The shoji moves
With the fury of the summer storms.
Who approaches?
The old man lit the taper, and watched the first spiral of grey smoke rise from its wick. As the flame grew in strength and brightness, the shadows in the room deepened. He took the scroll from its weathered tube, opening it to look again at the frantic calligraphy upon it, each character another word for fear. The rice paper was scuffed and stained, but from its texture, the old man could name its maker's master's teacher. As he rolled the scroll tightly shut, he reflected on the traditions that kept such beauty alive. Without hesitation, he thrust the paper into the candle flame. It took only an instant for it to catch fire, the golden flames greedily consuming the message. As the scroll burned, Ikoma Kaoku, for thirty years the keeper of the histories of the Lion Clan, watched the dancing shadows, and imagined he could hear their mockery.
Kaoku heard the footsteps outside his chamber, and thanked the Fortunes that he had posted a servant to keep visitors away. His prayers were not answered. The wooden frame of the shoji panel creaked painfully before being wrenched violently open. Kaoku spun to his feet, dropping the ashes of the scroll to reach for his katana. But with his blade half-drawn from its saya and the trespasser before him, he realized that he could not complete his stroke.
The woman that stood before him could have been dragged from Jigoku itself. Fury transformed a maiden's grace into a demon's wrath; the gouges she had left in the shoji could have come from talons. But it was what she held in her other hand that had frozen him where he stood. He fought to control his anger and shame, but his voice was calm as he said, "Kitsu Sei."
Sei saw the candle and the ashes of the scroll, and Kaoku knew he had no hope of deceiving her. She thrust an unburned sheaf of rice paper in her hand towards him, and Kaoku saw the name of the Jade Champion upon it. "What is this?" she shrieked at him, nearly incoherent with rage. "What monsters are we?"
Kaoku let go of the wakizashi, and raised his voice. "Kitsu Sei, you are out of line! You have entered my chambers and addressed me without a single sign of respect for my station! To many lords, that is an affront worth a life!" Kaoku realized he was starting to shout, and gestured curtly to the bewildered old servant behind Sei, sending him as far away as possible.
His threat was not enough to break Sei's anger. "An oni! Okura summoned an oni at the Jade Championship! This is beyond insanity! This is a stain upon my clan and my family! End my life, so I need not bear the shame of the truth." She wrenched the collar of her kimono away from her neck, and grabbed for the knife at her hip.
Kaoku lunged at her with no thought, knocking her to the ground. Pain shot through his ribs at the impact, and his breath left him, but the knife flew from Sei's hand as she howled and collapsed to the ground. She fought him for an instant, struggling to get free before dissolving into a flood of hysteric tears. In his sixty years of life, he had raised three sons and a daughter, and trained countless students. He remembered all of them, but among all their faces, none had the passion for life of the woman before him. Many had become his friends, but only one had become his daughter. Kaoku hesitated, and then put his arms around his student.
For nearly an hour, he held her as she spent her tears onto his kimono. At last, she whispered to him, "The truth is more than I can bear."
Kaoku sighed, "Sei-chan, the truth can be forgotten. This will pass. Think of the honor"
"There is no honor in this. It is an abomination. It is everything wrong that I can imagine. How can you hide the truth of it?"
"Because, dear one, the truth is too much to be borne."
Sei gasped for breath through her tears, wiping her eyes on the soggy sleeve of her kimono. "But it must be, sensei. There are no Scorpion to make this go away. It is our shame, and we must be the ones to bear it."
Kaoku shook his head. "Hush, Sei-chan. Go to the baths and clean up. Then rest. When Amaterasu's light shines again, we can discuss this." He let go of her, and watched as she knelt before him.
"Thank you, sensei. I will try."
Kaoku sighed again as she took her scroll with her as she left.
***
Deep in the bowels of the castle, the old man knelt before his lord and master. "She will not let this be forgotten, my lord."
The master ran his manicured nails through the long white tendrils of his mustache. "Ruin her, then. Let her destruction be an example. Now."
The old man pressed his head to the floor. "Hai, master." He waited until his master departed, and then rose to return to his station high above.
***
After her bath, Sei donned the white robe of a novitiate. While the warm water had not solved her problem, it had at least washed away her tears. Her damp and crumpled kimono under her arm, she hurried back to her chambers, the castle's cold halls chilling her bones. With each step she took, she felt a mounting sense of dread.
Through the shoji entrance, she saw a light burning in her chambers. As she slid the panel aside, a curious detachment spread through her. In her altered state, she saw the body of the servant on the floor, her knife thrust through its throat. She noted the bowl of blood before it, filled with the product of the corpse's many wounds. She observed the bloody characters on the wall, recognizing them as signs of the blackest of maho. But before her mind understood these things, before she even felt the pinprick between her shoulder blades, her soul knew their meaning.
***
Kaoku sat alone in his chambers, playing his mother's flute. He knew the instrument as well as he knew himself, and each note rose from it to fill the air around him. Years ago, he had admitted to himself that he would never have a Crane's skill, but still he played every night before he slept. He played only for himself, letting the truth he found in each night's music wash away each day.
As he moved to set the flute down for the night, he realized he was not alone.
His eyes widened as he saw his audience of one. The flute slipped from his unfeeling fingers, falling to the floor. He stammered as he struggled to speak, "But- you're dead!"
The woman bowed her head in confirmation. "Yes, I am."
Kaoku dropped to the floor, pressing his forehead to the ground. He called upon all of the words he knew, but none came to his lips.
The woman spoke again. "Go, Kaoku. Go to your daughter. She needs you. Now."
When Kaoku looked up again, Matsu Tsuko was gone. A moment later, so was he.
***
Sei clutched her side, feeling the blood spurt between her fingers as she struggled to keep moving. She could barely feel her brother's katana in her hand, taken from its place of honor in the first instant of the attack. Kaoku's servant watched her from the only entrance to her chamber, his bloody sword bare in his hand, his own wound blasphemously bloodless. She could feel her muscles stiffening as the poison spread through her. She tried to yell, but barely a whisper came out. The assassin advanced warily. Sei moved to chop at him with her blade, only to watch in horror as the katana tumbled from her tingling fingers. The servant whispered, "They'll never know the truth," and lunged at her.
Before he crossed the distance, the tip of a katana burst from his chest like a deadly sapling. The servant stumbled, his own blade joining Sei's on the floor as he died. Ikoma Kaoku flicked the blood from his own sword, his face a vision of doom. Sei struggled to understand his arrival as she threw herself towards her shelves, laden with scrolls. Kaoku advanced on her, his katana before him, as she crawled across the tatami mats. As she reached out to topple the shelf and grab a scroll, she found that even her tears had turned against her.
Ikoma Kaoku set down his katana, took the scroll from Sei's hands, and opened it. Without hesitation, he handed it back to her. With her last ounce of strength, she whispered the words on the scroll, and as the kami danced around her, she felt her consciousness slip away.
When she awoke, the first thing she saw was Ikoma Kaoku. Before she could speak, her sensei said, "There are no traces of what happened here. Once again I have erased an unpleasant truth." She saw a faint smile on his lips as he spoke.
Sei looked around, and saw that Kaoku's words were true. "I don't understand what happened, sensei."
Kaoku shook his head. "Neither do I. But it seems I had two servants who looked the same, and who are both now dead. It also seems that a letter you had no longer exists."
Anger and confusion surged through Sei's mind as she struggled to make sense of this. "But then... Okura..."
Kaoku gave Sei a kindly smile, and handed her a sheet of rolled paper. "Here. You must leave now. The Crab know the value of honesty; perhaps they will help you with this truth you bear." He leaned forward to kiss her on her brow. "Will you be able to heal your wounds?"
Sei nodded, placing her hands on her bandaged side. "You helped me find the antidote to the poison. I will heal the wound, sensei."
Kaoku stood up, bowing to Sei. "Farewell, daughter. May the Seven Fortunes guide you."
This time, Kitsu Sei found the tears she sought.