Author: This fic became a whole lot more complicated once I got Dais to start talking to me. I should change my summary. Updates are decently quick right now because I'm not writing my thesis. That will change...

Disclaimer: I've spent the last few days yelling at the screen of my TV for the Warlords to stop gloating and just kill the Ronin. Obviously, as they do gloat and the Ronin have obscenely good luck, Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers is not mine.

Chapter 4

Dais knew the Army of the Rising Sun was on the move, but he couldn't prove it. Nonetheless, his instincts had very rarely proven wrong (the Ronin being the odd exception), so he had traps and fortifications set up in the villages and lands that supplied the Dynasty, while also bolstering the capital's defenses.

When they finally attacked, Dais would show them what it meant to take on the power that had ruled the Netherworld for over one-thousand years.

Kayura, naturally, found his caution excessive, but supported and helped to enforce Dais' precautions.

Such support was at the expense of badgering him about his foray into the Human World, but Dais' virtue had served him well throughout four hundred years of Sekhmet, Kale, and Anubis—dealing with only Kayura was nothing in comparison.

"Well?" she asked with all the curiosity of the twelve-year-old she actually was.

"Well what?" Dais asked, trying and failing to play dumb as he oversaw the reinforcing of a barricade.

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Dais."

"What?"

"Stop it!"

"There's nothing to tell."

"Bullshit."

"Where'd you…nevermind, probably Sekhmet."

"You, actually," Kayura said slyly.

Dais twitched.

"If you're so eager to know about it, go see for yourself," Dais replied as he wove an illusion over the barricade the grunts had finished refurbishing, hoping that anyone attacking would find themselves impaled by the spikes and the pressure of those coming up behind them.

It was also strangely satisfying to see soldiers realize that they are climbing on the bodies of their comrades to achieve their goal. It was demoralizing for mortal soldiers, but he doubted it would stop Netherworld warriors for long. Still, it would slow them down, which would give the Dynasty archers more time to pick the attackers off.

Kayura huffed, but did not reply.

Then again, I wouldn't want to inflict her alone on the Human World. She would probably attract people who meant her no good and then things would go very bad very quickly.

Dais barely resisted the urge to rub his temples.

"It's noisy," Dais eventually said.

He could feel Kayura's stare as he moved to check on another security measure.

"And there are more people than you see even on a battlefield, and they all ignore each other," he continued.

Kayura's gaze became incredulous as she fell into step beside him. "Even a Dynasty army?"

"Yes."

"That's…a lot of people."

Dais shrugged. "That's it."

"Really? That's everything?"

"I've only been there once, two weeks ago. Protecting the Dynasty is more important than satisfying my curiosity over something I willingly gave up over four hundred years ago."
Kayura gave him a thoughtful look before saying: "You know, now that you're not under Talpa's control, you fit your virtue."

Dais frowned. "Hardly important right now, don't you think?"

There were many more things to ponder then whether or not he fit what the Ancient arbitrarily decided would be the 'virtue' for his armor. To Dais, the very concept was ridiculous. Kale was very far from obedient, and Dais doubted that Sekhmet had a philanthropic bone in his body; how they had ended up with the armor they wielded was subject more to Talpa's whims than their actual personalities.

Since his brief vacation in the human world, Dais had been carefully watching the conflict between the Clans and Children, and was annoyed by the stalemate they had reached. Both sides were too stubborn to entirely fold, and now that they had been reduced to their strongest and most loyal parts…well, it made them formidable.

It didn't help that a door was to other worlds was open. He hadn't sent any troops past the thinning barrier, although other lesser warlords and stupider entities had explored where the Gates now led, which had helped deplete Akuma's soldiery. According to a report from Argen, Akuma's troops had brought back corpses, artifacts, and information from the forays that returned (his spy had managed to uncover most of what had been discovered and promised to send the information in subsequent reports).

It appeared that what Dais thought of as the Netherworld was a smaller subset of a much greater Netherworld. The Netherworld appeared to be the mirror of the Human World, and most were separate and distinct to their region, built off of the culture and history of the area it was tied to. In more than one place, it was simple a 'here there be monsters' where the humans' disbelief dumped cosmic beings and things of legend. However, Akuma's troops had brought back someone from a realm similar to the Dynasty, in that it used the same kind of technology, mystical power, and feudal structure (although that was where the similarities ended, according to Argen). Argen had managed to be stationed outside the torture room, but the report was disappointing. Apparently, the language spoken was completely foreign, although Argen had managed to extract the name of the faction the man was from the babble: Kuruseida. It was a clumsy word, although Dais was sure it was more easily said in the native tongue.

It was the first name he had to apply to a foreign world, and it left him uneasy. He couldn't say why, but it made him want to find out how Akuma had gotten into the foreign world and find a way to slam the door shut.

A report he had received from Tano had left him with a low-grade headache. According to her, the warlord who ran the Army had been in contact with beings from another of the Netherworlds. That a warlord of the Netherealm was forming an alliance with something from somewhere else was…troubling. Tano's report indicated that there was frequent communication and an exchange of forces, resources, and information across the boundary that was unseen expect by those deep in the power structure. Dais supposed that there were weak places in the barrier of that protected the Dynasty, and that this warlord was making use on one. His own experience as well as the details given to him said that willingly allowing another Netherworld into the Dynasty was sure to turn into an invasion, regardless of how much the warlord thought he was in control.

The only saving grace Dais found in the situation was that the Army would probably be the first to bear the brunt of their poor judgement, and their internal strife would leave them ripe for Dais to kick both them and the foreigners out of the Netherworld.

"How do you do it, Warlord."

Dais looked over to Kayura as he pushed open the door to the War Room. "Do what, Lady?"

"Think so hard all the time."

Dais said nothing and turned to face the generals he had gathered. Talpa would have had him tortured and killed if he had known that Dais was accruing a small power base for himself beneath his nose, but Dais believed in planning for contingencies—one being Talpa's downfall.

The two generals he had called to him, Mayuri and Kurosuke, were two that he had groomed from the moment that they made an appearance in the ranks of the Dynasty. Non-grunts were difficult to come by, especially ones with any kind of intellectual capacity, so Dais had a tendency to either grab them immediately or destroy them before they could become a threat.

The two generals bowed deeply and Dais waved a hand over the map, bringing it to life.

"The Army is working with a foreign force," Dais said calmly, and he was proud at how well his generals hid their astonishment. "Which I need information on. Finding anything out will likely require a loss of life, as we will need to pull the Army into making a rash move and revelaing with whom they are working."

Mayuri pointed to a river delta on the map. "There is a small force there."

Dais inclined his head.

"They are gathering resources, hoarding what they can pull from the area."

"Attacking them there will ruin our chances for capital gains from there, too," Kurosuke said. "We can't risk Dynasty lands."

"I wasn't planning to," Mayuri replied calmly. "Just make them think that something upstream in the mountains is more profitable than what they currently control."

Dais looked at the terrain. Lure them into a blind chase and then eradicate them.

"Kurosuke, would you mind bringing Jackal's new lieutenant—Reimu, I believe—here?"

Kurosuke was obviously curious at the non sequitur, but left with a polite bow.

"My Lord?" Mayuri asked.

"One of the guards stationed outside the door will be following Kurosuke," Dais replied as he turned the map. "Kurosuke will kill the soldier when they try to kill him. If I am right, prior to his death, the soldier will then implicate Reimu, who will be forced into a corner and will either confess to being a spy or commit suicide. I strongly suggest that the remaining soldier reconsider where his allegiance lay."

Kayura stared at him and Mayuri was obviously amused.

"Care to tell me your real plan now, Mayuri?" Dais asked once he was sure there were no eavesdroppers.

Mayuri chuckled, astonishment in her voice. "One day you must tell me how you do it."

"The master never gives away his secrets," Dais replied. "Now, tell me."

"The Army moves only in small cavalry units, and the remnants of the Children have allied with them." Mayuri pointed to a different place on the map. "This is the last remaining true Children outpost and where Akuma is hiding."

Dais hummed.

"Army units move in and out constantly, so if we either wipe out for conscript what remains of the Children there, we can either capture or destroy Army soldiers. I have a force a day's march from there. Part will drive them from the village and into the mountains, where the other part of my force will decimate them."

"Fly your own banner," Dais said, which was permission enough for Mayuri, who bowed and left, passing Kurosuke on her way out.

Kurosuke looked between her and Dais before entering.

"Sire, with all due respect, I do not appreciate being used like a fishing lure," the general said, and Kayura snickered.

"Next time I will ask Mayuri, then, since you believe yourself unworthy to serve the Dynasty by ridding it of the spies that seek its downfall," Dais said languidly.

Kurosuke balked. "I didn't mean—Sire, please…"

"I understand your impatience, general," Dais said, "but your forces are some of the best I have and I cannot waste your men on petty skirmishes. You will be flying the Dynasty's banner—your forces will declare our commitment to the destruction of the other factions."

"My men need action."

"Then send them to kill or capture the warlords who remain stubbornly unaligned; just make certain that they cannot be traced back to the Dynasty—I will have them executed if any connection can be made."

"Sire," Kurosuke said and bowed deeply before leaving perhaps more quickly than would be polite.

"Do you really kill those who doesn't follow your orders?"

"Of course," Dais replied as he shifted pieces indicating his forces. "Empty threats garner no respect."

"And I thought Anubis had worn the armor of Cruelty."

Dais snorted. "Lady Kayura, Anubis knew how to motivate his men only through Cruelty, just as Sekhmet only knew how to lead through the threat of agony."

"And you do otherwise?"

"I was an advisor to a shogun, my lady. You win as many hearts through generosity as fear."

"I've never seen you award anyone."

"Because you and I never interacted before the Talpa tried to take over the Human World and ran up against the Ronin. When Thalus returns with the leaders of the Clans in tow, he will be raised to one of my generals."

"Thalus? Isn't he—"

"A very minor, low-ranking warlord who I have been guiding and teaching, albeit without his knowledge. He has immense potential, and I want him where I can mold him."

"That's an enormous leap in station."

"An intentional and motivational one."

"Kurosuke will resent it."

"Kurosuke will have his glorious battles once I discover who the Army is working with."

"Wait, how do you know Thalus will bring the Clan's leaders back and not just kill them?"

"Thalus is more kin to Yami than Mayuri or Kurosuke. He recognizes the need to demoralize, not just massacre."

Kayura hummed.

"How long has it been since Kale and Sekhmet went to the Human World?" Dais asked.

"A month, I think," Kayura replied, frowning at the jump in topic.

"I'll give them one more week before I send someone looking for them."

"Why?"

"Because they're needed here."

"You think they will return willingly?"

"Whether or not they are willing isn't my concern," Dais said smoothly as his fingers traced the pieces that signified his fellow Dark Warlords. "They need to be here."

"What, you're too weak to handle this on your own?"

Dais grit his teeth, but refused to rise to the bait. "Go make yourself a target," Dais said drolly. "Maybe we can force the Ogres or Army into action if you grandstand and step on a few toes."

Kayura laughed and shook her head, her long hair fluttering behind her as she left the War Room.

Dais took a deep breath and let it out in a long, slow sigh.

Running a campaign is a pain in the ass, he muttered. He locked the War Room with an illusion that only he, Kayura, and his generals could see through, then proceeded to his chambers.

Five reports waited for him on his desk when he entered and Dais sent his armor to rest on the stand nearby, but stayed in his subarmor.
He sat down in front of the desk, but found that his mind was racing too quickly to focus on decoding the pieces of parchment in front of him.

There was too much to do, too much to organize, and he felt that he had a less comprehensive picture than he needed to be able to plan correctly.

It all rests on the Army. I can paralyze and terrorize the Ogres and my men will happily mop up the tattered remnants of Children and Clans.

He pushed aside some clutter on his desk to make room for a report when something clattered to the floor.

Dais tensed and looked over, and his shoulders dropped a notch when he recognized the sunglasses he had worn into the Human World.

He picked up the headgear and turned them over in his hands.

I have done what I can, and Kayura will happily make a mess of things and create a smokescreen for me to take advantage of later. For now, though…

"Kayura, I'll be back in an hour," he said over the connection between he and Kayura that allowed for instant communication (which he never really used, because both he and Kayura had their respective pride).

"Have fun, Warlord," she replied, distracted.

Dais put on a different outfit than the one he had worn on his previous trip, cloaked his armor in invisibility and set a small trap around it so no-one made the mistake of attempting to steal it, and stepped through a portal he made.

He was proud that the change from Netherworld to Human World jarred him less, although there remained a small amount of disorientation. He looked around the bustling hive and his eye fell on a train that wound about the city on an elevated platform.

Perhaps…I've studied much of the human population, maybe it would be best to learn the geography and layout of the city.

Dais decided that the best way to learn the layout of modern day Tokyo was to take public transit around, and, after consulting with a map of the city for a few minutes, decided to take the Yamanote-sen, which was an above-ground train that would take him in a large circle around Tokyo. It would hit all the major districts in Tokyo, so he decided that, after riding the Yamanote-sen for one circuit, he'd get off at a random station and see what he discovered.

It was plan, albeit not a very good one. Then again, he was trying hard not to plan, and was obviously failing terribly.

I suppose four hundred years of habits are hard to break.

He meandered to what was marked as Tokyo Station and entered the large structure. A multitude of humans crisscrossed the tiled floor, some at a run, others at a languid stroll. He saw families, businessmen, and teenagers all occupying the same space and couldn't stop himself from shaking his head in amazement.

He wondered how many people Sekhmet had killed inadvertently due to the sheer population density of the modern world.

He wondered how he would get to the trains, then noticed signs hanging from the ceilings or plastered to the walls that pointed him in the correct direction. He reached a junction where the arrows pointed to him needing to make his way through strange sliding panes of plastic, and Dais had a feeling that they couldn't be tricked like a human could. So he stood back, rested against a wall, and watched.

It took him a minute, but he eventually deduced that the humans were using a small card to make the panes of glass move aside without them pushing or pulling. It was a quick, reflexive action for many of them, but Dais eventually figured that they placed the small card into a slot, and then the card was spat out on the other side of the panes. He didn't want to figure out how the machines worked, what happened internally to make the panes slide apart without any effort, he simply wanted to know what he needed to do to make them perform their function.

Once he was sure that he was correct in what needed to be done to get the panes to move, he wondered where the humans were getting the cards and how they were getting them. Dais saw humans standing in front of other machines and sighed.

Do they use machines for everything?

He moved and loitered close to the new machines, projecting the feeling that he was waiting for someone, when he was in truth carefully observing the humans' interaction with the latest contraption. It appeared that one pressed the screen, which did something, there was money involved, and then one of the cards appeared out of a slot.

Dais wanted to rub his temples. I'm not sure which place is more confusing—the Netherworld or here.

It appeared that, above all else, he had to figure out how to interact with technology. It was one thing to see it and understand it intellectually, from out of a manual or magazine—it was entirely different when one was forced to use it.

Dais pushed away from the wall, idly pick-pocketed someone who came too close to him, and then went and stood before an unoccupied machine. He set up a small illusion that convinced those who looked his way that he wasn't there and that the machine was broken. He was glad that he was at least literate in modern Japanese, even if he couldn't speak it.

There were a great deal of buttons before him, and the screen itself seemed to possess "buttons" of some sort, which made no sense to Dais, but it appeared such was the case.

He spent some time deliberately making mistakes, both to see how the machine would react and to figure out how it worked. There was no real consequence to him messing up, so he made use of negative as well as positive results to work out how he was supposed to use the thing before him.

Once he felt he had a working knowledge of the machine, he rifled through the wallet he had lifted and took an appropriate amount of money out. He pressed a few buttons that corresponded to the amount he wanted to have the card record, cautiously fed it to the machine, and startled when the paper bill was sucked quickly into it. There were a few bizarre whirls and buzzes and a card similar to what the other humans were using popped out of a slot. He cautiously took it, and turned it over, examining it as he walked away from the machine, slipping the stolen wallet into his back pocket.

How does this have value attached to it? he wondered as he allowed himself to be carried along with the crowd. His ears were beginning to ache from both human chatter and the announcements by a disembodied voice that everyone was ignoring (Dais followed the general example and paid it no mind—not that he could understand what was being said anyway).

Dais mimicked what he saw the other humans doing to pass the barrier of glass and was proud at how he didn't stare when the barriers slid aside simply because he inserted the piece of paper—and then at how the ticket was spit back out on the other side. Dais quickly stepped through, and wandered towards where he believed the Yamanote-sen's platforms to be.

Maybe getting used to modern technology will be harder than I thought, he mused. It looked complicating on paper, yes, but I hadn't thought it would be so…strange.

Dais spent his idle time trying to work out what the unseen person was saying when the train arrived.

And somehow people trust this thing, Dais thought as he watched the metal tube come to a stop and the doors open without anyone actively pushing them.

Perhaps I distrust electricity more than technology, Dais thought unhappily as he watched the crowd disembark.

Dais stepped on the train and made his way to the opposite side that the doors opened on. It would probably be easiest for him to: 1) observe the ebb and flow of people, 2) learn how the train worked, 3) discover where he traveled to, and 4) continue to acclimate himself to near suffocating overcrowding. That it also would give him a decent escape route wasn't a bad thing either.

He did object to the smell of the train—although that was probably the result of hundreds to thousands of bodies that passed in and out constantly.
The speed with which they traveled was fascinating while also occasionally making his heart skip a beat or five. The train traveled much faster than any horse could, and seeing the buildings fly by was disconcerting. He held onto a nearby pole with perhaps too strong a grip, but he felt it necessary to keep himself grounded.

People only looked at him twice because of his coloring, not because of his obvious apprehension at riding the train—it was probable that he wasn't the only person in the Human world who hated trains; still, he didn't want to show weakness, even if he wasn't in a position or place where people would care. He cared, and that was what mattered.

He stayed on the train long past the one circuit he had initially promised himself, since no-one made him disembark, and it was interesting to catalog which stops brought on the most people, which ones let them off, and then attaching the names of the stations to them, along with the buildings and signs he passed. It was a crude map, but it was the beginning of one.

I come to Tokyo, to the Human World, because I'm ignorant of it and want to get lost in it, and instead I find myself learning about it. I didn't think I had any space in my mind for more information, let alone the ability to focus on something other than the headache waiting for me at home, he mused as he watched a group of girls dressed in oddly frilly dresses board the train.

The train progressively grew more crowded and Dais found himself pushed further back onto the train door, a situation he disliked. Yes, he could clear the crowd quickly and easily if he wanted to, but that wasn't the point. He didn't come to the Human World to pick fights. He was avoiding them.

When a particularly large influx of humans occurred, Dais turned his body so that a person could slide in and grab a hold of the pole that he was holding on to. The train jerked to a start before the person had a good grip, so Dais ended up catching him, the inertia of the multitude of bodies pressing them close. Once the ride smoothed out and people separated slightly, Dais finally got a good look at the person he had been supporting.

Dais' good eyebrow rose slightly, he recognizing the young man he had been ogling the previous time he had been in Tokyo, and the young man he had objectified, surprisingly, recognized him as well. Dais could tell that the young man was about to yell at him, so Dais, on impulse, quickly covered the irate young man's mouth with his hand. Dais shook his head, unsure how to say, "Not here and not now," in modern Japanese. The young man's eyes were furious, and Dais couldn't entirely help the smirk that quirked at his lips. He had always taken pleasure in angering his fellow warlords past the point of them forming coherent revenge plans, and it seemed as if the young man before him had a hair-trigger of a temper.

Up close, the young man smelled like he had just stepped out of a kitchen, spices clinging to his hair and skin, and the physique Dais had guessed at was more clearly visible. Dais decided that the young man's face wasn't handsome, but that wasn't entirely his allure, if it could be called that. No, it was something else...there was a sense of power to him, and, to Dais, that was more seductive than anything else.

The train came to a stop and Dais uncovered the young man's mouth, briefly brushing the young man's lips with the tips of his fingers. Dais allowed himself to be carried away with the tide of travelers, and while he hadn't decided that the stop they had arrived at was the one he wanted, he felt it would be best to keep his molestations brief and innocuous so as to avoid trouble.

His interest had been piqued, however—Tokyo was a city of more people than Dais could wrap his mind around, so to run into the same person twice, especially since the encounters had been in different parts of the city, after an amount of time had passed was…remarkable, too much so to be mere coincidence.

Dais frowned at the floor as he followed to tide of humanity down into the streets, wandering lazily until the tug on his gut told him that his time in the Human World had come to an end.

The sense of familiarity upon seeing the young man again had only grown, and Dais found himself preoccupied with the puzzle of the youth in spite of all the trouble he had on his hands upon returning to the Dynasty.