A/N: Ah finally chapter 10. Writing this story sure is hard going with real life constantly getting in the way -.- Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Ten

1544; November

I yawned deeply from atop the back of my horse. She was Mana, one of two young horses born from Ruka, Mitsukuni's old horse. Mana looked just like her mother, as did Riku, her brother, which had become Mitsuhide's horse.

"Why are you tired?" Mitsuhide asked flatly. "What time did you go to sleep last night?"

I blinked, clamping my mouth shut mid-yawn as I realised how rude my gesture had been. "Forgive me, Mitsuhide-sama. I did not mean to yawn in front of you."

He snorted dismissively. "I think I have spent enough time around you to understand that your behaviour is not intended to be rude."

I glanced across at him. He rode just slightly ahead of me, as fitting for a Lord and his bodyguard. His gaze was turned away, viewing the brilliant fiery colours of the autumn leaves. They were still thick above us, and blanketed the road with a carpet of orange, red and yellow leaves which crunched beneath the horses' hooves.

His hair was beautifully long now, as black as night and as smooth as silk. It was tied up high with a leather band. The jade tiger hung from it, just as the jade dragon always hung from mine. He still would not tell me why he wanted the tiger over the dragon. Nevertheless, it had become an elegant hair accessory which enhanced his grace.

People on the road moved to the side and bowed. "Good morning, Mitsuhide-sama!" They all greeted with sincere smiles. He returned them.

"Good morning," he replied softly. "Do take care on the roads."

"Yes! We will. Thank you very much, Mitsuhide-sama! Have a safe journey!"

It was the same with everyone we came across on the roads. People stopped to greet us, farmers paused in their work to wave and bow. Their expressions always brightened upon seeing Mitsuhide. I watched from afar.

He was sixteen now, and was maturing quickly. His body was growing into that of man and he was the same height as me now.

Not just his physical body, but his mentality was also maturing. His rebellious and irritable phase passed between fourteen and fifteen. Now, he kept his composure calm and often formal. He made an effort to learn the ways of the commoners and went out frequently to see them. Mitsuhide took an interest in many things, ranging from simple farming to the complexity of the tea ceremony and poetry. He had become quite popular amongst the commoners in particular for taking an interest in them at all.

I smiled faintly with relief. As he grew, I wondered whether he would turn out to be the cold and heartless snake it was rumoured that he was, or if he would turn out being the benevolent and trustworthy man as the other rumours depicted.

It truly was good to see him become the latter.

He glanced back at me. "What is it, Aki?"

I shook my head slightly and gazed up at the colourful canopy of leaves above us. "Just thinking about how much you have grown."

Mitsuhide looked ahead. He had stopped using the title of 'senpai' not too long ago. It would have been considered rude for I was still his senior, but now that he was classified as a young adult, calling me 'Aki-senpai' seemed silly. Well . . . it would if I were in his position. So excluding the honorific was fine by me. And he most likely knew that.

"How much I have grown, huh?" He murmured. "It has been seven years now, has it not?" He looked back at me. "You have not changed at all, both physically and mentally."

The wind blew between us, snatching his words away into the rustling of the crispy leaves. I let it sigh through me and I turned my gaze ahead as well.

"Seven years . . ." I breathed.

Seven years of living in the past. Seven years of not aging one bit, frozen at eighteen. I could handle the supernatural beings, their inhuman strength and abilities, even my own gift – or curse, depending on how pessimistic or optimistic I was feeling – of the future sight. But not aging? I had no idea how to deal with that. Humans were not supposed to live forever. Immortality was impossible. So many in the past had sought ways of immortality, and they had all failed.

And yet, here I was, a human who should look like a twenty-five year old woman. But I looked eighteen still. I was still eighteen.

I sniffed in amusement. "You are catching up with my age, Mitsuhide-sama," I mused.

He smiled slightly. "I suppose I am."

We carried on along the roads to Inabayama Castle. We were nearly there now.

Mitsuhide, being a Lord, would normally make his visits with soldiers to accompany him. However, most of the time he did not for he took me instead. In the seven years I had trained, I had earned myself the skill in order to be called a samurai. Makoto's training was hard and tough, often leaving me groaning the next day in pain. But it paid off, for my skill was now good enough for many things.

I was the adopted daughter of Mitsukuni – Akechi Osamu, an officer, a samurai, a bodyguard.

Mitsuhide was the son of Mitsukuni – heir to the Akechi clan, a samurai, a young Lord and a Pureblood Oni. Except his true bloodline was not known amongst humans.

Nevertheless, we were seldom attacked by bandits along the road. They learnt their lessons fast. The only ones who did attack us were either too arrogant for their own good, or had never heard of us in the first place.

We arrived at the town of Inabayama, which buzzed with life and of many people hurrying to get ready for travel or storage before the snows arrived. Once the snows arrived, paths were shut and towns and villages were isolated for the next three months or so.

Once again, I was awed by the buzz. The town of Inabayama and the castle was much bigger than Tara Castle and its surrounding town. Our castle was now renamed 'Akechi Castle'.

We guided our horses up the hill and through the trees until we arrived at the Castle. The mountain loomed behind it. As we came in through the gates, we were greeted with shouts of brief welcome and some came up to greet us personally. We were led towards the stables before another figure came to our attention.

It was a young man of seventeen, barking out orders which came to an abrupt halt as he spotted us.

"Ah! Mitsuhide-sama!" He exclaimed, striding up to us as we dismounted.

Mitsuhide wore a polite smile. "Yoshitatsu-sama," he replied in return.

Yoshitatsu was the eldest son of Dousan. "It is good to see you – both."

I bowed in greeting. "Yoshitatsu-sama," I echoed Mitsuhide. Our age ranges were so similar, but I could not help but feel so much older – because in a sense, I still was and always would be, mentally anyway if not physically. As far as everyone else (aside from the Akechi) were concerned, I was twenty-five. I wondered if any normal person had begun to notice that I did not look any different to seven years ago.

"Osamu, you need not bow," Yoshitatsu said with a slight shake of his head. "You are of the noble samurai class like us. You are a Lord . . . a Lady . . ." He began to look confused and I chuckled.

"Very well. I am a Lord when dressed as a man, and a Lady when dressed as a woman. But I am a bodyguard first. Whatever other titles I have come after that."

He argued back and I merely kept my mouth shut. Arguing against a young man, a young Lord in particular, tended to be a waste of time. They were stubborn, carrying an air of superior importance as they had reached the age when they could be classified as a man and they understood their position much better.

Mitsuhide, although he was more mature and sensible than others I had come across, he was still no exception. He butted in when Yoshitatsu took a moment to suck in another lungful of air to continue talking.

"How are you and Dousan-sama?" He inquired.

Yoshitatsu sighed, turning around and began to lead us through the castle once we had removed our sandals. He forgot me almost immediately, which was ideal. Mitsuhide was always supposed to be the great beacon of light, the centre of attention. I was just someone who lingered nearby.

I watched Mitsuhide from behind, smiling faintly, as he spoke to Yoshitatsu about the state of the castle and then about more boyish things, such as sports (which usually meant training in this case). Mitsuhide probably would never come to realise just how highly I held him in regard. Without him, I would not be alive. Without him, I would have gone insane from the impossibility of my situation of being transported into the past. He was my company and my friend, the one who showed me some measure of kindness in this world from the very moment I landed here.

He was the first person who ever sought my company, unlike in my present day where it was always me seeking others. Ever since Mitsuhide was a child, he would talk and listen to me with smiles and we shared laughter and arguments.

In the twenty-first century, I was a ghost. I would arrive, and I would leave, and no one would ever notice. But Mitsuhide was the opposite to that, always had been.

He is a precious friend, I thought with content.

My smile faltered however. One person was missing, the one who made everything happen; giving me a home and a family, raising me as one of their own, feeding me and training me.

Mitsukuni-sama, I thought sadly. It had been six years now since he had died. It was the first time I had experienced the sorrow of loss. Time healed the wounds, but never completely. That echo of pain remained, and always would do.

I passed a corridor, and almost jumped in fright at the little figure waiting just within it. The beautiful little girl gazed up at me with calm pleasure. In just the two months that had passed since I last saw her, she had already grown considerably more.

The young grew so quickly. I could now understand what my parents meant by us (my sister and I), growing up so fast.

My eyebrows rose and automatically I smiled. "Nou-hime."

"Cousin Osamu," she greeted with her low and sleek voice. Mitsuhide did not look surprised to see her, and Yoshitatsu only frowned as they paused.

"Ani-ue, cousin Mitsuhide, you will not mind if I take Osamu, ne?"

Yoshitatsu just waved his hand dismissively. "Do as you please."

While Mitsuhide smiled kindly. "Of course."

Nou's controlled expression did not change, which was extraordinary for a nine-year-old. However, her eyes lit up as permission was quickly granted. I exchanged nods with Mitsuhide and Yoshitatsu, before I then took Nou's eagerly held out hand and the two young Lords continued on.

"Where are your maids, Nou-hime? You are a beautiful girl. Someone could sneak into the castle and kidnap you," I chided.

Nou's charming smile held a hint of sly smugness at the compliment. "My kidnappers will be blinded by my beauty and I will defeat them."

It amazed me how similar this young Nou was to the Samurai Warriors games. At least that was one aspect of history that was definitely correct. Nou was someone of stunning beauty and incredible wit.

I chuckled softly. "I am sure you will, Nou-hime." I was thoroughly glad that I was not an enemy of the Saito. Making a good impression on the young Nou was sure to pay off somehow later in the future. As they said, first impressions count as that's the one that always sticks. Whatever impression I made on Nou a year ago seemed to have worked, as she was always one of the first to greet me and fight for my attention.

"Truly though, where are your maids, Nou-hime?" I pressed again.

"With Hiroko-hime," Nou said plainly. "She is awfully boring, therefore I left to find you. It is good that you and cousin Mitsuhide came around the same time as Tsumaki-sama, otherwise I would be really bored. You are much more interesting than her."

My eyebrows flew up and I gasped, which caused me to choke on my own phlegm.

"Why are you choking? You're not eating or drinking anything," Nou said with impatience. A spoilt and witty child indeed.

Once I could breathe again, I peered down at her. "Tsumaki-sama and his daughter are here?" I croaked.

Nou nodded, leading me to the gardens where we normally played. "They arrived here yesterday and will be staying for six more days, that is what Chichi-ue said."

Excitement exploded in my chest, followed by a stupid grin which I could not wipe from my face. Hiroko was here! Mitsuhide's future lover and wife was here in this very castle!

"Hmm, I would like to meet her at some point," I mused, struggling to make my voice sound controlled and calm.

"You probably will over the next few days. But you must play with me first!" She pouted.

I sighed and smiled in defeat, letting Nou pull me along. "Very well. What do you want to play today?"

We came out onto the veranda and Nou slid into her sandals. The garden was ablaze with stunning fiery colours of autumn leaves. The sun was bright and the water of the small stream bubbled over the pebbles. A stone bridge was built across it.

"Teach me another game from your world, cousin Osamu," she said brightly. As she was half Oni, it also meant that she was in on the secrets. What amazed me though was that someone so young could hold her tongue on such important matters. But what was even more amazing was that she understood its importance, and often used it to her advantage.

I did not want to be on Nou's bad side. But in the future when Mitsuhide rebels against Nobunaga, Nou will indeed become an enemy.

My expression fell slightly in sadness as I watched her pick up five leaves and placed them between her fingers, turning them into a fiery fan, or a handful of dagger-like leaves.

Good things never last.

Nou span around in a graceful dance, letting the leaves fall about her like fluttering rain of fire. The dances of this time and age were far more appealing and graceful to the eye, nothing like the provocative and slutty movements of my modern time that demeaned females so much. I felt sorry for the women who had fought so hard to earn respect equal to that of a man. How they would weep if they saw the women and girls of the modern day, seeing all their hard work go to waste.

The little girl skipped ahead as I stepped down from the veranda and onto the leaves that littered the grass. She bent down and picked something from the ground beneath a huge tree. In fact, the entire ground beneath the tree's arms was dotted with them.

"What's this?" Nou asked, holding one out to me. "They are a beautiful colour. I've asked Chichi-ue and Ani-ue, and the maids, but none of them are interested in it," she sighed, picking up another and running her pale fingers over its smooth, mahogany surface.

I grinned. "These are conkers*, seeds of that tree. Where I come from, as children, we used to play a game with these. It's a boys game more so than girls, but I was not the normal girl."

"What kind of game?" Nou asked curiously.

I knelt down to her level so I did not tower over her, and touched my finger to the pale patch at the top of the conker. "It is a two-player game. One threads a string through the conker and then each player takes turns in striking the other player's conker. They keep going until one breaks. That person loses, and has to find a new conker."

I was expecting Nou to already look bored, but to my surprise, her eyes glittered with interest. "Show me," she demanded.

Glancing about me, I said, "We need some thick string then and something to drill a hole with."

"Drill?"

I smacked my hand to my forehead. "Ah, I keep forgetting that those terms don't exist yet in this time," I muttered to myself. "We need something to make a hole through the conker," I said louder.

Nou looked thoughtful. "I can make the holes myself. I need Kaede to fetch the string though."

"I can fetch that."

"No, no! You are a Lady, cousin Osamu. You must not do the duties that the maids and servants are paid to do."

I sighed again, throwing up and catching my conker with a hand as I followed somewhere behind Nou, who walked proudly ahead around the veranda to another section of the castle.

A Lady, huh? I wondered. I suppose I was one in law, but I did not act like one if I could help it. In Akechi castle, I helped in the kitchen, did the chores and gossiped with the maids. In the town, I chatted with the commoners and played with the children. Being a Lady, as Lady Akechi wished, was boring . . . very boring. They sat indoors all days doing sewing or reading poetry and practicing the tea ceremony. When they went outside, they went for a tiny walk around the garden, wrapped up warm as if they were the most delicate thing in the world. No wonder they died or made a big deal when they got a simple cold! Their immune system was practically non-existent. But of course, none of them would understand the sciences of the human body as I knew it.

Hell, I was probably the most intelligent person alive at the current time.

That thought made me pause and a smug smirk spread across my lips. Who would have thought that arrogance and vanity was such a pleasurable and mighty feeling?

Voices pulled me back from my brief moment of feeling on top of the world. I came up behind Nou, who had stopped in front of the veranda. The screens were open and quite a few women were seated inside, talking of girly things like fashion. I zoned out immediately, wondering once again why I had not been born a boy from the beginning, as I was more of a boy than a girl when it came to these things – totally uninterested.

"Kaede," Nou called with impressive authority. The twittering chit chat quietened as they acknowledge Nou's presence with respect.

Kaede rose from where she was and moved over to Nou. She was Nou's personal maid, one born from a high family and with looks and wit to match. The two got along quite well because of it, but also clashed catastrophically due to that very same reason.

The maid had risen from the side of a young woman – girl in my opinion – who was certainly not a maid. While Nou was dishing out her requests to her maid, I looked at this other girl who had everyone else's attention. Her eyes immediately dropped when I met her stare and her face flushed.

She was a girl in a rich kimono of fiery colours that matched the autumn leaves. Her frame was petite, with hair bunched up against her head elegantly to bring some beauty to her otherwise plain face. There were a few scars on her face from smallpox.

And that part of history is also true, I mused to myself. That amusement turned to surprise when she suddenly bowed after making eye-contact.

"F-forgive me, Lord, for not formally introducing myself," she stammered. "I am T-Tsumaki Hiroko, the eldest daughter of the Tsumaki family."

I blinked, taken aback by her formality. She thought I was a visiting Lord? And her face was red! I sighed.

"No need to be so formal, Hiroko-hime," I chuckled softly. "I am not a Lord worth attention."

"Nonsense!" Nou exclaimed as Kaede went off to find the strings. "You are a great Lord."

My jaw clenched, resisting the urge to sigh again at Nou's extremely cheesy comment. Instead, I ignored it and bowed formally to the young fourteen-year-old girl.

"I am Akechi Osamu. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Hiroko-hime," I greeted.

"A-ah likewise!" She stammered, bowing again. "I have heard many things about you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Good things I hope. It is Mitsuhide-sama who should be the focus of your attention. You may meet him later depending on the circumstances."

Her face flushed again. "Mitsuhide-sama is here as well?"

It was very hard to not grin. "Yes. We arrived quite recently. You will get along with him quite well."

Kaede came back with what we needed and handed them to Nou. "We have what we need now so we will speak to you later, Hiroko-hime," Nou said to the young girl calmly. It was an odd sight to see. Nou was five years younger and yet she held more power and authority in her behaviour and voice, while Hiroko's posture was stiff and her voice shook with nervousness. They were huge opposites.

Hiroko bowed and I returned the gesture, before following Nou back around into the gardens. I thought about the young girl who was to be Mitsuhide's future bride. They were suited for each other. Hiroko's quietness suited Mitsuhide's calmness ideally. It was no wonder that history said they were a very successful couple. I could not wait to see the moment where the two of them meet.

Getting sucked back into the past had its perks.

Nou managed to poke a hole through the two conkers with her slender fingers, to my astonishment. Then again, she was half Oni. I threaded the string through and then I taught her the game of conkers, showing her how to swing the conker on its string to hit her opponent's (mine). As a demonstration, I told her to hold the end of her string and let her conker hang until it stopped swinging, then, I swung my conker with practiced technique – but lacking any strength – to hit her conker directly with a clack. I did not want hers to break so soon.

Nou's expression was intrigued and so she tried. Her first try missed, then it was my turn, and when her round came again, she swung and hit. The clack was loud. On her fourth round, she cracked my conker.

"Oh! That was fast!" I exclaimed, and a huge smile spread across Nou's lips. It was my turn and her conker cracked. Nou's smile vanished. On her next go, my conker was smashed to pieces.

"Yay I did it! I won!" She squealed, breaking her usually controlled demeanour.

I smiled. "You definitely did, Nou-hime. You did even better than Mitsuhide-sama's first attempt."

Her smile turned into a slight smirk. "Ho, I did, did I? Maybe I should challenge him to a conk duel!"

I snorted with laughter before I could smother it. "It is 'conker'. A 'conk' is your nose, or your head. In my country it's the nose."

"Yes, yes," Nou said, not registering what I said, though she looked irritated upon my laughing at her. "We should find cousin Mitsuhide."

I straightened and stretched my back with a grunt. "Are you sure you do not want more practice? Mitsuhide-sama is very good at the sport now."

"Hmph. Well if he is better than you then it should not be too difficult," Nou sniffed with a heightened sense of superiority.

I just smiled thinly back. Had she been somewhere in her teens then I would have answered with some snide remark. But a child would not understand it, not to mention she was a Daimyo's daughter. I may be classified as a Lord or Lady of the Akechi clan, but as far as I was concerned, my social standing was low compared to Nou.

"Let us have another game," I said, turning my gaze to the ground to search for another conker. "Now in the rules, I must find another conker because my last one was smashed. The winner keeps their conker until it breaks as well."

Nou examined her conker. "That isn't fair. Mine will be weaker than yours."

"Not always," I mused. "If you picked a good conker then it can survive and even smash another's. I once won three rounds with the same conker. It is all in the technique, Nou-hime."

I rummaged through the leaves as Nou looked thoughtful, when a call drew my attention.

"Osamu-san."

Recognising that voice, I turned around to find Kenji standing on the veranda. "Akito," I said brightly. He waved back and also greeted Nou.

He spent a lot of time at Inabayama castle now, sent by the Akechi and to represent the Akechi in some cases. Therefore I did not see my friend too often anymore. Nou spent quite a bit of time with him and she dashed up to the man with the conker.

"Look, Kenji-san. It's a conk, a conk! Cousin Osamu taught me a game with them which I should also teach you."

"A conk?" Kenji asked lightly.

I smacked my palm to my forehead again. "It's conker, Nou-hime. The two words are very different." Nou was barely listening, busy babbling the rules to Kenji. I just sighed. It was an odd sight to see her talk so much and so quickly compared to her usual composure.

"Osamu-san," Kenji said, taking advantage of Nou's pause to breathe at the end of her utterance. "Your presence is required at the dojo."

I lowered my hand with a raised eyebrow. "The dojo? What for?"

"Mitsuhide-sama is being tested. Saito-sama wants to know his physical capabilities seeing as he has already shown his mental capabilities."

I looked at him for a moment in silence, before I shrugged and nodded. "Alright. I'll head over there now. Thanks for telling me."

Kenji returned the nod. "You're welcome, Osamu-san."

I did a little bow to Nou. "Excuse me, Nou-hime. Introduce Kenji-san to the game, yes?"

"Yes, definitely."

Satisfied, I left them both behind and made my way to the castle's dojo, keeping my mind and senses open. Soon enough, I felt Mitsuhide's familiar mental touch against mine.

: Do you want more of an explanation? He asked.

: That would be helpful. My curiosity was obvious to him.

: Very well. Saito-sama's last administrator has apparently shown to be incompetent, therefore I have been asked to replace him. In addition to that, Saito-sama also wishes for me to become an officer soon enough, hence the test in the dojo.

: Oh, I breathed. In history Mitsuhide was known to be the administrator of Mino. As for when he became an officer though was something that eluded me. Aren't you a bit young to become an officer? I asked worriedly.

If he had been standing in front of me, I know he would have rolled his eyes at that comment with an amused smile. : Sixteen is a man in this time. You need to get your head around that fact.

: Gyaa I know, I know. It was hard though. I had watched Mitsuhide grow from when he was nine. So even though he looked and behaved as a man now, to me, he was still much younger. Maybe my view point would change if I did not see him for a couple of years.

: You might want to hurry to grab a place to stand. Everyone seems to have heard about this test already and want to watch, he added with a tone of dismay.

My eyes widened and a grin stretched across my lips. : Nervous are we?

: You wish. Maybe you should not come to watch.

I broke into a jog. : Ho ho, not a chance, I chuckled. I will be there in a second.

Sure enough, when I got there, there were quite a few people, both men and women alike. The higher-ups were shouting for the people to not push and shove to see the young Lord, while I pushed and shoved my way back through the crowd and into the dojo, passing the hawk-like glares of the guards. Once they saw me, they just nodded and let me through, knowing who I was.

"Ah Osamu! You made it through!" Came a bellow, accompanied by a clap on the back that sent me staggering forwards a few steps across the tatami.

"Oof!" I wheezed, turning around and there stood Dousan, big and looming as always. "Good day to you, Saito-sama," I greeted with an awkward bow. Being in his presence was unnerving, especially since the Toki-Akechi lost the battle against him and he suggested that I become his concubine. He still had not given up on it completely.

About a dozen or so men were in the dojo proper. Then there were guards around the edge and more people beyond them trying to squeeze a look in.

"You come to my castle dressed as a man again? I will have the maids dress you in something more suitable later," he said in his deep, rumbling voice. It was something he said every time I was at Inabayama castle.

I opened my mouth to begin another awkward reply when a hand rested on my shoulder.

"My bodyguard cannot serve her purpose if she is changed otherwise, Saito-sama" Mitsuhide said lightly, putting a slight emphasis on the possessive pronoun. "Please excuse her, but I need her to help me prepare for the test."

Dousan grunted. "Very well," he said with a wave of his hand. "We shall begin in a few minutes." He walked off to another watching officer and began another conversation with him. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"How many times have I had to save you from that situation?" Mitsuhide questioned as I began setting about my task of making sure his uniform was all tied correctly and a towel was prepared.

"Not that many," I replied around the question, watching a servant carry a bamboo katana towards us.

"Ne, ne! Can you see him?" The voices of some excited young maids reached my ears.

"Yes! He is so handsome!" One sighed dreamily. I grinned at the comments of Mitsuhide for they tended to make him feel awkward.

"You should grow a beard," he said flatly, ignoring the girls. "Then I won't have to get you out of that situation at all for you will not be in it."

I gaped.

"Osamu," Dousan called, forcing me to drag my stare from Mitsuhide to the big Lord. Getting called right now was not the best time.

Next to Dousan stood a middle-aged man with long hair tied back. He looked different to the other officers in the hall, not to mention familiar. So I approached Dousan once again and Mitsuhide accompanied me.

"I would like you to meet Tsumaki Norihiro, head of the Tsumaki family in Mino," Dousan introduced.

My eyebrows shot up. This man was Hiroko's father. No wonder the face was familiar. I bowed. "It is an honour to make your acquaintance, Tsumaki-sama," I said.

He smiled. "Likewise. It is a pleasure to meet you, Akechi Osamu. The rumours surrounding you are impressive."

I pressed my lips together. "Is . . . is that so?" I laughed nervously. Life is this time was very different to my modern time. There was very little gossip or rumours about me if any, for I was invisible to almost all. Here, it seemed to be the opposite to my disbelief.

"My daughter is also here," Norihiro continued. "I shall introduce her to you both."

I was about to say I had already met her when Mitsuhide beat me to it. "I look forward to it, Tsumaki-sama."

Mitsuhide and Hiroko. I struggled to hide my eager expression.

Dousan clapped to signal he was ready to begin and Norihiro wished Mitsuhide luck. I took Mitsuhide's bamboo katana from the waiting servant while Mitsuhide put on his mask. Just before his mask went on, I caught the hint of faint interest in his expression. Interest regarding Hiroko. His future wife. And then there was me, a woman he said to grow a beard.

I handed the bamboo katana to Mitsuhide in a way that I punched him in the stomach with the hilt, causing his breath to whoosh out upon impact. He managed to stop himself from doubling over.

"That's what you get for telling a girl to grow a beard," I hissed through a dark smile. "Now stay handsome for the ladies. Don't show them that you're in pain."

He took the bamboo katana and through an equally dark smile that was masked with innocence – had I seen his expression behind the mask – he murmured, "You will pay me back for that."

Mitsuhide turned and I retreated to kneel on the side-lines with his towel. He would be fighting five matches in total and had to win three. He and his opponent stood face to face, katana's poised. The referee stood beside them. The watchers fell silent with anticipation.

"Hajime!" He shouted. I did not pay much attention to the first match for I was seething over the suggestion of growing a beard.

Grow a beard? Keh! I'm a girl, damn it. If I was more out of control like most girls of my time then I would have slapped you for that remark, Mitsuhide-sama.

He won the first match and then lost the second. Losing the second caught my attention and my annoyance dissipated with my increasing focus on the fights. Of course, I hoped he would win and pass the test overall. He was very skilled with the sword, but better with the spear. However I did worry. Becoming an officer would put him on the path that was recorded in history.

It would also mean that his chances of being killed were much higher.

The matches continued and at the end, Mitsuhide won three and drew one. The watchers erupted in an excited babble as they began to leave, whereas some stayed behind in the hopes of offering Mitsuhide their praises at the end when he was free. He wiped the sweat from his face and neck while I took his katana and mask.

Norihiro stepped back towards the veranda and looked to be talking to someone, so I turned my attention to him in curiosity while Mitsuhide spoke with Dousan. A girl stepped up onto the veranda and I paused what I was doing with surprise. It was Hiroko. She had been watching the matches.

"Mitsuhide-sama," Norihiro said. "Allow me to introduce my eldest daughter, Hiroko."

The girl looked at Mitsuhide and her cheeks reddened. "It-it is an honour to meet you, Mitsuhide-sama," she stammered nervously with her face burning. I brought my hand up to my mouth to cover my huge grin. If only this were the modern day, then I would not have to hide my excitement and I could squeal like any normal girl.

"Hiroko-hime," Mitsuhide greeted with a graceful bow and a kind smile. "It is pleasure to be graced with your presence. I hope the matches were not too violent."

"No, no! They were a marvel to watch. Mitsuhide-sama moves with amazing grace and speed."

I had to turn away so no one could see my obviously beaming exression. But I could only allow myself a few seconds of freedom before I then tried stupidly hard to compose my face and I turned back again, watching the exchange between Mitsuhide and Hiroko.

The two stood wonderfully together, with Mitsuhide standing half a head taller than Hiroko already. The height comparison between them was very fitting and attractive. There was a nice air about them. They were a samurai Lord and a young Lady of noble upbringing and delicate nature. It was a perfect fit for these times.

However, to me, I found it dull. My amusement and pleasure at seeing the two final meet was at the forefront of my mind. Yet somewhere in the back of that same mind I suddenly found myself thinking that Mitsuhide deserved something more.

Well, finally they've met. Now it's just a matter of time, I thought, trying to push my unexpected doubts away. This was history, and I had to ensure that it followed its course.

*I have no idea if conker trees (Horse Chestnut trees) exist in Japan, so sorry if this is not true. In the fanfic, they do grow in Japan, even if they're not so in real life.