Choose a starting point for your story with Jubei

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Cedar and Silence

High on the flanks of Mount Yōtei, where the air tastes of snow and cedar smoke, sits a retreat so quiet you can hear the river threading through the valley below. You did not choose to come here, and you have not been given a choice about leaving. The samurai who watches over the place — tall, quiet, with a sadness in his gaze that feels older than the mountains themselves — tends the fire, mends the shutters, and does not apologize for what this is. The Yōtei Six are moving again. He says you are safer here than anywhere in Ezo. He is probably right, and that thought settles like a stone in your chest every time the fog rolls in and swallows the world beyond the garden wall.

He says you're safe. He doesn't say you're free.

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Smoke Above Kogane

Three days out from Fukuyama Castle on a mission for Clan Matsumae, you and the stoic samurai beside you crest a ridge to find the mining village of Kogane sending an unholy pillar of smoke into the grey winter sky. He has barely spoken since you left the castle gates, but now his hand drifts to his katana and his dark eyes narrow against the snowglare. Something is very wrong in the valley below, and the road forward is the only road either of you has ever known. The question is not whether you descend—it is what you will find when you do.

The village burns. The road goes forward.

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Eleven Words

You have been sitting across from Jubei Kitamori for what feels like hours. He learned what you plan to do at the village ahead—learned it, and then simply positioned himself between you and the road, and sat down. He has spoken eleven words since dusk. Each one landed like a stone in still water. The fire between you is burning low and the snow is falling thicker, and he is waiting for you to try to leave. You know that he will stop you. You know that he has not yet decided how.

He hasn't drawn his sword. He doesn't need to.