The Doctor's wrinkled hand pained as he finished the final page of his sprawling paper. The old man sighed as he leaned back in his chair and thought to himself.

Four sleepless nights and hundreds of sheets of parchment, and the paper is complete. The science is completely infallible. The math absolute. The final step in this abundant plan is putting it all to action.

Some called his thoughts and plans superfluous. The Doctor called them thorough.

Sitting from his plush cushion, the Doctor stood from his desk, collected a velvet-covered parcel and left his quarters. Once he exited his room, the Doctor found himself in the Shogun's hall, separated from the great hall by a thin wall leading to an abrupt halt right before it reached the tall ceiling. Made for airflow, but utilized by Kenshi and his two followers as a means to invade their chambers without drawing attention to the many military commanders discussing in the great hall.

The Doctor smirked as he walked to the pale and mumbling Shogun. The Shogun was pliable and had exceeding control. The perfect piece in the Doctor's game and Kenshi almost cut him loose before it was time. But everything would fall into the Doctor's hand. He smirked not as a facade to the Shogun, but with complete honesty.

Kenshi's assassination attempt turned out perfectly in the Doctor's favor. Once the Shogun was partially crippled and sick, it made him reliant on the Doctor's skills. He no longer had to fight for his seat next to the Shogun.

The Doctor's smirk turned to a smile, causing him to stifle it before the true reason for his pleasure was at risk of being revealed.

The Shogun felt down the bicep of his wounded arm. Stroking downward until he reached the hastily stitched nub. He spoke as he frowned. "I feel no better now than I did the day it happened. Why isn't your medicine working?"

The Doctor unwrapped the two syringes from their velvet encasing and readied them for use. "You will only feel iller until you regain your strength. It is just how these things work."

The Shogun scoffed and outstretched his arm, to which the Doctor injected the vial of haze-y mauve-colored fluid. "Just do what you do then, Doctor."

Once the Doctor finished injecting one vial, he moved to the vial full of pale white fluid and swiftly injected it.

The Shogun was never to question the fluids he then took every day, thinking that it was merely healing mixtures of chemicals, but the Doctor knew differently.

One was to keep the Shogun on the verge of sickness, forever in need of the Doctor. Luckily, the sickness wasn't the only use of the vial. What the Doctor mixed and compounded into the fluid was the most important part of his biggest experiment he would ever create.

The second vial was to merely keep things in check. To keep the Shogun from completely dying until the Doctor decided it was time to move to larger scales.

The Doctor finished slowly injecting the final bit of fluid and returned the vials to their soft beds of imperial velvet.

Before anything else could be spoken or done, someone walked through the doors from the great hall into the Shogun's hall. It was the muscular and stern-faced man, Eizo. With shields still at his sides, he spoke in a loud and official voice. "My Shogun and... The imperial Doctor..." The Doctor smiled. He ensured his name would never be known or spoken. His past endeavors wouldn't ever be revealed. The Doctor was thrown into camp fuman o matsu on acts only a fraction as criminalizing as he had done in his prime. Eizo continued. "The emperor has arrived for his annual inspection and medical inspection."

The Shogun mumbled. "Let him in of course." That was one thing the Doctor could commend the weak-minded Shogun for. Completely turning the emperor into his own subordinate.

Eizo turned to leave, but the Doctor spoke. It was already established that Kenshi and his group were traveling to Mt.Fuji in order to find their goddess. And if they did, they would surely find a way to abolish the yokai. Such creatures with so much potential to tap into and learn from. They would as well completely overthrow the Shogun and the Doctor, with the image of the goddess with them, so the Doctor had created a plan. He spoke to Eizo commandingly. "Eizo, forget whatever tasks you had planned for the rest of the next week. There is work for you elsewhere."

Eizo's brow raised as if he was about to speak, but the Doctor raised his hand and continued. "Sir Kowereta Kenshi and his gathering of fugitives have caused far too much of a dilemma for us. And as only the three of us in this room know, has information that would be very detrimental to the Shogun. I say instead of sending numerous attacks towards him, we arrive at the palace before them, which should be easy considering they move on foot, and fortify it. Us three with your strongest ember wielding samurai."

The Shogun tugged at the sparse and long beard at his fat chin as Eizo contested. "If I may object. We have only just returned from our confrontation with the three. We lost a good man. Moving immediately afterwards doesn't seem like-"

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The Shogun interrupted. "You may not! I will decide and need no guidance. Be aware of your place, Eizo." Eizo grimaced as the Shogun thought to himself. He then spoke in a rather abrupt tone. "We would be leaving all the petty political decisions to the emperor. Will he even live long enough for us to complete this?"

The Doctor spoke in a slightly quieter and more cautious volume "The sickness I have been giving the emperor is slow. He will surely be out of the way with enough time, but we most definitely have room to let him deal with the insignificant political conundrums."

The Shogun continued to think to himself as Eizo's attention seemed to be brought elsewhere. As the Shogun seemed to speak his answer, Eizo threw open the door to the great hall. A pale, thin, and weaselly man fell once his prop was taken from under him. The Doctor stood from beside the Shogun and questioned. "Eavesdropping on your own Shogun?"

The sunken-eyed samurai started standing as he hastily formulated a lie. "No no no! I was just... Telling you that the emperor has arrived."

It seemed feasible to the Doctor. Informing the Shogun was most likely what he originally was doing, but then he heard something that caused him to listen. The Doctor knew that the samurai would have to be dealt with, and he had just the way to dispose of or otherwise incapacitate him. "Ah, I see. It's good that you arrived. We were just speaking of your next mission."

With a strong sense of surprise, the pale samurai spoke. "That was what you were speaking about?"

"Do you have a reason to suspect we were discussing otherwise?"

"No..."

"Good. Then, what we will have you do is make another attack on Sir Kowereta Kenshi. Bring the boy with you to track him... Oh, and bring the filthy one for support." The filthy earth bending samurai only created trouble, getting rid of him would be beneficial. And if they won, it would also turn out as a victory. If they lost and the sunken-eyed one leaked their plans, it wouldn't matter. The Doctor and the Shogun would be completely prepared by the time the sunken-eyed one met with Kenshi. After no response, the Doctor spoke. "Do you understand?"

"Yes..."

"Good. Bring the emperor in on your way out."

The sunken-eyed one only replied with a redundant "Yes." as he exited.

Eizo left to rally the troops and prepare for their departure as the Shogun and Doctor waited in silence for the emperor. Finally, the pale and sweating emperor entered the Shogun's hall.

The emperor nodded to the Shogun and Doctor sitting atop their elevated part of the room as the Shogun gestured to one of the many tables that were set at the lower end. The Doctor quickly left and returned with a new set of vials as the emperor found the most pristine cushion to sit atop.

The Doctor walked into the room and greeted the emperor with meaningless niceties before he opened the box he had stored for the emperor. Once all his supplies were ready the Doctor listened to the emperor's breathing. Short and struggling. On course, then. The emperor's temperature. Feverish and sweating. He asked the emperor how he felt regularly. Headaches, muscle aches, and nausea. Precisely on track.

The Doctor brought his 'medicine' out of his box as he thought.

During the Doctor's younger years, he grew proficient at keeping patients constantly in his 'care' as for him to experiment on live specimen. But the diseases he used killed them quickly and made his work difficult, until one particular surgery. He had gained a new patient, wounded from an accident during his farm work, with a terrible loss of blood. The Doctor had the simple idea of supplying him with blood from another patient, and it worked spectacularly, so he continued on more patients. But some would get sick, terribly sick and die, while others would only benefit.

With such a curious predicament, the Doctor studied and tested the blood of all his subjects. An endless list of chemicals and procedures, but the blood still gave him no clue, that is, until the Doctor tried a certain liquid. Since the Doctor kept most of his patients bed-ridden, they were prone to have blood frequently clot in their legs and arteries. He would usually just cut open the artery, let the blood flow and clear itself, possibly collect some of the said blood, and then send the subject on their way. But what the Doctor found most curious was how the clotted blood reacted differently to his tests. Soon, he had mixed it into a purer solution using a multitude of methods. And once he applied that solution to the regular blood, it would react in a most superb way.

Using that information, the Doctor formulated that there had to be different types of blood. With that information, he could either heal people in need of blood, or cause them a terrible sickness, and this sickness was exactly what he had given the emperor.

All of the symptoms the emperor had described and shown was expected. Later would come blood in the urine, an extreme worsening of his health and ability to fight disease. Then his kidneys would completely fail him.

The emperor tapped his hand on the table impatiently. The Doctor had been completely lost in thought.

After regaining himself from his memories, the Doctor injected the emperor with the incompatible blood and spoke. "Your inspection is complete. I hope to see you again soon." The emperor stood from his seat and began to leave, seemingly not wanting to stay away from his luxury for much longer, but the Doctor kept him for a moment longer. "Oh, my emperor." The emperor turned and looked at him curiously. "The Shogun, myself, and a few soldiers will be leaving in order to subdue a few of our most heinus fugitives. This means that our stations will be unattended for a small matter of time."

The young and sickly emperor looked to the Shogun. The Doctor knew that the Shogun was contemplating his idea, so he took his opportunity to force him into the decision. After his mouth curled at the ends in a sorry attempt of hiding his anger, the Shogun nodded to the emperor, who immediately turned to the Doctor and spoke. "Uh... Duly noted." He was trying to speak more sophisticated in the Doctor's presence. How flattering, the Doctor thought to himself with a grin. The Doctor was once again impressed at how the Shogun had made the emperor his puppet, although being inaugurated into the Shogunate right as the new emperor was put into power did diminish the impressiveness of the Shogun's feat. And besides, the Doctor had made the Shogun his puppet, making him unequivocally the more impressive.

The emperor thought for a moment and continued speaking. "How soon will you be leaving?"

Before the Shogun could respond the Doctor did. Once again trumping him in power. "As soon as the men are prepared."

The emperor nodded as he finally left. The Shogun sighed in frustration and anger, pent up from the day Kenshi caused him to lose his arm, only grown by the Doctor. And the Doctor? The Doctor couldn't have been happier. He had to keep himself from laughing.

What a glorious day. What a glorious future.