"No" You say, holding your gaze steady.
Your mother turns around and looks at you with a confused gaze. Which to be fair is natural your own feelings are confused too. While you're angry about this whole situation, at the end of the day...your mother was the one who came to visit, the one who tried to bring you back to her...and the one who gave you your brother, and for all of those things, you still love her in your own way.
"Mother. I am going to solve this. Hida Benjiro is a loyal and valuable servant of the Empire, and I do not intend to lose his services. Moreover, whoever it is that is doing the blackmailing... they've made themselves an obstacle, and I am as you have described me. Once that is done... once that is done, we will have a talk about what may be done with respect to the wider issue, and then I will decide, and then we will fix it." You say.
"...yes my emperor." she says.
"No you may go" you say.
The beast you feed is the one that grows strong, but try as you might, you can't help but feel a sense of sadness as your mother walks away. Whatever happens, that bond you once had was broken by her plots. Panicked as she was, and no doubt it was the best she could do on short notice...but it wasn't something you could countenance. You will not be used, not by your own family.
---------------------------------------
Month of the Ox (Mid Winter)
An headache should not feel this familiar. Yet that old dull pounding in the side of your head has returned. The quiet sort of pain that presaged you becoming...quiet angry as your brother once described it.
Shosuro Ayumi folds her hands, showing a just barely not scandalous amount of skin as she waits for you to ask follow up questions.
This far south the normal winter clothing is given over more to the spring styles, too hot for clothes meant to keep you warm in the frozen plains of the Lion or Unicorn. Distantly you wonder if the Scorpion train themselves to ignore cold. The rest of you is torn between wishing to pile drive people through the castle walls and just strangling the Elemental Masters with your bare hands.
You take a sip of shochu the hard liquor just barely managing to dull the pulse of irritation.
"So the Phoenix are the ones behind this?" You ask.
"That is what it currently appears to be the case" Ayumi answers.
"Why the fuck, are Phoenix fucking with my family?" You ask.
Ayumi glances towards Kotaru's quarters.
"I don't think they are, my Emperor."
You raise an eyebrow as you take another sip.
"The man we originally took it from, wasn't a Phoenix, but a monk...and not even the fun kind at that." She says with a quiet wistfulness. "It was then taken by someone else and given to the Phoenix."
"But you don't know who." You say.
"No, but there weren't that many who knew about the operation...among our little entourage...there was myself, you, Kitsuki-san and Otomo-kun, and your mother."
"What about your agent?" you ask.
Ayumi shakes her head.
"...my emperor, did you really think I would let this one operate out of house...no one but me knew what the painting was about, and I was the only to have it in quarters." A smile. "I had thought to invite you in, but they're so stuffy here."
"So you're saying it was Kitsuki Akane or Otomo Kotaru, but that doesn't make sense they don't...get anything out of it. My mother might have been able to figure it out, but she doesn't have the tools to stop you." You say.
"Hai...but regardless of who it really was, the fact remains...." She says.
"That Hida Benjiro found the painting in the room of Shiba Misaki, otherwise known as the head of the Shiba Guard that protects the Empress under command of the Empress' guard." You say.
Ayumi nods. You could both understand the implications, while you know your mother wouldn't dare push now of all times. Indeed it makes things actively worse for her to do this...none of the other suspects do either. Akane was essentially done with this whole side show, instead focused on laying the ground work to help the Unicorn. Kotaro was helping her although he did keep an ear out. Apparently Ayumi's Monk had been around for some time without being suspected.
You had no one obvious to blame, and to Hida Benjiro the truth was obvious, the Phoenix and the Crab had always been distant at best, hateful at worst, even as the Kuni and Inquisitors bridged the gap as best they could. Now it could only be in Benjiro's mind a Phoenix plot to discredit your mother and remove the Crab from power slowly. Hida Ginchiyo would no doubt be next, something she herself seemed unsure of but willing to believe.
Someone was playing you for a fool, and you didn't like it. Thankfully Benjiro hadn't crushed Misaki's head like an overripe melon, instead simply taking back the painting and swearing that he would have his revenge on a very confused Misaki. This meant you had time to figure out who was really behind this...or tell Benjiro it was a misunderstanding and command him to forget about it. He won't but he also won't go against a decree, but Kuon won't like you strong arming his brother in law...or just tell Misaki to confess to everything, say she was a lone actor and solve it with her sepukku.
"Ayumi"
"Yes?"
"You know that if I find out that the Scorpion did this, no force in Ningen-do is going to stop me from burning Kyuden Bayushi a second time"
"My Emperor, no one knows that more than I do...Bayushi Paneki-sama has...purged much of the Clan, we are in no state to fight you...and only an idiot would dare try in this state. I'm attracted to you, not stupid"
You ignore that last bit, but nod. Paneki wasn't really a fool, and the reports Kotaro had of what he did when he got back were...interesting to say the least, even if the Traitor's Grove was now more of a small forest. The Scorpion might not like you, but they knew by the gods not to fuck with you right now.
Which brings you back to those earlier options...maybe there was another way?
[] Tell Ayumi, to find the culprit
[] Order Benjiro to stand down (Crab -5)
[] Order Misaki to take the fall (Phoenix -5)
[] Write in
