Choshu Ishi
The gravel crunched with the steady percussion of charging infantry. The fury in that step hinted at a thousand-strong army, but only one man stood on the field: Cathak Nekuto. He stormed down a secondary path in his encampment in the shadows of the Pagoda of Infinite Strategy, straight towards his army's newest officer. The target of Nekuto's ire sat on a low camp chair, studying a white silk banner draped over his knee. At his feet sat a pot of white enamel and a suit of Gunzosha armor, still drying from its second coat. "Choshu Ishi!"
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Ishi gathered the banner in his hands and stood. He was a head taller than Nekuto, with short-cropped, bristly hair the color of new-mined slate and smooth, pale skin. "Lord."
"What the hell happened at Three Hills?"
"It was my first time in a Warstrider..."
"I meant your troops!" Nekuto kicked the pot and sent white enamel splashing onto the wall of the quartermaster's office behind Ishi. "You focused on your own attacks and left your men to run around the field like ants.
"No, not ants! Ants have discipline!"
Ishi clenched his silk banner in his large, closed fist. "I didn't train those troops. If they don't have discipline, what fault is it of mine?"
The air around Nekuto burst into flame. Red gouts of rage streamed off of him and twisted in the space between the commander and Ishi. "You were their commander! They look to you to order them where to go!"
To his credit and his shame, Ishi never backed down. He only half-leaned one shoulder towards Nekuto and, as his skin glistened with specks of mica, reflecting back the light of the anima fire, said, "I came here because I heard you needed heroes. I didn't come to command an army."
"Enough!" Nekuto sliced his hand through his own fire, cutting the rage away from his eyes. His voice softened as he said, "How long could you stand in the field, alone, against one of Ma-Ha-Suchi's lunars with a horde of beastmen at his back? Would you last half that against The Headless when his zombies and ghosts swirled all around him?"
Ishi lowered his head and the fist that clenched his banner.
"You think armies exist to stand in opposite lines and cheer while you and another commander fight? Not in real war." Nekuto spun on his heels and stalked back the way he came. The grass burned away beneath his feet with every step. He turned, at last, and looked back to Ishi. "Lookshy and The Realm still remember the names of their great generals. There's a difference between a hero and a duelist. When you figure it out, you'll have earned your place here as a hero."
