The Day of Thunder

Sora had awoken, still a bit stiff and sore from the life or death struggle the night before...

And momentarily baffled by having the roof over his head before he remembered.

Right.

I'm here to kill her if it becomes needful.

Let's hope we can put that off until I've at least woken up all the way.

SOra started going through his morning routine of stretches, exercises, and the crackling sounds of his joints complaining about their use.

"Old men and old houses, both complain without saying a word", Norikage quipped as he entered Chouri's garden. He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, despite the circumstances. He had a bamboo bottle with him, his mask was on, as well as his travel cloak for warmth in the early morning.

"Good morning, ojichan", he said with a bow. "Heard you had a rough night."

"Well. Seven walking corpses and one living nightmare."

He chuckled.

"I've had more pleasant evenings, that's for sure. Luckily I wasn't the only one there, it could have gotten.... messy."

"Corpses, huh?" He walked over and found a place to sit down while Sora stretched. Honestly the thought caused him to stifle a shudder. He'd seen dead bodies, more than he'd like to have, but he had only seen them still moving and trying to kill him once. He wasn't excited for it to happen again.

"What do you mean, living nightmare?" he asked, trying to put the scary thing he knew aside.

Maybe I can absorb more trauma just hearing about...wouldn't that be great...?

"Some poor old fellow named Kujo. His fear of death let the enemy get its hooks into him."

There was a nearly thunderous pop of vertebrae.

"We couldn't save him- he was.... you ever seen someone get noticeably older right in front of your eyes?"

"No, but now at least I've heard it", he said and offered the old man the bamboo container. "Just water."

"That sounds rough yeah. Looks like you had a shugenja look after you already though, which is good."

He rubbed his shoulder. "For my part, I had to deal with sleepwalkers trying to kill the village healer and trash his house."

Sora froze, the water halfway to his lips.

"Enrou?"

That fiery green fuck must be pissed that Enrou's not onboard any longer.

Or maybe she just figures he's served his purpose. Not like she wants these people kept alive...

"So, uhm... how'd that go?"

"They weren't already dead, and Shiba-hime was there", he explained. "So, they got a few scratches and bruises but no one died...well... One did.". He shook his head. "I don't blame people for protecting themselves in a fight, but shooting to kill was what Yumi-san did, whether she meant to or not.". He sighed. "If I was sleepwalking, I wouldn't want to take an arrow to the chest if I could just be restrained instead."

"... She shot one of them?!"

Sora set the water down.

"Son of a bitch. Good thing I'm already here, it'll make fielding the inevitable conversation a bit easier."

"It is what it is", he said with some resignation. "Most of them were injured, but pretty minor. I was the only samurai to take a scratch, but I threw myself in like an idiot. One of the Spider was there, had good training so he took care of all the immediate injuries."

He looked more directly at Sora now. "The thing that bothered me about what Yumi did was what she said after though. She essentially blamed Chouri. Claimed her shot was meant to injure and if the people were looked after properly they wouldn't have died, called out healing Rypshun Yukara's arm, but not healing her own people."

He shrugged. "Shitty people are always blaming others for what they do, but that was over the top to me."

"Seems especially shitty to deflect blame for not using a once a year ritual that requires active cooperation and clear thinking by the recipient. Especially since I didn't see Chouri turn anyone away who showed up."

A pause.

"I assume she stormed off after this little pearl of wisdom?"

He nodded.

"Again, though...if they feel it's unfair that's fine", he said. "Though they could have handled it all better."

The noise seems to have woken another occupants of the house, and Chouri emerges, looking bleary eyed, dressed and with her hair brushed at least, though. "'Morning. Tea?"

"Only if it's not too much trouble, Chouri-san. It seems we've got some bad news to relate..."

"It's not too much," she said with a smile. "I have to drink it in the morning and evening for my lungs, anyway. It's minty tasting, so it'll be a little different."

"Variety is the spice of life, eh Bayushi-san?"

"Tea is fine", he nodded and then stood up. "Chouri-san, last night some of the villagers were overcome by nightmares in their sleep. They were unaware of what they were doing, according to Hisomu Reo-san", he explained. "He, Shiba-hime, the ronin Yumi and myself restrained them. Fortunately the damage to Enrou-san's home was limited, but regrettably there was a death. One of Yumi's arrows struck Goro-san too true and he perished before Hisomu-san could save him."

He bowed to the headwoman. "This is our failure, but we did what could be done."

She poured some for each of them, handing out cups. "I see... Likely the Harbinger's influence. I don't doubt she'll try to influence them today, as well, when I speak with them."

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

Short of bundling some of the daimyo who wore their distrust a little openly off to oversee some earthworks or something, he wasn't too optimistic.

Norikage waited quietly to hear the commoner's thoughts on it. He didn't particularly think it was worthwhile to interfere that much personally. Though he wasn't always right. He took the moment to light his pipe.