"Swoosh"
The vast forest, which would seem to be expanding by the minute and to have no end to it, was host to a certain man. A man whose presence can only be detected if you have inhumanly sensitive ears and an extraordinary sense of awareness.

Because the only sounds emanating were those of the man's nimble footwork, intertwined with the slicing of the air by his movements.

He would occasionally stop at places to make sure he was following the ki signature correctly.

He crossed mountains, valleys, and rivers, but he still hadn’t reached his destination. Not many hours had passed since he set out from the castle. Any normal person or even experienced travellers would find it difficult to traverse through such regions if they were not well prepared for it.

But all this didn't seem to faze Yoshimoto, who was traveling in a straight path directly to the place from which the unsettling ki seemed to be coming from. On an average, the whole journey should take around 2 days to complete.

But at the speed he was moving, he just might reach there in a day or less.

As a Sword Emperor, or rather as a samurai at the peak of the Sword Saint realm, he was well versed in movement techniques, and his control over ki was beyond spectacular, letting him move at really high speeds using karuiashi (light foot).

An exceptional usage of ki, which consisted of appropriating the precise amount of ki for each and every action, was indeed a feat in itself.

‘Hmm, the energy is very weak, but it’s pulsing. I wonder what exactly is going on.

Is it from some unknown expert who surfaced recently and is wreaking havoc there? It’d be really problematic if that were the case.

The last time it happened, we had a hard time dealing with it. That old man really gave us one hell of a time.

It was evident that his technique was profound and exquisite. He rarely exposed his ki signature, and when he did, it was enough to knock out all the soldiers sent there to capture him.

If only he was someone who could be reasoned with, we could’ve benefited from having a strong expert on our side. He woke up and chose to challenge the Shogun when he found out that the Shogun from his time had passed and was a different person now.

We couldn’t possibly let him continue to disrespect the Imperial Shogun. First, our soldiers, and then our generals, fell one after another. Even when the Sword Emperors then stepped in, which included me, Kanbei-san and Tomomichi-san. We had a really hard time just holding him off.

We were lucky Himamura-san came back quickly, he was able to fight him toe to toe and was finally able to kill him.

Who would’ve thought someone from aeons ago would be so troublesome to deal with?'

Yoshimoto was deep in thought about the previous encounters where they sensed such a strange ki. He had been considering various possibilities and options he might have depending on the situation he finds himself in.

The title of Sword Emperor isn’t like any other. There are a lot of responsibilities riding on the title and the person bearing them. To take the necessary action, no matter how dire the situation, and to make sure it is the right one at the right time.

And if gone wrong, the sins of the wrongdoings hang heavily on those who bear the title. Making amends might make you think it’ll free you of your guilt. But in the sands of time, it is nevertheless, a symbol carved in blood.

Moving on.

“Huff…” Yoshimoto panted, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

“I think I’ll take some rest here.” Yoshimoto sat down on a rock by the side of a river bank. He set down his randoseru on the ground, and he looked through his stuff.

“Hehh, Hana-san is too kind, giving me a bottle of sake and dumplings.”

He took it out, had a quick meal, and then slowly drank the sake. He looked into the clear waters and the moonlight that reflected in them. He turned to look at the sky and spent his time admiring it as he drank the sake.

“Ohh shit.” Yoshimoto softly slapped his own cheek and realized something.

“I totally forgot about my destination for a second. Haha, the gentle river and moon are so beautiful that one can’t help but get mesmerized by them.

Well, can’t be helped. I can’t afford to dally around here.”

Yoshimoto continued on in his journey.

Just as he was about to charge himself up and move at a high speed, He felt that sensation once again.

Another weak, yet unnerving, pulsing ki that went past him as if one were shooting an arrow. But only this time, it was faint. It felt weaker than before.

“Hmm…
It certainly feels weaker than before. Did something happen there?

I guess either someone fought the expert and made him weaker or it wasn’t an expert after all.”

“Hahh, I seem to be fixating on the idea that it is an expert. Hmm, I wonder why…

Is it because I want to see a strong expert from the past? Or is it because I want to learn something from him?

Or is it because...

I want to try fighting him?” Yoshimoto’s eyes glowed up, and his ki suddenly spiked without him realising it, rendering a lot of animals’ unconscious. An orange-colored aura suddenly started to build up and surround his body, with it increasing slowly.

He hadn’t realized that this was happening until the bird that was following him fell on his head from the sky above.

“What the? Ohh…” Yoshimoto stopped in his tracks to check on the bird. He inspected the bird’s body and found it was still breathing.

“Hmm, strange…

Was it not fed properly? Why did it faint all of a sudden?”

Yoshimoto looked around and found other, smaller animals unconscious on the ground. Not to mention the fact that some of the smaller plants and shrubs had withered due to the heat that was being emitted from his ki.

Suddenly, he looked at his sword and found it glowing.

“Ohh (thinking).
Ohh (realisation)…

So that’s why.

My, how clumsy of me, letting my ki run amok. Takasugi-san is definitely having a bad influence on me, hahaha.

Although I guess I can understand his feelings, It is indeed thrilling to fight someone who is stronger than you are.”

Yoshimoto paused for a while to control his ki and lowered it down. The orange glow surrounding him slowly started to dissipate and disappeared completely after some time.

“Well, now that it’s sorted, let’s hurry on.” Yoshimoto spoke to himself.

8–9 hours later…

Yoshimoto stood in front of the forest entrance. The sun had woken up while Yoshimoto was on his way. It was smiling now, spreading its warmth everywhere, guiding people.

The forest stretched as far as the eyes could see. But one could see the mountains on the far right. The forest was deep enough and was home to a large number of flora and fauna.

Normally, people wouldn’t be able to detect specific ki signatures in an area teeming with living beings. But this seemed to be a different type altogether, and not to mention, the person in question here was a Sword Emperor, whose abilities go way beyond normal.

“Phew, I think I finally made it…” Yoshimoto looked around the forest entrance and checked out nearby areas just in case. After looking around for a bit, he stopped at one place.

The ki signature is really stronger here. I think it must be straight from here.”

He walked slowly into the forest, not making a single sound. He suppressed his ki to ensure that he didn’t get detected.

He went further deep in, and after a couple of minutes, he noticed something.

“Hmm, this area... from this point onwards feels very different from the places I have passed by so far. It has a different air around it.”

“Hmm, felled trees, sword slash marks, claw marks….
And here are the tree stumps.”

He continued to move forward.

“What the….
Burnt trees and stumps?

And…” Yoshimoto realized he had stepped on some sort of liquid as it made a splash sound. He bent down and touched the dark blue liquid that was on the ground. He stuck his finger in it and looked closer at it.

“This smell—it's very unfamiliar. But judging by the thickness of it, it seems to resemble blood. But our blood is red in color. Hmm…

Could it be?”
Yoshimoto’s mind turned back to the time when he first read the report on a certain incident. It was way before the time he became a Sword Emperor. He remembered Himamura-san explaining it to him, as he was the one in charge of that incident.

The Blood Bees Explosion.

It was an incident that became a national crisis as it involved spawning locations that were spread throughout the shogunate. The supposed “Blood Bee” looked like any other insect, having wings and tiny legs, and pretty much resembled a normal bee, except it had a pointy beak-like structure for its mouth and its eyes were red in color.

Another feature of it would be the fact that, unless one can sense ki, to a really good extent, one would never notice it, if it comes individually, that is.

It's an entirely different case if it comes in swarms. One fell swoop, and you are left as a pile of bones. And this happened on quite a large scale, wiping out several villages.

In the reports, it was mentioned that the bees had a peculiar color blood.

“It was ‘blue’ in color." Yoshimoto spoke as he reached the end of his thought process.

“Hmm, could this be another case of blood bees?

No, that couldn’t be possible. It was reported that almost every spawning location was cleared out.

But then again, I don’t think they can actually eradicate every single one of them. There’s some who are bound to have escaped.

But there's this much blood, and now that I look around, there’s puddles of blood in a lot of places. I’m not sure of this now.”

Yoshimoto walked ahead, past the debris and the burned tree stumps. He walked into the clearing just ahead of him.

“What in the world happened here?”

Yoshimoto was shocked. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The clearing in front of him looked more like a battlefield than part of a forest.

The ki in the area was distorted. It was a mix of the eerie ki that he had sensed before as well as some unknown ki signatures. It wasn’t sure how many people were involved in the fight, but there sure was one hell of a fight.

There was a crater on the ground—multiple ones, actually. A huge crater and a lot of smaller ones. And there were scattered puddles of blood, both red and blue.
“So people were involved in the fight too, not just the bees themselves. Wait, I ruled out that possibility, right? It was something else, so let’s just call it a beast for a while.

Hmm, so said beast, fought with a few... Well, it ain’t normal people that’s for sure. It must’ve been a skilled warrior, or warriors, I guess. I wonder if Himamura-san or Tomomichi-san happened to come by here.

Ohh wait, Kanroji-Sensei.

Got it. He might have sensed the strange ki and fought off the beast. But wait, did he get injured? I don’t think he’ll get injured, I mean, he’s one of the strongest samurai in the Shogunate.

Hmm, well, there’s Tachibana-san, and he hasn’t been sighted by anyone for ages, so it could be him as well. But then again, based on what Kanroji-Sensei told me, I don’t think he’ll get injured that easily either.

Maybe it was some other samurai from the shogunate. Or wait, the samurai in charge of the village..."

Yoshimoto continued to talk to himself about the various possibilities of who the fighters might be.

He took some time to settle on who it might be, and even then, he didn’t really settle on it. He took out a small scroll and brush from his randoseru and wrote down his report on it. The scroll turned out to be so heavy that the pigeon had a hard time taking off from the ground.

“Well, now that’s done. I’m going to go find Sensei, I guess.

Although I’m still curious. I’d really like to know who actually fought here. Or, I guess, it would’ve been better if I were able to witness the whole fight in real time. Too bad that’s impossible.”

Yoshimoto continued to speak to himself about his own thoughts as he headed further into the forest.

*******

Takeshi’s cave, 3 hours before Yoshimoto reached the forest.

“Ugh” Takeshi grunted as he raised his hands to avoid the light that aimed to pierce through him.

Takeshi slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He found Seijūrō and Kiyomasa sleeping. Seijūrō was on his lap, while Kiyomasa was on his shoulders. Both of them were sound asleep.

Takeshi yawned and stretched his hands, after which Kiyomasa woke up, followed by Seijūrō.

“(grunts) Ugh, is it morning already?
Oi Kiyomasa, your drool is dripping on my face.
Don’t slant and fall into his lap.” Seijūrō spoke in a haze before quickly changing tones.

“Ugh, what is your problem man? it’s early in the morning, and I just woke up. Cut me some slack, alright?” Kiyomasa still hadn’t woken up properly.

“Huhh, I just woke up too, but I don’t go around flinging my drool onto others.”

"Oh, just shut up!” Kiyomasa spoke as he rubbed his eyes.

“Oi, Kiyomasa, you wanna fight? Come at me!”

Takeshi jumped up right in time to avoid getting in the way of their catfight.

Takeshi looked outside but suddenly paused for a second.

‘Wait, Seijūrō spoke in his usual tone, and Kiyomasa went back to his normal behavior as well...

What is going on? Did these two switch personalities or something?

Or am I going crazy?’

“Umm, Seijūrō.. I want to ask you something.”
“Huhh? What is it?”

“Do you remember what happened last night?” Takeshi asked slowly, projecting his concern.

“Of course I do, we beat the shit out of that bastard of a beast.” Seijūrō replied nonchalantly.

“Yeah, you got knocked out, you awakened your bloodline power…” Takeshi continued.

“Yeah, yeah, I know that... Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?”
“No, umm… I’m just curious; you spoke very differently yesterday. You spoke… politely and calmly.”

“Huh??? I always speak politely. What do you mean?”

“Yeah right.” Kiyomasa retorted.

“Huhhh?? You got something to say?”

“Nope, never mind, I’d be wasting my time by indulging you in your shenanigans.”

“Huuh… Come at me, you bas-” Seijūrō is cut short when Takeshi grabs him to calm him down.

“Okay, okay. Calm down, both of you. I was just curious… That is all. The two of you behaved very differently yesterday, especially you, Seijūrō. After you got knocked out, you became a totally different dude.” Takeshi replied, holding him down and letting him go a bit later.

“Heh, that might be true. We might have to knock him out once again so that he’ll behave well.” Kiyomasa chuckled.

“Okay, that’s it. You’re dead, Kiyomasa!!!”

Kiyomasa runs out of the cave, and Seijūrō yells and runs right after him, trying to chase him down.

“Well, there goes character development down the drain.”

Takeshi goes to the other end of the cave and packs the stuff into the randoseru. The bloodstained bandages and the torn dress. He then notices the swords and picks them up to examine them.

“Hmm, well, I’d be more surprised if this weren’t chipped. Considering the number of times each of these swords clashed against that beast’s claws, I’m surprised it didn’t break yet, heh.

Well anyways.”

Takeshi walks out of the caves, carrying the three swords and the randoseru.

"Okay, that’s enough. Wrap it up, you two; we’re heading back.”

“Damn it, Takeshi, I almost had this bastard!” Seijūrō spoke, breathing heavily.

“Yeah, yeah, go cry in a corner.” Kiyomasa replied.

“Look here, dumbasses, we’re barely holding on with the medicines and ointments that were left here. Bandages are keeping us together just enough to walk. So don’t go wreaking havoc like that.

Not to mention, I’d like to remind you that there's a far greater threat waiting for us in the village, and I suggest we better think of a good enough to explain this, this, and that.” Takeshi spoke, pointing at his, Seijūrō's, and Kiyomasa’s injuries.

The two of them gulped at the thought of the impending doom that was going to befall them after they made it back to the village.

Half an hour later, Umikaze Village.

Three men are standing in the centre of the village. They’re standing so still that one might think they got frozen, or, let’s say, the time stopped for those three.

The villagers were poking their heads from various places to get a good view of what was going on.

“Oi Hamuro, what’s going on there? Why is everyone hiding behind walls? Why is Aiko-chan yelling, and who are those people?”

"Ahh, Sachiko-san, you’re back from fishing. Well, I’m not sure what happened exactly, but our ragtag ronin trio returned covered in bandages.

And Aiko was already having a bad day when they appeared in front of her and asked her how she was doing, and the rest is what you see now.” Hamuro filled in the details for Sachiko, looking in their direction.

“HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU IDIOTS NOT TO DO RECKLESS STUFF LIKE THIS? YOU THINK YOU ARE SOME SWORD EMPEROR? RUSHING INTO ANY AND EVERY FIGHT YOU SEE. THAT’S IT, I’VE HAD IT WITH YOU THREE.

AND YOU TWO, I DIDN’T EXPECT THIS FROM YOU TWO, AT LEAST YOU TAKESHI. I THOUGHT YOU’D HAVE MORE COMMON SENSE THAN THESE TWO.”

Takeshi and Kiyomasa looked down, they really didn’t know what to say to her.

“Umm, Aiko-san, in our defense, we did it so that-” Seijūrō tried to explain but was cut short by Aiko.

“SHUT UP! NOT A WORD FROM YOU, SEIJŪRŌ, NOT ANOTHER WORD.

I DON’T WANT TO SEE THE THREE OF YOU ANYMORE.

HAHH, WHY DO I WASTE MY TIME LOOKING AFTER THESE IDIOTS.” Aiko walked away angrily. Tears had started to swell up as her voice broke in the end.

The three of them stood there, rooted in that spot.

Sachiko walked towards them and stood in front of them, gasping at the site of their injuries. She inquired about what had happened, and the trio explained what perspired earlier that night. Sachiko’s face turned pale as she heard the entire story. She had seen enough lives being sacrificed throughout the years that tears had stopped forming at all. She had learned to accept and live with her sadness now.

She signaled the three of them to bow a little bit to match her height. She slapped the three of them.
The trio accepted it and didn’t say anything. They realized what they did was reckless, even though it was for the right reasons.

“This old coot had seen enough of you younguns’ charge themselves to their deaths. I don’t want to see the three of you join them there. So, don’t you dare do something like this again, you hear me?”

The trio nodded.

“That girl, she really cares about you three. Imagine seeing the people you care about appearing in front of you battered and bruised. She obviously couldn’t take it in just like that. You three are like siblings to her, I haven’t seen her take care of others like she does for you three.

Go apologize to her right away, and be quick about it. You three need to get treated immediately, and she won’t help you until you apologize to her.”

They remembered all the times she cooked various things for them, and that too at unusual times. She made arrangements for whatever they wanted and tendered to their wounds whenever they got any. They realized she did see them as her little brothers.

"Yes, Sachiko-san, we’re sorry about this, we’ll go apologize to her right away.”

The trio leaves to go back to her house to meet her. They find a teary Aiko sitting on her futon, sorting some clothes.

“What do you want now? Didn’t I tell you that I don’t want to see you or talk to you anymore?"Aiko doesn’t face them directly but continues on with her work.

“Aiko-san, we’re really sorry. Like we said before, it was an impulsive decision on our part; it wasn’t like the other stupid shit we’ve done so far.” Kiyomasa spoke.

“Yeah, we only did that because we felt that the village might be in danger, and I had a near-death experience with it before, so I knew how terrifying it could be. I couldn’t possibly think of what might’ve happened if that beast had made it here.

Which is why…” Takeshi continued.

“Which is why we thought we should take care of it on our own. It’s not like we were doing it out of thrill or something. This village… and the people here… They have become too important for us to gamble with their safety.

It's a risk we had to take.” Seijūrō tried to explain, with Takeshi turning to look at him in surprise.

“Yeah, we couldn’t risk waiting for someone to arrive and take care of this.” Kiyomasa added on.
Aiko, who was sorting the clothes while listening to them, suddenly looked to face them.

“Do you think that’s a good enough reason to rush into a fight whose outcome you don’t know?

Tell me what would’ve happened if you three had died out there. Have you thought of the repercussions of that action?

Instead of being the three who saved the village, you’d have become the three who mysteriously disappeared, never to return.

Do you realise... (sobs)”

Aiko grabs their haori as she looks down, with tears falling like a waterfall.

“How selfish that is?

Do you realise how many people you’d have hurt?

Don’t always jump into things thinking you can be a hero… This is real life, not a theatre drama.” She continues to cry as she falls slowly to her knees.

The trio bent down after her, trying to console her. Seeing her like this had them in tears as well.

“We’re… We’re sorry…”

“I forgive you... you idiots.”

"So, umm, can I extra tempura? Kinda hungry, and oww, that hurts Aiko-san.” Seijūrō asked after Aiko had patted his hair.

“Ahh (smiles with tears), sorry about that. I’ll get you three some food right away…”

The four of them continued to engage in laughs and banter about various stuff.

Sachiko stood just outside the room, smiling. Happy that they had reconciled, she left.

Be-Beng...

To be continued.