36. Doji Ren

Almost defusing the situation

Tichuki shoots another arrow at Satto, but she laughs even more maniacally. Ichiro runs towards Satto and tries to bring her down to the ground. I call out to Kiruhage to leave Satto alone, she's clearly diseased and needs to be cured. Hige also join Ichiro and starts to explain they'll deal with her and that he shouldn't hurt her.
Aki even pitches in, offering to help cleanse her afflication with the help of the present Shugenja.
Meanwhile Satto tries to wrestle herself free. Kanbei, the thrd leader, now positions himself between Satto and Kiruhage.
I ask Kiruhage if killing people has always been his method to deal with issues and he goes on to explain that's the only way to deal with heretics. As the leaders are pretty upset by this altercation it evolves into a duel to defend the honor of the village.Ichiro steps up to defend the honor which is met by scorned laughter from Kiruhage.

Preparing for the duel

As Kiruhage and Ichiro discuss the conditions of the duel, Kiruhage explains what will happen when he wins. Someone from the crowd responds "If". The village will be burned to the ground and the villagers will have to fear for their lives.
Yoshi pitches in "And the delegation will then also be late for the meeting...".
Ichiro then lays down his victory condition, the Lion delegation will have to acknowledge this village as a Perfect Land Sect village. I curse under my breath, there goes all careful planning, or at least what was left of it, down the drain. Toturi blinks and the delegation gasps surprised.
The judges of the duel are also appointed, Toturi will represent the Lion delegation, Hige will represent the villagers and I'll act as the third independant judge. Yumako offers to take Toturi's spot as a judge, but he kindly refuses.

Curing Satto

Meanwhile Satto is tied up and the villagers attempt to drag her to one of the houses. Aki steps in though. Hige says the villagers will take care of her. Then Kyo also steps in with his sword drawn exclaiming that they should leave Satto right there. Ichiro tells Kiruhage to hold on with their duel as another one might occur right there. Kyo offends Hige and all that he stands for and goes on to call him a heretic Ronin not worth having been a Samurai once.
Why why why is he doing this?! Making it even harder to come up with a good enough explanation about what we've done the last two days.
Ichiro now also challenges Kyo to a duel, but Kiruhage responds that he want to go first! Kyo agrees, but states that his words weren't meant as an insult, that he was merely stating facts...
The villagers meanwhile use the confusion to take Satto with them. Aki joins them to make sure she won't be able to get away and possibly even already try to cure her. Tichuki also joins in and stands guard at the door of the house they enter.

The duel

Yumako has a char with Kiruhage about the importance of the clan to a poiint where she wants to leave any family dispute out of it for now.
Ichiro has dressed up in his armor and the duel starts. Kiruhage manages to win first strike, but Ichiro puts up a really good fight, occasionally even hitting Kiruhage. But in the end it seems Ichiro is losing the battle. I check out how Hige is doing beside me, but he doesn't seem to show any sign of emotion

Shadowlands interruptions

Then all of a sudden Aki comes storming out of the house exclaiming "The Shadowlands are attacking from the north!"
Goblins, lead by an Oni, come running towards us. During the ensuing chaos I see Kyo running past Hige and me. Right after Hige collapses to the ground.
Kanbei joins Hige to check him out and I quickly advice him to flee the village together with the other villagers, using the current chaotic situation.