We fear neither death nor pain. Vengeance it is.
Turn 5
Hideki enters the cave of the Meifumadō without hesitation, though perhaps a little warily. The old monk, surprisngly, follows him inside.
The cave is mostly dark, with only the red glow at the very end of it casting any sort of light. The monk and Hideki are silent until they reach a large pool. The water is clear, and near the bottom something glows faintly blue.
"The surface of affairs are often murky. To see the truth, you must go deeper."Hideki gets on his hands and knees, and submerges his face in the water. It is icy cold, almost painfully so. Still he manages to open his eyes. Instead of water or a better look at the glowing bottom, he instead sees events unfolding before him from a bird's eye view.
He sees the day he got attacked on the bridge. He sees himself split up from his two companions to go and report to the Shogun. His two companions go the other way and are soon attacked out of nowhere by 8 armed samurai. The samurai have no identifieable clan kamon on their armours. The two Nagayoshi ninja make them pay dearly for this attack, taking two of the samurai with them to the grave and giving crippling injuries at least one other, but they die in the end.
The view shifts towards a Nagayoshi household. Armed men, again with no clan Kamon, barge in as the household is gathered to eat. They begin cutting down men, women and children indiscriminately, stopping only when every member is dead.
Many more of these scenes play out, each depicting part of the Nagayoshi clan getting eradicated.
Hideki abrubtly pulls his head out of the water. His face and eyes sting from the cold and he is breathing heavily from what he just witnessed.
"What is this? Why show me this?""I do not know. Perhaps the water wishes to remind you. Perhaps it is merely trying to give you a complete picture. It's ways are ever changing, like the flow of a river. But focus, there is more."The monk uses the end of his staff to push Hideki back under. One last event plays out before his eyes.
Four people stand in what Hideki recognizes as his household's ancestor shrine. The first is a man wearing the red/gold armour of a lion clan samurai. The second is a woman wearing the light green/white robes of a phoenix clan seer. The one at the head is a man wearing the light blue/silver clothes of a wealthy Crane clan politician. Hideki sees the Crane clan put down a funral tablet with the Emperor's crest in the ancestor shrine. That must be the reason he is branded an outlaw, such an act would signify the clan's wish to see the death of the Emperor, a capital offense.
The view shifts to the entrance. There he sees the fourth man, and Hideki's mind is almost consumed by rage. The fourth man is wearing the dark clothes of a Scorpion clan ninja, and is holding the key to the ancestor shrine. He recognizes the man as Ogino Iemochi, a fellow Scorpion clan ninja who Hideki has worked with once or twice in the past.
Hideki feels the staff lift from his neck and snaps back up. He looks at the monk.
"Ah, there it is. The all consuming rage of one on the Meifumadō. Yes, all that has befallen you was the result of treachery, both from within and without. And now you have a place to start, the first dot to connect. Find the traitor, and you will surely find your way to the other schemers as well. And now, there is one more gift I have to bestow upon you. Head into that passage, and you shall see."Icy cold and fuming with anger, Hideki does as the monk commands and enters a side passage. He has to squeeze past some rock, and once inside he sees what that red glow came from. It is a massive forge, carved from the mountain rock itself. Hammering away at some kind of steel are two of oni. One blue, the other red. They look old and huge, bigger than even the drawings Hideki has seen in his youth. The two oni stop their work and walk up to Hideki, bent over as to not touch the ceiling even in this huge cave.
"He walks the path of demons, brother.""He walks the path of revenge, brother.""Death will follow where he walks brother.""Death will one day catch up to him, brother.""A worthy man for our blade, brother.""A worthy blade for this man, brother." The two demons head back to their forge and begin hammering away at the blade. Hideki feels like he should wait, so he sits on an outcropping of rock and watches the two work. For what feels like an entire day they hammer the metal, bending and folding it expertly, their huge muscles bulding under the strain. At the end of the process both put their hands over a basin and cut their palms with rough, sharp rocks. The basin fills with oni blood. They take the red hot metal and plunge it into the blood. They then finish the blade and walk up to Hideki.
"A blade worthy of the Meifumadō.""A blade that thirsts for the blood of your enemies.""A blade that will grow stronger the further you are on your path.""A blade that will makes all men equal."The oni give Hideki the blade and go back to their forge, working in silence. Looking at the blade, it is truly a work of art. The handle and scabbard are a deep, crimson red. The tsuba (guard) depicts two oni, one holding a club and the other a cleaver. Hideki unsheathes the katana. The blade looks sharper than any razor he ever saw. When he angles it so that it reflects the light from the forge, the blade seems to take on a purple glow. He sheathes the blade again and bows respectfully towards the oni, then leaves the cave.
When he comes outside, the clearing is gone. Snow covers everything. Where the old monk sat, there is only a snow-covered gravestone.
What should the blade be called?
The only target he recognized was Ogino Iemochi, of the scorpion clan. He will be the first target on the Meifumadō. He will probably be in his home province of Nara. Hideki could go after him directly, or appeal with the Daimyo of the Scorpion clan first.
The question is, what is his next step right now? this turned out a bit longer than I intended. Anyways, there it is. If there are any questions about background information, lore or stuff Hideki should know, feel free to ask away. Enjoy the katana, it's pretty good.
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Topic: Nippon: Quest for Vengeance (SG/CYOA): Turn 41: Star fort Goryokaku (Read 14850 times)