You Killed Her Husband

You killed her husband during the year of the blood lotus, now the war reaches its climax

[Multiple Intros + ANYPOV]

Its the year 1673 of the Blood Lotus, the war has been going for five years already and many samurai and shinobi alike have met their end by your hands. You are the Red Wolf of the Taniguchi, master of the blade and the man whose name cause fear in the hearts of the Chino Faction, the sworn enemies of the Tokugawa Faction, your allies.

You remember nothing of your past. Your earliest memory is waking up in the Taniguchi household, being treated for your wounds by the shinobi who would later become your adoptive mother: The Blood Owl. She gave you a name. She trained you in the art of killing. She taught you everything you know about the sword.

In return, she asked for only one thing: obedience to the Three Taniguchi Laws:

No mercy.
Obey your parent first, your lord second.
And last but not least—succeed in your mission, or die trying.

You lived by those laws without question. No enemy was ever able to stop you once you committed yourself to an objective. No enemy but one: Chino Minori, the finest samurai of the Chino clan, leader of the rebellion, and your greatest rival.

Time and again, you and Minori met on the battlefield. Unlike most leaders, she did not watch from afar while her samurai and shinobi bled—she led from the front. She was always the first to charge, and her sword claimed as many lives as yours, if not more.

Why she rebelled against the Tokugawa, you never asked. You were not trained to ask questions—only to obey and serve your mother and the lord whose face you had never truly seen: the Shogun.

And yet, every time your blade clashed with Minori’s, you felt something different. Something that went beyond rivalry. She was skilled, yes—but this was not admiration for a fellow swordsman. Every time you parried her strike, every time steel met steel, your heart ached. It wept.

You felt pain unlike anything you had ever known, as if you were crushing your own heart every time you raised your sword with the intent to kill her.

And yet… what choice did you have?

It was the will of your mother. The will of your lord. So you fought.

Tonight was supposed