#swallow return

Many years ago, at the dinner table with Kinta's late grandfather, Toshiro Minakata...

Both Toshiro and Kinta Minakata ate in silence, sitting at a long Western-style high table in contrast to the smaller and lower traditional family table typical of the Japanese.

The strict and imposing Toshiro served as a vanguard among hatamoto samurai.

Realizing that the privileged samurai after the Sengoku Era and during the peaceful Tokugawa Shogunate Era were essentially soldiers without a war to wage, he had tried his hand at business and trade to safeguard his good fortune.

He worked to make the Minakata coffers grow even as many impoverished samurai and ronin (masterless samurai) ended up seeing the merchant class rise and become more powerful during this period of peace.

He made sure the Minakata Clan would survive in the coming eras in every way possible, whether it was by wealth or political privilege.

Toshiro proved himself ahead of the curve. He was cut-throat enough to resell the confiscated black-market opium of Wokou pirates to his fellow Japanese citizens or even export them back to China for a profit.

He found ways for his family to thrive in both wartime and peacetime Japan. Like a rat or a cockroach: A true survivor. Crafty as a fox, he was.

"I've heard you've been chosen as part of the Kyoto Mimawarigumi (Kyoto Patrolling Group)," probed Toshiro.

"Yes, Grandfather," answered a teenaged Kinta.

Kinta the Mimawarigumi Battousai was no older than his namesake iaijutsu (sword-drawing) practitioner, the Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer), who was on the side of the Ishin Shishi (Patriots).

"And how are your studies?"

"There are no issues there either."

"That's fine. Keep doing both like you used to."

"Of course, Grandfather."

"Being well-versed in letters and arms, a man from the Minakata Family must excel in all fields. My eldest, your Uncle Tatsuya, became a banker. My second child, your Uncle Kaneda, became a lawyer. Your mother, my youngest..."

Toshiro trailed off and cleared his throat while Kinta stared at him, unblinking. Pretending he didn't notice his grandfather's pause.

"Remember, Kinta. The strongest of people are born from the strongest of adversities," his grandfather said with such confidence, Kinta just knew that he spoke from experience.

Whether it was him battling Wokou pirates in the South China Sea or dealing with local Tokugawa Era politics like he was Julius Caesar amidst the traitorous Roman senate, his every word dripped with veteran knowledge.

He did everything he could to keep himself from swimming in the middle of a sea of daggers and a pool of his own blood, whether in the hands of sea-faring criminals or landlubber backstabbing politicians.

Toshiro continued. "Bring back honor to the Minakata Family. Honor both your father and your mother. Erase any stains the name might have gotten by excelling in what you do. Prove yourself to be a worthy heir of the name and the fortune of the Minakata Estate, Grandson."

"I will, Grandfather."

As far as the Minakatas were concerned, winning was everything. The world was composed of winners and everyone else.

***

Rurouni Yahiko

A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction Story by Chester Castañeda

The Swallow Return makes an appearance after Kinta is pushed into a corner.

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 material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.

***

Chapter 59: The Swallow Return

***

Back inside the memories that Kinta Minakata had of his grandfather, Toshiro Minakata...

Kinta's grandfather told him long ago the following.

"The world is a tough, unforgiving place, Kinta. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. In an eye blink, a king can become a pauper and a pauper can become a king. Those who adapt the most consistently in a merciless world that's always changing are those that survive in the end. Today, we eat like royalty. But tomorrow, what if the bakufu lost its power? What if Japan were colonized by foreign powers? What would happen to the hatamoto?"

Kinta answered, "We would become nothing."

Toshiro nodded. "Yes. That's why I'm building our family fortune. So that the Minakatas can survive the dawn of a new century or even a new millennium. If tomorrow, samurai ceased to exist and all our political clout became moot, our wealth will keep us afloat. Always remember to keep moving forward and change with the times, my grandson."

In order to remain on the top of the food chain and survive, one must win. Always win in everything they did. It was the rules of nature. It was survival of the fittest.

In their world, the winner was acknowledged and the loser was disavowed.

Like how his mother was banished from existence and forgotten as the black sheep of the family, for example.

The clan of rumored ochimusha—defeated samurai during the Sengoku Era considered as low-class citizens—that stole away the name and valor of the original deceased Minakata Clan knew as much.

They did what they could to save face, thus they were able to pluck victory from the jaws of defeat to cur favor from the Tokugawas.

To the ears of any member of the Minakata Clan, what Kinta's grandfather Toshiro was implying was crystal clear.

His orders were to erase the shameful actions of Kinta's shameless mother by becoming a standout among the Mimawarigumi ranks.

Just like how their ochimusha (fallen warrior) ancestors became hatamoto (direct retainers of the shogun) samurai to the Tokugawa Shogunate, so too should Kinta remove from memory the embarrassment of having an adulteress for a mother and a cuckold for a father.

Winning was the only thing that mattered.

Kinta simply had to keep his head high and win. That was all he needed to do. Because he was victorious over all, he deserved to win.

"Keep on winning, Kinta. Keep on winning because you're a Minakata. And Minakatas are born winners, through hell or high water. Even in spite of fate itself conspiring against us," his grandfather would always say.

There was nothing more important than winning at all costs. This was how the Minakatas survived through centuries. Millennia. Ages.

Toshiro also regularly said, "You know that old saying, 'It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game'? That's bullshit. The bottom line is winning."

This was how Kinta earned his place at the Minakata table despite his uncles despising him, his father committing suicide, and his mother bringing shame to the family name.

He looked at his plate. The pristine chinaware was where he ate foreign food like the Salisbury steak.

If the plate were broken, it'd be thrown away. It could never be restored once it had a crack. But if it was still usable and you were desperate, what you had would suffice.

Besides which, liquid gold helped glue together even broken pottery or ceramics, thus making it whole and beautiful again in its own right.

That was the art of Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi (Gold Repair), after all. The ability to fix and improve what upon was broken.

***

Back at the abandoned building within the narrow alleyway near the Minakata Moneychanger Office…

Yahiko Myojin gasped for air, his face beet-red, his hair somehow messier than usual, and his whole body an aching mess. Also, his shirt and pants were in tatters.

However, it was him who was left standing. It was Fabian La Cerca, the infamous "Faceless" of the foreign assassination squad, "The Brigands Guild", who ended up on the floor on his posterior, his mask shattered into pieces.

God. Dammit. That stubborn, agile gaijin finally fell down.

Unbeknownst to the slightly concussed Faceless, Yahiko had set him up from the start with the Genei Gami (Phantom God).

Yahiko let Fabian memorize his tempo of overhead swings to train him to always anticipate and parry swings from the direction, thus allowing Myojin to blindside him with a side-swiping strike to the temple.

Aware that he couldn't time him by virtue of his odd rhythm, Yahiko instead baited the Faceless to counter repeatedly until he followed his more predictable rhythm.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant bet on Fabian's weakness—his over-reliance on counters—and made his usually broken rhythm more predictable as a result.

Even then, he couldn't have landed his trap on the Faceless had Kaita not arrived to assist him with timely kunai or shuriken throws.

This foreign fencing genius from the West could give most of the members of the Oniwabanshu (Guardians of the Gate) or the Juppon Gatana (Ten Swords) a run for their money! Probably.

'How's that, Cat Eyes? Here's the proof of concept of my anti-Cat-Eyes training! Everything is going according to plan.'

Yahiko grinned from ear-to-ear, feeling himself in the moment.

However, he broke a cardinal rule of being a martial artist or even an old-school samurai from a bygone era. He became overconfident and let his guard down.

It wasn't composure but pride that led to his fall.

"Good work, Yojimbo!" appraised Kaita. "Now let's finish off the assassin before he recovers and goes after the Minakatas!"

"Wait. We should just take him down and let the police handle him," insisted Yahiko, which made the ninja pause. "He might be useful in learning the whereabouts of their gang or something!"

"He's too dangerous to be kept alive!" argued the young shinobi. "I'm authorized to kill him. I don't answer to the police."

"No! Let the coppers arrest him and have him answer for his crimes!" insisted the samurai boy, going by what Kenshin or Kaoru would normally do in such a situation.

What he said to the Faceless about the sakabatou being a life-giving sword wasn't just empty words. He lived by that code of honor.

Kaita realized he couldn't reason with the teen, remembering the spiel he overheard from him about his Sword of Life—a reverse-edged blade was blunt on its outside curve, yet Yahiko didn't use it like a sickle or scimitar.

Something about the kid's "life-giving" sword sounded familiar to him though. Like he'd heard about the unusual weapon somewhere before in the recent past.

In an eye blink, the shinobi disappeared from Yahiko's midst. However, the teenaged samurai figured out where he went and shielded La Cerca from the incoming ninja throwing knives.

"Despite your looks, you're quite the tenacious guy, Yojimbo," said the unseen Kaita, who kept evading Yahiko's probing strikes with his blunt weapon.

"The name's Yahiko, Ninja Dude!" Yahiko said as he swung blindly at air yet still felt the presence of the ninja by reading his bloodlust. Just like how Kenshin would.

Soon, Yahiko's sakabatou found its target, with Kaita blocking the longer blade with the Okinawan three-pronged weapon known as the sai.

"You know, you remind me of someone I fought before. What was his name? Take? Taikai? Tatakai?" Yahiko tried to remember the name of the aged ninja assassin who went after Kenshin several months ago.

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant faced the camouflaged shinobi on behalf of Kenshin Kamiya (nee Himura).

'Wait.' Something then clicked inside Kaita's mind just then.

 "Oh yeah, Takae! Takae was his name! His invisibility trick was amazing, just like yours! I couldn't see him at all when we fought!"

"…Takae Masahiro," said Kaita, which made Myojin's head snap into attention and La Cerca stir in his own stupor. "You fought him. Which means that's Himura Battousai's sword, isn’t it?”

Yahiko and Kaita then just looked at each other blankly before Yahiko asked, "How did you know about Takae…?”

***

"Like waves from the sea," said the blood-stained Lucas Grant with a deep exhale. "The high tide and the low tide. The ebb and flow of the limitless ocean."

"…What are you babbling about?" asked Kinta Minakata, who only looked a little scuffed up with tiny cuts and bruises while his half-brother looked like he had one foot in the grave.

Or an undead, vengeful zombie soldier from the foreign legion that refused to die.

"Facing your Musou Madden Ryu is like dealing with the rising tides. Your attacks come in waves. You even have a move named 'Tsunami', for goodness' sake," said the bilingual Lucas.

Curiously, even with the crimson mask of blood on his face, Grant's slashes, stabs, chops, and pummels (from his bastard sword's pommel) seemed to increase in strength the more damage he received.

Was it the swell of adrenalin? A second or even third wind? Or perhaps sheer willpower? Kinta couldn't tell. He was just tired of trying hard to land a strike, only for his long-lost bastard of a brother to shrug it off like nothing.

Lucas Grant was no John Rathbone. Nothing about his swordsmanship was elegant or skilled. He kept on charging like a caveman, almost.

However, what he lacked in finesse he more than made up for in undeniable, earth-shaking power. He was the difference between skillfully untying a knot and gnawing the rope apart.

More importantly, after repeatedly receiving the different techniques of the Musou Madden Ryu, Luke had started timing his blocks and parries better.

Kinta was still several moves ahead of him in every exchange, but by sheer trial and error, the stamina monster tanked enough shots to learn their timing, thus allowing him to slip past them better.

Like a sailor navigating his boat through treacherous waters and weathering the storm from experience. Unwilling to sink. Unwilling to let nature take its course and send him down the depths of the unforgiving sea.

Like villagers waiting out a typhoon until it left the area, resiliently rebuilding everything in the wake of its devastation because life always moved on.

Kinta then noticed that he was only managing to do nicks and bruises on his half-brother at this point. He couldn’t touch him now.

The (literal) bastard was blocking most of his strikes with every inch of his heavy bastard sword, including its thick hilt and hammerhead-like pommel. None the worse for wear.

Well, not exactly. But all the major damage he currently had were ones he got earlier from Kinta and Zan. Wounds that looked worse than they really were because of how nimble Grant moved regardless, like he'd long ago recovered from them.

As if the bloodstains all over his body were just war paint. Like his lacerations were scars or tattoos. They were just for show and he was actually completely unharmed.

Luke had nerves of steel. And the pain threshold of a rock to boot.

A shiver ran through Kinta's spine in realization. Lucas had taken his best shots and remained standing. Could he take one of Lucas's best shots in turn…?

His breathing had become heavier and heavier as the battle drew on. The same problem he had with the more skillful Faceless, but this time his half-brother exposed his weakness through a war of attrition.

His arms felt tired from just slashing at his brother over and over with strikes that would've normally plowed down hordes of Ishin Shishi rebels one after another.

For someone who used techniques based on the moon phases and sea tides, it was Kinta who ended up getting dragged down deep waters by the inimitable, unfettered Lucas.

"Let me be the cliff that stands steady as your waves uselessly crash against my rocks below. The high ground where your waters couldn't reach," said Grant.

***

Yahiko crossed swords with Kaita, his mind racing a mile a minute. Or a kilometer a minute. Or roughly 1.6 kilometers a minute if it were still measured in miles.

"How do you know about Takae…?" Myojin repeated as he crossed blades with Kaita and pushed him away with a hard sword block.

"That's my line!" Kaita countered in words while also countering by kunai and his twin sais. "His last mission was to take out the Battousai. How did you end up with the Battousai's reverse-edged sword?"

Not knowing what else to say, Yahiko responded, "That's none of your business...!"

Kaita disappeared from view again. Unable to see him in time, the samurai kid attempted to blast the unseen shinobi away with the floor-obliterating Dou Gami (God on Earth), which his fellow bodyguard chose to parry in time and expose his location anyway by reflex.

The concussive force of the technique then bent and snapped one of Kaita's sais apart.

As Yahiko followed through with the Tsui Gami (God Hammer) to break apart Kaita’s other sai, the two combatants heard a voice from out of the blue.

"It's because he's Takae Kaita. The son of the man you apparently met. And fought. Did he die by your hands or the Battousai's?"

The recovering (maskless) Fabian La Cerca had just spoken. Or was he John Rathbone this time around? The Minakata bodyguards couldn't tell with his duelist outfit.

"No, it couldn't have been you," hissed Fabian, referring to Yahiko. "You would've spared Takae with your foolish beliefs regarding a life-giving sword."

'Takae is Kaita's father?!' Yahiko's blood ran cold in realization. He'd been fighting alongside and crossing swords with the late Masahiro Takae’s son all this time? He didn't know what to think or what to do next.

'Oh no, The Faceless is awake…!' Kaita finally disengaged from Yahiko to face the formidable Brigands Guild member.

Fabian threw his broken saber at the now-visible Kaita, whose blood-spurting body was then seemingly replaced by a plank of wood.

This was actually one of his many ninja tricks—substitute an object to where he was standing to act as his doppelganger and shield.

With a thousand thoughts colliding inside his mind like a derailed train wreck, Myojin hesitated in attacking the charging unarmed gaijin in that same split-second, which proved to be his undoing.

Yahiko aimed and swung at the Faceless' shoulder with a simple downward sword strike, electing not to use any of his Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Revisal techniques for fear of the blunt-force trauma finishing off the unarmed man before him.

La Cerca simply dodged and stabbed the young samurai with three retractable claw blades that shot out of his left arm brace. They looked suspiciously like the claws that the late Hannya from the Tokyo Oniwabanshu sported.

However, unlike Hannya, Fabian only had a single pair of the claws instead of having both hands wear the hidden weapon.

"You're an amateur, after all. To defeat an enemy without killing him... How naïve are you? You should've finished me off when you had the chance."

"Why won't you stay down, Faceless?!" demanded Myojin.

"If you had given me the final blow, that wouldn't be a problem. Also, the name's Haruka now," answered The Faceless.

For The Faceless was not Conde (Count) Fabian La Cerca any longer. Instead, he was Haruka. The half-Japanese burakumin (outcast) who had his own unique style of hidden-weapon ninjutsu.

With the destruction of one mask, he had donned another. He removed Fabian’s face to show off Haruka’s, which was actually just his disfigured, maskless face. His true face.

The Faceless’ face was featureless to begin with, allowing him to don many masks and disguises. As featureless as his signature simple white mask with eye slits.

"Show me the power of that so-called life-giving sword you have, kiddo!" said the Faceless.

Regardless, Myojin blocked the claws in the nick of time with a parry from his iron sheath just before their pointed tips could pierce all the way into his vital organs.

'Magnificent,' thought Haruka, who blocked Yahiko's riposte with his other arm brace. 'The boy does not disappoint!'

"Kenshin's life-giving sword protects both you and me! That's the promise I made to both my master Kaoru and her husband Kenshin!" Yahiko spat out as his mouth spewed blood.

"Spoken like someone who has never killed a man. Naïve and foolish. If you try sparing my life, it will come at the expense of your own!" said Haruka. "Remember this painful lesson, boy. When at war, mercy is for the weak!"

Personally, Myojin wasn't as closed-minded about killing as the vagabond version of Kenshin who promised his late wife Tomoe Yukishiro to never kill again was.

He knew there were times when he had no choice but to kill, especially when defending himself and/or others. However, he also wanted to emulate his idol Kenshin as much as he could.

He wanted to match his resolve as the inheritor of his reverse-edged blade.

"If you won't die so easily then neither will I!" retorted the young samurai with a bloody grin.

***

And just like that, the tables had turned. Or rather, the tides of battle had changed. Kinta's tides had started receding while the tides of Lucas grew in turn.

The exhausted Kinta looked pristine compared to his bloody bastard of a long-lost brother. However, the way they moved belied their appearance.

Like with the Faceless, Minakata had started to tire out and sweat hard. This manifested with his shortness of breath and slower movement. He also hesitated and made more mistakes than before, which also kept him from finishing off his brother earlier on.

Meanwhile, the bloodstained Lucas Grant kept attacking, swaying, ducking, and countering against quick-draw shots and ripostes like he could still go into battle for many hours longer.

Like Luke was a spry younger man or spring chicken dancing circles around a sickly senior citizen at death's door. In contrast, his estranged sibling wheezed and struggled through every exchange like he was in stuck in quicksand or a tar pit.

It also helped that Grant's seemingly inexhaustible stamina allowed him to figure out his brother's swordsmanship using a similarly superior blade made of superior European steel versus the “pig metal” of Japanese swords.

For example, Luke figured out that Kinta relies on momentum and centrifugal force in order to make his iaijutsu strikes increase in speed and power whenever he performed one of many Tsunami combination quick-draw variations.

The first few shallow strikes served as probing slashes to gauge the distance of the target and the last few strikes ended up the more deadly accurate bone-cutting attacks based on the information he gathered by the initial swipes.

By refusing to get herded by Kinta's first few strikes that he also allowed to hit nothing but air to find his range, Grant could sidestep and counter or riposte the deeper cuts with his harder swings.

However, what made the Mimawarigumi Battousai truly dangerous was that he could go from zero to a hundred on the first slash by doing the Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari (Full Moon Slash) straight from the scabbard or even the Aoizuki O Tsuku Nari (Blue Moon Slash) in case the first slash missed.

Alas, as Kyoko Sakaguchi herself discovered, doing that devastating technique from the start instead of building up to it with the momentum-gathering Tidal Wave technique could literally tear a person's body apart.

When used over and over, the double-edged technique sapped the stamina of its user. Or if it was done incorrectly, it could even injure him.

Luke also pressured Kinta to counterattack and react over and over while keeping himself safe with feints, fakes, stabs, and his own probing strikes only to switch to a hard block, parry, or dodge at the last second.

The Kagemusha (literally meant "Shadow Warrior" but also meant "Body Double") drowned in a whirlwind of steel while his own attacks got deflected, absorbed, swallowed, or tanked by the walking disaster area himself.

An earthquake. An avalanche. A landslide. The irresistible human tempest indulging in a roaring rampage of revenge.

***

"What pushes you to act now?" asked Haruka the Outcast. "You have no relation to the Minakatas. What is your purpose for risking your life for them?"

If Yahiko were honest, he'd admit to pushing through this bodyguard gig partly because he thought it'd be a waste to not use what he'd learned training with May Brooks/Satsuki Sakaguchi at the Sakaguchi Dojo.

The samurai kid responded through grit teeth, "I met them through a friend of mine. Also, even if we're strangers, what good is the life-giving sword of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu if I can't save the lives of those under my protection?"

"There you go again with your lies," hissed the assassin. "A sword is a weapon. The art of swordsmanship is learning how to kill. To believe otherwise is to invite death at your doorstep. Or to give a child a gun to play with. Don't be so gullible."

"I feel like I've heard that speech before," said Yahiko. "I believe in life-giving swords. There is such a thing as a sword that protects. I've seen it with my own eyes."

He didn't actually hear it the first time Kenshin told Kaoru those same words. However, the Kamiya couple did have discussions about their first meeting later on that the boy listened to.

Dully, Yahiko wondered who could save him now.

Munenori Minoe? Gan? The police? A wandering Kenshin Kamiya looking after him? Sanosuke Sagara back from America? Or even Seijuro Hiko himself like when he faced off against Fuji's gigantic blade?

It certainly wasn't going to be Kaita, if what Haruka said about him being Takae's son were true. He might even stab him in the back instead.

Maybe this was it. His luck finally ran out. He bit off more than he could chew.

"…Gesshoku (Lunar Eclipse)!"

"UGH! MIERDA…!"

The next thing Yahiko knew, he ended up on the floor, blood spurting from the three wounds on his abdomen while he saw a lanky man with huge hands grab hold of the Faceless' face and slammed it down to the concrete ground.

"…Kiddo. I've learned long ago that the Shword of Life doesn't exist. All shwordsh are Shwordsh of Death. The Shword of Life is one big joke. A deadly one that could getchoo killed," said Yahiko's ultimate rescuer with a slight drunken slur to his tone.

"Who the hell are you?!" exclaimed Yahiko as his eyes stared at the man before him. His eyes traveled from the stranger’s coiffed head to his sandaled toes and his flowery pink haori and hakama (shirt and pants) in between.

"The name'sh Kojima Sho." The man smirked and let go of the struggling Faceless before standing up and retreating from the swipes from the masked man's claws. "…Ah, shcrew it. Let me be that shilly fool. Let's make the Shword of Life into a reality!"

It was at that point that Myojin noticed the weird man had six fingers on each of his two humongous hands, giving him an extra strong grip on his sword as well as Haruka's unmasked face. Also, his drunken face was as pink as his haori.

Oh gods. Yahiko's rescuer was a drunkard. Yahiko could smell the booze from Sho's breath from where he lay. "Get away, old man! You'll get killed!"

Also, for some reason, the drunkard reminded him of Hitokiri Gasuke.

No wait. That was wrong. He actually remembered him. This was the guy who was with Kinta Minakata when they first arrived in the Sakaguchi Dojo!

Meanwhile. Haruka growled, "It's always one thing after another…!" as he jumped around and swiped his claws at Kojima in every which way. It had been quite a long day so far.

The unsteady, hiccupping Kojima unsheathed his cane sword but wielded it strangely. Like it was a scythe. He blocked and parried Haruka’s claw strikes with the spine instead of the edge of his katana.

'Was this his version of the Sword of Life?' wondered Yahiko, who by now found the strength to sit up. 'A way to wield ordinary swords so that they don't immediately finish off opponents. He’s using the dull edge of his katana!'

Sho then fell into a wobbly Waning Stance of the Musou Madden Ryu, with his back turned against his opponent and his face giving him a sidelong glance: The favored stance of his fellow student, Lieutenant Satoru Sakaguchi.

Unlike Minoe and his/her split personalities, The Faceless remembered everything his other identities experienced because he merely donned different guises rather than transform into someone else entirely.

Therefore, he remembered the iaido stance from his bout with Kinta Minakata and prepared to counter it in kind.

The burakumin thusly charged at Sho to stab his back or his neck then sidestep to the right or clockwise to avoid the right-handed quick-draw slash from his scabbard.

It was his way to trip the trap without getting caught in it, just like he did when he faced off against Baku the Bat Ninja.

Only for him to get blindsided by Kojima swatting the back of his head with his scabbard instead of his blade, much to his surprise.

***

Kinta Minakata was one of the few people who've met all the Shidai Nikuya (Four Butchers)—Hitokiri Shinbei, Hitokiri Izo, Hitokiri Hanjiro, and Hitokiri Gensai—of the Ishin Shishi.

They were also known as the Four Hitokiri (Manslayers). The hitokiri who worked under orders of Hanpeita Takechi and Ryoma Sakamoto.

He didn't face off against Hitokiri Shinbei (Shinbei Tanaka) as a Mimawarigumi at 14 years of age, but he did assist his kenjutsu masters in hunting him and his partner at the time, Hitokiri Izo (Izo Okada), down when their identities were still a secret.

Kinta's masters were also the founders of Musou Madden Ryu—Genzo Sakaguchi, his father Azuma Minakata, and Kyo "Sword of Death" Kojima.

The Shidai Nikuya cried out "Sonno Joi" (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) even as the Shinsengumi shouted in turn, "Aku Soku Zan" (Kill Evil Instantly).

He'd later meet and cross swords with Izo, Hanjiro, and Gensai (or Izo Okada, Hanjiro Nakamura, and Gensai Kawakami) at different points of the Bakumatsu.

On top of the Shidai Nikuya were the Choshu Han Hitokiri working in the shadows—the Hitokiri Battousai and the unnamed hitokiri rumored to have a flaming sword—under the orders of Kogoro Katsura and Shinsaku Takasugi.

The Hitokiri Battousai rose to prominence as shogunate forces concentrated their might on taking out the Four Butchers, with them dying one by one.

In turn, the Mimawarigumi Battousai rose to prominence himself, such that a fateful duel between two Battousais was expected to happen during the Boshin War. Let the true Battousai emerge victorious in the end.

Alas, they never crossed swords. Battousai Himura ended up fighting mostly Shinsengumi forces while the Kyoto Mimawarigumi moved to Osaka and dealt with the rest of the Satsuma Domain.

As Kenshin Himura battled against his closest rival Hajime Saito, Kinta Minakata instead dueled against his rival, the inimitable Kawakami Gensai.

By the time the two Battousais could've crossed swords in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, the Mimawarigumi had to retreat back to Osaka to regroup with other Shogunate forces on January 31, 1868, after their leader Tadasaburo Sasaki was fatally injured.

The Kyoto Mimawarigumi was even temporarily renamed the Shin Yugekitai (from January 8 to 19) and permanently renamed the Sogikitai (April 10) a day before the Tokugawa Shogunate surrendered to the newly established Meiji Government (April 11).

The group disbanded soon afterwards.

Like with Hajime Saito and Kenshin Himura, Kinta Minakata was offered government positions in the military, cabinet, or police in recognition of his skill, contributions, and heroic exploits during the Bakumatsu and beyond.

He turned them all down, but the rest of his family were quick to cur favor with the new government to allow them to keep their wealth and remain a privileged oligarch family even as the samurai caste was abolished.

***

Back at the front yard of the Moneychanger Office…

Kinta Minakata should've finished Luke off when he had the chance. Like behead him or cut his jugular before he could even draw his superior European steel bastard sword against his inferior katana.

Lucas Grant merely walked the haggard Kinta down at that point, running him ragged like a fully grown adult manhandling an asthmatic child having a temper tantrum.

There was nothing his privileged samurai half-brother could dish out to him that he couldn't handle. His deadened nerves had gone through much worse than this.

Good thing Lucas forced Minakata to drag the fight out with the revelation that they were half-brothers. Had the skilled Kinta not held back, Lucas might've ended up half-dead or wholly dead without touching a hair on him.

Learning about the compromised health of his brother, fighting a war of attrition, and practicing counters to some of his moves beforehand with the Faceless before experiencing the rest firsthand during the fight had paid dividends for the young Grant.

"Sorry, Aniki (Big Bro). In another life, we could've been friends. Or even real brothers," said Lucas while swatting away another iaijutsu attempt by his tiring sibling.

He'd been researching and observing from afar his estranged brother while masquerading as one of the Minakata bodyguards. He'd learned of both his exploits with the Kyoto Mimawarigumi and the Hidden Christians of Shimabara.

The Minakatas had long been spoiled rotten by money, but Kinta actually fought for his ideals. Like the shogunate forces or even the Ishin Shishi of the past.

When Kinta's father got dishonored by Lucas's father by having an affair with their mother, Kinta's heroic exploits in the Mimawarigumi helped recover the reputation of the Minakata name.

While Kinta's relatives filled the family coffers so much they could still live a life of privilege after the Ishin Shishi took over, he went and avenged the death of his master then took down the leader of domestic terrorists who claimed himself the Son of God and the descendant of Shiro Amakusa Tokisada.

He infiltrated the Hidden Christians ranks as Shogo Amakusa's Kagemusha (Body Double) before ultimately betraying the cult leader at the cost of his health, even.

At that point, none of Kinta's Musou Madden Ryu techniques could escape Lucas's automatic blocks and parries, like he'd memorized their patterns and tells over the course of their protracted battle.

"It's over, Kagemusha. You've already lost. Enough is enough."

"…."

Luke had no doubts that six years ago, he wouldn't even have a chance against his venerable elder brother in his prime.

"I don't fault you for what your family did to my mother. In fact, I'm truly honored to fight someone like you. What a damn shame, seeing honorable men like you die for the sake of the wicked."

Kinta had fought for the Shogunate and saved Japan multiple times in several wars and countless battles, only for the leeches he called relatives to reap the rewards of his exploits and prestige, taking government positions and privileges originally offered to him.

It disgusted Luke to his very core.

Kinta's greedy family of swindlers, drug dealers, and money launderers turned oligarchs who control politicians with their blood money didn't deserve to live. They bring shame to the honorable Seiryu Clan.

Kinta, unlike the rest of his corrupted kin, was a man of principle.

***

Back at the abandoned factory…

Instead of a sword-drawing technique, the pink-shirted drunkard did a sheathe-drawing technique and swung it at Haruka's noggin like a hollow baseball bat.

Its impact also got doubled by the brigand sidestepping right into the unexpected strike.

"SHINGETSU O TSUKU NARI (NEW MOON SLASH)…!"

As expected of a loopy drunkard. Yahiko had half the mind to believe it wasn’t a real technique.

The New Moon Slash hit the Faceless strong enough to fling him into another set of windows, with him crashing right into them.

He could've died right then and there from the shards alone, but when Yahiko and Sho checked the wreckage, he was gone.

"…Dammit, he got away," said Sho Kojima with a stinky belch as he rubbed his stomach and cleaned his ear with his pinky finger.

'So much for the Sword of Life, huh?' Inwardly, Sho himself didn't really believe in such things. He himself called it a joke.

Then again, unsheathing the scabbard instead of the blade to catch an opponent by surprise with unorthodox iaijutsu was quite the out-of-the-box thinking. So was using the flat part of a katana to take people out.

"Well, I hope you're happy, kid. You just helped save your enemy with your Sword of Life nonsense," began Sho, only for him to trail off as he saw the bodyguard tend to his V.I.P.

"…You okay, Mister Thin Man?" asked Yahiko to the shook but otherwise unhurt Tatsuya Minakata, who was hidden beside one of the factory’s machines. "The Faceless didn’t stab you while we weren't looking, did he?"

"'Bout time you remembered me," the sullen Tatsuya rasped, trying to look like his old boisterous self, but his pale complexion betrayed him.

Myojin exhaled. As far as he was concerned, as long as he was able to protect the people around him, his mission was accomplished.

To Sho, he asked, "If you think the life-giving sword doesn't exist then why do you practice it?"

Kojima smirked and winked at Yahiko. "Probably for the shame reashon you do, Kiddo. It’sh shomething a drunkard would come up with, y'know?"

The man with the huge bouffant hairdo and colorful clothes then assisted Kinta's uncle back to his feet and guided him out of the building, with Yahiko following close behind them.

The young samurai pondered those words. As the son of Tokyo Samurai, he'd heard how they had the right to cut down peasants who offended them. "Kirisute Gomen" or something to like that.

The teenager found the prospect of having the power to judge who lived and who died by something as petty as being annoyed by them as quite grisly. Like something a politician such as the abusive Jusanro Tani would do to the underprivileged.

Like with Kenshin, he'd rather follow the edicts of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu than indulge in the uglier side of being a privileged, rich samurai.

He didn't want to be judge and executioner of criminals. He'd rather protect those before him as he sought the same strength Kenshin had. Let these villains pay their crimes in jail or have their chance at redemption.

Yahiko had always admired Kenshin and how he never used his sword for anything but protecting the weak. He never bullied anyone weaker than him but instead kept bullies at bay without serving as their executioner.

No matter how strong he got, Kenshin would never wield his sword for the sake of pride or bloodlust. His sakabatou always existed only to protect other people.

He never drowned in his own strength. He never had any meaningless fights to show that might or strength justified any action.

'It's an illusion to think that your capacity to hurt is your strength of character,' Kenshin once said to Yahiko.

This was why the Tokyo Samurai Descendant took Kenshin's non-killing vow to heart even as he personally never killed anyone. Not directly, at least. Not by his own hands, certainly.

He wanted to be strong enough to fulfill his non-killing vow without needing to kill a single soul himself, as though only regret could fuel such a vow.

He didn't need to atone for murders he'd already committed. He didn't have to make a vow to a loved one he accidentally killed to avoid killing again.

If Yahiko wanted to be as strong as or even stronger than Kenshin Himura/Kamiya himself, the least he could do was be as careful as Kenshin was whenever it came to protecting human life, including his own.

***

The gasping Hatamoto Samurai Descendant refused to give up, much to the chagrin of his bastard half-brother. Much to the detriment of his own health. Like the principled man that he was, he intended to go down swinging.

Like there was nothing else he could do but fight. A Shadow Warrior who was a shadow of his former self.

Thusly, he launched another Tsunami that Lucas anticipated, blocking the first few slashes to prevent the waves of slashes from gaining any momentum while the tides were low.

'You were something else when you aided your masters in hunting me down, kiddo,’ said a voice from within Minakata from out of the blue.

A familiar voice from Kinta’s past. The voice of Shinbei Tanaka (Hitokiri Shinbei). A ghost from his past. 'I saw your potential from the start.’

Also known as the Ansatsu Taicho (Captain of the Assassins), Shinbei had previously crossed swords with the Seiryu Clan’s best and brightest swordsmen under the Musou Madden School of swordsmanship, before his identity was exposed and he was arrested for treason.

The young prepubescent Minakata had merely served as support to the adult swordsmen battling the rebel forces of the Ishin Shishi and their top assassins like Shinbei.

However, Kinta showed his mettle by saving their hides from time to time, fighting alongside them and showing off his early mastery of the Mikazuki o Tsuku Nari (Crescent Moon Slash), which was able to keep even the skilled Assassin Captain at bay.

Kinta started landing Crescent Moon Slashes on his brother again after a long stretch of him failing to penetrate through the gaijin bastard’s impregnable defense. As though Luke had long ago memorized all the tricks in his bag.

Shinbei died back in July 11, 1863 by seppuku at 31 years old while under custody of the police. The same year as the establishment of the Shinsengumi and a year before the establishment of Kinta's own group, the Kyoto Mimawarigumi.

'That flat, bored look on your face pisses me off!’ said the Izo Okada in Kinta’s mind. Izo was Shinbei’s partner-in-crime for most of their assassination missions. 'You look like an emotionless mannequin, you’re so creepy!’

The man they’d later identify as Hitokiri Izo had said as much to Kinta’s face when they themselves battled each other—Musou Madden Ryu versus Nakanishi-Ha Itto Ryu.

So his expressionless face gave Okada the creeps? As far as Kinta was concerned, the feeling was mutual. Izo's manic smile as he slaughtered his foes unsettled him in kind.

Compared to the more patriotic and straightforward Shinbei who wanted to deliver Tenchu (Heaven’s Retribution) on every head of state who submitted themselves to the Western nations, Izo was a wild card who enjoyed his job as butcher of men a bit too much.

From Kinta’s encounters with him, Okada fought like a wild beast. Or a serial killer. Izo certainly demonstrated resiliency bordering on the supernatural in their duels against each other that would put Lucas's current performance to shame.

Okada would later get arrested for assassinating Toyo Yoshida. He’d then get tortured, crucified, and then beheaded in May 11, 1865 at 27 years old.

Half-delirious from the pain and exhaustion of the prolonged battle, Minakata soldiered on against Grant. Unwilling to let himself falter against his long-lost brother who tried his best to keep up with him.

From there, he got his second (fifth?) wind and pushed back with swinging ripostes and counters to Luke’s hard blocks, parries, and attacks.

Meanwhile, someone else said, 'You really are a true samurai, Minakata Kinta. Your father would be proud,’ to Kinta’s mind. It was the ghost of Hanjiro Nakamura (Hitokiri Hanjiro).

Nakamura would later be more famously known by the Meiji Administration’s history books as Toshiaki Kirino: The longest surviving hitokiri among the Shidai Nikuya.

As Kirino, he lived all the way to 38 years old before getting killed in action on September 24, 1877 during Saigo Takamori’s samurai rebellion against their fellow Ishin Shishi and the Meiji Government they helped build.

A practical and pragmatic man in life and in combat, Hitokiri Hanjiro’s Ko-Jigen Ryu reminded the Mimawarigumi Battousai a lot of the Faceless’ sublime fencing swordsmanship.

Every move they did was deliberate and calculated, with one move always leading to another five moves like a high-speed game of go or chess, but using sword attacks, counters, ripostes, and feints.

Thusly, Kinta began focusing more on tactics and strategy.

Luke used wide sweeping swings with his blade that would normally lead to straightforward stabbing counters or precise well-timed ripostes, but he didn’t just swing randomly.

He changed the levels of his swings ever so slightly to deflect, recover, and angle his own Counter Times, like the Faceless himself would with his rapier.

He also only needed fewer strikes to cause major damage while he treated most slashes to his person like annoying if prickly paper cuts.

Even though the wounds on Minakata’s body weren’t as deep as Lucas’s, his body was apparently frail enough to get affected by them. His movement slowed to a crawl compared to his “fresher” yet bloodier brother.

This was an insult to Kinta’s manhood. He hadn’t been as damaged as his little brother yet he was the one on the brink of defeat?!

'What is this? You can do better than this, surely,’ drawled another voice. 'You survived the Bakumatsu. This li'l brat is nothing compared to what you’ve been through.’

The inner voice belonged to Gensai Kawakami: The Mimawarigumi Battousai’s greatest rival and most persistent opponent.

Despite the pain, injuries, and depleted oxygen, the Mimawarigumi Battousai dully remembered his battles against another swordsman who also drew comparisons to the famous legendary manslayer, the Hitokiri Battousai.

Kinta’s rivalry with Hitokiri Gensai was the closest thing he had to that Battousai versus Battousai duel that never happened. He couldn’t imagine the whirling dervish that was Shiranui Ryu to be any less dangerous than the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

An underrated tactician, Gensai’s brutality in the battlefield overshadowed his intelligence that could challenge even the likes of his fellow brainy manslayer, Hitokiri Hanjiro.

Kinta had already dealt with better quality slashes than those thrown by Luke. Bone-cutting strikes that killed many a man from one of the deadliest hitokiri of the Shidai Nikuya, Gensai Kawakami.

This frightful man would later go by the name Genbei Kouda. This name change was the reason why by the time Kinta learned that Kawakami had been incarcerated for harboring Kiheitai stragglers, it was too late.

Kinta learned months later that Gensai had already been executed on January 13, 1872 at 38 years old before he or the Minakatas could pull some bureaucratic strings and have him pardoned for his crimes.

All the Shidai Nikuya ended up dying before hitting the age of 40.

Thanks to their mutual sacrifices, they paved the way for a much stronger Japan with a brighter future than just becoming another potential colony for foreign superpowers.

Was Kinta headed for the same fate as Gensai and the others? Maybe he'd learn the answer in the next exchange.

' You should've taken me with you, Gensai. To heaven. To hell. To limbo. It doesn't matter,' thought Kinta. 'I can't wait to face off with you in the afterlife, old friend.'

The Mimawarigumi Battousai dodged and parried the chops and slashes from Luke’s bastard sword, his body remembering the extreme quickness of Gensai’s Shiranui Ryu compared to his brother’s comparatively clumsy Western swordsmanship.

'There’s still some life in his swings,’ thought Grant. 'What will it take to put you down, Aniki…?’

***

'Man, that Kagemusha is hard to kill,' thought Kai Hidaka with a head shake and a heavy sigh. 'And here I thought Luke was resilient!'

He stood on wobbly feet. Winning his fight against Zan the Sharpshooter Ninja and his gigantic warfork took its toll on him.

However, it was only a matter of time. This second wind from Kinta should be his last. The Mimawarigumi Battousai of yore was no more, replaced by a sicklier version of him with low stamina and respiratory problems.

The Mimawarigumi Battousai became a mere Kagemusha. A copycat of either the more famous Hitokiri Battousai or the seditious Christian rebel Shogo Amakusa.

Kinta Minakata was the moon to Shogo Amakusa's sun. The satellite orbiting Battousai Himura's planet.

Indeed, Kinta was once the body double of Shogo until he betrayed the cult leader. As renowned as he was, Kinta Minakata merely served as the shadow of people stronger than him.

Could it be possible for the shadow to be greater than the man…? A Kagemusha that became the king or emperor he was supposed to protect? An imposter that usurped the role of the leader?

Nah. Of course not. Now was the perfect time to kill the overrated imposter.

‘Fine,’ thought Kai. ‘If Luke failed to finish his brother off, it’s my duty as a fellow brigand to complete the mission for him. We have a 90 to 100 percent completion rate on all our assassination missions for a reason!’

He looked over his options. The recovering cop and daughter were still nearby, unable to escape because they were still worried about Kinta's state of health and mind while battling his half-brother.

They could again serve as Kai's hostages, distractions, or meat shields when push came to shove. Or he could be the distraction himself to allow Luke to land the fatal blow.

However, just as he was about to again pounce on Officer Satoru Sakaguchi to avenge himself from their exchange earlier, a golden blur arrived at the periphery of Hidaka's vision.

No, not a golden blur. A blonde blur with a huge warfork-like naginata (Japanese glaive).

'What in the world…!?'

***

What was Kinta Minakata's reason for living? For the sake of his family? To honor his deceased father and estranged mother? To uphold his honor, whatever that meant?

Metaphorically, how did he apply kintsugi (gold repair)to his own broken home and life? What was the gold lacquer that kept his fragile, broken self together?

Kintsugi was the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, embracing the damage as part of the object's history rather than disguising it.

In turn, was his ability to always win the gold lacquer that held himself together despite him being broken by trauma?

The cracks remained, which was the secret to the beauty of a gold-repaired ceramic. It was beautiful because it was broken and put together again with gold, not in spite of it.

He needed to win. He needed to always win and survive. To save his loved ones or even those who weren't beloved to him, he had to shoulder the burden of always winning no matter what.

If he won, the world kept turning. If he lost, their world would stop. It would be the end of the Minakatas and even the Sakaguchis by proxy.

He couldn't let that happen. He could not lose. Not when he still had a lot to fix. Not when he still had a lot to atone for.

As long as he had the resolve to win, his fragile self would not break apart. Like broken ceramic kept together by gold lacquer.

But still, maybe dying here in the hands of his family's bad karma made flesh wasn't so bad.

If it was his fate to die here in the hands of his half-brother then so be it. He couldn't have written a better end. Surely better than committing seppuku in jail (like Gensai) or getting crucified (like the Hidden Christians).

e

Kinta took careful breaths to calm himself down and conserve his energy. His counters to his brother's counters were enough to make the (literal) bastard hesitate for once.

Besides which, he'd been playing defense all this while to prepare himself for the tidal wave to come. Like waves on the beach receding for an extreme low tide before a big tsunami hit it.

The brothers’ heavy breathing and groaning soon relaxed and slowed down until they stopped altogether.

They controlled their breath and measured the distance between them by eyesight. They seemed to breathe almost in cadence with one another.

They had saved up all their strength for this last salvo.

Slowly but surely, Kinta sheathed his blade. Meanwhile, Lucas kept his hunk of sharpened iron stabbed into the ground, waiting for the right moment to pull it out and swing it around for an attack.

And so finally, Kinta stopped dodging then charged forward in his Waxing Stance or iaijutsu/battoujutsu form.

Grant grabbed his bastard sword's handle with both hands, bracing himself for a heavy impact.

So should Kinta do the Blue Moon Slash? His body felt like it was about to break.

Luke's reaction time was also fast enough to recover from any feints done to him. The half-breed swordsman could course-correct and turn a missed swing into a stab or a parry at the last second.

Also, the effort of doing that body-straining technique would only hurt Kinta in the end. It was almost not worth doing.

Luke’s high-grade European sword used more carbon-rich steel versus the multi-layered Japanese steel folded unto itself that made up for its lack of carbon by putting powdered carbon into the melted metal during the forging process.

However, the Akatsuki katana was different. It could take the hardness of foreign steel because it was made from melted European swords that his grandfather sequestered during his exploits against pirates who had stolen such weapons from the galleon trade.

Toshiro broke his original sword and Genzo Sakaguchi reforged it with high-carbon European steel, folding it unto itself to create a newer, better sword.

It was a Japanese sword that used Western steel to forge something stronger. Not unlike the old primitive Japan being reforged into the current modern one after the Sakoku (Closed Country) policy was lifted.

The Western steel was the kintsugi to Kinta’s katana. Like a broken bone mended so that it'd grow stronger afterwards.

With the fall of the bakufu, the New Japan—a stronger, modernized nation-state version of Japan that mixed Western technology with Eastern sensibilities--would hopefully get a seat on the table of world affairs.

Where both Western and Eastern superpowers viewed Japan as a respectable peer instead of a primitive, backwards country ripe for colonization and invasion.

'Heh. What am I even thinking?' thought Kinta. The way he mused about the Akatsuki, you'd swear he was thinking just like one of the Ishin Shishi.

An X-shaped scar formed in the middle of Kinta’s face. The old battle wound wasn’t normally visible but it deepened like wrinkles every time he scrunched his face up.

And so the Akatsuki sword flew from its scabbard. At this point, Kinta was prepared to accept that if Lucas could win against this exchange, he deserved to kill him.

All this time, the Prodigal Son had been blocking any point-blank iaijutsu with the intention of tiring his brother's body with the mere effort of doing Full Moon Slashes.

However, Lucas realized that if this was a last exchange then his half-brother had every intention to cut through the block.

Grant then used the Tactical Wheel that the Faceless drilled into his very core.

Simple Attacks were beaten by Parry and Ripostes or Counter Attacks. Counter Attacks were beaten by Counter Times (feinted attack to counter the counterattack). Counter Times were beaten by Feints in Time (feinted counters to draw out the counter times).

So Luke expected Kinta to feint a Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari by half-unsheathing his blade then sheathing it back again (Counter Time) and responded with a Feint in Time (feinting a counter).

However, Minakata's feint itself was a feint and he went ahead in the split-second he motioned to re-sheathe his sword, he instead unsheathed it.

The iaijutsu expert turned his Counter Time into a Simple Attack, which was the best way to counter a Feint in Time in lieu of two swordsmen continuously saber-rattling and posturing against each other without ever actually attacking.

However, Lucas was a bunch of nerves himself, his adrenalin rush slowing his perception of time enough for him to notice the change and electing to do a hard block (Parry and Riposte) instead.

The Full Moon Slash created a flash of steel that rotated fully and turned into a moon-shaped perfect circle, shining like a second moon that appeared on the ground.

As though Kinta used his iaijutsu and twisting torso movement to create a perfect circle using his sword and his center of balance like a protractor.

The Aozuki/Aotsuki O Tsuku Nari worked like the Tsunami in that it built upon the momentum of the first perfect-circle Mangetsu O Tsuku Nari.

Using foot pivots, full body rotation, centrifugal force, and the empty air left by the Full Moon Slash, the follow-up Blue Moon Slash should travel at double the speed and power.

This broke through Luke's defense, but he'd been memorizing the timing of the expected Blue Moon Slash all this time. With one hand on his claymore-like bastard sword, Luke prepared his riposte.

The bastard child knew what to do. Sidestep then stab at the center of the Full Moon Slash as the samurai prepared to do a second Full Moon Slash.

In other words, stab the eye of the spiraling storm. This will drill the sword into the body of the rotating samurai.

A grisly death for sure, but an honorable one at least. A warrior's death in the line of duty.

However, none of that happened.

Instead, halfway into Kinta raising his Akatsuki to do a Blue Moon Slash, as Lucas timed his stab, the Mimawarigumi Battousai flipped his sword, reversed his momentum, and did a downward slash.

Somehow, the bloody Lucas became even bloodier than before, producing a fountain of red from his sudden chest laceration. His deepest wound yet.

Grant had forced the gasping, cornered Minakata to do his ultimate forbidden hidden technique.

The legendary technique of yore known as the Tsubame Gaeshi (Swallow Return). The same technique Kinta used to defeat Shogo Amakusa.

And now Luke was the one gasping and cornered in turn.

Originally the signature technique of the legendary swordsman Kojiro Sasaki, the Kagemusha himself learned the similarly legendary skill from his second swordsmanship master, the blind swordsman Hyoue Nishida.

The maternal uncle of Shogo and Sayo Amakusa (formerly Muto). The black sheep of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Nishida's Tsubame Gaeshi allowed him to survive his master's Kuzu Ryu Sen (Nine-Headed Dragon Flash) when they were doing the succession duel to pass on Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu to a new successor.

The pacifistic Christian Hyoue actually learned the technique solely to find a way to counter the Kuzu Ryu Sen without killing his master, Seijuro Hiko XII, with the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash).

Regardless, that last technique from out of the blue was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That ripped the last thread of the rope that kept the hanging Lucas from falling into the abyss below.

Lucas had finally reached his limit.

***

To Be Continued...

The exchange between Toshiro and Kinta is based on the exchange between Seijuro Akashi and his father from Kuroko's Basketball. The Faceless and his ornate masks are also based on Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, who wore elaborate masks to hide his crippling leprosy.

Also, Lucas Grant's first name is taken from George Lucas, who famously created the Star Wars franchise that started with a movie about an orphan forced to fight a relative in the backdrop of an intergalactic war.

Also, thusly, Lucas uses Form IV (Ataru) of Lightsaber Combat when fighting against his half-brother's more precise and rigid iaijutsu reminiscent of Form II (Makashi) of Lightsaber Combat.