[Anomaly]

Prologue

[Japan – 1542]

In a town in the Province of Mino he was in a horrible situation.

The leader of the Oda clan named Nobuhide Oda, was confronting Saito Dosan, another feudal lord in northern Mino.

In the midst of this war, the city had nothing to do with the interests of the feudal lords.

The city was devastated, it was possible to visualize an inferno that would not go out.

In the middle of this hell was a boy with reddish hair and golden eyes looking at the dead bodies of his parents as well as his friends and family where he surely shared some moment with them in his little life.

The war was now in its final stages.

Oda Nobuhide and Saito Dosan didn't give up.

Surely there would come a time when he stopped, neither of them had achieved anything good. They had more losses than benefits.

"Destiny?" The boy stared with his dead eyes without shedding any tears at the dead bodies of the people who are or were important to him. "You talked to me a lot about it, Mom. And now I'm conflicted about that... is this my destiny? Lose you? Living in disgrace? Or... is my fate cursed?"

He let out a slight laugh.

"I guess it's the latter..." He took his gaze to the night sky, glowing the red color of the flames. "I saw it, Mom... I saw my future... and how it ended. Alone, in a house with a desire to forge a sword that is impossible to forge—did I say impossible?" he let out another light laugh. "It's not impossible... but it will still take another life to achieve it... but no longer as a human, but as a Pseudo-Servant... Did you know, Mom? there is the supernatural... the scary stories you told me years ago..."

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yes, they exist.

[2 days later]

Oda Nobuhide was returning to his homeland, Owari.

He carried with him, war slaves who survived his battle with Saito Dosan.

The commoners of that land had no choice but to become slaves of the Oda Clan.

Now the new slaves were walking barefoot along the horrible stone road where they groaned in pain because they could no longer endure this horrible treatment, they would not let him rest and they were treated like animals instead of humans.

It was 2 days without eating, without drinking water and without resting to fulfill Oda Nobuhide's goal, to reach his homeland.

Among the slaves who were bound with a strong rope was the reddish boy walking, looking at the rocky ground.

"I'm hungry, thirsty and sleepy. And this feudal lord didn't allow anyone to sleep at least. Even his vassals complained in whispers of this action."

The reddish boy thought with a grimace.

I could only hope that they would get to the land of Owari faster to at least sleep.

"Oda-sama! We're almost there, I think we're 30 minutes away."

Said a vassal who approached Oda Nobuhide.

"Let it be less."

Oda Nobuhide said.

"But..."

Oda Nobuhide gave the signal to move faster, the slaves reluctantly had to speed up their walk and not be dragged away for the remainder of the journey.

[15 minutes later]

The reddish boy was locked in a cell with other people of the same age.

They had separated and gathered all the slaves by their ages.

Right now, the reddish boy let himself be carried away by his desire to sleep.

A couple of hours went on until he was forced to get up.

Blow

Blow

"IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET UP AND EAT."

The reddish boy slowly opened his eyelids and then blurred his vision until his vision cleared, and he saw a man handing a stale and stale bread to each of the children.

He grabbed his share and forced his throat to eat the bread that was inedible for a 10-year-old.

Managing to eat it, he realized that he was still hungry, but he decided to sleep better so that he could get over the hunger he had and wait again for them to give him something to eat.

[The next day]

A little girl was humming a tune she had recently heard at her father's party last night.

Although he hadn't achieved his goal, he still decided to hold a party to clear away the bad vibes they had from the recent battle with Saito Dosan.

He had decided to see the people who were captured as spoils of war that would be used for labor in this year's harvest.

There was the growl of a man guarding the entrance leading to the place of the recently captured slaves.

"Good morning, Nobunaga-sama."

The guard politely greeted the girl who had arrived.

"Hello guardian-san, I hope you're doing your job well."

A grimace showed on the guard's face.

"Of course I'm doing it, Nobunaga-sama. Now, if you will allow me, please withdraw. An 8-year-old girl is forbidden to enter this place."

The girl snorted in amusement. "Haha! She will be another girl who is forbidden to enter, as far as I am concerned, I am the daughter who will become the new leader of the Oda Clan when my father dies. So put aside your that I'm forbidden to enter this place."

The guard clicked and let the unruly girl enter.

Blow

Blow

The reddish boy was bored throwing a small stone at the wall while he waited for lunchtime.

The whole atmosphere around him was gloomy.

His thought was that it was normal, they had come out of a quiet and resplendent life and then been captured as spoils of war and surely work only to receive a little food as payment.

He doesn't want to imagine how he was going to be treated by those people.

Chink

His eyes went to the door that was opened to see something that surprised him a little.

A girl with black hair and red eyes, who was younger than him by a couple of years, had entered.

He was wearing good quality clothes. Surely someone from the upper class.

"Are you looking to buy a slave?"

It was his thought.

"Oh! Seriously, it's interesting to see this... Well. It's the first time I've been here, to be honest."

He raised an eyebrow at the girl's attitude. He began to look in every cell at all the people who were brought in as slaves.

Until he reached the cell he was with other children.

"Um... a redhead?... It's the first time I've seen someone with this type of hair color. Even two orange-haired twin girls..."

The boy could understand her curiosity. In all the cells, the ones I saw the most were black hair as well as dark brown.

There were only three people with a different color that caught the eye, and they were kids to begin with.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The girl walked over and pointed to him for his name.

He stared into his red eyes and then spoke.

"Senji Muramasa. And who are you?"

The girl had a long smile.

"Wow, what a shameless slave we have here."

"You asked my name. It's normal that I would ask yours."

The girl cocked her head, still smiling. He brought his index finger to his lips.

"I see... So that's normal. But in my case, I don't give my name to someone below me."

"Even if you say that. You are Oda Nobunaga, the rebellious daughter of Oda Nobuhide. You're well-known, you know."

The boy smiled, mocking the girl who thought she could pretend to be mysterious when she couldn't.

"Tch."

He turned his head in annoyance when someone ruined his game.

Oda Nobunaga snapped his fingers and then the door was opened and the guard at the entrance entered.

"Something is going on, Nobunaga-sama."

The guard spoke politely.

"This one from here," he pointed to Senji Muramasa. "Give him a heavy punishment."

"Um... did Nobunaga-sama do something to make her angry?"

He was holding back smiling.

"Yes! So give him a heavy punishment by whipping his back!"

"Got it."

He bowed and then left. It seems that he went to get the key to open the cell.

Senji just stared serenely at everything that weighed in front of him.

There was only one thing that caught his attention in his thoughts.

"Oda Nobunaga, I never met you personally in the story of my alternative self... Even what's happening to me is something that didn't happen either... I'm becoming an anomaly... will Alaya's Counter-Guardian eliminate me someday in the future? ..."

"I don't think so. They only eliminate when they see that they can unleash destruction that endangers human life. If I don't do any of that, then Alaya won't try to eliminate me..."

Zas

Zas

In another private place, Senji found himself shackled on a wall where the back of his body was bloodied and with marks from the leather whip that he beat over and over again, they were carrying out the order of Nobunaga who sat watching as Senji was punished. But his face showed no happiness or satisfaction. Something important was happening that I can't imagine seeing.

Senji Muramasa didn't scream, and he didn't cry to stop him from the punishment he was being given.

He was just quietly staring at the wall as if that was the only thing that caught his attention.

He wasn't caring about the punishment.

So he couldn't do anything but watch in dissatisfaction as Senji resisted without letting out a whine from the leather whips hitting his back hard.

Sigh. "Stop. This is boring if he doesn't let out any screams or sobs from the punishment."

They stopped the punishment. It seemed that they could understand the feeling of their little young teacher.

They freed Senji's shackles where he ended up falling backwards to the ground where he was stained with blood.

Oda Nobunaga walked over to Senji where she grabbed his chin and then lifted it up so that his eyes were looking at her.

"I see that you will endure any punishment I inflict on you..." I bring his index finger to his chin thinking about something. "It's decided!" he smiled, amused by something. "You will work as my personal servant!"

Senji, staring with his dead eyes, wondered why he decided to do that.

Oda Nobunaga's hands grabbed Senji's cheeks and then said something else.

"You said you're Senji Muramasa. So you know the forging techniques of your own lineage, I'm going to want you to forge an amazing sword for me in the future. Got it?"

"I guess his path will be the same... conquer Owari and expand their dominion to all of Japan."

Senji snorted.

"Can I refuse?"

Oda Nobunaga smiled more.

"Clear!" Oda Nobunaga's smiling eyes looked at Senji with amusement. "No!"

Sigh. "I already imagined it." Senji looked away as he was picked up by someone else.

"Take him to bathe him and also give him some new clothes. Now he will be my personal servant. By the way, I'm also interested in the two orange-haired girls, bring her to my room."

"Got it, Nobunaga-sama."

As he was being carried away, he thought of something else.

"Oda Nobunaga's servant... It's something that didn't have to happen... I can only pray that it doesn't affect Japan's history too much. Or it will end up in something bad for me."