Bunraku (Samurai Mecha Quest)

XIII. Growth

You consider the facts before you, your eyes glossing over the maps, but what drives your decision is not any abstract dot or line on a paper but your own all-too-recent memories.

"The destruction of the relic may not be the worst-case scenario," you say with a frown, drawing curious looks from the rest of the room. "On my way to Summer, I came across a deserted castle which had been partially destroyed by a heavenly relic in the fall. The relic had..." You probe for the right word, "...gone awry. It was acting aimlessly, and harmfully to anyone who might come close to it unaware. If left unchecked it might have killed many travelers, and to make the place safe again and protect my own life I had to destroy it."

You bite your cheek on the last words, a pang of guilt at distorting the truth so early in your new lord's service. But while you believe that putting Aoi to rest was the right thing to do, you are not sure that your lord would appreciate learning you destroyed a valuable item when you could have brought it to him – and so you afford yourself some light bending of the facts.

"Are you suggesting," Lady Gozen says dubious, "that if left unchecked the relic might not merely burn itself out, but instead become a lasting hazard for the region around it?"

You nod, and she turns to her advisors for counsel; but it is Lord Summer himself who speaks up.

"It is loathsome to we dragons to accept or talk about this matter – but Tomoe is correct. While certain heavenly relics might only decay or burn out, others degenerate in a far more destructive fashion. More than this, it is difficult for even one of my knowledge to tell in advance whether a given item will go one way or the other – in Heavens we had the luxury to prevent such incidents from ever happening in the first place, and this phenomenon has... caught us by surprise."

Quick but meaningful glances are exchanged at the table around you, and you feel the weight of words left unsaid. Then Lady Gozen clears her throat.

"In that case, our priority is obvious. We will gather as strong a force as can be justified for this matter. Because the fallen fort is only a day away from Summer, I can even afford to attend to it myself. Tomoe and Ondo, you will come as well. With three bunraku, ten samurai, and a hundred ashigaru, we will be able to thwart whatever threat may arise from the fort or any lingering bandits."

"A hundred men and three bunraku?" Ondo says bemused. "Seems like overkill, ma'am. The bandits won't be gathering in strength that early and that's far more than needed to lift some rubble, magic or no."

"I'm not taking any risks," Gozen says firmly. "We will move out early tomorrow morning. Understood?"

You both nod, and Gozen waves you off.

It feels good to be riding with your fellow puppeteers again.

Ondo's armor is a Chasing Star; it is a thing of light wood and leather, with spindly limbs that click as they walk, his facemask bearing no recognizable features but an angular geometric pattern and a wide lens at its center, a single unblinking eye. It runs ahead of your group, scouting your surroundings faster than a man on a horse.

Gozen's armor is a Rising Tide, the duellist's pride. It is shorter than Harvest by a good head, its shoulders narrower, less steel in its make, but it moves with grace and its feet don't shake the ground. At its waist hangs a long katana, so thin you wonder how it can hit armor without shattering. Her mask is the blank slate and three stars of her lord – she is the one who greeted you at the door on your arrival. If her mask is testament to her devotion to lord Summer she must be very loyal indeed.

Your three bunraku form a trinity in motion, speed, strength and balance, covering each other's weaknesses and bolstering your strengths. Whatever awaits you in the ruins of that fort, it cannot stand against such overbearing power; and that is without counting the ten noble warriors riding alongside you, warriors in armors bearing fearsome helms, greatbows and swords, or the hundred men marching behind them spear in hand.

At noon you make halt and prepare a simple lunch around a firecamp. It is a peaceful moment; to the east you can glimpse the shimmering waters of the Pearl River, to the west the rising hills crested with woods, and where you stand is good land and yielding grass. Ondo and you mingle with the other samurai while the ashigaru eat separately; more than one warrior offers you words of praise as a newcomer who is both a puppeteer and an imperial descendant, and you are asked to retell the story of the battle against the bandits in your own words. You laugh, and make a show of humble refusal for now; you know that by tradition they will come ask you again tonight and that it is then you must humor them, when there is more time to expound upon whatever parts thrills your audience the most. It is a time-honored ritual with which you are well familiar.

Lady Gozen does not eat with you, you realize after a time; indeed she eats alone – well, not quite, you correct yourself. She eats with her two personal attendants, and from afar you gather some sparse words about terrain, weather, marching time, practical data. But she does not eat with her fellow samurai, and that itself is significant, even if you're not sure of what.

The meal is quick, and you break camp soon, heading away from the river into the hills.

It is not long before you see the glow again. Brighter, more intense than before, a blue-green dawn upon the hills. Ondo races ahead of you, his size doing little to impair his discretion – even knowing he is there you have soon lost track of him as he angles around the fort and uses the curving of the hills and the sparse trees to hide himself better than you'd thought possible.

Soon he is back, running faster than before; from a distance he unfolds a great crimson fan and waves it in a codified gesture, and Gozen stops her bunraku and stretches her arm; the rest of the contingent follows suit, halting its march while Ondo makes his way back. When he reaches you he opens his hatch, and you see that his face is red and that he is sweating from exertion.

"The situation is nothing like we'd expected, lady Gozen. You need to come with me to see for yourself. On foot."

Your commander looks at him from her faceless mask, then nods and opens her own hatch. She motions sharply to you to do the same, and soon you are all three on foot, following Ondo as he guides your step through the hills. His course sticks to the foot of the hills, and conceals the fort from you at first; but you see the turquoise glow against the sky, and as you approach you feel a pressure in your chest that you recognize from before – it is, diluted by distance, the same palpable force as emanated from the golden skull. You shudder at the memory.

At Ondo's guidance you climb the slope of a hill on your hands on knees, and as soon as you crest it he stops you.

Before you lie the ruins of the fort, but it is unrecognizable. It is at once more and less of a fort; more, because its walls have been raised up and you can see some reconstructed buildings inside, less because it has been overtaken by vegetation – no, vegetation is too weak a word for it. It is as if a forest had begun to grow in the middle of the forst; the walls are held up by twisting trees, and decades-old oaks sprout from its interior space. Foliage covers much of its insides, but you can see shapes moving within. What was left of Shidao's camp, its wooden palisade and supernumary tents, seems to have long been cannibalized by the new structure.

And there are people. Dozens, maybe, moving to and fro. You spot ten people coming back from the forest, pulling behind them carts full of lumber. Others are working on the fort, rebuilding it, you think. Of those moving and working, their movements seem... Off, for a reason you can't quite determine from this far, just slightly out of sync. Most, however, are just kneeling in front of the gates, raising their hands in turn. You think they're chanting.

Gozen gives you a look and you shake your head. "There were sprouting trees when I left, but nothing this size. And no people."

"It seems you were right, Tomoe," she says somberly. "Whatever that thing is doing, it's not burning up or self-destructing."

Ondo does not answer her remark, but you see him narrow his eyes at something on the flank of the hill; you follow his gaze and see something like a dog, pacing the surroundings of the camp slowly.

"Is that..?" you ask, but Gozen makes a motion of quiet. She stares intently at Ondo.

"It has no fur," the scout says. "It has bark."

You squint, incredulous, and although you can't quite make out the details of the 'dog,' you are surprised to see its eyes glow faintly even from such a distance, a deep green.

"Kami," Gozen whispers.

"Makes no sense," Ondo says with a shrug. "You were gone for four days. This many people couldn't have moved in and rebuilt half of the fort in that time. Who would they even be? Nearby village? Defectors from the bandits? And where would the kami come from? And why are half of them just praying?"

"What's Summer's relationship with the local kami?" You ask. Ondo makes a grimace.

"The field kami got rabid a few years back and we had to fight them back to the borders of our lands. The forest kami have never organized as a hostile force, but they rarely deal with us and occasionally prey on travelers."

Lady Gozen says nothing, but is looking intensely at the fort. You feel like if she might be receptive to a suggestion, it would be now.

[ ]"We should take the rest of the samurai, horses, and go meet these people as a small group. Just enough to imply our force without being an open threat and keeping us mobile if things go wrong. We don't know who they are, so open hostility is not desirable."
[ ]"Whoever these people are, the fort is a growing threat, and they're allied with kami, which would be a threat in any case. We should march in full force, and make it clear that this place belongs to Summer and we have come to reclaim it, by force if necessary."
[ ]"We should make camp far enough that they won't see us, and wait for the cover of night to infiltrate the place and gather information. Ondo is a scout and I've dealt with relics gone awry before, together we can assess the threat and report to you."
[ ]Stay silent, and let your commander come to her own decision.
[ ]Write-in.