Hitomi Daitan looked at the kneeling Lion before him. Moments ago, the man, Ikoma Hatori, had ridden to the borders of the Dragon lands, with an emissary from the Emperor himself. The other man wished to know what favor the Dragon would ask of the Jade Throne, given the chance. The Ikoma had wished a favor of the Dragon for himself.

The ise zumi folded his arms across his broad chest. "What do you seek the hidden sensei for?" He asked, his voice quiet. Hatori looked up at the tattooed man. An image of a snake crawled across his chest, and the edges of other images on his back could be seen on the man's sides.

"He was my sensei, Hitomi-san," The Ikoma said, rising to his feet, "I have questions that only he may answer."

Daitan looked into the Lion's eyes. He had heard of this man, Ikoma Hatori. A warrior in the courts and battlefields of the Empire, a credit to his Clan, even if they did not accept him largely. The ise zumi peered deeper into the other man's eyes, and into his soul.

He was a man who could be trusted.

"We may help you, Ikoma," a voice called from beside the two men, and they looked to see a thin man in a dark cloak and jingasa standing apart from them. He had appeared from seemingly nowhere. "However," he continued, walking slowly towards the pair, "you will help us first." The stranger came to stand beside Hitomi Daitan, and folded his arms.

"What must I do?" Hatori asked, his gaze narrowing quizzically at the shrouded man.

It was Daitan who spoke, "We require a man you alone can bring to us, Magistrate. He is one of your peers, a Unicorn, named Iuchi Kanjin."

Hatori shook his head in amusement, "You ask perhaps more than you realize, Dragon." Hatori looked from the suddenly puzzled Daitan to the other man. "The Emperor has ordered the Unicorn to make war upon my Clan."

"Find a way, Lion." The hooded man spoke with deadly tones, "Much more is at stake than you realize." The man began to move his hands in the air and invoke a prayer to the kami. A shugenja.

"And where do I bring myself and this Unicorn when I find him?" Hatori asked, annoyance clear in his voice. He stepped toward them with his statement, though the two Dragons seemed to ignore him.

"We will find you," The shugenja said, and closed his hands into fists. The air around him seemed to ripple, and he took a step forward.

And vanished.

The ise zumi bowed to Hatori, then stepped where the shugenja had been moments before. Like the other Dragon, he dissapeared.

Ikoma Hatori walked back to his steed and mounted quickly. Sent away from the Imperial Court, his Clan shamed, he would now charge into the lands of his enemy in search of an unknown ally.

Togashi Amadan stood next to the Crane general and her karo as they eyed the bloody scene before them. The watch from the night before were buried in their own blood, horses, and dirt.

"Blood magic?" Daidoji Shiko asked, as an eta turned over a body to show bruises in the shape of a man's hand on the face.

"Perhaps," Asahina Reiji replied, his horror apparent.

Amadan knew.

Shiko turned, and regarded Amadan. "You're quiet, Dragon." Her eyes still shone with the unspoken accusation from the morning. "Do you have any insight to share?" The fading rays of light from Lady Sun detailed every hard feature on the Crane's face.

The gaijin looked at the Crane's steel eyes. "I know what killed this man." He said simply, knowing what the other samurai's response would be.

"What is it, then?" she asked, impatient.

Amadan turned from her gaze, and looked to her karo. He smiled somewhat sadly and adjusted his black armor. "You would not beleive me, Crane."

Shiko just cursed in disgust, "I do not have time for these games your family is so fond of. Reiji..." The Daidoji woman began to issue a command, but her eyes grew wide, and her voice trailed off into nothing as she stared in mute horror for one instant behind Amadan.

Asahina Reiji turned reflexively to follow his lady's gaze. What he saw confused him, for Shiko was staring at two passing peasants, carrying bundles to their hut. The two heimen entered their home, but Shiko's gaze did not leave. "What is the matter, sama?" The priest asked.

The Daidoji commander suddenly realized she was being stared at by her karo. She quickly composed herself and turned to him, "It is nothing, Reiji." Out of habit, she straightened the war fan in her obi, and began walking back to the center of the village. "Have the eta clean up this mess, and the peasants will meet me in their village square in two hours." Shiko heard the shugenja quickly acknowledge her commands, but her mind was elsewhere again.

She dared not tell anyone what she thought... no. She knew what she had seen.

"The villagers had no faces," Amadan uttered quietly, his head turning to watch the Crane samurai leave. Reiji looked up from studying the bodies again. The light of the Sun was almost completely gone, torches had been lit in the village, and it was hard to see the details on the ground.

"What do you mean, Dragon?" The shugenja had, despite himself and his commander, begun to take an intrest in the gaijin. He motioned for the eta nearby to dispose of the bodies. As one eta approached, he dared raise his head and look directly into Amadan's eyes. Reiji turned to see Amadan staring right back at the peasant. Something passed between than samurai and the unclean one.

Reiji began walking away from the scene, and waved Amadan to follow him. When they were out of earshot of the villagers, he hissed, "What is happening here, Dragon?" His voice was confused, and the calm priest's face contorted in frustration for a moment when he realized he was worried about peasants hearing him. Peasants!

"You know as well as I do, thought you are just now beginning to beleive yourself." Amadan's voice surprised even himself. It was calm, deadly.

"What is that, gaijin? The heimen are not maho-tsukai, if that is what you mean. I cannot find one trace of the Taint in this village."

The ise zumi shook his head. "There is a Shadow here. It is a thing of evil, and of lies." He turned to look at Reiji directly, and again, his eyes were as black as the Void... but they were somehow emptier. It was not just his imagination. "That hollowness in my soul. It is the touch of the Darkness. It will consume this village, and your commander."

Reiji tried to speak, but his voice died in his throat. The Dragon was right. He had heard children's stories of men with no faces, no names... no souls. And as he stood before the Togashi samurai, and watched his face melt into a smooth patch of skin, he knew the tales were true. The Asahina's mouth strained open, as if to scream, but the piercing cry came from elsewhere.

Instinct took over as Reiji suddenly found himself sprinting to his commander's side, running wildly into the center of the village.

Outside the gathering of huts, Amadan stood perfectly still as he heard members of the Crane army yell out commands over the sounds of a small skirmish.

"You can stop this madness any time you choose," Came a familiar voice from behind Amadan.

The Dragon spun, his hands on his daisho, knowing the man who had spoken. His sensei. His friend. His betrayer, the one who had delivered him into the Shadow, and a world of unending pain and darkness.

"Kage," Amadan almost growled. The tall, thin man stood in front of him. Once called Shosuro Kage, the ninja no longer kept of the pretense of his Scorpion identity. His gi bore no mon, no color. As he locked eyes with his one time teacher, he felt the weight of a thousand minds press against his own, and he lowered his hands against his own, overmatched will.

"You see?" Kage said, folding his arms smugly. "You are already our brother, in the Shadow. Why do you fight so?"

Amadan did not move. As the Shadow had enforced its will upon his own, he had learned of what was happening in the village. "Why?" he asked, "Why do you bring this Crane and her small army into this?"

Kage shrugged, "Why should we not?" He walked toward the Dragon, "Do you pity them?" he asked, his voice oozing with venom, "We will spare them. An easy death, a quiet fall into the Nothing, if you but join us."

Above the others, he heard the Crane general, Shiko, yelling out commands, as more and more seemed to be drawn into the fray. "Yes," Kage said, and Amadan was able to see through a peasant's eyes. One who had been taken by the Shadow, just like the rest of the village. "We have taken an intrest in this one, as well," The sensei spoke of Shiko, as the peasant watched her intently. The Daidoji woman held her horror barely in check, but her eyes betrayed it. As the shadows themselves seemed to come alive, with hands, pulling her men into the darkness. Gone. Peasants, docile farmers, became the monsters from nightmares, as their faces slid away, and the shadow spread.

And then the last torch's light went out, and the scene was plunged into pitch blackness, for not even the light of Lord Moon shone down upon the horrible scene.

"Her," Amadan finally spoke, his vision returning to his own eyes.

"The Crane general?" Kage asked, intrigued.

"Spare her, and I am yours."

Then there was silence.

"Reiji-san?" The voice of Daidoji Shiko called from the pitch darkness. As if by will of some kami, the torches lit the night once again. Shiko stared in mute horror as she saw every man in her command slaughtered on the ground. Some had died by the sword, but others... they lay on the earth in parts... as if their very essence had been undone. The world spun to her, and just before she lost conciousness, she heard a man speaking her name, and felt rough hands catch her.

"He is gone. Again." The man, who had once been a Phoenix, said. "I do not feel him within the world anymore." His soul reached into the Void, and the skills known to him as an ishi could not find the gaijin's essence.

And then a dark laughter split the silence of the night.

"Daitan," Kyunjin called out, knowing the presence of the Shadow was still among them, "to my side!"

But it was too late. The black-armored form came from the shadow, and fell upon the other ise zumi like poison darkness. With three swift blows to the skull, Togashi Amadan pummelled Daitan to the ground, and left him there, moaning.

"You lose," Came a hollow imitation of Amadan's voice from the man. "Take the woman and run."

"Run as fast as you can."