Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 1 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 1===

It was deep in a remote forest.

Excluding the people who lived there, no one knew about it.

In this place, there was a small village.

The people who lived there weren't humans. They were beastkins... To be exact, cat-type beastkins whose ancestors hailed from the now defunct Japan.

The inhabitants already slept as the night had grown long. With fires burning at the village's periphery to repel wild animals, the crackling of the orange flames played during the stillness like an instrument.

In the basement below a small building inside the village, there he was.

The room, which was surrounded by stone wall, was unpleasantly cold; it was covered in complete darkness. Walking with a lit lantern, only him and his immediate surroundings were wrapped in the warm, faint light.

On the walls that were almost assimilated within the darkness, the silhouette of a short person was swaying.

Even if it was a human, it was only the height of a child. However, there were large, triangular ears on top of its head and a long tail which was split in to two parts protruding from its back. It was the cat-type beastkin with grey fur, Tomonori.

With silent footsteps he advanced inside, only the flickering fire in the lantern marked his progress.

Arriving at the inner part of the room, Tomonori stopped. He placed the lantern he held aside.

A flat, lengthy box made of paulownia wood was enshrined there. For a several seconds, Tomonori stared at it, and then he gently broke the seal.

Inside it was a single sword. Compared with the pair of short swords Tomonori usually handled, the sword was larger by far.

It was sheathed in black scabbard and sealed tightly by the sword strap.

Tomonori grabbed the sword. As if severing his intense hesitation, he took it out from the box.

"...What do you want?"

With the sword hanging in the air, Tomonori suddenly spoke.

That inquiry was directed to the presence behind him.

He could tell it was there by the smell, he didn't need to look.

The presence was looking at Tomonori's back from the entrance of the small, hidden, underground room. The unmoving figure had similar profile in silhouette, another male cat-type beastkin. He had white fur with tawny spots; a two-tone pattern.

His name was Mitsuyoshi. He was Tomonori's older brother.

"What're ya plannin' to do with that?"

Without entering into the room, Mitsuyoshi asked with calm voice.

This room was hiding things considered important for the village; a room dedicated for safekeeping. Both trespassing without reason and removing any of the objects housed within violated the village's laws.

While it was a scene in which normally Tomonori would be chastised, Mitsuyoshi didn't raise his voice. Continuing with his previous pretext, he asked again.

"Ya know what kind of sword that is, right?"

"...{{Furigana|Hihi'irokane|Time-Killing Sword}}."

Hihi'irokane

It was an powerful sword that when wielded, held the power not just to cut flesh, but also eventually sever the target's spirit.

However, this sword wasn't just that kind of object.

It had existed for many years. Tomonori and Mitsuyoshi's clan had been handing it down for generations.

Until six years ago, Tomonori and the others had been living in a mountain village in Japan. Likewise, the mountain village was passed down in the old days. Compared to this village, far larger number of cat-type beastkins had lived there.

However, that way of life had been cut short by the Black Beast.

In order to defend the old village, many of the clan's warriors challenged the Black Beast, and fell. Because of the large-scale nuclear strike, the old village's mountain was gone, burnt and demolished.

Tomonori and the other cat-type beastkins parted with many of their brethren as they made their escape to the continent. Here, they had been building a small village while living quietly.

Someday, they would regain the peaceful land from those days once more and restore the undying long history.

He strongly believed so.

"That's the treasure of our clan, its foundation... an' our old village's symbol."

Mitsuyoshi spoke quietly like the engraved shadow in the room.

Just as it had been when they were living in the now destroyed old village, this sword had been taken care of. Among the villagers, this sword was believed to be the old village's symbol. The number of people who survived the days of despair while holding onto that belief wasn't small.

Still gripping his clan's old village's sword, Tomonori dropped his arm to the side of his body.

Without looking back at his older brother, he replied in a stiff voice.

"...Wherever the clan lives, that's home. The sword is a weapon. And a weapon... has a role."

"What's the role of that fellow?"

"To cut the evil that threatens the world."

"What's the evil that threatens the world?"

"The man I must kill."

There was no hesitation in his answer. Tomonori's gaze moved to the sword he held. Different from his short swords, it emphasized its presence heavily.

Hihi'irokane. A sword beyond all definitions of space-time that could also sever spirit.

"This sword is required to kill that guy. If not this sword... it won't mean a thing."

The words of his younger brother hinted an awfully strong determination, Mitsuyoshi's eyes narrowed, as if he was weighing Tomonori's intention.

"...This ain't Clavis' instruction, is it?"

Tomonori answered with cold, unwavering voice.

"Of course not. This is my will."

"If ya act at yer own convenience, you'll lose somethin' equally big. Surely ya understand, right?"

"I'm not Clavis' servant."

Mitsuyoshi was righteousness. Tomonori was faith.

It appeared their words indicated and matched the resolution they abided in their heart.

It had been this way for a long time. Mitsuyoshi and Tomonori couldn't understand each other. Each was aware of the burden that was decided for the other and respected the other's feelings, but still, they couldn't live in the same way.

They had been aware of their differences for so long.

Therefore, Mitsuyoshi knew well that he wouldn't be able to sway his brother's faith no matter what kind of words he used. Undoubtedly, he himself possessed something that couldn't be distorted, just like Tomonori.

"...Tomonori. Ya goin' alone?"

"Of course."

"But yer opponent is the kind that makes ya need to get Hihi'irokane. Ya still doin' it?"

"I don't need any hindrance."

Tomonori's reply was cold. But inside his mind, there were the figures of half-beastkins who had been on many missions along with him as his subordinates.

They were incomplete people. Not human, or beastkin to say either. They were rejected mixed breed who didn't belong to any society.

Having no place to go, Tomonori aided them while Mitsuyoshi resolved to shelter them. Since then, the protected half-beastkins worked as Tomonori's subordinates, fighting alongside him.

If they were aware that Tomonori went alone, they would most likely grieve. However.

"...If I take them along, those guys will lose their lives."

Tomonori whispered it, as if talking to himself.

No matter what their appearance was, no matter what their race was, they were living because they had been born. Especially since the half-beastkins never knew peace and weren't permitted to establish as a species.

He himself must not have been a good leader. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to involve their lives in his selfishness.

"There's no time. You too, you mustn't been planning to loiter in a place like this."

Tomonori turned on his heel as if to shake something off.

Mitsuyoshi slightly twitched the tip of his nose.

During this time, Mitsuyoshi also had a different duty. It was to investigate that person.

The target of his investigation was Relius Clover. The man whose records Clavis tracked had something to do with the appearance of the Black Beast.

"If you're going to try to assist me, I don't need your help. This is my path."

After that last sentence, Tomonori started walking with sword and lantern in hand. Although he noticed his older brother's figure on the edge of his vision, he didn't focus on it.

There was another thing that he should focus on. He had that kind of expression.

"Tomonori."

Mitsuyoshi spoke while they were passing each other.

Mitsuyoshi also didn't take a better look at his younger brother. As if yielding to the room's entrance, he leant his back on the wall, staring at the empty paulownia box which stored a sword until a while ago.

"Since ya made up yer mind, I won't stop ya. So definitely... bring him down."

"...That is my role."

Definitely, whatever the outcome would be.

He would kill that man.

Holding killing intent and a sense of duty that were like blades in his chest, Tomonori through the dead of night towards Ishana.