Chapter :-24 Time Flows By

1263, Japan, Kyoto....

It's been three years since the [Corona compound massacre]. Kiyohime Gerard previously known as Kiyohime Corona, the last member of the Corona bloodline returned after her family was massacred by the Faction.

She lured the various members of the Faction who participated in the killing of the Corona clan members using herself as bait and captured them inside the compound which lay in ruins.

After she had left the city, she was able to gain the support of a mysterious Mage-family called the Mikaelson clan and came back as a much stronger mage. After capturing the Faction members she fought and killed every last one of them with her Katana and Magic.

She was somehow able to convince all the soldiers of the Faction to do her bidding, thus creating her own army and took the city with unstoppable momentum. She killed every other contender for the title of [Shogun] and eventually claimed the title for herself.

She then announced that she was no longer a member of the Corona clan and now belonged to the branch clan of the Mikaelson family known as the Gerard family.

Many influential people tried to gather more information about this mysterious clan but failed. The clan had a compound within the city where the [Shogunate] herself resided in but the whole place was covered with inscriptions and barriers thus no one found anything or anyone even after sending ninja's to spy on them.

The family symbol of the Gerard family was the same as the Corona clan, a huge Kirin while the letter ᒥ M ᒧ signified the presence of the Mikaelson clan.

People tried to search for them by kidnapping the servants of the Mikaelson family in order to torture the information out of them but all the ninja's strangely died along with those who gave the order.

This incident served as a warning to all those who wished harm upon the Mikaelson family. They were an ancient family of Mages who could potentially kill any other family even if the families had high-level mages.

[A/N:-Help me to design a power level for Mages and Samurai.]

The [Shogunate] moved quickly and united the city under her rule, either by money or force. The whole capital was now a united force to be reckoned with.

It took Kiyohime three years to consolidate her rule over the capital while Henrik deepened the roots of the Mikaelson clan within the capital. He knew that Japan would soon enter the [Warring State period] and the whole country would plummet in the civil war.

Thus he decided to use the calm before the storm to make preparations by making the Gerard family sign an alliance with Oda Family. Currently, the Oda clan was serving under a [Shogun] and didn't have much power, fame or resources.

Kiyohime had recruited some talented individuals in the Gerard clan and upon Henrik's order, she proposed few marriages between the two families. Even though the Gerard clan was also a new clan, it was financially very strong along with the military might that was unmatched within all of Kyoto which was the capital of Japan.

The Oda clan used this opportunity to deepen their bond with the Gerard family and the marriages between the two clans became much more common.

Kiyohime had also helped the Oda clan to establish their roots in the [Echizen Province] and deepen their relationship with the [Shogunate] thus making the bond between the two families very strong.

The reason behind this was because of the Oda clan's future descendent, Oda Nobunaga. Henrik knew that alone he couldn't achieve much. He needs capable people within his ranks who would help him establish the Mikaelson clan authority within the country.

With the perk of knowing the future, Henrik had decided to recruit some capable "elders" for the Branch clan of the Mikaelson family, Gerard clan.

The Oda family in the time of Nobunaga claimed descent from the Taira clan, by Taira no Chikazane, a grandson of Taira no Shigemori (1138–1179).

Taira no Chikazane established himself at Oda (Echizen Province) and took its name. His descendants, great vassals of the Shiba clan, Shugo (governors) of Echizen, Owari and other provinces, will follow the latter to Owari Province and receive Inuyama Castle in 1435. This castle will be built towards 1435, by Shiba Yoshitake who would entrust its safety to the Oda family. The Oda will be Shugo-dai (vice-governor) for several generations.

The other famous castle of the Oda will be the Kiyosu Castle, which will be built between 1394 and 1427 by Shiba Yoshishige built who would entrust the castle to the Oda clan and will name Oda Toshisada as the vice-governor of the province. Toshisada will have four sons.

The fourth son, Nobusada, who will live in Katsubata Castle, will be the father of Nobuhide and the grandfather of Oda Nobunaga.

Henrik also saved Minamoto no Sanetomo's life, who was the second son of Yoritomo and brother of Yorie, who became shogun in 1243 CE with his mother Hojo Masako and her father Hojo Tokimasa acting as regents.

Sanetomo's 16-year reign would have come to a brutal end with his assassination in 1261 CE at the hands of his own nephew Kugyo, the son of Minamoto no Yorie if Henrik himself wouldn't have saved his life.

[A/N:-Some of the dates are not correct because I changed them a little to suit my plans.]

Sanetomo thanked Henrik who used this chance to deepen the blood between the Minamoto clan and Gerard clan by proposing a marriage between the daughter of the current head of the Koga clan and one of the most elite, younger members of the Gerard clan.

The Koga family is a branch of the Minamoto clan (descending from Emperor Murakami) of Japan. The Koga family was one of the kuge (court nobility) families, achieving the rank of seigake.

One of the responsibilities of the Koga family was to be the protectors of the courtesan guild at court.

The Koga family was highly regarded as one of the most successful clans throughout the Meiji period.

After manipulating Sanetomo and the current head of the Koga family, Henrik was able to infiltrate the royal court and various government posts thus influencing the Mikaelson clan's influence throughout the country.

Henrik's motive behind doing so was, to recruit Sarutobi Sasuke in his ranks in the future. The Koga clan would send some of it's best ninja's to serve the elite members of the Gerard clan.

Henrik himself was interested in having Sarutobi Sasuke directly under his command.

Sarutobi Sasuke, a ninja who will be known in popular Japanese culture to have served the Sanada samurai clan during the time of the Sengoku Era as one of the Sanada Ten Braves, regarded as the leader of the group.

Originally just an orphan who learned how to climb and jump from monkeys, he was discovered by an old man who revealed himself to be a ninja of the Koga clan, Assassin became a ninja through the teachings of the old man.

He managed to distinguish himself as a very skilled and powerful ninja and eventually became an elite shinobi, the greatest of them all.

Assassin eventually went to serve the samurai Sanada Masayuki and assisted in aiding his lord's sons Nobuyuki and Nobushige (Sanada Yukimura) during the battle, whom would treat Assassin like a brother, Assassin felt that he had chosen the very people who would change the country for the better so he dedicated his life to them.

Assassin believed that Japan and its people should experience the outside world more, the moment he first laid eyes on the man known as Tokugawa Ieyasu, the ninja had a vision of Tokugawa's goals and it's consequences, Assassin knew at that very moment that Ieyasu had to be stopped for the sake of Japan's future.

Since that day until his death, Assassin had made thirteen attempts on Ieyasu's life, he became a well and truly feared enemy among the Tokugawa, even more so than his own masters.

The disgust for the Tokugawa grew much worse when a samurai serving them, Hattori Hanzō (who also studied the Iga ninja arts), was regarded as Japan's best ninja, when in truth Hanzō, despite being a competent samurai, was actually a terribly poor excuse for an assassin, this act caused Assassin's ire towards other assassins in general.

Assassin witnessed and was present in many battles in the Sengoku Era while he was under the service of the Sanada clan. Many of these battles include Omosu (1580), Temmokuzan (1582), Odawara Castle (1590), Ueda Castle (1600) and both Sieges of Osaka Castle (1614-15).

Unfortunately, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed against Ishida Mitsunari at Sekigahara in 1600 and established the Tokugawa Shogunate, forcing Assassin along with his master Nobushige into exile.

Despite this, Assassin still continued to make Ieyasu, his family and his followers lives hell. When his master decided to join Hideyori Toyotomi to fight against the Tokugawa, Assassin also joined along with other ninjas who for many years dedicated their lives to protect Nobushige.

The odds were against the Toyotomi, but Assassin clung to the hope that they would prevail and defeat the Tokugawa. Meanwhile, he noticed that his master was gazing in the distance with an expression he never used before, but Assassin assumed it may be because of the odds being against them unless they play their parts right and turn the battle around.

Despite all the effort, things went from bad to worse, Assassin saw that the rest of the Ten Braves were being killed off one by one, Saizo was killed while making a beeline for the Tokugawa camp, the Miyoshi brothers killed themselves after taking too many wounds, an act that prevented the enemy from slaying them personally.

Soon he was the last of the Ten Braves left alive, his master Nobushige decided on one last attack on Ieyasu and Assassin rushed to aid his master as fast as he could.

However, by the time he reached him, Nobushige was too exhausted to fight back after slaying so many samurai and he himself was slain by a samurai named Nishio Nizaemon.

Seeing his master die and that all hope to stop the Tokugawa lost, Assassin went berserk, brutally killing Nizaemon in cold blood before proceeding to annihilate the rest of the Tokugawa army.

His rampage was cut short when three arrows fatally hit him in the back, he looked to find that it was a woman resembling Muramatsu who shot him, limping his way towards her before collapsing, he gave her a bittersweet and gentle smile before finally leaving this world.

Henrik knew of his legend, he wanted this person by his side. When the time comes he would accept him before anyone else and help him create his legend but in this one, he would be serving Henrik Mikaelson himself.

Henrik Mikaelson would destroy the Tokugawa's due to the history he knew, they were the ones who eliminated ever foreign power from Japan and that would include Mikaelson clan too. Henrik wouldn't allow that to happen, he would unity Japan and create a kingdom for his family.

This place will be heaven for the Mikaelson clan, for his siblings and he would do everything to create and protect this heaven.

Henrik had three more individuals in his mind but they were far from being even born so he had to divert his attention to other things. He had finished the construction of [Sword of Rupture, Ea], he also visited the current Emperor of Japan to show his respects to the descendent of [Amaterasu].

He had secretly collected some of his blood to enact one of his plans that he had been wanting to enact for a long time, especially after finding the Black Grimoire.

But before all that, he needs to unseal his sibling and reunite with his family. Finally, the ceremony requirements were all fulfilled after 3-years.

Today was the day he would reunite with his family, the day he will experience true familial love, the day when he will know joy and happiness, the day when finally another Mikaelson would awaken to roam this earth for eternity.