Chapter:-49 Two Hundred Years Later

1461, Japan, Kyoto...

*Vroom*

A wooden blade cut through the air at speed barely reactable, and the long, elegant practice weapon made its way towards a young man with the symbolic representation of [Kirin] on his back.

He took a step forward and returned a strike to intercept the incoming slash. The 90cm long wooden Katana collided against the incoming attack.

*Wham*

The collision sent a shockwave throughout the [Arena], wooden floor in the shape of a large circle with a red line all around it signifying the defeat of those who stepped out of it.

*Crackle*

The two wooden weapons remained connected as the two practitioners tried to overpower each other with no one gaining the upper hand. Both of the practitioners jumped back to make some distance between them.

Both of them lowered their weapons at the same time and bowed towards each other to show respect and honour to the fellow warrior. Beads of sweat rolled down their face along with clear signs of exhaustion, fast breathing and diminished aura surrounding them.

They decided to initiate a conversation between them and relax for some time. One of them complimented the other while the other one did the same.

"Even with my superior speed, I am not able to pass through your defence Kojirou-san. Your sword skills have reached a very high degree of effectiveness and power..."

A beautiful young woman, wearing red-Kimono with a white Obi around her waist, crimson eyes, long white hair, pale white skin and sharp features complimented the man in question.

"It took me a greater portion of my life to reach such level, you are much younger than me but still have attained such mastery over the way of the sword. It is you who should be proud of your achievement."

The man in question was a samurai swordsman with long indigo hair tied into ponytail and indigo eyes. He wore a traditional light purple umanori hakama and kimono, light purple [tabi] and black [geta] with purple [haori] and [tekkou] and carried his sword, [Monohoshi Zao] on his back.

[Sasaki Kojirou], was the son of an ordinary farming family, living an everyday farm life and separated from usual common sense. He met a master swordsman who had retired deep into the mountains and began his daily life in the hills himself.

The swordsmanship of the master enthralled him, and he began training under him the next day. The master swordsman only taught him the refined behaviour of a swordsman; a communion with nature and the master swordsman did not instruct him on anything related to sword techniques.

After one month, the master swordsman drew his last breath, and he completely threw himself into the path of a swordsman.

He utilised a long Japanese katana and discovered the ultimate technique, [Tsubame Gaeshi], being all he possesses.

He spent much of his life merely trying to figure out the best method to cut down a swallow, and although he realised the method was impossible for a human, he had nothing else to do and kept on practising. While determination is normally the key to success, he simply noticed that it had succeeded.

The legendary Kojirou is known as relaxed and elegant, so his pursuit of sword technique, sophistication, and finding joy in duelling with strong foes is reminiscent of that character. Differing from the legend, his katana is longer, 1.5 meters compared to 90 centimetres and engraved with [Bitchu Aoe].

He travelled around the country as a master swordsman, and it is said that he developed his secret sword technique, [Tsubame Gaeshi], able to kill even a flying swallow, around the Nishiki River in the Suou region.

He terrified swordsmen around the country after that period, and while on his journey to polish his sword skills to the fullest, he came across Henrik Mikaelson.

A young man with white hair, ocean blue eyes, pale white skin, attractive features, a purple pendant around the neck, right hand covered in white bandages, and he wore a black hair with a hood covering his face.

He challenged Sasaki to a duel with a condition, if he lost then he would serve Sasaki till the end of his life, but if Sasaki loses, then he must serve the Mikaelson clan until his death.

Sasaki had no reason to agree, but one glance at the young man's posture was enough for a master swordsman to know that the person standing in front of him wasn't an ordinary person.

He held an old Katana, a few chips here and there but the feeling Sasaki felt when against Henrik could be described very quickly—facing the might of hundreds.

Henrik changed his sword style after every single move, never repeating the same movements as before. Even so, the techniques fell right into places, causing no disharmony between the transitions.

When faced with such a fighting style, Sasaki didn't have a choice but to admit defeat as for every style to work, you need to analyse your opponent's technique, but Henrik's techniques changed after every move which made it impossible for Sasaki to counter-attack or even adequately defend against Henrik's sword.

The Mikaelson clan bought Honjo Masamune, the most excellent sword created by the most excellent blacksmith, Masamune after forcing Tokugawa clan to sell it to them. Using [Pychometry], Henrik was able to learn hundreds of sword styles, performed by the many holders of this blade.

Using that experience, Henrik defeated Sasaki and gained an elite member of the Gerard family. At first, Sasaki resisted a bit due to him not wanting to take orders from a woman, Kiyohime but after a few battles, he acknowledged her existence even though he won every time.

The potential displaced by Kiyohime impressed Sasaki a lot, he had decided to teach her the way to the sword as Henrik had passed the Honjo Masamune to Kiyohime after absorbing the experience and knowledge from it.

He already had his "Sword", and another one wasn't needed. After swearing loyalty to the Mikaelson clan, Sasaki changed his name to Sasaki Gerard Kojirou, an elite member of the prestigious Gerard clan. He came to know about many astonishing things about the Mikaelson clan and Gerard Family.

The Mikaelson clan had always been surrounded by mystery, a thick layer of fog which prevented everyone from having any information on them, nothing was known other than the clan being powerful, wealthy and the sole ruler of Kyoto, the capital of Japan.

For trade and other related stuff, they controlled the second most influential forces within Kyoto, the Gerard clan which was made up of elite people of all kinds of origin, unlike the other clans they didn't value bloodline at all.

The Oda clan, Minamoto clan, Koga clan were the most loyal allies of the Mikaelson clan. Only the heads of these 4-mentioned clans ever saw a member of the mysteries Mikaelson clan, even so, the marriages took place between the Gerard clan, only branch clan of the Mikaelson clan and the others.

The Mikaelson family financially supported Koga clan, Minamoto clan members had been saved by the Mikaelson clan many times along with marriage while the Oda clan had military support from the Mikaelson clan.

Freya had also cast a pseudo-immortality spell on the limited members of the Gerard clan, and she linked them to Henrik so that they can stay forever young with Henrik's immortality supporting them. She also cast various buffs and more reliable physical parameters on them to give them a powerup.

It has been two centuries since the subjugation of Gods which Henrik along with others succeeded in doing by capturing the strongest of the colossal forces within the pendants.

The [7-Decades forgetting spell] kicked in after every 70 years to erase all the evidence of their existence other than the mysteries Mikaelson clan and it's branch clan, Gerard family clan.

The Divine creatures had sustained severe injuries when fighting with the Underworld and had since them been sleeping with their respective pendants.

Without any fear of being recognised, Henrik and the others kept on controlling the Kyoto while deepening their roots within the country. During this time, the Mikaelson clan had been gathering military power within Kyoto, officially becoming the most influential forces within the entirety of Japan.

Henrik had given Kiyohime the command over the capital while he spent some time to recover from the previous exhaustion in the Underworld, he had burdened himself with a lot of things and needed time to return to peak condition. Thus, Kiyohime had asked Sasaki to keep as eye on the various happening with Kyoto.

"What is the current situation?"

"The conflict began as a controversy over who would succeed Ashikaga Yoshimasa as the next leader of the Ashikaga clan since Yoshimasa had no heir. He persuaded his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, to abandon the life of a monk, and named him an heir. But after a few years, the unanticipated birth of a son to Yoshimasa put these plans in question."

"The infant, Yoshihisa, caused friction between the current head, Yoshimi, and Hosokawa against Hino Tomiko, the wife of Yoshimasa and mother of Yoshihisa, and Yamana."

"Tomiko sought political and military support to rule as regent until the birth of her son, the future clan head Ashikaga Yoshihisa, and she secured the support of Yamana Sōzen and other leaders of powerful samurai clans."

"In contrast to Tomiko and Yamana, Yoshimi had the support of the Hosokawa clan, a powerful clan that had a great influence on the shogunate court."

"This dispute for succession will spark a war within the capital if not stopped or surprised immediately."

"Hosokawa had always worked closely with the clan head's brother Ashikaga Yoshimi and supported his claim to the seat of clan head. Yamana took this as an opportunity to oppose Hosokawa further, supporting the child as the heir to the clan."

"War is about to break out in the city of Kyoto. This is to be regarded as an act of rebellion against the Gerard Shogunate, and thus we must take action."

"The Ashikagas tried to prevent the outbreak of war over the next heir, but the situation escalated into a war that designated the leader of the victorious party as the next shōgun. This uncertainty had caused a split amongst the warrior clans, and the succession dispute will become a pretext for a struggle for military supremacy."

Hearing Sasaki's words, Kiyohime wore a serious expression while she thought about the actions she should take. She remembers the words Henrik spoke to her.

ᒥ....Do not suppress the war immediately but let them spark the haystack of war, once the flames had spread throughout, outside the capital, demolish them with absolute power....ᒧ

"Gather our men and make preparations; when the time comes, we will strike and end the rebels."

"Remember to be decisive Kiyohime-san...."

"Don't worry Kojirou-san; I will keep that in mind...."

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(A/N:-This volume will focus on character building for other characters, other than Henrik. Kiyohime will be my main focus along with Freya and also the events happening in the Warring period.)

(A/N:-Vote for the novel.)