage, eager to deliver revenge to Yakamo in Hitomi's name. But it was soon clear that the army of Shadowlands and Crab was just too great for the number of forces Toturi had. Horns and tessan signaled a retreat. It seemed a rout, the ashigaru and ronin falling back in a seemingly disorganized fashion. They did not retreat into the keep, however, instead continuing further, down towards the Lion army.
The Shadowlands and Obsidian Crab army surged, following the retreating ronin. The Jade Crab and Dragon peppered them with arrows, but it made little difference. The land around the keep was strewn with smoke and blood and pain and the bodies of the dead and dying. Then, it appeared...cresting the ridge as it was carried forward into battle. Kuni Ren gasped.
Borne on a mighty and monstrous standard waved over the troops of the Obsidian Crab hung the broken, bleeding body of Hida Sukune, leader of the Jade Crab and brother to Hida Yakamo.
The sacrilege and disrespect, the frustration of waiting, the grief of the Jade Crab who had fought so honorably, and the vile horror of the enemy was too much for Mirumoto Kenuchio to bear. A broken siege tower still leaned haphazardly against the walls of the keep, temporarily abandoned of its attackers. With a cry 'For Honor!' Kenuchio leapt from the battlements into the siege tower and scrambled down, followed a mere second later by Hiruma Izuko. Kuni Ren, her voice an incoherent cry of grief, followed them nearly as recklessly. Asahina Ayame drew to herself the kami of air and water, causing a mist to rise from the battlefield around her. She took a deep breath, mustering her courage, and asked quietly for Moto Koshi to help her down. He did so, following himself. The mist cloaked her, settling around the group of magistrates and blending into the fire and dust of ware as they engaged the battle.
Hiruma Izuko led them unerringly towards their goal, the Cursed Standard that bore the body of Hida Sukune. Kenuchio and Koshi fought right and left, slicing any who would make their way through the mist towards them and protecting Ayame and Ren. Ayame maintained her mists with gentle prayers to the kami, while the Kuni unleashed her rage in strikes of pure jade at any tainted beasts that ventured near.
The greater part of Yakamo's troops had their full attention on Toturi and his rout, and did not notice how close to the keep the standard had come or the force that struck from the kuyden to take it. The fighting was bitter and bloody and fast and fierce, and none of the magistrates escaped unscathed, but the group was able to reach the standard and, for a moment, cut it down.
When they did so, they realized that the sacrilege that had been performed was even greater than they realized. For Hida Sukune lived. His face was fixed in a tortured grimace, he could barely lift his head. But he lived. Kenuchi cut him free of the vile standard, and Izuko gathered him up in her arms without emotion. Ayame expanded the mists around them as they fought their way back to the keep. The Jade Crab within lowered ropes and a sling to permit them entry again without opening the gates.
The magistrates solemnly carried the body of Hida Sukune to an inner chamber of Beidan Keep. Still, there was no time to rest. Ayame and Kuni Ren stayed with the wounded Crab, battling for his life as if one life would make a difference in what was to come. The others returned to the walls, though they all bore significant injuries now. Toturi's army had fallen back into the Lion forces, but Yakamo had not followed. He retained enough control of his monstrous army that when the signal went forth, the Obsidian Crab and oni and goblins and all did not follow Toturi, but instead turned their vengeance to the keep proper.
The wounded remnants of the Jade Crab and Hitomi's Dragon were few, many dying. The Dragon were able to wield their fires against the Crab siege towers, though were forced to use restraint away from their mountain fortresses of stone. Jade Crab knew how to hold a wall against ladders and climbing oni. But the otemon, the main gates, had fallen, and the enemy had entered the sotoguruwa, the outer courtyards. Death was certain.
The keep was falling, and so it was that the magistrates did not see what was happening among the Lion.
If they had been able to turn back, they would have seen how a third of the Lion army cast off their mons and accepted a fate as ronin, sacrificing their name and honor to join with Toturi in defense of the Empire, here at the end.
If they had been able to turn back, they would have seen how a third of the Lion forces left the battlefield, marching with their banners raised towards Crane Lands and leaving the Shadowlands to enjoy free passage into the Crane Lands just as the Emperor had ordered. Victorious conquest against hated enemies at the Emperor's command drove them...and for that, they would allow the Shadowlands to pass into the Empire. After all, they were following orders. That was sufficient for their honor.
But the magistrates were unable to turn back. And therefore they were unable to see the Lion army that remained lined rank upon rank in respectful silence as they watched the pass. They were unable to see Matsu Tsuko, robed in white, walk out in front of her forces. Unable to compromise, unwilling to break, she was willing to sacrifice all for the sake of honor and for the sake of the Empire. The Lioness knelt on the ground, drew her wakizashi, and shouted one, final command to her troops. Then, striking swiftly and deep, she made the three cuts. The Black Toturi stood as her second, made the final cut of mercy.
That was not the end.
Immediately, one of the Kitsu completed the ritual that had been days in the making. The spirit of Matsu Tsuko, fortified by the ancestors and especially the power of the Lion Thunder, Matsu, rose before the full witness of the Lion army, and her voice rang across the battlefield like the roar of the ancients. The first rank of Lion, a hundred long, responded to her battlecry and knelt on the ground, drawing their wakizashi. Three cuts, in perfect silence, while those in the rank behind them gave the final cut. The second rank knelt to do the same. Rank on rank of the Lions most elite, most loyal, and most honorable troops committed seppuku. To protest the orders of an Emperor gone mad. To show their honor to the end. And, then, to rise. The ritual of the Kitsu did not end with Matsu Tsuko. As each rank fell, the Kitsu Shugenja bound their honorable spirits close to the earth, raising their prayers to Tengoku to grant their reprieve. A Legion of the Dead was formed, filling the field of the fallen around Matsu Tsuko, blinding in their glory.
The magistrates caught up in their battle were unable to see...until the spirits of these newly released Lion samurai were unleashed. Together with the reinforced Toturi's army, the ghostly legion fell crashing down upon Yakamo's forces like a great wind. The oni and the Shadowlands were blinded by the purity of their honor, scarcely able to touch them. But the power of Tengoku was with the Lion, and their blades sliced through all things tainted by Jigoku with the strength of steel and the purity of jade. The ronin who fought beside Toturi plowed into the Obsidian Crab with their full power unleashed, unwilling to compromise a single step further and driving the Obsidian Crab before them. They swept into Beidan Keep and tore through the attackers, freeing the few remnants of the Jade Crab.
Yakamo did not have enough loyal troops left for an organized retreat, and many of the Shadowlands forces with him resisted his call. They scattered across the countryside, fleeing in every direction away from the pass. Those further from the keep were able to avoid the Lion and Toturi's forces, but they were fleeing, hiding, entrenching themselves into the mountains and the dark places of the earth. The Obsidian Crab were cut down. Hida Yakamo was barely able to escape with his life.
This defeat the magistrates were able, with thanks to the Lions' sacrifice, to live to see. And, as they stood shoulder to shoulder with Toturi's ronin on the battlements, they watched the spirit of Matsu Tsuko and her Legion of the Dead meet with Toturi and his highest command in the middle of the battlefield before them. They saw her raise her hand in farewell, and Toturi bow deeply in a gesture of greatest respect. And they could see the spirits of the fallen samurai turn, and with Matsu Tsuko at their head, march into the west and out of sight, joining their own radiance to the red-gold light of the setting sun.