The ninja looks directly into Lord Akechi’s eye; even with barely any visible light coming into the forest, a faint, red hue seems to be flowing from it. Trying his best to prevent showing any emotion, the ninja quickly calms down the shaking that occurs in his hands, “U-Understood.”
Lord Akechi looks at the ninja for a moment before releasing his uniform. She crosses her arms and looks towards the town again, “In order to have complete control over a person, you must embed fear deep into their conscience. Not only will they hear your real voice, they will always hear it in their mind, reminding them who it is that they don’t want to anger. Fear is absolute.”
Making sure her point came across, Lord Akechi slowly turns her head to look at the ninja next to her; he hasn’t moved and is still looking at her. She chuckles and looks back at the town, “Spread out before reaching the wall. Send two of them to the storage cache over in the east and set it ablaze. I’m going straight for my target.”
“Understood.”
Finishing their briefing, Lord Akechi snaps her fingers and leaves begin to rustle behind her; a small squad of ninja rise up from the leaves, ten in total. They leap from their positions and rush straight for the town, weapons drawn and ready. The ninja next to Lord Akechi salutes one more time before leaping from the tree and joining the others. Lord Akechi, however, jumps down from the tree and takes her time walking to the town. She claws at the trees as she walks past them.
“Blood will be the foundation for my castle. Absolute fear is my inspiration. My bare hands will be the instrument I wield in battle.”
* * * * *
“I hope it doesn’t rain. It would make it feel a bit colder during the night.”
Sitting on a window’s edge that leads out to the roof shingles for that floor of the castle, Ayane looks out at the town below. She can hear the voice behind her and replies, “It’s not gonna rain. It would have happened by now.”
The footsteps of the other person slowly approaches Ayame; she looks back to get a look at her company.
Short, dark brown hair decorated with hair pins and carefully braided with ribbons. A long, flowing pink and red outer robe covers up the green and pink floral design kimono underneath. Her sturdy geta sandals echo across the floor with each step. With a gentle smile Matsunoshin Gohda’s only daughter, Princess Kiku, walks up to Ayame; she sits on her knees and looks out of the window, looking down at the town.
“You know, I never really noticed how small the town looks from up here. I feel so high up, as if I’m up in the clouds.”
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