Chapter :-54 The Onin War (Part-5)

(A/N:-The chapter is a bit disturbing near the end so read at your own caution.)

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"Ahhh….!!!"

*Vroom*

Kiyohime's [Honjo Muramase] sliced the opponents sword into two half and continued forward towards his torso, also splitting it in half.

The armour-clad warrior let out a blood-curdling scream as his body fell forward due to the forward vector of gravity. Blood sprayed upon her armour, painting it red along with the armoured horse on which she galloped.

While using a short-ranged weapon, like a sword while horse riding wasn't an optimum choice but it allowed Kiyohime to use her Flintlock while also moving forward, plus giving her a 'higher ground' over the enemies.

The wooden-base spears wielded by the opposing forces failed to injure her horse, the armour along with [Amaterasu:-Greater Heal] made it nigh impossible for them to restrict Kiyohime's mobility.

Seeing that their attacks didn't have any effect on the horse, they switched targets and started attacking the rider. Kiyohime used her Katana to slice apart the various attacks towards her.

Her enhanced speed, enhanced durability, enhanced strength, improved reaction time, and finally, enhanced reflexes allowed her to weave across their attacks and slaughter her way out of their ranks.

"Ahhh….!!!"

"Kill them all!!!…"

Kiyohime bellowed as about 5,000 of her most elite soldiers followed behind her as her advanced forward, towards the enemy warhead.

Meanwhile, the rest of her 70,000+ soldiers concentrated on exterminating the Hosokawa forces. Their iron spears and shield gave them a considerable advantage as without the mage squad supporting the enemy forces; they were just like cattles in front of the armoured Gerard forces.

"Stop her advance!!!…"

Seeing Kiyohime heading towards him, the warhead of the Hosokawa family instantly started to retreat while ordering his soldiers to form a sphere around her and surround them from all directions.

*Clink*

Kiyohime kicked her armour-clad feet on the armour-clad body of her body, creating a sharp noise and picked up speed.

Her Katana was like reaper's scythe, every single swing sliced apart every obstacle that stood in her way. One of the enemy soldiers thrust his spear towards her ribs, causing her to lean back to avoid the strike.

The muzzle of her flintlock, on her waist, pointed towards the direction of her attacker. She used her left hand to press the trigger while shifting her body slightly, so to align the muzzle with her enemy.

The soldiers immediately raised his shield in hopes to block the shot which should have been fired from her weapon if...she wasn't a mage herself.

Due to her being skilled in swordplay and other weapon skills, people tend to forget that she is foremost a mage, even before she learned the way of the sword.

Upon her pressing the trigger, a kanji letter "寸" formed in front of the muzzle of her flintlock, her words were like death sentence from the jury.

"[Fire-blast]…"

The temperature around her increased to unimaginable levels while the Gerard forces remained unaffected by her magic. With the help of [Amaterasu's mark], her [Fire-magic] gained a significant boost along with the ability to control who to damage from her spell.

The ability allowed her to effectively go all out against the enemy without needing to worry about hurting her allies.

*Boom*

An explosively loud sound resounded throughout the battlefield as she completed casting her spell and fired a massive sphere of yellow fire towards her attacker who thought that he could protect himself with a shield.

The terrible sphere incinerated the attacker and continued forward as more and more soldiers got caught in its way, after travelling a short distance away from Kiyohime, it exploded.

The explosion was similar to that of, created by canons; the Gerard family was continuously bombarding the enemy with the Portuguese-designed canons.

"How are we even supposed to win!?…"

"Keep fighting until your last breath, For Honour!!!…."

"Haaaaa!!!!…."

The 5,000 soldiers behind Kiyohime quickly formed arc-shaped constructs using their shields and quickly spread out. Their mobility was unchanged due to them having the 'higher ground'.....and horses.

Kiyohime pulls out her flintlock with her finger on the trigger, ready to shoot and aimed towards the retreating Warhead.

"[Snipe]…."

She pulled the trigger, once again a kanji letter "寸" formed in front of her muzzle but this time, a thin laser-like yellow beam shot forward, towards the head of the enemy. It travelled with such speed that the enemy couldn't he move his head, in hopes of dodging the attack.

Just like that, the beam tore through the warhead's head and melted his brain due to its high temperature. The dead warhead fell down his steed and landed on the ground with a thud.

Every Hosokawa who witnessed this scene gave up and stood frozen…..until one of the smart individuals within their ranks opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Retreat!!!!…."

(From the top of the Yamana mansion)

*Gulp*

The clan head of the Yamana family wiped off the sweat forming on his forehead as he looked horrified by the display of power, the Gerard family was much more terrifying than he had assumed.

What he also noticed was the fact that a single member of the mysterious Mikaelson clan, the main family was able to effortlessly destroy the most potent spell of one of the strongest mage squads in all of Japan and even kill them with the same spell used to destroy the [Heaven's feel].

"I used to think that why did the Gerard family always seem to have a higher standing within the alliance between the Oda, Minamoto, Koga and Gerard families. With such a powerful main family behind them, I am afraid that other than the emperor, no one can challenge the Gerard family within [Kyoto]."

"It seemed my decision to surrender was the right decision after all…."

"It's probably my most significant decision ever; if I would have decided to agree with the Hosokawa family, then it would have been my family which would have been destroyed just like theirs."

"The Gerard family is really frightening, even within the royal court, many of the higher officials belong to their clan, and the Mysterious Mikaelson clan should be even more terrifying if the Gerard family is just a branch clan of the main family."

"At least the Hosokawa family is slowing them down, quickly gather everyone and prepare to leave the capital, they wouldn't pursue us any longer if we leave the city."

"Quickly evacuate the city!!!…."

(At the western gate)

A samurai swordsman with long indigo hair tied into ponytail and indigo eyes stood at the western gate of the city with his eyes closed.

He wore a traditional light purple umanori hakama and kimono, light purple [tabi] and black [geta] with purple [haori] and [tekkou]. He held his sword, [Monohoshi Zao] in his right hand.

Sasaki's favoured weapon during combat was a straight-edged [Nodachi] with a blade length of over 90 cm (2 feet, 11.5 inches). As a comparison, the average blade-length of the regular katana is usually 70 cm (2 feet, 3 inches) but rarely longer. It was called [Monohoshi Zao].

Despite the sword's length and weight, Sasaki's strikes with the weapon were unusually quick and precise.

There were traces of blood on the otherwise clean blade whereas Kojirou clothes were covered in red blood, on the ground lay bodies of the dead.

All had their neck slit cleanly; the blood smeared all over the place while the others stood frozen in fear upon seeing the closed-eye former Vagabond.

Sasaki Kojirou had just gone against dozens of armed warriors, yet no even a single one of them was able to close the distance between them. After single one of them was struck down by the 90cm long Nodachi.

Currently, 20,000 of Gerard family forces were fighting against 65,000 of Hosokawa family deserters. The other 98,000 soldiers of the Gerard family were just behind them, ready to start a bloodbath.

After the death of their warhead, the Hosokawa clan lost their will to fight and chose to retreat, but due to the presence of Sasaki and his 20,000 soldiers, they couldn't escape, and the enemy had caught up with them.

Sasaki had already slaughtered most of the Hosokawa elders and the Clan head before standing guard to the western gate with his eyes closed and his Nodachi resting over his shoulders.

"Kojirou-san, I see that you have already killed the high ranking officials of the Hosokawa clan…."

He just nodded in return while motioned Kiyohime to finish the task and reward the army.

They had lost around 1000 soldiers in this fight due to the ingenious idea of using explosives against Gerard forces which caught them unprepared when in a battle against 80,000 soldiers, a few thousand would surely lose their life as it was the rule of life.

To get something, you must also lose something of equal value.

Surely the causalities within the Hosokawa army were way more and quality compensated for quantity. The Gerard forces were better in every term, but still, about 1000 of them died on the battlefield.

Even though the statistics were meagre, but the feeling of lose within the hearts of the Gerard family soldiers could be felt along with their anger. So when Kiyohime gave them the freedom to act as they want and went inside her tent along with Sasaki. The soldiers raid the Hosokawa family compound and property.

They murdered every member of the Hosokawa bloodline, whereas they raped the female members of the near-extinct clan.

Since prostitution in Japan was well-organized, the [Shogunate government] developed a similar program to serve their Armed Forces. The [Shogunate government] established the comfort stations to prevent venereal diseases and rape by soldiers, to provide comfort to soldiers and head off espionage.

The comfort stations did not solve but aggravated the first two problems. The [Shogunate government] feared most that the simmering discontentment of the soldiers could explode into a riot and revolt. That is why it provided women.

The name "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu a euphemism for "prostitute(s)". Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 to as high as 360,000 to 410,000; the exact numbers are still being researched and debated.

Most of the women were from enemy clans. Women were used for military "comfort stations" in many cities.

According to records, women were abducted from their clan during the war, once captured, they were forces into comfort stations both inside their city an,d in other cities.

In the Nanking Massacre, [Shogunate] soldiers were said to have sexually assaulted female civilians who were trapped in the city of Nanjing when it fell to the Japanese on 13 December 1237.

It was a sad and disturbing fact, but Henrik knew that he couldn't do anything about it, his family had witnessed much more horrible things. Even the Vikings were known for their foul deeds, without compulsion it was not possible to change their minds whereas compelling so many soldiers was not possible, so he let them be and told Kiyohime to do the same.