Gozo Kamiizumi. Born as the third son of Masatsuna Kamiizumi, the head of the Kamiizumi family—one of the families bearing the duty of Guardian—two generations prior (counting back from the current head, Mototsugu). He possessed excellent aptitude for magic and martial arts from the start, rising to become the top candidate for the General Instructor of Shinkage-ryu Sword Arts at the age of twenty.
Gozo himself enjoyed mastering martial arts and magic so much that he paid no heed to the succession or family business of the Kamiizumi clan. Then, the year after he completed the Strategic-Class Magic Thunderclap Final Dragon (Hell End Dragon), he welcomed Kaname—a member of the Kagurazaka family and the elder sister of Senhime, who had succeeded as the current head at the age of twenty—as his wife. At this time (AD 2030), Gozo Kamiizumi was twenty-two years old.
During the Twenty-Years' War, Gozo flew around the world as a member of an extra-legal unit responsible for nuclear deterrence. For a long period of about seventeen years, spending more than half of each year overseas with his wife, what greeted Gozo upon his return to Japan was the news that Maya Yotsuba had been kidnapped by the Kunlun Fang Institute of the Great Han and subsequently rescued.
Hearing this, Gozo immediately rushed to the Yotsuba main house. What he witnessed there was a tearful Miya and a Maya whose eyes looked as if she had attained a terrifying level of detachment from everything.
—Are you Gozo-san? ...I'm sorry, I can no longer behave as I used to.
At her words of apology, Gozo shed tears and embraced Maya. This surprised even Miya, causing her eyes to widen. "I'm sorry," Gozo murmured, then separated from Maya and headed straight for their father, Genzo Yotsuba.
"Gozo... I have decided."
"You don't mean to do it, do you?"
"I do. Do not stop me, Gozo. This is the private grudge of 'Yotsuba,' as the father of Maya and Miya. It is not something for you to stick your neck into."
Genzo's will was firm. But Gozo did not give up. Genzo's wife had already passed away; Genzo was the only flesh and blood the two sisters had left. Gozo pressed him, asking if he intended to force the misfortune of being orphans upon them. However, neither man had any intention of yielding to the other, and in the end, Genzo brushed Gozo's hand away.
—I'm sorry, Gozo. Please go home.
After much agonizing, Gozo turned to his connections—the Senate—as a means of offering at least some help. He sent Tadanori Hayama to serve as the Yotsuba's strategist, and Gozo himself joined the drama of revenge. Watching the Yotsuba members die one after another, Gozo felt a sense of frustration bordering on impatience.
Then, at the stage of storming into the core of the Kunlun Fang Institute, Gozo reunited with Genzo.
"...Genzo."
"Gozo, is it...? I thought you might come."
"Genzo. It's still... it's still not too late. If I unleash my Strategic-Class Magic, I can annihilate the Kunlun Fang Institute."
With Gozo's Strategic-Class Magic Hell End Dragon, they could end this without further sacrifice. It was the last chance for Genzo to survive. But Genzo rejected the proposal.
"Sorry, Gozo. Now that the clan has staked their lives to get this far, it would be meaningless if I didn't stake mine as well. I would not be able to face the twenty-seven who have already died."
"I'm not one to talk, but don't start speaking like a samurai now! If you die, who will watch over Maya and Miya! You are their father, and you are irreplaceable!!"
Although his life overseas had been long, Gozo and Kaname had been blessed with children, and the future of the next generation of Kamiizumi looked bright. But if the Yotsuba lost Genzo here and now, Maya and Miya would undoubtedly come to hate the world. Because Gozo was a father himself, he strongly pressed Genzo to "live."
Even so, Genzo shook his head and tossed two letters to Gozo.
"Give those to my daughters... I was happy to have met you, to have spent time honing our skills together."
Leaving those words behind, Genzo disappeared into the Kunlun Fang Institute. Magic suddenly assailed Gozo as he tried to give chase, but he dodged it with his innate reflexes.
Approaching from the direction the magic came from was the Great Han Army. Facing an army of roughly 50,000, Gozo shoved the letters into his breast pocket and drew the six live blades sheathed at his sides. Azure lightning burst from the blades he gripped; the sky was instantly wrapped in dark clouds, and a rain of lightning poured down.
—And then, Gozo wept.
"You people... If only you people didn't exist... Genzo and I... I will not forgive you, Great Han (Dahan). Atone for the lives of the fallen Yotsuba with your own!!"
Gozo achieved what he called "matching a thousand warriors"—cutting down 1,000 soldiers whose corpses remained intact. The final tally of his destruction included not only the manpower but the annihilation of approximately one million Great Han soldiers, about 100,000 army tanks, roughly 27,000 air force fighter jets, and about 150 naval vessels. However, as a price for this, Gozo injured his Magic Calculation Area, making long-duration, high-output magic acts difficult.
Later, Gozo was struck by further tragedy: the death of his older brother, who was seen as the next head, and the death of his own eldest son, Sadatsuna. The order for the assassination of Sadatsuna and Genzo had come from a member of the Tōdō family, one of the Four Elders of the Senate. Upon hearing this from Senhime, Gozo took his swords and raided the Tōdō household.
"W-Wait, Lord Gozo! This... this was unavoidable! So please, just spare my l-life...!!"
"Silence. For your selfishness, you killed Sadatsuna, Genzo, Maya, Miya... The sin of killing my son and the Yotsuba is worth ten thousand deaths. Rest assured, I will forgive the Tōdō house with your life alone. Go to hell and apologize to Genzo."
Declaring that a man who had never truly staked his life had no right to speak of the weight of life, Gozo severed the head of the Tōdō elder from his body. After that, Gozo distanced himself from the secular world as the General Instructor of Shinkage-ryu, living only for martial arts. However, nine years ago, he "lost" his wife, Kaname, who had been acting as the head of the family in his stead.
It was a life full of loss, but there were things he gained in return. One of them was Yugen, born as the third son of the Mitsuya family. Yugen lived a sickly life due to his abnormal innate magical aptitude and was given a life expectancy of ten years. But nine years ago, he was "reborn."
"Alright, next you're going to deflect a rain of wooden swords with a single shuriken!"
"What are you saying, old man!?"
There were times when the training was quite reckless, and because Gozo dragged him around everywhere, he couldn't let Yugen live a typical adolescent life. Still, for Gozo, it was fun. Watching his older brother Mototsugu, Gozo's granddaughter Chisato, and the members of the Mitsuya family—Gozo's own grandchildren—grow stronger with Yugen as the catalyst, Gozo eventually came to wish, "I want to live longer."
And when the letters for the Yotsuba were found, thanks to Yugen's magic, Gozo acquired the technical skill of his old age combined with the magical power of his prime. When he learned that Yugen was a "reincarnator," Gozo was surprised but accepted it. He felt no fear or dread, only a certain sense of nostalgia.
As if thinking, He resembles my wife, Kaname, in some way.
Although he had ceded the position of the Kamiizumi family head to Mototsugu, Gozo's status as the General Instructor of Shinkage-ryu Sword Arts remained intact. He intended to pass this title to Mototsugu soon as well.
It was this Gozo who visited the Yotsuba main house. As he was a personage who had maintained a friendship since the time of the previous head, Genzo Yotsuba, the reception by the main house was extremely polite. Maya, the current head representing the clan, invited him into her private room.
"Honestly, you startled us. The whole house was thrown into a panic, turning upside down."
"Hahaha, back when Genzo was the head, I used to come by like this all the time. Though Tadanori noticed me."
"Well, he is someone who was thoroughly trained by you, Gozo-sama."
Gozo's visit without an appointment truly caused an uproar in the house, with some servants feeling anxious about "what on earth had happened," but Hayama, upon seeing Gozo, understood everything and issued appropriate instructions, calming the commotion.
The habit of surprising Maya and Miya was, in fact, something they had picked up from Gozo and Senhime.
"Well, next time I shall send a messenger. Today, in addition to greeting you regarding my impending retirement, I have come to coordinate regarding the matter of Gu Jie (Jied Hage)."
"Retirement, you say? ...You certainly don't look the part."
Maya, who looked just over thirty but was actually forty-seven, spoke to Gozo, who looked to be in his mid-thirties but was actually eighty-nine. To an uninformed third party, it would look like nothing more than a man and woman in their thirties conversing. When Maya questioned Gozo, whose appearance seemed far removed from retirement, he let out a wry laugh and began to speak.
"I passed the seat of the head to Mototsugu, but I still hold the title of General Instructor of Shinkage-ryu. Once the matter with Gu Jie is settled, I will pass the status of General Instructor to Mototsugu as well. That will finally mark a turning point. I will also transfer the teaching duties to Mototsugu, so I leave that in your hands."
"Understood. However, for you, Gozo-san, who has taken care of us since my father's time, to retire so simply... is something wrong?"
The Kamiizumi family served as instructors in martial arts and magic for the Twenty-Eight Families (though due to recent events, they had ceased instruction for some families), and the Yotsuba family, in particular, received many benefits behind the scenes. In that sense, it wasn't strange for Gozo to come to explain, but Maya suspected his health might be failing. In response to her suspicion, Gozo smiled as if to dispel her anxiety.
"Nothing of the sort. With Yugen inheriting the Kagurazaka name from Senhime, and Retsu finally resolving to settle things, I simply decided to step back from the front lines. When one grows old, one's thinking becomes rigid, after all."
"Even from my perspective, I think you are plenty young."
"Still, I wanted to decide my own time to withdraw... If I have any regrets after slaying Gu Jie, it would only be that I couldn't bring back the remains of those who were left behind in the former Great Han."
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded over 70 chapters of this story on Patreon.
If you're enjoying it and want to read ahead, feel free to check them out here:
[patreon.com/Greyhounds]
Thanks a lot for your support, it really helps me keep going.
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"