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Shimamura Hayako, the Iron Chrysanthemum, Chosen of Endings

Even in the First Age, when magic filled the air and mortals were surrounded by a thousand thousand wonders that those born after the Contagion can only dream of, there were still things that made mortals uneasy. The young Hayako was such a one. Born on the Blessed Isle to parents from Shiya, a city in the South, Hayako had no friends--no one wanted to play with a girl who told them all the horrible things that would happen to them. Even when she was young, this didn't bother her. She would spend hours outside, staring at the stars. Her parents were worried until one of the Chosen of the Maidens arrived one day to collect Hayako. Though her parents were shocked that their odd daughter was one of the Exalted and saddened by the necessary separation, Hayako was not. She knew.

After the training period in Yu Shan, she was assigned as a liaison to Dancing Ruby Phoenix's circle. It was a practice left over from the Primordial War that every Solar Circle would have its Sidereal advisor, and while the practice was falling out of favor, Hayako insisted on it. With her customary attitude, she refused to explain why it was necessary, saying only, "It must be done." If her supervisors had a problem with it, they showed no signs of it, and so the transfer went through.

It took almost a century for any one of the Circle she was assigned to to even like her, much less count her as a friend. Her smugly superior attitude--and the fact that she was right the vast majority of the time--did not sit well with the Exalted she was supposed to be advising, and it was a long time before they would listen to her. Even when they ignored her advice completely, however, they still usually succeeded admirably. The Chosen of the Sun do not fail easily. Nonetheless, the Circle came to value her advice, and--eventually--her friendship. There were several large bumps in the path, such as her affair with Nine Lives, but she maintained their respect throughout.

Her responsibilities kept in Yu Shan most of the time, but she still took every opportunity to visit the Circle she was watching over. Though she did not admit it to them, she had grown very fond of them--they were the only people in Creation she could have called her friends. She did not let that interfere with the defense of Creation, though. She was pained to see the degeneration that they were obviously suffering from, and when she stood in Yu Shan and saw the outcome of the Prophecy, she knew what had to be done.

When the Chosen of the Maidens devised their plan and put it into motion, Hayako did not hesitate. She even volunteered to personally oversee the assassination of the Circle she advised, which caught her superiors by surprise. She was successful in killing Ruby at Meru, and was able to personally verify the deaths of the others. Though Ruby was the only Solar she personally killed, she aided the Dragon Blooded in killing at least four more, and two Lunars. She spoke to no one during this period except for what was necessary during the course of her duties, and her servants told tales that they heard her crying herself to sleep at night. No one believed them, though. She was the Iron Chrysanthemum, with a heart of stone, who would (and had) killed entire villages--men, women, and children--because the consequences of letting them survive were far worse.

With her Circle dead, she settled into a monitoring job in Yu Shan. In the years since the Usurpation, Hayako had begun to doubt the wisdom of her actions. She told no one of her fears--she had seen the way criticism of the Prophecy was treated--but she had begun to keep a look out for Solars and, occasionally, nudge one into escaping the Wyld Hunt long enough to see what they made of themselves. Her opportunities were few, though, and her life was mostly uneventful until one day when she noticed four simultaneous Exaltations in a village far to the East. She immedately went herself to investigate it, and when she heard of the behavior of the Exalts, she began to suspect. When she heard that the Jade Prison had been breached, she knew.

It was only a matter of time until she found them.

Theme Song

REM - Losing My Religion

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