Author's Note: So, I'm sure a lot of people wish there was more character interaction during the final chapter. This is just my take on that idea, and is heavily based on my first run of the game. Lei was my chosen protagonist, and this is the order in which I ended up recruiting everyone. There's a lot of expanding on the recruitment scenes, but with some extra fleshing out in between, of course. Anyway, with all that said, here we go.

Chapter One: Oboromaru

Lei couldn't say that she'd expected to be addressed by a disembodied voice before wandering around in a strange void when she woke up that morning, but that was exactly what had happened.

Where was she? There was solid ground beneath her feet, or at least there appeared to be, since she was walking on something. But there were images flashing above her: strange fighting arenas, barren wastelands, and a labyrinthine fortress, among other things. Then there was a random set of stairs—actual stairs—and she instinctively sped towards them.

Finally, Lei was surrounded by a blinding white light, and she closed her eyes and shook her head. Okay. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. Lei looked around slowly. She was atop a snowy mountain, explaining why it had taken her eyes a few seconds to adjust.

At the ground near her feet, there was a sword and a tattered slip of paper. Lei squinted and crouched down. The paper and the sword's hilt had such strange characters written on them. Lei could read, but these were like no letters she'd seen before.

Then, suddenly, she could understand them. They didn't change, but somehow they made sense to her. The sword's handle was engraved with the name "Brion." The paper seemed to be a map: it was titled "Lucrece," and there were several other locations depicted on it. "Last Hero's Grave," "Condemned Village," "Seat of the Betrayers…"

Lei couldn't help muttering, "Whoever named these places didn't have a high opinion of them."

Well, "Last Hero's Grave" wasn't too bad compared to the others, she thought. And at least she knew where she was now. Granted, Lei needed to find out how and why she'd gotten there, but… Maybe some exploration would help.

Lei took another deep breath as she folded the map and tucked it into her pocket. Stay calm, she told herself. Be like the shifu. He wouldn't begrudge her for the sense of unease clawing through her stomach, but he would probably tell her to investigate before she got too jumpy.

So Lei nodded, awkwardly strapped the sword to her waist, and made her way down the mountain.

The creatures here were bizarre, too. Lei got into a few scuffles during her descent: a giant bear, a man riding a horse, and…were those Indomitable Fist disciples? But, no; all of them, "humans" included, had an odd intangible quality and dead, blank eyes. They crumbled into dust on defeat, as if they'd never existed.

Lei felt her nerves spike, in spite of herself. Everything was wrong, wrong, wrong—

What was that? Lei squinted when she noticed a glimmer of light nearby. She knelt down, dug around in the snow, and…oh. It was some kind of…small metal box?

Lei shook her head and stood back up. That was weird, too, but at least it didn't look dangerous.

"Nothing to worry about," she muttered.

She turned around and resumed her descent. Finally, Lei arrived at a stretch of grassy land, and she sighed in relief. It was marginally warmer down here, and she was grateful for that. And then the sword shifted slightly.

Lei rubbed her eyes and looked down at it. Weapons couldn't move on their own. And yet the sword almost seemed to be pointing at something off to her left.

"This…this is stupid," she said to herself. "Calm down, Lei. You just got dragged off to some weird place, and now you're imagining things."

Still, she tugged the map out of her pocket and looked it over again. From where she was standing, her left would be east, actually… There was the apparent castle town, and another place called "The Archon's Roost." Perhaps one of those was the correct option?

Lei felt ridiculous, but it wasn't like she had any other ideas. As such, she marched off towards the castle town. The sword hung inert at her side, but then it glowed faintly when she turned towards the nearby river.

"Listening to a sword," Lei muttered. "That's a new one."

Then again, this whole thing was nonsense. Maybe it was a dream brought on by exhaustion. That was it. She'd barely had time to process Yun and Hong's deaths, after all. And then she and the shifu had stormed the Indomitable Fist fortress, and then Lei had buried him, and then she'd spent another few days training relentlessly to distract herself. Maybe she should've rested a little more before splitting the boulder, but—

Lei slowed down upon reaching a weathered wooden sign. It appeared to be splattered with…something. She squinted and leaned forward. Was that…dried blood? It was so faded that it was hard to tell. Still, the sign was coated with some substance that made it nigh-illegible.

Suddenly, there was a man's voice from somewhere above her.

"I see you, spirit!"

Odd; it was just like the map and the sword. His words were garbled at first, and then Lei understood them all at once. But before she had time to process that, there was a soft thump behind her, and then—

"You too shall fall!"

Something whizzed past her shoulder, and Lei barely dodged in time. Another object slashed through her arm, and Lei hissed in pain as she spun around. She had a brief glimpse of a gold, red, and lavender blur, but it quickly shifted out of sight.

"Hey!" she shouted. "What was that for? Get back here!"

Okay, okay…something she could hit a target with from range… Lei closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed her hands together. Then, she twirled around slightly, and…

"The dragon comes for you!"

There; Lei felt the energy pulse through the field around her. She heard the man grunt, opened her eyes, and spun toward him. He stumbled towards her, swung his katana—

"Fear the wind's bite!"

A green blur struck her in the stomach, and Lei gasped at the impact. She righted herself, tried to think of another good move, and—yes, one of her shifu's moves would do nicely—

"As lightly as a chipmunk!"

Lei leapt into the air and somersaulted towards him. Her foot connected with his stomach, and the impact sent him skidding backwards. She had to admit, it was satisfying to watch him collapse into a heap… Lei folded her arms as she stood over him, scowling.

"Okay, wanna tell me what that was about?!"

The man sat up, glancing away almost sheepishly. He scratched the back of his neck, muttering, "It…has been a long night."

Lei's expression softened marginally. He was obviously a real person, not like those ghostly monsters she'd fought on the mountain. If he wasn't from here, either, then he was just as confused as she was… And in that case…

"Yeah, let me guess: you heard some weird voice calling you here, didn't you?"

He looked back up, clearly intrigued by her question. "I did. And you?"

"Mm-hm. And then I was in this…weird empty space, and then I came out on a big snowy mountain in the middle of nowhere."

The man nodded slowly, deep in thought. He stood up and dusted himself off silently. Lei let him ponder the situation. (She was still processing it herself, after all.) Finally, he extended a hand, and she blinked before shaking it.

"Well, you are no phantom—"

Lei snorted, though it was mostly in amusement. "Nope. Real person."

It was hard to tell beneath the mask covering most of his face, but Lei thought he was amused, too. "—so I will accompany you, if you wish. We should trust each other."

Mm…it was true that they both needed answers. And it would be easier to figure out what was going on if she had help… Besides, he was the first actual human Lei had seen so far. And that counted for something, right? So Lei nodded before finally releasing his hand.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. My name's Lei, by the way. Lei Kugo, master of the Earthen Heart kung fu style."

It felt strange to describe herself as the master, but the words were out of her mouth before she could think about it. It was true in a way, Lei thought with a pang of guilt. But now wasn't the time for that; she could think about the specifics once they were out of here.

"Oboromaru of the Enma clan," he introduced with a light bow. "It is an honor to accompany you."

"Oh please, you don't have to be so formal," Lei replied, raising an eyebrow. "But…"

She paused, studying him intently. Oboromaru looked at her curiously, but he said nothing. Her eyes lingered on his hair. She'd never seen that shade of purple on a person before…except…

"This is going to sound crazy, but—you wouldn't happen to know a man named Ou Di Wan Lee, would you?" she blurted out.

There was a flicker of something in his eyes. Not familiarity, exactly, but another intrigued look, Lei thought.

"No, but I have met a man called Ode Iou," Oboromaru replied.

Lei hummed in acknowledgement. Her mouth pulled itself into a hard line as she mulled it over. They'd both been summoned here in strange circumstances; they'd both met someone with a similar-sounding name…

It could be a coincidence. Somehow, that seemed unlikely. But then, if it wasn't…what exactly did it mean?

"I take it he wasn't a class act, either," she said flatly.

That probably wasn't the most appropriate description, all things considered, but it was the first one that came to mind. Besides…if they could compare their circumstances…maybe that would give them some more ideas?

"Well, whatever you would call a power-hungry daimyo," Oboromaru said uncertainly.

"Sounds about right." Lei sighed. "Ou Di Wan Lee was… Well, the Indomitable Fist was supposed to be a kung fu school, but in practice…"

Lei swallowed. She didn't feel right dumping too much on a man she'd just met. Maybe later. She took a deep breath and pulled the map back out of her pocket.

"Anyway," she said, clearing her throat, "I found this map back up on the mountain. I think this place is called Lucrece? Or it was, at any rate."

Oboromaru clearly caught her shift in tone, and just as clearly decided not to push the topic. He simply nodded and peered over her shoulder. Odd; Lei saw him squint at the map before nodding again. It was almost like he'd come to the same sudden understanding that she had.

"And this sword, too," Lei said, gesturing at it with her free hand. "This'll sound weird, too, but…it's almost like it was telling me to come here."

Oboromaru glanced down at the sword, then back at the map. Then, he turned around and gazed at something behind them. Lei followed his example and saw the ominous, jagged mountain rising in the distance, past all the trees. That had to be the location marked as "Archon's Roost" on the map.

But now that she was closer to it, Lei felt uneasy. Not half an hour ago, she'd felt like she needed to go there. But now—

Now, not so much.

"We might find answers there," Oboromaru suggested. "But we could search for clues elsewhere as well."

Lei nodded. She studied the map for a few more seconds, and then traced the castle town with her fingertip.

"Right," she said. "I figure one of these villages would be a good place to start, right? Even if we don't find any more people, there might be some stuff we can use."

"As good an idea as any," Oboromaru agreed.

So Lei nodded again and tucked the map back into her pocket. Then, she took a deep breath and started walking. Oboromaru followed her, and, though he fell silent, there was something oddly comforting about his presence.

Their introduction hadn't been the best, really. But things could've gone much worse. And there was another human being here—someone else who was in the same situation as her.

Maybe together, they could figure out what was going on.

Author's Note x2: Fun fact: I actually managed to miss Cube's battery when I first went down the mountain and had to go back for it. Still, I went ahead and mentioned it here to excuse having to backtrack later. Also, I have no idea whether Ou Di Wan Lee's hair is "really" purple or black, but I assumed purple here so I could have an excuse to bring him up.