#and oichi was the turning point.

[kaurwreck]

It's actually really appropriate that bsd happened to me because I learned about the Sengoku period of Japan from Samurai Warriors. I was moé Oichi in the very first dream in which I exercised volitional control over the dream narrative and environment.

[pierswife]

*points* You. You get it.

I still remember where we got my copy of Conquest, too!! My local target, as an end of the (school) year gift from my parents!!

My sister and I got Nintendo Power magazines back in the day, and let me tell you ... those things got us HYPED for Conquest. I still have every copy that ever mentioned the game--it's history, now. /hj

Anyway, my sister and I were super excited for the game and were out shopping with them, and we happened to see it at the check out aisle--a whole stinking display. We ended up each getting a copy.

My sister actually lost hers at one point in our old tent trailer, but it turned up again right before my parents sold the trailer--

I ended up getting super obsessed with it again once I stumbled upon Orochi Warriors 3 Ultimate and rediscovering the characters through their original source--legit got that game because of Hanbei (my beloved sleepy boy ... my ORIGINAL sleepy boy).

Then it spiraled into me discovering Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Greenleaf is my favorite kingdom (battle theme is soothing but also nostalgic as heck to me), followed by Chrysalia, Fontaine, and Avia.

Also my favorite Warlords were Motonari, Masamune, and Hanbei--

Sorry, this is just ... one of those special games to me. Wrote fanfic for it that will never see the light of day (it was a high school AU since I was in high school at the time, and I assigned all the DW9 characters their own Perfect Links ... even made lore for an entirely separate region that they lived in).

You think I'm bad about Project Moon? When I was a teen it was Conquest. /lh

~ librarian-lover 📖

YOU GET MEEEEE!!!

There was just a certain magic to Conquest! Especially waiting the months leading up to it. I remember every time I had a chance to be on the computer I was scavenging for any information I could get about it before release.

I'm so glad someone else got to have the Being Excited With Your Sibling experience about it because it's just so... specific is all I can think of to describe it. My older sister and I legit would not stop talking about it the days leading up to getting it and then while we played the game. I remember getting stuck on Ignis of all places and getting way too excited when I finally kicked Hideyoshi's ass.

Agreed Greenleaf and Fontaine are absolutely beautiful, but my other favorites have to be Spectra and Nixtorm! And for characters... Masamune, Oichi, and Motochika hands down.

Honestly whenever I hear about people getting into the Warriors games via Conquest, it just makes me so giddy!!! The Warriors games (specifically Dynasty Warriors) has had such a special place in my heart since I was a kid. You with Conquest as a teen was me with Warriors games from like age 6 to age 16 kfhqkdhwkwjs. If I wasn't playing pokemon or Etrian Odyssey it was usually a Warriors game.

And listen!!! There's nothing to apologize for!!! I LOVE hearing about everyone's interests current, new, and old!!! And also just... Love hearing the opinions of other Conquest fans as well!!!

And that fic concept sounds amazing and I'm honestly holding out on a small shred of hope the Koei and Gamefreak will team up again for a Dynasty Warriors version of the game.

[odaclan]

A clip from the Taiga drama Koumyou ga Tsuji 功名が辻, where the infamous golden skull sake cups were shown. After the drama’s production, these props were kept as display in Kakegawa Castle 掛川城. 

*) Seen on the scene: Hideyoshi gleefully accepting the drink while laughing along with Nobunaga, other vassals solemnly drinking (names not labelled), and Mitsuhide adamantly refusing to drink (followed by the usual “Nobunaga abuses Mitsuhide" formula). Also, Oichi being utterly horrified by the whole thing. 

If you’ve seen pictures of those very same skull cups floating around on the internet, know this: 

It is set prop for a TV drama. It is fiction.

It is NOT a reproduction or representation of real life artifacts.

To be entirely fair, the skull cups isn’t just wholesale fantasy made up by modern authors. The original source of this cups narrative was the Azai Sandaiki 浅井三代記, a collection of tales about the Azai family, which was compiled around 1670s-1680s. However, it is considered to be “storytelling” rather than an actual historical account, and its historicity is highly dubious. 

Even if it turns out to be a sincere attempt at collating a historical documentation, because of its very late creation date it’s still less reliable than, say, the Shinchoukouki, which claims that the skulls were just displayed and not made into cups.

Edit: The Azai Sandaiki also doesn’t mention the skulls being made into cups.

This skull cups narrative was used by Shiba Ryoutarou in his novel Kunitori Monogatari 国盗り物語, and from there the concept took root and became widespread among the modern populace through repeated usage in various pop culture and fiction. 

This particular plot point happens to actually have a historical source behind it (albeit dubious), but Shiba Ryoutarou is unfortunately to blame for a lot of Sengoku era misconceptions. His novels were very popular, and many things that were just his own fictional creation ended up being mistaken for historical fact and propagated ad nauseum in other novels, movies, anime, games, and so on. 

[pandapupremade]

Scratching Noise

Words: 1,058

SHIP: Nobuthe (Nobunaga x Ruthe)

Content Warnings: Food mentions, i guess if playful arguments aren’t your thing then that too

SUMMARY: After strange noises occur in the castle, Ruthe asks their husband what’s up...And where’s Lady Oichi during all this?

NOTES: Ruthe is a she/they trans man. this was inspired by my cat scratching at my door demanding his freedom

reblogs okay and appreciated, but not required!

--------------------

For several nights,  there had been a regular noise that would awaken Ruthe around the same time. While this restlessness might frustrate on its own, there was an additional layer to the odd nature of this sound; it was a scratching noise.

At first, Ruthe said nothing to anyone. After all, it might have been a rat or something. Those weren't uncommon. But why was it specifically only around the single hour of 2:00 AM? And surely, they would've noticed if there were such pests scurrying around...

At last, during breakfast, Ruthe brought it up with their husband - the mighty warrior and lord, Nobunaga.

"Hmm? A noise?" He looked at them with a bit of an amused expression.  Nothing unusual for him, but no less concerning for Ruthe. If anything, it almost worried her.

"Haven't you heard it?"

"Nobunaga has heard many noises in the evening, Flower. You'll have to be more specific." He leaned onto his hand, in his signature relaxed pose. Ruthe frowned. "It's a scratching noise...Like - like claws, I think..."

At this, Nobunaga paused. He gazed at them a few moments - although maybe he was staring too long for Ruthe's comfort. Then, the warlord's mouth twitched. Ruthe's eyes widened at this.

"You know something, don't you?"

"No." However, he wasn't able to hold back a smile now.

"You're lying."

"Ho~? Accusing your lord of dishonesty, are we?"

"I'm accusing my husband of keeping things from me, yes." Ruthe huffed, crossing their arms. He began to laugh, and her cheeks flushed. Oh, how they hated to admit that they thought he was cute...But still, that was besides the point entirely, and they knew the thought would lessen their ground in this situation. 

"Oh, Ruthe..." Nobunaga shook his head. "Don't concern yourself." Adjusting his posture slightly, he turned his attention from them to the cake he'd been eating before this conversation began. His wife, meanwhile, was not going to let that conversation drop without a fight.

Moving onto their hands and knees, they crawled their way around the table to their husband. He did not look at them, despite them now sitting directly beside him and glaring intensely. In fact, he blatantly ignored them...

Their eyes, however, then trailed to his cake. It was castella, a sponge cake and one of his favorites...Oh, what a shame if anything were to happen to it... Well, nothing was actually going to happen, but only because their thought process was obvious. Thus, as they tried to grab the cake,  Nobunaga seized their wrist with his free hand. They whined like some sort of sad puppy. 

"Are you trying to anger me, Flower?" As he spoke, he slowly looked at them. Now, he didn't sound mad, despite his words, but his smile was a bit too pleasant to prove that. Any other living being would, in fact, relent at that point...but there was a reason Ruthe had survived this long.

They were stubborn as hell.

And so, without further ado, they tackled their husband to the ground. He seemed honestly surprised by this, grunting upon hitting the floor. Well, that thud might draw people...But for now, it was just them. A mighty warlord and his obnoxious lover.

"Why won't you tell me, Honey?" Ah, pet names. This meant they were serious. "It's been keeping me from sleeping well..." Ruthe pouted, circling a finger on his chest. They were basically on top of him, their long hair draping onto him. "Can't you tell me?"

Once again apparently amused (now that the threat to his cake wasgone), Nobunaga's hand reached up and combed through their hair. "Hmhm...you'd rather hear than be shown?"

Ruthe blinked, and her husband laughed again at her confusion. 

.............

"...aren't you so cute! Oh, so soft!"

These were quotes coming from Oichi's room at the moment, which only confused Ruthe more. Nobunaga had led them there, and now they were just outsude the younger sister's door.

Ruthe opened their mouth to ask,  but Nobunaga hushed them, holding his finger to his lips. Then, he smirked and knocked on the door...

And good lord, what panic there was from inside. "A-ah! Who is it?!" Oichi sounded panicked now. "Umm! Hold on!"

"Nobunaga."

"B-brother?! Ummm! Don't come in! Not yet!"

Nobunaga, otherwise known as the king of not listening, proceeded to open the sliding door and step inside, gesturing for Ruthe to accompany him.

Inside, well...Oichi was trying to stuff SOMETHING under a blanket, and that something was not happy. The blankets shifted and hissed,  and then escaped - a fuzzy blur rushing towards the door. Nobunaga closed it, at least, preventing its actual escape.

It, by the way, was a white cat.

"I-it's not what it looks like!" Oichi insisted, although it was definitely what it looked like. "He just got in on his own, I..." She was clearly about to go on a nonsensical excuse-giving spree, but her brother's laugh interrupted. He turned to Ruthe now, who seemed a little...puzzled.

"As you can see, Flower..." He knelt down, lifting the little cat with ease into his arms and beginning to rub its ears and neck, making it purr and relax instantly. "This is our culprit."

"A...a cat?" Ruthe tilted her head.

"Oichi has been tending to this beast for several days now...Feeding him. It seems now she has snuck him into her room..." Ah, so the scratching was the cat trying to escape in the night, then...

"Y-you knew?!" Oichi stared, "W-why didn't you say so?!" She huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "You could've at least told me off, you know!"

Ruthe sighed, but smiled a little. "Um...Did you give it a name, Oichi?"

"N-no, I haven't thought of one...Uh..." She looked at her brother, as if expecting him to argue with keeping the animal, but he was busy petting it and indulging in its fluffy wonderfulness. Or something. Seems he was a cat person...

Noting the others staring, though, he looked up. "Hmm? Oh, we can keep it."

"W-we can?" His sister's expression lit up.

"Indeed. However..." He smiled, "I forbid your leaving this castle for a week for your attempted deceit." Ah, so in other words, she was grounded for lying about what he already knew.

"W-what?!"

Ruthe was now the one to give a light laugh...Poor Oichi, but at least the mystery was solved.

[samuraifacts]

The Oda Clan After Honnō-ji

 As a fan of Japanese history, the owner of a Japanese history blog, and the owner of a samurai themed roleplay website I get asked about Japanese history quite a bit. Aside from “Who is your favorite unifier?” and “Who would you side with at Sekigahara?” I think the question I get asked frequently is “What happened to the Oda after Nobunaga’s death?” so today I want to dive into it.    Obviously talking a family’s entire history is difficult and we have to specify what we are talking about here. Now, when some people say Oda Clan they mean Nobunaga’s entire military force. The Oda family, the Maeda, the Shibata, Niwa, Toyotomi, all of the combined forces. We are going to cover those families a bit but not in depth as they all had their own separate fates. Primarily I want to focus on the following list of people 1. Oda Nobunaga - The man himself. He needs no introduction. 2. No/Kicho - Nobunaga’s wife and the daughter of Saito Dosan. 3. Oda Nobutada -  Nobunaga’s eldest son. The heir apparent. 4. Oda Nobukatsu -  Nobunaga’s second son. The survivor.  5. Oda Nobutaka -  Nobunaga’s third son. Full of Oda Pride. 6. Oda Hidekatsu -  Nobunaga’s fourth son. A victim of fate. 7. Oda Katsunaga - Nobunaga’s fifth son. We don’t know much about him. 8. Oda Hidenobu - Nobutada’s son. Nobunaga’s grandson.    Now, Nobunaga did have daughters but sadly their fates don’t really tie into the fate of the Oda Clan as a whole as they had all been married off so we won’t be discussing them in great detail. We also won’t be discussing the three daughters of Nobunaga’s younger sister Oichi. I will, however, encourage you to look up Nobunaga and his family members. They are fairly interesting people.    Since this is focusing on the clan after Honnō-ji let's talk about the event itself and check some of those names off of our list. The Honnō-ji Incident itself happened in 1582 in Kyoto. Nobunaga’s retainer Akechi Mitsuhide surrounded the temple of Honnō-ji that Nobunaga was staying at and his troops burned the temple to the ground causing the death of Nobunaga, several soldiers, and many of Nobunaga’s family and persona guard. Not one to leave his fate in the hands of others it is believed that during the siege of Honnō-ji, instead of letting the enemy take his head Nobunaga instead committed seppuku. Some people that it was his retainer Mori Ranmaru that acted as his second.   Next we have his beloved wife lady Kicho. Sadly Japanese history doesn’t keep good account of the fate of women in the Sengoku Period but we can guess at her fate. Some people theorize she may have broken the siege at  Honnō-ji and went to Tokugawa Ieyasu, or Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for help. Sadly this is unlikely. As you will discover later in this post if Hideyoshi had Nobunaga’s wife relying on him for protection he would have used that to his advantage and we would have countless records of her presence. Ieyasu would likely be the same. Some theories even say she ran all the way to Mino to hide but again, her ability to move out of the Akechi siege seem unlikely. More than likely she died with her husband. During this battle Nobutada (1st son) and Katsunaga (5th son) would also be killed fighting to protect their father. Nobutada’s death is the important thing here as he was Nobunaga’s eldest son.

  After Honnō-ji the traitor general Akechi Mitsuhide would be killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At this point Nobunaga’s forces would stop trying to expand his area of control and the Oda lands and retainers split between Oda Nobukatsu (2nd son) and Oda Nobutaka (3rd son). It was during this split that Toyotomi Hideyoshi summoned Nobunaga’s sons and retainers together. At this meeting, now known as “The  Kiyosu Kaigi” or “The Kiyosu Accords”, Hideyoshi declared that neither son would control the Oda. Instead the Oda clan’s lands would be split among it’s retainers and the Oda clan heir would actually be the young baby Oda Hidenobu, the son of Nobunaga’s first son Nobutada. Of course, since he was just a baby, Hideyoshi would then appoint himself as young Hidenobu’s regent and thus now be in control of the Oda clan. This made Shibata Katsuie, Nobunaga’s prized general and husband of his sister Oichi, declare war on Hideyoshi while backing  Nobutaka (3rd son) to be the next ruler of the Oda. Nobukatsu chose to back Hideyoshi in exchange for keeping some of the Oda Clan lands. Hideyoshi would end up winning this war and Katsuie, as well as Nobunaga’s beloved sister Oichi, would die. His only backing Oda Elder now dead Nobunaga’s third son Nobutaka would be forced to live the rest of his life in exile and history would lose track of him.   This leaves only a few people left on our list. Nobukatsu (2nd son), Hidekatsu (4th son), and Hidenobu (grandson). Since we haven’t brought him up yet let's talk about Hidekatsu. I have named him Oda HIdekatsu here to show his relation to Nobunaga but actually his name was Hashiba Hidekatsu! The young man who held Oda Nobunaga’s memorial tablet at his funeral was actually Hideyoshi’s adopted son. He sided with Hideyosh to defeat Mitsuhide, and even joined Hideyoshi in defeating Katsuie. Sadly we don’t know much about him. Though we do believe he died only a few years after Nobunaga. Many rumors say that he may have been killed by Hideyoshi himself in an attempt to solidify his control over the remnants of the Oda Clan and to make sure the boy wouldn’t be a challenge. This leave us with two Oda men left. The Second Son Nobukatsu and the Grandson Hidenobu. As Hideyoshi took complete control of what was once the Oda domain Nobukatsu turned to Ieasyu to aid him in regaining the Oda Clan’s lost glory. Sadly Ieyasu lost at the great battle of Komaki and Nagakute. This forced the Tokugawa to become subservient to the Toyotomi and after a complete souring of their relations Nobukatsu was forced to become a monk.   Near the end of his life, however, Hideyoshi seemed to forgive Hidekatsu and restored some of the Oda’s lands to him. Meanwhile the infant Hidenobu stayed with Hideyoshi. However, soon after this Hideyoshi would pass away and Tokugawa Ieyasu rose up to claim Japan as his own. This would cause the battle of Sekighara in 1600. At this time Nobukatsu became the Guardian of Hideyoshi’s son Hideyori while Hidenobu was put in charge of protecting Gifu Castle. Gifu was the home castle of the Oda Clan and startioned near the Tokugawa’s territory. At the Tokugawa forced advanced on Toyotomi lands Gifu fell easily to Ieyasu and all of Hidenobu’s retainers committed suicide. However, Hidenobu himself was not killed nor told to commit sepuku. Things get a bit fuzzy here for the young man but it is believed he died five years later in 1605.    This leaves Oda Nobukatsu, Nobunaga’s second son, as the final survivor on our list. After everything Hideyoshi had done in order to take over the Oda clan and it’s territories I’m sure some people find it strange that after their falling out Nobukatsu would come back, serve the Toyotomi, and even be the guardian of Hideyoshi’s son. In many ways Oda Hidenobu’s life was the life of a survivor who did what he felt he needed to in order to live through the time period. This would hold true at the final clash of the Toyotomi and Tokugawa forces at the Siege of Osaka in 1615.  in 1615, he would betray the Toyotomi clan and surrender to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Because of this betrayal he would end up doing better than most of the Toyotomi clan and it’s loyalists. Nobukatsu was allowed to be a provincial lord during the Edo period. Not only would he live the rest of his life in relative comfort in a Japan no longer at war but would make sure that the Oda clan continued on through the generations. In fact, Nobukatsu’s bloodline goes all the way up to modern times! His descendant Oda Nobutoshi, and Nobutoshi’s son, Oda Suemaru actually acted as provincial lords at the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868! Today, many people can be found in Japan who can trace their family lines directly back to Oda Nobunaga through Nobukatsu’s family line. While Oda Nobukatsu is seen as kind of a bad general, a coward, and an opportunist. However, it isn’t a stretch to say that through the efforts of Nobukatsu the Oda Clan survive to this very day!     I covered a lot of time with this post and several major meetings, figures, and battles. I really hope you guys will check out the hyperlinks I’ve put in this post and take it upon yourselves to learn more about these amazing topics! While Wikipedia certainly isn’t the best source for verified academic info it is a great place to start and to get general ideas of people, events, etc. so go ahead and check them out! Have a great night everyone, and stay safe!

[tragedestined-a]

My Muses and Writing Love Letters !

Katsuie would write a really long love letter, mostly trying to justify his love for you (since his reputation is garbage and he figures most people would be turned off by that) but also kind of begging to be loved in return. It’d be a very earnest letter, but maybe too much so. In addition to his very strong feelings of love (obsession?), his own insecurities and fears would come across quite easily. ^^; So overall, he’d write a very long, emotionally heavy love letter that’ll stay with you long after you read it, but not in a happy way. It’s more like it’d probably make you feel kind of depressed, and maybe even worry for Katsuie. ;u;

I’m not sure Sakon can sit still and focus long enough to write a love letter ? He’s more the type to just blurt out his feelings without thinking one day. XD Up to that point, though, he’d probably be very verbally affectionate and huggy, so if you’re the person he likes and you’re observant enough, you’ll know a confession is coming.

Nagamasa and Oichi both really want to write each other love letters, but neither one has been able to come up with a love letter they’re satisfied with yet. XD Oichi actually has a few long completed love letters, but she doesn’t feel like she’s written them well enough to meet Nagamasa’s standards, so she’s hidden them away for now. Oichi’s love letters start out kind of nice and happy but tend to turn depressing and a tad obsessive the longer they go on. Nagamasa has tried several times to write a love letter, but he always ends up crossing things out to the point that he has to throw away the paper and start over. He has a lot of trouble trying to write a love letter because 1) he’s a tsundere samurai who gets very embarrassed when it comes to talking about his deepest feelings and 2) his letters come off as too stiff and formal and cold even by his standards (they sound like missives he’d give his subordinates to order them around) for him to give to Oichi as love letters. Once they’ve been around each other longer and become comfortable with each other, though, I think they’d both be relaxed enough to finally send each other decent love letters. ^^

At this point in his life, Kiyomasa’s not really looking for long-term romantic relationships, mostly just one-night stands and short flings. So love letters would come off too strong and/or give the other person the wrong idea about what he wants from the relationship. But even if he did want to pursue a long-term relationship someday, Kiyomasa has enough self-confidence to just say what he wants to say directly to the other person instead of writing it out.

Kaioh/Past!Katsuie would write a love letter similar to Katsuie’s letter, but instead of being depressing, it’d come off as almost delusionally happy and excited, like he’s assuming you’ll just say yes to him. Then he’d probably try to invade your clan’s land and take it over so that he can therefore ‘claim’ you as his own, because he’s terrible. XD Kiyouki wouldn’t bother writing a love letter or even verbally confessing his feelings, because he knows that no one wants a homeless gambling addict who has nothing to his name and is constantly getting into fights. ;u;

[chernobog13]

1969 was an interesting year in Japanese cinema, as the public was presented with distaff versions of two extremely popular characters: Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman, and Tange Sazen.

The first was The Crimson Bat series from Shochiku Studios.  The series stars Yoko Matsuyama as Oichi (referered to several times in the series, even by herself, as “blind Oichi” or “Oichi the blind”).  Strangely enough, she is never called Crimson Bat in any of the films, and that name only appears on the international versions of the films.  There is much speculation as to where the name came from, although Oichi does carry a red sword cane, and her costume through most of the second of the second film is a red kimono.

While based on a manga series, the films are clearly a response to the popularity the Shinato Katsu Zatoichi film series, produced by Daiei and still running strong at the time.  

Other than the obvious difference between the characters in that Oichi is female, she is also given the rather sexist weakness for always pining for love, and usually falling for one of her male adversaries.  While that might make sense in the first film before she becomes an expert swordswoman and learned to be self-reliant, it makes absolutely no sense in the later films when she’s become a bounty hunter.

Another big difference between the two: Zatoichi is always portrayed as scruffy and looks like he’s spent most of his life living on the road.  Shintaro Katsu was also kind of pudgy, and certainly - at this point in his career - could not be accused of having matinee idol looks.  Oichi, on the other hand, is just flat out gorgeous.  Her make-up and, clothing and hair always look like she’s ready for a modeling gig.  And she has the super-power of always keeping her hair perfectly coiffed, either while battling dozens of opponents or falling off cliffs (which she does a couple of times),

There were only 4 films in the series, the first 3 released in 1969 and the last in 1970.  The following year Yoko Matsuyama returned to the role in a TV series that ran for 25 episodes.  Ms. Matsuyama also went on to marry Teruo Tanashita, the artist who created the original manga introducing Oichi, the lucky guy.  In America I guess the equivalent would be William Moulton Marston or Harry G. Peter (the creators of Wonder Woman) marrying Linda Carter.

I enjoyed the movies despite the annoying flaw with Oichi’s character, but I guess the filmmakers thought it was necessary A: because she was a woman (that’s just my assumption; I don’t agree with that as a valid reason); or B) to differentiate her more from Zatoichi.

I haven’t been able to locate the TV series yet, but would love to check it out if I do.

The second distaff character making the scene in 1969 was Lady Sazen, the female version of Tange Sazen.

Tange Sazen  is a one-armed, one-eyed ronin who was introduced in 1927 as a minor character in a serial story about Ooka Tadasuke, an actual historical person who was a magistrate in Eo (Tokyo) during the Shogunate.  Tange Sazen was so popular with the readers, however, that three films were produced by three different studios featuring Sazen as the hero.  These were so successful that a new story, with Sazen as the hero, was serialized in the newspapers.

Tange Sazen went on to have a long career in both print, film, and eventually TV.  There were several film series, sometimes from competing studios released in the same years, released in Japan,  The character has been portrayed by several notable Japanese actors.  The ones most familiar to most Western fans who be Ryutaro Otomo (Orochimaru from The Magic Serpent), Kiinosuke Nakamura (Itoo Ogami in the Lone Wolf and Cub TV series), and Tetsuro Tanba (Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, and one of Japan’s most prolific actors - the man never turned down a role!).

The character is so popular because, like Zatoichi, he is considered an outsider from society due to his handicap, but is nonetheless a tireless champion of justice and the downtrodden.

Lady Sazen and the Drenched Swallow Sword from Daiei Film stars Michiyo Okusu (billed as Michiyo Yasuda), who - despite the fake scar over her right eye - is almost too pretty to be taken seriously in the role.  Her character’s real name is O-kin, but people call her “Lady Sazen” because of her similarity with Tange Sazen (which, to digress, is kind of meta: in the world of this film does Tange Sazen actually exist, or is he a fictional character that O-Kin resembles?).

Like her male counterpart, O-Kin loses her arm and eye due to treachery.  She trains herself to become a master swordswoman, and is quick to butt in when she finds injustice.  The main plot of the film involves a daimyo (feudal lord) who is a rabid sword collector trying to get O-Kin’s fabled Drenched Swallow sword for himself.  It turns out the lord is also the one responsible for O-Kin’s disfigurement and the death of her family when she was younger.

Ms. Okusu/Yasuda does a wonderful job with what is traditionally a male role.  Despite her beauty, she does her best to scowl menacingly, talk gruffly, and be prickly in the best Tange Sazen fashion.  She did a great job at Sazen’s signature move, which is drawing her sword while holding the scabbard in her teeth.  She does well in the sword fighting scenes, especially with the difficulty of having to do so with her right arm tucked behind her back.

This was not the first time a female version of the character had appeared on the silver screen.  Thirty years earlier Komoka Hara gave audiences a Lady Sazen in at least one, some sources say maybe two film.  The main difference there, at least as far as I can ascertain, is Ms. Hara played Tange Sazen as a female character, instead of Ms. Okusu/Yasuda’s playing a woman who is similar to Sazen, but isn’t actually Tange Sazen.

The film’s co-star is Kojiro Hongo, who was one of Daiei’s matinee idols, and many fans may recognize him from a few of the Showa-era Gamera films.  There’s also the usual stable of supporting actors you’ll find in every Daiei film from that period, many who had appeared in all the Zatoichi films.  

Sadly, there was no follow-up to this film.  I don’t know whether it was because the film did poorly at the box office, or because the audience did not accept a female Sazen.  

Or maybe it fell victim to Daei’s impending collapse.  The advent and popularity of television was killing off the film industry in Japan at that time.  By the early 1970s the studio system as it was known in Japan had disappeared, studio and film budgets were drastically slashed, and Daiei was bankrupt and out of business.

Nevertheless, this was another film I enjoyed.  It actually shares a spot on my DVD shelves with my other Tange Sazen films, whereas all others I meticulously store in alphabetical order.

[thewizardmus]

Pokemon Conquest Secret Santa Submission

I got the list for @dieweissekatze and everything is under the cut. Happy Holidays, and I hope you enjoy!

HC’s 

Heroine(alone)

>Grew up on a farm near the border with Ignis with her parents

>Very much out of her element when it comes to being a Warlord, she just managed to protect the farm from several of Hideyoshi’s goons >very good at general management and finances, but in the diplomacy aspect of leading only really succeeds due to her natural charisma and friendships with the other Warlords >Down time is often reading bad novels and snuggling with Eevee

>Once tried eating a ponigiri, it didn’t go well, kinda like the Spongebob episode where Spongebob eats SnailPo

Motonari(Alone) > writes poetry in his down time, doesn't think its very good though

> cannot stay awake at night for the life of him, he’ll fall asleep at his desk if he tries to force himself > frequents the same tea shop often enough that diplomats are sent there before his castle

>childhood friends with Motochika, and they bicker often, sometimes dragging Hideyoshi into it.

Heroine/Motonari >grew closer after the events of the main story, as Motonari helped teach Heroine to run the country

>Heroine happened across one of Motonari’s poems and loved it, Motonari still hasn't figured out if that means it was good or bad.

> Both can’t stand the taste of coffee, its a tea only household

Hanbei/Kanbei(professional)

> Hanbei stays awake all night and runs a different sleep schedule

>Hideyoshi almost fired Hanbei because of his lazy attitude until Kanbei showed him how much Hanbei did while Hideyoshi slept

> they work on a sort of circle where 2 of them are always awake, Hideyoshi just wakes up at the end of Hanbei's day

> Kanbei is the only one who can cook on the trail, Hideyoshi is too impatient for a decent meal and Hanbei falls asleep too easily

>Hanbei handles all the finances and trade balancing for Of his, while Kanbei takes care of security and diplomacy

Hanbei/Kanbei (romantic) >when Hanbei sleeps, he cuddles next to the warmest body he can get his hands on, normally his Mareep or Pikachu, but he also clings onto Kanbei's coat

>Kanbei loves running his fingers through Hanbei's hair. 

>Kanbei also leaves little messages for Hanbei as he sleeps. 

>Hideyoshi didn't  figure out that the two are dating until Oichi asked how their relationship was going. 

Mini Fic:

Mistunari groaned as Kiyomasa's sleeping form kicked him in the ribs. He slumped upward and pushed himself up. As he looked back down on his sleeping traveling partners he saw that the two of them were both encroaching on his futon space. Mistunari silently accepted that he wasn't going to get back to sleep any time soon. Mistunari shuffled his way out of his shared room with the two fools. Once he opened the door he heard another set of footsteps to his side, when he glanced over he found Pawniard at his side. Mitsunari rubbed the side of Pawniard's head and lifted a single finger to his mouth. 

Mitsunari and Pawniard tiptoed away from the room toward the main building of the Aurora Warlord's castle. The traveler shivered in the cold winter air in the little time that he was outside. Both Pawniard and Mitsunari covered their eyes as the early sunrise peaked over the castle walls. 

Mitsunari entered the main building unsurprised that he wasn't the first person awake but the scene he beheld left many questions. 

The Aurora Warlord was giggling to herself as she wrapped one of the Ignis Warlords subordinates, Hanbei, in loose loops of ribbon. In Hanbei's lap was a small sign reading, "I'm your present". Even from his distance he could deduce that the sign was the Aurora Warlord's handwriting, Mitsunari had to read Hanbei's writing once and it was a sloppy mess that put Masanori's scribbles to shame. Mitsunari was about to leave and take his chances with the two buffoons, when he heard the Greenleaf Warlord speak.

"Now dear, what if, perchance Sir Hanbei wakes up before Hideyoshi and Sir Kanbei bring Lady Oichi here?"

"Pssh, c'mon 'Nari. Hanbei sleeps like a Snorlax, he's not gonna wake up anytime soon." The Aurora Warlord continued snickering to herself. 

"I must say I can't say you're wrong there. But I feel as though this is a major breach in Sir Hanbei and Kanbei's privacy." Sir Motonari countered. 

"I mean the two of them gotta start being more proactive eventually, Oichi told me Hideyoshi didn't even know they were dating. This is just a bit of a push, and funny. Can't forget it's funny." The Aurora Warlord once again devolved into a bunch of snickers.

"Dear, I cannot stress how much their love lives are not our business. I can accept watching from afar and idle gossip with Lady Oichi. After all it is entertaining but this is a step too far. Don't you agree, Mitsunari?" At this the Greenleaf Warlord turned to Mistunari, who was unsurprised that the experienced Warlord knew he was watching. Seeing the Aurora Warlord gawk at his appearance was a treat, however. 

"Please don't attempt to use me as leverage in your argument. I only came to see when breakfast will be ready. It's probably the only way to wake up those fools." 

At Mitsunari's mention of breakfast, the Aurora Warlord perked up. 

"Oh right, should probably get that started, after all even if Ignis is just a hop, skip and jump away the trek from Dragnor is pretty long and I'm sure Oichi and Kanbei will be pretty peckish." She pushed herself off the ground, scooped up her art supplies used on the sleeping Hanbei and skedaddled out of the room.

"Dear, only you would say that after a two week long journey someone would just be 'peckish'. Her sense of judgement, I swear. My apologies Mitsunari, i suppose food will be ready soon" Motonari grumbled under his breath, before following after his girlfriend. Mitsunari sighed to himself before Pawniard tugged at his clothes, then pointed toward Hanbei, who was still wrapped in ribbon, snoring peacefully. “Its too early to deal with, let someone else take care of him.”

[descendent-of-the-sixth-heaven]

*notices the ears* E-Eh?! Wh-Where did those come from?!?! *points* {Oichi: W-Well, I would let you know either way~~ *kisses all over his face while drying his hair with a towel*} {Asahi: Lord Ieyasu… May I… kiss you again…?} {Kotsuki: No, she isn’t exhausted. *glares at Hatsume* She’s just a drama queen.} {Aya: *doesn’t mind but notices his discomfort* Ah, shall we continue this later~~? *strokes his cheek*} [Shingen: Right! Hmm… maybe… outside! We both know Koro loves the outdoors!]

Masamune: What came from what?

*He turns around to go look at the mirror and a very fluffy tail appeared*

————

Hideyoshi: Your kisses are sweet, I love them.

*He dries her body with a towel*

————

Ieyasu: You can, just... kiss me already!

Mitsunari: Oh, but she must be feeling dizzy!

Sasuke: That would be wonderful, thank you my lady. I promise to make it up to you

————

Selena: But if he loves outdoors, maybe he will want to deceive us! Maybe he is here.

[frywen-babbles]

Sounds of Silence pt12

A/N: TW: blood and mentions of violence

Part1 | Part2 | Part3 | Part4 | Part5 | Part6 | Part7 | Part8 | Part9 | Part10 | Part11

***

It took only one look at her face to know something was wrong.

Horribly, horribly wrong.

Her eyes were full of terror, and her makeup smudged all over her face, eyes red from crying. But that wasn't what caught his attention. It was all of the blood on her face, on her body, all of the cuts and bruises he didn't have time to look over.

He grasped her hand in his and ran, not turning to look even when he heard a shout behind them. There was no time to wait for the elevator. He led them down the stairs, the firm hold of his hand in hers keeping her from falling. Down, down, down they ran as he tried to come up with a plan.

Why at moments like this his brain was drawing a blank?

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, his eyes found the door to the European cafe. He took a firmer hold of her hand and swung the door open pulling her in after him to the empty cafe.

"Wel- Mitsun, oh my gods, what-"

"Hide us!" Mitsunari barked interrupting Oichi's friend. She stared at them, her eyes wide, frozen in horror at the sight before her. She blinked once before she pointed behind the counter and stepped out of the way.

"There! I'll call the police!"

He didn't even listen to Oichi's friend as he was already pulling her along with him, cramming both of them under the counter. He cradled her into his arms, feeling her shivers and shaky breaths. Only then Oichi's friends words registered to him.

"It was a cop who did this!" he hissed, his voice low just in case someone might hear.

Oichi's friend froze for the tiniest moment and he could see how a small tremble worked up from her fingers to the rest of her body.

"Okay... okay... I'll call backup, just... just stay there. Quiet." She lifted her phone to her ear, clearly calling someone as she turned the radio louder.

Mitsunari felt her struggle a bit in his arms and turned to look at her, lifting a finger to his lips. She looked at him and nodded, her hands taking a tight grip on his clothes.

"I need..." Oichi's friend started to speak on the phone, but just then he heard the door to the cafe slam open.

He clamped his hand over her mouth to make sure she stayed quiet, his palm coming slick with her blood. Her breath came out in small panicky huffs and she trembled grasping his arm tighter, her fingernails digging deep into his skin.

It was hard to hear what was said. His heart drummed in his chest so loud it nearly drowned all the sounds underneath it. Her eyes searched his, panic setting into her features, but he just held her still, his hand firmly over her mouth, listening to the conversation above.

"Welcome! What would you like to have today?" Oichi's friend greeted whoever had entered the cafe.

"Did a woman come here?" a bit out of breath male voice asked. The same voice which had shouted after them before.

"No, no one has been here for a while. It's been a quiet day." Mitsunari was surprised how even her voice sounded. He could see how her hand still holding the phone trembled under the counter, but none of it could be heard from the sound of her voice.

"You might have seen her, she lives in this building..." he proceeded to describe her, but Oichi's friend stayed unfazed.

"Sorry, I don't remember seeing her. Good luck with your search though."

"Can I see the back of the cafe? She might have slipped over there."

Mitsunari tightened his hold on her, trying to keep his breath even and quiet. He would see them if he came behind the counter. Did he have a reason to suspect they were hiding here? He could feel cold sweat rolling down his spine and a tiny part of him sent a prayer for them not to be found.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm not allowed to let any unauthorised persons in the bakery. I could lose my job if I did that."

"Here, if you see her, call me immediately."

"I will, um, Inspector Satake. Is this police business? Should I be worried?"

"No need to worry, miss. She isn't a dangerous criminal. I just need to question her a bit about a case."

"Oh, alright. I'll keep an eye out, inspector. I hope you find her soon."

"Yes. Have a good day, miss."

As soon as the door closed behind Inspector Satake, Oichi's friend lifted her phone back to her ear, "Did you catch that?... Yeah... I'll be fine, I think... Oh, gods yes please ask him to come..."

He let go of her mouth, letting his muscles relax. He closed his eyes and drew a breath to calm down, but was brought back to the moment when she shook his arm hard enough to leave long scratches.

"Was it him? It was him, wasn't it? Why did you do that he'll kill you! He didn't see you did he? I need to-"

He pried her fingers off his arm and interrupted her blabbering, "I won't let him catch you."

"I haven't asked yet what happened... Okay, hold on a sec..." Oichi's friend covered her phone and turned to them, "Can you tell me what happened?"

"That was her ex. I think he might try to kill her." Mitsunari answered as steady as he could. Still, his voice was thick, trembling a bit and he held her hand a bit tighter. Somehow, saying it aloud made it more real, made the possibility that she might have been killed just moments before a reality. A reality he wasn't yet ready to face. Not when she was still clinging to his arm, her eyes wide with terror, her face and clothes covered in blood.

"And he... he did... this...?" Oichi's friend made a vague gesture towards her face.

"Yes."

Oichi's friend nodded solemnly and reached for some napkins. She crouched in front of her and gave her a friendly smile, handing the napkins to her.

"Here, there's quite a lot of blood..."

She took the offered napkins, her eyes turning to him.

"There's a lot of blood on your face..." he said pointing at his nose. She immediately brought some of the napkins to cover her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't remember your friend was hard of hearing." Oichi's friend offered an apologetic smile before she returned to her phone call. "The cop was Mitsun's friend's ex, he's beaten her up pretty bad... Yeah, I know, but... Mitsun said he might try to kill her, Saizo. I can't just... I know... But I have to... Oh, I hadn't even thought of that... Thank you... I'll let them know... I love you, bye..." She grabbed some pen and paper and scribbled something down.

"I'm sorry, but you can't stay here, I can't let Mrs Tsuchida get into trouble." Oichi's friend handed him the paper in her hand, "Go to this address, tell the people there Mistress Utsusemi sent you and they'll help you. They'll be told in advance you're coming."

Mitsunari looked at the note in his hand, trying his hardest to ignore the blood smudge he had made with his fingers. He looked at the address and dug out his phone to type it in. It was only a few kilometres away, they should make it in 15 minutes if they ran most of the way.

"I'll show you to the back door, that way you should be able to slip out undetected."

"Thank you." Mitsunari offered Oichi's friend a curt nod before he stood up and helped her up, taking a firm hold of her hand again. Oichi's friend led them to the back and opened the door, peeking outside to make sure there was no one in sight.

"Mitsun! Call or at least text me when you get there, okay?" Oichi's friend reached to touch his arm when they passed her and when he looked at her there was a clear concern on her face.

"I will," he promised, for once not mocking her concern. He stepped to the alleyway, remembering the map from his phone, pulling her along. He held tight on her hand as they ran through the allies towards the right street.

A shout startled him, but he didn't slow down, only held tighter onto her hand. He didn't even dare to turn to look, he just ran and ran as fast as he could dragging her behind him, his lungs burning with every breath, the beating of his heart so loud in his ears it was drowning everything else underneath it.

A loud bang echoed at the almost empty alleyway.

She stumbled, but he held tight, never letting her hand slip from his as he pulled her to the last alley left before the final turn to the right street. They emerged to a busy walkway, but he didn't slow down. They weaved through the crowd until they reached the right address.

It was not what Mitsunari had expected.

They were in front of a nice restaurant, a 'closed' sign hanging on the door. He didn't have time to hesitate. He pulled the door open and pulled her in after him to the restaurant.

He leant to his knees to even his ragged breath, while she slumped on her knees to the floor out of breath and energy. The door closed behind him with a click only to leave an eerily quiet atmosphere.

When he finally managed to catch his breath and look up he saw several pairs of eyes fixed on him. Several pairs of eyes belonging to people looking more or less like members of the yakuza.

"Mistress Utsusemi sent us..." he said, the nickname finally making sense. What on earth had Oichi's friend caught herself in while she had been away?

His words finally managed to get some action. Someone hauled her to her feet and they were pushed to the floor behind the counter. He wrapped his arms protectively around her to soften her fall, his bottom hitting the floor hard.

He opened his mouth to ask something, but the woman standing next to them lifted a finger to her lips.

The bell above the door rang.

Mitsunari grasped her and pulled her to his chest, her whimper muffled on his clothing. Her hands reached around him and she held onto him so tight it hurt.

"Have you seen..." The words died out and an uncomfortable silence filled the restaurant.

"We're having a private gathering, officer. You may come back another day, we'd be happy to serve you."

The bell on the door rang again and the woman standing next to them sprung into action.

“You! Get some bandages!”

She crouched next to them her face much softer now. “Where are you hurt?” She asked, her voice soft and non-threatening. Mitsunari nudged her and she looked up at him.

“Is he gone?”

Before he had time to answer the woman next to them tapped her on her shoulder to get her attention. She jerked and twisted around her hands grasping hold of him. He held her a bit tighter, not sure what would happen next.

“You are safe now,” the woman signed slowly.

Was it over now? Reality started to hit him as he held her, trying to calm her down, but he pushed his feelings down. He had to stay strong, he would deal with this later. Much, much later, when he'd be alone.

He was startled by the sound of a door opening and when he looked up he saw the same silver-haired boy he had seen talking to her in the library. He... he felt like he should be more surprised than he was. Of course, somehow, the boy always following her around was a part of the yakuza too.

The boy looked surprised when he saw her. And then he turned his eyes on Mitsunari.

He had never seen anyone stare at him as coldly as he was now. He held her tighter, which made her look up at him. She followed his gaze to the boy and made a startled noise.

"Ah, Hotaru. Do you know her?" The woman next to them noticed the boy too, turning her attention to him.

"Teacher. At the library." Hotaru signed his answer to the spoken aloud question, never turning his gaze away from them.

"Oh... Oh!" The woman seemed to come to a realisation and turned her attention towards them. "Ma-tsu-ko. Raven," she introduced herself, "Thank you for always taking care of Firefly for us."

Matsuko moved between them and Hotaru and he got a small glimpse of the pout on Hotaru‘ slips.

"Where are you hurt? Is there something you need?" Matsuko asked. She turned to hide her signs from him, all he could see was that she spelt out something. Matsuko’s jaw tensed.

"That bastard..." she murmured between clenched teeth. "Come, let's get you looked over." Matsuko let her face relax again in a smile and she gave her hand to them, her palm up.

Mitsunari stood up and gave her his hand as well and she took it. When he helped her up, he noticed how cold and sweaty her hands were, how fast her pulse was, how fast and shallow her breath seemed.

He almost let go of her to ask if she felt okay enough to walk. Almost. Before he could, she swayed on her feet, her eyes glazed over and when he reached to catch her by her waist, his hands came wet and sticky.

He hugged her close to his chest, dreading to look at his hands.

Blood.

Lots and lots of blood, hidden by her black dress.

***

@honeybeelily    @you-mass-effect-my-dragon-age    @han-pan    @masamunesmistress    @dreamfar628 @enchantress96 

[draconivn]

C.002 | Daughter of the Takeda

Disclaimer: I don’t own Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY or its characters. Please note that this will not follow all of Saizo’s route, and the MC is an OC of mine.

Summary: You wanted to do more than just be in the kitchen like any woman would’ve known how to do. You want to explore. You want to become so much more. But when you live in a world of war, what you decide to do in your past ends up following you to your future, even though the battlefield is no place for a woman. Will you find love or will you only find blood? Saizo x OC MC

Masterpost: LINK

CHAPTER 2: The Forest Maiden

Trigger Warning: Blood, Death, Gore

The makeshift home I had made for myself in the woods with Rai was my bed for the night and I left my necklace with her around her neck, a note slipped into the small locket. The cabin was a little far for the night, so this was my main option so I could at least be found closer to the enemy army. We were just on the land border that separated the Oda from the Takeda. 

At daybreak, the clouds hung low in the sky as I sought the fruits of the trees for my breakfast before enemy soldiers I had 'befriended' came looking for me. Rai ducked away before there was any chance of them seeing her. I knew the reason why, and there was a possibility that the Takeda would spot them on the way: the remains of the scouts, scattered and blood splayed everywhere as they had been dug up from their hiding spots. There would be no one to withhold the Takeda from advancing, and these soldiers came to warn me once again that the place was going to be a battlefield. 

"Why?" I had to ruin my sense of speaking to make it work. 

Being a child of the forest meant speaking in the human language was to be new and they had spent much time 'teaching' me how to speak. They had even called me the ‘Forest Maiden’, and tried to name me, but I would shake my head as if I didn’t like the name. I offered them some of the food that I had foraged while they spoke to me, hoping that none knew of the other berries that were buried lower in the pile were not made for consumption. I ate at the same time to ease the worry that I could’ve done something wrong to the food, so there was next to no suspicion hanging around. 

I let them explain as much as they would think a wolf-raised child would be able to understand, but it was long enough to let the food work its magic. When I finally agreed to leave, they all stood and readied themselves to leave. One by one, they sputtered out blood and fell to the ground as I ran to them in fake worry, the rain starting to pour down. 

Bit by bit, I was initiating my plan and I knew I couldn’t leave this alone. 

Poisonous food was only enough to take three soldiers down, but it wasn’t going to be enough to help the Takeda army. 

I acted horrified and scared that my 'friends' were not responding and I cried out, knowing that the two others who lingered as watchdogs would come running any moment now. To them, I was trembling in fear as they held me and comforted me, but it wasn’t something they could take sitting down and decided to bring them back to the camp as best as possible, with my crying self in tow.

Just like that, I was a lone child of the neighbouring country taken into enemy camp in tears with the rain forcing my hair and muddy clothes to cling to my body.

Food poisoning had only seemed like the quickest way to decimate numbers just as they were preparing to march after their morning meals. The soldiers that had first fallen to food poisoning  were curled up in the infirmary tent just before breakfast so there was a possibility that some food didn’t do well in their bodies like mine, since I had eaten with them. It was slow-acting poison in a way, but with the time to march being very soon - though I wasn’t sure if it was going to work - I knew that I had to find another opportunity to get them. The rain had died down for the time being, but it wasn’t going to be long before the armies marched towards death.

Poison in the water supply had to be discreetly poured in without me doing anything too obvious, but given that I had come at such a convenient time, I came over with curiosity in my eyes and somehow had managed to convince the soldier on food duty to let me help serve breakfast. Of course, I played the clumsy card once I had managed to complete my little task and was ushered quickly to a tent once a unit leader caught me helping, stating that I shouldn’t even be there. 

He was one of the few that didn’t like me, based on previous run-ins, so it wasn’t a surprise that he was kicking me out of the area so soon.

At the Takeda camp, a great white wolf leapt from the trees and came rushing through to search for Shingen. The soldiers that were preparing to march were in alarm, grabbing their spears and ready to draw their swords, but she evaded each one as she headed towards the tent that she had been told to go into. It was enough to draw a commotion, with Shingen and Sasuke emerging from the tent in the middle of a war council. 

“Stand down.”

Sasuke looked at Shingen’s command. “Milord?”

Upon seeing that the cautious warriors stepped back, the wolf kept her head up as she made her way over to the red-haired man. Once in front of him, she sat and lowered her head to allow off the necklace so it could slip off into his hand and opened it. The note inside wrote, ‘Blood, I will not shed, but their hunger will take them closer to death’.

It was a winning war playing right into our hands as troops toppled over from unsuspected food poisoning just as they were preparing to march. They could hardly make it out to the battleground in the state that they were, clutching their stomachs and groaning in pain. 

When the Takeda army stormed the camp, a soldier who hadn’t fallen victim to my poison had rushed in to keep me safe. He offered me a mamorigatana so I could defend myself 'just in case'. He was in a hurry, making sure I was okay and that I understood, but before he could run back out, he was struck down. 

I looked up and saw Sasuke standing there, and his expression was a mix of worry and disappointment. He was ready to just grab me and tie me his waist, but I quickly scrambled under the back end of the tent using the mamorigatana. I couldn’t let Sasuke catch me, and the many soldiers that fought despite the poison coursing through their bodies was enough coverage to at least get me deeper into the camp. Some had called for me to run away, their blood spilling onto my clothes and skin. 

I bolted like I knew how. 

The layout of the camp had etched itself into my mind from the previous night, and I ran until strong hands caught me, making me look up.

It was the army's commander and the clan leader. He was just as affectionate with me as many of the others once they had told him about my being there, holding me like a daughter he wanted to protect.

I could see Lord Shingen approaching with many others.

My father’s eyes pleaded with me, to get out of there and stay away from danger. In his eyes, I was in the worst spot to be hiding from war. 

"Lovely morning out here, Nagamasa. I thought we would be rearing for a fight, but it seems like we have dead bodies all over the place." The poison had only been the delay in all of this to allow them to deliver the final blows, and while it was my greatest achievement, I knew it wasn't my father's proudest to see me doing this.

"Takeda Shingen!" the man growled. "Just because you've taken down my men, doesn't mean you will get me!" Azai Nagamasa, the man who became Oda Nobunaga's brother through the marriage of his wife Oichi, an alliance that was forged on the threat of losing his livelihood. The brother-in-law of the Demon King, who aimed for Divine Rule and would destroy all in his path.

"Take a good look around you, Nagamasa. You're completely surrounded. Soon, your head will be next." Lord Shingen glanced at me and smiled, making me hide my face in Nagamasa's armoured chest. "It seems we'd have to indulge ourselves a little with a newfound spoil of this war and take her in as my own daughter."

"If you touch one hair on this child, I swear-"

“Lord Nagamasa!” a voice called out, gasping for air and drawing everyone’s attention. It was the unit leader who had reprimanded me earlier. He was pointing a shaky finger at me, while his other hand was holding at his bleeding wound. “G-Get away from that child, M-Milord! Sh-She was the one who p-poisoned us!”

I kept my act up, trying to hide from the unit leader’s accusing hand and shook my head, even as the man collapsed, reluctantly allowing death to guide him away from the battle. 

Nagamasa was always soft-hearted for the ones whom he cared about. He always thought alliances and friendships would never allow anyone to go against him, to make him crouch and look at me with worried eyes. In a moment like this, surrounded by his enemy, he couldn’t believe that a little girl was a traitor. The soldiers spoke about it often, wondering if he got on Oda’s bad side, would being his brother-in-law be enough to save him? “I-Is this true, forest maiden?”

That stupid name. They really were as stupid as they looked.

My head was lowered, and I knew I had to make a decision. All this poisoning… all the help I wanted to achieve for my father and the rest of the Takeda army… It wasn’t over until the battle was over. If I did this, then there would be no turning back. I would know what it would’ve been like to spill actual blood. The fear on my face wasn’t of the fact that I was being accused for something I knew I definitely did. It was the fear of my father never accepting that I was going to kill a human. “Papa and I won’t be able to go home until you die...” 

“Z-Zaria! Stop this!” My father’s call of my name had reaffirmed all suspicion.

My hand moved on its own, and I knew Nagamasa’s eyes were following as it did.

I felt the resistance, the choke as I imagined him as another one of my prey in the woods towering over me to try and eat me, but I was going to make a meal out of him. My blood ran cold, as I pushed my blade in between the part where armour met armour, and blood started to come up from his lips. I knew from the way that he reacted and not collapsed to the ground completely, groaning as I turned the blade. 

"Sh-Shingen, you bastard!" He gave me an angry push back, forcing himself to his feet and reached to draw his sword to try and strike me down.

Lord Shingen was quick to step between us, knocking the sword out of his hand. 

It took a moment for Nagamasa to realize what happened in the moment that he pushed me away, his head stuttering its movements to look down. The sword was no longer lodged in his chest, laying on the ground as blood began to pour out before Nagamasa joined his fallen comrades.

Just like that, the battle had been won.

But the war was not over.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Blue Phoenix Plays Samurai Love Ballad -- Love Story 1 (Oda Nobunaga)

I thought this might be a fun little thing to do on my days off. I've reached the point in quarantine where I've become so bored that I'm now playing role play dating sims. And I'm also suffering from some writers block with the two fanfics I'm currently writing so I need a distraction. And despite how incredibly cheesy and unrealistic these dating sims are, they're still a lot of fun.

Right now, I'm playing Samurai Love Ballad and each time I'm done with a story on this app, I'm going to post kind of a summary on how things went and my overall impressions with the love interest. And once I've finished with all the characters, I'll make a decision on which character is the "canon" endgame for my character, Sakura, maybe even write a short little one shot about their happily ever after.

Some background on this game. This game takes place in what I assume is the sengoku era of Japan, so the time of samurai. This is an era Japan's history of great civil unrest and political intrigue. The character you play as is the daughter of a restaurant owner in Kyoto. Her father died in an unspecified war and the local magistrate is a total creep who wants to marry you but when you turn him down he forces your little brother, Yahiko, to become a poison tester for one of the many clans (you choose which clan) but because you're self-sacrificing to a fault, you masquerade as your brother and go in his place and so starts your love story. Whichever clan you choose, there's a starter arc basically where you're introduced to two sexy love interests and at the end of the arc, you decide which character you want your love story to focus on (so no love triangle thankfully).

So first up is the Oda clan. I chose Oda Nobunaga from this clan. A pretty prominent figure in Japanese history, if you didn't know. During the late sengoku period, he attempted to unify Japan and actually succeeded in gaining control of most of the Honshu island through conquest (the Honshu island is the main island of Japan). But enough of the history lesson. In this story who is Oda Nobunaga? Well, he's very similar to his history counter part. He's a man of great ambition, he loves Japan and wishes to unify it. His retainers also call him the King of Hell for his ruthlessness and merciless personality. However, his love of Japan is rivaled only to his love of sweets. Which you guessed it, is where our heroine, Sakura comes in. Sakura starts off as a poison tester but by coincidence, accidentally meets the Lady Oichi who is Nobunaga's sister. They become fast friends and Oichi learns of Sakura's talents for baking sweets and wishes Sakura to teach her as Oichi is about to be married off and would like to know more about baking in order to be more wifely material. This is a not very progressive time for women so Oichi not being able to cook is a big deal to her value as a person. But Nobunaga tastes Sakura's baking and promotes her from poison tester to cook and she's to train Oichi on baking skills while continuing to bring him more of her tasty pastries. Although, if Sakura brings a pastry that's any less than excellent, Nobunaga will greatly punish her for it (a thinly veiled death threat basically). But eventually Sakura cooks her way into his heart, along the way he eventually reveals that he's known all along that she's a woman so she eventually stops masquerading as her brother. There's a lot of political intrigue that I'm not really going to get into, I'm just going to give you some of the finer points as its relevant to the story. Nobunaga is called the King of Hell by his retainers because he killed his own brother. He also married off his own sister in order to gain access to roads so he could continue his conquests. However, the clan he married his sister off to, a side branch of it decided it didn't want to live under Nobunaga's rule and tried to break away. This caused Oichi's husband to be forced to pick a side and he ultimately chose his own clan over his wife's clan. Long story short, this side branch of Oichi's husband's clan attacked and killed another of Oichi and Nobunaga's brothers. And as Nobunaga loved this brother greatly, he vows revenge. So part of the revenge tale involves the side branch holeing themselves up in this monastery and refusing to come out so Nobunaga decides to burn the entire monastery down. And then he attacks the main branch of the clan i.e. Oichi's husband's main clan as he views his brother-in-law as also responsible for his brother's death. The brother-in-law commits suicide therefore depriving Nobunaga of his revenge and all this sends Nobunaga in a huge spiral of grief. But Sakura's love eventually gets through to him, he's able to forgive and become a kind and just ruler.

Now, I have a feeling a lot of the stories are probably going to revolve around my character having to "fix" these love interests which isn't a trope I'm too terribly fond of but this is a big trope in Japan which I think is where this game originated from. So I'm just going to overlook that whole aspect. But really, in this war for Sakura's canon endgame, it's the first love story but unless all the other love interests are even worse than Nobunaga, I have a feeling Nobunaga isn't going to come anywhere close to the endgame. Whereas I understand what the story was going for, I'm sorry, in no universe would I forgive him for burning down a monastery and killing unarmed monks, I'm just saying. Not to mention, constantly trying to get my character to be his concubine and even at the end of the story, there is no marriage, my character essentially agrees to be his concubine. And in order to push me away at one point, he tells me a lie that he was the one who killed my father. There is just a lot of baggage with this guy that whereas he is charming in his own way, but Sakura's not the kind of girl to put up with all that baggage. The story's trying to tell me that he does bad things but really he doesn't want to do those bad things, well guess what? You still did it. It's really hard for me to fall for him. And midway to tail end of the story, I was rolling my eyes more often than when I was swooning. So, Oda Nobanaga, you get a C- on the Samurai Love Ballad canon endgame.

[xathia-89]

A Birthday Surprise

Sasuke was frowning as he watched Natsuki carefully as she flitted between the stalls, Kenshin and Shingen had voiced that they wanted to kidnap the woman since she hadn’t been seen on the battlefield for a while. And they had no legitimate reasoning for wanting to see the woman except that she had managed to brighten everyone’s lives by staying in the Sengoku. Until a few days before the wormhole was due, then no one had any idea that they were from five hundred years in the future and they had made a mutual decision to stay without informing anyone else. It had been nearly a year since they had arrived, and he was pondering if her birthday had slipped past. Natsuki would always insist on making a big deal of everyone else’s, as he decided that going through the female’s purse was likely to be the best course of action. She would always avoid the question, as he recalled that she had mentioned it was around this time of year when she had first arranged Nobunaga’s birthday party and they had met in the market.

The ninja disappeared up into the roofs of Azuchi as he had done many times, careful to make sure that he didn’t give his position away to anyone below. He swallowed in nervousness as he spied Natsuki in the corridor outside of her room. The maids were complaining about something pitiful, as the Chatelaine sympathised and tried to soothe over the problem as Hideyoshi rounded the corner looking for the bright woman.

“Natsuki!” He admonished with a frown. “Lord Nobunaga has been looking for you all afternoon,” he scolded, most likely for worrying both the men.

The maids disappeared, as did Natsuki's smile. She sighed in irritation and folded her arms in the wake of the retreating steps. “I don’t know what’s been added to the staff’s food but everyone is determined to test me and make me fire them,” she scoffed. “Anyway, what did Nobunaga want? Did he say?” She waved her annoyances aside as though they didn’t matter.

Toyotomi led her away much to Sasuke’s relief as he dropped through her ceiling silently. He dove straight into the bottom of her wardrobe, knowing that she kept her future keepsakes there and unearthed her purse. Her driver’s license confirmed his suspicions, it was only a few weeks away and he had a feeling that all of the girls would have something to say about it. He slipped the piece of plastic into one of his millions of pockets and left everything as he had found it before lifting himself back into the roof, his mind already going in all the different directions in an attempt as to how to organise things.

The ninja took his time returning to Echigo, much to Kenshin’s annoyance, though Sasuke had another idea as to what he needed to do. He was greeted in the usual manner, with a sword fight that the women of the castle called to a halt for being in the corridors, loudly scolding both men. Kenshin for not taking Sasuke through to the training hall, and Sasuke for obliging the mad Lord.

Aya was the baby sister of Kenshin who knew exactly how to get her big brother to do what she wanted. Nene was Shingen’s twin sister, and as lethal to men as he was to women. Komatsuhime was Yukimura’s younger sister, who doted on both her brother and Lord without a second thought, then there was Kiku, the older sibling to the ninja who had refused to let up when she thought her baby brother was up to no good. All four of them had met in the modern world, where it turned out that the pattern of wormholes that Sasuke had been investigating were all related to the great warlords of the Sengoku since those in Azuchi had also had sisters gone missing. Natsuki was their supervisor at her job in the dress store, and they’d all stayed tight friends despite being on opposing sides in the Sengoku era. It bothered the men something awful, but it was an unspoken agreement that it wouldn’t be discussed or acknowledged by any of the warlords about their sisters all knowing each other.

Kiku was wearing the biggest scowl on her face, waiting impatiently for Kenshin to be moved on before the woman’s intuition set in amongst them all. “Where have you been? It doesn’t take this long to come back from Azuchi?” She pressed.

The ninja looked a little embarrassed and brought out the piece of plastic he’d scouted out of Natsuki's room.

“Going through Suki’s things? That’s not something I’d expect from you,” Nene commented as Aya looked carefully at the information.

“Her birthday’s coming up,” Uesugi pointed out, attracting the attention back to the driver’s license.

“She makes such a big deal of making sure everyone else has a good time, but I thought it was strange that we’d been here so long and she hadn’t had anything for her,” the ninja explained, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Well then, we can’t have that,” Nene smiled, her ‘older sister’ vibe setting in. “We’ll have to let Oichi know how bad of a boyfriend her brother is,” she laughed.

Hideyoshi sighed as he returned to his manor at night. Natsuki had been struggling with the maids recently, though only the youngest staff members who didn’t really want to listen to the Chatelaine. But Lord Nobunaga had left for another trip out with Mitsuhide to his fief, and it was likely that the lack of private time spent with Oda was irritating Natsuki. Plus the new maids had been particularly trying when he’d purposely lingered behind a corner before intervening. He was surprised to find Lady Oichi and his sister, Ashai, both waiting for him in the study.

“Staying up late isn’t good for you,” he frowned immediately and went to chastise both the women.

“Did you know that Natsuki’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks?” His sister interrupted, not bothering to acknowledge the scolding.

“Not even my brother knew,” Oichi sighed, the expression of annoyance on her face. “I’ve called for Yoshihime, Takehime, Gracia and Tatsuhime to meet the girls in Azuchi when they arrive in a few days. The boys will be with them, but Nobunaga has been promising Suki for a while about taking her to show her some nearby villages and things,” she frowned. “It’s all for Natsuki, so you will all be nice. I don’t care who can’t stand who, we all come together for Suki as she does for us.”

The vassal sighed but agreed that it was strange that the woman who would do anything and everything for anyone else’s birthday wouldn’t let them all return the favour. Nobunaga was due to return the following morning, and the warlords would end up agreeing for fear of their sisters’ revenge.

Natsuki was thrilled when Nobunaga told her to pack her things for several days, not realising that returning on her birthday was purposely timed. The maids couldn’t even dampen her mood, as they quickly gave up on trying to make her as frustrated as they had previously succeeded. None of the staff were privy to any information until the couple had left with a small guard, though the Chatelaine was highly suspicious as to how easily Hideyoshi was letting them go without his personal guard, then Oda distracted the woman in time for them to depart.

Sasuke bowed in greeting to Oichi and Hideyoshi who had been left in charge before everyone was shown through to the main hall. Masamune was already itching for a fight but looks from both his sister, Yoshihime and Aya, told him that he’d had to wait for some fun with Kenshin in the training hall. Mitsuhide was sulking about the fact that Sasuke had found out the Chatelaine’s date of birth before he had, especially since the information was in Azuchi all along, and Gracia was already teasing her brother for that. One woman had linked them all, and she was so special to them as Hideyoshi ordered everyone to quieten down whilst Sasuke was already getting an excessively large piece of parchment out to help plan it all.

It was a beautiful winter’s morning. I was swaddled up in various layers and then Nobunaga had insisted that I was wrapped up under his outer layers as well whilst we did the last leg back to Azuchi. The frost had melted and left everything sparkling in the low sun as we stepped back onto familiar ground. We hadn’t gone far, but there was definitely something in the air the second we stepped into the town. Everything appeared normal, but there was definitely something peculiar going off as even Oda seemed to tense up with me in his arms. I glanced up at him and then saw that he was staring at the balcony that overlooked the town from the castle. When I turned in that direction, it was just Hideyoshi and Oichi, which was starting to make me feel like I was going mad.

The maids were silent for once on my return, no snippy comments or snide remarks about my position in Nobunaga’s bed securing my status as Chatelaine. Hideyoshi must have had many words at this rate as I gracefully dismounted with the help of the vassal who had swiftly made his way down from the balcony.

“I’ve arranged for a hot bath for you,” Hideyoshi patted me on the head with a warm smile. “I figured you’d be cold after this morning’s ride.”

“You are a sweetheart,” I smiled. “Thank you,” it wasn’t that big of a secret that I wasn’t a fan of the extremes of weather. I would practically glue myself next to a brazier in winter, and take to dipping my feet and hands in pots of water constantly during the summer. I slipped away down the corridors, eager to not waste the bath.

There were a large variety of oils and scents out next to the bathtub, and they’d even stoked the brazier for me and put it in close range as well. I felt a little spoiled as I suddenly had a thought that they knew it was my birthday. Which was strange because I made a point of never letting any of them know what my birthday was. I liked doing things for everyone else because seeing them happy was what made me happy, and I hated being the centre of attention.

A new kimono had been made for my return, and extra blankets had already been covering my futon I noticed as I lavished in the water until it was cooling. I had learned how to quickly dry myself, or I would be at risk at catching a cold from wearing clothing on damp skin. If there would have been a way of sitting in the brazier, then I was certain I would have found it by now as I poked at the coals before starting to brush my hair.

“Oh, Suki!” I froze up. It sounded exactly like Nene who was outside my door, but as Shingen’s sister, there wasn’t a chance in anything that she would be welcome. “Oh don’t give me that look!” She beamed, and let herself in before taking the hairbrush out of my hand. It took her two seconds to whistle for a warm towel, and Aya swiftly followed with a smile.

“How on earth,” I was trying to get my head around it. They were both classed as the enemy and yet they were brazen about sorting me out as the night started to draw in.

“No questions,” Aya tapped me on the nose, her mismatched eyes glimmering with mischief. And true to her word, neither of them would answer anything that came out of my mouth.

I was getting more than a little grumpy when I was dragged off towards the main hall, but neither of them would take any notice of me.

“Now, close your eyes,” Nene practically sang, and then Aya clamped her hands over my eyes. “Aya!”

“Well she wasn’t going to,” Uesugi scoffed before the door was opened, and the warmth of the room hit me.

“Surprise!”

There was a banner scrawled across the back wall saying ‘congratulations’, and I was shocked to see that Sasuke, Yukimura, Shingen, Kenshin, Kiku and Komitsuhime were present at Azuchi. I was flushing bright red as I was ‘guided’ to take the dais next to my boyfriend, who was looking pleased with himself as I spied a tower of presents in the corner, and then I was certain there was a mountain of food to come as well. The sake was poured the second I sat down, and I had to admit everyone was on their best behaviour as I tried to figure out where the sake had its flavour.

Then a towering birthday cake was brought out. If I hadn’t already swallowed my sake, then it would have been sprayed over someone. I hadn’t seen anything like it since we had come to the Sengoku. I could feel the tears coming on, as several candles had even been bodged together just so I had something to blow out.

“Nope, no crying,” Oichi laughed, dabbing at my eyes with a handkerchief after I’d blown the flames out.

“I can’t believe you all found out and did this,” I mumbled, pouting a little before Nobunaga decided he wasn’t getting enough of my attention and kissed my cheek. “What?” I asked, looking into his deep wine eyes.

“I have many questions for you tomorrow, but for now, we have gifts for you,” he smirked.

There was a small collection of western books that had been accquired somehow by Mitsunari, all on the philosophy topics I’d discussed with the bookworm over the past few months. Ieyasu had personalised a healing kit for when I attended the battlefield, especially since we’d been trying various devices at removing bullets and the likes, and he’d perfected it apparently. Shingen had raided every bakery and stall in Echigo it seemed for the sheer volume of sweetbreads and sweets he’d brought. Yukimura had brought a collection of silks, and then the girls had all brought me a brand new sewing box. It was made of wood and carved with intricate detail including my first name on it, and then the family name of ‘Oda’, which made me frown. Mitsuhide then interrupted and had gotten me a new pistol and rifle, and even offered lessons though I did feel Nobunaga tense up slightly next to me as he glanced over the message which made me smile even wider. Hideyoshi had a very fine tea set made for my room, all in mine and Nobunaga’s colours. Masamune and Sasuke had spent a fortune getting the cake sorted, whilst the attention then all fell on the man next to me.

I yelped as I was suddenly swept up into the arms of Oda. He was wearing a broad smirk whilst he made sure I was secure before sauntering out of the room, much to everyone else’s amusement. It was freezing in the garden, but I was tight against his chest, absorbing all of his available body heat.

Then we reached a little area that we frequented around one of the ponds. It was beautifully decorated, with coloured pieces of fabric strung between the branches, and some lanterns ready for lighting.

“Natsuki,” Nobunaga’s voice was gruff after he’d let me down. I knew that something major was going off. He grabbed my left hand and encased it between both of his. His eyes were sincere as they looked into mine. I was holding my breath as he was trying to find his words. “Ever since you arrived, we have been through so much, and you’ve opened parts of me that I had long thought gone. I can’t envision any fulfilling life without you, would you do me the honour of being my wife?”

It took a moment to sink in. “Yes,” I whispered, and then wrapped my arms around the brute, practically hopping into his grasp. “Yes! Yes, yes!” I laughed, tears threatening before I kissed him hard. His chuckle was making his chest vibrate against me, as we finally parted.

“Now, we send these up,” he smirked, taking one of the torches that were burning in the night and handed one of the lanterns for me to hold. He lit it with a precision that I had come to expect from him and then refused to let it go until I had lit the other one.

I was wrapped up swiftly under his haori and against his chest as we watched them float off. And then they were joined by what seemed like hundreds more, and a faint kiss to my temple reminded me that looking slack-jawed wasn’t the most attractive look.

“You’ve touched everyone around you in Azuchi, and even those in Echigo,” he murmured in my ear. “We wanted to show you how much you’re loved and cared for.”

“I don’t think I could thank you all enough,” I blushed.

“Don’t be silly,” he scolded me lightly. “You bring us all so much happiness, which is why I will be making you answer as to why you hid from us that it’s your birthday, but I do need to finish giving you all the attention you need,” the tone of his voice dipped, and heated me up from deep within.

“We do need to practice for when we’re married,” I breathed, my head tilting backwards as Nobunaga started to nip and bite at my exposed skin.

“Mm, indeed,” he growled.

[anyakane]

My thought after reading chapter 8 of Mitsuhide's MS

(and everything before that, I guess):

(As always, this got long.)

Ieyasu shows up in this chapter!

Idk if it's just early instalment weirdness, but he's polite? And actually pleasant? If you didn't know him and ignored his actions in the prologue, you'd never realize that he is the way he, you know, is.

Sure MC catches him preparing to cheat in the hunting party, and thus realizes he's manipulative, but he's still, for lack of a better word, nice

He didn't even bother to threaten her or anything.

Maybe it was bc it was Mitsuhide who was asking, but he agreed to sneak his ninja to Oichi to contact her and also delivered her letter to MC personally. With minimal complaining.

Ieyasu was friendly and respectful towards the MC and even teased her and outright offered to teach her about falconry.

It's so weird seeing him so nice.

Speaking of nice, when Nobunaga is with MC, he's also quite friendly.

He shows off his gun and his marksmanship skills to her. He invites her to go on the hunting party, apparently to participate?? And only tells her to bring food when MC says she's fine just watching.

Nobunaga lets her touch his falcon and had a short discussion about ideology.

Even when he was angry after the betrayal a couple chapters ago, MC still found it in her to confront him (with dessert in hand) and get him to change his mind. Instead of dismissing her outright, Nobunaga properly explained his reasoning.

And even earlier when some retainers harassed MC, Nobunaga let her decide their punishment. (Tho she let them go in the end)

I honestly wish there were more interaction between Nobunaga and Mitsuhide's MC. I think they could be sort of friends

Also MC is friends! With Oichi! And it's so important to the plot even though Oichi herself is only present for a short time.

I understand event stories go in a different direction from the main routes, but I really wish they explored it further in events.

I never really thought about it before, but Mitsuhide's MC is calm and collected and isn't very emotional. Interestingly, she's also very much not afraid of usually scary lords like Nobunaga and Ieyasu.

I don't remember how it was like in other routes, but MC's dislike of samurai and war is a lot more apparent in this route. She makes references her dislike of it quite often. I think half the reason she falls for Mitsuhide in the first place is that he goes against her preconceived notions of samurai.

I haven't talked about Mitsuhide at all lol

Honestly I think Mitsuhide and MC low-key hit it off early in his route.

Mitsuhide probably liked her first, and I'd say Chapter 5 "The Smelly Fish Incident" is the turning point.

Mitsuhide's actions towards MC go beyond mere kindness. He fights a whole line of retainers for her! Carries her in his arms when her leg is injured and dresses it himself! Gives her his well used charm! Devises a way for her to see Oichi!

It's like his every spare thought is on MC.

I'd bet pearls it actually is, seeing as how he's suspiciously silent when Ieyasu says as much to him.

And MC starts falling for him too because of it.

Despite all that, unless something big happens, a relationship between them would be very occur to develop considering their personalities (see: MC's apprehension towards samurai in general and Mitsuhide's Perfect Samurai persona)

Aren't we lucky that something big does happen!

AKA the SCENE that cemented his place in my heart

I'll talk about it when I get to it

[willows-horde]

And this completes what I had for this story. An incomplete fourth chapter. This is one of a handful of stories I’d love to come back to this story, but at this moment of time it’s unlikely. If I end up doing so tho it’ll be rewritten completely. Rise of the Ishigaki Clan - chapter 4 (incomplete)

word count: 1168

He sat, with his arms crossed, against the cold stone wall of his cell. The cold hardly bothered him by this point. He'd been sitting in the same spot for nearly a day. His stomach stopped grumbling a long time ago. The last time they'd given him some food was yesterday, early in the day. This wasn't uncommon. There have been times when he hadn't eaten for eight days. He was lucky at those times that he managed to get something to drink, other wise he'd have been dead a long time ago.

The clothing he wore was dirty and tattered; and still the same clothes he had on when he was thrown in here nearly a year ago. Except for the shirt; he had lost that about half a year ago. Incidentally, it was shortly after winter began. It had been very badly damaged by that point and they had, quiet literally, ripped it off him. About a month later, to his surprise, he had been given a cloak to wrap up in. The cloak was a bit tattered but it had helped him keep somewhat warm during the cold winter. Since it wasn't cold now he wasn't using it as often, except at nights as a blanket; and the cape that he had worn previously, or what was left of it, was folded and being used as a pillow.

Footsteps echoed as someone walked down the hall towards his cell. He glared up through his bangs to the bars waiting for whoever it was to make an appearance. Once he saw who it was, his glare grew more intense. “Bastard.”

Without making eye contact, Shigenaga Katakura placed the tray that held a plate of food and a small container of water on the floor and, as he slid it inside the cell, said, “Here's your food, Masamu...”

“You stabbed me in the back and left Kojuro for dead; for that alone you have no right to call me by my name,” Masamune proclaimed as he jumped to his feet. He stormed to the bars and banged on them. “You're just a servant of Ishigaki now, you coward!” With both anger and defiance, he leaned down and grabbed the plate of food then threw it at Shigenaga. The plate clanged against the bars then fell to the floor.

Shigenaga knelt down to try to salvage what he could and replaced it on the plate. “If you don't eat, you'll starve...” As he slid the plate back into the cell, his wrist was grabbed. Startled, he looked up only to get punched in the face sending him backward into the wall.

“You'll be the first one I hunt down, traitor.” Shigenaga picked himself off of the ground, brushed himself off and walked back down the hall. Masamune, still angry, sat down and quickly ate the food before washing it down with the murky water. When he was finished he got up and kicked the tray back into the hall before he sat back down against the wall.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

It had been exactly twenty-three days now since he had found himself at the shrine. Each day that passed, Kanetsugu hoped to get word that someone had arrived there looking for him, but no one had. He had a lot of time to think while he was forced to relax and let his injuries heal; and they were healing quite nicely. He'd come to realize that, at the point where he was now, he had no idea what to do. Everyone he knew could very well be dead. He had lost everyone he knew in Echigo when Ryu-ki Ishigaki had invaded there. It wasn't long after he and Kai had arrived in Kai province with who they had had a temporary alliance with before Echigo was taken over. They had arranged a counter-attack to try to retake their home. Unfortunately, they failed. They didn't stand a chance when the Oda attacked from one side while Ishigaki attacked from the other. The only place they could think of retreat to was Omi. Along with Yukimura, they arrived in Omi just as winter began. However, winter wasn't even over when Ishigaki was pushing the borders of Mino. Only after Mikawa fell was it required for Lord Nagamasa to send reinforcements. At which point he and his wife Oichi left. Within a month's time they heard that Mino had fallen. Neither Lord Nagamasa or Lady Oichi were heard from after that.

Having only two weeks to prepare was hardly enough as Ishigaki led his forces towards Omi. Then, within the next week, Kanetsugu had lost the other people who he was close to. First Mitsunari and Yukimura after he had lost against the invading forces. Then a couple days later, Sakon and Kai when they were cut off from retreating out of Odani. What worth is there for him to keep fighting if that was the only result? Maybe he should just retire and stay here. Quit battling. He hadn't ever considered it an option before. It's something he would need to really think about.

There was a knock at the door. Kanetsugu was pulled from his thoughts. “You may come in.” The door was slid open to reveal a girl in her mid-teens. She offered him a smile and stepped inside, carrying with her a tray with the supplies to make tea and a couple cups. Kanetsugu noticed the two cups. “Will you be joining me?” She nodded as she sat down in front of him. He watched her as she prepared the tea. When it was done, she carefully poured some in each of the cups. There was silence for a minute before Kanetsugu realized something. She looked depressed. “Nariko, is something wrong?” In response she looked up at him startled. Apparently, she hadn't expected him to notice. She turned away for a moment before she reached out her hand and started tracing her finger on the floor. Kanetsugu carefully watched what she spelled out on the floor. Omi fell. Two simple words yet they held a harsh meaning. And though Kanetsugu didn't want to admit it, it was true. They had been the only defense in Omi.

“Oh, here you are Nariko.” Kanetsugu looked up to the doorway; Nariko, after quickly wiping at her eyes, looked back. “You made tea. That sounds really good right now,” Itoko commented as she entered the room sliding the door closed behind her. She sat down next to Nariko, who slid her cup over to her. “How are you feeling today, Kanetsugu-san?”

Kanetsugu took a sip from his tea, then, as he was setting the cup down, he spoke up, “I feel...”

At that moment, there was a knock at the door accompanied by a voice. “Naoe-dono, have you seen...” Otso started saying as she slid the door open. She stopped mid-sentence when she saw Nariko and Itoko.

[yoolee]

50 SLBP Prompts

I am having an off morning. For a lot of reasons. My primary method for handling these bouts is to chug water, and pour the nervous energy into whatever the heck comes to mind and hope the heartbeat thing sorts itself out while I ignore it, so, here you go. Some of these will be terrible. Most of them will be ridiculous because it’s me y’all I don’t write angsty or meaningful substance-y stuff it’s all ballet and feather boas. Don’t judge me on how many superhero ones there are I’m on a kick. AND WHATEVER you don’t have to do anything with them if you don’t like them but you can if you do

Yukimura

Yukimura and MC are having a fight – Saizo is off on a mission, so Nobuyuki has to fix it.

“I don’t think he can get redder. Unless…” “Oh no,” started the chef, “Not a chance.”

Usually Saizo handles the ninja missions, but this time you and Yukimura have to go to undercover and please stop laughing Saizo we’re trying okay.

Saizo

Soulmate AU where when your soulmate first speaks to you, the words appear permanently over your heart – which incidentally, is why Saizo kept his mouth shut when you met as children.

Superhero (villain?) AU where the little fox half-mask is not fooling anyone. Except you, probably.

You’re very tired of Saizo trying to push you away for your own good, so you decide to turn the tables. Sort of.

Ieyasu:

You get three wishes and Ieyasu has to grant them – but he’ll do so as he pleases, so, be careful what you wish for.

Ieyasu’s ticked off a vengeful spirit and now one or the both of you can only say the exact opposite of what you mean. If it’s Ieyasu,  would you even notice?

You are about 99% certain that the local supervillain’s civilian identity is the cute jerk with a sweet tooth who never tips when he visits your restaurant and this time when you are kidnapped you decide to offer to cook while you wait for your hero to show up. Bonus points if your local superhero is a super grumpy Mitsunari who is unhappy with how many times you end up in this guy’s clutches come on seriously have you no self-awareness

Mitsunari:

Librarian AU where someone’s book is overdue

You’re supposed to be a respectful retainer of Hideyoshi but look at you, you’re scrawny and don’t know how to hold a sword, I’m going to fix that.

By insulting you that person also insulted Hideyoshi’s taste and I can’t have that we are having a makeover session now and when I am done with you you are going to show them that you are a stunning, gorgeous creature if it kills you.

Hideyoshi:

Cinderella story where Hideyoshi puts Nobunaga’s sandal on MC and declares it’s a fit.

You’ve been trying to work up the courage to ask Hideyoshi out on a date and it finally happened only you also realize that he sort of set the whole thing up and you two going out was his plan all along.

Hideyoshi is assembling a superhero team, and has to convince the Fox (Mitsunari) and the Strategist (Hanbei) to join, all while keeping his own personal Lois Lane (…MC) in the dark about his secret identity, and the head of the superhero syndicate (Nobunaga) happy.

Toshiie/Inuchiyo

This creepy guy (Magistrate) won’t leave me alone, quick, pretend to be my fiancé so he’ll stop

We’re at a festival and I finally confessed but there were fireworks and you didn’t hear me, now what

Soulmate AU where the last words spoken to one another appear on your hands the first time you meet, and you were just a kid and don’t really remember but I do, and I’m not sure I ever want you to know because they broke my heart.

Mitsuhide:

Mitsuhide runs a daycare and his most problematic child is actually his landlord, Nobunaga

It’s been four and a half centuries since Honnō-ji, but like clockwork, Mitsuhide and Nobunaga are standing across from one another, on the umpteenth reincarnation and umpteenth confrontation, and this time, it’s going to end differently. 

You’ve fallen in love with a book of poetry and bought everything the author’s written and you’re just gushing about it to some poor stranger on the train while on your way to culinary school and surprise, turns out he’s the author? 

Nobunaga:

Nobunaga is an ACTUAL Demon King and all you did was spill some spices and salt while reaching for the first aid kit, you weren’t actually trying to summon him, you swear.

After the number of times that Nobunaga has made MC be Princess Kaguya for one of his tournaments, the moon is actually starting to suspect she might be, and has let her know that it will be reclaiming her on the next full moon.

Modern political leader Nobunaga is super excited to drag his new personal chef on a private jet because the meeting he has to attend JUST HAPPENS to be in the same place that’s famous for its high quality ingredients and whoops we have to fend off some would-be assassins while in the air nbd.

Shingen:

MC is working for Kenshin, Shingen decides he wants her with him instead.

Vampire AU (he has a thing for biting, k?) – bonus if chef!MC is frustrated she can’t cook with garlic anymore or is panicking because she HAS been cooking with it this whole time

Shingen decides he should write an autobiography, but his retainers keep interjecting their own thoughts and perspectives whenever he leaves his notes out.

Kenshin:

AU where Kenshin owns a flower shop

MC has a date so she frantically asks Kenshin for styling help because he’s fashionable right? Except he decides she looks way too cute to handover to someone else.

Every item in his treasury has a story – it’s just not the one he tells to other people.  

Masamune:

 Surprise! He actually IS a dragon. And in all his time as a dragon, no one has ever dared talk to him until this little chef heard his dragon tummy rumble and made him porridge, and now he’s walking around as a human and hey look, this restaurant has porridge and it smells familiar…

 All Masamune wants to do is read his book in peace. It’s not going well.

 This whole time I thought you were Yahiko but I went to your restaurant to meet your sister and ‘Yahiko’ greeted me and now I’m not sure if your parents are just bad at names or if something’s up.

Kojuro:

 Adventures in Babysitting: The Early Oshu Years OR Teenage Kojuro is going to have ONE night of not being a responsible adult before the existential terror of being responsible for these two guys who have been through so much and have no one else really hits home.

 I’d really like to take you out on ONE date that doesn’t end in bandits attacking, but here we are again, you brought your weapon right? 

 Several years ago, a cursed object was sent as a ‘gift’ to Kojuro but it got lost in his messy room and you’re cleaning it and whoops, should not have picked that up you’re cursed now. Except, the cursecaster didn’t account for half a decade of inactivity...

Shigezane:

 I’m sorry you got dumped because the other person fell for Kojuro but I think you’re really cool but I don’t know how to tell you that so I’m just going to feed you and hope you pick up on it or that I get the gumption to talk to you before you’re done eating. 

I THOUGHT my personal superhero who keeps rescuing me from all these supervillains (and my restaurant’s jerky landlord) was the quiet customer with the eyepatch but it’s actually his cousin and I just found out by accident and was not expecting that. 

 You are bound and determined to protect the castle at all costs in Shigezane’s absence so when a burglar breaks into his bedroom in the middle of the night you don’t even hesitate to hit him with a vase. Too bad it’s actually Shigezane, who got home and just didn’t want to wake everyone up.

Side Characters:

Kagieie: We’re on a mission for Kenshin and the weather got really bad and so now we’re stuck at an inn that only had one room left.

Kanetsugu: Kenshin’s retainers all rally to (try) and give the man a relaxing spa day.

Toramatsu: Our boss is a total jerk and I can’t believe he is making you go get coffee (that he won’t even drink) for the eleventh time today and it’s almost 2 AM there’s no way I’m letting you go alone but—oh wait the elevator’s stuck.

Kiyohiro: I tried to build a snowman but it wasn’t the same without so I came to see you and whoops now we’re snowed in.

Oichi: Nobunaga may have disappeared, but Oichi is not about to let the Oda clan fall under anyone else’s leadership– she’s taking history into her own hands.

Nobuyuki: Your small restaurant is about to be taken over by a large corporation, lucky for you your favorite customer has a plan – whether you’re going to like it or not.

Tadakatsu: No one actually ever noticed you were in disguise, but since your cooking is too good to risk, you got assigned as a page to Tadakatsu.

Kansuke: After being invisible nearly his entire life, Kansuke decides that for one day – ONE day – he is going to be memorable.

Hotaru: Accidentally tells the MC to ‘do what whatever she wants’ instead of making it a suggestion

Generic Retainers #1-#3: All we wanted was some peace and quiet and a decent job but somehow we always end up getting beaten up by these samurai over some girl – and oh shoot, she just walked in.

Yasumasa: I really hate this girl but I am also SORT of addicted to her cooking and she got tired of Ieyasu’s BS and went back to her home in Kyoto and now I’m in Kyoto and her restaurant is RIGHT. THERE. smelling amazing and such.

Ye Olde AU List

Coffeeshop AU

Corporate AU

College AU

Mermaid AU

Fairytale AU

Circus AU

Mafia AU

Band AU

Sports AU

Bodyswap AU