Soul Calibur: Intertwined Fates
Soul Calibur: Intertwined Fates
Chapter 1: "The Oni Princess"
Sitting in the candlelight of an ancient Shinto shrine in the Kyoto-prefecture, a young samurai by the name of Tsuji Gettan Sukeshige paid homage to the Shinto spirits and his ancestors. The kamidana before him intricately decorated for Hachiman, the Shinto god of war, Gettan offered saké for the deity as well as prayers for enlightenment on the path of ken zen ichi nyo, "the sword and zen are one truth". Having received Menkyo Kaiden, or full-transmission from the Yamaguchi-ryû school of kenjutsu at the age of twenty-six, Gettan felt his swordsmanship was lacking. Thus as salty sweat dripped from his tanned forehead to his bushy black eyebrows and, painfully, into his eyes, his reverence did not falter as his bowed deeply twice, clapped two times, and bowed once more, signaling an end to his prayers. He bowed humbly to the Shinto priests maintaining the shrine, picked up his katana, and descended down the steps of the shrine. The nature around him served as a reminder to his ascetic training, his Musha Shugyō, "Warrior's Pilgrimage", to improve his competence as a swordsman and on the Way of Strategy.
The gentle breeze rolling around him harkened to memories of a past life in the Sengoku Jidai, provoked by his Yamaguchi-ryû, where skill was all that separated a samurai from life and death. But his sensei, Yamaguchi Bokushinsai, often recounted of the legend of a sword wielded by Hachiman himself, which brought down the Taira clan. Bokushinsai referred to this sword as the Soul Sword. Gettan reminded himself that such items were prized and coveted by the Emperor. Even in an era of relative peace, skill was always necessary, Gettan reckoned with himself.
Just as he reached the final step leading to the dirt path that connected to the steps of the shrine, a dagger-shaped shuriken stabbed into the ground, right before his foot had assumed the now occupied space. Gettan looked up, his left hand grasping the saya, scabbard, of his sword in anticipation, amongst the trees branches before him, three black-cloaked ninja were in hot pursuit of a fourth, bright-red clothed kunoichi. Gettan watched as the female ninja easily evaded the incoming shuriken with ease, sighing to himself, "The era of the samurai is truly at an end." He released his grip on his sword and began walking along the dirt path following the ninja.
Elsewhere, a youthful female Oni by the name of Kamikirimusi, found herself traversing across yet another solemn dirt path, alone. Every city through which she had traversed, she had been assaulted, insulted, and ostracized by the humans. She had witnessed the joys of humanity, the love between a man and a woman, the love of family, and the companionship between humans. But she was never allowed to be involved. The humans attacked her for the two horns on her head and the claws on her fingers. She wished, no, she longed for that feeling, that bond.
To the West, Kamikirimusi could sense a growing power, sinister, like her, but inherently so, perhaps one day she could meet this demon, she thought. 'Till then, she would continue wandering; searching for someone she could form a bond with, much like the kind hearted Onmyojin that sealed her away in the Heian Jidai.
With a loud depressing sigh, Kamikirimusi dropped the eight-foot kanabō, a long spiked iron club requiring an Oni's strength to wield, and dropped to her backside. The bandages wrapped around her thin calves were imprinted with pink paw prints, and had at one time been white, were now grimy with sweat, dust, and mildew. The short dark blue kimono she wore tied with a pink bow in the front, had begun to shrink on her a few centuries prior, upset by a large shapely chest, the sarashi she had once worn underneath practically ripped apart slowly during her imprisonment. Five things that hadn't changed were her red scarf, her fluorescent bright red hair, the rouge the outlined her bright yellow eyes, the prayer beads the Onmyōjin had sealed her away with, and the two horns misaligned to the left side of her head.
Exhausted or more aptly too apathetic to move any more for the time being, Kamikirimusi thought back to all the Oni she had played with before she was captured. Most were older than her, but they still enjoyed playing with her, unlike the humans, who reviled the mess with bitter distaste the Oni left. Humans just didn't understand that she was just having fun. Houses and buildings could be rebuilt, fun was rare indeed.
Kamikirimusi's ears twitched, as she heard movement from the treetops about a mile away. Grinning with a young glow, she grabbed her kanabō and hoisted her body up, looking into the brush above. In the distance, she saw three men in dark clothing chasing after a woman in bright red. Was it a game? Was there fun to soon be had? Kamikirimusi asked herself, the emptiness within her rescinded and a warm joy emerged. As the woman in red passed over her, Kamikirimusi spun around, the kanabō following in tow, slicing down the tree the three male ninja had planned to land on with brute destructive force.
"How would you all like it if I chased you around?" Kamikirimusi asked, a dark grin on her face, resting the over-sized weapon against her delicate frame, she looked down upon the ninja, ignorant to their occupational nature.
As if staring Death in the face, two of the ninja stood with weapons drawn, the third lay prostrate on the dirt, a pool of blood gushing from where his own shuriken had impaled him upon landing. The other two could barely hold their weapons still, staring at the monster before them.
Suddenly, a graceful landing signaled a presence behind her, nonchalantly looking over her shoulder, the well endowed Japanese woman in the skin-tight red suit stood, iron pauldrons in the shape of demon faces clasped against her shoulders, two kodachi swords drawn and ready to be thrust into Kamikirimusi. The black haired Japanese woman looked at Kamikirimusi and said, "Vile demon, prepare to be cast back into the pit of Hell."
As the red woman flipped through the air, assaulting Kamikirimusi with kicks and short cutting strikes, the two frightened ninja attacked her with single-edged straight swords. Four blades coming at her, Kami was left with only enough time to parry two, choosing the strongest two, she bashed her kanabō across the red woman's blades, sweeping her to the ground, as two iron blades had sliced into the back of her kimono and scratched against her skin irritatingly. Swinging her spiked club around at them, the ninja had not been so lucky to avoid an eight-foot iron wall crushing into and through their insides. Now left was only the woman that Kamikirimusi had strived to protect, and now she was turning on her.
The woman lunged at Kamikirimusi, flipping into a spinning wheel kick, Kami sidestepped out of the way and lifted her kanabō quickly into the air; that alone would have deter most would be assailants, but not this one. Kami swung diagonally overhead with a one-handed grip, the woman quickly jumped back out of the way, leaving the tip pointed straight towards her abdomen. Switching hands suddenly, Kami swung around behind her horizontally, which the strange woman had unknowingly assisted by cross-stepping and parrying the club away from her, as the red woman got within striking range of her small daggers, Kami had thrown the haft of the club into her, knocking her some distance away.
"I don't want to fight you." Kamikirimusi reasoned with a hint of anger in her voice. She picked up her kanabō and stabbed the blunt tip into the ground and leaned against it.
"You're a demon, and I am a demon-slayer. Before you can cause harm to others, it is my duty to send you to Hell." The strange woman announced, brushing off the attack while spinning her blades into the saya on her back. "My name is Taki, former member of the Fuma ninja clan." She concluded, standing erect, Taki raised her left hand around and over her head, bringing it straight down in front of her, with only her index and middle fingers pointed up. Kamikirimusi readied herself for a second round, but in a flash of purple smoke, the ninja woman disappeared.
"Ninja…" Even for being over six-hundred years old, Kamikirimusi had missed out on a huge part of Japanese history, specifically the part about samurai wearing no armor and leaping through trees. She looked up in between the tree branches to see the setting sun, the light danced across her yellow eyes and she was losing herself in the cadence of the forest.
Suddenly, her ears began to twitch again; something was coming in her direction. How long had she stood admiring the closing of day? Now the sun had retreated below the trees and only the barest hint of twilight was left in the day. But who was the coming upon her? Taki? More Ninja? Kamikirimusi lifted her kanabō intent on striking whoever it was, if not in self-defense, than to prevent the need for which. She stared straight down the path behind her, recounting that a Shinto shrine she had once spent the night in centuries ago was on a branching path that connected to the main road.
"Who's there?" She shouted, lowering her club a little.
After a few seconds, she received a reply, "No one of practical importance."
Kamikirimusi charged straight down the path towards a humble looking human, seemingly unkempt by normal standards. Then she noticed the two swords at his hip, stepping forward into an attack position with her left foot, Kami left the kanabō facing behind her. "Who are you?" She repeated.
The young man looked startled by her, but unshaken and sound of mind. Leaving his hands by his sides, away from his swords, he acknowledged her intent unassumingly. "My name is Tsuji Gettan, and I am a Shugyosha in search of perfecting my swordsmanship."
Agitated even more, Kami's eyes squinted gritting her teeth, "So then you want a fight to prove your skill?" Stepping forward with her right foot, pointing her club at him, she accused him.
"Not the case." He reasoned, "I will not harm a lady if it is at all possible." He smiled briefly at her with his hands in the air.
Kami relented, lowering her club and taking a more natural stance, "My name is Kamikirimusi, and I am a great and powerful Oni. I demand you pay tribute to me."
The darkness had obscured his sight, somewhat, and Gettan had managed to delay sight of the horns hidden by her ruffled hair for a little while. Though the sight sent shivers down his back, she had not attacked him, meaning not all Oni were bad, as the children's stories led him to believe. Putting the kanji of her name together, Gettan hoped to understand her better.
Kami-, the general term for a single deity, -kiri-, from the verb "to cut or slash", and finally –musi, to erode or eclipse: To eclipse the godly strike, Gettan reasoned.
"Well?" Kamikirimusi demanded, glaring at the swordsman before her lost in deep contemplation. As his eyes glanced back into hers, he tilted his head to the side in a questioning manner. "I told you that I demand tribute or else I will gobble you up piece by piece!"
In a manner quite sincere, Gettan reached in between his kimono and juban and handed her a cloth-wrapped item. Snappily, Kamikirimusi took it, squeezing it in her hurry while turning around to open it.
"What is this, puny mortal? Rice! Rice can not sate my thirst for violence and bloodshed!" Continuing to put on airs, Kami squeezed the rice ball in her fist.
Looking around him, humoring her obvious lack of actual intimidation, Gettan picked up a tree branch and held it out to her. Their eyes met briefly, in the eye of the hurricane, Kami's brow tightened and she began glaring daggers at him. "Don't mock me." She warned.
"I've got nothing else." He replied solemnly, as was the truth, he had only the clothes on his back, the swords on his hip, a water jug at his side, and that one rice ball she had annihilated. Pursing his lips, "How about I teach you swordsmanship?" The one thing he could offer with much certainty.
There was, of course, a brief pause. Her anger turned to apathy and she looked up and down the samurai standing before her. "That would be tribute, indeed, if only I carried around a sword!" Her tone became electric and exasperated, "Need I remind you that I am, indeed, an Oni?"
Nodding in agreement, Gettan reasoned, "If I can't pay tribute in any manner or form, then 'gobble' me up. I can do nothing for such a pretty Oni-hime, such as you." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he readied himself to be devoured.
His first mistake, she thought, was to cross my path, his second was to call me an Oni princess…-wait, he isn't reviled by me? She looked at him, flabbergasted. "You're not afraid of me, you aren't insulting me, and then you call me pretty? How dare you?" Kamikirimusi reproached him, uncertain of how she should be feeling. After all, he is human. He is asamurai. And he is penniless.
Gettan bowed, looking to the West after the setting sun, darkness began to cloud their features even more. "Sumimasen, I must find a place to rest for the night." He begged her pardon and tried to move past her unobtrusively.
Before he could get past her, a sharp tug at the folds of his kimono began dragging him off perfectly along the path. "Unlike you, human, I can see in the dark. And since you had no tribute for me, I'm taking you as a pet." Still trying to put on airs, she added in for emphasis, "-And just like a pet, you can always turn into tonight's supper."
