Chapter 347: The Appearance of the Demon God Toyotomi
The girl sat outside the small forging hut, her chin resting on her hands, watching the man inside with fascination. Every move he made felt like a work of art. The man's movements possessed a strange rhythm; every strike of the hammer was filled with the beauty of explosive power.
The furnace blasted out waves of scorching heat. Shirou had shed his cloak, wearing only a fire-resistant bracer on his left arm. His left hand, steady as an iron limb, gripped a pair of tongs holding a glowing red, steaming iron slab over a meter long. In his right hand, he held a massive, profound-black iron hammer, which he raised high before slamming it down with a thunderous force.
It was as if every time he raised the hammer, he intended to crush the iron ingot flat. Lift, strike, repeat. Lift, strike, lift, strike...
Sparks flew in every direction, and the flames in the forge rolled and churned.
Initially, it was ordinary iron. After a hundred refinings, the impurities were purged, and the layers bonded tightly to become steel. After a thousand refinings, it became profound steel. The final steel ingot shrank smaller and smaller until it transformed into a heavy, meter-long steel rod.
"Amazing..." the girl marveled in surprise.
"Don't just sit there. Go and try out all the weapons in the training yard. Let me see," Shirou said.
"Oh," the girl replied obediently.
From the wooden sword to the odachi, the axe, and the longbow, the girl appeared very clumsy with all of them. She possessed great strength—surpassing even that of adult men—but she didn't know how to control it, making her performance disastrous.
However, when the girl picked up a spear, she seemed like a different person. As she swung the shaft, it was as if she were creating a gale.
And so, the weapon Shirou would craft was decided.
"Come, stand still. Raise your hands first," Shirou said as he walked up to the girl.
"Huh?" The girl, confused, stood straight and spread her arms to her sides, letting Shirou, who had walked behind her, do as he pleased.
Shirou took out a tailor's measuring tape and meticulously measured her height, arm span, chest, and waist—not a single part of her body was overlooked.
"Eee..." The girl's face flushed red. She didn't know whether it was better to puff out her chest and tuck in her stomach or to bend her legs and shrink her neck. She had always felt somewhat insecure about being so tall and sturdy.
"Stand still!" Shirou reminded her.
"Yes!" The girl closed her eyes in resignation, her heart thumping rapidly. She thought to herself, 'Even though it's embarrassing, if it's Master Shirou, he can do whatever he wants to me...'
Shirou was completely oblivious to anything being "off." He simply turned back into the forge to begin grinding the edge and sharpening the blade, adjusting the long blade and spear shaft to the perfect proportions for the girl.
"Uuu..." The girl, who had kept her eyes closed, finally opened them after a long while, only to find the person who made her heart race had long since walked away. She looked at Shirou with a hint of resentment.
After that, a spear similar to a trident was formed, except its side blades pointed outward to the left and right rather than standing straight up like the central blade. The edge gleamed with a sharpness that emitted a chill entirely different from the furnace's heat.
The tang beneath the blade was fitted into the spear shaft. The shaft was also made of steel, but of a different grade—solid and heavy, yet possessed of an elasticity like fine wood, capable of bending and lashing out like a whip.
The entire process took only six hours. Normally, it would have taken two or three days, but under the influence of the Power of Creation, Shirou compressed it into a single afternoon.
Shirou's arm shook as he mimicked the moves of the God of Spears, Li Shuwen, whom he had fought before. He vibrated the spear shaft, and it lunged out like a dragon emerging from its cave. The cold light of the sharpened blade flashed, stirring up a howling wind and carrying a sharpness that felt capable of severing anything.
"Here, try it out!" Shirou tossed the finished spear into the girl's hands.
"Yes! Master Shirou!" The girl caught the spear and weighed it. It felt perfectly suited to her. She answered loudly.
"Master? I didn't establish a master-disciple relationship with you," Shirou said, waving his hand. His desire to help the girl had been a mere whim.
"No. Everyone else gave up on me; only you, Master, were willing to teach me. So, whether in this life, the next, or the life after that, I will remember Master's kindness!" Hachi said very seriously.
"Fine, have it your way then. Anyway, try out the new weapon. For now, start by practicing ten thousand thrusts a day," Shirou said after some thought.
"Eh? Master, are you going to teach me spear techniques?" the girl asked, looking up in confusion.
"Mmh. The only things I can teach you are the most basic moves. Give it a try," Shirou said.
"Yes!" The girl didn't think much of it and simply did as Shirou instructed.
"As expected, you are better suited for the spear," Shirou said with a light laugh.
"It's true. I feel like I love this spear much more than a sword. But my father uses a sword; if I use a spear, won't his lineage die out?" the girl marveled. She nodded, then shook her head.
"Don't you have your cousins for that? Your strength is too great, and you lack the finesse for sword techniques. No matter how much you practice, you'll only ever be third-rate. But learning the spear is different," Shirou said.
If the girl was indeed the Honda Tadakatsu of another world, her weapon of choice would naturally be the spear. In the hearts of the Japanese, she is one of the most famous spear masters. Forcing her not to use a spear would be as inconceivable as telling Guan Yu not to wield his Green Dragon Crescent Blade and use a sword instead.
"I understand! I'll do as you say. Oh! Master Shirou, what is the name of this spear?"
"It has no name. Name it whatever you like," Shirou replied. He had simply forged a functional weapon for the girl on a whim and hadn't given it any thought.
"I get to name it? What should it be called then?" Hachi said with a look of distress.
Just then, a dragonfly flew over and landed on the blade of the spear. When it spread its wings to leave, it brushed against the very tip of the blade, stumbled, and fell to the ground.
"Ah!" Hachi let out a cry of surprise as she felt two dark shadows flutter down from above.
Looking down closely, she saw that the dragonfly had been sliced perfectly into two halves. Each side had two thin wings, as symmetrical as if they had been measured with a ruler and cut with a razor-sharp knife.
Simply because the blade was so sharp, the mere weight of the dragonfly resting on it had caused it to be cut through.
"Tonbogiri (Dragonfly Cutter)! Master Shirou! This spear is called Tonbogiri!" Hachi hugged the spear, her eyes sparkling with light as she spoke with a smile.
"Is that so? That's a good name," Shirou replied, nodding with a playful smile.
"Hehe, thank you, Master Shirou! I will cherish her for the rest of my life," Hachi said, squinting her eyes and nuzzling her face against the spear shaft.
"Mmh, as long as you like it. Your talent for martial arts is by no means poor. Even if others cannot understand it right now, I acknowledge you one hundred percent. Your previous efforts were definitely not in vain." Shirou nodded, seeing the girl's happy expression. As a creator, it was gratifying when the user was satisfied with the weapon.
"Really?" The girl looked at Shirou, deeply moved. Despite her desperate practice, she had never received anyone's recognition before.
"Yes, I promise you," Shirou nodded with a smile.
He had seen the girl's hard work; she was the same kind of person as him. His own training in the storage room every night had been blind practice without a teacher's guidance.
If it hadn't been for the Holy Grail War and meeting Tohsaka, he likely would have remained at the level of using Reinforcement magecraft his entire life. But later, that early practice became the fundamental drive that pushed him forward.
That was why Shirou couldn't help but want to help a girl like Hachi.
"Thank you so much!" Tears welled in the girl's eyes. She threw her arms wide and lunged at Shirou, ignoring the fact that both of them were covered in sweat from intense activity and their clothes were soaked and clinging to their bodies.
"Wait! Miss Honda! Hachi! Don't hug me! I'm shirtless and covered in sweat!" Caught off guard, Shirou was suddenly embraced. He felt as though he had been hit head-on by a charging wild boar.
"I don't care about that at all~!" Hachi put all her strength into hugging Shirou, expressing her current emotions.
"Don't use so much force!"
So hard! So painful! But... also so soft!
Shirou felt a suffocating crush of immense strength. The girl hadn't let go of her spear, pressing it against Shirou's body along with her arms. Her strength was truly enormous. Shirou had to exert his own superhuman strength to resist the pressure; otherwise, his body would have surely been bruised by the spear shaft.
Furthermore, while the girl had the heart of a child, her figure was already quite adult—and of the fuller, more curvaceous variety. With her pressing against him so defenselessly, it was "bad" in many senses of the word.
At that moment, Madam Honda, who lived in the main house, happened to walk by. She poked her head out from the back door and saw this scene.
"Ara ara..."
"Wait! Madam, let me explain."
"It seems I need to start preparing the items for a wedding," Madam Honda said, giggling behind her hand. She turned and went back the way she came, turning a deaf ear to Shirou's shouts. Her pace only quickened.
She had originally worried that her martial-arts-obsessed, oversized daughter would be completely oblivious to romance, but now it seemed progress was quite fast. Only one day had passed, and they were already so passionate.
After that, the attitude of everyone in the Honda household toward Shirou became much closer.
In the following days, Shirou prepared the process for forging the Cursed Blades while instructing the girl on basic spear techniques. The girl practiced diligently and displayed startling talent. The adults of the Honda family seemed happy to see the two together, and no one came to interfere.
"Master Shirou! Good morning!" On this day, Hachi ran over just as her morning practice ended, sweat still beading on her forehead.
"Wipe your sweat first!" Shirou placed a clean towel on the girl's head and gently rubbed her hair.
"Yes!" Hachi lowered her head, her face flushing slightly as she answered happily.
Shirou went back into the forge and wrapped the nine samurai swords lined up on the rack with cloth.
"Master Shirou, are the weapons already finished?" Hachi asked, watching Shirou's movements with curiosity.
"Mmh, they are finished. I can deliver them today," Shirou replied.
Shirou had now forged nine Cursed Blades. Although they still had the flaw of requiring blood once drawn, he currently had no better materials to replace these blades. He had no shortage of silver, however; by extracting the essence to refine "Silver Essence" and attaching it to the blades, he created silver weapons specifically effective against monsters.
However, these were blades for slaying demons, but they were also bloodthirsty Cursed Blades. If the users, relying on the sharpness of the weapons, cared only for themselves, became blinded by desire, and strayed from righteousness, they would inevitably be harmed by these very blades.
Shirou accelerated his forging speed. He didn't plan on staying here for long. Through his investigation, he was now certain that the demons and monsters were likely man-made. Once he resolved the problem at the root, Shirou planned to head to Osaka Castle to meet the man who killed Nobunaga—the man Tokugawa Ieyasu described as a true Demon God: Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Staying here, he occasionally heard strange rumors that monsters had formed an army and that the Demon God Toyotomi Hideyoshi had swept through a certain castle town, massacring a daimyo's entire family.
Shirou wanted to stop him, but the Demon God was elusive; he had no idea where he might appear.
However, what Shirou didn't expect was that before he could go looking, the other party would strike first.
On this day, Shirou went to the lord's residence. In less than two months, Shirou had finished the nine Cursed Blades ahead of schedule and brought them to the Castle Lord.
In the reception hall, all the retainers were gathered. Those who were assigned the precious swords played with them, showing excited expressions.
"Hahaha! As long as we have these precious blades, those monsters outside will be no concern at all."
"Indeed. If we could get fifty more, perhaps even opposing the Toyotomi clan wouldn't be impossible."
"Hmph! Everyone, drop your weapons. If you resist, you die!" a loud shout echoed from outside.
"Who is it!" the General shouted toward the door.
A thin, short middle-aged man walked in alone. He certainly didn't look majestic or divine, yet the people inside all showed expressions of terror.
"You are..."
The man was wearing golden armor and a sunburst helmet. It was indeed Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had unified the land and titled himself "Taikou." He walked unhurriedly into the meeting room and spoke:
"I heard you recently acquired some precious blades capable of slaying monsters? How strange. I thought I had already collected all the famous blades and swordsmiths. So, I came here out of curiosity to check the situation. I didn't expect there to be ten such swords. Do you intend to rebel?"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's eyes glowed with a red light as he shouted, a black wind swirling through the room behind him.
"Eek!..." The attendants were so terrified they curled up and knelt on the ground.
"No, Lord Toyotomi, you misunderstand. We forged these blades only to deal with monsters," an elder retainer said.
"Besides, aren't you on a campaign against the Shimazu clan?" someone asked.
"The Shimazu? Ah, they've been exterminated. By my army of monsters!" Toyotomi Hideyoshi said with a wicked laugh.
"What? Monsters!" Everyone cried out in alarm, realizing the situation was truly dire.
Just then, an official came running in frantically, sweat pouring down his face as he shouted, "Report! My Lord! A horde of monsters is attacking! The city is surrounded by monsters... Eh? Lord Toyotomi!"
"Demon God? Did you perhaps obtain the corpse of a Demon God Pillar?" Shirou asked, looking curiously at Toyotomi Hideyoshi's current state.
Because of the White God, history was undergoing subtle shifts, and the world was becoming unstable. The battle at the Temple of Time, which had already passed, seemed to have developed some discrepancies; the number of escaped Demon God Pillars appeared to be higher, causing various ill effects across different worlds. In severe cases, it could even cause the destruction of a world.
The Toyotomi Hideyoshi before him was one such case.
"In fact, when I encountered the Demon God Pillar, it was already at its last gasp. And then... yes, I obtained the power of a Demon God. To change my future!" Toyotomi Hideyoshi said, his eyes flickering with an eerie red light.
"Demon God Pillar? What's going on?" the others asked, completely bewildered.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi paid no heed to the others. Currently, he felt like a god and wouldn't care about the thoughts of underlings. He simply turned his gaze to Shirou, who was sitting quietly to the side, and asked, "Are you that swordsmith?"
"Hello, Lord Toyotomi," Shirou said, nodding slightly.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi looked Shirou over and said, "I see, I see. So you're the fellow sent to stop me... That's why I felt an unpleasant aura and came here specifically to check. It seems I was right to come."
"So that's how it is. I really am unpopular. The problems caused by my other self seem to be quite numerous," Shirou said, spreading his hands helplessly.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi glared at Shirou and said, "Whether you are a god or an immortal, right now, I am the greatest in Japan. The strongest Demon King, overturning everything, destroying everything, defeating everything. And my word is the highest law!"
"Lord Toyotomi, if you say I was 'sent' by someone, you are mistaken. However, if you say I am here to stop you from doing evil, then that is correct. I do intend to get involved in the matters here," Shirou replied, neither humble nor arrogant.
"Kid! Do you know who you are talking to?" Toyotomi Hideyoshi barked.
Shirou replied, "Of course. You are currently the Taikou, in charge of military and administrative power. Even the Shogun obeys your orders; you are the most powerful person in the country. The things you did in your past have now become anecdotes passed from mouth to mouth, especially since you rose from the common people, giving many the courage to strive and change their social status. You should be the one envied by all the world, yet here you are, so angry and full of resentment. What exactly has made you so dissatisfied?"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's eyes were blood-red, with a burning, flowing fire of rage inside them. He emitted a cursed anguish and cursed loudly, "Hmph! What is there to envy about a Taikou
destined for failure? Before a person is born, there is no such thing as 'fair' or 'unfair,' but life itself is unfair. The possession of the Demon Man gave me memories of the future—that is not the future I want! Why should the empire I conquered end in a single generation, while that old fox Ieyasu can start a shogunate lasting two hundred years? I relied entirely on myself; they relied on ancestral merit. The merchants I supported single-handedly betrayed me. Most of the generals I promoted abandoned me. Even the peasants I protected don't know how to be grateful to me. So this time, I will not repeat the same mistakes. Everyone who resists me shall be killed. If humans won't recognize me as King, then I will be the King of Monsters! Without my permission, you are not allowed to resist the monsters outside. Hand over the precious blades."
"Lord Toyotomi? Have you gone mad? Monsters live by eating people!" the lord sitting inside said in shock.
"I am the Lord of the World; Mikawa Province is naturally mine as well! If I want the magic beasts to grow, you are not allowed to harm those monsters," Toyotomi Hideyoshi said coldly.
"Rebellious traitor! You heretic!" someone cursed.
"Resist, and I will kill you all!" Toyotomi Hideyoshi's entire body emitted black resentment, making his figure appear much sturdier, like a small giant. Though he was a living person, he was several times more gloomier than a corpse. Anyone seeing him on the street during the day would be startled.
Black smoke emerged from beneath him, and a black demon horse appeared from the ground. He mounted it directly.
Over ten weapons were tucked into his belt and back—short blades on his chest, tachi on his back, a longbow and other weapons on the horse. Every single one shimmered with the radiance of a Noble Phantasm.
"Monster! Stop him! Protect the Lord!" The surrounding guards, though they didn't understand the situation, knew the danger. They hurriedly drew their swords and rushed at the armed Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
With a single move, Toyotomi Hideyoshi shattered the weapons of all the warriors who rushed forward and then severed their heads. Five or six heads rolled through the air, spraying blood.
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