Chapter 6: Japanese People, Magicians and Elves?
"Yuh, yooh doo", Yoichi said deadpanning. The elves themselves just watched the Drifter talk nonsense as they slowly backed away from him.
"They don't understand a word", Oda said sweating a little.
"Hey! Wait a sec! You! How come you speak Japanese?!" Toyohisa suddenly yelled at Olmine who had hid herself behind Takeko, deeming her as the safest place to be.
"Oh my, here he comes! S-sir, we are a society of magicians and…and we have done a lot of research about you and the Great Master has devised and drawn useful pieces of paper like this", Olmine proclaimed whilst holding out a small piece of paper. She grinned triumphantly, "Stick this on you and you can effortless speak with them. Our Great Master is really, don't you think?"
Yoichi at that moment stopped talking and turned his head to look at the magician with a painful smile. He then fell face first onto the floor, "All my efforts was worth nothing…" He said in a ghostly voice, his tears were streaming down continuously.
"Hey! You damn it! Do you know how hard it was for Yoichi to learn their language?!" Oda shouted at the poor girl, who really didn't care.
"How should I know that?!" She yelled back, suddenly feeling brave.
"Apologise! Apologise to Yoichi!"
"W-Why?!"
"Shut up and apologise! Don't you feel sorry for him?!"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Olmine screamed out.
"And give me that piece of paper!" Oda cried at the pitiable girl.
"Uh, wait a moment", she went through her little pouch pulling out several pieces of paper at a time. "Far East Country of the Rising Sun, people like samurai. I think this is the right one", she pulled a piece of paper and then proceeded to slam it right into Yoichi's face. Sticking it right on his forehead, Takeko looked at him in surprise. "Right!"
"Hello", Yoichi said while sticking both his arms out. To Takeko's eyes he looked like a Chinese vampire, she just stared at him shock as the elf people seemed to understand him.
"He looks like some weird zombie! Don't you have common sense?!" Toyohisa yelled at the very much verbally abused girl.
"All right! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Olmine shouted at the towering samurai who she thought didn't have any common sense.
Olmine held out one for her, which Takeko took, thanking her. To her surprise as soon as she took the small piece of paper the strange language of the elves became clearer and soon it was understandable for her. It wasn't like she could understand what they spoke, it was more like that they were speaking Japanese.
Oda carefully took hold of the paper, 'This looks like the papers used by the 'onmyouji' magicians of Kyoto. 'Octobrist organization' and the 'Great Master'… Who the hell are they?' He thought, to his surprise he could now understand the hushed whispers of the elves as they talked amongst themselves. Oda turned his attention to Toyohisa deciding it would be best for him to speak to them. After all, Takeko was a woman, they would be less likely to listen to woman. He himself was already an old man, they would be less likely to trust him and Yoichi was still a child with little experience with leading people.
"Toyohisa, you tell them. I will stay by you side, tell them exactly as I say. You are the best one to speak to them", he said to the samurai. He walked up to Olmine, "Hey, hooter-glasses".
"My name is Olmine! I would love you if you call me by my name!" She said, with a deadpanned face. She sighed in frustration, she really didn't want to deal with these people any longer.
"Tell me about those pointy eared guys. I can imagine what happened to them, so make it short!" Oda said sternly.
"What? I have to explain to you right now? My goodness", she sighed even more. "They are what we call as 'elves'. Decades ago, they were invaded by humans and were defeated in war. Since then, they are living as poor farmers for the humans", she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Good. Now tell me about the main traits of the elves", Oda asked.
"Uh, well. They have a long lifespan. And I've heard that they were originally a very proud race", Olmine continued. Still wondering what was the point of telling all this information.
Oda let a cynical chuckle, his face contorted into a sinister grin, "Great. That's all I wanted to know. Hahahaha!" He walked up Toyohisa and whispered into his ear, he cupped his hand to minimize the sound escaping from his mouth. "Toyo, here's what you are going to say, just as you told me, you say this. Like this, and this and this".
"What…?" He narrowed his eyes as he heard the words, "You are really a disgraceful man! No wonder you were betrayed!" Toyohisa yelled at the former war lord.
"S-shut up! Speak to them!" Oda shouted at the samurai. Toyohisa let out an exasperated sigh and turned to the elves who were still talking amongst themselves.
"Hey guys. Tell me one thing. Wouldn't you ancestor be mortified to see you reduced to this shameful state?" The elven people stopped their talking and turned their attention to the Drifter, their full attention on the red clad man. "Wouldn't your children be shamed to see you degraded to a pitiable state? Tell me. Don't you want your country back? Are you going to crawl like vermin's and die in shameful regret or are you going to soar to the skies and die for your dreams? Which one do you prefer?!"
"Choose!" The elves stared agape at the audacious man, how dare he speak of that?! They had never wanted this lifestyle, they had never chose to live like this! They gritted their teeth in frustration, never had they felt so much humiliation!
"Do you think we don't want our country back?!"
"Do you think we want to live as slaves?!" They shouted back at the red clad man. The man simply smiled and replied with a casual response that may have seemed simply ridiculous. But if it was these Drifters, they could pull it off.
"Good. Then, we will commence the conquest of the country", Yoichi and Takeko behind him shared a grin. Finally they were allowed to have some real fun, no more small fights, they were going big-scale now!
Oda stood with his arms crossed, as he thought to himself. My, my. He's got a good face. Somehow he reminds me of…
"Hey", Toyohisa called out at Oda snapping him out of his thoughts. "Why did you make me as commander? You should be doing this, shouldn't you Nobunaga?" Toyohisa stated, clenching his fist. Takeko narrowed her eyes, she wanted to scowl but she carefully kept everything hidden.
"Hahaha prefer being the eminence grist! Hahaha!" He shouted out, throwing his arms up into the air. Toyohisa furrowed his eyebrows in anger.
"I am not your son, Nobutada", he stated with a hard voice. "Your son died at Azuchi! He was killed by Mitsuhide! I am Shimazu Toyohisa! I am not Oda Nobutada!" Toyohisa said with a grimace.
"I…I know that you fool! What are you talking about, you idiot?! You have no resemblance to him, stupid fool!" Oda yelled aloud, feeling defensive all of the sudden. "Stop talking nonsense, idiot. Feh", he walked away and stood back facing Toyohisa. "You fool".
Toyohisa looked at his dejected self and thought to himself. 'I said one word too much, if my father was alive, I guess he would be more or less at his age…' Oda suddenly turned his head in a robotic manner and stared right back at Toyohisa. And it was as if he read his mind.
"I am not your father! Iehisa is long dead! I am Oda Nobunaga! Where the hell is 'Satsuma'?" Oda said with a wicked grin. Suddenly without warning Toyohisa punched the war lord right in the face, his fist colliding into his cheekbone.
Oda recovered easily though, he quickly got up and launched himself at the brat and collided into him.
"What did you say, you moron?!"
"What, you want a fight?!"
"Take this!" Toyohisa grabbed a chair and threw it right at Oda's head but he dodged it. This continued as they continued to throw stuff around each other. Wood, spoons,
"What's going on?! Why did they start fighting?!"
"AHHHH!"
"Gaaah!"
"Stop them! Stop them!"
Toyohisa took hold of a pot and chucked it Oda, he ducked down and laughed at Toyohisa as the pot smashed behind him. "Haha, you missed!" He pointed a finger at the samurai who only stood there in shock. Toyohisa's gaze went behind Oda who stood there in confusion, Oda turned his head to see what was wrong.
Blood dripped from Takeko's forehead as she stood still with a dumbfounded expression, she did not see the pot flying at her. She didn't even expect a pot flying at her anyways, she touched her head lightly and winced in pain. She pulled out a shard of pottery from her hair while she was at it.
"Your head! It's bleeding!" Olmine yelled, she tried pulling out a handkerchief from her bag.
"No, no it's alright", Takeko said as she continued pulling out the stray shards from her hair. The blood flow increased, with streams of blood dripping from her face and down her chin.
"That is definitely not alright!" She screeched, scrambling to get something to stop the bleeding.
"Oi, are you really alright?" Toyohisa deadpanned with a guilty expression.
She nodded and without a word she tore off a part of her clothes to bandage her head and sat down to avoid getting dizzy. "It was just an accident anyways", Takeko muttered as she lay back.
"You're rather relaxed about having a pot smashed into your head", Olmine mumbled.
"Not really relaxed, more like I don't really have the effort to care", Takeko said, whilst tightening her bandages.
Oda kicked Toyohisa in the shin, "Why'd you throw the pot you imbecile?!"
"Why'd you dodge!?" Toyohisa yelled back, and soon they were fighting again.
Yoichi watched the two men fight one another with a fond smile. "Oh my, this brings back fond memories of the fights with my brothers…" After all there was eleven of them, he thought. That was so great…I wish I could fight them again. With a sudden sense of nostalgia he took a flying kick onto Oda's head. "Take this!"
"What the hell are you doing?!" Oda yelled at the smug boy. Yoichi responded with a gleeful laugh as he struck up a battle pose. "You freaking archer!" The three men began to bicker amongst themselves, making sure not to awake the annoyed woman as she just stared at them fervently with magnitudes of hate rolling off of her.
"Please stop! While we are fighting here for nothing, the army of the lord may as well be coming this way! We don't have time to lose!" One of the elf people yelled at the Drifters, Takeko startled at the sudden noise looked up to see what was going.
"And you are…?" Toyohisa began.
"I am Shara, son of the village elder killed by them. Thanks for taking care of my brothers", the elf male said to Toyohisa, Takeko looked on with interest.
"Oh, so he's your elder brother", Toyohisa said with a warm smile as he looked down at the two brothers.
"Yes!" They chorused proudly.
"The army 'may' be coming this way? It's damn obvious that it's coming here", the elven people looked at the older male in shock. "The troop you slaughtered must be a patrolling troop. And it just didn't go back to its base quarters, they are going to gather more soldiers", Oda said in a matter-of-fact voice as he sat down on the floor leaning against the wall.
"Four days to do that, perhaps?" Yoichi said with a small smirk
"No, they are good at it. Three days, tops", Takeko said quietly as she rubbed her head to ease the pain.
"We, the Shimazu need only one day", Toyohisa said proudly.
"Your clan is a bunch of freaks, that's why!" Oda said with a frustrated huff. You belligerent freaks! "So that means that the day after tomorrow is the day this village is burnt to the ground", he said with a wide grin. The elven people stared in shock, what could they do?
"Please! Please help us! We-we beg you! We have never taken up arms to fight. We were still kids forty years ago, when our country was destroyed. And our fathers and brothers who fought that war were all killed. We don't even know how to fight. Please help us! Please, we beg you!" Shara pleaded to the Drifters, they were going to be killed if they didn't have to assistance of the Drifters.
All four Drifters paused for a moment in silence, just processing the information they had just heard.
"Didn't you just say something weird now, son?" Oda said while turning his head.
"Eh?"
"How old are you?" Oda asked.
"Me? I'm one hundred and six years old", Shara said plainly as if there was nothing wrong. Takeko rubbed her head even more while muttering to herself, "One hundred and six, one hundred and six, one hundred and six…" Ah she lost it Toyohisa thought as he looked at Takeko chant to her herself.
"Hey, no kidding alright? Were you in Japan you would have been killed for lying", Oda said with veins popping out around his face.
"But I'm telling you the truth", Shara said still not understanding what was the problem.
"Hey, how old are you?" Toyohisa said to the two younger brothers who stood side by side.
"Thirty-nine!"
"Thirty-six!" They said happily finding no problem.
The Drifters jaws dropped, Takeko banged her head against the wall, blood dripping down from her wounds.
"What does this mean, Hootine?!" Oda said with gritted teeth, he hand was grasped onto the right breast of poor girl.
"It's Olmine! I bet you don't want to learn my name! And take your hand off my breasts! Elves have a long lifespan. They live five to six times longer than humans. On the other hand, their growth is slower as well", Olmine said while sighing. These Japanese were crazy!
"They are older than me…" Toyohisa said in a wavering voice staring at the two children who looked no older than twelve or thirteen. He sweated nervously, seriously, what was up with this messed up world!?
"This region was originally part of the elven country. But 'Orte' the eastern kingdom of humans, destroyed the elven country and annexed their land. There were also many countries from many races like dwarves and hobbits in this area. But they were all destroyed and the survivors were forced to become poor farmers or miners. The 'Orte' kingdom now calls itself as 'empire' and adopts a policy of conquest and dominion based on human superiority", Olmine said.
"This Orte' something, is it still expanding its frontiers?" Oda said in a bored manner, his tone was knowing. It was as if he already know what it was like.
"They are fighting at all borders. Though these fights are causing massive casualties but no winner so far", Olmine said while flipping through a small document of the Orte empire.
"It's obvious. Conquering a land is like playing with fire. You only have two options; either you burn everything to the ground, or you give them everything, just like pampering a princess", Oda said with a knowing smile. His eyes seemed distant as he remembered a distant memory.
If Orte was as strong as it was forty years ago, it could have been a major force against the Black King. But now…
"They do things by the halves. That's why they get so much hatred. And they've been doing this for damn forty years", Toyohisa said as he looked around the room. These elven people have been enduring it for so long, if they didn't come how much longer would they have to endure?
"It's just like setting fire at dry woods. Everything is filled up with smoke of hatred", Takeko said quietly, she knew a festering fire would persist to burn even after the flames have died down.
"No wonder those idiots from yesterday were overdoing it. If they didn't 'show their authority' they will lose control. And that's why they are coming here again. They will come here for sure, to kill everyone. So what are you going to do now, Toyohisa? What are you going to do, commander? Show is the war strategies of the Shimazu!" Oda said to Toyohisa, beckoning him.
"…We will welcome those soldiers. We will welcome them into this village", Toyohisa with a wide grin. The shadows flickered around him giving him a menacing look.
Toyohisa and Takeko stood high up in trees, hidden by the darkness of the night and the foliage of the trees. On their side was a small group of elves stood on the branches as well.
"Tonight we strike. Tonight we kill of them. And their heads will be our", Toyohisa murmured in the darkness.