Chapter 1

250 years into the Shogun Emperor Taichi Dynasty.

After Shogun Emperor Taichi took over, the calendar had been restarted. Year 1 starting the day he took control of the country, with the thousands and thousands of years before being treated as ancient history to be forgotten. It wasn’t hidden or censored, yet nobody ever asked or talked about it. It wasn’t taught in school, but it wasn’t too hard to find in libraries or other such places.

A bullet train darted around a sharp turn, the people standing inside all having to grab hold to stay upright. The acidic rain was pounding away on the metal cars that sped through the city full of skyscrapers, thousands of neon lights shining to illuminate the world. All of the people sitting inside held their masks in their hands with their large coats and jackets opened, one of the only places they could breathe or be exposed without suffering severe burns or pain.

At every door of the train stood figures that were as still as statues. Human shaped figures wearing sleek, black armor that was designed to look like traditional samurai armor. The body was covered in extended plates with elaborate designs and patterns, yet they were more for show rather than protection. The armor was already impenetrable. They just wanted to add to the culture and add more fear as they stood. The black helmets were reflecting like mirrors, the masks resembling demons with horns extending out from the temples and up into the air. The masks all had blue and red designs that were written in the revamped Japanese alphabet, being completely rewritten and redesigned by Shogun Emperor Taichi. The letters written on the mask were unique to each statue, as if each of them being the name of the person wearing them.

One of the civilians slowly made their way through the train, purposefully bumping into one person. Their hand quickly went down, putting a small square device to the person’s gauntlet, quickly filling with currency without the person knowing.

“Apologies.” He said before quickly walking past one of the statues.

They snapped their arm out, grabbing the man and throwing him across the car, dropping the device onto the floor. He got to his feet as he was standing next to another one of the statues. The man reached to his waist and pulled out a small handgun, yet the statue next to him snapped out and broke the man’s arm from beneath, snapping his arm upward as he screamed.

The one on the other side reached out and grabbed him by his jacket, throwing him up into the ceiling before both slammed him down onto their knees at the same time, the sound of bones breaking filling the car again.

He was gasping for air on the floor as one of the now moving samurai soldiers suddenly opened the train door.

All of the people on board quickly threw their masks on, closing their jackets or coats as the rain splashed onto the floor and the toxic gas filled the car.

The samurai grabbed the man by his jacket, ripping it apart to expose his named body. The people all gasped and watched as the samurai threw him out like he weighed nothing.

He flung around in the air, spinning wildly as his body was constantly bombarded with the acidic rain, every drop leaving behind serious burns that burned away his flesh, going deeper into his muscle and tendons.

The man was in the air for nearly 10 seconds before crashing down onto the street, his eyes open at the elevated train track and watching as the bullet train raced away. His body instantly began to melt away as more rain pounded away, his body laying in a puddle of the same liquid until he became nothing more than melted flesh over a pile of black bones.

A motorcycle drove by at high speed, running over the skeleton and shattering the frail bones.

Four more quickly raced past right after, followed by two police cars with sirens blaring and lights flashing.

The 5 motorcycles drove in a V shape, one in front and looking back.

They were all wearing white trench coats with rain bouncing off and leaving the jackets rather dry, as if they were unable to absorb any amount of liquid. Each of them had bags strapped to either side of their bikes, jangling loudly as if filled with metal that was all smashing together.

“Where is he?” One of them shouted into their mask.

They all had earpieces and microphones inside of their masks, allowing them to communicate even over the loud rain and revving engines.

“Just calm down. He’ll be here.” Another one said.

“He better be. I’m running out of fuel.”

One of the riders felt their jacket hood suddenly blow back, revealing their neck missing the metal Jirogiku device. Just a massive scar running down before it was quickly pelted with rain, burning it as they reached up with thick gloved hands, pulling their hood back up.

“We need to get to Atarashī Kyōto.” The one in front screamed.

“Do you know how far that is?” Another shouted.

One of the riders began to slow down.

“Shit!” They shouted, jumping up onto the body of the motorcycle as another slowed down. They reached to their sides and grabbed both bags, gripping them as tightly as they could as they jumped onto the seat of the motorcycle, which began to wobble around.

As seamless as could be, they jumped onto the back of the other motorcycle that had slowed down, wrapping around the other person as their bike spun out, crashing and sliding across the ground until one of the police cars ran over it, crushing it into nothing but rubble in an instant. The motorcycle sped up again as they attached the extra bags to the other, the cycle revving loudly as it tried to drive with so much extra weight.

After the cars raced by, a dozen or so people ran out from the shadows, their bodies completely covered as they grabbed whatever scrap they could, the pieces left behind melting away from the rain.

The motorcycles all took a sudden and sharp turn in unison, drifting for a few feet before rocketing straight down the empty street.

“They’re gaining on us!” One of the bikers shouted.

“Come on…” The rider in front said softly as they turned their gaze to look at the tall buildings around them.

A sudden burst of green lightning shot out, flashing an instant wave of light over everything. A few seconds later, a neon pink bolt shot out.

But at the driver looked at the roof of one of the buildings, they spotted what they were looking for.

Despite the mask, it was obvious he was smiling as the cycles all sped up.

“Did you see him?” One rider asked.

“Yeah…I saw him.” The leader responded.

The police cars raced wildly fast as they followed the motorcycles that were darting and weaving so quickly through the streets, which had been laid out as a very well organized grid, making travel incredibly easy.

Each car had one samurai driving and another in the passenger seat.

“Permission to engage has been granted.” A robotic voice spoke over the radio in their cars.

One of the passenger samurai lowered their window, sitting up and staring out into the pouring rain. They reached out with a thin baton, but it suddenly snapped out into a massive bow made of carbon fiber, a string that was indestructible quickly rushing to connect the two ends. They held their other arm out, with the forearm opening to reveal hundreds of small thin rods. One popped out and expanded out in an instant into a large arrow with a neon blue tip. They caught it with their free hand and began to pull it back far, the bow bending with enough force to cut through a building if needed.

But before they could fire, they were suddenly ejected from the windowsill by a violent force, causing their armored body to smash into the street and roll around, every impact creating small craters and cracks in the pavement.

They rolled through and got back to their feet, looking down at a throwing star embedded in their chest.

“He’s here!” The samurai shouted before they took off running at super human speed, beginning to catch up with the very car they were thrown from.

At the other police car, a figure suddenly landed hard on the front hood, obscuring the view as they stood.

They were dressed head to toe in a black hooded trench coat, staring out with black fabric covering their face rather than a thick and hard mask.

Their coat had a massive anarchy symbol painted on the back in white paint, the acidic rain bouncing off like it was impossible to wash away.

They reached out to their side, pulling out a large katana blade as the samurai in the passenger seat suddenly jumped out the window, gripping the roof and twisting so beautiful and acrobatic before landing on the roof, kneeling down and staring forward. They drew their own large katana that shimmered with a pale blue light.

The obscure figure stepped to the side, stabbing their blade through the bullet proof windshield and straight through the chest of the driver, quickly pulling it back out.

The car continued to drive straight ahead, unable to turn in any direction as the samurai jumped down and landed on the hood.

The figure and the samurai stared at each other, each standing on the side of a police car hood as acidic rain poured down, the car racing at top speed.

They each lifted their swords, waiting to see who would strike first.

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