After the Storm, and Before the Storm (Premium)

by Sakon Kaidou

  ◇

  Three shadows were moving through a mountain forest in the northern reaches of Tenchi. They all had unique appearances.

  One was a blooming beauty akin to a squid. She had ten mechanical tentacles growing out of her back. She traveled by using them to reach for the ground and pull herself forward, and her speed was nothing to scoff at. The tight-fitting bodysuit she wore made her look like a sci-fi ninja.

  The second was a middle-aged man wearing apparel like that of a Japanese diviner, an onmyoji. He was sitting cross-legged on an ant as large as an elephant, which was moving as fast as the tentacled woman. With a marked Fu in hand, he whispered something under his breath.

  The third person was a young man in a coat that was clearly too big for him. There was a clear contrast between his apparel and his small stature. You’d expect him to have trouble walking, but that didn’t matter now, as he was being carried by one of the woman’s tentacles. Another thing notable about him was the Fu on his forehead, which made him look like a jiangshi from Huang He, but he was neither a jiangshi nor an undead.

  “Well, Winterbaum? Is that Fu doing its job?” the man on the ant asked the youth.

  “Yes. I don’t feel any motion sickness. Thank you, Mr. Eashtan,” replied the young man, Winterbaum.

  “Kyah kyah kyah!” the man on the ant laughed. “It’s just a Fu to ward against weak poison-type debuffs, but it does the job for motion sickness. You can’t ride Probe’s chains without it. I could let you ride my ant, but they throw off anyone they’re not used to. You don’t have to worry about that with her holding you, though. Right, Probe?”

  The woman clearly heard him, but didn’t respond. Some might think they were on bad terms, but that certainly wasn’t the case. This was just how they usually were. That was proven by what happened next...

  “BHOAAHHH!”

  “BHAAOHHH!”

  A pair of large, Demi-Dragon-tier boars jumped out on the path and attacked them. Without saying a word, Probe tore one of them apart with one of her tentacles.

  “This doesn’t look like pork I’d like to eat,” said Eashtan as three ants appeared from out of the ground and instantly reduced the other boar to bone.

  Still bound by the tentacle, Winterbaum could do nothing but watch. Unlike the other two, he was a newbie with stats that wouldn’t let him last a minute against those two boars. They were on a whole other level, both literally and figuratively.

  They’re amazing... So this is the power of Hokugen’in’s top fighters, huh? he thought, both tense and excited.

  “Hokugen’in” was the name of a particularly well-known daimyo family in Tenchi. They owned lots of land in the northern reaches of Tenchi and had a lot of strong fighters at their disposal, many of which were Masters. The best of the best among them were known as “The Hokugen’in Elite Four,” and they were feared and respected all across the already-dangerous country.

  The two people Winterbaum was accompanying were among those four.

  One was The Whip, Probe USA One the “Dismantler,” while the other was Onmyou Doctor, Eashtan the “Army Ant.” Both were extremely powerful pre-Superiors who’d made a name for themselves in both Tenchi’s duel and kill rankings.

  I’m so lucky, Winterbaum thought. Despite being just a newbie, he’d been invited to go on an official Hokugen’in quest alongside these two.

  It’s hard to refuse a request to party up with our top people. The reward is great, too, so it’s worth skipping college for this... I’ll have to apologize to them, though...

  Winterbaum — otherwise known as Reiji Mukudori’s fellow freshman, Alex Fuyuki — slowly nodded to himself. He did feel bad about skipping out on their agreement to scout out their course options together, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made.

  I hope I can make up for it with some lunch...

  “What’s wrong? You look like you got something on your mind,” said Eashtan, noticing the youth’s expression.

  Winterbaum didn’t want to lie to someone he respected. “Oh, I... I’m just thinking about college. I skipped it today...”

  Eashtan looked at him with worry. “Isn’t April an important time in Japanese colleges? Can you really do that?”

  “It’s just the first day, so I’m sure I can get it back...”

  Tokyo U was among the country’s best, but he didn’t want to believe that skipping a single day would be enough to ruin his college life.

  W-Well, this week is all about examining the courses, and lots of people change theirs after the first or second lecture, so I’ll be able to make up for this... right?

  His own words had made Winterbaum a bit worried, so he had to try and convince himself that it would be all right.

  “Funding education. Parent burden. Idle pleasure. Not good.” Probe spoke up for the first time. Her tone was strong, and she coupled it with a few light slaps on Winterbaum’s forehead.

  However, Winterbaum didn’t really understand her. Her words were too simple for him to process.

  “...What?”

  “‘Your parents paid for college, so you shouldn’t waste it by playing around,’” said Eashtan. “That’s how I interpret that, anyway.”

  “College life. Prioritize studies,” Probe added in a huff.

  “Right... I’m sorry,” Winterbaum apologized, now feeling down. “But class is about to end, anyway, so please let me keep questing.”

  Probe said nothing and just gave him a glare.

  “Hey, it’s fine,” Eashtan said. “It’s too late for that now. And he will be useful, right?”

  “...Reluctant agreement.” Probe still didn’t seem to think it was okay, but she did seem to see that she had to accept it, so she just continued carrying Winterbaum.

  “Well, just remember to prioritize your real life next time,” Eashtan said.

  “Okay...” Winterbaum felt bad for worrying them, but he was also curious about something.

  “Sorry to bring it up so late, but why does Probe speak in sentences of just two words?”

  “I don’t know myself,” said Eashtan. “We can still communicate just fine, so I don’t mind it.”

  “I see...”

  I guess there really are a lot of weirdos among the top players, he thought. It doesn’t bother me, though.

  “Oh!” Winterbaum exclaimed as he opened a map. “We’re close to the third village, you two!”

  “Mhm,” nodded Eashtan. “And what does your Horus show there?”

  “I’ll take a look,” he said as he reached into the crest on his left hand and took out a magnifying glass. He then held it over the map. Specifically, the aforementioned village. “Uhh... There’s a fight. Or more like, they’re being attacked.”

  Instead of simply magnifying the map, the lens displayed a bird’s eye view of the actual place it represented. Winterbaum’s Horus was an Embryo of farsight, based on the ancient Egyptian god said to have the sun and the moon for eyes. It created livestreams of distant places when simply held over maps.

  It had a flaw, it couldn’t see inside buildings, but that didn’t stop it from being extremely useful for reconnaissance. This was the very reason why a newbie like him was going on a quest alongside these two renowned Masters: the lens of Horus presented a clear scene of brigands attacking a village and its inhabitants struggling against them.

  “I expected this,” said Eashtan. “The first two villages were untouched, but this one is closer to the halfway point. Still, we’re on a quest to both bring the news and enforce order, so let’s hurry there.”

  “Pressing urgency,” Probe agreed.

  The two of them prepared to hurry over to the village, but then...

  “Hm...? What?” Eashtan suddenly placed the Fu in his hand against his ear.

  “Mr. Eashtan?” asked Winterbaum, but Eashtan just gestured for him to be quiet.

  A few seconds later...

  “Hmm... We don’t have to hurry anymore, you two,” Eashtan said as he not only slowed
down, but changed direction. “Let’s go to the fourth village. We’ll just be late to this one.”

  “Demanding explanation,” said Probe.

  “We were too slow. He’s already there. There’s nothing for us to do there now.”

  “Eh?” Winterbaum looked at the village once again. The situation had completely changed, and it left him speechless and wide-eyed.

  “Dear me. Didn’t we set out on this quest before him? I can see why he and Saki are considered abnormal,” Eashtan grumbled.

  As for Probe...

  “Mist...” She whispered her first one-word sentence and looked at the mist at the foot of a nearby mountain.

  ◇◆

  Tenchi was a land of strife.

  Because of this, it had the strongest tians on average, which in turn made it difficult for malicious Masters to commit crime. Even tians could beat them, after all.

  But there were exceptions...

  “TAKE IT AAAALL!” a man roared. “DON’T KILL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN! WE’RE SELLIN’ ’EM OFF!”

  A certain mountain village was under attack by bandits. It wasn’t that special of a situation, but there were two strange things about it: all the bandits had crests on their left hands, and there were nearly no young men among the defending villages. The few elders tried fending them off with spears, but the power gap was evident.

  Watching his partners in crime round up the villagers, one of the bandit Masters spoke to their leader. “Big catch, huh, boss?” The boss had a large build and a fierce look about him. His apparel was as colorful as a kabuki performer’s, and on his hands, he wore gloves with the letters “B A N” engraved on them.

  His name was Gigamaru Gakido. He was the King of Grind — the Superior Job from the Boxer grouping’s Pound Boxer sub-grouping — as well as the leader of the “Sixth Realm’s Chaos” bandit clan, and the tenth in the highly competitive Tenchi duel scene.

  “Heh heh. Sure is,” he chuckled. “Looks like they sent all their fighters to Kurowa. Seems like they lost, too, so they ain’t comin’ back, either. Kheheheh. Perfect time to make a killin’.”

  A few days ago, the local daimyo family, Kurowa, had battled one of the neighboring daimyos. They’d suffered a decisive defeat, making them lose a lot of influence and land.

  This village was one of the places Kurowa had lost, but the victorious daimyo still hadn’t established his rule here. As a general rule, all daimyos in Tenchi ruled separately, and each had their own laws.

  Since this was no longer Kurowa land, Kurowa laws no longer applied, but since it wasn’t officially under the wing of the victorious daimyo yet, their laws didn’t apply, either. Basically, this was now an unprotected, lawless land.

  Sixth Realm Chaos had purposely attacked them at this exact time.

  This wasn’t their first time attacking tians. However, since their crimes hadn’t come to light yet, they weren’t on the wanted list yet. This was a major job, even for criminals like them.

  “No proper warriors guarding ’em, no laws or rights to protect ’em... We rarely get prey this good,” Gakido said, grinning. “But where’re we sellin’ ’em? Can’t do it in Tenchi, can we...?”

  “That’s nothin’ to worry about. We got in contact with a good slave trader recently, didn’t we? Said he’ll buy all the slaves we catch and handle all the shit surrounding ’em.”

  “Ohh? That sounds good. What was his name, again? Slipped my mind. La, Ree... Relacma?”

  “La Crima. He’s the one who told us about the war and where to find these villages. Also gave us some damn good accessories as a sign of friendship. A good guy, that one.” He pointed to his earring-shaped accessory.

  Gakido himself had better accessories, but these gifts were more than good enough for his underlings.

  “Ha ha ha! That’s great. It costs money to grow the clan and to hire smiths to make better gear for the duels, so we can’t miss out on tasty deals like this. You know what, I’ll give ya a better share for mediating.”

  “Heh heh. I knew you’d say that. You’re a nice guy, boss.”

  While they were having this conversation, the rest of the clan mostly finished rounding up the villagers. They were all sitting in the center of the village, bound in chains. Five of them, however, were seated separate from the rest.

  They were the prettier-looking women, girls, and boys, and they were bound in just shackles, rather than chains.

  “Hmm? Does this mean what I think it means?” Gakido asked.

  The clan members responded to his question with nothing but vile grins.

  “I’ll have the redhead. You do whatever you want with the rest,” Gakido said.

  “That’s our boss! You know what it’s all about!” Hollering, the bandits surrounded the girls and boys.

  Gakido himself reached for the red-haired woman he’d picked... but then realized that something wasn’t right.

  “...Mist?” he muttered. A dense mist had filled the village.

  There was a well here, but the kind of river that could form such a mist was a fair distance away. As they all wondered what was happening... an unfamiliar voice reached their ears.

  “Hmm... No good. No good at all,” the voice said. “The women and boys of the world have a beauty to them that changes with the passage of time. Violently tearing it while it’s still budding is truly a waste. After all... what’s a love-making without love?”

  The source of the voice was on the roof of one of the buildings.

  It was a muscle mountain of a man. Not in the unsightly sense, though. He was over two meters tall, and combined with the muscles, he created a very balanced-looking build.

  He had hair that was long, dark, and disorderly, and a beard that grew away from his face. Additionally, he wore skins that looked like they were freshly-torn from a baboon, and had a hatchet-like blade at his side.

  Judging by appearance alone, you would have assumed that he was from Gakido’s clan.

  “Who the hell are you?” Gakido demanded.

  The man reached for his side and took out a traditional Japanese smoking pipe before responding.

  “Me? I’m Bigman.”

  He then lit the pipe and began smoking it. It was a calm and casual act — which was in complete contrast to Gakido and his gang. After all, “Bigman” was a major name — a true big deal.

  “King of Brigands...” one of them trembled.

  “Bigman the Mountain-Splitter!”

  “The Superior that’s second in the kill rankings!”

  The man held the brigand grouping’s Superior Job, King of Brigands. “Mountain-Splitter” was a nickname, said to have been born when he’d cut a mountain in half. Obviously, he was a Superior.

  “You can’t be serious!” one of the brigands yelped.

  Tenchi had a number of Superiors. The top three in the duel rankings were among them, so Gakido — a duel ranker himself — knew their power well.

  But that wasn’t all.

  Bigman was...

  “So you’re all informed, huh? Guess I don’t have to introduce myself now. If you know that much, then you probably also know that... I’m a guest at Hokugen’in’s,” Bigman exhaled some smoke, mixing it with the mist before continuing. “This recently became Hokugen’in turf.”

  Indeed. The daimyo family that had fought Kuroha and conquered this land was the Hokugen’in. Thus, there could only be one reason why one of their Elite Four would come here.

  He took out a seal case and presented it to Sixth Realm Chaos.

  “Hokugen’in’s law’s in place now. In case it ain’t obvious, we can’t have our people taken into slavery.”

  “Gh...!” The words made the bandit clan grind their teeth in frustration, and the villagers cheer. The item Bigman had shown was proof that he represented the Hokugen’in family.

  Midorino Hokugen’in, the current head of the family, had taken the potential of such crime into consideration. Thus, he’d given his seals to some of his guest Masters
and had them travel around to prevent it. Eashtan, Probe, and Bigman were among those chosen Masters.

  This was no longer lawless territory. Thanks to the edict, it was now under the law of Hokugen’in.

  “Blood has already been spilled,” Bigman continued. “But it’s my own fault for not making it in time. It would be wrong to judge you for simply adhering to the law of lawlessness.”

  Falling silent for a moment, he looked down upon the Sixth Realm Chaos.

  “But if you continue to act as criminals even after seeing this seal, you’ll all lose your heads and drop straight to the gaol.”

  His status as a Superior — one of the strongest Masters — made his words feel like a menacing growl.

  Looking at his awed gang, Gakido clicked his tongue.

  He’s not someone we can handle.

  Gakido didn’t believe that numbers gave him any sort of advantage. Battle-focused Superiors weren’t the kind of creatures that could be swarmed. Backing down was obviously the right choice here.

  But before he could tell his clan to retreat...

  “Ohhhh?” Bigman noticed a few of the clan members point their weapons at the bound villagers. The one he’d talked to before Bigman’s arrival was among them.

  “Wh-What the hell’re you doin’?! Put your weapons away!” Gakido shouted. However, the brigands said nothing in response and just swung their weapons at the villagers.

  A member with Telepathy Cuffs equipped tried to talk to him telepathically. “B-Boss! Something’s wrong! My body’s moving on its own and I can’t ta—!”

  His sentence was cut short by Bigman jumping off the roof and splitting the man in half before he could harm the villagers.

  “Looks like you’re all victims of possession... no... parasitism,” Bigman said. “I did hear that a worldwide criminal who has an Embryo like that had infiltrated Tenchi...”

  “Huhh...?” Gakido looked and noticed that most of the members had lost the earrings they’d been wearing.

  No... That wasn’t right. The earrings had crawled inside their bodies through their ear canals... like parasites.

  “Wh-What the hell?” Gakido didn’t know what was happening.

  However, the battle had already begun. The Sixth Realm Chaos had surrounded Bigman, weapons in hand. Albeit outnumbered, Bigman laughed.