Emerald Magistrate Kitsu Shogo, along with his team of Yoriki, are spending the winter of 1122 in Kyuden Miya when called to work in an emergency in the village of Shutai in Scorpion territory. The River of Gold is threatening to overflow, and as Shogo’s team specializes in disaster prevention and relief, it’s only natural they’d be called to assist when so relatively nearby. As they finish setting up levies and evacuating the village, bells begin ringing in the distance, signaling that a levy has broken further along the River of Gold.
The team, long with Imperial forces led by Miya Wakaba, quickly assembles and begins to ride out, following the sound, but after hours of travel discover that none of the levies have broken so far. This means that the bells must be signaling that Hirosaka – a town built on a series of islands in the river, and home of the Moth Clan – is the settlement at risk, putting a great many lives in danger.
During the ride, Minoru becomes separated from the group, who decide to continue on to Hirosaka after Yuzume communes with the air kami to check if he’s safe. As he gets back to the river, Minoru discovers a watchtower that crashes to the ground before him, and a brief inspection of the rubble reveals that it had been sabotaged.
The others arrive just outside Hirosaka, where the rising tides have already destroyed many of its buildings. The governor’s quarters and the nearby keep of the Moth both seem safe, centered in the eye of a building storm, but the walls and bridges connecting those islands to the others that make up the town have been destroyed. Shogo and his Imperial counterparts are determined to get across to them anyway, while the others make their way though the city trying to help where they can before reconvening at a camp being set up on the western bank.
As soon as they enter the city proper, lightning strikes, setting fire to some market stalls, which Hajime and Eiko assist the locals in putting out. They’re soon joined by Minoru, who arrives in town after following the river back to Hirosaka. Meanwhile, Yuzume convinces an innkeeper and community figurehead, Baba, to get help repairing a bridge that will get them cross to the commoner’s quarters. When it’s finished, the locals follow them so that they can help anyone who’s trapped or to salvage belongings.
Hajime realizes that another tide is coming, but can’t help but focus on the keep of the Moth in the distance – in spite of the rain, it feels hot, and deeply wrong. He also sees shadows by the granaries, which he figures out are firefighters stealing rice by drilling through the granary walls to get some into their boats. This threatens to bring the granaries down in short order, and Hajime throws his sword to pin the driller’s sleeves against their boat to stop them and damage the drill. Frightened, most of the firefighters take to their boats and run off, but the driller tears their sleeve away and dives into the water, freeing up a boat for the group to use and ensuring Hajime can get his sword back.
Eiko begins making notes for future repairs in the city, as well as locations that are safe in the quarter should another tide come in, and gives them to the locals as well as asking them to patch up the granaries and stand by in case someone tries to come back to steal again. With that work done, the group get into the boat before the next wave comes in.
As they sail past the docks, they see that they have been completely devastated, and people are trying to swim or travel on makeshift rafts to follow the group to safety. They pass a boat painted in pitch, pulling people out of the water, who begin paddling away when they see the yoriki. Hajime and Minoru attempt to follow them, but Yuzume and Eiko remind them to get to the west bank as per their orders. Shortly after, they bump into some debris that they can identify as being from a building in Ryoko Owari, and they realize that some sort of disaster must be happening there as well.
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