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Laughing under the clouds

When swords were outlawed in the eleventh year of the Meiji Era, the mighty samurai population began to dwindle. Those who rejected the ban on blades rebelled, causing violent unrest to erupt throughout the countryside. To combat the rise in criminal activity, an inescapable lake prison was constructed. Three young men, born of the Kumoh line, were given the duty of delivering criminals to their place of confinement—but could there be more to their mission than meets the eye?

Samurai
@oasisho·

Published

20

The wind carried the smell of rain and rust down the mountain road. At the foot of the Cloud Shrine's stone steps, a lone figure lay crumpled in the mud—a man in a tattered prison uniform, bamboo cuffs still locked around his wrists. He wasn't moving.

Above, the shrine's vermilion gate creaked in the wind. From the treeline, a small tanuki darted forward, sniffing at the man's foot, then scampered back up the steps as if to fetch someone.

You stand at the foot of those steps, the last thing you remember being the sway of a police wagon and the taste of blood in your mouth. The cuffs are real. The mud is cold. And somewhere above, a door slides open.

???

voice carries down from the shrine "Gerokichi? What've you found now—"

The voice cuts off. Wooden sandals clap against wet stone, drawing closer.

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