He felt the presence of Toritaka Genaru beside him, sharing in his grief.

"He fought well, gaijin," the Falcon scout muttered. "Not too many old Kaiu could hold out as long as he did, as attested by those who returned."

Ajiajin only nodded. His eyes were focused beyond the darkness. Beyond the Wall. Into the heart of the Shadowlands.

In his hands, he held the wakizashi of his former companion. He gripped its razor-sharp blade with all his might, until his hands bled. Then he turned and gave it to the Falcon scout, and walked into the night and into the shadows.

The Crab who saw it all only shook their heads.

In the wan daylight, swift preparations were made. A full complement of bushi and scouts, numbering fifty, would this day walk into the path that Yoritomo Toshokan-in took in his final journey.

"Ho, gaijin!" Are you ready?" the call came from Hida Tsushima from the open gate. In the past few days, the abrasive Crab had begun to show respect to the Mantis gaijin.

"Hai! I am ready, Tsushima-san!" Ajiajin shouted back from his position in the party.

"Then let us go to the heart of the Shadowlands and crush all who stand in our way! For Yakamo and for the Empire!" Tsushima bellowed in the chill morning air, waving his die tsuchi over his head.

The men within the Wall roared the battle cry, raising their voices higher and higher until the bronze sky rang out with their echoes.

"For Toshokan-in, and for revenge," Ajiajin softly spoke in return.

Only twenty men were left alive when they forded the Black Finger River, and forged resolutely southward.

The Mantis contingent was dealt a heavy blow. Of the forty that joined the expedition, only fifteen remained standing. Only five of the Crab complement was left, led by Hida Tsushima.

They were tired and weary, their armor torn and beaten, their weapons blackened with the blood of the beasts of the Shadowlands.

And they pressed on.

With the last rays of Amaterasu, the decimated party ascended a desolate hill, and stood in awe and mortal fear. Just beyond the clearing was a roiling, boiling mass of the undead. Tattered ebon banners waved in the biting wind as the darkness grew in strength.

And at their head was a walking nightmare.

The party lowered themselves to the ground. Most of them felt the raw edge of fear. Some of them were already in near delirium. Their one shugenja was already laughing softly to himself, a laugh tinged with insanity...

"Moto Tsume...?" whispered Hida Tsushima from beside Ajiajin.

From their ranks, other whispers could be heard.

"We certainly could not get past them all..."

"We'll never survive..."

"We must make haste to go back to Kaui Kabe..."

But Ajiajin only locked his eyes on the fell shadow before them. He saw a glint of green somewhere... there! One of the creature's arms was wrapped in green silk streaked with crimson... the Mantis banner, last held by... Toshokan'in'.

The rest of the undead army marched past like countless maggots on the blasted earth while the creature reined in his undead horse and scanned the horizon. It's eyes were bloody orbs, bereft of life, but full of hatred and of Jigoku's evil. His gaze fell near their hiding place and passed them by... but saw the green and gold of the Mantis banner a scout forgot to lower to the ground.

Ajiajin saw the creature take stock of their position, and anticipated the battle to come. But the undead general let the rest of his army plod on.

Until he summoned a few hundred of his army to his side.

Hida Tsushima suddenly stood valiantly and held the banner of the Crab aloft and screamed, "Die, here and now!!! For Yakamo and for the Empire!!!"

As Tsushima and his four Crab charged, the remainder of the Mantis expedition mustered their strength and ran with the speed of Osano-Wo. They felt their ancestors race with them to a glorious death.

But the undead general only waited for them to come near. Raising an ancient, blackened great axe, he stared at the samurai of the Mantis and the Crab. In a sepulchral voice heard more in the mind than in the ear, he gloated, "If you want it, come and get it!"

Tsushima and Ajiajin cried out simultaneously, "The Ono of Osano-Wo!"

Hida Tsushima kept bellowing in the fray, already possesed by the Hida frenzy, as his great mace swung again and again, crushing the undead into hideous pulp.

But the enemy was too many.

From above the hill, the Crab shugenja cried out, "Back to the hill! To me, to me!!!"

As one man, the warriors of the Crab and the Mantis fell back and rushed headlong to the base of the hill.

"Form a bulwark against me while I'm casting!" the shrill voice of the shugenja pierced the chill air.

Ajiajin saw the shock in Tsushima's eyes. "No, not that!"

As they kept on hacking the undead enemy, the Crab shugenja started his spell, weaving his arms in the air, uttering powerful chants. The air around him started to crackle with energy, and Ajiajin saw that the ground beneath them was raw with power. Something was happening...

The undead army suddenly halted in their tracks, as if chained to the earth. From far away, Moto Tsume looked on, and then suddenly disappeared in the haze.

"To the ground!" came the sudden cry from Tsushima. Only instinct made Ajiajin dive to the ground before he was impaled by a large bone fragment.

The undead army suddenly exploded in a flurry of flesh, as sharp bone slivers tore at the air, and found marks among the living who did not hear or heed the warning.

At the hill, a keening wail tore at the silence as the Crab shugenja, spent and lacerated from hand to foot by the slivers, died horribly.

And at last, all was silent again.