Setting the hook.

[Kakita Sojiro]

The sun set red on the waters, the natural beauty of the sea enhanced in some twisted way by the flames devouring a large ship bearing the blue Tortoise mon on black and gold sails. Some distance away, three smaller, faster ships of the Mantis design sailed off in the distance. Survivors desperately clung to wreckage floating in the waves, the pirates having taken their capacity of the cargo and crew of the burning Tortoise ship and then leaving the rest to whatever fate may find them. By morning, other Tortoise ships would arrive to rescue them, but not before half had succumbed to wounds, exhaustion, or shock. It had been the third such attack that year.

Two months later....

Hyobe Kokatsuna strode down a hallway below a certain warehouse on the shore of the Golden Sun Bay. His careful, measured steps echoed down the subterranean hallway, hidden beneath the warehouse from prying eyes. The stone ceiling had a foot of sand and earth between it and the stone floor of the warehouse proper, preventing sound from reaching the surface. He passed bamboo doors on either side of the hallway.

Kokatsuna was dressed in a white kimono matched with a blue-black hakama and haori, both trimmed in gold. The mon of the Tortoise adorned the right side of his haori. Strapped across his back was a set of strangely shaped swords.

At length, he reached a chamber at the end of the hallway guarded by two Tortoise samurai. They bowed as he approached and followed him into the room. Inside, chained to the wall, was a man wearing tattered and dirty Mantis colors. Dried blood trailed from an obviously broken nose as the man looked up when the door opened. Both eyes were black, the left one nearly swelled shut.

"Yoritomo-san, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Kasuga Kokatsuna, of Hyobe." He bowed.

"You should refer to me as sama, you honorless, gaijin loving swine. Do you have any idea who I am?"

Kokatsuna feigned a look of surprise. "I thought you were a Yoritomo! A thousand apologies if I have used the wrong name to address you, Mantis-san, but pirates all look the same to me."

"If you release me now, my clan will only take the lives of you and your immediate family as payment for this outrage, instead of making the entire White Stag peninsula run with Tortoise blood."

Kokatsuna ignored the Mantis's threats, continuing on with his "apology" as if nothing had happened. "No, I couldn't possibly be mistaken. You are Yoritomo Isamu, captain of a small detatchment of Mantis vessels attached to First Storm, and responsible for the sinking of a nearly unarmed Tortoise merchant ship two months ago." The apologetic manner vanished as Kokatsuna's grey eyes hardened. "And the loss of over half of the crew and passengers on that ship. Don't look so surprised, Yoritomo-san. Pirates have to sell their loot somewhere after all, and merchants... well, let's just say that Tortoise clan intelligence is rarely incorrect."

"Smuggler scum. The lives of eta and criminals are of no consequence to the honorable citizens of the Empire."

Kokatsuna said nothing. He merely extended his hand. One of the guards produced a bamboo shinai and handed it to him, handle first. Kokatsuna hefted it a few times, feeling its weight in his hands. He turned his back on Isamu, taking two steps as he spoke. "We are going to have a conversation about piracy, Yoritomo-san, but first...YIIITSS! - " He spun, bringing the shinai down across the chained man's face with a kiai shout and all of his strength. the harsh crack of bamboo on flesh echoed down the hallway, "I will advise you to adjust your opinions of the peasants of my clan. Am I understood?"

Fresh blood ran from Isamu's nose, a bright red welt running from his left temple to the right corner of his mouth showing the path the shinai had taken across his face. The mantis coughed and then spat out a tooth.

"Now. In addition to the assault you led, there have been two other Tortoise ships raided and sunk by Mantis pirates this year. I want to know who led those attacks, Yoritomo-san. It would make me very happy if you would reveal this information to me."

Isamu said nothing. Instead he spat a mouthful of blood onto his captor's hakama. Kokatsuna sighed.

"And I tried so hard to be polite, too. Very well, have it your way, Yoritomo-san. Sano-san, bring in the first mate. Gag him first." One of the guards bowed and left without a word.

[Kakita Sojiro]

A few minutes later, Sano returned, dragging another bedraggled Mantis behind him. He quickly and efficiently set the gagged man into another set of manacles on the wall.

"Ah, Kitsune Aito-san. A pleasure to meet you. I am Kasuga Kokatsuna of Hyobe. Yoritomo-san and I were about to have a conversation about recent acts of piracy, but he seems to have become rather rude and uncooperative in the past few minutes."

"Don't tell this eta-bedding slime anything, Aito! He's -" Isamu's tirade was cut off as Kokatsuna centered, inhaled, and then brought the shinai down on the crown of his head with a sharp exhalation. The bamboo sword snapped in two from the impact, and a few more shards of teeth fell from Isamu's mouth as the top and bottom of his jaws were violently forced together from the strike. Kokatsuna calmly picked a few slivers of bamboo from the broken end of the shinai that he was still holding.

"Yoritomo-san, I have gone out of my way to be polite to you, and you will return that courtesy to me while you are enjoying the hospitality of the Tortoise. Am I understood?"

Isamu, barely conscious, said nothing.

"No no, this simply won't do, Yoritomo-san! You had all night to rest. Right now, I want answers to my questions." He calmly walked over to the wall where Isamu's wrist was restrained, took the middle finger on the Mantis's right hand, extended it, and shoved one of the bamboo splinters underneath the fingernail. Isamu screamed, suddenly conscious again. Aito made a gagging noise as his eyes widened and his skin took on a greyish hue.

"I apologize if this has been a tiring experience, Yoritomo-san. Simply answer my questions and we can be done with it. Now, what are the names of the other two captains who attacked my clan's ships?"

Blood ran down Isamu's face, staining what was left of his clothes. "Do you think I'm going to betray my clan to a motherless pig raping bastard like you? You've now violated the imperial laws against torture. You'll hang in the street."

"Ah yes, imperial law. It's a wonderous thing, isn't it? Keeping the celestial order in balance and preventing atrocities and dishonorable actions throughout the empire. There is only one problem with imperial law, Yoritomo-san." At this, Kokatsuna grabbed the embedded splinter, shoved it down and into the nail bed at a 45 degree angle, and then levered it in the opposite direction, ripping Isamu's nail completely free from his finger and sending it across the room. The bloody nail landed in front of Aito as Isamu howled. "Imperial law requires someone to report that it was broken before anything can be done to enforce it, Yoritomo-san. You have no means of doing this. Now I, on the other hand, have the survivors of three sunk ships to bear witness to Mantis military aggression against my clan, should we decide to take this to the imperial courts. Do you know what will happen when the courts discover that the Mantis has broken the law against a great clan attacking a minor clan?"

"Sano-san, Gouki-san, bring them. Keep them quiet." Kokatsuna turned and walked out, the two guards leading the prisoners along behind him. Aito's eyes were still wide, and stayed focused on the bloody finger nail until he was removed from the cell. Kokatsuna led them all through a series of underground passages, finally arriving at a staircase that took them up into the basement of another warehouse. A large and rowdy crowd could be heard above them, as well as what sounded like combat. "Clean him up and take him to the proprietors. Make sure he has his weapon, people will be more likely to bet on him if he's armed." Sano and Gouki bowed and hauled Isamu through a side door. Kokatsuna turned to Aito.

"Kitsune-san, I sincerely hope our time together is more pleasant than the time I spent with your captain. Please, come with me. I have arranged special entertainment for you." He removed the man's gag before leading him up another few flights of stairs, to a private booth overlooking the floor of the warehouse.

Below them, men fought against each other for prize money, often to the death. The corpses of three Mantis sailors lay bleeding out on the sand floor while the crowd, standing on a platform above the sandy arena, shouted and jeered and placed bets on who would be victorious in the coming bout. Aito gasped, recognizing the bodies of his crew mates. At length, a new fight was announced and Isamu, his face cleaned and stripped naked to the waist, was shoved out into the middle of the sand pit. Across from him was a masked mountain of a man in Crab colors, armed with an equally massive tetsubo. Somewhere above them all a gong was sounded, and the Crab rushed forward. The fight was quick. Isamu tried to defend himself, but wielding his katana one handed, and in his left hand at that, he really had no chance. The Crab batted the katana aside, breaking the Mantis's arm in the process, and then buried the tetsubo in Isamu's face. A second blow to the back of his head after he had fallen confirmed the kill. Mantis blood and other fluids drained away into the sand.

"As you can see, I don't stand by traditional executions, Aito-san. I prefer to give men a chance to fight back, and to provide me with a chance for profit. You wouldn't believe the money paid for seats here when our patrons discovered that the Mantis crew responsible for one of the attacks was going to be fighting. It's rare that we have fights to the death, but the people get what the people demand. However, being the businessman that I am, I've kept the rest of our prisoners back for future showings. I expect profits to be just as high on those nights." His grey eyes narrowed a bit as realization dawned on Aito's face, and the Tortoise smiled. "If I remember correctly, your younger brother Waku was on that ship with you, wasn't he? How very, very fortunate that he wasn't in the ring tonight, as it seems to have been a very bad night for your clan."

The Crab paced the sand pit, raising his tetsubo above his head and shouting to the crowd. Eta scurried forward from under the stands to remove the Mantis corpses. They had to use a shovel to clean up what was left of Isamu's head.

"Now, on to the matter at hand. I want you to do a few favors for me, Aito-san."

"But I don't know who the other Captains are, Kasuga-sama!"

"I understand that, Aito-san. You are only a first mate, after all. That is why I am willing to make a deal with you." Another Mantis was led out to the pit, this time facing a man in Lion colors. "You are going to return home, the sole survivor of what you will tell your Daimyo was a Scorpion attack on your ships." The Lion, obviously far more skilled than his opponent, toyed with him by carving off small pieces as he blocked or dodged the Mantis's clumsy attacks - an ear here, a finger there.... "You will then return to me in one month's time, with the names of the other two captains. In return for this, your brother will not find his way into the pit fights, will be released to you when you bring me the information that I require, and the Tortoise will not take this matter of military aggression against a minor clan to the Imperial courts. Do you understand?"

The Lion removed his enemy's left leg at the knee. The crowd cheered wildly.

"Wha... the Scorpion?"

"Yes, the Scorpion. And one other thing, Aito-san. If you should fail to do these things, or choose to reveal the arrangement that we have come to - and I WILL know, Aito-san - I will see to it that you are here to personally witness your brother's punishment and execution, before the combined might of the rest of the great clans of Rokugan punishes your clan. And then I will turn my attention to you. Do you understand?"

The Lion, tiring of his game, flicked the tip of his katana across the throat of his victim, creating a spray of Mantis blood that brought the crowd to their feet. Aito swallowed hard.

"When do I leave, Kasuga-sama?"