Jiro Minamoto's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

The new forge had proven the blade. Now Dracula wanted proof of the man. He summoned Jiro to the field below the castle, where ten thousand of his royal guard stood in ranks. Each wore black samurai armor and held a long silver spear. Behind Jiro waited his eighty recruits, watching. Hanako stood at his side. "He does not want a demonstration," she said. "He wants to see if your way can beat his numbers." Dracula rode out on a black horse. He wore his dragon medallion and a red velvet cape. His voice carried across the field without effort. "You claim one Minamoto blade can fell a nation," he said. "My guard is a nation. Face them alone, or your army is a story." He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. The challenge was final. Jiro looked at the ranks. Ten thousand spears. He looked at his eighty. They needed to believe. He drew his gold-and-silver blade. The diamonds on the guard caught the moonlight. "Alone," he agreed. He walked into the guard. The first rank lowered their spears. Jiro did not slow. He had trained his body to strike before his mind could doubt. His blade moved on its own. He cut through spear shafts, then the arms holding them. He did not fight ten thousand men. He fought one man ten thousand times, the same cut, over and over. The guard closed around him. He vanished into black armor. Hanako gripped her own katana but did not move. Dracula had said alone. She would not shame her uncle. She watched the mass of soldiers churn and fall inward, like water down a drain. An hour passed. The field went quiet. Jiro stood in a ring of the dead and the disarmed. His kimono was torn. Black blood streaked his face. Around him, ten thousand guards knelt or lay broken. Not one still held a raised spear. He had not fallen. The eighty recruits roared. They dropped to their knees, then rose and beat their new blades against their chests. Their doubt was gone. They had seen the Minamoto way with their own eyes. They would follow Jiro into any war. Dracula dismounted. He walked to Jiro and looked at the ruin of his guard. "You have made your point," he said. He did not smile. "An army that can do this belongs to no clan but mine. You will train ten thousand more. Then I will send them where I choose." Jiro bowed. But he heard the trap in the words. Dracula had watched him crush an entire guard. Now the king feared the very weapon he had ordered. Jiro had won the field and lost his freedom. His army was no longer his to raise. It was Dracula's to aim. And Hanako, beside him, saw the same thing. "He will never let this power stay in Minamoto hands," she said quietly. The next fight would not be with spears.