Heavenfall

Nanzi stared at the ruins from a high mound of jumbled stone and debris. He rested a hand on his knee as he strained to take in the view while Jongwun crouched nearby and looked at the Nezumi stonework. He was impressed with the destructive power at work and the hellscape that laid out before them.

It was awe-inspiring and terrible.

Nanzi said to his student, “This was all once a great city… a great people. Now it is but ashes and rubble, yet the Nezumi endure and continue to fight. Will they survive this?”

Jongwun had not slept well, not just due to the nightmares but to the impending deed that was before them. She had known none of these things before she set out with the expiditon and now she had been privy to monsters from other realms, corruption, and even the weight of Destiny pressing down on the shoulders of a child.

She frowned and said, “Do they deserve to survive it? Perhaps they do, Nanzi-sensei, but there may come a day when the peace between Nezumi may fail and then what? I hope we can maintain peace, but I have my doubts.”

Nanzi agreed and said, “The future is uncertain, even that of those that seem so firm is uncertain. Nanzi does not buy into the matter that Destiny is iron-clad, we make the Destinies and Fates that materialize. We are the final arbiters of who we will be, and the same can be said of the Empire.”

“We cannot know if we are making the right choice for something a hundred years now, but we can know we are making the right choice based on what we know of the Now. That will have to be enough.”

Jongwun closed her eyes and pictured the girl again and then said, “Destiny is a real thing, Nanzi-sensei. It is not simply just what we desire but there are forces at work that guide us to where we need to be. We are all tools of the Heavens and subject to Destiny, it is beyond even the Kami. If these monsters can take our shape, if one’s arrogance and hubris can come to life, and if there is a bleeding hole in creation straight to Hell then Destiny must be real.”

“It has to be.”

Nanzi stopped looking to the horizon and focused on his student saying, “Something on your mind?”

Jongwun frowned again now looking towards the horizon and said, “That was unworthy of me, I should be more collected, Nanzi-sensei. If I may speak freely?”

"You do not have to ask permission, Jongwun," he said to the woman.

She sighed and looked from the horizon to her teacher and then could not find any words to express what was in her heart and on her mind. Finally she found her voice and said, “I come from the tribe of Kakita, as you know, I was not born of the higher stations but enough that I could learn to fight and I was born under auspicious but unclear signs, so say the midwives.”

“All my life I have wondered what my Destiny would be, what it could be an what my purpose should be, and it makes me feel unworthy to believe that I have something greater than to serve your family, and Lady Doji of the Crane. But maybe there is more… more that I have tried to ignore.”

Nanzi nodded and said, “What do you feel is calling to you?”

Jongwun got to her feet and dusted off her clothing and said, “I was born under uncertain but powerful signs, what if my calling will bring despair and suffering? But what if my Destiny is something like these Thunders, to do some great good for everyone? I am scared that I am not ready, that I will come up short.”

Nanzi listened and said, “You have yet to fail me, Jongwun. Perhaps that seems trite, but you have been diligent, focused, and Honorable. You are a better samurai than Nanzi shall ever be, and it is you that he sees as the future of the Clan, and all that you train including my children.”

“You will be a future leader of the Crane, and if your Destiny calls for more then you will rise to it. Because you are Nanzi Jongwun of the Crane, and he is proud to have trained, but you are not the little child that could barely hold a blade, you are a true samurai of the Crane. This gives Nanzi great pride.”

Jongwun bowed respectfully and said, “I am not worthy of such praise, Nanzi-sensei.”

“Perhaps you believe that, but Nanzi knows you are and will be a duelist of worth and a Samurai of renown, might even have a name as large as his,” he mused.

“You have never failed me, and as long as you seek Honor, you never shall,” he said totally unironically.