Hour of the Horse

After the battle, Katsu decided to prepare himself for the upcoming sumai competition in typical Crab fashion. Katsu found his friends Roshii and Shitasu and they had a cup of sake from the noodle houses by the sake brewery.

The three walked back up to the parade grounds and sat drinking their sake. After a moment, they heard a few raised voices from behind them. In front of the War Offices stood Matsu Kioma speaking with Noshin. Surprisingly, the monk was the one shouting.

"My men are not the cause of this!" he yelled. "We have been betrayed by someone in this city!"

"Noshin-san," Kioma replied, his voice low and his tone conciliatory, "I assure you that the matter is being looked into. However, I cannot think of anyone who would want to humiliate a group of monks."

"Then look for someone that would want to see a group of ex-Scorpion publicly humiliated!" the monk shouted. "I can't imagine such men would be in short supply!"

The samurai watched from a distance as the event unfolded.

"You know this was not our doing!" Noshin continued. "Honorable monks would not do such a disconcerting thing! I demand an apology for your words at the ceremony!"

Matsu Kioma began to flush slightly, but still spoke quietly. "Noshin-san, an investigation is under way. If an apology is discovered necessary, you will have it. Not before."

"This is an outrage!" Noshin continued. "These Lion birds were trained and guarded by your own men! If anyone is at faul, it is them! The bushi stationed here are bred to hate the Scorpion, and apparently see fit to take their revenge out on venerable monks, retired from the life of the samurai and seeking only enlightnement!"

"Noshin!" Kioma sharply retorted. "You dare make accusations such as these in my home, surrounded by my men, as you enjoy my hospitality? You are trying my patience."

Noshin straightened. "Well, we cannot have that, can we? Very well. Please accept my apologies, Kioma-sama," he said bowing, sneering the "sama". Kioma looked about to burst, but before he could say anythign in return, Noshin quickly straightened and disappeared into the crowd.

Katsu, Roshii, and Shitasu returned to their sake. Roshii looked at the Crab and asked, "Hey Katsu what are you doing next? That mock battle was something wasn't it? Next time I will win the duel," he said with a smirk as he sipped his sake.

Katsu paused as he thought about the rest of the day. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. And fine, you can win the next duel... If you hit me."

After the disturbing end to the ceremony, Aramoro made his way to catch up to Daidoji Handen. He had not seen the Crane ambassador during the mock battle and assumed the ambassador had been observing the event. Aramoro hoped to discuss the tactics of the battle and what they might have done differently. Even if it was a mock battle, it made for good practice. However, Handen's yojimbo intercepted the young soldier and directed him away.

"Ambassador Handen-sama has business to attend with the daimyo. He does not have time to chat with you, Akodo." There was a hint of malice in the yojimbo's voice, though Aramoro couldn't figure why.

He turned away to go and find Otomo Jin but nearly bumped into an unfamiliar samurai who was standing in his path. "Oh good, it is you," the stranger began. "Will you compete in the Kenjutsu tournament later on?"

With a confused expression Aramoro only nodded. The other samurai chuckled. "You don't recognize me. I suppose the change in wardrobe makes it more difficult. I'm the 'Scorpion' you had a duel with during the mock battle. I saw that you were one of the winners of the battle and I had to speak to you." Suddenly Aramoro did recognize the other. "You impressed me with your iaijutsu. I hoped that you could give me a few pointers before the competition later today."

Aramoro agreed, and the two samurai spent the better part of an hour practicing.

After leaving the battlefield, Pajaro decided to attempt to find the Kitsu he had seen that morning during court. Pajaro found it disconcerting enough to speak with his grandfather, and he could not imagine how it might affect someone less used to seeing him. After some time of searching, he found Kitsu Nitsuko in the small gardens next to Shiryo no Meiyo.

"Nitsuko-chan," Pajaro said to her, "I wanted to make sure that you were not upset from our encounter earlier. I realize that speaking with my grandfather can be a bit... disheartening. I was not sure how you would react to seeing a ghost."

Kitsu Nitsuko giggled behind a deftly raised fan. "Pajaro-san, I am a sodan-senzo. That is what we do. We are the ones entrusted by the Celestial Heavens to escort the spirits of the departed to meido, and the ones most capable of speaking with those who remain behind. Speaking with your grandfather was no shock to me. If anything, it was rather ordinary."

Pajaro nodded, then bowed formally to her. "My lady, if I may ask a question? You have spoken with my grandfather. Would you happen to know why he does not seek Yomi?"

Nitsuko shook her head. "I am sorry, Pajaro-san, I do not. Tikao-sama did not say. However, he takes great interest in you. If I were to guess, I would say that he is trying to guide you."

Nyoko was inwardly very pleased at her own performance during the mock battle. It was quite likely she enjoyed shocking the perceptions of her fellow bushi, though that was an unbefitting thought for a speaker with the kami. Very briefly, she remained with her new-found, one-time Scorpion comrades as servants removed the blood-red armor she'd worn during the event. Scorpions, however, could become extremly tiresome (often on purpose), and the Dragon had just about hit her limit as she noticed the quiet, monkish Crane leave. The shugenja decided to seek wisdom in the sound of the lone dove rather than the chattering of the magpies, as Shinsei advised.

As Kadokawa left the battlefield, disappointed at his too-brief showing, he walked back towards the Temple of the Seven Fortunes, determined to focus himself through meditation before the Kenjutsu challenge. As he got closer, however, He noticed the crowds in the city were unusually thick. Their attention was rapt, focused on the front of the Temple. Kadokawa thought this particularly odd, since Rokugani are socialized from birth to simply ignore any sort of shameful display, as to watch is to become involved, threby shaming yourself.

The Kakita swordsman suddenly found the shugenja at his elbow, in that mysterious manner she had. "Kadokawa-san," she smiled. "I see we are all trying very hard to not pay attention to something we shouldn't ought to notice, but being we should not, we all desire to pay attention to it." A pause. "Have you not seen any more than I have not seen?"

"Yes Nyoko-san," Kadowkawa replied, "it appears someone has a problem with the local temple. If you wish, you may join me for a prayer to the fortunes." The Dragon's answer was a knowing grin, a common enough sight on her features. Kadowkawa pushed to the front of the crowd with Nyoko following closely, looking to see what the commotion was. Walking forward, the crowd, mostly the local peasantry, parted easily for the two samurai. As the two walked, they heard pieces of conversation among them mentioning a "beast" or a "demon," and saw lots of pointing towards the temple.

As the two finally saw the front of the temple through the crowd, they noticed four samurai standing in front of the temple's double doors and talking quietly among themselves. The four were turned with their backs to the crowd, but their movements made them seem nervous.

"You seem agitated, my friends," the shugenja said in a calm voice, a short distance from the four.

At the sound of her voice, they all turned quickly towards Nyoko and Kadokawa, their faces almost showing surprise. Composing themselves, they all bowed to the two newcomers. Nyoko and Kadokawa returned the gesture, marking them as equals. "You shouldn't appear to a group of samurai so suddenly," the Crab grumbled at Nyoko.

"It depends on the samurai," Nyoko said as she gave the dour Crab her best smile. "Some, I would very much like to appear so suddenly to."

The Kitsu turned to Nyoko. "Please excuse Garei-san. His tactics seem to be rather to-the point. I am Kitsu Tsuntsen," she said bowing slightly again, "and these are Daidoji Wiyuko, Ikoma Aseru, and Hiruma Garei, whom you have met."

"Perhaps some prayer inside might ease your troubled minds?" Nyoko asked, indicating the temple with a gentle motion of her hand. "I could, if one wished, perhaps make supplications for you." Nyoko turned, just slightly, to clearly show her spell pouch. "The kami and I are old friends." She smiled.

"I am a shugenja as well," Tsuntsen replied, her voice low, "although I fear neither Dragon nor Lion may be best suited for this task. There is a beast within of hidieous countenance, defiling this place. As much as I desire to cleanse this temple, I fear Garei-san may be correct in his assessment."

Nyoko's eyebrows shot up in interest. "A beast? Really. And this deep in Lion lands, too." She glanced at Kadokawa, possibly sharing the same thought. It would not do for such a beast to appear at so prestigious a Lion festival.

The Crab leapt at the opportnity to speak up again, and not quietly. "No one should go inside. There is a tsukai-sugasu among my company here. I have sent for him, and he will be arriving shortly. There are none in this city that would better know how to deal with this demon than a witch-hunter."

"It does relieve me somewhat," said Wiyuko, "to know that there is a man here capable of dealing with such an occurance. It is odd, I believe, to find a demon-spawn this deep within the Empire. I can scarcely understand how such a creature would appear in the lands of the noble Lion."

"Coincidence is the greatest weapon of the fortunate," Nyoko commented, quoting the great ronin general Sun Tao. "And it is always best to work for the greatest coincidence possible. It is lucky indeed a tusgai-tsukai was in this province, wasn't it?" Nyoko smiled as she mused aloud.

Tsuntsen's eyes, however, were ice. "Simply be glad, Wiyuko-san, that there are those in my clan who spend time training for all such eventualities, instead of perfecting their gardening skills."

Ikoma Aseru watched the two with some interest. Nyoko and Kadokawa glanced at each other.

"We all have our gifts," Nyoko said, with a layer of velvet covering the steel in her voice, recognizing that it was not the time for arguements. "Can you describe the beast, Garei-san?"

"The eta that saw it described it as small and green-skinned, with long, wild hair and a horrific, deformed face," the Crab replied.

"And what was it doing?" Kadokawa asked, as he leaned close to the entance to the temple, trying to hear if the creature was still inside the building.

"Doing?" Garei replied, seemingly insulted. "It does not matter what it is doing. The mere appearance of a demon inside a temple is blasphemy to the Celestial Order. What it is doing now is defiling this holy place. But what it shall be doing shortly is dying at the hands of a Kuni master."

"Ah," Garei suddenly said, his eyes focusing into the distance, "here he comes now."

Nyoko looked in the direction Garei, having never meant a tsugai-tsukai and was quite curious as to what one would look like.

To say that Kuni Uetengu should have retired several years past would be like saying that the ocean is wet. The tsukai-sugasu was quite possibly the oldest working samurai in Rokugan. For almost twenty years, he had been defending his actions, saying that he would gladly retire the day that the Dark Lord did. In his defense, the Crab daimyo has said that any man that can successfully carry out the duties of a tsukai-sugasu is welcome to remain. And since he had yet to be killed, Hida Kisada still considered him successful.

The elderly witch hunter appeared walking down the path to the temple. The crowds parted to allow the man through, none of them wanting to disturb the path of a man dedicated to one of the Empire's most feared professions. The samurai gathered in front of the temple waited for him to approach.

And they waited.

And they waited.

Nyoko gave Garei her most pleasant, if totally bland smile. Although Kuni Uetengu posessed some of the most powerful anti-Taint magics in Rokugan, his legs were, nonetheless, seventy years old. After almost five minutes of waiting for the man to cross the small lawn in front of the temple, the witch hunter stood before them, ignoring them completely. His gaze was focused on the temple behind them, seeming to peer through its walls and scour the inside.

After another moment of this, Uetengu finally turned his attention to the samurai. "There is no Taint within," he said simply, then turned to trek back across the temple lawn, the way he came.

Hiruma Garei appeared somewhat flushed.

"Do not let it trouble you, Garei-san," Nyoko said gently, though it would have been hard to not imagine just the slightest mocking tone in her voice. "At least your fears of the temple are unfounded, and how fortunate for us all this is so!"

The Dragon looked to all of the samurai around her. "Shall we see this demon for ourselves?" She let her hands fall loose at her sides, the faintest hint of the mark of the kami starting to play about them.

Opening the doorway and glancing in, Nyoko found a rather eerie sight. The temple was shouded in darkness. From outside, she could thell that all of the shutters were closed, but inside, all of the candles normally lit had been doused as well. There was an unusual smell int he air, like that of rusted metal, and the sound of grating stone could be heard from within. Garei and Wiyuko placed their hands on their katana.

As the six samurai walked into the temple, the grating noise suddenly stoped, and so did they. Garei and Wiyuko bared an inch of their katana's blades. Tsuntsen and Aseru reached for their katana as well. No sound of movement at all could be heard from within.

Daring after a moment to continue in, the samurai found themselves in the large main room of the temple. It was an unremarkable place, with straw mats for meditation around the central pillars and large racks of extinguished candles lining the walls. At the far end stood the statues of the Seven Fortunes. The entire room was dim, lit poorly through the closed shutters and opened front door.

Kadokawa stepped forward to the door of the temple. He slipped off his shoes in respect, and said a quick prayer. He readied his katana and followed his Dragon companion into the temple.

The Dragon shugenja cast her eyes across the room, her mouth curved downward into a frown. This was... strange, to say the least. Entirely too eerie, and no explanation immediately available. The whole thing simply reeked of mystery.

Yes, Nyoko truly enjoyed herself at times like this. It was the Kitsuki blood, her father said.

"Garei-san," she said after a moment. "Perhaps you could take the front position? I am told the Hiruma have by necessity excellent skills for looking into the dark. Perhaps you can see something we will not." To him, and the rest of them, "Are any of you familiar with what the creature described might be?"

Garei nodded and obligingly stepped in front of the shugenaja, saying quietly over his shoulder, "We did not see the creature. We were stopped in front of the temple by a hysterical eta that does the cleaning here."

"This eta is used to the statuary here," Tsuntsen chimed in, "as she has been cleaning them daily for the last thirty years, so we did not believe that she was merely spooked by a statue of Shinsei in dim light. That is when we closed the building and sent for the witch hunter."

"Come here," said Wiyuko's voice suddenly from further within the temple. The tone was confused, but not urgent.

Walking to the Crane's voice, the samurai found him standing behind the statue of Fukurokujin. As they approached, they noticed small offering of rice, dried meat, and incense behind the statue. The building had been cordoned off for some time, but the offering loked somewhat recent.

"Well, this is strange," Garei said.

"You have a gift for understatement," Nyoko flashed a grin at Garei. The Dragon glanced around the area of the temple, lost in thought. "Our mysterious spirit is dutiful, at least. It's certainly more of an offering than any I've left Fukurokujin lately. I prefer Benten and Bishamon."

The Crane looked somewhat surprisedly at Nyoko. Bishamon didn't surprise him about the shugenja-ko in the hakima with bare arms and twin swords. Benten did. Regardless, he was smart enough to say nothing.

Nyoko stepped up to the effigy, and decided to take a chance. "Hello?"

"Hello," said a quiet voice, above and behind her.

Nyoko spun around, as did the others. Too squeaky a voice for a Fortune, she thought. Even Fukurokujin.

In the rafters above them, the samurai could see movement as a small figure in the shadows above ducked behind one of the beams.

Standing still and quiet, studying the shadows in the rafters, the samurai heard a shuffling noise from the front of the temple. Spinning again, they saw an old man walking into the temple. He was dressed in rags leaning on a staff worn smooth from years of use. "Samurai-sama," he said to the group in a raspy voice, bowing as low as his aged knees would allow without falling over, "I beg forgiveness for my interrupting, but I may be able to help."

"Help?" asked Tsuntsen, with a note of disgust in her voice for the eta daring to address her. "How can you help?"

The eta still did not raise his eyes fromt he floor. "I know her," he said. He did not look or point, but it was obvious that he was speaking of the creature in the rafters. Tsuntsen bdegan to turn a deep shade of red.

Dragons did not, as a rule, behave in any way that might be construed as 'kinder' or 'nicer' to their eta than the other clans -- nor the opposite -- but they were certainly more aware of them. The Kitsuki often made use of eta servants, who were able to go where no samurai would dare and hear things others would not (eta being likened to smelly furniture by some).

In an even tone -- one that did not condescend; Nyoko depised being talked down to so she seldom did so to others -- the Dragon asked, "Then you seem indeed able to help us."

Nyoko paused, manners wrestling with expediency. "It is a she?"

"Hai, sama," the eta replied. "I believe that is the voice of Kakera." The word meant 'morsel.'

"Kakera! Come down, please," the old man called into the rafters. "These samurai mean you no harm."

There was silence for a moment, and then a shuffling in the rafters as something climbed down. Tsuntsen and Wiyuko gripped their swords tighter. A small form slowly peeked around from one of the columns in the temple. The creature was half as tall as the samurai and dressed in rags. Its head was smooth and green, vaguely snake-shaped, with two large, dark eyes and long, wiry hair. Wiyuko audibly tensed behind Nyoko.

Nyoko, however was much more calm, although even Dragons may be suprised, and the Agasha certainly qualified. In the lands of the Dragon, there were very, very rarely found any creatures from the Shadowlands. But the Dragon, like the Lion, did have zokujin working in their mines, and although they were known as 'rock goblins,' the zokujin never, as far as Nyoko knew, possessed any sort of Taint.

Nyoko half-turned to her companions, hand raised. "Peace. I wondered what sort of creature could be found here in Lion lands. It... her kind," she corrected, "mean us no harm, my friends."

A pause. "Though I do wonder what might bring one in search of the wisdom of the Fortunes."

"I come for help," Kakera said in her sqeaky, gravely voice, taking the shugenja's question as an opening for her to speak. "Am asking the Fortunes help to know why Great Water is hurting us. Many zokujin hurting because Great Water is not being clean."

"How is it hurting you?" Nyoko asked.

"The Spirit of Great Water is gone. Gone many days now. Water runs away and does not become bad, but rocks are becoming poison to zokujin."

"This Great Water," Kadokawa asked, "it is a river?"

"Yes, a river, deep below."

"There is a river under this temple?" Nyoko asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yes," Tsuntsen replied, "it runs under the city. The river is the source of our water. Wells are very easy to dig in Kenson Gakka."

"And its Spirit is missing. How odd," mused Nyoko.

"Yes, but it is near," Kakera added. "I can feel Spirit of Great Water now that I am above the below. It is near to us."

"But it is not in the river? Can you tell where it is?"

"No, not to point. Though, is somewhere close. Somewhere in city."

"Well," Nyoko concluded, "if we need to find a spirit, perhaps we should find someone who can speak to spirits. I believe one of our friends was speaking to a sodan-senzo earlier, if you recall which one."

"The sodan-senzo in ochre, perhaps?" Kadokawa replied.

"The friend in gray and green," Nyoko replied dryly. "We should find Pajaro and see if he knows where she is."

"Feh," Hiruma Garei said from behind them. "Go and find your spirits. I am due on the competition field shortly." With that, the gruff Crab stalked out of the temple. Daidoji Wiyuko and Ikoma Aseru took the opportunity to make similar excuses and be on their own ways.

"Very well," Tsuntsen said to Kadokawa and Nyoko. "But you realize that a zokujin should not be wandering the streets of the city. You two will have to be responsible for it."

"We will be responsible for her," Nyoko replied, with extra emphasis.

Tsuntsen simply walked away.