DON'T FEAR THE REAPER (Trigger Warning: Lector PK)

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 15456]

 

KATO OIJIN lived petty and angry, giving up his immortality and committing murder-suicide on his former alchemy student the Red Lich Daimyo GASHADOKURO (Hirano Shinji, you will know his name). With the loss of his little sister Akemi to banishment, he thought his dreams would never be fully realized and left incomplete - to fulfill his first vow to Zhao Ting Fung to defend his children from the wicked and evil that terrorized the Jade-State of Yong Ping. Perhaps he devolved into an Asura by the end of his bout with the Red Lich Daimyo, fed only by vengeance and wrath at what he perceived as fate shortcoming him. Or he became a Solar man having finally lost ‘the self’ and overcome his internal suffering. Or perhaps he learned nothing at all his whole life and like a crab in a bucket, he would drag The Laughing Hag’s son with him into the Hyper-War via 11 blasting potions and the implosion of the Red Lich’s power so neither of them got to see their dreams come true. 

 

And then KATO OIJIN died petty and angry.

 

 

Kato Oijin the Black Swordsman, The Shuul Shugo

‘Uncle - O’

Best Engineer

Born on 5 SA in the Year of the Nyazoku, Died on 189 SA in the Year of the Nyazoku

“I used to be a Lectoooor.”

 

Victor’s Justice Score: 1-0

Templar Trophy Count: 9

 

“Immortality

Is not self preservation

But lies in action”

 

(credit to Trinn)

 

 

SORRY WE COULDN’T GO BACK TO OYASHIMA TOGETHER, BUDDIES. THIS GEAR STOMACH IS OUT OF RED OIL! I OVERCLOCK TOO HARD. YARE YARE, I WISH THERE COULD HAVE BEEN MORE TIME. THERE WAS SO MUCH I STILL WANTED TO SEE AND DO WITH YOU. SO MUCH MORE TO SHOW AND TEACH YOU. OUR STORY WAS INCOMPLETE. IT’S NOT FAIR, BUT UNMEI DATTA - IT WAS FATE. I’M ANGRY BUT OWARI DA, THE NEGATIVE KANI CAUGHT UP WITH ME. IT WAS FATE THAT DID ME IN. I WAS MEAN TO TOO MANY GAIJIN ELVES AND KILLED TOO MANY CRY BABY YOKAI. TO MY FAMILY I LEAVE YOU UNDER LORD ORO OF CLAN KATO. LISTEN TO THESE WORDS OF A DEAD OLD MAN SCREAMING INTO THE VOID HOPING YOU, MY PEOPLE, HEAR ME.

 

I WAS NOT THE STATE. WE WERE ALL THE STATE. AND WE BUILT THIS STATE NOT FROM A THRONE BUT FROM A SMITHY AND A FORGE,  I WAS A MERE GEAR IN OUR WAR MACHINE. I COULD NOT DO WHAT I’VE DONE WITHOUT YOU - THE CITIZEN OF KOYO-KUNI - THE OYASHI, THE RAH’TUMANS, THE LI-REN, THE HOU-ZI, THE AL-MONA. THE SAMURAI. OUR ALLIES AND THE VOLUNTEERS. MY BROTHERS, MY SISTERS, MY NEPHEWS AND MY NIECES. MY BUDDIES. ALONE WE ARE OBSCURE GEARS AND PIECES OF NICHE PURPOSE. BUT TOGETHER, UNITED IN MOTION, WE ARE A FLUID MECHANISM ENGINEERED TO COMMIT JUSTIFIED MURDER. MANY OF YOU HAVE SERVED IN YOUR STATIONS WELL IN THIS WAR, ARIGATOGOZAIMASU. YOU HAVE HONORED ME AS YOUR GENERAL, COMMANDER AND CHIEF. I HOPE YOU LEARNED SOMETHING. TO THOSE WE HAVE LOST, YOU HAVE HONORED ME AS WELL. REST NOW. LET THE LIVING CARRY ON YOUR MANTLE.  I WAS A MERE PIECE OF OUR WAR MACHINE. A COMPONENT PRONE TO WEAR AND GRIEF. A PIECE THAT WOULD BREAK, A PIECE THAT COULD BE REPLACED WITH SOME ELBOW GREASE. THIS WAS CERTAIN, THIS WAS INEVITABLE. WHAT KIND OF GENERAL WOULD I BE IF I WOULD NOT BEAR THE SAME DANGERS AS YOU - MY LOYAL FREEDOM FIGHTERS? MY BATTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS?

 

 

BUT THERE WAS NO GREATER HONOR THAN TO DIE FOR OUR STATE. TO DIE FOR YOU, AS MANY HAD DIED FOR US BEFORE JUST SO WE COULD BE HERE TODAY. I HOPE IT WAS GLORIOUS, I WOULD LAMENT A WASTEFUL, QUIET DEATH THAT DID NOT SERVE YOU! RETIREMENT WAS NEVER AN OPTION. I NEVER FEARED THE REAPER, I ONLY FEARED LETTING YOU DOWN.

I’M SORRY I COULD NOT FINISH THE JOB. THAT I COULD NOT BE THERE TO FIGHT BESIDE YOU AGAINST ALL OF OUR ENEMIES. THERE WERE TOO MANY. WHEN I’M GONE THEY WILL POINT THEY WILL SHAME THEY WILL TRY TO GIVE ME BAD AND EVIL NAMES, CALLING ME A HOME STEALER, A TAX MAN, A MURDERER, A WAR CRIMINAL, AN ALCHEMY GRIEFER, A SOCIALIST TOTALITARIAN DICTATOR. LAUGH AT THEM AND TELL THEM TO GO OUT WITH HONOR AND TO KEEP THEMSELVES SAFE. RATIO THEM. THEY ARE SAVAGES, AND DEAD MEN CANNOT PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM SLANDER. EVERYTHING DONE WAS WITH LOVE - FOR YOU! 

 

 

THERE WAS JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME. CREMATE ME AND SCATTER MY ASHES WITH OLAI’S IN THE SAKURA MORI. I FEAR I WILL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN IN THE SKIES IF I AM BOUND TO HYPER-WAR CONSCRIPTION FOR THE GRAVE PAIN I’VE DEALT MANY, SO PUT US TO REST UNDER THESE BEAUTIFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES WE MIGHT NOURISH THEM IN DEATH TOGETHER. SHE WOULD HAVE LOVED THESE CHERRY BLOSSOMS.

 

THREE DAYS MANDATORY MOURNING, AND THEN GET OVER IT AND GET A LIFE. DON’T LET OUR DREAMS DIE. FINISH THE MISSION. KILL GASHADOKURO. REBUILD OUR WARRIOR CLASS. REBUILD OUR VILLAGE. FINISH THE NEW CONSTITUTION. REDO FESTIVAL, COMMITTED TO THE SPIRIT OF OUR FRATERNITY AND HOMESTEAD. MAKE TIGER KINGDOM WILDLIFE SANCTUARY. FIND THE ONE PASSAGE. KILL GASHADOKURO AGAIN. CONQUER THE SAKURA MORI. BUILD THE OWYNIUM. BECOME SHOGUNATE. RETURN HOME. OUR DREAMS KEEP ME ALIVE. TATAKAE! TATAKAE! UNTIL THE LAST SAKURA BLOSSOM FALLS. TATAKAE! SO MANY WHO WERE UNABLE TO BE WITH US. LECTOR STOR, QUEEN AMAYA, HAJIME AIZUMI, HAJIME TANAKA, RUNE, KATO MAKOTO, KATO EREN, PETER STROHEIM. TATAKAE! DON’T FORGET THEIR NAMES. EACH SACRIFICE WE MAKE MUST BE FOR THEM AND ALL OF THOSE WHO FELL VICTIM TO THE STARVING SKELETON. TATAKAE! PASSIVITY IS THE DEATH OF US. TATAKAE! IN THE SPIRIT I WILL MANIFEST. MAKE THE V SIGN TO THE SKIES AND GOD WILLING EVEN IF YOU CANNOT SEE ME I’LL BE ON THE SUN AND SURE SEE YOU! TATAKAE! 

 

I WAS NOT YOUR FATHER, I WAS NOT YOUR FIRST SHUGO. BUT I WAS YOUR UNCLE-O. AND MY, IT HAS BEEN AN HONOR TO WATCH YOU ALL GROW. NOW SHOW ME HOW FAR YOU WILL GO. DO ME ONE LAST FAVOR AND HEED YOUR DEAD GENERAL’S LAST ORDERS;

 

KEEP YOUR LITTLE PINK BOOK CLOSE AND TRUST IN THE STRATOCRACY. PLEDGE YOUR HEARTS TO THE IRON LADY SHUGO UGOKOYAMA ATSUKO, MOTHER OF SAKURA-GAKURE AND THE SCATTERED SUN!

 

 

 

GANBATTE SISTER! EARN OUR PEACE!

 

SEE YOU ON 0 KAMIJIKAN. STRONG RETURN 💪

強いリターン

 

Spoiler

Thank you everyone for your participation in the Sakura Burning Eventline, this was something cooking for multiple years when we were still Lectors. Thank you @Islamadon and all the other ET that helped facilitating our role play war. It was difficult sometimes but I figured something like this would be more satisfying to all sides. Thank you @femurlord and the Hexicanum coven for being great sports and helping to develop the world lore and story of our region on Aevos. And thank you to everyone's whose participated in the Koyo-Kuni project. I love the community we built up. I could've kept going and it's been fun but I've been Shugo for over a year and NL for about half that time, I've primarily just wanted to create cool narratives and after 3 years of Oijin it felt time to wrap it up with the angry knight arc. I'll see you all on new character for Koyo-Kuni season 2!

 

FUNTZU / Ugokoyama Atsuko is new NL. Take their janny pex!

 

GREEN JANNIES CLEAN UP MY MESS AND DENY THESE

 

All students finished lessons.

 

All students finished minus needlesharer

 

All students finished minus needlesharer

    

All students finished except emikihir stuck at T2

 

 

 

[HugoAntero 1962]

Peter Stroheim welcomed his old friend into the hyper-war "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!!!!!"

[Java17 2216]

Amako stood there, in the quaint little "Kato Workshop". She eyed a peculiar naginata, the first of many from the craft she had learned from the now perished mentor "Uncle O". A smile spread across her face, memories. And then she wept deeply. 

[xo31 3979]

Arthur, present at the scene, was fleeing and patting out malflame desperately as he turned around to see the Great Samurai's sacrifice. And for a moment, even in the cowardly soul of the Void-Stalker, courage was felt at the sight of the Great Shugo.

[Cryptic 549]

As he arrives in heaven, Ser Alteon saluted the recently joined Shugo. Suddenly, it was cut short as the Knight woke up; "SHUUUUGOOOOOOO YOU FOUGHT WELL, STAND PROUD, YOU ARE STRONG!"

[tasty_cheesecake 2298]

Kosuke unwisely chugged an entire bottle of absinthe, collapsing in a heap after the battle. This numbed the pain temporarily. Yet, when he awoke, it would return once again as the man who had given him so much and taken from him so much was gone. He wasn’t exactly sure what to feel yet, yet what he did feel seemed to roughly correspond to regret.

[wowj 9747]

Spoiler

 

Takemura rest in the Ugokoyama hospital after suffering terrible wounds in battle, a thought popping into the Samurai's mind, why was he here? - He had served his time as a slave under the Ugokoyama clan, he had his freedom, even if he did not have an answer why he stayed, he knew this: If he did have to be here, he was glad to be with the rest of Sakuragakure.

 

[Coronate 5519]

"Mata ne supēsukaubōi..." commented the Autarch of Lurak as a tear dripped from his face. First the Admiral, his friend, who seemingly perished in his arms- then the Shugo. The world looked bleak around him.

 

 

 

[Kitomine 902]

That night, Shoya Mochou set up a memorial for the now deceased Shugo. She hasn't felt a death this hard in many decades. Each candle was lit with care, and that night, she mourned like a true broken soul.

[FadedMoonlight 450]

Yano Nezukai, once lived as Yano Tamotsu, listened as word of the great Shugo's death was brought to the village of Sakuragakure. As stoic as she was, it provided naught against the deep pain that pierced through her heart. Her Shugo, her closest friend, was no longer in this world. Never again would she hear his voice, and never would he make good on the promise to see her again. It was over now, and she did not see it coming. Something wet dripped from the corners of her eyes; tears. She had never cried, not once. But the power of grief was a cruel mistress. She dropped to her floor, and for the first time in her life, she sobbed. 

Mariola Sturmweber of Kretzen began to write to her distant lover, a letter that may never be seen. 
"Ahaiku, Mr. Shugo of Sakuragakura has passed away." 

[TN_TURKEY 298]

Arathor would remain aloof for some days following the battle and the Shugo's sacrifice, reflecting on the loss of yet another man he would consider to be "one of the greats". 

[Dyl 2088]

Kato Oro lingered about the workshop, tirelessly working. His armor was off, in favor of his normal clothing, his wounds from the battle still fresh, and a bottle of gaijin alcohol sat nearby, almost depleted. 

 

Bing! Bing! 

 

The hammer continuously struck iron, as the new Lord forged and forged. He suddenly stopped, dropping the hammer as it bounced off the floor. He rose from the bench, "Oyaji..." He muttered, "The Zaibatsu is mine now..." He looked around, and no happiness was felt.

 

Walking to the entrance, he decided to close up the shop for now. "Arigato Oyaji, I'ma miss you Old Man..." He decided the Zaibutsu would be close for a while, until he felt like he was ready to open up business again.  

[milksoda 2884]

Atsuko clasped her palms together and peered toward the sky above. Rolling fields of wheat surrounded her figure as then did she lower her head and close her eyes.

 

She thought of the Lectors. She thought of her battle brother Oijin. A little brother in her eyes. Perhaps too focused on the material world, but that is what made him a legendary engineer. . .

 

“It is Owarida.” the first time that phrase was uttered with hope. For she resolved herself.

 

“We will find the One Passage back to Oyashima. This I promise you, my Shugo - even in death.”

 

[Pancho 4197]

Cerrick Fenifaer, formerly of Khamees and once an ally of Oijin, in a far off land lit a candle. He had harbored resentment for the man, yet it felt wrong to hold it at his death. 
"In life you upset me, yet it was for the better of your people. For that, you deserve rest."

[GhostSHTR 1205]

Upon hearing the news. Rickard Nord would gently grasp his throat 

 

“Shugo, by have given me my voice. I am forever grateful, my by rest in peace”