OTHER FACTIONS

Of course, there are other factions in existence besides the Soul Army in the Shomonkai. Those usually are independent and act on their own. However, some in particular are especially hard to join because of the levels of expertise they require. Even so, we shall go on ahead and discuss about them right away!

DEUS TD

Ah... oh well... let's begin this discussion starting with DEUS TD. DEUS TD stands for DEpartment of Universal Science and Technological Development. Yes, as you probably already guessed the people from DEUS are scientists. Very peculiar scientists at that. They are in charge for developing technologies based on Reiki -as it is the sole fundamental energy source in this place- among... other things that they prefer to keep private. They have a tendency to screw things up just as often as they manage to miraculously make them right, in fact, a couple of years ago they almost blew the City up... not to mention they lured a few thousand oni in by mistake on another failed experiment... or that other time when they nearly opened a chasm to the physical reality... However, the City wouldn't have energy if they didn't invent the Reiki channelers, Soul Healing wouldn't have been discovered and the Upgrade of Soul Arms would have been impossible. So... they are a double edged knife so to speak...
DEUS mostly prefer Shugenja as their members because they can easily tap into Reiki, but they are required to also have knowledge of weapons because DEUS forms an active force in battle. Bushi are also accepted as long as they have basic knowledge of how Reiki works and can complete tasks easily enough.

DEUS members start out as Rookies then ascend to Foremans that can lead small groups on their own once they have acquired enough experience under their own Foreman -who also acts like their sort-of mentor. Foremans later become promoted to Executives after mastering Reiki enough to be able to conduct larger experiments. Executives also act the part of the treasurer and secretary among the Department. The highest rank available is Chief Admin, which gives one complete freedom of movement to do whatever they please without having to tell anyone else about it. At this point they can lead a good portion of other scientists to coordinate large-scale experiments as well as lead those people in battle.

In fact there is one more person above Chief Admin that overviews everything. That person is called the Director and has the duty of practically watching over the Department.


THE KAMINOSHIMOBE ORDER

Referred to as just 'Kaminoshimobe' by most, not much is known about them. Their faction has been active within the walls, threatening to destroy the city from the inside out. The Order is composed of self-proclaimed holy men and those who follow them and claim that Shomonkai has to be destroyed as, once it has been brought to the ground the Gate of Heaven will open and welcome them all in Paradise. They supposedly claim to have some sort of secret weapon at their disposal.


KARIYA & CO

This... isn't really a faction, however it is used to refer at Tsukimoto Kariya and his small band of misfits residing at the rundown area of Ryokugen in their 'secret place' -which isn't secret at all for some people- called 'Nekonogetsu', cat's hole. It is said that anything can be obtained at the 'ketsu' as long as one can pay the price to get it. However infamous, Kariya has quite a reputation, even among the Soul Army's Officials often visit him, mainly due to being able to provide them not only with various valuable trinkets he runs across in the streets but also information which would be otherwise impossible to gather.