The Katana Under Our Breath

The truck’s engine roared as it was pushed to its highest power.

Kazue continued to drive straight into the dark streets.

It was 3am at this point.

Each person in the truck was stricken with some sort of emotion.

While Kazue sat behind the wheel silently, Buff, Xiomazu, and Sheru sat together, just as quietly, mourning the loss of Donburi.

Sheru held the rice emblem in her hands, tearing up over it.

She was now the Daimyo of Kanto, and somehow would have to take over his legacy.

Meanwhile, Xiomazu’s mentor, Akuma, had become the new Shinobi and Daimyo of Hokuriku.

She still had the Kansai emblem with her, meaning Xiomazu was still considered the heir as he had no symbol to represent.

But that was the least of his problems.

Out there, a vengeful Akuma was waiting for them.

Filled with hatred and confusion, along with other souls.

Perhaps she was traveling in pursuit across rooftops as she usually had in Kansai, now backed by flames.

The only way to safely kill her would be with a bullet, lazer, energy blast, or something other than a sword held by hands.

That was if they could get close enough to match her unleashed intense speed, now with no mentor to hold her back any longer.

As far as things were concerned, the world was her enemy now.

“Take a right up here,” Buff said as he tapped the hood of the truck, letting Kazue know.

They parked just outside the station, and gathered together outside the truck.

“We’re going to ride this hovertrain back to Chugoku, and find the Daimyo.”

“Tell her we need help or something. I don’t know…” Buff said with little heart.

“Alright!” Kazue said and clapped his hands, trying to fake energy, and boost the spirits.

Needless to say it didn’t work.

Entree into the station was much easier than last time Xiomazu, Kazue, or Buff had traveled via holorails. With no events to slow them down, or wild crowds of thousands of people, they would be the only ones on board tonight at such a late hour.

There before them sat the technomaster in his usual assortment of wires and the chair they supported.

Above the ground, his old blue feet dangled, occasionally wiggly now that he seemed more active with the sight of company.

“Welcome aboard gentlemen and gentlewoman. Where might we be headed tonight?” the technomaster said with as little movement as possible.

“Chugoku, and as close as you can get us to Hiroshima Castle,” Xiomazu said.

The technomaster’s eyes began to scan him, producing a wave of red rays across Xiomazu’s body.

“Strange. I find that the station you are looking for is closed. Mayhaps a different route to Tokyo?” he suggested.

“We don’t have time for a reroute! Get us there!” Buff said behind his teeth.

“It’s urgent news!”

“My apologies, friends. Without proper permissions or authentication, I’m afraid I’m unable to process a request into Chugoku station.”

The technomaster finished scanning Buff, and proceeded to scan Kazue.

“Ah. You look like you could use a nutritious bag of technonuts!” the old man smiled.

“Hey, what about you?” Kazue said quickly, pointing at Sheru’s symbol she now carried.

“Can’t you get us through with that?”

“Maybe…” Sheru said, presenting it to the old man in the chair.

“My master…Donburi, has unfortunately passed, which leaves me as acting Daimyo of Kanto.”

“Tonight so much has happened, I’m not sure where my head is at the moment, which is why I need your help sir. Please, get us to Chugoku before tragedy comes.”

The old man held out a hand, which Sheru put the symbol in.

His hand produced a big blue ray up into the air, which levitated the symbol.

“Yes…yes…sad. I’ll process the data, but it may take some time…” the technomaster slowly said.

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME!” Buff shouted, putting his hands onto the old man’s chair, and shaking it.

“SEND US UP!”

“I must advise you that threatening a technomaster is a serious offense, and that-”

The power in the room shut off all at once, including the technomaster.

A complete blackout.

“Shit!” Kazue yelled.

“You shook him too hard!”

“That wasn’t because of me, idiot!” Buff yelled back.

The power flickered once, before returning to a consistency again.

However, the technomaster had keeled over, and the blue had left his body.

He appeared to be dead, or deactivated. Whichever had applied to a man of his nature.

“What the hell man?!” Kazue yelled, getting closer.

“Just press all the buttons! One of them has to send us up!”

Together the 4 pressed every button in sight that was attached to the old man’s chair.

“What if it’s the chair we need?” Sheru asked, hestitangly reaching to move the old man’s frail body aside.

Beneath him seemed to be a large glowing button.

“Let’s have someone sit in it.”

Buff picked up the old man, and laid him aside on the ground.

Xiomazu sat, then Sheru tried.

Kazue sat with Xiomazu.

All 3 tried sitting together at one point, but nothing occurred.

“Let me try!” Buff said, squeezing his larger body onto the assortment of wires and gadgetry.

The platform then began to shake.

“Woah! This-this is it!” he yelled.

The wires began to entangle around him, and jabbed into his skin, connecting with his augmented arms and other places that were artificially made, including his eye.

“FUCK!!!” he yelled in response, attempting to rip one out.

“Wait!! Let them!” Xiomazu shouted.

Buff put his arms down, twitching, and flinching each time a new wire connected.

“It’s because of your mechanical parts, Buff,” Xiomazu studied quickly.

“The machine knows…”

“Woah man! What if it turns him into that old man we just threw down?!” Kazue yelled back.

Buff sighed.

“So be it.”

“If it happens, then my brother can’t brag he beat me at something from the afterlife.”

“Turning into a…thing, to save the ones you love most.”

Buff surveyed the group of three standing next to him.

In Sheru’s place he saw Saeko.

The platform suddenly began to shake, and started to ascend towards the ceiling.

“Everybody hang on! I don’t know how to control this damn thing!” Buff alerted them all.

Glass walls formed around them just as they had once before many months ago, bringing them upwards, and retracting as the pedestal reached the holotrain’s platform.

“You guys get across, and I’ll figure things out from here,” Buff said as he glanced around his wired body. Buttons of every color had begun to flash around him.

Both Xiomazu and Kazue ran across the connecting walkway, and entered into the holotrain, while Sheru stayed behind momentarily.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Both you, and your brother.”

“Don’t mention it!” Buff tried to smile and reassure her.

She hugged him, and then joined the other 2 inside.

“Now…if I just…”

Buff twitched a single finger, and a wire began to slither across to train.

“HAHAHA!!!” he laughed as it connected forcefully to an outlet.

The holotrain emitted pressurized steam.

A holographic image of Tuff Buff appeared in the train next to the concession stand, and the doors locked tightly with a reassuring clunk.

“Please, grab some nuts, and hold onto your butts!” Buff tried to say enthusiastically from the intercom system.

“You’re coming with us, right!?” Xiomazu shouted at the ceiling.

“Yeah, we need you!” Kazue joined in.

The train then began to move.

“BUFF!!!” Everyone shouted together.

Buff’s voice came over the intercom once more.

“My brother and I once spoke of reconnecting the regional trade route throughout Japan.”

“Its been closed for many years, but now…now I think I can do it from here.”

“I see all these wires and routes. The Chugoku route is closed, but that’s where you’re going.”

“With this kind of occupation, and with Sheru as Daimyo…maybe we can do it.”

The train had picked up speed, leaving Buff’s behind in the technomaster wired chair.

Each of the 3 knew better than to argue with him, especially after he’d just lost his brother.

So the ride was awfully quiet for the most part.

Not even delicious techno nuts could cheer things up.

Outside one of the windows, there was a barrage of lights shining.

Several dozen helicopters of all shapes and sizes hovered over what seemed to be a giant mechanized robot, stomping in the distance.

Though its noises were faint as it was so far away.

“Buff! What the hell is that over there?!” Kazue yelled, having noticed it now.

Buff’s hologram disappeared.

“Looks like trouble. Everybody look again.”

The windows all made magnetic noises, and their views were magnified, allowing those inside to see much further out.

Circuitry outlined the entire robot, with a large blue capsule layered throughout it, each containing a blue swirling mist inside.

Atop the robot stood Akuma.

The Shinobi ropes had since been ripped, barely hanging off her body which each step the giant robot took.

“She’s after us…” Xiomazu said.

“There will be no rest for her until we’re dead.”

“Not if I can help it!” Buff shouted over the intercoms.

Instantly, the 3 inside were flung backwards as the holotrain picked up insane speeds, whooshing on the trails.

The magnetic sensors that helped hold the holotrain steady were now released, allowing it to reach speeds beyond its intended capabilities.

This made the robot appear small, fading out of view.

But the explosions it had begun to leave by in its destruction were still real.

A helicopter hovering over it then blew up.

The train sped past Chubu station, where they noticed that the once giant golden statue of Tsunami had now been toppled over.

Where there was once a large bowl of water was now a dwindling puddle.

Akuma had been here.

They traveled to Kansai station, and continued onward over Daydream and the shrine dedicated to Kitsune.

Past Tuff Buff’s garage, and Xiomazu’s old capsule.

Then to Chugoku station.

“I’m not going to be able to help you guys through there, so you’re on your own for now!” Buff yelled over the intercom, and unlocked the doors.

The 3 inside ran out, and faced the latest obstacle before them.

They needed to reach Hiroshima castle.

Now nearing 7am, people had begun to wake up and walk the streets.

Though it wasn’t raining, each person had oddly carried an umbrella, creating a spectacle of colors wherever you walked.

“Do you know where Hiroshima castle is?” Xiomazu quickly asked a resident with an umbrella.

The person dropped the umbrella, and continued to walk.

The umbrella suddenly sprang to life!

It gained a mouth, one large eye, and a single foot fashioned out of the handle.

“QI BEE BUN, TWULADA?”

The creature seemed to pose a question as it turned its umbrella shade sideways.

“HIRO-SHIMA CASTLE!” Kazue repeated.

“HEEEEHEEEE!!!”

The umbrella started to hop away.

“AFTER IT!” Xiomazu yelled as the gang followed in pursuit.

They came across a gathering of umbrellas that had begun to encircle them, each hopping with eager giggles just as the first had.

Then the ground suddenly began to shake.

“IT’S AKUMA!” Kazue yelled.

But it wasn’t.

Out from below them an entire stronghold’s castle began to form, and they were standing on the roof.

“HOLY SHIT!” Sheru yelled, holding both Kazue and Xiomazu with her tightly.

It carried them higher and higher, and the umbrellas jumped off one by one as the building ascended.

It continued to grow for at least 100 feet into the air until it finally stopped.

The floor gave out, and the 3 of them fell into a room atop the castle, allowing them to see the entire city of Hiroshima from its view.

In front of them was a small wooden table, presenting a map of Japan, and the 5 major regions. Each had a weapon and a symbol stuck to the corresponding region.

A puff of smoke started to fill the room.

Then, all at once, the smoke was blown away.

There stood a woman, or what appeared to be one anyways.

She had royal white garments, and her skin was bright red.

With the one giant eye she had, she looked down on them, as she was much taller.

“FINALLY! WE MEET!” she yelled with excitement.

“My brethren have been running off creating so much trouble. At least you’ve brought one back to me…”

She reached her hand towards Sheru, slowly with no devious intent, and took the necklace symbol from her.

In her hands, the symbol transformed into a small figure just like herself, with green skin.

She then shapened it back into a symbol, handing it back to Sheru’s shaking arms.

“Akuma…my mentor…” Xiomazu tried to breathe quickly.

“Hush dear boy, for I know everything. For I am Obake! The umbrella Yokai!” she proclaimed.

“My children are scattered throughout the globe. For every umbrella, I have eyes.”

“Your Akuma comes, does she not?”

A large tongue extended from her mouth as she licked her hands, and pressed them together.

“Yes…” Xiomazu said in bewilderment, glancing at his friends.

“This room is sacred, as is this city. For all its troubles and history, it has also been rebuilt stronger,” Obake claimed, pacing around.

“My brethren were forged into yokai symbols here once by power lusting shogun and samurai of old.”

“Now we roam, scattered. Some of us are lost, but others are found.”

“Shall we bind the fragment that once forged us into weaponry?”

“You mean the shard inside Akuma. The body she rests in…” Xiomazu answered.

“Are you prepared to bind her away?” Obake exclaimed.

“For once she is lost, she will never be found, just as those trapped like her.”

“Yes. It’s time to end this history of sadness once and for all. It’s the least I can do for her,” Xiomazu said, clutching his fists.

Obake closed the windowed view around them, and began to discuss something.

Several hours later…

Just outside the city, the mechanized robot had arrived.

In its stead it brought destruction, fighting the militia down below with sweeping attacks and stomps.

Red energy beams shot out of its eyes, and caused trails of explosions throughout the city.

Akuma herself had been leaping across rooftops, finally approaching the top of Hiroshima Castle.

She stood in the room where the table had been, along with the map, but nobody else was here.

At once, several thousand umbrellas appeared, opening and covering the open windows, preventing escape.

She sliced at them with her sword, but these umbrellas seemed to be unaffected.

“Akuma…” Xiomazu appeared from an array of umbrellas in the room.

These umbrellas flew off like butterflies through a temporary opening in one of the windows.

“It’s over…” he told her, walking slowly.

“NOOOOO!!!” Akuma screamed, dashing towards him in a single blink.

“I MUST COMPLETE MY MASTER’S WILL!!!”

She raised her dagger to strike, but it did not come down.

Instead Xiomazu hugged her.

While he did this, a white umbrella came down from the walls of parasols, and formed into a female human.

It was Yukina Wakasa, the brother of Naoki Wakasa, who was killed by Satoshi and the shard years ago.

She had become the heir of Obake, which allowed her to shape herself into an umbrella.

Yukina quickly took Akuma’s dagger, and ran off.

“I know you are just scared, just like my brother was…” she said.

“It’s okay…we forgive you…”

She handed the dagger over to Xiomazu, then fled the room as an umbrella once more.

“Obake told me you never finished your trails of Inari…” Xiomazu smiled, as he hugged her tightly.

Akuma’s arms dropped to her side as her face began to tear up.

“All this time…I’ve had to hold back my emotions by myself, pretending they were gone and hampered…”

“Once Kitsune died, I never could complete them. He was never the same…”

“I was never who I was either…”

“BUT NOW I MUST-”

She hesitated to speak further, looking down as Ximazu had impaled her with her own kanto dagger.

“You don’t understand how much I love you for that bravery Akuma,” he said, hugging her tightly.

“IF YOU DO THIS, YOU’LL BE TRAPPED IN THIS BODY FOREVER!!!” she yelled.

“But I’ll be with you, won’t I?” Xiomazu smiled.

She buried her face into his shoulder as the two embraced their final moments together.

“Yes…together…”

“Thank you…Xion Mizuno…”

“I love you too…”

10 years later, Hiroshima castle still stands.

It is the most popular attraction in all of Japan.

At points throughout the day, the windows of umbrellas will open to allow Shinobi to look out and see all of Japan.

He isn’t fast enough to get outside, actually, he doesn’t want to anyways.

Here, Xion could complete the trails of Inari, with the body of Shinobi, and his mentor Akuma.