Matsunaga Hisahide was having a decidedly unpleasant day. It had started out fairly normally, sending Kotaro out on another retrieval mission (hunting for a Muramasa blade held by some no-name lord in Hokkaido), brewing a cup of his favorite tea (a finely aged kamairacha from the town of Ureshino), reading the latest text that had been sent from his trader contact (a play by some Englishman by the name of Shakespeare); all in all, it had been quite relaxing.

That all changed once Hisahide heard a loud ruckus coming from outside. Moving to a window overlooking the courtyard, he arrived just in time to see several of his men propelled through the gate guarding his inner courts. The gate slowly swung the rest of the way open after that, making way for an unfamiliar figure to stroll through the entrance way. He was a young man, no older than his early teens, and was clad in bits and pieces of old leather. Unruly brown hair pulled back into a rough ponytail, the boy was carrying a large wooden oar in one hand and a wooden sword in the other. Stopping a few feet into the courtyard, he loudly spat on the ground before yelling at the surrounding buildings. "Come oooon! Is that all you morons got?!"

Hisahide waited just long enough to see the Miyoshi trio surround the boy, emerging from the shadows behind him before turning around and starting down the stairs. Taking hold of his treasured Totsuka no Tsurugi as he passed by, he tied the sheath to his waist as he slowly walked down the stairs. Several minutes passed as he walked towards the courtyard, not bothering to hurry in any way. As such, he emerged into the open space just as the final Miyoshi brother was knocked backwards into a wall. Still, Hisahide calmly continued towards the intruder, stepping over the boy of the youngest Miyoshi- dead or not, he neither knew nor cared. "So, it seems that even the gods of death must pass away… At least they were not hypocritical in that way." Pointing his blade at the attacker, he continued. "But you, sir, what do you seek?" My goods? Or perhaps my life?"

In response, the boy just cocked his head to the side, digging his finger around in his ear as he talked. "Eh? … Man, you talk too much! I'm just here to beat you up and take your castle for the great Musashi Miyamoto! …That's me! Though, I'm sure that you already knew that."

"To have such a child come across this world's truth… It discredits me quite a bit. It is a shame, however, to send you along so soon after learning it." Hisahide chuckled, slowly lifting his free hand up. "But I suppose that this too, is the the world's truth."

With a snap of his fingers, the courtyard was engulfed in flames, explosives that had been planted underground detonating in sequence. Even as the yard was enveloped in crimson fire, Hisahide resumed his advance, moving through the flames unhindered as he followed after Musashi. Tracking a trail of rapidly evaporating blood and ash, Hisahide stepped over another of his men's corpses as it too was consumed by the fire. Frowning slightly as he saw where the trail lead, he followed it into one of his largest treasuries.

The inside of the room was lavishly decorated, hundreds of priceless artifacts lining the walls. Hisahide passed by glittering jewels and gold, legendary ceramics and weapons, and rack upon rack of ornately forged armor standing silently along the walls- still following the streaks of ash along the floor. As he went further in, the displays became like a maze, shelves and walls stretching up to almost touch the ceiling. The trail extended almost the entire length of the storehouse, finally terminating before one of his most treasured artifacts. Dominating the rear wall of the treasury, a massive mirror was set, hung in a golden frame.

Standing in front of the massive piece, Hisahide looked down at the trail, which seemed to double back in on itself before abruptly stopping. Sighing, he looked back up into the mirror, planning on admiring it briefly, before noticing something odd. Reflected in the mirror, up almost clinging to the ceiling was the huddled figure of Musashi. Before he even had time to turn around, the all too familiar voice shouted down from behind him. "Ha! Gotcha, idiooot!"

With that, the kid leapt down at Hisahide, both weapons drawn back to strike. He easily brought his sword up to block the hit, but could do nothing about the force behind it. With a shout, the pair of them toppled backwards- straight into the mirror. As they crashed into it, a single crack appeared, running from the bottom edge to the top. As they slid down the wall, the crack proliferated, becoming two cracks, then four, then eight. Within seconds, cracks spiderwebbed across the mirror. The pair stared at the damage for a single second, and then it seemed to explode into a shower of shards, a massive scream seeming to resonate through the room as it did so. As the mirror shattered, a bright white flash of light exploded out behind it, enveloping both of those in the room. As it faded, both were nowhere to be seen.

Unbeknownst to both Hisahide and Musashi, this was not the only flash of light that occurred at that moment. Across Japan, dozens of others were suddenly surrounded by the same flash, and when it faded, they too would find themselves in a completely unfamiliar land. New bonds would be formed, and new enemies made. This was the beginning of a new adventure, a new conflict- the likes of which that had never been seen before, in either universe.