Genesis Extended Ch 4 – A Shield

Satou and Sanada have arrived at Yawata no Yabushirazu. Though they can's see any temple there, they can see Torii gate with an altar or mini temple called Hokora outside.

"Look Satou!"

Sanada points out a mark of history community.

"What's that?"

"It's a collection of the theories of this forest."

"We've got no time for history, Tanaka."

"Don't tell me that you are lazy to learn history again, Satou."

"Yup, how does the tree look like, anyway? I'd like to see it myself."

Sanada lets out a sigh in disappointment after hearing the frank statement from Satou that he shakes his head.

'How did the magic tree appear in my dream?'

Satou said in his mind in wonder and confusion. He is still curious why the magic tree guarded by WTM and in a struggling appeared in his dream.

"Let's do it, best friend!"

Sanada offers him a fist bump.

"Yeah, best friend!"

Satou gives Sanada a fist bump.

Without wasting any time, the duo enters the forest. But, as they are about to enter, Sanada gets bounced away. Satou was surprised and confused by seeing that.

"Ugh!"

Sanada is trying to get up.

"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"

"I guess, I am okay. It's just like getting electrocuted."

"What the hell just happened?"

"Kekkai."

"Kekkai? What's that?"

"It's like protection magic, or I'd say a barrier. Probably only the high army of WTM can enter the forest."

"Don't tell me that the rumor about the poisoned gas is this."

"I dunno. I've made sure that I am not poisoned."

Sanada told Satou while shaking his head.

"I'm going to try it."

"Wait, Satou! It'd be better if we look for more intel--"

Not listening to what his friend said, Satou is trying to fight against the kekkai so that he can enter the forest by running to the barrier.

"Ugh! Do you think that kind of weird spell is enough to take me?"

Satou holds the force of the Kekkai with his hand, and in the end, the same thing that happened to Sanada happens to Satou. Of course, as a friend, that makes Sanada yells in anxiety and shock.

"Satou!!"

But, there is one thing that came to Satou's mind right now. It's not about the shock or whatsoever, but he did see this in his late dream.

Though it was not a kekkai, in the end, Satou could enter the forest at his will that he could set up a tent there without anyone getting him even the ranger.

"It's my memory? If that's so, why didn't I remember it?!"

The kekkai which is being held by him crushes in a blink of an eye that his whole body gets injured that he falls on his knee.

"Satou!"

Sanada yelled and runs to Satou.

"I am ok. It's just I saw that in my dream."

Satou said trying to get up with the pain he got from the kekkai he crushed. And, the effect resolves that his body is shaking in sluggish but he tries to ignore it.

"Dream? Well, you haven't told me from this morning."

"Actually, Tanaka. I always get weird dreams these days."

"Just tell me what are they, Satou!"

"In that dream, I entered the forest before."

"That's why you know about the magic tree."

"When I got electrocuted, I got a vision about the forest didn't have kekkai set on."

Hearing that, Sanada recalls Stephen Smith's command who told him to take care of Satou well.

'Don't tell me that Satou Hideaki has got involved with WTM in the first place.'

Sanada said in his mind in curiosity and confusion about this kind of mystery.

"Come, Tanaka!"

"Mhm…"

At the first impression, Yawata no Yabushirazu forest might be seen as wide as a mall parking lot, but once the kekkai crushes, the forest changes drastically that it's actually grand.

---

A lot of loud sounds of shots and slashes can be heard. Not only sound but also even a horde of men that are part of the grand groups can be seen there.

They are WTM and Isshin Kira armies. They are fighting against each other for the magic tree either it's to make us or protect. Then Yumeno Shion is seen having defeated lots of people from Isshin Kira.

"I've gone through this, but Isshin Kira has not appeared, yet, eh?"

Yumeno sees her surrounding, or it can be said, where her opponents are, as she looks confused.

"Just focus on protecting Yggdrasil."

Stephen Smith told her as he is still dealing with his opponents.

There are so many men of Isshin Kira charging to Yumeno and Stephen Smith, but some of them are managed to be defeated by the duo with their combo.

During the war, Stephen's HT radio is buzzing.

"Report! The kekkai on the forest has been crushed!"

"Say what?! Don't tell me it's Isshin Kira!?"

"No, it's Satou Hideaki dan Sanada Motohiro! The officers are rushing to get them!"

"Say what!?"

That gives Stephen some nerves.

"Satou Hideaki? Why could the likes of him crush the barrier?"

Yumeno wondered when she heard the name of Satou Hideaki.

"Hang on, you know him?"

Stephen Smith looks confused as he heard that from her.

---

Satou and Sanada who just entered the forest are ambushed by the WTM army. As the kekkai was crushed by Satou, that made his status under suspicion of the director of WTM, Satou Hideaki who suspects Satou to have a bad intention.

"Sa… na… da!! Don't you really know about what you just have done?"

One of them yelled at Sanada. The bald one. The look on his face tells Sanada that he is mad right now.

"Of course! Even so, I just can't stay silent like that!"

"Know your place, Sanada! You are one of the small fries, not the elite like us!"

Ignoring that, Sanada is still standing up after hearing such a bitter truth. He feels pain after hearing that.

"Even so, I am still one of the armies of WTM! It's just normal for the member of WTM to protect the magic tree from the danger!"

Sanada replied with solid determination. That makes the baldie puts a face of pique as a small fry like him dared to backtalk.

"Think! You are weaker than me! I am a strong member of the army! My name is…"

Satou smashes his face that he falls out of the blue.

"Shut the fuck up, baldie!!"

Satou yelled at the baldie ignoring what just he said.

"You!!"

Seeing what just Satou said, the other WTM officers are charging him, but he manages to defeat them with no haste.

"With this, we can take a breath for a while."

Satou said in relief.

"What have you done, Satou? They are from WTM, you know?"

Sanada exclaimed.

"Ah, I did it."

"Yeah, you already did."

Satou and Sanada enter the forest further.

---

On the other hand, Isshin Kira is looking at them from afar. Both of his eyes are focused on the duo, especially Satou who strangely could crush the Kekkai around the forbidden forest named Yawata no Yabushirazu.

It seems he has misjudged the guy named Satou Hideaki.

"Didn't expect that the kekkai of the forest would be destroyed. I didn't know how they did that, but it's interesting."

Isshin Kira puts a smirk as he is happy to know about the event. He becomes interested in knowing about it further.

"Do we need to wipe them up now?"

"Nah, just let them be. I wonder what will they do next"

"Wonder?"

"Right, currently our troops are fighting against WTM, right? The duo must be in the fray right now. That,s why I wonder whether Satou Hideaki will survive."

"Of course, we'll be victorious!"

"Heh, I hope so."

Isshin Kira chuckled at what his subordinate said.

---

BOOM!!

A loud sound can be heard in the whole forest. Satou and Sanada who are running to the destination can hear it too, but they just ignore it.

"Tanaka! Hide!"

Depending on his instinct, the guy told his best friend to. The duo then hides to avoid the crossfire.

"If you didn't say that, I would get shot."

Sanada said.

"Tanaka, leave them to me. Just watch my back."

"Wait---"

Not waiting for his friend's word to finish, Satou runs and pulls the hand of one of them and uses the body as his meat shield. Thanks to his act, the guy Satou used as a shield got entrapped by the one which was supposed to be for them.

---

"Hahaha! Even he killed someone with no hesitation."

Isshin Kira is laughing as he sees Satou from afar. He puts a vile happy face as he is getting attracted to see the guy named Satou Hideaki who is out of his expectation.

---

While lifting the body he uses it as a meat shield. He slowly walks approaching the army shooting at him. Many of them fall because of them. They then are charging Satou. Realizing that, he then avoids the staff coming from one of them. He then finds a way and he uses the chance to hit the gut.

"Ugh!!"

"Not done yet!"

This time, he smashes his opponent's face hard. Then, he grabs the face of one of them and kicks it with his knee that the victim falls to the ground.

Afterward, Satou leaps and gives a drop-kick to the ones shooting him. Reflexively he turns around and kicks the one beside him.

"What a pain in the ass…!"

The one with the big body yelled at him.

Satou is aiming at the neck of that big guy. With a hard grab, he strangles the guy.

"Don't underestimate him!"

"He is the strongest of us!"

Said them with a tone of pride.

---

Isshin Kira puts a smirk as he sees the army gets defeated by him from afar.

"That glare… A predator one! Just like me!"

What Isshin Kira feels is just a joy. He didn't expect that he would find someone so strong. Someone might attract him.

"How long will you stay they? Isshin Kira!"

Yumeno exclaimed releasing a heavy gale of wind to Isshin Kira, but it fails to get him as he managed to avoid it perfectly.

"As I thought, Only you can come here."

He puts a smirk on his face.

---

Hearing that, Satou just ignores it and focuses on what he will do, slamming that big guy with his chokeslam. What Satou has done made the army whose morale high, now gets a downhill.

"What's with that boy?! He is not a human, he is a monster!"

One of them said.

With the fear chilling their spine, one of them is trying to shoot Satou from the side, but Sanada manages to stop him. Sanada manages to save his best friend's life.

"Don't let your guard down, Satou!"

Sanada said.

"Heh, not bad Tanaka!"

Satou smirked.

"Don't get so cocky just because you have wiped out half of us!"

Some of them are charging in Satou's direction. There are 3 of them, and they are about to attack the guy one more time regardless he has defeated the strongest of them with no haste.

"Tanaka! Just watch my back! They might shoot me again!"

"Didn't expect that you would know that much! You probably can be an FBI agent."

Sanada is impressed by Satou and the duo is on their stance to fight. Sanada has a role of supporting Satou who is focusing on attacking.

For the first step, he smashes one of them in the face with his head butt hard, then he turns around to kick the second guy's face, and then he smashes the third guy's gut that he falls unconscious.

Then 2 more people are ready with their firearms. They aim the weapons to verdict whether it's on target or not. They shoot from the right and left sides at the same time.

But unfortunately, Sanada has shot the duo faster right before they pulled the trigger.

"Let's get to Stephen Smith before the Isshin Kira troops find us!"

"I agree with you, Tanaka!"

That said, Satou and Sanada are rushing to discover what WTM is.

---

Yumeno is attacking Isshin Kira with gales over and over, but what Isshin Kira is doing is just running avoiding them. Feeling to have a chance, he shoots a crystal from his palm in Yumeno's direction. She just blocks it by hitting it with a gale.

"How long do you think you will last with the gale?" Uwahahaha!!"

He just bursts out laughing as he launches more crystals at her.

"At least this is enough to stop you!"

Yumeno replied still blocking his attacks.

"Are you sure to leave the lovely boss of yours alone like that?"

Yumeno gets startled by hearing that. She turns around to Stephen Smith.

"That's why you are a weakling, Yumeno Shion!! You depend on protecting instead of fighting!"

Seeing his opponent lets her guard down, Isshin Kira directly attacks her with his crystal shot one more time, but this one is stronger than before. That makes her avoid it though some shards did hit her shoulder.

"Tch!"

---

Before that, Stephen Smith told Yumeno to focus on Isshin Kira, which means she had to leave the rest of Isshin Kira's troops to Stephen Smith alongside the rest of the WTM armies.

"Didn't expect that my armies are about to do a cout d'etat. And the worse case is they are on Isshin Kira's side!"

Stephen Smith is overwhelmed and panting as if he lost his breath already.

"The WTM era is over! It's the era of Isshin Kira…!"

"What do you expect from his era?"

"It's the era with no Yggdrasil…"

Stephen Smith is bursting on laughing at what interlocutors said, as he thinks that it's just mere nonsense.

"Are you an idiot or something? Yggdrasil is a magic tree found by WTM a thousand years ago, and it's like the heart of this world. If you dare to screw it, it's just like you destroy this world!"

"Are you saying about the monster of despair that they said would devastate the human race? We just believe that Isshin Kira will wipe it out!"

That just gets him shocked.

"Didn't expect that Isshin Kira knows about that."

"You are done here, Stephen Smith!!"

They said getting ready to shoot Stephen Smith. But, he is not surprised as they will kill him, but when he saw Satou and Sanada being ambushed by the horde of his armies.

"Now, Satou-san!!"

"Yeah!!"

Hearing the command, Satou nods and throws the smoke bomb amid the crowd who want to kill Stephen Smith. Seeing the chance, the duo brings him to a safe place with them.

"What are you doing here?! Sanada! Didn't I tell you not to get him involved in this?!"

He yelled at his subordinate for not following his order.

"Yeah, but it's a different story if Satou has known about the truth of the WTM, sir. Not to mention that you just told me to protect him."

Sanada answer giving a nervous smile while scratching his head.

"Say what? You are even not in the army of WTM!"

"But I am a member of WTM! It's my job as one of them to protect the magic tree, right?"

The answer Sanada gave makes Stephen Smith remain silent.

"Shut the fuck up, you two! The more important is those guys are our enemy, right? Then, I'll just wipe them out with no hesitance."

Satou puts on a smirk.

"Yeah, I leave the offense to you, Satou! I'll support you, best friend."

Sanada puts on a smirk.

"Can't you take any hint, huh?!"

Stephen Smith yelled at them, but the response he gets is a burst of laughter from Satou and Sanada. This gets on his nerve.

"Who do you think we are, Stephen san?"

"That's right Jesen, we are just idiots who love fighting!"

"Don't lump me with you, Satou san"

Back to their stance. Satou and Sanada are ready to join the fray and support each other. Satou is on melee mode and Sanada on range mode.

"Who did you call Jesen to?! Don't cry if you get hurt, you stupid brats!"

Stephen puts a smirk on.

"Plan A, Tanaka!"

"Ok!"

Saying that, Satou swiftly runs following his ideal plan by using someone's body in which he is one of them as a shield to protect him from the crossfire. After the body got shot, he throws the body at them.

"Eat this!!"

Thanks to what he has done, Satou managed to defeat most of them by making them get hit by the meat shield he threw at.

But he has just not done yet. With his quick instinct, Satou gives one of them a dropkick that the opponent falls to the ground. Then, he attacks them aggressively like a fierce monster that 6 of them fall unconscious.

"Now, Sanada!!"

Sanada nods and shoots rapidly in his best friend's direction, Satou who knows that, makes a somersault to avoid the crossfire letting them hit the opponents before him.

Stephen is surprised by seeing how the duo dealt with Isshin Kira's troops, especially Sanada who was assigned to keep an eye on Satou is a good marksman.

"Don't tell me that you trained your marksmanship all this time."

Stephen is impressed by Sanada.

"You!!"

"So this is why we couldn't arrest him?!"

Said one of them after knowing why they can't arrest Satou.

"Move! Let me put an end to him!"

Said a man with a rocket launcher.

"Tanaka! Take Jasen somewhere safe!"

Satou walked to the side and told Sanada.

"What is it, Satou? Are you freaking out?"

"They have a rocket launcher, you dumbass!"

Sanada is startled by hearing it that he takes Stephen Smith somewhere.

"Die!!"

He shoots the launcher at Satou Hideaki. Seeing that, Satou jumps to the side to avoid them.

"He shot it, eh?"

Realizing that, Satou runs in the shooter's direction.

"Stephen san, stay here! As I thought, I just can't let that doofus alone."

"Go! It's like you wouldn't listen to me if I said no though."

Sanada just chuckles and nods. He then leaves to where Satou is.

The explosion caused by the crossfire of the rocket launcher is grand, that the smoke is enveloping the surrounding, and that's what Satou was waiting for. He got the chance to walk when the smoke was created.

"He is dead perhaps."

Said one of them who suddenly falls unconscious by the stealth Satou. He uses the current situation and the smoke as his weapon.

"He is around-"

Swiftly yet unknown, Satou hits the gut of one of them that he falls unconscious. Slowly but sure the smoke gets faded and then it disappears that they know where Satou is.

Realizing that he is ambushed, Satou avoids the crossfire eventually. If a normal person in this kind of situation will be freaked out, but as Satou isn't, he runs to the shooters.

At that moment, Sanada shoots several times with his gun in Satou's direction and that makes the curly-haired guy chuckle and he avoids the bullet running in his direction that they end up hitting the troops before Satou.

"There you are, brat!"

Said them ready to shoot him.

Yet, Satou is running face in their direction, and he jumps as Sanada shoots again. The shot gets the hand of one of them that he pulls the trigger of his rocket launcher by accident.

"Ugh!?"'

Satou who is in the midair falls hitting them.

He forgot something. When the smoke disappears, Satou just realizes that he is ambushed by troops getting ready to shoot him with guns.

"Ah, shit!"

Satou grinned.

"Satou!!"

Sanada yelled averting his gaze at his best friend.

But as they shoot in Satou's direction, a gale suddenly comes hitting them that they get hurled. That impresses Satou, and Sanada looks relieved.

"Good grief I made it in time!"

Yumeno said after saving Satou.

"Hey."

Satou greeted her.

"Why is Satou doing here? It's dangerous, you know?!"

"I'm ok, don't worry."

"If I were not here, what would happen? You would get hurt!"

"Ah… thank you?"

Satou answered as he gets confused. Sanada then approaches them.

"Satou! You know her!?"

"Um… sort of. Many things happened…"

"She is Yumeno Shion, WTM's strongest officer!"

"Eh!? Seriously?"

She nods slowly with her face blushing for hearing what Sanada said. But, the most important thing for Satou is he has known the name of the girl who saved him when he was drunk, Yumeno Shion.

"Finally I know your name, Yume!"

"It's Yumeno! Didn't I tell you before?"

"Really? If you did while I was drunk, don't think that's valid. I don't remember anything when I was drunk. Hahaha!"

"So he doesn't remember when he beat up Isshin Kira's troops, eh?"

"Eh?"

"Hm?"

Hearing what she said, Sanada tries to cut their conversation off.

"So that's why they are attacking Satou?!"

Sanada exclaimed. He just knows why Satou got involved in this problem.

"That makes sense, so I got involved in this problem when I was drunk, eh?"

"You were so temperamental when you were drunk, Satou…"

Satou lets out a sigh. He nods in embarrassment and he has to admit about his bad habit when he is drunk.

"But I'm glad that you are ok!"

She said in relief seeing Satou and Sanada remain unharmed and unscratched.

"How are you, Yume? You good?"

"It's Yumeno!"

Seeing Yumeno is worried about Stephen Smith who was betrayed by his own men and they were defeated by Satou and Sanada, he gets up.

'It seems like I ask at the wrong time, doesn't it?'

Satou said in his mind.

"We won't give up to destroy WTM!"

"Especially you, Satou Hideaki!!"

They said coming in Satou's direction.

"Heh, people do not know when to give up, eh?"

"I think so."

Satou and Sanada look at each other and nod in agreement. They set the stance for another round, but Yumeno stops them.

"Leave them to me."

Yumeno said getting her power ready.

The Isshin Kira's troops get hit by some crystal running from the midair out of the blue.