The towering inferno that was once the Silent Cicada cast thousands of glowing embers into the dark sky where they traced the currents of the wind and cast a dull red illumination. Revealed by the dim glow was a young woman kneeling in front of the burning inn. In front of her a wakizashi lay on the grass, its blade blackened by the ash and blood that was cooked onto it by the heat. The same ash and blood covered the woman, and as tears rolled down her face and fell to the ground they too were black and red.
'Not my blood', Sae thought looking at her stained hands. The haze began to clear from her mind slowly and unwanted emotion caught up to the tears that she was shedding. She tried to speak but the rage, despair, and horror of the situation that she now felt made her choke on her words.
'How many did I kill?' she wondered. It was like waking from a blood soaked nightmare, but here there was a difference. These men were very real and very dead. There should have been ten or so if they were all in the building when she started the fire, plus the innkeeper, his family and the one or two other guests who had sought respite from their travels here. Strange that she should only remember them now that it no longer mattered.
"Justice", she finally said. These were the first words she had spoken since leaving the dojo two days ago.
"Murder", replied the gentle voice she knew to belong to her sensei Kakita Tokai.
"It was for you", Sae cried out to the voice on the wind. "They would have vanished long before anyone could have arrived. They would have disappeared. They would have gotten away with murder…" her voice trailed off as the dancing embers fell to the ground illuminating the bodies that littered the area outside the entrance to the inn. Apparently only six of them had retained enough sobriety to wake up in time to act. Their cuts no longer bleeding, they looked dull like her blade. Her katana, she remembered now, had been driven into the chest of the first of them as he tried to barrel his way through the doorway. He had fallen back into the flames and there he lay still. His body now only flames in human form. Her sword, still sticking from its body, was glowing red-hot. Guilt brought up the contents of her last meal and she further soiled the once beautiful blue kimono her brother had given her. She had worn it so that any of the men who made it out of the fire would know who it was that killed them. Indeed the look of surprise and shock still colored the faces of those corpses. It was their last expression before Sae had cut them down one at a time in their panic to escape the burning inn.
'Will I get away with murder?' Sae wondered. Would she be tracked down and punished like these men had deserved? By Lady Sun and Lord Moon, what did she deserve for this?
"It was for yourself." Her sensei replied and then the wind was still.

Two days later, Sae returned to the dojo to find that no one had, in fact, arrived to discover the abandoned school. A bitter smile painted across her lips as she considered how peaceful the place was now. The men had carried off all of the bodies after their attack and hid them in the forest. The dojo as well as all the other buildings was well kept, clean and empty. Whoever they were they had taken everything of value. Despite all that had occurred in the last couple of days Sae found that she still knew so little about why this had happened. So focused was she on vengeance that she hadn't even bothered to find out who those murderers were. The men had come without warning and just as quickly killed everyone she had lived with for the last six months, when she herself was sent here. She realized now that they had not fought like brigands or thieves, but like trained bushi. If she had not been waiting by the river for Tokai-sama, she too would have been butchered.
Sae closed her eyes trying to keep the tears from forming. She didn't know why he hadn't show up. But now she could never tell him how much she respected him, how much she looked up to him, and more. Her fellow students, even her beloved Sensei were all gone now. She too was dead, Sae supposed. She knew she could not return to her family after the sin she committed. It would only bring shame to her father and to her sensei. Better for Doji Sae to have died with the rest of her small school.
It took her only a half an hour to search through her former home. The men had been thorough and there was not much left that would be of any use to a ronin. Her filthy kimono, she threw into the river pausing only momentarily to look toward the willow tree where Tokai should have been waiting. If no one discovered what had happened here in a day or so some peasant downstream would be sure to fish out the singed and bloodied robe and alert a magistrate. Finally, they would arrive to investigate days later. Perhaps they would find the hidden bodies of the students if they looked hard enough or the single grave under that willow tree marked with the largest stones that could be found and the recovered daisho of Kakita Tokai. Meanwhile she would find out who had sent those men.
As she left the dojo for the last time a breeze picked up and cast cherry petals into the bright sky where they traced the currents of the wind and painted a picture of beauty and peace around the quiet landscape. But as Sae watched the spectacle she saw only the burning embers of that night and her glowing red katana.