The near silence is broken by the soft sound of a sigh as the quill is placed upon the short writing table, the scroll carefully wrapped and placed in a leather case by a pair of pale hands. Calluses adorn the palms and the pads of the fingers as the flickering candle illuminates them, the hands of a samurai... an industrious one. Never have these hands been inactive. Attuning themselves further to the balance of a sword, penning orders for his troops, cleaning his clothes alongside with the heimin, laboring with a brush to create a painting for even the lowliest eta simply because the request was made... Always active. Always moving. Not a moment going unfilled with action and motion of some sort. A fresh piece of parchment is placed upon the writing table, the first characters penned are "Noble O-Ushi-sama." It is the last letter he must write. A request... no, there is no getting around it. It is a plea. This final letter is the one to be sent with his son to the Crab. The fastest horse he could find, procured for the sole purpose of transporting his son somewhere he can be protected and taught the ways of war... at the cost of his name, if necessary. His son will become a Hida, if that is the price. With no daughter, his line will end soon.

The subtle withdrawing of the darkness goes unnoticed until something falls upon the letter. The hand upon the pen pauses for a moment. "Amaterasu is rising." Such are the hushed words from the tight throat. The letter is hurriedly finished and tucked within a case, then sealed with two mons. The first is the hilt in paw design of the Matsu. The second is a design of a lion laying upon the ground with a brush tucked beneath its paw. The callused hands tighten upon the case as though it were his six year old son, and he could ease the pain by holding onto it a little while longer.

"The sun is rising," calls a quiet voice from the other side of the paper door. The voice is that of a woman, the tone that of solemnity, and the silhouette that of a samurai-ko.

"Hai, Inichi-ko. I know." The figure which has knelt all night, laboring with quills until they broke out of reverence for the brush too cultured to use for plain writing, stands slowly. Only the last scroll remains held within his fingers as he stands... There is far too much 'rustling' for merely a kimono for such a simple motion. With a deep breath, he turns, sliding the screen open and stepping out of his chambers... He towers over the samurai-ko named 'Inichi-ko,' but she wears armor while he does not. She is decked out in full battle regalia, her daisho turned to be drawn at any moment, her helmet left elsewhere... she has no mempo. 'Why should one hide their face while killing another?' has always been her reasoning in this... but now she wishes she had chosen otherwise. Her eyes are red as they carefully avoid the face of her lord. She cannot look into his eyes, but it is rather because she knows he would still not acknowledge her disgrace, and not the freakish hue of his eyes.

He tarries for a moment, and Inichi-ko pipes up. "Domotai-sama, you will miss it if you do not hurry." He blinks as though falling out of a trance, and slowly nods without speaking a word. He places the scroll in the hands of the expectant bushi-ko, their hands brushing for an instant. A faint red creeps into the cheeks of the bushi-ko, falling short of the red in her eyes, and she gives a hasty bow in an effort to hide it. Domotai nods slowly and walks outside to kneel upon the ground, waiting for Lady Sun to truly begin her ascent. Inichi-ko waits for a moment before following, not really knowing if he notices to begin with.

The sun appears upon the horizon, welling, cresting, and finally breaking to let the life-giving illumination to the world. As the first rays of light strike Domotai, there is a blinding flash. Inichi-ko knows that it is coming, but she does not look away or flinch, allowing her eyes to be overwhelmed. A few moments later, the source of the flash becomes apparent. Although Domotai's kimono is of excellent silk, the gold of its color is still false. The dyes can only capture such a golden color to a certain extent... a pale imitation of the truly golden color of the hair flowing from Domotai's head, shining all the way to the pool that it forms at his side. The locks gleam with the light of Amaterasu... and the color. His almond-shaped eyes capture the purity of the sunlight and refract it, giving it back in the purest sapphire blue. Such is his legacy, the convergence of the lines of the Matsu and the Kitsu. He is a freak in his own heart, never outcast by another for his exceedingly fair complexion... But his eyes shimmer for another reason, as small droplets roll down his cheeks. It is a curse he has lived with for seven years... Every sunrise, the memory of his wife returns as clearly as it was when she was alive. Kamiko had loved watching the sunrise…

Only now does Inichi-ko avert her eyes in guilt and sorrow. She has hidden her sins for four years, now. What sins? The Three Sins... Fear, Desire, and Regret. Fear... not for the life of her lord, but for the possibility that her lord might send her away. Desire... to ease the pain in her lord's heart, knowing that she could never fully replace the void left by the death of Domotai's wife. Regret... only now, that she has hidden these things for so long, and it is too late. She served without question or failure for so long, as her duty demands, but is it worth it now that they have all been damned by the one who sits upon the throne they have fought to protect? Propriety. It is a word she has long since come to hate. She hesitates for a few moments longer before stepping down to the ground and approaching Domotai to stand at his left side... There is a few moments of awkward silence before Domotai turns his head slowly to look at Inichi-ko with his crystalline eyes set above tearstained cheeks.

Their eyes lock for a few moments longer before Domotai's slowly drift shut... and Inichi-ko's face is slowly drained of all its color in stark terror. Absolute horror such as she has never felt before. He knows! He has -always- known! Domotai slowly turns his head back to the rising sun as Inichi-ko shudders, and then bolts. A seasoned veteran of war, unscarred by the violence that her life as a bushi entails, shaken to the core by the simple fact that she could not keep her only secret from her lord.

A short time later, Domotai emerges from his home again, clad in his simple armor of bamboo and metal plates, his daisho tucked within his obi. He wears no helmet. He never does. His shimmering golden hair is bound with a single red ribbon, worn and frayed by years of use, the locks falling past his knees. It is not possible to mistake him for anyone else, even in the midst of a blood-soaked melee. The flashing light of his hair can be seen upon a battlefield with ease from half a mile away... by both friend and foe. His men have used it as a rallying cry dozens of times, the knowledge that their lord is in the same blind mess of blood and steel that they are and he has not fallen yet. It is a wonder that he has not yet been riddled with arrows in such a mess.

But those are the past, and now he is approaching his men... a tiny contingent of a hundred bushi. Inichi-ko is trying to hide in the back, and as his second in command, it is a terribly childish thing to do. A glance is all it takes to let her know that she is not hidden well enough before he begins to speak.

"I will not mince words. We are marching to die. Our Champion has gone to assist the Crab in their never-ending duty, and no one here can question her honor or nobility for such an action. The daimyo of the Daidoji has decided that this means we are inviting him to slaughter our people over something he read about in books and was told as a child. Our Emperor has decided that we should die. Uji agreed and has begun proceeding with maniacal abandon. He knows nothing of mercy for the peasants. He sees all in his path with the eyes of a madman, bent upon avenging something which he never experienced. Our families have been sent away to avoid being added to the number of innocents who's blood stains the hands of the one marching upon us. Some will say that we abandoned them... but what they say is no longer of consequence. We are outnumbered a hundred to one by the Cranes on their way here. We will die... but our people will live on. Our duties have been stripped of us, one after another. The Hantei are gone. The Throne ordered our deaths. Our Champion is making this sacrifice to help the Crab... Our last remaining duty is to the people beneath us. We will protect them with our last breath..."

Domotai pauses, taking a deep breath and narrowing his eyes. "I will not offer any of you the chance to remain behind. It is a waste of time, and we all know it. I would cut down any man shirking their duty when my own son was the last to leave this morning." The jovial Domotai known for his humility and generosity with the peasants is gone. The laughing heart shattered by tragedy and held together by duty, now transformed into a thing of adamant. His pragmatism that of the staunchest Crab... it would be such an inspiring things under different circumstances as he stalks back and forth in front of his troops as though he would begin cutting them down as he threatened. "You WILL NOT fall until I give you permission. You -will- fight until you have no bones intact, no muscles unsevered to move and no limbs to fight with. This is the strength you -will- have. The meekest peasant can kill the mightiest samurai when they are just and righteous. We fight to keep our families alive, and our clan's memory whole. We will die, but we will die as only Lions can... Remember Akodo and his final battle. That is how we must fight. I will not tolerate any less."

"Inichi-ko. I ordered you to accompany my son. You disobeyed." He frowns for a moment. "I will not order it again. To you, I give no permission to die. When I fall, you will continue. Until the last of the madman's army lies dead, you will add to the charnel heaps. You have disobeyed me once. Do not do it again." It is not the damnation that it sounds like... to Inichi-ko, it is a bittersweet blessing. She will be with him for the rest of his life... and then he said she would outlive him. To Jigoku with propriety. Their lives will be over within a week at the most... Inichi-ko tosses herself at her lord with a sobbing thanks. As Domotai disgraces himself by holding his second in command in a gesture of forgiveness for her 'secret,' he quietly announces to his somber troops...

"We are all Deathseekers, now. Let us show the madmen how brave men die."