Hiro POV

Flashback: A few days before Mitsuhide's betrayal

I laid in the dark of the night, inside Oichi's room, thinking about the things that have occurred and the people that I've met, including the ones who were lost. Depression was hidden within me as my thoughts were on my previous battle. Nagamasa's death was something I could never forget and I blamed myself for it, but that wasn't the only thing on my mind. Although she may not admit it, I could tell that Oichi was saddened by the loss of her husband as well.

I looked over at her as she laid beside me, with both of us under the covers. Her beautiful face was hidden beneath her long flowing hair. I moved closer to her and moved the stray locks, gazing at her beauty, which caused me to smile, somewhat. I moved my other hand closer and caressed her face with the softest touch, feeling her smooth skin against the firm touch of my hand. It was at that moment, that I felt a small amount of movement on her. I moved my hands back as she opened her beige eyes. As soon as she woke up, she smiled at me.

"I'm sorry if I woke you," I said to her, as I gazed into her eyes. "I didn't mean to disturb your slumber." She smiled at me and touched my face. The feeling of her hand was like the feel of silk scarf. I felt so relaxing.

"It's okay," said Oichi to me, as I felt the sincerity within her voice. "You didn't disturb it, for you had made it better." I felt confused at first, but soon realized what she meant. She really loved me as much I loved her. Our feelings for each other must have been obvious, if you've read the past few chapters.

After while, I shook my head, looked down and a felt a bit depressed. "How can you not blame me?" I asked her, with a sad tone in my voice. "How can you not blame me for what happened to Nagamasa?" I clenched my fists, tightly holding the sheets. I looked over at her with eyes full of sadness and regret.

She looked at me with sympathetic eyes and moved closer to me. She took her hand and touched my face and put her other hand on mine. "What good would blaming you do?" said Oichi to me. "You are so much like Nagamasa. You both have a kind heart..." She gently caressed my face and then she started caressing my hair. "And you both have the same soul..." I turned to her with a bit of a shocked look, along with a small sense of confusion. "Nagamasa dreamt of a land of peace...and so do you. Your feelings are the same as his and so are your personalities." She placed her hand back on my face and smiled. "And I feel the same the same way for you as Nagamasa did for me..."

I stared into her eyes and saw that she had been telling the truth. "I see...Thank you..." I said to her. I smiled at her and placed my hands on her face, gently pulling her face closer to mine. I soon felt the brush of her lips against mine. It was at that moment that I did something I could never regret: I kissed her on the lips with all the passion I could give and felt that she was giving the same amount. I pushed in closer and slipped my tongue in, battling her's as in the heat of passion.

Her eyes closed and she pushed herself on top of me, with her hands on my chest. That night was one of the most magical moments of my life. The rest of the night seemed to just slip away from our memories as we were working on this one, except for Oichi's words. Those words would always be etched into my mind.

However, with each happy moment, there must also be a tragic one. It was a few days after that night that Oichi and I had received the news of Nobunaga's death at the hands of Mitsuhide. I looked over at her and she looked like she was about to cry. I went over to her and embraced her as we both cried. A great leader had been taken from us.

"It's okay...It's gonna be okay..." was all I could say to comfort her. She continued to weep and took it upon myself to cheer her up. I took my hand and wiped her tears away. I embraced her once more and let her cry on my chest.

End flashback

The battle had ended and Mitsuhide had been slain after a long struggle. I had a few wounds, but that didn't matter right now. I had to keep my promise to Oichi: my promise to come back alive. I wobbled a bit here and there and found myself falling forward as I lost consciousness. Everything was blacking out for me, but I felt something pull me up and carry me.

"Hold on...I'll have you back at the castle soon..." said a voice. Before I could see who it was, my vision completely blacked out.

A few hours had passed and I found myself in a bed, with my wounds all bandaged up. I sat up and looked around in confusion. "Where am I? How did I get here?" was all I could ask, but no one was there to answer. My head hurt a bit, a long with my chest. Lucky for me, these wounds weren't completely fatal. I soon turned and saw Oichi entering the room, with a bowl of white rice. She set the bowl on the floor and sat beside me.

"Oichi..." was all I could say, before she suddenly lunged at me, wrapping her arms around my neck. "I'm so glad you're alright..." said Oichi with tears of happiness falling from her face. I simply did what did before: I took my hand and wiped her tears away, then wrapped my arms around her waist. "It's alright..."

"Is Lord Mitsuhide-?"

"Yes...He's dead..."I said, with a bit of regret. I then proceeded to tell her the story of my battle with Mitsuhide.

Flashback: Yamazaki

I found myself face-to-face with Mitsuhide, the man who killed Nobunaga. We both had our blades drawn and our eyes focused on each other. Memories of our training sessions and my respect for him were burned with the flames of avenging Nobunaga. Yet, deep inside, there stood a small sense of reason to not kill him: my code of honor to incapacitate, not kill. We both charged at each other, with our blades clashing in a struggle.

"Why?" I asked him. "Why did you kill him? Why did you murder our lord?"

"I did what I had to do...I have no intention of telling you..." said Mitsuhide, breaking through the struggle. I managed to jump back before the blade slashed my chest. I charged at him and as our blades clashed several times. It was as if I was fighting a replication of myself. I soon received a kick to the chest, followed by a slash across it. As my blood started dripping from the wound, a found an opening and slashed Mitsuhide across his chest as well. Ignoring our wounds, the two of us charged at each other, getting into another struggle.

"You bastard...Do you realize what you've done? The people you've betrayed...The ones that highly respected you..." I said to him, with anger rising within me. "All the pain you've caused to the people for killing Nobunaga!" Flashes of the people who followed Nobunaga played through my mind, along with Nobunaga himself.

"I do...I have no regrets..." said Mitsuhide, as he jumped back and slashed me across the chest once again. I stepped back a bit, as more blood was dripping out from the wounds. Mitsuhide charged at me full force, but I managed to dodge it be jumping to the side. I then took advantage and slashed him across the back, causing him to move forward a bit. He turned to me tried slashing at my legs, but I jumped back and dodged stood and we both raised our blades.

"It ends here..." said Mitsuhide, as a purple aura appeared around him.

"I'm gonna finish this..." I replied back, as I was surrounded by a blue aura. Our blades held firm, we both charged at each other one last time. As we jumped at each other, thoughts and memories of Oichi poured through my mind, along with the promise I made to her. Our blades clashed one last time, as we both landed on the ground, back-to-back. Time seemed to stand still, as neither of us moved. After a few moments, Mitsuhide's blade broke off completely.

"It's over...You have defeated me..." said Mitsuhide to me, as we both stood up. I held my shoulder as it started bleeding, and gave a look of confusion. "You broke my blade...and therefore, you have defeated me...Now please...finish the job and kill me..." My eyes widened at the shock of his request. Why did he want me to kill him? Was he lying when he said that he had no regrets?

I got up and glared at him. "No...you know as well as I do that can't bring myself to kill anymone, no matter how much suffering they've caused..." I said to Mitsuhide, causing to him smile a bit. "Why? Were you lying when you said you have no regrets?"

Mitsuhide didn't answer and walked up to me, patting me on the head. "You always were such an innocent youth..." said Mitsuhide, with complete honesty. He took my hand with the blade in it and kicked me away, causing the blade to fall out of my hand. "This is my redemption..." I got up as Mitsuhide raised the blade against himself. I looked on and ran as fast as I could to try and stop him, but I was too late. He impaled himself through the heart. I ran up to him and caught him as he fell.

"Why? You dumbass..." was all I could say, the memories of him training me flashed through my mind. With the few moments he had left, Mitsuhide patted me on the head, before his hand went limp. It hurt on the inside, as if I was the one who got impaled. Tears started falling down my face as I clenched my fist and punched. "Damn it...you idiot..." I placed his body on the ground and, after a few moments, I released a scream full of pain and sadness.

End flashback

Oichi looked on at me, as I clenched on to my chest out of misery. She reached her hand out and gently caressed my face. She held my hand and turned to her with sad eyes. "It's alright..." said Oichi to me. "You tried doing what you thought was right out of your love for those you care about." She smiled, and moved her hand through my hair. "Mitsuhide sought redemption for the death of my brother and, in the end, you gave him what he wanted..." My eyes widened a bit, as the tears started streaming down. "In the end, you brought him peace and happiness..." I then broke down and clenched the sheets tightly, with an endless river of sadness flowing. Oichi held me close and I ended up crying on her chest. "It'll be alright..."

After an hour, I was laying down on my back while Oichi was feeding me the white rice from her bowl. I felt content and relaxed at the moment, until I turned and saw that Oichi was fidgeting. It was obvious that she was worried about something. Seeing this, I managed to sit up and decided to ask her straight out. "Is there something on you're mind?" Hearing that asked, Oichi turned to me and looked a bit shocked that I knew that something was wrong.

"Well..." started Oichi. I could tell she was nervous. Her hands were clenching her kimono, so I put my hand on her's and gave her a look that said "You can tell me anything", which was just a simple smile. She took a deep breathe and looked at me. "You remember that night when we...you know..." I reminisced through my memories and remembered that magical and nodded at her. "Well...The morning after that night, I felt a bit sick and..." I had a worried expression after hearing that. "Well I'm...I'm pregnant...with your baby..." An awkward silence filled the air. Hearing that, I felt like I was about to explode with mixed feelings.

I looked at her with an extremely shocked expression and moved over to her. "Are...you sure? You sure that it's mine?" Oichi nodded and smiled, as did I. I wrapped my arms around her and laughed a bit out of happiness. "I can't believe this..." I said, as I ran my hand hand through her hair. "Thank you..." Oichi returned the hug and shed tears of happiness.

"You're welcome..."

We soon released each other and looked each other in the eyes. I took both my hands and placed them on her cheeks, running my thumbs to removed the oncoming tears. Then, I pulled her closer and pressed my lips against hers with all of my love, which she gracefully returned. As this was happening, Oichi started removing her kimono and I pulled the blanket over the both of us. The night just seemed to pass us by once more as everything around us became invisible. Nothing mattered to either of us. As the night went on, the love increased to no bounds. Eventually, we both fell asleep with a smile on our faces. This peace may not last for long, but for now, we had to enjoy it.

To be continued