| “ | Weapons are just tools. True strength lies within me.
— Heishiro Mitsurugi
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” |
Heishiro was born the 4th son of a farmer in Bizen, Japan; but after many years of seeing his homeland ravaged by war, he decided to become a samurai. After his parents' death in his 14th year, he took a sword and the name Heishiro Mitsurugi. He went to train under the powerful warlord of the Murakami clan. At this time, Japan was in the middle of the Sengoku Jidai or "the age of the country at war" in which the feudal lords or "daimyos" attempted to claim the title of Shogun.
Mitsurugi was a powerful force on the battlefield, and rumors of him spread like wildfire, heralding him as the warrior that could mow down foes like fields of wheat, and he was noted by Uesugi Kenshin and Oda Nobunaga as a great warrior. He received numerous military commendations and eventually reached the rank of commissioned officer in the Japanese armed forces. But all along, his only true desire was a worthy opponent.
After leaving the Murakami clan, Mitsurugi continued to fight in every war in Japan as a hired mercenary. It was during this time that he had learned of a new weapon that was said to be changing the way wars would be fought: the rifle. He originally dismissed this weapon as a novelty, but he soon learned that it was capable of obliterating the Takeda cavalry. He sensed that the arrival of the rifle in common warfare would put him out of business. He decided that the only way to combat with this was to find a stronger weapon: the enchanted sword of legend, Soul Edge.
Unfortunately, Mitsurugi was unable to find any trace of the legendary "Hero's Sword" on his quest and began taking tasks that were largely meaningless to him in order to pass the time. One of these involved guarding a nearby castle for the night ; and another of which involved aiding the Spanish Marquis Andre's force in laying siege on Sir Stefan's Ostrheinsburg Castle. In his frustration of finding no signs of Soul Edge, he returned home and challenged a man wielding the rifle Tanegashima to a duel, trying to prove that he didn't need Soul Edge to beat the rifle. But he suffered an embarrassing defeat in front of his lord, forcing him to depart in shame on a second quest to perfect his swordsmanship so that he might eventually defeat the rifle. It was during this quest that he learned of the Azure Knight, Nightmare, who terrorized Europe with a sword deemed invincible. Nightmare's trail eventually disappeared, but Mitsurugi was unwilling to give up.
Four years later, Mitsurugi stumbled upon the trail of Soul Edge while visiting a castle in Xiwei (present-day Xi'an), where a mysterious dying man, after being saved by him from a gang of assassins, handed him a shard of the cursed blade. Although skeptical at first, Mitsurugi accepted the gift. Soon afterward, an incident occurred in which a servant of the Emperor of Ming marched to the castle, demanding the "Hero's Sword," and was slain when he refused to leave without it; Mitsurugi sensed that war was coming, but Soul Edge meant nothing to him. He had crossed countless battlefields, defeating every conceivable enemy, even those with rifles. What had once been his greatest enemy was none of his concern, as it no longer proved to be a threat. His only concern was with finding an opponent stronger than himself.
Source: Soulcalibur Wikia
Battle vs. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (by Weew1213)[]
Mitsurugi has his eyes closed and is breathing heavily...
He then opens them to see that he is up on this tower and he looks around to see where he is.
He sees these weird pillars that are connected by some bridge-like concrete sideways pillars; with an orange sky and thunder overhead.
He then, hears some armor clattering together and large footsteps running towards him. He quickly turns around and holds his sword in a diagonal way, pointing the blade downwards. He sees the Azure Knight (known as Nightmare), charging at him with his fiery red eyes and plume, charging towards him with his large blade is orange colored and is spiked at the hilt. It also has a purple-looking gem in the middle of the hilt but really there is a energy covering an eye like a bubble shield. This sword is known as Soul Edge and it is pointed at Mitsurugi in a horizontal angle.
Mitsurugi gripped his sword as best as he could and gritted his teeth as he prepared for the impact from Nightmare's sword. When the connection happens, everything seems to slow down and causes both blades to be knocked backwards from the impact.
But, something flickered in Mitsurugi's eyes and he brings his blade down and dashes through to slices his opponent in half. What he slices through is Nightmare's stomach or his ball of energy. He hears a distorted low groan and turns around to see Nightmare on one knee and he falls over defeated.
Mitsurugi chuckles and says: "Guess you didn't have what it takes."
He sheathes his sword and begins walking away. He then feels something as if he forgot to grab something. He turns around and sees the Soul Edge.
He has this temptation to take the blade. He starts walking towards it, he seems to be unable to resist the blade. He walks over to it and bends over to pick it up. He feels this power that he hasn't felt before and thinks about if he wants the blade. He imagines all of the duels he can win with it. He then shakes off those feelings of temptation and throws the sword down in disgust.
"Shishi-Oh is the only blade I will use!" He thinks to himself.
He hears this high pitched noise behind and he turns around to see that the blade is charging up in some way. He looks at it in confusion and see this bubble-like energy expanding outwards.
Once the energy touches him, everything begins turning white.
Then to black and after that he finds himself in this smoky white area. He sees these foreign buildings designed in odd ways. Nothing like he's seen before but slowly, he remembers that this looks like Jerusalem. He sees a man running on the rooftops and sees that the man is heading towards him. He pulls out his sword and prepares for the man as he is cautious to face anyone. The man that is running on the rooftops, jumps off the building in front of Mitsurugi and flips over to land in a hay bail.
The man then gets out of the hail bail and it is revealed to wear a white robe with a large belt that has a red sash surrounding it.
"Who are you and how'd you get here?" The hooded man demands.
"My name is Heishiro Mitsurugi and Soul Edge brought me here." Mitsurugi replies.
"My name Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and you should leave." Altair orders him.
"I'm afraid that I can't do that because I don't know how."
"I know how you can." Altair responds and he pulls out his sword.
"This'll be fun." Mitsurugi smiles and grips his sword.
Altaïr lunges at Mitsurugi and swings his sword which Mitsurgi blocks. Mitsurugi responds with a swing of his own and Altaïr blocks it. Mitsurugi then swings twice and Altaïr again responds with blocks. They both walk sideways, swords ready, and both of them trying to read eachother. Mitsurugi walks up and then, he slashes at Altaïr multiple times. Altaïr blocks each slash but after each one, Altaïr begins losing control of his blade as if it was being knocked out of his hands.
Altaïr gets ahold of his blade again and attacks Mitsurugi with a flurry of strikes and Mitsurugi blocks each strike easily.
"My turn." Mitsurugi says.
Mitsurugi then, launches a barrage of sword strikes, each time at a different angle and the last strike knocks Altaïr's sword out of his hands.
Altaïr looks at his blade and turns his head to see the end of Mitsurugi's blade pointed at his face.
"Do you yield?" Mitsurugi asks.
"No." Altaïr punches him and turns around. He runs to a far enough distance and grabs one of his throwing knives.
After Mitsurugi was punched, he grabs his jaw and turns to look at his opponent and he noticed that something was thrown and he jumps to side to dodge which a throwing knife flies past his face. After each knife that was thrown, he knocks it down to the ground. The last throwing knife got stuck in the blade because Mitsurugi held his sword the diagonally and to the side. Mitsurugi pulls the knife out of his blade and throws it on the ground.
He looks around for Altaïr and sees that he is climbing on the building.
"You coward!" Mitsurugi yells at his fleeing opponent.
Mitsurugi runs after him and stops when he sees him on the top of the rooftop. Altair then, begins to run on the rooftops once more. Mitsurugi then follows him, hoping that he would drop down and face him. Mitsurugi looks in front of him to see if he would run into anything and nothing appears. He turns his attention back to Altaïr and continues to run after on the ground with Shishi-Oh still in hand. He turns his head back to what's in front of him and sees a horde of people heading towards him. He begins to slow down and sheaths his sword. He turns his attention to Altaïr and sees that he's climbing down from the building he was last on.
"Urgh!" Mitsurugi grits his teeth and quickly walks foward into the crowd and pushes past them.
He keeps his head up above them to see where his opponent and sees that Altaïr is pushing past people out the way as well. Mitsurugi walks a bit faster and starts pushing people a bit more aggressively as well. He keeps pushing his way towards his opponent. He sees that Altaïr walks into a group of white hooded men and Mitsurugi begins increasing his speed to get to that group. He finally pushes enough people and walks up to the group and pushes the first two out of the way and doesn't see his opponent.
"What the-?" Mitsurugi says in confusion.
He looks around and he pulls out his sword. He keeps looking around and he then, sees Altaïr launching himself towards with his hidden blade aimed at his face. Mitsurugi then swiped his blade upwards and it connects with his hidden blade; it breaks upon impact.
Altaïr then, pulls out his final weapon in his arsenal (or so Mitsurugi thinks), his short sword. Mitsurugi swats at his opponent but it's blocked by Altaïr. Mitsurugi puts his blade back into the scabbard and an aura surrounds him; an orange aura that is.
"Your time is up!" He yells and launches Altaïr up in the air with a upward slash.
"You will submit!" He yells and brings Altaïr back down with a downward slash this time.
Altaïr groans, gets up and looks at his at his chest to see two heavy slashes. He then falls to his knees begins to spit out some blood and gasps for air. He slowly gets on his feet again and raises his fists as if he wanted to keep going.
"Try this!" Mitsurugi says and he slides his hand over the blade.
He then performs 4 quick slashes and says: "See that?"
Altaïr falls to his knees and his eyes roll back into his head. With a hard bump, he lands on his chest and lays on his chest, motionless.
"Hmph!" Mitsurugi says and he walks off with his blade on his shoulder.
He stops and looks over at Altaïr. He shakes his head and continues to walk into the Animus.
He continued into the Animus, not knowing that he changed the course of history. The Soul Edge trasported him back and the world seems to be different...
Expert's Opinion[]
Mitsurugi is a great swordsman. So great, that he defeated a gunman from dueling distance. With that noted, Altaïr's throwing knives are rendered useless here and for close quarters combat, Mitsurugi dominates there. Yes, Altaïr has more weapons but, they're good in close range which Mitsurugi has the advantage in. Mitsurugi is the better man here.
To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.Battles here were deemed to be unfair or otherwise not in accordance with wiki standards, and have been removed from the statuses of the warriors and displayed below.
Battle vs. Lavitz Slambert (by Facetheslayer)[]
It was the beginning of conquest, as the Basil Knighthood was off to fight against the Serdian Army in the fortress of Hoax. However, besides the threat of them bringing in a Giganto, there was another force that Serdio had acquired... Men of Basil and Serdio had been fighting each other, as Lavitz thrusted his spear into the belly of a Serdian warrior, when suddenly a warrior from the far east appeared. Mitsurugi fired the Tanegashima rifle at the commander, which barely missed him, but hits a soldier of Basil, killing him. "I shall avenge my brothers, loathsome mercenary." He says, brandishing his spear and targe, as he ran into battle. Mitsurugi tossed aside the firearm, dismissing it, as he grabbed the Yari spear he brought with him, and charged into battle. Heishiro thrusted first, however, Lavitz deflected it with his shield. Lavitz then used his own spear to knock Mitsurugi's down, and then stomped on the shaft, splintering it. Heishiro ran back to his rifle, as Lavitz went in pursuit. Heishiro has less weighty gear, so he made it to his rifle, while Slambert found the crossbow of a fallen comrade. Heishiro tried to reload another shot in, however, Slambert taken aim, and fired a bolt into his left shoulder. Mitsurugi cried out in pain, as Slambert grabbed his spear, and ran after him, wanting to finish the battle. He was about to thrust his spear, when Heishiro grabbed the hilt of his sword, and drew Shishi-Oh, which deflected the spear away from his body. He then roughly kicked Slambert back, causing him to drop his spear. Mitsurugi began a two handed swipe with his katana, as Lavitz deflected with the targe, as he drew his gladius. Both blades clashed together, as Mitsurugi began a downwards strike, and Lavitz blocked. He locked swords, and tried to thrust with the targe, however, in a last ditch effort, Mitsurugi drew out a sai, and stabbed his arm, which held his shield. Misturugi unclashed the blades, and slashed Lavitz's legs with his sword, sending him to his knees. Mitsurugi then states to him... "You'll be in hell..." before slashing his neck with his blade. "Before me." Mitsurugi says, satisfied by taking out the commander, however, he desires a new challenge and starts to slay other members of the Basil army.
Winner: Heishiro Mitsurugi
Expert's Opinion[]
While Slambert was a great tactician, and excellent fighter, he was used to fighting as a group with hsi fellow kinghthood, unlike Mitsurugi, who fought entire armies alone.
To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.