On the second floor in kraken manor there is a small room. Inside this room is a large paper screen separating those entering the room and the one sitting in the back behind the screen. In front of this screen stand two women with silver small katanas, in white sheaves strapped across their back and kneeling just in front of the screen and facing the door. They are dressed in white kimono's and with white masks with the symbol of their names imprinted on them, Kaori and Kaoru. In front and in between them is a black cushion alike to the ones the guards are sitting on for visitors to the one who is sitting behind the screen.

Behind the screen there is a white lounge where lies lazily, Tsukiko Amaya. But to most that name is dead, unknown, forgotten and hidden away like a bad dream. She is known now only as White Lady and to some, the White Widow. The room is filled with white smoke, opium. It fills the air and makes everything hazy and slow.

Tsukiko dressed in a white kimono, lies slumped on the couch lazily fanning herself with a small white feathered fan. The air moving unnaturally around her so that the effects of opium would not make her as giddy and giggly as a little girl. Tsukiko was moving the air around her, she was controlling it, bending it to her will.

The paper screen door allowing entrance to the room was pulled open and a middle aged man, short, dirty and dressed in a farmer peasants attire wandered in to the room. He coughed from the smoke and sat down on the black cushion before him an pulled the door closed.

"Who's there?" said Tsukiko softly from behind the screen.

"Uh, Rorn Hakori my Lady" said the man slowly

"Ah!" said Tsukiko in exclamation. "My Trading friend, how goes the world of Trade"

" Ah, Yesh maam, all goes well!" Rorn was beginning to succumb to the Opium's drugging effects

Tsukiko chuckled " And i presume, that the shipment i asked for is downstairs?"

Rorn sat silently with his head bowed.

"Rorn?" asked Tsukiko softly who's voice had become suddenly quiet.

"I'm so sorry" he started muttering. "oh! , My Lady!" he added quickly "It was taken from us, ambushed by thieves, they are growing more common these days!" he said groveling

"Oh" Tsukiko said sadly. "This makes me very sad Rorn".

"I'm sorry my lady!" he said loudly Throwing himself in a low bow of praise whilst kneeling on the black cushion.

"And you know what happens when we make mistakes, don't we Rorn" Tsukiko said softly and silkily tormenting the weeping man before her.

"Please My Lady!" said Rorn Hysterically. "Forgive me Please!" The drug was now in full swing he was hallucinating, white foam bubbling at his mouth, he was in a state of paranoi.

"Go-" "Od-" "Bye-" said Tsukiko slowly and cruelly

Rorn wailed loudly and a long metal pin with a small white string on the end, shot out of the paper canvas and made a little hole in it as it flew towards the screaming figure of Rorn. Rorn opened his eyes and turned around. Stuck in the door behind him was the pin. 'Had she missed?' he thought excitedly. 'The lady never misses!' he informed himself and gulped loudly. He then felt it, a sting in his shoulder he looked at it then wished he hadn't. The shock had succumbed the pain momentarily but now he saw and started to feel the wound he screamed. The pin had gone through his shoulder completely. He slumped to the floor screaming and kicking wildly in pain and clutching his bleeding arm.

"What a pity, the floor will stain" said Tsukiko cruelly and walked out from behind the screen that split the room in two and walked past the man slumped on the floor and opened the screen door. "You have three days to replace the shipment, or i will fill your body with holes like that one" and she left the room, her two kunoichi guards following her.

In the hall, Daishisen could hear the wails of the tradesman. It was clear that they were emminating from the chamber of the White Widow. Tsukiko always did have a short temper. It was one of the things that made her so imposing as a Kraken. A tiny smile played on Daishisen's lips as the screen door came open. She figured she would see the poor tradesman fall from his feet like a stick, come loose from the mud. But, instead of a wounded man, there stood an elegant lady, clad in white;Tsukiko-dono.

Daishisen gluided up to meet her, and bowed low in salutation. "Good afternoon Shiro(white)-dono. You are looking as lovely as usual." Her tone was cool and even, respectful but not submissive. She knew Lady Tsukiko's power was great, but mostly elementally surprise-oriented.

Tsukiko turned as she heard footsteps heading towards her. The one approaching Daishisen Kimuio the kraken leader, bowed to her. Tsukiko chuckled and returned the gesture in a way of respect. "Good afternoon Shiro(white)-dono. You are looking as lovely as usual."

"Thank you Daishisen-sama your looking well yourself, sorry about the noise but-" she paused as she watched two servants dressed in brown kimono's carried the wounded tradesman out of the room. Her face filled with amusement, and her cheeks became red from embarrassment. "Ah-"

She paused again as the man let out a wail , echoing through the halls. "The shipment of Explosives we ordered you see, did not arrive as i thought it would"

She frowned "In fact it was taken from us, by bandits, so in my temper, i kind of pierced his shoulder with a needle, Accidently of course" she smiled.

And walked over to the small veranda opposite her room and lent on it. "I grow weary Leader - sama" she said lazily. "We have almost what we require, and yet, we sit and do nothing!"

"When will we finally make our move?"

"Quite soon Tsukiko-san. In fact, I have been considering just that as I walked back from the springs this morning. It seems the training of the Shifting Shadows is very lax these days, and the master does not seem to take much notice of us." She folded her arms behind her back and stepped onto the veranda at Tsukiko's side. Her eyes looked off inot the distance, into a collection of trees, and her lips formed a calculative smile. "This, shall be their tragic flaw..." She thought a moment, allowing her fan up again, nad beating the breeze into her face like a butterfly's wing. "I think tonight has the making of a massacre, and when the others return from whence they are, we will devise a strike upon them. As you can imagine, the school has been a safety net for those who sleep warmly at night. And, if it is eliminated..." She paused to allow her companion fill in the blank.

(sorry, somehow this ended up in 17th centurey JAPAN! I have no idea how that happened, unless I accidentally his reply beneath someone else's post.)

Tsukiko
"I think tonight has the making of a massacre, and when the others return from whence they are, we will devise a strike upon them. As you can imagine, the school has been a safety net for those who sleep warmly at night. And, if it is eliminated..." She paused to allow her companion fill in the blank.

"They will be so greatly vulnerable to an attack, like a Bird in an open field during hunting season" she said calmly her lips curling into a cruel smile. She turned and whispered something into Kaoru's ear one of Tsukiko's Hand maidens and then proceeded to sit in the chair behind her, gesturing Daishisen to do the same. Kaoru and Kaori bowed and left.

"Then we must call the other members, but i am sure you have already done that?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

" I have indeed sent a message out into the scattered members of the group." Her expression was a little bitter, but firm. "And short of collecting them physically, this is all i can do at the moment. However, I will share a small idea that I had for the attack with you." She paused, sitting alonside Tsukiko. "I actually had hoped that you might confront the Master in his chambers. Your skills as an assasin are quite useful."

(Sorry for the short post, but I can't say much more until everyone else gets here.)

" I have indeed sent a message out into the scattered members of the group." Her expression was a little bitter, but firm. "And short of collecting them physically, this is all i can do at the moment. However, I will share a small idea that I had for the attack with you." She paused, sitting alonside Tsukiko. "I actually had hoped that you might confront the Master in his chambers. Your skills as an assasin are quite useful."

Tsukiko went horribly silent. She had been waiting for an opportunity like this for some time. "I see, but it would prove, quite difficult alone." she said softly. "And if i was to do it, i would require the shipment that was taken by the bandits,but i am sure it can be easily replaced" she said quickly.

She played with her fan while she talked moving the white feathers here and there. "And i intend, to... Send the Master Sky High, and fill him so full of pins that i could sell him as a pin cushion."