Prologue
He was there again this morning. He walked through the streets of Naichirien as I approached Iniishi's shop. He was looking for a shady spot to sit it seemed. He was already preaching his usual lines to anyone who passed by when I came out of the tofu shop. I was there to pick up my master's tofu. He preached about the nonsense of 'The Shadow Shift'—or whatever it was that sounded like it—and that it will be upon us soon.
…very, very soon…
…unless it is stopped by 'a motley band of moppets.' The old fool was talking in riddles and cryptic rhymes once more and no one really paid any attention to what he was saying about 'The Shadow Shift.'
Some of the village kids stopped and watched him for a time, but they are much too young to really understand or care about what he was talking about. Even I do not understand what he truly meant to say behind his riddles and rhymes. The kids soon left howling with laughter after they played a prank on him. He did not seem to mind them, though. It was like he expected it. That it was part of what he had to bear. It was like he had already accepted it as part of his lot in life. A part of his fate.
Mad Mikome; that's what they call him now.
I have seen him numerous times. In different towns, villages, and even at the capital. But something made my encounter with him that morning truly strange. I felt like he used a strange power that forced me to listen to what he had to say. It felt like it was an unavoidable occurrence unless I made the conscious choice not to be there at that village at that exact time beforehand.
I was waiting for the tofu that Master Ainji ordered. It was for the Lotus Festival and nothing short of perfection will be accepted by my master. I should have just gone ahead and did my other errands and came back for the tofu later. I should have stayed inside the shop, but the sweet smell inside the tofu shop made me hungry so I decided to stand outside and wait. And that was a bad decision. I should have decided to walk around the village while waiting. That would have been a better decision. However, I knew that the tofu would not take too long to prepare. A bamboo tube rhythmically beat a stone slab nearby as water flowed into it to fill it and I could tell how long it took to prepare the tofu from the rhythmic beating sound of the bamboo. It doesn't take very long so I decided to wait.
Mad Mikome ranted about nonsense and talked in his usual rhyming riddles as I stood in front of Iniishi's tofu shop. I never really paid any attention to him, but his loud, raspy voice has a way of drilling itself into your ears. I was unsuccessful in keeping the sound of his voice out of my conscious self.
The tofu was eventually ready; packed neatly. The bamboo containers were stacked and tied together with a silken bow in the cherry blossom color and print that you see a lot around the capital that day. It was the eve of the Lotus Festival and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. I was about to leave the shop of Inore Iniishi when Mad Mikome turned to me from his shade under a large rosewood tree and locked his gaze upon mine.
I have never seen him gaze like that at anyone. It was intense and full of malice, and yet calm and innocent at the same time. It was like two invisible, cold iron hands gripped my mind as I lost control of my body. I cannot turn my gaze away from him! All my training against attacks on my will and consciousness seemed to have melted away under his gaze at that moment! I was rooted on the spot! I was helplessly locked into the gaze of Mad Mikome that I can't even blink my eyes!
The rhythmic beating of the bamboo tube abruptly stopped.
I suddenly heard him speak into my mind even though I never saw his lips move.
"'Haven's seal will break in three;
'Death released then served for all;
'Items six, are needed to free;
'The Fallen Four from the burning hall.'
"'Newborn eyes will burn their gaze;
'When celestials fall from perches atop;
'The buried empire will reign and raze;
'When six of seven had sadly dropped.'"
And when his rhyme ended, I can move again. The spell that clouded my mind quickly faded away and my senses felt like they were as sharp as they ever were. I briefly turned to the tofu that I held in my lightly shaking hands as I heard the rhythmic bamboo beating once more. I then turned my gaze immediately back to where Mad Mikome was standing but he was gone! I walked to where I could see the street clearly in both directions and Mad Mikome was nowhere to be found. He could not possibly move that fast to leave the street in the short span of time that it took me to look at the tofu boxes in my hands.
"I still do not fully understand what the words meant nor if Mad Mikome was the one who said them. I wasn't sure if he was responsible for holding me captive in that spell. The voice was raspy like Mad Mikome's voice, but it sounded older; drier; raspier. I tried to rest when I got back to my master's house after I delivered the tofu. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted to sleep when the same cold, iron hand gripped my mind back to consciousness. A whispered voice that seems to come from the wind itself spoke over and over and over; 'The end of all life is upon us all!'"
An excerpt from 'The Blade Of High Heaven'
Memoir of Anikane Amiruto;
Scorpion Clan Flute Assassin [Missing In Action]
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone