Tokyo Ghoul: Hermetic Chronicles

The Swordsman I

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Slices could be heard as the bloodied sword carved its way into the belly of the beast, rips and tears following as it roughly made a trail of blood down to the lower region of the creature. The Swordsman insisted and kept swinging the blade, injuring his enemy with every single action. When approaching death, a red toxin began surrounding the creature's body. The Swordsman quickly remarked the beast's attempt to suicide and jumped backwards. The injuries and scars began to release a red gas, it was clearly a sign of self-destruction. The humanoid body of the hostile beast started to decompose and turned into a mist which began to spread around the area.

"Do not make contact with the toxin, Ned!" Itou alerted the Swordsman as he held his spear quinque forwards ready to defeat another foe

The merciless humanoid monsters spawned by the Dragon's organism were gathering up on the ruined streets of Tokyo, attacking and killing anything they encountered. Some were acting as drones that patrolled the area all by themselves and some were acting aggressively in packs conquering the battlefield. One of Tokyo's special wards, Shinjuku, has been dominated and completely destroyed by the Dragon Orphans. Buildings were teared down and streets were in total ruin. Swarms of Dragon Orphans blundered everyday searching for prey to slaughter. The blockades provided by the government failed to protect and it didn't take too long for the monsters to reproduce and take over the whole area. A squad consisting of 9 Ghoul Investigators was sent by the Japanese Government to deal with massacre once and for all. They were deployed on the 20th of April at 12.30pm and it was led by First Class Peacekeeper Kuramoto Itou. During the mission, an unqualified Investigator by the name of Edward Vern Rogers, also known as Ned, volunteered to come along with the others. It was illegal, but at that time it didn't matter. He was given a plain type Tsunagi which he used to fight against the Dragon Orphans. They were eventually ambushed by a large number of enemies since they alerted a patrolling drone. The problem was that most of the Dragon Orphans had a rare function; When they were harmed or killed, they would explode and release a dangerous toxin. This variant hid among its normal comrades and it was pretty difficult to notice their self-distructive function. The creatures were aggressively marching forward as the squad members were getting ready for another round.

"Oh wow, more of these boogeymen," Ned sarcastically said, "it must be my birthday!"

"Calm down," began one of the crewmembers, "Kuramoto already called for backup."

"Oh yes, we'll be definitely saved," Ned sarcastically mumbled to himself holding his quinque clenched in his right fist

Ned readjusted the grip on his sword and held it over his right shoulder, waiting for the Dragon Orphans to make their move. One of them slides forward and attempts to slash Edward's right arm with their sharp talons; however, his sword intercepted with their hand allowing Ned to trap the creature's claw on his hilt and execute a stab. Untangling the quinque and the sharp claw, both Ned and the humanoid monster back away and regain their neutral stance. The creature threw an overhand cut. Ned parried quickly, reflexively. The Dragon Orphan cut from the other side, and Ned again parried. They moved, back and forth, until he realised that the enemy still wasn't dead. Edward never practiced anything like this during his fencing lessons, so he tried to think; to act instead of react. The Dragon Orhpan kept slashing and aggressively persisting. The Swordsman used this as an advantage.

As the bloodlusted hunter rapidly swinged its sharp talons, Ned parried with his point towards the creature's head. He proceeded to thrust. Wasting no time, the Swordsman pressed the blade of the sword against the sharp talons of his foe and chopped them off. Finally, the sword's tip slipped past the monster's guard and Ned managed to cut the throat of the Dragon Orphan. He leapt backwards, making sure that there was no toxin being released. Thinking that he had gotten too cocky, Ned took two steps back and dropped his guard for a moment. Behind him, a Dragon Orphan suddenly charged in towards Edward.

"Rogers, behind you!" cried one of the crewmembers

Ned turned around, but it was too late, the muscular creature hit him so hard that he was thrown across the battlefield. He roughly landed on the ground and lost his weapon in the process. The Dragon Orphan approached the weakened Swordsman, but Itou sprinted towards him and tried to defend Edward. He positioned his quinque, Senza, behind himself for a split second before leaping forward and swinging the spear, in a large arc, from behind to the front in an anti-clockwise motion. Itou slit the chest of the Dragon Orphan, killing it. Ned was laying on the ground as his own blood was sliding down from his chin and forehead. He had signs of bruising on the face, and also had a huge difficulty getting up. Itou quickly kneeled and grabbed his wrist:

"Ned, get up," demanded Itou, "we have to keep on fighting, just a little bit more."

"Five more minutes," whispered Ned chuckling and coughing at the same time

Itou ignored Ned's response and pulled him up. He couldn't stand on his two legs very well, but it didn't matter for Itou. The First Class Peacekeeper handed the Swordsman his quinque and then, without any hesitation, returned to fighting. The Dragon Orphans kept coming one after another, they didn't stop. The Squad couldn't keep up with so many of them, they were outnumbered.

"Cursed beats!" yelled one of the crewmembers in agony and rage

The Investigators faced the monsters and fought with everything they had, but it was all hopeless. They teared down their enemy and moved to the next one. This endless and desperate battle of sorrow only had one ending. Ned joined his comrades in a last battle against the Dragon Orphans by charging recklessly at them. In his attempt to perform a slash with his quinque, Edward gets striked across the back and instantly falls down unconscious due to the injuries sustained in the battle. The others are quickly dealt with, leaving no one standing up except for the dominating monsters. Moments later, the backup Kuramoto called obviously arrived too late, but when it did, they quickly distracted the swarm of Dragon Orphans and retrieved the bodies of the Investigators for further treatment. The mission was a failure, but it didn't end there, it was simply just a new path for the Swordsman to take.