Chapter 2 Feud

Hosokawa Katsumoto regarded his rival with arched eyebrows. He'd been waiting for Sozen to make a move ever since he'd heard about the news. Yamana Sozen glared back at him, traces of red already appearing on his face.

"I will pledge my alliance to the true heir, Yoshihisa!" Sozen declared grandly.

"An infant does not make a shogun." Katsumoto replied coolly. "The true heir, by all right, should be Yoshimi."

"Then once again we are on opposing sides." Sozen smirked making Katsumoto grit his teeth with agitation.

"Bring it on." He replied turning away to find Yoshimi.

"Oh I will, fake son."

Katsumoto whipped round. "I am no son of yours, fake or not, I just happen to be burdened with relations through marriage to you." He snarled in reply.

Sozen narrowed his eyes and his face started to go redder with more anger and his hand went to his sword when seemingly out of nowhere Japan stepped between them (he had in fact been monitoring the whole conversation)

"There is no need to fight." He said calmly. Don't you two see?! You could start a war! This isn't some personal feud you're dealing with!

Sozen glared at him. "Forgive me; I have not seen you around." He said icily, raising an eyebrow.

"My name is Honda, Sozen-san. Advisory to the shogunate." He replied stonily which shut Sozen up. He'd heard the name Honda before, in tales of history-probably a prestigious clan, he decided.

"I would appreciate it if you would stop fighting." He said, his voice quiet but commanding.

Katsumoto stepped back calmly, ready to walk away.

"With all due respect Honda-san," Sozen's lip was curled with contempt, "you have no right to interfere with us."

"I am sorry for intruding...but you are being hypocritical. You two have been in disputes since the 50's, meddling with the Hatakeyama and Shiba famiries." He pointed out, meeting his gaze.

Sozen was surprised for a moment. "You seem to know much about us." He challenged.

Japan turned away. "Yes." He said simply, walking away from the two men destined to spark the war.

"Ashikaga-san we have a probrem."

"Please, call me Yoshimasa, you can't call me and my brother Ashikaga."

Japan nodded. "Kyoto is divided. Between Sozen and Katsumoto."

Yoshimasa sighed deeply rubbing his temples. "How many?"

"Around 80,000 on each side." He replied making Yoshimasa gasp.

"Th-that's a lot." He stuttered and Japan bowed his head in agreement. "I am sure you can see the delicacy of this situation."

Sudddenly Japan screamed in pain, clutching his chest. Burning, burning, burning. It hurts, burning, going to burst with pain, fire, burning fire, smouldering walls, screams of terror, burning, burning, burning, burning.

All he could see was fire, never ending, hungry flames of orange and crimson, burning, burning.

Yoshimasa knelt next to him. "Hond-Kiku! Are you okay? Japan?!" he was at loss of what to do.

Then Japan choked out four words that turned his heart cold. "Burning, burning, Hosokawa burning."

A/N: Katsumoto Hosokawa and Yamana Sozen are real people; they were bitter rivals and were related by marriage. They basically ignited the war and perhaps if they hadn't took sides and divided Kyoto the war would never have happened.