• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

SYNC To Midori Jo, From Kage Yaichiro

Toshiro

Well-Known Member
RP Date
1D 5M YE 40
To Midori Jo

Hello, it's been a long time. I understand that the Ketsurui Samurai are on the decline. I recall how you felt without them or their direction, and felt it necessary to check on you. I wish I could say I felt sorry for this. After I investigated and quickly learned of their role in your situation, I was quieted by certain people who reminded me that nothing could be done. At this point, however, my concern is that the more honorable samurai now may feel as you once did, and I worry where you are emotionally and mentally.

May the dishonorable who misguided your blades either repent or suffer the weight of their transgressions in due measure.

We parted ways with you only having barely recovered your faculties, still quite uncertain of your place. I attempted to convey the situation to the kids, though Rikun still blames you as well as the House itself. Yuichi understands your position a bit better though. He just finished high school in Tsubomi and is looking into employment and further education unless something else strikes his fancy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that though there are difficulties between you and the kids, I'm worried for you and forgive you for what happened. I forgave you right away. If you need to come home to Kyoto, you can do so. If you need a new life in Tokyo or elsewhere, I can arrange that. Psychological aid? A different assignment aboard the Sakura II which I command again (provided any current CO obliges, of course)? There are ample possibilities open to you, and you can always choose to carry forward the best traits from your storied life.

You do not need the Samurai for this. You have a friend.

Kage Yaichiro
 
Last edited:
To: Kage Yaichiro-Taisa.

It is good to hear from you. I do apprciate all that you have done for me in my time of need.

My mind is clear and at peace though since I have returned home. I have been given purpose again, both through my time among the samurai, and even as I was graciously granted leave from the house to return to service within the empire. While I admit I am saddened by the fact that my sisters and I are no longer held in the esteem we once were it seems, I also understand such a stance after the turmoil that was caused.

Those that guides my blades were me and myself. No one forced my actions upon me, and no one demanded anything I could not have walked away from.

It was my choice that fell the traitor.

I appreciate the offer of housing, but my place is not there, but in service of the Ketsurui and the Empire. I would be glad the children of the traitor would do well and honor the Empire, but I do not care for how they look upon me.

They should be so lucky they are not my children, my children are abominations that will one day be hunted down and removed from this galaxy.

The Sakura holds to many memories for me to return to right now. I am with the Inquisiton currently and feel... content currently with my current assignment.

And one thing you are wrong about. I do need the Samurai, they are my family.

They are me.

- Jo Midori
 
To Midori Jo

As one who was confronted with the same choice as her, I cannot judge her or the other defectors so harshly. Even the Empress at the time couldn't do so. As you feel that the Samurai are your family and future, she had found another family and built a life as so many others had. It was a hard, nigh impossible call to resist, staying with the people one had come to make families with and protect...one I admittedly only resisted because of then-Hanako-Taisa's guidance. While it seems like a clear choice today, leaving the UOC or leaving the YSE was one of the hardest decisions many of us had to make as of that time. I am only fortunate that my daughter was able to forgive me for leaving while she stayed in her birthplace, and that she was able to rejoin the Empire and the Army's ranks at a later time. I would not call her a traitor.

I also believe there was something you could not have walked away from which they offered. The chance to return to your family and belong. It was something I could never adequately replace and something someone with no name or face to me took advantage of either explicitly or implicitly, for which I have been guilty and angered respectively ever since. That was not the conduct of family.

I guess what I'm getting at is that it feels as if you are using the word 'traitor' to distance her from yourself in some way because of the life she lived. As if the very prospect that some version of you could walk that path is anathema or even a source of guilt. Perhaps even as if you must take full responsibility for the act in some sort of catharsis to reclaim honor. I will be the first to confess that I do not comprehend the nuances of your Code...but if you are holding such feelings, please forgive her as well as yourself. Don't allow yourself to be as bitter as I am.

Kage Yaichiro
 
Last edited:
To: Yaichiro Kage,

Her family was not mine. Of my family on that ship, few remain. You are one of them, yet still we are different. Forever will I be greatful for the haven you gave me in my time of trouble.

I can not walk her path because I can not skirt my responsibilities. I can not throw aside my duty. I can not in good faith abandon those that placed their own faith in me. Would she have abandoned Ketsurui Hanako had she still been aboard her ship?

Unfortunately, she is me, and as such her sins are mine to work off and right. I must take on the burden of her actions and fix them through my own conduct. It is something I can do amog the Inquisition. I can show my loyalty by reclaiming what was lost by the empire.

Forgiveness is not something I can give her. I have lost that ability when We last saw eachother. Just as I can not, and would not as her for forgiveness. But do not worry, I am not bitter with her. I am simply sadden she chose wrong. At least her death was in a way it should have been.

- Jo Midori
 
To Midori Jo

You're most certainly welcome, and yes we are different in many ways. I hope you don't think less of me for feeling differently about the matter...but at least you don't hate her or yourself. But it's never too late for forgiveness, even if that person is dead and gone. It's just harder to resolve without a dialogue. Still, you have her memories. You can reckon how she would have felt with that insight and why she did what she did.

I can relate to the need for family, and how the Sakura was the core of that. Even when I was on the Eucharis with Hanako-Shosho, it was not the same. I've long had to accept that my home was forever lost while I was away. The Sakura II, while a fine vessel in all aspects and reborn by my own design, isn't a replacement either. The fact you consider me your family is of great comfort to me, and I consider you in the same regard as surviving family.

Kage Yaichiro
 
To Yaichiro Kage,

I can not understand why she did what she did outside of weakness. She was weak when she left, leaving Ketsurui Hanko-Hime unattended, only to have her fall to the hands of her enemies again. She was weak from fear of more failure, and it was what made her leave. As I can not understand, I can not forgive her. Yes, I have her memories, but that does not mean I understand why she did it.

Maybe some day when our paths cross we can sit down and speak on this again, but for now I can not and will not change my mind on how I think on my clone, and what she did.

-Jo Midori.
 
To Midori Jo

I apologize for our correspondence being dominated by such talk. I am glad you're back in service and recovering. I do look forward to seeing you again someday. If your quarters ever get equipped with a Type 40 Bunk Bed, we can even hold virtual meetings. I hope you do well, and you are welcome to contact me at any time you wish.

Kage Yaichiro
 
To: Kage Yaichiro
From: Jo Midori

... I... I do not know how to start this Yaichiro. I apologize for how our last conversation ended, and for how I seemed to treat your hospitality. I was rude, and I was short with you for things not your fault. I want you to know how sorry I am for how I acted. Things have... changed for me recently, and I do miss my friend.

Please... When you get this? Contact me. I will forward my VCE Information to you. I need to talk to you, as face to face as we can get at this point.
 
To: Midori Jo
From: Kage Yaichiro

I'm well aware that it was a sensitive topic that dominated the conversation, but you were never insulting nor demeaning even where we disagreed. You've nothing to apologize for in holding your own opinion in the matter and you never lost this friend.

Included is my VCE information. Don't hesitate to contact me.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top