Shin forced himself to look away. "Excuse me, Toyama sama.I am a lout who knows only gutter-etiquette. It is beautiful, but its power comes from you."

Toyama said nothing as he pulled his kimono back into place. He tightened the obisash once again, then looked at Shin expectantly. "I see you have lost no fingers."

Shin bowed his head. "My masters have turned a blind eye to my failures."

"You do not wear a lapel pin to mark your affiliation."

"Forgive me, Toyama-rama, but the commander at my last station forbade us to wear tokens of our families."

Toyama smiled and bowed his head. "Tai-saNiiro and I have reached an understanding about that. Here, however, you must wear a device that identifies you with us in Edo. I will grant you such if you do, indeed, prove to be Shin Yodama."

Shin sat up straight and removed his uniform jacket. He folded it carefully and set it down on the tatamito his right before unfastening the buttons on his shirt. As the Chief of the Ryugawa-gumihad done before him, Shin bared the left side of his chest. "I am Shin Yodama and I belong to the Kuroi Kiriof Marfik."

"The Black Mist!" the old man hissed in awe. "I have heard, but could scarcely believe ..."

Shin's tattoo entirely covered his left torso and arm to just above his wrist. Stylistically traditional, the design consisted of a boiling black cloud. Gold flecks and lines curling in and out of the design defined the cloud's different parts and levels. Yet, even as the gold was very much part of the cloud, it was also something on its own. Its curving, sometimes jagged, lines followed the smooth muscles of Shin's chest, stomach, and arm, mechanically marking him as a man, yet clearly transforming him into something else, something more.

Toyama bowed deeply. "Then it is true. You areShin Yodama and you are a buso-senshi."A proud smile spread across the old man's face. "It is I who am honored by this visit."

Shin returned the bow, relishing the respectful tones in Toyama's voice. Buso-senshi—a MechWarrior. I am part of the bargain struck between the yakuza and Theodore Kurita in his drive to save the Draconis Combine. Because of the services of theKuroi Kiri in the war, we were given the honor of supplying the first of the new yakuza Mech-Warriors. I am one of those—one who fights for more than honor.

The sharp clap of Toyama's hands snapped Shin from his musings. "Come, Yodama-san, we will drink your sakeproperly and then I will show the wastrels working for me what a real yakuza is like. You are one of us now, one of the Ryugawa-gumi.Whatever you need, ask, for you embody the hope of the Dragon—and we will not let that hope die."

6

Triad, Tharkad City, Tharkad

District of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth

20 June 3049

"Trellwan!" Victor Steiner-Davion locked his face in a feral snarl. "I don't care if Kanrei Theodore Kurita stations his eldest son on Atreus to drool over Isis Marik. I don't see why his posting means I get exiled to some backwater!" That the others in the room watched him with amused smiles only darkened and deepened his mood. "I want to be on the Combine border, or even down near the Capellan Confederation. I want to be stationed where I can see some action!"

Morgan Hasek-Davion raised an eyebrow. "You'll see plenty of action out there, Victor."

Victor snorted derisively. "Sure, Periphery pirates and the occasional raid by some looney Rasalhague unit wanting to prove they're tough. There's been no trouble on Trell since the birthing of the Gray Death Legion ..." He looked over at Justin Allard. "Hell, the Kell Hounds have dispatched one company from their Second Regiment to take care of the pirates up there. That'll leave me nothing to do but cool my heels."

Justin Allard glanced at Prince Hanse Davion, then allowed himself to smile. "I see you've been studying the troop assessment reports."

"Damned right, Justin." Victor pointed to the map of the Successor States tacked up on the wall of his room. "I know where we've got what, and I've a fair idea of what the Draconis Combine has going up against us. You don't need troops up here in the hinterlands. Hell, a troop of Youth Scouts could defend that area against anything coming in from the Periphery."

Victor stabbed his finger at the border between the Commonwealth's Isle of Skye and the Combine's Dieron Military District. "This is where you need me. We all know that when trouble erupts between the Combine and our forces, it will be here. You've got the Tenth Lyran Guards stationed on Skondia, Justin. I saw the reports listing Kai as being assigned there. And Morgan, I know you're rotating the First Kathil Uhlans to Skye in the next six months. Why am I being left out?

"Dammit, I trained to be a MechWarrior. I want to go where that's what I can do. Posting me out in the middle of nowhere because Theodore Kurita did the same with his son offends me."

Hanse Davion shook his head. "Ah, the impetuosity of youth."

At that, Victor gave both his father and Justin Allard a withering stare, then turned to his cousin to plead his case. "I don't expect those two fossils to understand, Morgan, but surely you can. You remember what it's like to be ready to take what you've learned and turn it into action."

Morgan nodded slowly, and clasped his hands at the small of his back. "I do recall what it's like to be young and eager, cousin." Morgan glanced at Hanse. "I also recall that your father held me back until the time was right."

Victor winced. So much of your history is wrapped up in the exploits of the First Kathil Uhlans—the Lions of Davion—that I keep forgetting how long you waited for your chance. I can see in your face that you sympathize with me, but that you also feel my father's plan is a good one.

Resignation written all over his face, Victor pulled his dress jacket from the rack and shrugged it on. "Why is it so important for me to be stationed on Trell I?" He held up his hand to forestall an immediate answer. "And you can spare me the explanation about the Twelfth Donegal Guards being an excellent unit. I've read the files and I agree that they're good. On the off-chance we do see some action, the enemy will have to be plenty tough to drive us off."

Hanse Davion's blue eyes narrowed. "I believe you are well aware, my son, that dealing with the Draconis Combine has never been easy. In the past, all we needed was to understand how their culture measures honor and embarrassment, or balances duty and compassion, and we could predict what they might do and how they would react. In the past—up to fifteen years ago—we could count on retaliation for every raid and a countermove for every one we made. Their troops would mount suicidal and foolish attacks just for the sake of winning honor for their families. More than once, a leader betrayed by his superiors committed suicide because he could not live with the shame of failure, even though that failure was not his own doing. It was madness, and we benefited from the predictability it gave their actions."

The Prince rose from his seat at the foot of Victor's bed and stared at the map. "Over twenty years ago, before the war, Takashi Kurita ordered the creation of two new 'Mech omits: the Genyosha and the Ryuken. The Genyosha was an elite unit about the size of a reinforced battalion. Its MechWarriors were the cream of the crop and were trained to see honor as something on a grand scale, not a personal one. Their glories were the unit's glories, and the unit's glories were the Combine's glories. Under the leadership of Yorinaga Kurita, a brilliant Mech Warrior, the members of the Genyosha fought as a unit rather than as individuals seeking personal glory. And that made them deadly."