Chapter 1173: Chapter 1173
“Get off the ships, now!”
A sharp yell echoed in the air, prompting the Japanese warriors waiting on deck to jump into the cold water below.
Miura Kazuhiro glanced behind him. The Korean Coast Guard’s patrol boats maintained their distance as if to pressure the Japanese with their presence alone.
“Sir? I always knew the Korean bastards were incompetent cowards, but even then, I didn’t expect them to hang back and spectate like that.”
“That Chinese bastard was right, sir. Korea really can’t do anything to China.”
Miura Kazuhiro furrowed his brow slightly.
‘What you said is the same as spitting in your own face.’
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t understand his subordinate’s desire to insult the Koreans. However, that statement also unintentionally slapped the face of Japan.
After all, Japan, too, couldn’t raise objections or fight back against recent actions and comments made by the Chinese government.
Miura Kazuhiro dismissively waved his hand and said, “Still, rather lukewarm of a response, don’t you think?”
“It’s to be expected, sir.”
What if something similar happened to Japan? Without a doubt, the Japanese government would’ve reacted largely the same as the Koreans. The Japanese bureaucrats were incapable of responding to unexpected crises one.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko flew a MiG-25 to Japan to defect. Despite an enemy fighter jet entering the airspace without prior communication, the Japanese Self-Defense Force famously couldn’t even do anything about it.
The overriding priority among all Japanese bureaucrats was obeying the orders of their superiors. In other words, if an unexpected situation arose and the decision-making responsibility was above someone’s pay grade, that someone would drop everything they were doing and wait for the orders from somewhere higher up the food chain.
‘I guess we... shouldn’t carelessly toss around insults, then.’
When objectively analyzed, the Koreans’ response could very well be the best one they could go with in this situation. If one couldn’t attack the unidentified enemy, at least for the time being, then it made sense to maintain a certain distance and observe said enemy’s movements.
Miura Kazuhiro turned his attention away from the Coast Guard and stared at the ocean before him.
The fishing vessels had sailed past the original drop-off point and reached somewhere much closer to the shore. Close enough that one could reach out and almost touch the dry land from the ship!
Miura Kazuhiro’s subordinates were jumping into the ocean from basically a stone’s throw away from the harbor. It would’ve been nicer if they could reach Korea without getting wet, but that would’ve been asking for too much.
Coming this close was already good enough.
After all, this spot was at least one kilometer closer to Korea than the original intended drop-off point, anyway.
Although the plan had gone a little out of whack, which could lead to various minor troubles later on, Miura Kazuhiro couldn’t care less about them.
It wasn’t his job, or Yamashiro-gumi’s for that matter, to deal with those troubles, anyway! Even if all these fishing vessels got confiscated by the Korean Coast Guard, the Chinese government or Shinichi-kai would be the ones to deal with that mess.
Knowing this, Miura Kazuhiro decided he’d do whatever the hell he wanted.
He had the authority but didn’t have to worry about the consequences of his actions. Wasn’t that the dream of every person alive?
Of course, he would never act this way if this were Japan. That was his motherland, after all. To protect his home, martial artists must never break the delicate barrier separating the martial world and the surface world.
The martial world secretly influenced the political and financial spheres of the surface world. The opposite was true, as well; the martial world could not escape the influence of the surface world’s political and financial spheres.
Breaking the balance in the surface world would undoubtedly harm the relationship between the martial world and the political and financial worlds. That would be detrimental to the martial world’s fortunes in the long run.
‘That doesn’t apply to this place!’
Miura Kazuhiro licked his lips like an insidious snake.
This place was, for the lack of better description, a land of freedom.
The warriors of Yamashiro-gumi could do whatever they want and not worry about any blowback. The only one suffering from their actions would be Korea, not Yamashiro-gumi!
They had the figurative license to go absolutely wild here!
Miura Kazuhiro gripped his favorite sword tightly.
“The Martial Assembly, is it...? People’s been telling me about that organization for quite a while now. And now, I finally get the chance to see if their fame is deserved or not!”
“Commander, sir! Please use this,” said the subordinate.
Miura Kazuhiro glanced at the vinyl wrapping presented to him and smirked deeply. He said, “I don’t need it.”
“Everyone! Assemble at the open area up ahead!” Kazuhiro roared at the warriors. And then...
He dashed off the deck and jumped ‘on’ the ocean. However!
The moment his feet landed on the ocean, a massive wall of water exploded all around him. A split second later, Miura Kazuhiro’s figure exploded forth like a bullet!
The eyes of everyone nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Miura Kazuhiro was... running on the water’s surface?!
That description wasn’t wholly accurate, however. He didn’t look that nonchalant, after all. Rather than running, Miura Kazuhiro was more like a stone rapidly skipping on the water’s surface. He was powerfully kicking the water to leap forward.
With every kick, he sank a little deeper into the ocean, but that didn’t matter in the end. By the time he stopped skipping, the water only reached up to his hips.
In other words, he arrived at the shore in the figurative blink of an eye!
From there, Miura Kazuhiro unhurriedly made his way to the dry land. The Japanese warriors, with their fighting spirit stoked by their leader’s godly demonstration, enthusiastically followed him.
Eventually, Miura Kazuhiro stood on dry land. He took his time scanning his surroundings. It was... quiet.
Even if it was early dawn, he still thought this lack of human presence was strange. This was supposed to be a wharf, after all. All the containers and large storage facilities looked eerie with only the faint light illuminating them.
Miura Kazuhiro glanced behind him. One thousand and five hundred of Kanto’s finest warriors were quickly assembling in lines behind him.
‘Now that’s a spectacular sight.’
Miura Kazuhiro had to fight numerous battles to unite the region of Kanto. Despite his extensive experience, though, this was still his first time leading an army of this scale. This group consisted of not only the elites from Yamashiro-gumi, but also the top warriors from influential gumis of Kanto.
Indeed, no one among this one-and-half thousand warriors could be called a random riff-raff. This was literally an army of elites. The true power of Kanto had assembled in this place tonight!
A satisfied grin filled Miura Kazuhiro’s face as he observed the warriors emerging from the nighttime ocean to step on to Korean soil.
He muttered, “Excellent!”
“Sir! Everyone is waiting for your orders!”
Miura Kazuhiro’s adviser, Kokubo Shigeru, bowed his head in an exemplary display of Japanese etiquette.
“Give us your orders. We swear to you, we shall conquer the peninsula!”
Miura Kazuhiro nodded in approval.
An army of this scale should be strong enough to sweep aside the bastards of the peninsula with ease. Others had been saying that the Korean bastards had become stronger these days, but were they really? They couldn’t possibly contend with such a grand army of honorable Japanese warriors!
‘Our ultimate enemy isn’t Korea.’
He must not forget that Yamashiro-gumi’s true enemy was Shinichi-kai.
Yamashiro-gumi would profit handsomely from this war. And that profit would enable it to build a firmer foundation to destroy Shinichi-kai and unite Japan under its banner one day!
The last warrior rushed outside the water and finished standing in line along with his comrades.
Miura Kazuhiro quietly studied these warriors for a few seconds before breaking his silence.
“In the past, our ancestors used to rule this land. Unfortunately, their strength was insufficient, which forced them to give up this land. However, that’s no longer the case. We have sufficient strength now. Enough strength to rule over this land! Today, we’ll announce our strength to all those living on this land!”
He spoke quietly, yet every word still carried conviction and power.
Everyone silently listened, their eyes burning fiercely in determination.
“Our priority is to act swiftly! Run as fast as the winds to take over the enemy’s stronghold and slaughter everyone daring to stand in our way!”
“Hmph! All of you, be on standby for a minute.”
Miura Kazuhiro turned away from the army, then stared ahead. Kokubo Shigeru and captains of various units rushed up to him. He glanced at them and asked, “The current situation is?”
“Sir! It looks like all the ships will get confiscated. However, that shouldn’t matter since our warriors have all safely disembarked already.”
“I see. What’s our first destination?”
“It’s the port city called Incheon.”
“Hmm...?” Miura Kazuhiro grunted. He spread open a map and studied it before nodding slightly. “Got it. What about the third wave?”
“They should be getting ready to enter the territorial waters as we speak, sir. However, since we aren’t going to cooperate with those people, we don’t have to worry about them.”
“Do not carelessly run your mouth. I decide on our plans and responses, not you.”
Kokubo Shigeru stood at attention as if to snap his spine from the momentum alone and loudly replied, “Forgive me, sir! I’ll fix the errors in my ways!”
“Insolent brat...” Miura Kazuhiro’s eyes coldly flickered. “Kumicho wishes for a total and complete victory in this war. The battle situation can change rapidly, depending on how our allies move. Not working together with them does not mean we can afford to miss what they are doing, Kokubo!”[1]
“I was being thoughtless, sir. Please forgive me.”
Miura Kazuhiro glared coldly at his adviser before nodding slightly. Criticizing one’s subordinate to remind everyone else to be more vigilant was a useful tactic to keep one’s men in line. However, he shouldn’t overdo it this time.
“Remain alert, all of you! Remember, we’re in the enemy’s territory!”
“Hmm!” Miura Kazuhiro grunted again.
While studying the map, he began scratching his chin.
Fighting the Koreans wasn’t as simple as it sounded despite them being much weaker than the Japanese warriors. And the reason for that was the Korean martial society’s unique situation. In short, the entire country was united under one banner, which was unprecedented in the martial world!
Japan’s martial society was divided into hundreds of gumis.
Although Yamashiro-gumi acted as the absolute power in Kanto, and Shinichi-kai did the same in Kansai, they were not in full control of every corner of Japan.
Each gumi fiercely protected their own slice of territory. When needed, the kumicho would issue orders to the faction members.
In other words, it was safe to assume that martial artists were present in every inch of the Japanese archipelago. This story also applied to other countries, however.
Three Kings and their factions occupied their own territories in China and exercised absolute dominion over their subjects. Meanwhile, the Round Table was a coalition of martial societies from various European countries.
However, what about South Korea? One organization called the Martial Assembly had swallowed up all the other factions in this country. In other words, every South Korean martial artist was affiliated with the Assembly in one way or the other!
This war would continue on unless the Japanese conquered the Martial Assembly. However, that organization was a gathering of South Korea’s strongest elites.
Simply occupying some territory, a la capture-the-flag, in Korea would not be enough to decide who won this war.
So, the Japanese planned to surround the Martial Assembly HQ from three directions with the first wave, Miura Kazuhiro’s second wave, and the yet-to-arrive third wave before unleashing an all-out attack. Since that was the overall plan, deciding on the ‘right’ direction to attack from was the key to the victory.
Carelessly moving around could result in the second wave getting surrounded by the Assembly’s forces instead. Worse still, the Japanese warriors might get annihilated in that case, too!
Miura Kazuhiro glanced at one of the captains and asked, “Any communication from the first wave?”
“No, sir. Nothing yet.”
“Pathetic bastards...”
Miura Kazuhiro furrowed his brow slightly.
Since no one was here to greet the Japanese, it could mean the advance party was doing its job of distracting the enemy. Even if that was true, Miura Kazuhiro was not so keen to offer a heartfelt praise to the advance party members, which was led by Shinichi-kai’s people.
“Fine. For now, we ignore the first wave and stick to the plan. Our next destination is Incheon! Remain vigilant and stealthy, as we must avoid being seen as much as possible!”
Just as the energetic roar of the army rang out...
“Well, well, well. Sorry about this, but...”
A deep, powerful voice suddenly dug into Miura Kazuhiro’s hearing. His head snapped in the direction of the voice.
“...Too bad, you guys have already been spotted.”
The location of that voice was a pitch-black narrow alleyway between two large storage buildings. Despite the darkness, though, Miura Kazuhiro still spotted a silhouette of a person slowly revealing itself.
‘...Is that an optical illusion?’
No, he was wrong. No matter how narrow that alleyway was, it should still be wide enough for three grown men to stand side by side. It only looked narrow because the silhouette was so big. Anyone could’ve made that mistake.
So, Miura Kazuhiro should be forgiven for this minor mistake.
The silhouette leisurely stepped outside the darkness of the alleyway and into the streetlight. And for a moment there, the sense of reality in everyone’s mind went out of whack.
A giant that must’ve escaped from some video game now stood imposingly before the alleyway to dominate everyone’s view.
Even the one and only Miura Kazuhiro stood there, his jaw falling in shock, at the appearance of this nonsensically massive giant!
Of course he had heard about this giant before. One of the Martial Assembly’s executives apparently possessed a gigantic physique, or so he heard.
And the name of the giant that reputedly possessed a physique of a god was...!
A shocked gasp forced its way out of Miura Kazuhiro’s lips.
1. “Kumicho,” also known as “oyabun,” is the boss of Yakuza and is equivalent to “godfather.” ☜