The Day of Thunder

[Matsu]

Matsu saw much of her life laid out before her.

She saw herself at the center of the Day of Thunder, taking down the Champion of Jigoku with her true weapons - her ferocity and her irreproachable sense of honor. She felt the strength of the earth that she knew was her father watching over her as she achieved victory at the cost of grievous injuries. No victory was easily won, as the fearsome scars that soon became known across the Empire would attest.

She saw herself leading the armies of the Spider, seeking out and destroying large scale corruption wherever it showed its face, serving as the core of purity within the Spider. Eventually finding love in her second in command, whose loyalty and honor were equal to her own. They loved and protected one another with the same ferocity as they fought, and the heir of her family would one day be his daughter, Matsu Kiriko. Each of their best aspects - Matsu's ferocity and purity and his organizational skills and focus, combined with both of their senses of honor - made themselves clear in her, and it was with absolute confidence that Matsu eventually handed the family to her.

Matsu, meanwhile, continued building her legend as the fiercest opponent of corruption and greatest samurai in the Empire until the day she died honorably on the battlefield. She passes from her injuries in her love's arms, completing a life exactly where she wanted to be, and knowing that the future of her family was exactly what she hoped for.

It felt real. It felt like the future.

And, Matsu being Matsu, there was no room for doubt, no crack for Yume-Jigoku to slip into - she already had all the tools she needed.

The dream ends.