Turning Swallow
Summary:
OR, One morning, four-year-old Sasaki Kojiro remembers a life not yet lived, and decides to do something about it. History changes. SI!Sasaki Kojiro. Expect general lightheartedness, but dark topics when the time comes.
CH. 36 START
Another month saw the end of the year draw ever closer. If he had to put an exact date to the time of year, he'd call it sometime in the middle of October, judging by how cold the weather had become, along with the increasingly frequent rains. Summer and fall had both passed quickly, flying past as he'd waged war alongside Nobunaga. Now that all was quiet, he could take the time to look over all that he'd done. Undeniably, the course of history had changed. After all, Oda Nobunaga was meant to have died at Honnoji Temple. Now, she was set to take over the entire country. The Imperial Family was no issue, thanks to Chiyome's effort in spreading their story. By now, every citizen of Kyoto and beyond knew that Emperor Ohimachi had summoned a dragon in the middle of the city as part of his desperate attempt to grasp power. Kojiro was an intrinsic part of this story, as the person who had brought down the beast and killed Ogimachi for his crimes against the people.
Such was his fame that he couldn't even walk through the city without being bombarded by people requesting things like blessings and prayers. He'd only exasperated those issues for himself when he'd dealt with a robbery in progress. Kojiro had been walking around at night incognito, with a hat and cloak borrowed from Chiyome's collection of disguises, when a woman screamed. Attracted by the noise, he'd gone over to take a look, only to spot someone being held at knifepoint. He shoved his way through the crowd, only to find a group of armed gangsters holding back the crowd with blades. A glance toward the center of the commotion informed Kojiro of the situation. A man was on the floor groaning in pain while the woman who'd screamed was being held at swordpoint. It was easy enough to see who the aggressors were, so he moved to deal with the problems. Stepping out of the crowd made him a target so one of the gangsters strolled up to him. The man opened his mouth to speak, but Kojiro wasn't in the mood to entertain idiots. His hand went to his odachi before he brought the hilt straight toward the man's chin.
The hilt of his odachi was a solid thing and when it made contact with the soft part of the gangster's chin, the man's head snapped back and he fell back, clutching his throat. A kick to the head ensured that this one stayed down. The other criminals approached him, intent on forcing him to back down with numbers. That was a mistake, as he was used to being outnumbered. His foes held their weapons with tight white-knuckled grips and more than half of them kept looking at their fallen comrade. They were inexperienced, likely taking advantage of Kyoto's recent chaos to benefit themselves. That wouldn't do. Walking forward saw the nerves of one gangster break. He charged Kojiro, making wild swings, and suffered for it. A swipe of Kojiro's odachi saw the robber fall to the ground, clutching at a torso that was now one arm shorter.
"Approach and you die," he warned the other robbers.
He turned away from them and moved towards the ringleader. His steady steps on the cobblestone brought the leader's attention away from his victim. The man stepped forward angrily at being disturbed and sauntered towards him. The weapon in his hand was being brandished threateningly but was little cause for concern. Angry at being ignored, the ringleader tried to make contact with his sword, but leaning backward saw the attack go wide. Stepping in and slamming his free palm into the man's chest, right between the ribs. He grabbed the ringleader by the shoulder and stepped around his reeling body. He was greeted by the wide eyes of one of the robbers, who'd just stuck his friend with his very own sword.
Kojiro took the time to wipe the blood from his own sword and resheathe it before he plucked the sword from the ringleader's body and out of the team killer's hands. Making his way to the main group of robbers, he swung a few times to test the sword's weight. The action seemed to terrify one of them, and he dropped his weapon. Though the robber was poised to run, Kojiro caught him with his eyes and pointed to the ground. Panic flashed through the man's eyes before he dropped to the ground in surrender. Amusement ran through Kojiro's eyes. This one was rather smart. The others weren't as intelligent, choosing to form ranks to attack all at once. The criminals swung at once, trapping him. Choosing which one to get rid of first was the hardest part of the situation. The leftmost one just happened to be unlucky. Dancing forward, Kojiro got into range before any of the four could respond and planted his sword into that robber's neck. He kept it there, stepping closer into range before shoving at the sword one last time.
The man died instantly and Kojiro kept moving, bringing the sword with him. He flung the blood on the sword toward the other men. One flinched back and that was who he went for next. A hand ensured the man couldn't bring his sword up and his own blade swept across the man's stomach. As he was in the middle of the gang, he needed to reposition, so he went from the path of least resistance, planting his foot into the man's crotch to bring him down, before turning him around to use as a human shield. The other two hadn't moved, too afraid to attack. The issue was dealt with then. He wiped the blood off on the man he'd used as a barrier, before letting him drop to the floor. Walking back to the man who'd stabbed his friend, Kojiro returned the sword with a smile. The man dropped the sword like it was cursed or something.
By now, the patrolling army officers had been alerted. They arrived on the scene in force, only to find most of the culprits dead. They too froze, before snapping into formation and bowing.
The soldiers greeted him, "General Saski!"
He nodded back, but rather than give orders, he just asked a question, "The people ought to be able to walk in their own cities without worrying about being robbed or murdered, no?"
No one replied, so Kojiro answered his own question.
"The answer is yes, by the way, since all of you are too afraid to answer. The next time I get the time to kill four people and incapacitate four more before you get here, the lot of you will be joining them, understand?" he asked.
The men responded as one, shouting 'understood,' before staying still.
He waved to the crime scene and ordered the soldiers to clean it up. He ordered the four survivors to be treated for injuries before being arrested and the dead to be buried. He personally saw to the man and woman who'd been attacked, and after making sure they were taken care of, he returned to the army barracks to go to sleep. Word had spread through the camp the next morning and no less than fifty people had made sure to bow fully to him before continuing on their way.
Another week passed, and finally, at long last, the final obstacle to Nobunaga's rule was about to be over and done with. The Daijo-sai Ceremony was an ancient Shinto ritual, dating back nearly a thousand years. At this point, it was very traditional. The Daijo-sai Ceremony was the ceremony the Imperial Family used to enthrone new rulers. During the ritual, the Emperor would thank the Goddess Amaterasu for the future of the nation, asking for rich harvests, good weather, and general peace of mind. By co-opting it, Nobunaga was taking a massive symbol of religious authority out of the Emperor's hands. Given how old it was, every part of the ritual needed to be carried out to perfection, lest something go wrong. It was a ceremony to invoke the blessing of the Gods, and as Kojiro was very much aware, the Gods were quite real.
Two special rice paddies needed to be chosen and purified by a series of elaborate and rather obscure Shinto rites. Beyond that, the people who'd grown the rice, both farmer and extended family, needed to be perfectly healthy, lest any illness transfer itself to the nation. Once the rice was grown and harvested, it needed to be made the go-shintai of a special shrine. The go-shintai of a shrine embodied the God of said shrine, and by making the rice the go-shintai, the rice gained a measure of divine power. Each and every kernel of rice had to be whole and unbroken, then individually polished before being boiled. Once the rice was boiled, and thus, ready, a portion of it was also made into sake, in order to provide an additional offering to the gods. Furthermore, the two sets of blessed rice needed to come from opposite sides of the country, one from the western prefectures and one from the eastern prefectures respectively.
If this series of steps sounded complex and complicated, that's because they were, and usually, two sets of sacred rice didn't really happen to be available. Despite being the very first step, it was also an enormous point of failure. An inability to get any blessed rice would result in Nobunaga's ascension being delayed by perhaps a year, and by then, the Imperial Family would be in a position to reassert themselves. The ceremony was an important thing because, without it, Nobunaga wasn't the ruler. Officially, she was just occupying the capital. Fortunately, before his death, Emperor Ogimachi seemed to have been preparing to give his throne to a successor and as such, had already prepared one such set of rice.
However, as just stealing the rice to reuse would likely bring all sorts of bad luck, given that they were objects of divine power, the blessed rice needed to be blessed again. Two new gods were chosen: the deities Susanoo-no-Mikoto and Yamata-no-Orochi. Orochi was chosen for obvious reasons, half as an 'appeasement' tactic, so the citizens didn't have to worry about an angry god descending upon Kyoto again anytime soon. Susanoo-no-Mikoto was a God chosen largely due to Kojiro. Due to his feat of defeating the Orochi in legend and Kojiro's slaying of the Orochi's 'child,' invoking him and Orochi in the ritual was seen as a way of balancing the two powers. Apart from the increasingly ridiculous tales of his might and power that were circulating through the city, made all the worse by soldiers adding in tales of their own about his deeds on the battlefield, Kyoto remained peaceful.
Soon enough, the Daijo-sai Ceremony began. It was a momentous, yet solemn thing. No one dared to make a noise lest they attract Nobunaga's wrath, much less the wrath of the Gods. The Ceremony took place in a special ritual enclosure, complete with two custom-built buildings. The buildings were ancient, though not in any manner of physical age. Rather, it was as if the architecture of the building itself was something that transcended time. Though it'd been constructed just days ago, the two buildings looked as if they'd always been there. They seemed to beckon him to enter them, and judging by the nervous looks that Chiyome kept on shooting around, he wasn't the only one. With the air heavy with a feeling of anticipation, the Daijo-sai Ceremony quietly began.
A mat was rolled out for Nobunaga, who was dressed in the white silk ceremonial garb of a Shinto priest, to prevent her feet from making contact with the impurities of the ground, while a special ritual umbrella was held over her head to ensure that the impurities of the air didn't bother her. Both served the same purpose, to ensure that any physical impurity was kept away from Nobunaga, who in this ritual, would serve as a channel for Gods to speak through. They entered the Eastern building first, into a fully-furnished two-room hall. The first outermost hall was reserved for musicians; the second, more important one, held a raised tatami mat couch. In front of the couch was the main attraction in the room, a shrine dedicated to the God Yamata-no-Orochi.
As the musicians played their music in the background, Nobunaga took her place in front of the shrine and began to recite a prayer to the Gods. One by one, offerings were placed before the shrine. The blessed rice was set down with the sake that'd been made; placed alongside them were fish, abalone, kelp, and a variety of other foods. Once the food had been recited and the prayer spoken, the food was eaten by Nobunaga. The action was a symbolic gesture of dining with the Gods, equivalent to them accepting Nobunaga as their intermediary between them and the people.
Given the recent events in Kyoto, however, there was no denying that the Gods of Japan were indeed watching. There was no better proof than the fact that the moment the food was finished, a daunting hiss echoed through the shrine room. Everyone went still with fright. In the silence that followed, Chiyome's voice in his ear was a bit of a surprise.
"Lord Kojiro," the ninja said, in a rather choked voice, "they're here."
There was no denying who this 'they' was. Chiyome's expression was tense and he could see red scales beginning to form on her skin. Her eyes had narrowed and her pupils had taken on a sort of serpentine shape, but nevertheless, he met her gaze. In her eyes was a kind of quiet determination and that, more than anything, reassured him.
"Lord Oda," he called over the silence, "I think I'll go to greet our guests at the door."
A nod from Nobunaga was enough of an answer for him so he rose to his feet, dusted off his ceremonial kimono, and slowly made his way to the door. A prayer had been recited and an offering had been presented, so it was only fair that the God in question was now waiting. Kojiro moved gracefully and with careful, measured steps made his way toward the entrance of the small building. Inches from the door, he paused before turning to face the musicians. They were still frozen in fear.
"Play a song of welcoming, please," he requested in a gentle tone, "an important guest will be arriving soon."
He shot a meaningful glance at the lead musician, and sure enough, the man picked up his shakuhachi, a type of wooden flute, and began to play. The notes were shaky at first but the man found his confidence and before long, his music filled the room. The rest of his band followed his lead and began to play. A soothing melody filled the air and with the gentle beat of drums behind him, Kojiro approached the door. Not knowing what to expect, he opened the door.
What greeted him was a veritable army of snakes. The crowd of people had been buried by the tide of reptiles. Wherever he looked, there was a snake gliding over someone's foot or winding around a leg. The wave of serpents parted, and from the mass, emerged a two-headed snake. Its eyes were a crimson red while its scales were as white as snow; altogether, it was unnatural. Worse, it had two separate heads that each moved on its own. This was the creature that he was looking for and in the thing's eyes was an inhuman intellect. That was enough of a sign of the thing's power. He bowed slightly to the snake and greeted it.
"Well met," he said, "you've been expected."
The snake coiled itself up and once it was done, lowered its head into its' best approximation of a bow. It raised itself after a moment and flicked its tongue out in greeting. A moment passed as he considered how best to get the snake into the building when Chiyome appeared by his side. He looked at her and she glanced at him nervously. As he looked at her, the scales of her skin continued to grow ever more apparent.
"My Lord," she whispered, asking for permission.
Kojiro nodded as he stepped aside to let her pass. The two-headed snake slithered up Chiyome's arm and came to rest on her shoulder. The ninja walked past him with an apologetic glance, before straightening herself and stepping into the main room with her head held high. He followed behind, watching as Chiyome took her place in the section of the building dedicated firmly to Orochi. The ninja would serve as Orochi's representative. They spoke in low voices for perhaps half an hour, before the snake on his ninja's shoulder nodded. Chiyome returned to his side but before he could say anything, the snake leaped at him. Kojiro raised his hand to catch it, but a flash of light blinded him and when he opened his eyes again, the snake was gone. In its place was a hilt made of white snakeskin. The handle was perhaps a foot long and bore a rather strange handguard decorated with two intertwined snakes. The miniature snakes were incredibly detailed, seeming as though they could come alive at any moment. He looked to Chiyome for an answer and was told that it was a gift from the Dragon God.
The ritual continued despite the interruption and the group headed to the western structure. The second half of the ritual began, the offerings this time designated to Susanoo-no-Mikoto were prepared and the prayers were spoken. Unlike when dealing with Orochi, Susanoo sent no obvious indication of his presence, bar a single thing. A spark of electricity raced up Kojiro's spine and the hairs on his neck began to stand up. The smell of ozone and the scent of rain filled the air, despite the sky having been clear when he'd entered the building. His instincts screamed at him, and Kojiro jumped to his feet. He looked at the roof, and somehow, he knew that if he failed to move, he would die. A thunderclap battered his ears and his eyes dilated in panic. It was too late to escape the attack.
He took in a short breath and with it, the world seemed to still. The power that his Embodiment brought to him was instantly put to use, mana flowing into the subconscious Reinforcement that occurred whenever he put his ability to use. His senses expanded and his vision extended past his body and into the world around him. For a brief moment, he Grasped a glimpse of a bolt of divine power bearing down upon the building's thatched roof and his hand raced towards his odachi's handle. Before he could make contact though, doubt stayed his hand. As good as his sword was, it was only normal steel. It couldn't stand up to divine lighting. A wild thought surged through his head and instead of reaching for his trusted weapon, he reached for the bladeless hilt that he'd been gifted. He flared his Embodiment again and brought his blade into reality. As it came into being, an aura of power disturbed the air around it. The moment it fully formed, Kojiro swung towards the sky.
He could not run from the divine lighting, but perhaps he could cut it like he'd severed the Orochi's heads. At the apex of his attack, the roof was blasted open and the bolt of furious lighting slammed into the tip of his sword. He brought the blade toward the ground, despite the physical force that threatened to bowl him over. The familiar oppression of divine might tried to burden him but he shouldered through the pain with a growl, before launching the blade into an upwards slash. To his surprise, his swing sent the bolt of divine lighting straight back into the blue sky. A second later, the sky darkened and it began to rain. It was as if the slash had cut the very sky open and made it bleed. The oppressive divine might morphed into something akin to approval before it faded away completely.
His Embodiment began to drain away, despite Kojiro feeling fine. The Embodiment was being drained into the hilt, he realized. The bladeless hilt was bladeless no longer. From the hollow hilt, a blade began to grow. The silvery metal was unlike any substance he was familiar with. It seemed to contain the very lightning that Kojiro had tossed back at the sky, for when he looked at the sword, it was as if storm clouds were dancing within the metal itself. A katana had been formed. With a dull pulse, the blade finished growing, and over the distant thunder and the pattering of rain, Kojiro heard a man's voice.
"I shall call it the Ame-no-Kaerikumo-no-Tsurugi, the Heavenly Sword of Returning Clouds." the voice spoke in his ears, "Use it well, Sasaki Kojiro."
A/N:
My apologies for the late upload. Wifi has been spotty lately since rainstorms are bad for internet connection.
To Soda-fiedPsycho:
You brought up the fact that Kojiro has Shirou's unique Structural Grasping when that's not actually the case. Shirou's main abilities lie in the 'reproduction and recreation' of swords/Noble Phantasms, not the viewing. As far as I'm aware, Shirou's just extremely skilled in the usage of what most mages would consider a useless spell. Recreating them is his shtick, not SG. The spell just allows him to see the history and his element/origin allows him to recreate it. If that's explicitly not the case, please do inform me, cause the Type-Moon Wiki lacks a page for SG. As I've been informed by several reviewers, Magic is explicitly reproducible by the Gaia/Alaya. In any case, the TMW is wrong. Yikes. Still gonna use it though, since it's the biggest source of accessible info.
To Haruchai:
Thanks for pointing out the timeframe. I'd gotten myself confused. The errors should now be fixed. To clarify, the assassination attempt on Nobunaga didn't happen until June 1585, the year Kojiro leaves Ichijodani. The campaigns across Shikoku and Kyushu take place within the span of a year and by 1586, Nobunaga ascends to power and replaces the Emperor. He's ten, yes. Young Kojiro from Records of Ragnarok with Fate's Kojiro's color palette is what I'm working off of.
To kenodoxia:
First of all, damn. Secondly, I'm glad that my writing got you so passionate about the story. Thirdly, we're mature people here. If you don't like the content, constructive criticism works best, rather than insulting me, no? Beyond that fact, Suzue serves as an easy way for me to write the reactions of the common people, through which the legends of Heroic Spirits spread, rather than shoehorning things in from Kojiro's perspective, which breaks the story flow.