The dream was like water, it was his life, his very life from beginning of his days, from the day his superior had put his hair in his chonmage as a Samurai to Lord Oda Nobunaga, to the days where war was his wife, destruction his mistress, and blood his best friend. Okami, a man born in Tenbun 20, to a Samurai family who had supported Oda Nobunaga and had assisted him militarily with unifying Owari province. His mentor outside his family, Unagiri Zencho, who had put his hair into a chonmage as he graudated at the tender age of 13 to continue in Nobunaga's wars, how he had fought side beside with some of the most ferocious men and even some women. But nothing was like that day.
The day was glorious, a day of war, of bloodshed, of death and destruction. The Daimyo's Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu had finally lured Takeda Katsuyori to the plains of Nagashino and were clashing, the Takeda were charging up to Nobunaga's palisades and were working their way in, under fire, bullets, arrows, and some of the Tokugawa-Oda forces were hurling things at the horsemen of the Takeda, a hellish sight to those afraid of war, however, as the current group breached the first layer of palisades they were met with a unit of Oda men, 31, they had long hair, weren't as clean as other Oda samurai, and were a mixed group, as the two units engaged they quickly found the leader, a taller than average samurai standing at 6'1", he was holding a Yari and he began to attack, shouting commands.
"Vanguard! Kill them! For Lord Oda!" Okami shouted, he was the ranking officer among them, this was his unit, his brothers, his family, the Okami no Mure, as the groups were engaging, Okami could notice the palisades being taken apart, rushing forward he impaled the first Takeda he could, losing his Yari in the process, without missing a beat he drew his katana and engaged the Ashigaru who were trying to dismantle the palisades, if that happened then the defenders would be swamped with calvary, trying to kill as many as he could he could see that the palisade was indeed coming down, thinking to himself 'Hachiman help us' he saw the calvary charging the newly formed opening, knowing he still had his job he beheaded an Ashigaru who charged him with their axe, he then severed another's arm before gracefully dodging the third's blow and responded by cutting the top of the man's skull with his katana, looking up he sheathed his own katana and reached down to pluck the axe out of the first attackers cold dead hands, taking it up he chucked it into a rushing Takeda samurai's chest, the impact making him fall from his horse, Okami was upon him in a minute, taking the man's katana and cutting his throat with it before he stood up and got in his stance.
The first attacker who rushed him was thrown from his horse as Okami severed it's front left leg, Okami was on the man in moments, hacking and slashing him apart, Okami knew this position would be the death of him but felt no fear, instead Okami felt alive, more alive than ever, attacking the charging horseman he was the first guard to his Daimyo, and he'd not let any of them go without at least swinging at them, as Okami saw an officer rushing, Okami bent down to grab another Yari and without thinking, threw it at him, the Yari struck home, Okami roared in victory but while distracted with his triumph suddenly screamed in pain as three men impaled him with Yaris.
Okami struggled for a moment, his right shoulder, left ribs, and right hip had been impaled, as they pulled the Yari's out to impale him again, he turned his body, throwing his left arm death gripping his katana he had taken from the Takeda samurai at his attackers, scoring a kill on the first Ashigaru, he threw the sword at the second, it was effortlessly knocked away, before they could attack him again the samurai's chest was hit by a matchlock round and the 2nd Ashigaru thinking better of it fled, however Okami was coughing and trying to go after him when he was grabbed by a Takeda samurai who went to chop off his head, before the Samurai could another Takeda horseman smashed into his fellow Samurai, killing him immediately and knocking Okami to the ground.
Coughing up blood, Okami started trying to crawl away before finding a broken Yari, using it to pick himself up, he realized during that lost hit his helmet had been knocked off, or… did he wear his helmet? He couldn't quite remember, however when he went to look up another samurai was in front of him and suddenly his left eye was full of pain, burning, hot pain, even his right eye was obscured by the red, hot sticky substance, before another attack could be started on him another horseman collided with the two of them, knocking Okami to the ground just outside the area they were charging into. Okami did not rise from his spot as his entire world went black, and with it the dream, like water pouring away, was broken with noises registering to his ears, pulling him from his deep sleep.
"On this day on 28 June 1575, the Battle of Nagashino was fought, and the Takeda clan was reduced from its esteemed glory to nothing. After the battle a wounded Samurai was brought here and hidden in a room, it is said that he still lives. What a load of bullshit." Shinobu Kocho had just finished reading the memorial plaque on the shrine's entrance. Drawing her katana, she slowly crept in. A week ago, the Demon Slayer corps had received a message about 2 demons operating out of this shrine, while it didn't make sense, people had gone missing mysteriously so a Hashira was chosen, it had been Giyu Tomioka but the day before he was to leave he had come down with a nasty cold and ultimately, seeing he was unfit to travel, Shinobu had sleeping medicine mixed with his Salmon Daikon, the damn idiot would not get himself killed on a simple mission like this. Kanao and Aoi had been left to treat Giyu, it was just a cold.
Advancing further into the building she stopped, she couldn't tell why but it felt… off. Looking for the demons she heard four voices, no… 6 VOICES! What?! Demons didn't work together, but what were… They were looking for a body. No, the body. The Samurai legend? They believed that, just as she was about to move forward she stopped, they were sniffing and moving towards her, she barely had time to raise her sword as the first one burst through the wall grabbing at her, using her sword she sliced into his arm poisoning her, however she had no chance to get ready for a second strike as the poisoned one gave her a palm to the stomach sending her deeper into the shrine, as she stopped, she struggled up to her feet, getting read she suddenly felt liquid on her head, looking up one of the demon went to drop on her as another charged her from the front, as she knew, this, this was it, she wouldn't get her revenge, Kanae's murderer would… would… however as she let the first one impale itself on her blade poisoning it, she was angry, however as he was about to touch her another form burst through the wall, tackling the demon away and unleashing some heavy punches on it that she could hear.
The demons retreated from her and rushed the new man, who was he? A hashira? No, he'd let her know if he was, and she didn't sense them, some rookie? Possibly, however she realized something, he wasn't fighting with a weapon! Running to the site she saw the man, one hand around a demon's throat, punching a second one, before howling like a Okami, his appearance being one of dishevelment and wildness, he threw the demon he was choking down and reached down, Shinobu saw the wakizashi, it chopped off a demon's head but didn't kill it.
'Who is this guy?' she thought as she ran up and poisoned the demon's body, helping him out while he struck the demons with the wakizashi, she poisoned each of them until it was the two of them, Kocho had to look up, this man was a giant compared to her, even taller than Tomioka-san. However, as her eyes reached the top of his head, she noticed something, then looking back down she saw what made her so uneasy, instead of being a normal human… her savior had wolf ears on top of his head and a Okami tail, she blinked, unsure how to proceed then winced as he started talking, a deep, sore voice escaping his throat.
"There… crazy bastards… were strong…" Okami choked out to this new, short women who arrived, nothing happened for a few minutes then suddenly recoiled in pain as the woman's sword had slashed his arms.
"You… CRAZ-", Okami started to shout before coughing and collapsing to his knees, weakly he tried looking up at her and tried to form words.
"Shhh, rest now demon, I've no idea why you fought your own kind, maybe to eat me, but your time's over." The woman said sheathing her sword and starting to walk away, as Okami collapsed she stopped, blinking in confusion. "Eh? You're not disintegrating?" She stopped and looked around before going from room to room, eventually crawling through the hole he made she found that he was being kept in a hidden room and could see his armor and weapons? Samurai armor, and a katana, coming back out she sighed and started to make a note which she attached on a crow that flew off, the last thing Okami saw was her walking over to him with rope before he fainted.
He was swimming… a deep dark pool of water, but it wasn't awful… in fact he didn't even need to breathe. However, there was something… it was like… he was lost, as he tried swimming deeper and deeper, something was blocking him from going deeper, but now… it was repulsing him, before he could try again, he woke with a grunt of pain escaping his lips only to be met by… cloth? His eyes snapped awake to a misty dawn, and looking around he saw the same small girl, as he tried to bring his arms forward, he couldn't, a web of rope had been wrapped all around his arms, torso, and legs, so he laid there, captured, and bound like a common criminal.
"You're awake." It wasn't a question from her but a statement, he growled into his gag but stopped as she looked away, watching the sun creep up the cart they were both on being pulled by two figures cloaked in black. Who were they? Ashigaru? Shinobi? Okami didn't know and he didn't like this. He struggled weakly. Why was he so weak? However, he suddenly realized he was poisoned! As Okami felt the sun rise he gave up and turned away, looking up as the sun rose and started getting rid of the mist. As the sunlight illuminated him, he heard a hmmph from the girl.
"Just what the hell are you?" She asked.