Four Heavenly Kings

The Four Heavenly Kings are the four elite generals who serve Oda Nobunaga.

History

The Demon King Ritual

In the Sengoku era of the world of Sokoku, the Great Diviner, Abeno Seimei, had a premonition that a being would appear in the nation of Hinomaru with the power of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, threatening the entire realm. Centuries later, a warlord named Oda Nobunaga appeared and planned to become the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. With an overwhelming military force, Hinomaru was quickly seized into hegemony. Oda was aided in his rise to power by his top generals - Akechi Mitsuhide, Niwa Nagahide, Takigawa Kazumasu, and Shibata Katsuie - who became known as the Four Heavenly Kings. For the Demon King Ritual, Oda required a special sacrifice: Princess Sakuno - the first daughter of the Matsuyama clan, who held an immense font of mana within her body. On Oda's orders, Akechi Mitsuhide kidnapped Sakuno and wiped out the Matsuyama clan. Oda then brought Sakuno and his army to Honnou-ji, where he planned to perform the ritual that would grant him immortality and untold power.

Though he had followed Oda loyally in an effort to bring order to Hinomaru, Mitsuhide soon came to realize that Oda's ambitions to become the Demon King made him little more than a tyrant. He then secretly incited a rebellion against Oda, of which a united military force of Daimyos, composed of the great lords Mouri Motonari, Uesugi Kenshin, and Takeda Shingen, formed an alliance called the Sengoku Warriors and led their armies to Honnou-ji Temple in order to put an end to Oda's ambitions. At Honnou-ji Temple, a samurai named Hayato rushed in to save Sakuno and began to battle Oda. Though Oda easily managed to defeat him, a Spirit Walker named Kanna was able to destroy the altar being guarded by Oda's Spirit Walker, Mori Ranmaru, causing Sakuno to awaken. She then disrupted the ritual as the link to the Demon Realm opened up, causing Honnou-ji Temple and entire swaths of Hinomaru to be teleported to Maple World. Though the ritual had been interrupted, the special mana inside Sakuno intermingled with that of Oda, allowing him to gain a portion of Sakuno's power.

An Unfamiliar World

In Maple World, both the Sengoku Warriors and the Oda army were crippled in power, as the physics and energies of the new land were quite different from Sokoku. The Oda army created a new base called Momijigahara in Zipangu while keeping Sakuno trapped inside Honnou-ji Temple. Niwa Nagahide also created an army of robotic samurai in order to scout Zipangu, though his whereabouts remained unknown to the Sengoku Warriors, who launched an operation to successfully rescue Sakuno from Oda's clutches. Meanwhile, Oda sent Mori Ranmaru and his Sprit Walkers on a mission to track down Akechi Mitsuhide, who had betrayed him and sought to spread chaos and confusion amongst the Oda army and the Sengoku Warriors in an effort to have both armies destroy each other in a misguided attempt to end the conflict forever. Mitsuhide formed an alliance with the Black Wings under Oda's name in order to misdirect the Sengoku Warriors into believing that Oda was responsible for working alongside them. Eventually, Oda and his army abandoned Honnou-ji after absorbing all the spiritual power in the region and set out to create a new base, leaving Takigawa Kazumasu in charge of Honnou-ji. The Sengoku Warriors soon launched an attack on the temple, and though they defeated Kazumasu, they were unable to learn where Oda had gone.

Fort Asura

After abandoning Honnou-ji, Oda and his forces moved to a new base created by Niwa Nagahide called Fort Asura, which was concealed using mana. Oda then sent his Sprit Walkers across Maple World in order to harvest large quantities of mana from monsters using makeshift shrines. He then had Nagahide create a special shrine atop the cliffside where Fort Asura stood, allowing the flow of mana to run unimpeded, and ordered him to kidnap Sakuno in order to conduct the Demon Ritual. Meanwhile, Akechi Mitsuhide disguised himself as a man named Kengo and helped the Sengoku Warriors find Fort Asura in order to stop Oda. As the two armies clashed, Princess Sakuno secretly left the Sengoku Warriors' base, Momijigaoka, and headed to Fort Asura alone, intent on stopping Oda's ritual herself. There, however, Oda revealed that the ritual she was hoping to stop had already been set into motion long ago, and that it had already slowly built to its halfway point, with her presence being the last thing that he needed to summon the Demon King into his body. Sakuno and Oda then engaged in a fierce battle, locked in a duel of mana blasts.

As the two continued battling, the Sengoku Warriors stormed the base and a traveler who had helped the Sengoku Warriors in the past rushed into the vortex created by the two mana blasts before it could kill both Sakuno and Oda. Though he was furious at the disrupted ritual, Oda realized that he had been severely injured by Sakuno's attack. Niwa Nagahide then arrived and told Oda to stand down, as his injuries were too severe. Both the Daimyos and Mitsuhide were surprised to see Niwa, as they both believed him to have gone missing. Niwa succeeded in convincing Oda to retreat, after which Mitsuhide confronted Niwa and demanded to know how he had managed to stay hidden for so long. Niwa merely dismissed Mitsuhide and the sorry state that he was in, asking if he had really been defeated by someone as weak as the traveler. He then addressed the traveler and claimed that he would one day repay them for taking Fort Asura. Mitsuhide and Niwa continued trading insults until Niwa declared that he would deal with Mitsuhide later. Before he left, Mitsuhide asked Niwa if he intended to let Shibata Katsuie have the honor of killing him, but Niwa claimed that he wanted Mitsuhide to recover his strength before putting him down. Kenshin then interrupted and moved to attack, but Niwa disappeared before she could reach him. The group then turned to find that Mitsuhide had disappeared as well.

Takeda Shingen soon caught up with Mitsuhide, who asked whether Shingen intended to slay him as revenge for killing the Matsuyama clan. To his surprise, however, Shingen asked Mitsuhide to return to Momijigaoka with him, where he would plead with Sakuno and the Daimyos to spare Mitsuhide's life. He explained that Mitsuhide had shown himself to be capable of cooperation and fighting for the greater good, and so he asked Mitsuhide once again to join forces in defeating Oda. However, Mitsuhide claimed that his answer had not changed since the first time that Shingen had asked him at Honnou-ji. Disappointed, Shingen resolved to kill Mitsuhide for his crimes and leaped to attacked, though he was shocked when his attack had no effect. Mitsuhide revealed that he still had power left and severely wounded Shingen. Shingen then asked what Mitsuhide's true goals were, to which he explained that he wanted everyone to destroy each other, claiming that there couldn't be war without anyone left to fight. He explained that there was no end to the greed of leaders who constantly ordered battle after battle, never satisfied with achieving their objective, though he added that Sakuno was an exception. He then declared that anyone who pursued war was his enemy, disappearing shortly after.

Later in Sakuno's quarters, Sakuno called out to Mitsuhide, who had been hiding in the shadows, and expressed her surprise that he had survived, with Mitsuhide noting that he could say the same of Sakuno. He then reported that he had failed to carry out her order to prevent her battle with Oda being interrupted, but Sakuno told him that he had done all that he could, as there were few who could oppose the traveler. When Mitsuhide asked whether that meant that he was forgiven for kidnapping her and wiping out her clan, Sakuno flatly denied him and promised that he would someday pay for it with his life. She then asked why he had risked his life by returning to Momijigaoka, to which he claimed that he only wanted to see if she had survived, as he believed that only a noble ruler could defeat a tyrant. He then told Sakuno that he hoped that she would stay safe. After a pause, Sakuno thanked him for his help in locating and taking Fort Asura, explaining that she would not order her forces to pursue him for that reason alone. She also added that he was free to manipulate and sow chaos as he pleased, as they were ultimately both enemies of Oda. However, she told him that when the war with Oda was over, she would seek him out and take his head to avenge the Matsuyama clan. Mitsuhide merely laughed and told Sakuno that he would be waiting.

Known Heavenly Kings

Heavenly King	Name	Status
	Niwa Nagahide	Alive
	Shibaga Katsuie	Alive
	Takigawa Kazumasu	Unknown
	Akechi Mitsuhide	Alive (Defected)

Niwa Nagahide is a masterful engineer who serves as Oda Nobunaga's strategist. Though Nagahide appears to have little combat strength, his intelligence and technical skills have allowed him to create an army of mechanical warriors to serve as his protectors, as well as to reinforce the Oda clan. Nagahide was responsible for the creation and development of Fort Asura, which he deemed some of his finest work. Following the first failed ritual, Nagahide was marked as missing by the Sengoku Warriors, as he had vanished from Oda's base in order to construct Fort Asura and develop his robot army. There, Nagahide oversaw preparations for Oda's second Demon King ritual, as well as to manipulate the Sengoku Warriors into entering Oda's trap. After Oda was defeated at Fort Asura, Nagahide urged Oda to retreat, rather than foolishly making his stand while severely injured.

Shibata Katsuie is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, though little is known about him. Though Katsuie has not yet been revealed, it is stated by Takeda Shingen that Katsuie remains active and accounted for within Oda's army. During the battle of Fort Asura, Akechi Mitsuhide asked Niwa Nagahide whether he intended to let Katsuie have the honor of finishing him off, to which Nagahide replied that he would allow Mitsuhide to regain his strength before putting him down.

Takigawa Kazumasu is a powerful warrior who wields two short sword style weapons. After the Oda clan arrived on Maple World, Kazumasu was tasked with protecting Honnou-ji after Oda drained its spiritual mana and moved to Fort Asura. Kazumasu was defeated by the Sengoku Warriors after their assault on Honnou-ji, though it remains unknown whether he was killed or simply captured. However, his lack of mention in the Fort Asura storyline adds credence to the possibility that he was killed in the battle. Despite being one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Kazumasu claimed to be a mere footman whom Oda would never have shared his plans with. However, as Kazumasu stated this while being defeated and interrogated by the Sengoku Warriors, it is likely that Kazumasu had merely played dumb out of loyalty to Oda, rather than not being told about Oda's plan to relocate to Fort Asura.

Akechi Mitsuhide is a master swordsman known as the Silver Wolf. Mitsuhide is frequently described as beautiful and feminine, with many mistaking him as a woman at first glance. Mitsuhide was fiercely loyal to Oda, believing that he would put an end to chaos and conflict in Hinomaru with a strong authoritarian rule. For this reason, Mitsuhide obediently wiped out the Matsuyama clan and kidnapped Princess Sakuno, believing her to be a hostage. However, upon discovering that Oda intended to sacrifice her to become the Demon King, Mitsuhide came to believe that Oda was yet another power-hungry warlord, for which he betrayed the Oda clan and lured the Sengoku Warriors to Honnou-ji. After the two armies were transported to Maple World, Mitsuhide began to spread chaos and uncertainty between them, intending to wipe them all out in order to end the senseless conflict permanently. For this reason, Mitsuhide allied with the Black Wings in order to rally Maple World's warriors against Oda. At the battle of Fort Asura, Mitsuhide disguised himself as a man named Kengo in order to help the Sengoku Warriors discover Oda's new base. There, Mitsuhide came to an understanding with Princess Sakuno, who asked him to prevent her allies from stopping her from facing Oda alone, though Mitsuhide was defeated at the hands of a warrior of the Alliance. Following the battle, Mitsuhide was allowed by Sakuno to continue spreading chaos as he saw fit, as she viewed him as a necessary evil in defeating Oda, though Sakuno nevertheless warned him that she would avenge her family with his death herself someday.

Trivia

• In Chinese culture, the Four Heavenly Kings are gods who have control over the cardinal directions.
• In real life, Mitsuhide did betray Nobunaga. At Honoji (implied in the Sengoku storyline), Mitsuhide ordered his troops to storm the keep, killing Nobunaga in the process.