“So we’re just here to kill some old guy?” Sougen asked with a yawn, ruffling his short black hair.

  “That’s what the boss said.” Sighed Kazutarou, he was a tall man standing over two meters in height with long flowing brown hair and a thick coarse beard which curled around his neck.

  Bakumon- the 3rd man in their little circle scoffed, “Since when were the [黒岸花: Black Spider Lily] squad supposed to kill a single person? Has Jusaku lost his damn mind?”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine.” Sougen shrugged, waving his hand through the air.. “I mean Jusaku has to have some kinda reason, the Susanori don’t mess around like that. Even if it’s overkill that only means he wants to make sure we kill him.”

  “Tch, it’s just Venator scum, they’ve been trying to force their weight here for a while now.” Bakuman spat, grinding the green loogie he spit into the mud with his boot. He was also a rather large figure, while shorter than Kazutarou he was perhaps half again as wide with red spiked hair and coal black eyes. Pulling a cigarette from his pocket he lit its end with his fingers tip before putting it to his mouth. “Want one?” He asked, showing the pack to Sougen who shook his head.

  “I’m fine, I’m trying to quit.”

  You said the same last time, Kazutarou laughed as he took the pack from Bakumon and lit his own cigarette with his match book.

  Sougen frowned at the two men's chuckles. At 34 years old he’d been in the Toumeikan since he was sold to them at the age of seven from Sugiyama orphanage. He’d known both Bakumon and Kazutarou since that day he showed up, freshly snipped like they all were so they couldn’t marry into any power of their own. They were dogs, raised to hunt for the Toumeikan- no, the Susanori. When they pointed the [黒岸花: Black Spider Lily] squad barked and ran towards that direction. It was a simple life, but that didn’t mean it was bad.

  They were given names, money and power, something they’d never have had if they stayed in the orphanage. If they were still there they’d probably have been sold to the coal mines at some point, small hands were always needed to fit in small places, and replacements were needed quickly.

  But has Jusaku really finally lost it? Sougen wondered, scratching at his chin. All 98 members of the [黒岸花: Black Spider Lily] was overkill no matter how you looked at it. Especially for what Jusaku called an “old man.” Even if he was the Venator Society's president

  At that thought however he felt it, like a lion had appeared before them and roared in the wind, a dark purple aura ripping through the fields of long grass.

  “!?”

  Sougen spun around and there he was, standing some few hundred yards away. Old!? He wondered as soon as he saw him. The man looked not a day older than Sougen himself. He was tall, easily two meters with skin tanned a deep red, his eyes crimson and hair a mane of long white spikes. His physique was perfect, a body forged of pure muscular detail as if carved from cyprus by the god of War Sakazuki himself.

  So this is who Jusaku sent to kill me huh!?” The man roared with laughter, his cry like thunder rolled across the landscape alongside bolts of mana which ripped the ground to ribbons before the battle had even begun. Sougen felt his legs shake, surely Jusaku wasn’t serious right?

  “Two Hundred years ago I was known as the Demon of Iboria, boys.” The man laughed down at them, ripping his shirt from his chest as if made of a spider's web he flexed his chest. Veins curling around muscle indentations. “But it looks like that title has been forgotten, it doesn’t bring the same fear that it once did in the hearts of men. So today let me remind you just how I was given that name.”

  “!”

  Before anyone could respond it happened. Screams, cries, blood, flesh and bone. The Demon of Iboria Francisco Gutierrez Ignius with a thrust of his hand pierced a man's rib cage and ripped his heart out. Twisting his spine he then threw it behind him like a cannon ball into the man who’d charged his rear with a Katana. The heart smacking him in the face with a sound akin to a sledge hammer hitting a pike echoed as the katana wielding man cried out in pain. Clutching his face and his nose caved in and blood sprayed from his mouth.

  Then there was blackness…

  When Sougen came to it he found himself limping across the ground, his spine snapped in half and only hanging together by a single crisp ligament he cried out in pain. Demon, that man truly earned the name. In no longer then three minutes he’d torn through the [黒岸花: Black Spider Lily], those feared across the country as equal to the imperial army itself. And he’d had fun doing it, whistling to himself an old tune as he dressed himself up Fransicos whipped the blood from his white hair.

  “If you’re still alive, you were to find me!” He called back to the field below with a laugh that made Sougen flinch. Walking away each of his steps seemed to make the earth shake like a tremor.

  All Sougen could do was weep, weep like he never had before. In fear, in humiliation, in pain, in that moment he was no longer Hisakuni Sougen, only Sakurashi the boy who lived in Sugiyama orphanage and dreamed of being something larger than life.

  # # #

  2:12 PM

  Flame burst forth from Akatora’s palms, like a typhoon the inferno ripped through the nicely furnished room. Green tatami mats curled into black dust and wooden walls to gnarled skeletons.

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  The sound of buzzing filling his ears Akatrora only continued to burn, to burn that whole room down until nothing was left but a black hole in the ground darker than any shadow could imitate.

  “You’re a strong one, Taishi-Kun.” Sougen laughed from behind Akatora. His throat is like a crickets chirp. “But you’re one thirty years too early to challenge me.”

  Akatora spun around on his heel, hands already raised, a red hot fire curled around his thick forearms. What greeted him however was not Sougen but instead a pitch black foul insect. Shapes like Periplaneta americana with long sharp mandibles like a stag beetle and a tail which curled back like a scorpion's. Crawling up from the ground in the thousands they clumped together forming a mound which quickly took human shape before turning into the old crooked body of Hisakuni Sougen. Kimono still wrapped around his skeletal frame.

  Stunned by the sight Akatora faltered, he’d heard Sougen created insect familiars to swarm his target. However he’d never heard it was possible for someone to become a familiar themself. Or rather split their soul into enough pieces to become nothing more than a mass of familiars! Could he even be considered human anymore?

  “Negegege.” Sougen cackled,, his twisted fingers scratching the thin skin of his bald head, a head so skeletal you could see the outline of his skull sutures. “A Hachibuto attacking a Sanjougou, could it be you’ve come to try and take my place?” He asked, tilting his head to the side so far you’d think his neck would snap. “Or perhaps… Is this an insurrection? I’ve heard of this Venator Business but I never imagined you to be that type, Taishi-Kun.”

  [大炎:Infero!]

  Flames erupted from Akatora’s hands, forming a pillar which pierced the sky as it charred the entire mansion to ashes. Familiars were an extension of the soul, taking a piece of your soul and creating a separate being, a more permanent golem but one with their own individuality and greater utility. But because of that, unlike golems they’re not indispensable, when lost they’re lost. And the damage dealt back to the user from the loss is not only heavy emotionally but magically catastrophic. For Sougen who’d turned himself into a colony of familiars it meant- I just have to destroy them all to kill him!

  Black smog and smoke was blown away but a gust, the once acre wide wooden estate turned into a field of charcoal. Yet the one thing that still remained after the fire was the sound of buzzing.

  Erupting from the ground the horrible swarm of insects formed the head of Sougen, crawling along the ground like a rotund spider. “I thought I already told you Taishi-Kun.” He frowned before cackling, “You’re 30 years too early to challenge me.”

  Akatora threw his hand to grab the man by his pencil thin neck. Yet he only felt pain as suddenly the head exploded into a swarm of insects which swarmed his large hand. Digging their stingers into his flesh, pumping red hot venom and tearing chunks with his marines even their legs had small barbs like thorns which stuck when touching skin. Akatora grit his teeth, the pain- though he couldn’t exactly describe it himself could be linked to a bullet ants sharp pain mixed with the burning of a fire ant, only amplified dozens of times over. To the point it felt like he might faint from it, but he only grit his teeth and locked his knees.

  [大炎:Infero!]

  Flames erupted forth, the insects which had wrapped around his arm screaming their chirping cry as they were incinerated. Turning to Mana which would soon wither into Kami. Yet there was no “backlash.” He couldn’t sense Sougen having taken damage despite the familiars being destroyed.

  How can that not hurt him at least a little!? Akatora turned his attention down the black charred soil where the buzzing of the insects could be heard next to the sound of soil turning and being churned.

  Kneeling down he slammed his meaty fist elbow deep into the dirt and slashed more [Fire]. Smoke erupting as the dirt turned to clay which then cracked apart. The smoke smelling foul he wrinkled his nose, at the stench just as much as the sound of those wings still beating and mandibles still clicking. How many could there be?

  “!”

  Sensing the swarm erupt from behind him he turned on his heel and thrust his first with all 400lbs of muscle behind it. Wrapped in flames up to his shoulder this time with [炎拳: Honouken!] The insects which had tried to wrap around his arm erupting into screams as they were scorched. Some of them trying to escape by flapping their wings they made it perhaps a single moment before falling to the floor in ashes.

  “My poor children.” Sougen grumbled, his throat like unoiled hinges. “How cruel of you, Taishi-Kun.” Fully formed once more Sougen's hunched body rested on his old gnarled bamboo cane. His spine looked as if it had been snapped in half and never healed properly. “But just like humans, you can kill as many of my children as you want, and they’ll always come back with more. Grinning, the few rotten teeth left in Sougen's mouth shone green and brown in the sunlight.

  [炎炎衝撃: Ballistic Inferno!]

  Akatora's person exploded with flames which coiled through the air as they spread like writhing tentacles. The sand which had been thrown up into the air by the sudden expulsion turned to shards of glass and the dirt to chunks of brick. Not done yet, Akatora continued to burn, putting everything he had into his flames until he only saw white. Then he was falling.

  Falling down he saw only blackness and the sound of buzzing wings and scuttling legs ringing in his ears.

  THUMP!

  Feeling himself fall to the floor he looked around and waved his hand through the dust to clear it. And when he could see his surroundings his stomach began to turn.

  Every single corner of the pit was covered in insects. Those same deformed and mutated roaches which Sougen had formed were everywhere. Millions of them crawled atop one another, fighting and wrestling, wings flapping and mandibles clicking as they scuttered around. “My children are hungry, Taishi-Kun. And they don’t take kindly to their siblings being slain in such a gruesome manner.” Sougen's voice echoed from all around, as if made of the clicking and beating wings themself.

  Cracking his neck Akatora stood up tall and suited himself off. His right arm swollen pink and throbbing in pain he winced for a moment but his cool face hid the agony he felt in it. He had been given a healing scroll by Jin, but he wasn’t going to use it yet, not unless things turned more dire. Being bitten by some bug wasn’t nearly enough of a reason to waste it. “You call these your children, but you're just throwing them at me to die. A father’s job is to suffer for his children. To defend them through thick or thin, hell or high water until their own dying breath. A parents job never ends once it has begun, not until they leave this world behind. You’re father Hisakuni Sougen. You’re just a gnarled old geezer who’s managed to claw his way well past his expiration date.”

  The insects seem to grow agitated at the taunt. Their clicking louder and wings beating faster a musk colored green and brown sprayed through the air. Smelling sweet yet sickening, like a rotten corpse preserved in honey and rosaire garments.

  “Then let us see Taishi Akatora, who the real father is.” Sougen hissed before the insects leapt forward.

  2:20 PM

  Comment:

  [黒岸花] Kurokishika - The Kanji means “Black Spider Lily” they were a squad of elite magic users composed of orphans purchased by the Toumeikan from Sugiyama orphanage. 60 years ago when they were almost all entirely crushed by El-Saber there were 98 in total. After that only three survived, and only Sougen could walk. They were part of the Toumeikans 3 powers, the Susanori and Sanjougou making up the 1st, the 2nd being the Hachibuto and the Joshin and 3rd the Kurokishika. They were too expensive to replace after their destruction at least in only 60 years time so they were never rebuilt. If they were, the Edoland Liberation would be a lot more troubling for sure.

  [寿裂] Jusaku - The kanji mean “Long life” and “Tear apart”. Jusaku is the grandfather of Kobe who ordered the Kuroshika to kill El-Saber. Why? El-Saber went to Edoland in order to strengthen the bond between the organization and the country; the purpose being for the Spear of Longinus storage deal. And when there he attended the Six Powers meeting where he slighted Jusaku. Basically making it clear that the Yakuza was nothing more than a child to him. As such Jusaku in a rage ordered him killed, something which backfired horribly.

  [一太郎] Kazutarō- 1st born son,

  [博門] Bakumon - The first Kanji basically means someone who is academically esteemed, think professor, doctor or the like. While the second 門 means Gate.

  [久国踪玄] Hisakuni Sougen - His surname name “Hisakuni” isn’t his real name, neither is Sougen. Both were given to him by the Toumeikan as a “Stage name” you could say. A new identity. There is a Hisakuni clan in Edoland but they’re not very powerful or noteworthy really, more like minor nobility who may have owned a decent piece of property back in the day but are now more like scholars and a couple politicians. Anyways his real name was 桜子 Sakurashi, meaning “Cherry Blossom Child.” It’s a name I really like and might use again in the future at some point. But it’s his birth name which was changed to 久国踪玄 the kanji meaning “Old Country” and “Mysterious Clue.” The name Sougen was given to me by a Japanese friend.

  [平視赤虎] Taishi Akatora - His surname means to “Observe peace.” I’ve said it in the past but the Taishi clan are a very low ranking noble clan, like bottom of the barrel just a single step above commoner. But even then Akatora is a distant member descending from a branch of the clan. So he has nothing gained from it. His first name is Akatora, which means “Red Tiger.”

  [大炎: Infero] - Read as Tai-En it means great flame.

  [炎拳: Honouken] - It means “Flame Fist.”

  [炎炎衝撃: Ballistic Inferno] - It means “Blazing impact.”Read as "En-En-Shougeki"