Samurai of Hyuga Book 3 (Patreon/Early Access info on Post 1297!)

So I wanna know what everyone thinks that weird smoke thing that the MC breaths in after slaying every demon is? It’s not really anything that’s been talked about, I don’t think?

Honestly it makes me worried that the smoke is actually the demons because it seems like the demons possess a person, not so much that the person is the demon. Is the MC getting possessed? Are we gonna be running around with 6 demons in us?

Also the title the MC has is curious, isn’t it? The Sword that Cuts the Heavens. I mean. Sure there’s heavens as in the sky but also heavens as in the place good people go when they die. Shouldn’t our title reflect us cutting up demons and not a paradise for virtuous souls? I know someone mentioned that maybe the Emperor is actually the bad guy here (accidental or otherwise) and that got me thinking.

Or maybe I’m just paranoid…

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The black smoke is most likely the essence or the soul of the demon itself. If they managed to possess the ronin then the ronin haven’t shown any symptoms of it (aside from the manipulation demon’s memory block) affecting him/her so it’s hard to say at this point. And my biggest fear so far is that Satsuma may be the final demon itself because one of the prophecies says that one of the demons is still pure as of now and they could grow more powerful once they marry someone from a powerful warring clan. Who knows if the kid’s family is actually a political rival of Satsuma because we don’t know how the clan became one of the richest and powerful clans in the land of Hyuga, they could be traders or some of the clan members are connected to the high ranking military. He did say that we would have to swing the katana differently to handle this demon but it hasn’t been explained how exactly we should do that.

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The Ronin is just too darn cool to be possessed by one demon… 6 might be a different matter.

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It reminds me of this book were one of the character is the guy from a prophecy, and every time they kill one of the “undead”, the only way to make sure its dead is with this guy sucking their evil essence.

Ok, so, in this books, they form part of The Omega, an entity of pure darkness, and he can resurrect people giving them a part of himself. So, if you kill one of the undead, the essence will go back to him, but, if this guy sucks it, is destroyed and The Omega becomes weaker and weaker.

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The black smoke actually reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus.

Each time you kill a Colossus, a tendril of black smoke – implied to be a piece of Dormin – absorbs itself into Wander. He dies in the process, but Dormin’s will allows him to resurrect in the temple afterwards. After each Colossus he kills, Wander looks more and more ragged, until finally, Dormin ends up reincarnating itself in his body. Things don’t go well for Wander after that.

Considering the other references to anime and video games in this, I doubt the black smoke is a coincidental thing. The first person perspective is no guarantee that the MC won’t meet a terrible fate.

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Shhhhhhh. Don’t put this into our heads.

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Oh man! Now I’m going to worry that we won’t make it through the end of the game. LOL Darn you! :open_mouth:

Not sure what the smoke is but it seems to go into MC mouth most I’m not sure if the others had breathed it in so maybe it is only meant to happen to MC. I do think it is important and might come up as the story goes on.
Maybe it is a form of corruption for the MC.

As for the MC’s title the sword that cuts the heavens
It does make me wonder are we cutting up more than demons but the Gods instead. What if we were mislead accidentally or intentionally about the demons and why the MC is on this quest in the first place.

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That’s possible due to the fact what Shiroyama said when we killed her. She cursed us saying that if we killed her, we’d ruin Hyuga. I’d have to go back and replay the first book to be sure but I’m positive she said something similar to that.

Not only Shiroyama the Baron too when he was decapitated cursed MC and that chaos is coming and he was only trying to bring some order. And it seems with Shatao the smoke darted straight into MC, their mouth and nose. I have to say this is creepy.

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I always thought the title ‘The Sword Who Cuts the Heavens’ represented the MC’s capabilities as a swordsman and implied that they were graced with the skill to cut even those of divinity. Though, with the knowledge that ‘Jigoku Ittō-ryū’ translates to Hell’s Release Style, suggests a slightly darker significance to the title.

The concept of divinity of Emperor’s is something to take into account as well. Shintō, Japan’s traditional religion, proposes that the Emperor descended from the gods and was also in contact with them.

Now, I’m not sure if Hyuga follows the belief that their ruler is touched by the gods, but the MC’s title might just be foreboding something…

Also, I don’t think Satsuma is a demon per say, but I wouldn’t put it past the Emperor to pull some strings in order to stay in power. Though if the MC manages to survive all demons and Satsuma is the final mastermind, my ronin will gladly slay the damn lion. I never appreciated being lead around on a leash for the benefit of his hierarchy and I still don’t.

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Well the Baron cursed the ronin to living a long life so I’d hardly consider that a curse but rather a gift because usually the ronins and samurais died young and violently. I think it’s not that common to see a old person that used to be a samurai due to the whole seppuku thing they were honor bound to do when their master died. Most samurai would rather commit seppuku than to become a ronin unless their master released them from their service with honor. I may be mistaken on this part but if someone could clear this up for me, that’d be helpful since I don’t know much of their ways.

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I think though the Baron intended it as a cursed regardless of how MC could take it mainly as he says “You won this game,(your ronin’s name) I curse you to live long enough to wish you hadn’t” It certainly foreboding that something worse is going to happen. I think the demons seem to know something more about what they are letting on, unless they are just all throwing out empty threats out of spite for being defeated. Which I suppose is not impossible.

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Ha I wouldn’t be surprised if that threat was out of spite. Most villains in anime, video games and comics always curses the hero just before they are defeated. But then again the Baron was a kitsune so I also wouldn’t be surprised either if his curse came true.

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That does leave me to wonder did the Baron make MC forget out of sympathy for the emotional pain they were experiencing or to make them suffer. I wonder if the Baron knew it would weaken MC somehow.

Well that’s tough to say really. What I do think is that he probably did it out of sympathy after fighting the ronin as the illusion of Sensei and hearing him speak to him as if he was the Sensei and finding out his hatred towards him. But that’s a 50/50 because it was a manipulation demon that we were dealing with after all. He might had been a sucker for love since he did take the Kondo Butcher’s wife as his own and there’s a option to ask the illusion about Junko and we saw the grief that overcame the ronin after he/she heard Sensei’s answer but of course he didn’t know how much it would piss off the ronin at the end.

Dude, same. That’s such an overused and plainly lazy trope. I would much rather see Jun been forced to confront what he’s done and how far he has let himself fall. I want to see him deal with his demons and his horrific past but eventually move on from it. Let it go and live.

I would hate if he was just writen off as “too far gone”. As if humans aren’t the most adaptable species on the planet. Trauma is awful and life-changing but I like to think it is also conquerable.

Like you said, the MC got their chance, I just hope Jun also gets his. Whether he takes it or not that’s a different story.

But moving on, have you guys noticed that shifty-eyed sonnet-stealing bastard Basho is still around? Pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of him. For me, he’s more of an enigma than the Baron, the General and the Snake ever were. Who is Basho? What exactly does he want?

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Ugh don’t get me started on that creepy dude. First time I met him, I got such a creepy vibe from him that I just wanted to get away from him. But now seeing his actions so far, I have nothing but hatred towards him. I just hope that we’ll get an opportunity to kill him. Slowly. Originally I thought him to be the manipulation demon but it seems as if I was so wrong. But doesn’t matter, I still want to chop off his head after I’m finished with him but I do have a feeling that he’s playing a bigger part in the rebellion against Satsuma than the books implies.
He just might be the head honcho of the whole thing, trying to manipulate or trick us into killing Satsuma or someone else.

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I don’t know. He was the link between the rebellion and the fox demon, and yet it seems like he wasn’t really involved in both efforts. Like he just did it for the sake of chaos. And I know the Baron was the manipulation demon but damn if I didn’t feel more manipulated by Basho.

That dude is creepy but he’s also smart and he’s keeping our MC under his eyes. He knew we would come to that village and he made a point to leave a message. Why?

If we ever cross paths again I hope we get another juicy interrogation scene :japanese_ogre: .

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If Toshie wants to break both of his legs before we start, I’d be 100% cool with it. I just hope the kid won’t be too naive to realize that he’s not really on our side the next time we see that creepy bastard. She has to realize someday that not everyone is a good person seeing her past experiences with Junko. Even stopped me from killing the guard in the first book and ended up nearly captured because of her naivety. However, she just might end up become a political pawn since her older sister happens to be the one that is marrying Satsuma or she gets conscripted into the military due to her prowess with magic if her secret gets out to the public. Also, don’t you also find it suspicious that Satsuma chose to marry the kid’s sister? Seems like there just might be more to that part of the story, shouldn’t Satsuma know who he’s marrying? And we don’t know much about their clan save for that the kid also has a older brother but nothing else much aside from the fact they have a huge influence in Hyuga and rich enough to hire a dozen mercenary companies to find the kid if they wanted to.

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