Location: Kamo Main Estate, Council Room
Time: 08:00 AM | Late March 1897
SLIDE.
Elder Goro pushed the heavy paper doors open and stepped into the room.
He looked completely exhausted.
His dark kimono was covered in thick soot from the early morning train ride from Tokyo.
He walked past the seven other elders sitting on the tatami mats and dropped to his knees.
THUD.
Goro pulled a folded, officially stamped government document from his sleeve.
He placed it directly on the low wooden table in front of Noritoshi Kamo.
"...I just got back from the capital, Lord Noritoshi," Goro breathed heavily. "...I sat in the gallery of the Imperial Diet for the past three weeks."
Noritoshi sat quietly at the head of the table.
The nearly eighty-year-old clan head adjusted his tall silk hat.
"...What is the final word?" Noritoshi asked calmly.
Goro wiped a layer of cold sweat off his wrinkled forehead.
"...They argued fiercely for weeks," Goro reported. "...But Emperor Meiji officially signed the bill yesterday afternoon."
Goro tapped his finger against the stamped paper.
TAP. TAP.
"...The Gold Standard is now the absolute law of Japan," Goro finished.
Elder Yasu sat next to Goro and immediately rubbed his temples.
He let out a long, stressed groan.
"...This is a complete disaster for us," Yasu muttered to the room. "...Our inner vaults hold over three hundred years of accumulated silver ingots."
Yasu looked up at Noritoshi with genuine panic in his eyes.
"...The government is giving the country exactly six months to prepare," Yasu explained quickly. "...In October, paper Yen tied strictly to gold becomes the only legal tender."
Several other elders shifted uncomfortably on their floor cushions.
They murmured in deep agreement.
"...Our vast wealth is about to become completely useless metal," another elder added nervously.
Noritoshi reached out and picked up his porcelain teacup.
He took a very slow sip of his hot green tea.
SIP.
He looked at the sweating, worried faces of his top advisors.
He slowly lowered the teacup to the wooden saucer.
CLACK.
"...You are all panicking over absolutely nothing," Noritoshi said softly.
The eight elders instantly fell quiet.
"...Goro, you will get back on the train to Tokyo tonight," Noritoshi ordered.
Goro blinked in surprise but quickly nodded.
"...Use our government contracts and your contacts in the Imperial banks," Noritoshi instructed. "...Quietly exchange every single ounce of our silver for physical gold bullion."
Yasu frowned and leaned forward slightly.
"...But Lord Noritoshi, moving that much silver before the October deadline will draw a lot of attention," Yasu warned. "...The banks will ask questions."
Noritoshi smiled.
It was a small, incredibly grounded smile.
"...Let them ask questions," Noritoshi replied. "...Because you are missing the true value of this new law."
He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table.
"...Once paper money is tied strictly to gold in October, the central bank will completely stop printing cash," Noritoshi explained.
He looked directly at Yasu.
"...By early next year, a massive cash famine will hit this country," Noritoshi continued. "...Paper money will dry up entirely."
Yasu tilted his head, slowly processing the financial reality.
"...Think about the Zen'in clan," Noritoshi prompted smoothly. "...Think about how deeply they despise taking orders from modern government laws."
Goro let out a sudden, sharp breath of realization.
"...They are too arrogant to convert their vaults," Goro whispered.
Noritoshi nodded slowly.
"...Exactly," Noritoshi agreed. "...They will stubbornly keep their silver out of pure traditional pride."
He picked his teacup back up.
"...When the cash famine hits next year, the Zen'in and the minor independent clans will not be able to pay for basic supplies," Noritoshi stated. "...Their silver will be dead weight."
He took another sip of his tea.
"...And when they start starving, we will step in," Noritoshi finished. "...We will use our new gold to buy their ancestral cursed tools and territories for absolute fractions of their worth."
"..."
The council room remained completely silent for a long moment.
The elders stared at their Clan Head in pure awe.
They finally understood the sheer scale of the trap.
Yasu immediately dropped his forehead flat against the tatami mats.
"...We will begin the transfers today, Lord Noritoshi," Yasu promised deeply.
The other seven elders quickly bowed to the floor.
Kenjaku looked down at the top of their heads.
'All it takes is a little push,' Kenjaku thought internally.
--<>--
Location: Third Communal House
Time: 08:45 AM | March 30, 1897
Hanzo sat alone at a small wooden desk in his sleeping quarters.
He had finished his morning laundry quota hours ahead of schedule.
Channeling a small amount of cursed energy into his arms made the heavy scrubbing incredibly fast.
The other servants were still outside working in the washing yard.
Today was his eighth birthday.
He kept the date a complete secret from Matron Ota and the rest.
Hanzo grabbed a thin bamboo brush and dipped it into a stone inkwell.
TAP.
He pulled a blank strip of parchment paper flat onto the wood.
He painted a dense, complex string of Kanji down the center of the paper.
He wrote the exact conditions of his intended barrier directly onto the parchment.
'Suppress the cursed aura. Isolate the internal presence. Reject external tracking.'
SWIPE. SWISH.
He looked down at the wet black ink.
The writing possessed zero power on its own.
The complex Kanji just served as a physical blueprint for the energy to hold into later.
Hanzo set the brush down and closed his eyes.
HUFF-PUFF.
His mind drifted back to his hunt from a few weeks ago.
...
[Flashback] This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
A Grade 2 cursed spirit charged blindly through the packed snow.
It swung a muddy fist the size of a boulder directly at Hanzo's head.
Hanzo crossed his index and middle fingers.
"...Split the Void!" Hanzo chanted aggressively.
FWOOSH.
The flat blue barrier snapped into existence.
The beast slammed its heavy fist into the semi-transparent wall.
SMASH.
The impact sent a violent shockwave through the dirt.
SCREEE.
The curse shrieked as its thick fingers broke backward against the wall.
The beast failed to leave a single scratch on the surface.
Hanzo dropped the wall and executed the dazed curse with his wooden sickles.
He walked deeper into the dark woods to catch his breath.
He stopped walking.
A small piece of paper was pegged to a thick pine tree.
It was a Kamo perimeter talisman.
Hanzo stared at the weathered parchment.
His mind flashed back to the anime he watched in his past life.
'Yuji Itadori held Sukuna's finger wrapped tightly in a paper seal,' Hanzo remembered clearly.
A massive defensive wall was completely useless for a stealth heist.
The three of the Death Paintings were Special Grade Cursed Wombs.
They constantly radiated a toxic, highly noticeable energy signature.
He needed to acquire them without alerting anyone.
He needed a form-fitting, compressed barrier seal to wrap around the jars.
...
[Present Day]
Hanzo opened his eyes and stared at the paper on his desk.
He raised his right hand and held it directly over the parchment.
He closed his eyes again.
He actively visualized a highly complex, cubic Bounded Field.
He matched the mental conditions perfectly to the written Kanji.
'Suppress the aura. Isolate the presence.'
He funneled a small amount of his cursed energy into the visualization.
The barrier formed in his head.
Hanzo gritted his teeth and forced the structure to compress.
He shrank the massive mental dome down to the exact millimeter dimensions of the paper strip.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
Micro-engineering required intense, draining focus. He's been doing this for weeks now.
Hanzo opened his eyes and pushed his right hand flat against the paper.
SLAP.
'I trap this barrier inside this physical parchment,' Hanzo dictated the binding vow completely in his head.
'If the paper tears, the barrier dies.'
He pushed his compressed cursed energy directly into the wet ink tracks.
The ink flashed briefly with a faint blue light.
The microscopic barrier sank perfectly into the physical fibers of the written vows.
The universe accepted the silent equivalent exchange.
Hanzo lifted his hand away from the desk.
He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead with his sleeve.
He picked up the completed talisman.
"Is this okay?"
The paper felt slightly heavier than before.
Hanzo folded the talisman carefully and tucked it deep inside his gray shirt.
"Let's test is again tonight."
--<>--
Location: Kyoto Underground, Reggie's Hideout
Time: 02:00 PM | Late April 1897
THUD.
A heavy wooden chest slammed onto the damp dirt floor.
A bruised, low-level curse user wiped the sweat from his chin.
"...We finished the Osaka job, Reggie," the curse user panted heavily. "...That is fifty pounds of pure clan silver."
Reggie Star sat comfortably on a stack of imported wooden shipping crates.
He wore a sharp, dark blue Western suit with a matching vest.
He looked down at the open chest of silver and let out a long, disappointed sigh.
"...Take it back," Reggie ordered flatly.
The curse user blinked in complete confusion.
"...What?" the man asked. "...This is a fortune."
Reggie hopped down from the crates.
He walked over and kicked the heavy wooden lid shut.
SLAM.
"...Silver is dead metal," Reggie stated. "...The government merchants up in Tokyo quietly stopped taking it last week."
He walked past the confused subordinate and grabbed a glass bottle of imported wine.
"...The government is pushing paper Yen and hoarding gold," Reggie explained. "...The whole country is shifting right under your feet, and you traditional idiots cannot even feel it."
Two other rogue sorcerers stepped out from the shadows of the hideout.
They followed Reggie's every word with absolute loyalty.
Reggie built his entire organization by collecting strong, desperate curse users who hated the traditional clans.
"...I am establishing a new rule for our network today," Reggie announced to the room. "...We only accept official paper Yen."
The bruised curse user scratched his head.
"...Paper burns," the man muttered. "...It tears."
Reggie smiled widely.
He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a small, printed store receipt.
"...Paper is an official contract," Reggie corrected him. "...It is a binding transaction."
He channeled his cursed energy directly into his fingertips.
FWOOSH.
A bright blue flame ignited the edge of the receipt.
The paper burned completely into ash in a single second.
"...Contractual Recreation," Reggie commanded.
A dark shadow materialized in the air near the wooden crates.
CRASH.
A massive, plush Western leather sofa fell out of the sky and slammed into the dirt.
The three rogue sorcerers jumped back in absolute shock.
He rested his arms on the soft cushions and pulled another fresh receipt from his pocket and flicked it between his fingers.
"...We are going to hoard paper cash and printed receipts," Reggie ordered his men.
--<>--
Location: Zen'in Main Estate, Kyoto
Time: 01:00 PM | A Year Later
The six-month preparation window passed exactly as the Meiji government planned.
October 1897 arrived quietly.
The Gold Standard took absolute effect across the nation.
Because the new paper Yen was legally fixed to physical gold, the central bank stopped printing money freely.
The total amount of cash circulating in Japan dropped overnight.
By March of 1898, a massive, suffocating cash famine hit the country.
The old feudal tokens and un-exchanged silver were legally dead.
The traditional clans who refused to adapt were slowly choking.
Elder Naoki Zen'in kicked a heavy wooden chest across the courtyard porch.
CRASH.
Thick silver ingots spilled violently onto the floorboards.
"...What do you mean we cannot buy the winter charcoal?!" Naoki roared at a kneeling accountant.
The accountant kept his forehead pressed firmly against the wood.
"...The local merchants refuse to take our silver, Elder," the accountant trembled. "...They demand official paper Yen."
Elder Kenzo rubbed the bridge of his nose in deep frustration.
"...We have hundreds of people to feed on this estate," Kenzo muttered.
Because of their extreme prejudice against the government, the Zen'in elders had completely ignored the six-month grace period.
Now they were suffering a humiliating liquidity crisis.
Footsteps crunched against the gravel path.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
Clan Head Zenin Shingen walked up to the wooden porch.
He carried his massive wooden spear over his right shoulder.
He looked down at the panicking elders with absolute disgust.
"...Your misplaced pride is starving the clan," Shingen stated coldly.
Naoki pointed a shaking finger at the spilled silver.
"...We are the Zenin clan!" Naoki yelled. "...We do not beg monkeys for their printed paper!"
Shingen stepped forward and rested the heavy spear against the floorboards.
THUD.
"...We do if we want to eat," Shingen replied.
He turned his back on the elders.
"...Empty out the lower armories," Shingen ordered. "...Sell all those useless Grade 3 and Grade 4 cursed weapons to the underground brokers for paper cash and negotiate with Kamo Clan regarding some of our territory."
Naoki gritted his teeth.
Shingen's authority as the clan head was absolute.
--<>--
Location: Kamo Estate, Training Grounds
Time: 05:32 PM
Hanzo stood alone near the stone washing wells.
He pulled his soaked gray training shirt over his head.
SWISH.
He tossed the wet fabric into a wooden bucket.
Today was his ninth birthday.
He looked down at his bare chest and flexed his arms.
Two continuous years of the limit-break physical vow and sealing seventy-five percent of his cursed energy yielded terrifying results.
His muscles were insanely dense.
The fibers packed tightly against his small frame.
His physical anatomy completely outpaced his peers.
Step. Step.
Loud footsteps suddenly echoed from the entrance of the courtyard.
Hanzo quickly grabbed a fresh, oversized gray shirt from the stone ledge.
He pulled it over his head.
The loose fabric completely hid his terrifying physical conditioning.
Daiki, Yumi, and Ren ran excitedly onto the training grounds.
Two older teenagers walked in right behind them.
Jin and Kenta were officially fourteen and fifteen years old now.
They both wore the dark Kamo uniforms and carried real steel blades on their belts.
They had just returned from their first low-level exorcism commissions outside the estate walls.
Hanzo smiled warmly and walked over to greet his seniors.
"...You guys finally made it back," Hanzo said cheerfully.
Daiki jumped up and down.
"...What was fighting real curses outside like?" Daiki asked eagerly.
Jin laughed and crossed his arms, acting like a hardened veteran.
"...It was a total breeze," Jin bragged. "...But the outer towns are completely miserable right now."
Kenta nodded and adjusted his sword belt.
"...The commoners are desperate," Kenta added. "...No one has any paper cash to buy food."
Hanzo sat down on the edge of the wooden porch and hugged his knees.
"...Is the outside really that bad?" Hanzo asked in an innocent, childlike voice. "...How far are the towns from our walls anyway?"
Kenta sat down next to him.
"...The nearest train station is a two-hour walk," Kenta explained happily. "...You just follow the eastern dirt road straight down the mountain."
Hanzo tilted his head in fake amazement.
"...Wow," Hanzo whispered. "...Do the guards let anyone just walk down that road?"
Jin snorted.
"...Of course not," Jin replied. "...There is a major checkpoint at the bottom of the eastern road."
Jin pointed a thumb toward the front of the estate.
"...And the main gates have three Grade 2 sorcerers on duty at all times," Jin continued. "...They check every single cart going out."
Hanzo nodded slowly.
He asked a few more harmless questions about the patrol routes.
Jin and Kenta unknowingly handed him the entire geographical layout outside the estate.
Hanzo smiled brightly at his friends.
'The eastern road is guarded, but the station is close,' Hanzo remembered, who knows if it will become useful later on.
He was nine years old now. There are still six years remaining after his self-imposed binding vow will end.
--<>--
For this story be included in the NovelPhoenix algorithm.
-Dr_Chad
--<>--
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