Disclaimer: I own nothing of L5R; their canon is their canon, but I love making characters and playing around in their setting.
Author's Note: You guys, I am SO MAD ABOUT THIS [L5R's 'The First Lesson'] YOU HAVE NO IDEA. So, latest canon has a few things that I disagree with. But hearing about the Sparrow being utterly removed is the worst thing ever. I actually feel a little ill. So here's a short fic, completely Out of Canon, of how I hope someone totally gets up in canon's grill about this...
"My dear, I was wondering when you would arrive." Daigotsu Susumu sipped at his tea, looking out across the balcony at the wide expanse of mist. Tree-tops of withered and dead pines peeked through the mist, as well as broken spires of stone; to Susumu's taste, they reshaped themselves to cherry blossoms and temple rooftops. But only for a moment, before the obscuring mist erased them from sight.
His guest glared through the eyeholes of her mask, noting with distaste that the spout of the teapot was pointed at the very doorway she had entered through. She did not waste her time bowing at the Dark Fortune's back, not even out of tradition's sake. "What have you done, Susumu?"
"What have I done?" He calmly turned, reaching for the teapot and refilling his cup. "You are in a fine mood, dear Impossible, if your greeting is so coarse."
Keneng's fans snapped in her hands, the jaws of tigers baring their teeth. "I am in no mood for this game, Spider. We have had the chance to meet and be on civil terms before. But not now. You have gone too far." A momentary pause as she watched him as he set down the teapot, again with the spout pointing directly at her. Her mask rippled, lines of red and black becoming more prominent, the colour rippling down to emphasise and merge with the gold thread in apricot of her kimono. "The Sparrow Clan. What have you done with them?"
He turned, his eyes blank orbs of fathomless obsidian, and put a hand to his heart as though wounded. "You think I have something to do with that?"
"So you admit it?" The mask she wore twisted into a snarling visage of a lion.
"Cease your crowing," Susumu sneered, with a toss of his head, a gesture that did nothing to dislodge the perfect array of his hair. "I have admitted nothing."
"But you know of the change. You know the Sparrow are gone." Keneng stepped forward, gripping her fans to tightly her knuckles were showing white through the skin. "I know you did this."
Susumu shrugged, looking out across the landscape again. "Walk through the village yourself, Keneng. It is far from deserted. Anyone passing through would know that peasants still work the fields, samurai still train in the dojos, merchants still palm coins for bags of rice…"
"But it is all a lie!" The fans disappeared as the small actress slammed her arms through the air, the hanging sleeves carving arcs through the darkness of the Fortune's quarters. "They are no more a Sparrow than you are a…"
"Choose your words carefully," the Spider pivoted to face her, narrowing his fathomless eyes. "You forget your place… little Disciple."
Keneng choked for a moment, but turned the sound into a bitter laugh. "Oh, true. I am a Disciple of Disguise, and not the Fortune itself. But that means I am still learning, still striving to reach my goal, still gaining knowledge and talent as I rise ever onwards."
A smirk touched the corners of his lips. "Meaning, you will never be as powerful as I am, as long as Kyogen plays his games. Tell me something, little Impossible. Does your husband - an actual Fortune - know you are here, this time? Did he send you to plead on his behalf?" Susumu smirked. "Does he know how hopeless that is?"
The kimono shimmered, the pattern in the design changing to plum blossoms. "Would that change anything, whether I was or wasn't here because of Conmei?" She snorted, shaking her head. "You have committed a grave sin, Susumu!"
"A sin?" He seemed genuinely amused.
"Not even Shosuro actors would be fools enough to change the stage to suit their performances!" She slammed a fist into an open palm. "There are rules!"
"Rules?" The former Imperial Advisor laughed, a hollow and mocking sound. "You have rules. No part of my ascension was ever conditional on me following what you think is so integral to our existence."
There was a long, pained silence, broken only by the sound of the wind moaning through the open doorway.
"Why?" Keneng said at last, voice broken despite her sure-footed stance. "Why would you do this?" She put a hand to her mask, holding the rippling colours in place as the mask reshaped itself. "They are the Empire's storytellers; they have never caused harm since their founding. Why would you destroy them?"
He laughed again. "You must have been raised by peasants to be so shortsighted."
One fan returned, snapping open in her free hand as she pointed. "You mock your own hometown, Daigotsu. Have you no shame, as well as no honour?"
The Spider stood in silence.
"No, I understand," Keneng continued, bitter. "Though I wish I did not. You remade them in your own image." She shook her head, desperately attempting to deny it. "And for what? Why? Your pride? To see if it could be done? Is it orders you're following? Madness!" She spread her hands wide. "The power you have been given should have been used for art, Susumu-san! Not destruction!"
"On whose authority are you speaking?" He asked dryly. "You have no right to command me, Keneng. If I want to give out masks to my followers, who are you to stop me?"
She shook her head again. "You are twisted and wrong, Susume. They were innocent! They had no need to be your target! There was no call for you to do what you have done!"
The Spider balanced his empty teacup on the railing. "And yet, for all you knew of the deception at work, you did nothing." He smiled, wanly. "You could have stopped me, or tried to. I would have enjoyed another game, my dear. The tug-of-war of morals, the shifting of allegiances, the secrets let slip, the chances that occurred to make me wonder whether or not I would actually win the games we played, or if I would lose." He flicked his finger, sending the cup sailing off into the mist and darkness. There was no sound to tell if it had landed or broken.
"You think them games?"
"Between Dark Deception and Artful Disguise?" He asked, amused, "Of course. What else would they be? Hah! You actually think you stand a chance against me?" Susumu balled his hand into a fist, raising it to eye-level so he could see the blood he crushed through his knuckles. "I am Deception. The first Dark Fortune appointed by the New Lord of Jigoku. In life, I was a servant of two masters. I was the Imperial Advisor, and loyal servant of Daigotsu himself." He chuckled, then turned to smirk at his guest. "And what are you? A peasant girl, an eta, a Disciple of a Fortune who refuses to relinquish his title despite a hundred years… and, let us not forget, the wife of a man who is a Fortune before you? A man who is the last of his kind…"
Keneng took a stance. "If it is a duel you want, I will accept."
"You are not worth the effort." He turned his back on her. "The Sparrow are finished, Disciple of Disguise. There's nothing you can do about it." He smirked out at the faceless, ever changing panorama outside his home. "Accept defeat, as humiliating as that is for you, for that is all I will offer."
Keneng spat on the ground. The jade burned a hole through the floor as she turned and walked away.
An ambush of Destroyers fell upon the Hida regiment, merciless claws rending and tearing flesh and armour both. Screams of dying men mingled with the triumphant howls and snarls of the animal-headed servants of Kali-Ma and the hooting of their Gajin handlers. The slaughter was over in moments, the whole company reduced to corpses and smears on the earth.
Many did not even have time to draw their swords.
From the branches of a withered pine overlooking the carnage, a pale white mask, with the faintest outline of a plum branch across its forehead, hovered like a pale ghost… or a protective, watchful sentinel.
Hours passed; shadows lengthened along the ground, flies gathered on open mouths and staring eyes and pooling blood. A Hiruma scout chanced upon the spot, left, returned with a small group of Hida and ashigaru to start carrying away the dead.
Under the bodies of the massive Hida warriors, they found Suzume Kenta, unconscious but alive, clutching his sword. The Crab bundled the Sparrow onto the back of a horse, taking him back to camp. Even a lone survivor can tell much about the enemy's strength and weaknesses.
Masks may be given, whispered the wind through the thin mouth slit of the mask, But they may also be removed.