[D11, EN] A Decision (closed)

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

Sukima tapped her teacup twice, then clapped her hands twice and bowed twice as she sat alone in her room, letting the heady aroma of the strong tea rise from a cup. It wasn't a traditional approach to a prayer to the departed, but under the circumstances, it would have to do.

I'm sorry for the strange approach, brother. Though maybe you would have expected something like this from me. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to the temples before they were cut off from us to do this properly.

I don't know what to do. You entrusted your wishes after your death to me three years ago, but Kato has us backed into a corner. I've remained silent in the court for now, acting in protest to my Clan's dictate that we support him... but I don't think you would have told me your wishes if you hadn't thought I could act to fulfill them. I realize that now, and I feel I need to. Tomorrow I have to decide whether I can do what I need to do without the support of the Scorpion as a whole. I don't think this situation is good for them, either, to be honest.

... I was too selfish to promise then not to let my daughter on the throne, despite knowing how you suffered. I can at least promise that now. I just... want to make up for all the times I failed you.

I know you reside in Tengoku now. We'll never see each other again, even in death. But I hope you find the peace there that evaded you in life.

With that, she clapped once more and sat back with a sigh, left pensive in the silent room.

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Much like Sukima, Degarashi had reason to be pensive, though his sense of failure came from a much more shallow place. Much of the day's work had drained him, not the least of which caused by the knowledge that yet even more of his fellows hadn't returned from their assignments that day.

He sighed, doing his best not to trudge his way to Sukima's door for his self assigned duty in her protection. The scratch he gave at her door was half hearted and light, almost as if he knew the somber mood he was about to walk into.

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

The redhead looked up from her thoughts, taking a deep breath to center herself before speaking. "Come in, Bayushi-san."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi slipped into the room quietly, taking in the sight of Sukima and her tea set, arranged in a rather meticulous fashion. The prior night she'd been asleep when he'd arrived, so finding her awake and thoughtful gave him a moment of pause.

"Ano... Is this a bad time, denka? I can come back a little later if you need time to be alone with your thoughts."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

"Not at all... Just asking for guidance. I don't expect it to come, but it helps get my thoughts in order, I suppose," she replied. "I suppose it is getting late into the night, isn't it. I didn't really notice the time."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"I've asked for my fair share of guidance in the past." Degarashi hadn't ever received any, but didn't intend to say something that defeatist when Sukima needed the peace of mind. He moved to sit beside her quietly. "What is it that troubles you so, Sukima?"

He still couldn't use her name with such familiarity without blushing, but she had said he didn't need to when they were alone like this.

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She looked down at her hands. "The conflict between two duties. One to my Clan and the other to my brother. The two in direct conflict."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"Mm, a trying problem indeed, and one I'm not entirely unfamiliar with. Perhaps you might feel better if you speak of it as we proceed through your nightly preparations? I can't promise that my counsel will be the guidance you're looking for, but I shall attempt to serve in whatever fashion I am able."

As had become so customary for him in such a short time, Degarashi reached over to squeeze Sukima's shoulder. "I may be but one man, but even my meager presence means you're not alone."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She squeezed the hand on her shoulder with a smile. "Hardly meager. Your presence has been a great help to me."

With that, she let go and rose, starting to go about removing her upper layers of clothing and properly putting them away. "When I was at Kyuden Agasha, three years ago, I had a rare opportunity to speak with Hantei XXII. He was concerned, rightly, that another attempt would be made on his life, I believe. He told me then that he did not want to see his brother on the throne. It wasn't... an order, exactly. He didn't specifically ask. But thinking back on it, I have to think that he entrusted that with me because he believed I could do something about it. That, and ensure my daughter didn't sit on it either because of what he went through there."

"That obviously doesn't match up with Shosuro-sama's orders."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Sukima's compliments earned further redness in the facial regions. "Neh... I'm unused to receiving such praise. I've never worn red so prominently upon my face before."

Degarashi listened to Sukima's words, supposedly the dying will of Hantei XXII, in stoic silence. "We are in a difficult position, certainly, but I doubt you'd be so conflicted if you were not deeply troubled. If you would, Sukima, please tell me more of Seppun Kato. I would know more of the man I'm commanded to serve."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

"It's a good look on you," she replied with a small grin before sobering with the issue at hand. "I will do my best to try and explain him in as detached a way as I can. He is ambitious, and confident in himself. I have no doubt he believes himself to be the most capable of the claimants... and possibly the most capable of all of his siblings. I don't know if he would have acted on that, had the Steel Chrysanthemum not appeared."

"His methods are not too dissimilar to our own. Spies and blackmail. We learned from the same teachers, and it's a common element of Otomo strategy. He was caught in a fire as a child, and received terrible burns. It gave him a great deal of time to study and learn. His knowledge about both people and general information are extensive."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi considered the brief summary, nodding every so often as he absorbed Sukima's message. "A long time to learn, you say? How very interesting."

He stood quietly and moved over to where his things rested in a corner of the room, rummaging through them until he found a small wooden box. This he carried back to the futon, placing it in his lap as he sat down.

"I spent a very long time training in my school, a point of great ridicule among our clan. My gempukku ceremony occurred barely three years ago, and that after failing to adhere to the bushi training of the Bayushi. It sends a signal to others that I am slow, incapable, and weak."

Degarashi gently traced his fingers over the edges of the box. "Mienai-sensei was no fool, however. I was not held back for the sake of my intellect, but for the sake of my duty. She saw in me a potential others had missed, and drilled the ways of the Butei into me far harder than many others who received her tutelage. My instructor made certain that by the time I was to leave her care, I would know the ways of the Shosuro as closely as my body knows its own breath."

His eyes moved to find Sukima, filled with quiet confidence. "I am a man so skilled at my art that it never leaves me. You felt a measure of its sharpness when first we met, frozen for an instant of time by your surprise. Imagine how precious those moments would be were my intent to harm you. I take the roles upon myself so completely it consumes my very life. I cannot stop. It is so much a part of me that to cease the endless act would kill me as surely as the cessation of my breath. I act and jest and jaunt because I know myself to be so very talented, so thoroughly trained, that failure never enters into my mind."

"I believe your brother to be very much like me, so quick and skilled that the very game he plays is second nature. A man like him, a man like me, must never rule in truth, for there would be no peace so long as we drew breath. If he were emperor, I imagine he might play the game long after the wars were finished, crafting strife that he might exploit where before there was none, merely to satisfy the ache of his excellence."

Degarashi took in a deep breath, and let it out very slowly. "In this, we are alike. I fear your brother's rule and scarcely know a thing about him. I am no fool. If called to act within his name, I will do as I must or empty my belly in protest. But so long as I am able, it is you I will stand beside, Sukima."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She listened to his assessment quietly, nodding a bit as he hit each particularly relevant point. A certain amount of control had to be exerted as he reminded her of something she had been avoiding dealing with.

You will never be as good at all of this as Kato is.

Still, the last thing he said brought a smile to her face even as the change in expression threatened to break her On. "I think your assessment is very accurate. Kato is... prodigy is putting it mildly, but also undersells him. His abilities are the product of endless work, as you've described." She paused. "It's almost sad... If I thought he would build the Empire up rather than harm it, I probably wouldn't be able to shut up about how amazing he was."

"As it is... I am not as skilled as he is. Maybe no one is. But I can do my best to try and protect the Empire with what I can do. I'm glad you're with me, Bayushi-san."

She glanced down, taking in the box curiously. "And this?"

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi merely chuckled over the comments about Kato's suitability. "I'm uniquely blessed to have been tempered properly." A pause. "And less literally. I'm a blade, and a blade serves the throne, it doesn't sit upon it. There's no more terrible a joke that I can imagine."

"As for the box," he smiled softly, "what do you know about the masks we Scorpion wear?"

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

"That makes me curious, but I will ask after..."

"Some, but I would like to hear your word on it," she replied with a dip of her head toward him.

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"Yet another quirk of our clan. We're you not married into our number, I'd not be inclined to share this with you, though even with the name you now bear some would scoff at what I tell you next."

Degarashi gestured at the veil on his face. "When a Scorpion goes through their gempukku ceremony, they take a mask. To outsiders the veil is the same as the mempo, but in truth, only those of us who fail wear something so simple as cloth. So strange to gempukku so late and fail..."

He laughed as the undid the clasps of the box and flicked it open. Within, sitting on velvety cloth, was a stark black mempo, metallic curves shining in the faint light of the room. Whereas many chose to wear the faces of oni, this mask was remarkably simple, looking like nothing so much as the lower half of a human face, twisted into hideous laughter, each faint detail etched in a dark red resin. [think classic comedy mask with distortions to make it creepy]

"Nobody has ever seen this. Because, of course, I failed, and it would be strange indeed to lie to fellow Scorpions using a method that matters only to them."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She looked down at the mask, a small smile crossing her face. "I'm honored you chose to share it with me. A method so even your own clansmen underestimate you?"

"It reminds me of my family at Shiro no Ukime. They would likely love the aesthetic."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"I pride myself on being underestimated, it's a fantastic weapon in the right hands." He gently closed the box, then turned to Sukima. "But it is never a blade to turn inwards. So you aren't as skilled as Kato is, what relevance does that hold? Even the most skilled duelist can die to the whimsy of fate, choking upon a bit of rice."

Degarashi reached out and held both of Sukima's hands in his. "I will teach you how to use this blade if you wish. If you aren't so skilled as he, remove that skill, make it irrelevant. Perhaps he is a prodigy, but he is not infallible. Use what you know of him against him. Use what he knows of you against him as well. Be underestimated, be overlooked, embrace it, and never stop carrying the knife. The Scorpion rarely strike where one expects, and you are of us now. You know the way."

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She squeezed his hands gently and nodded, looking thoughtful at his words. "I've never been too wrapped up in being in the spotlight. I just don't like being held back when I can see a better way forward. Allowing myself to be underestimated isn't too far off from that."

"What I know of him and what he knows of me... Hmm..."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"The light blinds if you stand in it too long. Let those who crave it, have it. It makes their weaknesses more visible and adds some where there were none before. Stick to the shadows with me of you truly wish to see what lies around you."

Now Degarashi was silent, as his words seemed to have sparked something in Sukima, and he wished to see where her thoughts would take her.

[D11, EN] A Decision (closed)

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