A group of magistrates are called to The Gentle Blossom by nobleman Otomo Soujin, whose son Kokari has been kidnapped by the local Yakuza thugs for a huge ransom.  With no way to bring the police in on this issue, he called in enforcers that the criminals will not immediately recognize. Note: The first twenty minutes of this recording were lost as a result of issues in our first attempts to use Google Hangouts for recording.  There is a recap by Axe included in the beginning. PLAYERS Josh: Shosuro Shizuko, an upstanding Scorpion Bushi who is in no way a ninja or ninja-like entity. Honest. Distrusted even by other Scorpion due to the disloyalty of an ancestor, She makes masks as a hobby when she’s not skulking through the shadows. James: Kitsuki Noboyuki, a Dragon magistrate who is a student of the Kitsuki Method, which claims that weird stuff like evidence collection and observation should be used to determine the guilt of a suspected criminal, rather than just believing the word of the highest-ranking samurai present. A prodigy at investigation and a skilled orator besides, he’s physically and spiritually weakened by an old wound. Kevin: Isawa Daiki is an Ishi-ken of the Phoenix clan, one of the rare shugenja that can access the powers of the Void between all things alongside the elements and spirits. A skilled fortune-teller himself, attempts by others to discern his fate tell of a great destiny involving the mysterious Void Dragon. Max: Tsuruchi Yui, a skilled archer born into the Mantis Clan, who tracks criminals and enemies of the Empire with the help her trained hunting hawk, and is an adherent to the Wasp Code, a variation on the Bushido code of conduct the others follow