His new prey. Kanjin held the orders, given by Emperor Toturi himself, for his army to break off from the Mantis he had been pursuing for months, and war with the Lion. To bring the corruption of the Lion to an end. Were he a samurai, Kanjin most likely would not question the wisdom of his Emperor's orders, and most shugenja would quickly, blindly follow those words, but the Iuchi wondered.
Magistrate Kanjin shook his head and turned from the horizon, about to make his was to his tent, and then he saw it. In the shadows cast from the firelight, on the dark side of a tent, something moved. At first it seemed like the natural movement of the shadow from the flickering flames, but then her realized it wasn't. It was a smooth movement, and it was in the shadow. A man's arm beckoned him closer.
"Kanjin, I need you." A soft voice echoed, and the Unicorn shugenja head the voice as if it were in a dream.
Kanjin peered into the darkness, about three sword lengths away, and placed his hand on his katana. "Who's there," He said, starting to become a little unnerved, because he began to realize the arm did not seem to be attached to a person.
"It's me, Kanjin..." The voice came, and the magistrate began to see the form of a man in the shadow, slowly, coming into focus as one begins to see a lightless room when their eyes adjust to the dark.
"It's Amadan," The voice finished, hesitating, as if saying the name caused it pain.
Kanjin's face stiffened for a moment, and his iron will was the only thing that kept him from exploding in rage. After watching his family and friends die in war, a seemingly pointless struggle, he was now confronted with someone who was posing as his dead friend.
"Come into the light, then." Kanjin said lowly, his voice nearly a snarl. There was a silence, then the figure's head lowered a little, as if conceding to an idea it didn't like. As the figure came from the shadow, Kanjin's eyes grew wide, and his hands fell to his sides in shock.
"I need you, Kanjin," Said Togashi Amadan, standing before him in the darkness. His features were still muted by the shadows, as he did not step fully into the light, but it was obviously the Unicorn's longtime friend. "I don't know who I can talk to now..." The gaijin's voice whispered, and it held a confusion Kanjin thought the gaijin wasn't capable of. The Dragon reached out to Kanjin.
"Stay back," Kanjin sputtered, and stepped back, dazed. "You're supposed to be dead," The Unicorn said, closing his eyes to calm the storm in his mind. He opened them again, and the man standing in front of him was still Togashi Amadan. A long silence passed, and Kanjin could say nothing.
Finally, the shugenja reached into a pouch on his obi, and produced a stone of jade. He threw it to Amadan, and the rock landed at the gaijin's feet. "Pick it up." Kanjin commanded. Amadan hesitated, and the Unicorn repeated, "Pick it up," in a more firm voice. "Or I will strike you to the ground here and now, knowing you are an abomination come to haunt me."
Amadan hesitated, then bent to one knee and placed his hand over the jade. He did not move for a moment, as if he were trying to concentrate, then took the stone into his hand and stood. "I am not Tainted, friend," He said, then tossed the stone back to Kanjin, who caught it. The stone had grown suddenly cold since he had given it to Amadan.
"Why..." Kanjin's eyes narrowed in confusion as he stepped towards his friend. Nothing made sense.
"Stay away!" Amadan suddenly snapped, and quickly moved back into the deeper shadows. The gaijin lowered his head and looked away from his friend. "The jade won't burn me," He said softly, his voice sounding as if it would break any moment, "because what has corrupted me is not from the Shadowlands."
Kanjin's mind spun again, "I don't understand, Amadan. Why won't you come out of the shadow?" He leaned in closer, and Amadan flinched, like a dog that had been beaten too many times.
"I..." The gaijin hesitated, "They don't want me to."
"Damnit, Amadan," Kanjin cursed loudly, his calm demeanor breaking under the confusion and his longtime friend's unusually timid behavior, "What are you talking about? Who are 'they'? Why was I told you were dead? What is going on here?"
"I can't explain fully," Amadan said, and Kanjin suddenly realized that his voice seemed somehow hollow, like he was talking to himself as well as Kanjin. "They're ninja, Kanjin... but not just that. They're part of something... nothing." He looked up at Kanjin, and the Unicorn stumbled back in shock as he saw where Amadan's eyes should be, there were just smooth patches of flesh.
"Amadan?" Kanjin said, and he was surprised to find his voice trembling. "What happened to you?"
"They're trying to take me, Kanjin." Amadan straightened, and the shugenja saw him draw his wakizashi from his belt. "They reach into your mind... they use things that are off balance against you... They try to make you afriad, or lure you with promises of power. In the end, you become nothing, just like them."
Iuchi Kanjin stared in mute horror at his friend. "Who are they, Amadan? Tell me!" "Your ancestors dealt with them once, when they were returning to the Empire, Kanjin." Amadan bowed his head as he spoke, as if trying to concentrate. The gaijin looked up again, and his eyes were as they should be, but they looked as if here were straining to see something far away. "They called it the Living Darkness, or the Lying Darkness."
The Iuchi's eyes lit up with understanding suddenly, and he had to stop himself from gasping. "Amadan, no..." He said quietly. When Kanjin heard his closet friend was dead, his heart nearly broke that day. Now, his friend stodd before him, alive, but the shugenja wished he was truly dead. For now, Amadan's fate was far worse, to be consumed by nothingness, to have his memories and his self erased and become a plaything to the Shadow.
"I know Lady Hitomi's plan now," Amadan said, taking a step to Kanjin. "And so do they. They're going to use me against her, when they finally break my mind." He looked to the sky, to Lord Moon, and suddenly he looked tired, as if the weight of a world pressed down on him. "They branded me with the Shadow, and I can't run forever from them. They nearly broke me when they branded me, but I barely escaped and came to myself. I'm not going to give them another chance," Amadan stepped close to Kanjin, on the edge of the tent's shadow. "If they took me..." He trailed off, finishing his sentence by thrusting out his weaponless hand to the side, and it erupted into an eerie blue flame. "They'd take this, too."
"How did you do that?" Kanjin looked at the fire. It was not of the Kami, and even if it were, he knew Amadan had never been trained in the ways of a shugenja.
"It's the reason they could brand me and bind me to the Shadow so easily," Amadan responded, his eyes not leaving the blue fire. "My life as I've known it, has been a lie. They promise to tell me everything I wish to know, if I go willingly to them." He looked back to Kanjin, and the flames died down. It was then that the shugenja realized the blue fire had not given off any light. "But in the end, it won't matter. I won't be able to persue my old life." He knelt on the ground, and pressed the wakizashi to his stomach.
Kanjin clenched his jaw and nodded at his longtime friend. The magistrate drew his katana and stood at the side of Amadan, and said, "You lived honorably, Togashi Amadan-sama. My famliy will never forget you."
"Thank you Iuchi Kanjin-sama. You have been a true friend, always." With that, Amadan's arms moved, and Kanjin knew the first cut had been made. The gaijin grunted as he made the second cut, and Kanjin raised his blade to the ready. Amadan flinched, and Kanjin brought his sword down.
Then he saw the smoke.
Kanjin stopped his strike inches from Amadan's neck, and his eyes grew wide again. From the cuts in Amadan's body, a thick black smoke was beginning to rise. No, Kanjin thought, it wasn't smoke. It was shadow, like a living thing, curling from him. "What is it...?" Kanjin muttered in shock.
"MAKE THE CUT!" Amadan screamed in fury, his blade already dropped from his hands in confusion.
Kanjin did not think, he simply reacted, bringing the blade up, then down quickly. He felt the edge go smoothly through the neck, and he closed his eyes. After a moment, he heard a movement on the ground, and opened his eyes.
Amadan was on his knees, head intact, and he looked down at his stomach, eyes wide. Where his kimono had been slashed, there was no blood, no mark. "... no..." Amadan whimpered softly, then he threw his head back and screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Kanjin looked around, his sense returning. The guards on patrol would hear. He quickly grabbed his friend and his blade, then began dragging him quickly into a nearby tent, which was mercifully empty. The magistrate did not look at his friend's face, and found that Amadan felt slightly odd, light trying to grab a handful of sand. Just as Kanjin covered up his friend, a samurai on watch ran by. The shugenja quickly stepped out of the tent and called out to him.
"Samurai! Go back to your post." He ordered.
The samurai bowed low and asked, "The noise, Iuchi Kanjin-sama. Did you hear it?" Kanjin nodded, "Yes. It was a kami, weeping for the lost Lion," the Iuchi lied, playing on superstitions to get the guard to shut up and leave. "It is no concern. Return to your post."
"Yes, sama," The guard bowed again and left.
After a moment, Kanjin returned to the tent, to see Amadan standing in the far corner, again lingering in the shadow. His breath was ragged, and he held his wakizashi in both hands, twisting the handle.
"It's too late, Kanjin." He said.
The shugenja felt a sense of hopelessness wash over him. Amadan had always had a smile on his face, humor to share, or just good spirits for the whole time they had known each other. Once, they were trapped in the Shadowlands, pursued by Oni, and Kanjin had given up. Amadan had simply smiled and said, "Two koku says I kill more of them than you do." Now, this same man stood without a single shred of hope on his face.
"I have to go," He said suddenly, and placed his blade in his obi. His face was hard now, not depressed, just the face of a warrior before he entered a great battle.
"Where?" Kanjin said, knowing the answer.
Amadan said, "To them. The Shadow. I'm lost already, Kanjin. Or so it seems." He looked down to his hand, which sparked blue flame for a moment again. "Perhaps there is more to me than this simple thing..." His eyes became distant a moment, and then they lit up, as if he suddenly understood stomething. "Bayushi Castle." He said. "A sword... My sword. It's there."
"I can..." Kanjin's voice trailed off as he stopped himself from his automatic response. "No. I can't come with you this time, gaijin. This is when you need it most, but you have to do this alone." The shugenja shook his head, "But I won't lie to you, Amadan. You know that the Lying Darkness has never been escaped."
Amadan nodded, "I know, friend." And for a moment, there was that roguish look in the gaijin's eyes, and he said, "I don't pay attention to rules that well, though." He smiled slightly, and then it was gone.
A long moment of silence passed, and Kanjin did the only thing he could. "May the fortunes carry you, Amadan," He said, and bowed low. Then, without hesitation, the Iuchi left the tent.