You'd think the shock of hearing there were still those under the Oda banner would've done me in there and then, but I managed quite well, I think. We heard the rest of Magoichi's story, asked her good questions ("Are you sure the armour just wasn't looted?", "Could it have been any other symbol you saw?", "Did any of them mention a base?") There was nothing more she could give us, but the panic had set in. Ieyasu ordered no more solo missions for anyone, including the ninja core, and had sent alerts through them in the hopes Mizu would hear one and finish her favour for me. Even with the skeleton force they must've been by now, we weren't going to be the camp to fall by underestimating a threat.
We had more to worry about though. The messengers returned, with mixed blessings. Motochika had apparently been so against the idea of an alliance for some reason that the poor bastard sent to Tosa was lucky to return alive, babbling that his life had been in danger the second they realised who he was from.
As if that wasn't panicking enough, the letter sent to Kai was never even delivered. The man charged with it could only shrug and say no-one was letting him see Lord Takeda or Yukimura. Without definite proof of who the Tiger was siding with, the War God remained an unknown, one we rightly feared.
"Hey, what's with the doomsday warnings? I was halfway back when Jiro grabbed me and insisted we stick together." Mizu complained, startling me as she clambered the last metre or so to our balcony, swinging her legs over, but not dismounting from it.
Gripping the banister tighter before placing a smile on my face, I finally looked up, giving my hair a quick toss to clear it from my eyes, "Apparently the Oda remnants haven't given up the fight."
"Geez, talk about paranoid." Pulling her hood down and undoing her hair, Mizu fixed me with a suspicious look, "That is it, right?"
"Just a few bad responses from the call for aid, that's all. How about you, did you…" She suddenly turned very silent, biting at her lip, "Mizu? You did find him, right?"
A horrible thought came into my head, heart beating just that little bit faster, even as her silence broke. "I found him. Very much a team effort though, so show the ninja core you care."
"I will."
She didn't seem to notice though, "I told him what you told me to, but I don't know if he's going to rise to the bait. I left the necklace with him though."
"Thanks." At least he was safe, that's all I needed.
"So how have things been here?" Mizu asked, slipping onto the floor properly, and moving to change out of her uniform. "Other than all the doom and gloom, I mean."
"Well, there's to be no more solo missions for anyone, Kotone's still attending lessons, but other than that, nothing's changed much." Scrunching her nose up, Mizu pulled her shirt over her head, my head turning to give her privacy. "We might have to start taking a more militant role though."
The sound of material all but stopped, "That Tokugawa talking, or your opinion?"
"Opinion. Almost nobody wants to help, thinking Mitsunari's the better choice, they are, or maybe even that this will pass over. They'll need proof there's actually an army to join." The material shifted again, and she said I could turn back around. When I did, she quickly secured her bangs out of her face in what I was coming to recognise as her new style.
"Has dinner been served yet?"
"Yeah, about an hour ago."
"Huh, I'll be in the kitchen if you need me then." Waving on her way out, Mizu left me by myself again. Closing the door behind her, I put my forehead against the frame, hearing her greet Masamune as she went past, laughing at something he said before going on her way again. Smiling to myself because of it, I let myself snort, falling back onto my bed and picking up the book I'd been reading in spurts for the past hour. Now that she was back and nobody had to panic anymore, I might actually get to finish the bloody thing.
I was barely a chapter in when there was a shy knocking at the door, Kotone slipping in at my grunt. Marking my place with a finger, I sat up on my elbows, waiting for her to say what she wanted.
"What's this book about?" Wasn't expecting that one.
"Bring it here." I ordered, waving my hand. She crossed the room and pressed it into my hand, sitting next to me while I made my diagnosis. Looking at the title, I raised an eyebrow, handing it back, "You wouldn't like it."
"What's it about though?"
"It's about two clans fighting over the country. I'd wait until you were older before tackling it though." Kotone scrunched her face up slightly, flicking through the book's pages, "That copy's only the first chapter."
"What!?" My finger pointed to the tiny subtitle, hearing her groan quietly. "Sayomi, do you have any books I could borrow? This was the thinnest thing in the library."
"Middle shelf. Not the two on the right." They were joke presents Saburo had gotten me as congratulations for getting the kids through the alphabet and certain sounds. Back then, after realising what kind of fiction they were, Asuka and I had rolled one up each and chased him around the village, getting blows in. Now, they were as precious to me as my swords.
Kotone did as she was told, sticking firmly to the left before pulling one free. Picking my own back up, my eyes had barely found the sentence I was on when she was clearing her throat again, "Yeah?"
"When will I be ready to use a real sword?"
"When I say so." The unfairness of the statement made me think, "Or, if one of the other adults say, 'I think Kotone's ready for a real weapon.' Until then, we're sticking to the bokkens."
"Oh, okay." Clutching her book to her chest, Kotone nodded as a goodbye, thankfully leaving my door closed.
Staring after her, I waited a minute before sighing, "Now I might actually be able to finish this thing."
"Yomi, Yori's thrown up on me!"
"Oh for- Coming Hotaru!"
"You're kidding." I whispered, eyes darting around as if a servant was going to overhear us and report us for being sneaky.
"I'm not." Hanzo murmured back. "I told you I worked with the fermenters that summer. I just had to experiment a little."
"At least you can't blow the castle up with sake." I conceded, pinching the bridge of my nose in defeat. Hanzo's silence to that statement was unnerving, and when I flicked my eyes upwards, there was a weak grin on his face. "Oh no…"
"Hear me out." He begged, placing a hand over my mouth before I could lay into him about the potential bomb he'd just revealed was in the cellar, "Nobu adapted the recipe from one he was given in Okinawa-" At my grunts (meant to ask when the hell Nobu had been in Okinawa), he shrugged, clearly not knowing the full story himself. "-But the rice they used was different so he had to get it specially. At first. Somehow he found a way to give it the same strength as awamori, if making it a little explosive in the process." Raising my eyebrow and crossing my arms, I let every inch of my disbelief show.
But now that the explanation was over, Hanzo gently removed his hand, "If I can replicate it for New Year's, then it might just feel a little more like home, okay?" So don't tell Mizu went unsaid, but I nodded along. Her comment the night we went drinking must've hit harder for him than it did the rest of us. It made me want to hug him.
Instead I sighed, "You know, if you're going to surprise her with it, you'll have to make sure she doesn't go drinking half a gallon before realising."
"Yeah, I don't know how Masamune would deal with that image!" Hanzo laughed, the sound more than a little forced.
Going along with it, I pushed out a few giggles of my own, "Actually, if you combine them, you'd get two people with a perfectly normal alcohol limit." Once we'd laughed enough to feel slightly better about the whole thing, and started calming down, it made sense to leave the cellar and look like we had nothing to do with the underground sake operation. Mind you though, I doubted Hanzo was being as covert as he hoped, since we passed the kitchens on our way up, and if they didn't know what was happening a few feet away, then that was worrying.
"By the way, if Kotone asks you if you think she's ready for a real weapon…"
"Way ahead of you. She poked her head around my door last night. I told her to get a few more skills."
"Thank you."
