(A/N: Originally posted on the Sengoku Basara LiveJournal community in 2012 and has 4 volumes. Recently I decided to edit the story up to my new standards, and some new dialogue and scenes have been added as well.)
The soldiers shifted in their positions. None dared whisper to his neighbour, instead focusing on the ground and avoiding the gaze of their leader.
Mouri Motonari surveyed his troops, eyes narrowed. Why they questioned his orders now was beyond him. Fools. Fools, all of them.
"Men of Aki!" he shouted. "We will turn and march upon Osaka Castle! The Dark King's forces are now our enemy!"
The soldiers responded, raising their weapons and hollering. A faint clap of thunder sounded up in the sky, and far below the cliffs the ocean hammered the rocks.
And above that rose a voice, a familiar voice that could only belong to one person.
"MOURI!"
Motonari froze. A miscalculation? No, this couldn't be. He had taken every possible situation into account and his plan was flawless. There was no such thing as a miscalculation!
He turned, recovering his composure. His troops shuffled about and muttered anxiously. His grip tightened on his ringblade. The Dark King himself strode towards him, with Yoshitsugu floating at his back. A small force of soldiers followed them, but their power was insignificant compared to their leaders'. Especially Mitsunari. He was worth a few hundred men himself.
"How convenient," Motonari remarked as they stopped within speaking distance. "You've saved us a long march back to Osaka. After we crush you here, I will be free to deal with Chousokabe."
Air hissed as Mitsunari drew a breath. Yoshitsugu glanced at him.
Mitsunari's eyes burned. "You traitorous snake! You would dare betray us? And Chousokabe?" His voice rose. "Don't think you will walk away alive!"
"Wait, Mitsunari," Yoshitsugu said with his usual calm, "I'd like to ask our friend one thing first."
Motonari looked at him, ignoring the seething swordsman. "I will humour you."
"I thought we had an agreement. Numerous times we asked for your aid but you refused. And now we've stumbled upon a betrayal. Why?"
"That's simple. I desire only peace for Chugoku."
"And we promised that you would have it, did we not?"
"You misunderstand. I must remove all obstacles in my way. And that includes all possible threats."
Silence.
"Mouri." Yoshitsugu's voice grew harsh and his orbs spun faster. "It seems I misjudged you."
"Enough!" Mitsunari hunched over into a battle stance, one hand on the hilt of his katana. "In the name of Hideyoshi-sama, I will execute you!"
Motonari leaped back and slipped the ringblade over his head just in time, bracing himself against the flurry of strikes that Mitsunari unleashed on him. It would be difficult to find an opportunity to distance himself now that he was in such close quarters.
Mitsunari continued his assault, pushing Motonari back several yards before the latter finally saw an opening and struck back. The swordsman evaded with such speed that he blurred out, but it gave Motonari enough time to dart back and create traps underfoot along the way.
Just as he predicted, the swordsman flashed towards him, moving so fast that the traps didn't even trigger. Then Motonari spun the ringblade in the air in front of himself, drawing a barrier.
He almost didn't finish. Mitsunari slammed into the barrier and bounced back. Right into the traps he had avoided. Motonari watched with satisfaction as the first trap exploded, tossing Mitsunari into the next two in a chain reaction.
Mitsunari picked himself up, locking eyes with his adversary. With a snarl, he slammed the katana into the ground and hurled a purple arc of energy that seared towards his target with tremendous speed. The strategist flung himself aside.
Then Mitsunari dropped out of the air above him, avoiding the barrier. Motonari blocked the ferocious overhead strike, his knees nearly buckling under the force of the blow.
The ground creaked and groaned under their feet. Mitsunari hesitated and Motonari risked a glance over his shoulder. Weakened by their previous attacks, the cliff under them fractured and shattered into pieces. The two tumbled through the air, rock fragments raining down around them.
"Mitsunari!" Yoshitsugu hollered.
Then, water. Motonari's body locked up from the sudden cold. His eyes turned upwards towards the dim light fading away above. Swim. He had to swim. He forced his body to respond, kicking with all his strength.
His head broke the surface. Mitsunari was nowhere to be seen. He sucked in a breath just before a wave crashed down over his head, burying him back under.
#
Motonari woke to the heat of the sun on his back and something pawing at his shoulder. He dragged himself upright and retched, throwing up water. His eyes hurt from the salt. The something sniffed at him and he turned his head, staring right into the face of a huge white wolf.
He reeled back, fumbling for his ringblade, which lay on the sand a few feet away. The wolf was so big that it could crush his head between its jaws with no effort. The wolf sat down and cocked its head. He inched away from it, not liking how soulful its dark eyes were.
The wolf got up and pranced away down the beach, and he watched, dumbfounded, as it dragged something long and green further up onto the sand. It was his helmet. He had to admit, for a wild beast it was smart - perhaps too smart.
He took the ringblade and got to his feet, wincing as his left ankle complained. The pain faded away, though, and he could still move freely. As he walked towards the wolf, he glanced at the surrounding area for any landmarks. He couldn't tell where they were. Judging from how the cliffs stretched on into the distance, he had washed up somewhere on the mainland.
The wolf sat again, thumping its tail against the ground, its tongue hanging out.
"I don't suppose you can tell me where we are," he muttered, shaking the last of the water out of the helmet.
The wolf cocked its head. There was a limit to its intelligence, obviously.
Someone coughed nearby. The wolf loped towards another figure lying on the sand. Motonari froze. It was Mitsunari. Innocently, the wolf seized Mitsunari's shoulder in its teeth and pulled him further up onto the beach. He coughed again, raising himself up.
Fighting Mitsunari in an open area like this was disadvantageous. Motonari whirled and ran for the trees at the top of the slope. It didn't matter if Mitsunari saw him now - he had a head start, and the sand would slow the swordsman down.
The wolf barked after him in its confusion, and he cursed it mentally.
"You snake!" Mitsunari yelled. "Don't you dare run away!"
Motonari laid some traps as he went. He broke out of the trees and into a sweeping plain, surrounded by steep slopes and dotted with large boulders. At least there was some cover. He started drawing a barrier. Behind him, leaves blew up through the canopy as one of the traps detonated.
Then Mitsunari streaked out of the trees, his face contorted in fury. There wasn't time to make another barrier, so Motonari knocked the one he had towards him. Instead of dodging to either side as he anticipated, Mitsunari leaped right over it and lashed out, his katana bouncing off the ringblade again and again.
Motonari's back slammed against one of the boulders, driving the breath from his lungs. They were face-to-face now. The edge of his ringblade rested against Mitsunari's throat. All Motonari had to do was spin his weapon in either direction - if not for the fact that the katana pressed against his neck. It was a stalemate.
Somewhere behind them the wolf started barking. Dark shapes appeared on the slope above. Motonari risked taking his eyes off Mitsunari. The shapes appeared to be soldiers, and their banners fluttered in the wind. But the banners had no crests - they were simply pieces of black cloth. And the more he looked at them, the more he thought there was something robotic about the way they moved.
Mitsunari's eyes focused at a point above them. Motonari assumed that they were surrounded on all sides.
The wolf ran up to them, barking and growling, as if asking them to stop their silliness.
At last, Motonari spoke. "I propose a truce."
Mitsunari's eyes burned into him. "I will kill you."
He considered spinning his weapon and slitting the other man's throat, but then he would have to face an unknown number of enemies by himself, something that he didn't have the stamina for.
He shifted away from the katana. It scratched his skin when he spoke. "Neither of us can handle that army on our own."
Mitsunari's eyes narrowed. Then he stepped back. So he wasn't entirely stupid - he knew that having a strategist to analyze the enemy's tactics could turn the odds in their favour. It would explain why he appreciated Yoshitsugu so much.
A pawn was a pawn, Motonari thought, and he would use this one well. He glanced up toward the slopes. The soldiers lurched towards them with a stiff gait. A simultaneous advance. So the enemy intended to crush them with sheer numbers.
The wolf padded up to them and stood beside Mitsunari, as if waiting for a command. Motonari toyed with several plans, but he couldn't come up with an ideal solution, as all the ideal solutions resulted in Mitsunari's removal by their opponents. That frustrated him to no end. He couldn't dispose of this pawn. Until he found out who these soldiers were and who was commanding them, it would be too dangerous to get rid of Mitsunari.
"We will have to split the soldiers," he said at last. "You take one side and I'll have the other."
Mitsunari didn't move. "And how do I know that you won't backstab me?"
I entertained that notion already, Motonari wanted to say. Several times.
"Would you prefer dying at the hands of a common soldier?" he said instead.
Mitsunari scowled. "This is ridiculous. After I deal with these rats, you're next!"
With that, he stormed off towards the front side. Though he didn't look back, Motonari knew he hadn't let his guard down. The wolf wagged its tail and gave that high-pitched bark, as if glad they had set aside their grudge.
Why was this wolf still here? Didn't it know that it was in danger? He shook his head and turned around, moving towards his end of the valley. Such a creature was of no concern to him.
The wolf trotted beside him and tugged playfully at one of his arms as he prepared to put down a barrier, breaking his concentration.
"Get away!" he snapped, pulling his arm free. "You're a nuisance!"
The wolf quieted and sat down nearby. He ignored it and set up two barriers, angled towards the advancing soldiers. He waited for them to draw closer, then positioned himself off to the side. He tossed the ringblade up into the air and it spun as the sun's energy possessed it. A ray of light struck both barriers, which reflected the light into two scorching beams that crossed the valley in an X.
The soldiers hit by the beam crumbled into pieces. Motonari frowned. The light was hot enough to burn flesh, but not to this extent. Their stiff and mechanical gait couldn't be caused by heavy armour. And the soldiers behind them kept advancing straight into the beams, oblivious to the plight of those before them. No humans could be that stupid!
Motonari kept the light going as long as he could. When the horde thinned out at last, the ringblade dropped down around him at his command. Back towards the other end of the valley, corpses littered the slopes almost up to the top. A white-coated figure and flashes of purple zipped back and forth. Mitsunari showed no signs of stopping. Next to him leaped another white shape. The wolf was helping him?
The soldiers showed no signs of relenting, trudging on through the ash piles of their comrades. Motonari retreated, setting traps and watching in amazement as the shambling creatures walked right into them and exploded into pieces. He observed their limbs as they fell from the sky, and some shattered when they hit the ground. No, these soldiers were not human. But then what were they?
He kept retreating, intending to regroup with Mitsunari, and laying down the same array of traps as he went. As the battle wore on the traps detonated sooner and sooner, the explosions weaker. The mental strain was catching up to him.
The wolf joined him with a bark. Suddenly, the traps glowed brighter. They exploded with twice the strength of the previous ones and he stared, surprised.
The wolf clamped its teeth on his armour, trying to tug him further back.
He swatted at its muzzle. "What do you want?"
The wolf barked, loping in Mitsunari's direction and looking over its shoulder. Well, Motonari did need backup. At this rate he wouldn't have any energy left, so he followed it.
They met Mitsunari halfway and he blitzed past Motonari, ripping into the remaining soldiers. Motonari searched for any signs of weakness or fatigue, but found none. He surveyed the carnage that Mitsunari had left behind at his end of the valley and was impressed. If only his own soldiers were as skilled.
He bent down and examined one of the bodies, split into pieces by Mitsunari's katana. He prodded it, and what should have been skin was hard and cold to the touch. Just to experiment, he ground a heel into the torso and jumped as his foot punched a hole in it. He picked up one of the pieces. It was clay.
Up at the rim of the valley, the soldiers retreated, their banners vanishing from sight. Were they heeding an unseen commander, or had some sense finally kicked in?
Mitsunari joined them, having finished off the last of the troops. He flicked his katana and sheathed it. If he was tired, he didn't show it. The wolf wagged its tail as the two stared each other down. But the battle had worn them out.
"We have a problem," Motonari said, deciding that diplomacy was preferable to a fight to the death. He tossed the piece of clay at Mitsunari, who caught it. "If you haven't noticed, these soldiers aren't human."
"Clay soldiers? That's impossible. What's the meaning of this?"
"I assume that whoever commands them must not be human either. A few of them escaped, and when their leaders hear of this, they're not going to let us go that easily." Motonari paused. "It would be in our best interest to extend our truce."
Mitsunari glared at him. Motonari returned it with a cool stare.
"I don't plan on letting you evade me," Mitsunari growled.
"I'm aware of that."
The wolf whimpered, a high-pitched whistling noise.
Mitsunari heaved a sigh. "Fine. I'll let you live for now. But once this is over, there will be no mercy."
Really, Motonari thought. At least I'm not the one dancing in your palm.
The wolf barked at them and ran off, then back again, looking up at them expectantly.
"It knows something," Mitsunari said.
"Hmph! It's merely a beast, and nothing more."
Mitsunari ignored him and walked after the wolf. Motonari snorted in derision at the swordsman's youthful stupidity. The wolf pranced away, then looked over its shoulder at the strategist with an expression that seemed to say, are you coming?
He followed. He'd been swept out to sea, fought a bunch of clay soldiers, and now a wolf was telling him where to go. Some day this was.