The Replayer

Calm of Action

It all began in the Meiji period, 19th century, when Japan aggressively obtained western knowledge. Concepts like mathematics, schematic diagrams, electricity, and much more were introduced throughout Japan. However, it was not just society that changed. Traditional arts also merged with science. Arts such as Ninjutsu, Budo and Kenjutsu began developing more methodically, with considerations to modern scientific concepts like nervous systems, and geometrical calculations to determine the weakness of structures. Also, once desolate concepts such as Kaze-ryu, Hikae-jutsu and other lesser known arts that underwent research for centuries without fruit suddenly saw huge breakthroughs, to the point that these once thought impractical skills were implemented into the fighting styles of ninja villages that were initially strong enough already to survive various deadly wars and purges during the Japan civil wars.

Amongst these arts, the Kaze-ryu, its name roughly meaning imitating the wind. Gives the wielder the ability to affect objects from a distance away using your actions. For example, crushing your opponent's skull when they are still kilometres away, or surveilling a target that is on the next island. Through math and physics, the researchers were able to determine and calculate how each move should be taken, discard various ancient teachings, and implement new ones based on the concepts established in the Sengoku period. When the first breakthroughs were made, and the basics established, it was easy for this art to mature swiftly based on the centuries of data, experiments and concepts recorded.

The other one, Hikae-jutsu, was inspired by when someone saw how blowing a leaf could change its shape, thus prompting a few thousand years of research yielding none. Hikae-jutsu is the fighting style which believes everything around you can be manipulated. Different from Kaze-ryu focusing on internal coordination, the Hikae martial style focuses on external surroundings. The Hikae concepts of moving an object without touching it, as well as remotely changing the shape and state of an object, were the most researched, with studies on ancient Indian, buddhist, and Taoism techniques as contributions. The implementation of modern science allowed Hikae-jutsu to fully mature in the course of a century.

To be able to understand how we possess these kinds of weird and impossible skills, it is necessary to keep in mind the above two arts, Kaze-ryu and Hikae-jutsu, which our order specialised in.

The giant leaps taken by traditional arts were not the only major change for the ninja villages during the Meiji period. Due to the swift modernisation and sudden maturities in the various asian-western hybrid arts, the various villages that achieved breakthroughs found themselves suddenly holding immense power, and unsure what to do with it.

In a swirling storm, we underwent an underground war of a scale and deadliness that by far surpassed anything that had ever happened, even during the Sengoku period. The traditional villages that possessed superior arts swiftly absorbed the other villages, growing in size and knowledge all the while. New fighting techniques and martial styles were invented every time the powerful villages clash, and when one side loses, they are usually accepted into the other one, along with their techniques and research contributing to the power of the victorious village.

And thus the various surreptitious villages in Japan were gradually merged into one, their influence spreading across Japan. When war started breaking out in Asia, the government of Japan asked us to scout enemy territories, prompting the curious ones in our nationwide organisation to leave Japan, eventually forming establishments, bases, and response units around the world.

And so forming the Shizuka order today, an underground civilisation with more than enough capability to take down powerful nations in a matter of days.

Hey, I believe some introductions are due.

Hi, my name is Netsuki Inoue, princess of the Shizuka order, and I am currently in the process of strangling my childhood friend over a piece of cookie.

His name is Takuma, and he is my personal guard and also the only person in the worldly dimension that I didn't meet through Meg, my clone puppet counterpart that represents me in the world.

Meg is short for Megumin, a nickname me and Takuma came up with to replace her official name, Netsuki Kuron, which the rest of the world calls her.

Yes, I am a forced shut in, not that I can do anything about it, as the palace of the Shizuka order, the Neikai palace, is a part of the Neikai sacred grounds, and is located in an ultradimensional pocket that cannot be accessed through normal means, due to our tendency to deal with dangerous criminal organisations, government intelligence and the darker side of the world. As the heir to the Shizuka throne, I am not allowed to leave the Neikai dimension, only experiencing the world through Meg.

And when I said the Neikai palace, I actually meant the Shuri castle on 7/16/1709, a day before it burned down in the Ryukyu kingdom, called Okinawa today. Our Hikae technicians had apparently travelled back in time(yeah, we can do that) and created a copy of it using what you might call quantum entanglement; located it into the Neikai dimension, stripped away all the decorations, throne, and paintings except for the ones on the main gate, then repainted the interior and exterior with dark-blue and white, the colours of the Shizukana, and also replaced the floors with tatami planks and mats, hereby banning shoes indoors.

I am currently fifteen, and Takuma is 5 years older than me. As my personal guard, the first thing he touched 3 minutes after his birth was a katana. He was capable of karate basics before learning to speak. Currently, he is a Classified Ninja and a Tora Samurai, both of these ranks being the elite of the elites. You can say that he is one of the most potent fighters in the world today.

And yeah, I subdued him in a few minutes.