Year Two, Month of the Goat, Fourth Day
The air in the council room is so heavy, that you swear you can feel you feel your spine cracking under the weight. You look at Noritoshi and Akane, the two of them having requested this private meeting. The sense of complete shock kept from your features by training and instinct more than thought.
"...My apologies Kakita-san, can you repeat yourself?" You ask.
Noritoshi shifts he doesn't like being in this position.
"The Articles of Heaven have been stolen. The copies that the Ikoma, Otomo and Asako have, are fakes."
You take a deep breath. The Articles of Heaven, the laws by which this entire Empire was run and managed, stolen. Which of course begged several questions.
"Kakita-san, I have several questions, I trust you have some answers?"
"I will try my Emperor"
"How do you know it was faked?"
"With the command to purge and proclaim the laws. I ordered an intensive study of the Articles to ensure that all laws were in keeping with it's precepts. However, the scholars found that there was problem with it. One of them, an Asako Mataru, was amongst those who copied the Articles in the aftermath of the fall of Otosan Ochi, in accordance with your father's will that there would be at least four extant copies of all important texts amongst the clans. He found several lines that were not there when he copied them years ago. Furthermore, his own personal copy did not match with the Asako Library's copy either. We contacted other members of that delegation...of twelve samurai, three now live, the rest have perished from mysterious accidents, and in the wars. The other two, confirmed Asako-san's words. Unfortunately, all three of them have since suffered at least one assassination attempt, we've sequestered them at the High House of Light for now, with Kitsuki-sama's help"
Okay so that was, if not totally iron clad, pretty close to it. No one attempts to murder someone over lies. Whoever it was, they didn't want this to come to anything.
You can feel your urge to punch the living hell out of things rising.
"Who, who has the unmitigated audacity to steal the Articles of Heaven?"
"We don't know, as you recall, I posited that there was a third party operating in the Empire for their own purposes, we believe they were involved, going by the methods used, they are similar to how Bayushi Kaukatsu was replaced" Akane says.
The cup in your hand creaks.
"...wonderful we have an outside party that we know nothing about stealing sacred relics that define the legitimacy of our entire legal system. We don't know why, or how they did that."
"Emperor we do know how, and I have a guess as to why" Noritoshi says.
"Oh?" you say in a too calm tone.
"It seems Usharo before he was cast out, amassed a pile of blackmail on key figures who oversaw the libraries. My investigation finds that recently all these figures were involved with a certain woman who went by the name of 'Miya Chiyohime' she was assigned to the position of guarding the articles. There is no one by that name on the official register of the Miya. Coincidentally, under torture, the Head Librarian revealed that he was blackmailed by this Chiyohime into the position. His wife and elder two sons have committed seppukku to cleanse their shame. The younger daughter is now being fostered amongst Seppun relatives."
Okay progress, thank the Gods for that.
"And the why?"
"To make the Toturi illegitimate, these new lines combined with others, state in no uncertain terms that should the Hantei line fail, the Empire is to disband, rather than allow a new Emperor not of the Hantei take hold."
"There are no more Hantei, why would someone want the Empire to fall?" You ask.
Akane shakes her head.
"I don't believe that's true, when Kakita-san brought this to me, it put into place several other reports we've had from the courts. Of a mysterious beautiful ronin woman with child meeting with up and coming samurai, usually men...and those men seeming to disappear soon after. I believe that the woman is in fact Shahai...and the child is Daigotsu's son, which would mean, that the line of Hantei is not yet destroyed"
You take another deep breath. A whisper campaign against you, using the Articles of Heaven, would be a massive prestige hit for the Toturi, and if the Toturi were somehow removed.
Well most Samurai saw the Articles of Heaven as holy writ from the hands of the divinely inspired Hantei XVII, known as the Good for putting to right the calamities that happened under his father. They might not like it, but they would follow the law...and if Daigotsu's son was clever enough to repudiate his father...then to keep the Empire together, many would make their peace with it.
"So we have a who then. Shahai and her agents, we have a how and a why. What we lack then is a plan to move forward. Do either of you have suggestions before I retire to consider this?" You say.
Noritoshi nods. "While it would take quite a long time, it should be possible to reconstruct the Articles from various essays on them written by other scholars. With that done, we can put the real Articles back and no one would be the wiser. Naturally this time we would make it much more secure."
Akane nods.
"However, this does offer a rare opportunity. While the Articles of Heaven are wonderful, they were written by the Hantei for the Hantei. To formulate our own law code, while a great deal of work, would allow us to bypass the problem entirely. It would of course take quite some work to do so and make the clans accept it. I think however, it is worth doing. A clean start as it were."
Noritoshi looks somewhat scandalized, but you admit she does have a valid point. While the Articles of Heaven are a masterful document, they were written for a time when the the Hantei were unquestioned in their power if not their morality. The Toturi dynasty is different and has different needs.
"Very well, I will consider it and inform you tomorrow of what we will do, dismissed"
They bow and leave you alone to lean back and think things through.
[] Follow Kakita Noritoshi's suggestion. (TN 25, 67% Chance. Pro: Keeps things the same and no one is angry. Cons: Everything stays the same, Future innovation is less likely to succeed.)
[] Follow Kitsuki Akane's suggestion. (TN 30. 31% Chance. Pro: Innovation and centralization can increase. Cons: Likely to upset vassals)
[] No you have a better plan (Write in)
AN: The percentage chance is not having the free raises factored in.
