A lord is fallen

Justice must be meted out

The traitors punished

The morning was cool and clear as the samurai marched to battle. The traitors who had slain the Daidoji lord had been tracked to a hidden village nearby, and a war party of Crane and Crab samurai had formed to punish the assassins. The Crane were resplendent in their fine silks of blue and white, while the Crab in their heavy armor were of a grimmer mein. All the bushi boasted of their prowess and the glory they intended to win that day. Daidoji Toshi was no exception; a young warrior fresh from his gempukku, he boasted as loud as any, eager for his first taste of real battle.

The samurai easily evaded the tricks and traps left by the enemy, and soon fell upon the secret village. The village folk screamed and fled, while a ragged line of bushi formed to meet the assault. But the attackers had the greater numbers, better training and better weapons. Toshi struck down one of the outlaws himself, but with the outcome never in question, the victory was strangely unsatisfying.

After the battle, the samurai searched the village for stragglers. Toshi entered a crude hut, only to find cringing village women and filthy children wailing in fear. The young samurai was struck by how meager and poor it seemed, compared to the splendor and beauty of the courts of the Crane. And yet.... One of the women held a crying baby swaddled in a dirty blue and white cloth. Crane colors. Toshi remembered the traitorous assassins crying out "We are the true Daidoji!" before being cut down. Were these people his kin? Was the man he had slain earlier a distant cousin?

Toshi turned away from the hut, only to come face-to-face with two of the other samurai of his war party. "There are only women and children within," Toshi told them.

"They are traitors, and the village is to be put to the sword," growled the fierce Hida.

Toshi turned to Kakita Shinji, the senior man among the Crane. "Only women and children," Toshi repeated, as if in appeal.

The veteran warrior nodded with understanding of the young Daidoji's reluctance. Squaring his shoulders, the Kakita said only, "I will do what is needful." After a moment, Daidoji Toshi bowed and stepped aside, letting the Kakita enter the hut. Toshi thought of the gentle courtier, Miyuki, who had hidden her face even when the first blood was spilled in battle, earlier that day; what would she think of this deed? No words came to him.

Later on, the normally cheerful Toshi was unusually quiet, both when the courtiers heaped glory upon the war band for avenging the Daidoji daimyo, and still later in the sake houses when the warriors boasted of the day's work. Even as the courtiers praised his deeds, Toshi felt like a coward. But was he a coward for failing his duty to punish the traitors? Or was he a coward for standing aside and letting the village folk be slain?

His heart was filled with uncertainty.

Vengeance is taken

A village put to the sword

The taste is bitter