Chihiro Rokuhira vs. Genichi Sojo is a battle between Chihiro Rokuhira and Genichi Sojo.
Seeking to know more about the seventh Enchanted Blade, Genichi Sojo entered Cafe Haru Haru to battle Chihiro and witness the blade with his own eyes. Chihiro responded in kind, aiming to deprive Sojo of his ill-gotten sword.
Prologue[]
On the morning of October 7th, the day after Chihiro's first meeting with Char, Shiba and Azami talk in a car. Azami notes that Sojo’s actions, issuing the bounty on Chihiro and Char as well as submitting Shinuchi for auction, are quite different to how Sojo normally operates. The two reason that Sojo is baiting the Kamunabi, due to his ownership of Cloud Gouger and subsequent strength.
Azami once again states Chihiro should keep a low profile, as a battle between enchanted blades would be unprecedented. In the past, the enchanted blades were all on one side, and used far from urban areas. The two look outside to note a special exhibit in honour of the 18th anniversary of the end of the Seitei War (which occurred a week ago) regarding Kunishige.
The blades are celebrated for bringing the war to an end, as is their creator, but if the enchanted blades were to be seen battling in public, the civilians’ perception of Kunishige and the blades would crumble, notes Azami. He remarks that so close to the celebrations of Kunishige’s works, if the enchanted blades were to clash in the city, Kunishige’s heroic reputation would fall to pieces.
At around the same time, Sojo confronts Norisaku Madoka for his failure to retrieve Char and subsequent decision to quit being a sorcerer, having already killed his mother. Sojo stabs Norisaku's sister and Norisaku, and as Norisaku prepares to detonate a massive amount of Daruma in order to take Sojo down with him, Sojo freezes Norisaku, exits the car and then unfreezes him, leaving Norisaku to blow up both his sister and himself.
Yesterday, the trauma-inducing sorcerer instructs his brother to watch his battle with Chihiro from the sidelines, expecting victory. However, the little brother instead witnessed his brother being cut down by Chihiro.
In the present, sometime after Norisaku’s death, the brother had used his brainwave tracking skills to locate Chihiro, and relayed this information to Sojo, telling him to kill Chihiro. Sojo acknowledges the info before attacking him. The brother forces Sojo to confront his own trauma (an enigmatic scene where a younger Sojo walked in a field of flowers while bodies filled the sky above him) but Sojo merely comments on how interesting the sorcery is before decapitating the brother.
Battle[]
Enten and Cloud Gouger face off
With a bloodied blade and newfound knowledge, Sojo brazenly walks down the street to Café Haru Haru. Sojo opens the door and Hinao starts to greet him before she is shoved aside by Sojo. Sojo slashes down at her but Chihiro parries, urging Hinao to run before noticing Sojo is holding an enchanted blade. Sojo declares the name of Cloud Gouger as clouds are emitted from the blade, and sparks fly as Sojo then calls Mei.
The noise wakes Char, who sees Sojo’s attack has blasted a large hole through the café’s wall into another room. Sojo himself talks across, questioning if Chihiro is still alive and revealing he had come there solely so they could battle with two enchanted blades. Char is terrified upon seeing Sojo and Hinao urges her to hide, but Char is worried over Chihiro.
A seemingly unharmed Chihiro responds, wondering if the blood on Cloud Gouger was from evildoers. Sojo replies he does not care about that sort of thing, prompting Chihiro to decide Sojo has no business wielding that blade. He unsheathes and calls Enten, summoning the black and tri-coloured goldfish. In return, Sojo praises Chihiro’s decision to battle, being excited to fight, and summons two clouds in the form of dragons to his side.[1]
Various thoughts regarding Sojo, Cloud Gouger, the Hishaku, Char and Shinuchi rise in Chihiro’s mind, but he decides to focus on the situation at hand first. Sojo wonders how Chihiro was nearly unscathed after his Mei, a lightning attack, struck him, and believes it to be the power of Chihiro’s blade. Sojo asks Chihiro about his blade, prompting Chihiro to question why he isn’t interested in finding Char. Realising it makes it more convenient for him, he quickly dashes out of the door, Sojo following through another door.
Sojo uses Yui to attack Chihiro
The two leap onto rooftops and Chihiro dismisses the tri-coloured goldfish as Sojo does the same with one of his cloud dragons. Sojo then commands Yui, prompting the remaining cloud dragon to turn into a huge wave of ice extending from a nearby rooftop. Chihiro quickly responds with Kuro to bisect the ice, the flying slash screaming towards Sojo as he blocks it. Sojo takes note of this ability just as Chihiro hurls his wakizashi at Sojo, forcing him to deflect it upwards as he lands on a rooftop.
Chihiro dashes behind him and attacks, but Sojo parries and knocks him back even from an awkward angle, prompting to realise Sojo’s strength. Chihiro is at least glad he’s managed to drive Sojo away from the café so Hinao and Char can escape, which they are shown doing. Seeing how much stronger Sojo is than him, Chihiro realises Sojo still isn’t going all-out yet, and thinks Nishiki would be his best choice—though due to his fatigue he’d only have one chance, and only for a few seconds.
Abruptly, Sojo remarks that he truly loves Kunishige Rokuhira, puzzling Chihiro. Sojo reveals he read everything he could about his works, the enchanted blades, in order to understand their creator. Recently, Cloud Gouger had fallen into Sojo’s hands, and he felt it was a dream come true. He then repeats his question, asking Chihiro where he got his enchanted blade from and how a seventh one could exist.
Chihiro refuses to answer, and Sojo decides to ask why he wields his sword instead, wanting to gauge if he’s worthy of it. Chihiro proceeds to voice his father’s words: to defend evil and protect the weak. Sojo completely disapproves of this reasoning, believing himself to be the only one who understands Kunishige’s true philosophy. He considers the literature calling him a hero to be an insult. Sojo believes Chihiro doesn’t understand anything and declares that the blades are just weapons of slaughter, with their only purpose being to kill.
As he proclaims his belief to Chihiro, he backflips off the rooftop onto the street, surrounded by a cloud dragon. The dragon crackles with lightning as Sojo falls, bolts rapidly shifting between the clouds and Cloud Gouger. Chihiro, anxiety flashing across his face, quickly dashes down to the street as well.
Sojo prepares to unleash Mei amongst the civilians
Sojo lands and the cloud dragon fades entirely into crackling lightning, spewing around Sojo and Cloud Gouger. Sojo praises the power of Rokuhira’s blades, before shouting out Mei. Civilians start to flee the area around, and Chihiro rushes forth to reach out his blade, the tell-tale red shade of Aka flowing across Enten’s surface. As the massive lightning blast is unleashed, no damage comes to the people; instead, a trail of destroyed earth leads to Chihiro, blade outstretched and standing heavily injured opposite Sojo.
Sojo wonders how no damage could’ve come to the civilians, and as he asks what Chihiro did, the latter explains he met lightning with lightning, as with a lightning rod that attracts lightning by emitting electricity. Sojo speculates Chihiro’s blade has lightning powers as well, not knowing Chihiro had simply used the Mei he had absorbed using Aka back in the café. He is additionally surprised that Chihiro used himself as the lightning rod, taking severe injuries to defend the people.
Believing he still held the upper hand, Sojo brings forth another lightning-emitting cloud dragon in order to use Mei again, but the lightning dissipates and the clouds disappear, surprising him. Chihiro internally recalls Cloud Gouger has a cooldown period of 10-20 seconds after it uses a highly-charged Mei, and states Sojo is the one who doesn’t understand anything.[2]
Chihiro wobbles on his feet, and Sojo mocks him, telling him not to bother trying anything after taking his lightning attack. Ignoring him, Chihiro internally reckons 10-20 seconds is enough time for the people to escape and believes the Kamunabi should be arriving soon; but decides to kill Sojo first due to his beliefs that Chihiro furiously opposes. Swaying more, Chihiro finally drops to a knee, summons the tri-coloured goldfish and declares Nishiki.
It is revealed that Nishiki ‘cloaks’ Enten’s wielder, augmenting every one of Chihiro’s attacks with spirit energy, boosting his strength and speed as a result. Even as he crouches, Chihiro winces due to the pain of his wounds, prompting Sojo to condescendingly tell him not to continue trying to show off. Internally, Sojo ponders how Chihiro is still conscious, questioning whether some spirit energy had leaked out while he was charging Mei.
He ultimately chalks it down to his mere one week of experience, before resuming his discussion on Chihiro’s philosophy, criticising the latter’s altruistic nature and attempt to protect ‘that kid’, in an attempt to buy time for Mei to recharge. Elsewhere, Hinao and Char make their way through the alleyways, having made considerable ground from the café.
Sojo states altruism is a completely inappropriate philosophy for Rokuhira’s weapons, prompting Chihiro to angrily scream at Sojo not to talk about his father. Chihiro leaps forward and slashes at Sojo, who blocks with Cloud Gouger but Chihiro’s power knocks the blade out of his hand. Sojo quickly catches the blade, noting Chihiro’s new level of strength and speed, as Chihiro dashes around Sojo.
Sojo uses Yui defensively
Sojo summons a cloud dragon from his blade in order to use Yui, ice spikes materialising from the blade in a large area around Sojo, forcing Chihiro to take a specific path towards him. Knowing where Chihiro is coming from, Sojo rears his blade at Chihiro’s neck just as Chihiro launches his own attack at Sojo’s head, the two both cancelling their attacks and dodging out of the way as the ice crumbles around them.
Sojo is impressed Chihiro managed to dodge, sweat rolling down his forehead at the exertion—Sojo himself had not made it out unscathed, a small cut visible on his cheek. Chihiro realises Sojo could not only react to his speed but also mount a counterattack. Believing he has one more exertion left in him, Chihiro prepares to finish off Sojo.
He then notices a car carrying people affiliated with Sojo, with Char's leg visible in the car, and Sojo half-heartedly chastises them for being so obvious. Chihiro is aghast, realising his focus on the enchanted blade prevented him from considering that Sojo would bring backup. Chihiro immediately dashes off in the car's direction, just as Sojo realises Mei's cooldown has finished.
Sojo does not bother to spend time charging Mei like last time, instead immediately sending forth the lightning bolt. However, a Kamunabi sorcerer facing Sojo, Shiyumi Harima, uses Gansui to summon a wall of earth from the ground, which blocks the cloud dragon’s lightning strike. Shiyumi’s colleagues of the Kamunabi’s Anti-Cloud Gouger Special Forces also arrive on scene: Makoto Kasahara and Kiyohiko Uzuki to Sojo’s right, and Hajime Kugara and Ikuto Hagiwara to his left.
Sojo takes note that the Kamunabi who have arrived are all strong in their own right, and while ordinarily he’d fight them, Shiba and Azami (in his Kamunabi uniform), standing on a roof overlooking the situation, are a problem. He gauges at his current level he wouldn’t be able to take them on.
Sojo makes his escape using Kou
Azami orders the other Kamunabi not to engage just yet. Shiba prepares to teleport to Chihiro’s location, but Azami advises him not to do so to avoid provoking Sojo. Shiba then decides to fight Sojo instead, and Azami talks him down again, stating they want to avoid the damage a potential battle might bring. Ignoring him, Shiba raises a hand sign to teleport down anyway. However, Sojo uses Kou, his clouds summoning forth a cloud of mist that envelops the area.
Chihiro speeds to the car and leaps through a window, beheading two of the three men instantly but seeing that Char is not in the car—just her severed leg. He grabs the third man and dives out the front window, the sheer force flipping the car over as it lands upside down. Chihiro interrogates the man, who reveals they had cut off Char’s leg as a distraction. Chihiro then demands what they did to Hinao, but the man only laughs, Hinao’s unconscious body visible in an alleyway.
The car explodes and Chihiro slices through the man’s neck, rapidly losing consciousness. In his mind, a thought crystallises: that Sojo is complete trash who was never worthy of wielding his father’s blade. Shiba teleports over and catches Chihiro as he falls, and Chihiro asks where Sojo is. Shiba replies he had vanished after using Kou to obscure the area. As Chihiro finally passes out, his desire to cut Sojo down slips echoes through his mouth.
Aftermath[]
In another car affiliated with Sojo, two mohawked henchmen in the back seat view Char’s legs as they regenerate, Char herself crying in agony. Sojo lands on the top of the car and clambers through the passenger seat window, and one of the henchmen asks him about his mastery of Cloud Gouger. Sojo replies he still needs to deepen his understanding, as his hand shakes.
Changing the subject, the other mohawked henchman comments they can resume the plan now that they have ‘the material’ (Char) back; the plan being to surpass Kunishige Rokuhira. Sojo thinks back on Chihiro’s inadvertent reveal that he is Kunishige’s son, and remarks they need to talk more.[3]
Chihiro is sent to a civilian hospital, where he falls unconscious for five days.[4]