Ikoma Bentai frowned at the Black Lion.  "I know you're determined to do this, Toturi-sama.  I'm not foolish enough to try to talk you out of something once you've made up your mind."

"Wisdom comes with age, I'm told," Toturi said, a slight smile playing across his lips.  He crossed to the paper lantern on the other side of his tent and blew out the candle inside.
The sole remaining lantern, near the doorway, cast warm, flickering light on Bentai's battle-worn face.  A winter breeze rippled the tent flaps and caused the flame inside the paper shade to dance and flicker.

Bentai crossed his gnarled arms over his chest.  "I want to tell you, though, that I think this mission is a mistake."

"It's chancy, I'll admit, but it may be the only way to discover who our foe is," Toturi said.  "I didn't cross the mountains only to be hemmed in by my former clan.  They've kept one step ahead of us for weeks now. I won't wait any longer, and this is the best way to deal with them.  With luck, we won't even have to kill anyone.  I know this area well.  I'm the best man for the job."

"Hai," said Bentai, "I'll agree with that.  But with a mission this dangerous, I can't imagine why you're taking... Scorpions with you."

"I need stealth," Toturi said.  "Who better than Scorpions to help me?"

"You killed their traitorous master," Bentai said sternly.  "I'm sure some of them would be happy to stick a tanto in your back."

"Then be sure to give them a good target," Toturi replied with a grim smile.

"I'm serious."

"As am I," Toturi said.  "Every ronin here, including you, has joined his or her fortunes to mine in hope that, together, we may regain our lost honor and save the world from Fu Leng.  The Scorpion have the most to regain.  They didn't lose just name or position, as I did - they lost the right to exist as a clan.  In my own way, I played a part in their loss.  It is only right that they should redeem themselves with me."

"They got what they deserved," Bentai said.  "Bayushi Shoju needed killing."

Toturi took a deep breath.  An image of the dead Scorpion lord formed in his mind.  Shoju stalked the throne room, graceful, cat-like, taunting Toturi for his weakness.  Toturi knew he should have died then, but Shoju had spared him.

In the end, the Scorpion had seen something that Toturi did not; he had recognized his own flaws and repented them.  That repentance had allowed Toturi to kill the Scorpion Emperor.  Perhaps, in dying, Shoju had sought to regain the honor he lost in assassinating Hantei the 38th.