Celebrating 12 Years (Autumn 1607) -

A man was still snorting at the care of the plums planted in his mansion this day.

One woman there came to visit about him, but she seemed to decide to watch his back softly without making a sound. As she lays her back on a large stone nearby, she stares at the gentle look the man is taking care of the trees at best.

Two, when the man noticed the woman's gaze and looked toward her, the woman smiled nicely and bowed her head to the man.

"It's been a while. Right Guard Palace"

"This is, Lord Masencia! You've come all the way to the back of this mountain!

When the man answered the woman's greeting with such a bright voice, he stopped the hand and approached her.

This man's name is Naokimen Kuroda. He is the real brother of Rushui Kuroda, the "famous warrior under heaven", and one of Rushui's neighbors, who was also counted as "Hati Kuroda". After the death of Rushui, who was also his brother, he surrendered to Nagata Kuroda, son of Rushui and Lord of the Fukuoka clan.

And now he lived in a mansion with a large plum garden, a semi-covered life.

On the other hand, for women, Maori Masencia. He is the daughter of Sorin Otomo, one of Kyushu Sanjie, and the wife of Subao Koyakawa, who was once the owner of Kurumichi Castle.

It was seven years before they became friends. That is, that year, when a major showdown between Tokugawa Jiayang and Mitsune Ishida took place in the far east, she began her crisis by saving her husband's absence at Kurumi Castle.

Even before that, we had heard each other's names as the same Christians, but it was not enough to greet each other face-to-face.

At one time she had been deposited with her children at the right guard gate, as instructed by Rushui Kuroda, but after the death of her husband Soo-bao, she relied on the distant relatives to come to Maori Huiyuan in Haocheng, Changzhou.

Such was the day she visited the mansion of the right-hand gate, far from Changzhou.

Some nostalgia I haven't seen face to face in years, but Rightmen couldn't hide her surprise that she bothered to visit where he lived.

Masencia answered him with the same smile.

"Hehe, even if you said 'behind these mountains', wouldn't this place be as far away from Hakata"

"Still, it would have taken three days from Hakata if it was a stomach leg… you'd be tired, so let's have some tea. Come on, follow me."

Yes, the right guard urged her to take her to the mansion a little further away.

On the road, Masencia spoke to the right-hand gate.

"This one's not as different now as it used to be."

The right guard turns his eyes round to the word. Masencia smiled with her eyes narrowed as she noticed something.

"Hehe, really? You didn't know the Right Guard Hall. This was once my late husband's adoptive father, and I visited with him when the late Chancellor Tsukima was ruled."

"Were you…"

"'Cause you also know the Right Guard Hall. This one is famous for its particularly beautiful red leaf season. I've been here to see it."

"So did you come to see the red leaves again this time?

When the right guard asked, Masencia shook her head quietly.

"No, this time I came to visit the Right-Women Palace."

"Hmm... how could this suddenly happen again?

"Hehe, this life is thus in this world, thanks also to the Right Guard Hall. I wanted to thank you in advance, and this is how I got here."

"This is... but again, suddenly..."

"Hehe, God tell you... but if you..."

Yes, she made fun of it, but it's about her well researched… she must have visited herself because she felt something. Rightman had no intention of pursuing the reason. We never opened our mouths to each other, and we were silently reunited with joy.

Two people going down the road for a while. The trees, which began to tint little by little, are well reflected in the blue sky of the day. The trees were somewhere proud and windy, as this one was a red leaf attraction.

And that was when we were about to arrive at the Mansion of the Right Guard.

When the right guard stopped his foot in a certain place, he knelt down on the spot and began to give his silence.

Masencia didn't know what kind of place the occasion was, but she would still be him and she would shut up, too.

And after a while, the right-handed guard raised his face and said shyly.

"Slightly, suddenly it's perfect."

"Yeah, a little… but this place feels something special"

She seems to have something to feel. I look around in shivers. Then came into his gaze a great stone that five men could ride freely.

Noticing that gaze, Righty Gate spoke in a slightly somber voice of why he offered to keep his mouth shut.

"In this great stone lies the 'dream' of a certain samurai"

"A Samurai's 'Dream'..."

So the right-hand man, who cut the conversation, shifted his gaze toward his mansion.

No, the castle at the end of the mansion, to be precise… No, it would be precise to say 'where the castle was'.

What is that castle...

Kojiyama Castle...

And as he stared at the castle, he told him to snap.

"This castle and the castle town are the places where our two best friends once spoke of 'dreams'."

Then Masencia, keenly surveyed, asked slowly so that she could bite.

"To protect that dream... that is, to protect that mansion, which was supposed to be demolished by you, His Highness Naokimen Kuroda, who was also counted as the Kuroda Eight Tiger, went out of his way to obtain this land of autumn and moon with only a few possessions..."

The right guard nods silently. Seeing his side like that, Masencia did him a favor.

"Talk about that 'dream' … let this Maori Masencia hear it too"

When he heard it, the right guard turned his eyes blindly, but immediately returned to his serene expression and urged her to "let me tell you the rest in the mansion."

◇ ◇

Hiroshi 2 years (1556) -

"Black Master. Come on!! Thanks for waiting!!

"Ha ha! Catch up if you can! Ha ha!

In ancient times, at the foot of Mount Ancient Place, the spiritual peak where the ancestors of the Tendai sect, Mingcheng supposedly carved the statue of the pharmacist in its mountains, the boy's energetic voice echoed.

It's two figures: a boy who smiles like a shining sun, called the "Black Master", and a boy who blues the face of his age.

Two such contrasts ran through the city.

The people of the town are all watching the two with a gentle grin.

- I wonder if the Black Master has been taunted again.

- Even though you're still small, it's hard to come with a black master.

While such voices are heard from all over, the boy, known as the Black Master, tours the town as a wind, without lending ears to such things.

This is a town that has flourished to the point where it has long been known as "Xiao Kyoto in Tsukima". Still, compared to the distant land of Kyo, nature also continues to be rich and idyllic.

In spring, cherry blossoms bloom, in autumn, they burn in red leaves… such a scenic view and the sight of the people's fortunes exquisitely woven together may be said to be unique to the land.

But if you try to be a black magician born and raised in this land, that's nothing to be thankful for, it's a "natural" thing.

Now his eyes are poured on just one point, not on the streets.

And...

At last, he almost went to the place where he was going.

"Hehe! I'll climb you today!!

One tongue nodded, he lifted his head up and looked up all the time on the spot.

And what was in his sight was a small high rocky mountain, and upon its top lay a great stone. He was so determined as he looked up at that rocky mountain that his little body subsided softly.

But in an attempt to blunt his resolve like that, the accompanying boy finally caught up with him called out half a dozen times.

"Black Master. Well! I've already stopped it. Come on! My lord will piss me off...!

"Yea! Shut up!! If you're cowering, you can go anywhere without worrying about me!

The Black Master screams and scatters his little hand as he shook it off the stone indentation.

And he challenged the Rock Mountain to "battle" without even looking at the offering he was trying to praise.

For him as a child, that's just the 'wall'. Reach out one or two, but there's more ahead.

My hands are paralyzed, and my breath, which I had stopped to help, is losing its way, and my chest is about to burst.

Still, he kept reaching for his trembling hands without giving up.

"Don't lose! Crawl up!!

It was the words that kept him chanting to himself. That's what my father used to say to me when I was a young man. By mouthing it, he didn't feel like the unbeatable power of anyone would boil up.

No matter how painful it was, I felt I could do anything with this indiscretion.

And it was the same now challenging this little rocky mountain.

He can't even tell himself why he's trying to stand on this rocky mountain.

Because there's no solid reason there.

Still, he was challenging that rocky mountain with a kind of sense of purpose because he didn't stop believing that it was an opportunity to show his strength in the warring world.

My breath is rising that I stopped at some point.

I can see you're about to lose your strength.

Still, his little left hand won't let go of the stone he grabbed.

- Don't lose! Crawl up!!

Now when he recited the word to his heart, he stretched out his remaining right hand all over his eyes in a desire to grab heaven.

And finally...

"Yikes!! We did it!! Ha ha!!

He stood on a stone at the top of a rocky mountain.

Then I heard groans from below. A peek under the stone that climbed unexpectedly into that voice, what a boy with him trying so hard to climb after him.

But against a boy called the Black Master, that little boy with a little body is no longer going to be able to climb to the top of a very rocky mountain, feeling like a bug breath.

Still, the boy does not give up and is desperately eating up to catch up with his master, the Black Master, in too many tears of suffering.

"Don't lose! Crawl up!!

The Black Master encouraged the boy out loud.

Then he rode out half his body and extended his right hand wide.

"Don't lose until you grab this hand!! If your Lord is also a part of the Autumn Moon, crawl up at all costs!!

If it was meant to move the body at all, the boy would be caught in the ground beneath the rocky mountains at that moment.

But in the boy's eyes blurred with his tears, he did see the little hand of the black magician.

- Don't lose! Crawl up!!

The boy also speaks to his heart of the obscenity.

And...

"Ugh!!!

He extended his left hand toward the right hand of the Black Master, along with a shout gushing from the bottom of his belly that

- Gassi...!

The hands of two powerful boys.

When the weight of a boy hits the Black Master's body all at once, his whole body is about to be thrown out unexpectedly.

When he managed to contain it, he dragged the boy up with the power of his whole body and spirit.

"Ha ha..."

The two boys, breathing up for a while and not even breathing, fell asleep in big letters on that stone.

And...

"Phew... haha!!

and when the Black Master starts laughing heavily, the boy also

"Ha ha!!

And I blew it somewhere like that earlier and laughed out loud.

"What do you say!? Something we can't do!! I'll try to accomplish anything! Ha ha!

Yes. If the Black Master laughs off,

"Ha! We'll serve you everywhere! Ha ha!

And, the boy also tunes in to it.

With only five years of age apart, this chief obedient had the same 'dream' since this time.

That's never the big one like "Heavenly Unity" or "Upper Lo".

I just said, "If there's a wall, I'll try to get over it!," was nothing short of determination toward an invisible disorder that would be visited in the future.

These two boys...

The boy, known as the Black Master, became the second son of the Autumn Moon House of Time, and later even laid eyes on some 'Thunder God' Tachibana Dao Snow as a favorite enemy, Autumn Moon Seed (you must have noticed).

And his accompanying boy, Kei Shun , who is also his best friend by the side of the seed.

These two men stood on a large stone, a symbol, in the land of the Autumn Moon, a place name taken from the family name, looking at the view.

But when it comes to scenery, there's nothing. All you can see is the wild bird river and stone walls as usual, plus the Autumn Moon streets.

Still, they were indulging in an unspeakable sense of fulfilment, putting their thoughts to the future ahead.

Whatever happens to that future, "Don't lose! Crawl up!" With this nonsense, we can get over it.

That's what I didn't believe.

But the gear of history will relentlessly attach a ruthless future to them.

And it came just a year later.