Shattered Shackles

[Bayushi Senshi]

Rin bore Senshi to the City of the Lost, and as she did so, an armored and tired Senshi thought about the trip south from his lands.

When Senshi reached Ryoko Owari Toshi he was found first by Shosuro Nori. She was shamed by her actions, and asked to take her own life before her champion. Senshi, could care less. He felt that all she was doing was obstructing his search for his beloved. But then he remembered, Nori served Haruka first.

Senshi's judgement came only at the cost that Nori tell him everything, and she did. Senshi watched as she slit her throat in ritual suicide. And then he thought about loyalty and duty. He thought about it so long he failed to assist in Nori's death, and she choked slowly on her own dirty blood. Fitting enough, Senshi thought.

He stopped back in Kyuden Bayushi briefly, meeting a very terrified Yogo aid he had summoned before he left the city for Ryoko Owari Toshi, then continued southward.

He had trouble passing through Crab lands, but he still had enough friends in high places that he was able to pass the wall unhindered. He made a mental note to thank Hida Setsuro for that, too.

Senshi had been here before, but always in force. Now he came alone, and with his wife's war horse, serving only his own needs and desires. And he was ready for blood.

[Zeure]

Meanwhile, in a distant and reclusive part of the city of the lost, Yun was in the middle of his instructions to Bayushi Haruka in the ways of Maho. There was a man there, bound and gagged; ready for her to practice on. Yun had just handed her a scroll that bore the instruction for the spell. Most people knew that anyone was capable of casting maho, from the highest shugenja to the lowliest peasent, and all they needed to cast the spells was to know what words to chant and to pay the price of it, in blood; a sacrifice to the ancient source of the power.

"Haruka, dear, now here is how it works. You say these words. Cut either yourself, or that man over there and then you make his lung collapse. He won't die from it, but it will be obvious what happened; and as soon as you release the spell, he will recover from it. The more you cut, the more blood you spill, the more powerful the effect will be; which you must always keep in mind. Some spells, particularly your opening shots can end battles quicker if you sacrifice a little more blood to power it from the get go. But be conscious of how much you are sacrificing, so that you don't bleed yourself to death or unconsciousness."

The man wriggled at the sound of Yun's voice, and his thrashing became more apparent when he heard what the spells intended affects were.

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka's eyes narrowed as Yun continued to explain. Gently her fingers began to unfurl the scroll, letting the hardened ends rest in her hands as she began looking over the words. She'd seen spell scrolls before, but there was something far simpler about what she was reading only further proving the point that anyone could really be capable of maho.
She studied the scroll for some time as she attempted to begin memorizing the words, allowing them to pour over her mind as the intended effects became attached to the memory of it all.

Her eyes then lifted up to the man bound in place before her, looking frantic as ever as she appeared to be following Yun's commands to the letter. But her posture changed then, suddenly going slack in some dismay. Her tone reflected this as she grew irritated with the test before her.

"What use is there in bringing harm onto an innocent man. What purpose does this serve if I need only study the words to bring the necessary spell into force, Yun?

I've already proven I am capable, there is no sense in simply producing mindless suffering. This serves no true point besides bringing me further into the darkness." Her words were piercing and to the point, rounding out her statement she turned to face Yun to hear his explanation. Haruka's renewed strength made her wary once again and far less pleased about the prospect of merely becoming an instrument of the taint.

[Bayushi Senshi]

In his current tactical state, alone and with only one arm, Senshi knew he would have to operate with silence and precision. He mused to himself that a year ago, he would have balked at the idea. But now everything was cold calculated precision. He stuck to the lost city's perimeter, getting a feel for its defenses and routines. Such knowledge would be invaluable to any infiltration.

Every once in a while he would stop, walk pack to where he had left Rin to her own devices, and relocated her to within an easy reach of his next viewpoint. As odd as it seemed, Senshi trusted the steed to protect itself from all the dangers in the shadowlands, but only so much that he could reach her at a moments notice. When he struck, he needed to be sure all options were available to him.

Senshi uncorked a bottle of water, and sipped on its pure contents. He frowned as he noticed in how bad a shape his armor was in, but thought better of cleaning it right then. It was better that it was dirty, made him harder to spot. He reached back into his pouch and pulled out an oddity from his past, a gaijin tool he had collected once from a prominent Kitsuki courtier. An extendable eyeglass, he peered through it, taking in the sights, and noting everything he saw. His glass stopped over the sight of a bound and struggling man.

Senshi made a mental note of the difficulty to reach such a secluded spot, and traced his vision along the most accessible path, then refocused on the events unfurling.

[Zeure]

Yun's eyes continued to burn that bright green that they had taken to doing on a near constant basis now, and the look was patient, passive, in response to her curt statements. He used his hands to emphasize his points while he spoke:

"Because, Haruka, this spell will test your mastery over control. This is not a brute force attack. You will get the feeling for maintaining control over a spell, concentrating on it, and releasing it. And I can't teach you with a spell that is not Maho because you are unable to speak with the kami. Believe me, I would if I could. But this is something you have to learn."

He crossed his arms after he was done speaking and looked at her and at the man.

"If you want, I could get an animal for you to practice on. Would it be better for you to bring down a horse using this spell? That would roughly be appropriate in size for you to test on. However, I thought that would be more problematic for you?"

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka looked very displeased with Yun's response. Her jaw tightened a bit as she looked slowly back over the bound man. This push on Yun's part was rather bold and starting to urk Haruka into action, as frankly there was some insult to her capabilities.

"It seems clear to me that this man might as well be a beast of burden to you."
There was actual anger behind her eyes now, being unable to find the answers she wanted to walk away from this situation. "And what other tests will lay in wait beyond this one?"

Feeling as though she had few choices though, she packed the scroll at her side and drew out her wakizashi. There was a much more predatory feature to her gaze as she started to encircle the bound man, contemplating just how she might extract the blood from him.

"What bothers me the most... is how soon that you're willing to throw power around. A student in the Utaku dojo would have to train for years without ever feeling the sensation of a horse beneath her, taught to visualize the strike and shown to make the weight and movement of a weapon one with her own motion without ever drawing blood."
The unspoiled steel of the blade rested on the shoulder of the bound man, preparing for a strike that would draw much blood from next to his neck. A painful but non-lethal strike from her experience. Haruka only hesitated once more to look at Yun, having no mask to obscure her expression her displeasure couldn't be doubted for even a second.

"You're far too eager to have someone sink their teeth into these dark arts without the true knowledge to help control and maintain such power. It's not a wonder to me why the maho-tsukai are such a chaotic and disorganized rabble of power hungry fools who care nothing but for the needs and wants of themselves."

Haruka's eyes rested then, trying to steady her mind and make another unseen decision there and then.

To take the blood of another helpless being...
To do so would be no better than Rashiru herself..
She growled with displeasure.
If this is the only test of my strength, then so be it. But I shall not be the same demon that she was. It will be my sacrifice that lets this man find his death.
As it should be.

Her eyes coming open as she waited for Yun's response. She wore a glare, but a calm and most collected expression that was worn into her being from the sheer endurance she retained.

[Bayushi Senshi]

He knew it was her. The second she stepped in front of his view, obscuring the bound man, he knew. There could be no other possibility. That was Haruka. That was his wife. That was her wakizashi. He saw her hesitate with the blade. Her blade. Her badge of her class. Her tool for sepukku if she felt so dishonored. That was no mere blade that she seemed to be wielding, that was a shard of her soul, of her honor.

Did I do this, was his first bizarre thought. He pushed the damaging thoughts from his mind as he raced back to where he had left Rin. She had noticed his urgency the second he stood up, and closed the distance between them. Using a trick Haruka had taught him, he mounted Rin while they were both moving.

Only while riding along the secluded path he had memorized did he chastise himself for being a such a fool to trust her with so severe a responsibility. Never use resources you are not prepared to lose. His older brother's chastising words, echoing back to him from years before his death. How could Senshi have been such a fool to offer up his own wife to the task?

Nearing the destination, Senshi cleared his mind again, and tried to slow Rin's pace. Rin would have none of it, so instead he brought his body lower and encouraged her to go faster. This command she happily obliged.

[Zeure]

Yun placed his nose in the crook of his forefinger and thumb, rubbing the bridge a pensive sort of way. He closed his eyes to try and let go of some of what was going through his mind.

"And, Haruka, as I've stated before, you do not have to learn any of this. If you want to learn the only way to do so is through practical application. I require none of this from you. I don't need for you to know Maho, I don't need for you to follow this path. All I have ever needed in any of this is you to be with me, and for me to be with you. If you don't want to do it, then don't. It's that simple. I'll have the men who carried that man in, come and take him away again."

He dropped his hands to either side of his body and looked across at her. His tone was all serious, but calm; as was his face. His words and the look that he was giving her told the story the same.

"But, if you do want to learn, I know how to teach you. And, frankly, I'm trying to spare you some of those types of lessons that you mentioned, because, as you said earlier... the more you "practice" the more taint you will receive. I won't have you practice blood strikes on targets, it's silly and it's too dangerous. I purposefully gave you a spell that would not kill, I purposefully made sure that it was not of a high enough mastery that you would have to spill a lot of blood, so you would not receive a lot of taint for performing it... I'm trying to limit the factors of it as much as I can.

He advanced past her and towards the opening that would let him out of the courtyard, but stopped and turned to face her again.

"Shall I have them come in and take him away?"

[Bayushi Senshi]

And suddenly there was Senshi. Astride an Utaku steed that Haruka knew very well. It reared up behind Yun, anxious to get to Haruka, as Senshi stared at her over his cowl. He was in his armor, and it was filthy, but wore no helmet. There were rings under his eyes, and his hair was caked with mud.

Despite his tarnished appearance and his missing arm, he looked absolutely majestic. He said nothing, and when Rin came down from her hind two legs she charged past Yun, nearly knocking him to the ground. Senshi came off the horse and walked toward his wife. He drew the ancestral blade Churetsu, and approached Haruka. "I came for you, just like you asked."

[Bayushi Haruka]

While Yun was talking, Haruka had eased her stance somewhat, looking into Yun's eyes with some disbelief as to what she was hearing. This sudden willingness to allow her such leeway.

But that was all shattered the moment a silhouette of a horse rearing behind Yun came into her view. Haruka's blade moved off the man as she gasped. She wanted to move and push Yun out of the way but was far too slow. No normal horse could move with such speed and hostility, it was with these familiar devastating features that Haruka immediately knew.

Yun was pushed out of the way as Rin came down, thankfully her only real desire was to get to her. But as she did, the man who carried her came into view, and Haruka's eyes went wider than ever before.
For a moment that seemed to last a lifetime she froze, her eyes tracking the movement of that blade being drawn. She could feel the sweat bead on her neck as the realization became clear, all she had to defend herself with was her wakizashi.

Senshi's words failed her, as she practically lept back from them both to gain enough distance away from Churetsu as she could. Haruka knew though that this was a temporary solution as Senshi's power with a blade was unmatched, even with only one arm. Tension rippled through her body as she held up in a defensive stance, but as calm and collected actions did not help to subdue the fear in her eyes and that horrifying sensation of remembering how it felt to have Churetsu rend her entire form.

When nothing happened, her anxiety grew, even Rin was growing rather alert and upset as she saw Haruka this way. Her ears went flat and she ignored Yun's presence all together in order to charge over and come to Haruka's side. Standing behind her and giving the sensation of having a comrade at her back, in inadvertently stopping Haruka's retreat.

This sensation of not being able to escape, not being able to run was all too familiar to her now as the wounds of her mind began to unravel. The words that escaped her were piercing as they left her.

"No! NO! Not again, I will not lie down and die for you, not for anyone!"
Her hands changed and the sword shook as she held it with such vigor that her knuckles went white as bone. Haruka's eyes only left Senshi in order to search around for a moment at a time to see where Shoju might appear to speak his hateful words to her. Her entire form shook in fear.

[Zeure]

Yun would have normally been very aware of his surroundings and not been so surprised by the, apparently, ninja trained horse behind him that reared. As it stomped down he rolled out to the side away from it's path. Displaying a reflexes that one would not normally expect from a shugenja. He came up with a scroll in hand, one that was distinct, yet unfamiliar, something that Haruka had never seen before, something that Yun had not used in a while. The tips of which were black and sharpened... and bloodstained from use.

He sliced his palms across these built in razors as he unfurled the scroll and he put his palm down on the paper. Writing that had been put there with a definite placement for his palm, began to glow. And something like a black hole formed on the scroll, but rather than sucking things in, it was delivering something out. A huge man, clad in red and gold armor bearing a katana came out of the void and landed on the ground with a small gust of air escaping from the ground where his feet displaced the dirt.

This man was very familiar to Yun, it was someone that he had grown up with, someone that had come after him when he departed for the shadowlands. The entire left side of his face was a tattered hunk of flesh, not concealing the bone at all, the one good eye and the socket missing it's counterpart both glowed with that same eerie green light that Yun's eyes did. The armor, which was unmistakeable as Shiba armor, clinked as he adjusted for a second before drawing his katana. He took up a defensive stance, but seemed ready to strike. He did not speak, but Yun did.

"Bayushi Senshi, leave and I will not have to kill you. Haruka has made her choice and wants none of you."

[Bayushi Senshi]

Senshi's head was on a swivel, taking in all of the information he could. Here, being unaware would mean your death. He approached Haruka slowly, cautiously, but turned his blade to face the former Shiba.

He made a mental list of things he determined were important:
1. That Haruka was deranged, potentially corrupted, not a prisoner.
2. That two hostile entities were aware of him
3. That Rin was protecting Haruka
4. That an escape would be fast and easy, with both astride Rin.

He turned his body to fully face the two threats, "Haruka, I need you to focus and listen. Remember your courage, Rin will help you as she did me. Get on the horse." The last was said as a command. He was trying to appeal to her inner subconscious desire to uphold the tenets of Bushido.

Senshi did not turn to see if she was on the horse, but listened for it instead. He looked at Yun, "You are not Shoju."

[Zeure]

Yun circled around behind Bob, so that he was not blocking the horse's path, and he wasn't standing directly in front of Senshi. He felt that he was outside Senshi's reach, and that his reflexes would protect him if he needed to move fast away from a strike.

"No, I am not Shoju. I'm not that insane nor am I that possessed by vengeance. But I bear you no love and my offer is only for a limited time, murderer. The souls of the snake cry for your blood."

Yun was bleeding from summoning his champion out of the scroll. He took stock of how much and what spells he would be able to cast without further injuring himself. He checked Haruka and saw her still trembling and pointing the blade at Senshi.

[Bayushi Senshi]

Calmly, coolly, far more so then he felt, he repeated, "Get on the horse, Haruka."

He gave Yun his full attention again. "You are bleeding," He said, matter-of-factually. His eyes ever vigilant picking up far more details then he would actually say. His words with Yun were short and to the point, yet carried a lot of significance when he said them, each thing he said demanding a response.

[Bayushi Haruka]

Senshi turned his back on Haruka, she seemed to do a double take as her eyes blinked and followed his movement. The undead man added to the fray made her tremble all the more. This only further agitated Rin as she tossed her head and pawed at the ground with every desire to run.

Part of Haruka wanted to run away from it all and disappear, but the rest of her was petrified, unable to pull her gaze away from the situation. Her fingers ran up behind on her horse, finding the grip of the saddle as the leather was something familiar. This was her saddle, the one she'd been raised on and that had carried her through war and peace. Haruka's senses started to return as the breath of her steed filled her ears and that sensation of something welcome and familiar gave her strength.

She followed Senshi's orders instinctively and pulled herself around quickly and up onto Rin's back. Her skill had not faded as she finally sat astride a horse for the first time in months, her hands finding the withers and feeling the power under her once again.
But this was what Rin wanted as she tossed again, but Haruka's grip stilled the rampaging mare. Her blade relaxed at her side as Rin took a few steps with the built up agitation, her new seat allowing her the chance to see over the entire situation. This would also be the first time Yun had ever seen the woman on horseback.

Haruka's eyes were still tense as she took in the scene, uncertain of what would come next.