Chapter 1
Amid a dark, shadowy night, as rain poured and thunder roared, Kaito could not bring himself to calm down. He has been waiting for this day for more than 13 years, and he finally got the chance to seek his revenge. Memories that had been unforgettable for him flew back to his mind. It was that memory that became his motivation for these years as he changed himself to a ruthless machine sworn to avenge his parents.
Kaito Sakai was an ordinary Japanese 12-year-old child living an ecstatic life in a small mansion with his family. His father, who was kind and strong, was a fisher. Kaito’s mom, Himari Sakai, was a beautiful woman, and liked sewing and making umbrellas. Then, one day, she went on the market buying food for lunch, and a shogun (an immensely powerful military general) came supervising on the streets with the bulky bodyguards of his. He immediately noticed Kaito’s mom, even though she quickly kneeled. He accused her of not kneeling quick enough and ordered his soldiers to bring her up to him. The shogun observed her face, as if she had already belonged to him. He was fascinated of how beautiful she looked and ordered his soldiers to release her and let her go, while an unnoticeable smile quickly flashed upon his face. After Kaito’s mom went home, she still felt afraid that something bad would happen, but still decided to hide it from Kaito’s dad. Hours later, Kaito’s dad returned with a handful of copper coins, he happily sat down and began eating the lunch Kaito’s mom had prepared him. Kaito, after he was done with his meal, was allowed to take a walk outside of the house, while he does not know that his joyful and fulfilled life as an only child would soon end soon. As Kaito’s mom was washing the dishes, four samurai broke into the house and ran directly at her. Kaito’s dad fought the one of the four samurai with a kitchen knife and managed to stab it into his leg. The samurai let out a muffled cry and retreated, trying to stop blood flowing out of the wound. The other two soon came to help, and seconds later, Kaito’s dad’s head went rolling on the floor, as blood exploded from his wound. The last samurai knocked Kaito’s mom on the back of her neck, and she silently dropped to the floor and was carried away. When Kaito came back, he was frightened. No word came out of his mouth, as silent tears merged with the warm blood of his dad as they dropped to the ground. He fainted in pain. The sound of birds chirping the next day woke him up, but he was still unwilling to believe this had all happened.
“Maybe this was all a dream,” he thought to himself. He had wished this were the case. Finally, he could not control himself. He cried out as hard as he could, as the hopelessness that was suppressed in his heart for a long time finally broke out. He hugged the corpse of his dad and dug a hole and buried him. Yes, he is now an orphan. Just yesterday he was still living happily with his parents, and now, his dad was brutally murdered, and his mom is nowhere to be found. All that is left in his heart is to save his mom and avenge his dad.
…………………………………
After the big tragedy, Kaito packed some money and clothes and began his clueless revenge. He headed for a samurai’s house, which he knew was just thirty kilometers away from his house and hoped that he would learn martial arts and avenge his dad. He did not know that he would be facing one of the hardest people to assassinate in the whole Japanese history. As he was daydreaming of how brutally he would punish the person that had killed his dad, a bunch of thieves had put their attention on Kaito’s bag. When they saw that the time was right, they charged at Kaito as swift as a sudden clap of thunder. Kaito had no time to react and was quickly brought down by one of the thieves. He clenched his fists and fought back, but he was at immediate disadvantage as there were three of them. His face quickly swelled and looked like a pig. Although he fought back bravely, his bag was soon stolen. For Kaito, and for all the Japanese citizens, “face” was someone’s dignity and their reputation. It was hard for Kaito to beg for food, but after 2 days of starvation, and driven by the will of revenge, he “gave up” his face and began begging for food. One day, a tall, mighty samurai came into town. Kaito was unwilling to give up his chance of learning martial arts and went up to the samurai and kowtowed. The samurai, who was a bit surprised of a sudden kowtow from a beggar, told him to kneel and asked him why he kowtowed.
Kaito explained, with light in his eyes, “I want to learn martial arts and avenge my parents.”
The samurai questioned, “What happened?”
Kaito explained what had happened, and he wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Do you know who killed your parents?”
“No”
The samurai, who felt sorry for this poor kid, took him to his mansion and started training him, not knowing that Kaito’s enemy was his general.
After Kaito arrived at the samurai’s mansion, he did not feel relieved or anything. He felt stress, and he started questioning himself if he could even avenge his parents. He kept this all to himself, while he was being cured of his various bruises on his body. After he recovered, he immediately started training. He started with a wooden katana and was taught by the sons of the samurai Zen Buddhism. He learned how he could use his muscles more efficiently and deliver a deadly blow to the enemy. He was a talented learner, and he never slacked. He soon challenged the samurai’s three sons, Aoki Yamamoto, Daichi Yamamoto, and the bigger brother, Ichiro Yamamoto. First, they were all the same, but as time passed, Kaito could easily win the one on one. He then started challenging all three of them at once. After he had beaten them, the samurai saw a lot of potential in Kaito, so he trained him himself. The samurai figured out that he barely talks, and he is very cold to everyone. He only treated the sons and the samurai nicely.
5 years have passed from the day that he lost his family. He finally got to hold a real katana. The samurai spend a lot of effort training him, and Kaito is already surpassing the samurai. The samurai felt that he could teach Kaito no more, so he let Kaito leave with a custom-made katana and a great amount of money. In return, after Kaito finished his revenge, he would come back and guard the family. Kaito agreed and set out for his journey. He bought a horse and explored. He used the leftover money to buy a house and settled down and kept practicing “the way of the sword.” One day, he was asked to join a ceremony where the shogun would take his wife and his concubines to celebrate a festival. There, he finally met his mom, and the hatred in the eyes is almost becoming substantial. He would never have thought that it was the shogun that ordered to kill his dad to take his mom to be his concubine. This completely messed up his plan. He now needs to know the structure of the shogun’s palace and he needs to know how to assassinate. He was in despair. He did not know what he could do. These years, he had already pushed his body and his mind to their limit, and now he still had to try harder.
It seemed impossible, but he thought, “What do I have left to lose?” The answer was obviously: nothing. He had to keep trying, he must avenge.
“But how?” he asked himself. No one has ever tried to kill a shogun before, or, some tried, but all died. How is he going to kill the shogun by himself? He was again in despair. But, no matter what, he had to try. He spent another 5 years practicing his eyesight in the dark, how to hide his footsteps, how to assassinate, how to throw knifes, how to set up traps, and how to push his body to the limit in a fight. He did not fight anyone, but he is more experienced than anyone. He never gave himself breaks, and he practiced until he almost forgot what his goal was. He started training his mindset too, of how to cover himself and think about better strategies to counter his enemies. He visited the castle and thought of it thoroughly. He soon found out that he could think and plan better than anyone else. He could also think ten moves ahead when he is making one move, and this gives him an advantage while fighting the shogun. He devoted the final 3 years training his instincts, extrapolating every single outcome that the guards might do, and ways to torture human. When everything was ready, he fully prepared himself and burned his house. He waited for time to pass, and finally he got the chance. It matches his goal perfectly. Rain started pouring down, and the nighttime was filled with roars of thunder. He carefully snuck in one of the small windows of the palace and quickly took care of the guards. He put out all the candles and started his massacre. His victims did not even have time to react and died instantly with blood gushing out of a deep, lethal wound on the throat. The patrolling guards on the outside who were still alive soon felt suspicious that the candles were being put out one by one. They rushed to the palace and found all the dead guards on the floor, with a deep cut on their neck. With no time to mourn, they immediately called out for help. Soon, the shogun was alarmed and quickly started evacuating with the help of his personal guards (Okuzumeshuu). He was angry of being disturbed while having a private session with one of his concubines.
He slapped one of the Okuzumeshuus on the back of the head and questioned, “BaKa! Can’t you see that I am busy?”
The Okuzumeshuu being slapped in the back of the head immediately replied, “There is an intruder inside of your palace, your majesty.”
The shogun grew even more furious, and scolded, “What a bunch of useless pigs, there are so many of you and you cannot get rid of one intruder?
“I am very sorry, your majesty, but it is for your safety.”
“**********”
Close to the shogun, Kaito heard the argument between the shogun and his Okuzumeshuus. He felt extremely excited. He is finally going to save his mother and avenge for his father! Without stopping, he quickly predicted where the shogun would go, and went there ahead of them. He blew the candles on his way. By the time the shogun got there, it was all dark, and the shogun felt a sense of danger. He started panicking, as he called out for his Okuzumeshuus while having no response.
“I do not care who you are, spare my life and you can get anything you want. I will give you money, I will give you power, I will give you land. Please spare my life,” the shogun pleaded. He once was a fierce warrior, but as time passed, he spent his time dealing political issues and enjoying his life. He could barely run. Kaito watched with amusement of how much of a coward the shogun was. He knows that the shogun is wasting time for the other Okuzumeshuus to arrive, but Kaito did not mind, because he set up traps as he was approaching the emperor. They were obvious traps, but due to the lack of food they receive, they cannot see well in the dark. Soon, Kaito smiled as he heard faint cries of Okuzumeshuus from far away. The shogun was even more frightened at this point at this mysterious person that killed so many people so easily. He pleaded once more, but Kaito had enough of him talking and punched him in the face and the shogun fainted. Kaito carried him away to a hidden location. The shogun was fat, but for Kaito who had prepared for over a decade, carrying the shogun was as easy as lifting a chicken. As they arrived, Kaito slapped the already swollen face of the shogun to wake him up. The shogun began to panic and started to call for help, but no one could hear him.
Kaito could not bear the loud cries of the shogun and threatened, “You make one more noise and I will take off your tongue.”
The shogun immediately shut his mouth. Kaito asked, “Where is my mother, Himari Sakai? Do not you dare lie.”
The shogun sure took a lot of time to think, and responded, “Hi... Himari… she suicided.” When Kaito heard the word suicide, his world shattered. The word was what really the last straw that broke his back. He started to cry in pain, and if stares could kill a person, the shogun would have died countless times already. Kaito was going to just kill the shogun after he asked where his mom is, but he changed his mind. He will torture the shogun and kill him the worst way possible. He started a fire, and while the fire started burning, he went to the shogun and stuck a piece of clothing inside his mouth. The shogun tried to fight back, but Kaito tied his legs and hands together. He then started to release his hate towards the shogun. The loss of his most loved ones had haunted him over so many years, and now, finally, it will end. He broke every single bone in the shogun’s lower body, and as each bone was broken, the shogun would faint because of pain, but he would soon get waked up by a red-hot katana on his body. The pain was unbearable, and for someone who had been enjoying life all these years, it was even worse. Kaito cut off his hands, which ruined the lives of so many people, and he cut off his flesh piece by piece, and threw it in fire, as if he were some salmon being made into sashimi. Obviously, Kaito still would not let him die so easily. He used his fighting skills to find acupuncture points to stop the intense bleeding of the shogun. He took out his eyes and cut off his nose. Dying seemed like an extravagant hope for the shogun. The torture became worse and worse, until the point where the shogun turned into a nugget, and Kaito ended him by cutting his head off and throwing it into fire, like what the samurai did to his father. He felt relieved, but also did not feel any point in life anymore as the two people that he cared about the most left him forever, and all he wants now is to reunite with them again. Therefore, he cut his belly open, and without letting out a single scream of pain, slowly dropped to the floor and waited patiently for his death.
