Samurai in the Time Rift 7.4

7.4

The detonation of the bomb was not set correctly by Lord Noriake; he set it to explode on a delayed timing for the late next sunrise. It coincided with the arrival of the enemies to the camp. The servants and samurai of Lord Noriake, had committed 'self immolation' or for the samurai, they committed 'seppuku'.

Tracker Yuri was the first to arrived with the Hibagon column of ninety warriors at day break. They had marched all night and were greeted by the sight of the dead slaves in the camp yard. Yuri examined the bodies and was shocked by the nature of their death.

"Its barbaric...yet honorable." Tracker Yuri muttered under the breath, and caught sight of the opening to the underground chamber. It alerted the others to go down and investigate the area. The Hibagon found the armor and also the unique rooted metallic structure.

"Its the armor of the God. The one that was told by the scouts as worn by the user would fight over a thousand of the Nihonzaru." Tracker Yuri left instruction to move the armor out of the chamber. Ten Hibagon was needed to hand carried the armor out of the chamber.

It was then the Nihonzaru column arrived, with its three hundred strong warriors led by a leader under the command of Lord Jedi.

"Halt!" The leader of the Nihonzaru, Leader Serai hollered out as its warriors surrounded the Hibagon warriors. "I ordered you to put down the armor and moved away from it."

Tracker Yuri stepped forth and questioned the authority of the Nihonzaru.

"You are on the land of our Lord, Jedi. Whatever that belonged to here; are ours." Leader Serai told the Hibagon off. "We, Nihonzaru have no more alliance with the Hibagon."

With those words, the Nihonzaru and Hibagon clashed over the armor. Leader Serai leapt on the Tracker' slashing with the daggers in its hands. Each Hibagon was attacked by at least three Hibagon. Some of the Hibagon in the battle retreated to inside the underground chamber. There one of the Hibagon wounded from the daggers of the Nihonzaru, fell against the rooted metallic structure. In that fall, the Hibagon pressed a switch which was an 'immediate' switch.

The rooted metallic structure began humming and then the klaxon rang off. All the fighting parties stopped but the they did not have to wait long. The explosion came from the rooted metallic structure; soon spread to all sides of the underground chamber, pushing the walls back and then upwards in a resounding blast that tore off all the rooted structures and people on the above ground over a wide area that spanned the whole forest. All that was within the blast zone were decimated with nothing that remains.

The explosion was heard and felt at Chimera City, with many of its tree houses shaken and some fell off the branches. Lord Jedi was thrown off the seat while Keo who was still preparing its warriors at the yard also felt the tremor.

"Is it the anger of the Gods?" Keo shouted out in a frightened manner as it last felt such a tremor was many sunrises ago. It then saw the mushroom shaped in the distance and knew its direction.

"The rebel forest hideout? Can it be?" Keo rushed to send the scouts out.

Nearer to the explosion site, Leader Intai and its ten warriors column was thrown off their feet by it. They picked themselves up and it was then Intai saw the mushroom shaped column. It wanted to check on it, but the heat from the explosion was too hot to bear.

"Could it be?" Leader Intai asked the question but could not find the courage to answered it.

"We would marched on. For the glory of the Lord. Tracker picked up the trail again." Leader Intai picked up the pace ignoring the mushroom column.

A far distance ahead, Taisa Mori and his group of followers had all prostrated on the ground facing the mushroom column. They did their words of prayer to the ones who died in the camp. Taisa Mori recited the Samurai prayer

I make the heavens and earth my parents

I have no home.

I make awareness my home

I have no life and death.

I make the tides of breathing my life and death

I have no divine power.

I make honesty my divine power

I have no means.

I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles

I have no tactics

I make my mind my friend

I have no enemy

I make carelessness my enemy

I have no armor

I make benevolence and righteousness my armor

I have no castle

I make immovable mind my castle

I have no sword

I make absence of self-interest my sword.

( taken from http://www.cope.co.za/karate/Samurai%20Prayer.htm )

It was Gunso who recited the poem by Kusunoki Masatsura ( 1326-1348 )

I have a feeling
I will not be returning,
so among the names
of those who died by the bow
I inscribe my own.

There was another unknown to them all; the One Eyed Kaiju Ryu still survived with its wounds and was then moaning on the death of its pack of Ryu. There were three adults Ryu which survived but they have moved onto with the other packs; leaving this solitary one to picked up the scent.

If the others could read its mind, it was all about death and vengeance.

Especially on one which wield a hammer whose blood it had tasted.