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the12thnightproject · 2 months ago

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Chapter 22: The Lucky Charm - Although Mitsunari’s small group of defenders score a victory, things are not looking good at Genba Castle..

Mitsunari x OC; Nobunaga x Mai

Previous Chapter

Logline - In order to protect a political alliance, Katusko and Mitsunari must pretend an engagement. But this “all business” arrangement is threatened by a coup against Nobunaga… and by feelings.

From the Military Notes of Ishida Mitsunari…

Sasuke’s ‘smoke bombs’ are highly effective weapons when the object is to confuse and overwhelm the enemy – although the smoke does not discriminate and some of Mozumi’s vassals became disoriented as well. In the confusion, I fell over a crate – although honesty forces me to admit that may have happened without the smoke. I regret we were not able to steal the gunpowder and instead were forced to destroy it, as I know Lord Nobunaga nor Lord Hideyoshi have little patience for waste.

Hopefully, Okatsu is safe in the tower. Though I told her the truth that taking charge of the archers is the best use of her skills, it is also true that keeping her safe is a priority for me. I do not want to spend another day like yesterday, watching her leave for, then waiting for her to return from a dangerous mission.

BOOM.

Hikosane rushed to squeeze herself in the corner between Shohime and me as we all watched thick smoke billow into the sky. "What was that?"

"It had to be Iekane’s gunpowder stores, well at least some of them.” Iekane wasn't dumb enough to keep all his gunpowder in one place. “I can’t think of anything else that would do that." I forced myself deep breath, and then another. Iekane’s men wouldn’t have destroyed their own ammunition, so the explosion must have been part of Mitsunari’s plan.

"Shit’s about to get real." Toshiie muttered. His knuckles were white against the railing.

"No battle experience on board that ship?" I hadn't had a moment to talk with him about what we'd each been doing for the last seven years - and now was not the time either- but there was a part of me that felt bitter over the fact that he had yeeted himself back to modern Japan without a second thought for me. Ok. Sure. His first thought was that I was dead; but what kind of idiot believes the word of a bunch of bandits? I was used to him being the smart one, but after seven years, I’d realized that book smart was worthless in this era, unless, like Mitsunari, one had the combat skills to back that up.

"No. They had me doing grunt work. Lots of swabbing the deck and repairing sails." Without asking permission, Toshiie grabbed the binoculars and peered into the distance. "There's a crap ton of smoke."

Swallowing the initial urge to sarcastically point out that everyone here could see there was a crap ton of smoke, I asked, “Do you see Mitsunari? Or Susumu?” Once again, I told myself that everything would be alright. That Mitsunari wouldn’t have followed through with any plan unless he was certain he could execute it.

But as before, logical arguments don’t work against feelings, and my feelings were … worried.

“I can’t see anything except smoke and trees.” He gave me the glasses back.

I scanned the woods, looking for that bright smile. Not that Mitsunari would be smiling. It’s just what I pictured in my head when I imagined Mitsunari. That calm smile. "Pretty soon, Susumu and Mitsunari ought to be back with whatever supplies they could steal. There may be injuries. You should get ready."

Hopefully, they wouldn’t lead any of Iekane's men here. I told myself not to worry about that outcome. Mitsunari likely had a contingency pla-

Oh. Wait.

I was the contingency plan.

“Archers, keep watching for enemies from the west.” Calmly, more calmly than I felt, we all readied our arrows.

Toshiie looked at me, shook his head, and climbed back down to the ground level of the tower.

As it happened, our precautions weren’t needed. Mitsunari, Susumu and the other vassals had taken a circuitous route, stopping first at the south tower and it was close to midday before they returned to our base. By that time, the second shift of archers was on top of the tower, Shohime and I were "napping," and Hikosane was asleep for real, curled up on his side next to Shohime.

"Mitsunari, you're back!" Shohime jumped up and gave him a big hug (so much for her talk of stepping aside for me). Maybe old habits died hard? Only yesterday, she'd been drooling over Mitsuhide too. Of course, Shohime was only seventeen. Maybe she'd been born and raised in this era, but the bottom line of seventeen-year-olds: hormones gotta hormone.

Mitsunari suffered her embrace politely. Though he didn't hug her back, he didn’t shake her off and yell girl germs either.

Ok, you can let go of him any time now…

When she finally let him go, he hurried over to me. And hugged me.

Alright. He’d survived, and I let myself get lost in the happiness of his return, the relief that he was in one piece. He was here. He was ok. He was solid, and warm… and…

Ok, you can let go of him any time now…

When we finally broke the hug, I looked Mitsunari over for injuries before I led him to the area we had set up for his command station. Well technically it was simply a cleared out space in the corner, but I’d made sure that we’d cleaned the floor as well as possible. “What happened? We saw the explosions.”

"Susumu and our team captured a wagon of arrows, medical supplies and food.” He nodded to the entry, where several men were carrying in boxes of supplies. “His vassals are unfamiliar with guns, so we elected to destroy them by setting fire to the gunpowder." He frowned, and little worry lines set up camp on his forehead. I wanted to soothe those away. "Nobunaga will be disappointed. He dislikes waste."

"He'd also be disappointed if those weapons were used against him." Granted I wasn't a fan of guns to begin with, but we didn't have the manpower to hoard Iekane’s muskets, defend them, and present them to Nobunaga later. "I think he'll understand."

"It-it's only that I wish I had been able to think of a plan that would have enabled us to keep the guns." He looked so freaked out by the fact that he had 'missed' this piece that I had to hug him again. I’d never seen Mitsunari this distraught when it came to matters of the military. It was unnerving.

I held on tight, lightly patting him on the back, the way I would if he had been Hikosane. "You didn't strategize for keeping the guns because that is not our objective. Our objective is to get in Iekane's way enough to keep Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Mai alive until Masamune and Ieyasu can get here with reinforcements." And also, not die either.

Goes without saying.

He clung to me. "You are correct. Thank you for the reminder." He let his hand rest on my cheek for a moment.

We'd managed to stay alive over a day. One down. Two to go.

Two to go, if Mitsuhide had gotten to Kyubei before running into Iekane’s men. But it wasn’t worth bringing that up right now. Mitsunari knew the situation as well as I did. And it was a situation that was likely to get worse before it could (potentially) get better now that Iekane had to be aware there were guerillas in the misty woods.

“Your turn to rest.” I nudged him toward the medical area, where we were talking turns sleeping.

“But, I need to-” he made a helpless gesture with his hands, as I put my fingers to my lips, and indicated the sleeping Hikosane. “Work,” he finished in quieter tones.

Gently, I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him into a sitting position. “Close your eyes for a few moments then. If you fall asleep, I promise I will wake you up when Sasuke returns.” I sat down next to him, prepared to stare him into at the very least sitting still. He had done this for me… turnabout was fair play.

He nodded, then before I could move, he lay down with his head in my lap. “If you will be my pillow block.” He closed his eyes.

Instinctively, I pushed his hair away from his face. He smiled, then within moments, he was asleep.

“We need to get out of here.” At the sound of his voice, I looked over at Toshiie. He was staring at us and scowling. “The sooner, the better.”

My hands were still tangled in Mitsunari’s hair. Toshiie was right. The sooner I went home, well – home to modern Japan, the better.

Midafternoon, Sasuke returned. Trudging next to him was a tear-streaked Mai. She wasn’t yelling, exactly, but her strident tones were loud enough for everyone to hear her. “-you aren’t listening to me. You have to try again – I’m his lucky charm!”

Where were Nobunaga and Hideyoshi? I couldn’t imagine a circumstance where either of them would let Mai out of their sight, unless … they thought it was her only hope of survival.

By then, Mitsunari was awake, and already huddled over his plans. When he saw Sasuke and Mai, his look of initial relief was followed by one of disappointment. I realized he'd had the same thoughts that I had.

Mai immediately threw herself into my arms (there's a lot of that going around). "They made me leave!" The fact that the normally cheerful and smiling Mai was in tears was a shock to my system. Even though I had only known these warlords for a few weeks, I knew that her smiling face was the center of their galaxy.

I patted her on the back, while Mitsunari stood by looking sick. "What happened?" he asked Sasuke. By then a small crowd had gathered, and Shohime pulled a hostess act, ordered everyone to sit and imperiously requested one of Susumu's vassals to make tea. He scrambled to obey, so her beauty obviously still had power.

"Now," Shohime said, once we were sitting down, and Mai was wrapped in a blanket (stolen supplies for the win!) and sipping tea. “Please tell us what is going on at Genba."

Mai had slipped into wordless misery, so Sasuke began. "As a ninja, I am much used to employing pathways through the ceiling to get in and out of buildings."

"As you do in Azuchi on a regular basis," Mitsunari murmured, causing Mai and Sasuke to exchange a guilty look. "Yes, we have been aware of this. Mitsuhide and Ieyasu were in favor of setting up traps in the ceiling, but Nobunaga determined you were no longer spying and decided to let you continue to have your fun."

Sasuke muttered something in Klingon (I knew that it was Klingon, but not what he said ... although I could probably guess), then added, "That may have the effect of making it less fun. In any case, the area in the ceiling in Genba is... not as roomy. While I was able to make my way through, it is not large enough to fit Hideyoshi or Nobunaga or most of his personal guards... or your father." He nodded at Hikosane and Shohime.

"Our father is with them?" Hikosane seemed relieved. Then it occurred to me that Hikosane might have suspected Mozumi of going along with Iekane’s plans.

How frightening to believe your father could be guilty of treason. For the first time, I realized that father: unknown might actually be a good thing.

"Yes. Mozumi is with Hideyoshi and Nobunaga, and about a dozen of their guards have barricaded themselves in the tenshu and are holding off intruders. I managed to give them some additional tools- smoke bombs, ground spikes, that kind of thing- but only Mai fit through into the space in the ceiling.”

"They forced me to leave." Mai’s hands were clenched into fists, and she nearly spit the words out of her mouth. "For months, he insists that I join him for every battle until this one. He made me go with Sasuke."

That... suggested Nobunaga didn’t like his odds. I didn't look at Mitsunari, afraid he'd confirm my guess.

"Did they understand my warning?" I wondered if my effort with the arrow had helped at all.

"At first, Hideyoshi thought it was an attack, but I saw the fabric." Mai got a hold of herself. “I thought it was from Sasuke since the note looked like his handwriting.”

It did? Sasuke turned to me with the unspoken question, but Mai had continued her story before I had a chance to think about the implications of that. "Hideyoshi saw what was going on outside, but it was too late to escape." She turned to Mitsunari and grabbed hold of his haori. “You have to rescue him."

Mitsunari seemed to deflate in front of my eyes. "I'm sorry. We're doing everything we can. Iekane has at least three hundred soldiers and there are less than forty of us." He rubbed his head. “I’ve been thinking and planning and I’ve gone through every strategy in my head, but I cannot figure out how to solve this with the people and equipment we have. All we can do is try to delay until Masamune and Ieyasu arrive with reinforcements.”

If they arrive. But now was not the time for to add to the pessimistic outlook.

Mai looked like she was going to start crying again. But instead of that, she took a long moment to stare us all down. “I can’t believe any of you. Nobunaga is the key to the future. You have to do more! Don’t just stand there being useless!” She pressed her fist to her mouth, then, apparently needing a moment alone, either to compose herself, or to have an even bigger breakdown, climbed the ladder to the upper floor of the tower. It didn’t quite have the same impact of a stomp, a flounce, and a slammed door, but she still left a group of people standing around in paralyzed silence.

Two more days.

We had to hang on for two more days (for the moment, I was going to ignore the possibility that they weren’t coming) which meant, keeping up morale, which at that moment, that meant keeping up Mitsunari's morale. I got up and massaged his shoulders. “She didn’t mean that.”

“She did. She said nothing I had not told myself.” He leaned back into my massage for a moment.

"You are the smartest man I know. If anyone can figure out how to keep this going, it's you."

Some of the tension went out of his shoulders. "Thank-you." He turned to Sasuke. "What specifically is the situation in Genba? Where are Iekane's troops? Are they inside the castle?"

He handed Sasuke a rough drawing he'd made of the castle, a brush, and ink (trust Mitsunari to take off after a runaway princess and bring writing supplies with him). Sasuke reached into his seemingly endless bag of Ninja tools and withdrew a felt tip pen. "Er, it will be faster if I use this," and proceeded to mark up the map under Mitsunari fascinated gaze. Whether it was Sasuke's information or the pen that enticed him, I do not know.

"Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Mozumi, and some guards have control of the tenshu. Iekane and Lady Yone have taken over the connecting guard houses, and their soldiers are within the inner walls. They've set up camp in the courtyard. Then, outside the walls, more of Iekane's men, their supplies, are stationed throughout the forest."

Mitsunari looked at Hikosane, who sat up straighter, and looked upon Mitsunari like a peer. "Hikosane, how difficult would it be to breach the gates?"

"It's never been done in Genba’s three hundred years of existence." He took Sasuke’s pen and experimentally poked his finger at the end, smiling at the dot it had left on his finger. Then he drew a line along the trail leading to the gate. "I imagine the only reason Iekane managed to do it is because Lady Yone let him in."

Mitsunari then patted my shoulder. “You know Iekane better than anyone. Do you believe he would destroy the castle or burn down the tenshu to get to Nobunaga?"

"I never understood why Iekane does what he does. I still don't get why he tried to kill me." I sensed Toshiie startle at that statement. "My initial thought is that Genba is too valuable because of its defensibility to destroy. He plays a long game, and I think he’s patient enough to wait Nobu-."

"Unfortunately, you might want to speed up the timetable on Iekane’s patience, Katsu.” A new voice had interrupted me. A new, but familiar and welcome voice. “I agree with your logic, but on my way here, I passed a half-dozen of Iekane’s mercenaries who are escorting a cannon. I imagine that it's headed to the castle, though at their speed, it will likely take another day to arrive."

An "old man" melted out of the trees, despite the fact that we had sentries posted.

Aki.

I stared for a moment, relief warring with frustration. Where had he been? Then, I rushed to hug him, glad that whatever mission he'd been on, it had been successful.

But before I reached my mentor, Sasuke let out an exclamation that shocked me to my core. "Professor Yamaoka?!"

Professor Yamaoka? Sasuke knew Aki? Knew him from the future?

My forward motion screeched to a halt. Sasuke had to be mistaken. Maybe Aki was some great-great-grandparent of this ‘Professor Yamaoka,’ …. But the chagrined expression on his face said it all. Aki was from the future. And he never told me.

"Professor Yamaoka? " I couldn’t say much more out loud, but I hope he was hearing my 'what the hell' subtext loud and clear.

He had never told me. Even though I had been suffering from the most extreme case of culture-shock and homesickness imaginable… no, more than that, I had at times wondered if I had gone crazy, Aki never once bothered to mention that he was also from the future. Seven years ago, I would have given anything to know that I wasn’t alone.

Mitsunari had frozen, his hand on his sword, clearly uncertain if Aki was friend or foe. At this point, I wasn’t sure either. “Okatsu, you know this man?”

“I thought I knew him.” I turned toward Mitsunari to perform the introductions. "Ishida Mitsunari, my fiancé, this is Yamaoka Akihira, who has been my lord for the past seven years. Prior to that, I don’t know what he was, or did."

I'm not sure if Mitsunari understood that what I meant to say was, 'this is Aki. He has been lying to me for seven years, but it's probably ok to trust him in battle.’ He did return Aki's bow politely.

"Prof- er, Lord Yamaoka..." Sasuke struggled at the etiquette of it all. "Have you been here all this time?"

"Mr. Mikumo." Aki close to address him first. "No and yes, depending on your definition of here." Cryptic as always, although after one startled look, Sasuke seemed satisfied, in fact he seemed thrilled by that response. Aki turned to me. "Katsuko, I'm aware you must have many questions, and I will do my best to answer them--."

He was interrupted by a screech from the upper level of the tower.

Were they coming?

Everyone reached for their weapons, preparing to defend ourselves…

But it was Mai who came rushing down back down the ladder so fast that I was afraid she was going to trip on her kimono. The illicit binoculars were clutched in her hands. "It's Mitsuhide. I think they're going to kill him!"

@lorei-writes @bestbryn @katriniac @lyds323 @briars7

#TBTMND #A Mitsunari Night's Dream #throwback thursday #ikemen sengoku #fanfic #ikesen fanfic #ikesen mitsunari #mitsunari ishida #ikesen sasuke #ikesen mai #oc katsuko #katsuverse

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kingbeeleth · 6 months ago

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NOW! KILL 'EM!

i usually go by BEELETH or HALBERD, but i am indifferent to having a name; you can call me anything or nothing at all really

refer to me with he/him, it/its, they/them, or no pronouns.

im 21; minors can interact, but be aware some of my posts/reblogs are suggestive (but typically text-only jokes). i would prefer for my followers to be 16 or older, but this isn't a strict rule or anything. just be safe online

ask me to tag things and i might do it (no guarantees unless we're mutuals, so follow at your own risk; current tags: flashing, loud, clown, bug, unsanitary, apocalypse — note that bug is only applied to realistic bug images, and unsanitary is only applied to more descriptive or visual-oriented posts.)

adult mutuals and brave adult followers, feel free to ask me for my adult art blog, but do not share it with people who should not / do not want to see it. please dont be offended if i dont share it with you. if you came here from my adult art blog, be normal about it and don't talk about my other works here thanks ^_^;

i'm a fat intersex asian guy, and i love men. i'm also epicene and autosexual. i consider myself bear-ish but i still like being cute

i have memory issues, so please be mindful of that. i'm also horrible about responding to messages/replies; if you want a faster response from me, feel free to give me a nudge

if you LOVE my art but HATE being in the presence of such an awesome and talented comedic genius, go to my art-only blog -> @halberdaswang

current major interests are:

Pokémon - mostly BW/BW2 and PLA

Mononoke

Yoeko (formerly Yoeko Kurahashi) - you should join r/YoekoKurahashi :)

DJ Technorch

rhythm games

vocal synths, particularly vocaloid and utau

my OCs - if you like my ocs feel free to draw them ^_^

i am also interested in Klonoa, Sonic, Kemono Friends, demonology, werewolves, media preservation, console emulation, and Nintendo homebrew among a billion other things. if i reblog something with a group of characters but only tag one of them, it's because i only tag my faves in reblogs (original posts are fair game).

additional stuff under the cut if you like reading ^_^

big list of smaller lists of things i like:

colors — #00FF00 (neon green) if it isn’t clear lol. i also like pink a lot, but if i suddenly went pink, i think it would scare everyone

pokemon — purugly, incineroar, mega banette, regigigas, and beheeyem. i like a lot more but id say these are my main favorites

characters — not listing source media. suffer forever. volo, dark prince / satan, gakupo, kasane teto, both medicine sellers, popuko, king of sorrow, eggnog cookie, wario, santa claus, i m meen, the pyro, sakuya mitsurugi, marisa kirisame, patchouli knowledge, narciso anasui, king of all cosmos, beerus, tingle, goro, mion sonozaki

musicians/bands/etc — dj technorch, yoeko, hakushi hasegawa, shiina ringo, tv room, emamouse, hi-posi, gladde paling, capsule, susumu hirasawa, gong, oingo boingo, the sworn group, cosmo sheldrake

foods — just about anything with chicken, pork, or mushrooms

drinks — mountain dew is my favorite drink and i think it shows

animals — white tigers

fonts — ms gothic, envy code r, times new roman, really scary minchotai

my ocs — king beeleth, the portalkeeper, anvil, medusa, meow, bullet, root priest, cc, kors

friend ocs — not listing creators because you know who you are. bugs, gwen, hildisvini, fileine, chaching, business dog, starcat, hooligan, quasar

vocaloids/utauloids/etc — gakupo, fuiro, gumi, meika mikoto, defoko, kasane teto, kasane ted, saigone kako, gakudan roco, waltt, speedy torane

rhythm games/series — osu! tatakae! ouendan / elite beat agents, muse dash, frequency / amplitude, taiko no tatsujin, guitar hero, a dance of fire and ice, rhythm doctor, mad rat dead, rhythm heaven, parappa the rapper / um jammer lammy, vib-ribbon / vib-ripple / mojib-ribbon, project diva, project mirai

other stuff — ao oni, lsd: dream emulator, yume nikki, random internet weirdness/rumors/hoaxes (this house has people in it, tsuki project, tortureware, red room, kisaragi station, lhohq, yyyyyyy), fungi, roblox

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