#sanada clan

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I dont think I've ever share my OCs here before in tumblr. 😅 I created Sanada trio 2-3 years ago which was inspired by none other than gudaguda. Since this was my first time creating from scratch and wasnt satisfied until recently. hope you guys love it!

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Persona 3 Akihiko Sanada Cosplay Wigs

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【Draft】 Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 57: The Chinese Parade

Finally got a bit of momentum back at writing. It really does feel cathartic to write again. Plus, there's a new Rurouni Kenshin anime coming very soon, which is neat.

Pardon the bad formatting, typos, and run-on sentences. it’s the roughest of drafts. 

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Three things happened within the span of five seconds.

Five long seconds that seemingly went into slow motion for all those concerned.

As Kai Hidaka of the Fuuma Ninja Clan forcefully pulled at the speared Satoru Sakaguchi, he intended to either use him as an anchor to leap away from the attacking Kinta Minakata or as a meat shield if the lieutenant got dragged towards him instead.

Lieutenant Sakaguchi, thinking quickly, opted to allow Hidaka to pull at him instead to prevent his escape from Kinta.

The policeman charged and went into iaijutsu (quick-draw) position, intending to attack the rope-slinging brigand rather than be used as a pawn or collateral damage against Minakata.

Kinta now had no choice but to halt his momentum to prevent himself from slashing both Satoru and Kai apart with the Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash).

That was the leeway Kai needed as he timed a jump at the last second before Lieutenant Sakaguchi could release his blade for a Half Moon Slash, his saber clashing against Minakata's Akatsuki (Red Moon) sword at the location where Hidaka stood a split second earlier.

By the time the Fuuma Clan Ninja reached the apex of his jump, he'd twisted and wrapped his body around a rope spear he'd shot into the ground below him.

Then he twisted towards the other direction, releasing all the potential energy he'd stored from coiling himself up like a mummy into kinetic motion.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

The Brigands are closing in on their Minakata V.I.P. targets. Can Yahiko and the Sakaguchis do anything against them?

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted materials that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 57: The Chinese Parade

***

Kai Hidaka twirled like a top that'd been released from being bound-up in rope or string, intending to kill two birds with one stone with the whirling dervish that was him and his dual-wielded blades.

Only for Minakata to shift his weight on his lead foot to pivot, lift his back foot, and turn to avoid Satoru altogether.

His back foot then turned into his lead foot after doing his initial pivot, giving him the leverage he needed to continue his Tsunami's supersonic strikes, intentionally missing as though practicing an iaijutsu kata (quick-draw form).

From there, he moved past Lieutenant Sakaguchi and charged at the spinning Kai, barely losing any of his momentum. He then adjusted the trajectory of his sword to slash at Kai's revolving blades without missing a beat.

As though he turned his missed swings into an intentional part of his kata until he recovered enough to actually hit his target.

'Kinta-kun…!' thought Satoru, who himself turned to witness the Mimawarigumi Battousai clashi blades with the Brigand's resident ninja.

Kai scowled. Dammit. The Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) did it again. He found a way to win.

Regardless, Hidaka used the recoil from his blades after they clashed hard against Kinta's Full Moon Slash to rebound back to the sky and avoid the Blue Moon Slash he knew was coming.

He then did a pirouette to redirect the trajectory of his body and land behind Satoru, using him as his human shield against Kinta like he had originally intended.

"DIE, SEIRYU CLAN!" Kai cried out, which surprised both Kinta and Satoru.

'Seiryu Clan…?' they thought in unison.

Hmmm. They were the Seiryu Clan, weren't they? Both of them knew the Brigands Guild member had a point. The name had a nice ring to it too.

Their clan indeed involved the partnership between high-ranked hatamoto samurais who only answered to the daimyo and low-ranked subordinate samurais under them.

Kai Hidaka had intended for Minakata to use up the last of his stamina to make himself easy pickings for himself or for Kinta's half-brother, Lucas Grant (the man who proposed that their guild take this dangerous mission in the first place).

A mission close to Lucas's heart. For the Prodigal Son, this time it was personal.

Then again, Kai also saw it as a personal mission in a certain point of view.

Hidaka then noticed that Satoru fell into the infamous Waning Stance. The defensive stance of Musou Madden Ryu where the user faced away from the opponent instead of forward.

As usual. How typical of the cowardly Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi. The sidekick of Kinta. The Kagemusha of the Kagemusha.

An ordinary police officer stuck into extraordinary circumstances. A family man with a wife and daughter to boot. Or an about-to-be widow and her daughter, at any rate.

Hidaka figured out that the Waning Stance was simply the Waxing Stance seen from behind.

Attacks happened much slower from the Waning Stance because the point of release happened from the front of the quick-draw swordsman and they had to loop around in a circle care of the resulting follow-through.

This defensive stance hid the trajectory of the sword, allowing for a 360-degree quick-draw slash that depended more on timing than speed to work.

Regardless, Kai had almost stabbed through Satoru to get to Kinta and injure him. Or at least distract him enough to the point of making a mistake.

Well, almost.

***

At the front door of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

A banker, a ninja, and a samurai all gathered at the front porch of the Minakata moneychanger building. No, that wasn't the start of a joke.

However, the ridiculous circumstances did push them to the brink of hilarity in the point of view of situational irony.

Thusly, none of them understood the resulting punch line.

Regardless, the thick wooden doors before them burst open long after they had closed them earlier, as though demanding they come back inside.

The jaws of Yahiko Myojin, Kaita of the Sanada Ninja Clan, and Tatsuya Minakata figuratively dropped on the floor at the sight before them. A sight to cause sore eyes on the part of Tatsuya, for sure.

Despite their best efforts, The Faceless—also known as Seth Merrick, John Rathbone, or even Fabian La Cerca—had breached through the defenses of the Sanada Ninja that ran interference for them, driving the bloody bat-themed spy through the door with a rapier stab.

Like Hajime Saito would with his fearsome Gatotsu stabbing technique.

"Baku!" exclaimed Kaita, which was the first time Yahiko heard the invisible ninja raise his voice. The master of camouflage seemed more like the quiet type, so the shout surprised the Tokyo Samurai Descendant a tiny bit.

Wide-eyed, Yahiko witnessed the bloodied bat-themed ninja screech and holler a war cry, a haunting noise which made him realize the inhuman screams he heard from before was actually from the shadow warrior all along.

Only for The Faceless to do a Beat, Parry, and Riposte to counter him, driving him to the ground and turning him into a human plow.

"Ahhh! Monsters! They're all MONSTERS!" screamed the horseman they found who was supposed to drive the carriage.

He then ran away on foot at the frightening sight of The Faceless painting the front porch with Baku's blood.  

"Come back, you coward!" demanded Tatsuya, who had half the mind to shoot the driver to put him away from his misery.

"SHIT!" cursed Yahiko while Kaita also did so, but under his breath. Then again, good thing the carriage driver didn't end up driving away with their getaway vehicle.

Aloud, the teenaged samurai asked Kaita, "The ninja uses screams to mess with his target somehow, right? Like maybe burst his eardrums or give him vertigo?"

He based this on his experience with Kenshin Himura fighting Enishi Yukishiro. Kenshin defeated Enishi's "Nerves of Insanity" by the supersonic sheathing of his sword that burst the wattoujutsu expert's eardrum with a high-pitched sound.

From behind Yahiko, Kaita said, "You're on the right track. Baku's screams disrupts a swordsman's ability to read kenki (swordsman presence) and sakki (bloodlust) by using infrasound vibrations."

Indeed, Yahiko couldn't clearly get a read on the intentions of Baku even from that distance, his bloodlust and swordsman presence masked with distracting supersonic screeches.

Like how the Kekkai no Mori (Sealing Forest) sealed away Kenshin's ability to detect bloodlust by the strange magnetic field surrounding it when he faced off against the Yaminobu Ninjas.

Kaita frowned, his kunai at the ready. Originally, Baku used his shrieks in order to strike fear in his targets and echolocate them from a distance or even in pitch-black darkness like bats would.

Baku trained for years to turn his screams into kenki disruptors, getting him on equal footing with the likes of the sharpshooter ninja Zan.

"However, the foreigner's swordsmanship style probably doesn't sense bloodlust the way Japanese swordsmen do, so Baku instead used his infrasound screams to disrupt his rhythm," Kaita surmised.

"He can do that?" said Yahiko in wonder.

Kaita nodded. "But his expertise only somehow woke up a sleeping giant. That man, The Faceless, is dangerous."

'You don't have to tell me twice,' thought Myojin, remembering how hard it was to hit or penetrate through the parries of the expert fencer who was always two steps ahead of him.

"Once you nitwits are done congratulating my assassin for a job well done, can you please save my life, if you don't mind?!" demanded the gaunt Minakata uncle, Tatsuya.

Fabian La Cerca did one flick of his sword in order to fling the blood on the ground. "Now where were we? Ah yes. Minakata Tatsuya. Prepare to die."

"AH! Don't come near me, you freak!" cried the banker, his pistol at the ready.

Both Yahiko and Kaita acted quickly, hoping they had the same idea in saving Tatsuya from harm. Or that their ideas didn't clash against each other.

Thusly, Kaita disappeared from view, like an apparition in twilight.

'Godammit,' thought Myojin, hoping against hope that the Minakata Family's ninja didn't just abandon them like their horse carriage driver did.

He then swung at the ground at full force to do an explosive "Dou Gami! (God on Earth)", only for him to shift quickly into a "DOU RYU SEN! (EARTH DRAGON FLASH!)" as soon as the fencer assassin dodged to the side to redirect all that loosened earth towards the direction of his dodge.

Yahiko then grit his teeth when Fabian also slipped, slid, parried, and deflected the resulting landslide of rocks and debris as though doing a fencing duel with it.

What was up with this guy?!

Then, just in time, Kaita the Ninja drove the carriage in front of Yahiko and Tatsuya, beckoning them to get in. He actually fetched their getaway car in time before The Faceless could get to them.

"Get in," beckoned the ninja, who threw kunai at La Cerca even as he dodged the rock shards and debris Yahiko flung at him earlier. "Lord Minakata. Yojimbo (Bodyguard). Let's go."

"Whew, I thought you abandoned us for a second there!" confessed Yahiko, who wiped the sweat off his brow.

"Not to worry. I'll stick with you like I'm your shadow," the Sanada Ninja reassured.

"Hmmm," grunted The Faceless because by the time he realized what had happened, his target and his guards had gotten away. "Touché, Minakata Tatsuya. Your bodyguards have impressed me."

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Hidaka had anticipated the Full Moon Slash from the Waning Stance of Satoru, so he countered with a stab instead of a slash since that was the quicker attack.

However, Kai merely clipped the turning back of the policeman. As expected, contact with the ninja's blade made the lieutenant move like a booby trap that had been tripped.

The acrobatic Fuuma ninja sidestepped the resulting slash by reflex as soon as he saw the glinting blade appear in the moonlight, figuring out its trajectory by sight.

Hidaka then attacked with another lunging stab, knowing full well that Satoru was no Kinta Minakata and thusly wasn't capable of the Blue Moon Slash (or Double Full Moon Slash).

The shadow warrior now had leverage against Kinta and his supersonic slashes—i.e., an injured Officer Sakaguchi—while also buying himself time until Lucas arrived.

'What…?! Impossible!' thought Hidaka, who almost got bisected into two halves with a follow-up Full Moon Slash.

'A Double Full Moon Slash? A Blue Moon Slash?! That mere copper was capable of this advanced technique?!'

Unbeknownst to him though, Satoru Sakaguchi had one more trick up his sleeve.

Instead of doing the Full Moon Slash twice, Satoru instead did the Waning Gibbous Moon Slash, allowing him a slightly faster recovery time to execute a Pseudo Blue Moon Slash.

Even though Satoru couldn't do a Blue Moon Slash like Kinta could, he could fake the technique by instead doing a Waning Gibbous Slash that resembled a Full Moon Slash, allowing him a quick enough follow through to unleash a real Full Moon Slash soon after.

Thus, the opening that the Fuuma ninja thought was there got him slashed apart instead with an actual Full Moon Slash.

Such was the power of the Suigetsu O Tsuku Nari (Water Moon Slash or Illusion Moon Slash).

Like the reflection of the moon on the water, Satoru fooled Kai into thinking his Waning Gibbous Moon Slash and Full Moon Slash combo was the Blue Moon Slash.

It took advantage of the fact that the preparatory motion for all the slashes of Musou Madden Ryu appeared the same until release.

Hidaka fell for the Illusion Moon Slash hook, line, and sinker.

***

In the middle of Yokohama's Chinatown...

They were home-free. The two bodyguards, the samurai and the ninja, fulfilled their mission of protecting Kinta Minakata's uncle, Tatsuya.

Kaita, though with some difficulty due to lack of horse-riding experience, took he reins of the horses of the horse-drawn carriage that served as their getaway ride.

Yahiko bought them enough time to stave off the advance of The Faceless, the gaijin (foreign outsider) partner of the Minakata Family's Prodigal Son, Lucas Grant, in time to escape.

So why did they feel like something was amiss? Like something horrible was about to happen?

They slowed down to a crawl instead of riding straight through the streets of Yokohama's Chinatown in order to get back to one of many Minakata Zaibatsu mansions.

They ended up stuck with other carriages as a parade of dancing Chinese and Japanese folk as well as their half-Chinese, half-Japanese offspring went through the streets in celebratory fashion.

"What's going on? Why aren't we moving?" demanded Tatsuya, looking like a carved bronze statue of himself sitting on cushioned carriage seats.

"Relax, Minakata-dono," reassured Kaita. "There's just a parade happening. For some sort of Chinese holiday or festival."

"Ah, the Dongzhi Festival, huh?" Tatsuya allowed his tense shoulders to relax, his back finally slumping down on his seat's cushioned backrest. He'd previously been as stiff as a board this entire time.

As a local of Yokohama, he was familiar with the customs of the area. "Fine. Let's wait it out and find the nearest shortcut. I want to be hundreds of kilometers away from those maniacs."

The Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice Festival was celebrated during the Dongzhi solar term (winter solstice), during any day from December 21 to December 23. It was supposedly celebrated to ensure good yin-and-yang balance for the coming season.

After the celebration, it was believed the days would have longer daylight hours and more positive energy flowing in.

Different cultures celebrated the Chinese holiday in different ways, with them eating anything from glutinous tangyuan (rice balls) or dongzhi (dumplings) and quhan jiaoer tang (hot dumpling soup that expelled the cold).

Perhaps they were just being paranoid.

'Like hell we are…!' thought the antsy Yahiko as he scanned their surroundings, his hand clasping the hilt of the Hitokiri Battousai's sakabatou (reverse-edged blade).

"Wait a second," began Tatsuya. Something was amiss.

The Minakata banker then reminded his two bodyguards that it wasn't December 21st, 22nd, or 23rd today. The correct dates for the Winter Solstice Festival.

Also, the Dongzhi Festival wasn't celebrated with a parade of uproarious people in the streets and a Chinese lion mascot dance like it was the Chinese New Year. Families ate dumplings, sticky rice balls, or soup instead.

Kaita attempted to turn the carriage around in order to find a better avenue for their escape, but soon they ended up surrounded by the suspicious merrymakers.

Also, the lion mascot doing the Chinese lion dance—a southern lion mascot, Tatsuya informed them—started approaching them.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

God damn it. Damn it all to hell.  Once again, that damnable Satoru Sakaguchi got in Kai Hidaka's way. Once again, the Fuuma ninja underestimated his childhood rival.

He swore to every Japanese god known to man, he'd make that son of a bitch pay.

As Kai fell to the ground in a spray of crimson, everyone present heard a loud crash from the wall facing them, which drowned out the wet splat of his own painful drop.

The ninja scrambled up to his feet in anticipation, ignoring the sting of Satoru's saber on his person.

If he had somehow made it out of the offices of the Minakatas, then the Brigands Guild still had a chance to complete the mission to finish off the strongest Minakata.

And as if on cue, Lucas Grant emerged from the dust clouds, smoke, wood, and plaster he plowed through like so much cardboard and tinder.

The blood then drained from Kai's face when he saw the bloody state that the Prodigal Son was in. He looked like a pincushion, with all sorts of darts, shuriken, knives, and other sharp objects stuck on his person.

For his part, Lucas walked like a drunkard, his clothes stained red from all the blood he lost.

'What the hell happened?!' Hidaka thought, his mind going a mile a minute while his own blood pooled from underneath him.

"Goddamn you, Sanada Demon!" cursed Luke. "Come back here, coward! Stand still and fight like a man, Zan!"

'Demon…?' thought Kai. 'I guess he is a demon.'

The Sanada Demon known as Zan then appeared from behind Kinta, startling the swordsman. His demonic red Noh mask, devilish garb, and oversized war fork would give anyone a fright.

"I've softened him up for you, Minakata-dono," said the strongest of the Sanada Demons as he bowed to his lord. "He's ripe for the kill."

"…." was what Kinta had to say about that.

'Who the hell is this?' thought Kai. 'We weren't briefed about the Minakatas having these other ninjas under their employment! Our scouts only spotted at least two ninja bodyguards, with the rest acting more like liaisons than warriors!'

"We can take him on together, m'lord. Now's our chance," Zan said to Kinta while both shielded Lieutenant Satoru from the rest of the brigands as the officer tended to his daughter's injuries. "We must strike iron while it's hot, before he recovers!"

Kai grabbed his head, forgetting he had a mask on that kept him from tearing his hair out.

'DAH! That was our plan! Lucas and I were supposed to converge on the Kagemusha then have The Faceless finish him off! Everything's going south for us!'  

"Keh. Fine by me," boasted, perhaps bluffed, the woozy Lucas. "Two against one, huh? As expected of you sneaky orientals. I can take both of you gutless cowards on!"

The Mimawarigumi Battousai shook his head at Zan, which prompted the ninja to complain, "Please, listen to reason, m'lord! Now is not the time to treat the enemy with honor. We must be practical and pragmatic about this. I know he's your brother, but…!"

Kinta turned towards Zan and shook his head. "I refuse to gang up against an injured man."

This took Lucas aback. "Bloody hell. What's this now? Japanese honor? The code of the samurai? I told'ya I'm good with you two going up against me at the same time! Come at me, big brother!"

"…Understood, m'lord," said Zan with a sigh and a bow to Kinta before he struck his war fork on the ground, making it tremble and shake once more. "As you wish, Minakata-sama. I'll finish him off myself."

Sneering, Lucas then said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Don't make my life difficult and I won't make your life short."

***

In the middle of the Chinese parade...

A northern lion mascot had a fiercer face, painted-on eyes, boxier jaw, and visible sharp teeth. A southern lion mascot has pouted fish lips, blinking eyes, and a moveable jaw.

So it felt surreal to have the adorable fish-lipped lion mascot staring back at Tatsuya, Yahiko, and Kaita, filling them with dread and uncertainty.

The lion dance was developed to scare away evil spirits and bring luck to the audience participating in it. It involved the lion mascot eating cabbages then spitting it out the audience as a sign of good fortune.

Legend had it that the lion dance started because a monster once would attack a village once a year to eat all the food or even the babies of the villagers. Until one day, a monk came to the village and tamed the monster by tying a red ribbon on its horn.

Afterwards, the monster acted as the village guardian, protecting everyone instead of eating their babies and some such.

Other stories alleged that the gods cut the monster's head off, but Guan Yin (The Chinese Goddess of Mercy) brought it back to life, which also turned it into a village guardian.

Thusly, the Lion Guardian of Yokohama Chinatown peered straight at them with blinking (puppet) eyes.

They were left in a conundrum. Should they go out of the carriage and move by foot? Or should they stay there trapped like rats in the middle of a slow-moving parade?

If this was all part of the Brigands Guild plan, they were screwed either way.

"Go out and see what it wants," Tatsuya ordered Yahiko as though he were his butler telling  him to see who was at his door.

"ME? Why me? Why not your personal ninja?" balked Myojin.

The Elder Minakata said, "He's not my ninja, he's Kinta's. Also, he's driving the coach so he's staying here with me."  

The teenaged samurai rolled his eyes. "All right. Fine. I'll go out. You two stay here."

"Oh yeah. Don't give the lion something white to eat," said Tatsuya. "It hates that."

"That's weird," said Yahiko. "Why is that?"

"It's Chinese superstition, you nincompoop," said the banker.

'Ugh. What an asshole.' Resisting the urge to throw Kinta's uncle to the proverbial wolves, Yahiko exited the vehicle and stood guard in front of it, his sword at the ready.

The lion dance mascot took one look at the samurai kid, spewed bits of cabbage at him, and then left him alone.

Huh. Yahiko then remembered Tatsuya telling them that, as part of the lion dance, the lion mascot pretended to eat lettuce and cabbages offered to it before it spat it out back to the business owners and audience.

This symbolized blessing them with wealth and prosperity in the coming year.

After merely ten seconds, Yahiko realized the danger he, Minakata, and Kaita faced.

What if the parade of merrymakers were real and filled with actual Chinatown residents, but mixed with the mercenaries hired by the Brigands Guild to do their bidding?

A crowd was the perfect place to kidnap dignitaries and assassinate V.I.P.s Bodyguards would have a hard time telling which was friend or foe. Normal citizens or actual assassins.

"Is the coast clear? Let me out. I'm going back to my mansion on foot, if I have to!" complained Tatsuya, who swung open the carriage door only for Yahiko to shut it close and shush him. "Wha…? How DARE you shush me, Bodyguard!"

"Please keep quiet, you ghoul," hissed Yahiko.

"Gh-Ghoul?! How dare you…!" hissed Tatsuya in return, only to get shushed further.

"We're being watched. They want you to get out of the carriage and get lost in the crowd."

Although he grumbled, Kinta's uncle shut the door of the carriage and did what he was told.

"Ninja, take care of Kinta's uncle while you're in there, okay?" said Yahiko, to which Kaita nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, on his part, Myojin remained at the entrance of the carriage and focused. He remembered his training with Kaoru and Kenshin.

He trained mostly in Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and partly in Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (mostly self-taught), specifically in the art of reading the air. Reading intentions before anyone even acted upon them.

Spreading his swordsman's presence to feel the ripples and detect the malice and blood thirst of those around him.

A couple of stray leaves snapped and popped before the Tokyo Samurai Descendant.

Yahiko snatched the hand of a man with a knife and twisted it. He then did a judo throw to him, also taught to him by Kaoru. This scared the person away.

Without looking, he batted away what might've been a poison dart, and then blocked a cleaver attack with the iron scabbard of the sakabatou.

Most of the sneak attacks on Yahiko's person, he stopped by gutting them with the hilt or tip of the reverse sword, with him not needing to draw its naked blade.

All these attempts at violence by rank-amateur mercenaries paled in comparison to dealing with the long-distance shots of the likes of May Brooks and her naginatajutsu.

He could dodge, counter, and manhandle everyone all day

However, Myojin actually fell for the Brigands Guild's Plan B. While he busied himself staving the attacks of disguised assassins and hired hitmen at one door, the lion mascot snuck to the other side of the carriage.

"Yojimbo! Myojin Yahiko, the other door…!" warned Kaita, his kunai at the ready while he reined in the neighing horses to calm them down.

Awakened from his trance-like flow state, Yahiko forced open the carriage in time to see the southern lion mascot "eat" (as in open its puppet jaws and grab hold with multiple hands) the person he was supposed to be protecting, Tatsuya, unto itself.

Afterwards, the giant mascot blasted cabbages at the horses like from a canon or a firework, spooking them and forcing Kaita to hold on for dear life and they all went buck wild.

Ironically, for the first time, the slow-moving parade finally gave way for the carriage to go through.

What the hell just happened?

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

"Daughter! Daughter! Kyoko, are you all right?" called out the worried Satoru, who cradled his little girl's head while pain still emanated all over her body from her attempt at a Full Moon Slash.

"I-I'm all right, Daddy. Thank you for saving both me and Kinta-sama."

Her vision cleared, and the first thing she saw was her father's worried face. Afterwards, her eyes traveled to Kinta, who stood perfectly still, looking none the worse for wear save for him looking sweatier than usual.

Dimly, she marveled at how her father and Kinta could continuously due such straining techniques in the heat of battle. Boys sure were made of sterner stuff.

However, this also had her worried. She now knew firsthand the incredible strength, agility, physical fitness, and skill to pull off those dangerous moves.

Even with their training and physical strength, they were both only human. Even they might end up like her, with pulled muscles or ripped tendons from the effort of performing Musou Madden Ryu techniques.  

She also saw the hateful Kai on all fours, crawling in a pool of his own blood. Served him right.

She wasn't a violent person by nature and she hated the sight of blood, but in the case of that creep, she made an exception.

Her eyes then settled unto Kinta Minakata's tall, blond, and handsome attacker, charging through a hailstorm of knives and daggers while swiping his European longsword at one of Kinta's ninja bodyguards.

Even though the bloodied blond devil's longsword had quite the reach itself, the devilish masked ninja had an even longer weapon he used like a lance, with every strike making it vibrate and hum the drone of a million hornets.

If she could hazard a guess, she'd bet there was some sort of trick that the ninja was using in order for him to accurately and unerringly strike down the gaijin assassin like target practice.

The war fork's vibrations and droning sound could be simulating the way swordsmen sense the intent of their opponents.

Like ripples from a disturbed pond bouncing back at anything that got in their way, revealing their shape and location.

Like a swordsman's kenki (swordsman ki) reacting to the sakki (bloodlust) of nearby opponents.

By all accounts, the fight was all over. They'd won. Kinta was safe. His assassins were struggling.

However, Kyoko's female intuition screamed at her to keep her eyes peeled. And her hands on her sword's handle.

But maybe she was just being paranoid.

Kinta was strong enough to do the Full Moon Slash without straining or injuring himself like she did.

His assassin was on the verge of being defeated without her or her father's help. They only needed to wait a little longer. Then they could go home and forget all this.

She swallowed down the lump of fear and panic in her throat and watched someone get stabbed to death bit by bit.

She forced herself to watch the grisly affair to prove her persistent feeling of dread wrong.

***

Back in the streets of the Yokohama Chinatown…

Yahiko couldn't tell if the parade was a premeditated ruse to lure any escaping Minakatas into a death trap or if the Brigands timed their assassination plot in the middle of a parade.

Regardless, he was in the thick of it and it seemed like he was taking out thousands of mercenaries in disguise one after another.

He couldn't tell friend from foe or bystander from hired merc and that was probably the whole idea of this Chinese parade "finger trap".

After all, he wasn't totally sure they were sneaky mercenaries with hidden knives or clumsy and drunk parade goers.  

Thusly, he did his best to avoid hurting innocent bystanders by doing things like making his attackers slip and fall or snatching their weapons away with his shirahadori (barehanded blade blocking) techniques.

The pacifistic Kenshin would probably approve of Yahiko's attempts to minimize any potential collateral damage in the middle of a skirmish, at least.

He chased the lion dance mascot all the way into a crowded wet market, and the parade's jolly dancers seemingly made their way there as well.

However, every time Myojin got near, he got bombarded by kicks and punches hidden underneath the flowing costume of the lion mascot. They essentially used hit and run tactics to escape their swordsman pursuer.

He had to contend with hidden mercenaries at every corner and martial artists trained in kung fu wearing a gigantic lion costume every step of the way.

The kendoist herded the multi-feet, caterpillar-like mascot puppet into the nearest, narrowest corner alleyway he could find, their shoes muddied by splashing puddles as he pushed them towards a dead end.

"Let the Thin Man go, bastards! He ain't my cup of tea either, but I won't let you kidnap him! Much less kill him! DOU…!"

It was then that Yahiko realized where they'd ended up at. Back near the Minakata moneychanger office building. Right into the waiting hands of The Faceless.

"I've already seen that attack before. Has your bag of tricks run out?" Fabian La Cerca asked Yahiko Myojin.

Meanwhile, the samurai kid's attempt at another God on Earth got blocked hard by Fabian's sharp and thick rapier, the clang of the blades making the sakabatou vibrate like a tuning fork. Or Zan's war fork.

"Faceless!" said Yahiko, remembering the name Kaita gave the, for lack of a better term, gaijin ninja. "Uh, fancy meeting you here…?"

"Quiet, you popinjay," said the smug La Cerca. "You've fallen right into our trap. Our Chinese mercenaries serve as our insurance policy against any unforeseen hindrances. Now hand over the Kagemusha's relative this instant!"

Yahiko had figuratively ended up between a rock and a hard place, facing off against a multi-limbed kung fu pseudo-lion and a sword-wielding maniac with no face.

***

Kai Hidaka had seen enough.

Styles made fights and obviously, Lucas Grant was no match against the long-distance projectile thrower with a war fork.

Had Zan and the Kagemusha joined forces to defeat Lucas, it would've been all over already.

However, as it was, the red devil ninja was more than enough to take care of the novice mercenary.

Where the hell was The Faceless anyway? He was supposed to be the veteran leader of the Brigands Guild. Their organizer. Their finisher.

Ever since joining the ranks of the Brigands Guild like a soldier in the foreign legion, Kai imagined he'd die someday due to some mission in faraway lands like Constantinople, Hindustan, Siam, Burma, Zaire, or Holland.

Never in his wildest dreams did he fathom he'd die back in his homeland of Japan.  

All the same, the goggled warrior picked himself up from the pavement and willed himself to go once more unto the breach.

If he was going to die anyway then he'd do so like a man.

Then maybe he'd haunt that idiot Faceless and his multiple personalities (or disguises) for good measure! He was nowhere to be found when they needed him the most!

Zan the daredevil ninja saw Kai approach and thusly shot him full of blades and projectiles, intending to turn him into a pincushion for multiple blades like Lucas Grant.

Or like Musashibo Benkei who died standing while shot full of arrows or Julius Caesar and his body stabbed by multiple senatorial daggers.  

However, much to Kai Hidaka's surprise, Kinta Minakata charged alongside him.

Kinta headed straight towards Lucas as soon as Kai decided to act as the distraction for Zan.

What was the Mimawarigumi Battousai doing? Was he finally willing to fight his half-brother now that it was a one-on-one battle or a much fairer fight than before?

Kinta and Lucas were face-to-face once again—The Prodigal Son versus The Minakata Heir.

"Hello, brother," said Lucas with a bloody grin. "Have you changed your mind? Or do you now feel like this is more of a fair fight, Mr. Samurai?"

Kinta kept quiet as he fell into the Waning Stance, his back turned on his bastard brother and his bastard sword.

'What's going on?' Hidaka wondered before dodging and slicing the flying knives and shuriken thrown at him by the sharpshooter ninja.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

"I'll make this duel short to save you fatigue," said La Cerca to Yahiko, who fell into his fencing En Garde stance and did probing stabs at the samurai kid's defense. With both his rapier and his dagger.

"Duel?! You're ganging up on me, you masked coward!" came Myojin's retort, which in no way helped him against The Faceless' riposte.  

The troublesome dagger served as both his extra shield and extra weapon, with him shifting defense and offense between rapier and dagger.

Meanwhile, at the same time from behind him, an oversized, ridiculous lion puppet kept snapping its jaws at him with camouflaged fists and brass knuckles as well as kicks with hidden shoe blades.

It hardly seemed fair. It was like two against one. Or more like eleven against one.

Up to ten people could fit inside the lion mascot, although Yahiko wondered if Tatsuya was forced to serve as the eleventh person inside the puppet, so technically it was twelve against one.

Regardless, the poor kid got bludgeoned by kicks and punches from a lion mascot and wounded by stabs and slashes by the masked fencer.

Wiping the trickle of blood from his busted lip, Yahiko realized he could barely counter any of the attacks because whatever openings either opponent had was taken care of by the other's offensive, forcing him to remain on the defensive.

Dammit. He got beat up at every front, drowning in the winding rapids full of fists, feet, and sword stabs. Like he'd fallen from a waterfall directly into a swamp filled with man-eating gators.

Normally, fighting against The Faceless felt like fighting against a ghost. The Tokyo Samurai Descendant could throw confetti at him and none of them would land.

Now, it felt impossible to take him on with his guard lion running interference for him, wearing his defense down and keeping his offense limited.

The lion dance mascot clamped its puppet jaws at the reversed blade of Yahiko's sakabatou, which forced the kid to use his metal scabbard to block and parry La Cerca's resulting attacks instead.

Laughing like an unhinged lunatic, Fabian declared, "¡Ya me tienes harto! ¡Vete a la chingada! (I'm done with you! Go fuck yourself!)", and of course Myojin couldn't understand a word he said.

The lion mascot then wrenched Kenshin's sword away from Yahiko's lead hand at the same time as The Faceless disarmed his rear hand of his iron sheathe.

He was now weaponless. Unarmed.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

Hidaka's twitch reflexes allowed him to dodge the flying sharp objects headed towards him at bullet speed much better than his teammate Lucas, who weathered such a storm of steel like a human meat shield. Or a sitting duck.

"Missed me," mocked Kai.

"Impressive," admitted Zan. "You're a harder target to hit than the Prodigal Son."

Like a knight in heavy armor and a gigantic shield, but he lacked both of those as he let Zan turn him into target practice. 'What an idiot.'

The ninja had figured out the secret behind the sharpshooter's unerring accuracy. Zan could somehow detect the sound waves from his war fork and used it like bats would for echolocation.

He also wisely circled around and tested the area of effect of Zan's vibrating war fork, crawling across its perimeter to make the demonic ninja miss his mark.

He winced at the effort, the laceration given to him by Officer Satoru made his chest feel like it was set ablaze.

His high-flying acrobatic ninjutsu had saved his life countless times in countless missions overseas. However, most of those he faced weren't familiar with the way of the ninja at all.

This time, he confronted one of his own right in his motherland. The birthplace of ninjas.  

The darkness was not Kai's ally. Zan grew up in that same darkness. Molded by it. They both didn't see the light until they were men.

They were cut from the same cloth. They were the same kind of animal in a violent dogfight, biting and clawing at each other for in a fight for survival.

He flew across the dome-like area that served as Zan's tripwire to fling his projectiles.

In other words, the outer fringe of Zan's echolocation chamber was where his aim was the least accurate, so Kai could dodge the easiest from there.

From within the sonar dome, the spidery ninja then deployed three-dimensional movement with grappling hooks and ropes that included jumps and flying in midair to dodge while his whirling blades deflected any projectile he couldn't avoid in time.

Going airborne allowed Hidaka to get in the mid-range of the Sanada Demon's war fork sound waves while still being able to dodge in X, Y, and Z-axis despite Zan's heightened echolocation senses.

Hidaka wasn't only dodging from left or right. He also had the freedom to jump ahead or even twist in midair, his twin rotating blades also serving as his means to parry any incoming projectile.

"Missed me again," said Kai.

For his part, Zan acknowledged, "Yes. Not for long, though."

The Fuuma Ninja threw his own rope projectiles at the Sanada Demon to bind and hogtie him, but Zan himself dodged those easily.

Now was the moment of truth.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Thinking fast, Yahiko ran towards the strangely adorable lion mascot, aware that from behind him, The Faceless was hot off his heels.

The Son of Tokyo Samurai then threw something at the gap between the lion's slightly ajar jaws (it "bit" on his sword, after all), which it received by reflex. Like the cabbage fed to it during the parade.

The mascot then opened the jaw up and "choked out" the white streamer that Yahiko pick-pocketed earlier to the ground, along with the sakabatou.

The boy remembered what Tatsuya said about the Chinese superstition of never "feeding" the lion dance mascot anything that was colored white because that was bad luck.

The silly superstition made the hardened kung fu mercenaries panic and "spew" the streamer out, which gave the unarmed Myojin the opportunity to snatch back his stolen sakabatou from the ground and enter the lion costume from the agape mouth.

He had finally entered the belly of the beast.

From there, chaos ensued.

Fabian La Cerca could only stare, his own mouth agape but hidden behind a plain white mask, as an armed Yahiko beat up his hired hitmen from inside their battle puppet.

From inside the costume, the teenager used his bloodlust detection training he did with Satsuki to bludgeon the wriggling mass of humanity within the costume. Attacking like a virus or bacterial infection.

Like a cape or a curtain, the lion costume unfurled, revealing a triumphant Myojin and a sweaty Elder Minakata who slumped on the kid's shoulders.

Yahiko took a long gasp of air that looked like a yawn. Man, did it stink inside that lion suit!

"I thought I was going to DIE!" said the gasping and wheezing Tatsuya. He slapped his bodyguard upside the head, but he lacked strength, so it came off as more of a nudge.

"Ow! Hey, what was that for?" asked Yahiko. What an ingrate.

"Th-That's for getting me captured in the first place, idiot! Y-You e-even made us run all the way here!" wheezed Minakata, who while nabbed by the lion costume operators, was forced to move in cadence with them at knifepoint.

"Yeah, you're welcome for saving your life," muttered Myojin with an eye roll while considering throwing the V.I.P. back to his kidnappers or to The Faceless.

Unbelievable. The samurai boy took out all those men by himself using finesse and creativity. He was cunning as a fox. Or perhaps he was a fellow thief like himself…?

Who was this interloper anyway?

With a harrumph, the masked assassin said, "Fine. I'll just finish you both off from here. It's like killing two birds with one stone."

Yahiko yelped, who had no choice but to let go of the tired Tatsuya as he fell into his Chudan-no-Kamae (Water Stance) and parried the lunging fencer's rapier before him.

***

Back at the exterior facade of the Minakata moneychanger office building…

"Can't catch me," taunted Kai.

"I've missed every shot so far. But I'm getting closer," said Zan.

"Is that a threat?" asked Kai.

Zan answered, "No, it's a promise."

The Fuuma Ninja used every dodge, parry, and block he could muster to get near the Sanada Ninja and his echolocation. He avoided projectiles on the ground from far away.

He leaped and used midair three-dimensional movement to avoid more blades and darts from midrange. He even threw his own rope darts and grappling hooks at Zan for good measure.

In a mere second, he got clipped on the shoulder by a blade, followed by stabbed on the lead foot with a shuriken and sliced on the rear thigh by the vibrating warfork.

"Almost there," taunted Zan.

He'd charged too close to dodge the sharp-shooting Zan. It was now or never.

Ignoring the screaming, burning pain from the severed nerve endings of his growing list of injuries, Kai Hidaka spun like a top with his twin blades serving as the razor tips of his human shuriken impression.

His blades rotated like the rotors of a windmill, the fins of a pinwheel, or the spokes of a wheel.

He intended to cut through every last projectile at a distance so close, Zan's primitive sonar abilities wouldn't matter anymore.

However, all Zan did was block the rotating Fuuma Ninja's blades with his war fork, which made it vibrate enough to give him enough echolocation sound waves to stab him multiple times with multiple knives with unerring accuracy.

"OH SHI—!"

Zan himself managed to avoid the rotating blades and stick knives into Kai's body between every rotation.

Zan then hissed, "Bull's eye."

Dammit. It didn't work.

Desperate, the Fuuma Ninja wrapped the war fork with one of his rope darts to stop it from vibrating then attempted to decapitate Zan from behind with a whirling dervish of an attack.

The Sanada Demon avoided that too by eyesight instead of by echolocation, ducking in time and countering with his war fork. He was too good and too strong to fall for that as well.

It was all over.

Hidaka wasn't able to land one slash. And now Lucas faced off against his half-brother while injured himself.

The goggled ninja's spent body crumpled to the ground, exhausted beyond belief and bleeding from several more stab wounds.

"Well? What are you waiting for, Sanada Demon? Finish me off."

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

'I thought he was a fellow thief, but he's nothing more than a pickpocket,' thought Fabian, who carved Yahiko up like a wooden toy knickknack. 'A petty thief against a criminal mastermind.'

On his part, the samurai kid couldn't penetrate the dual defense of La Cerca's double blades.

The rapier probed at Myojin's range at a comfortable distance and when he forced his way to more closed-quarter combat, the dagger served as both The Faceless' shield and auxiliary blade.

Just like before.

However, unbeknownst to the master fencer, the kendo master had actually pushed the battle towards the area where he'd lost the iron sheathe.

He then secretly picked up his scabbard with his sleight of hand like the pickpocket that he was when he worked with the yakuza.

He then used the same scabbard to block the dagger as he did a circular parry of the rapier and finally landed a rib-cracking body shot at The Faceless.

Coughing blood, even the doubled-over Fabian had to admit, "Magnifico, hijo. (Magnificent, kid.) How much farther can you push me, I wonder? Don't disappoint me now."

Yahiko cringed. "Why won't you go down, Old Man?"

The veteran duelist then moved in for the kill, baiting counter after counter that wore on the dual-wielding samurai's defense.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant avoided the bait, but this forced him to second-guess his offensive, leaving him to mostly focus on parrying and moving to the preferred cadence of The Faceless.

"Hit him, dammit! He's right in front of you! What am I paying you for?!" demanded the disheveled Tatsuya.

'You do it,' thought the samurai kid, who feinted a strike to draw out Fabian's counter, only to get his counter to the counter blocked by that damnable dagger, leaving him wide open to a barely dodged riposte.

"Almost," said the masked man, his tone dripping with an implied smirk from behind the mask. Like a cat playing with his prey.

Wait. This feeling of frustration felt quite familiar.

Where had Yahiko felt this before? This was the first time he'd ever faced off against the foreign sword style of fencing, so why did this duel feel like he'd been through it before?

He felt a feeling of déjà vu.

From the corner of his eyes, Myojin then saw the mercenaries he beat up regain consciousness and start picking up the parts of their lion costume again. 'Oh, shi…!'

"Stand back! Stand back or I'll shoot!" screamed Tatsuya, scrambling for his pistol, but then he realized he'd lost his gun from the scuffle earlier.

The two realized that one of the mercenaries had stolen the Minakata uncle's firearm and aimed it at them, which backed them into a corner.

Things went from bad to worse.

***

Lucas Grant wiped the blood on his leaking forehead to his hair, dyeing it red. He then licked his hand. "That Sanada Demon of yours was a pretty impressive fighter. I'm not going to lie."

Kinta Minakata remained silent, his body coiled and ready to strike with a iaijutsu slash.

"You're not very chatty today, are you, Big Brother?" said Luke with a nonchalant shrug while tapping his bloody bastard sword from behind his head.

The Mimawarigumi Battousai and the Prodigal Son then picked up where they left off.

The surgeon versus the butcher.

The surgeon remained pristine and precise with his cuts. The butcher kept hacking and slashing right into the bone of the meat.

"You know, I went undercover as your bodyguard to do some research of my own on the Seiryu Clan. The Minakatas. The family that rejected me and my mother," said Lucas with the same inelegant strikes that wore down the snake man ninja Ren.

The Kagemusha, for his part, dodged Luke's fencing strikes and European swordplay, remembering the training he got from his grandfather, the sage and worldly Toshiro Minakata, on how to handle swordsmanship from across the globe.

This allowed him to defend against unconventional tactics he didn't witness from his time in the Mimawarigumi, like using the pommel of a bastard sword to bash the head in.

As brusque, simple, messy, and savage as Grant's swordsmanship looked, it was also pragmatic and effective. Like bashing any living thing with the sharpest blunt object you could find into minced meat.

"Every one of your family is full of bastard. Even bigger rat bastards than I am, the literal bastard," continued Lucas, happily chopping away at the surgical Kinta's defense, his sword slashes coming closer. And closer.

Like in the middle of a stampede of carriages or even chariots, Minakata kept avoiding those strikes, each one swung with great strength and killing intent. Each one enough to finish him off.

Disturbingly, every accurate cut Kinta landed on Luke, the foreigner didn't even register. He didn't even bat an eye. They might as well have been paper cuts. Or cat scratches.

It was as if they were too shallow for him. Flesh wounds weren't enough to take him down, as proven by Zan earlier. His brother dared him to commit to every strike and cut right through his bone.

Easier said than done. It felt like one wrong move from him would result in certain death.

Kinta didn't break a sweat earlier, but now he was really sweating on a December.

Also, it was naïve of him to refuse Zan's proposal to fight his bastard brother together, thinking it was dishonorable to fight an injured man.

This creature before him did not act like an injured man. He was more like a wounded animal whose fight or flight instincts had been activated.

But that wasn't quite right either. He acted to lackadaisical for someone so bloody. It was as if he became stronger and more relaxed the more injured he got...?

What an utterly ridiculous man he'd grown up to become.

***

Back at a narrow alleyway in the Yokohama Chinatown near the Minakata moneychanger offices…

Something in the periphery smashed the hand holding Tatsuya's pistol. A tetsubo (metal bat), to be exact.

"…Gan!" gasped Yahiko while Tatsuya used him as a shield against the lion dance mascot. "You came! I didn't think you'd come here!"

Sure enough, the Great Gan started swinging his weapon against the overgrown puppet before him. "You owe us part of that reward money, Yoshi-boy!"

"Don't call me that," said Myojin with a smirk, almost unthinkingly. He didn't really care what Gan called him at that point.

The thuggish ruffian walloped the multi-legged lion mascot before him, with him swinging for the fences with bone-shattering swipes.

Damn. Yahiko heard several sickening crunches from Gan's blunt force approach.

He then had to do a split-second cross-armed Hadome parry on short notice as Fabian suddenly lunged his rapier's tip at his face, intending to turn him and Kinta's uncle into shish-kebab.

However, before he could transition into the disarming Hawatari, the boy realized his fatal mistake, unable to backpedal in time to avoid the dagger to his heart, with both his arms leaving his chest wide open.

To both the shock of La Cerca and Yahiko, a dual-bladed block kept the dagger from puncturing the spiky-haired boy's chest just in time.

It was Munenori Minoe's Cancer Stance: Scissor Grip technique.

"…Minoe!" said Yahiko with a smile and a half-laugh. His allies had come to his rescue in the nick of time.

"Mochiron (But of course)," said Minoe before squeezing his two swords hard enough to bend and break The Faceless's dagger.

***

Hidaka winced at the forked stab that never came.

What was the Sanada Demon waiting for? The Chinese New Year? Tanabata (The Star Festival)? He should finish him off and get it over with.

"Hey, Demon. Quit playing games," said Kai, only for him to realize something important.

The mask wearing youkai (ghoul) ninja that reminded him of The Faceless the most had stopped moving.  

Like Musashibo Benkei who died standing while shot full of arrows or Julius Caesar and his body stabbed by multiple senatorial daggers.  

However, unlike them, he had no arrows or knives stuck on his body. Did he have a random heart attack and died then and there, smote by the gods?

What the hell just happened?

The ninja exhaled, releasing the breath he just realized he'd been holding all this time. He took stock of his surroundings, awakening to self-awareness with several eye blinks.

He felt like he'd just escaped death with the skin of his teeth. Or like he got sideswiped by a runaway carriage, saving himself from becoming roadkill.

He sat there, dripping in blood, his eyes searching for any wound or slash he landed unto Zan.

At first glance, it looked like Zan was the victor and Hidaka awaited death.

Kai's brain scrambled for a reason behind his sudden victory. Was it when he wrapped the war fork and muffled its reverberating sound waves, allowing him to land a hit?

However, his blades—as sharp as they were—didn't draw blood or felt like they even hit the red devil ninja at all. No impact or resistant.

Hidaka then noticed the drip of blood not his own.

Little drops of blood formed on the slumped form of Zan.

Wait a goddamn second.

Kai thought the pincushion look of the bloody Lucas meant that he'd been pushed to the limit by the devilish ninja.

What if Zan's red costume hid that he'd been wounded all along?

What if the blood on Lucas wasn't (only) his own, but someone else's blood?

Or, if that wasn't enough outward bleeding to incapacitate him, what if Zan had been internally bleeding all this time?

That last burst of effort to avoid Kai's blades must've been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Kai chuckled, which then turned into a full-blown cackle.

That damn Lucas had him worried for nothing.

***

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chinatown…

With ragged breaths, a tired and sweaty May "Satsuki" Brooks pushed the blunt edge of her naginata down while she herself leaned on it like a cane.

She had actually went ahead and tailed the Minakata party even before the surviving bodyguards sounded the alarm of another assassination attempt, only for her to get intercepted by a Chinese assassins hiding behind a Chinese parade.

Like with Yahiko, random strangers pretending to be merrymakers attacked her, which she took out in short order thanks to her naginatajutsu.

She'd been training along with Yahiko to hone her sixth sense in battle, after all.

Only for her to get blindsided when the lion dance mascot also ambushed her for good measure.

And now there they were, with her taking on a surprisingly lion-like mascot puppet with the fierceness of its choreographed group attacks with military efficiency.

"Arigathanks for the workout," the tired blonde bluffed, not realizing she was code-switching between two languages and mixing up words together in her exhaustion. "Sorrymasen for the mess though. But I've got to go."

She brushed her matted hair, revealing a black eye. Her face and body had various bruises from the beating she got from the lion-head disguise of the Brigands' hired hitmen.

She'd actually been fighting against another lion mascot all this time, this time of the northern lion design with its painted on face and much sharper teeth.

It used less puppetry like moveable jaws and eyelids, but like the other southern lion mascot, it was controlled by Shaolin-trained kung fu masters hired by the Brigands Guild for their assassination mission.

With a sneer, Satsuki whirled her bladed polearm above her head and told the approaching lion dance mascot. "This is your final warning! Yamete kudastop…!"

The lion's sharp half-open jaw clamped upon the blade of the naginata while its worm-like body wrapped itself around May's body with wriggling hands and shuffling feet.

'Just you wait, Joshua-kun (Yahiko-kun)! Kyoko-chan! Satsuki-oneesan is here to save you!' she thought through grit teeth as she struggled against the mascot monster.

***

To Be Continued...

Beware of those Chinese parades, man. They're a riot.

As for the Sanada Demons, Baku is based on Batman from D.C. with supersonic shrieking powers like Banshee from Marvel. Ren wears snake armor reminiscent of Serpentor from G.I. Joe but has resonant destruction powers like Avalanche from Marvel.

Finally, Zan uses sonar-like echolocation (through his tuning war fork) like Daredevil from Marvel, but his accurate projectile hurling is more reminiscent of Daredevil's arch-nemesis Bullseye.  

Danke, Abdiel

[cerastes]

Yooooo is it really you, my ex colleage and ex.co-worker Komatsuhime, childhood names Onei and Inahime, adopted daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, birth daughter of Honda Tadakatsu, married to Sanada Nobuyuki after witnessing the Sanada clan’s fierce tactics and vaunted martial prowess in the Battle of Ueda Castle? It’s been so long, I’m so happy to see you!

[redsamuraiii]

Saw some posts of people being upset with Shogun because Lord Toranaga does nothing so far but make use of others. As they were expecting him to fight as they're used to seeing Hiroyuki Sanada being a fearless warrior plunging himself into chaos.

But that's what make this show unique as it's different. He's not a Ronin or a Samurai with nothing to lose anymore, he's a leader. One wrong move means the demise of his entire clan like what happened to Mariko's family clan, that's why Toranaga is very cautious.

He's playing the long game that no one understands but him. That's what makes him difficult to defeat as no one knows what he's really thinking and planning, not even his own followers. You can't survive the warring period by being an open book.

Toranga knew that he's outnumbered as more clans flocked to Ishido's banners by the day. As time goes by, a frontal assault would be impossible and suicidal. Especially now when he's branded a "rebel" against the Council of Regents and the Taiko's heir.

Mariko is the endgame as she finally exposed Ishido's true intentions in holding all the retainer's families hostage and wanting power for himself that even Ochiba, the Taiko's consort is powerless. Now it is likely the other clans will abandon Ishido and flock to Toranaga.

This time, Ishido would be the rebel and Toranaga's war against him would be justified as the clans would recognize him now as the rightful Shogun. Yabu will likely be executed for his treachery, so his province will be under Toranaga's control. He's gaining power.

Now he can make his power move to eliminate Ishido once and for all, and claim the title, Shogun. After all, he's based on the real Tokugawa Ieyasu, who is known for his great patience and cunningness in playing politics, that he's able to unify Japan.

[yukimura-4]

"Yuki what the heck are you doing now" Exactly! :D

So, this is an idea I had many years ago, which is drawing UT characters dressed like other characters from Samurai Warriors / Sengoku Musou, one of my fave videogame series (Same devs behind Hyrule Warriors, OP Pirate Warriors, etc.)

In the end I left this idea forgotten in a drawer because I was more lazy and unexperienced, but these last few weeks I've come back to play Warriors games, and it came to the surface again Xd

I'm planing to draw cosplays for the main UT characters in the order they appear in-game, starting off with Frisk. I couldn't decide between giving them a male/female character, so I went with both

A little bit of SW trivia! ^^

Kunoichi and Sasuke are both ninjas in SW, who work for the Sanada clan.

Kunoichi has appeared since SW1, and she's the adopted daughter of Takeda Shingen.

Sasuke (who is not the one from Naruto Xd) is a fictional shinobi famed as one of the "Sanada ten Braves". They're also the bodyguards of Sanada Yukimura (which you might now is the character from who I took my name Xd)

PS: You may recognize some of these designs if you've ever played Pokémon Conquest, a crossover Nintendo made with SW :3

[sanflawoah]

Words have spread that Hiroyuki Sanada is in talk for a role in the Ghost of Tsushima film and I'm pinching myself is this real. Hiroyuki? In my Tsushima? Consider me sat. Well nothing is confirmed yet, none of the cast are confirmed actually, but I'm having some fancast idea for him and and it gets more absurd.

Lord Shimura // Most popular fan choice, my top choice too. This will tenfold the angst, couldn't imagine a better person to play hurt/comfort with emphasise on hurt. 100/10 emotional damage.

Kazumasa Sakai // Could work very well too. 10/10 Iki island trauma. Also, been thinking for long that the Sakai clan armor design looks similar to Ujio's armor in The Last Samurai, so there's some visual.

Sensei Ishikawa // Wouldn't that be interesting. Let my man have some bow and arrow variety for once.

Some random NPC boss fight // weird interesting choice ngl. Everyone suspecting it's just some random passing character, but face reveal and boom hiroyuki sanada jumpscare.

The Shogun // Funniest possible choice lmao. Someone in the production watched that show and got absolutely floored. Have him as a fictional Hojo Tokimune-esque shogun just to terror both Lord Shimura and Jin.

[ikeromantic]

The Final Thread pt 1

Kenshin (Red Thread of Fate AU) finds himself inexplicably drawn to a tavern-keeper in an enemy village. Though victory seems assured, strange happenings put Kenshin, his allies, and the woman in danger. Written for @scruffymctee featuring her lovely OC Tomoyo! Approx. 3200 words.

Previous: Crimson Thread, Another Skein

Kenshin wiped the sweat from his brow. The sun was merciless today, the air thick and humid. His arms ached from the effort of his work, but there was no time to rest. The fight wasn’t over. His sword was crusted with blood. Fresh runnels of scarlet carved paths through the hills of rusted remnants of his earlier opponents as it made its way to the tsuba.

They were finally at the village, with fields of dead at their backs and only a token force ahead. The battle would end soon, and Kenshin felt a mix of annoyance and satisfaction at that. He expected victory, but the day yielded no true opponent worth crossing blades with. And now the chance of such was gone. 

The commander, a young warrior from the Sanada clan, called out orders from his seat atop a sinuous dragon, a beast of red and copper hue that watched the soldiers with a look of vast and strange intellect. The lines of troops rippled and surged into the village, while in the air hundreds of mounted warriors dove toward the remaining fortifications, their monstrous mounts a chorus of damnation for their enemies. 

For the next several minutes, Kenshin ceased to think, his body moving with an unnatural grace. Flowing like water in a dance of violence and gore, he moved past his allies to pursue and destroy his opponents. He felt nothing as they fell.

An open doorway caught his attention, and he turned, blade ready. There was movement within. A coward, preparing an ambush? A damned spirit haunting an abandoned building? Or a frightened villager waiting for the end? He stepped forward.

The attack nearly caught him by surprise. Not a blade or a staff, but a colorful twist of fabric. It snapped out, the weighted end slamming the flat of his sword. He had to shift his grip to keep it in hand. 

Kenshin lunged toward the attacker, but they moved as fast as he. In the dim interior of the shuttered building, he couldn’t make out their features. But he didn’t care what they looked like. Another body he would shortly add to the pile before this battle was ended. His blade flickered forward as he turned, but his enemy slammed it away with another sweep of silk. 

He took advantage of the opening to aim a kick at the shifting figure, but he missed and his foot crashed into a shuttered window. The wood cracked and split, letting the warm afternoon light spill in. Kenshin didn’t notice the sparkling motes of dust as they danced in the golden light, or appreciate the way the sun painted the hanging scrolls. He might have spared a glance at the shelves of sake behind the counter for a heartbeat, but only that. 

With a shout, Kenshin swung at his opponent but the attack stopped short as the light struck them first. Jade green eyes that reflected the afternoon sun, carmine lips, dark hair that hung in silken strands from an elaborate coif now undone. His heart thumped uneasily against the cage of his ribs. She was so familiar. So achingly familiar. He felt a smile curl on the edge of his lips, one he quickly smothered.

“Get out of my bar,” the woman demanded. She was fierce, a tigress in her domain. A kaiken gleamed in her grip, half-hidden by the sweep of her kimono. 

“It’s not yours anymore, woman. Walk away.” Kenshin’s flat, cold voice sounded odd in his own ears.

She scoffed, a haughty expression turning her soft, kissable mouth to hard lines. “No? You think just because you march in here with your big sword, that makes it yours?” She shook her head. “I’m not afraid of you.”

Kenshin felt a rolling warmth in his chest as she said the last bit. He clenched his jaw against the unexpected betrayal of his body. Why should it matter to him if this woman feared him or no? If she did not fear him now, she would learn to. Because he was a creature of war, only alive in the midst of battle. “I would prefer not to fight a woman,” he muttered.

“And I’d prefer not to fight an idiot, but here we are.” She moved faster than seemed possible, her sleeves fluttering in the confined space, the weighted ends whistling as they swept past him. But that attack was a distraction. The real danger was her kaiken. The woman stepped close, brought the blade in a deadly slash.

He had only a heartbeat, less, to turn aside. The small knife cut into the lacquered leather of his dou. She was good, he thought. Using her smaller size and speed to advantage. Kenshin grabbed for her arm, his hand nearly closing over the silken sleeve. But she spun out of his reach and he almost took a weighted cuff to the face for his trouble. 

“You should leave now,” she said, glancing toward the open window. “While you can.”

His gaze followed hers. He could see no sign of any threat, only the distant sounds of fighting as his forces met the few defenders remaining. “What do you know? Tell me, woman.” His mismatched glare moved to her face. The flicker of familiarity struck him again, but he ignored it.

“I have a name.” She frowned. “Tomoyo. So stop calling me woman.” Tomoyo let out a tired sigh, though her body stayed rigid and alert. 

“I asked you a question.” One brow quirked up in annoyance. 

Before she could answer, the door slammed open behind them as another soldier checked the building. He saw Kenshin and grinned. “Looks like you got here first. Good call securing the booze.”

Kenshin turned to regard his fellow with an icy glare. The soldier was Sanada clan, though not Akazonae. Only a mere footsoldier like himself, not someone he had to take orders from. “I did. So you can leave.”

“What? You want to keep the woman and the alcohol all to yourself?” The soldier’s gaze took in Tomoyo’s figure, though he winced away from her hot green gaze. “Looks like more than enough to share.”

Tomoyo grinned fiercely. “Try it. See what happens.”

Kenshin ignored her. “Find someplace else. This one is mine.” The scarlet edge of his blade wavered between him and the other soldier, a threat that needed no words.

For a breath, it looked as if the Sanada clan member might argue. Then he shrugged. “Fine. But if one of the commander catches you, it’s not my fault.” He smirked and then stepped back into the bruised light of late afternoon.

“Yours?” Tomoyo watched him with a haughty gaze. “Over my dead body.”

“If need be.” Kenshin turned to study her. She was fast, and stronger than she looked. In this space she had the advantage. He could take her though, of that he was certain. Only . . . he found that he did not want to fight her. She was a woman, but it was more than that. There was something about her that felt familiar, something that opened the wound in his heart and made his soul ache. 

Tomoyo studied him back, her gaze still hot with anger. “Well?”

Kenshin righted one of the overturned chairs and sat. “Bring me some wine.” Before she could protest him as a thief, he pulled a table over and set some coins on it. “And pickled plums, if you have them.”

She snorted. “Of course I do.” The coin disappeared, replaced by a bowl of sake and a small plate of pickled plums. “So what? Now you plan to sulk and drink until you die?”

He looked at her, expecting to find more of her tart anger, but there was genuine curiosity in her jade gaze. “No.” Kenshin wasn’t sure what his end goal was. The Sanada would take the land and assets once conquest was complete. It wasn’t up to him what happened to Tomoyo or her bar. And yet. He felt he could not leave. 

“Talkative, I see.” She pulled a chair over and sat across from him, pouring her own cup of sake from the bottle. “You look familiar,” she said after a pause. “Or, you feel familiar. But I don’t know . . . where?” Her voice trailed off, lost in thought.

Kenshin gave a slight shrug and didn’t reply. She didn’t seem to need one. They sat in companionable silence as the sun began to set, turning the light red, then violet. 

Tomoyo stood and lit a small oil lamp. Then she began closing up. Kenshin watched as she blockaded the door and propped the shutters over the open window.

“What are you doing?” He set his hand on the hilt of his sword, a nervous energy sweeping through him.

“Closing.” She glanced over her shoulder and he was surprised to see worry in the tightness of her jaw, the line of her mouth. 

Kenshin gave her a small half smile. “Habit?”

“Something like that.” Just as she spoke, the earth beneath them shivered. The building groaned as the wood bent and flexed with the sudden motion of the ground. Tomoyo did not look surprised, but she did look weary. 

He stood, a nervous anxiety in him. Being buried alive in rubble would be an ignominious end. “We should go out -”

“Shhhh.” She held a finger to her lips. Kenshin might have argued, but then he heard it. A hissing sound, like a thousand serpents, rising and then falling in volume. “If we are quiet,” Tomoyo whispered, “they will leave us alone.”

“They?” It was a question he’d asked before, but now his tone was one of caution not interrogation.

“This is cursed land. We are all . . .” She trailed off, her eyes going to the smashed shutters propped over the open window.

Kenshin was about to laugh. He knew about curses. The kind that haunted your dreams and made life a bleak and empty hell. Curses did not shake the ground and hiss into the night. They were personal and silent and terrible punishments. But his laughter never came, dying in his throat as a chorus of screams echoed through the early evening. 

He moved toward the door, stopping as Tomoyo held up her hand. “If you go out there,” she said, “you will die.” 

“I am a god of war. I don’t fear death. I welcome it.” Kenshin smiled at her, the sharp, cruel grin he wore when the joy of battle sang in his veins. “I am not going to hide here while my allies are fighting.”

Tomoyo took a long breath, then nodded. “Fine. Then let’s go.” One hand reached to pat her neck. The tension in her jaw eased as her palm rested against her throat. She gave a slight smile as she pulled the barricade away from the door and stepped out into the cool evening. 

The early evening was stained grey with seeping fog. It swirled through the shadows and over the rooftops, illuminated by the wan light of a waning moon. The smells of ash and blood permeated the mist, a heavy scent that burned in the nose. Kenshin ignored it, focused instead on the faint movement at the edges of his vision.

There were figures in the mist, he thought. But when he tried to look at them directly, there was nothing. Just the motion of the fog as it eddied around the corners of buildings and the leaf-heavy branches of trees.

“Stay close,” Tomoyo said, her voice soft, a whisper in the murk. 

When Kenshin looked to her, she was barely visible, a shape made ethereal in the night. Her brilliant green gaze, the only familiar part of her. “I don’t know why you came with me.” It troubled him, though he couldn’t say why. 

She scoffed, but didn’t answer. 

He might have asked more, but up ahead he saw a Sanada encampment, hung with the familiar red banner. There should have been soldiers up and moving around, or gathered by the low-burning fires. But there was no one. 

Kenshin continued forward, his steps deliberate, a growing dread in his gut. At the first campfire, he found half eaten food on the ground, a half-cleaned sword lying beside its sheath, and an open jug of cheap alcohol. The nearby tents were empty of all but the heavy mist, though there were packs and sleeping mats, other personal items. Signs that someone was here, and only recently gone. 

Tomoyo walked behind him, tense and wary. She didn’t seem surprised by the empty camp or the belongings lying scattered on the ground. 

“What is this?” Kenshin turned to confront her, a roiling sensation in his gut.

She took a breath, shifting to her back foot as if getting ready to run or attack. “I told you. This town is cursed. We sent messages to the Sanada. We warned them.”

His mismatched gaze took in her expression, her posture, the bitter twist to her lips. He did not think she was lying. “Tell me what this curse is.”

Tomoyo opened her mouth to reply, but her words were swallowed up in a sudden shift of the fog. 

If she spoke, Kenshin did not hear her. His ears were filled with the susurration of the mist, like dry leaves in an autumn wind or the creaking of old bones. A whistling scream, distant and muffled. He whirled, eyes searching for an enemy, something he could fight and cut and kill. 

There was nothing. Only the endless eddying fog, pressing at his eyes, pushing into his nostrils and mouth. A thick, foul thing, cold and damp. Kenshin stumbled back, hands at his face as if to pull the mist away. He could not breathe; he could not see. His curled fingers caught nothing as they dragged against his skin.

“No.” The word rang in the heavy air like the clear tones of a bell. 

Kenshin felt a hand on his arm, and through the cloying whiteness, he saw a faint glow. The mist slid away from him, melting into the evening air. He found himself leaning into Tomoyo’s touch, warmth seeping into him from her palm. It eased the tension in his body, the rattle of fight or flee fading. He shut his eyes, just for a heartbeat, allowing himself this moment to enjoy the sensation. Then he straightened, forcing his thoughts back to the danger around him. 

“What was that?” His gaze snapped to Tomoyo, wary but grateful for her intervention.

“You could say thank you. I just saved your life.” She crossed her arms and watched him.

Kenshin felt a tug in his chest, an unexpected warmth at her indomitable attitude. Nothing, he thought, could conquer this woman. The notion made him feel oddly proud of her. “Thank you,” he murmured. 

Mollified, she dropped her arms to her side. “Those were the spirits of the dead, and those they have taken.” Tomoyo looked grimly toward the heavy mist that still surrounded them. “Any caught out after dark may be taken by them. But they target those that live by violence.” Her jade eyes took on a glow of their own, fey and primal. “I told you this place is cursed.”

“Then we must find the commander’s tent.” He took a breath and tried to imagine the map, overlaid now atop mist and death. “We should head this way -” Kenshin gestured in the direction of the hill where the Sanada encampment should be. It was obscured completed by the darkness and fog, and he wasn’t certain of the direction, but any direction was better than standing still and waiting to die.

Tomoyo nodded. “Alright. What happens if we get to your commanders?” 

Her question surprised him. He paused, an odd feeling moving through him. “I don’t know. I am only a soldier. They will point me at what they want to conquer and I will kill it.”

“And if it can’t be killed? Conquered?” Her gaze was so intent on him that Kenshin felt himself taken by it. Held in place, if that place was the green fire of her eyes. 

He knew the answer. He would die trying, his honor worth more than his life. “I -” 

She interrupted. “We should move. I can only hold them off for so long.” Tomoyo began walking in the direction he’d gestured. “You should stay close.”

Kenshin fell into step with her, close enough that their arms brushed against each other. The sensation was strangely intimate and familiar. As if she’d always been right there at his side. He pushed the thought away. “How do you keep them back,” he asked, remembering the moment she’d touched him and driven back the dead.

Tomoyo shrugged. “A bit of magic. I . . . protected you with a charm of life. It has the essence of the living in it, but it can’t protect us from everything.”

“You are . . . Onmyōji?” 

She laughed, the joyful sound at odds with the terrifying night. “No. I run a tavern. But I’ve picked some things up along the way.”

Kenshin felt himself smiling. “Like fighting?”

“Yes, that too.” She nudged his arm playfully. “What about you? Any skills besides beauty and murder?”

“A few,” he muttered, feeling heat creep into his cheeks. “I keep rabbits.”

Tomoyo laughed again, and the sound squeezed Kenshin’s heart. “Rabbits? I wouldn’t have guessed that.” She tapped her lips with a delicate fingertip. “You clearly have a taste for good sake too.”

He shrugged, hoping she wouldn’t notice the warmth in his face. “I wouldn’t call that a skill.”

“Mmm. You’d be surprised. Some will drink anything as long as it gets them drunk. But learning to truly appreciate your liquor and wine? That counts.” 

“Does it? I’ll have to remember that.” Kenshin paused, taking in her profile. She was so beautiful, he thought. Not in the way of an innocent maiden with all the benefits of youth. No. Tomoyo was a woman, with laugh lines around her mouth and creases beside her eyes from her smile. Her gaze held wisdom, and her heart, scars. 

He felt drawn to her in a way he’d never experienced. There was lust, of course. The desire to see her, to trace the curves hinted at beneath her kimono. But more, he felt as if he could spend weeks listening to her voice. That he could tell her anything, even the secrets he could not admit to himself. It was as if he already knew her. 

“ . . . just seems silly to me.”

Kenshin realized he missed what she said just as she looked to him expectantly. “Silly?”

“The idea of one warlord conquering everything. I don’t understand why the great families can’t simply live in harmony.” Tomoyo sighed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Your commander should be just up this hill, yes?”

He tried to see some sign of the Sanada camp, but there was only the mist spinning and shifting in the darkness. “Perhaps.” 

They began to hear the shouts of men and the roar of monstrous mounts as they ascended the hill. The fog lightened with nearby campfires, and sudden, sharp bursts of unnatural lightning. Kenshin launched into a run, and Tomoyo followed closely behind.

[fighting-and-drawing]

Foraging-Angst

Hosted by: @violettduchess & @lorei-writes

Fandom: Ikemen Sengoku

Type: Fanfic

Characters: Shingen Takeda, OC (Thai [dedicated OC sheet coming soon]), Yukimura Sanada, MC/Mai

Prompt: Foraging (Angst)

Word Count: 1,000

A/N: This takes place way after the events of my longfic, Heart of the Warrior, in an AU of an AU. I have never really written angst, but I figured I'd explore an idea floating in my head lately.

------------

Sanada-sama…

Yukimura-sama…

They were titles that naturally rolled off the tongue for every Sanada Clan vassal and samurai that addressed Yukimura. Although the boyish Peerless Warrior repeatedly told his closest vassals and friends to refrain from addressing him as such, they were still titles of respect that would be regurgitated whether by reflex or on purpose. Sure, Yukimura was slightly peeved by it, but formality was an unavoidable circumstance to the current head of the Sanada Clan. Yukimura would just have to live with it.

But, no matter how many times Thai repeated it, “Sanada-sama” and “Yukimura-sama” was as foreign to his speech as he was to both this time and country. Such is the life of a bodyguard, Thai thought to himself.

Speaking of, he was at least glad that today wasn’t raining like it was when they were traveling from Ueda Castle. The sun had finally broken through the clouds to grace the land below, yet the canopy of dew-laden trees provided much needed shade. The ground, damp from yesterday’s shower, was still firm against both Yukimura’s and Mai’s sandals as the lovers raced around the carefully cultivated forest. Their hands reached into the leaf litter below, grabbing fistfuls of fallen chestnuts ready to be harvested. Although this was supposed to be a lovely date idea that Sasuke had proposed, shenanigans were a given. What came was another one of their playful competitions, this one being “whoever can get the most chestnuts in five minutes gets bragging rights and their favorite treat.” So far, it seemed that Yukimura was going to win, and being the competitive tease he was, he made sure Mai knew it as well.

Thai, watching over from just a few meters away underneath a massive tree, chuckled softly to himself as the two continued to tease each other and scramble to fill their baskets. His gaze, although encompassing their surroundings for any hidden threats, still focused on Yukimura.

It was Yukimura’s smile, of course…that beaming, gorgeous smile…

A cough erupted from Thai’s throat, his gaze averting as Yukimura’s quick glance met his prior gaze. With things slowing down after the eventual peace between the Oda and the Uesugi-Takeda Alliance, Yukimura was starting to finally enjoy some downtime with the love of his life.

Or, rather, the person better suited for him…

No, now’s not the time for thoughts of “what could and should have been.” Besides, Thai already had plenty of time to reflect on their previous relationship, no matter how much this one stung past the walls in his heart. Even the betrayal against Haruka was not as debilitating as letting Yukimura go. It was time to grow up—time to take stock of his real position as was laid out in his first days at Kasugayama. His duty to Yukimura, whether before or now, come rain or shine, was that of a weapons bearer—a bodyguard so that his lord may live to see another day.

So that his love will—

Thai shook as a heavy hand patted his right shoulder. He turned his head to see who it was, sighing in relief. 

“Lost in thought, Thai-kun?” Shingen asked.

Thai shrugged his eyes, returning his gaze to the now-bickering duo. Apparently, Mai was accusing Yukimura of stealing out of her basket, earning a giggle from Thai “Eh, just reminiscing, my lord,” Thai answered Shingen, the larger daimyo moving to stand next to the foreigner. 

“Will you not partake in the harvest?” Shingen asked, gently shaking his full basket. “This region is known for its flavorful chestnuts. You shouldn’t squander such an opportunity like this.”

“Well, someone’s gotta watch those two.”

“Hm. Then, what better way than to join them?”

Thai shrugged again. “I don’t like being a third wheel.”

“A third wheel?”

“Ask Sasuke.”

As what naturally follows after the bickering, Yukimura pounced on Mai, ruffling her hair as she fought back by pinching his nose. Shingen and Thai chuckled, the latter’s gaze drooping onto the leaf-littered ground below soon after. That was him just a year ago…

“You know,” Shingen continued, placing his arm around Thai’s shoulders, “There's a spot the farmers told me where matsutake normally sprouts. Come with me to help find them.”

“Huh, but—”

“They can fend for themselves for a few minutes. Now, come. Join me.”

Begrudgingly, Thai allowed Shingen to lead him away from Yukimura and Mai. Although saying he needed Thai for foraging help, the foreigner knew that finding mushrooms was just an excuse to have yet another deep lecture with him. 

“I expected you to put up more of a resistance when our dear goddess came into the picture,” Shingen said, still leading Thai by the shoulder.

“What? You just mad you couldn’t get to her first?” Thai cheekily responded, returning his gaze to Yukimura. 

A loud, bellowing chuckle erupted from Shingen’s throat. “I would never have qualms with my pupil taking a lovely future spouse—perhaps, even the finest. But, what I am concerned about right now is how my lovely western sparrow is faring now that he has made the ultimate sacrifice for love.”

“Pfft. ‘Ultimate sacrifice?’ Come on, it wasn’t that poetic.”

“No need to hide things from me, Thai-kun. It’s better to speak your thoughts to someone rather than stew in agonizing silence.”

Thai rolled his eyes, the two continuing their slow pace deeper into the forest. “Yukimura-sama professed his love for Mai-san. Of course, I would step aside for those two to be together.”

“Hm, but I do remember Yuki-kun reaffirming his love for you, too. In fact, he wanted to keep you both.”

“Yeah, that’s why I stayed as his weapons-bearer. Look, I’m fine and Yukimura-sama and Mai-san are clearly made for each other. Foda, there isn’t a day in Ueda when their teasing stops.”

Shingen released Thai, crouching down at the base of a pine tree where a few mushrooms had sprouted. “Much like how I remember you two back in Kasugayama.”

“Yeah…well, that’s in the Past. Right now, he’s happy, and that’s all that really matters anyway.”

“Hmm…” The Tiger of Kai carefully plucked the few mushrooms from the ground, placing them in his basket before rising to his feet. He turned back to face Thai, his gray eyes scanning the younger man’s slumped posture. “And, what about you, little sparrow? Does your happiness not matter also?”

Thai shrugged, hiding behind a melancholic smile. “This isn’t my first rodeo—er, I mean…well, you get what I mean. It’s not my first heartache. I’ll be fine.”

Thank you for reading, and thank you again to @mllorei and @violettduchess for hosting the Falling For Fall Creation Challenge!

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Saizo / サイゾウ, Xaizor / サイゾー, and Asugi / グレイ

Saizo (JP: サイゾウ; rōmaji: saizou) is the fiery ninja that serves as a retainer to Hoshido's crown prince Ryoma in Fire Emblem Fates. This name is in reference to the fictitious ninja Kirigakure Saizō (JP: 霧隠才蔵). He belonged to a group of ninja known as the Sanada Ten Braves, who served the samurai warlord Sanada Yukimura during the Sengoku period. According to the tales, the Ten Braves participated in the Seige of Osaka, a year-long conflict in which Sanada, loyal to the Toyotomi clan, lost the defensive war of attrition. Of the ten, only Kirigakure Saizō and Sarutobi Sasuke really stuck in pop culture.

This choice of name for the Fire Emblem character is based not only on him being a skilled shinobi, but his fierce loyalty to Ryoma—also named after a renown Sengoku period samurai. Given the importance of the fall of Osaka, with the Tokugawa Shogunate becoming Japan's militant government system for the next two hundred years, the fall of Ryoma and Shirasagi Castle in the Conquest story route could be influenced by the Seige of Osaka. The death of Saizo's father may also pull from stories that claim that Kirigakure was the son of Azai Nagamasa, brother-in-law to the infamous warlord Oda Nobunaga—the very man who had killed Azai.

Xaizor is a dread fighter of Rigel that is fought in a skirmish at the foot of Fear Mountain in Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Though not immediately apparent, this random mook is also based upon Kirigakure Saizō. This could be surmised in the original release, with his Japanese name being サイゾー (rōmaji: saizо̄)—a less common rendering of the name in katakana—and the ninja-inspired design of the Dread Fighter class. The remake deepened this connection with additional lines in the script indicating a devotion to the noble Emperor Rudolf, rather than the cruel witch Nuibaba. One could even consider a parallel between the Seige of Osaka and the Deliverance storming Rigel, and thus, a parallel between Rudolf and Sanada Yukimura.

Asugi is the young, candy-loving shinobi and heir to the Saizo name in Fire Emblem Fates. Surprisingly enough, he shares quite a bit of intel on both his and his father's names in the game itself! Straight from the horse's mouth:

"Asugi" is a word in one of the languages they speak out there. It means "gray."

As it turns out, asugi is only a word in some languages of the Philippines, primarily Hiligaynon. In those tongues, asugi means mercury—not gray, but the silver color of the metal is gray-adjacent.

More than anything, the name Asugi was intended to be an anagram of Gaius, the character from Fire Emblem Awakening that he is practically a carbon copy of. And though the name is certainly not Japanese, when rendered in the language as アスギ, it would closely resemble アズキ (rōmaji: azuki), just with the dakuten (the two hash marks on the top right corner of ギ and ズ) changed. Azuki, more commonly referred in English as adzuki beans, are typically boiled with sugar to make red bean paste. This paste is a common ingredient in sweets in East Asia, used as a filling in Japanese dango, mochi, and other confectionaries.

In Japanese, Asugi is instead called グレイ (rōmaji: gurei). In internal files, this is romanized as Gurei, while the official artbook calls him Gray. In the original script, this is what he said about his name:

「グレイ」は、暗夜の言葉で「灰色」って意味だそうだ。

Translation: I heard that in the language of Nohr, "Gray" means "ash-colored*."

*In Japanese, the word for many colors refer to a common natural occurrence of that color. As such, the color gray literally means "ash-colored" in the language.

Much like the English localization, the name also makes reference to a familiar face. The rōmaji rendering Gurei is an anagram of Guire, the official romanization of Gaius' Japanese name. However, there is a possibility that there is a reference to another character in this name:グレイ is also the name of Gaiden's Gray. Though not indicated in the original game, the stats of the Ram villagers suggest that Gray is intended to take the Mercenary classline. This class distribution would be further pushed with the release of Shadows of Valentia two years after Fates. It's not an unreasonable possibility that Asugi and Saizo were intended to be named after the suggested choice of playable Dread Fighter in Alm's army and the only named Dread Fighter encountered by the Deliverance before the final battle.

As hinted earlier, Asugi also reveals some information about the Saizo name, at least in the world of Fates. Here's what he has to say in English:

If I understand right, [Saizo is] a Hoshidan word that means "color bringer."

In Japanese, Asugi instead says that Saizo means 彩りを造る (rōmaji: irodori wo tsukuru)—"making color." The kanji used in the phrase are alternatively read as sai and zou, making Saizo the only Hoshidan character in Fire Emblem Fates with a canonical kanji rendering of his name: 彩造.

[silkkorchid]

Unexpected surprise

This basically a lore that me and @welp-back-on-my-bs came up how Ikesen!Morgan and Ikesen!Amaryllis met and I decided to write it out

Check out Morgan Lore! 1, 2

No proofreading as I’m too tired and it may be shitty

•—————•

“Hm? Strange the weather is off… I should-“

*BOOM*

“What the!?”

Amaryllis who was scouting the now finished battlefield against Kenshin who supposedly died. Now heard a loud thunder that was too close for her comfort. She instinctively went to the Oda camp before she spotted two unfamiliar attire that definitely wasn’t apart of the Uesugi clan.

“Who are they…? Let alone their clothes look a bit more like- no. I shouldn’t get side tracked.” Smacking herself to concentrate on her task on hand.

-

“What happened!?” Morgan who is confused but also not enjoying the situation that they got themselves into.

“You there. Speak.” Kenshin who is now back alive thanks to Sasuke’s CPR.

“Morgan.”

“I am Sasuke Sarutobi, Lord Kenshin” Sasuke replied.

After their encounter with Kenshin, Morgan asked to be under the protection of Kenshin while Sasuke asked to be a Ninja for Kenshin. Days went by after their arrival to the 16 century, Morgan leaving the Kasugayama Castle to buy some sweets for their new ally, Shingen Takeda and Yukimura Sanada only to see a person that stands out in the crowd.

“Thank you for the offers but I need to get going!” Before being stopped by countless marriage proposals from several people.

“Young lady are you perhaps interested to marry my son?”

“She won’t marry a son who isn’t a warrior! Please marry my son!”

Using the argument as a distraction, Amaryllis got out of the situation and the marketplace.

“It sure seems like you’re popular with that beauty of yours.” Morgan commented.

“Thanks, it’s good to have some attention but I’m not really looking to be wed with someone for the sake of politics. Let alone my Dad wouldn’t be happy with that either.” Amaryllis replied after getting out of the crowd.

“I’m Ama, you?”

“Morgan”

“That name of yours doesn’t sound bad to be honest!”

Like that the two talked with each other frequently with the addition of Sasuke and Yukimura who got teased by her. Morgan who spent a lot of time being in their room decided to explore the world. With Ama giving them advice on how to live in the wild.

-

“H-hey… we can talk this out right…?” Now cornered by bandits who seem to far more interested in selling them than their stuff.

“Sorry girl, but you can fetch a good price for us.” One of the bandits spoke.

“Someone please help me! I don’t want to die!” Internally screaming before hearing someone’s voice.

“Get away from her.” One out of the pair spoke with their blades drawn to the bandits neck.

“Y-you are Hideyoshi!” The bandits spoke after seeing who came.

Knowing what the bandits are up against they fled leaving Morgan to be gasping for air after a tense moment of life or death situation.

“Are you okay?” The purple eye man asked.

“Y-yes. Thank you for saving my life.” Thanking their saviors.

Explaining to Hideyoshi and now Mitsunari, they told Morgan to follow them for safety. As they approached closer they realize the Castle was where Nobunaga Oda resides in. Knowing their connections to the Uesugi they kept quiet before meeting a familiar face.

“Ama!?”

“Morgan!?” Turning to find the source of the voice only to discover that it was them.

“You know Amaryllis?” Mitsunari questioned.

“Yes, we met in Echigo and talked with each there before I went my own way. But how do you know her?”

“She is my daughter, well adopted daughter to be more precise.” Hideyoshi gave his answer before being followed by Mitsunari.

“Lady Amaryllis has been here for a year now-“

“Mitsunari, you don’t need to use formalities here.” Ama, now Amaryllis cut off him.

“Also there is a council meeting that is about to start Dad and Mitsunari, you should head to the audience chamber.” Amaryllis reminds both men in front of her.

“Right. Let’s get going now”

“Yes Lord Hideyoshi.”

As Hideyoshi and Mitsunari leaves to attend the meeting, leaving Amaryllis and Morgan alone.

“Seems like I have a lot to explain…”

“You really do.”

[chiangyorange]

WOE! OCs FOR UTM BE UPON YE!

brief info abt them under the cut! [heed some spoilers]

Sanada Ume

she/her

long time stablehand

originally part of Foot Clan before joining Hamato Clan

Imafuku Naori

he/him

helps train new recruits

originally part of Foot Clan before joining Hamato Clan

Mori Kazuo

he/him

head chef/resource managment

originally part of Foot Clan before joining Hamato Clan

Hamato Saki

he/they

Karai's son

misses his mom

Kamon Bo

they/them

yokai foreigner merchant

best gd mystics user but you didnt hear it from them

Kamon Ismail

he/him

human foreigner merchant

same last name as Bo by forcibly adopted reasons, not marriage

[siderealscribblings]

Devil Summoner Akechi Goro vs the Phantom Thieves

Canto III: Devils in the Details

S.E.E.S. Kyoto - Training Hall Kyoto, Japan 5:05 a.m. 

The sound of steel thwacking against wood could be heard from across the base and Sanada Akihiko knew there was no other place his commander could be at such an ungodly hour.

The traditional design of S.E.E.S.' master headquarters had changed little in the two hundred years since the Order of Yatagarasu was founded. Tokugawa Ietsugu had surpassed his legendary ancestor by uniting hundreds of secretive demon hunting clans under the banner of the Shogunate. While S.E.E.S. had long since outgrown the humble devil hunter roots and rebranded itself as a modern paramilitary organization, its history was on full display in the old capitol building.

“Akihiko-senpai?” Akihiko’s head turned as a young brown-haired man jogged up behind him, still dressed in a sweatshirt and warmup joggers from his morning run. A pale shiba inu nipped at his heels, jogging ahead and nuzzling Akihiko’s hand as he reached out to pet him. 

“Have we heard from Tokyo yet?” Amada Ken panted, tugging his earbuds out and stowing them in his pocket. 

“Just heard from Shirogane; looks like things went as smoothly as could be expected,” Akihiko said, scratching Koromaru behind the ears. 

“Niijima-san is alive then?” Ken asked. “What about-” 

“Yoshizawa is fine,” Akihiko said with a crooked smile. “Akechi too but I guess you don’t care that much about him .” 

“C’mon, don’t make me sound heartless,” Ken sighed, looking around and dropping his voice to a whisper as he leaned closer to Akihiko. “ Is it true that we had Fiends break through the barrier last night?” 

“Still trying to sort that out; I wouldn’t put too much stock in the reports coming out of Tokyo until we can get down there and figure out what the hell Narukami's people are doing,” Akihiko sighed, leading Ken towards the training hall at the far side of the base. 

Cold morning dew hung on the trees lining the open courtyard, breath coming in clouds from Kirijo Mitsuru’s mouth as her Polish saber thwacked against wooden training dummies, cutting deep grooves in the battered oak. Her hair was bound in a tight bun, scarred arms left bare as her sword glinted in the morning sunlight. If the chill bothered her, she made no complaint; Mitsuru darkly joked that she got all her crying out when she was ten. 

Given all that she had endured when she was ten (and all that she had endured since ), Akihiko wouldn’t begrudge her the odd tear every now and then. 

The only other figure in the courtyard sat perched on a wooden railing along the side, a cup of coffee in one hand and beanie shoved over an unruly mop of brown hair. His eyebrows raised in greeting as Akihiko and Ken slid on each side of him, tearing a chunk off a bun croissant and tossing it to the dog at Ken’s feet. 

“What a fucking mess…” Aragaki Shinjiro grumbled, sipping his caramel latte with a wince. “Way too early to deal with these unholy monsters.” 

“The Phantom Thieves or the Board of Directors?” Akihiko chuckled. 

“It’s never too early to take a bite out of a demon but it’s cruel to make us deal with Chairman Shithead before the sun’s even warm,” Shinjiro sighed, breath clouding in front of his face. 

“He called?” Akihiko asked. 

“Called, texted, emailed; the geezer even sent us a fucking fax when we weren’t prompt enough with our replies,” Shinjiro grumbled. “Of course, Mitsuru ain’t tripping over herself to indulge his curiosity which has only got his non-existent hair in a knot.” 

“The Board can wait until I’ve finished my workout,” Mitsuru called from across the courtyard, saber biting into the dummy’s wooden neck. “The way things are going, I don’t think the Chairman will begrudge me brushing up on my swordwork.” 

Read More...

Start from the beginning...

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 5: Samurai Warriors 1

Samurai Warriors (戦国無双) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox Release dates: Japan: 11 February 2004 (PS2)/29 July 2004 (Xbox) USA: 6 May 2004 (PS2)/13 July 2004 (Xbox) Europe: 25 June 2004 (PS2)/24 September 2004 (Xbox)

After working on DW3XL, the series being headed by Akihiro Suzuki, Hisashi Koinuma wanted to create a game based on Nobunaga's Ambition to reflect the Sengoku era of Japan, just as Dynasty Warriors was based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms for the late-Han and Three Kingdoms periods of ancient China. Koinuma apparently wanted to make a multiplayer game with up to four or five characters fighting a single boss, but online multiplayer was premature at the time. Thus, a new team was formed and the Samurai Warriors series was born.

The series celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024. Let's take a look at the game that started... well, some complicated feelings and situations later on down the line.

Samurai Warriors

Samurai Warriors focuses on the stories of three warlords of the era, namely Nobunaga Oda, Kenshin Uesugi and Shingen Takeda. Masamune Date was introduced in this game even though his relevance in history began a few years after Nobunaga's death. Goemon Ishikawa and Okuni were also introduced even though they weren't samurai or affiliated with the main clans, though for the former case you could say that for the female characters in Dynasty Warriors. Here's a full list of the characters who were introduced in this game:

Yukimura Sanada

Keiji Maeda

Nobunaga Oda

Mitsuhide Akechi

Goemon Ishikawa

Kenshin Uesugi

Oichi

Okuni

Kunoichi

Magoichi Saika

Shingen Takeda

Masamune Date

Nō (spelled Noh in this game only)

Hanzō Hattori

Ranmaru Mori

The following unique NPCs were introduced in this game as well:

Hideyoshi Hashiba

Yoshimoto Imagawa

Ieyasu Tokugawa

Nagamasa Azai

While Kennyo Honganji and Dōsan Saitō are also NPCs in this game, the former only appears in Magoichi's story and the latter only appears in a movie for Nō, so they have been separated from the list.

Unlike in Dynasty Warriors, where scenarios are defined by kingdom or taken from a shared pool of scenarios, Story Mode in Samurai Warriors is individualised and versions of each battle will be different for each character. Each character has five stages, but for most characters, there is a split path after the third or fourth stage. In the case of Keiji and Magoichi along with Goemon's upper path, their fifth stages are unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements in the stages before it. Okuni does not have such restrictions.

Because of the individualised Story Modes, Free Mode of course gives you the option to play any Story Mode scenario as any character. As I alluded to in the review for DW3, movies are unskippable when they are first played, but at least they're subtitled (captioned) in the English version. Some scenarios have third-party enemies, represented in yellow (instead of blue for allies and red for enemies) that can fight both armies in the battle.

Much of the stages revolve around Nobunaga's main campaigns such as Okehazama, Mt. Inaba Castle, Anegawa, Nagashino and Honnōji. Post-Nobunaga stages include Yamazaki, Ueda Castle and Ōsaka Castle (Siege of Ōsaka/The Ōsaka Campaign). Some stages are field battles and some are castle battles. Some, however, are siege battles, meaning that they are two-part field and castle battles. Yeah, you'll know if it's a siege battle when you see it.

At the end of each Story Mode, there are two endings you can unlock. Most of them are as simple as clearing the upper or lower paths, but for some, there are conditions you have to fulfil to unlock them, like achieving a certain mission or defeating a certain officer. I said that Okuni didn't have split paths or a fifth stage that needs to be unlocked a certain way, but Okuni has multiple "Dreams and Illusion" endings that are unlocked by achieving certain objectives.

Each battle has objectives/missions to guide you. The first mission typically begins at the start of each battle and certain missions occur depending on whether other missions are successful or failed. Certain missions also occur when you approach certain officers or areas. These factors matter if you are trying to 100% the game. Of course, you could disregard the missions, but the battles become a bit harder that way.

If you thought having your player character being listed as a subofficer was diminishing enough, imagine playing in Free Mode as a non-listed character only to be listed under the allied commander as literally "Player 1" or "Player 2". Not even that, it's also there on the battle preparation screen just before you start the battle. Even DW3 didn't do this.

New Officer Mode is the CAW system implemented differently, because after you name and pick a model for your character, you have to go through 12 months (sessions) of training and pass the Trials of Acceptance with a clan in order for your character to be saved. In each month, you pick a training exercise, which is the same as those in Challenge Mode, and at the end, two of those exercises become your Trials depending on the clan you decide to serve under. You need a combined score of 100 to pass (it is possible to pass with the first test, even if you go over 100), you are assigned the weapon you are the strongest with (sword, spear or naginata) and an element depending on the clan you picked, and your stats carry over into your growth in the main game. New Officer Mode is good, but I prefer to be able to directly create my characters rather than going through this training bullshit.

There are a total of 12 character models available, but four need to be unlocked. This can be done by having your weapon attack stat over 50 by the fourth month of your training, at which point you will encounter a Strike Ninja who has come to wreck the place. You'll fight him, but then you'll discover that he recovers his health every time. Your master will discover that Musou Attacks are his weakness and you'll use it to defeat him.

There are also other encounter events that are available if you select a particular challenge with certain stats above certain levels. Hanzo gives you an item for the game, Magoichi allows you to use a rifle instead of a bow for your R1 ranged attack and other characters allow you to unlock a particular skill once your character is saved. Do note that in most cases, you won't face a challenge with the same weapon you're training with, which can be detrimental if you've been training with a spear or naginata and you're suddenly given a sword (that you never trained with) for the challenge.

Speaking of these challenges, giving your characters certain names in the Japanese version will boost certain stats, which can help to achieve the encounter events particularly if you use the eight names listed below (I allowed space in my list just to do that). I don't know if such a feature exists in Western releases, particularly on the PS2 as the entry I found on GameFAQs apparently relates to the Xbox version.

Sometimes, your master, his daughter Saya or his other student Dokkimaru will give you something to boost/nerf your life/musou or recover your health (if you haven't recovered it during training). If you train with a particular weapon too frequently, your master will ask you to use another weapon for the next training session just to mix it up. Once your character is saved, they can then be played in Story Mode as they will have their own story. In fact, all the CAWs share the same Story Mode where they fight with different clans.

Each of the challenges make use of the game's battle mechanics. The Melee challenge is your usual "defeat as many enemies as possible" trial, Musou has you do that with only your Musou attack, Combo asks you to rack up 5+ hit combos, Archery has you shoot enemies to stop them from getting past you, Deflect requires you to skilfully deflect arrows with your attacks, Burst is where you get to the goal as fast as possible, and Riding has you run two laps around an obstacle-laden Honnōji on horseback as fast as possible. With regards to Riding, there'll be an enemy ambush you need to clear in the second corner of your second lap and after clearing the third corner there are two paths you can choose; one with obstacles and one with recovery items. I think it's obvious what players will likely pick.

Although it isn't mentioned on the wikis (or elaborated on in the manual) for some reason, Versus Mode is a thing in this game, where you can play challenges against another player or the computer. There is Showdown, where you race to be the first to defeat all your opponent's officers; Pursuit, where you gather information to find the real Goemon; and Strike, where you race to be the first to defeat 1000 enemies (enemy officers get you 50). You have infinite lives in this mode and you can defeat your opponent to delay them.

Finally, there is Survival Mode, aka the Infinity Castle Mode. In Abyss, you fight your way 30 floors deep into the castle where you will encounter Lu Bu (of the Bu Army) as a secret character. In Tower, you try to clear as many floors as possible within 20 minutes. There are items to be obtained when you clear 30 floors in either challenge. The game automatically saves every 3 floors so you can pick up where you left off. Of course, this mode gets harder the longer you play it, but since I was mostly playing to obtain all the items, I put on some cheats near the end. No additional voices are recorded for this mode except for Lu Bu.

Moving onto the battle mechanics of the game. You can keep up to 3 weapons per character. The item selection is similar to DW3 where you can pick up to five items (including saddles) to use in battle. Some items are specially made for field or castle battles. You can also select from three groups of up to 4 bodyguards to accompany you in battle, selecting their uniform colours and their orders. The bodyguard groups can also be edited and renamed, the various types being infantry, spear, ninja, archer, musket and lady ninja.

Depending on the weapon, characters can perform up to 8 Normal Attacks and 4 triple-tiered Charge Attacks. This moveset would become known in later games as the Charge/Power Attack moveset. There are four elements available; Fire, Ice, Lightning and Dark, the latter being where the player drains life from an opponent to recover theirs. There is still a bit of lock-on happening when you perform charge attacks, however, but it's not as bad as it was in DW.

Like in the Dynasty Warriors games, holding down R1 allows you to perform a ranged attack by shooting arrows, or becoming a sniper in the case of Magoichi Saika. There are no arrow stocks to collect so you essentially get unlimited arrows. Using the bow can help you in castle battles as sealing off strongholds/bases/checkpoints can give you an extra 60 seconds of time.

Musou Attacks in this series use up the whole gauge when activated and not for as long as you hold down the Circle button like in DW. If you're not holding down the button, you can freely perform other attacks until the Musou Attack ends with a shockwave finish. When triggering your Musou Attack, you will see a kanji character that is representative of the character at the start of it and you will see a different kanji for the True Musou Attack. For custom characters, the Musou kanjis vary depending on the gender of your character's model and the weapon they are using (for this game only, the spear Musou is different depending on the gender of your character). In the Japanese script, Musou Attacks are called Musou Ougi (無双奥義) instead of Musou Ranbu (無双乱舞) in Dynasty Warriors.

When playing with a second player, you both work to charge one Musou gauge from both sides and when one player activates their Musou, the other can perform their Attack too, before ending with the True Musou finisher (even if you haven't done anything). This is called the Double Musou Attack, or the Final Musou Attack (無双最終奥義) in Japanese.

When you end up in a deadlock and you push your enemy over the edge by pushing your bar up to the end, you perform a Deadlock Attack to deal damage. Pressing R2 also allows you to evade enemies by doing a somersault.

When on horseback, you have the same 8 normal attack and 4 charge attack string you would have on the ground. This moveset would remain the same in future games. The horseback C1 usually has the horse stomp its front feet on the ground if you're stationary, but if you're moving then the Triangle button allows you to jump with your horse. Exclusive to this game, the horseback Musou has you swing your weapon back and forth while charging forward, similar to DW.

Aside from the ordinary horse saddle, the rare saddles you can obtain are those for Matsukaze and the Persian Mare, aka the Arabian Steed, the legendary horses for Keiji Maeda and Masamune Date. Take note that while riding on Matsukaze, you run the risk of running over allies and depleting their health.

At the end of each stage, you can earn skill points to unlock or upgrade skills. Skills can be upgraded up to Level 3, but when you reach level 20 at 99,999 XP, you stop earning skill points or boosting stats, which means you have to be conservative about what skills you decide to unlock.

The English dub of this game was produced by Voicegroup, which had previously dubbed DW4. As such, you can hear the likes of Douglas Rye as Nobunaga Oda and Tadakatsu Honda, Richard Cansino as Hideyoshi Hashiba and Yoshimoto Imagawa and Wendee Lee as Oichi and Ina. Those three voice actors would prominently be featured in future Dynasty Warriors games. I'm especially highlighting this here because I want to discuss the state of the Samurai Warriors English dub as time goes on. Narrations are not dubbed in this game, but the narrator in the Japanese version is Hiroshi Isobe, who also voiced Magoichi Saika.

Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends

Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends (戦国無双 猛将伝) Platforms: PlayStation 2 Release dates: Japan: 16 September 2004 USA: 9 November 2004 Europe: 25 February 2005

Like with the Dynasty Warriors games before it, the Samurai Warriors series also received its own Xtreme Legends expansions.

Hideyoshi Hashiba and Yoshimoto Imagawa were unique NPCs in the vanilla game, but in the expansion, they are made playable. Tadakatsu Honda and Ina make their debut as Tokugawa officers to complement Hanzō. All four officers have their own Story Modes with split routes.

Survival Mode is upgraded to provide gold rewards after playing. The two existing modes are also upgraded to Deep Abyss and High Tower. A new stage is added, Gold Rush, where you have five minutes to collect gold in the Training Hall while completing challenges to extend that time limit. You can only keep the gold you earned if you exit the stage in time, which is absolutely bullshit for someone like me who only bothers to play up to Level 3 weapons. With such a small time limit, you should be able to keep the money you earned (or part of it at least) if you run out of time and not die during the stage.

After clearing Gold Rush, you will be brought to the Armory, where you can upgrade weapons at the weaponsmith or engrave a name on a weapon (per character). This can't be done for Level 6 weapons at all and Level 5 weapons until you get the Level 6 weapon. You can also buy or upgrade items here, with the Golden Rune being a rare item only available through this mode for 50,000 gold. Also, you should be able to directly access the Armory without having to go through Gold Rush.

Three more challenges have been added to Versus Mode, those ones being those actually covered on the wiki. Duel is a simple one-on-one fight where you can also select different stages to give you a bit of a challenge; Sumo is where you play as Strike Ninjas to force enemies out of the ring; and Gatekeeper is where you defend the checkpoint and prevent enemies from escaping behind you.

Among other improvements to the game, you can still earn skill points and develop basic abilities even after reaching 99,999 XP and you can also upgrade your skills to level 4. You may also see a green frame when you select a character; that character is a lucky character and playing as them will give you a higher chance of getting good weapons and items. The lucky character changes every time the game is booted.

In the options, Player 2 can be set to have an individual Musou gauge and unleash Musou Attacks independently at the cost of you being able to use the Double Musou Attack. The expansion also introduces the Novice and Chaos difficulties to the game.

Throughout the game, you will get bonus (rice) points to use in rewards. You can unlock voice tests for characters, change the save icon in the memory card, unlock additional models for characters, enable those models to appear in the game when you use them on your character), reduce the minimum difficulty to unlock Level 5 and 6 weapons (from Hard and Chaos to Normal and Hard respectively) and allow character levels to progress past the normal limits.

I don't know if it's a thing in the English versions, but in the Japanese versions of the Warriors games, you can install data to the HDD/BB Unit to reduce loading times. This would also later become a thing in the PSP games, but in DW6 Special and Empires for the PSP, installing data to the Memory Stick Duo would also enable encounter and defeat voices in battle dialogue.

Rant: The benefits of the Create-A-Warrior system

More of a ramble than a rant this time around.

So at this point, we have two mainline games with CAW capabilities, namely being DW4 and this game. This would become relegated to the Empires games before coming back to the forefront in SW3 and SW4. Earlier implementations of CAWs were quite limited in their customisation, though there is more freedom for this in future games.

Edit characters allow for a more unique experience in games as aside from being able to be played in Free Mode (and possibly other modes), they also get other unique modes through which to shine. With Samurai Warriors, that unique mode is the New Warrior Mode, where creating characters involves having to pass a trial with a clan in order to pass and save them.

As CAW characters are a main feature of the Empires games, it would be ideal if they had functionality to import CAWs from the save data of the main games to save time on having to create characters. DW7 and DW8 do not have CAWs in the main game, but even without a unique mode for them, they can get a chance to shine in the auxillary modes before being able to be imported into the Empires games.

Samurai Warriors is a decent adaptation of the Sengoku era into a hack-and-slash game while also making it distinct from Dynasty Warriors in terms of gameplay. It had its own fantastical and romanticised elements (just like Dynasty Warriors and its source material, Romance of the Three Kingdoms), plus there are quite a few pop culture references in the Japanese version, particularly with the True Musou Attacks and victory poses. These references would be toned down in future games as Koei began to get more serious with these games.

Next time, we take a look at this game's spinoffs, namely State of War and the Pachislot game. Why the hell am I even covering the latter? You'll have to find out then.

[anayka05ymewtwo06]

Dopplegangers Caidos

Parte Final de lo sucedido en ig.

Paldea...tarde

Zacian shiny:(*Aullido de Zacian) Princesa Mewtwo Lunar!

(*Pensativa) Gatubela. Acertijo y por ultimo hisahide. Esos malditos Pagarán por lo que han hecho. Aparte de ser Complices del Extinto decepticon del que Kenobi nobunaga Hayate anayka Mewtwo y los demas...

CARAJOS! quien rayos esta ahi!

Chien Pao:Soy yo Zacian...eres La famosa Zacian Shiny?

Zacian:De la misma especie de Zacian que no es Variadocolor o Shiny:Hermana de Senbei Lunar la Mentora Zacian de Mewtwo Imbatible. Pero no puedo atacar a esos doppleganger aunk debo ser valiente

Chien Pao:Escuché el aulllido y preparamos los ataques:Mira ahi estan Anayka El team Star Todos los Warriors de otros Reinos y Bill Rizer con un eternatus. los Gym leaders de 9 Regiones y hasta Los Villanos llegaron Anayka avisó a Señal Frikibaile o Pose Imbatible.

Anayka:A mi orden por la pose imbatible

¡Pose Imbatible Lionel:Traje:Nyotengu Palutena bandera 🇵🇦 Alas de mariposa Mewtwo....Transformación!

Nobunaga Masayuki y Mamá romelia:Ahora!

Se Formó una Guerra campal y golpeamos a los 3.

La ultima en morir. Gatubela

Gatubela:Maldita sea Anayka todos vinieron a Atacarme!

Anayka:Gata Maldita! Gatubela Acertijo y Hisahide no sabes Cuanto esperé para Matarte como lo hice con Mi hermano aparte de 35 jodidos Años de Guerra

Bayonetta:Preferiria darle el golpe de gracia aunk recibió algun dispar*

Gatubela:BRUJA ESTUPIDA! BAYONETTA. ANAYKA TODOS UDS! SON UNOS...UNOS...

Felicia La Meowscarada:Porque no te calmas? Deberias pagar las consecuencias por lo que has hecho. Gata con forma humana o mejor dicho Furra? No podemos permitir que te salgas con la tuya

Gatubela:CALLATE GATITA POKÉMON TONTA!

Anayka:(*Con baculo estilo ghechis) Baston estrella de ghechis:Tumba del Enemigo!

Gatubela fue atacada.

Sus ultimas palabras:

Gatubela:Anayka:Si esta es una de mis ultimas vidas lo pagas caro. No importa cuantas veces destruyas al mal la oscuridad pero como acabaron con master contra. Pheromone contra. Cobrará Venganz..a contra todos uds..(Fallece)

Anayka:No lo tomaré como una Maldicion. Si pheromone contra y los que aun siguen Vivos quieren guerra. Guerra tendran y que Vengan como quieran. Los destrozaré para protegerlos universalmente. La guerra aun no termina tenemos un universo que proteger.

Obi Wan Kenobi:Oye Anayka. Admiro tu confianza en la pelea:te apoyaremos

Entrenadores pokémon y Villanos:Todos lo haremos

Ghechis:Siempre que Kyurem este siempre al lado de Anayka. Giovanny deberias ser agradecido.

Giovanny:Admito que no se deja manipular pero passio necesita heroes. Y defenderlos con uñas dientes pokémon etc. Es lo unico que debemos hacer. Passio necesita una heroina. No. Una Campeona con una Mewtwo con valores algo que El Mewtwo anterior no apreció por mi culpa

Anayka:No toda la Culpa es tuya ni de los equipos villano.

Mewtwo Lunar:Giovanny Todos cometemos Errores. Nadie es perfecto no soy una Mewtwo que odia por lo que sucede sucede en el pasado. Siempre Mirar al presente (*Transformandose en Mewtwo X debido a su propia voluntad y las palabras dd todos y la mia)

Mewtwo Y:Pero por que ocurrió esta transformacion?

Mewtwo X:Las dos Mewtwoitas Reaccionaron y Anayka debe encontrar la ultima Mewtwoita. Aunk si habian 2 Mewtwoitas Y. Anayka escondió la ultima en un lugar seguro

Anayka:Si. Donde esta iluminada por un halo de luz. En protección de El clan Sanada.

Fin de la parte 2 del Arco paldea Panamá Arco 1 y 2.

Luego....

???:Master contra y los demas acabados? Llego mi turno jajaja!

Arco Paldea panamá parte 5:Guerra Universal. Coming soon Julio agosto 2024 🇵🇦

[redsamuraiii]

After watching numerous Historical Taiga Drama (Period Drama), and put the pieces together, now it makes sense.

After the 14th Ashikaga Shogun was killed, there wasn't any Shogun, throwing the country into civil war (Sengoku Jidai).

Oda Nobunaga decides to install the 15th Ashikaga Shogun, only in name, to use him as a puppet to conquer Japan by his name.

No lords dare oppose him, thinking that Oda has the blessing of the Shogun, so anyone who oppose the Shogun is a traitor.

Many clans were defeated or subjugated, including Tokugawa, which end up becoming a vassal of Oda.

Takeda Shingen sees through Oda's lies and declares war, causing other surviving clans to uprise against Oda.

Oda was cornered until Shingen dies abruptly, turning the tide of the war, which eventually lead to Takeda clan decline.

Shortly after, Uesugi Kenshin, the last one standing that Oda considers to be a formidable foe, also dies mysteriously.

With Shingen and Kenshin dead, Oda finally dared to kick the Shogun out of the capital to seize control of the country himself.

Akechi Mitsuhide, who has been serving the Shogun now pledge himself to Oda, abandoning the Shogun, or so it seems.

Akechi is aware of the surviving clans of Tokugawa, Sanada, Uesugi began to communicate in secrecy.

But Akechi kept to himself as he does not trust Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal servant to Oda Nobunaga.

Oda send Hideyoshi to finish off the Shogun's supporters in the west, where the Shogun had ran to seek refuge.

Oda send Akechi to support Hideyoshi but Akechi decides to betray him and kill Oda, paving way for Tokugawa in the future.

Hideyoshi returns from the west to the capital to eradicate Akechi, his clan and supporters, while Tokugawa laid low.

Years later, after Hideyoshi dies, Tokugawa finally made his power move to unify the country, and Sekigahara takes place.

Tokugawa decides to eradicate the entire Toyotomi clan and siege Osaka, wanting to end the endless civil war once and for all.

The new Shogunate is established with him being the 1st Tokugawa Shogun, after the previous Ashikaga Shogun.

Japan has over 200 years of peace, before the America and the Europeans showed up with their mighty naval fleet and canons.

Japan is divided into two, the Shogunate that kowtow to the westerners, and the Emperor who rejects the westerners.

Boshin War broke out between the Shogunate and the Imperial (Emperor), to decide the fate of the country.

It's a long, long, long history. This is just the gist of it. Who says "tv shows" aren't educational eh?

It may not be 100% accurate as dramas are meant to dramatized real life events for our viewing pleasure.

But it does spark one interest to actually read the history to know in detailed of what really happened.