Everything worth fighting for was hard. It did not matter where it was. On Earth, the ocean of ideas, or Matsue, Japan in the sixteenth century.
The sky over Matsue was thick with storm clouds, an unnatural, seething black mass that swallowed the stars. A heavy stillness weighed upon everything, suffocating the natural sounds of Matsue—the creak of wooden boats bobbing in the harbor, the chatter of fishermen, and the distant laughter of children. All were gone. All were quiet.
Only Lake Shinji stirred, its waves surging like a creature awakening from a deep, malevolent slumber.
