User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater ∂: Those Who Change History, chapter 4

While the Aragami were certainly a threat to be feared, they were by no means constantly on the attack.

It was during one such lull, one of the long breaks in between the Aragami attacks, that Nobunaga sat in his meeting room in Kiyosu Castle, with a number of local landlords before him and Mitsuhide at his side.

“Milord,” Mitsuhide began, “it has been three days since the last attack. Kiyosu Castle’s walls managed to repel the two Kōshin, but one of the Ryūhi managed to break through and inflict a number of casualties in one of the residential districts before it left. We evacuated and relocated the survivors, and reconstruction efforts have begun on the damaged district.”

“Good, good,” came Nobunaga’s reply. Kōshin, or “tiger god,” were the massive tiger Aragami, the first species Nobunaga had sighted. They served as the advance patrol of Aragami for the most part, inflicting damage hard and fast for other Aragami to come through and sweep up. Ryūhi, or “dragon fire,” were draconic Aragami that could move faster than the eye could see. They erupted forth with balls and jets of white-hot flame to complement their swift claw attacks, and the scales on their backs could emanate brilliant wings of flame. They were not as durable as the Kōshin, but their destruction was far more sinister, their ravaging flames reducing all to burned-out rubble. Thankfully, they were far rarer than Kōshin, but when they did appear, those who were in their path rarely, if ever, came out unscathed.

One of the landlords at the conference spoke up.

“But milord,” he exclaimed, his voice exasperated, “what do you plan to do about future attacks? Are we to sit here while the Aragami destroy everything we hold dear?!”

“Let’s not be so quick to judge,” came the counsel of a landlord across from the first. “After all, all hope is not quite lost. Haven’t you heard of the Kamigui…?”

“Oh please,” retorted the first landlord. “Everyone knows that the Kamigui are the stuff of legend and nothing more. It’s not like there’s actually anyone who could stand against beings as powerful as the Aragami—”

“—which is why I’ve come.”

The door to Nobunaga’s conference room slid open, as a man clad in black appeared in the threshold, visor obscuring his eyes and ominous black blade at his side. His arrival was met with gasps from everyone present — everyone, that is, save for Nobunaga and Mitsuhide.

“Milord, what is the meaning of this?” demanded a third landlord seated before Nobunaga.

“Some of you probably think that the Kamigui are the stuff of legend, correct?” came Nobunaga’s calm reply. “Then why don’t you explain the man standing before us now?”

“Milord,” the black-garbed man exclaimed, striding up to Nobunaga and kneeling before him. “I am Toyotomi Hideyoshi, agent of the Kamigui. From this day forth, my blade is yours to command.”

Hideyoshi’s comment was met with further gasps from the landlords present. While those who disbelieved in the existence of the Kamigui were few and far between indeed, actually seeing one of their agents in person was cause for surprise nonetheless. They were said to be impossibly skilled, able to hold their own against the Aragami, sometimes multiple at once, when a single Aragami could normally decimate an entire battalion of regular troops. The secret, it was said, lay in the blades they carried, which supposedly required forging salvaged Aragami body parts into the steel of the blade while it was still red-hot. There were certain individuals who claimed that the Kamigui possessed… something else entirely besides the blades, but what it was, if it even existed, was unknown.

“You must be the Kamigui agent I contracted from headquarters,” stated Nobunaga. “It is truly a welcome boon to have you in my service. I can rest easy knowing that I can count your strength among my forces.”

Hideyoshi scoffed. “Please, sir,” he retorted. “Within the ranks of the organization, my strength is but that of an acolyte. Nonetheless—”

His words were cut off as a loud crash could be heard from outside the conference room. A frenzied guard shortly burst in, a look of dread on his face.

“K-K-K-Kōkanrō!” came the guard’s cry. “There’s a Kōkanrō leading a pack of Kakyūrō on the castle walls!”

Nobunaga looked troubled. Kōkanrō, or “corona wolves,” were majestic white wolf-like Aragami with capes similar to those of the Kōshin protruding from their backs in a manner evocative of the sun itself. They could incite Aragami within earshot into a frenzied rage using their roar, and almost always led packs of Kakyūrō wherever they went. These Aragami, whose name meant “fireball wolf,” were of similar shape and stature as the Kōkanrō, and while they were not as powerful as their greater brethren, their numbers nonetheless more than made up for any lack in strength.

“Perfect timing,” proclaimed Nobunaga, whose calm facial expression belied his panicked state. “Hideyoshi, under normal circumstances I would ride into battle with you, but I am hardly prepared in this occasion. Can you take on the pack on your own?”

Hideyoshi smirked. “I may not be the strongest among the Kamigui, but something like this is well within my capabilities as an agent. I will handle the Kōkanrō and the accompanying Kakyūrō myself, do not worry.”

As he exited the conference room and made a turn to leave the castle proper, his eyes caught sight of his prey — the single majestic Kōkanrō, along with its accompanying Kakyūrō. Altogether, there were five Aragami before him.

“Only five of you?”  Hideyoshi grinned. “This won’t take long at all!”

He readied his hand on the hilt of his blade.

“Kazekiri… unsheathe!”

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TO BE CONTINUED