Within Onigashima, an island rampant with powerful monsters and dangerous apparitions, there was only one place the residents could consider truly safe: the fort city Shuuto, founded by the creator of the Illusory Blade style, the very first Sword Saint.
Looking at the city from overhead, Shuuto was shaped like a heptagram. Each of its seven points housed a different district, and one of the two tasks required of the Eight Banners of Seirin was to defend these districts from foreign invaders. Each of the seven districts was protected by a Banner, ranging from second to eighth, each with their own military forces, while the first Banner—the head of the Mitsurugi family—and his forces were stationed in the middle of the city.
In addition to protecting their districts, the Eight Banners had another critically important task: to suppress the monsters emerging from the Demonic Gate located at the city’s center. That meant they had to eliminate threats coming from outside and on the island at the same time. And for over three hundred years now, the threats had come from both directions without stopping. Any other nation or city would have been hopelessly overrun in no time flat.
But Shuuto was still going strong to this day. Even now, one could see the residents within the city’s walls living their daily lives, the adults hard at work and wiping sweat from their brows and the children laughing and playing. They were all certain no threats would ever reach the city, and even if they did, no harm would ever befall them.
That wasn’t simply naive optimism or delusion. Their belief was founded on the fact that the peace had lasted for over three hundred years and their unshakable faith in the Mitsurugi family whose ironclad defenses and leadership had made it happen. The people’s trust in the Mitsurugi family might be even sturdier than the walls protecting the city, Gozu Shiima mused as he followed his master, gazing at the man’s back in admiration.
The seventh Sword Saint, Shikibu Mitsurugi, had a medium build with slender limbs and wasn’t strikingly tall. In fact, Gozu was taller and bulkier than him. But Gozu’s strength paled in comparison. The power Shikibu held justified his position as the First Banner of the Eight Banners of Seirin and proved his title of Sword Saint wasn’t just a decoration.
Shikibu Mitsurugi: the strongest in Onigashima, making him not just the strongest in the empire but the strongest in the world. Gozu revered the man from the bottom of his heart and thought it the highest honor that his sister Cecil had birthed his child. Shikibu had many children, of course, so his four-year-old nephew, Ibuki, would have no chance of succeeding the Mitsurugi family, but that didn’t make Gozu any less proud. Just the fact that the Shiima family now had Mitsurugi blood in it would have made his deceased father’s and mother’s chests similarly swell with pride, he was certain. He couldn’t wait for the day when Ibuki was grown enough to learn the ways of the sword.
At that moment, however, the figure of another young boy suddenly appeared in his mind, and his expression became sorrowful. Mitsurugi’s legitimate son, whom he himself had taken pains to bring up and train until adulthood to disappointing results... The bitter memory was five years old. I wonder where he is now and what he’s doing, Gozu found himself thinking, then realized he was falling slightly behind and quickened his pace to keep up with his master.
Having descended a long staircase, Shikibu and Gozu were now deep underground. At the foot of the stairs was a room that the light of day would never reach. And inside that windless space, a seemingly endless row of candles were lined up. Nearly all of them were lit. Since there was no wind in the room, the flow of air couldn’t snuff them out. The candles wouldn’t be able to burn forever, of course, but at present, at least, their flames were still going strong.
The moment Gozu entered the space, he couldn’t help but scowl. In the center of the room, surrounded by countless burning candles, sat an old woman. He knew that the candles were the manifestation of the woman’s Shinsou. He also knew that they represented the conditions of everyone within the Eight Banners of Seirin and that his own candle, and most likely Shikibu’s as well, was included somewhere in the bunch. Seeing his own life represented as a candle and at the mercy of the old woman felt unsettling, to say the least, which was why he disliked coming here, even though he knew having his candle snuffed out wouldn’t necessarily cause him to die.
“Which Banner fell?” Shikibu spoke up suddenly in a low voice that reverberated through the room.
“The fourth, seat nine, my lord,” the old woman replied.
“Jijinbou, then?”
“Correct, my lord. And judging from the fact he manifested his Shinsou before his death, he had to have been killed in battle.”
Hearing that from behind Shikibu, Gozu scowled again, this time for a different reason. He didn’t know who this Jijinbou was, nor what he’d been up to. But if someone had died while on the island, Gozu definitely would have heard about it. Therefore, this person had to have been outside the island. That meant someone on the mainland had killed a Shinsou user, and if Jijinbou had manifested his Shinsou in battle, it couldn’t have been an ambush. That alone was abnormal enough for even a seasoned warrior like Gozu to furrow his brow.
After a brief silence, Shikibu spoke once more. “Gozu.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Jijinbou was in the kingdom of Kanaria, on secret orders from the emperor himself. He’d been tasked with setting up Princess Sakuya’s marriage to Kanaria’s crown prince. As he failed to carry out an imperial command, the emperor’s retainers will now surely raise a fuss. I’m curious about who on the mainland could have defeated a Banner of Seirin.”
“Understood, my lord! I will head to Kanaria straightaway and investigate!”
“Please do. Oh, and take two of our youngest Banners with you. It doesn’t matter who.”
That wasn’t because he doubted Gozu was capable. He was asking Gozu to show the youngest of his forces what the outside world was like so they could get their feet wet. Since the youth were confined to the island their whole lives, it was critical for their development that they got to experience the world beyond the island. However, even the youngest Banner of Seirin would have heroic strength there. Aware of that, some of the youth could abuse that power and find gaining fame and prestige on the mainland far preferable to fighting deadly monsters on the island. So a chaperone like Gozu was necessary to monitor and keep them in line. Gozu already understood this second task without Shikibu having to state it explicitly.
This also meant that Shikibu didn’t find the matter urgent enough to warrant his personal involvement. His main focus was still on protecting the island and sharpening his own skill with the sword. But regardless of Shikibu’s feelings, as a retainer of Mitsurugi, Gozu had to respond to his lord’s wishes.
“Yes, my lord,” he said, nodding emphatically in understanding. “As you command, I will take two youths off the island.”
As it happened, the first two names that came to his mind were the same age as Shikibu’s legitimate son he’d been reminded of earlier—two of the seven belonging to the island’s “Golden Generation.”