CHAPTER 3:Tokugawa

[CORRECTION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER: He hasn't teleported several countries away anymore, just several cities.]

[Chirp! Chirp!]

"Uh!?" Okabe suddenly woke up. He tried to stand up but he couldn't, his muscles were simply incapable of sustaining the weight of his body.

"What happened...?" He couldn't understand what he saw, those flashes in his mind, just what exactly did his grandpa did with him? Why did it felt like he lived the life of another for a very quick moment?

Okabe bit his lower lip and punched the ground, the pain traveling through his muscles forcing him to wake up, he had to stand up. It wasn't time to stay like this, he had to find his grandpa and make sure he was alive and well!

As much as he wanted, his legs didn't felt like obeying his commands, so he leaned on the wall of the shack and with heavy breathing, made his way outside, but when he passed through the doors, the vision he saw was enough to freeze him in place.

Compared to the dreadful snow lands filled with nothing, this was paradise.

The ground was a sea of pink meshed with green, for as far as the eyes could see, sakura trees adorned the landscape and an aura of peace seemed to engulf everything in sight. But as much as that place was beautiful, they made something inside Okabe uneasy.

But why, what could there be about such a beautiful landscape that could make someone feel like that? The answer for this question is one that didn't seem like it would be coming anytime soon, however, expectations not always represent reality, isn't it?

There, hidden behind the bushes, covered in dust after being abandoned for more than a decade, right beside the path made with stones buried in the ground, was a signboard heavily decorated with 'X' patterns followed by a drawing in embossed design of a samurai.

He fell on his knee as he looked at it, tears started to fall from his eyes, he couldn't believe that of all places he would end up here.

Why...

He stood up and with firm hands held on to the sword hanging on his waist, with heavy steps, he left this place, walking aimlessly with the mask his grandpa gave him and the hood, things weren't like before, this isn't just a game, he should have noticed from the beginning what it really meant to live here.

...

In this land both blessed and cursed by Kami

The sword guides fate as fates guide the sword

The blade painted in red is destiny

But only in such end can one understand that

The way of samurai is found in death

The mountain stained in red reeked of the smell of death, towers built with wood over the horizon all carried one or two men, each one of them wearing black clothes, using pieces of cloth to cover their faces and carrying a katana in their waists, while some also carried crossbows.

Bellow was the sight of the forest, and in between the towers, walls of stone blocked the vision from within, but even then there wasn't a single soul in this place that couldn't hear the pleas of help and cries of anguish coming from inside.

It was their ways, after all, to take turns and have fun with the prisoners, their disgusting souls were already tainted with their sins, so they figured it wouldn't make a difference if they also included the pleasure of the flesh forced upon another to the long list of crimes they had committed.

"Do you think it will happen again?" Said the man watching one of the sides of the camp from the tower.

"It doesn't matter, ambush against us in this labyrinth is one thing, coming here is another, I don't believe in this story of ghosts, wherever that thing is, I'm sure it can bleed just like us." Another answered as he stood up and used the binoculars to make sure that there was nothing suspicious coming from afar.

"Tsk, I hate this!" The first punched the support pillar. "Tanzen is a bastard, I don't understand why no one challenged him already."

"Haha! Go ahead and do it if you wish to die then, just make sure to wait till I get my mug filled with nectar, that way it'll be funnier to see your head rolling on the ground."

The man shook his head, he wasn't stupid to that point, he just thought that such an old and established group would already have one or two figures that could rival their leader, a coup is not really a bad thing, especially with such a stingy leader.

Suddenly, a crack sound was heard, they both drew their weapons and ran to the edges.

"Where!"

"I don't-" Before he could finish the sharp edge of a blade cut through his neck like it was butter, for a second, despite being a body-less head now, he managed to see the one responsible for it. So it was true, the orange glowing balls in the place of eyes, the white mask painted red with the blood of his victims, and the shadowy body that seemed about to fade from existence, the ghost of the Jinshiro was real.

"Damn it!" The other turned but it was too late, he tried to parry the blow but the blade simply phased through his and slashed at him with tremendous force. Unlike his partner, death came faster as his body split in two, with each part falling in opposite directions of each other.

The figure's body wearing clothes made of animal skins slowly materialized, with the sword still in hand, the cold eyes swept the inside of the camp as would a beast when it searched for its prey.

He unsheathed the second Katana in his waist, and his body disappeared. Soon after the muffled sounds of pain came from each one of the towers. And so, in less than ten seconds, the watchtowers were neutralized.

Without anyone to play the bells, they would never be able to react in time, and that was the ghost's plan.

|/--\|

"Hime-sama, we have to be careful now, I believe this is the cursed land of the Jinshiro we are about to pass through, I heard many bandits took shelter here, if we're not careful, we could end up in an ambush."

"Do as you wish, Mitsubo." The voice of a girl came from within the carriage.

Mitsubo, one of the two guards controlling the carriage nodded.

"Ah... this place is quite beautiful, isn't it?" He asked towards his companion.

"Yeah, it's a pity what happened to the Jinshiro, do you think any of them survived? I think the last time I heard of a descendant was a few years ago, but Osaki-sama disappeared."

"They're probably all dead, the old man was practically a hundred years old, honestly it was already surprising that he could still fight despite his age." Mitsubo sighed as he pulled the Buffalo strings.

"Still, I heard something weird a few weeks ago, it was about a ghost of the Jinshiro or something in these lands, they say he attacks people with evil intentions and those who broke heaven's mandate."

"C'mon, don't tell me you're going to believe those urban legends! Did you convert to Shinto as well?"

"What!? No... I was just curious, I have always been... y'know, kind of afraid of ghosts ever since I was a kid."

"Pfft... Kido, you know what? Just shut up, I don't have time to deal with your childish fears."

"Tsk, says the guy who can't even look at misses' mother in the eyes because of a childhood crush."

"You..." Mitsubo clenched his fist, if he wasn't working, he would have probably hit this junior of his half to death.

Suddenly the ground shook and the Buffalos became agitated.

"Oah! Hold on there!" Mitsubo threw the strings used to control the animals and quickly left the carriage outer seat.

After successfully calming them down, he looked towards Kido as they nodded to each other and unsheathed his Katana.

"Hime-sama, something's going on, we will check in front, if anything happens, please leave us behind, don't risk your safety." Mitsubo looked back, but after a moment without getting any answer he sighed and kept going forward, there was no time to waste, depending on the situation, they would have to leave this territory at light-speed.

As soon as they crossed a few dozen meters, they had to stop and hide behind a tree as they watched from the top of a hill what seemed to be a war between criminal organizations.

A single look was all it took to recognize their identity, all those men wearing foreign clothes and carrying Katanas could only be one thing, ronins, renegade samurai who disregarded their oaths and entered a life of crime.

Kido poked his arm a few times as he desperately pointed towards a place in the right. "Hey, Mitsubo, look!" He whispered.

Mitsubo followed the direction Kido pointed to and gasped, he couldn't believe such a man would be here!

"Flying Sword Tanzen! Isn't he... a class B ronin? Wait let me see." Mitsubo took out a black book adorned with stripe patterns and after a moment passing through the pages, he stopped in a Tanzen's page and gasped. "I was right, and there's more, it seems that his bounty was increased to two hundred thousand Zeni since last week, a few more dozens and he'll become a class A ronin."

"Tsk! What are those bastards doing here!? We won't be able to leave this place with them around."

"Are you dumb? Can't you see the corpses?"

Hearing his superior words, Kido focused his eyes a little bit more and gasped, although there were fifteen men standing, the triple of that number was lying on the ground with blood all over them.

"This... who could have been so brutal! This isn't the way of the samurai, look at the injuries, whoever did this wanted them to suffer..." Kido gulped, instead of kenjutsu, his special abilities lied with medicine, so when he saw the places where they were cut his reaction couldn't have been different, the central points of pain as he liked to call them, were the only places targeted.

"There, under the shadows!"

Underneath the shadows of a tree, someone wearing a hood and mask held two katanas in his hand, the man's chakra was so chaotic they could see it flowing around him like a layer of flames... But for some reason, his chakra wasn't the common blue, instead, it had a dark purple shade to it.

"This! It can't be!" Mitsubo gulped. "I thought it was chakra, but... it's just like in the old scriptures, this man has Reiki!"

Kido opened his eyes wide, how could it be!? Reiki wasn't supposed to be in the hands of a nobody, only the oldest and most noble of the clans still held the methods of using this ancestral energy said to be present ever since the beginning of time, they wouldn't be surprised if their lady, for example, knew how to use it, but a random guy in a forest!?

"We must tell her what we saw!"

"Yeah!"

They quickly fled the scene and ran back to the carriage. When they approached they were startled to see their lady stretching outside, unlike the common kimonos people used to wear, her was colored light-purple, and it was much shorter than usual, making it clung to her body's shape and the blade she carried was a mix of silver and purple and flame patterns were drawn on it.

"Hime-sama!?"

"Hm?" She turned to look at her guards. "So you finally returned, what did you discover?"

They gulped and quickly explained the situation, which to their surprise didn't affect their lady in any way, it was almost like she...

"I knew it, the rumors were indeed true..." She narrowed her eyes. "Let's go, once I kill him, I'm sure father will finally return my stats as the rightful heir."

"But Hime-sama!"

Unfortunately, they were completely disregarded in this situation.

"I, Azai Kurogane Tokugawa, will prove that being a direct descendant is not proof of power!"

Blue flames erupted from the sheath of her katana as the ground cracked beneath her feet. "Let's go, I don't want to waste my time here!"