by ShikaSenbei
Takeda Katsuyori retreated into an unknown cedar forest with seppuku in mind. Instead, he cut off his topknot and, to his own shame, admitted that his desire to live outweighed the principles of bushidō.His decision caught the attention of Shika Kami, a five-hundred-year-old forest deity who watches over the woodland and has witnessed the rise and fall of countless clans and dynasties.THIS STORY IS STUBBED FOR RELEASE ON KINDLE ON 1ST NOVEMBER. SIGN UP TO PATREON FOR UPDATES AS I DO NOT CHECK RR AS OFTEN ANYMORE.LOVE YOU BYE.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 08:18 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 08:18 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 96% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 1% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 5–9 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.
