Chapter 13
Okuni ran to Hoshiko's side, falling to her knees as she saw the spear embedded in Hoshiko's chest up close.
"No, no, no!" Okuni muttered, trying to examine the injury. Her hands were stained crimson within moments - how was there so much blood?
Hoshiko's amber eyes fluttered open, and at the same time, a strange pulse of silver light radiated from her headdress. She gave a cry of pain as a dark streak of energy laced up the shaft of the spear, absorbing the light as it sent her body into a violent spasm. Was it Okuni's imagination, or had a thin coat of rust formed over the circlet in the aftermath?
"Okuni..." Hoshiko panted. "You need to - pull it out."
"What?" Okuni protested. "That will only make you lose more blood!"
"Doesn't - matter," Hoshiko groaned. "The spear... please."
Unable to bear seeing her friend in any more pain, Okuni forced her threatening tears back and wrapped both hands around the hilt of the spear. Hoshiko let out a gasp as it was pulled back through her chest, and by the time that Okuni set it down beside her, she was struggling to keep her hands from shaking. As the spear came free, Hoshiko's headdress dissolved, crumbling into ash that scattered through her white hair.
Grasping at Okuni's hand, Hoshiko met her eyes with an intensity that Okuni had seen rivaled just once - in Lady Rei, right before she ascended the Infinite Tower.
"Listen to me, Okuni," Hoshiko whispered. "I don't have much time. You and I both know that it's the truth, and there is something that I need you to do for me."
Hoshiko was interrupted by another fit that left her trembling in Okuni's arms, but when it was over, she continued without missing a beat. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. Please know that. I wanted to keep you out of it, for you already carry such a heavy burden. But now, given the circumstances, you are the only one that I can entrust this to."
Out of the corner of her eye, Okuni could see the portals surrounding the rooftop closing, their job of unleashing their hordes upon the soldiers below completed. She should be moving, charging onto the battlefield to help her friends. But she was rooted to the spot.
"What are you talking about, Hoshiko? You're not making any sense!" Okuni cried. Was the blood loss causing Hoshiko to grow delirious?
As gently as she could, Okuni pulled Hoshiko onto her lap, trying to look anywhere but at the scarlet stain spreading down the front of her friend's robes. Hoshiko reached up, stroking Okuni's cheek with her hand. "Allow me to show you," she whispered. "Perhaps then, you will better understand." Blinking, Hoshiko drew a painful breath in, then re-opened her eyes.
Those eyes, that were now fathomless pools of green, two shining emeralds boring into Okuni's soul. Okuni felt herself being drawn into them… and realized that she was now seeing through them.
But what was it that she was seeing?
Nothing. Floating in a great void. Something awoke within her first, and she raised her head, surrounded by soft silver light.
They knelt before her, the chosen warriors, called upon to raise a new land from their victory. Seventeen in total. Was it too much?
No, she decided, better to split the power this many ways. She could already foresee that some would forge nobler legacies with it than others.
One man stepped forward, and she noted the jet-black lightning bolts encircled in ink around his wrists. Something to honor that, she thought.
So much time spent, watching their descendants from a distance. When had the legends grown so twisted? When had unification become synonymous with bloodshed? Was this because of them, their greed, their lust - or because of her?
That she could not answer the question left her with a strange sorrow.
But occasionally, there were those who became more, the legends who inspired new generations to keep fighting. Those, she was proud to mark as hers - all but one. A thousand years later, it was a tragedy that she still regretted.
Something called out to her. She sent her answer, a beam of her silver light, piercing the horizon and landing atop that tower.
It was a girl who stood before her, a girl with a crest of cherry blossoms on her armor, and an Espeon at her side. But there was a second voice as well - she turned and saw him too, the black dragon atop his keep.
The ambition within the two warriors was more similar than she suspected that they realized. And the dragon did indeed aspire to great goals. But the purposes for which they had called to her... that was the distinction.
It was the same call that she meant to answer six months later. What reason could she have held to suspect?
And so once more, she descended from the clouds above Dragnor, right into the snare of the enemy that she had overlooked. They drove blades into her sides when she set down, shadows pinning her form, draining her power. Any cry for help that she might have raised was drowned out by the storm raging around them. She was helpless when the fallen one appeared before her, an ebony tantō clutched in her hands that the fallen one raised high for the final blow.
But one last burst of strength emerged from somewhere deep inside of her, and she threw herself upwards, the blade of the knife missing her heart - but still cleaving into her chest. The pain was blinding...
Scattered. All her strength went into holding onto what little reserves of her power remained. Taking that, crafting a form that she could use to escape.
Where she would go, she wasn't sure. Aurora, the warrior of the cherry blossoms, that was too far. But over the kingdom of ghosts, a meteor shower. The perfect disguise.
In a burst of silver light, she was reborn beneath the pines of the haunted forest. And as the stars flickered out, Hoshiko awoke.
Okuni was thrust back into the present as quickly as that stream of images had flashed through her mind.
It couldn't be. There had to be some other explanation.
"You do see, then," Hoshiko breathed, as the realization broke across Okuni's features. "And you know why the power must be passed on, before it can fall into that woman's... that thing's hands. With it, the destruction that she could cause... I fear that she already possesses too much."
Raising her other arm, Hoshiko held Okuni's face in her hands, tears welling in her eyes. "Thank you, truly, for showing me all the good that still dwells within Ransei," Hoshiko whispered. "And thank you for being my friend. I wish that we could have had a thousand years more."
"Don't say that!" Okuni insisted. "Please! I can't lose you now!"
Hoshiko's expression hardened, and that silver glow now entered her eyes. "Then take this from me."
Before Okuni could move, Hoshiko brought her head up and kissed her. It was not from passion, no desperate lover's gesture. But as Hoshiko's lips brushed hers, Okuni felt it - a transfer of something between them, the faintest light leaving Hoshiko's body and entering her own.
Collapsing into Okuni's arms, Hoshiko fell limp as a rag doll. Small breaths lifted her chest, but they grew weaker as the blood pooled beneath her, staining her snowy hair.
"What I can give... is now yours," she gasped. Her eyes clouded over, and even those green flecks that had always been so striking now dulled.
Those eyes met Okuni's one final time. "Use it for tomorrow."
And with that, Hoshiko fell still.
Okuni backed away on instinct, refusing to believe the cold that met her fingertips when she tried to take Hoshiko's hand. The world around her was cut off, and all there was in her existence was her and the empty husk that had been her friend.
The first tears fell without Okuni even realizing it, until she saw them land on Hoshiko's robes, gray droplets dotting the white fabric.
Stiffly, Okuni reached out and slid Hoshiko's eyes closed. And with that action, the full gravity of what had occurred struck her.
Hoshiko was the Legendary Pokemon. And now she was dead.
It was Violight all over again. Ginchiyo swore that she had been sent back as she faced another onslaught of hell. Like before, they came from holes that tore open the sky, and the first wave had already reached the ground when Ginchiyo and Luxray set foot on the battlefield.
But this time, Ginchiyo was ready.
She and Luxray moved as one force, charging towards the nearest cluster of demons. Ginchiyo's sword was an extension of her arm, and between its blade and Luxray's electricity, those first foes fell within moments.
Afterwards, Ginchiyo scanned her surroundings, gaining sense of her location. Muneshige was supposed to be on the western end of the battlefield with Violight's troops, under Lord Kenshin's battalion. Which meant that if Ginchiyo wanted to join her soldiers, she was going to have to fight her way through that entire sea of enemies.
So be it.
Making quick work of any demons foolish enough to turn their backs to her, Ginchiyo fell into the violence. She hadn't been trained to separate herself from her surroundings on the battlefield - on the contrary, she could hear every exhalation leaving her body, feel the give of her enemies' flesh and bone with each slice of her blade.
As the adrenaline surging through her reached its peak, Ginchiyo could no longer even discern whether she was watching her foes fall as herself or through Luxray's eyes. All their time spent as partners, they had trained to become this single unit in the heat of battle. Luxray's power became her own, and Ginchiyo swore that even her own body borrowed from her partner.
It had been years since the last time she had been able to fight with all the strength that she possessed. Not that Ginchiyo hadn't gained satisfaction from traditional battles over Violight like the one with Lady Rei, and she wasn't someone like Lady No who relished in bloodshed.
Freeing herself of restraint, though - there was something liberating in it. For while she accepted the title of warlord without complaint, like most of her ancestors, Ginchiyo had always felt her true calling on the battlefield.
As she exploded through another cluster of demons, a trio of green-fletched arrows soared past her, meaning that Lord Motonari was somewhere close by. Ginchiyo saw his Serperior weaving between enemies, knocking several down at once with a sweep of its Leaf Blade-sharpened tail.
In the same breath, a ninja wearing the colors of Yaksha appeared beside her, releasing several throwing stars from her palms before vanishing once more. After the initial surprise of the attack, it seemed that the forces of the kingdoms had begun to regroup.
This knowledge revitalized her, and Ginchiyo shook off the glancing blows she had received thus far, switching her stance into one better suited for fast-paced combat. "Let's go, Luxray!" Her partner answered with another burst of sparks from its coat.
It wasn't much longer before a familiar battle cry registered in her ears above the din, followed by the unmistakable sound of a hammer swinging down onto some unfortunate foe's head. But given his somewhat considerable height, Yoshihiro still spotted her first.
"About damn time you showed up!" he roared upon Ginchiyo cleaving through the final enemies separating them. "I was beginning to think you'd sent that pretty junior warlord of yours to do all your work for you!"
Yoshihiro stood back-to-back with Conkeldurr, who was occupied with swinging both of its stone columns in an arc around them. Any demons unfortunate enough to avoid colliding with either one met their end from Yoshihiro's hammer moments later.
Ginchiyo eyed the setup, one she had previously witnessed Yoshihiro execute on the battlefield to great effectiveness. "Have you had to move this entire time?"
"When you're where you're supposed to be and the enemy is fine with coming to you, why bother?" Yoshihiro answered. His eyes gleaming, he remarked, "You know, it's a shame these things vanish when you take them out. Otherwise, we could compare kills." Another demon slid past Conkeldurr, only to be promptly pounded into the ground by Yoshihiro. "Then you'd quit that high and mighty attitude!"
"That's only going away when I'm dead and buried," Ginchiyo declared, striking at a gap in the circle that had formed around them.
In the first year after her coronation, the rivalry between herself and Yoshihiro had been downright volatile. Ginchiyo had been younger, eager to prove herself, and still raw over her father's death.
She had since accepted the circumstances of it - Dosetsu died a warrior, in an honest fight, the best way for any Tachibana to die. But even if time had reduced the hostility of her interactions with Yoshihiro, the battlefield brought out in both of them, simply put, a desire to show off.
Forcing back the instinct to dive into the chaos with no rhyme or reason, Ginchiyo opted for the more stylized swordplay that she had learned from her tutors. Upon first mastering it, she had felt it involved too much dancing around your opponent, as opposed to engaging them. Now that she had a chance to employ it in actual combat though, Ginchiyo found that she enjoyed its demands for an agile form. As Luxray caught on and imitated her, streaks of electricity followed their every movement, yellow trails of light cutting them paths through the hordes of demons.
Because of this, it took Ginchiyo several minutes more to realize that her allies were not finding these enemies as underwhelming as she. While her blade sliced through demons like they were made of sand, Ginchiyo soon came upon a cluster of warriors from Terrera barely managing to fend off the enemies closing in around them. Struggling to hold them together was Lord Shingen's junior warlord, who seemed to be dealing the most damage with his two Fire Pokemon.
Realizing that they were about to be overwhelmed, Ginchiyo raced to their aid, and this time there was no doubt about it. Whatever quality that her sword possessed, it could kill these enemies in a manner that these soldiers' weapons couldn't.
And hadn't it been the same during the attack on Violight? An entire squadron of her warriors had been overwhelmed in less than a minute, yet Ginchiyo held her own despite being injured. That wasn't a feat even she could chalk up to mere skill, was it?
The reminder of what had transpired on that hilltop in Violight shook something in Ginchiyo, and the next slash of her sword was sloppy, non-lethally striking a female demon on her arm. The demon hissed in pain as the wound began to smoke, and she clawed with her remaining hand at Ginchiyo's face, her shadowy hair rising around her head like a nest of Ekans.
Despite the pain that blossomed across her cheek, that hair triggered a memory within Ginchiyo. Some part of that day had been missing whenever she tried to think back on it.
Now, it came crashing down upon her. There had been another woman on the hilltop... a woman who spoke of her army's triumph.
The screeching of the demon before her as it was engulfed in flames brought Ginchiyo back into the present.
"My lady, are you alright?" Yukimura asked. "You froze up. I feared you were injured."
"I'm fine," Ginchiyo confirmed. "Follow me. We need to regroup with Lord Kenshin's battalion."
"Last I saw Muneshige, he was that way with the rest of Violight's troops," Yukimura said, pointing Ginchiyo and Luxray forward.
From there, Ginchiyo took the lead, and the combined power of their Pokemon was enough to keep them moving. When she saw Staraptor circling above them, she allowed herself the briefest relief. Ginchiyo chased it as it dived, and when she next lowered her sword, she found herself face-to-face with Muneshige.
He filled her in as they fell seamlessly into their usual back-to-back formation, covering each others' blind spots. "Violight's force was already assembled when the demons arrived. They were hungry for a fight, but so were we. We've managed to clear a small area the wounded can fall back to, but these things don't go down without a fight. Pokemon attacks seem to hurt them more than physical weapons."
"I've seen the same," Ginchiyo responded, parrying a jagged sword slicing towards her stomach. Her return thrust contained enough force to send the weapon flying from her foe's hand, and she took off its head in a single cut, again marveling at how little resistance her blade met. Her father had told her that it was a Tachibana heirloom, but he hadn't mentioned it being capable of anything like this.
They were close to the edge of the battlefield. This wasn't too great of a concern for Ginchiyo, although the thought of meeting her death by some undignified plummet off the field that she was supposed to be fighting on hardly appealed to her.
But as Ginchiyo was thrown off balance by a shockwave rippling beneath her feet, she met Muneshige's copper eyes and saw her own confusion reflected. This didn't feel like the attack of any Ground Pokemon, and Lord Shingen was nowhere in sight.
"What was-" Muneshige was cut off by a faint groaning, that was steadily growing louder. And Ginchiyo realized that something in their surroundings had changed.
Her heart gave a lurch of dread as she looked down and saw the crystals beneath their feet. They had been pulsing every color of the rainbow before, but now, they were rapidly paling to a dull monochrome.
Ginchiyo turned towards the jagged outcroppings that Lord Ieyasu's battalion was defending on the northern end of the battlefield. She felt a chill as she saw that same gray creeping up the crystals there.
The stone beneath them heaved, and Ginchiyo heard a scream of terror. "What's happening?" she shouted, unable to see through the swarm of soldiers around them. But both sides were coming to the realization that something was very wrong.
Another scream came from the battlefield, and then a ripple of sound built up, shouts intensifying as they reached Ginchiyo's ears. More cries erupted from the south, and all at once, a great push began to charge for the center.
An older warrior from Illusio was sprinting towards them, her Kirlia having to teleport to keep up with her. Ginchiyo held out her arm to block the warrior, who barely managed to bring herself to a halt.
"What in the name of the Legendary Pokemon are you doing?" the warrior cried, clearly not realizing who she was speaking to.
"Tell me what's happening!" Ginchiyo ordered as another shockwave radiated beneath their feet. "What is the meaning of this?"
The warrior looked up at Ginchiyo, her eyes widening as she took in the lightning bolt of Violight crowning Ginchiyo's helm. "My lady! I – oh - it's terrible! A piece of the battlefield broke off without any warning!"
"Broke off?" Ginchiyo repeated, not understanding. "What do you mean?"
The woman gulped, still gasping for air. "There was that awful noise, and then a stretch of crystal the size of a Steelix splintered from the rest of the battlefield without any warning! There were - there were people on it when it fell!" More rumbling came from their south, and the woman let out a sob.
"It must be happening there too! Can't you see?" She jabbed a finger towards the northern cliffs, still being consumed by that gray ripple.
"It's the crystals! The crystals are dying!"
The thought of leaving Hoshiko's body lying where she had died repulsed Okuni. But right now, there was no time to do anything more for her fallen friend. Forcing herself to move, Okuni stood and walked to the edge of the roof, refusing to look back at the battle's first fatality.
Unlike Lady Aya and Lady No, she had a quicker way down. Choosing a location on the battlefield to teleport herself and her Pokemon to wouldn't be difficult, as the fighting was already spread over its length.
Okuni fixed on the eastern end, close to the bridge that connected the battlefield to the castle. Whatever else happened, they couldn't afford to have that be overrun.
Ensuring she had physical contact with both Scolipede and Larvesta, Okuni imagined a path connecting her position on the roof to that point below her. She stepped out towards it, and for a split second, she hovered inches away from falling into open air. Then the folds of magic separating the human and spirit realms opened around her, and Okuni guided herself through them. When she felt solid ground beneath her feet, Okuni did her usual confirmation that Scolipede and Larvesta had followed.
With that confirmed, only then did she allow herself to remember Hoshiko - how the green in her eyes had lit up when she laughed, the lightness she had carried herself with that made every step she took seem like she was floating. And Okuni's grief was transformed into fury. The enemies that sought to destroy Illusio now had taken her friend from her, from Ransei.
Okuni was going to make them wish they had stayed in hell.
Certain emotions registered stronger than others down the link between warrior and Pokemon. Rage was one of them. Under the wrong circumstances, it could be a dangerous thing - a sudden burst of undiluted anger out of nowhere could bring out strange responses in Pokemon. But on the battlefield, even as Okuni realized that her parasol wasn't going to be of much use, Larvesta's response to its partner's uncharacteristic wrath was explosive.
Whenever Okuni took a step, a ring of fire surrounded her. Scolipede shot spike after spike into the black throng of enemies closing in around them, each one finding a mark. If nobody had noticed Okuni arrive on the battlefield, it didn't remain that way for long.
The coalition from Nixtorm and Dragnor tasked with defending the bridge found themselves able to reform their scattered ranks with much less interference. The knowledge that losing the bridge would indubitably mean losing the battle fueled them, and row after row of warriors and Pokemon charged forward to meet the enemy, screaming near-incomprehensible cries or whispering prayers for safety.
Some fell. But for each that did, another took their place, more than eager to avenge their defeated allies.
Motochika's attention was drawn by a flash of flames, bright enough to be visible over the tumult of the battlefield. A shouted warning from Mitsuhide, and the Ice warlord's katana intercepting a blow that had been meant for him, reminded Motochika of where he was. But he had captured the image in his mind's eye.
If any of them survived this, it would be a spectacular picture to commemorate through music.
Aya, who had separated herself from Lady No at first opportunity, was initially confused by Froslass' warning that a section of the battlefield was "too hot" for her partner to fight. Although the murkiness that had clogged their link earlier was gone, Aya still thought that she was somehow misunderstanding Froslass.
Then she came across the half-melted obsidian weapons, with none of their demonic wielders to be seen, and she wondered what force could have been powerful enough to scorch even the crystal beneath her feet.
But while it was powerful - more powerful than Okuni had thought that anything could feel - maintaining that strong of a link was draining. When the first rumbles of warning from the crystals reached her ears, the world in front of Okuni went out of focus, and that was all it took for the heightened connection between herself and Larvesta to be choked off. She stumbled forward, and only the protection of Larvesta's flames was what allowed her time to regain her footing.
The crystals around her had yet to be touched, but when Okuni stood, she took in the same sight as Ginchiyo of the ridges being consumed by that strange gray blight. And as cries of grief from Illusio's soldiers rang over the battlefield, a horrible realization struck Okuni.
The crystals covering the battlefield, the castle, the entire city - they had all appeared in the wake of the Legendary Pokemon's blessing. And with the Legendary Pokemon now gone...
Even if nobody else knew the true cause, enough realized that the goal of the battle had shifted. They had to get off the field before it could crumble completely, and then find some way to prevent the same thing from spreading.
Those who possessed links with Psychic Pokemon teleported as many allies and themselves as they could to safety. Avia's troops responded as well, taking to the sky and plucking up any stragglers too far from the bridge and too close to where more cracks had begun to spread over the surface of the battlefield.
As Okuni braced herself to teleport again, a new order reached her ears over the chaos. It had been relayed in shouts across the battlefield, but she understood enough of it to realize what the remaining warriors were being expected to do.
She turned back towards the bridge as an unwelcome sense of doubt wedged in her mind. Was such a drastic measure truly the approach that Lord Kenshin wished to take?
Apparently so. Okuni raced for the bridge as a terrible grinding noise split the air, and a great boom sent more shockwaves through the ground. She found herself nearly knocked off her feet as the first section of the ridges crashed onto the field.
The only consolation to the ordeal was that even the demons possessed enough self-preservation to flee upon realizing that the battlefield's destruction had not been of their orchestration. In a twisted manner, Ransei had won the day.
By the time that Okuni reached the bridge, the blight had spread over almost the entire battlefield. More sections of the ridges had crumbled, and along the edges of the field, crystal was breaking off in steadily larger chunks. To stand a chance at saving the castle, the warriors had to sever the bridge as quickly as they could.
Lord Masamune and his aerial squadron hovered above them, prepared to fly the soldiers to safety in case the entire bridge would have to be destroyed. At the front of the crowd, Lord Yoshihiro raised his hammer, shouting the command to begin attacking the cutoff point.
Okuni couldn't contribute as much as she would have liked; Scolipede's attacks did little to the hardened crystal, and surrounded by humans now, Larvesta's flames became more of a liability than an aid. As well as that, Okuni couldn't imagine the pain that issuing this order must have caused Lord Kenshin and Lady Aya.
A sentry from Avia shouted that the blight had reached the base of the bridge, and a heightened sense of urgency spread throughout the warriors. Ironically, it was Lord Shingen's attack that created the first cracks in the glass-like crystal.
The order was issued to fall back as the weakened area absorbed the force of every warrior and Pokemon still in condition to fight. With one final grating sound that left Okuni gritting her teeth, the bridge was cleaved in two just as the blight began to creep up the translucent stone.
An apocalyptic groan followed as what remained of the battlefield decayed at an increased rate, plummeting downwards now that whatever force had kept it levitated was cut off. Whether it reached the ground or disintegrated in midair, Okuni didn't find out.
Time froze for all but her as she took in the jagged wound where the bridge had been severed - and then felt a hand on her shoulder. Okuni had made her choice to stay knowing that this part would be coming, but that hardly made it easier to turn around and see Setsuna waiting for her.
Setsuna was visibly nervous, more so than the last time Okuni had spoken to her. Whatever punishment Okuni averted Yoko delivering to her the other night had likely been thrust upon Setsuna instead, she realized with a stab of guilt. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Setsuna shook her head.
"Don't speak." Just those two words, but her voice contained a hollowness that Okuni had never associated with her mentor until now. It chilled her to the bone in a way that Yoko never could.
"This reaping is important," Setsuna continued in that same pained monotone, but her dark gray eyes betrayed that she had been force-fed this monologue. "Do as you are told, and do not interact with the spirit beyond what is proper."
She walked towards the castle, and Okuni had to scramble after her. "Setsuna?" Okuni asked, growing increasingly concerned when Setsuna flinched at the sound of her name.
"Setsuna, what's wrong? Who's died?" Okuni pressed. She felt a soft fluttering around her body, and she looked down to see that she was now clothed in the same full ceremonial reaper's garb as Setsuna. Not a good sign.
"Answer me, Setsuna, please!" Okuni pleaded as Setsuna led them through the castle doors and towards a flight of stairs. Unable to bear Setsuna's silence any longer, Okuni reached out and grasped her hand.
Setsuna's reaction was immediate in snatching her hand out of Okuni's, but her façade finally fell. "I implore you, Okuni," Setsuna whispered, facing her with a pained intensity. "Perform this reaping exactly how I tell you to, and Yoko will forgive both of us. It's for your own good."
Okuni had already guessed that this sort of behavior from Setsuna could have only been caused by Yoko, but it still infuriated her to hear the quiver of fear in Setsuna's voice. "Setsuna, please tell me who's dead," Okuni repeated, feeling desperation begin to take hold of her. "It - it will help me be better prepared for the reaping."
Setsuna clenched the fist that Okuni had grabbed, hard enough for Okuni to see her digging her fingernails into the flesh of her palm. "Follow me," was all that Setsuna said before turning back around.
The sinking feeling in Okuni's stomach intensified as they exited the side corridor Setsuna had led them through, entering the atrium. Already, the room was filled with injured warriors, frozen in time as they tended to their wounds and searched for friends. Setsuna advanced past them, towards the throne room.
Through the rose quartz doors, separate areas had been sectioned off for injured warlords and their lieutenants. Okuni did her best to peer behind the filmy white curtains that had been thrown up to offer privacy, and nearly ran into Setsuna when she stopped before one towards the center of the room.
"Through here," Setsuna said, opening the curtain for Okuni.
The trepidation Okuni felt as she stepped into the makeshift hospital ward was nothing compared to the horror that washed over her at seeing the warlord lying before her - the warlord who had been marked for reaping.
"Oh no," she whispered. "Setsuna, I can't do this. There has to be some other way."
"Please, Okuni, don't make this difficult," Setsuna said, standing beside her. "I know you may feel an... attachment. But it is not our duty to defy death when it takes its course. There's nothing more to be done than escort the soul once the body fails."
So that was what this was. Forcing Okuni to escort a soul that she knew, a soul whose death would change everything about this war.
Setsuna looked to meet Okuni's disbelieving eyes. "Separate yourself from it. I promise the process will be easier."
It was the kindness in her voice, the sympathy, that put a stop to Okuni's objections. Setsuna's duty had been to do this too, at some point. Maybe what she was advising was what had gotten her through it.
Okuni prayed for forgiveness - to whom, she wasn't sure anymore.
Then, she knelt over the body before her, and began the death rites.