I tell the tale of the fall of an esteemed house of the Crab clan Hida family, the house of Higeki.
It is many years past, close to 20 summers ago, when the Hantei came to the great wall of the Kaiu. It was a warm summer day when the caravan carrying his royal highness, Hantei the 38th, the bright sun shone in ever glint of gold and jade that cover the Imperial box as eight men all bulging with painfully ruby tanned muscle set it down so softly not a chime was heard from it's ornaments. A man wearing the finest garb opened the door to the box and held it open for the Emperor as the guards scrambled to their places.
A wisp of long white hair flew from the opening and a man moved to the opening. He was the noblest looking man I had ever seen. His every feature implyed honor and wisdom and his Emerald armor looked like a shell of green duty that could never be breached by any loyal blade in Rokugan. He climbed down and looked up as our lord and master, the Hantei stood at the opening and climbed down. They caught sight of my lord Hida Kasada and started walking to him, but then a tragedy struck. They Hantei stumbled on a small yet sharp and painful rock and was about to fall and one of his etta servants quickly moved to his aide, catching him and preventing the Empire from harm. The Emperor smiled upon the etta and continued while the peasant hero kneeled before Satsume of the Emerald, so that his dishonor for touching the Emperor be cleansed with a quick stroke of his blade.
They approached my lord Hida and he kneeled to the Emperor. I truly felt lucky to see such a sight, for there is no other my Lord would ever show such honor to in all the Empire and I know only a few who have had this privilege to see my lord prove that even the mightiest Crab has not lost sight of his full duty to the Empire. The Hantei looked displeased and looked around before looking up at the kneeling figure and saying, "Kasada~chan, I have heard that your consumption of rice has tripled this season and you know our stock houses are running dangerously low, and yet you still send a messenger for me to come here as if my sight of your plights might make rice grow faster… How dare you profess such insolence!" The entire gathering was struck in a dead chill under the blazing sun as we watched our Lord for a rebuttal, and yet my eye was drawn to the Emerald Champion, even through his mempo I could see his eyes, a look of deepest sorrow. Possibly one of sympathy, but I must have had the only angle to see this for my fellow Crabs did not see it. And then the impossible happened, and the still quiet was broken by gasps of astonishment when our Lord Kasada dropped his other knee, and lay his head on his hands before this tiny man and we heard the Great Bear meekly growl, "My Lord Hantei. My men have been fighting the Shadowlands and the war is escalating. I thing the dark one knows of our hunger and has sent his foulest demons for our souls. My men are fighting as though they were 5 men, but with rice for only half a man. My men can not fight both the enemy, and their hunger. Millet will not defeat Fu Lang." At the speaking of the dark one's true name everyone, the Emperor, and even the noble Satsume recoiled in fright. "How dare you speak that name in my presence!!", the Emperor yelled and kicked sun-dried earth into the face of the rock before him. "You say your men fight as though they are five men… Very well, I decree this."
The Emperor turned to the crowd and pointed to the smallest Crab Samurai in sight; standing in line, it was Hida Higeki. "That Samurai will get one meal then he will go beyond the wall. He will bring me the head of an oni by dawn. If he does, I will grant the rice. If not I cut your shipments to half what they are now." There was a great gasp and a great din of murmur of death, and my Lord Kasada looked up in shock. The Emperor smiled, "And let his meal be of millet." and with that he turned and walked to the Crab Palace.
The Crab used every tactic they had to help that man. I blessed him with every scroll I possessed; he was given a great hammer of jade, and then it was time to send him on his way. Of all the things I can remember of those years long ago. I remember that moment above all others crispest and clearest. I remember his eyes. I remember his dark brown eyes sparkling in the sun as the shadows of the gate crossed him, and how those eyes seemed to turn black as obsidian as the shadows engulfed them just before the doors creaked then slammed shut. Leaving us to sit in that hellish courtyard under the contemptuous gaze of our beloved Emperor. All we could do was pray for our brother, and dream that we could pour enough hope to fill that merciless place so that it would pour over the wall into the heart of darkness so that our brother would find his way home safe.
And as the gates opened that morning a lone figure stood outside the gates, hidden by the giant shadow of the wall as dawns light poured along it's crest leaving a bitter chill to the sheltered courtyard. He slowly stepped forward into view. His body was battered, his armor looked as though a black fire had blasted him searing his chest and back, his hands were cut to the bone and half his face had been torn away revealing a ghastly skeletal grin, one eye dangled on his exposed skull, his black charred armor was drenched in blood. The Hantei looked on this monster and fell to his knees retching as the samurai, now little more than a walking corpse, approached and held the fanged head of a Kyoso before him letting it drop with a loud thud on the stone courtyard broken horns framing it's hidious visage. The Crabs in audience who wanted to cheer for their triumph were cut down by the tears in their eyes and the pain in their throat. The Emperor looked down at the head of the oni lying before him and then at the samurai before him, and smiled meekly. The samurai looked down at the little man before him put a hand to his own destroyed face holding it together, and then he spat.
The Emperor reached up to his face and felt the foamy blood running down his cheek. Suddenly his meek posture disappeared and his face turned red with a rage not uncommon to the men standing before him. The Emperor fumed," You insolent peasant! Your family name is revoked and I order every member of your house beheaded at once!!!" He then ran to his box and flew open the door as he feverishly washed himself. Satsume stepped up to the Crab and put a hand to the hilt of the Doji ancestral blade, when a huge hand appeared on his shoulder. The Crane stepped aside and went to the Emperor's box to leave. The tiny crab looked up at Kasada. The huge crab looked down and nodded slightly, then drew the Crab blade taking the head of Hida Higeki.
I was impressed by the little Crab's courage, and that is why I never told Kasada of the child. I took the samurai's only surviving son to the one place secrets can be safe in Rokugan, to the Scorpion. The Crab never got the rice the Emperor had promised, but now they fight as though they are ten men, on millet.
-Kuni Sumane
