Norikage likely felt good as he laid down to rest, though it was relative. Had he been home still with the more mundane issues he faced, he would have been up all night worrying about what he would do.
Faced with the prospect of 1000 Years of Darkness, however, he found not much to worry about. All he could do was not give up. Even if it cost him his life, his soul, or the connections he had made.
His dream is incredibly vivid, standing out starkly in how real it all felt.
He was sitting behind an elaborately carved desk, going through what felt like a million papers, each one a report of a secret. The information web of the Scorpion, and he sat here, at the epicenter. He could smell the wood, smell the treatment and wax on it. He felt the heaviness and shift of the night-black kimono he was wearing and hear the whisper of its silk. Going through everything, his eyes caught the mon on his kimono.
That's right. Bayushi's only child, as far as anyone knew, had been Shosuro, who had retired to become a monk. Her children were slated to go a few different places, but there wasn't one to inherit along family lines. Bayushi had needed someone loyal, who had been trusted with the ultimate responsibility and had seen it through, too look after the Clan and be responsible for what they did with their information.
He had chosen Norikage.
Kumori came in from another room, holding a young girl barely more than an infant in her arms who had Norikage's eyes. The fox mask was back on, in honor of her new Clan, the Bayushi mon emblazoned on deep red. She smiled, seeming amused. "Are you going to work all day, or are you going to join us?"
He'd done something to get here... Lost a weakness and gained something. It felt so real, like the future rather than a dream. If he could do those things, he could have this.
"I don't know, if you were reading a three layer cypher full of perverted references to Lady Doji's backside that's actually talking about the drinking habits of Matsu's third son you'd be hard pressed to call it work", he said. "Is that woman ever going to give birth to a girl? I feel like she just gets angrier with every boy she has."
He looked at the child, at Kumori, at the document in his hand.
Could he actually read it? Or did he simply know what it said?
He placed it down and stood up. Thinking of how much of an easy ride this was. Is anything supposed to be this easy? Walking around his desk he stopped in front of Kumori and his child.
Hatsuko. That's what he should call her, until she was old enough to decide for herself. She was the first born daughter, after all. He looked into her eyes, smiling. She had his eyes, the eyes he was told he shared with his mother. They were perfect on her chubby little child face. She had Kumori's nose and smile. Just adorable.
He sighed and looked at her. Well, not Kumori, whoever it was that looked like her and played his wife in whatever dreamscape he was in.
"I wonder", he said. "How people can follow someone like me. What did I do that was so amazing, again?"
If he is seeing the future, or it's possibility, he could win. The power was there.
Yet. What would that power win? And what price came with it?
Thunder does not roll without first the lightning strike. A startling flash, chaos, primal fear. Yet also a guiding light, dispelling darkness.
Facing that destiny is going to fucking hurt though.
But that's the choice, that's what it means to be human.
He had a direction. He had always told himself that Lady Mitsuki was covering up for her weakness by imposing order on things. And that might be true, but it was also true that using the rules was her strength. That she understood justice, fairness. It's why he had never told her she was wrong, only complained to her for lecturing him.
And I do like to complain.
And in front of him, he could see only a perfect future. So then this truly was only a dream. The offer, again, from the bowels of Jigoku.
"I'll miss you both", he said to his future wife and daughter. "Perhaps I'll dream of this again."
