Just a quick A/N..
Due to popular demand, as soon as I get the spark again (not too infrequent, don't worry) I'll continue this story...however, for now, I'll just answer the reviews.
Narrator - I'll try ;)
Foxmagic - Heh, the show's ok. I much prefer the manga, though. Not just out of "original-art snobbishness", but I actually do prefer the characters and implementation.
And.. Benitora is kinda lighthearted, on the outside, but he always seemed to be kinda heavy inside.
Nekozuki - Well, it does strike me as odd that there aren't any other Benitora-focus fics on FFnet, as I'd have thought he was a popular character... I'll do my best not to dissapoint.
Genjyo Sanz0 - well, if you don't think Kyo would kill Mahiro, you've not been paying much attention. Kyo may be a complete and utter psychopath, but he DOES keep his promises. He promised to kill Mahiro when she was skilled enough to be worth killing. She'd proved that she was, so he had nothing against sending her to join her sister.
Just 'cause it never happened in the show doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the intervening 9 years between the end of the show (1604) and the current fic (1614, time of the Winter Siege of Osaka, which is the battle Benitora goes to fight at the end)
Now... I managed to get this out before my Spark deserted me last time, so here's a teaser for a possible continuation. Previous Disclaimers Apply.
The Truth is in the Point
Osaka. The last stronghold of the Toyotomi. Fortress of my brother-in-law, Hideyori. My daughter, Sen… Am I destined to be your life's end? If so, I will make it fast. Your mother, dead now, told me that all my children's lives would end with me as they had begun… I realise that I do not wish this battle. A siege, instead. I will not end your life with a blade…
Life and death
(death of hope)
Always end in the same way
(way of eternity)
leading inexorably to reincarnation
(reincarnation as we deserve)
Thinking of you… my daughter. I forbade the marriage, and yet secretly wished it well… Iemitsu is not as headstrong as you. Perhaps you would do better as Seii Taishogun than he, but it shall not be so. I will do as my father has done, I think. It is the only way to ensure his good sense. I can only hope I do not become so.. ineffectual in my final years, as he has done. Ogosho is a position far more suited to me.