Kagero
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In the remote reaches of the East, there stood a sacred mountain known as Windcry Peak. Upon this holy peak dwelt ascetic monks who revered the mountain, held incantations and prayer in the highest esteem, and purified their minds and bodies through relentless, grueling spiritual training.
Because they mastered a unique art of combat devised solely to protect the sanctity of Windcry Peak, they came to be known as mountain hermit ninjas.
Among them, Kagero (Shadow Wolf), the supreme head standing at the absolute zenith of Windcry Peak, had obtained matchless strength through spiritual trials harsher than those of any other, and it was whispered that whosoever was targeted by him would invariably be beheaded.
From the summit of Windcry Peak, one could survey the terrain of all neighboring provinces at a glance, which granted a commanding strategic advantage over rival lands to whoever possessed it. Thus, the ambitious warlords of the provinces sought alliances with Windcry Peak, dispatching emissaries to its heights.
Yet, Kagero slaughtered every last envoy. And beneath the shroud of night, he returned the emissaries' severed heads to the gates of the warlords' castles, unseen by mortal eyes.
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To Kagero, entangling the mountain in the ambition-ridden conflicts of the world below was an unforgivable sacrilege that defiled the sacred Windcry Peak.
Blind to this truth, the warlords trembled with rage over their murdered envoys, issuing dark ultimatums to invade Windcry Peak should the monks refuse to submit.
Thereupon, strange and sudden deaths befell those surrounding the warlords across the lands. Retainers perished. Shinobi fell. And every single corpse was found lacking a head. There was no need to ponder whose hand had dealt the blows.
Humiliated by Kagero's merciless defiance, the warlords burned with fury and bound themselves together in retribution. Warlords who were once bitter rivals forged a secret alliance and began to spin a web of deception to bring down Windcry Peak.
Over the span of several years, these lords stealthily embedded infiltrators throughout Windcry Peak. These agents endured the severe training, feigned deep reverence for the peak, and seamlessly dissolved into the ranks of the ascetics.
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— None could say precisely when it began. Insidious rumors regarding Kagero of Windcry Peak began to be whispered abroad: that the supreme head was accepting bribes from the warlords to line his own pockets.
“Never could our supreme head, who is harsher on himself than any other and pure of heart, commit such a deed,” some protested, dismissing the slander. Yet those ascetic monks who groaned under the severe training and, having been rebuked by Kagero for their indolence, harbored a latent resentment, readily believed the rumors.
Those who believed the lies whispered that the supreme head kept others at a distance only to conceal his hoarded wealth, and that he had slaughtered the emissaries merely to mask his illicit ties to the warlords. Immersed in endless asceticism, listening only to the voice of the mountain, Kagero failed to perceive the rot of suspicion and mistrust spreading at his feet.
Then came the day when the ascetic monks, poisoned by rebellion and doubt, rose in revolt under the cunning incitement of the infiltrators.
”We strike down the leader who has steeped himself in defilement. By our very hands shall Windcry Peak be defended!”
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First to fall were the ascetic monks who remained loyal to Kagero. Helpless to resist, they all perished miserably—extinguished by paralyzing incense, poison laced into their rations, and assassination by hidden marksmen.
Kagero alone perceived the treachery the very instant it commenced, rising up to resist the onslaught. Yet, driven by traps toward the mountain's crest, he found himself surrounded by a horde of his own ascetic monks and the infiltrators who pulled their strings from the shadows.
Kagero resisted until the bitter end, beheading several whom he discerned to be infiltrators. But that was the limit of his mortal stand. Cornered by the manipulated ascetic monks, Kagero was cast down from the pinnacle of Windcry Peak into the depths of the yawning valley below.
In the aftermath, the ascetic monks thoroughly searched the supreme head's quarters. There lay only the austere remnants of a rugged monk's simple life. Of bribes or hidden treasures, there were absolutely none to be found.
As the ascetics paled with the horrific realization of their folly, the surviving infiltrators slipped away, returning to their domains with tidings of a completed mission. It appeared that all had unfolded precisely according to the warlords' machinations.
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In time, the head of a warlord vanished, along with the heads of his retainers and kin. Hearing these grim tidings, the lords of neighboring provinces desperately fortified their garrisons, yet one by one, they were beheaded all the same.
Thus, the samurai households that had dispatched infiltrators to Windcry Peak were utterly extinguished, one after the other. The sole surviving warlord, trembling in terror at what he deemed the divine wrath of the slain Kagero, journeyed to the sacred peak to appease the vengeful spirit. Lined along the mountain path of Windcry Peak, a row of severed heads greeted him.
Those who had once betrayed Kagero: the warlords of neighboring lands, the ninja who had infiltrated Windcry Peak as spies... The heads of every single soul complicit in Kagero's demise stood lined along both sides of the path like macabre milestones.
Choking back a scream, the warlord spun around—only to find that the heads of the retainers who had accompanied him were already gone.
Since that day, headless corpses have never ceased to appear in the lands surrounding Windcry Peak. Whenever a head vanishes, the common folk can do naught but offer flowers toward the sacred peak, praying desperately that divine wrath will not fall upon them.