The Afternoon's "Entertainment" (Part 1)

Disaster / Destruction

Post-tournament, as the crowds began to leave the Mōri arena in Shimonoseki, several Hashinara generals, too, found interests elsewhere to pursue. Aotsuki Tsukamoto traveled to Mino Province with Saitō Dōsan to handle the leftovers from some of his previous days’ adventures. As well, Ryūzaki Sanosuke returned to Wakigami upon the request of Tōdaisen Nobuhara, to help him clean up a mess that had sprouted up in the generals’ absence.   That left Hashinara Yoshitakatomo and Maxim in the dwindling crowds.

The former received word from her* adviser that a masked salesman had arrived at Wakigami Castle bearing a shipment of swords, but opted to send her* sheele, Hashinara Yoshiwara, to deal with it in her* stead. In the meantime, she* approached Mōri Motonari, intent upon having a word with the other daimyō.   At the same time, Maxim was presenting a sealed letter to Kiban. Written during his brief sojourn to Shima Province, the missive indicated a friendship between the knight commander and the shame-faced Namahage, whom he had apparently grown quite attached to during the events of the tournament. Kiban, of course, could not read. After studying it for a moment, she asked Maxim to explain it for her, which he did without hesitation. The contents seemed to lift her spirits even further than usual, and Kiban almost graced Maxim with a hug. She opted instead, however, for a joyful shoulder-clasp.   On the other side of the stands, Yoshitakatomo approached Mōri Motonari, and was welcomed to speak in the Mōri box. Although most of her family and retinue had left, Motonari was not alone. Hiding behind her was a small oni girl with white-rose hair whom the other introduced as Kikkawa Motoyo. Yoshitakatomo began by apologizing that she* had not been present for the previous day’s matches; a sentiment that Motonari gracefully accepted, then dismissed. Their discussion quickly changed tack, however, when Motoyo bluntly asked if Yoshitakatomo could perform magic.   Maxim and his companions were waiting for the afternoon entertainment promised, but soon grew bored. They were not alone, as others in the stands were muttering and complaining about the fact that whatever was planned to happen, hadn’t. As he voiced these concerns, Maxim sensed something else. Something other. A burning resentment, stretched taut like a string, was approaching the arena from the east. Haures sensed it, too, and they both waited to see just what would arrive from that direction.   After Yoshitakatomo asserted that she* could, indeed, perform some magic, Motoyo answered by conjuring an illusory flower in her hand. When challenged to beat that display of mysticism, Yoshitakatomo took it a step further. She* cast a great, complex illusion over the entire arena, carpeting it in white blossoms that bloomed with fragrance and twirling petalstorms.   As if on cue, summoned by Motoyo’s gasp of awe, a cadre of dancers spun and leaped into the flowering meadow. Recognizable as the festival dancers of the Ikeda Clan, they nevertheless wore white porcelain masks that obscured their features. Though Motonari seemed pleased that the Ikeda had finally showed up, she expressed some displeasure over the uncanny masks, which were not part of the original arrangement.   Spreading out, the dancers flung themselves every way in a maelstrom of petals, clearing a path for Ikeda Tsuneoki to stride into the tournament grounds. Fubuki, returning from business at Ōtsu Castle, was just in time to see that he, too, wore a similar mask. A black tear, running down the former daimyō’s ceramic cheek, was the only display of emotion visible. In him, Maxim sensed a great wrath directed at Yoshitakatomo and the Hashinara in general, but that was merely an offshoot. The true source of resentment showed itself a moment later.   In a flurry of blossoms, lit by the setting sun and grinning his malicious joy, Akashi Kengyō strode into the stage that had been prepared for him. He was playing his shamisen, quietly at first, but with increasing intensity. As the music rose, he pointed out Yoshitakatomo to Tsuneoki, and denounced her as the source of all the hulking man’s pain. These sinister words seemed to call upon something, and with a powerful crack, Tsuneoki opened his iron fan and threw it through the chest of a nearby civilian. Chaos erupted.   The masked dancers began leaping into the stands, striking at the people there with their twirling staves. They were apparently not alone. Kōyō, already proving her worth as a sheele, directed Fubuki’s attention to the first man Tsuneoki had killed. As his corpse pooled blood in the stands, something hideous and gaseous rose up from the ground to swallow his body in its immense jaws. When it descended from view once more, all that remained was a stain.   Calling out for Yoshitakatomo to watch over Motoyo, Motonari leaped into action. She descended the stands quickly, drawing her katana and making toward Tsuneoki to fell him before he could kill any more of her subjects. The big man, however, showed no interest in her, and Motonari’s hurried footsteps suddenly halted before she could reach. She recoiled, as assaulted by something in the air as if she had been struck with a great iron club. It seemed for a moment that she would not even be able to stand, but Yoshitakatomo quickly weaved a spell to increase Motonari’s natural resistances. This helped, and she was able to stand, but many of the more perceptive watchers noted that the oni daimyō’s body seemed wan and her face pale, as though she had not eaten in many days.   The source of the stench revealed itself a moment later. A gaseous, horrid spirit that Yoshitakatomo identified as a Putrid Jikininki. Molded from a sinful soul and the fumes of Yomi, these creatures sought only to fill their gaping, necrotic mouths with anything they could to curb their all-consuming hunger. The stench rising from those toothed pits was so cloying with rot that it could cause hunger, insanity, or even death in those who breathed it in. As this beast rose from the earth and bit at Motonari, the oni daimyō was nearly helpless to defend herself. Its rows of blackened teeth took a measure of flesh away from its prey, who looked as though another such bite would leave her dead.   Others moved to join the battle, spurred into action by the display below. Xenophon shot arrows at Tsuneoki to distract him while Kiban rushed into the arena to intercept approaching dancers. To her, the stench seemed like little more than old food, and she hardly noticed its presence. Maxim, too, readied his sword, but a dancer reached him first. Twirling forward, she swung her staff in an arc that the knight commander easily parried and thrust away. He swung Hokkuken in retaliation, aiming to wound rather than kill. The dancer, however, made no attempt to dodge. She flung herself into the strike and, even with Maxim holding back, Hokkuken cut through her with a thunderous crash. There was little recognizable when she fell to the ground, dead. As her soul rose, freed from the mess of her corpse, Akashi Kengyō played a note that made it suddenly vanish. With a nasty smile, he thanked Maxim for playing his part.   There were still civilians in danger, but Fubuki rose to this challenge, summoning her* flying black fox with a low whistle. The creature sped into the arena faster than the eye could follow, but lowered its speed enough to pick up several civilians and deliver them safely outside the arena. In a span of seconds, more than ten helpless tournamentgoers had been saved, and Fubuki herself* magically jaunted across the arena to join with Yoshitakatomo.   Maxim, too, saved a single victim by throwing him out of harm’s way. All the while, Xenophon called out instructions on how to safely disengage from the aggressive dancers. Her tactics proved sound, and the man received nothing more than a few bruises as he was tossed to safety. With that done, Maxim yelled for Kashirin at the top of his lungs. His words boomed out over the arena and beyond. Although he had cautioned her to stay far enough from the fights to not interfere with their outcome by her presence, the binbōgami was no doubt still close by.   As the tide of battle began to turn, Yoshitakatomo played a magical trump card. Sending out a wave of magic, she* seized supernatural control over all three Putrid Jikininki and turned them from their intended prey. Akashi Kengyō himself was affected, proving the masked musician to be undead in his own right, but he threw off the attempted domination with ease.   At this point, Motonari had recovered significantly. A Convalescence Custard, tossed by Fubuki into her waiting hands, mended the rest of her wounds and restored a measure of her strength. It was enough to push past the now-docile Jikininki and engage Tsuneoki. In her weakened state, however, the big lord’s physical power proved too much for her, and she received a near-mortal wound once again.   Maxim arrived just in time to pull Motonari out of danger, tossing her bodily up into the stands near Xenophon. This elicited a glare from Haures, but save for a single spell, the archdemon had not lowered herself to participating in the conflict. So, Maxim ignored her. He engaged Tsuneoki himself, drawing the former daimyō’s attention.   Kengyō, too, noticed his involvement. With a few poetic words about how the end of the show was growing near, the Champion of Izanami cast a powerful spell as a parting gift. Drawing upon the same power of Tamamo-no-Mae that had defended him this far, he conjured a divine spell of light and launched it at Maxim. Yoshitakatomo recognized the pattern as Prison of Light; a curse that would entrap Maxim for an unknown period of time, with the physically-minded knight surely hard-pressed to escape its magical walls. Fortunately, Maxim saw the spell and mustered all his strength to defend against it. Calling upon Hostimentum, his full body was immediately encased in wrathful black plate. With the power of the demonic armor and his lion-headed full shield, he turned the spell before it could reach him, and broke its delicate weave.   Clicking his tongue in disappointment, Kengyō called a final farewell before vanishing. He had no doubt used the powers of the spirits at his command to teleport himself somewhere out of the conflict before it could turn fully against him.   This left the remaining dancers and Tsuneoki as the last aggressors. With most of the civilians out of the way, one returned to life by Fubuki’s hand, the twirling dervishes posed little threat against what skilled warriors remained. Tsuneoki, however, was still a threat. As the broken mask of one of the dancer’s proved, it was not the coverings that were controlling them, but rather a mysterious violet burning deep within their eyes. It would prove to be seen, then, whether the warriors of the Hashinara, Mōri, and Alexandria could save Tsuneoki, or if he would fight to the bitter death.