Episode 15

時の兄 い！ 母と息子！ 　

The Eternal Curse; Mother and Son

Kagero (Kage Houshi) revealed to Recca the truth about his past – he and Kurei were the sons of Ohka and thus, were related as half-brothers. The scar on Recca’s face was the proof of Kurei’s attempted murder on his life... 

The demon that was coming for the Hokages was Oda Nobunaga, the man who united Japan. At the meeting of the Hokages, Ohka had learnt that the demon’s forces were far greater than them. He commanded that all the maudoughs to be gathered and brought to him at once. The people were excited at the thought of using the moudoughs but Ohka told them that they were not going to. His reason was that the demon’s main intention was to have the Hokage maudoughs. Even if they win this battle, some of them may die and their maudoughs would fall into his hands. Sooner or later, the demon would come again. By and by, all of the maudoughs would eventually be in his hands and catastrophe would occurred in Japan. He smiled and challenged his men with the idea of having one village against one army for the sake of the world. His men agreeded to do so and their fate was sealed.

Sad to say, the Hokages were no match against guns, spears and horses with their ordinary ninja skills. Soon, they were wiped out like flies. Outraged, Ohka unleashed his flame but was quickly slay by the soldiers. Before he died, he thought of Recca and Kurei. The Demon moved on to eliminate the Hokage village, including women and children. In the burning prison, Kurei pleaded for help. The roof collapsed and Kurei unknowingly released his purple flame for the first time, saving himself. He walked of the prison and saw the dead corpses and burning houses. He picked up a lying sword and smiled.

Meanwhile, Kagero was running for her life, carrying Recca with her. She wished with all her heart that Recca would live through  this critical period. Then, she remembered a time-travel technique taught to her by the elder. He cautioned her not to use it because she would be cursed to live as an immortal. (Humm… then why did he bother to teach her in the first place?) Kagero used it and sent the crying Recca through the portal. However, Kurei, who had been following them, jumped up to strike but gets suck into the time portal as well. Kagero cried out in terror while the time portal closed. Suddenly, a solider from behind stabbed her with a spear. She fell to the ground. The next day, like the elder had said, she became an immortal. Kagero changed her name to Kage Houshi while she spent the next 400 years searching for Recca and now, her search was finally over.

The gang remained silent at the end of the story. Recca stubbornly refused to believe the whole thing. Fuko believed that Kagero was telling the truth based on the evidences – Recca's ability to create fire, the maudoughs and Kurei. Recca was still stubborn and said that the Hokages was none of his business. Mikagami quietly stood up and told them that 3 men were coming. While the rest was taken back by his words, Mikagami explained that being able to sense the presence of enemies was one of the abilities that a martial art fighter should possess.

The 3 crows crashed in and did a very pathetic introduction of themselves!  Hanemaru, the winged warrior (sorry can’t remember the name of the maudough that he had) had some trouble pointing out who Recca was. Another man, Saruji, tipped him that the guy who burned down Kurei’s mansion was a high school boy. So, Hanemaru slowly deleted everyone, leaving Fuko and Mikagami. Without thought, he pointed Fuko as Recca. Fuko protested loudly and a very pissed off Mikagami was mad at Hanemaru for mistaking him as a girl.

Recca walked up to Hanemaru and asked if he had deliberately missed him out. After introducing himself, Recca gave a high kick to Hanemaru. After recovering from the unexpected attack, Hanemaru showed off his super sonic speed but Recca easily pinned him to the ground and thrashed him up. Yanagi became frightened by his violent behavior. Fuko explained that too many things had happened to him at the same time, therefore, setting off a very confused and frustrated Recca. He shouldn't be blamed for his behaviour because all along he thought of himself as a normal boy with a passion for ninjas. Recca sent Hanemaru off the cliff (without using his flame at all), leaving Kuchibashimaru and Tsumemaru. They were challenged by Fuko, Domon and Mikagami for the fun of it.

Kuchibashimaru used his Beak King (a Hokage maudough) on Fuko who used Fujin's wind blade to fling it aside. However, the Beak King moved to the direction of Yanagi (who just stood there). Kagero pushed her aside and gets caught in its gasp. Kuchibashimaru set on to finish Kagero (obviously, he didn't know about her immorality). Recca snapped and somehow, brought out a fire dragon, which shot a couple of fireballs, burning Kuchibashimaru to a crisp. In the process, Saruji gets burned as well. Plus, Recca finally acknowledged Kagero as his mother.

Recca asked her if she was alright and almost placed his hands on her shoulders when a barrier stopped him. Kagero said that this was the final proof that they were mother and son. The sender of the time-travel technique would never be able to touch the person whom she sent. If Recca had been born into a peaceful time, Kagero would not have bothered to see him at all and dragged him & his friends into his destined confrontation with Kurei. Recca objected for it was not Kagero's fault that his path should cross with Kurei's once more.

Since they were unable to touch each other, all they could do was to stare at each other for a very long time...

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