Ichiro carefully eased his way through the brush covering the forest floor. A single misstep could be his undoing. The amount of sticks, leaves and the like on the ground was unusual for this region of the Empire, particularly during the spring season. His prey had no doubt littered the area surrounding their den with the material in the hopes of preventing unwanted visitors from approaching unnoticed.

      It will not save them, thought Ichiro. It cannot.

      Slowly, the young bushi continued to make his way silently through the dense woods. As a child, his father had taught him to hunt within the outer edges of the great Shinomen Mori. Navigating this meager wilderness was no great feat compared to the dense foliage found there. As he slowly progressed on his trek, the reasons for his presence replayed themselves in his mind. A band of brigands had been plaguing a stretch of road leading into the lands of the Crane Clan for some time. After a series of brutal attacks on merchant caravans, the Daidoji were ordered to deal with the situation.

      The Daidoji's response was typical for the Iron Cranes: efficient and violent. The sizable force of bandits was all but decimated under the withering assault of the Crane. Only the leaders of the band, fleeing in rank cowardice, escaped the purge. They fled into the unaligned lands between the clans and sought shelter within the wilderness. The Crane daimyo placed a large bounty upon the heads of the leaders. Ichiro was determined to claim that reward for the clan of the Wasp.

      Unfortunately, Ichiro was torn between duty and justice. The reward for the bandits was substantially larger if they were brought to the Crane alive. Apparently, the daimyo wished to have the bandits tortured so that they might confess to more transgressions against the clan. For other reasons, however, Ichiro had vowed that none of them would leave the woodlands alive.

      On the trail ahead, a hare bolted from its hiding place and disappeared into the underbrush. It had clearly been startled, but Ichiro had made no sound. Silently, he dropped to one knee on the forest floor. He closed his eyes and focused his chi, attuning himself to the environment around him. The Brotherhood of Shinsei would have one think that meditation could only be conducted in peace and serenity, but Ichiro had found that the hunt was an excellent opportunity to center oneself. After a moment he opened his eyes and looked upon the wilderness with new clarity.

      On the trail ahead, carefully concealed within the bushes, a man crouched in anticipation of an ambush. He was well out of range for an arrow.

      Unless the archer was a bounty hunter of the Wasp Clan.

      Ichiro continued his path through the forest, giving the appearance of caution and ignorance of the trap he was approaching. Casually, he withdrew an arrow from his quiver and placed it in position upon the string of his bow. While still out of range from any conventional archery shot, Ichiro knelt on the forest floor and quickly drew his bow. Before the bandit had an opportunity to react to this new situation, Ichiro fired.

      The arrow soared through the forest, its path carefully avoiding any tree limbs or other obstacles that might block its path. It disappeared into the bushes where Ichiro had seen the lurking bandit. There was the tiniest hint of a gurgle as the bandit rose from his hiding place. The shaft of Ichiro's arrow was visible where it was buried deep in the man's throat. It's tip extended wetly from the exit wound on the back of the bandit's neck. The man made a second, horribly failed attempt at speech before succumbing to the dark embrace of death, pitching forward to crush the bush that had concealed him beneath his weight.

      Onnotangu curse his soul, Ichiro swore silently. If the other two bandit leaders were about, they surely would have heard the noise of the bush's branches snapping under the man's weight.

      As if on cue, the dull, twanging sound of a poorly crafted bow rang out in the relative silence of the forest. An arrow, also poorly crafted, embedded itself into the ground mere inches from Ichiro's knee where it rested on the forest floor. Rolling away, Ichiro instantly readied another arrow and looked to the forest canopy where the shot had originated. Although he could easily determine the tree in which the bandit was concealed, he was unable to see the man.

      The arrow knows the way, Ichiro heard the voice of his teacher and daimyo Tsuruchi say. Smiling grimly, he instantly cleared his mind of thought and fired the arrow into the tree's branches. A sharp cry informed him that the arrow did, indeed, know the way. The bandit was visible now, desperately scrambling to hold onto the tree branch with his left arm. His right hung uselessly at his side, an arrow piercing his upper arm. With a second, panicked cry, the man lost his struggle to hold on and plummeted to the forest floor below. The sharp crack of the impact and the following silence told Ichiro that there was no need to secure the bandit. He was no more.

      The faintest sound reached Ichiro's ears. Something, a man perhaps, crashing recklessly through the foliage heading away from his current position. The final bandit, he thought. Bow in hand, he began running toward the diminishing sound. He made every effort to keep his trek silent enough to continue tracking his prey audibly. Gradually he gained ground upon the fleeing bandit. All at once, the noise stopped and the sound of a large splash reached Ichiro's ears. Seconds later, he emerged into a clearing in the forest. A lake extended before him, ripples still gracing its surface. A rock formation on the shore of the lake added a certain serenity to the site. Under different circumstances, Ichiro might enjoy spending time here.

      For now, however, there was business to attend to. Cautiously, Ichiro approached the lake. He scanned its surface for signs of the bandit coming up for air. He marveled at the man's choice of escape routes. The lake was not so great that an arrow could not reach its opposite shore. When he left the water, he would be taken and the hunt would conclude. Ichiro relished the thought.

      The sudden movement of a shadow across the lake's shore caused Ichiro to reflexively hurl himself to the side. Nonetheless, the bandit's tonfa cracked sharply against his helm, dazing him badly. He felt his bow fall from his hand to bounce across the shore and land several feet away.

      Ichiro cursed himself for a fool as he drew his tanto from its sheath on his belt. The bandit had obviously thrown a large stone into the lake and hidden himself behind the rock formation to wait for his pursuer to emerge from the woods. A simple ploy, but one that he had fallen for completely. He wondered if it would cost him his life as the bandit placed himself between Ichiro and his fallen bow.

      "You are without your weapon, samurai. Now you will pay for daring to hunt me."

      The bandit lunged toward Ichiro with his tonfa, but he blocked the blow with his forearm, hissing in pain at the impact. He attempted a quick counter-strike, trying to lodge his tanto into the bandit's chest, but the man rolled away from the blow, landing a stunning backhand to the side of Ichiro's head. Still reeling from the first blow, Ichiro lost his balance and fell to the ground.

      In an instant the bandit was over him, clearly intending to finish the job with a massive tonfa strike to the head. Desperately, Ichiro kicked upward with both feet, striking his opponent squarely in the chest. The impact was not enough to upset the bandit, but the blow drove him backwards and left him gasping for breath. Lightning quick, Ichiro lashed out with the arrow in his left hand and opened a gash across the bandit's forehead. Recoiling in agony, the man futilely attempted to clear his eyes of the free-flowing blood in order to defend himself.

      It was too late. Ichiro drove forward with all his strength and buried his tanto in the man's lower chest. He fell over backwards, tonfa falling from his hand. His bloodied, dying eyes looked up at Ichiro with an obvious question.

      Why?

      "You want to know why I have killed you when your value is greater alive?" Ichiro asked. "It is simple. As I followed your trail from the Crane lands, I came across your final victims. A simple merchant and his wife brutally murdered. But that was not enough for you and your companions. In an attempt to relieve your frustrations over your loss to the Daidoji, you beat the merchant's daughter, a mere child, to death."

      "Had I returned you to the Crane, you would have quickly confessed a number of crimes. The torturers of the Crane are very skilled. When death came for you, it would have been a relief. Your pain would have been over. That simply wasn't enough."

      "I wanted you to feel what it is like to have your life brutally and violently taken from you. I wanted you to know what it means to die helplessly." Ichiro realized that he was speaking to himself. The bandit was dead, his life's blood slowly seeping down the lake's shore and into the water. He looked toward the heavens and wondered if the spirit of the girl for whom he had sworn vengeance was at peace now.