The Day of Thunder

[Haka Soju]

Given the chill in the air and the fog that seemed to enshroud the village, a hot bath seemed like the perfect way to relax. Soju had draped her bone-ladden clothes over the branch of a nearby tree, put her hair up, and sunken into the steaming water.

She wasn't sure which of the tribes had come up with the idea of bathing in hot springs - or which Kami had inevitably stolen the idea and passed it off as their own - but she was grateful to those unknown souls for their deep wisdom.

[Nanzi Ai]

The day had been long, and she was eager to clean herself and found the first place that passed for a bath house in this village… to her Crane sensibilities it seemed rather quaint but she was used to such facilities from her many travels.

She cleaned herself properly, and then entered the bath with a necklace with a jade charm depicting a crane upon her neck. Once she was mostly covered by heated water and feeling it sooth her muscles and tall frame she offered greetings, “Apologies, minna-sama, I pray the day finds you well.”

“Nanzi Ai, of the Crane, following the trail of Thunder,” she offered warmly.

[Haka Soju]

Soju looks up as she hears the new arrival, but waits for her to get settled and make introductions before speaking.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Nanzi Ai." Sitting up, she affects a faint bow. "I am Haka Soju, of the Scorpion. Is that a local hiking trail of some sort?"

[Nanzi Ai]

"I do not think so, that teaches me for trying to be clever... more just an allusion to the fact I was drawn here... perhaps by the will of Heaven or maybe Destiny. I am not sure I can fully explain it any better, but the signs are there. Something is happening, the turning of the wheel," she said warmly.

"My manners escape me, I am honored to meet you Haka-sama. Bayushi-ojisan is dear to me."

[Haka Soju]

Soju purses her lips in thought. "I do not believe I know a Bayushi Ojisan, but I am pleased to hear that you have a friend in my Clan."

"Not to pry in your business, but you just... felt like you should visit a small village in the northern mountains? And then you followed that urge?" Her voice didn't disguise her confusion.

[Nanzi Ai]

"My honored uncle is Bayushi-sama," she reiterated.

At the mention of her calling she clarified, "Yes, between this feeling... this calling and the urging of my honored father I made the journey. Others feel it too."

[Haka Soju]

Soju nods in understanding. "A family member among the Scorpion, even better. Do you know which tribe Ojisan belonged to before falling in with the sky-gods?"

As Ai clarifies her calling, Soju gives her a skeptical look. "You must not be married, then."

[Nanzi Ai]

"The lord of the Scorpion, Bayushi," she responded warmly.

"And no I'm unmarried."

[Haka Soju]

"Oh, that Bayushi," she replies, her tone unimpressed. "I don't know him, either."

Soju takes a moment to look Ai over again. "You don't look like the daughter of a god. Can you throw lightning bolts or summon storms with a whistle? Must be something, hmm?"

[Nanzi Ai]

That was an odd reaction from someone claiming to be a Scorpion, and thus she entered the classic Doji defense of proper etiquette. This was something her elder sisters were far better at than she was, but she felt she had satisfactory ability in this area.

“Yes, that Bayushi,” she responded. “Perhaps in time you two will become acquainted, he is terribly funny and wise.”

When Soju asked about her godling powers, she was much more prepared and responded warmly, “Actually two gods, my honored Father and my Mother both; but no I don’t throw lightning or summon storms. They are not like that, they are more… like you and me but just more. Stronger, faster, can see things we cannot, I am told that Hantei-ojisan used to glow, but that was before the rescue of Hisomu-ojisan.”

“Oh, Shinjo-obasan can turn into a Dragon, but it’s not really a thing she does often. My cousins often display strange abilities, seeing the future and such. Mother has incredible willpower fighting Yume-Jigoku in her dreams.”

“Father says that their journey here and the circumstances before that diminished them,” she finished.

[Haka Soju]

"So it is less about godlike powers and more about political nepotism, then." Soju releases a disappointed sigh. "I shouldn't be surprised. Still, it seems odd with all of the gods turning into dragons and foreseeing the future that they're not fixing all of the bad things that only started once they took over."

[Nanzi Ai]

"So it is less about godlike powers and more about political nepotism, then." Soju releases a disappointed sigh. "I shouldn't be surprised. Still, it seems odd with all of the gods turning into dragons and foreseeing the future that they're not fixing all of the bad things that only started once they took over."

She weathered the criticisms with grace and nodded taking in the words. Perhaps it was true, perhaps not, she had felt she had made her way in this world but she was aware she had been born with many advantages others could only fathom. Even more so after completing her warrior’s journey.

She said, “My Honored parents and related family are few and the realm is large, they all act to aid and protect the people in their way but we are also responsible for the protection of the realm, of Ningen-do.”

“What is happening started long before their arrival, the world operates in cycles… some things were… as I understand it, accelerated by their arrival, but what is happening would have happened in some form and has happened before. The Wheel is turning and we stand moments before the forces of Evil and Good clash, as it has before.”

[Haka Soju]

"I was alive before the gods fell from the sky, and things were not this bad. There were problems, yes, but they were familiar problems that we knew how to deal with. More or less." She shakes her head, as if dispelling a thought. "I suppose it does not matter. Wish in one hand and shit in the other, as they say."

[Nanzi Ai]

"You have strong feelings, Haka-obasan, on this matter, I would listen if it pleases you?" she asked curiously.

[Haka Soju]

Soju takes a few moments to get her thoughts in order, then sits up. "It is like... imagine if you are in your home. The children are fighting, your husband is annoyed with you, but these are problems that you understand. Problems that you will fix. Maybe also your neighbor keeps trying to look at you and pleasure himself while you are bathing, and you know that it will cause a lot of problems in the future and maybe someone will spill blood or die, but you are biding your time with it and waiting for the right time to mention it. All of these things are problems, but they are problems you can fix."

She sweeps her arm, splashing water to her side. "Then, one day, an outsides comes to your village. He says that he is stronger, wiser, and more handsome than everyone else in the village, so naturally, he is in charge now. A few people try to attack him and are killed, a few kneel down to worship him, but most people are just wary of this suspicious person."

"Now, this new person starts dividing up your tribe's land, giving the best parts of it to his followers, and giving them amazing weapons and training them to murder people in very efficient ways. Many people in the tribe who were skeptical join him because they are afraid of their own land being taken, or because they are afraid that they will be the ones being murdered some day soon if they don't join, or because they are assholes who were just looking for an excuse to steal and murder and believe that the new person will let them do so."

"Thirty years pass like this, and now, the new person's followers have children. But these children have been raised from a young age to be killers, or to use words and half-truths to confuse people and trick them, or to command dangerous spirits using strange magics. And they not only believe this is normal, but that their leader, the person who made them this way, is a kind and benevolent ruler who has their best interest in mind. Never mind that they have far more power now. Never mind that they have an army now. Never mind that they have called your traditions and history nothing more than silly superstition. Your history is cast aside, and they create a new calendar, starting from the day they arrived in your village, making it the first thing that happened in history. The first thing that matters."

Soju huffs and sinks back into the water. "And then, when there is nothing left, you join the new person as well, because what other option is there? You cannot even keep your old name. Everything about the past must be tossed aside and forgotten in the name of the new person's shining future. And when you point out how things are worse, the young ones, the ones who never saw the world before their coming, they promise you with complete belief that things were always going to end up this bad, nothing anyone could have done. It's a good thing that we have the new person to show us the way! Now march off into hell and kill some gods, please. It was going to happen anyways, we promise."

[Nanzi Ai]

- snip -

Well Ai expected complaints some better than others, critiques even… she could imagine so many but this was more… both down to earth and yet detailed than expected. She had no real concept of what the tribes were like, sure members of her father’s tribe bemoaned the old days but Father was quick to chastise them and he didn’t seem all that enamored with what came before.

The tribes were the past, a barbaric and dark past best left on the wayside.

Or so she had been taught.

She nodded and then asked, “What were your people like before the coming of my uncle?”

[Haka Soju]

A mirthless laugh escaped from the bathing Scorpion. "Terrible."

"But, to answer your question..." Soju leaned back against the side of the bath and stared up at the sky. "My people - the Shoji - made their home within and around a terrible forest. Within its depths was a gateway that led to the land of the dead, and for as long as any of my people could remember, it had been our duty to keep that gate closed, lest the spirits of the dead spill out from it to eat the living."

The ghost of a frown appears on her face. "The forest was not a safe place. Hungry ghosts that had slipped past the gate wandered its depths, and there was not a season that did not go by without violent death. I was the only one among my three siblings who survived long enough to have children." The frown faded with a sigh. "I say this first, because it is important to understand that we fought a constant battle against the dead for survival. Whenever your husband went to hunt, you feared that he would not return. And when someone died violently, their own spirit would join the others in the forest, and it would often seek out those it once loved to sate its hunger."

"But, there was joy as well. People looked out for each other and cared for the weak and elderly, as well as the stupid. We would have festivals every season, and in the spring, the young people from the tribes would gather to look for love." For a moment, a smile threatens to form on her lips, but it dissipates as she continues. "But all of that was just people surviving, the pretty clothes wrapped around a hunched monster. Long ago, the elders of our tribe discovered that sacrifices could keep the spirit gateway closed. The more... painful the sacrifice, the more it hurt, the more power it was said to possess. There is power in blood, they say."

Soju sits up and runs a wet hand through her hair. "I was foolish and believed that our leaders knew more than me, and... that was a mistake. I handed my life over to people I trusted and watched everything I loved slip away. And then, a few years later, the Shoji broke apart and I joined the Scorpion. All of those terrible things we did didn't even matter."

She took a deep breath, then gave Ai an apologetic look. "It appears to be a night for old women ranting about things they cannot change, eh?"

[Nanzi Ai]

“It had value to you, and it is now gone and the world is different than what you knew,” she responded. “I genuinely believe that Emperor Shiba wants the best for everyone, and he has charged us to do what we must to make that happen.”

“Haka-sama is due a good rant it seems, and I am honored to hear her wisdom. I am not sure I would say they didn’t matter, but maybe that is my youth speaking. Are you a priestess then? Do you speak with the spirits?” she asked.

[Haka Soju]

"No," she says, shaking her head and sinking back into the water. "I was a spiritsinger in my tribe. I would sing to keep the spirits quiet and my village safe, but I never spoke with them or ordered them around."

There's a small shrug that sends out a few ripples. "I get a little prickly whenever I hear someone talk about 'doing what we must.' I have seen where that sort of talk leads, and it's never pleasant."

[Nanzi Ai]

“Prickly,” she said with a light chuckle before sighing and said, “You have good reason to be wary, young people with swords do not always make the best of decisions. Myself included.”

“Oh, I meant no ill will to you and yours,” she apologized. “I simply meant that I try to aid others in need, often through labor and but there are some problems that cannot be solved without violence. As a Yumenosenshi, it is my Duty to protect the people of this world from the evils within it and beyond,” she said proudly.

“Has your family come with you? I traveled alone but I am sure others of my Clan and extended family will be present.”