Shade Samurai, Girl Knight of the Mind

Artist Mario Wibisono for the Legend of Five Rings

by dark days

I am the dark blade 

my shadow illuminates

the dusky ways by which I defeat the churl

 by razor

by blade

 detect the nuanced bitterness 

of the scalpel I wield  

as I emerge from the shadows 

to attack the condemned spirits 

to the underworld I despatch 

the ashes of dead coals

Shade Ninja I am called

dark, comely

Daughter of Night, Mother of Fall

by sword I bring dawn 

by dusk they go on

by this blade I live life
 by the blood I have drawn

I answer to the name Shade  
 Dark Side of the Son

I have read you

I have bled you

And now I have won

in semidarkness and undertone

I come in silence

as a spectre and a phantasm 

-a sabre with flechettes' keenness

and sharpness of wit
thusly, I protect and I serve

do me no wrong,
you shall remain un-harmed

the commands of Justice 

the demands of Vigilantes

the codes of the Shadow World and its laws

I obey

I surrender

I am Danger's reddest embers

with my steel I remind

by sharpest edge I remember

Duty

Passion

Blood Drawn in Winter

I am the Shade Samurai

Girl Knight of the Mind

through penetrating Darkness 

I seek and I find