43 Honorable Death

On a lonely peak, under the dusk light two swordsmen stood opposite to each other pointing their bloodied swords at the other. Surrounding them laid numerous hideous corpses filling the surroundings with a foul rotten smell rather than a bloody smell as one would expect from a battlefield. It smelled foul and rotten because the dissected and fallen corpses were not of humans but zombies, zombie army to be exact. It seems the two swordsmen have annahinated a zombie army together but for some reason are pointing swords at each other.

" Senior brother, you do not have to do this there must be another way, we still have time. " shouted the short swordsman at another.

" I am telling you there is no other way and Time! There is not much of it left. Hurry up, let's finish this. " sighed the other swordsman as he lifted his Jet black sword with red edges.

" No! Senior brother I can't do this, please I beg of you do not make me do this. " pleaded the short Swordsman as a single tear rolled from his left eye and flowed along his check.

Short Swordsman was none other than Haohmaru Kenshin sensei of Hito Sanada, he was dressed simply, wearing a plain men's kimono of cheap, worn cloth with an old grey umanori hakama, zori and grey tabi. Haohmaru Kenshin is of small, slender build and with a youthful, feminine visage, Haohmura Kenshin cuts quite a different figure than would be expected of the legendary Sword Master and his appearance belies his thirty-eight years of age, making him look roughly ten years younger, but he is easily recognized by his infamous distinguishing features: mid-back length black hair tied in a thick ponytail and a feminine face. And the sword he was wielding is Owari No Ken.

The Swordsman with Jet black blade was none other than Himaru Sanada, with his stubble and casual dress one could often see him as 'old man'. Himaru is a muscular tall man with a somewhat angular face and lightly tanned skin. Like Haohmaru Kenshin, he also has a rather youthful appearance, despite being 43 years of age. Himaru has red eyes with black eyebrows, and black slicked-back hair ending in a high ponytail, and a fair face. And the Jet black sword with red edges that Himaru is wielding is none other than Oni No Ken.

Himaru Sanada and Hito Sanada both were students of Sword Master Yukimaru, Himaru Sanada was supposed to be the successor of Sword Master Yukimaru and wield the sword Owari no Ken and led his school, but fate had its own plan's during a mission Himaru meet a naive pure hearted village maiden and fell in love with her. He decided to marry her as his wife but being the heir of Sword Master Yukimaru this marriage was Impossible.

Marriage is usually arranged by the family elder or in Himaru's case Sword Master Yukimaru. The bride would be selected on the basis of the blood, birth and her potential to give birth to an elite child as the Heir to the clan. Being a village girl Himaru's love was of a lowly birth, with no famous blood making her not fit as the wife to the heir of the school.

Sword Master Yukimaru considered Himaru and Haohmaru as his own son's. So, he gave Himara a way out by allowing Himaru to pass on his heir position to his younger brother Haohmaru, which is not usually allowed or accepted in the noble families or clans. Giving up on his status as a Heir, Himaru was able to marry the love of his life, inheriting the title of punishment elder and the Sword Oni no Maru of the school, while Haohmaru Inherited the title of head master and Owari no Ken.

7 years later, Hito was 4 years old and his mother died in a miscarage a year ago. His Himaru and Haohmaru along with the rest of the school went to answer the call of the Emperor to join the Japanese army and fight against the Corpse emperor and his Zombie army.

This Fight lasted 2 weeks, when finally Sukehime Sama had found the hideout of the Corpse emperor and killed him for good, along with death of the Corpse emperor and with his Enteral corpse flame extinguished the Zombie army crumbled by itself. Just when the Japanese army were celebrating their victory another disaster struck them, the Demon Samurais were possessed by their Demon sword and have bagan to massacre every living thing in their sight.

Demon Samurais are the samurais who gain power and strength from rental contracts they had formed with their demon swords. The commonly used terms in a rental contract is a soul for every time the swordsman draws power from the demon sword and a predetermined time period for Swordsman to hold his end of the contract. Usually this was a good agreement for the Samurais and Swordsman as most of the time all their enemies have souls so every time they draw power from the Demon sword they either kill the enemy and fulfil the contract or die in the hands of the enemy. But this time it was different, their enemies were souls less zombies alive due to the power of Corpse Emperor's eternal corpse flame.

With no souls to give to their Demon swords, Demon Samurais and swordsmen one after the other started to lose their souls to their demon sword and their bodies got possessed by the demon sword and went on a rampage. Some cruel Demon Samurais and swordsmen killed their comrade's to sacrifice their comarade's souls to their demon sword. Some of the lucky ones were able to find thieves, criminals, prisoners or yokais in time to sacrifice to their demon sword. The whole Japanese army fell into chaos, as each Demon sword was a threat comparable to a High level demon.

Similarly on the Side of Himaru and Haohmaru, Himaru had also used the power of the demon sword against the Zombie army. His contract time was nearing it dead line and he did not have enough souls to sacrifice to his demon sword. Himaru did not want to be possessed by the Demon sword only to massacre everything he had protected. Neither did he want to die in a cowardly and dishonorable way by attempting a sucide.

In order to die an honorable warrior's death, Himaru decided to die under the sword of his Junior brother. Therefore he repeatedly tried to persuade his Junior brother into a one last duel. If Himaru was using the power of the demon sword the winner would be clear as he could easily defeat Haohmaru but since now he will not be borrowing power from the demon sword and was gravely injured from the battle earlier he was clearly not a match for Haohmaru and his Owari No Ken. Himaru knew he was not being fair with his Junior brother by asking him to bear the burden of killing his comrade and senior brother but there was no way out of this as it was this or him being possessed by a demon and killing all he tried to protect all this time and bring shame to his master Yukimaru and his school.

Haohmaru already felt very guilty for taking the Heir title from his Senior brother Himaru he was never able to come to terms with this and always always felt unworthy to be the successor of Yukimaru and not this. Haohmaru was not able to handle this mental stress; he did not know when he would break down so he did not want to duel with his senior brother no matter how noble the reason may be. When Haohmaru was still trying figure a way out of this predicament, Himaru shouted,

" Haohmaru, do not delay anymore. There is no way out of this. " Seeing that Haohmaru was still hesitating, Himaru steeled his heart and shouted " Haohmaru, you selfish son of pitch, you stole my heir status from me and now you are denying me a chance at honorable death. You owe me! You owe me please I beg you give me a warrior's death.. Please. " tears filled Himaru as he begged for an honorable duel, he knew Haohmaru still felt guilty for taking on his heir status so even though he was being unfair to Haohmaru and also knowing that his Junior brother owed him nothing, Himaru rile up Haohmaru to get his a warrior's death.

Himaru stopped reasoning and persuading Haohmaru, he swung his sword with a limp and attacked Haohmaru, Haohmaru who was distracted in his own guilt and compassion, was caught off guard and swung his sword to defend against Himaru's sword. But to his surprise Himaru dropped his attack midway and threw himself on Haohmaru's sword before he could react. Haohmaru's sword had slashed Himaru's neck and blood from the wound oozed out non stop. Horrified, Haohmaru tried to stop the blood from flowing by pressing the wound with both of his arms only to blood.

Looking at dieing Himaru, Haohmaru asked " Is this what you call honorable death? "

Himaru coughed blood from his mouth and gaspingly said , " my leg slipped on the blood on the ground, still be then the alternatives." cough!cough!

Haohmaru did not know what to say. He just looked into Himaru's eyes as they slowly lost light in them and said " you go to my sister-in-law's side without worries, I will take care of Hito."

Himaru with his final breath said " I know you will. "

Closing the eyes of the corpse of his senior brother, Haohmaru closed his eyes painfully and tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes as he vowed ' I will grow Hito into one fine Man and a Swordsman. And then die under his hand letting him take revenge for his father. '

Yes, Haohmaru's plan was to let Hito take his life as revenge for killing his father Himura. Because Haohmaru thought that this was the only he could get rid of the burden waving his heart and gaining salutation. But before Hito could completely grow up and become capable enough to defeat him in a battle Haohmaru succumbed to old age and his old injuries.

After Haohmaru's death, young Hito one day went to clean his master's room for the first time since his death. While cleaning Hito heard whispers calling to him, following this whispers he found Oni no Ken in Haohmaru's room.

Haohmaru never talked about Himaru with Hito, and Hito never brought it up seeing it was a painful subject to his master. Haohmaru was planning to tell about him killing Himaru when Hito was strong enough to kill him but due to his untimely death he was not able to.

Knowing that it was demon sword Hito was going to dispose of Oni no Ken but Oni no Ken being a Demon sword knew how to get to Hito, it told Hito that it's previous wilder was killed by Haohmaru, which was not a surprise to Hito as he saw Haohmaru as Just and invincible. But then afterwards Owari no Ken told that it's previous wielder was his father.

Hearing this at first Hito did not believe Oni no Ken but show remember his father always carrying a sword similar to Oni no ken, Jet black with red edges. For a minute Hito felt his whole world was about to crumble but then he soon got hold of himself knowing how tricker is the nature of Demon swords. The only conclusion Hito could come to why his master killed his father was that his father was also possessed by the demon sword, his master had no other choice but to kill his father no! his father was dead as soon as the demon sword possessed his body. This has to be the reason and also why the master never talked about his father. Having full trust in his master Hito did not doubt his master, coming to this conclusion Hito wanted to destroy this demon sword for good. But then Oni no Ken vowed that it never possessed his father and his father was truly killed by his master.

No matter how much trickery demon swords used they never lied therefore Demon samurais and swordsmen were never worried about Demon swords going back on their word.

Not knowing the complete story my doubts started to surface in his heart, he tried asking the Demon sword for the complete story to why his master killed his father but the Demon Sword would not tell the story it would only tell that his master was the one who murdered his father and got away with it. It said that he would have to sacrifice his soul or 1000 innocent souls as the price for the truth. Both those conditions were not something Hito would even consider. So since that day he has been roaming Japan to find the truth and polish his swordsmanship.