Kurosawa was shivering. Always at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's the story of my life, he thought. The only time I've ever seen rain in Kofu, it just has to be on one of my outdoor shifts. Being on guard duty is never fun, but being on guard duty in the cold rain is even worse.
The unlucky guard paced back and forth in front of Maizuru Castle, wading in neck-deep self pity, even though the water wasn't even high enough to submerge his toes. Sighing at his misfortune, he turned disinterested gazes left and right, putting on a show for anyone who might be evaluating his performance. As he glanced toward the walls of the castle, he couldn't help but feel as if something was out of the ordinary. Was it his imagination, always hard at work to make his life seem harder than it actually was? ...Or was there really something amiss?
Just as he was about to dismiss his suspicion, it hit him.
The o-fuda talismans. They weren't on the castle's walls; they had been washed off by the rain, and now lied crumpled and wet in the rainwater on the ground.
Kurosawa's first reaction was panic. Without the o-fuda talismans, this place will be overrun by demons! We're all doomed!
The wave of panic quickly subsided to skepticism. Wait a minute. Do we really need the o-fuda talismans, anyway?
Everyone says that o-fuda talismans keep demons and bad spirits away...but they're just strips of paper with fancy-looking holy words, written with "blessed" ink. Why would paper and ink keep demons away? I bet it's just a scam; I've never even seen any proof that demons exist in the first place. I've got a wart on my ass, and I've never been attacked by a demon, does that mean that my wart has holy powers? Don't think so.
Geez...do that many people really believe in supernatural things like ghosts and demons? Pieces of purportedly holy paper that supposedly keep alleged demons away. Yeah, right.
Despite his feelings of skepticism, Kurosawa felt a sensation of dread slowly growing inside of him. No matter how hard he tried to quell the feeling of anxiety, it wouldn't go away. It was as if some outside force was rousing a fear within him.
Eventually, the feeling of fear was so powerful that Kurosawa was able to sense its source.
He slowly turned around, facing away from the castle walls, and directed his eyes at the stone path leading up to the entrance.
The stones were moving, as if hands beneath the ground were trying to shove them aside and climb out.
Kurosawa was shivering, but this time, rain was the furthest thing from his mind.
Kurosawa watched as what looked like purple, wrinkled fingers slowly dug their way out of the ground, gripping and pushing aside stones. Two hands followed, with skin as crumpled and discolored as the fingers.
Kurosawa did not wait for the rest of the body. He dashed to the entrance of the castle, and banged hard on the gates.
"LET ME IN! A DEMON! THERE'S A DEMON OUT HERE!"
A few voices called back. "What'd you say? A demon?"
"OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES NOW!"
A few guards rushed to the platform above the entrance, looking down to the area below. They saw the hands - now arms - prying out of the ground.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"IT'S A DEMON! THE RAIN WASHED THE O-FUDA TALISMANS OFF!"
The guards started panicking.
"Quickly, open the gates! Kurosawa is trapped down there with a demon!"
"No, you fool, we'll only let the demon inside!"
"What?!" Kurosawa gasped. "You can't just leave me here to die! LET ME IN!"
The guards were scrambling, unsure of what to do.
Kurosawa looked back toward the stone path. He saw the upper body of a man in samurai armor, pushing himself out of the ground. His skin appeared nearly purple in color, and his eyes were yellow and red. His expression seemed furious.
"Stay away - stay away - don't hurt me, please!" Kurosawa begged.
"...I am..."
Kurosawa froze. Did the demon just...speak?
"...I am..." Raspy words crawled out of the demon's throat. "...I am the Daimyo..."
What? The Daimyo? This thing thinks it's the ruler of the castle? Is it the ghost of a former Daimyo, or something?
"Uh - look, Mr. Demon - even if you were a Daimyo at one point, you're dead now." Kurosawa said, making himself one of the very few individuals that had ever tried to reason with a demon. "Look at you, you're all decomposed! Please, just return to your grave!"
"...I made an oath..." The demon growled. "...In his place..."
"...What?" Kurosawa asked, blinking confusedly.
"...I will be the Daimyo for him...I will be the Daimyo of this clan..."
The demon had now pulled its entire body from the ground. As Kurosawa studied the demon, he noticed that the demon had a scabbard at its side. He yelped, and drew his own blade. "Stay away!"
"YOU DARE RAISE YOUR SWORD AGAINST THE DAIMYO?" The demon roared, drawing his own sword.
The demon charged forward. Kurosawa was unable to dodge, partially from a lack of good reflexes, but mostly from fear. The demon's blade ran through Kurosawa's stomach, impaling him.
The thoughts of dying men are often a mystery, but here Kurosawa's last thoughts are recorded.
My wart doesn't keep demons away, after all.
The demon shoved aside the unresponsive body of a man who was always at the wrong place at the wrong time, and began to bang on the large wooden gate of the castle.
"LET ME IN...LET YOUR DAIMYO IN..."
The wood of the gate began to splinter.
---
The Daimyo of the Shinano and Kai provinces was named Takeda Shingen. One day, Shingen's brother, Nobukado, introduced him to a thief that he had caught. Upon seeing the thief, Shingen's eyes grew wide - for looking at this man's face was like looking into a mirror. The thief bore a strong resemblance to Shingen - the two looked as if they might have been identical twins. Nobukado had spared the thief's life because he thought the thief would make an effective body double for Shingen.
Shingen spent much time with the thief, teaching him how to properly imitate his behavior. Shingen and the thief eventually grew close and became friends. The thief felt a deep respect for Shingen, and considered it an honor to put his own life on the line to protect the Daimyo's life.
Despite the clever precaution of using a body double, the real Shingen was eventually shot by a sniper's arrow, and mortally wounded. The only witnesses were his generals and body double. With his last breaths, Shingen begged his generals to keep his death a secret. As tears rolled down his cheeks, his double made an oath to his dying friend to take his place.
And thus, the man who was once a petty thief took up the task of impersonating Shingen full-time.
The impersonator was so good at imitating Shingen that he successfully fooled Shingen's friends, concubines, and even his grandson. His act awed the generals who knew his secret. Spies who were sent to investigate whether or not Shingen still lived were convinced by the impersonator's performance. At one point, the impersonator even led reinforcements into a battle, and inspired his troops to victory.
However, the impersonator eventually made a fatal mistake. In a fit of overconfidence, he attempted to ride Shingen's horse - an unruly creature that only Shingen himself had ever been able to tame and ride successfully. When the impersonator was unable to straddle the horse, no matter how many attempts he made, he was revealed as an impostor.
"You're not Shingen! You're an impostor! What have you done with our Daimyo?!" Cried the men who had witnessed the impersonator's failure.
Overwhelmed by frustration, the impersonator cried, "Shingen is dead!"
None of Shingen's generals were present, so there was no one to defend the impersonator. The warriors present misinterpreted the impersonator's words, and took them to mean that the impostor had killed Shingen himself to take his place. Enraged, they charged at the impersonator to apprehend him. In fear, the impersonator began to run away. An archer fired an arrow at the impersonator's leg to stop him, and hit his target - but when he was shot in the leg, the impersonator tripped and fell into a pit that was being dug in front of the castle so that a stone path could be laid there. He broke his neck upon striking the bottom of the pit.
Shingen's warriors, believing that a man foul enough to assassinate their Daimyo and take his place was not deserving of a proper burial, merely filled the pit with dirt and stones to complete the stone path and bury him on the spot. When the generals discovered what had happened, they were bewildered, but decided not to reveal the truth. Shingen's son inherited the title of Daimyo.
It was at this time that the generals believed it would be wise to place o-fuda talismans on the castle walls, to protect the castle, should the impersonator's angry spirit ever rise again to take revenge for his wrongful killing and honorless death.
---
The demon had finally made it to his throne room. Along the way, he had slain those who had dared to raise their swords against the Daimyo. A man was sitting upon the throne. The demon was the true Daimyo, not this man sitting in his throne. So the demon killed him, too.
The demon's mind turned to a troubling matter. His castle was presently on fire. He had been reckless as he traversed through the stronghold, and had knocked down quite a few torches and lanterns. Putting out fires was not the job of a Daimyo - that's what servants were for - so he'd paid the fires no mind. But he'd been forced to kill many servants that had refused to obey his orders as he'd walked through the halls to his throne. Who would put out the fire? He paid this matter no mind. He was the Daimyo. That's all he had to think about.
He heard a loud crash behind him - a part of the ceiling had collapsed, most likely due to the fire. The demon growled in anger at the useless servants who had not put the flames out yet. He turned around to inspect the destruction, and beheld a figure kneeling in the debris of the ceiling. This individual had apparently decided to enter the room from above. As the figure stood up, the demon quickly recognized that it was a woman.
The woman appeared to be wearing a skintight red suit over her entire body, along with a mask on the lower half of her face and a few pieces of light armor on her arms and legs - sneaking gear, even if the red bodysuit was slightly too bright in color to be practical. A spy? An assassin? Whoever she was, she had demonstrated that she did not have the cognitive ability to understand the function of a doorway, and that she was rude enough to disrespect the Daimyo himself by both intruding unannounced into his chambers and damaging his ceiling in the process.
The demon was furious at his latest transgressor, and roared wrathfully.
"Demon," the woman began, "I know not what crimes others have committed against you. I know not what would cause you to return from death to seek retribution from those who wronged you. As noble as you may have been in life, as unfair as your end may have been, you may not be allowed to roam this world after death. I am a demon hunter. It is my sworn duty to see demons return to the grave, where they belong. I command you now to return to the afterlife, and to never return to this world!"
The demon was furious. How dare this woman speak to the Daimyo himself in such a way? To call him a demon, to tell him that he belongs in the afterlife - this woman was no different than the guards and servants that had attacked him and refused to obey his commands - and so this woman would be punished for her insolence, just as the others had been!
The demon drew his katana. The woman calmly reached behind her back and drew a short sword as she slowly slipped into a combat stance. "I will allow you a final opportunity to surrender and leave this realm. There is no dishonor, no shame in acknowledging your errors and departing. Please allow this to end without any further bloodshed."
The demon charged.
"...So be it." The woman said. There was genuine remorse in her voice - but behind the veil of regret, one could sense an equal amount of excitement and anticipation. While a peaceful surrender was officially the preferable outcome, she had no objections to the exhilaration of a battle with a demon.
The woman was skilled in ninjitsu as well as magic-based attacks effective against demons. However, the demon had learned swordplay to fulfill the role he had while alive, and his undead form granted him superhuman strength and speed - he was a match even for the demon hunter.
As the fight progressed, it became clear that neither side had an advantage, and that neither combatant was going to slay the other anytime soon. The majority of the demons the woman dispatched were vengeful spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife, but not all were necessarily skilled combatants. This demon had proved to be an exception, and one of the stronger ones that she had encountered. She had bashfully attacked it for excitement, when she should have instead concentrated on purification from the beginning.
The woman leapt backwards away from the demon, and then sheathed her weapon. She clasped her hands together, and begin to draw forth holy energy. Wisps of bluish-purple energy formed around her, similar in shape to flames, a stark contrast to the growing presence of real fire around her. She gathered the required energy quickly, and began uttering an incantation.
A ring of bluish-purple light appeared on the ground around her, and more light began to radiate outwards from that ring. The light formed Japanese symbols, and as the light spread outwards, the floor became covered with dozens of various Japanese words.
Purity.
Goodness.
Protection.
Fortune.
Holiness.
The light crept up the walls and onto the ceiling, spreading the symbols everywhere. The symbols did not merely stand for ideas - everywhere they went, they enchanted the area with the ideas they represented. The light spread quickly, and the demon was surrounded by purifying magic within seconds.
The woman completed the incantation, and the symbols suddenly shined much brighter, bathing the demon in both light and holy energy. The demon screamed and flinched, as a demonic being in a room of holy energy is akin to an ice cube in a furnace.
It seemed as if the demon would be purged within moments - but something was not right.
The holy energy had stopped shining brighter, and was beginning to dim.
The woman inferred what was happening instantly. In a desperate attempt to combat the holy energy, the demon was using its own dark energy to push back at it. However, to do such a thing was to severely weaken its own physical constitution. Although the demon would succeed in repelling the holy energy, the stress of the act would be too much for its body to take, and the demon would shatter, all of its dark energy literally exploding outwards. It would mean the permanent end of the demon, but a short radius around the demon would be subject to a massive amount of destructive force - and the woman was within that radius. She had mere moments to escape before the demon's body gave out and -
Observers standing outside of the castle heard an enormous explosion. Looking up, they saw a giant ball of fire engulf one entire floor of the castle near the top. The castle had strong structural integrity, and would hold, although almost everything within an entire floor had been incinerated. As that was the floor the demon had been heading to, it was a sure bet that the demon was now vanquished. But, what of the mysterious figure that they had seen creeping into the castle? Had she been engulfed in the explosion, as well?
A few observers recall witnessing the sight of a woman landing safely on one of the castle walls, looking towards the castle for a moment, and then leaping off into the shadows, disappearing as quickly and as mysteriously as she had appeared.
The same rain that had washed off the o-fuda talismans would repent by putting out the fires that raged within the castle before irreparable damage could be done.
---
Courage. Respect. Honesty. Loyalty. Honor.
Samurai held such virtues in the highest regard - especially the last. Samurai preferred to meet their foes head-on in combat, to fight without cheap attacks, and accepted their own death as a probable outcome of any confrontation.
However, during this time of conflicts between Daimyo, guerilla warfare and assassination were valuable alternatives to frontal assaults. However, since the samurai code of conduct, Bushido, forbade such underhanded tactics as dishonorable, a Daimyo could never expect his own samurai to perform such tasks.
As demand grew for the increasingly valuable services of sabotage, espionage, and assassination, individuals arose to provide these services. They were shinobi-no-mono - "ones who were skilled in the art of stealth" - also known as ninja.
Ninja were often related by kinship or descent, but were willing to accept others into their circle, eventually forming small societies of ninja-for-hire known as clans. Ninja clans lived together in hidden villages, their headquarters.
One such ninja clan, the Fu-Ma, was gifted with many clansmen who possessed extraordinary abilities that had been lost or forgotten by the general population. The clan was founded by two men named Toki and Hachibei. Toki was a ninja master skilled in magical arts. He was also an experienced spy, and was often hired for espionage missions. On one such mission, as he was scaling a wall, he was spotted by a man and a woman. Knowing that the two witnesses would warn the guards, Toki slew them quickly. Only as their bodies were falling to the ground did Toki notice that the woman had been carrying something -
A cradle, and inside of it, a baby girl.
As the cradle struck the ground, the child inside began to cry. For many years, Toki had been indifferent to the tragedies he caused during his missions, considering them to be the responsibility of the people whom had hired him. However, he had never before experienced such a powerful symbol of the consequences of his actions - a baby laying inches away from its dead parents, with only a murderer to hear its cries.
Toki had rarely stopped to consider the consequences of the deaths that he caused. How many children had he orphaned? How many wives had he widowed? How many innocents had he slain simply because he had been careless? What were the fates of those whose lives he had ruined? Children must have starved to death, women must have turned to questionable means to acquire income. And this baby - what of it? Would it be found by someone? Killed by an animal? Would it freeze to death in the coming night?
No matter how hard he tried, this time, Toki could not shift the blame onto the one who had hired him, as he usually did. Toki had slain this child's parents with his own hands, and whatever sad fate awaited it was his doing, and all these years, he had been doing things just as bad as this - or worse.
His own inconsideration struck him harder than any enemy's blow could have. Gazing upon the crying baby, he swore an oath to himself - from that day forward, he would devote his services not to corrupt leaders and dishonorable Daimyo, but to protecting innocents - a purpose far more honorable than his previous one.
As for the child - what could he do for her? How could he repent for killing this child's parents? At the moment, all he could do was take her into his arms and protect her. He abandoned his mission, and returned to his clan's village, where he would make his announcement. It was met with understanding from his loyal clansmen. From then on, the Fu-Ma ninja clan used their supernatural abilities not to murder, but to exterminate the demons that plagued the land, a business that proved to be just as lucrative as their previous one had been.
As for the baby girl, Toki raised her like a daughter. When the time came, he taught her the purification arts of his clan, and when she came of age and proved her competency and skill, she was inducted as a member of the Fu-Ma ninja clan.
The name that Toki had given her was Taki.
---
Taki's mentor trained her well, and passed his skills and techniques down to her. Taki became a highly skilled ninja and gained mastery of the supernatural powers that her clan possessed. Wishing to carry out the desires of her foster father, Taki chose to travel throughout Japan to conquer evil and vindictive demons.
During her early experiences, Taki was often met with disappointment when a weapon she wielded proved to be of low quality and broke during combat or otherwise failed her. Taki learned the skills of blacksmithery from her clansmen, and from that point onwards, she forged all of her own weapons herself to ensure that her tools were always of the highest quality and would never fail her.
Taki forged and tempered her weapons with great care - some might say with love. Among all of her impressive custom weapons, her favorite was a short sword she named Rekki-maru, a blade that contained holy supernatural power.
One day, inexplicably, Rekki-maru's power began to weaken. This coincided with the rise of strange rumors spreading throughout the land.
Rumors of a weapon called Soul Edge.
Taki could see no other explanation for the strange phenomenon that was affecting her blade - she decided to investigate this rumor of a demon sword.
Her investigation lead her to the other side of the world - and to a battle beyond imagination. Taki eventually beheld the wielder of the evil weapon, a pirate. The weapon surged with a powerful dark energy that made the ghosts she had conquered in the past seem like child's play. Her armor, which she had been improving for years, could scarcely bear the evil force, and cracked when she drew near. Yet, Taki refused to flee - she could not allow this man to continue to wield the two blades that constituted this evil weapon.
When Taki arrived, the pirate was in the middle of a conflict with another woman - the woman fought valiantly, but the man appeared to have the upper hand. In an incredible display, the woman managed to destroy one of the two swords that composed Soul Edge. The sword shattered violently, and the explosion of dark energy caused the shards to fly outwards with extreme force and speed - several of the shards struck the woman, burying themselves inside of her body. The woman was too injured to carry on, and the pirate was furious. He was about to deal the killing blow.
This was when Taki leapt in. She blocked the pirate's attack, defending the woman, and then fought him herself. The undead pirate was like nothing Taki had ever encountered before - even her sealing spells proved useless. Despite all odds, Taki eventually slew the pirate - although the final blow caused her beloved Rekki-maru to crack.
The pirate was no more, and the blade was without a host. Taki believed the threat to be over. She tried speaking to the injured woman, but she was almost entirely incoherent. She managed to speak the name of her homeland, and town of residence. Taki removed the shards of the evil sword from the woman's wounded body, and successfully transported the semi-conscious woman back to her family.
Now that her journey was complete, Taki returned to her clan's hidden village. She expected Toki to be happy to see her again, but Toki seemed to be heavily preoccupied with another matter, and barely even acknowledged her return. Soon afterwards, Toki summoned all the ninjas of the clan to make an announcement.
When Toki stood before his clansmen, he could have been mistaken for a demon. Fury was etched into every corner of his face. His body was trembling, and his face was red from repressed rage. He almost screamed as he made his announcement: "Hachibei has betrayed us! He has stolen the Mekki-maru!" The clansmen were shocked. Hachibei was the co-founder of the Fu-Ma clan, along with Toki, and the Mekki-maru was the clan's treasure, a blade with supernatural power and abilities. "Hachibei has fled our clan with his daughter, Chie. From this moment on, they are nuke-nin!"
This was a powerful statement - the most grave announcement Toki could have made. Nuke-nin are ninja who abandon their clan; ninja are not allowed to leave their clan until they die, because of the secret arts and information they carry. For this reason, a ninja clan seeks to execute nuke-nin as soon as possible. This is one of the tragedies of the ninja; as a nuke-nin, a ninja's former friends will attempt to take his life, and if he wants to live, he will have to kill his kith and kin.
"Now, go!" Toki bellowed. "I order you to go reclaim Mekki-maru, and destroy Hachibei!"
Toki had never behaved in this manner before. He was always calm and wise, never red-faced with rage. Upon seeing the pure fury in his eyes, Taki began to feel suspicious of Toki for the first time in her life.
After days of searching, no one could find Hachibei; his skill in hiding was easily the finest in the clan. Only Taki, with her sixth sense and massive number of contacts, could even begin to track him down. Eventually, after following a trace of Chie, Hachibei's daughter and Taki's childhood friend, Taki was able to locate Hachibei.
Hachibei and Chie now occupied a small shack on a vacant road, and Taki paid them a visit. Upon seeing a member of the Fu-Ma ninja clan, Hachibei was frightful, but upon realizing it was Taki, his face was filled with relief. He knew that Taki was reasonable enough not to kill him on sight. Hachibei began talking to Taki through heavy coughs.
"Toki is possessed by madness, and has lost his senses. This blade - Mekki-maru - controls him now."
Hachibei handed the Mekki-maru to Taki. The short sword seemed quiet and dull, even though her clansmen claimed it had extraordinary spiritual powers.
"Toki is no longer the Toki we once knew. If he comes in contact with this blade again - " Hachibei's speech was interrupted by a slew of coughs. "...I am in my final days. I beg you, Taki! Never let Toki have this blade! Never!"
Hachibei was ill, and he knew Toki would find him soon. With this new information, Taki's suspicion in Toki grew, and she decided to let Hachibei and Chie go free. She hid the Mekki-maru elsewhere, and returned to her clan to confirm her suspicions.
"I found Hachibei and Chie." Taki reported to Toki. "He was not in possession of the Mekki-maru. He claimed that it had been stolen from him by a Chinese man. I killed both of them."
Upon hearing her report, Toki grinned, and ordered the clan to pursue and kill any Chinese men they saw. Upon hearing such a grave and heartless order, Taki realized that Toki was no longer the man she had once known. His eyes were full of evil, and Taki could clearly see the madness behind them. Her suspicions were confirmed.
Before determining how to approach this volatile situation, Taki desired to repair her broken Rekki-maru, which still bore damage from her battle with the pirate. She reached into her belongings, and withdrew one of the shards of Soul Edge that she had obtained from the injured woman's body. Taki attempted to drive the shard into her broken weapon, but they were resistant to one another, and refused to be joined.
"In Mekki-maru, there is sealed a fearful power. Never let Toki have that sword. You are only one that I could trust..."
Reminded of Hachibei's words, Taki attempted an experiment. She retrieved the Mekki-maru from where she had hidden it, and tried to fuse the shard of Soul Edge with Mekki-maru. The two were immediately united, and began to shed a dark aura. An aura so dark, even common people could sense it. Sensing the blade's evil potential, Taki closed it in its sheath, and sealed it with o-fuda. However, even this was not enough power to suppress the power of Mekki-maru.
At this point, that it was discovered that Taki had lied about Hachibei, and that she was in possession of the Mekki-maru that Toki sought. She was confronted by Geki, Toki's right hand man, and his highest-ranking ninja. Geki easily overwhelmed and defeated Taki, and then wrested the Mekki-maru from her grasp. Wishing to see the blade for himself, Geki began to draw the weapon from its sheath.
"No, Geki! Don't release it!" Taki cried.
The careless Geki watched in horror as the blade released a powerful shockwave of dark energy upon its release from the sheath, shattering his right arm. As Geki shrieked in pain, Taki seized the opportunity, grabbed Mekki-maru, and ran past Geki and his underlings.
Upon seeing the force of the blade for herself, Taki was convinced of one thing: "No one should never have this power...especially Toki..."
Thus, Taki became a nuke-nin just as Hachibei had become. The assassins under Toki's direct control were powerful and fearful ninja, and among them was Geki, who, having lost his right arm, wished to taste her blood most of all. All Taki could do now was to attempt to driving back the attacks of the assassins sent for her, as she spent her days fleeing and hiding from the clan she was once a part of.
Mekki-maru was a sword cloaked in mystery. Although Taki possessed great knowledge of weapons, she was unable to augment the sword in any way. The more she tried and failed to alter the blade, the more she sought to master it. It eventually became a near obsession of hers to find a way to subjugate this sword of unmeasured potential into obedience.
Her desire to master the sword grew stronger by the day. Eventually, Taki gave in. She built up the fundamental skills needed to handle Mekki-maru, built her mental strength enough to overcome the evil influences of the sword, and learned to wield it without succumbing to it.
At one point, ninjas sent after Taki attempted to capture her instead of kill her on sight. They were, of course, no match for Taki, but she was curious as to why their plan had suddenly changed. Searching through the strewn remains of the ninjas, Taki came across a metal fragment. Although weak, the aura emanating from the metal was unmistakably that of Soul Edge. She realized that the sword could not be considered destroyed, as it still existed in pieces.
Taki then realized why the ninjas had tried to capture her. Toki was trying to gather information about Soul Edge in order to find all of the fragments. Undoubtedly, more pieces of the sword, just like the one she held in her hand, were already in Toki's possession. There was no telling how many of them he possessed.
Knowing the effects that Soul Edge had on those who wielded it, Taki knew she could not let it get into the hands of Toki.
Even without the sword, the head of the Fu-Ma clan was already powerful. She was afraid to think about what would happen if Toki acquired the evil blade and received its madness. He could transform into a monster with unfathomable strength.
She thought about what she should do next. Should she go after the fragments that her former master had, or exorcise the evil sword itself? Either way, time was running out...
Taki made up her mind, and first set out to shake off her pursuers. She deliberately leaked some false information about the evil blade in order to divert the attention of the Fu-Ma clan. After successfully scattering the agents sent by Toki, she headed for the hidden village.
Taki learned that the village of the Fu-Ma was suffering from a fierce internal strife. Sensing the clan leader's madness, a faction of the Fu-Ma clan sought to take over. The other half of the clan were intensely loyal to Toki, and even desired to increase his dark power, hoping that they would reap rewards once their master was powerful enough. Taki made contact with the rebelling faction, and, in exchange for providing them with information regarding fragments of the cursed sword, she learned of Toki's whereabouts.
Toki was in a temple located near the capital city. Many demons too powerful to be destroyed had been sealed in that temple, and Toki apparently intended to take the power of those evil spirits. Avoiding the obstacles placed in her path by Toki's loyal followers, Taki snuck through the darkness and arrived at the unholy temple. She felt a terrible evil presence welling up from beneath the surface. There was no time to delay...Taki entered the Great Buddha shrine that had been constructed below the temple, and finally came face-to-face with Toki.
Several legendary demons crossed Taki's mind when she saw him. There was nothing left of the man that was once her master - his body was swollen and covered with sinewy muscle, looking as if he wore a suit of heavy armor. His skin took on a dark red hue, reflecting the wild flow of his blood. His fiery red eyes were filled with the bloodlust of a vicious beast.
Dark colors swirled around Toki, as he drew in all of the spirits and energy of the temple. But no matter how powerful her opponent, Taki would not let it overwhelm her.
Taki drew her Rekki-maru and approached, but at that moment, a long, ghost-like tortured cry echoed throughout the shrine.
She felt a familiar presence - a great demon she had once defeated and sealed in this place. The disturbances caused by Toki had broken the seal. Now, even that evil force was being absorbed into the vortex of Toki's dark energy. Taki steeled herself for battle, and began her most challenging fight yet.
It was ironic what gave Taki her slight advantage - to defeat the powerful demi-demon, she used the Fu-Ma techniques Toki himself had taught her, and the blade that pierced his tough body was Mekki-maru, the sword he himself had conspired to obtain. After being struck by enough of Taki's purifying blows, Toki's body began to shrink as the dark energy that had been sucked into his body was released. Before long, he had returned to his true form - a frail, elderly man.
Taki struggled to maintain consciousness after the exhausting fight. She had received grave injuries from the ordeal, and she had used up all of her strength in order to restrain Mekki-maru from losing control in response to the evil energy. Her task, however, was not finished. Taki looked down at Toki's aged and crumpled body, and started to swing the final blow.
A weak voice called out to her.
"...Taki...is that you?"
Startled, Taki froze and gazed at the old man's face. His lips trembled as they moved.
"...It is...so dark here..."
There was no sign of madness in his voice. Taki felt strong emotions well up within her. "Master..." She said wistfully. "What happened to you? What drove you mad?"
"...I was...weak..." Wheezed Toki in a hushed voice. "The legendary weapon...Soul Edge...ages ago, a piece of it was broken off...Mekki-maru is...that piece..." He coughed. "Mekki-maru is a part of Soul Edge that became its own entity...developed its own will...the will of the sword took control of me, made me its slave...all I could think of was collecting more shards of Soul Edge to make the sword more powerful..." He coughed again. "Since it took control of me...I was unable to think clearly...my life has been like a dream...I was hardly self-aware, almost entirely controlled by the will of the sword...Taki...thank you for stopping me..."
"Master, please, don't speak - save your strength."
"...Taki...I must warn you...I have almost collected enough..."
"...Master? Collected enough of what?"
"...I have almost collected enough...to create another..."
Suddenly, Toki's eyes shot wide open. A pitch-black cloud began to billow out of his mouth - the will of Mekki-maru? Taki swung at it with her Rekki-maru, but the blade had no effect. The entity hurled itself at her - an attempt at possession? Taki steeled herself, and summoned holy magic to protect herself. The cloud tried, but could not possess her. Before long, it gave up the futile effort, and passed through her, heading behind her.
Taki whirled around, and beheld a figure standing in the darkness. His ability to have stood there undetected - as well as his one-armed silhouette - gave away his identity instantly.
"Geki..." Taki growled.
The black cloud flew straight toward Geki, and although he tried to bat it away, the cloud flew into his mouth. Geki's posture went limp, then straightened itself out.
"One less arm, but a more fitting host than that old man." Geki said.
Taki reached for her Rekki-maru. However, no sooner than she had drawn it from its sheath, Geki was standing before her - moving with speed even greater than he had previously possessed. Geki delivered a powerful blow to Taki that knocked the wind out of her, and while she was stunned, Geki snatched Mekki-maru's scabbard from Taki's belt.
"This is the last piece I need." Geki said with a smirk.
Taki recovered, and slashed her Rekki-maru at Geki. However, Geki blocked the blow using only the scabbard of the Mekki-maru, and then delivered another devastating blow to Taki - a kick that launched her off of the suspended platform, and down into the dark pit below.
Geki waited until he could no longer hear Taki's scream reverberating through the temple, grinned, and then turned and left the temple.
---
The life on a ninja is fleeting.
Taki rarely ruminated over the tragedies of life, especially the life of a ninja.
However, when one is crumpled at the bottom of a pit, barely able to move one's arms and legs, one cannot help but ruminate about the tragedies of life.
Taki had sustained grave injuries, but nothing more severe than she had sustained in the past. By surrounding herself with a magical barrier at the last moment, she had been able to curb the impact of a fall which otherwise would have been fatal. However, she was badly wounded from both the fight with Toki and the fall, and climbing out of this pit would be hell.
I cannot remain here for long. Geki appears to have been possessed by the will of Mekki-maru, and with the blade now in his possession, there is no telling what he could do. Toki had amassed a large collection of Soul Edge shards...if Geki were to combine those shards with Mekki-maru, there is no telling what could happen...I must put a stop to him...
Taki spent a short amount of time tending to her wounds, and once she had mustered enough energy, she began the long climb upwards.
---
Everyone had frozen at once. It was as if time had stopped. Their worst fear seemed to be coming true right before their eyes. Time seemed to slowly creak to life again, moving in slow motion, as the women all cautiously reached for their weapons. With all the care he would have taken with a fragile explosive, Siegfried gingerly removed the satchel from his back and held it before himself.
It was resonating.
For many months now, the Soul Embrace had been inert, an object trapped in limbo. The two forces contained within it were locked in a stalemate, neither overpowering the other. The Soul Embrace was a completely inert object, possessing extreme amounts of energy, but exerting none of it.
For many months now, the Soul Embrace had been unmoving and unresponsive to any stimuli whatsoever - but now, for the first time since any of them had laid eyes on it, the Soul Embrace was resonating, as if reacting and responding to some other force. It was identical to the way that shards of Soul Edge resonated when close to the evil blade itself.
Siegfried slowly opened the satchel and pulled it down, revealing its rarely seen containments. The Soul Edge part of the Embrace was periodically vibrating - pulsing, like a heartbeat. The eye had opened and rolled up, as if it was experiencing an overwhelming feeling.
"It can't be doing this on its own." Ivy said. "By its very nature, it's an entity that cannot produce change by itself. This must be influence from an outside force."
Everyone instinctually looked around at the immediate area, but Ivy had discounted that possibility. "I bet it's an extremely powerful surge of dark energy coming from somewhere. Try to sense it."
Putting to work the ability that years spent around supernatural energy had honed, the group tried to sense a large outpouring of dark energy. They sensed it - in their minds' eyes, they could see the location; a temple.
"That temple...I don't know what's inside of it, but we need to investigate it, now. If it's powerful enough to do this to the Soul embrace, it requires our immediate attention."
The rest of the group was in agreement.
---
As the group neared the temple, they suddenly felt the dark energy wane quickly and then disperse. The Soul Embrace fell silent. The flow of dark energy had stopped. The group acknowledged this, but pressed onwards, still intent on investigating this mystery.
Upon the steps of the temple, they found the bodies of dozens of dead ninja. The sight conjured memories from their pasts.
"This scene...it looks identical to something that Cervantes or Nightmare would have done..."
"I don't like this." Siegfried said, almost audibly angry. "We must enter that temple." The group ascended the steps, and entered the temple. As they progressed through its halls, finding more corpses and destruction, Setsuka spoke.
"I realize where we are now! We're in the Hoko temple...below the ground here is a shrine constructed using forbidden magic. This place is distant from the spiritually rich underground waterways that crisscross Japan, and so it is a place in which dark powers gather. Many ancient evil spirits have been sealed here in the past. This shrine has become a nest for all sorts of creatures, demons, and spirits."
"Then where are they?" Ivy asked. "There's nothing like that in sight, and I don't sense anything like that, either."
"...I...I can't say for sure what is going on...perhaps this place simply doesn't live up to its reputation? ...Or perhaps that surge of dark energy from before has something to do with it..."
The group soon reached the center of the shrine, beholding a deep pit, a giant Buddha statue on the other side, and a large platform suspended in the air by chains over the pit. The room bore the signs of a very recent and very intense battle, but the only sign of a fight to be seen was an elderly man's corpse in the center of the platform.
"I don't get it...what happened here?" Sophitia wondered aloud.
Sophitia heard something - a sound like a person struggling to breathe. It was coming from over the side of the pit. Sophitia walked to the edge, and looked down.
She was staring at a woman clad in a tight blue bodysuit, who appeared to be scaling the rocky face of the pit using her bare hands. She was only a few feet from the top now.
That face...haven't I seen her somewhere before...?...Her face makes me recall the Cervantes battle...
The woman scaling the pit uttered a surprised statement in her language, then repeated it in the foreign one she'd grasped a few years ago. "...You again? Why are you here?"
I remember her now! I only saw her face a few times as I slipped in and out of consciousness, but I could never forget her - the woman that helped me return home from Spain!
The woman appeared to be exhausted beyond the limits of the human body. Her grasp on the rocky wall was beginning to slip. Sophitia reached down, and grabbed her wrist.
Sophitia smiled. "This is nothing compared to how you helped me, carrying me across countries to return me to my home - but this'll go at least a little bit toward returning the favor."
The woman smirked, and grasped Sophitia's wrist. Sophitia pulled her up. The rest of the group was quite shocked to see Sophitia produce an Asian woman in battle-damaged ninja gear from the lip of the pit.
Taki and Ivy recognized one another instantly - but each knew that their previous encounter was insignificant compared to their current situation, and said no words to one another. Likewise, knowing that the circumstances of their first encounter were inconsequential, Sophitia didn't bother to tell the group who this woman was to her.
Upon beholding Siegfried, Taki had a strange feeling as to who his former identity had been - but made no mention of it, at least not then.
"Please excuse our impromptu arrival, but - exactly who are you, and what happened here?" Siegfried asked.
Panting heavily from the exhausting climb up the tall pit, Taki did not bother to assume proper posture and introduce herself formally. Sitting on the ground and resting her body, she spoke. "I am a demon hunter. My name is Taki. I assume you all know what Soul Edge is..."
Taki quickly summarized Toki's words, explaining that a particularly potent shard of Soul Edge that had broken off decades ago had been used to forge a sword called Mekki-maru, which had now claimed a host and possessed intentions involving a large collection of Soul Edge's shards. Taki briefly summarized the events that had transpired within the temple that night.
The group was bewildered. "This is...horrifying news." Siegfried whispered in awe and terror. "To think that a fragment of Soul Edge that powerful exists, that it may become even more powerful soon...The worst possibility is that another Soul Edge could be created! This is a greater threat than we have ever faced before! We must find the host and destroy the blade!"
"Why are there so many freshly killed corpses outside and inside of the temple?" Ivy asked.
"...Corpses...?..." Taki asked, struggling to keep herself conscious. "...Geki...the new host...he must have killed them...his own clansmen...the sword must have commanded him to..."
Siegfried was shaking his head. He appeared to be the most horrified of the group. "This is...it's...it's repeating itself...We can't let it happen again!"
"Geki is likely headed for the hidden village...I could take you there...we could try to stop..."
"Yes, please! Please take us to Geki and the shards! We must destroy them!"
Taki was unresponsive. The group eagerly awaited a sign from her.
Taki sleepily looked at Sophitia, and muttered the words "Your turn" before collapsing.