#redlash

The Emperor was making a speech.

She wasn't one for speeches, finding them to be a waste of time when she could just do the work no matter how much Light-Paws stressed that public appearances would help her image. But she needed to draw attention away from everything else that would happen today. So she allowed her court to argue and fuss over everything - her hair, her clothes, her makeup - and rehearsed what she would say. It needed to be decently lengthy, but also not draw on far too long and make it seem like she was just grasping for time.

She was, as always, accompanied by the Shizuki twins when she finally stepped behind the podium to speak. Eiko stood tall beside her, and Kaito and Himoto waited in the shadows. While the three were united in their purpose, Kaito preferred to be the stealthy, hidden blade guarding the Emperor's back while Eiko was the strong and heavy shield at her side.

"People of Kamigawa," the Emperor began, "it has come to my attention that many people are asking what I intend to do as Emperor, and you all deserve to hear it from me. It is just one of the things I owe you after my spark severed me from our home for so long."

Doctor Selestri Zlovol's office was located in the foothills of the Sokenzan mountain range, hidden away from where most would find it on the way to Sokenzanshi. From the ground, the Order of Jukai were already using their magic, pulling from the Jukai Forest, to tear apart security mechs and open up the building for their Jundian allies for this fight.

"Strike swiftly and leave no Futurist alive!" Shigeki directed his Order as they breached the building's defenses. "Rescue what prisoners you can!"

The Warren of Dragons struck from the sky. Using Goro-Goro's summoned lightning dragons, they landed on the roof and began tearing into it, intending to meet the Order of Jukai and the Jundian warband halfway down.

"Smash everything!" Goro-Goro had told his akki. "No tech left, no mech left!"

"My goal is simple," the Emperor said, her voice loud and clear thanks to the microphones. "I dream of a better, safer Kamigawa for all of its people. Not merely the Imperial Court and our citizens, but those who have had their rights stripped away by my predecessor, those who are moving to our plane, and those who are traveling through it. Every kami, nezumi, akki, human, orochi, ogre, nantuko, soratami, kappa, and even oni deserves to be safe and respected."

The Sungrip Enforcer Academy in Eigan Town, about as far away from Eiganjo itself as you could get, was the number one provider of cloned enforcers thanks to their seemingly endless cloning machines. Cloning machines that one Reckoner in particular was more than happy to smash.

Unlike the other attacks today, this was a quieter infiltration mission. Redlash and Matona, two Dokuchi Reckoners, led some other Dokuchi as they slipped into weak points in the building, shorted out security cameras, and knocked out anyone who tried to stop them.

Redlash's body ached. He was a deteriorated clone, he knew better than anyone the fate that all clones - even ones early in the process - faced. And he wanted to ensure that clones like him were treated better than they were now, used as fodder for an endless war against Kamigawa's own people.

"Much of my time has been spent going through the laws of Kamigawa, which are written opaquely and with plenty of room to allow the most malicious and rich to use them for harming others. Bills that are passed 'for the betterment of Kamigawa' have lines in them that remove more and more protections from the average person. To get some of these protections back, to not die at the hands of enforcers encouraged to kill, people are then pushed to join Reckoner gangs. Is it any wonder, then, that the Reckoners hate the Imperial Court so much?"

Kaizen Tsuji and Satoru Umezawa were leading the Reckoners - Dokuchi and Hyozan both - attacking the Hayashi Omenpath Stronghold. Kaizen's many years spent infiltrating the Hayashis and serving them meant that he knew every gap in security. That gap in security was large enough for Karahaka, Kami of Empty Graves, to break into for their long-overdue vengeance, for both the Reckoners and Innistradi captured and tortured to death by the Hayashis through the years.

"Let the kami through first!" Satoru shouted to his Hyozans. "No bathing in blood, make it quick and don't get distracted!"

No such warning was passed to the Dokuchi by Kaizen, because he knew that they would follow it regardless. He was in his own enforcer armor, now with orange detailing instead of red, and was at the front of the fight near Karahaka to help protect the other Reckoners as they struck the relatively lightly-manned stronghold.

"Kyodai Omikami chose me to be your Emperor. I intend to live up to her expectations of me, but even more than that, I intend to re-secure the rights of Kamigawa and its peoples." The Emperor pressed a hand to her chest. "I had yearned for many years to come home. I will do everything within my power to become the Emperor that has been needed."

The shadows were darker today. That, of course, was on purpose.

Koda Hayashi stepped out of the shadows, pulling Prince Biilziebub and Vasro Hayashi with him. Haruko, the Kami of Restless Shadows, was not far behind. The four of them remained utterly silent as they moved through the halls of the Hayashi Manor. They had two targets and one goal - elminate Yuna Suzuki and Ichiro Hayashi, then get the hell out.

You sat at the dining room table across from your father. Or, well, across from one of them. Silentsign, Pops, your nezumi dad. He smiled at you, and you smiled back, even though everything that was coming up made your stomach twist into knots. Toshiro the mastiff – not much of a puppy anymore – snoozed by your feet.

You raised your hands and signed. Nezumi sign language took a bit more effort for you than for a nezumi. “I’ve made an arrangement so you have a second watching your back during the next suitor party.” You didn’t want to have another suitor party. Or the inevitable third one. But work was work, and this was part of the price you were paying. At least you could be sure that your dad would be safe. You’d handle the payment later.

Pops tilted his head. You watched his clipped ear twitch as he signed. Ears, whiskers, tail, hands. The four main things to watch in nezumi sign language. “Who are they?”

“Renaissance of the Maestros. New Capennan. Very skilled assassin.” They were older than you in the same field of work as your parents used to be in. “Planeswalker. Professional.”

You had already asked Renaissance and confirmed this with them. Thank you for trusting me with this task, they had said over text. Trust. You supposed you were trusting them more than you trusted most business acquaintances. Or even your own family at times.

“I’d like to meet them so I can see how well I can work with them,” Pops signed back. “If you trust them, I will be nice.”

You nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements,” you promised. You looked up when you heard a knock on the door and then heard it open. “That must be Lily. She said she wanted to come by tonight. Excuse me.” After Pops nodded, you got up and gently prodded Toshiro with your foot to wake him up. He stretched and yawned, then padded after you as you slipped out of the kitchen and into the front hall.

Lily was waiting for you. She clearly had the family spark back based on the renewed confidence in her step. She still wore that same blend of robes and armor that you had come to consider her personal uniform. And she had...something wrapped in cloth in her arms.

You just gave her a side hug. “Hey Lily,” you whispered, letting some of your exhaustion slip into your voice. “Thanks for coming by. What did you want to talk about?”

She closed her eyes and let out a soft, exhausted sigh of her own for a moment within the hug, then perked back up. “A few things, but first, sit down so I can give you this.” She held up the thing in her arms.

You smiled and shook your head before you sat down as directed. “Do you want me to close my eyes and hold out my hands too?” you teased.

“That is entirely up to you.”

You opted not to and let the goddess gently set the bundle down in your lap. It was decently hefty, so you unwrapped the cloth with care. You inhaled when you saw the first bit of bone. Serpentine structure, no teeth, horns that curled just like the body and tail of the living being had.

You swallowed and gently held up the Thyrsian dragon skull. It was easily the size of a small dog. “Lily, this is...” You trailed off. You gently ran a thumb across the lower jaw of the skull.

She held up a hand. “I know that you have specific things you do to ask the skull spirit for permission for skull scrying,” she said. “But I figured that if anyone could blend the talents of skull scrying with knowledge of Thyrsian dragons, it would be you.”

You swallowed and gently set the skull back in your lap. “Thank you, Lily.” You didn’t know what else to say as you gazed at the skull in your hands and gently ran a thumb around the curve of one of its horns.

She sat down next to you. “You’re welcome, Koda.” She reached into one of the various pockets of her robes. If it were anyone else right now, you would have expected a weapon. But you knew that Lily didn’t keep weapons in her pockets. You were still confused when she removed a bag from her pocket and opened it to reveal the teeth that were meant to be part of the skull. “As you know, in Thyrsus, the teeth of dragons can be sown to create soldiers matching the species of the one who sows them. I also know that you have a strong aversion to the idea of creating people specifically to be soldiers.”

That you did, given what the Imperial Court and the noble families did to their clones. To ones like Redlash and the newly-named Quickpaw. To anyone they found useful enough to repeat over and over until the clones’ bodies gave out.

You also knew just how dangerous the Spartoi were when they first sprouted. They were aggressive and lashed out violently until the one who had sown them either calmed or killed them. It took several months in a one-on-one setting to help a Spartoi learn how to live, communicate, and work with others in combat rather than striking alone. This necessity for time, patience, and one-to-one training was why you had not mentioned this particularity of Thyrsus’s native dragons and their teeth to your vampiric fathers when the question of manpower ever came up.

“I am not asking you to help,” Lily said softly, “but I wanted to ask for your thoughts on what might happen if we changed the variables. A non-Thyrsian sowing the teeth in Thyrsian soil. A Thyrsian sowing the teeth in non-Thyrsian soil. A non-Thyrsian sowing the teeth in non-Thyrsian soil.”

You leaned back and tried to focus solely on the theoretical. “The way I see it, you have several other variables to consider, such as how close another plane is to Thyrsus both magically and in terms of placement in the Blind Eternities, or if the non-Thyrsian is of a species similar to a Thyrsian one or not.”

Lily was listening intently. The two of you had spent several years now going back and forth on magical theory and spell work. You both enjoyed the chance to poke holes into each other’s works.

“So what you’re actually testing is the similarity between a plane’s overall magic balance to see if you can replicate the results on another plane and whether the dragon tooth is capable of copying a non-Thyrsian species or if the cultural memory of the plane’s dragons will only create Spartoi from Thyrsians.” You paused. “But most of the mortal species were created after the Progenitor Dragon and Progenitor Hydra, right?”

She nodded. “Mythologically speaking, yes. And every mortal species of Thyrsus, including the gorgons and nymphai and lotus feeders, can create Spartoi matching them.”

You didn’t like what you were going to say next. But you needed to be honest. “This seems like something you’d have to actually test instead of leaving it in the theoretical.”

Lily remained quiet for a few moments. “...I’m aware,” she finally said. “I just didn’t want you to think that I was going into this without thinking.”

You snorted. “I don’t think I can accuse you of not thinking, Lily. Maybe I can accuse you of not knowing everything, but you do try to actually think about things.”

She laughed. It was an unsteady yet familiar sound. One that she had been trying to make more consistently ever since the two of you first met in Odithis several years back when you stole a kill from her. “Thank you, Koda. It’s nice to be able to speak with you about these things. You always find the blindspot.”

“I’d be a pretty shit assassin if I couldn’t.”

She put the teeth back into the bag. “...Would you like these?” she finally offered.

You had figured this question, this offer, had been coming. You wordlessly held out your hand, palm up. Once she deposited it in your grasp, you gently closed your fingers around it. You felt the teeth within. There were forty-six of various sizes and shapes. You could almost completely restore the Dokuchi Reckoners to pre-Phyrexian Invasion numbers if this worked.

But you just tucked the teeth away in the pocket of your armor. “Anything else you wanna talk about?” you prompted.

Lily fidgeted with her sleeve for a moment while she put the words together. “Cinder’s traveling without the spark.”

“Funny enough, so is Mum.” You weren’t too sure why your mother had decided to strike off on another trip, especially without Pops, but you knew better than to ask. “Maybe they’ll run into each other.”

Another laugh. “That would be something. The Exactor of Justice and the scariest woman I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Like one of those stories you told me about mountain ronin with their sidekicks that they can’t get rid of. Except it’s my brother that’s the sidekick.” Lily finally stood up. “I’m pretty sure that’s everything, but I’ll text you if I think of something else. Have fun with your new skull friend.”

“I will,” you said with a nod. “Keep your own ass covered, Lily.”

She stepped outside of the door and planeswalked away in the familiar flurry of pages. You gently picked up the dragon skull again to stare into its empty eye sockets. “...You and I are going to become very good friends, Ismenios,” you whispered to it.

Within the bone, you felt the skull spirit awaken.

The Omenpath had been guarded for a while now, with each vampire-demon that came through easily obliterated by the combined guard of akki and Dokuchi Reckoners. Goro-Goro had three dragon spirits summoned alongside his lightning, Zenkuro’s sais had been cleaned from his most recent kill already, and Haruko ensured that the dark of the night was their shield rather than their downfall. And back behind them were others who could aid – Azzie, Ruby, Dusk-Fur, Redlash, and the Warren of Dragons were ready to step in if needed, and Atsushi was a mere shout away. They had already fought off multiple transformed vampires that came through, but they could tell that something big was coming.

Goro-Goro brandished his sword and drew upon the mountain’s mana, feeling the energy course through his veins like it always did. He masked it from the others, but he could feel himself weakening. He had been holding the line solo before Azzie, Ruby, and Zenkuro got there. And even now, he was the strongest of them, able to destroy their enemies from the moment they stepped from the Omenpath.

Another trio of vampire-demons came through, and Goro-Goro raised his sword to draw more lightning into it once more. Zenkuro and Haruko beat him to the punch, however, by tackling two of them. Dusk-Fur beat him to the third vampire-demon by kicking it in the face. He let out a sigh of relief and lowered his sword. His kidneys ached from the magical strain he was experiencing. He had been holding the Omenpath since it opened, but even now that he had allies to guard it, he didn’t want to let his warren down.

“Another coming through!” Zenkuro bellowed, raising his sais and sliding into a fighting stance again. Goro-Goro took a deep breath and brandished his sword one more time.

The thing that came through the Omenpath was more bat than vampire, but it stood almost as tall as Zenkuro and had a pair of arms separate from its wings, in which it brandished a flail. Black mana poured off of it, a disgusting taste of swamp and cavern which made Goro-Goro’s mouth go dry. A bloodletter, according to what Azzie had told him about Torrezon’s foes that were coming through the Omenpath. But something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

As Goro-Goro brandished his wakizashi to call down the lightning of Ryusei, he felt his scars from the Phyrexian Invasion a few years prior split open. His breath caught in his lungs, and he heard the other mortals behind him hit the ground and cry out in pain. Just the mere presence of this beast made Goro-Goro’s blood drip from his scars.

Zenkuro let out a roar that shook the very mountain they stood on and launched himself at the enemy, catching its flail in one hand and yanking it from the monster’s grasp before catching its hands. Haruko appeared from the bloodletter’s own shadows, gripping its wings in her skeletal limbs and planting her foot against it to try to rip the wings from its back.

Goro-Goro gasped for air and brandished his sword. He called not on lightning – he didn’t have the mana for that – but on the dragon spirits he had already summoned. One of the three charged in and, thankfully, bit the bloodletter’s head clean off in the same moment that Haruko ripped its wings from its back and Zenkuro ripped its arms off.

“Good job, Goro-Goro!” Zenkuro called over his shoulder as he continued to rip into the bloodletter. He had taken to tasting their foes, as most oni would.

“Good,” Goro-Goro managed to get out. He was swaying on his feet, the ground swirling under him. “Good. Keep holding line.”

He dropped to his knees.

His wakizashi hit the ground a moment before he did.