Choosing the Rescue Team [LM, D15]

[Inga]

Hantei places his hand on her shoulder and gives her a comforting smile, his hand falls down to the generous curve of her hip and rests there for now.

"I will be accompanying the team sent into Jigoku. I will do everything in my power to rescue my brother from his bonds." Hantei said to those assembled, his voice was not loud but it was resolute and full of passion, his eyes so normally serene were full of fire this night.

"So you don't trust the humans to do what they are here for." Inga shook her head he probably don't even remember this silly girl. "You prefer to give grievance to your people sacrificing yourself rather than trust them. You have followers and people that love, adore and trust you. You want to leave them without guidance... well that is up to you."

[Hantei]

Hantei looked to Shinjo and shook his head "No Shinjo you are faster than me but we both know I am stronger and more skilled, besides." He looked down at his hand "I am the only one of us that still has the blessing of Tengoku upon my person, we don't know but I believe it should offer me a measure of protection against the maddening influence of that place."

To the rest he looked out "It is not because I don't trust you that I insist on going, it is because I need this to happen and we can all agree I am the strongest one here, we have the best chance of success if I am there." He looked to Inga "it is not an easy decision to risk myself but it is something I must do, my honor dictates it, my duty as his elder brother dictates it. It is for my family that I do this, it is to live the lessons I teach those that follow me that I must do this."

[Reiko]

Reiko had been quiet, listening as everyone make their points. There was a frown on her face throughout, which only grew more as they continued.

This is wrong. So wrong.

With a clearing of her throat she finally spoke.

"I would prefer that the main arranging of the wedding be performed or actively involved members of the Spider clan, as it is the clan that this union is based in. I will not refuse the assistance of others though."

She turned to Hantei.

"As for the mission, no. You will not go. I insist on this and will hear no argument. Fu Leng has held back the realm of evil for far too long to fail now, and small things could tip the balance. Jigoku will use any means to turn one of the stars, and I would prefer neither of you to go, but if there needs to be one then it should be the Swift Star."

[Hantei]

Hantei fixed Reiko with a stern look his features as unpleasant as anyone had seen them before. "Reiko-san you have a great many gifts but you have no control over what I do. If it comes to ensuring this mission is a success or placate whatever childish squabble you have with me then I know what side I am choosing."

He leveled a very serious look at her "besides what will you do to stop me?"

[Reiko]

"If you go, you will doom this mission" Reiko said without any hesitation "you will cause it to fail."

[Hantei]

"Have you seen this in a vision? Do you now this for certain? Or is it just how ou feel?" He asked her with a pointed gaze "by all logic having our strongest member down there is the only way to give it the best chance to succeed."

[Reiko]

"I know this beyond any certainty. I understand why you truly wish to go Hantei-sama. I know it more than any other here, but now is not the time for that. You will cause the opposite reaction to the one you hope for, and Jigoku will take that one moment to break through."

Reiko closed her eyes, holding her hand over her heart.

"It only takes one moment, one tiny crack, and every plan we've made will fail. Rescuing Fu Leng, closing the portal, everything."

[Hantei]

"Then you have not seen it." He said simply looking forward disengaging from the conversation.

[Reiko]

Reiko sighed.

I tried to be tactful. You gave me no choice.

"If you actually care about your brother, you will heed my words. He will not want the first sibling he sees to be the one that caused him to be in Jigoku."

[Hantei]

Hantei shrugged "Fu Leng was ever the pragmatic one. If he has issue with me he will wait to settle it until we have returned."

[Reiko]

"And you were ever the arrogant one" Reiko opened her eyes, annoyed "you continue to place your own interests above this mission, despite attempts to try and be polite in approaching the subject. The way you sound now, I do not believe you intend to approach this with the honest intentions you're trying to claim."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"Your pardon, I'm sorry to interrupt. I wouldn't, but you have been a bit... intense and obvious. But, if Hantei wishes to go, it seems he has the same choice to make as any other... he can join the line, and have Shinsei look into his destiny, and see if it is proper. Or am I incorrect?"

[Reiko]

"Forgive me Kyosei-san, but in this it is incorrect" Reiko bowed her head in apology to Kyosei

[Hantei]

"That is enough!" Hantei says, his eyes flare with uncharacteristic anger, his frayed nerves, his guilt, these past 2 weeks finally breaking his mask of politeness. His hand slams on the makeshift table with plans on it the wood splintering beneath the force.

"You presume to question my intentions, you presume to know me after 10 years little of which you have spent with me. You take one action, one mistake and pin my entire character to it. I am not perfect in a moment of panic and anger I lashed out, how could I have know. What would happen." His words were harsh and furious.

His eyes were wet as he regarded Reiko a detail likely lost on the nearly blind woman but the strain and emotion in his voice were plainly heard "You forget it was I who faced our father when he tried to kill us, it was I who cut them from his stomach and severed fathers arm when he grabbed your dear husband!"

His voice grew quieter "I would do anything for my family whether I like them or not is irrelevant. And I would not have someone whose entire life, much less the time they have known me or my siblings, is a mere infinitesimal blip in comparison to a fraction of the time we spent together."

This raw emotion would be shocking to anyone who even barely knew Hantei who even in the most violent situations kept his cool "I am going into that pit and I am prying my brother from the grasp of that cursed realm."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

Kyosei, standing so near the pair, is almost blasted back by the raw emotions given forth. But, he is also sustained and strengthened by the Earth itself. "Then, perhaps you should be the one to carry this to him?"

With that, he stretches forth his hand, and the Jade Gauntlet is extended into the potential keeping of another for the first time since he found it.

[Togashi Saruko]

Saruko put down her needlework and rose from her seat.

"Reiko-san, with all due respect, while I understand your reasoning, I ask you to have faith in the one who will be your brother-by-bonds. Arguing like this won't do any good. If you won't believe in him, believe in me who vouches for his intentions... trauma and tragedy has separated the two brothers; allow for the healing to begin at its most crucial moment." She moved to support Hantei, placing a calm hand on his sleeve.

"As for the wedding preparations, we have little time to prepare and much to do. This is not the time to make demands - please accept the help that is given by us all in order to ensure that we manage to please mother Lady Sun. I'm no Lady Doji, but you have my word I will recreate as much as possible of Tengoku's rites as she has shown us before."

[Reiko]

Reiko fell into silence for a few moments. Even if she couldn't see him, she could still feel the raw passion. It left her speechless.

After a short while, she finally spoke.

"Forgive me, but this is exactly why you should not go. Your feelings, your emotions, they are not pure of intent. They have lingering guilt behind them, and anger. They drive you, and it gives Jigoku an avenue to enter and twist this so that this rescue fails. Fu Leng needs time to forgive you, away from a realm that is twistng everything to try and turn him. If he sees you, the one that accidentally or not caused him to be there, surrounded by the worst of everything...what do you believe will happen? Do you think he will feel joy? Happiness? Or perhaps anger and fear?"

She closed her eyes, holding back her own feelings, and quietly whispered the final part.

"Don't do it. Don't give Jigoku the final piece that it has been waiting all this time for. Because I have seen Fu Leng fall, and I know beyond certainty that this would be the catalyst to bring the end."

[Jiyo Sora]

Sora spoke up from his place in the line, still awaiting Shinsei's verdict on where he would find himself during the next day's efforts.

"I've heard it said that Regret is a sin."

He fixed his oracular eye on Hantei. Then on Reiko.

"I would hope that two who are family would not speak to one another in a way to give rise to it. Hantei-sama... would you submit to Shinsei's judgment as the others who would go must do?"

[Togashi Saruko]

She nodded in agreement with Sora, as it seemed only fair that Shinsei would weigh in on this too, even if she supported Hantei's choice to go.

This will be the most crucial moment to begin the healing... if Fu Leng won't see his brother risk his life again for him, it might be too late...

[Hantei]

"Youre not as smart or as wise as you think you are Reiko." Hantei says nodding to Saruko for her support "I am going and there is nothing on this earth that can stop me. Shinsei may say whatever words he likes."

He took some time and a few deep breaths he carefully reassembled his mask though imperfect it was acceptable "What is this Kyosei-san?" He asked with restraint evident in his voice.