Haido's guard bowed, dropping to their knees as Hanzo's mother entered the room. She was dressed in silver and soft cyan, the silver in the shape of clouds to symbolize the sky. Her long floor-length hair was pulled up into an elegant style with loops hanging to look like a butterfly. Her dark eyes went wide when she saw Hanzo hovered over a mutilated Jun, their clothes were torn, and their bodies beat.
"Haido!" She snapped, gathering folds of the kimono in her hands before rushing to the teens. "What happened?" she asked Hanzo, taking Jun's chin in her hands and touching her hair, making noises of fret and worry as Haido growled and barked with outright hatred.
"This vixen has poisoned our son's mind, he has become disobedient. He has lost his understanding of his place, his duty, and his honor!"
"Honor!" Lady Shimada snapped, standing slowly, her eyes narrowing. "What honor does a man have for mutilating a young woman?" She flicked her hand down to indicate Jun as the younger woman straightened her back and steeled her face from emotion as she looked up into her attacker's face. "Our son's betrothed no less?"
"The engagement has been terminated." Haido grit his teeth, starting to pace. "Her father was killed in an ambush attack. Her teacher, her father, her mother…she has no family left. She is no more than an orphan. The only thing she is suited for now is servitude. Because of our son's rebellious streak, I punished her."
"For what?" Lady Shimada growled, her delicate hands clenching.
"For ruining our son and threatening the well-being of the clan with tainted blood!" Haido protested, pulling himself up to full height. Hanzo got to his feet to add his own words to the argument, but his mother held up a finger to his face without looking at him, eyes locked on Haido.
"Tainted blood?" Lady Shimada scoffed, her hand dropping as she lowered her chin, the shadows of the fading light casting a dark shadow over her face. The makeup she was wearing made her look animal-like, ready to strike for a killing blow. "How a position of power has changed one's mind…" She tilted her head to one side, eyes hooded with disdain as she took in the sight of her husband. "The clan's bloodline is not your concern Shuzu." Haido's eyes widened, and his posture shrank considerably. He no longer looked so powerful and confident to anyone in the room.
"Shuzu?" Hanzo asked, brow furrowing as he helped Jun stand, pulling the remains of the kimono to her back so it would cover her better.
"Mm." Lady Shimada started strolling, stalking like a dragon ready to strike, slowly she circled Haido who seemed more than a little nervous. "I suppose it is my fault, allowing Shuzu to take over your education. While you learned many subjects well, the family's bloodline has been mistaught…" She was behind Haido now, his eyes lowering to the mats beneath his feet. She kicked the backside of his legs, in the bend of his knee, so he fell to them before grabbing him by the base of his ponytail, pulling back to reveal his throat. "You worry about 'tainted' blood. Let's not forget your beginnings, Shuzu!" She looked up to Hanzo who was in awe and shock, mouth hanging open. His mother had always been a delicate, soft-spoken lady, but now she was a tigress, fierce and unforgiving.
"Haido Shimada was the name given to him by the former Lord Tatsuya Shimada… your grandfather, Hanzo," Lady Shimada said slowly.
"Ryoko!" Haido begged as she tightened her hold and jerked his head to the side, "Please!"
"Silence Shuzu," Ryoko Shimada growled, "It is time the children knew the truth of the clan."
"I thought I had already learned the truth?" Hanzo said, suddenly unsure of everything he knew. "Your father named my father? I don't understand. I was told that when you married that grandfather also adopted the Shimada name as a sign of loyalty and full integration of the two clans?"
"All will be explained." Ryoko pulled Haido's head back, so he looked up at her. "For now we must fix this fools mistakes." She looked out into the hall and called in a few servants, giving orders to get the house under control and back into order. "Gather clothes for Jun, see what can be done with her hair. Tend to her wounds. See to my sons, prepare a small meal and tea, bring them to the main tea room." She looked over to Hanzo who refused to leave Jun's side, it brought a smile to her face. "Don't force them apart. Let him go with her if he chooses. A dragon will guard his treasure to his last breath." She nodded as the servants bowed and shuffled from the room quickly to distribute orders. "As for him." She threw Haido to the ground roughly as the guard moved to surround him. "Lock him in the storage building. No one is to speak to him, he is to go without food and drink until I deem it necessary. No matter his threats, no matter his pleas. Let them fall on deaf ears." The guards grabbed Haido by his arms and hauled him, kicking, cursing and yelling from the room as Ryoko put a hand to her head.
"Mother?" Hanzo called as he and Jun neared the door.
"If you will, my son." She smiled sweetly at him, and Hanzo no longer saw the tigress, poised to kill, he saw his mother. Gentle and kind, warm and soft as a new lamb. "You may come with me and learn, or go with Jun, but rest assured, no harm will come to her now. And the engagement—"
"Mother—!"
"It will be discussed openly," She held up her hand as she came closer to him. "I wish to hear all that has happened while I was away. I have a feeling I know everything, but would rather hear it from all involved." Her eyes softened as she cupped her son's cheek, shocking him into silence. "I failed you my son, and I will never forgive myself. But know this." She pulled her hand away, and the fierceness returned to her eyes and face, making her delicate features seem sharp and bloodthirsty. "A dragon protects her young, and seeks vengeance when they have been injured or threatened."
Hanzo went with Jun, making sure that there would be no secret orders to have her hurt worse, removed from his reach or worst of all—killed. The doctor looked them all over, and Genji was brought to Hanzo at his mother's orders. The younger Shimada was just as lost as his older brother, asking endless questions until Hanzo just gave him a helpless look as they entered the tea room. Ryoko Shimada was sitting on one side of the table, a long scroll of parchment in her hand as she looked up. There were bowls and plates filled with food, but it was barely touched as the three teenagers sat on the opposite side from the Lady of the clan.
Without any explanation, Ryoko bowed deeply on her side of the table in a manner that didn't fit her position, making the children look between themselves for an answer that only came when the older woman sat upright and sighed heavily.
"Haido Shimada is a fraudulent name." She said slowly, a distant look in her brown eyes. "When I was young, I was much like you Jun-chan." She smiled at the younger woman and looked down at her hands. "I was stubborn but strong, I had my sights set high and knew at any cost I would achieve my goals." She lifted a hand and chuckled behind it. "It took great restraint not to laugh at the irony when we met that day so many years ago, but I have only grown to adore you more with time. I could not ask for a better wife for my son." She smiled to Hanzo and then to Jun, "If you two should wish it, the engagement will continue, and you two will be wed as planned." Neither Jun nor Hanzo moved, they had been holding hands when they entered the room, and their clenched hands lay on Hanzo's leg as they sat side by side.
"I went through my fair share of suitors. Not many men can handle a female dragon." Ryoko closed her eyes and sighed. "I scared off every match the Nakado found…all but one servant boy who didn't let my brashness scare him away. He took it as a challenge and vowed to not be outdone. His name was Shuzu." She opened her eyes again. "That was your fathers birth name." Genji gasped, and Hanzo closed his eyes, trying to process everything. "When no acceptable suitor could be found for me, the Nakado suggested someone of lower birth to be adopted. While the clan would remain in its position, it did give the chance of a future, and with a capable son to lead the way, the clan could grow and prosper as needed. Shuzu was chosen easily enough. Adopted, his name changed, his past forgotten. Shuzu became Haido and the false head of the Shimada clan. My Clan." Ryoko looked at her sons. "Your clan."
"So this whole time…" Genji mumbled, his face white with shock. "You are the true head of the clan…and Father has been a fraud?"
"More than a fraud," Ryoko's eyes narrowed as she looked past her son to the closed doors. "A greedy, terrible snake that threatened to evolve into an ouroboros, devouring itself and destroying everything it touched." She shook her head. "He nearly destroyed our family because of his fear and pride."
"Fear?" Jun's voice was soft, guarded and dark. "Fear of what?"
"Of upheaval." Ryoko answered with a sigh, "He climbed to great heights with me. We lifted the Shimada clan in many ways, made it a name to be respected and feared… Someone as accomplished as Hanzo, at such a young age, and with a woman as strong-willed, bright and dangerous as you by his side?" Ryoko gave Jun a knowing smile, "You two will be nearly unstoppable. The entire spiral will quake before you both. He feared his time of power, his life of glory and being in control was coming to an end, and he simply did not wish it to be." Ryoko poured a glass of tea for herself before picking up her cup. "Now, one at a time, tell me what happened while I was away."
As Ryoko drank her tea and everyone ate their food, the children one at a time told their story to completion. Starting with Hanzo and Jun from the moment they were all separated during the attack, to when Genji had been removed forcibly by the guard for his safety during Haido's rage. Ryoko only stopped them a few times to clarify some piece of information or to ask a question about what had been said. When they were finished, she called servants into the room to have it cleared.
"As I suspected…" Ryoko said flatly. "This can't go unpunished."
"You suspected what?" Hanzo asked, shifting his weight slightly.
"Those attacks were not orchestrated by an enemy clan…" Her words chilled the room, stunning the three into an unnatural silence before rage overtook Hanzo into jumping ot his feet and shouting.
"What do you mean!"
"Just as I said my son," Ryoko placed the scroll on the table for all to see, "It was meant to be a clever move for more power, but it has backfired." She watched as Jun's jaw clenched. "With accident's befalling the union, Haido was planning to garner favor with a more powerful clan for the hand of a daughter or two. Surviving such attacks to your person, albeit free of any real threat, would make you seem powerful. The loss of your first love would bend your will to finding a second, perhaps to honor Jun's memory you would vow to protect your new bride from all harm and perhaps love her even more."
"So father was the one who planned those attacks…he…" Genji bit his lip as Hanzo read over the scroll. It was orders in Haido's handwriting on how to handle the assassination of the rest of the Hashira clan. After the blunder of the first attempt, he wanted no failure and how no harm was to seriously befall Genji; although a bit of a beating could be given as long as he wasn't maimed. Hanzo wanted to destroy the scroll but knew better of it, he threw it to the table and got to his feet, starting to pace angrily.
"He was the one to murder my family." Jun said flatly, an eerie calm about her that Ryoko recognized all too well. "Strange." She murmured, pulling Genji's attention as he bit his thumb nervously. "I thought him kind and fatherly, he had me thoroughly fooled until recently." She looked up into Ryoko's face, "When he tried to separate Hanzo and I, I admit I started to suspect…Then he gave me suicide seeds to kill the men who killed my father and made off with Genji…"
"Hoping you would see clearly enough the path that was unfolding, but still clouded enough to not see through his thin veil of lies and misdirection." Ryoko nodded, "He covered his tracks more carefully with his first attempt. Buried and destroyed all evidence thoroughly but not completely." She tapped a finger on the table. "I had to travel and be away to find out the truth, and by doing so, I left you all alone with him and look at you all." She looked to Jun, her black hair cropped short like a mans close to her head. Bruises had formed where she had been struck. Hanzo walked past her as he paced, and without thinking, Jun reached out, taking his hand in hers, and making him stand still.
"I will leave your fate to the two of you," Ryoko said with finality. "If you two wish to stay together, then you have the blessing of the Shimada clan behind you." She smiled as Hanzo knelt beside Jun and locked eyes with her. "I would be honored to have you as a daughter." Ryoko's smile held a hint of humor as Jun looked at her, the elder woman could see the fire in her hazel eyes. "You will make a fine dragon."
"What about Shuzu?" Hanzo asked, drawing his mothers attention. "He can't go unscathed from all this."
"Of course not my son, but a frontal assault is not the answer." Ryoko nodded, "I will need time to think, and if needed, speak with some trusted advisors, and Jun of course." When the children grew quiet Ryoko closed her eyes. "It has been an awful last few days, how about we all try and get some rest." She looked at Jun and bowed her head. "I know you do not wish to leave Hanzo's side and while…" She snickered as she spoke, Hanzo's face flushing with heat. "A moment of passion I can forgive, we should not simply turn the two of you lose." There was no teasing from Genji, who cleared his throat and slowly got to his feet. "If you would, stay with me, I would like to speak with you alone. Woman to woman. Wife to wife."
Jun looked to Hanzo who seemed deep in thought, after a few moments he blinked and nodded once. Jun smiled and then bowed her head to Ryoko, saying soft goodbyes as the boys left the room, heading to their own beds for the night. When they had gone, Ryoko sighed heavily as if a massive weight had been removed from her shoulders. She slumped from the perfect posture she had kept the entire time and loosened some of the ties on her kimono, so it fit more loosely. Jun's eyes widened as Ryoko removed the pins from her hair and let it fall like an obsidian curtain around her.
"Lady Shimada?" Jun asked as Ryoko ran her fingers through her hair. She no longer looked the part of a sophisticated woman as she took a rag from inside her clothing and wiped the makeup away from her face, revealing her natural skin and features.
"No need in stuffy titles and false politness now Jun." Ryoko smiled as a woman servant shuffled into the room and repalced the teapot with a bottle of sake and two cups, bowing and backing out of the room without turning her back or lifting her head to meet eithers gaze. "You're a smart girl, I can see that." Ryoko poured some sake into her cup and sipped it silently. "It should not be hard for you to keep up with what I am going to tell you." She eyed the young woman over her cup. "Are you ready to begin your first lesson as a Shimada woman?" Jun gave one deep, slow nod of her head, eyes locked on Ryoko's as she picked up her own cup and held it out for it to be filled.
"Good girl. I'm sure your mother, may she be at peace, taught you of the spirals inner workings. Can you tell me what you've been taught?" Ryoko reached out and filled the cup until Jun gestured for her to stop.
"Each clan that is a part of the spiral has their hands in many different commodities. Be it the militrary, food, spices, clothing, drugs…" She lifted the cup to her lips. "For my family, it was clothing and plant fields. For the Shimada clan it was military forces and drugs." Ryoko nodded, "Using our fields to supply medicine for your troops, more would be bought and used for dug based plants. Using our clothing connections, money could be laundered and spread, drugs could be transported among our goods." She sipped from the cup and tried to remember more.
"Interesting," Ryoko mused, "Did she teach that all to you, openly?" The elder woman raised a brow which sparked the hint of a smirk for the younger. "I thought not." She sat down her cup and gave a slow, soft clap. "Very impressive."
"The more places a clan has their hands, the more influence they have, the closer to the center that they are." Jun continued. "My family didn't have much, so we weren't very high in the pecking order but were were rising slowly. The Shimada's military force is quite substatial, so your position was much higher from the start." A dark look passed over Jun's face. "Haido had me fooled into thinking he was the head of the clan," this made Ryoko snort with laughter.
"All the men in the spiral think it is they who hold the reins." The cockiness to Ryoko's voice and the laughter that came at Jun's surprised look was joyful and high. "Oh sweet blossom of a child, it is not the men in their war rooms who turn the tides of war!" She leaned across the table, her eyes half closed in a sense of surperiority. "It is their women in the tea room who pull the strings. Wives and mothers are the true heads of the clan in this sense." When Jun's expression didn't change, Ryoko laughed again. "When the lights of day have faded and the mens hearts are weary, it is easy to manipulate them and shape their will to your own." She propped her head up, "I've been toying with Shuzu for years." She shrugged. "Until recently that is." The smile vanished from her face and was replaced with outright rage.
"I don't unerstand." Jun turned her head to the side, eyeing the other woman suspeciously.
"I didn't have a hand in your families fate," Ryoko clarified, her voice hard and sharp like a blade. "I had looked forward to teaching you the ways of the spiral with your mother. Shaping you into the future mother of my grandchildren. Showing you the way of the dragon." She sighed heavily. "But I put to much faith in Shuzu, my grooming of him was not quite as complete as I had previously thought. All these plans," She spat the word in sarcasm, pouring more sake. "of his were made without my knowledge and brought about on his own during my abesnce. Had he asked me about these plans I would have denied them from the start." She narrowed her eyes as she gazed into her cup, "He knew as much. Which is why he conducted them in secret."
"He betrayed you too." Jun summerized flatly, watching as Ryoko took the drink of sake and poured another for herself, drinking it and several more before growling like an animal.
"Foolish idiot." Ryoko closed her eyes and rubbed her brow with one hand. "No he must be punished, severely. There is no turning back and being trusted after you try to burn the dragon." She tapped a finger against her cheek. "Yet if he was to die, the men of the spiral would demand that Hanzo either take his place, or the Shimada clan would be removed from the workings and you understand what that would mean."
"Total annihalation."
"Indeed…however…" Ryoko smiled slyly. "If we are smart…" She leaned back and put her hands on the ground. "Then we might be able to scare him into submission until Hanzo is ready to take his place…" Ryoko smiled at this thought. "You could take your fury out on him, little by little until he has worn out his usefulness…then we can do away with him." She turned and put a hand to her face, the perfect image of a woman in distress. "What a tragedy it will be when a horrid accident befalls my beloved." She covered her mouth and closed her eyes, looking distraught. "But it must have been the fates deisgn for my love to have perished so early in his life." She smiled evily, her hand lowering. "It will be a simple enough rouse. Once you and Hanzo are married and Hanzo has been fully groomed for the position of head of the Shimada clan then those who would suspect any foul play would have no reason to complain or dispell the lies."
"You," Jun's eyes narrowed, "Are quite terrifiying Lady Ryoko." The elder woman grinned happily, taking it as a compliment.
"And in time my dear," Ryoko held out the sake container, nodding as Jun lifted her cup to fill once more. "You will be too."