Makime wrote: Makime drifts off into a troubled sleep, her mind still racing with all that must be done.
Canary wrote: Makime stood once again on the balcony of her home. The castle was now fully complete. The city below bustled with activity. Many of the buildings were clearly new, but that was because so many had come here to trade. It was the bustling central hub of the North, steadily working on becoming among the busiest trade cities in the Empire.
Eventually it would be there, and all thanks to her hard work. Akodo had given her much more leeway after the leadership she had shown in Blue Lotus Village all those years ago, and that trust had gone straight into turning the Makime family into a logistics powerhouse. Her children were also busy, leaning into things and succeeding in the way she'd always hoped.
She remembered... back at Blue Lotus, she was one of the few who had recognized the lies for what they were - simply the Harbinger taking a new tactic, and concealing the corruption of the people using the power of Yume-do. If it wasn't for her leadership, the samurai wouldn't have survived when they changed, revealing their true nature, and they wouldn't have defeated the Champion of Jigoku like a proper fighting force. As it is, they had won, but barely... If only she had known sooner and had taken the initiative to take out the threat before it became one.
It didn't feel like a dream, not really. It was too solid. It felt like... the future.
Makime wrote: Makime looked around at all she had dreamed of building.
"It takes more work then my life will have in it to build this city. That's what makes it a dream for the future. I only lay the foundations for Ayano and Yoriie, and those who stand beside them and come after. The present is mine, the future is theirs."
She frowned in thought, "A marginal victory is still a victory. To cut down so many when the body may be saved would be a waste, and they may be needed for what is to come."
Canary wrote: She saw a memory in her mind. Watching the girl whose leg had been healed earlier grin and shift, twisting into one of the needle demons as effortlessly as breathing. There was nothing to be saved when all was already lost, only covered with a pretty facade.
Canary wrote: She saw a memory in her mind. Watching the girl whose leg had been healed earlier grin and shift, twisting into one of the needle demons as effortlessly as breathing. There was nothing to be saved when all was already lost, only covered with a pretty facade.
Makime wrote: Makime frowned..."No I saw some of our own healed and not turn. Whatever that healing was, it was not the demon that tried to poison me."
Canary wrote: The scene shifts.
The balcony she stands on is gone, leaving her floating in midair like a ghost, the wood rotten and broken away. Below, the streets still have figures in them... but they're strange, shambling things. Almost human, but not. She hears screaming, and looking toward, witness a hoard of former people devouring someone alive.
If she didn't act, this was the future she was promised.
The dream ends.