Burden of the Emerald Empire (A Legend of the Five Rings Tale)

-Minoru Imperial Heir Apparent.

You sit on top of the bookcase, they'll never find you here. Never find Daddy's special things either. Your name is Min-chin, (Okay it was Minoru but you liked Min-chin better) You are four years old, and the best climber in the world.

Uncle Dai said so and mommy hadn't even said no.

Which is why when it came time to help daddy, you knew what to do. Daddy loved you, you know he did, when he'd pick you up and carry you around were the best. But he had to go sometimes and you didn't like that. But you remember what he said when he left.

"Listen Min-chin, I'm going away for a while, next year you can come with us. But for now, be a good girl and hold things together here for me okay?"

You nodded and didn't cry at all (big girls don't cry, good girls don't either, that's what grandma said)

Still missed his hugs though, even if Uncle Dai got the big tall Matsu-chan to carry you like a queen. You did like this queen thing...even though they wouldn't give you anymore mochi...

mmm mochi

You should get some mochi. You climb down the book case and run into the kitchens, looking up at the big old woman who was your cook and give the biggest smile you can.

"Can I please have some mochi" You say in a very very polite tone. (You don't know what that is, but Mommy said you were polite so everything you say is polite right?)

"I'm sorry dear, your grandmother has said no sweets for you...."

Grandma betrayed you?!

"But I want some Mochi!" You cry.

"I am sorry, but I can't give you mochi." Cookie says.

You look at her and stare...but she doesn't relent.

Well then you have to go talk to Grandma about this!
You will get that mochi.

You storm off letting everyone see how angry you are. This is the greatest wrong ever! What kind of a monster doesn't let you have mochi? Wait weren't you...right daddy's things, you were protecting them.

Well now you don't know what to do.
Mochi, which you love almost as much as your family
Or Daddy's things...

Stopping in the middle of the hallway, you begin to think it over.
Mochi, or Daddy.
Mochi is delicious...
But you love Daddy
But Mochi is delicious...

You hear someone shouting and look up to see Uncle Dai coming towards.

"Min-chin, where have you been?"

"Tryin ta get mochi..."

"Mother caught you off too eh?"

Is grandma evil? Is that why she cut you and Uncle Dai off from Mochi?

"...Unca Dai?"

"Yes Min-chin?"

"Why'd Grandma do that?"

"...Because grandma still thinks of herself as a Crab...and Crab don't get many sweets like that."

"I don't wanna be a Crab" You decide.

"Don't be too hasty...or tell grandma that." Uncle Dai says.

You look set to argue when someone else runs up behind you, and bows low.

"Princess Minoru, Prince Dai, your grandmother wants to see you." Comes the frantic voice.

"Thank you Seppun-san, is she in her quarters?" Uncle Dai asks.

"Hai."

Dai reaches down and picks you up.
"Come on Min-chin let's go see grandma"

Wait you don't wanna go see grandma. She's mean, she took mochi away!

You bap Dai on the nose. "NO!"

"Sometimes I get why Father left me with that Crow" Dai says under his breath.

"What's a crow?"

"Never mind that." Dai says.

Despite your protests Uncle Dai takes you grandma. Uncle Dai is not your special awesome friend anymore!

No he is because you love him...but you will remember this.

"Dai-kun, Minoru-chan." Grandma says.

"Mother, what's wrong."

"Someone stole some of the Imperial records your brother left for filing. Until we know who or what, the Imperial Family is to be sequestered."

"Huh, well, okay, looks like we'll be here for a while Min-chin" Dai says.

As Dai begins to play climb up the person with you. You think this is a great thing.

It has been forever since you were stuck in here with Grandma and Uncle Dai.
Also forever since you tried to convince grandma to let you have mochi when you get out. She poked your belly and said that big girls means height not weight.

Grandma is so mean to you.

As you pout in the corner holding your backside after Grandma had explained that you do not call people big meanie heads. You wish Daddy was here.

The door opens behind you and you are about to turn and look when Grandma is again a big meanie head.
"Eyes front Minoru!"

You grumble but look forward.

"We finally found the Records...weird thing was someone one just put them on the top shelf in the Empress office." Comes a male voice.

Oh no they found your hiding spot...but it was perfect!
Hmm...going to have to think on this.

"That is strange, still they have been returned?"

"Hai Dowager Empress."

You furrow your head. You'll help daddy, just need a better spot, your room would work right?
As grandma shoos you away, you begin to run for Daddy's office. This time you'll keep it safe for sure!

Dai catches you.

"Min-chin where are you going."

"Uh...."

"I don't know how you did it, but I'm pretty sure you did...but you shouldn't hide things."

"But mama says we have to hide things..."

"Not that sort of thing!"

"...I don get it."

Uncle Dai sighs.
"Do you want a piggyback ride on Matsu-san?"

"YAY!"

Daddy's things could wait for a piggy back ride...surely.
Wheee!

-------------------
[] Shahai
[]Kaneka
[] Write in

----Kaneka

I take the old pipe that Otoya had given me a decade ago, light it, and inhale the herbal smoke. The feeling of fire in my lungs passes for a sort of passive satisfaction that relaxes me as I lean against the wall.

Across from me Kitsuki Fusami rests, her guard never wavering for a moment. Once again I wonder at the vagaries of life, seven years ago I had sent her away. And in the past year, Mirumoto Kei had returned her to me saying. "The Shogun deserves my best Yojimbo"

"You shouldn't smoke...." Fusami says her nose wrinkling.

"Probably, but since Otoya isn't here, someone should."

"The little troll corrupted you more than the rest of us ever could."

"That little troll taught me more about warcraft than anyone else. You should be grateful considering where we are going." I say taking another breath.

"To the Burning Sands....a blasted desert that I'd be content to let the Shadow Dragon have to be honest." Fusami says.

I shrug.
"Better to take the fight to it then fight it on our lands."

One eye looks at the moon, is my wife looking at the same moon? I don't know, I don't really know her beyond her having a good uppercut.

"You've got that far away look again." Fusami says her eyes narrowing.

"Thinking about the wife."

"Been doing that a lot lately." She says, her eyes searching me.

I shrug again.
"It's hard not to when I see the Emperor and Empress so obviously blessed by Benten."

"I suppose not." Fusami agrees.

Truth be told, I don't envy Hisao, no not with everything he has on his plate. Yet...other thoughts fill my mind. Naseru had given me a very nice estate in the Phoenix lands, worthy of a Toturi, I had never seen it. I had standing invitations to lecture at every major dojo in the Empire, I had never been able to go. The last time I had seriously travelled was with...Naseru, seven years ago. A part of me still hungered for the open road, to go somewhere, do things, to meet new people with nothing but my wits and my skill.

A Shogun couldn't do that. A Toturi couldn't do that, for all that I didn't have the name. I was one at least as close as anything else.

Snow begins to fall and the wound Fusami gave me all those years aches slightly.

"...you have that nostalgic look that worries me...my lord." Fusami says.

I wave my pipe around.
"Why should it worry you?"

"Because I know that look means you're going to do something that most would consider dumb." She states flatly.

I take another puff of smoke into my lungs.
She's not wrong really, the word 'resignation' has come to my mind more and more. Resign from being the second most powerful man in the Empire (arguably) . To almost every other Samurai that was madness. To me it was slowly becoming more seductive.

Exhaling and watching the air dance in front of me.
"I returned to being Shogun because the Emperor needed me, he was young, untried, inexperienced...but he's bloomed magnificently. He doesn't need me anymore." I say.

I can hear Fusami's sharp inhalation.
"That's hardly important, you know he relies on you as his strong right arm."

The snow keeps falling as I turn to look at it.
"He does...but he can't rely on me forever. If not for that jackass ruining it, I could see him being given the name 'Steel Emperor' after his death, he doesn't bend for anyone if it's something he cares about. He can handle losing me."

"That does not mean he should, my lord."

"I've been at this job for what ten years? It's not a done deal yet, but I think I earned a vacation. " I say dryly.

There's a clap at the door. Fusami gives me a narrow look saying 'This isn't over' even as her hand goes to her saya in preparation.

"Come in" I call.

The door slides open, and the enormous bear of a man that is Kisada steps in. Kisada has always been someone I don't know how to relate to. The competitive side of me wants to fight him, the smart side says its a bad idea, and my honourable side says he shouldn't even be here.

But it is what it is, so all I do is bow politely.

"Thank you" Kisada faintly rumbles.

"Smoke?" I offer.

He shakes his head.

"I have come to speak of the Tetsubo of Crystal" he says simply.

I tilt my head.
"What about it?"

"I do not believe it will kill the Shadow Dragon." he says.

My eyes widen.
"What do you mean it won't?"

Kisada gives a slowl growl.
"The Shadow Dragon is not something that can be killed. Having laid my hands on it, I am sure that the weapon my son gave me is not up to it."

"But Lord Sun said it was." I point out.

Another growl.
"Lord Sun often thinks in more...brute force matters than he should. Likely he was told it could defeat the Shadow Dragon and he took it to mean the same thing. "

I blink.
"So what it's like the Iuchiban thing all over again?"

"In a sense. When I was in the Heavens...I learned some things. I think this weapon will defeat the Shadow Dragon, but you need to make no plans around it being dead. In time it will return."

"Like the Southern Enemy" I say after a moment.

"Precisely." Kisada agrees.

"Have you told the Emperor?" I ask.

"No, you were closer." He says.

I take another smoke.
"Very well, you should go tell him then."

"Hai" He agrees.

With that, the Bear leaves far faster than a man that size has any right to be.

Despite the herbs, my mind raced, my plans didn't really change to much. the Lion and the Imperial Legions would be the anvil to the Unicorn Hammer while the Eight Banners launched a surprise attack at the source of the golems.

But still, defeat not kill.
Were the Toturi ever going to be able to win for good against an enemy?

That thought would keep me pondering well into the night.


AN: So uh, not dead. I know there was a massive delay. Truth be told things got progressively worse for me over the holidays, and they're still not a hundred percent better. (Turns out daily hospital visits kill my creativity, who knew) I'm not making excuses just explaining what happened. With luck I should start the main story again sometime this week. Thank you all for your patience.

The land before you stretches out, a white and golden blanket of sand. The Scorpion were once forced to make their home here. You were forced to make your home here, though the memories of your birth have long since faded into the mists of time. There's a certain level of respect that has always stayed with you in spite of that. Respect for a land where the fury of the sun burns with such intensity that a man can cook rice without even lighting a fire. Respect for those who manage to live, and even thrive here.

It is not a place for the Rokugani to make war. Something that you understand all too well, with hot armour, and a land that provided no food, no water...you would lose more to the Burning Sands itself then to the Shadow Dragon you reckoned.

"Feels good to be in the saddle again?" A voice calls from behind.

You turn and bow.

"Hai Shogun-dono"

"We march tonight, are you ready?" Kaneka asks.

You glance back at the enormous camp made at the base of the Khol wall that separated the Emerald Empire from the desert. Were you ready? In part yes. The Eight Banners were the smallest army present, only 15,000 strong. Which had made organizing your logistics train easy. But in another...their rust was still present, the wintering had let slights blow into grudges, and it was only the knowledge that you would hang every last one of them if you had to, that kept those grudges from breaking into duels.

"As much as can be hoped." You say diplomatically.

"As Otoya-sensei once said, every commander wants more time to train, none of them ever get it." Kaneka says wryly.

"Hai, Shogun-dono, hai."

"Truth be told, night fighting is going to be hard on all of us, but fighting during the day is just asking us to die quickly." Kaneka says with a growl.

"Aye, and the most perverse thing about this desert is it gets cold at night." You say.

Kaneka doesn't laugh, but a small snort does escape.

"Be that as----" Kaneka begins only to be cut off as the wind begins to move.


In the sky a towering pillar of sand and dust billows up. Your eyes sting as you watch it curl and writhe around itself, until finally the wind stops battering the army, and you can see.

See the immense serpentine form of the Shadow Dragon, standing in the sky looking out at everyone. You realize this is an illusion of sorts, the Shadow Dragon would never just give himself to the Emerald Empire like this. Not with the the Khol wall behind you armed with some of the finest Kaiu siege weapons in existence right here.

In a voice that somehow managed to be gentle as a whisper, and painful as an awl into your ear, the Shadow Dragon began to speak.

"Rokugani, I have come to declare war, we have both prepared for years for this day, and now we shall see the hope of the Emerald Empire shatter, your weapons broken and bent, and your spirits bowed to me, the Shadow Dragon. As a sense of lingering affection, I offer you the chance to surrender---"

A rock flew into the illusion's face.

You look back on the wall, how had....Kaneka was faster than you knew. You could see him having fired the catapult, standing on the wall. A shugenja beside him.

Now Kaneka's voice boomed like Thunder.


"Now that I have your attention Shadow Dragon. Hear this, we will never surrender to you. We will never surrender to a fragment of a fragment. A cowardly, snivelling, impotent worm, that seeks to scare us into submission because it knows."

Kaneka stops paying attention to the immense illusion in the sky. Instead turning his gaze on the army, on you. With a few words he has drawn the eyes of every samurai in this army camped out over miles of the Khol Wall. Absently you figure that he is using the shugenja to project himself to everyone, but that hardly matters does it?
No what matters is the feeling of his faith, burning bright as the sun. Faith in himself, and in each and every Samurai here. You had felt that faith once before...with his sister.

"It knows that in every single battle for the Emerald Empire, we samurai have triumphed no matter the cost. It knows that that our steel is forged not by hands but by the spirits of our ancestors, it knows that every Samurai here is worth a dozen glass 'soldiers', it knows it cannot triumph. So it resorts to trickery. It wants you to give up, to surrender without a fight, to have you forsake your oaths. I ask you samurai of the Emerald Empire, will you?"

There's really only one response anyone can give to that. Even those who are cowardly, could only give one answer to that.

One hundred thousand samurai shout in unison.
"NO!"

The rumbling air hurts your ears. Yet, you wouldn't have it any other way. A life time ago you had sworn yourself to Toturi Tsuado, you remain sworn to her. But you understood why so many had followed Kaneka during the Four Winds.

The man could lead.

You look behind you, the sky is clear, the Shadow Dragon having apparently decided that it's chance had passed. Good, you didn't need to deal with it yelling at you too. As Kaneka begins to move, no doubt to move through the camps and reassure the rank and file, you take up the reins of your horse. You needed to show the flag to your army as well.

The Eight Banners arguably had the hardest mission. It was believed that the Shadow Dragon had created a separate facility far from Medinaat al-Salaam to make it's golems. (Believed, something you discovered by throwing enough Shosuro at it, same thing right?)

With it's small size and relative easy logistics, your army had been given the job. It was expected that the Shadow Dragon would focus on hammering down the Lion, Unicorn and Imperial Legions. A hope you fervently held.

Working with Kaneka you had outlined two main ways to where the facility was. You could cut across the forsaken eastern part of the desert, odds were you would lose people, but it would be the fastest method, if most dangerous. Or you could swing down along the Spine of the World, relying on forage from the mountains to attack the facility from an unexpected direction.

There was a third option, albeit one that gambled everything. You could take your army and become a ghost, coming back to support the other armies at an opportune moment. With the main armies of the Shadow Dragon smashed, you could simply go to Medinat al-Salaam and then down the river to the facility.

Of course if they don't need you, you'll be sacked and executed.

You were planning to....

[] Go across the desert
[] Follow the mountains
[] Become a ghost army