Hello, Cherushii here. This is another fanfic for a friend of mine (generalbubblebrain this time), and it's basically her OC with Mitsunari. I hope that you all enjoy the story!
There he was, standing in the middle of his main encampment… The worst traitor, the mot hypocritical creature alive: Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Mitsunari's constant glare only narrowed all the more when he laid eyes on the enemy general, completely ignoring the vile Akechi woman that stood beside Ieyasu and readied her scythe for battle.
"Lord Mitsunari, shall I deal with the Akechi woman?", his faithful second in command, Yamino Yoruhana, asked him.
He only nodded to her, his voice waiting to address the filth that stood before him as if to mock him. Mitsunari and Hana strode into the camp only feet away from Ieyasu and the Akechi warrior, Tsukiko.
"…Despite bringing together this army and spewing your sugarcoated words, you cannot hide your guilt from me.", Mitsunari said as he lifted his odachi to point at his enemy. "Ieyasu, your sins have found you out!"
"Mitsunari..", Ieyasu said quietly, resonating nothing but concern in his voice.
Mitsunari moved his sword so that its tip pointed to the ground. "Now, bow down in veneration to Lord Hideyoshi! Plead for his mercy for your transgressions! Then.." He lifted the sword to hold it close to his face. "..submit your life as atonement."
"..I cannot. My cause is just.", Ieyasu replied.
"It's always like this dealing with you, isn't it? You disregard your own ambitions, pretending to adhere to your ethical superiority, while denying Lord Hideyoshi his visions of unification!", Mitsunari spat.
Ieyasu raised his gaze, his eyes finally narrowed in anger at his former friend. "You are deluded, Mitsunari. Know this: I will unite this country, with or without you!" Ieyasu lifted his fist to the sky, the moonlight reflecting on the golden armor of his bracer.
Mitsunari was trembling now. Even now, confronted with his executioner, Ieyasu still defied his sins and continuously mocked the pain that Mitsunari felt.
"How much will it take before you are satisfied… How much?!" Mitsunari's voice cracked under all of the emotion coursing through him. "Even the last of my allies, you lure to your side with your forked tongue!"
Ieyasu's arm fell back to his side, his face once again muddled with worry for his friend.
"How am I supposed to live?!", Mitsunari screamed. "What am I supposed to do now?!"
Ieyasu's fists clenched. "Go ahead, Mitsunari! Fight me with all the strength you have, but know this: I will never admit defeat, or surrender!" He lowered into a fighting stance, and Tsukiko mirrored his actions. Hana readied herself as well, but her lord's entire being radiated with more hatred than any of them could ever hope to muster.
"I can't fail!", Ieyasu continued. "I will have peace, for my power…is the strength of all!" At the last of his words, Ieyasu charged toward Mitsunari, and Mitsunari's roar clashed with Ieyasu's words just as their weapons conflicted against one another. The other warriors, Tsukiko and Hana, also began their fight, the fates of their respective lords being decided beside them.
Mitsunari's sword met Ieyasu's fists again and again, all of the force both could bring forth behind each and every one of their attacks.
"I have had enough of your deceits to last a generation! Of your ego! Your greed!", Mitsunari exclaimed, each sentence backed by a slam of his sword against Ieyasu's bracers. "Prepare to be decimated under the weight of your sins!"
"I cannot die today!", Ieyasu yelled in return. "Too many have placed their faith in me!"
"Even now you can't help but disgorge your hateful lies, you hypocrite! Go ahead! It fuels my rage like nothing else!"
The next deadlock, their eyes locked onto each other.
"Like nothing else?! Really?!", Ieyasu shouted, his voice mixed between anger and disbelief. "You really have changed quite a bit, haven't you?!"
"Don't you dare claim to know me! To know what I've been through!" Mitsunari flung Ieyasu away from him and gave him no chance to regain his footing by charging and slicing at him once again. "Enough talk! Come and fight me, Ieyasu!"
Ieyasu managed to block or dodge most of Mitsunari's attacks, but some were too swift and drew several lines of blood on his skin. Mitsunari felt his rage fueled all the more when he saw Ieyasu's blood, and only continued his onslaught. Eventually, Mitsunari moved away from Ieyasu, sheathing his bloo-stained sword and readying another strike. Ieyasu stood on shaky legs, blood dripping to the ground from his wound-laden body. But he never wavered, his fists always ready and his eyes never leaving Mitsunari.
"This feeling. This…covetousness..", Mitsunari said, his gaze on the sheathed odachi in his hand. "Perhaps once I've finally removed you from the earth…" His gaze returned to Ieyasu, and then his sword raced to latter's neck, only to meet Ieyasu's fist in resistance. "…I will find the peace I once possessed!", Mitsunari finished in a roar.
"Then let us fight!", Ieyasu exclaimed, pushing Mitsunari away and readying his fist for another strike. "And I will prove myself worthy of the faith that has been placed upon me!"
"I will expose the sins for which you are guilty of to this world!", Mitsunari yelled in protest to Ieyasu. "And may they curse you to Hell for all eternity!"
Their weapons met again and again, neither able to notice if the other was weakening or not. Mitsunari lost all sense of reality during his fight with Ieyasu. All he could see was the face of a man who took everything away from him and threatened to repeat that act again; all he coul feel was the rage he held toward his former friend. His hatred overpowered he slight tinge of regret he felt deep in his heart for trying to kill his friend.
His senses returned to him all at once when he felt his faithful odachi slice through Ieyasu's stomach, and the latter staggered backwards with a hand covering his fresh wound. His eyes flickered between life and death, and the concern for Mitsunari from earlier returned to his face.
"I pray that this world…will one day know peace…" As the last words left his lips, Ieyasu fell to the ground on his back, blood pooling under his defeated body that would never move again.
Mitsunari failed to hear the Akechi samurai's last scream as she saw her lord fall. He failed to hear Hana approach him to ask if he had suffered any injuries. All he could see, feel, hear, was Ieyasu's demise at his hands. He barely noticed his odachi drop to the ground as he held his hands out so that he could look down at them.
"…He's dead.", he finally said after a moment's thought.
"Lord Mitsunari, are you injured?" Hana rushed to her lord after she had defeated the Akechi warrior, concern evident in her actions and voice.
Mitsunari was looking down at his hands, his face unreadable. His odachi lay at his feet as if dropped, and only feet from where he stood lay Tokugawa Ieyasu, an ugly, deep cut in his stomach. It was clear that he was dead, and that Lord Mitsunari was the one responsible.
"…He's dead."
Hana's head jerked up to look at Mitsunari, and she found herself shivering from the smile that slowly spread across her lord's face.
"He's dead! I did it!", he suddenly yelled to the sky. "Lord Hideyoshi, I did it!" He continued in laughter, sounding like he was a tortured man set free from his misery.
Hana just watched her lord, unsure of what she should do. She knew how badly he wanted Ieyasu dead. She had been with Mitsunari ever since he recruited her and other refugees from when her village burned to the ground. She had been by his side when he first found Lord Hideyoshi dead after Ieyasu had killed him, and was there to comfort him when all he could do was weep and despair over his lord's passing. She knew, better than anyone, how deep Mitsunari's hatred for Ieyasu was. Even with that knowledge, however, the sudden look of uncertainty that crossed her lord's face at that moment was something she expected to see.
Mitsunari fell to his knees next to Ieyasu. At first Hana went toward him to see if he was alright, but she hesitated. She could feel that he was injured, but not physically or where anyone could see.
"It's just…It's empty..", she heard Mitsunari mutter, then he moved his gaze toward Ieyasu. "…Hey.. Hey, get up." He grasped Ieyasu's vest in both hands and shook Ieyasu as if he were waking someone. "You dare disobey? I command you to rise to your feet so that I can kill you again!"
It hurt Hana to see her lord this way. Despite his behavior toward Ieyasu and anyone who associated with him she could tell that Mitsunari missed having Ieyasu as a friend. She remembered that there was an evening where Mitsunari had told her about expeditions that he and Ieyasu had been on together when they were both serving Hideyoshi. He would never admit it to anyone, not even her, but she could tell that he missed having Ieyasu as a comrade and ally. His hatred was probably just an unfortunate mixture of confusion, misunderstanding, and severe loyalty to his lord.
Mitsunari had let Ieyasu's vest go and sat back, his gaze heavenward. "Ieyasu… You had to die. I killed you in Lord Hideyoshi's name. Your death was in service to Lord Hideyoshi…wasn't it?"
The sudden doubt in his voice only confirmed what Hana was thinking.
"..Why is it that, now that you're gone, my life seems to have lost its meaning..?", Mitsunari finished, his voice lacking any of the hate and certainty that resonated from him earlier.
Suddenly, Mitsunari began to scream. He slammed his fists into the ground repeatedly, and he howled to the sky in complete anguish. Hana could feel the pain he was feeling radiate through him, wanting nothing more than to comfort him. She didn't at first, however, because she knew fully well of Mitsunari's abhorrence to any kind of affection other than from Lord Hideyoshi, which frustrated her to the point of tears. Just as that thought crossed her mind, however, Mitsunari turned to look toward her and their gazes met. Red tears stained his pale face, but what really hit Hana was the look in his eyes. Through them, without any need for words, she knew what he was saying to her.
'Help me. Please, don't leave me.'
She approached her lord, and kneeled next to him on the ground. She lifted a hand and stroked his face with it, wiping away the bloody tears from his eye. Usually Mitsunari would move away from someone who even mentioned any form of affection or anything like that, but this time… This time he did nothing but relax at Hana's touch, although the tears didn't stop.
She met his gaze with hers, and she could feel everything he was feeling right then through his eyes. She brought him close to her and embraced him tightly.
"I'm here for you, Lord Mitsunari.", she said to him quietly. "Whatever you wish of me, all you need to do is ask. So please.." She stopped for a moment to hug him tighter, if that was at all possible. "..Don't ever feel as if you have to hide anything from me. I'm here for you, and I always will be even after the world is torn asunder and no life remains."
Mitsunari said nothing, but Hana could tell, somehow, that he heard and believed her. He rested his head on her shoulder, and his shoulders began to tremble until his whole body was shaking in sobs. Hana just held him as he cried, stroking his silver hair and not saying a word. After a while, she felt him move so that his face was closer to her neck, and her body shivered when she felt his lips touch the skin of her neck. He then raised his head so that his eyes met hers, and cupped her face in his hands.
"…This..feeling that I have..", he started, "..I never knew what it was until just now." He brushed aside part of her bangs from her face. "I..never would have thought that I would ever know this feeling until now.. I'm glad that, if I were to ever feel anything like this for someone, that it is you, Hana." He held her close, his embrace warm and nothing like the hatred he portrayed not long ago. "I'm…sorry for everything that I've done, for everything that I've put you through.. I was…so consumed with rage, I..I couldn't see anything but Ieyasu and his demise…and now…now that he's gone, I…"
"I know, my lord.", she replied, knowing that he wouldn't have been able to continue. "It's alright. I know that, despite everything, Ieyasu isn't angry with you, and hopes for you to bring peace and prosperity to this country as well as yourself."
They pulled away from each other once again. "Will you help me with..bringing peace to this country?", Mitsunari asked her.
Oddly enough, it didn't surprise Hana that Mitsunari suddenly showed an interest in the fate of the country, when many times before he claimed that he didn't care what happened to this land after he defeated the Eastern Army. She only smiled and nodded, overflowing with happiness.
Mitsunari brought Hana's face close to his and their lips met, warm and comforting to each other. What lasted only seconds seemed to be eternity for Hana, which would have been perfectly fine with her. She would be with her lord, as more than his second-in-command, but as the woman who loved him more than anyone could ever fathom, and that she and he would reform the country from its war-torn state…together.