Chapter Fourteen
Paradigm Shift

>>>Morning - May 5, 1583

The Shinto shrine at the summit of Mt. Gozaisho was small only by comparison to other shrines at lower elevations. Even in its present burnt-out state, Anakouji Jeffery could tell that the shrine had once been composed of several buildings spread out over a wide paved area. It had probably even been self-sufficient many years ago. The only structure that had remained intact to any degree was what had once been the living quarters for the resident priests, probably due to its relative distance from the other buildings.

Jeffy walked toward this structure just behind the assassin Wild Card, who had remained perpetually silent ever since the Yaen Master's initial confrontation with him.

"So," Jeffy started. "Now can you tell me why I've been forced to come here?"

Wild Card sighed. "My master will tell you himself shortly; can you not see him?"

"I can." Jeffy responded, leaning around the assassin. "Just figured I'd bother you once more before we part company."

A dark snigger escaped Wild Card's mask. "Indeed."

Raijin, Matsuda Jiro, and Hideaki stood at the entrance to the shrine's only remaining structure, waiting for the assassin and his captive. Hideaki stood motionless and to the left of the building's stairway, the massive chain Ikazuchi slung around his left arm. Matsuda Jiro leaned against the staircase's left rail, his black kimono-covered arms folded over his chest and his eyes practically glued on Jeffy's every move. Raijin himself stood directly in front of the building's entrance, covered almost entirely by a massive black cloak and an unusual mask of the same color, roughly heart-shaped with humongous red eyes and numerous white spikes protruding from the top. The only thing about the raiju that was otherwise visible was a massive mane of white hair that fell down the entire length of Raijin's backside. The High Yaen Master addressed Jeffy as soon as he reached the courtyard just a few feet away from the building's entrance.

"Anakouji Jeffery! How long has it been?"

Jeffy looked up toward the imposing figure with an impertinent smirk. "It's been eighteen years since you, Jiro, and I took seperate paths toward our goals."

The aforementioned Jiro raised his hand toward his former peer. "Yo, by the way."

Jeffy almost totally ignored the man. "Why have you summoned me here, High Master Raijin?"

Raijin cocked his head slightly to the left, the mask's unblinking stare giving the demon an ever-more haunting air. "Ah, directly to the point then?"

Jeffy shrugged his shoulders. "Can't really help it; I didn't come here to visit. You could have just asked me to come, but instead, you decided to hold my companions hostage. Therefore, I assume that I wasn't brought here to exchange pleasantries."

"Actually," Raijin began. "I originally summoned you for the simple purpose of catching up, but certain information that has only just recently come to my attention calls for another agenda entirely. My disciple Hideaki has observed that the Shinto apprentice in your group is carrying a large broadsword; I believe you call it by the name 'Shinryo-ken'."

Jeffy's eyebrows raised. "What of it?"

Raijin smiled under his mask. "It is my understanding that you wish to purify this sword of an evil curse. I regret to inform you that this is impossible. In order to remove what you define as a curse from that blade, you would have to destroy it completely, leaving no fragments in the process. Since that is next to impossible for a man of your means, I ask that you give the sword to me. There is a much greater role that the blade can fulfill if donated to my cause."

Jeffy pondered this for a moment, making a great show of false consideration. "And your cause is?"

The High Yaen Master snapped his fingers. "A drink for my dear friend Jeffery, so that we might discuss this in greater comfort."

Hideaki wordlessly handed Jeffy a steaming cup of what looked and smelled like black tea. The sword master took hold of the drinking vessel, but refrained from tasting it.

"As I was saying," he resumed. "What is your cause? Why have you come to this mountain in force and threatened my traveling companions?"

Raijin raised both of his aged hands skyward. "I quest for the salvation of Japan, Jeffery."

Jeffy struggled not to laugh at the notion. "The salvation of Japan? From what?"

The High Yaen Master shook his head. "Ah, I fear that I cannot divulge any more of what I know until I have the Shinryo-ken in my possession. Bring it to me, so that we may continue."

Jeffy couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "Bring it to you? You think I'll just hand over a dangerous weapon like that based on a trust you threw away 18 years ago? Forget it."

To the sword master's surprise, Raijin laughed heartily in return. "Oh well, it was worth a shot, I guess. Jiro wasn't all that miffed over what happened back then; I just thought you might have finally let bygones be bygones." The raiju master picked up a mug of black tea, similar to Jeffy's and raised it. "You are free to do as you please from now on, Jeffery. I only ask that you drink with me once, a toast to an old friendship that I took for granted."

Jeffy raised his mug in turn. "Very well; I can drink to that."

As soon as the steaming liquid passed Jeffy's lips, he knew he had been tricked. It had not been apparent until the stuff entered his mouth, but the drink tasted like death itself. Within the breadth of a second, the Yaen Master whipped out his katana, grabbed it by the hilt with both hands, and rammed the handle backwards into his own chest. Combined with a massive gust of air from the sword master's diaphragm, the force of the impact blew all of the foul poison from Jeffy's insides, causing him to double over and retch repeatedly.

"Impossible . . ." Raijin stated in awe. "Where did you learn that technique? Even so, how did you detect-"

"The poison?" Jeffy finished, bent double upon the ground. "It has the same aura as the Shinryo-ken. It's under the same curse. Just what did you hope to achieve?"

Raijin straightened his pose as his followers began reaching for their weapons. "It is no poison that I attempted to give you, Jeffery. I would never be so crude. It is hope that you tasted, the hope that will save this country from its greatest peril: the Ryuketsu, that which binds the warriors of the Blood Oath together!"

Jeffy looked up toward the bristling warriors in confusion. "Blood Oath? What the hell is this all about?"

"So sad that you will never be able to experience its coming glory." The High Yaen Master turned to his followers. "Wild Card, Jiro, take care of poor Jeffery for me."

Jiro and the assassin leapt toward Jeffy with their familiar unrealistic speed, weapons drawn in a flash. The only thing that the outnumbered Yaen Master had working for him was the announcement of the attack beforehand. He easily blocked the two men's advance with a metallic clang and propelled himself upward onto a nearby crumbling rooftop.

"What is this!" Jeffy exclaimed. "What happened to the Raijin and Jiro I used to know!"

Raijin looked up toward his former student. "I am willing to make any sacrifice for the sake of this country."

Jiro and Wild Card rocketed after their prey, Jiro's katana and the assassin's Kamikaze-ken clashing wildly with Jeffy's blade.

"You think you can do Japan any good like this!" Jeffy shouted in reply. "These are cursed weapons and bloodthirsty mongrels you're toying with here! This is insane!"

Raijin nodded. "If one man's sanity is the price that must be paid for the future of this great land, then so be it."

Jeffy vaulted backward over the buildings, crutches in hand, and made for the lower forest. Wild Card and Jiro were about to follow when Raijin quietly summoned them back.

"What do you wish of us, Master Raijin?" Wild Card inquired, kneeling below the High Yaen Master.

"Jeffy is an immediate danger." Jiro commented. "He should be dealt with."

Raijin held up a cautionary hand. "We'll have plenty of time to deal with old friends after the sword has been retrieved. Both of you are to proceed to the Yunoyama Onsen and carry out our previous plans before Jeffy warns them of our intentions."

As the assassin and Yaen Master departed, Hideaki turned his near-sightless eyes toward Raijin. "Is there something I might attend to, Raijin-sama?"

"How is your eyesight recovering?" the older raiju questioned.

"Well enough." Hideaki responded, cat-like ears alert and twitching. "Whatever deficiency that injury has caused, you know that my hearing can more than make up for it."

"Indeed I do." Raijin concurred. "Why don't you see how your skills stack up against my former student Jeffery? With the training you've received from me, you should easily surpass him, even without the benefit of perfect sight."

Hideaki smiled devilishly. "As you command, Master Raijin." An opportunity to kill someone close to Ueda Takashi? Hideaki was most definitely going to enjoy this.

>>>Evening - May 6, 1583

"Alright, Takashi," Noriko stated as she lit one of the onsen's portable lamps. "You obviously know a heck of a lot more about what's going on here than you've let on. It's time to tell us everything you know; no more games."

Takashi looked around at the group from his seat at the corner of the spacious living area and sighed. "You're probably right about that. Where do I begin?"

Noriko took her seat at the head of the group, all of whom had gathered around the ronin with the exception of Ari, who was off tending to another area of the mansion. "Let's start with what happened to Old Komo Town eight years ago. Don't leave out any details."

Fuji could see the heavy strain in Takashi's face as he prepared to tell his story. The ronin had made every effort since they had met to keep his past out of the present, and nothing about that desire had changed. Fuji had been curious about Takashi's past for quite a while, but seeing the ronin's present state of distress and sadness, the apprentice wasn't sure that he wanted to know anymore.

"It's actually pretty simple." Takashi began. "I was friends with a raiju named Hideaki and a half-raiju named Yuki. We found three swords in a cave on this mountain: the Kamikaze-ken, Ikazuchi-ken, and Shinryo-ken. A few days later, I destroyed Old Komo Town with the Shinryo-ken."

"You just up and destroyed it?" Fuji questioned with disbelief. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Even more importantly," Noriko interjected. "How is that physically possible? How do you destroy an entire town with one sword, particularly with a sword that you were too small to wield back then?"

Takashi shook his head fiercely, as if trying to rid himself of the memory. "The details are still kind of hazy. I couldn't tell you why it happened; all that I remember is that it did, in fact, happen. As for how I did it, the Shinryo-ken has an incredible amount of power. Enough to allow a 12-year-old to wield it, and more than enough to set an entire town on fire."

Noriko raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Uh-huh. Let me get this straight; you destroyed an entire town and killed who-knows-how-many people with a magic sword and you have no idea why you did it? You'll forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe."

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not," Takashi replied. "That's exactly how it happened."

"Is that why you gave it to Jeffy-sensei?" Fuji queried.

The ronin gave a weak smile. "Yeah, eventually, but not before it happened again. You know about the Honnoji no Hen, right?"

Noriko put a hand to her forehead. "Oh you've got to be kidding me . . ."

Takashi nodded in affirmation. "Nobunaga Oda was consumed in an 'accidental' fire that nearly razed Honnoji Temple to the ground. Only thing is, the fire wasn't accidental. I tried to use the Shinryo-ken against Mitsuhide Akechi's forces and ended up killing my own master."

"Uso . . ." Megumi gasped. "That can't be right . . ."

Fuji couldn't believe his ears. The cursed broadsword that he had been toting around had enough power nearly wipe a town from the face of the earth and push back an entire army as well? That most definitely sounded like something that could threaten the future of Japan itself. Was this what he had been sent to deal with?

"Yuki-chan," Megumi called to the catgirl who had remained curiously silent up till now. "This doesn't sound like Takashi, does it? He's got it wrong somehow, right?"

Yuki looked up at the former kunoich with more gravity than Fuji thought humanly possible. "It's best if you accept Takashi's words as the truth. He knows far more than anyone else about what happened. And besides, even if I were counter his statement, would you accept my word as reason enough to continue trusting him?"

"Very true, Yuki." Noriko commented. "I only need to know two things. First, do you, Takashi, know anything about those who accompany Matsuda Jiro?"

The ronin again shook his head. "I only know about Hideaki, and then only up to eight years ago. I thought he died in the fire that burned down Old Komo Town, but here he is, despite whatever I believe to be true. He rightly blames me for what I've done and wants revenge, plain and simple. Also, if that chain he carries is a reforged version of the Ikazuchi, then he has absolute power over the element of lightning, due to his raiju heritage."

"Fair enough," Noriko assessed. "The other question I have is in regard to your stories about Old Komo Town and the Honnoji no Hen." Fuji detected a dangerous undertone to Noriko's voice. "Is what you've told us in this room the absolute truth of your doings?"

Takashi looked slightly confused. "As far as I can remember, yes."

Noriko folded her arms across her chest. "In that case, I hold your promise to me completed and/or cancelled, whichever you prefer. In any case, you are free from your task and hereby forbidden to follow or assist me any further."

"What!" Megumi exclaimed. "You mean that Takashi can't come with us anymore?"

The swordswoman turned her back to the group. "That's correct. I can't have someone along who would misuse power and kill great numbers of people due to simple ignorance. According to Takashi himself, he is an irresponsible and unstable element in a combat situation, and I'm not bringing him along so he can just set us on fire whenever he feels the urge."

Fuji didn't know why, but something about this situation was making his blood boil. "That-that's not fair! We've all made mistakes in our past, right?"

"Not like this, Fuji." Takashi mumbled.

"Even so," the apprentice continued, his heartbeat involuntarily speeding up. "He hasn't done anything like that since we've known him!"

"Is that so?" Noriko mused. "What do you call his little disappearing act in New Komo Town?"

Fuji winced; he hadn't had a chance to explain that to Noriko yet. "He thought he was helping you when he challenged Hideaki on his own. What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong?" Noriko nearly laughed. "He abandoned us just before a battle that almost cost us our lives! Who's to say he won't do that again when the next confrontation shows up?"

The apprentice could feel heat rising in his neck. "How can you blame him for that? You were the one who was all like, 'I can take care of everything by myself'."

Noriko smirked. "And who's to say I couldn't have? I guess we'll never know because I spent most of the battle babysitting a bunch of incompetent tagalongs."

"That's going too far." Yuki interjected. "Fuji saved your life during that confrontation. You owe him at least some gratitude."

"Gratitude?" Noriko scoffed. "Oh yeah, I'm so grateful for a Shinto apprentice constantly butting in where he doesn't belong."

Something snapped inside Fuji's head. "Tell me something, Noriko. Why do you always have to be such a stone-cold bitch!"

Complete silence fell upon the room. Even Takashi looked up in surprise at the Shinto apprentice's sudden use of profanity. Noriko turned around slowly, her eyes widened in a disproportionate manner, almost as if they were about to explode out of her head.

"What did you just say to me?"

Fuji sweated profusely. What the hell was the matter with him? The apprentice wished sorely that he could take what he'd just said back, but now that it had been said, he decided to stand his ground.

"You-you know exactly what I just said. No matter how much everybody in this room wants and tries to help you, you always treat us like dirt."

"Oh." Noriko replied in a voice that was far too quiet. "So, let me see if I understand you. Because you people tag along with me everywhere I go even though I didn't ask for your help and explicitly said that I didn't want or need your help in the first place, I owe you something in return?"

Fuji quickly stammered a response. "That-that's not exactly what I-"

WHACK! The back of Noriko's hand hit the right side of Fuji's face with the force of a cannon blast. The apprentice's body struck the floor of the room with a sharp thud as the whole group recoiled in stunned shock.

Noriko bowed low toward the apprentice's reddened face before anything else could be said. "Let me spell something out for you, Fuji. I don't want any of you to come with me. I don't need any of you to come with me. Furthermore, I did not ask for anybody's help! You want to complain about my behavior? Since when do I give a rat's ass what you people think about me? I don't owe any of you one damn thing!"

The swordswoman made her way toward the screen door to the outside. "If anyone here needs another dose of that little thing I like to call 'reality', I'd prefer it if you go somewhere and self-fornicate instead; you're bound to get more satisfaction out of that."

A deathly silence fell on the room after Noriko's departure. Fuji held a hand to the stinging pain in the right side of his face for several moments before Takashi spoke.

"Hey, Fuji?"

The apprentice did not turn toward the ronin. "Yeah?"

Takashi bowed his head low. "There's no need to stand up for someone like me."

Fuji rose to his feet and walked slowly toward the second floor stairway. Just before reaching the edge of the room, he turned and offered a response to the ronin's claim.

"I know that, Takashi. That's exactly why I chose to."

>>>Night - May 6, 1583

As another moonlit night descended on the forests of Mt. Gozaisho, Shisho Kumo rested against a large pine tree and looked upwards. He had spent most of the day here after receiving his orders from Ninja Master Hikari through a brief visit with Haohmaru Kagome. A voice from the treetops disturbed the ninja's silent contemplation.

"Hey there, Kumo. Your eyes feeling better yet?"

Kumo looked upwards. "Yes, actually. I can see much better now. Were you present for my conversation with Kagome?"

The voice in the darkness laughed. "Of course I was, what else do I have to do all day? It's not like we can make another move without knowing for sure that our plan will work, right? Until now, your injury from that battle in New Komo Town has pretty much rendered us immobile."

"Then you are aware of our new objective?" Kumo questioned.

"I wonder who it was that came up with that lame idea." the voice pondered. "Let the situation unfold by itself? Ha, we'll see just how far that goes."

"Megumi," Kumo began to caution. "Do not disobey Master Hikari's orders in order to satiate your own lust for revenge; the ronin will meet his fate in due time."

A pair of gleaming yellow eyes appeared in the shrubbery to Kumo's left. "You think too little of me, Kumo. I'd never go against the will of Ninja Master Hikari, but according to what Kagome said, she's left us a lot of freedom to act on our own accord."

Kumo cocked an eyebrow. "How so?"

"We are to guide the direction of the conflict as necessary, remember?" the voice reminded. "That could be interpreted as 'guide at your discretion', right?."

Kumo sighed. "I don't like where you're going with this, Megu."

The voice laughed darkly. "Don't worry about it, Kumo; I'm not asking you to do a single thing besides look the other way. How about I do a little bit of 'guiding' while you rest up from your injuries? If Ueda Takashi happens to die in the process, then the situation must have demanded it, eh?"

Kumo looked downward. "I won't lie to the Ninja Master, not even for you Megumi. Whatever you do, you do it at your own risk. Why even rush this at all?"

The eyes in the dark narrowed. "No reason, really. I'd just like to see the ronin perish sooner rather than later."

(End Chapter Fourteen)

Japanese Dialogue and Terms (in order of appearance):

Ryuketsu - a play on the Japanese words for dragon (ryu) and blood (ketsueki).

uso - either "you're kidding" or "impossible".