Ocha Province, Water Country, Circa Year 1235
Darkness offered little respite to the village of Hakaba. Not anymore; the invasion of Water Country had put fires to the idle lives of the locals. Try as the Heart Empire might to build support with the civilian population, the hard fact remained that marching a foriegn host through the small towns of Ocha Province was a certain way to sow chaos and resentment in equal measure. Soldiers had to eat. Had to rest, had to sleep, had to maintain the equipment and supplies so that they could keep marching. The means to do so was exacted from the common folk, just like in every war. The byproduct of the necessities of warfare was evident in the downcast eyes of the women, the bowed shoulders of the men, the hungry stares of the children. Fewer and fewer now were those who dared to resist, and never mind whether this invader might be more lenient than the last. What cared the baker for the colour of the flag atop the tower? One tyrant was much the same as another to these people.
But every now and then one might dare to hope. It could be found in the shuttered lantern lights behind closed doors, in the glint in the eyes of men who’d been pushed too far, who’d lost too much. And it sung in the reflected moonlight upon the edge of Fushinkou Tomoe’s raised wakizashi. The blade whispered downwards, lancing across the exposed throat of an otherwise heavily armoured man, and spraying the shadows of an alley wall with dark blood. Short, slight, and black-clad, Tomoe stepped deftly in to press herself up against the samurai, catching him before he could fall and pulling him sideways, through an unlocked door, and into a warehouse.
She dumped the figure beside the corpse of a second—that one a young woman who had almost seen Tomoe coming—and closed the door, then paused to listen. This was not the kunoichi’s first infiltration and, she hoped, would be far from her last. The warehouse contained most of what the invaders had been able to scrounge, loot, steal, and buy from the surrounding area with an eye to supporting their armies further inland, and though it was well patrolled outside, only shadows and silence lay within. Shadows, silence, and sabotage.
A faint glow arose from beside her ear and a voice hummed quietly from the fuuinjutsu there, only just loud enough for her to hear, but nevertheless spiking her anxiety. She paused a moment longer to listen, conscious of the self-imposed timeline brought on by her removal of the guards outside. They’d be missed soon enough.
“So far, nothing,” she muttered while sneaking deeper into the dark warehouse, holding one finger to the fuuinjutsu to carry her words to her distant Captain. “Most of the fighting men have long since departed. To the north, as far as I can gather, to join the main armies further inland. And no airships. Or ships of any kind.” Her tone carried her disappointment along with the report.
“I suspected as much,” the cool voice replied, through the seal and directly to her ear. Aisu Naohiro was leagues away and fighting those same armies, but he had his agents spread as wide as he could get them throughout the lands of what used to be called Tea Country. She was just one of many, if perhaps more capable and favoured than most. “I had hoped we would get another shot at their flying ships, but no doubt they’re too valuable and shorthanded to risk anymore. That we’re seeing none at all, despite the turn in the fighting, bodes well for us. And there’s little chance of Heart’s seagoing vessels breaking through Water Country’s naval blockade. Reports are coming in the same everywhere. Perhaps they’re truly out of options.” Not a hint of disappointment from him there.
“Hakaba is nothing more than a supply dump for them now, for all intents and purposes.” Tomoe whispered back, continuing her report. She’d reached a stone recess set into the floor beside one wall of the warehouse and hopped down into it, located a row of barrels marked as containing oil, and grunted softly as she eased one over and began rolling it back the way she came, towards the middle of the warehouse. “And a nearly exhausted one, at that.” She huffed and pushed, wincing at the grinding and sloshing noises as she set the barrel against a stout wooden beam and returned for more. “But we do what we can…”
“Alas, the real doom of an invasion, moreso than any clash of swords could be,” Naohiro mused, his voice barely reaching her. She only grunted in response, then pulled out a strip of explosive tags and began carefully adhering one to each oil barrel. The stores here might have been destined for an army, but they’d come from the people of Water Country all the same. It was hard to revel in their destruction, knowing that it wouldn’t stop these people from starving come winter.
“Well, continue as you were. If nothing of note catches your eye, pull out and move on southward to the next town. Search for any sign of recent troop movements, any sign of ships. We need to keep as clear a picture of the coasts as we can…” Tomoe stopped listening, having heard the same briefing a half dozen times already. Naohiro loved his planning. She preferred action, and got on with it.
A short while later, cloaked and hooded, she stole out from the shadows of the warehouse and darted away down a different alley. Raised voices were calling from the other, behind her. She scaled one wall, finding easy purchase in the old brickwork, and vaulted across to another, then ducked down into the shadows of a chimney and paused. Shouts, now, and the glow of torches. She took a deep breath, checked her surroundings one last time, and then formed a simple hand seal. Darkness gave way to blinding white, then a bright glowing amber as a deafening rumble shook the town and the old storeroom—and all its contents—detonated in a vast fireball reaching three times the height of any other building in the little town. For a brief moment she was silhouetted against the clouds before flickering darkness returned, broken now by the ominous glow of distant flame…
- Endurance: 10
- Chakra Pool: 10
- Control: 10
- Strength: 10
- Speed: 13
- Willpower: 12