3 Days before the Seige...
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It had been a week since the Emperor fled to Sendai, and now Eiji was left to protect, or at least just delay the inevitable, the city of Edo, which houses nearly a million people. Eiji requested a meeting with the local government of the City in the castle.
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In a dark office, a group of men in uniform and Eiji surrounded a round table, the air was thick with tension and dread. The room was silent for a while until Eiji finally spoke up,
"How many soldiers do we have?" Eiji asked, his voice was filled with worry. One of the men replied, "The Emperor only took all of our Aura Fighters and Stone-Users. We still have 80,000 men, 10,000 of them are archers." Eiji's face darkened, "That Emperor... That fucking bastard." Normally, such words against the Emperor would be considered treason, but the men agreed, "Why did the Emperor have to use us as meatshields...?" The men were silent. One of them suggested, "Why don't we escape, we could-" His words were cut short when one of them interrupted, "To where?! Where do you think the million civilians stay? We need to defend this city no matter what." One of the men exclaimed, "Against two God-Fragment Users?! Only Yamamoto-san could put up a fight!"
He wasn't wrong at all. Even with a million soldiers, that couldn't match up with the power of the Stones.
"If only... If only the Emperor left even just one Stone User here..." Eiji's voice was extremely distressed.
Eiji looked at one of the men and asked, "Do we have intel on Jisei's strength?" The man nodded and replied, "Two God-Fragment Users, Jisei and Maru... We don't know what the other one of them have..." Jisei asked, "Kibo?" The man nodded. Kibo never showed his stone, as his two brothers were the ones who did most of the work. There were no sightings of Kibo using his Stone, or if he ever had one at all.
"What about his soldiers?" Eiji asked. "Intel from the higher-ups said that he has about 70,000 men, 20,000 of which are archers." Eiji nodded, "We have the upper hand on numbers, but that doesn't mean anything against their Stones..." All of the men nodded, their faces were full of worry.
"How long has it been since his attack on Kawasaki?" Eiji asked, his voice laced with dread. "It has been 3 days since then, Yamamoto-sama." One of them replied. "There have been sightings of his army approaching Edo." One of them added. Eiji bit his finger in nervousness and asked, "What happened to the spies we planted in his army?" His men were silent, looking down in shame, and replied, "We have not received a letter from any of them since two weeks ago." Eiji's eyes widened and bit his nails. This was his first time leading a city, especially a city this large like Edo. One of the men said, "Sir, if Jisei himself would participate in the battle, then defending this city would only be a lost cau-" Eiji snapped at the man and yelled, "Do you think I don't know that?!" The man looked down in shame.
Eiji's mad face softened and sighed, "I'm sorry... I... This is just too much for me..." The men nodded and tried to comfort him, "Don't be sorry, sir, we aren't much of a help too..." They all nodded. Eiji asked, "How are the civilians doing?" One of his men replied, "They're doing fine, mostly, the Emperor hid the fact that he took all of our Stone-Users and Aura Fighters." Eiji nodded and commanded, "Tomorrow, gather all of our remaining soldiers and train them." The men replied in unison, "Yes sir!" Eiji, despite the situation, smiled with satisfaction, "The meeting here is finished, you may now go." The men bowed down and left the office, now, only Eiji was left. He sighed as he retired down onto his chair, "I'm fucked..." He was already 60 years old, that's why the Emperor left an aging Stone-User as the new leader of Edo so that he wouldn't lose too much. Eiji knew that fact and could only rest his head on the table.
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Eiji walked around the city, admiring the view before its inevitable destruction from Jisei's conquest. Despite the peaceful scenery, he couldn't enjoy it at all, as his heart was heavy with the approaching battle. As he was walking around the roads, the view of the kids playing, the old people scolding them, and the street sellers yelling for their goods, did cheer him up a little bit. The people continued on with their lives as if nothing was going on. That did worry Eiji a little bit, knowing that he must evacuate the civilians soon. But for now, he should just let the people live their lives even just for one day.
He was walking around until one mischievous little girl called out to him, "Hey, mister!" The kid ran towards him. She was a young kid, full of brightness. The girl was literally so small, that Eiji could kneel and still be taller than her. The girl asked him, "Are you the new guy here?" Eiji nodded and replied, "Yes, why do you ask, kid?" The girl grinned widely, her eyes narrowing, "Hehe, my dad told me that you will protect this city with the other strong guys!" Eiji put up a strained smile, not wanting to scare the kid, "Why, yes of course." The girl smiled brightly. Eiji kneeled down and patted her head, "What is your name, kid?" The girl smirked smugly, "Miyako!" Eiji smiled and stood up. He said, "Go home now, kid" Miyako nodded and ran away. Eiji felt terrible lying to the kid, thinking that this would be the last time he would ever see the smiles on their faces. He retreated back to his office after a while.
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Eiji was sitting in his office, writing some reports when one of the men from the earlier meeting slammed the door open and yelled, "Sir! We must hold a meeting immediately!"
Eiji's eyes widened and asked, "Did something happen?" The man bit his lower lip and replied, "One of our scouts reported that..."
Eiji's heart was beating fast while waiting for the man to finish his words.
The man added, "Jisei has set up an encampment three miles away from here."
Eiji exhaled and thought about something for a while. The man was waiting anxiously for Eiji's response until he finally replied, "Tell the others to come here, we have to discuss this."
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