A figure of ever shifting shadows; he watched the setting sun drown the western horizon in roiling waves of red and gold. He stood upon the highest tower of Kyuden Hitomi, standing like some dark sentinel, awaiting the coming night. And even as the sun still set, he could feel its sirencall.
The night's first whispers greeted him as an old friend. Its lengthening shadows dance across his skin, cavorting wildly with the inky blackness of his ise zumi's tattoos. He breathed in deeply and the night's cool breeze tasted of a lover's breath.
Deep within him, beneath the thrill of the night's silent courtship, he could feel the first stirrings of his corruption. The Taint roiled beneath his skin, just as it always did. But now, without the light of Amaterasu to hold it at bay, the corruption threw itself against the walls of his will, demanding release.
It started out as the faintest memory of hunger. But he spent every minute of every day living with a desperate starvation- the hunger meant nothing to him. It was what was to follow that he feared.
It came with a suddenness that left him gasping for air. It was like a hammer blow to his sternum, driving the air from his lungs and leaving his vision filled with flashing lights. Again and again he was struck. His senses reeling, he stumbled against the waist high wall before him, his hands gripping the stone with the strength of madness. It was a gnawing, thrashing, white-hot pain that tore through his guts- disemboweling him with its intensity.
Teeth digging deep into his lower lip, he bit back the scream that rose from his throat. Perspiration beaded his forehead and sweat ran from his bare chest and back. The muscles along his arms strained against his skin, writhing like pythons. The dark stains of the tattoos that covered his bare torso undulated in time with each beat of pain, thrashing as if they would tear the corruption a hole from which to escape his lifeless corpse. With a gasp he tasted blood and his eyes, that had been squeezed shut against the pain, opened in horror at what he might find. There had been times before when he had awoken to find that death and violence had been born from his hands without his conscious command. He found that he had only bitten too deeply into his own lip and that it was his own blood that ran down his throat. But the distraction was enough, fed with the taste of blood the Taint exploded from the cage he had built around it, falling like an avalanche across the remains of his will and flooding his soul with its corruption.
His hands clenched into fist, crushing the stone beneath his grasp. His back arching in both agony and ecstasy, the dark ise zumi screamed as the darkness within him tore free and flew, howling, into the waiting night.
There were servants inside of Hitomi's castle, soldiers on the walls and shugenja chanting their evening prayers before their shrines. He could feel each of their lives- tiny sparks floating within a sea of darkness.
The heimin were only a dull glow, bustling about, intent upon their mundane chores. They paused in their duties to stare out into the night, eyes searching the darkness for the source of the inhuman screams, followed by an insane laughter.
The Mirumoto patrolled the walkways of the walls beneath him. Their souls sang with strength and pride, he could almost taste their nobility upon his lips. They paused in their watch of the invading Naga Horde, camped at the castle's gates, to stare upwards as he howled at them his challenge.
The shugenja glowed even brighter with life. At the sound of his screams they flared all the brighter, as the priests communed with the spirits- seeking answers, or protection.
And deep within the castle were souls that echoed of his own. They were free of his corruption, but possessed of a dark enigma even he did not understand, Hitomi's ise zumi paused to listen to his howls, before continuing on in the service of their Lady.
He could kill them all. They were worms beneath his feet, their souls a banquet before his all consuming hunger. None could stand before his might and none could resist the darkness of his Taint.
On hands and knees now, his empty stomach heaving, he retched his defeat against the cold stone floor. It was the coolness of the stone that brought him back. Back from the darkness threatening to rob him of his will, as well as the mastery over his own body. He clung to it, grabbed hold of the physical sensation resting beneath his cheek, as a frightened child will cling to their mother.
He used the feel of the ancient rock as an anchor to the world around him, as a guiding light to lead him back from the wastelands of his soul. When he again opened his eyes, he was kneeling on the terrace before his room. Great fistfuls of rubble lay scattered around him, and there were deep gouges in the wall that ringed the terrace.
He let his head loll backwards as he struggled to regain his breath, to ease the beating of his heart so that it did not seem ready to dash itself against the confines of his ribs. Once again, as he had for every night since he had answered Hitomi's call, he had fought the Taint within him and clung to sanity by his fingertips. He had won, but it had been so close.
Moving to rest his back against the ruined wall, his eyes caught a hint of color where there should have been nothing but night sky. Even as weary as he was, he came about in a blur of motion. Crouched low he kept his left hand before him in a warding position, his right fist held near his waist.
A diminutive figure sat atop the wall before him. Clothed in a black fur cloak, a straw jingasa upon his head, the intruder held a priest's prayer staff, adorned with a dark hoop and a gathering of charms at its tip. The intruder rested his staff against his shoulder, freeing his hands to offer up a polite round of applause, "A marvelous performance, Kokujin," the stranger intoned, with the wry bite of mockery in his voice, "But don't most people perform their Tai Chi in the morning?"
The dark Dragon Clan ise zumi, Hitomi Kokujin, narrowed his eyes as he studied the stranger intently. He did not recognize the figure before him and he had not detected any strangers when in the grip of his Taint. No one should have been able to sneak upon him unawares. At least, no one human should have.
"Shinsei?" Kokujin whispered to himself, noting the figures size, and the staff. He caught himself listening for the beat of wings and the caw of a crow. Then he shook his head with an angry curse. This was no legendary figure from the past, nor some ghost come to haunt him, it was only a man. A man who could die.
A man you could kill, whispered the darkness of his soul.
"Who are you?" Kokujin demanded gruffly, his voice hoarse from howling. The figure chuckled and dropped to stand on the floor. Had Kokujin been standing the figure would not have reached much higher than his waist. And the chuckle sounded... familiar.
"Ah, my dear Kokujin, am I so easily forgotten?" The ise zumi's eyes widened in recognition, a snarl of hatred rumbling from his throat.
"Togashi Koan," he growled starting forward. He was forced to pause in his advance when the little man lowered the top of his staff and shook the pure jade hoop atop it, before Kokujin's face.
"Hello, Kokujin," the ancient Togashi ise zumi's voice was dry, but it contained as much dislike for the figure before him, as Kokujin radiated hatred. "I was just passing through and I thought I might come check and see how well you like it, living above the level of the dungeon," the shorter ise zumi circled around his foe, keeping the jade hoop of his staff pointed steadily in Kokujin's direction.
"Times have changed, Togashi," spat the Tainted ise zumi, "Now I stand by the side of the Dragon Daimyo, and you are the outcast who has betrayed the Clan."
Koan paused in his motions, a scowl replacing the smirk on his face. The little ise zumi looked down at the staff he held in his hand, a considering look crossing across his features as he eyed Kokujin's unarmed stance. Shaking his head, Koan's features first marked a small disappointment, then a determined grimness.
"Enough with the pleasant banter, Shadowland's spawn. I come with questions," the small man's eyes were fixed on Kokujin's own, daring the Tainted Dragon to turn his dark gaze upon him.
For a brief instant the Taint lashed out, seeking to crush the mortal before it, drink deeply of his soul and leave his body a hollow vessel for its corruption. Kokujin bit back a curse as he fought for control, forcing the hunger to retreat again into the cage he stored it in. When he finished he found himself on one knee, facing the Togashi, his breath coming in ragged gasps. There was a look of profound surprise on Koan's face and a measuring consideration when the little man again met his gaze.
"Ask your questions, tormentor- Then leave!" Kokujin managed to gasp, between gulps for air.
Again that measuring look, then the other nodded in assent, "Why you,Kokujin?"
For a long moment there was silence, as Kokujin blinked in confusion- sure that he had misheard the question.
"Why you?" Koan asked again, "Why did she choose you to stand beside her and not... ," the old man's voice trailed off into silence.
"And not you?" Kokujin said, the venom in his voice matched by his dark grin, "Why a Shadow Tainted monster, and not Togashi Koan? Is that all you wanted to know old one?"
Koan's features hardened, "Why you and not any of the rest of the Togashi family? Why were you released from your cell, while we were driven from our homes?"
Kokujin smirked, "Loyalty," he answered. "She asked you to take her name and swear a renewed fealty to the Dragon Clan," Kokujin's eyes bore into Koan's own, "You refused." The dark ise zumi stood and paced to the far end of the terrace, careful not to brush against the jade of Koan's staff, "She told you that if you would not do this, that you would be forced to leave. Still you refused." Kokujin turned to face Koan, and his eyes were filled with accusation, "You spurned your Champion. You denied her twice. When she called for your loyalty, you spat in her face. When she asked you to keep the Clan whole, you mocked her. She said to you- 'I am the Champion of the Dragon, I am it's daimyo, chosen by Togashi himself! Give your fealty to me, or be banished from our lands. If you will not leave, you will die!' And so you left."
Kokujin's gaze flashed with a dark fire, "Now you ask me why I was allowed to stand besides her? Why me, when you were cast out? Because, I did not leave. Because when she came to my prison and asked of me- 'Will you swear fealty to me, Kokujin? Will you give up your former name and take my own?' When she asked me this, I said 'Yes'," there was a pride in the dark one's voice that surprised Koan. A pride and a sense of dedicated loyalty the tattooed Togashi would not have expected. And when Kokujin said, "That is why," it was with a fervency the Togashi might almost have mistaken for truth.
Koan's eyes were hard as he advanced upon the glowering ise zumi. He stalked forward and did not stop until he was less than a foot away from Kokujin, then had to almost tilt his head all the way back to look him in the face. "So tell me, loyal one," he said, his voice low and as sharp as the Scorpion's most deadly poison, "is your loyalty enough to forgive all that you've done? Does it make right all the horrors you've perpetrated, or resurrect all of the innocent lives lost to your Tainted thirst?"
For a long moment Kokujin stood in silence, his stony gaze resting on Koan's. When he spoke if was clear and concise, "No."
Koan stared up at the corrupted tattooed man, then nodded. Backing away until he could see Kokujin's eyes without craning his neck too badly he continued his questions, "So, why?" he asked.
"Redemption," confusion crossed Kokujin's face as he spoke the word, and even his voice made a question of it.
"Ha!" Koan scoffed, waving the word away with hilarity, "Not even you can be dumb enough to believe that, Kokujin. Give me another reason."
Kokujin shook his head, searching his mind for answers. "She sends Tashima to the Burning Sands," he begins, "She seeks the Scorpion's Obsidian Mirror. The Hand is hers already, perhaps she means the Sword for me?"
Koan nodded consideringly, "But that's not enough," he said, "She has Mirumoto Giri to hold the blade if that is her intent."
Kokujin scowled, "There are a Unicorn, a Crane, a Lion, and a Crab with us now. There is even a Monk and one of those fools from the Alliance. Our Lady seeks followers from all across the Empire. Perhaps she means for me to be her representative of the Shadowlands itself?"
Koan shook his head, "Again, she has Giri for that."
"Mirumoto Giri has not the will!" shouted Kokujin, his fist swinging against the terrace's outer wall, cracking the stone and sending a shower of rubble clattering to the floor.
"Tashima is faster," Kokujin shouted, "Sukune more canny! Taki is loyal and Tamori wise in spell craft. Hitomi herself is stronger than I. And Giri is more trust worthy, more noble!" Kokujin loomed over the tiny man now, yelling down at him with all the power of his booming voice, "But I alone have the will! The will to carry the Taint, to test its limitations, to push it! Giri has not the courage, only I! I am her Shadowland soldier because there is no one else with the strength of will to be so!"
Koan quirked a wry grin, "Or the madness," he muttered.
Kokujin's eyes widened in fury, and the dark ise zumi took a step forward, hands clenched into fists at his side.
The little man held up his hands in a warding gesture, a smile on his lips, "It was no insult, Kokujin-san," he said, "Believe me, there is a value in madness."
"So she has a reason for you? A purpose. Do you know what it is?" the Togashi asked curiously.
"No."
"Then why do you follow her, when the path she leads may be to your own destruction?" Koan asked, his incomprehension plain on his face.
"Because I am loyal," Kokujin replied, "Because when she asked if I would take her name, I said 'yes'." The Dark Dragon turned to stare out into the night and when he spoke, his voice seemed low and tired, but it held a quiet strength. The strength of conviction. "Because," he explained, "she offered me her name. And no matter what the path she leads, she allows me to walk it with her."
Koan studied the dark figure before him a moment longer. Then nodding to himself he turned and vanished into the night. Leaving Hitomi Kokujin alone to study the stars amidst the darkness.