The Day of Thunder

[Jiyo Sora]

Sora grimaced at the note, then sighed, and set it on the left-hand pile.

There was a time when his people- the ones he took into his sect- had been able to observe. Observe, report, and request authorization.

He had sanctioned no murders- and he refused to call them anything else- in the first two decades of the Empire's existence. For the most part, simply routing the information properly had been enough. Often, they hadn't even had to do that much, with Bayushi and the Scorpion doing their admirable best.

In the last five, he had been forced to dispense with authorization. Things could get out of hand too quickly, and it seemed half his correspondence these days simply consisted of lists of names. Sometimes the names of his own operatives.
And this... was a bad one.

Hana. Well, to give her fealty its due, Ryoshun Hana. His chosen successor. She'd come through the fight with some injuries, but had written nothing worse in her report.

She hadn't wanted to worry him.

But the report from Shinji carried the news. Her injuries had been too much.

Sora sighed, and put aside his sadness for a trusted agent, a woman whose force of will had always outweighed her strength of arm.

He let himself be glad that the children had never met her. He was pretty sure they would have liked her, but...

No matter.

Nothing for it but to select another.

Given the messes Shinsei got him into, he might not have another chance.