Matazaemon

The junior courtiers in The Teikodian Empire claim Matazaemon and the strategist Sakira were once bitter rivals, locked in a silent war for political influence. They whisper of intercepted messages and clandestine meetings. The truth is far more serious: they were fighting over a fishing spot. For three years, they engaged in a covert war of tangled lines, stolen bait, and arriving at the riverbank at ever more ludicrous hours. The conflict only ended when a heron, annoyed by the commotion, stole the prized carp both had been trying to catch all morning. Stunned into a truce by their shared loss, they now fish side-by-side in a silence thick with mutual, unreadable judgment. They still haven't decided who gets the next big one.