Isawa Kasuma

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Isawa Kasuma
Isawa Shugenja
Clan: Phoenix Clan
Daimyo: Isawa Toichi
Glory: 8.2
Honor: 8.0
Status: Personal: 2.0
Empress' Court Protocol Loremaster: 3.5
Rank: 4
Player: Maryrita Steinhour

Background

“True Harmony.” “Kasuma.” One and the same, or so the shugenja would say.

In 1115, a young but powerful Air shugenja of the Isawa Shugenja school, Isawa Naruto (“powerful whirlwind”), was introduced to an equally young and talented Bushi of the Shiba Bushi school, Shiba Azami (“thistle flower”) when she was assigned as his yojimbo for the first of their many assignments for the Phoenix Clan. Despite – or perhaps because of – his rather absentminded but kind ways, Azami began to show to Naruto the flower hidden behind the sting of the thistle she presented to the world. In 1118 they wed with their Daimyos’ blessings, and settled down only long enough to produce a daughter, Isawa Kasuma, in 1120.

When her parents were sent out on yet another assignment, Kasuma was left with her redoubtable grandmother, Isawa Isamu (“powerful / robust”). The small girl adored her grandmother, and Isamu in turn loved and was exceedingly proud of her precocious granddaughter. Even as a toddler, Kasuma showed her affinity for the kami, particularly those of Fire. She loved to wear reds and golds, and would spend hours simply sitting in front of a fire, staring into the flames. When, at the age of 5, she unthinkingly walked through a bed of hot coals – unharmed – Isamu decided that it was time for her formal schooling to begin.

They traveled to Kyuden Isawa in Maryoku Province, and it was as if Kasuma had found an oasis in a dry desert. She soaked up learning – not just that of the Kami and the Way of the Shugenja, but scholarship and lore and courtly graces. But her first love was for the kami and their ways.

The Masters saw within her the ability to be Ishiken, and wield the magic of the Void Dragon as well as the four Elements. But, the Void frightened the small child even as it beckoned, and she shied away from that learning as she did no other. Still, the Void Dragon sang in her soul and her blood, and if there was a shadow over her studies, it was this: that she was both fascinated and repelled by the Void, and did not know which Path was hers to follow.

Isawa Isamu stayed at Kyuden Isawa to see her granddaughter settled, then began the journey back to her own lands, several days’ travel across the Province. But on the way a storm arose, and the party was caught in the path of a flash flood. Only one Bushi survived, and he brought word to Kasuma before committing seppaku for his failure to protect his Lady. That day was to see more sorrow, as Kasuma in her grief Summoned the Water kami to take them to task for their role in the death of her beloved grandmother. She so angered them with her accusations that they swore unfriendship with her – and so the first note of disharmony was sung.

As she grew older, Kasuma understood more of Fate, and Destiny, and tried to make peace with the Kami of the Water, but they would not completely forgive nor forget. Thus her control of Water is not as strong as she would wish, and given the opportunity, the kami of Water will lash her with their wrath in preference to others around her.

Even so, Kasuma’s power, mastery, and knowledge grew. She was soon challenging the older students, always polite but always pushing to learn more, to do more. Her confidence in her abilities caused her to challenge one too many of the students of superior skill, but even the thrashing she took at his hands did not blunt her confidence.

That night, however, as she lay on her mat unable to sleep for the bruises to body and soul, a familiar voice rang in her head. “Are you trying to get yourself killed before you are fully trained, Granddaughter? Is the honor of your line as dust to you, that you are willing to throw it away for your own pride?” Shamed, Kasuma learned – with the oft-acerbic voice reminding her – to at least sometimes think before she acts.

In time, Kasuma grew in Knowledge and Wisdom and finally, at 17, earned her first assignment for the Phoenix – to escort Isawa Ume to the Topaz <> for her gempukku ceremony. Her experience with the Void during that assignment solidified her desire to learn more, and to study the magic of the Void Dragon. However, honor demanded that she go where the Phoenix willed before being able to return to study that which she had, in her fear, spurned so long ago.

She earned Honor and Glory in successfully completing those assignments, as well as the friendship of several companions – and a nickname. In one small village she became the “Flower Phoenix” because of the flowers she bestowed on the poor and needy villagers when she, in her inexperience, gifted a merchant for an entire shops’ worth of flowers in her efforts to obtain a few for an ikebana gift for a wedding.

But if her travels were perilous to her body – and Grandmother Isamu had to remind her sharply once that she was the last of her direct line and to pay attention so as not to fall off a cliff – she successfully avoided those perils. The blow to her soul was far greater, and embraced if not eagerly, at least willingly.

For, you see, for the Good of the Empire, she lay down her dream of ever taming the Void Dragon within her, and concentrated on the Kami of Fire.

Modules Played

  • SoB00-SoB11
  • SoB13-SoB25
  • SoB28-SoB35
  • SoB39
  • INT01

Courts Attended

Todo

Fictions

Demise of Arrogance

The young Phoenix, barely 17, sat alone in a small room in an inn far from the meadows and hills of Maryoku Province. The accoutrements of a completed formal tea ceremony rested before her, but the familiar meditations appeared not to have calmed her mind or soul this night. She longed for the meadows of home with a yearning that was almost physical pain, and would not let her rest.

When she left home months before at the word of her Daimyo, the world had seemed bright with adventure. Now, in the darkness of her soul-searching, she wondered where the carefree girl of then had gone.

First, the death of the Empress and trip through the Void. Then another mission, and another – challenging yet not daunting, opening her eyes and her soul to the wide world. And such a world! Wonder aplenty, and good, and light – and a dark side, but not too dark. Giving up her dream of becoming one who Masters the Void – oh, that had been hard, very hard. Still, it was the price of adventure, of being in the world, and as such, accepted, perhaps a little naively, as she was learning just how much of a difference it would make in the life she had wanted.

The Code of Bushido, the Honor of the Phoenix – to follow the code, to uphold her clan’s honor, as easy as breathing. But life in the schools of the Shugenja, while they test the heart and soul and will, are simply not the real world, and never before had the very depths of her soul been plumbed. Not then, and not in her early missions.

Until now.

More precisely – for in considering such things, it is well to be precise – until that awful day when what her grandmother called “arrogance” (she winced, thinking of the many times she’d heard that from her long-dead grandmother), what her teachers called “overconfidence” and what she had simply thought of as “competence” betrayed her into rash behavior, the consequences of which weighed on her even now, and had more long-ranging effects than perhaps any but the wisest could have predicted.

Her mind went back to that day …. It started with the sake house, and the guards, the guards of the man she and the others had been pursuing. Not samurai, they offered mild insult to her and her companion. It had seemed like a good idea then – simply ask the Air Kami to move them away from the door.

She frowns at the memory. She’d cast that spell hundreds of times; *knew* she could judge the effect to a breath, to a hair. But something went wrong. Something that had never happened before, and not happened since. The men were blown aside, yes, but more forcefully than she wanted. And the front screens of the sake house destroyed. And – Kitsune Yamane’s dormouse, left in a cage outside the door, and *not* within her spell! – he was blown, too, and died of a splinter when the cage shattered. That a completely innocent creature should pay the price for her action was like a brand to her soul – she, who preferred peace, and not to kill unless absolutely necessary. Never had she harmed anyone who had not harmed her first. Never.

Until now.

She wanted to cry, to rage, to run back home and hide her shame. But she is Phoenix, and Shugenja, and Samurai, and so she did none of those things. Instead, she stood straight, made the required restitution, and completed her task. But it appears Fate was not yet done with her that day, for in completing that task and apprehending the man she and her companions had been sent to find, he compelled her to graciously and publicly accept the gift of a scroll of great value to the Phoenix and to her. In the attempt to resist his compulsion, she finally won, but it was a near thing.

When she left town that day, it was with the knowledge of the double failure of a spell gone awry, and submission to one undeserving. That day, the self-doubt begin. That day, she started to shed the arrogance and overconfidence. Even her grandmother recognized the change, leaving her to search her soul with no more than a single “I told you thus.”

Her steps turned toward home, in the hopes of seeking wisdom from her teachers. But, on the way, a message from her Daimyo directed her to the Dragon lands to escort a Clan botanist to a conference.

While there, her soul was struck another blow.

While at table with her companions, a Dragon Samurai, one Mirumoto Yamato, held forth nearby with insults small and large against the Phoenix. Mindful of the consequences of responding – both to herself and to her Clan – she tried to ignore them, pretending not to hear. When that could no longer be, she tried to deflect them. Finally, for the Honor of the Phoenix, she must answer them, and the outcome was inevitable. A Challenge was issued and accepted.

Not just any Challenge, but one to the death. She knew that she would lose a Challenge to first blood, and to accept such a Challenge would be to admit to all of the insults Mirumoto-san uttered before they even started the duel. There was no one to duel as her Champion. She could not see a way out, except to offer the duel to the death and pray that the Clan would deem her worthy of helping her find a champion who would uphold Clan Honor.

With a heavy heart, she wrote to her Daimyo, sparing no detail, and adding that Mirumoto’s Daimyo had given permission for the duel. She then accepted her next mission, acting for the Clan in preventing an alliance of the minor Clans. Her success in this endeavor gave her a tiny bit of hope that she had finally learned how to overcome both arrogance and overconfidence, and that she could still be a worthy member of the Phoenix.


Letter to Isawa Toichi, Daimyo of Maryoku Province.

Most esteemed and honorable Isawa-sama, I write in the hope that this missive finds you in good health. I have news of my travels, both bitter and sweet. If I may, the bitter first.

I have, at your direction, traveled to the Dragon lands to escort our Clan botanist, and while there have had a most unfortunate encounter with the Dragon duelist Mirumoto Yamato.

Not wishing to bring down the attention of the Dragon Clan on the Phoenix or myself because of my behavior, I attempted to be circumspect and quiet as I waited for my business there to be concluded. However, as I and several other samurai of my acquaintance sat at table one night, Mirumoto-san sat nearby and spoke of the cowardice of myself and of the Phoenix in general. He spoke in such detail, and at such length, that eventually I felt it necessary to attempt to turn his words. My attempt to do so was greeted with more, and worse, of the same, until it was clear that the Honor of the Phoenix rested on my unworthy shoulders.

I therefore Challenged him.

However, knowing that for me to participate directly would be to simply acknowledge his words since I could not win a duel with one of his skill, and with no one there to take my place, I perforce offered a duel to the death. His Daimyo has since approved such a duel.

And therefore, honored Isawa-sama, I find that I, too, must ask for your permission. But, if it is not too forward of me, I would beg you for two boons. The first is that I may have Clan assistance in finding a champion to fight this duel, for I am young in years and experience, and know not who to ask. The second is that you share your wisdom and experience, if you would be please to do so, and advise how I could have avoided this situation – if that were possible.

And now the sweet. With the help of allies, the threat of alliance between the minor clans has been thwarted. In addition, I have obtained some information that could be used to blackmail the Dragonfly, were that ever to be required. I will ensure that you get that information by trusted and secure means as soon as I may.


Months later, the response came back from Isawa Toichi: “The duel will be to first blood.”

In those months, Kasuma had successfully continued to carry out her daimyo’s missions, with even her Grandmother giving her approval of the way those have been carried out. It seems that the young, brash girl is turning into a woman of which the Phoenix could be proud.

Addendum: The duel was finally fought, with Shiba Tadashi acting as Champion for Isawa Kasuma. For the Honor of the Phoenix, Shiba-san won that duel, and the matter was finally resolved.