This was the ugly truth of war which the Ikoma bards glossed over - the sensei of the dojo never warned you about...
Clean up.
Chihaya strode the field, a dun brown figure, armored, face hidden behind her cold iron
mempo, save that one baleful amber eye.
She did not give out a battle cry, or sing praises to the empress. Instead she did what was required. Sweeping the camp of the enemy - any who did not surrender fell, one after the other. None of those who remained could put up any meaningful challenge to the veteran - their weapons turned aside by her armor, their life bled away by her steel.
Like a hunting sparrowhawk, she picked them off. One. By. One.
In the end, she returned to the city stained with blood, a silent reaper, finished with the day's harvest. Only when a passing Lion cheered her work, declaring it a great victory for the empress, did she remove her mempo and speak.
"Not for the Empress. For the Empire."
Turning her back on the man, she continued down the field, mempo back in place, work yet to be done.
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4 separatist points -
https://orokos.com/roll/803751