Chapter is shorter, but it's ALL Mitsunari! :3
Blast. I realize I have erred after the chapter was written. Ieyasu did not ask Mitsunari to be his general, right? I suspect I hallucinate from Sengoku Basara fever.
Alas, it's done. Just run with it? Prettiest please? =D
There isn't a character I dislike in Sengoku Basara despite how I portray them. Not Ieyasu, of course. Not even Toyotomi. Okay, maybe Mogami for his pansy airs.
Ch 3:
The young general's odachi slips back into the scabbard with practiced ease as his silhouette stretches towards the garden against a full moon. Each night, he's been attempting to break the speed limit of his attacks from the night before. The world was big and if Mitsunari were to seize it one day, he'd have to be the fastest, strongest one of them all. Just like Hideyoshi-sama. Yet why did the same world seem so small?
She hasn't engaged him in conversation since their last meeting, but out of all the people in the residence, it had to be her who appears at the garden during his practices. It had to be this weak, peon of a girl with her loosely tied hair and soft humming who tends the garden with muted diligence in the moonlight at the same time he trains.
Peripherally, Mitsunari tracks movement, but promptly ignores it because he doesn't want to see the resident doctor tending to her favorite patch of purple flowers. Vaguely, the foreign sensation of an Iris against gloved fingers resurfaces. He grimaces inwardly. Despite his initial annoyance, he is better off going about his business than telling her to be gone. That would entail conversing. It's not that he's bad with words, even if that is true; Mitsunari decides that he can tolerate her silent presence.
Just nothing else.
"Oi, Ran-dono came to see me today! Jealous?"
"Nani! Well, it's a good thing she is here. I never thought I'd survive that wound."
He hated overhearing his men speak of her. The way their eyes lit up at the mention of her name, how they touted her "miracles", and painted her with terms of endearment, all served to escalate the growing scowl that marred his features. He did not ask her to visit the barracks at the crack of dawn, and for sure, he did not request her to evaluate their living conditions. Impudent peasant! If anything, she was distracting his men from their goal. From him.
Mitsunari doesn't sit outdoors in the afternoons anymore. He can't stand the sight of Ieyasu with the peasant girl in the long corridors conversing as if all was right with the world. The lightness of Ieyasu's words, and her tinkling laughter that Mitsunari finds most annoying, makes his teeth grind. Has the probability of war slipped out of their feeble minds? Mitsunari had no delusions of Ieyasu being trouble, but add on this peasant, and it's a disaster because they believe in similar ideals.
Even in the confines of his room, Mitsunari finds no relief. On one occasion as he is polishing his weapon, a flurry of parchment sweeps into the open shoji doors, scattering far and wide over the tatami mats. He had left the sliding doors open for ventilation, but apparently that had been a mistake. There's a desperate scrambling on the other side of the thin walls, and he sees the silhouette following the trails of pages into his room. Wordlessly, he snatches up the pieces, shoves it into her guilty hands and tells her to bind her manuscripts or else he'll slash it next time. It's more than being irresponsible, but he supposed that term would suffice.
Not everything she does infuriates him, however. He was on his way to the barracks when her struggles reached his ears.
She was fetching water; a servant's task he did not deign to try. From her straining and grunting, it seems to be a challenge to lift a loaded bucket from a well that extended meters into the ground. One of her feet leaves the ground, and Mitsunari could have seen her fall in if not for Ieyasu's untimely intervention. His rival had appeared in the nick of time to grapple her upper torso before she lost her balance. Again, the light laughter as Ieyasu scratches the back of his head. With a sneer Mitsunari walks on. Typical of Ieyasu to be a hero when what she really needed was a good bath to wash some common sense into her.
The sudden rustle of florals snaps Mitsunari out of his musings. It's true he found her qualities most vexatious, but retrospectively she had not once spoken ill of the dead.
He gazes forlornly at the full moon with a slack grip on his odachi.
"Hideyoshi-sama…Hanbei-sama"
After the events of Sekigahara, Mitsunari was more determined that ever to fight for the dreams of his deceased Lord and strategist. True to his word, he had not allowed himself to conspire with Tokugawa Ieyasu; nor had he become his general after the last match. The fight ended in a stalemate with both collapsed after executing the final, deadliest attack at his disposal.
When they came to, Ieyasu offered residence to him and his army; highlighting the need to recuperate so one can fight another day. Ieyasu always had a way with words. No alliance was formed and Ieyasu even had accommodations prepared for Mitsunari and his army. One thing lead to another and months later, Mitsunari was running campaigns across Japan to actualize his late lord's dream.
A wispy darkness drifts overhead, carried by the cool evening wind.
What he didn't expect was the amount of charisma and judgment it took to become an effective general. More often than not, Mitsunari found himself at the crossroads of overcoming a problem as a vassal or as a general. More than he cared to know, leading proved more difficult than following. But…wasn't that what he wanted?
Hideyoshi-sama, I beg your permission to commit this act of insolence here and now. Your teachings shall be in this heart of mine for the rest of my life.
Dark clouds recede and once again, all is clear in silvery light.
Of course. Hideyoshi-sama's principles will live on through him. With that as guidance, he will achieve the goal of his most respected Lord. A nation of unity and strength. Someday in the future.
Mitsunari grips his o-dachi.
These hands of mine shall carry your will, Hideyoshi-sama.