There were about a dozen of them. They were outfitted in combat gear that made them look like corporate samurais. Layered armor plates, broad shoulder guards, and a kabuto-inspired helmet made up the base of the outfit, but it had all been heavily modified from the days of yore when samurai still road on horses. The armor gave the intense impression of samurai, but it was also more of a “what would samurai evolve into if their culture survived into a hyper-technological future” kind of vibe.
“Who the fuck are these cyber-samurai?” asked Secilia.
“Whoever they are, they don’t look friendly,” Anthony said. “Do we run?”
“I think we missed our chance to run,” Sasha informed them.
Anthony realized what she meant several seconds later when he turned a full 360 degrees and saw they were completely surrounded. There were the cyber samurai on the walkway, of course, but there were also several on other buildings and even a number of vehicles hovering about, their headlights locked onto their group.
“What do we do?” asked Sasha.
“I don’t know, but I’m no good in a fight, so whatever we do, you two will need to protect me,” Secilia said.
Sasha rolled her eyes, but Anthony scanned the people surrounding him. There were a lot. He could kill them, but there were also a lot of civilians around, which he assumed they kept around on purpose. Several of the civilians had tried to flee and were being held down. They wanted to use them as shields. They obviously knew Anthony wouldn’t use his more powerful attacks if there were innocent people present because of how indiscriminate they were.
We can’t break through this barricade without harming innocent people. We can’t go up either, which means…
“Scuse me,” Anthony said.
“What are--hey!”
Secilia squawked when Anthony threw her over his shoulder like a sack of rice and looked at Sasha.
“Jump,” was all he said before plummeting off the side.
“OH HELL NOOOOOO!!!!” Secilia screamed into his ear as the wind whipped around them.
Anthony grimaced at the sound, which seemed far louder than normal for some reason. He landed on one of the samurai vehicles, which was all smooth angles and reminded him of a horse in name if not shape. The vehicle wobbled and the samurai sitting on it tried to attack him with a glowing sword, but he cut their body in half with a spatial blade and leapt off.
Sasha followed close behind him. She landed on her own vehicle and kicked the samurai so hard that his helmet exploded and he was tossed over the side.
“FOLLOW ME!” Anthony shouted to Sasha over Secilia’s screaming.
He didn’t know if she had acknowledged him, but he trusted her, and so he gathered his strength and leapt.
“WHOA!”
Anthony shouted as he completely overpassed the vehicle he was hoping to hop onto. His legs flailed as he soared far past the point he wanted. Out of desperation, he reached into himself, dredging up his mana and using it to manipulate the space around him. He created a line between himself and one of the passing vehicles, erasing the distance between them and landing on it. He breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t stop.
Realizing something was up with his body, Anthony tried to moderate his strength during his next leap. He still overshot his target. Since it was clear that he had no control over his strength, Anthony relied on manipulating space to reach his targets instead. Sasha followed behind him, able to keep pace despite his erratic movements.
The cyber samurai were not just going to stand idle as he leapt away. Laser fire exploded all around him and Sasha. Several of the samurai fired what looked like laser arrows from cybernetic bows. They lacked speed, but when he saw one of those arrows hit a vehicle and punch a hole clean through it, he knew what they lacked in speed, they made up for in power.
Several of the arrows were closing in on Sasha, who was doing her best to dodge them, but it became clear she wouldn’t dodge all of them. They had created a literally wall of arrows.
Anthony spun in middair, Secilia screaming in his ear still, and held out a hand. He gritted his teeth and manipulated the space directly in front of Sasha. A black sphere appeared there. The arrows all curved and went into the sphere. Anthony then created several more spheres, each one near a samurai, and the arrows were launched out, piercing the samurai instead. A few simply staggered, but some fell off their perch and disappeared from view.
They kept moving, playing a game of cat and mouse with the cyber samurai. It felt like their enemies found them no matter what they did.
“I think they are tracking us!” Sasha shouted to him.
He nodded. He had come to the same conclusion. “But how can we prevent them from tracking us?”
“If you’d be a little gentler, I can come up with something!” Secilia shouted.
“I’m being as gentle as I can,” Anthony said back.
“Ugh. Fine! Gimme a second!”
Secilia was on her IDBand and typing away at a much smaller holographic keyboard than normal. He didn’t know what, exactly, she was doing, and he didn’t have time to really pay attention. Several more of those vehicles, which he was just going to call cavalry because of how the cyber samurai rode them like they were horses, were coming in hot.
“Sasha!”
“I’ll take the left!”
Sasha was almost like a panther as she leapt from vehicle to vehicle, moving so fast the cyber samurai had a hard time tracking her. She landed on one of the vehicles and punched a hole right through it with her fist. As it went down, she leapt onto another and did the same thing. It was almost like she was playing leapfrog.
Anthony used spatial manipulation to cut through the vehicles he passed by, slicing them in half and letting the samurai plummet with their cavalry.
“Almost… done…” Secilia muttered, her voice barely heard above the wind. She tapped several more keys with finality. “And done! They can’t track us anymore! At least for now!”
“Sasha! Let’s go!” Anthony shouted.
Sasha was far away, but she must have heard him, for she began coming closer to him, continuing her game of leapfrog. Once they reconnected, the three of them landed on a walkway and bolted into the Tokyo cityscape.
***
Satoru Ganjo was one of the most powerful humans in existence and would have become next in line to becoming a leader of Custodes Daemonium if Chloe and Hendricks hadn’t been in the picture. They controlled far more of the organization than him. All he had was Japan. His influence was also suppressed by Gitsune Hagaromo, who barely tolerated Custodes Daemonium’s presence in her nation.
Now that Chloe and Hendricks were dead, Satoru saw this as his chance. Sure, he was forced to become Kane’s thrall, but he maintained his mental faculties and was even stronger now than before. With his newfound power and ally, he would take over Japan, and then expand his influence even further.
At least, he would do that once he took care of the thorn in his side.
“You lost them,” said his companion.
Satoru Ganjo grimaced. “They somehow managed to block our tracking systems.”
He had already gained control over most of Japan’s systems thanks to his partner “removing” Gitsune Hagaromo. There were several methods of tracking, including facial recognition, gait recognition, biometric tracking, and DNA surveillance. It was so comprehensive that it should have been impossible to get around.
“Our cameras are no longer functioning as they should. They are not accurately tracking faces and gaits. We also can’t track biometric and DNA signatures. I’ve sent out the drones, but they are having the same problem…”
“EMP?” asked his companion.
Satoru Ganjo grimaced as he shook his head. “They still work. It’s more like someone scrambled their programming, but I don’t know how that is possible…”
“It would take an extremely skilled hacker to do that. I’ve heard Anthony’s companion, Secilia, is quite the talent in this regard. She must have done something.”
“Can you do something with your time manipulation?” asked Satoru Ganjo.
“Perhaps… if I wasn’t containing Gitsune Hagaromo, but even using the power of my teacher, I can only barely keep her contained. That woman is extremely powerful.”
“And we haven’t found her daughter yet, so we cannot use her as leverage…”
Satoru Ganjo knew there would be bumps in the road during his takeover of Japan, but he had not expected them to be quite so difficult to traverse. He thought things would be much easier once he cut off Japan from the outside world.
“We will use manual methods to track Anthony and his group,” Satoru said at last. “I will issue orders to our thralls that they are to create a net and slowly close in to find them. We will also order the Priests and Ninja branches to help with the search. We will have the Priests search the area with their shikigam. That should help.”
“It will still be difficult in a city as large as Neo-Tokyo,” his companion said.
Satoru glared. “I know that, but what choice do we have?”
“Good point.”
The man conceded his point with a nod, and Satoru quickly issued his orders. These thralls had all been created by Kane, and they were controlled via implants. It was the perfect blend of vampire mysticism and human technology.
Satoru needed to find these people quickly and dispose of them. He had plans, and he did not want anyone to interfere with them.
***
Anthony leaned against a wall and gazed out the window. They had managed to evade their pursuers after Secilia had done… whatever it was she did. Now they were hiding inside of an abandoned building. Well, mostly abandoned. It was an older building that was going to be subject to demolition, but there were a lot of squatters inside. They had made this place their home and removing them took a lot of time and effort.
The Neo-Tokyo cityscape was quite something. Buildings so tall they seemed to peirce the stratosphere were everywhere and they were so high up that he saw nothing of the ground when he looked down. All of the buildings also had a very Asian aesthetic… which made sense. The rooftops were not the kind he was used to. They were made of royal red tiles and had a layered, sloping appearance with a gabled upper section and curved eaves. While some were simple, quite a few also possessed a very elegant wave-like curve.
“So do we know anything about those people who were chasing us?” asked Sasha.
Anthony looked back to find Sasha standing next to him. She had not been there before, and he had not sensed her move. This woman could be quite silent when she wanted to be.
Some distance away, Secilia was sitting with her legs crossed and fiddling with some scrap parts they had found for her. She was making something that would help them, though what and how was something he didn’t know.
Anthony turned back to the window. “I am fairly certain that’s Custodes Daemonium’s Samurai branch. It is a very specific branch of Custodes Daemonium that only exists here in Japan. They are masters of a wide range of weapons and unarmed martial arts.”
“Are they the only enemies we need to worry about?” asked Sasha.
Anthony shook his head. “Trinity briefed me on the kind of enemies we might fight while we’re here, and there are two more branches. There are the Priests and the Ninja. Priests use a branch of magic that is unique to Japan. It’s called Onmyōdō, and it’s like a combination of spiritual and divine magic and has a wide range of uses. Ninja are exactly what they sound like. They excel at stealth and assassination.”
“Those Ninja sound the most dangerous,” Sasha said.
“You’d think so, but the Priests are actually the greater danger to us right now. They can create shikigami, which is like magical paper familiars. They’ll use those in conjunction with their Samurai to create a net and to locate us.”
“And will they?” asked Sasha.
Anthony shrugged. “Unless we can find a way to bypass them. It all depends on Secilia.”