A loud horn sound echoed in front of the closed doors of Kongoukaku, it was the Koutetsujou.
Inside one of the most prominent palaces in the city, a samurai knelt with his head lowered in front of the Shogun on the dais and reported loudly to him. "Report, 'Koutetsujou' has arrived from Line 4!"
"They have finally arrived". Okimasa pondered for a moment and then issued the order. "Let them in."
At this moment, at his side were the samurai commander and the senior advisor.
"Shogun, I feel something is strange..." The samurai commander whispered.
Makino Dougen also began to suggest: "How about I go meet the people and check if it's really my niece?"
"Good!" Okimasa nodded his head. When Dougen left the room, he turned to the samurai commander and ordered: "Assemble two squads of samurai and four teams of soldiers here."
"Understood!"
...
As the gates of Kongoukaku slowly rose, the Koutetsujou entered the city along the tracks, but was being aimed at from all directions by the steam cannons.
Amidst this tense atmosphere, Ayame stepped out of the front cabin of the armored train and spoke loudly to the soldiers surrounding her. "I am the governor of Aragane Station, Yomogawa Ayame."
"And we are escorting Amatori Biba here as a prisoner."
Beside her was Biba, his arms and wrists tied with ropes, looking disheveled and devastated.
"Ayame, it's really you. You've grown up a lot. Where is your father?" As soon as everyone got off the train, Dougen came over with a few samurai and asked in surprise.
"Uncle, long time no see!" Ayame looked at the other party with some surprise, looked sad when he heard the question, and softly replied: "My father was captured by the Kabane..."
"Really? It's such a pity. But you said you caught Amatori Biba. How did you do that?" Dougen looked at Biba in surprise.
"It was thanks to the efforts of everyone at Koutetsujou and after significant sacrifices."
"At that time, most of the Karikatashuu were luring the Kabane or intercepting the refugees, we moved from behind and directly occupied the Kokujou that was unprotected, and captured Amatori Biba!" Ayame explained calmly.
"I see, that's really lucky..." Dougen suddenly understood.
"Uncle, we have all lost our home, we are exhausted after traveling here from far away. We hope Kongoukaku can take us in." Ayame said sincerely.
"That's no problem, but here in Kongoukaku, regardless of whether they have injuries or not, they must be imprisoned for three days. Can you accept it?" Dougen asked.
"Understood, we are willing to accept it."
"Then you and Biba come with me to see the Shogun, while the others go to be checked." Dougen glanced at Biba, who had his head lowered, and turned to leave.
Thirty minutes later, in the Shogun's meeting room.
"Long time no see, Biba." Okimasa was sitting on the main seat looking down at the kneeling Biba. Although they were father and son, they seemed like enemies.
"That's right, father."
...
Meanwhile, the samurai and soldiers who were carrying the survivors and soldiers from the Koutetsujou to the inspection room, noticed something strange on the way.
"What's going on? Why are these people so tall? I looked at them and they are all about 1.8 meters tall!"
"Maybe that's the reason why they were able to capture Biba. How could they do it without any skills?"
"The problem is that there don't seem to be many women, children, or elderly people..."
The high-ranking samurai leading the group paused for a moment as he heard the discussions of the soldiers around him.
This made him hesitate, so he stopped his pace and turned to look at the survivors who had arrived.
"This appearance..."
Suddenly, he saw the person closest to him slowly and playfully smiling at him.
"Not good!"
Just as the high-ranking samurai was about to draw his sword, his face was instantly covered by a hand. The next second his head was cut off.
A stream of blood gushed from the neck and turned into a rain of blood drops that fell on the nearby samurai and soldiers.
"Ahhhh!"
"They're killing people!"
Amid shouts and exclamations, an army officer shouted.
"Attack!"
This clear and forceful roar drowned out all noises, but also ignited the burning flame of war. The army soldiers, who had received the order, quickly took out pistols from under their clothes and shot at the Kongoukaku soldiers who were confused and scared.
In an instant, more than ten soldiers were killed. But at that moment, all the soldiers from Kongoukaku reacted, took up defensive positions, and began to counterattack.
However, everything changed when the army soldiers threw grenades...
Not to mention the army officers who moved quickly in the field, continuously cutting down the soldiers who were firing from their defensive positions. Wherever they went, they committed unilateral massacres.
"Take the city gate!"
At the same time, on the outskirts of Kongoukaku, a dark armored train ran along the track towards the open steel gate of the city.
"Kuahahahaha!" Crocodile standing on top of the Kokujou, laughed uncontrollably and wildly as he listened to the intense gunshots coming from the city. He really liked the feeling of leading an army to occupy the capital of a country.
...
Ten minutes earlier, in the Shogun's conference room, the atmosphere became exceptionally serious under the action of a soldier who pointed his steam rifle at Biba.
This puzzled Ayame greatly.
"Stop pretending." Okimasa had a serious expression as he looked at his son.
"I know you have some plan."
He glanced at Ayame, not at all believing that this young woman could capture Biba. He thought to himself: 'Son, your biggest mistake was choosing her.'
"Bring it here." Okimasa ordered two nearby samurai, who quickly moved and took out a short knife with a red sheath and white hilt from a wooden box, presenting it respectfully.
"I found something memorable among your possessions." Okimasa took the knife in his hands, then approached Biba, who was kneeling on the ground.
Biba raised his head slightly and looked at him with a complex expression and said in a low voice: "This is the only gift you gave me. I wanted to return it to you before I died."
"Father, if you have mercy on me, please at least kill me with your own hands in the end." After saying that, Biba closed his eyes in a submissive manner.
"All right." Okimasa responded emotionlessly, gripping the scabbard with his left hand and the hilt with his right. However, just as he pulled out half of the blade, he felt a pain in his palm.
"Um?" When he opened his right hand and looked at it, he was shocked to see a spot of blood appearing on his palm and more blood gushing out of it.
"Father." At this time, Biba raised his head, looked up at his father, and said with a smile: "Before you die, I have something to tell you."
"Why I was able to survive the confrontation with the Kabane."
"The threat of Kabane is that it can lurk in the crowd. Even at this moment, they are still increasing in number, and I know how to distinguish them, so I can survive until now."
Just as he attracted everyone's attention with his words, no one noticed that Okimasa's right hand began to turn black and purple, and the blood vessels were rapidly glowing like flames.
"You talk about Kabane's bites, that's why we have to do the inspection..." The samurai commander intervened.
But Biba shook his head and smiled: "You can't find all the Kabane by inspection alone. The evidence is that there is Kabane here now!"
"What?!" As soon as he finished speaking, the samurai and soldiers in the hall looked at each other, the fear that the Kabane had caused them already deeply rooted in their hearts.
"Look closely!" Biba stood up slowly, with his hands tied behind his back, but his posture was full of energy. "After you find out, you must act before you are killed. Otherwise, the next person to become Kabane will be you!"
Every word of his penetrated everyone's hearts, making them involuntarily fearful.
Even the Ayame became nervous subconsciously.
At this moment, an armed soldier nearby noticed that the Shogun's right hand was rapidly turning black to the naked eye.
Especially the glowing veins, it made his pupils suddenly constrict, and a great sense of terror erupted in his heart, prompting him to quickly raise his steam rifle and aim it at him.
"How dare you point a gun at me..." Okimasa glared at the young soldier, but his intervention drew even more stares from samurai and soldiers. Now everyone saw the symptoms of the Kabane on the Shogun's neck.
"Look, it's the light emitted by the Kabane!" Biba straightened up and shouted excitedly. The next second, the young soldier, frightened by his voice, pulled the trigger, instantly piercing Okimasa's chest, who fell to the ground screaming.
"Keep firing!"
"Don't think a bullet can pierce a Kabane's heart in one go!"
Biba continued to fuel the panic, causing more shots to hit the Shogun's body, leaving trails of smoking blood.
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