After taking a moment to compose herself, Kaede began making her way to the castle courtyard. Her father was dead, and the war was over, but the real work had only just started.

“Jianmo, what happened while we were gone?”

The sword spirit’s androgynous human form manifested next to her, floating along beside her carelessly.

“Well first off, darling, let me just say that it’s a very pleasant surprise to see that you are still alive. I was certain that you’d finally met your match.”

“Thank you. I’m glad to see that you’re alright as well.”

“It takes a lot to put me down, sweetie, even without my core. Though speaking of which...do you have any plans for the one you nabbed from daddy dearest?”

Kaede held the glowing red orb up and grimaced. It hadn’t really been her intention to keep it intact—it just happened to turn out that way.

“I’m not really comfortable using the refined essence of thousands of innocent souls.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s already far too late for them. Even if you destroy the core, what’s left of their essence will just dissipate to be absorbed by nature.”

She sighed. Jianmo was not very good at comforting people.

“Surprisingly, no. I assume you want me to give it to you?”

“If it’s not too much trouble. I don’t hate abstaining from souls for your sake, but it’s a little difficult to rebuild my strength without it. It’s sort of what I was designed for. That core will let me get a head start without any of the guilt!”

Kaede gave Jianmo a flat look and they shrugged.

“Okay, less guilt. Just think of it as making the most of a bad thing.”

“Alright, fine. Will you answer my question now?”

Jianmo happily accepted the core and affixed it to their sword’s guard.

“Lovely! Well, let’s see...after you fell to Longyan’s surprise attack, his avatar disappeared. It probably used up everything he had left to finish you off. I tried taking advantage of the confusion to finish off Meiren, but she got me with one of those stupid soul-cutting blades.”

“She did?! Are you okay?”

They waved her off.

“Fine, dear. I told you, it will take more than that to put me down. I did have to retreat back into my blade to recover, though. Not having a physical body puts me at quite a disadvantage. In the meantime, Ienaga made her escape.”

Kaede nodded.

“I know that much already. Master Yumi told me you saved her.”

“Well, it wasn’t really what I was going for, but I suppose I did, yes.”

“And after that? How did my father end up becoming a demon?”

Jianmo grimaced and scratched their head.

“You really want to hear it? It’s about the same way anyone else does, and it’s never pretty.”

“I need to know.”

They sighed.

“Alright. It started with Murayoshi. Without his niece as leverage, there was nothing forcing the old smith to keep working for your father. He outright refused, and even went out of his way to destroy the avatar he’d been building.”

“And then?”

“Your father snapped. He killed Murayoshi on the spot and ordered his forge destroyed.”

Kaede clenched her fists, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Is Forge...?”

“She escaped to the spirit realm. Meiren doesn’t know how to spiritwalk, so they couldn’t give chase. An object spirit like her isn’t going to last long without a vessel, but you may still be able to save her.”

“That will be our first priority, then. What happened next?”

Jianmo spun around in the air looking up at the sky with a frown.

“Yu Meiren happened. Your father was at his wit’s end, with his entire soul a mess of heart demons. She saw that he was teetering on the edge, and did what she does best. She gave him a little push. Murayoshi was his first soul, and after he’d gotten a taste, well...I’m sure you can guess the rest.”

Kaede clutched at her chest. If only she’d been stronger. If she hadn’t wasted so much time. Maybe she could have—

“It’s not your fault, darling.”

She looked up to meet Jianmo’s eyes. The sword spirit’s expression was uncharacteristically serious.

“Longyan and Yu Meiren had their sadistic claws buried deep in that man’s throat well before you came to power. Even if they hadn’t, you can’t be everywhere at once. I don’t hate you for trying, but you cannot single-handedly solve the entire world’s problems. What’s done is done. Now you have to focus on what’s in front of you. Look to the future, instead of the past.”

“I know, it’s just not always easy to think that way. Thank you, Jianmo.”

“Any time, dear.”

Once she knew what she was looking for Kaede easily found the broken remains of Murayoshi’s smithy. What had once been a lovingly maintained set of tools and workstations had been reduced to a crumbling pile of stone, wood, and steel. Murayoshi had cared for his smithy long enough that it developed its own spirit.

Kaede wondered how he’d managed to bring it with him on his travels. One couldn’t just stuff a furnace in a backpack, and storage artifacts were rare enough in Goryeo and Qin where they were made, much less Yamato. Then again, if anybody could have made one in Yamato, it would have been Murayoshi.

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His loss was a tragedy, but Kaede wasn’t going to let his legacy perish with him.

She knelt down and picked up one of the few intact bricks remaining—a keystone from the furnace. Its surface was smooth and polished despite years of fire and soot, marred only by a few scuffs where someone had tried to crush it with a hammer.

Yoshika closed her eyes and felt the stone’s connection to Forge. Channeling the essence of Shadow through her Steps of the Stalker technique, she stepped between worlds to follow the connection.

The spirit on the other side was surprised, but its fear was quickly replaced by recognition and relief as it flowed around Yoshika.

“I’m so sorry about your partner, Forge. I’ve recovered one of your keystones to serve as a vessel. If you wish, I’ll do my best to find you a new home.”

Forge wrapped herself around Yoshika like a blanket. In the spirit world, she felt both hot and cold—the essence of shaping, tempering, and the art of creation. Like most spirits, she spoke only in emotions.

Regret, mourning, appreciation.

She flew into the brick, drawing as much of her essence as she could into the tiny vessel.

“I’m sorry about the small size. We’ll try to build you a new home soon.”

Familiarity, love, nostalgia.

Yoshika smiled sadly.

“I’m glad you like it.”

With that, she stepped back into the mortal world and took a deep breath. There was only one thing left for her to do.

Kaede emerged from the castle to find her people waiting for her. She didn’t need to speak a word. Everyone knew from a single look that it was over—Shogun Hayakawa was dead.

At the front of the army, Lord Ienaga stepped forward, removed the sword from his belt, and dropped to one knee with his head bowed. Behind him, the rest of the army repeated the gesture.

Everyone from the lords to the generals to the common soldier bowed, whether they were from Jiaguo or Yamato.

She’d known it was coming. From the moment she’d committed herself to fighting the war, it was an inevitable conclusion. One that she’d been raised for, but no longer wanted.

Hayakawa Kaede—Yoshika—was the new shogun of Yamato.

----------------------------------------

Yoshika’s work only grew with the end of the war. Her father had been neglecting his duties for a long time, and as the new ruler, it fell to her to clean up his mess. On top of that, the war itself had taken a toll on the land and her people. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians, noble families going through succession crises, Kasuga’s former territory slowly turning into a toxic wasteland—and that was just the start.

Her status as the ruler of two nations also called into question the relationship between the two. Which brought her to a meeting with Lord Ienaga and a few of the others who’d been critical to the war effort—most notably Lady Ashikaga.

Within the empty Castle Hayakawa, Ienaga glowered down at a map of the land that had been hastily adjusted to reflect the current state of affairs.

“What are we going to do about the capital? This city is still intact, but it will take time to repopulate it—especially with the history it has. People are going to be afraid of vengeful ghosts.”

Yoshika sighed.

“We’ll move it—but I don’t know where.”

Ashikaga shrugged carelessly.

“What about Jiaguo? That’s where you’re going to be living, Lady Shogun.”

Ienaga shook his head.

“Too close to the border. Besides, that territory is infamously volatile—nobody’s ever held it for long.”

“It’s still where the Shogun lives—if she’s pushed out, then we’ll just move it again.”

“It’s not that simple, and you know it!”

Yoshika rubbed her temples and groaned.

“That’s a whole other problem. Jiaguo is independent—we have our own laws, government, and a developing culture. I’m not throwing all of that away to turn it into a border province of Yamato.”

Ienaga raised an eyebrow.

“I hope you don’t expect Yamato to give up our national identity.”

She shook her head.

“Of course not, but I do intend to reform things—slowly. I can’t just dismantle the shogunate overnight, but I’ve been clear about my intentions to end the feudal system from the start.”

A few of the lords present grumbled at that. Nobody wanted to lose the power their clans had been fighting centuries of war to maintain. Lady Ashikaga swept her gaze over the assembly and pursed her lips.

“If you’re looking to reform things, why not start from the top and work your way down? You’re now the head of a clan of one—unless you want to bring your extended family into our politics.”

Yoshika shook her head vehemently.

“Absolutely not!”

“Obviously we all respect you as the rightful ruler. You’re the former shogun’s heir, and after the war, nobody is going to question your strength. You’re uniquely positioned to unify Yamato under a single absolute ruler, which means that it’s your place to define that role in whatever way you see fit.”

Ienaga scratched his chin thoughtfully.

“That’s true, I suppose. And as long as the nobles can keep their power, they won’t likely object to a change in their role—especially if it means they don’t have to fight to keep it anymore.”

It went unsaid that any such change would only be the first step in slowly eroding their power and increasing their accountability to the people they served. Perhaps Ienaga hadn’t even thought of it that way, but Yoshika certainly did, and she respected him too much to assume he didn’t know that.

She considered the problem, speaking her thoughts out loud as she worked her way through it.

“I can’t oversee everything in Jiaguo, much less both there and Yamato. In Jiaguo, I’ve appointed a prime minister to handle most domestic issues. As High Arbiter, my job is just to make the final decisions on new matters of law and policy. Maybe I can do something similar for Yamato...”

Ashikaga grinned.

“You mean passing the role of Shogun down to someone else, while you hold a higher seat?”

“Well, that’s not really what I had in mind, but I guess it works? That would allow Yamato to continue on as it has without trying to dramatically change our culture overnight. If the new shogun answers to us, then we can slowly work on implementing our reforms through them.”

Ienaga grunted.

“That leaves the question of who should be shogun, if not you.”

Lady Ashikaga chuckled and nodded.

“Not to mention what your title would be.”

Yoshika frowned.

“What about you, Lord Ienaga? You were a well respected shogun for decades before my father.”

“And then I lost. Abdicating to me—even if I’d still technically be subordinate to you—would be seen as a sign of weakness. It can’t be me or any of my vassals, despite our alliance. The people would see it as a return to form, rather than a new order.”

She scratched her head.

“It probably shouldn’t be any of my generals either. I doubt Yamato is ready for a foreign shogun.”

The candidates narrowed down further the more she considered them. None of the Takedas would work, since they were vassals of Ienaga. Noguchi was too weak as a military leader—and she didn’t really trust him. Kasuga was inexperienced and had just lost most of his demesne.

Once Yoshika eliminated those who were too weak, inexperienced, or who had lingering associations with the former Ienaga shogunate, the only one left was...

She met Lady Ashikaga’s eyes. Sae’s grin widened, her eyes practically shining. For a ‘tool of war’ she was a lot more conniving than she let on.

“We can discuss it later—it’s not something to decide carelessly.”

Lady Sae shrugged.

“Of course, but I do think that we should announce your new role sooner than later. We wouldn’t want our enemies thinking that we’re in disarray.”

Ienaga grunted affirmatively.

“True. Let’s plan a ceremony to swear our allegiance to Lady Hayakawa as Yamato’s new High Arbiter.”

Ashikaga shook her head and wagged her finger.

“Tsk, tsk! No, ‘High Arbiter’ is Jiaguo’s term. We don’t want it to look like Yamato is subordinate to the little city-state. Yamato and Jiaguo are independent kingdoms united under a single absolute ruler—and there’s only one word that comes to mind for someone like that.”

Yoshika’s eyes widened.

“Wait, no—”

Sae’s grin widened as she bowed.

“If you’ll have us, the lords and ladies of Yamato are prepared to swear our fealty to you—Empress Yoshika.”