North Winds Fall (Xianxia - Survive the Protagonist)

Wei realized fighting her sister would be scary when one of the special forces soldiers teleported over to them like Autumn. He appeared in the middle of the crowd of girls in an instant.

"Where is your commanding officer?" the soldier asked in a commanding voice.

Kazumi spoke up, "Fled, or dead. He stood in the back while we risked our lives so he could get away."

"I'm taking command of this unit, effective immediately," the soldier said.

Wei looked at Kazumi. She'd seen her friend angry, first when the Major blamed 1st Lieutenant Shiraishi, and second after they received their orders, and she told Kazumi they might have to fight her brother. Again, when Captain Tsuda ordered the charge.

It was like Kazumi's blood was boiling, lightning was striking, eyes were on fire. She stepped away from Kazumi, anticipating the next moment.

"Not. ANY. MORE!!"

In the moment Kazumi attacked the man, he had vanished, and Wei heard screaming. He had appeared somewhere else, attacking the other girls.

"Everyone follow me in a line, exactly the same way I'm going!" Kazumi shouted, and she ran straight for the super-scary field.

Wei stood there, and then took a breath and starting running after Kazumi. "Come on girls! We can do it!" she shouted.

"Don't fight, you just have to run!" Kazumi said.

She glanced over, and saw the rest of the special forces trying to cut them off, running straight through the field.

Some of the girls might not make it, not matter what they did, but Kazumi was leading the men into a trap, and she somehow knew how to stay safe.

Kazumi slowed down and Wei caught up with her, a long train of girls following one after another.

The sound was horrifying, boom boom boom boom. But it wasn't them blowing up, it was the men chasing who had encountered the horrible scariness.

BOOMBOOMBOOM.

That one was close.

Kazumi's trail wasn't perfectly straight, it swerved so they were heading northeast. She didn't know how wide the trail of BOOM was, but Kazumi seemed to.

The teleporting soldier from the beginning was still harrassing them but the rest of the forces were not.

She heard one last boom as the man appeared behind another innocent girl and tried to kill her. The boom sent dust and smoke up in the air, and she couldn't tell who got out okay. But it appeared neither of them escaped the boom.

Kazumi continued to lead them single-file northeast after the special forces were gone, and they'd covered several hundred meters before she told them to form up.

"We're going to have to survive on this side of the border until we can make a plan to deal with special forces. Most of the traps laid by the defenders must have gone off by now. Wei, you know the most about this place, can you take some girls and scout out that North Winds army?"

Kazumi was trusting her to lead a team? This was something her sister was supposed to do. She stopped, took a second, and tried on courage again. She could do it, if she had the right helpers.

"I need some strong girls to help me," she said.

"What platoons do we have present?" Kazumi asked.

The best platoons were hurt when that fire weapon struck.

"18th platoon," said one of the older girls.

She got girls from 18th, 15th, 13th and 12th to help her.

Together the five of them headed west. All they had obscuring them were tall tufts of grass and weeds. The North Winds army had picked the only hill she could see in the area.

18th Platoon girl asked, "Does anyone have perception arts?"

They all shook their heads. That was something the sergeants and lieutenants specialized in, if anyone did. The Girls' Army was all about close fighting.

She didn't like it like Autumn and Tuan did. Maybe Kazumi could find a bow for her and she could learn that? If she had to fight, she's rather fight from a distance. She couldn't turn off what she saw happening during the few battles she'd been in. Her stomach groaned, as if it could talk for her heart. She couldn't take all this fighting for much longer.

Even Kazumi seemed to shut down her brain and just fight when it was the bad people she was fighting. Wei shuddered.

"What are we looking for?" asked 18th girl.

She would get to know all their names eventually, but she didn't want to try yet.

"I don't know," Wei said. "I'll try to give you a North Winds primer.

Before the Civil War there were several levels that people were on. That means during the civil war, they started out more powerful if they were on a higher level.

First the Emperor, then the heirs, Xue Lee, Xue Son, and Xue Chi in that order. Then the rest of the Royal family.

Then the First Families. First of all Sang, followed by Conner, Park, Snow and Chan. Shusui and I are loyal to the Snow family, who helped us leave the country when the Civil War started.

After the First Families are the 100 Registered families. And then after them is everyone who isn't in one of these families.

The Sang family received a lot from the Royal Family, and they acted first. But the Snow and other First Families were going to respond and work together.

The Registered and commonfolk resented the Royal Family, and they planned to work with the two people who captured the Palace, Rieff Chan and Hejl Yaeko.

I don't know if the Sang family has taken control of everything or just some things. I don't know why they would be at the border if they were still busy fighting against other families.

If we can find the Snow family or other First Families that are against the Sang, we may be able to get help."

"We'll get you there, you just tell us what to look for," 18th platoon girl said.

15th said, "they might have trapped every direction that you can approach the hill from. They could walk in their funny lines to get up there."

They marched north and around the hill so that they were looking southwest towards it. But then, Kazumi spotted another group of people coming from further north, towards the hill. All they could do was get down on all fours and hide in the grass and weeds.

Wei spotted their flag. It looked vaguely like the West Winds flag, with the separate stars of the 5 provinces, but instead they were purple stars on an orange background, and there were four of them. Each star had writing across it, but she couldn't tell what the words were.

This new group marched forward, approaching the hill without concern. They were three dozen at most in number, and they walked straight into the booming traps. Once again the hill thundered as another group ran into the traps the Sang lead army had placed there. But hopefully this meant at least one other faction was opposing the Sang.

Unlike the West Winds, this group immediately broke off and fell back once they found the traps. Unfortunately, they were headed right for Wei and the other girls.

'Snow!" she said.

One of the four stars said Snow across it. These four were the four families of Snow, Chan, Park and Conner.

In a few moments, the fleeing men and women of the First Families had spotted and surrounded them.

"I'm your friend, I promise!" Wei said.

One of the men said, "We heard the tremendous boom as your West Winds army tried to invade. We may not like the Sang syndicate, but we don't like you either."

Another man interrupted, "Wait a minute. Do you buffoons not see who we've caught. The Quartet will be singing our praises!"

"We want to work together. My friend is not a friend of the West Winds army. We need supplies and help."

"Maybe we can work together, if you come with us. In any case, without your weapons you will be harmless. I don't promise friendship. That will have to be decided by the Quartet," said the second man who was excited to see them.

He seemed to look just at Wei, and not the other girls. She handed over the sabre she had received when they left Cherry Blossom base for this stupid mission.

"Keep your mouth shut and you may make it back to the Quartet," the man said.

The leader drove them onward at a quick pace, sweeping back to the north. Wei spotted signs of the Kazumi's girls passing by after about a half hour march. Their own march continued for several hours. There was no food, and only the water they had carried from the Cherry Blossom camp site that morning.

Wei had seen several tiny villages on their trip west with Snow Chau, but she hadn't seen a village like this. Despite being tiny, the village was surrounded by walls and guards, and the same flag of the Four First Families was flying on top of the wall.

They passed through the gate only after several men inspected all of them.

The leader of the captors constantly was saying: "We have to take them to the quartet", and nothing else.

Wei thought a fight was going to break out when the captors tried to gain access to some kind of divine treasure. Her thoughts flashed back to the crazy escape with Autumn from first brother's snow palace. She hated those things!

The leader of their captors picked her up, and placed her in that vile seat, and as much as she wriggled and tried to escape, she was much too small to do anything before he had locked her into the horrific thing.

"The rest of them can stay here with all of you. This one goes to the quartet!" said the leader, and he jumped into the adjoining seat.

There were no cards involved this time. She could only scream as the experience horrified her again. She couldn't see anything, feel anything, taste anything. There was only pain.

It felt like hours before a hand covered her mouth and dragged her out of the thing at their destination.

She was outside a palace, she saw as she opened her eyes, but she only knew about three palaces, and this wasn't one of them.

Not the High Mountain palace or the Grand Palace back home, this was a palace on top of a high bluff, but not snowy and cold like High Mountain. She guessed this must be in the South, near the border with South Winds.

This was not good. She was so far away from Kazumi, and she didn't want to go back through that "treasure". Even the other girls might be let go and find the group again, but she was too far away.

She was led, step by step into the Palace, which looked much like Xue Lee's High Mountain palace. Finally her captor let her go inside a small room.
"You're going to be locked in here. If you cooperate, you'll be able to help your friends," the man said.

The palace was very quiet. It was just an eerie silence as Wei waited in a place much like she had been just a month ago.

Last time, everything was horrible after they got to the palace. She didn't think she could handle losing even Kazumi and Autumn. She HAD to get back. She took a deep breath, and decided that even the horrible divine treasure was worth it, if it took her back to Kazumi and the rest of the girls.

She would have been so happy even if Tuan showed up. Just someone she knew.

Then the quiet was erased as a steady conversation reached her door.

"I already told you! It's not about the Xue family. The term Emperor blooded is metaphorical, it's a spiritual and ineffable condition. It's not literally the current Emperor's lineage."

"You told me you needed the Emperor's blood, I brought you a Xue just like you asked! When we thought only Tuan was left!"

The second voice was her captor.

"I'm so sorry, Xue Wei," said an older gentleman who actually wore his family name as a badge on the dark blue shirt he was wearing. The badge said: Conner.

"Our Firstborn scout teams sometimes get things mixed up. We don't need to get you mixed up in this. Come see the Quartet and we'll get you back to where we found you."

Now the elder statesman of the Connor family led her down a hallway into a much bigger room. It was very weird, in that it was indoors but she could see sky, even though the sun had set just after they arrived in the small village.

Things seemed to be falling out of the fake sky, and someone tried to catch them but used words mom had always told her were bad.

The Connor elder shouted at the man trying to grab things from the fake sky.

"You can't do it, Chan. None of us can. Xue Wei, if you would give it a shot just to convince us of that."

She had no idea what the things were that she was supposed to catch, or where to stand.

"Just step up here," Conner said, pointing to the small platform raised above the floor.
She stood and looked as some kind of thing flew down at her. It was… it was a weapon, some kind of fancy bow maybe?

She tried to move her hands in front of the item in the weird sky, but the item simply vanished.

"Xue Wei. You can step down. You see, your great-grandfather found a cache of some of the greatest Divine treasures ever seen. Even the West Winds hasn't traded for or seen something like this.

We don't know how or why, but every day, all around our world, treasures like the one you just tried to catch are falling like meteors. These treasures can advance our nations, or they can help us destroy each other.

The divine treasures found by your great grandfather were treasure catchers. They will look out over an area of sky, and vacuum up any treasures falling there. That is the reason for these four extra-ordinary palaces. If a meteor is not caught, it smashes into pieces, does it not?

Each treasure catcher has its own zone, but it has always been limited. The treasure catcher needs someone Emperor Blooded. We know that the last Emperor had identified your sister Xue Thu as Emperor blooded.

There may be more Emperor blooded in the Xue family than in most families, but there was no guarantee. Even your brother Tuan is unlikely to be Emperor blooded. We know other Emperor blooded people exist, who are not from the Xue family lineage. So the connection with family lineage is incidental.

If we can regain control of one of these treasure catchers, we will be much more likely to restore the North Winds to greatness."

Her brother Lee must have been Emperor blooded if he was at the North Mountain palace all the time, she decided.

"That's enough, Conner! This is a matter for the Quartet!"

Wei looked and saw Snow Chau's mom, Snow Bea, standing there were two others, who wore badges: Park and Chan.

"The Quartet is here, so let's bring this up. You know, like I do, that the Sang family took the North treasure catcher. The warehouses in the North contain unfathomable amounts of treasures. Even these so-called "bombs" which activate when someone steps on them. Xue Lee rarely visited the Southern Palace, so there is almost nothing for us here. That is the only reason we were able to take this palace.

We have to get our own treasures to fight back. We have to get Xue Thu or someone else who is Emperor Blooded."

Snow Bea looked at Wei with a smiling face: "I promise, we won't keep you here, Wei. Where is your sister, anyway?"

What does Wei want to do?

[ ] Tell them the truth, that you don't know where she is. Autumn's orders were classified, and she never told you where she was going.

[ ] Tell them your sister is with Kazumi, so they'll be sure to reunite you with Kazumi and her group.

[ ] Refuse to Cooperate.

The first few days as Chief of Ministry Security had confirmed to Autumn that she needed to continue her schoolwork, and work hard at it. She had to re-read some of these documents several times to try to understand them. It took her most of the day, asking questions and scratching her head, to get through the full profile on the first job candidate.

She didn't have any staff to help her, so PM Kasai's newly appointed Chief of Personnel Management assisted her by drawing up these "Profiles" of prominent Girls' Army veterans who might make be a good fit for some of her early leadership and positions in the Ministry Security program.

She was out of her depth. This was what professionals, and these representatives did all day? She had an inbox, but her work pace was so slow that the inbox was overflowing.

Reading children's school books out of the Cherry Blossom library was one thing, but this was adult reading material. Maybe the Minister of Education could help her, or maybe she would find a candidate worthy to truly lead the department.

With her internal complaining and daydreaming over, she re-read the Overview section of the profile.


Retired Girls' Army Honorary Captain Sazama

Sazama was a young girl of the Valley Rose Girls' Army base during the War of Southern Intervention. Sazama was involved in three major battles in the war, and she was the only Girls' Army soldier at that time to have ever received a Golden Hawk citation for valor.

In light of her accomplishments, Sazama was elevated to the Officer Track after the war, at 14 years old. Sazama proved to be an excellent officer, and only two years later, she became 1st Lieutenant of Cold Winds Army Base under Captain Mihara.

She served for a decade as 1st Lieutenant of Cold Winds. When she turned 26, she was selected to be the next Honorary Captain of the Girls' Army, which is the highest position for a woman in the Girls' Army, which position she held until the mandatory officer retirement age of 27.

In civilian life, she started the Sazama training program, which was a four week program for women, providing training in self-defense, confidence building, and self-determination. She continues to operate the training program today.

Sazama is a 4th step pathist with a focus on archery. She participates regularly in archery tournaments, mostly against men, and her string of victories is considerable.

Sazama has been an outspoken advocate for military reform, specifically ending the early age of enlistment for girls.

Sazama's personality is choleric, fire-elemental, burning all of those who she feels deserve punishment. The deep rooted hurts of her inner Daoist world have been transformed into active fuel for her personality. There are certain topics which will still to this day, lead to an outburst for her.

Sazama exhibits a Lieutenant's concern for others, a desire to drive them to improve rather than commiserate and hear them. Sazama's training program is widely considered to be the most insane option, and most participants are themselves Girls' Army veterans.

As a Ministry Security staff member, Sazama possesses all of the qualifications, but her abrasiveness may prove troublesome to the one she is trying to protect. She would be an excellent team leader if she passes that test.

Personnel Management recommends a personalized interview with Sazama to determine her interest and suitability under Security Ministry Chief Setsu.


Autumn recognized that the review of Sazama was truly glowing. She would be an amazing selection for her first hire. Finding out how their personalities meshed would be important. However, she was still considering possibly choosing someone with a more scholarly bent to also help her.

She had a dozen files like that one on her desk, but Sazama was recommended as the best.

The Governor's Manor had mostly been restored to it's previous appearance, except that two of the rooms were used for ministry leadership. The Governor General had asked that they keep just the Department heads in the manor, because the number of people passing through was getting excessive. There were more and more people here each day, but now they had established something of a tent city outside the manor.

Inside, Autumn was crammed into an office with the Treasury Chief, Personnel Chief and Saito, who was off gathering a growing militia.

The Personnel Management chief was the third women in Kasai's administration, which surely was setting all kinds of records. She still insisted on putting files in Autumn's inbox, despite her being one desk over.

The Prime Minister was being guarded by the Governor's own guards, so she could run the business of establishing the Security teams. Once she had a second person in the department, she could provide better coverage for Kasai's security.

She remembered the days of calling on people from her Princess days, but she didn't know how her reception would differ now that she was a young person in government instead of a princess.

Her brand new calling card simply said: Ministry Security Chief Setsu.

According to the note pinned to her profile, Captain Sazama lived just outside Mizumi, and north of the Governor's Manor.

They had plenty of carriages and drivers for ministry business, so she didn't have to find the place on foot. Sazama was taking a few days off, after her last training program, so this would be Autumn's best shot to interview her.

Sazama had a lot of property, to much to take care of all by herself, she realized. There was an gate that blocked the way into the rest of the property, but a small house was set just off the road.

Autumn knocked on the door firmly, but not too loudly. She could only imagine what Captain Sazama looked like, but the woman answering the door was not that.

"Yes?" she asked. "You can sign up for the training program at your local gym or dojo."

"Are you Sazama?" Autumn asked.

"I'm a friend. Sazama Mi is getting some much needed rest." the woman said.

Autumn handed over her calling card. "The Minshuto administration would like to talk with her. We are operating out of the Governor-General's Manor at the moment, but I'll make sure to stop back out sometime soon."

"You look like a possible candidate for her class." she said.

When would she have any free time in the near future? "Maybe," Autumn said, and started walking back to the road.

Just as she was about to get into the carriage something zipped past her leg. She'd left her Dao blade in the carriage, but it was probably just Captain Sazama having fun.

There was an arrow stuck in the dirt roadway, with only a half-inch showing. It had a yellow feather.

Turning back, she saw that Sazama had fired that from behind the gate, over 100 meters away.

This woman could take a joke, she realized, and she blade stepped closer, at the same time that Sazama fired another arrow. She was not targeting Autumn but simply showing off.

She could just about manage a 50 meter teleport, so she made her approach the rest of the way on foot, parkouring over the gate with a solid push off of it with her arms.

"Are you one of my students, or soldiers?" Sazama asked.

"Neither. I was a soldier at Cherry Blossom base, but I was transferred to a position in Ministry security, and with the recent trouble I've become Chief of the Security Ministry under PM Kasai's government,"

"I've used bows older than you girl, what makes you think I'd work under you? Did Kasai secretly go insane?" she said.

"How do you find someone trustworthy," Autumn responded. "I've already protected the Prime Minister once, but if you start with someone new, it's hard to know where their loyalty lies. I don't expect to stay Ministry chief for long. Once we find someone trustworthy and high quality to replace me I plan on resigning. Certainly you would qualify, Captain."

"I want to hear the thoughts of the young girl picked for Ministry Security. Perhaps the one who appointed you expected you to fail? My friend and I can spare another plate for dinner. Would you join us?"

Captain Sazama was a true renaissance woman. Over dinner, she regaled Autumn with the most subtle details of archery, and also pearls of wisdom from her time leading girls at Cold Winds base. Even further, she knew a lot about politics and the goals and views of the Minshuto party.

Her friend Ayaka barely spoke a word, and seemed to be sitting there paying attention to Sazama like she was hearing this for the first time.

For Autumn's part she mostly just shared the vision she believed in with PM Kasai. Protecting our ministries, protects our people. Stability in political life helps to ensure that good candidates are willing to seek out positions in government. Assassinations unweave the quilt of democracy.

"In addition to your formal role as head of Security, what else are you passionate about?" Sazama asked.

She grinned, "Swords. My Dao blade specifically."

"An unusual one that. More of a North Winds favorite. We saw more of them at Chill Winds base than elsewhere," Sazama said.

"My sister and I are immigrants from the North Winds. The Dao blade is something I picked up back home, and this is the same one I've had since I turned 13," she said.

"Who taught you the blade?" Sazama's friend Ayaka asked.

"I had a few trainers, but mostly I learned from sparring with my brother, and then I joined a fighting club later."

"I know a thing or two about swords. Mostly double-edged weapons," Ayaka said.

"Ayaka has helped out with some of the close-up self-defense training in our program, since that's not my speciality," Sazama said. "I'm willing to explore being part of the Security Ministry for 30 days, if Ayaka is willing to take on the responsibility for the next session of my training program."

"Please keep your pranks to every other day, Mi," Ayaka said, smiling. "I'll take care of the program."

"I'll be there first thing in the morning, then, if you'll have me?" Sazama said.

After a day of struggles, learning about how to do her job, followed by getting fired upon by a recruit, Autumn was ready to unwind. She doubted Prime Minister Kasai would be done with her work until hours after dusk.

Masumi had promised an actual sparring session with training weapons after dinner that night. They ate dinner at the Governor's Manor every night, and it was as good as her own chef's cooking back home. The style of West Winds food was a bit different, but she was getting used to it.

She promised Naoki she would play some Go later, but first, she had one goal: to find out how good Masumi was, and continue to test her own Way.

In order to progress towards Late Third Step, she needed to make a greater connection to the Emperor's blood, so that it fueled and powered her. It was like something she could only spot out of her peripheral vision right now, but eventually it would be enveloping her, and she would become so comfortable in it's presence.

There was something about her efforts at the Government offices that had ignited her Way. It was something still latent, something she was still grasping from a distance.

"I've acquired a standard training sabre for both of us. Just let me know if you want to try something else," Masumi said as they entered the little dueling room the Governor General had showed them last time.

Some duelists believed that you should stand at guard position and let an unknown fighter show you their own moves. Autumn believed differently.

When Masumi didn't attack immediately, she stepped forward, closing the distance and stabbing him. The saber was for slashing, but the stabbing move, when deflected, kept her in position to guard his counter.

In a flurry of counters, they deflected strikes, trying for an advantage, but each strike was being pushed aside. Her footwork saved her from an aggressive cross body slash. He expected to score the first point with it, but she darted back inward and got her own point.

"1-0. I'm ready!" he said, and he intensified his efforts. Feint and double feint, strike and maneuver, controlling the point the two swords clashed, and seeing the consequences of everything a few steps ahead.

She even encouraged him: "Move your feet!", but then he striking performing heavier strikes. His superior strength made it hard to parry his strikes, but his positioning suffered, giving up opportunities for her to strike back.

2 points for her, one for him. Then it was 3 - 2, 5 - 3, then 6 - 3.

They had agreed to spar until 7 points, or exhaustion, but the sparring had only increased in intensity as the battle raged. This wasn't her favorite weapon or his, and point-based sparring was always a little off-kilter because all you needed with a strike, any strike at all, to get a point.

Autumn had been more of a fan of free-form sparring, but the club occasionally did have points based sparring, especially in tournaments.

With the match point coming up, Masumi finally showed proof that he was a Sword pathist. His active power seemed to be something she had heard called Epic strike, or a seeker version of Power Strike.

Within a few feet of his sabre, the weapon tracked her, and even with blunted weapons it struck her hard enough to leave a welt. It blasted through her attempt at deflecting also.

"Your point," she said grinning. She was ready to bring her own powers into play.

She couldn't teleport right behind his back, as when she tried it next, the Epic strike forced his sabre to turn 180 and scored a clean hit and another welt.

"6 - 5," Masumi announced.

She teleported to the back wall and teleported her blade mid chop. Masumi actually deflected the blade teleport! She had to waste another teleport to get her weapon back and then the highest intensity of fighting poured out between them.

She was forced to rely on her utmost skills in precognition, movement, sword positioning and occasional use of teleport, but after the longest point of the match, she did get the winning strike.

The difference between the two of them wasn't in how they fought so far, but that Masumi was exhausted after the match was finished.

"There are several people you rescued, who watched you fight. So I did hear about your abilities." he said. "Honestly, I don't work out enough to keep up with you"

It was a good spar, but she didn't really feel like she made any more contact with the Emperor's blood than usual.

The rest of the night, she spent with Koji, Masumi and Naoki, playing Go and chatting, leaving behind the content of their days.

But when she was unable to sleep late at night, in Prime Minister Kasai's home, she thought about her plans for tomorrow with the Ministry Security team.


Vote for both:

How do you want to handle Sazama's arrival tomorrow?

[ ] Make Samaza a member of PM Kasai's security detail, so you can focus on organizational and recruiting issues.

[ ] Station Samaza in the office temporarily. Have her help with evaluating candidates.

[ ] Make Samaza the first and Lead operative for Deputy Minister Tanimoto.

[ ] Have Samaza shadow you, and evaluate her performance for future placement.


Autumn's To-Dos for tomorrow?

[ ] Read through 2 more Candidate profiles. Hopefully you'll be able to understand them.

[ ] Ask the Education Ministry chief for advice on how to get tutoring in Professional communications, and just general reading and writing.

[ ] (50% chance of success) Attempt to convince PM Kasai to spend the night in the Governor's manor instead of his house. The Kasai family home is only a few blocks from the Gunbatsu occupied Government building.

[ ] Spend some time socializing with Samaza, and getting to know her capabilities as a Security operative.

WillRobinson said:

Got to be honest, the entire arena arc and the actions of the protagonists made absolutely no sense to me. Why did this confrontation happen at the club? Who were the people autumn fought alongside? What did the gardener's incoherent babbling about rules and violations mean? What was Ho Junko's motivation?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Some of it was bad writing, and some of it will be explained more if/when Autumn becomes a true cultivator and leaves the worled.

But the basic deal is: The last three Emperors have run a scheme to keep control of all treasures (equipment, Pathist supplies, etc) and also they have total control of all off-world trade with North Winds.

So North Winds is very backwards and low tech for everyday people, and even Autumn as a princess has access to more goodies now in West Winds then she did before. She had one Pathist medicine, but no other treasures.

This total inequality causes a phenomenon that's not yet explained. Ho Junko becomes a heavenly Pathist, but her condition is much more extreme than Kazumi's gradual path.

There's backstory for why that is which will still be a spoiler right now.

Now from Ho Junko's perspective before she became heavenly, her mom forced her to accept the position as Autumn's first assistant.

Autumn relied on Xue Son's opinion on what to pay her. She didn't know much about money so she accidentally paid Ho Junko barely anything. Ho Junko wanted to refuse, but the Ho family wanted to gain influence and forced her to work there.

Autumn was very narrowly focused on what she cared about and what Xue Son forced her to do. She was kinda an air-head and didn't notice the deceptions and schemes in her family. She didn't even realize Xue Chi was a spy / schemer for Crown Prince Lee and Xue Son.

Ho Junko was pissed at the low pay, and she had to organize the rest of Autumn's staff. If she didn't give them a wake up visit they wouldn't show up.

She was perceptive, she saw how Xue Son manipulated families for his own gain by sending Autumn to be sweet on their young masters. He expected payment, which Autumn was oblivious about abc Ho Junko noticed.

Ho Junko was primarily motivated by the way the Xue family used families like a resource instead of with respect.

She was irritated with Autumn's cluelessness but mad at the rest of the family.

In addition to Ho Junko's heavenly cultivation, three other people were given a lesser level of power.

Lin Tsu was a young master, a simple gardener whose family was destroyed by Xue Son's demands for tribute. He thought Autumn was behind it all and he was very angry.

Rieff Chan had been part of the fighting club, but he was thrown out when Bull realized he wasn'ta Registered family member. Autumn had defeated him once in a spar.

Hejl Yaeko had no specific reason to hate Autumn, but she became good friends with Rieff and Lin, and eventually Ho Junko.

These three gained some power. Hejl was a heavenly type staff fighter, Lin became a violent gardener and Rieff gained an absurd amount of precognitive ability.

After the heavens affected All four of them, Things really went crazy when Ho Junko found out the vast treasures stored in warehouses. Endless essence chargers and all kinds of equipment and cards.

When she said she was repairing Autunn's sword, she actually snuck her way to the North Mountain Palace.

She was inside one of the warehouses for hours before a regular patrol found her out. She obtained an incredible treasure, a storage ring, and she found plenty of cultivation aids and a strange deck of Cards.

When found out she could only fight and try to escape. Because of her winter gear no one saw her face.

When she got back she had a lot to do. She had been practicing with Autumn's own sword at night for months. The same master who made it, liked her and had just finished a better sword.

She had already contacted the trio and she gave Lin Tsu the cards, and plenty of treasures to everyone. They discussed the plan to take over Autumn's club tournament and turn it into an Arena that would destroy the Empire.

Ho Junko wanted to give Autumn a chance to step away from the family before destruction, plus a ransom would be nice if Xue Lee went after her.

When Autumn refused, Ho Junko went out alone to steal more treasures. But Xue Lee and his men were prepared.

Ho Junko's heavenly power was such that she could temporarily break through into being a real cultivator and then return to Fourth Step. This extra power forced Xue Lee to rely on his guards to help.

This is why no one was watching Autumn, and she and Wei could escape. Ho Junko killed all the guards, but her battle with Xue Lee ended up in the Cloud kingdom after Xue Lee tried to escape there.

The Magistrate of the Cloud Kingdom had no sympathy for Xue Lee and Ho Junko killed him.

During the Arena battle, it was Lin Tsu's cards that did most of the mind controlling. But also
Emperor's blood is invigorated when facing heavenly power. Autumn was being overcome by both Lin's cards and the Emperor's blood which was why she fought so fiercely and managed to access that dragon attack.

Ho Junko's ability to leap into true cultivation dealt with both the dragon attack and the Emperor.

The Emperor was tricked by that maneuver. He had been waiting to ascend for decades. Waiting for Xue Lee.

When Ho Junko leapt into true cultivation, he did the same, but he couldn't go back, so he was expelled into the outer world.

He's still out here, but he's just a well-prepared newcomer.

Ho Junko had plans first. She took over the main palace. She forced the consorts and their children to leave, and then she left this world behind also.

With all that heavenly power she's stronger but not as prepared to be a cultivator as the Emperor.

I'm going to go back and proofread this later, but I don't have time right now and I wanted to get it out.


Mrs. Kasai was terrified of sleeping in the master bedroom and Autumn wasn't fond of it either. So the Kasai's took the spare bedroom, and Autumn took the couch.

She only had two sets of the new ministry security uniforms, so she was wearing hand me down pajamas from Mrs. Kasai. Autumn hoped Mrs. Kasai would be ok after everything that happened.

She wanted to have another girls' day out with Mrs. Kasai, it would be helpful to both of them.

Autumn had been in the habit of waking up early, it was just after sunrise when there was a firm knock on the front door.

Her thoughts troubled her as she thought of the possible people at the door.

Of all the people she expected to see, Brigadier General Oya was not one of them.

"I'm waving the White parley flag, specialist. Bring out Mr. Kasai."

Autumn looked around, to see if the Brig General had company. "My eyes are peeled. I will get Prime Minister Kasai, but I'm watching you."

She returned inside, from outside the guest bedroom she spoke: "Sir, you have a visitor. They're trying to talk in peace, so they say."

A few minutes later, PM Kasai stood in the door frame facing Oya.

"There is something to discuss which transcends your treason."

"The party who attacked my house and dragged my wife away, doesn't get to call me traitor. It was your own attacks that ended my political cowardice. I was a moderate, general, and now I'm a radical. So, what is it you want to chat about?" PM Kasai said.

She had never seen a senior officer tenative in her brief time dealing with them, but Oya hesitated.

"Some strategic mistakes were made. In our planning we expected the South Winds forces to push north through the wasteland and exploit the North.

We were worried about North Winds being so weak that the South Winds army could immediately take over. Cherry Blossom girls as well as a special forces team were sent to blockade any attempts in the North.

After their attempt to cross the wastelands at the start of the war, the South Winds armies have steadily attacked in the south with their whole force. Our Southern forces are overrun, and the battalion we sent to guard the Western sea is the only intact force between the enemy and our capital.

If you want any kind of nation left to govern, we have to work together."

PM Kasai was disturbed by the conversation, while Autumn could only wonder how Wei was doing up north.

"Colonel Saito is raising up a militia force. But most strong soldiers are on your side. We will do what we can, but I'm not sure what kind I've cooperation you imagine is possible."

"Saito was always one of yours. Listen, one of my subordinates is the Honorary Captain of the girls army. If you agree to allow her access to your facility, she will be our line of communication. Nothing has changed between us long term, but we can work together for the moment."

Kasai paused for a moment before agreeing. "Send your captain."

"Goodbye then," said the General and then left.

Mrs. Kasai came out into the entryway after the general had left. "Who was that?"

"Just a well wisher."

"Mrs. Kasai," Autumn started.

"Yes dearie?"

"I've got a new lady in my department. Could we meet you for lunch, what would you recommend?"

"Sayuri's is a good one. Closer to my husbands side of town. I'll meet you girls at 1."

"That's great. We will see you there."

Brig. General must have guessed they'd say yes as Sazama and another woman were arguing outside the manor.

"You have a duty to take care of these girls, and instead you believe in killing them, and getting credit with the men of Gunbatsu. You don't even fight for access to ranged weapons for the girls," Sazama was saying to the other woman."

"I only have six months left Queen archer. These girls are designed to be thrown into frontline fighting. Why would I stick my neck out? They need to be toughened so they can face that. I went through it all."

Prime Minister Kasai spoke up, "I assume you are the Gunbatsu representative."

"Yes Sir, Honorary Captain Nishihara reporting for duty. I will pass messages between the Gunbatsu administration and your own."

"You are welcome here. I don't want to hear any Gunbatsu propaganda here, and that means Miss Sazama, don't provoke the messenger."

"Sazama, follow me," she said as they entered the building.

Nishihara followed them both. "We've heard about Setsu and none of it makes sense. Did you know Sazama, that she was only Third Platoon at Cherry Blossom base, a month ago. I think Captain Tsuda had an agreement with the Prime Minister to get his daughter out. Do you really want to work for a Third Platoon girl?"

She didn't get angry often, but Autumn had reason to with this girl.

"Do you want to spar, right now? I rescued ministry teams from your Gunbatsu goons at the risk of my life, I won't hesitate to respond to false accusations. Yes, I was third platoon. It was my schoolwork keeping me there. I'm not the PM's daughter, I'm an immigrant from North Winds, and yes I changed my name."

"Oh shit, that was you?" Nishihara said. "I don't believe you. But I'm willing to spar later on. What Captain would refuse? Oh wait, Sazama you didn't like to spar."

Autumn groaned. This lady was going to be a thorn in their side.

Eventually Nishihara went into Kasai's office while Autumn led Sazama to her little space.

"You deserve to have your own command, and I'm not worried about you turning Gunbatsu sympathizer. Would you like to start with being the Deputy's security chief? He doesn't have any security overnight, at the moment.

I'll check in with Deputy Prime Minister Tanimoto on a regular basis to see how it's going."


"Is this a 24 hour kind of thing?" Sazama said.

"Until we have enough coverage it has to be. I stay with the Kasai family overnight. It's not like I don't sleep, but I'm a pretty light sleeper, and I've been getting six hours at most," she said.

"I suppose Ayaka's going to be busy with my training course. Like I said, I'll give you 30 days and make a decision then. I'll protect the Deputy then."

"This is a civilian organization, so I'm your boss, despite the fact that you have a higher rank. I don't know why they went with ranks at all. I know you were a lieutenant when you were 14 and I'm just turning Lieutenant at 17 and not through the normal process."

"Don't worry hon, Retired Honorary Captain means I defer to your rank. And I won't upset the apple cart."

"There's plenty of security in the manor itself, so we do have free time during these hours. But I still recommend introducing yourself to Deputy Tanimoto. I'd like to spend more time getting to know you, so Mrs. Kasai and I planned to take you out to lunch, if that's acceptable."

"Should be a good enough time, I'll go find out where Tanimoto's office is," Captain Sazama said

Autumn started going through the file of Lieutenant Arakawa. She had turned 27 just a few months ago and been released from the Girls' Army just before the start of the war.

She was nine during the last war so never participated in it, but she had one of the best performance records for her platoons. She consistently sent the girls in her platoon up to higher platoons, at record levels.

Eventually, she retired as platoon leader of 2nd platoon. Excellent leader, excellent grades and communication skills. She was uninvolved politically, so her opinion about Minshuto was a question mark.

Personnel's 'psychological evaluation' was the most difficult section for her to understand. Her concentration was disturbed when Naoki showed up in their little four person office.

"My father's invited you to lunch. He's actually going to explore one of the restaurants in the city."

Autumn frowned. "I already had plans with Mrs. Kasai and Captain Sazama to go to Sayuri's, have you been there before?"

"I guess it's not a hidden gem anymore. My father and I will meet you there. Perhaps take a break from reading and play a little backgammon?"

It was difficult to resist taking a break from reading the Personnel team's reports. She was even worse at backgammon than Go, but that added factor of luck helped.

She asked Naoki a question that had bugged her before, "Do you have a major professional goal, or something you want to do in the future?"

Naoki zapped one of her pieces, sending it back to the start.

"I mean, what can I do that compares to being the Governor General's daughter? My father encourages me to be a patron and develop interests in all kinds of things. Arts and music, games are my favorite, but also cooking and archery sometimes. I guess someday I'll be married. I'm not really looking forward to it."

"You may not believe me, but I really understand where you are coming from," Autumn said. Her interests was fewer and more intense, but the not-looking forward to marriage part was identical. She's just points in some family's ledger then."

"Father mentioned a little about your background. Anyway, go get Sazama and we'll meet you at Sayuri's."

Since Deputy Tanimoto was a civilian scientists, smart, focussed but a bit eggheaded, she didn't have high expectations for his relationship with Captain Sazama.

Instead, it appeared like Sazama was training Tanimoto in something and he was eager to learn.

"You've wanted to get this data, but suddenly a Gunbatsu goon steals it, what are you going to do?" Sazama asked.

"File a formal complaint. Or re-run the tests," Tanimoto responded.

"You can't re-run the tests! This is a once in a lifetime experiment. Now WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"He is my obstacle. I mix half a liter of fourth step medicinals, mixed in a 4-1 proportion with Apple juice. The acidity toxifies the pure medicinal. I splash the horrible concoction in his face."

"Good," Sazama said. "Once you start thinking about responding to horrible people, about defending yourself and your research, you'll find that your Way starts to shift. It takes a lot of playacting. In my program, I've training a dozen Discovery-Type girls. This was my technique after a lot of trial and error.

"This is true novel research, Sazama. Sometimes nothing else suffices but field data from people like you."

Autumn didn't have to take Sazama from the Deputy, instead she had to beg.

"Sazama will be back in a few hours. Both sides are still going through a trial period," she said.

"She's got my vote, Lieutenant. I appreciate that you've brought an experienced operative onboard."

Mrs Kasai had already found the Governor and his daughter, and they were chatting amiably when Autumn and Samaza got there.

"It was nice that we all got to meet like this," Mrs Kasai said.

"It was good to take a break, and take a trip outside the walls," the Gov. General said.


The menu of Sayuri's was incredibly bizarre foods. Alongside each word in rōmaji was some off-world writing system.

"Though the name may be family, everything you eat won't be. Try the spiciest dish you've ever seen, or the baked confections of countless worlds. Sayuri's has grown several off-world varieties of vegetables in our own gardens, after ten years, we can now serve foreign recipes. We have modified them to be edible and we had to use local meats, but the formulas are otherwise completely non-local.

If you haven't tried our recipes before, we recommend starting with the soup: свекольник. I hope I pronounced that right, Sayuri is very picky."
They each ordered a soup, and then split the other orders family style.

Sazama's spicy noodle dish was the best of the bunch, but she was glad she had the beverage that was almost like milk but even creamier and much sweeter. It was a great beverage to wash down the spice, and she had two glasses.

"We have to concoct the drinks based on a second-hand description so we may not have gotten it right."

At the end of the long lunch, they got the bill. The Governor General insisted on paying, and when she looked at the price, she had to double-check.

That would be a pricey meal even for her stipend as princess. She didn't think Kasai made a lot of money. In the middle of war and civil disagreement, there were still a few restaurants open.

"I didn't check the prices ahead of time, Governor General. I'm truly grateful. It was a lovely time. Girls, perhaps you could try my home cooking instead sometime," Mrs. Kasai said.

"It was lovely meeting you," Sazama said. "Don't be afraid, you have a lot of courage, especially when you think you don't."

Mrs. Kasai left, and Autumn was planning to go with Sazama to a local archery range when Deputy Tanimoto of all people showed up.

"Colonel Saito has asked the Prime Minister to call an all-hands meeting, as soon as possible."

Sazama left with Tanimoto, and Autumn rode with the Governor and Naoki.

"It's one thing after another, isn't it," Naoki said.

"The last few weeks have been very eventful," her father said.

Once again, the whole Minshuto government was gathered in the Governor's ballroom.

"Captain Tashihara has been back to High Command, and has reported back to Colonel Saito. Colonel?" Kasai said.

"We thought it was strange that Gunbatsu wanted to work with us, after everything that has happened to past week. They waited until the last moment to bring us onboard. South Winds forces are only five miles outside of town. By tonight, they may be fighting within the city. According to Tashihara, they had projected that the South Winds division into three separate armies would mean an easy victory for West Winds forces, but the Divine Monotheists have been acting as special forces and sappers, and working behind our lines.

More surprisingly, the Samsarrans and Anattanists have formed a combined army that has not been stopped on its march to Mazumi."

The voice of someone unfamiliar yelled out, "Good. Anyone would be a better leader than Gunbatsu."

Prime Minister Kasai responded, "I don't want to hear that. We may have major disagreements with the Gunbatsu, but we don't abandon our people. If the South sweeps through our country, they will surely conquer the North as well and rule our world. Don't expect them to be saints. They had reason to be angry. The Wasteland is neutral territory and yet we attacked them."

"Anyway," Saito said. "I need volunteers to join our militia. And I need someone to lead our evacuation. We will move the governor and his staff, as well as the members of government and their families, whoever is not volunteering. Samui tokoro in the North is our best bet, and we should establish our government there, in the provincial capital."

Kasai addressed Autumn, "I can't afford a personal protector when so much needs to be done. Saito and I have discussed this. Either Captain Sazama can lead the evacuations, and you join the volunteers, or vice versus."


Vote:

With special forces in the area, there will be some fighting in either case, but the heaviest fighting will be with the volunteers. Kasai will be evacuating, and Tanimoto will follow Sazama. as he really wants to learn to unlock his Way and become combat-capable.

[ ] Join the Volunteers battling against the South Winds army. Sazama will organize and protect the evacuation efforts.

[ ] Lead the evacuation efforts. Sazama will join the Volunteers.