Chapter Thirteen: Game Theory

"And your guess…?" Mitsuhide's dry tone had morphed into mockery. He shifted so the lamplight illuminated the gun, and I'm certain he did that on purpose to remind me who had the upper hand.

"You're the person whose Shogi moves I've been ferrying across the country for the past four years." Even with the gun trained on me, I breathed a bit easier. Mitsuhide was, if not a friend of, at least friendly with Aki. I knew he still could kill me, but hopefully he wouldn't without a good reason.

Mitsuhide didn't move the gun, but he did look amused. "Ah, you're one of Yamaoka's daredevils. Kyubei never mentioned his courier was a woman."

I shrugged. "Most people see what they expect to see. When I'm dressed as a boy, they see a boy." I reached behind my head, twisted my hair back and down to stretch out my facial muscles, changed my posture, and bowed.

He finally put down the gun and disengaged the match cord. Gesturing to the shogi board, he said, "If you work for Akihira, you will how to play. Join me in a game."

Right now, I was technically working for Shingen, but since my association with Aki might be what was keeping me alive right now, I let that go without argument. "I don't have time."

"I believe you'll find you can make time." He sat down behind the table and poured himself a cup of sake. He offered me one as well.

I shook my head, as I knelt across from him. I didn't want a game, I wanted information. Unfortunately, it appeared that Mitsuhide wanted me to game the information out of him.

"Tea?" He indicated a tray on the corner of the desk with a tea pot and cups. Probably it would be cold, as I hadn't seen a maid carry anything through the hall while I was searching the rooms.

Again, I shook my head. I didn't want to waste any more time here than I had to.

"Don't worry. I wasn't planning to poison you." He smiled. "Probably not, in any case."

"I'll let that remain a mystery." Even if he truly had no thought of poisoning, or drugging me, I didn't want to be distracted by the possibility. Which… was probably why he mentioned it to begin with. Clearly, like Aki, he liked to mess with people to keep them off balance. I'd watched Aki play this game, and been its victim, often enough.

"Suit yourself." He reset the tiles on the board with enough speed and accuracy to show me that he played Shogi often. "I hope you can give me an interesting game. It's been a while."

"Kyubei doesn't play?" I haven't played enough people besides Aki to know if my style was interesting or not.

"He does, but since I taught him how, the results get repetitious." He tossed five pawns in the air – most landed tokin side down, so he would get to go first.

"Maybe you didn't teach him correctly. Aki seems constantly surprised by my play." Because I sometimes abandoned my strategy midway through the game, but he didn't need to know that.

"I said an interesting game, not cheeky commentary." He started with a standard pawn opening, which I matched, then he played his knight, setting it in the middle of the board. Of course, he would use the Demon Slayer opening.

Demon Slayer – I knew it was a trap opening, but I couldn't immediately recall what was the correct counter move. To buy time while I searched my memory, I asked, "Where is Kyubei anyway?"

Silver to…? I hovered my hand over the silver and glanced at Mitsuhide to see if he had any reaction. None. Should have figured on a poker face. No. Wait. It was gold to 6B. I made the move – hesitantly, as if I wasn't sure it was correct – then I sat back. Let him wonder if that was luck.

Mitsuhide studied the board, his face still completely expressionless. "Kyubei is who you were looking for?"

I nodded, keeping my focus on the board. This was one of those openings that if I didn't play the correct sequence of moves, it was going to be all over quickly. Which given that I wanted to leave, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just lose… except I was feeling competitive. If I won, would he be more forthcoming with information?

If I lost, would he kill me out of boredom? I could be out of here before Mitsuhide could ignite the musket, but I imagined he had other weapons on him.

"Why were you looking for him?" Once it was clear that I knew a useful defense against Demon Slayer, Mitsuhide switched to a new strategy. And like Aki and Shingen, he'd clearly mastered the classic strategy of answering a question with another question.

But since I didn't truly care where Kyubei was, I let that go. My initial question had been a stalling tactic. "I was surprised when I saw him in the castle town and wanted to know why he was here. Also, I have an object that I hoped he could identify." The arrow was currently stuffed into the back of my obi, and every time I moved, it would poke me. Mitsuhide was as likely to be able to identify the arrow as Kyubei had been. Moreso, even.

"And you planned to simply ask him." His tone of voice registered less surprise, more sarcasm. He moved another pawn, freeing up his rook to attack.

"Yes, why not? He and I have always dealt honestly with each other." As far as I know. "I thought it possible we were here for the same reason and thought we could share information."

Ugh, the perils of playing second. Hard to set a strategy when you're constantly reacting to the other player's. I moved to block the rook, then sat back to wait for the attack. So far, the board was closed for both of us.

"Bit of a departure from your master. Akihira doesn't share. He might trade for future favors." With a clack of the tile, he opened the bishop diagonal.

I moved a pawn to block that – too early for a bishop exchange as our playing order would give him the advantage on the drop. "Unless the sharing of information could be mutually beneficial. Which, I believe is the case here."

"It's not your opinion that counts in this situation." He studied the board. "As far as I can tell, you don't actually have any information to share. I doubt you can tell me anything that I don't already know."

I might know something he didn't, but as soon as I told him unprompted, it would become something he knew. Instead, I led with something I assumed he already knew, hoping it would lead somewhere. "Someone is attacking those close to Kenshin and scapegoating Nobunaga."

"This is about the attack on Takeda Shingen last month?" I nodded. As I'd figured, he had heard about that. He tapped his finger on his silver general and I braced myself for an attack. "I do know something about that, but as I said, you have nothing worth my while."

Aki would have told me to continue to protect my king and build up the castle, because to him, defense was the key to shogi. In my head, I heard Shingen's advice on sparring, telling me that I needed to learn to attack. "There was a more recent attempt last week. Someone tried to kill Mai."

Mitsuhide's knuckles whitened slightly. Ah. That was news to him – and not good news either. "Was she harmed?"

"No." I brought out the arrow and explained what had happened. "Since the previous attacker had been paid to blame the Oda, I'd hoped that Kyubei might know if this arrow was from Azuchi."

"Rather rash of you." He examined the arrow. "If indeed someone from Azuchi had been behind these attempts, you would have been walking into a trap."

I took that as confirmation that someone from Azuchi had not been behind the attempts. "I was doing Nobunaga the respect of presuming he was neither that dishonorable nor that clumsy." His style seemed more straightforward than that.

"I, however, am exactly that dishonorable." Mitsuhide pinned me with a look, making me feel like a moth stuck in the tractor beam of a bright light. "Perhaps I arranged this in order to create a battle between Kenshin and Nobunaga, after which I could step into the power void left when they inevitably killed each other."

There was an implied threat to his words, but though I emotionally recoiled at his tone of voice, my brain kept telling me this wasn't a likely scenario. Oda had too many strong allies – not to mention strong enemies (was Mitsuhide forgetting Shingen would still be in the picture?) for his death to leave a power void. "Maybe you are that dishonorable, but what would you gain by stepping into a leadership role? You'd be bored. And," I paused, remembering the worry in his voice when he asked after Mai. He obviously cared for her. "Even if that were what you wanted, would you kill Mai to get there?"

That's the kind of boom goes the dynamite statement that needs a single eyebrow raise. Unfortunately, all my single eyebrow raises end up with me looking constipated, so I settled for a demure smile.

That netted me a gritted teeth facsimile of a smile in return. "Did Akihira train you to be this annoying, or do you come by it naturally?"

#demuresmilefail

"Usually, I'm dressed as a boy, so I'm allowed to be freer in speech." Hm, I had two captured pawns. I could drop one behind his formation and promote it. That would allow me to open the board a bit.

"I'm surprised that Kenshin didn't storm furiously out of the castle after the recent attempt – our little mouse must be even more of a mitigating force than I thought." He smiled, a real smile this time, that seemed to hint at a fond memory, and it certainly was not directed at me.

What was directed at me was another furious attack on the board, in a strategy I was completely unfamiliar with. From here on out, I would need to make it up as I went along. If I moved my bishop away from the attack, then I would lose my chance to go after the king. Or… I could sacrifice my knight and continue the bishop attack. "Thus far, they've managed to keep things from him."

Mitsuhide had recovered his poise. "Interesting. Mai is not a good liar." He took my knight. Bye knight. I knew these weren't particularly powerful pieces in Shogi, but I felt sad to have had to sacrifice it to protect a bishop.

"No, she's not." I started to move, then paused, remembering that right before Shingen had yelled at me for jumping out of the tree he had said something about Kenshin being unsettled. Maybe the fact that Kenshin could tell that Mai was lying about something would be enough. Maybe whoever was behind these attacked wanted him primed to explode one way or another… in which case, we were dealing with someone who was several moves ahead of us. Sure, Mitsuhide was capable of that kind of thinking, but I still didn't think he had a motive.

Either way, I realized I needed to get back to the castle and talk Mai or Shingen into letting Kenshin know what was going on. Both the truth and the lies to cover the truth were going to upset him, and if he was going to be upset, then it ought to be about the right thing.

"Are you going to continue the game or sit there staring at the board into eternity?" Mitsuhide gestured to the board, then poured himself another drink.

"Sorry, I was thinking of something else. Feel free to examine that arrow while you wait." I had forgotten what move I had meant to make.

That comment of mine was rewarded by a sarcastic eyebrow lift – which didn't look at all constipated when he did it, damn him, but he obliged me by examining the arrow more closely.

I went ahead and moved my rook to bolster the attack I was making with the bishop. If it worked, I would finally have taken the game's momentum, and if it didn't, then I would be able to leave. The sooner the better – my feet were going numb.

Mitsuhide looked down at the board. "Do you even have a strategy at this point, or are you just flinging tiles about, hoping something will pan out?" He set a piece in motion that would destroy my planned attack in about four moves.

"I have a strategy." Which boiled down to flinging tiles about and hoping for something to pan out. "You said you knew something about the original attack – what is it?"

"Less about the attack – attacks – here, and more about a similar attack near Azuchi. Some of our vassals were ambushed by bandits, who left evidence pointing to the fact that the attack was carried out by Sanada Yukimura."

Given Mitsuhide's bland tone, I doubted he'd even believed that for a second, but I defended Yuki anyway. "He's not left Kasugayama in at least a month." That kind of attack was even less Yuki's style than Nobunaga's. "So even as someone is trying to make Kenshin believe Nobunaga is attacking his people, they are also doing the opposite in Azuchi."

"Indeed." Mitsuhide steepled his fingers together, but didn't add anything else, and I was getting a headache.

I moved my king to prevent it being in check. At this point all I could do was protect the king – there wasn't any way I would be able to mount an attack. "Whoever it is likely has agents in both places."

"Your opening is solid, but it starts to fall apart in your middle game." Apparently Mitsuhide was critiquing my shogi skills? Or something else? "We already caught the agent in Azuchi, however he killed himself before we could learn anything."

I flinched automatically at hearing of the suicide.

Mitsuhide shored up his castle – why, I don't know, because he clearly could have taken one of my pawns with his gold general and gotten closer to my king. All this did was make the game longer. "We came to Kasugayama to see if we could root out the agent here, but since Shingen appears to already be aware of the possibility, I believe Kyubei and I can safely return to Azuchi and let him take care of things."

"And the arrow?" After all this, I refused to leave without at least finding out the main thing I wanted to know.

Mitsuhide picked it up and twirled it around his fingers. "Does it matter? You're aware that it has nothing to do with Nobunaga."

"I'm aware, but the boy that he – that they - think I am in Kasugayama wouldn't know what I know, however, that boy can probably reach the same conclusion with information about the arrow, so it's easier if you just tell me." My words had been greeted with an increasing level of amusement, and by the time I finished, Mitsuhide was laughing.

"Your end game is a disaster." He looked down at the Shogi game in process and shook his head. He set the arrow on the table. "Not one from our armory, now, but looks similar. Within the past couple of years, Hideyoshi contracted with a new blacksmith – this could be from one we used prior to that."

"Thank you." I gestured to the board. "You'll have me in check in six moves. Should I resign now?" And hurry back to the castle, see if I can hunt down Mai, or Shingen and convince one or the other to tell Kenshin what's going on.

"No. Play it out. You'll never improve your game if you resign the field before it's over." He studied the board. "You should be able to prolong the game for fifteen moves. Of course, you'll still lose in the end."

Never do that again, I thought to myself as I finally left the room, more than happy to say goodbye to Mitsuhide (pretty sure the feeling was mutual).

I got about four steps from the door and realized I had forgotten the damn arrow.

I was going to have to go back in there.

I paused, half turning, which was when someone grabbed my arm and tried to yank me into another room.