Turning Swallow
Summary:
OR, One morning, four-year-old Sasaki Kojiro remembers a life not yet lived, and decides to do something about it. History changes. SI!Sasaki Kojiro. Expect general lightheartedness, but dark topics when the time comes.
CH. 21 START
Chosokabe Motochika's plan was rather simple, Kojiro realized, and boiled down to 'avoid direct confrontation with Oda Nobunaga, at all costs.' The plans that Kojiro had stolen from the hideout said as much, and most of them detailed how his army could possibly force Nobunaga to break apart her own forces into more manageable, and more important, more ambushable sections of itself. After all, fighting six armies of twenty thousand was far easier than fighting three of forty thousand, or two of sixty thousand. A warlord would either react in one of two ways: by splitting up his army to be more efficient in hunting down his harasser or by trying to brute-force his way into a victory by capturing the enemy commander. Both, to an intelligent observer, were equally unappealing. Both of these strategies would play exactly into their enemies' plans. No, a better idea was to stave the enemy out, by making sure that they had no way of continuing their attacks through destroying supply lines. That was hard, however, because most warlords weren't certain where their enemies' supply lines were.
Unfortunately for Motochika, Kojiro knew exactly where his supply depots were. They were the man's castles, which were (mostly) scattered throughout the Island of Shikoku. Motochika had five in total, being the Castles of Oko, Kira, Aki, Amagiri, and Ichinomiya. These places were the most important of the ones listed, and should any of them be taken, the man's forces in said areas would become immediately crippled. The two most forward castles were Amagiri Castle and Ichinomiya Castle. Each of them were no more than three days of hard marching away, with Amagiri barely one and a half days away. A stroll down the shore westward would see the place in sight before night fell on the second day. As for Ichinomiya, it was more inland, hidden in a forest, but that too, was close by. The remaining castles were each arrayed in a row, along Shikoku's southern coastlines. Going from east to west, they were Aki Castle, Oko Castle, and Kira Castle. They'd likely been built this way so as to provide a defensive wall against invaders from the ocean or the north. They fed into each other, connected by well-built roads. If one was under attack, the rest could send troops over to aid it within the day. Of course, this was only a detriment given how few men Motochika had. At most, if all the forts were all manned equally, the castles would have eight thousand men each. While walls and battlement allowed defenders to be worth three times as much in terms of defensive ability, that was still only sixteen thousand. If the enemy had no force equalizers, such as guns, these castles could be overrun within hours. The basics of a plan formed, Kojiro began to walk back towards the Oda camp.
This entire effort had taken nearly the entire night, and as Kojiro had the two hour journey back to homebase, the dark faded from the sky and the sun peeked over the horizon. Dawn had arrived, just as Kojiro stepped back into allied territory. He breathed a sigh of relief, and dropped his guard a tad. He glanced around the camp, and caught sight of a man running towards him. Kojiro stopped and waited for the man, taking in the messenger's appearance.
The man spoke in a nervous tone, which didn't match his rather burly appearance, "Sasaki-dono! Lord Nobunaga has commanded the camp to bring you to her should any of us see you. Please, follow me!"
Without waiting for a reply, the man turned and began to power-walk away. Yep, that was definitely weird. He lifted a hand to his sword, just in case.
Kojiro called out to the man, saying, "Stop."
The messenger all but froze, body locking into place, before he swung his body around with an expression of dread. The man schooled his face soon enough, but that didn't hide the dread in his eyes. Was this a spy, afraid of being caught? A saboteur? An assassin?
The man's eyes darted away from his own after a moment of contact, but not before Kojiro saw them widen with fear after the maybe-spy looked at Kojiro's sword.
He called the man out, asking, "Why can't you look me in the eyes? What are you so afraid of?"
The dread presented itself once again, joined by fear.
The man replied, but even as he spoke, his voice trembled, "W-What do you mean, Sasaki-sama?" he asked.
The man looked to be on the verge of fainting, his eyes flickering widely, everywhere but Kojiro's face. If the man was a spy, he was a very poor one, to be so nervous from a little pressure.
Kojiro grabbed the man by the chin, and brought him towards the ground so he could look into the man's eyes.
"Look me in the eyes," Kojiro repeated, "and explain."
The man held his gaze this time, with a gaze of such horror and despair that Kojiro was almost fascinated.
Barely able to speak, the man blubbered, "Your eyes! They scare me!"
Abruptly, Kojiro let go. The man was afraid of him. Kojiro glanced around, at the people nearby, who'd been intently staring moments before. The instant he looked at them, they turned away. The distinct feeling of nervousness and anxiety perpetuated the area, as Kojiro continued to look around. One person failed to look away in time though, and Kojiro caught his eye and jerked his head to the side in the universal 'come here' gesture. The bystander approached slowly, and Kojiro demanded an answer.
"Explain," he ordered.
The man licked his lips, and replied, "The men, uh, tell stories. Sir."
"What stories." he inquired flatly.
The same fear entered this person's eyes as he said, "I don't want to say?"
The reply was less an answer and more a question all its own, but Kojiro didn't push further. The looks on him were already leary, and while fear was all well and good, if his own allies were afraid to look at them for fear that he'd decapitate them in irritation or something, that wouldn't do. Kojiro consciously let the matter drop, blatantly removing his hand from the hilt of his sword and letting it drop. Perhaps the army from Honno-ji had spread rumors about what had happened there then. Did his actions there violate some rule of unspoken rule of warfare? He'd probably committed warcrimes at Honno-ji, to be fair.
Kojiro sighed, before saying to the person in front of him, "You. Take me to where Oda-dono is.
He called out to the rest of the people gathered as he followed the man away, saying, "And the rest of you. Treat that man and get back to work."
They sprung into action as the man led him to a command tent, where Hideyoshi and Nobunaga probably were meeting.
Kojiro turned to his guide, telling him, "You are dismissed. If your superior complains, send him to me."
The man spluttered out thanks, then fled. Kojiro watched him go with a frown on his face. This wouldn't do at all.
He stepped through the flaps of the command tent, and lo and behold, there were Hideyoshi and Nobunaga pouring over a map, exhaustion visible on their bodies. Suzue was there too, sitting behind quietly, even if she herself looked to be drifting off.
He announced himself, saying, "The soldiers are afraid of me. They think I'm some sort of demon."
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi's mouths clamped shut, only Suzue finding the capacity to answer him, responding wryly, "I think you're the only one of us who didn't know that, Sasaki-sama."
In response to that, Kojiro raised an eyebrow at Nobunaga, who responded with a grin, despite her obvious exhaustion, explaining, "The men think I summoned you straight out of the underworld. Sudden appearance and miraculous victory and all that. The Demon King summoning a demon isn't all that surprising, after all."
Kojiro turned to Hideyoshi, and the man smiled cheekily at him. Cheekily! Toyotomi Hideyoshi! Wait, no. He supposed it was still Hashiba Hideyoshi right now, given that the name change had happened after Nobunaga's death. But still!
"I'm afraid so, Sasaki-dono." Hideyoshi answered, "The rumors have gotten rather out of hand. I had assumed you were aware of them."
Kojiro blinked, unable to formulate a proper response before Nobunaga asked curiously, "Besides that, where have you been?"
HIdeyoshi's own question was more to the point, the man asking, "Have you found anything?"
Kojiro didn't dignify them with a response, simply pulling out the stack of parchment papers from his kimono and laying them on the table. Nobunaga snatched them away, before Kojiro could even let go of them, flipping through them with widening eyes and an ever-growing grin. After she'd finished, Nobunaga began to laugh, before her laugh devolved into cackling. She rose from her seat, before walking around the table and pulling him down onto a chair, before sitting next to him.
Nobunaga spoke with a feral grin on her face, saying, "Kojiro, have I ever told you that you make me feel like the luckiest woman alive? Maybe I did summon you, and I've somehow forgotten."
Suzue spoke up, hiding a smile, "Sasaki-sama isn't a demon, Oda-sama. Even if the men do insist that he's an oni, disguised as a child, that you summoned to help conquer Japan after being cornered by Mitsuhide."
Kojiro processed that, before saying, "I don't mind the stories, truthfully, but they have begun to affect the soldiers far too much. They are afraid to look me in the eyes. I cannot command if they flinch away from me."
Hideyoshi nodded, conceding, "That…is a good point. As amusing as these rumors are, if they affect your ability to do battle, they are detrimental. I will do my best to combat them. Oda-dono?"
Nobunaga groaned, saying, "Ruin my fun, won't you, you old monkey? I got it, Kojiro. The rumors will be dealt with."
With the wisecracks over and done with, discussion turned towards a more serious matter, like how to deal with Motochika in light of the information that Kojiro had just retrieved. Unanimously, the group of them, Suzue included, decided to split the army into two, and put simply, 'march straight for Motochika's castles and take them all.' The army would split into two groups of sixty thousand each, with one marching west to Ichinomiya and the other east towards Amagiri. After that, they'd convene by raising siege on the three castles on Shikoku's southern border. Kojiro elected to travel west to Amagiri with Hideyoshi. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, some time away from Kojiro would do Suzue good, and give her the chance to learn how to make some decisions for herself. Nobunaga seemed to agree, given that she'd chosen to give Suzue command over a force of twenty thousand, a full third of the army Nobunaga was taking with her, with the Oda warlord taking only nominal control over that group. The second was that he simply wanted to get a better feel of Hideyoshi as a person. They were friendly enough, due to their mutual association with Nobunaga, but beyond that, Kojiro knew nothing of Hideyoshi's personality. Given that Hideyoshi was Nobunaga's right arm in the military, it was important for him to become more familiar with Hideyoshi.
The greater army split in two to execute the plan, and the marching began. On the way, Kojiro engaged Hideyoshi in all manner of conversation, ranging from politics to talk about favorite food and drink. From the conversations, Kojiro learned several things. Behin Hideyoshi's genial and friendly character was a shrewd and cautious man, who after becoming friend;y with Kojiro, admitted that he'd only trusted Kojiro due to his friendship with Nobunaga, and the lack of reverence he held for her. It was no wonder. One couldn't become a warlord as influential as Hideyoshi without some manner of shrewdness. Kojiro had scoffed at that, and replied that after seeing Nobunaga all but accept death, he didn't really see woman as some unapproachable figure. Kojiro had basically had to talk her from the edge, after all. Once they'd gotten past that hurdle. Kojiro came to realize that the man had a dry sense of humor, favoring sarcasm and dark jokes.
That was all he could ascertain of the man, at least outside of battle. In combat, Kojiro had come to realize several more things, such as how charismatic Hideyoshi was. The man spoke with such belief in his cause that it inspired fervor in his soldiers and from the way his men reacted, it was easy to see how he could have succeeded Nobunaga in original history. After a two day march to Amagiri Castle and a break for the night, the assault on the castle began early the next morning. Kojiro had participated in breaking through the castle gates, but after that, had sat back and let the soldiers do the work. The place was captured by afternoon, and after a day of rest, they left behind a force of three thousand to man the castle, before continuing onto their next objective. The march wasn't as kind this time, given that the road was long and winding, and the fact that sometimes, the army had to march through dense forest. Still, after a week, they arrived at their next objective. Scouts reported that Kira Castle seemed to be running on a skeleton crew, but HIdeyoshi had erred on the side of caution and chosen to allow his men some rest. The next day, they approached the castle in full force, only to find that there was no trap at all. There were barely five hundred people in the place, and Kira Castle was dealt with. Hideyoshi left three thousand men at the castle once more, before continuing onto Oko Castle. It was only an hour's travel, and when they arrived at it, it too, was running on a skeleton crew. The place was sparsely defended, and the gates had been wide open, so the army had strolled in, captured the castle, left another three thousand to garrison it, before continuing on. Just as they were about to leave, a soldier approached the two of them.
"Hashiba-dono, Sasaki-dono! We've captured Chosokabe Motochika!" the man explained.
The two of them walked towards the Oko Castle gates, only to see that Motochika was indeed there, along with a small group of samurai retainers. They barely numbered fifty; they were surrounded by about two hundred men, with several hundred more looking on. As the cowering man had explained, he'd received scouting reports that Nobunaga's army was smaller than expected, and had chosen to ambush them on their way to Aki Castle. The attempt had failed though, as Suzue had somehow maneuvered her force into crashing into Motochika's backlines. Supposedly, Suzue had managed to kill ten men, before she'd been forced to retreat. The man had fled, leaving behind his destroyed army, and ran straight past Aki Castle, who's men had come out to defend him. Unfortunately, rather than safety at Kira Castle, he'd found more of his enemy. Nobunaga had somehow made absurdly good time, managing to cross the distance from Takamatsu, to Ichinomita, then towards Aki in a mere week. The battle had taken place two days before, and after sheltering at Aki Castle for a night, Motochika had left for Kira Castle. He'd been caught by a patrol of soldiers, just moments ago. Since Motochika was here, that meant Nobunaga was due to arrive soon. The Oda warlord did just that, arriving a few hours later, war banners held aloft, only to find those same banners flying above Kira Castle. Kojiro and Hideyoshi had gone out to greet her. Suzue accompanied her, followed by a contingent of soldiers.
"There you two are. Where's that bastard Motochika?" Nobunaga asked.
Hideyoshi answered swiftly, "Captured. In a prison room, waiting for your judgment."
Nobunaga ran a hand through her hair and let out a sigh of relief, replying, "Good. Bastard got the drop on us, before Suzue did her work. Kojiro, you ought to be proud of your apprentice."
"I've heard what happened from Motochika's retelling of the event. I am proud." Kojiro answered.
He looked at Suzue, and waved her over.
The girl approached nervously, before asking, "Sasaki-sama, have you heard-?"
He smiled at her, answering, "I have. It is fine to be proud, Suzue. Feel free to boast a little, alright?"
Suzue's grin could have lit a pitch-black room.
She buried her head into his shoulder, giving Kojiro the feeling that he was congratulating a younger sibling, before Suzue spoke up, saying, "Thank you, Sasaki-sama. For everything."
Nobunaga's voice interrupted their reunion, the woman saying slyly, "Oh yeah, Kojiro, before I forget, I adopted the girl. That's fine, right?"
"What." was Kojiro's only viable reply.
