Risako followed thin small stream as it turned and twisted through the forest till at last she cleared the trees and sat looking upon the home of the Kinlan, her home. It was tucked alongside the mountain and the stream that grew wilder and larger near the walled village. Despite the long ride tugging at her shoulders, her spirit lifted and she allowed herself a smile as her mount picked up speed and they cleared the distance between them and the front gate, which had been left open to allow the inhabitants of the village to leave the village and enjoy the brief break in the eternal storm clouds that seemed to always shroud the land these days.
The gate guard waved her on in with a bored sweep of his hand and she slowed her mount as they found their way through the streets of the village. Her good mood was only darkened by the sight of the silent houses that patched their way into the village. Their silence meant more deaths and her smile had disappeared when she had riden up to the clan leader's compound in the village center. She dismounted outside the compound's gate and walked up to the guards and she was about to ask they allow her in when the oldest frowned and sighed, "You should not have come back, Risako."
"I know I shouldn't have come back, Izo, but I have. I have pressing information to deliver to the Clan leader, so be kind to me, and show me in." Risako replied. She'd been afraid of this and was well aware of her heart as it sank in her chest as Izo bowed and opened the gate. Her spirit only lifted briefly as she realized that Izo's bow was one he would have given a kenin or the Clan leader. She blushed and the old guard she was willing to swear, hid a smile. Had it been his way of preparing her for what was to come, she thought as he lead her through the home of Jotaro, the leader of all the Kinlan.
Izo lead her to the back of Jotaro's home where he was sitting on his back porch, trimming away at a young bonsai tree and he only sat the plant down once Izo had bowed her onto the porch and had left.
"You have returned, Risako." Jotaro simply stated as he stood to face her.
"Yes," Risako answered, "I have important information you should hear."
"To what, does that information include? Why have you returned. Did you not believe that your failure in Bandithaven would not come home? Baka!" Jotaro spat as he crossed the distance between them like a angry wind that swirled mere centimeters from her own face.
"I knew, and I still came. You should know that the Toscana have allied themselves to Kazuo and that we should join in with the daimyo in a combined force to..." Risako began but never finished as he struck her across the face. Her world became fuzzy and for a few moments, she dreaded that she would faint. Her face still stinging, she managed to get control of her body and mind before they fell beyond her control in the face of this angry man.
"You failed your mission, Risako. Need I remind you of that? Do you honestly believe that by offering this piece of already known information to me that I would even consider letting you back into the clan? If it weren't for the memory of your father and mother, I'd end your misery and shame now!" Jotaro roared with anger as he eyes flashed red rage into her own and she was forced to back away a step at his loss of self control.
"If my father or mother were still alive, they would have had you exiled for injury to a woman, especially their own daughter." Risako answered, her own voice surprising calm and even, despite the rising anger in her own heart for this man who stood panting before her, his livid rage obvious.
"Have you come back to strip me of my rank, Risako?" He demanded.
"No, Jotaro, I haven't. I came back only to inform you of the Toscana. Besides, who would they follow? They know you, Jotaro not me. Only the old remember who I really am and of course, you. No, you may keep your rank and position within the clan, it is of no use to me now. I understand that by my failure to kill Kazuo I am honor bound to either end my own life in retribution or be exiled from the clan. I accept my fate." Risako replied as she turned and left, winding her own way through the home of her childhood.
She was out the front gate and back upon her horse before Izo could hail her and had already ridden out of the village when she stopped herself as she sat midway between the village and the forest. Behind her, lay the threads of a old life, a old world. Ahead, lay a unknown, and possibly unsound, future. She fealt as though she had one foot in each place. Behind her lay the calm certainty of her home and ahead was the wide maw of the future. Many of her clan, upon facing this had choosen to end their shame here, upon the very spot where she sat. The earth itself was stained red here from the generations who had found this unbearable. She didn't and maybe the reason lay with the man who had rescued her in the first place. She'd been willing that long night after her failure in Bandithaven to let her mount wander the forest and she drift away to the halls of her ancestors peacefully still riding and safe from her enemies. Had he really saved her now as she sat motionless here, her mind and heart divided, from herself? He had given her a purpose she had been unwilling to find for herself in this world. Odd, she though, how could Keiji, have accomplished this as he was miles away from her now, probably riding into battle against Kazuo.
It was then that she decided to move on. The fate of her land, blood, and people was being decided in the world away from this one and she did not belong here. How silly had she been to leave him alone to face a host of bandits without her?
She plunged into the stream and took off, as fast as the horse was willing to go, towards Bandithaven. Keiji she decided, wouldn't have to face Kazuo alone. She'd be there with him as she should have been from the start. How right Izo had been.
