I think a fear that exists when dealing with any long running serialised story with some type of mystery is the worry that once it's over you'll look back all the entire run with the full context of knowing the ending and be able to say "Wait what the fuck that doesn't make any sense." Retcons, plot holes, dropped storylines, you know what I'm talking about. And that was a worry I had in the back of my mind with the Hishaku. They're a secretive organisation that spent the majority of the story with their members and motives unknown, scheming with complex plans that often seemed contradictory to what we thought their goals were. They're ripe for the exact kind of mystery box bullshit I was just talking about. While I trusted Hokazonos writing I also felt like there was a not insignificant chance that when all was said and done there'd be some details that just didn't work.
So, now that part 1 is over and we have a complete picture what the 50 bucks squad was trying to achieve, I want to go over their plan in a comprehensive step-by-step breakdown to see if there was anything that didn't add up.
Step 0. Lets Get The Gang Together
I'm calling this step 0 because this is stuff that would've had to of happened but we don't directly see. Basically this is Yura recruiting every core member of the Hishaku and beginning his alliance with Kasen and the rest of the Kamunabi traitors. The only Hishaku member who we're given any details about in this regard is Hiruhiko, being that Yura basically found him in a dumpster as a traumatised baby and was like "lets teach this little freak how to fold origami."
Step 1. Seiichi Samura Psychological Warfare
Yura, likely acting on info given to him by Kasen, identifies Samura as the psychological weak link of the sword bearers and decides to go for the throat. He meets with Samura and talks about a "prophecy" of another Malediction (really funny that he was just lying about this actually, Yura had no intention of letting Soga live long enough to do that. Less of a prophecy and more like something that could potentially maybe happen I guess) and then spreads some semi-fake news to make Samura and Iori's lives more difficult, hoping Samura will crack under the guilt and pressure and make a deal with the Hishaku to become a double agent for them.
One detail I like is that Yura seems slightly annoyed when Samura mentions that he's no longer living with Iori, probably because that will make it more difficult to eventually get access to her as a hostage. Yura slightly underestimated how far Samuras guilt would drive him. But one minor issue aside, this plan goes off otherwise flawlessly.
Step 2. Kill Oppenheimer And His Fat Buddy
Now its time for the Hishakus first major play. While Yura goes to seal the deal with Samura, Hokuto goes to kill Misaka and Hatshaku, Uran, and Hokutos puppet kill Kunishige and jack the Enchanted Blades. Something notable is that while we haven't been directly told who specifically sold out Kunishige, we can actually figure it out on our own. When we're told about the people who helped Kunishige go into hiding and thus knew his location, we're shown four faces. Azami, Ichiki, Kudo and the eye patch guy. The events of the Kamunabi raid can let us safely cross the first three off the list, so unless they figured it out through some other method I guess eye patch guy is one of the traitors. They were also able to tamper with the Shiba-alert barrier system around Kunishiges house, likely also thanks to eye patch guy. So aside from Hokuto getting blue-balled by an unsatisfying sword duel they really made off like bandits with this one. All six blades are under their control with one of them being usable.
Step 3. Stack Paper
For the next three years the Hishaku integrate themselves into the criminal underworld. Working alongside Yakuza groups to build up money, getting into contact with various independent sorcerers-for-hire like the Shigyu brothers and even rubbing shoulders with big shots like Sojo and the Sazanami clan. All to help set up their next big plays.
Step 4. Give Your Most Powerful Weapon To A Crack Addict And Hope That He Cooks
Speaking of Sojo, this is the Hishakus first big gamble. Instead of giving Cloud Gouger to one of their own they instead decide to hand it off to some random fucking guy. Their hope is that Sojo can use the first hand experience with one of Kunishiges master pieces as inspiration when developing his own weapons for later use. I did wonder for a while if this was really the best bet when compared to just giving Cloud Gouger to Hiruhiko or someone else in the organisation but I think the important factor to consider here is Hiyuki.
She's the only normal sorcerer we know of who can stand against an EB user. So if they just use Cloud Gouger normally, all that does is even out the playing field slightly. The Hishaku and the Kamunabi would be at equal fire power at best, and that's not even taking into account that the Kamunabi has way more non-EB level sorcerers than the Hishaku does. And on top of that, when Chihiro gets added to the mix it becomes a 2v1 so then they get put firmly back at a disadvantage.
Meanwhile the Sojo strategy (which we know pays off) functionally gives them dozens of mini EBs to play with, which opens up their options way more than one full power one does. They can split their forces to avoid fights they can't win rather than gambling everything on Cloud Gouger beating Flame Bone. Of course, Sojo dying and Cloud Gouger getting broken was not part of the plan but at that point Sojos research had produced usable results so his purpose was served.
Step 5. Auction Off The Biggest Nuke Sword And See What Happens
After breaking Magatsumis seal thanks to Kasens help, Yura pours his own dormant spirit energy into the blade and hands it off to Kyora to get sold. They initally have the blade registered under Sojos name for a bit of extra anonymity but change it after he gets merked. The purpose of the auction gambit is two-fold. The first reason is to get the blade back into the Kamunabis hands without making it too obvious that there's a trap, and the second is to use Kyora as a guinea pig to see what would happen to someone who tries to use Magatsumi by putting him in a situation where he is forced to use it.
I'm not too sure how much they knew about Chihiro when they came up with this plan, since we first learn about the auction when Chihiro has only had a couple fights under his belt but he's the central figure who pushes Kyora to his limits. If Chihiro hadn't shown up what would have happened? The Kamunabi had agreed to not take the sword by force so what conflict would there be? My theory here is that Kasen would've picked whatever side Yura needed him to in order to ensure that conflict would happen. We're told that it was an intense debate among the Kamunabi about how to acquire Magatsumi so I assume that if Chihiro didn't exist Kasen would've gone all in on the side of raiding the Rakuzaichi and used his influence to convince the others.
Aside from their main goal this also use this opportunity to test out Sojos weapon through Tenri and Yura decides to use this as an opportunity to meet with Chihiro face to face because I guess it would be funny (and to be fair to him it was quite funny).
Step 6. Kill Those Fucking Sword Bearers
Now that they've got their weapons, their secret trump card is safely stored in the enemy stronghold, and they've proven that you can resist Sogas mindfucking if you have enough aura, it's time to go all out. Using Sojos weapons and a boat-load of expendable hired goons, the Hishaku go on the hunt for the remaining sword bearers.
Yura gives command of this mission to his weird gay son, Hiruhiko, who decides to focus his efforts on Uruha and Samura specifically. This makes sense, since even if they fail and Samura gets his blade back then that's still a win for them. The expendable Datenseki goons act as a human battering ram to soften their defenses and then the more skilled Hishaku members come in to safely clean up what's left.
The cool thing about this plan is that there are multiple positive outcomes here. Ideally, both Uruha and Samura are killed, giving the Hishaku two blades to work with. Then, Uruha dying and Samura living gives them one EB and an ally who uses one (albeit, a very temporary ally who will eventually become an enemy). And then the worst positive outcome is Uruha living and Samura dying, giving them one EB but also giving them an extra enemy with an EB.
Initially their plan is to use the blades gathered here to break into Kamunabi headquarters and kill Soga and in the ideal outcome that's likely what would've happened, but Samura being alive does slightly complicate things...
Step 7. Oh Shit This Guy Is Kind Of Cracked Lets Kidnap His Daughter
Knowing that they can't trust Samura as far as they can throw him and with their movements limited thanks to his ever watching eye in the sky, Kuguri, Toto and later Hiruhiko are assigned with the task for finding Iori so they can use her as leverage so he doesn't just instantly slaughter them as soon as his side of the deal is done. I'm still not sure how exactly they found out what school Iori went to but once they got there they tried using Totos incredible blood tasting skills to figure out who she was.
Iori escapes to the Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel, Hiruhiko and Chihiro fight for while before both deciding to unleash their EBs, Samura shows up to clean up shop and this moment really marks our first total Hishaku loss. They fail to get Iori, they lose Kumeyuri and Samura gets convinced to join the light side again. They just completely fucked it all around. But the Hishaku are resourceful, and even in defeat there is opportunity
Step 8. You Know What Fuck It Lets Just Go To Their House
As it turns out, if they failed to get the girl then Hiruhiko & Co served a secondary role of basically just being bait to distract Samura for a moment while the rest of the Hishaku go all in on one last gambit. Raiding Kamunabi headquarters directly. One note before I start discussing the raid is that Yura mentions "two arrows" that they can fire depending on how the Kyoto battle against Samura goes. I honestly am still not sure what he's referring to here. I assume one of the arrows is Yura activating Magastumi but I'm not sure what the second one would be. Maybe it's referring to using Yukisadas forcefield disruption to keep Samura out? It's also possible this is just a future plot element that will be explained more later.
First, Hatshaku causes a bunch of chaos topside so that Kasen has an excuse to lower the forcefield slightly. Then, Hokutos puppet and the two Shigyu brothers are sent through the entrance way to act as a bait to lure the more powerful Kamunabi members like Azami away from the rest of the facility. I don't really know how effective this was since Azami was still able to show up and be a problem later on but hey maybe it made their lives a bit easier. Then the blackmailed/traitor Kamunabi members are unleashed to cause as much chaos as possible and distract everyone. And finally a squad consisting of Yura, Yukisada, Uran, Bingo and The One Who Still Doesn't Have A Name are teleported into the middle of the facility.
Sadly they couldn't bring an enchanted blade in with them since they needed to distract Samura with something, so Yura is forced to have his Magatsumi connection in his back pocket that he can activate in place of one. His goal is to find and kill Soga. Yukisada went through the CBT surgery to become a vessel, disrupting the forcefield and preventing EB users and any form of communication to pass through. Hokuto eventually enters the facility (still not entirely sure how he got in there tbh) and is tasked with protecting the Kamunabi vessel to prevent the forcefield from stabilising. No Name was the one who set up the teleportation into the base to begin with. Uran and Bingos job seems to just be to roam around and add to the chaos. Hatshaku stays topside to manage the traitors, drink tea and look pretty.
They do get distracted by one unexpected element, a completely alive and well Uruha coming to greet them. The look of annoyance on Yuras face upon seeing him is great, it's fun watching the masterful planner get sucker-punched by something completely out of left field like that. But he quickly collects himself and continues on with the plan.
Of course, plans change when Yura meets Soga and goes "damn he's just like me fr" and forgoes killing him to team up instead, and from there Soga kicks ass and takes over the Kamunabi. Before this change of heart however I'm curious on what Yuras longer term plan was if he did kill Soga here. Did he think he could kill Samura and Chihiro if he had full control of the Magatsumi, or were they just going to go into hiding and wait like a week for the eternal contract to kill Samura and the others? Could they have even gone into hiding under these circumstances? They were right in the middle of the enemy base and they would know that Samura would be hot on their trail after learning about what they're doing.
And that's everything so far. Overall yeah I think it's a pretty good plan that makes sense in hindsight, but I particularly like the fact that it isn't perfect. A lot of the time they have to cut corners or go with the second best option because something unexpected happened. I like the fact that the big final assault on the Kamunabi is a rush job that Yura openly admits has a super high chance of getting them all killed. They're risk takers which makes them unpredictable but their risks aren't random. There's a clear logic behind everything they do. I'm excited to see what the squad does next now that they have functionally become members of the Japanese government. I want to see Hokuto and Hiruhiko going insane like ex-Taliban fighters because now they have to file paper work instead of killing people.