War had a funny way of tearing things apart.

Because so many things had been torn apart, there were shards floating around everywhere. I liked to think of myself as just one of those shards. Because it was a lovelier thought, I changed myself from a shard of splintered wood or glass, like the rest of the lingering remnants of my village, into a flower petal on the wind. No matter how much it rained or how much I was battered, at least I would still be a little bit beautiful. Not to mention that the whole flower imagery reminded me that I was still technically a woman.

I suppose I could say that I was following my mother's orders. Being a ronin now, it was easier to think of things in terms of orders and survival. The last thing my mother told me was that the world was unkind to women and that, if I wanted to survive, I would have to change myself. Become strong. Ruthless, if I had to be, although her eyes at the time revealed that this particular urging was just the necessary lie of a mother trying to protect her daughter. Because, of course, that was the day our home was destroyed. The men announced themselves as Oda soldiers.

And that is how I came here, six years after the fact. Azuchi wore the mask of a peaceful town, but soldiers were soldiers. They weren't all the same, but the potential for cruelty is too dangerous. I was in the domain of Nobunaga Oda and couldn't afford to be careless. Every moment had to be one of vigilance.

For now, however, Iwas staking out. Never mind that staking out in that situation meant finding a particularly good teahouse in which o spend my meager savings. It wasn't actually my first time in Azuchi, but my third over the span of a few moons. Before coming to this place, I had never known the joy of chestnut dumplings. Sure, it was ruled by a man who was likely a literal demon from Hell, but the food was quite good. Pair dumplings with some herbal tea, and it was a temporary oasis from any and all stress.

"Excuse me. May I sit with you?" A man stood before me. His clothes weren't the exorbitantly expensive kind that some particularly wealthy warlords and daimyo liked to parade like peacocks around in, but they were clearly nice. I paused to admire the color combination: a fresh, minty green with some red to accent, and some white fluff around the collar. Hm. Maybe someday I'd get some nicer clothes too.

But the main point was this: oasis officially disrupted. Potentially dangerous man standing there. Any smile could be that of a snake. "There are other free tables," I pointed out. Roomy ones too, with smoothly carved wooden benches and charming red umbrellas adorning them.

"I'm aware. But I've been wanting to talk to you for a while."

Okay. Okay, there was no way that this man knew my actual gender. I bound my chest and kept my neck covered to hide the lack of a telltale bump there, my voice was pushed deep enough if not gravelly quite like other men's I had met. So this was business talk.

"You're the ronin known as Botan, right?"

Botan. Yes. My male alias. I missed my real name, Sumire. But at least they were both flowers. It was okay to be a peony on the outside and a violet inside. "I am."

"I'd like to hire you."

"Are you going to at least sit down?"

The man gave a start and bent slowly. "Yes. Of course."

"What's the job?"

"A bodyguard."

My blood warmed a bit as my heartbeat skipped faster. Interesting. Sounded like steady work. "What's the pay?"

"Your meals and lodgings will be taken care of." He held up a pouch and dropped it on the table for effect; the sound of coins clinking together was the purest birdsong.

"Deal."

"Don't you want more information? Such as who your employers are and who you'll be guarding? It might be a dangerous job."

"We live in a dangerous world. Any challenge is fine with me. Besides!" I laughed and seized the pouch. Let's just assume that it was mine now. "I am a ronin. As if I would turn this down."

Unexpectedly, the man smiled. "Do you know why I've come to you? Rather, do you know the stories I've heard about you?'

"Oh? Do tell, do tell." No, seriously. There were stories? That was probably bad, but I felt a tad flattered despite myself.

"You're a man of honor. Once you were offered an unthinkable sum of money to betray your benefactor at the time, and you refused. Women say you're kind and understanding. That you wouldn't dream of taking advantage of the opposite sex. You have a few fans." He laughed.

Oops. If only he knew the real reason I chose not to 'take advantage' of even the most innocent flirtation with a woman. "Just because I'm a ronin doesn't mean I'm a conniving weasel." These things were largely considered synonymous, especially since war was brewing. There was a certain feel to the air, a telltale tremulous anticipation among the populace.

"I understand that. That's why we wanted to request your services." He blinked, surprised, when I passed him a dumpling while shoving two more into my mouth. "Thank you? Anyways. The princess of the Oda is a woman, shall we say, unaccustomed to battle. We thought that having someone reliable around to devote attention to and reassure her might be of some help."

Right. The princess who had appeared out of nowhere that no one had previously known about. Not suspicious in any way whatsoever. "You mean… I'll be living in Azuchi castle?"

"Yes."

Oh. Oh my. How interesting. "Who are you?" Of course I'd heard tell of Nobunaga Oda's right-hand man, and his appearance had already given him away, but I wanted to hear the words from the famed warrior himself.

"My name is Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier."

"When do I start?" I demanded.

He laughed, but it was guarded. "Why so eager?"

I took a breath. I still needed to watch my step, be careful what I said and where I directed my most important questions. Most importantly, I had to hide my true intentions. So, I covered myself with a little bluster and forced a smirk onto my lips. "What? Is it so strange for a wandering rat like me to be a bit excited to meet a beautiful princess and live in a lavish castle?"

"It probably wouldn't be a good idea to lay a hand on Mai. She's… taken, as it were."

"And yet it's fine for me, a man, to be her personal bodyguard?"

"As already implied, I've heard you're not exactly a womanizer."

"You've caught me." I had calmed down now. "How often will I be paid?"

"It's not set. When you run out of funds you'll get more, and you'll receive a generous pay when the job ends, with an increasing amount depending on your performance. Rest assured, you'll have plenty for leisure."

"Again, when do I start?"

He laughed again. Luckily my eagerness was now being interpreted as charming rather than insidious. "Right now, if you like."

"Let's go." The words emerged before my thoughts caught up to them.

Maybe part of me had become apathetic over time and I hadn't even realized it. Maybe I had given up on finding the truth of what had really happened the night my village had been destroyed in favor of trying to live day to day, hiding the entire time. I wasn't stupid enough to believe immediately that it really was the Oda who had taken everything from me. Why would they announce themselves if that were the case? Something didn't seem right about the whole affair. But now, unexpectedly, wonderfully, I had been given a chance to find the answers for myself.

The smile was still plastered onto my face when my future residence came into view. I had seen the castle from the distance, but of course random travelers hadn't been invited to take tours. The inside of it was, well, what you would expect from the abode of the man attempting to conquer the entire land. Lush gardens reflected the beauty of what had proven to be a wonderfully mild spring season. The building itself stretched in corridor after corridor with not a crack or tear in sight, bigger in spades than my entire village had used to be.

"Wow…" I coughed after the shocked utterance escaped me. That word had come out at a bit of a higher pitch, but luckily it had been very quiet. I shouldn't have been surprised anyways. A lot of wealthy and influential people had likely lent their support to the Oda cause. "Does Nobunaga Oda really aim for unification above all else?"

Hideyoshi smiled proudly. "Of course. A peaceful world where things like status don't matter. And that's Lord Nobunaga, by the way."

I held back a laugh at his persnickety seriousness. "So a would where villages aren't pillaged at random?" I couldn't help myself. The question came out, but at least I was able to swallow the bitterness behind it before the feeling could soak into the words.

"Yes." His eyes shown with a conviction I'd never felt flowing within myself.

For some reason, the certainty he spoke with surprised me. Again, why would an army purportedly dedicated to creating a better world destroy a village that had nothing more to offer than rice and wildflowers? Because yeah, the view in my former home had been the most impressive thing about it. There had been no soldiers or no nobles in the area. Nothing worth killing for.

"So where's this princess?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. She's always running around, cleaning or sewing."

"A maid-princess?"

"A chatelaine." Hideyoshi looked down the hallway and his eyes lit up with recognition. "Ieyasu, Mitsunari. Have you seen Mai?"

Ieyasu Tokugawa and Mitsunari Ishida. Respectively, a formidable warrior and the brilliant strategist of the Oda army. The reality that I was surrounded by people who could kill me easily if I wasn't careful was starting to set in now that the excitement was waning. I was, after all, here to spy on them for the sake of my own questions aside from the job.

"She's in her room," Ishida said. "Funny enough, Lord Nobunaga came to visit her just as I was dropping off a letter. He asked me to leave after that, and Mai's face got awfully red. I think she might be coming down with a fever. Should we get her something? I could go back and brew some tea for her."

I stifled more laughter. Wait, so the strategist was actually a dunce? How charming.

"No, not that," Hideyoshi said quickly. "I mean… It would be the most helpful for you to give her a chance to rest."

"That makes sense." Ishida smiled. "I hope she feels better soon."

"I hope your understanding of basic social cues gets better in time," Tokugawa muttered. "But the chance of that is just about as likely as Mai's 'fever' going down anytime soon."

"It's a wonderful goal to hope to understand others well. I hope we both continue learning." Ishida offered an angelic smile, and it was clear there was nothing but honesty behind it. Wow, did that insult fly over his head.

"Who's he?" Tokugawa turned his attention to me, likely more in an effort to not continue talking to Ishida than anything else.

Yes, I am a he. I am a he clearly here for an innocent job and not to do any digging about the tragic fate of my village and everything I had ever loved. No, sir. "My name is Botan," I stated gruffly.

"Botan is going to be Mai's bodyguard starting today," Toyotomi explained.

"Maybe he can help nurse Mai back to health!" Ishida suggested excitedly. "Do you know medicine, Botan?"

"I'm no master, but I get by." It was a pertinent skill to have, and I'd learned a few bits by necessity when first starting out on my own.

"How wonderful! You would get along well with Lord Ieyasu. He's highly distinguished in the practice of medicine."

I avoided looking at Tokugawa and instead focused on the smooth, faintly shining floor around his feet. Goodness, it had been scrubbed thoroughly. I wasn't here to get along with them. The possibility was still there that their army was responsible. "That's wonderful," I said simply, detached.

"Just don't go into that room without knocking," Tokugawa grumbled. His words seemed to be largely limited to grumbles and mutters. "People have, and let me tell you… it's not pretty."

"I'll remember that, thank you." Was I hallucinating, or was it being insinuated none too subtly that Nobunaga Oda was in an honest to goodness relationship with this mysterious maid-princess? If that were the case, it stood to reason that she wasn't truly a princess at all, not by blood. Strange circumstances were afoot.

"Botan, I'll show you to your room. It's next to Mai's," Hideyoshi offered.

"If you give me directions, I can find my own way." As a warlord, he likely had far more pressing things to do than to show me around the place.

"If you're sure." He told me the right pattern of lefts and rights and I nodded, repeating it back to him at the end. "Good. You'll know your way around soon enough, and if you get lost anyone will be happy to help you. I'll come get you when it's time for dinner. Are you sure you'll be fine on your own?" He asked again.

I laughed. "It's fine, it's fine. Thank you." What an odd man. Maybe if the rest of the warlords were so unexpectedly kind (well, sort of), Nobunaga Oda would be full of surprises as well.

But where would I be then?

*Ieyasu Tokugawa*

"It's not like you," I muttered as soon as the ronin had left.

"What isn't?" Hideyoshi asked.

"Inviting a stranger into this place is like asking them to spy or try their hand at assassination. Why is that ronin here?" I snapped not because I was particularly mad at Hideyoshi but because fumes of anger from being in Mitsunari's agonizingly oblivious presence were fueling just about everything I did now.

"I'm aware. He seems trustworthy, but I'm not naïve. I had Mitsuhide conduct a thorough investigation before approaching the man." Hideyoshi paused. "Besides, what's the adage? Keep your enemies close."

Of course there had to be an ulterior motive. Hideyoshi would never be so needlessly careless. "What's your aim, then?"

"Ronin represent the common people. People desperate enough in hard times to be willing to take up swords, risk their lives and discard their morals for quick pay. What does it say about the Oda, then, if we invite one into our ranks for a coveted position?"

"That we're complete idiots," I replied flatly.

"No," Hideyoshi laughed. "It means we trust the people to be good. It means we care when they fall on hard times. And we do. Lord Nobunaga approved this plan himself." He turned to Mitsunari. "This was your idea in part too, you know. You're the one who first pointed out to me that there was a population in our territories that didn't exactly feel supported."

"So this is a publicity stunt?" I spoke before Mitsunari could reply to spare myself having to listen to him blather.

Hideyoshi smiled wryly. "In a way, although you make it sound terrible."

"Lord Ieyasu is quite good at pointing out the potential negatives to things," Mitsunari chimed in. "It makes him a very good person to talk to my ideas about."

"If only you would talk to me about your ideas far less," I sighed. There was no helping him. He was the smartest idiot in existence. It was a wonder he had made it this far.

"Ieyasu, will you go check on Botan? I still worry that he may have gotten lost," Hideyoshi requested sincerely.

"If you have to worry about that, is he really qualified to be a bodyguard? Besides, don't send me to do your mothering."

"Okay, thanks!" Hideyoshi dashed off as if he hadn't heard a word I'd just said.

I hated him, but I hated myself more because I was going to go do as he asked. I could send Mitsunari, but he would definitely find a way to mess it up. If the ronin actually did get lost, Hideyoshi would blame me. In the end it was less trouble to do as he asked. Although, the fact that this was likely a ploy to force me to be more friendly and make more friends, things Hideyoshi had lectured me on the importance of, wasn't helpful to my mood either.

"Do you want me to come with you so no one will get lost, Lord Ieyasu?" Mitsunari asked pleasantly.

"No, you stay here in case Hideyoshi comes back."

"Oh, alright." He smiled pleasantly and stood perfectly still even though Hideyoshi was in no way going to come back to that location.

I nodded at the maids who acknowledged me respectfully as I passed through the corridors towards Mai's room. Noticeably, they had started to steer clear of the areas closest to her quarters. Nobunaga came this way so often that it was almost embarrassing. Yeah, he had a thing for the 'princess' and that was nice and all, but he could at least be tactful about it.

"In that case, I think you and I will get along just fine." Mitsuhide's voice, snake and fox combined into one crafty hiss, floated into my ears as I neared my destination. The sight that matched his words was, in a word, unwelcome simply due to the fact that it was unexpected and I didn't like surprises at all.

He was close to the ronin, as in, very much interfering with the virtue that was of personal space. The latter man's chin was tilted up by Mitsuhide's fingers, and those same fingers traced up his jaw like spiders crawling. I had no idea what was going on but, seeing as it was none of my business, I turned around to head right back the way I had come.

"Why, hello there, Ieyasu!" Mitsuhide suddenly called out.

Why me…?