A ROUNDED CLICK COULD BE HEARD as the boots of Kasegi Shokin hit the cobblestone, accompanied by a splash. He was walking back to the Brass Gate Inn after requesting the retrieval of an Aotoshi native, preparing for the 72nd meeting of the Saisei Coalition. Its members had used the backroom as their retreat for quite some time, wherein they were able to vent their frustrations about the current affairs of the Akuni and Aotoshi governments. As he entered the inn, very few of the destitute souls within the tavern looked up from their liquor. Kasegi walked up to the door to the backroom, beside which a pair of bouncers wearing street attire and acting as if they were no more than loiterers stood.

“Password?” the larger of the two bouncers muttered to ensure that Kasegi was not a fraud. He paused, trying to remember whether the password was based on the Punjabi word for “renewal” (Navia, from Navi'ā'uṇa) or “regicide”. He then recalled that, following the 34th meeting where the mission statement of the Saisei Coalition was changed, the password had also been changed.

“Niyamata,” Kasegi answered in response. The bouncers opened the door to the backroom for him. From there, he entered the barren hallway. The backroom had been neglected before the Saisei Coalition decided to mount themselves in there and, as a result, the wallpaper in the halls was peeling to expose a large majority of the wall. His boots continued their clicking, a bit sharper than usual now, as they glided across the tile floor. At the end of the door, there was an eye scanner. This scanner, once used, would let out an announcement that the meeting was to begin shortly upon the leader’s arrival. The way this scanner worked is that it would only trigger the message when Kasegi’s prosthetic eye, distinctly so due to the highly saturated amethyst hue, was scanned. He lifted his eyepatch to where the face was against his forehead as the sensor scanned over the eye. Once the eye had finished the scan, a loudspeaker from inside of the room played a buzz similar in tone to one that might play to signify the end of a quarter in a basketball game.

Any conversation in the backroom ceased as the buzzer rang out and Kasegi entered, walking toward his usual spot at the head of the table. After a few seconds of complete silence, Kasegi began to speak.

“I find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Saisei Coalition has now been active for as long as it has. Most other rebellions against Yukan the Vengeful only last about two months before being quelled, their leaders killed for treason and becoming martyrs and inspirations for our cause. We should consider ourselves lucky that we have managed to prosper underneath the king’s nose for nine times as long as most others. That being said, we have not made much progress with our calling. Very little has changed since this group had begun and much of our prosperity is likely a result of this unwillingness to act upon our desires.”

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He paused for a brief moment, his dulcet baritone voice ceasing to emerge from his mouth for the two or three seconds he stopped talking to formulate his thoughts.

“As many of you are aware,” Shokin continued, “the current king of both Akuni and Aotoshi has shown an inherent bias against Aotoshi. From my time in the War of the Swords, I saw Yukan for what he was: a childish and impulsive young boy with no viable traits for leadership. Seldom did he ever listen to his people. Then, I inquire, what would happen if you put a man who had grown a strong disdain for your nation in control of it? The answer is simple: he will ruin us in the same way that Medikai had been ruined after the Great Trifecta War. I was in the audience for Yukan’s coronation. Although he had tried to hide his hatred for Aotoshi by pardoning Commander Shirei Akui and by stating aloud that he was going to treat Aotoshi the same way he would treat Akuni, he has long since gone back on that promise and seemed more focused on turning Aotoshi into Akuni. It is clear that, through the eyes of an Aotoshi citizen, he has begun to rob us of our cultural identity from a blatantly ethnocentric viewpoint. A couple of weeks ago, he had introduced various species of flora and fauna that had not previously existed in Aotoshi, at which point the species became invasive and began to threaten our natural ecosystem, all the while keeping Akuni free from any species that had not arisen naturally.

“Even more egregious, however, is his decision to not broaden the reaches of our nations. Medikai is only now building its military back up after the agreement ended roughly fifteen years ago. Instead, he decided to leave the country to its own business, leaving us prone to the possibility of an invasion. At the end of the day, Yukan is missing all of the right opportunities and taking all of the wrong ones. But that’s going to end very soon. See, in the past few meetings, we have been getting ready to put our magnum opus plan into execution. We have recently uncovered the Kaesu Dagger from Heiya Plains. It had sustained great damage from the years, but we were able to repair it with 99.9% accuracy in effect with the testimonies of those who saw it in use. We had also modified the dagger to be controlled by the mind of whoever last threw the dagger. For just as long as I have been in control of the Saisei Coalition, we have been searching for the proper person to handle the first act of our plan to end not only the reign of Yukan but the entirety of the Kenshi dynasty. Well, just yesterday, we found somebody who could be the most qualified for the job.” Kasegi then pressed a button to turn on the intercom.

“Bring our assassin in,” he requested. Just a few seconds later the door opened and the members of the Saisei Coalition gasped. They were both shocked by the reveal of who would begin the path for their plan and how ingenious the choice was on the part of Kasegi. After all, who would be a better option for an assassin than somebody that the king had previously pardoned?