L5r - scroll 05 - The Crab (31 page)

Reaching down and removing the creature's masked helmet, Kisada gasped as he saw the badly decayed but still recognizable features of his old friend, Hiruma Waka.

"You are a better samurai than I," Kisada said solemnly. "You do not let anything prevent you from your duties. Even in death you protect my life."

The undead Waka had suffered wounds grievous enough to kill any living man, but it was already trying to scramble back to its feet. Kisada handed it the rusted no-dachi.

"Thank you, my friend," Kisada said as the zombie shuffled off to find more Lion warriors to attack.

"Father!"

Kisada turned to see Yakamo.

"The Lion are routed. Nothing stands between us and the city!"

The Great Bear smiled and looked up to the ridge where Matsu Tsuko sat astride her horse. With a brief gesture, he sent the Lion Champion a salute—she would likely interpret it differentiy—and turned toward Otosan Uchi.

FORBIDDEN CITY

I have seen this before." Kisada stood at the Fudotaki Gate at the threshold of the Forbidden City. Over his shoulder he could hear the roar and feel the heat of Otosan Uchi in flames. The fires were not nearly as bad as during the Scorpion Coup, and the Crab and Lion forces ceased their hostilities to put them out before they could get any worse. At least that much was an improvement over the Bayushi debacle. This was a battle for the soul of the empire, not a petty feud over geography.

There were other differences. The gate was barred, but no imperial troops manned the Wall. Kaiu Utsu's troops set up their battering rams without a single arrow fired at them, never having to worry about boiling oil raining down from above. The walls were still sturdy, but the gates fell quickly to the efficient work of the Crab siege master.

"The last time I came here we failed to secure the empire's future," the Great Bear grumbled to

himself as he watched the gate fall. "Removing Bayushi was the easy part. We failed to place a strong emperor on the throne. We let the weak son of a feeble dead man take the reins of power, and every Rokugani has suffered for that mistake. Today, I will make things right."

He stepped through the gaping hole Utsu provided and once again trod the hallowed soil of the Forbidden City. The grounds were like a garden, with strategically placed buildings here and there. The Forbidden City was home to the extended imperial family and hundreds of servants and guards. People came and went at all hours of the day.

Now, though, the grounds were eerily silent. Birds chirped in the elms and sandalwood trees, but the only other sound was the crackle and pop of buildings burning outside the walls. The Forbidden City seemed completely abandoned.

"Where is everyone?" Yakamo asked, more disappointed than intimidated by the incredible silence.

"They're here," Kisada said, "but they know they can't beat us."

"Cowards!" shouted Yakamo shaking his claw toward the Imperial Palace. It stood towering over the gardens, indeed over all of Otosan Uchi. From this perspective, trees blocked out all other structures. The palace appeared to be the only building for miles.

"Oh, they will fight," Kisada chuckled. "These Seppun are not like the other clan samurai. They are more like us. They have only one job—to protect the emperor. They will do
whatever
it takes to stop us. Gather all the men under your command, my son. This is where we test our karma!"

Yakamo grunted.

"And what of my troops?" asked Utsu, a twinge of insult showing on his face. Were his troops not good enough to walk inside the Imperial Palace?

Kisada smiled. "A task for which they are well suited—climb the walls and keep the enemy out!"

Utsu barked a laugh that spread among his troops.

xxxxxxxx

"Father! Behind you!" shouted Yakamo.

The Great Bear raised his tetsubo and whirled.

A samurai dressed all in white stepped into plain sight, katana in hand. The Seppun knew the palace better than anyone. This one had hidden herself in the shadows behind an ancient folding screen and waited patiently for Kisada to pass. She had allowed several other Crab samurai to go by without making a move, but the second she recognized the Crab daimyo, the Seppun stepped free and launched herself at his throat.

Her katana clanged off the Great Bear's club, but the odd angle of the blow knocked him off balance. The Seppun pressed the attack.

Only then did Kisada realize she was not alone. Other Seppun appeared from hiding places all around. The entire length of this hallway was one tremendous ambush, and his troops had walked right into it.

Fighting inside a building, even one as large as the Imperial Palace, was much different than fighting on a battlefield. It called for different formations, strikes, and focus.

The samurai-ko harried the Great Bear with a flurry of quick strikes. None got through his defenses, but the combination kept the Crab on his heels, unable to counterattack. One tetsubo blow would take the Seppun out of the fight, but the great club was not made for fighting in such close quarters. The walls were too close for wide patterns that kept opponents at arm's length, and the ceiling was too low for an overhead strike to smash through a foe's defenses.

Behind him Yakamo had the same trouble. His extraordinarily tall, powerful body made it nearly impossible to fight effectively in the halls of the Imperial Palace. Yakamo at least had his claw, though. The unholy relic proved quite useful in close quarters.

A male Seppun appeared behind Yakamo and nearly split his spine with a quick strike. The young Hida narrowly avoided the blow by throwing himself against a door frame, rattling the hall with his impact. Wielding his huge weapon one-handed, Yakamo could not get the heavy club head around fast enough to counter the katana. He had to resort to using his claw as a parrying weapon.

Kisada stepped closer to his opponent, close enough that it became difficult to swing even a katana. His left hand grabbed the top end of his tetsubo. Several of the iron spikes bit into his palm. The Great Bear thrust the club forward and pressed the Seppun's blade back toward her chest. With a quick twist of his wrists, he locked the katana between three of the tetsubo's spikes. The two opponents stood face to face. Neither could move without giving the other a fateful opening. It now became a contest of brute strength, and Kisada far outclassed his opponent.

Bending his knees, the Great Bear moved in even closer. Now he looked
up
into the samurai-ko's eyes. He could see fear there. She knew what he was about to do. The Seppun tried to lean backward while still keeping the tetsubo immobilized, but she only succeeded in throwing herself off balance.

Kisada tensed his biceps and extended his arms in a powerful push. He had hoped to knock the samurai-ko onto her back, but his thrust actually sent her flying through the air.

Her arms pinwheeled. She dropped her katana and tumbled away from her opponent. With a raucous sound of snapping wood and shredding paper, the Seppun smashed through a fusuma and landed hard in a tatami room. She rose quickly, but her posture showed that her shoulder was useless.

Stepping out of the hallway, he swung at her head. Even injured as she was, the samurai-ko ducked the blow. She did not, however, avoid the kick the Great Bear launched at her midsection. A rush of air fled her lungs, and she landed on her wounded shoulder. The pain was incredible, but it didn't last long.

Kisada brought the head of his tetsubo down in an overhead strike that released the Seppun from all worldly pain.

The batde continued in the hallway, and the Great Bear was about to step back into the fray when he noticed that the room in which he stood was enclosed on two other sides by fusuma. This was part of a long series of tatami rooms that served as meeting, dining, or sleeping quarters as needed. They could also have their fusuma removed to turn them into a single great hall for banquets and other celebrations.

He looked to Yakamo, who still pitted his claw against the Seppun's katana.

"Come here, boy!" Kisada shouted. "I've found our path to the throne room!"

Yakamo smiled as though he'd been playing with his opponent all along. He snapped his wrist and flicked his tetsubo up to block the katana blade. The blow knocked the Seppun's blade aside while Yakamo reached out with his open claw and crushed the samurai's throat and jaw.

"Come, Father, there are more imperial bugs to crush!" Yakamo said urging the Great Bear to return to the battle.

"No," Kisada said. "The hallways are guarded. We can bypass their defenses the way we Crab know best—by taking the path no one else will walk!"

Tatami rooms were considered islands of refinement and propriety. One did not wear shoes on the straw mats, and one certainly did not run through them brandishing weapons. Simply having someone tread a sandaled foot on one mat meant the entire room's tatami needed to be replaced. So strong was the taboo that it was generally observed even in the heat of battie.

"Will we run from battie?" Yakamo asked.

"No," his father answered. "We will run
to
battle!"

With one firm swing he knocked down the fusuma at one end of the room and stepped into the next. Yakamo followed.

Kisada shouldered through the next set of fusuma, building up speed as he went. Trotting, then running full out and barreling through rice paper screens. In one room he came across handmaidens who scattered to the far wall as he charged through. Another room contained old men, servants or perhaps gardeners, who threw themselves at the invader's feet to slow them down. All they got for their efforts were Hida sandal-prints on their skulls and a sharp rap in the ribs from the blunt end of a tetsubo.

When Kisada finally burst through into a wooden hallway again, he stood facing the stairs to the throne room.

"Ai! Invaders!" shouted an imperial guard stationed at the base of the stairs.

Two more guards came from the next floor up. They stood and pointed yari toward the Hidas.

The first guard pulled out his katana and was about to charge Kisada when a soft, melodious voice called out from behind him.

"Stand aside," the voice was at once dainty and as sharp as honed steel.

"My lady—" one yari-wielding samurai began, but he was immediately cut off.

"Your orders are to guard me." The voice moved closer. "And I do not think the Great Bear came all this way to threaten a poor, neglected woman."

Another form stepped into view at the top of the stairs—a distinctly feminine form clothed in a scarlet kimono. "Did you, Kisada-sama?" Stepping into the light, Lady Kachiko smiled demurely at the Great Bear as though they were at an imperial feast, not in the midst of a bloody revolution. Her eyes were covered in a mask of gauze and paint, yet she seemed to be baring her soul to the Crab daimyo.

"My goal today is the Emerald Throne," he growled.
"You
are a matter to be dealt with later."

Kachiko laughed lightly. "My husband, it seems, shares your opinion. He has locked himself in his audience chamber these past five days and ordered that no one disturb him."

"Not even the empress!" said one guard, but he sank back into silence when Kachiko shot him a withering glare.

"I am surprised, given his fragile health, that he could stand such rigorous isolation."

"Not as surprised as I am," Kachiko said mysteriously. "But we know he is alive and robust, for every time we send a servant in to check on the emperor's health he sends the poor man out with a string of curses I daresay would embarrass even
you,
Kisada-sama."

"I think you will find me less easily shocked than you believe, Kachiko-san," Kisada said. "Not to mention more ambitious."

The Great Bear motioned to Yakamo, and the two moved toward the stairs. The three guards stood their ground.

"Do not make me kill you, too," he said.

"Stand aside," Kachiko ordered them again. "You have heard the emperor just as clearly as I—he awaits Kisada-sama's arrival."

"He expects us?" Yakamo asked.

"Hai," Kachiko replied. "That is why he locked himself in the audience chamber."

"He knew five days ago that we were coming?" Five days earlier they had not yet left the Mantis Isles.

"Hai."

Kisada grunted.

"You will not stand in our way?" Yakamo asked, seeming somewhat disappointed. He twirled his tetsubo and clicked his claw absently.

"lie!" Kachiko said, giving special attention to her guards. "The emperor awaits you—who are we to oppose his wishes?"

Kisada grunted again and motioned to the audience chamber.

"And when will you decide my fate, oh soon-to-be emperor?" Kachiko asked, taking the Great Bear's massive arm in her delicate fingers.

He shrugged her off.

"This will not take long."

THE EMPERORS NEW SKIN

The emperor's audience chamber was perhaps the single most ostentatious room in all of Rokugan. The walls were covered in murals depicting the history of the empire from the day the children of Lord Moon and Lady Sun fell to earth, through to the assassination of the Hantei the 38th and the ascension of the current emperor. The braziers, created by the greatest metallurgists and sculptors who ever drew breath, stood unlit in a long row down the center of the chamber.