Hearing the stories of She with Red and Gold Hair

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There we were just five Li1 outside the village of Sekukan. We were carrying several wagon loads of rice to help the village as it had a poor harvest. It had gotten dark and we were in a hurry as there were stories of a gang of criminals prowling the roads in the area. That's when bandits waylaid us. Because we are all farmers, none of us had anything more than a few farming tools to defend ourselves and the bandits, armed with swords, spears, bows and clubs were able to quickly overpower us. Riki and Bayuzo were killed when they fought hard against the bandits, but were no match for their big bruiser who had a tetsubo2 and their heads were crushed. Poor Mitsu tried to run for it, but received three arrows to the back. Seeing that we weren't able to defeat them or run away, we surrendered.

The bandits had bound us and were ransacking the wagons. We thought they were after the rice, but quickly grew angry and their leader started asking where the gold was. I tried to tell them that we were just farmers delivering rice to the village of Sekukan because they had a bad harvest this year and we had a bumper harvest. That earned me a kick to the chest, forcing the breath from me. The bandit leader pressed his foot on my neck and said if we didn't tell them where the gold was, they'd start killing us one-by-one.

Then it happened. There was a bright flash, briefly turning night to day. Blood and screams filled the air as a figure moved among the bandits, cutting through them like a river cuts through the land. Soon it was just the figure, the bandit leader and the bruiser. As the three circled in the road, the moon slipped out from behind the clouds and I could see it was her! Pale skin and wide eyes of a gaijin! The hair of red and gold flowing out from under her straw hat! In her hands she gripped a katana and she moved like a samurai.

How do I know how a samurai moves? When I was young, on the cusp of manhood, a samurai of the Kakita3 family was traveling the roads and stayed the night at an inn in my home village. That night thugs from the Black Palm Gang surrounded the inn and demanded the samurai surrender to them. The samurai walked out of the inn, the back of his hand resting on the grip of his katana and told the thugs to leave as they had no business with him. The leader of the thugs simply laughed and reached for his axe. But he never got the chance to use it. There was a flash of steel and a blur of motion, that samurai stood there with his blade pointed at the thug's face. Then the thug's hand fell away from his arm. For a second the thug just stared at where his hand used to be, as if his mind was still trying to figure out what happened. I could see it in his eyes as the pain and realization set in, but before he could scream there was another flash of steel and the thug stared dumbfounded at the samurai. A second later the thug fell to the ground and his head rolled away. The smart thugs immediately ran away, but there were enough left that they thought they could take the samurai. With a blur of movement, the Kakita samurai vanquished the remaining thugs, then tore a strip from one of their clothes to clean his sword and reentered the inn.

She moved like that, only less graceful, almost like she wanted the bandits to feel all the pain of her katana as it cut through them. The bandit leader and the bruiser circled her. The bruiser was the first to charge, and when he raised his tetsubo over his head, she deftly darted to the side. He was down in an instant, she had felled him with two strokes, one across his belly and the other down his back. Then the bandit leader, enraged, charged her. With a single stroke of her katana to the back of his legs, he was dropped to his knees. The bandit leader dropped his sword and begged for mercy. Stood over him, returned her katana to its saka, squatted before him and said she'd show him the same mercy that they had shown us when they waylaid us. She then drew her tanto and buried the blade in his throat.

As the bandit leader lay on the ground choking on his own blood and clawing at his throat, she casually strolled over to the down bandits. The few that were still alive, she quickly dispatched, cutting their throat with her tanto. She fished through their clothes and withdrew several pouches of koku4. After taking a moment to count the coins, she walked over to us, cut our bindings and gave most of the koku to us, saying that this should compensate us for the damages the bandits had caused. She stuffed two small pouched of coins in her kimono, told us to be more careful when traveling after dark, bid us farewell and walked away. We quickly rushed to Sekukan and told the locals of our encounter with Aka to kin no kami no kanojo. The next morning a pair of hunters from the village set out to try and find her trail so that she could be properly thanked and invited for some sake and dumplings. They said that they found her footprints at the site of the fight and walking away. But they said that her footprints went around a bend in the road and just seemed to halt mid stride, almost as if she appeared out of thin air to attack the bandits then walked away and vanished back into thin air.

I never believed the tales that Aka to kin no kami no kanojo was a spirit that protected travelers before, but now that I've seen her appear out of thin air and strike the bandits down, I do now.

--Notes transcribed from a Doji5 retainer after their interrogation with a peasant regarding their encounter with Aka no kin no kami no kanojo

Otosan Uchi6

In the Imperial Palace, at the head of the Chrysanthemum Court, sat a two-tiered dais. On the top tier of the dais rested the Chrysanthemum Throne. On the Chrysanthemum Throne sat the emperor of Rokugan, Hantei XXXVI, the thirty-sixth emperor to bear the name Hantei. He was the thirty-fifth descendant of the first emperor of Rokugan, the Kami Hantei. He was clad in robes of emerald green. On the second tier to his left sat a beautiful woman, clad in robes of sky blue and silver, she was a daughter of the Doji Family of the Crane Clan. On the second tier to his right sat a rugged-looking man clad in robes of brown, yellow and gold, he was a son of the Akodo Family of the Lion Clan. Behind the emperor, just to his left stood a figure clad in robes of crimson and black, a crimson veil obscuring their facial features, this was a member of the Bayushi Family of the Scorpion Clan.

All figures in the court knew to be fearful of the representatives of the Lion Clan, they were counted among the fiercest warriors in all of Rokugan and the right hand of the emperor. They knew to be cautious of the representatives of the Crane clan, they were the most savvy politicians and were counted among the best duelists in all of Rokugan, and were the left hand of the emperor. They knew to be wary of the representatives of the Scorpions Clan, honorless curs is what they often called them...when none were thought to be around, but all knew to be especially wary when the underhand of the emperor was present.

Normally in the Chrysanthemum Court there would be nobles and courtesans all vying for the emperor's attention in matters involving the political matters of the Emerald Empire, and of the concerns of their clans and retainer families. However on this day Hantei XXXVI had dismissed the nobles and the courtesans, there were another pressing concern on his mind than the usual bickering between the clans. He was currently reading a scroll that held the account of a strange woman, she had the features of a gaijin, but dressed as a ronin and fought like a bushi. Several archivists were kneeling before the throne, their satchels full of scrolls. Weeks ago the emperor had heard of this strange warrior woman when a bard accounted his tale before the court about the strange gaijin ronin who had saved him from a group of ogres. The bard had recounted how he tried to flee from these monsters, only to be cut off as they had laid an ambush for travelers. The bard had told of how he had been surrounded by the slavering monster and was sure he would die. That's when there was a flash of light and flashes of steel that quickly sent the tainted monsters into their death.

Hantei XXXVI leaned forward in the Chrysanthemum Throne as he read the description of the gaijin ronin woman on the throne. The scroll had told the story of a small group of merchants that had gotten separated from their caravan and found themselves waylaid by bandits. The account of the merchants was the same as the bard's when she appeared: A blinding flash of light, the flash of steel, when the fighting was over she would take valuables off of the dead, give the majority of to the survivors, keep a small portion for herself and leave, when hunters or trackers tried to follow her trail, her footsteps would seem to stop, almost as if she manifested out of thin air and disappeared back into thin air. Her physical description in the scroll matched the bard's description: She had the pale skin of a gaijin who lived far across the sea, but her eyes were larger than any matching the description of any known member of the gaijin races, they were larger, twice the size, their color was different too. The gaijin from Merenae and Thrane had eyes that ranged from a deep brown to a pale blue. Hers however were described as being a light teal, nearly the color of many of the tidal pools that were found along Rokugan's coast. Her hair was also different from most gaijin too. Gaijin who had light hair would often be a ruby or gold in color, her's was stripes of ruby and gold.

Hantei XXXVI rolled up the scroll and gestured for another. After hearing of this strange gaijin ronin woman, he had ordered the great and minor clans to send out retainers to interview or interrogate the commoners who had encountered her so it could be determined where it was she lived. On the one hand imperial law forbade any gaijin from setting foot on Rokugan unless expressly given permission by the emperor and any found lurking or lingering within the empire's borders without permission would be expelled, often by force, imprisoned as spies and trespassers, or executed. On the other hand she clearly understood Bushido and only caused harm to those who were harming the innocents. It was clear by the number of scrolls present with the archivists that she had been living in Rokugan for an extended period of time.

Scroll-after-scroll he read, always coming across the same accounts: Bandits, criminal gangs or Shadowlands tainted monsters would attack travelers, then she would appear in a flash of light, cut them down, loot their bodies, give the bulk of what she scavenged to those who had been waylaid while keeping a small portion for herself and then walking away, seemingly to vanish. Hantei XXXVI encountered a few accounts that were different, she seemed to brutally attack the members of the various organized criminal gangs that enslaved and sold people into forced servitude, or Maho-tsukai7 who kidnapped people to sacrifice to fuel profane Maho rituals, the accounts of what she did to them was brutal, their bodies dismembered and left strewn about. She had an extreme hatred for slavers and practitioners of Maho.

Hantei XXXVI decided that she would be a useful asset for the empire and considered after she had been brought before the Chrysanthemum Court that once her intentions and ancestry had been determined, to make a decree declaring she was not a gaijin and not a ronin. He then opened another scroll and what he read gave him pause. The scroll was written by a monk over two hundred years ago. It told the story of a ronin who lived outside a small farming village on the border of Lion and Unicorn lands. The story told of the ronin formerly being of the Hiruma family8, but had left his family's service, placing himself in exile after he had been captured by a group of Maho-tsukai and was rescued by a wandering ronin. The story would have simply been a forgettable one about a monk encountering a ronin if it weren't for the monk writing down that the ronin had a strange girl with him. She was about twelve years of age, had the skin of a gaijin, large teal eyes, and striped hair of ruby and gold.

The emperor read on what the monk had written down. He had sat down with the ronin and had a conversation over several cups of sake. The ronin told about how he had encountered this strange girl. The ronin had said that he had stopped at Mirror Pool Waterfall ten years prior and was getting ready to strip down to swim in the cool water to escape the heat. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a girl came tumbling out of the waterfall, completely nude and landed with a splash into the pool below the waterfall. The ronin dove in to save her from drowning and when he dragged her to the shore, he discovered she was like a gaijin, except for her eyes and hair.

Hantei XXXVI propped his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward and read on. The ronin had adopted her as a daughter and had said that in the teen years since, she seemed to only age about two years. The ronin had told the monk about her strange abilities, how she had strange powers, she could levitate objects, fire beams from her hand, and how she could disappear and reappear in a flash of light. The monk wrote about his interview with the girl, and that she seemed very well spoken and learned, like she was someone much older. The monk wrote about when he had her demonstrate her powers for him outside the village. He had her levitate objects, a writing stylus, a pot of ink, a flower, a silk handkerchief, a boulder twice the size of a man, she even levitated multiple things. She demonstrated her ability to vanish and reappear in flashes of light at various distances and heights, the only limitation being line of sight. He had her fire beams of teal light at different objects, a fallen log, a piece of parchment dropped from his hand, a series of stones placed on stumps, they all pierced or blew apart the targets he had her shoot her beams at. The monk wrote down how when the girl used her powers, her fingers would be surrounded by a teal light, the same color as her eyes and would be accompanied by a strange sound, almost like dozens of wind chimes in the distance when a breeze blows.

The emperor noted that the name of the village had been blotted out and at the bottom of the scroll the monk had written a final note. While on the way back to my monastery with all intentions to tell the abbot of my findings, I had bedded down for the night. In my dreams Lady Amaterasu came to me riding a white steed that had a pair of wings on its back and a single horn on its head. She told me to blot out the name of the village where the girl lived and seal up the scroll. As it was not time for all of Rokugan to know of her and when the time came, she would help beat back the forces of Jigoku.

Hantei XXXVI huffed in annoyance. He understood why the monk had done what Amaterasu had commanded him. Though he wouldn't know the name of the village where the ronin had lived and this girl, who was clearly a woman now, lived. But there was a small snippet of hope. The name of where the ronin had found this strange girl, Mirror Pool Waterfall. He quickly sent out an order for the royal cartographers to find where Mirror Pool Waterfall was on the maps of the empire...that's where he would begin his search.

Kyuden Isawa

An obese man covered in tattoos and puffing on a pipe filled with gaijin pipe weed strolls through a rundown warehouse. Starving men, women and children, all chained together in cages, dressed in filthy huddle together in fear and for warmth as the obese man walks by. He is the infamous gangster known as Toshi the Lizard. He is known throughout all of Rokugan as the boss of the Black Palms Gang. The enforcers for every clan, major and minor, as well as the Emerald Enforcers, all want his head, and whoever were to claim it would receive one thousand koku as a reward.

Toshi the Lizard, accompanied by six large bodyguards wielding truncheons and hatchets, pauses at each cage to inspect his human wares. "Any word on what happened to that urchin that escaped yesterday?"

"No, boss.", one of the enforcers answers. "Do you think she was found by Aka to kin no kami no kanojo?"

Toshi pauses for a second before answering. All echelons of the Black Palms knew of her as she has been a thorn in their sides for several years now. "If she has, we'll all be gone from here before she finds this place. I've bribed some of the gate guards to leave the south gate open and look the other way when we pass through. By the time she, the Emerald Magistrates or Phoenix enforcers find out about this place, we'll have sold this cargo off to the Yobanjin10 and be well on our way to a safehouse in Unicorn territory."

"Any word on who alerted the Emerald Magistrates to our safehouse here in this city?"

Toshi took a long draw on the pipe and blew the smoke out his nostrils as he looked sidelong at the enforcer who had asked the question. It had been a bit of a shock when the Emerald Magistrates hit that safehouse. It had been well disguised as a house whose occupants had died of plague, so most people avoided it like...well, the plague. When the Emerald Magistrates raided the safehouse, they captured a dozen gangsters, along with the chief enforcer for this city, Banku Tiger-Fist. There had been a fireworks show over the safehouse that had drawn the enforcers of imperial law in Rokugan and witnesses said there was a ronin outside minutes before the light show setting up fireworks. That had been a week ago, which had prompted him to sell off as much of his human cargo as possible and get out of the city quickly. He'd set fire to this warehouse just before he left and leave behind ashes, and the charred remains of any human cargo he couldn't find a seller for.

***

Sunset Shimmer stood perched atop an old, rundown warehouse as she looked down onto the old warehouse that was currently holding dozens, maybe more, of people to be sold off as slaves. She found about this place a few days before when she bumped into a little ragamuffin girl who was running as hard as her little legs would carry her. The girl had told her of the bad men who had kidnapped her and her family, and had directed her to where they had been held. After dropping the girl off at a local orphanage run by Shinseist11 monks. She knew that the Black Palms were aware that she was onto them and would move soon. Tonight had to be the night that she hit their leader hard and decapitate, both literally and figuratively, their leadership. To let them get away would mean that after nine months of investigation, she'd be back a square one.

Sunset closed her eyes as she thought back to the teachings of the man who had raised her over two hundred years ago, he was once a scout for the Crab Clan named Hiruma Gosuta, but had left service to that family after suffering a disgrace and changed his name to Yodotai. She reopened her eyes and focused on the guards protecting the front door. Wait and watch your enemy. Look for a moment when they're weakest. One of the guards walked around to the side of the old warehouse and began to fiddle with the front of his kimono. When one of your enemies separates themselves from the rest, strike hard and fast before they have a chance to react or shout out to their fellows. The lessons of Yodotai rang in her head as clear now as they did all those years ago.

Sunset's fingers glowed as she prepared to strike. In a blink of light she vanished in a teleport. As she reappeared behind the guard emptying his bladder, she drew her katana and thrust forward before he could react. He let out soft gurgles as the blade pierced his throat. She quickly twisted her wrist, jerking the blade sideways and nearly severing his head in the process. With a quick slash, she severed his left arm from the shoulder as his body fell. using her magic, she levitated the severed arm, extended the hand past the corner and made it gesture for his compatriot.

Sunset stood crouched with her sword ready for a vicious thrust as she heard the crunching of the man's footsteps on the ground. As soon as the second guard turned the corner, she thrust forward with the blade. It pierced his throat and exploded out the back of his neck. Hissing gurgles and blood poured out of the man's mouth. He reached up and grabbed the blade of the sword out of instinct, as he fell backwards, it severed his fingers. A properly sharpened katana in the hands of a well trained bushi will cut through flesh like warm dumplings. Your opponents will only feel the strike if you want them to.

Sunset quickly dragged the body of the second thug into the shadows, no need to alert the criminals inside because a passerby screamed seeing a dead body. Reaching into her kimono, she pulled out a piece of chalk and walked to the front door. She quickly drew a hexagramatic spell diagram onto the door, an incomplete transmutation spell. She had learned how to draw these when she was the protege of Princess Celestia, before she stepped through Starswirl's mirror and wound up in the Emerald Empire, so making on that was incomplete was foal's play to her. When charged, the incomplete transmutation spell would begin to rearrange the atoms of the door, but being incomplete meant that when the spell's energy ran out, the atoms would jerk away from one another with explosive force.

Once the last lines of the incomplete transmutation spell had been drawn, Sunset placed her hand on it and began to charge the spell. Stepping back from the door, she raised a shield over it to redirect the outward force through the door way. That would have the added effect of shredding anybody who happened to be on the other side of the door.

*KA-BOOM*

The door exploded inwards with a shower of splinters, a blinding flash of light and a gout of superheated gases, causing the whole warehouse to tremble. Charging up a teleport, she also prepared a blinding flash spell to further blind and disorient those inside...hopefully no one or nothing would be in the exact spot she was going to re-materialize or this would be a very short and grisly teleport as she was technically going in blind. In a blink of light, Sunset vanished. As she emerged from her teleport, she released the blinding flash. She was safely inside the warehouse...so-to-speak. Her target, Toshi the Lizard and six of his goons were flailing around blindly. Quickly she sprung on them. With strikes honed by over two hundred years of practice her katana found it mark as she dispatched the goons first. Blood splashed on the timbers of the floor as intestines were spilled from bellies, arms and legs were severed from bodies, and finally heads were severed from necks.

Over the ringing in his ears Toshi heard the screams of his men as they died. Blinking away the spots before his eyes, he staggered away as quickly as he could from the sounds of steel slicing through flesh and screams of dying men. Before he could make it halfway across the warehouse, pain erupted from the back of his thighs and he collapsed to his knees.

Sunset rounded on the now kneeling Toshi and aimed the point of her katana at his throat. "If you cut a lizard's tail off, it will grow it back. I wonder if what I cut off of this lizard will grow back?"

Toshi prostrate himself before the sword-wielding woman on his hands and knees. "Please don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want! Money, drugs, gaijin pipe weed, men, women, children! Anything you want, just name it and it's yours!"

Sunset walked circles around the downed gangster. "Anything I want, you say?"

"Yes! Anything! Just name it and it's yours!"

Sunset grabbed the gangster by his hair and pulled him into an upright kneeling position. "I want your head." before he could utter another word, she swung her katana. The blade bit into his neck and passed through, causing the head to fall away from the stump and hit the floor with a thud.

Sunset unceremoniously kicked the decapitated body of the gangster to the floor. Picking up the pipe, she knocked the pipe weed out of the bowl and slipped it into her kimono. Wiping the flats of her blade on his clothes, she cleaned the blood from it and returned it to its sheath. She flipped his decapitated body and fished around inside of his clothes, withdrawing a ring of keys. She walked over to a cage, unlocked it, shoved the ring of keys into the hands into the hands of a terrified man and pointed to the head of the dead gangster. "When the Emerald Magistrates or Phoenix enforcers get here, give them his head and share the bounty between your fellow freed prisoners. This is my gift to you and the entire empire."

The scared man pressed his still chain palms together and bowed several times. "Yes! Yes! Thank you She of the Red and Gold Hair!"

Sunset simply grabbed the edge of her straw hat and tipped it to the bound slaves who were now beginning to free themselves, then walked out the door. She looked up and down the street. She could see the lights of torches, and hear shouts and the stamping of feet in the distance. She looked up at the roof of the warehouse she had teleported from and vanished in a blink of light.

Dozens of Phoenix samurai ran up to the old abandoned warehouse that was until twenty minutes prior, the front for a Black Palms Gang front for human smuggling. They looked on in disbelief at the front door that was exploded in and the now freed former human slaves that were going to be sold off that were milling about in front of the warehouse. One of the freed former human cargo placed the head of Toshi the Lizard in the hand of one of the samurai.

"Get these people some food and water!", a commander shouted.

"Make way! Make way!", an Emerald shouted as he rushed up with several scribes in tow. He gestured for one of the recently freed slaves to stand before him. "Now tell me in your own words what happened here." As the freed slave began to tell what had happened, a scribe began to quickly write down what was said.

The next mornin Phoenix samurai and shugenja12 along with a small army of the Imperial Legion13 had roped off the warehouse and were in the process of rebuilding what had happened in the moments before She of the Red and Gold Hair attacked. One of the shugenjas noticed a small amount of white dust sitting at the bottom of the door jamb, she knelt down, touched her fingers to it, smelled the substance clinging to her fingertips and tasted it. She spat out the substance before talking. "Chalk! There was chalk on this door. Did she use chalk to mark this place or was it used for something else?"

Author's Notes:

*A Li is a measurement of distance in Rokugan, about a mile

**A tetsubo is a learge, two-handed, octogon-shaped club that usually has iron studs or spikes embedded in it

***Kakita is one of the retainer families of the Crane Clan and are reputed to be the best duelists in Rokugan

****Koku is the money of Rokugan, a single koku represents a single bushel of rice

***** The Doji Family are the controlling family of the Crane Clan, descendants of the clan founder, the Kami Doji

6Otosan Uchi is the capital city of Rokugan

7Maho-tsukai are practicioners of the forbidden blood magic, Maho

8The Hiruma family is one of the retainer families of the Crab Clan

9Kyuden Isawa is the capital city of the Phoenix Clan territory

10 The Yobanjin are gaijin who live north of Phoenix lands, they were originally from Rokugan but left in the early days of the empire when they refused to bend the knee to the Kami

11Shinseism, also known as Shintao, is one of 3 religions in Rokugan, it is based off the teachings of the monk Shinsei

12Shugenja are magic users who specialize in magic of one of the 5 rings of magic(earth, wind, fired, water, void) and are considered to be part of the samurai caste, the Phoenix Clan has the largest number of shugenja

13The Imperial Legion is the military force directly under the command of the emperor

Sorry for all the annotations. I'll try to use fewer in future chapters. I wanted to make sure you all knew what things were so I wouldn't get inundated with questions in the comments section.

Legend of the Five Rings is one of my favorite fantasy settings and I decided to write my own crossover story seeing as I couldn't find one on this site.

Leave any questions, love or hate for the story, or any shade or bane in the comments down below.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you all enjoy.

A chance encounter

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After finding where on the map of the empire location of Mirror Pool Waterfall was, it took only a small amount of studying the map determine the villages closest to said waterfall: Village of the Midday Moon, Village of the Running Stag, Village of the Running Water and Village of the Red Sun. Hantei XXXVI pulled up the list of a Crab samurai from two centuries ago who became ronin, either by being stripped of their rank, title, rights and lands or by resigning their place, casting off said rank, title, rights and lands, what they changed their name to and where they moved to. He found what was the most likely candidate. One of the best scouts from the Hiruma family. His name was Hiruma Gosuta. After being ambushed by a band of the Lost1 led by a Maho-tsukai and taken prisoner. Before they could twist and pervert him, he had been rescued by a Daidoji2 who was traveling nearby and returned him to his clan. Feeling great shame at what befell him, he resigned from the Hiruma family and became a ronin. The Daimyo of the Hiruma family allowed him to keep his swords, and left open the opportunity to return to his duties with the Hiruma if he ever so desired.

Hantei XXXVI rubbed at his chin after reading that line. The Crab, despite their gruff nature and hatred of politics, were very proud. They were also fierce rivals of the Crane, said rivalry had broken out in armed conflict between the two great clans several times before. The Hiruma were a family renowned for their scouts and trackers, often employing their skills to hunt down Shadowlands creatures. So a member of the Hiruma being captured by a band of Shadowlands creatures and then being saved by a member of one of the families of the Crane would make any member of the Crab feel doubly ashamed. He mused that resigning his service to clan and family, and becoming a ronin was a bit extreme. But then again, samurai had voluntarily become ronin or committed seppuku for less.

The emperor read on. The former Hiruma scout had changed his name to Yodotai and had moved outside a village named Village Beside Still Waters that sat on the border between Lion and Unicorn lands. There it was! Hantei XXXVI had the name of the village. He quickly looked over the map of the Emerald Empire. There was no Village Beside Quiet Waters listed. He looked through the latest imperial census...no village of such name. Maybe the village was very small and was overlooked by the census takers? He searched through the census from two centuries ago. There it was, it was a very small village of only about one hundred people. So why wasn't it on the map or listed in the most recent census? It's not unheard of for people to abandon isolated villages during times of famine, plague or war. Usually when things calmed back down, they'd move back to the village. He leafed through the census. One hundred and fifty years ago the people had abandoned it when there was a conflict between the Lion and Unicorn clans when a Lion army had burned the village to the ground. For the next two censuses there had been no mention of the village. In the next census there had been a mention of people who had moved into the ruins of the Village Beside Quiet Waters and it had been renamed Butterfly Forest Village. For several censuses Butterfly Forest Village stayed in the census. Then eighty years ago it was declared abandoned.

For the next three censuses there was no mention of Butterfly Forest Village. Then it was declared re-inhabited again and renamed Village of Running Water. It remained that way all through his reign so far. He had the name of the place to start his search for her. Hantei XXXVI quickly grabbed a piece of parchment, an inkpot, a brush and wrote out an imperial summons for her to present herself before the Chrysanthemum Court. He then called for a messenger. "Go to Village of Running Water. Find out if She with Red and Gold Hair lives nearby. If she does, present her with this summons. If she does not live nearby, go to one of the other nearby villages and find out if she lives nearby. If no one knows where she lives, return to me. Have five Imperial Legionnaires accompany you as bodyguards."

The messenger took the summons, bowed low and quickly left.

Sunset was on the road back home. Her home was a small stone hut several Li east of north of Village of Running Water. She had lived in that hut for over two centuries. The man who had adopted her when she came into this world had built that hut shortly after he took her in. Yodotai had intentionally burned down his old hut and moved further to the north to where it was much more isolated.

Sunset stopped on the path that led up to her hut and fished around in her travel pack for one of the rice dumplings she had bought from an old woman selling them out of a stall on the edge of Kyuden Isawa weeks ago. Though gone stale, the dumplings were still edible, nothing that a couple of swigs from her waterskin wouldn't remedy. As she idly chewed on the stale dumpling, she thought back onto the events that had brought her to this world all those years ago.

Having grown angry at Princess Celestia for refusing to teach her any more and barred her from Canterlot Castle because she had grown too obsessed with Starswirl's Mirror, and wouldn't allow her to return to continue her studies until she had learned some humility and made some friends. For months she had snuck back into the castle to read texts in the forbidden section of the library and occasionally sleeping in the castle's crawl spaces. That's when she discovered writings of Clover the Clever and Starswirl the bearded. Their writings spoke of a strange land beyond a portal populated by strange, mostly hairless bipeds called humans living in huts made of animal skins attached to wooden frames. These humans had yellow-tan skin, dark manes atop their heads and almond-shaped eyes.

Clover and Starswirl also spoke of a strange race of snake creatures that lived in vast temple cities, along with bipedal lions, bipedal bats and bipedal rats, all living in sprawling civilizations. She decided she would go there to learn of new magics and forge her own destiny. Unfortunately it wasn't long after that that Celestia had caught her in the forbidden section of the library and officially banished her from Canterlot. But she would not be deterred. After reading up when the portal that Starswirl had contained in a mirror and how long between its openings and closings, she made her way back to Canterlot. Getting through the city was easy enough with a camouflage spell. Getting through the castle would be trickier as Celestia had wards on it that would dispel most spells. Fortunately she had memorized the comings and goings of the guards, so avoiding them would be easy enough, she'd travel through the castle's crawl spaces to avoid most of them.

Reaching the chamber that housed the mirror portal was trickier as Celestia had tripled the guards around it. Using sleep and paralysis spells, she incapacitated the guard before any of them could shout an alarm. Standing before the mirror portal, she double checked her notes. When the portal opened, there would be a shimmer of rainbow light and its surface would ripple like water. Almost as if on cue, the portal opened. Reaching out with a hoof, she grazed it across the surface, ripples of rainbow light danced across its surface. Then she heard a familiar voice behind her. Turning her head she saw Princess Celestia. The princess was begging her not to step into the portal as the land beyond was dangerous, dark things prowled it and its inhabitants were violent.

She balked for a moment. Then she saw a pair of guards leading a lavender unicorn filly out of the room. Of course Celestia had replaced her. She had been Celestia's greatest pupil and the princess has replaced her like one replaces a broken pane of glass in a window. Anger and sorrow burned in her heart. Turning away from the princess, she took a deep breath to steel her nerves and sprung forward.

Sunset tumbled through a chaotic rainbow vortex. Her body twisted and warped in strange ways. She landed in a strange realm. There were no bipeds of any kind, just stars and clouds. A strange shadowy form stalked on the edge of her vision, constantly changing shape. "Ah, another child of Celestia has come through here. The last two managed to avoid my grasp and I swore that I'd snag the next ones that came through here." Suddenly there was a bright light and a loud voice rang out. "Be gone, Lying Darkness! You drove my husband to madness, which caused my children to fall to Ningen-Do3 and lose their immortality. You'll not claim this child of Celestia."

The shape-shifting shadow left with a hiss and she found herself lifted up in a hand that shown like sunlight. She stared into a face that shown like the sun. It said nothing for several long minutes, just stared into her soul. I see. It is not solely curiosity that drives you, but also desire, anger, jealousy and sorrow. Hmm. You were sent away to learn humility. A good lesson to learn. I will not impede your journey to Ningen-Do, but I think several hard lessons in humility are in store for you. The first lesson in humility I give unto you, all who enter Ningen-Do enter naked and with no possessions."

Suddenly she found no clothes on her mostly hairless body, even her bags, money and journal that Celestia had given her many years ago were gone. The sun-like figure spoke one last time, "Be on guard, child of Celestia. The Lying Darkness has your scent and it will send its minions to hunt you."

Suddenly she found herself tumbling in cold water, it bit at her skin, and made her muscles and lungs aches. There was a light up ahead and she kicked her alien limbs to reach it. Suddenly she was in the air for a split second before plunging into water again. She flailed and kicked, but the alien nature of her body made it impossible to swim upwards. Suddenly there was above her a splash, something grabbed her by the forelimb and drug her to the surface. Sitting on the bank of the pool she had been puled out of, her body shivered from the cold as she gasped for air. She looked at the individual who had dragged her out of the pool. It was masculine and naked, except for a rectangle of cloth covering its groin. She suddenly became very aware she was naked and tried to cover her body with her limbs. He draped his kimono over her, it was many sizes too big.

Sunset paused in her reminiscing of coming to this world. Her appetite suddenly gone, she stared down at the dumpling in her hand. She crumbled it to crumbs and scattered it along the side of the road for the birds to peck at. She continued her trek down the road to her small stone hut.

After a couple more hours of walking, Sunset stood at the small gravel path that led up to her hut. She looked behind her to ensure she hadn't left a visible trail through the undergrowth. Yodotai had taught many, many years ago that Lion bushi are notoriously unkind to ronin, often attacking them on sight, sometimes killing them outright. Though her hut was technically on the Unicorn side of the border, the Lion held a strong resentment to them after the emperor had returned their ancestral lands to them when they returned to Rokugan. The villages in the area had been burned by the Lion at different times in their border skirmishes with the Unicorn.

Sunset stepped up to the door to her hut and reached inside her kimono, she retrieved the pipe she had claimed as a trophy from Toshi the Lizard. This would join the collection of trophies she had claimed from different targets she had tracked over these long years. Sliding the door aside, she made a mental note to replace some of the paper panels on it that had become damaged. Looking around, she took in the main room of her hut, it was that same as when she left all those months ago other than a layer of dust. She knew she'd have to walk the perimeter of the property later and check the preservation wards. With the damage to the paper on the door meant that a few of them needed to be re-energized.

On the rear wall there were several wooden pegs that had small trophies she had claimed from targets she had hunted. Sunset's eyes lingered for a moment on the oldest one, a tusk from an ogre she had felled on her first hunt with Yodotai. Teears stung her eyes and she clenched them shut as she remembered the day he died.

Yodotai lay on the simple hay mat that had served as his bed for the thirty years Sunset had known him. Five years ago he had developed a cough that had gradually gotten worse until two weeks ago when it became a wet, raspy, phlegmy, wheezing cough that robbed him of his strength. Now he lay on his mat, life slowly fading from him. Several times she used her magic to try and heal him, but this cough resisted her attempts. The times he had caught her trying to do so, he had harshly reprimanded her, saying, "My time is coming. When it gets here, just take me to the pool where I first found you and do what must be done."

Sunset's fingers glowed with power as she reached for his chest. She had one last gambit, she was going to forcibly pull this infection from his chest and hurl it into the fire. Yodotai's hand grasped her by the wrist. "No, Nichibotsu[Sunset]. Today is the day I go to my ancestors. Honor must be satisfied so I can greet them with my head held high."

"No, no. I can't do that. There must be another way! I can pull it out of you and cure you. I know it!"

"No, Nichibotsu, this isn't a normal infection. A Maho-tsukai had poisoned me years before I encountered you. I became a ronin to save the Crab clan from having to deal with me."

Sunset sniffled as she meekly shook her head and withdrew her hand.

"It is time. Help me to my feet"

Though being the size of an adolescent human in the world, Sunset had always been much stronger than a grown man, which had come much to the surprise of many an attacker when she easily flipped them or ripped apart their armor. So it was easy enough for her to lift Yodotai to his feet and help him to the hand cart, where she'd wheel him to the pool where she first met him.

Yodotai knelt next to the pool, brush in hand as he wrote out his death poem. Once he had finished, he folded up the death poem, pulled the katana in its saya4 from his waist and laid it at Sunset's feet.

With tears burning in her eyes, Sunset drew the katana and held it over her head gripped in both hands, ready for the final stroke in the ritual of seppuku.

Yodotai withdrew his tanto from its sheath, laid it on the ground before him, wrapped the blade in a cotton cloth and picked it up the cloth-wrapped blade in his right hand. With his left he undid his kimono and slid it off of his torso.

Sunset could clearly see the black, spiderweb-like veins on his chest, shoulders and neck and understood why she couldn't cure his illness.

Moving his right hand to the left side of his stomach, placed his left hand on the hilt and plunged it in with a grunt of pain, slicing it horizontally through his flesh.

Though she strongly disgreed with it, Sunset still respected the ritual of seppuku and she wouldn't deny her adopted father's last request to die with honor. She waited for Yodotai to double over from the pain of self-disembowelment and brought the edge of the katana down onto the back of his neck in a single swift and clean stroke, ending his pain quickly and cleanly.

It was done. Sunset's adoptive father lay dead at both of their hands. Honor had been restored to him. That didn't stop her from dropping to her knees, unleashing a primal screaming wail of sorrow and anguish while tears ran down her face in hot rivers. For a split second she thought she saw him out of the corner of her eye standing next to her, but wasn't sure if it was real or a hallucination brought on by grief. She lay her body across his lifeless form, heaving sobs.

Once Sunset ran out of tears, she warily drug herself up to her feet and walked over to the handcart, reaching for the spade to begin the grim process of burying him. Once the grave was dug, she laid his body in it, then shoveled the soil back atop it. She laid several stones atop his grave, taking the time to carve binding and dispelling wards onto them, ensuring that if a Maho-tsukai found his grave, they wouldn't be able to resurrect his body as a member of The Lost. She then shoveled more soil on top of then stones and finally planted a fir seedling at the head of the grave to serve as a marker.

Sunset picked up Yodotai's...her katana and tanto. He had always told her that the katana held the soul of a samurai. If that was true, then he would stay by her side, guiding her as long as she held the sword.

Sunset wiped the tears from her eyes, walked over to the rear wall, picked up a mallet and an awl, and drove a small hole into it. She then inserted a small wooden peg into the hole, tied a bit of twine about the pipe and hung it from the peg.

Sunset stepped back from the wall and observed it. There was a single hole that had no peg in it with a trophy hanging off of it. She had purposefully left that hole unoccupied for the only one to have gotten away. That was reserved for Miku the Bloodsinger. Miku was a Maho-tsukai that she had been hunting ten years ago when she had cornered her on the edge of the Burning Sands in Unicorn territory. She had overpowered Miku's blood magic with her own and quickly closed ranks. Just as she swung her katana to end the foul practitioner's life, strange four-armed creatures manifested out of thin air, shouting, "Kali-Ma! Kali-Ma!", whilst attacking her. She didn't know what Kali-Ma meant, surmising that these were some sort of demon and that was their word for Miku. She surmised that Miku had probably died somewhere in the Burning Sands, but with no way to confirm it, she left an empty hole in her wall as a reminder of the one who got away.

Sunset spent hours walking the perimeter of the property inspecting the wards. One had weakened, which was odd as her wards were usually good for at least a decade before needing to be re-energized. That meant someone who knew about magic had been walking in these woods, encountered one of her wards and tried to break it. She used her magic to scan the area, no sign of magic outside of hers. Whoever did this was either knowledgeable enough of Equestrian magic to attempt to dispel her or had tried to brute force their way through her ward using Ring Magic or Maho long enough ago that their magic would have dissipated back into the background. That would explain how the paper on the door of her hut, someone had attempted to dispel one of the wards, failed, left, but they had weakened it enough that a storm would have caused some minor damage.

Sunset went back along her wards, adding spell traps. The next time someone tried to dispel one of her wards, they'd receive a very nasty surprise. She was setting up a chain lightning spell strap on one of her wards when she felt eyes watching her.

Sunset turned, hand on her sword. She looked and listened. Other than the sound of her own breath and the scurrying of critters in the underbrush, the forest was silent. She remembered a lesson that both Celestia and Yodotai had taught her: The forest is only quiet when it's scared.

Sunset slowly drew her katana and got into a low crouching stance, ready for anything. Suddenly a fox leapt out of the underbrush with a trilling yip and perched on a nearby stump.

Sunset observed the red-furred canine. Normally foxes avoided people, unless they had been tamed and she had never heard of anyone using foxes for hunting or tracking. The fox was joined by another that scampered out of the under brush, then another and another and another...until eight had surrounded her in a semicircle. There was a soft light and out of the underbrush strode a woman wearing a kimono the same shade of red as the foxes. Other than the fox ears perched atop her head and the fox tail flitting back and forth behind her, she looked human enough.

Sunset widened her stance and gripped her sword in both hands, leveling the point at the fox woman. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The fox woman leapt through the air silent as a shadow and alighted on Sunset's sword light as feather. "Fear not, child of Celestia. I bear you no ill will. I come as a representative of my brethren." She gestured to the foxes. "My cousins who live in Kyuden Kitsune5 are being plagued by an old enemy of yours whom you lost in the Burning Sands when a destroyer6 leading a band sole her from your blade."

"Miku!", Sunset snarled. "She'll taste my blade this time!"

As Sunset moved her blade, the fox woman hopped off of it and landed on the ground quiet as a falling leaf. She turned to walk back into the underbrush, stopped, turned back slightly and laid a folded up piece of paper on the ground. "One of my brothers stole this from Otosan Uchi about a week ago."

Sunset returned her sword to its scabbard, cautiously walked over to the paper, picked it up and looked it over. It looked like a normal piece of paper that was folded up. She examined it with her magic, no signs of tricks or traps. Unfolding the paper, she read it. It was a summons to appear before the Chrysanthemum Court by the emperor himself, the Chrysanthemum Seal certified that.

"You may want to go as soon as possible. I hear the emperor does not like to be kept waiting."

Sunset looked up, the woman and the foxes were gone. "Just fucking great." She folded up the summons and tucked it inside of her kimono. "Well I'm not going to head out until I've had a soak and a chance to wash my clothes first."

Sunset sighed deeply as she submerged her nude form into a hot spring. She twisted her back as a grimace spread on her lips. *krk* "Ah~! Oh~!" It felt good to crack her back. She closed her eyes, lowered into the hot water and practically melted as she relaxed. It felt good to soak in the hot spring. Rokugan had no shortage of bathhouses, the people of the Emerald Empire were very astute about cleanliness and Sunset had frequented many of the bathhouses, but nothing beat soaking in volcanically heated water while the cool breezes of the evening kissed her cheeks.

*shuffle-shuffle-shuffle* *crack-snap-snap-crack*

Sunset opened an eye. There was something moving through the underbrush and it was no animal, but a person. With an aggrivated sigh she sat up in the water and moved her katana closer to her. It wasn't unheard of for a boy on the cusp of manhood to peep at women when they were bathing. It was also equally not unheard of for some crook to encounter what he thought was a woman in a defenseless situation and try to take advantage of her. If this was a little pervert, she'd humiliate him by wearing out the flat of her sword on his butt and send him away with a warning about peeping. If this was a big pervert...she'd humiliate him in a much more painful and bloody way.

Sunset slid her katana underneath a bush, then still in the water, she slid behind the bush, ducking down, watching and waiting.

Otomo Daigan, vassal of the Otomo family7 and chosen courier of Hantei XXXVI to deliver the summons to Sunset, was currently running as hard as his legs could carry him. he tripped over a stone and fell on his face. Scampering on his hand and knees for a length, he rose to his feet to start running again. That's when he saw a kimono hanging from a low tree branch, draped over nearby shrubs was a loincloth and chest wraps, and a straw hat...was a bathing woman nearby? He reached out to the kimono to check for a mon, hoping it was a traveling bushi or a vassal of a traveling bushi.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Daigan turned towards the voice. Rising out of the hot spring was a nude woman with the pale, sun-kissed skin of a gaijin, hair of red and gold fell gracefully from her head like a fiery waterfall, in her eye sockets, much to large for a gaijin, two teal eyes peered out burning with a fire that only a samurai could have, in her hand she held a katana. He could only gawk at the woman as the water streamed off of her form. Did he just luck out and find where She With the Red and Gold Hair was bathing?

Sunset pointed her katan at the gawking man and flicked the tip upwards. "Hey buddy, eyes up here! Now I'm only going to ask this once...Who are you and why are you here?"

Daigan quickly was snapped out of his gawking stupor, averted his eyes and placed a hand to prevent his eyes from wandering. "Many apologies, my good lady. My name is Otomo Daigan." He gestured a hand to the mon on his dirty and torn kimono. "I w-was sent by-uh-by the emperor, Hantei XXXVI to find She With the Red and Gold Hair to give her a summons to appear before the Chrysanthemum Court. We were three Li outside the village down below wh-when my bodyguards and I encountered what we thought were a band of bushi from the Matsu8 family. It turns out they were bandits who had murdered a group of Matsu bushi and were using the armor to waylay travelers."

Sunset rested the katana on her shoulder and smirked. Not only had she had a chance encounter earlier in the day with a shapeshifting creature that called the Fox clan cousins to tell her Miku the Bloodsinger was back in Rokugan and that she was in Fox lands, but now she had a second chance encounter with a vassal of one of the imperial families who had been the one that believed he was carrying the summons that was now sitting in her travel bag. Before she could speak, a gruff voice called out from downhill.

"I think he went this way boys!"

Both Sunset and Daigan turned their heads to the voice. She pointed to the hot spring. "Get in the water, stay low and stay quiet. I'll handle this."

Daigan looked down at his clothes. "But I'm still dre--Wah!"

Sunset grabbed Daigan by his collar and tossed him into the water. "No time! Stay down and shut up!"

Daigon sputtered an coughed as he rose out of the water. Sunset gestured for him to get down and he complied. Lowering himself into the water until it was just below his nose, she shuffled over behind a shrub to hide behind, that's when he noticed an empty saya under said bush.

Sunset turned to face the tramping footsteps coming up.

A dozen bandits wearing stolen armor from Matsu bushi trundled into the clearing that contained the hiding Daigan, the hot spring and Sunset Shimmer sans clothes. "Well, well, well, looky-loo what we got here. A pretty gaijin lady with no clothes on."

Several other bandits shouted jeers and wolf-whistled. One of the bandits, with a shocked look on his face spoke up. "Uh, -b-b-boss I think that her who done killed Toshi the--"

"Shut it, Migu. Pardon Migu. He's kinda a lunkhead. He thinks you kinda look like the lady who killed my brother Toshi the--"

"Oh I did.", Sunset replied with a vicious grin. "He begged for his life like a whelp before I took his head."

The bandit leader pointed a finger at Sunset. "Bullshit! Toshi the Lizard would never beg for his life. And I seriously doubt a little gaijin girl who plays with swords and pretends to be a bushi would ever best him."

"Oh but I did. It was super easy. I even took his pipe off of him as a trophy. Shall I fetch it for you?"

The bandit leader drew the sword from his hip. "I don't like the tone of your voice, little gaijin girl. We all know that She With the Red and Gold Hair is just a story all the big bosses tell their new recruits to keep them in line. If she were real, and she ain't, she'd be two hundred years dead now."

Sunset bowed. "And yet here I am. Look at my hair, red and gold like a flame. Look at my eyes, larger than any gaijin's. And when was the last time you've seen a gaijin with teal eyes?"

The bandit leader glared at Sunset. "It is you! You killed my brother! I, Tonshin Eagle Claw, underboss of the Black Palms will avenge--AAH!" Pain exploded from Tonshin's right elbow. She With the Red and Gold Hair had closed in on him seemingly without any movement. When he went to raise his sword, he saw that there was only a bleeding stump where his right forearm had attached to his elbow.

Sunset grabbed Tonshin by his neck, lifting him nearly a foot off the ground. "Well, well, well! I didn't think I'd run into any of you Black palm boys so soon. Figured you chuckle fucks would have scrambled down some filthy hole like filthy vermin.

One of the Black Palms bandits, armed with a spear, lowered his weapon at Sunset and charged her. She tossed Tonshin's body onto the bandits spear, stopping the charge in its tracks. In a blink of light, she vanished. A spit second later there was a flash of steel. One bandit's head fell from his shoulders and two more gripped their throats as arterial spray filled the air. As the bandit's head fell towards the ground, she kicked it like a ball, sending sailing towards the face another. He duck, but the flying head struck the face of his compatriot behind him.

Sunset sprung into action again before the Black Palms bandits could react. there was a flash of steel followed by a swift kick and a bandit's upper half of his body sailed away from the lower half of his body, trailing ropy intestines and blood. The remaining bandits finding their advantage of numbers quickly diminishing, turned to run. They froze in their tracks when she was standing in front of them. There was another flash of steel and two more of their heads fell from their shoulders.

The remaining bandits fell to their knees, holding their hands in front of them as they begged for mercy.

"Silence!", Sunset bellowed. She swung her sword, slicing the fingers from the hands of one bandit, causing to scream. "Should I show any of you the same mercy you've shown who knows how many travelers disguised as Lion samurai?!" She swung her sword again at the bandit she had just cut the fingers from, slicing off his left hand. "Maybe I should just cut you all to pieces, like I'm doing to him." She swung her sword again, cutting the maimed bandit's right hand off.

Otomo Daigan, hearing what was going on, scrambled out of the hot spring and ran to Sunset. "Wait! Wait! We should question them first. Find out where their camp is. My bodyguards are probably still alive. They're members of the Imperial Legions. But first, put some clothes on."

Sunset plunged the point of her sword into the throat of the maimed bandits. She let out a snort. "Fine." Her fingers glowed with light and bands of energy encased the remaining bandits' legs. She shrugged as she passed Daigan. "Just in case they get it in their heads to try and run."

After a few minutes sunset returned only wearing her loincloth and chest wraps. When Daigan gave her the side-eye, she simply looked at him and said, "I'm wearing clothes. What? I am. I just don't want to get blood all over my kimono. Pfft! Whatever." Her fingers glowed and she touched them to each of the bandits heads. "You are all under a spell that compels you to tell the truth. Now...where is your camp?"

Daigan was on his hands and knees vomiting. The questioning had gone as expected until Sunset had asked them about what crimes they had committed and they had told horror stories of them raping and murdering, of them abducting innocent men, women and children, and selling them to gaijin slavers or worse, it made his stomach turn. When they told of a Maho-tsukai called Fu the Bloodsinger and the profane things she had done, Sunset flew into a murderous frenzy. Though for several minutes screaming and the wet sounds of steel carving through flesh had stopped, he couldn't stop voiding his stomach.

Sunset was still huffing angrily as she cleaned the blood from her blade. She stood straight, took in a breath and blew the rage from her body. Walking over to the hot spring, she splashed water on her body to clean the blood from it, fetched her saya and returned her katana to it. She put her kimono on, made sure her sash was tightly wrapped around her waist, slipped her katana into her sash and tucked her tanto inside of her kimono. She slipped on her sandals and walked over to the still retching Daigon, nudging him with a foot. "If you're done spraying last month's porridge on the ground, get up, wash your face and rinse out your mouth. We've got work to do."

Daigan looked up at Sunset. "Why did the name Fu the Bloodsinger send you into such a rage?"

Sunset closed her eyes and took a breath. Opening her eyes, she spoke. "Ten years ago I had tracked a Maho-tsukai to the Burning Sands. I had broken her blood magic wards and disrupted her rituals, and when I was about to land the killing blow when four-armed demons manifested and attacked me. That's when she escaped. I thought she died in the Burning Sands until very recently when I learned that she had returned and is probably in Fox territory. I'm wondering if this Fu is one of her students, part of a bigger cult or a pretender to the title. I hope to find out before my sword finds her neck."

Daigan wiped the vomit from his lips. "Are you sure?"

"Mm-hmm." Sunset nodded.

"So you're going to kill this Fu if they're a Maho-tsukai?"

"Uh-yup."

"I think we should send for some shugenja."

Sunset flicked her tongue across her teeth. "It would take a week at best for one to get here and we've only got at most a couple of hours before these bandits come looking for their compatriots. When they find them and believe me, they will find them, they're going to send up the alarm." She picked up the severed heads of the bandits, tying their hair together.

"W-what are you doing?!"

"making sure they find their comrades." Sunset pressed a piece of paper into Daigon's chest. "I found this. Sorry, I opened and read it. I know it's a summons to appear before the emperor. Sorry again, just had to be sure."

Daigon looked at the summons, then back at Sunset. "Well if you know it's a summons, you should keep it." He handed the paper back to her.

Sunset took the paper and slipped it into his kimono. "You haven't delivered it to me yet." She patted him on the chest. "Just keep it right there. When the bandits and Fu are dead, and your bodyguards have been returned to you, you can present me with this summons. Not before, after. Okay?"

Daigan nodded dumbly.

Sunset smiled. "Good! Now let's go take care of some bandits and a Maho-tsukai."

It had taken Sunset and Daigan a half hour to make their way downhill. They crouched on a hill overlooking the bandit camp.

Daigan made a silent count. "That's not good. I count at least one hundred bandits in that camp."

"They're not all bandits. Some of them are undead."

"What?!"

"Keep your voice down!"

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, be quiet."

"Sorry."

Sunset sighed as she pressed her fingers to her head.

"So how do you know there's undead down there?"

"I've seen it many, many times. Maho-tsukai love creating undead bodyguards. Though not all of them are undead, many of them are The Lost."

When Dagon gave her a weird look, Sunset said with a sigh, "My adopted father was once a Hiruma scout. He taught me everything he knew about how to detect the taint and how to hunt Shadowlands creatures."

"How long ago was that?"

"Uh...lets see...give or take a couple of years? Um...two hundred and fifty-five years."

"What?!"

"Shh!"

"Sorry. It's just hard to believe. You don't look a day over twenty-two."

"Thanks."

"How is that possible?"

"Would you believe plenty of leafy green vegetables, exercise and clean living?" Sunset paused, noting the scowl on his face. "Didn't think so. Look, that's not what's important now. Just point out the last place you saw them holding yiour bodyguards and I'll work from there."

Daigan looked over the camp. "There! They held us in those cages."

Sunset looked over the cages. "Okay. I see two people in those cages. Hard to tell who they are from here. Then that would mean that Fu is most likely..." She waved her finger in the air back and forth, stopping at a crude wooden building in the center of a camp. "There."

"How can you be sure?"

"It's the most defensible location in the whole camp. It's the only semi-permanent structure in the camp. And it's the only place with a lot of guards surrounding it."

"How can you be sure? That might be a ruse to lure to it so they can trap them."

"You got a better idea where they are?" Sunset paused for a couple of seconds. "Didn't think so." She pointed at several towers scattered throughout the bandit camp. "You see those towers? If I were a betting woman, ten would get you twenty that those are alarm towers. They've probably got fireworks in those towers." She pointed off to the north. "If you see any fireworks or hear any bells from those towers, you run that way as fast as you can. There's a Unicorn garrison about one hundred Li that way. Don't stop until you reach it. Undterstood?"

"Uh...uh--"

"Understood?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Good." Sunset perked up for a minute. "Wait a minute."

"What?"

"I just saw somebody sneaking on the edge of the camp."

"What?! Where?!"

"Ssh! Over there on the far side of the camp in that copse of trees."

"Are they bandits? Did they see us?"

Sunset looked up at the sky. "I don't think they saw us, the moon's not out yet. And I don't think they're bandits, it looked like they were scouting out the edge of the camp."

"Are they bushi or are they hunters?"

"Couldn't tell. Only saw them real quick. Alright I'm about to make my way down into the camp. Stay her, keep low and be quiet. If any of those alarm towers go off, you get out of here as fast as possible and you don't stop running until you reach that Unicorn garrison."

In a faint blink of light Sunset disappeared. Daigan watched with disbelief as she reappeared on the edge of the camp in another faint blink of light. He then stared gobsmacked as she stepped through the fence like it was mist.

***

Hiruma Rokan crouched low in the copse of trees. By his side was his sister, hunting partner and biggest rival, Hiruma Hika.

Rokan nocked an arrow in his yumi. "Alright Hika, I'll take out the sentries in the nearest guard towers. You take out the sentries on the far towers and we'll work towards the towers in the middle. We'll get that Maho-tsukai that's been paying these bandits for protection for months." He drew the bowstring back to his cheek.

Hika held up a hand. "Hold! I just saw two flashes of light, one up on that hill and the other a spit second later down by the fence."

"Is it some sort of signal?"

"No. We never saw something like that in the past week we've been watching this camp."

Rokan trusted his sister's instincts. That didn't stop him from teasing his sister. He roughly jabbed his sister in the ribs as he whispered, "is this some sort of ploy to try and get more kills than me? It won't work, ya know. I'm still eight up on you." When no response came, he knew it was deadly serious and hunkered down to watch.

Rokan narrowed his eyes. "Is there a gap in the fence we didn't see before?"

"No."

"Then how did they get through the fence? Is this a shinobi or a ninja?"

Hika pursed he lips. "I've never known a shinobi to wear a straw hat."

"So we've got a ronin that has shown up?"

"Looks like it. But watch them. They move like a Hiruma."

Rokan blinked, the refocused his attention. "That can't be. There hasn't been a Hiruma that's gone rogue in over two hundred and fifty years. Has any of our scouts gone rogue?"

"Could be. But look at how they move. Either they're moving like how grandmother taught us. It's the same way her father taught her."

Rokan and Hika watched as the mysterious ronin cut away the ropes holding the cages closed that held the two surviving bushi from the Imperial Legions.

Rokan scratched his chin. "What's she leaving in those cages?"

"Looks like heads.", Hika answered. "Those heads probably belonged to the band of scouts that chased that messenger up the mountain. He must've run into that ronin and now they're helping him."

The pair watched as the mysterious ronin and the two Imperial Legionnaires stepped back through the fence.

"Are you sure there's no gap in that fence?", Rokan asked.

"Yes!", Hika hissed back. "We've been scouting out this camp for a week and the reason why we chose this side is because this morning that wild bull trampled the fence on this side."

***

Sunset had finished moving the two bushi through the fence and directed them up the hill. She began moving along the fence, the whole time keeping one eye on that copse of trees on the far side. She could feel eyes on her and knew whoever it was, they were watching her like hawks. She ducked down into a shallow depression, cast a camouflage spell and crept along the ground for several feet before drawing her tanto and cutting a gap through the fence.

Sunset slipped through the gap she had cut and slunk through the camp until she came to the bottom of a sentry tower. Gripping the tanto in her teeth, she scaled the ladder. Reaching the top, she peered over the lip of the platform. There was a sentry sitting on a stool dozing off, there was a small iron brazer by his side that held several unlit torches and a lit torch held in an iron in the post by his head.

Grasping the tanto in her hand, Sunset sprung on him before he could stir. With one hand clasped over his mouth so he couldn't scream, she plunged the knife in the other into his throat and yanked it sideways, slashing his throat open. As rasping gurgle and blood poured out of his mouth, she dragged the dying man to the foor and gave a sharp stomp to the side of his neck for good measure.

***

Rokan and Hika nocked arrows in their bows, took aim and loosed.

***

Sunset teleported behind a sentry in another tower, tanto ready to deliver a killing blow to the back of his head when an arrowhead exploded out of the back of his neck. She quickly ducked down, then rose back to her feet and shook a fist at the copse of trees. "That was my kill! Get your own!", she whisper-hissed.

***

"It looks like they're none too happy about you taking that kill.", Rokan said with a chuckle.

hika sneered as she shook her fist back at the mysterious ronin. "Well then they can find their own kills. There's plenty her to go 'round." She nocked another arrow and took aim at a bandit who was voiding his bladder by the fence. "I'll show you what you can be upset about."

When the arrow struck home, Hika the stuck her hand out of the copse with three fingers held up, mocking the ronin. She then flipped her hand around, held two fingers up in a lewd gesture and blew a raspberry.

***

Sunset watched as the arrow sailed from the copse and embedded itself in a bandit's eye who was pissing by the fence. She stomped a foot and snorted. Looking around the camp, her eyes came to rest on a tent with its flap open and a wicked thought went through her brain. She put away her tanto, drew her katana, pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at the tent. "Watch this, chuckle fuck!" She vanished in the dim flash of a teleport. A moment later she walked out of the tent, carrying seven heads by their hair.

Walking over to the fence, she tossed the heads over it and held up seven fingers. "Seven-in-one, beat that fuck stick!". she whisper-shouted. Sunset then returned the lewd gesture, blowing her own raspberry.

***

Hika ground her teeth and growled in aggravation. "Oh motherfucker, no you didn't!", she whisper-shouted back. Pulling out seven arrows, she stuck them in the ground. One-by-one she nocked and let them fly. "Four! Five! Six! seven! Eight! Nine! Te--hah! Two with one arrow! That's eleven! Eat shit, you child of a mongrel!", she whisper-shouted back.

***

Sunset gave a sarcastic clap, then shook her katana. "Not bad! Not bad! Now let's see you do that with one of these!", she whisper-shouted back. She then set off to find more bandits to kill.

***

Hika let out a low growl.

"Calm down, Hika.", Rokan scolded. "Don't let that ronin get under your skin. Remember what grandmother taught us, 'It's not about the number of kills, but the quality.' Just be glad this ronin is helping us and worry about the number later."

"But she just cut down another two I was lining up on!", Hika whined. "Fuck this!" She tossed her bow and quiver, then drew her katana. "I'm going to cut down twice as many and then kick their ass!" She charged out of the copse.

Rokan tutted as he drug his sister's quiver over. "Fine, but don't come whining to me when grandmother makes you clean the dojo from top to bottom...again.

***

Sunset had finished cutting down another bandit when a large, muscular woman came charging out of the dark, waving her sword over he head. She turned to face this new threat.

Hika stopped several paces short of the ronin, her sword at the ready. The two circled one another.

Hika looked the ronin up and down. "Wait...you're that ronin who killed that Shadowlands beast that mauled my father fifteen years ago. You're still the same. How?"

Sunset glanced left and right, taking note of the crowd of bandits who had circled them. "Save the questions for later. Let's start the count fresh and whoever gets the most kills is the winner, deal?"

Hika gave a savage smile that only a member of the Crab clan could. "Deal!"

The next several minutes the air was filled with flashes of steel and cacophony of screams as bandits died.

Sunset and Hika were gasping for air. "Twenty-two", they both said at the same time.

The door on the crude wooden hut slid open and Fu stepped out "What is the meaning of--" She froze as the two warrior women locked eyes with her. "oh shi--URK!" An arrow whistled out of the night and buried itself in her throat. Instinctively she grabbed the arrow and ripped it out, the broadhead tore the wound even wider as it came out. She clawed at the hole in her throat, gurgling and rasping and gasping as she collapsed to the ground, dying shortly afterwards.

Rokan came walking up, whistling a merry tune. Occasionally he stopped by a prone body of a bandit, checked if they were breathing...if they were, he drew his katan and dispatched them. "Twenty-six...nope, that one's dead. Ah, this one's still alive, twenty-seven. Nope, nope, nope, nope, already dead...twenty-eight. Dead, dead, dead, oh look, this one's trying to hide under the bodies of his comrades...twenty-nine. Dead, dead, dead, dead, is he...nope! Dead. I can't finish off a spree with just twenty-nine."

Hika rushed over to her brother, grabbed his lapels and dragged him over to Sunset. "Enough of your spree, Rokan! It's her! It's her"

Rokan looked Sunset over. "Well put feathers on my ass and call me an arrow, it is." He bowed low. "I promised to thank you for saving myself and my two sisters all those years ago." He pulled the yumi and quiver off his back, offering them to Sunset. "She of the Red and Gold Hair, please take this as thanks for saving my life and the lives of my sisters."

Sunset waved the bow and quiver off. "I couldn't. Please keep it for yourself."

Rokan offered the bow and quiver. "Oh, but I insist!"

Sunset waved the bow and quiver off again. "Non, no! I couldn't. You insult me with such a grand gift!"

Rokan offered the bow and quiver as a gift one last time9. "Oh but it is I who would take offense."

Sunset took the yumi and quiver. Slinging the quiver's strap about her shoulders, she drew the bowstring back to her cheek and released it. "This is a fine bow. Much thanks."

Rokan and Hika bowed low in gratitude.

Daigan strolled up with his two remaining bodyguards in tow. He stooped before Sunset, bowed and reached inside his kimono, pulling out the imperial summons. "She With the Red and Gold Hair. His most-high excellency, Hantei Genobu, Thirty-sixth Emperor of Rokugan hereby summons you stand before the Chrysanthemum Throne posthaste." He held the summons in both hands before her.

Sunset took the summons in both hands, unfolded, looked it over, refolded it and put it in her travel bag. "Otomo Daigan, please inform the emperor that I am most sorry for not being able to attend his summons posthaste as I have urgent matters in Fox territory. However once I have concluded my business there, I shall come see him." She picked up a torch from the ground, lit it from a nearby burning fire and walked over to the crude wooden hut. Looking inside, she sneered and snarled in disgust at the half-completed profane ritual. She tossed the torch inside and when the flames started to consume the half-complete ritual, she lifted the body of Fu and tossed it inside the conflagration.

As the group walked away, the mouth on Fu's dead body almost seemed to twist into an evil smile as the flames danced around her body. A moment later her flesh began to wither and twist as the fire consumed her remains.

"So the village about ten Li down the road that has this sake house. It's not the greatest. Tastes like someone pickled a dead vulture's blood and put it in a bottle, but it'll get you drunk.", Sunset said. The group with her all let out a cheer.

As the shadows danced in the light of the burning hut, a shadow in the shape of a man, blacker than the night, manifested. It observed the group as they departed, turned its attention to the south, transformed into a shadow bird and flew away, silent as death itself.

Isawa Tomoko, Master of Water, sat in her personal sanctuary in Kyuden Isawa staring into a bowl of water whose surface was smooth as glass. She was attempting to scry the future to see what the enemy had in store. The images danced before her eyes: A white horse with wings on its back, a horn sitting on its head and mane made of pastel rainbow colors blowing the the wind, sitting before a great mirror as tears flowed from its eyes. A pony with a coat the color of amber, teal eyes, a mane like fire and a horn jutting from her head, galloping down a road. The pony transformed into a woman with pale, sun-kissed skin, teal eyes that burned like coals and hair like fire. A shadowy hand reached for the woman, but was repelled. Shadowy creatures stalked the woman. The woman reached out her hand and was met with the claw of a crab, a paw of a hare, a paw of a fox, a hoof of a horse, a fiery claw of a phoenix and a scaled claw of a dragon. The imaged burred momentarily and the woman was flanked by six figures, an army to their backs. The images blurred again. A ship constructed of corrupted timbers and manned by a crew of skeletons, commanded by a woman who appeared to be singing a maddened song as she held a bloody knife over her head. Blighted winds blew into the tatter sails of the corrupted ship. On the distant horizon a massive four-armed beast stood, summoning all sorts of vile things to itself.

The images blurred again and the woman with fiery hair stood tall before an army of skeletons and zombies, bearing a sword over her head. Armies clad in blue, red, gold, green and silver armor stood behind her. Again the images blurred and the woman with fiery hair stood upon a burning battlefield, wounded and bleeding, armor hewn, but not giving ground or wavering, before a great four-armed beast.

Isawa Tomoko blinked her eyes and the water in the bowl began to steam and boil. She wrote down what she saw. In the street below a man dressed as a beggar, in rags of purple and black, stared up at the sanctuary, scratching his chin in thought. Something was off...had been off for some time. Over two centuries ago an outsider had entered into the world, one that was his to rule by divine right and had somehow managed to evade all attempts to divine her. He thought that being close to one of the elemental masters would grant him some sort of insight...but he knew all too well that the powers in Jigoku were fickle. For the longest time he had searched for black scrolls, but to no avail. Now far across the Burning Sands, a dark entity was beginning to make moves to claim his throne. But again the powers that be in Jigoku were fickle. A figure wearing a fanged mask manifested behind him and whispered something into his ear. He looked to the south and scowled. The two faded away like mist in the sunlight.

Author's Notes:

1 The Lost are samurai who have been twisted and warped by Shadowlands taint until they are mockeries of their former selves, many of their ranks are made up of undead samurai who are resurrected by Shadowlands taint or Maho. All Lost abide by a twisted code of Bushido.

2The Daidoji are a vassal family of of the Crane Clan. They are the most militant of the families of the Crane, and are known for training yojimbo(samurai bodyguards) and make up the largest part of the Crane armies.

3Ningen-Do is the realm of mortals.

4 A saya is the sheath or scabbard that a katana sits in.

5Kyuden Kitsune is the home of the Fox Clan, a minor samurai clan and the oldest minor clan recognized by the Emperor

6The Destroyers are worshiper of the goddess of destruction, Kali-Ma, in the Ivory Kingdoms(l5r India)

7The Otomo family is one of the imperial families and generally the family the siblings of the Chrysanthemum Emperor joins when he/she ascends the throne. It was done to prevent the siblings of the emperor from attempting to overthrow the emperor. The Otomo family are generally imperial courtesans.

8The Matsu family is one of the vassal families of the Lion clan, known for their fierce temper and their berserkers.

9In Rokugani society, any gift must be offered thrice and refused twice or it is considered inconsiderate insincere and rude.

Sunset of the Emerald Empire

by sykko

Hearing the stories of She with Red and Gold Hair

A chance encounter