Legend of the Ronin (Legend of the Five Rings)

--Take Izu and Kyoko

You lean back, as you hold the wounds on your body together.
"Togashi-san and Isawa-sama should come with me. Obviously Iuchi-sama needs to go with you Bayushi-sama, and you're a better choice to work through the courts. Equally obvious is that the Princess needs to go with you."

Sora nods.
"Agreed, we wait the night here, and then leave in the morning. Let us pray that the demon didn't do anything to the wells."

"Hai"

You spend the night recovering from the battle. Yukiko trying her best to heal you without using the kami, as she's clearly exhausted. Eventually you chase her to bed, and take up watch by yourself. The small fire flickering in the oasis, as everyone else gets some sleep. You take out your mother's fan, examining the intricate detail that even now worn, still stand out.

"Interesting fan, a woman's unless I miss my guess." A male voice comes from behind you.

You turn and bow to Izu as best you can.

"It was my mother's. I suppose this feels like an ending of sorts"

"Hai. It is an ending. We'll undoubtedly have to fight down south...but we've all changed to the point that I wonder about our future." He says sitting down beside you.

"Future Izu? I thought time was a formless river, the rocks will be there whether we look for them or not"

"You quote Brother Kirei to me, and you aren't wrong. But I know what everyone wants out of this expedition...the question to me is do you"

"It's not hard to guess. Bayushi-sama and Iuchi-sama want a way to stay near each other even if they must wed. Isawa-sama wants to retire to be a simple priestess and researcher. You seemingly have a whim to be a hero"

He laughs.
"It is a whim, but the wind blows me where it may. I forsee myself taking the path of the itinerant monk after this."

"You think we will all live?" You ask, looking into the fire.

"No, but it is no use planning for what I will do after I die."

"Pragmatic."

"I am my mother's son, you aim to gain a name...but which name, that's the question to ask."

"...it is a bold ronin indeed who presumes she can have her pick of names. I am not Kaneka-shiryo reborn to have all the Clans wish for my sword" You say.

"No, while your skill is remarkable, I've seen better, and I imagine that the true great masters would treat you as as a clumsy child, just as they would me. But that does not negate a wish, or a desire" Izu prods.

"Desire is a sin" You reply.

"I fear to regret so I sin once, I regret my fear so I sin twice, I desire to overcome my regret so I sin thrice. In this the lesson of the world." Izu says.

"And now you quote Master Sei to me, but is she not heretical?"

"Heretical in his conclusions, not in his observations." Izu says breezily.

"Say what you want Izu, I am in too much pain to dance tonight."

"Think hard Megumi-san, whether you want to regain a name for yourself, or because it is expected"

You frown as he departs to get some sleep. Of course you wanted your name back right? Why was he pushing on this. Yes the initial goal had been because of Grandmother, but that didn't make it any less your own in the end. You wished to be a clan samurai, to not sleep in temples and monasteries, to be able to talk to your family, to have your name back. There was no guarantee that you would again become Kakita Sakura...but Bayushi Sakura or Iuchi Sakura or whatever...that was almost as good in your mind. Well not Hida Sakura, you had standards dammit.

As the fire dies down, you're prodded by Kyoko to go to sleep as she takes watch. You don't remember the dreams you had...but they feel important somehow, that little girl from before, when you underwent the ritual, she was there screaming something...who was she? The question is forced from your mind as you go through your morning rituals. Yukiko patches you up, and Izu seems to take great delight from learning something from Ayako. You can only hope it's not an invitation to shack up with her later.

No Izu wouldn't do that would he? Surely not. You decide to focus on getting the last of your gear ready to leave towards Shinomen Mori. The Forest of Ghosts, as some called it. According to the old tales, the Naga slept in there, waiting for when they would be awakened again for some great task. Other tales speak of whole armies disappearing into the aether when they walked through it...many a tale of the forest ended with 'and they were never seen again'

Yet, you trusted Kyoko's reasoning. Even if you were wrong, that was the best place to hide in the Empire anyways. So thus you would go.

Sora stands beside you. You turn quickly to bow.
"Bayushi-sama."

"Megumi-san...I have no need to tell you to succeed, but you still do not have my permission to throw your life away, understood?" She says.

You suppress a smile. Sora would never just say 'be careful' would she?
"Hai, Bayushi-sama."
She nods and turns away from you.
----------------------------------------------------

You wish you could say that your travel into the Empire proper had been eventful, that you had fought a horde of bandits on the outskirts, duelled against a disgraced Lion, and romanced a handsome young scion of the Utaku. You wished you could say something like that, but truth be told, while the Sagon Cultists had sporadically attacked, between the three of you they had been no challenge. Instead the greatest challenge was to not get bored or let down your guard. In the end you spent most of your time chatting with Kyoko and Izu. Izu seemed determined to keep up with Kyoko's brilliance, albeit mostly by playing a semantic game with her, but she seemed to enjoy it, and you didn't quite hold your own, but were often the arbitrator of their arguments.

Although they mostly argued about
[] Bushido, what it means to be a Samurai and how best to exemplify that.
[] The Heavens, how they guide humans, and the extent of their interference.
[] Humanity, what it means to be human, and what the limits of their ability were.

In the end though, you feel like everyone managed to keep their spirits up. Which was needed as you crossed into the Shinomen Forest. It was hard to describe the air here, but the trees felt ancient, older than the works of man, yet somehow still, new. A heavy fog clung around you as you waited for Kyoko to divine the path forward. Life wild, untamed, and unfriendly pressed in on you from all sides and you remembered the admonition of your Grandmother, that in the face of an overwhelming threat, your ability to sense ambushes would be severely limited.

In the end, you were an intruder to this land, all of you were, and all you could go was go forward.
Kyoko looks up from where she cast the fire sticks to determine the next plan of action.
"We go south" She declares.

You kind of wish you weren't going deeper into the forest. You've caught the unfriendly eye of an animal too many times already. However, that was the path forward, and needs must.

Another week passes as your supplies slowly dwindle, you feel as if the forest is driving you around in circles, but Kyoko is confident in her abilities, and Izu admits none of the marks he's made to keep from getting lost have shown up. So, you keep going, wondering if you had undertaken a fools journey...when you find yourself sliding down a hill that you hadn't seen. Rocks and branches beat against you, but none of them are really able to get through your armour thankfully.

When you stop, you hear Izu and Kyoko coming down behind you, but that doesn't really seem to matter to you. In front of you flowing out of the forest, is a tall stately pagoda. Covered in black pitch and half covered in trees and plant life. A single newly repaired torii arch marks this as the place that Sagon might be hiding. You stand, and walk through the torii arch, Kyoko and Izu behind you.

The sheer power of the evil miasma threatens to knock you to your knees. The air has become dank and cloying, the weight of death and hatred pushing you down. You call deep on your reserves and manage to stand up, but until Sagon is dead, this place will push you down.

"Such a powerful aura" Izu says making a small gesture of prayer.

"No doubt the work of the demon...we can ill afford to spend to long here." Kyoko says.

"Hai." You agree.

Now do you go through the door, or chance that one of the trees will have a way up to the top floor? Because you're ninety percent sure Sagon is on the top floor. On the other hand, Kyoko could bring the fire...granted that would be very loud, and how the forest would react is uh...up for debate.

[] Go through the Front Door
[] Climb some Trees
[] Have Kyoko bring the Fire
[] Write In

--Through the Front Door

You sigh considering your options, as much as you don't want to go through the main entrance, you have to. Telling Kyoko to just set everything on fire, is well, looking to ask the spirits of the forest to punch you in the mouth and steal your soul while they're at it. Climbing might work, but the only one who could do that reliably is Izu...so you go forward.

"Stay on guard, we go through the front doors."

Izu and Kyoko nod and tense themselves up for a fight. You walk through the miasma, the ground beside you is choked over with dead and rotting plant matter. Whatever is happening in here, it is so out of balance that the world itself is dying from it.

You push the doors forward, the heavy cherry wood creaking as they swing inwards. In the pagoda's entrance there's...nothing, no traps, no blades drawn. Nothing just an eerie sort of emptiness that does more to draw out your paranoia than anything else at the back of the room is a stairway. Izu lights a torch to let you see the walls. Desecrated murals of the Thousand Fortunes stand in stern rebuke of you.

"...Let's go up the stairs." You say, cautious.

Your senses can feel threat pressing in from you in all directions, that doesn't give you anyway to find it.
This seeming blindness is not something you are used to. It's...unnerving after being so used to just knowing where the blow was coming from. The stairs creek as you climb up them, heading up the tower towards where Sagon is.

The second floor is much like the first...well excepting the 6 ft tall Ivindi woman built like a horrifying cross between a Matsu and a Hida. Her baleful brown eyes come on you, as she stretches her limbs.
She says something in Ivindi that you don't understand. It's clear that she has no intention of letting you pass. You prepare to fight her....

Several things happen before you can draw though.
First Izu throws his torch at her and then himself. His palm strike forcing the woman through the wall. Outside a tree that you could have climb catches her barely. She stands up, looking livid.
Izu swings his arms.

"Gomen Megumi-san, but I call dibs. She says we're too late, you better hurry." he says.

You frown, too late? But you don't want to leave Izu to fight this woman alone, even if he is strong....
Dammit, he's right, dammit, you have to leave him behind.

"Izu...win" You command."

"Megumi-chan, who do you take me for?" Izu calls as he jumps out on to the tree.

You sigh and turn to the stairs.
"He'll be alright Megumi-san" Kyoko says trying to reassure you.

"He better be" You mutter.

You continue up the stairs, two more flights pass without anyone or anything stopping you. This is too easy. The sounds of trees falling echo from outside, okay maybe not that easy. You murmur a silent prayer for Izu to be safe, even as you tell yourself that Fortune favours the Mortal Man.

There's only two more floors left to reach the top of the tower, no doubt where Sagon is hiding, but again you find your way blocked by someone. This time it's a Rokugani, he bears no mons, but the satchel of scrolls at his side, and the wakizashi at his waist tell you he's a shugenja. His lithe thin form reminds you too much of Sora's.

"You can't make it past here Samurai-san's, not even you Isawa can get past my barriers. Sagon-dono will succeed, and crush the decadent Iweko once and for all!"

Kyoko snorts.
"I am unimpressed"

She pulls out a scroll, and begins to chant. The other shugenja laughs as he waits, confident Kyoko will fail. His smiling face turns to horror as fires emerge from her hand and tenderly begin to burn away the symbols he's carved into the foundations.

"Yogo work, slipshod, unfocused." Kyoko declares.

You have to tackle Kyoko before a bolder the size of Kyoko's body flies into her. The Yogo looks at you incensed. "You'll pay for that, you can't stop Sagon-dono"

The two of you roll to your feet. You can see the stairway to the last two levels. Now to get through this Yogo---

Kyoko puts a hand on your arm.
"Go, this one is no trouble."

You look at her.
"Are you sure?"

"Am Isawa, there is no magic I cannot defeat" She declares.

You search her eyes, Kyoko is utterly confident in her abilities, and for better or worse, you trust her.

"Like I said to Izu, win"

Kyoko gives a wry smile.
"Of course"

"If you're done---" The Yogo is cut off as Kyoko summons a lance of fire into the space where his head used to be.

"Focus on opponent, Ronin"

The two are off fighting a duel of magic and words, as you run past them. The tower already beginning to heat up from the battle. Again you find yourself praying, you've never been that religious, but Izu and Kyoko's words did penetrate your skull...as well as their conclusion that a man blessed by the heavens is capable of everything. You never did feel blessed by them, but maybe you are, even if you aren't, you won't let the sacrifice of your friends be for nothing at all.

You hurry up the last set of steps, arriving at a small short hallway, no doubt it leads to the observatory or altar room. The sixth sense of your chi screams at you about the danger, that in the next room Sagon, the Demon Tiger, Breaker of Kingdoms is there. He's hurt, but still immensely powerful. You prepare to go forward when you hear something....

[] "LISTEN" (A young girl's voice echoes in the back of your mind) (Path of Man Ending)
[] "LISTEN" (An old man's voice echoes in the back of your mind) (Path of Heaven Ending)


AN: Next update will be the last proper update of this story. I still have an epilogue with some choices to make, but after that, the main story will be over for Megumi. The choice you make here helps decide the shape of the epilogue.