~Kujoe Castle~
"I'm back." Izuna casually walked through the doorway and slowly took off his mask , tucking it into the pocket on his sleeve.
"Yuugiri, how did you go?" Yuugiri peeked out slowly from where he had squeezed himself underneath the table and waved nervously while aiming nervous glances at Shouya. "M-mahiro...sorry.. Izuna...um...I..did it halfway?." he bit his lip and silently prayed for Myou aka Ouka to return from his task. "...s-sorry...Izuna...uhhhmmm"
"...Ugh, I shouldn't have expected much from you." Izuna shrugged and gestured to Sumire who was staring open mouthed back at Yuugiri. " Anyway, I've managed to recruit a new member, this is Su-"
"Hiiii! I'm Sumire Hanabusa!Yaay! I've got new friends!" Sumire rudely interrupted Izuna, causing his blank face to turn sour with anger. " hehe Nii-san's going to miss out on the fun~" Sumire waved vigorously to everyone within the room and laughed cheerfully as she surveyed her 'new friends' and the room . They all stared back in silence. "Oh! One important thing! I'm really hungry right now...do you have anything for me to eat?" she looked pleadingly at Izuna who remained stony-faced and handed her a small rice ball. "..aww? is that all? Honestly! I'm going to be helping you guys out! I can barely walk unless I have a full stomach and at least 3 skewers of dango!" She sighed and crumpled to the ground, swallowing the rice ball in one gulp and rubbing her growling stomach.
"..." Izuna raised an eyebrow and pulled a scroll from within his robes. "...Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The condition for your debt repayment was to assist me with something. I need you to find a friend of mine and assist her...hmm...basically you'll be a bodyguard of sorts."
"Err...ok! That's easy enough! " Sumire smiled and clapped her hands enthusiastically "oh! What does your friend look like? Do I get to fight strong people?"
"..."Izuna gave a sharp nod and pulled out a painting of Ouka, aka Myou. "This is her. Myou."
"ooh! She looks rich!" Sumire's eyes gleamed at the thought of getting extra money out of this task and rubbed her hands "So I WILL get to fight strong people right?"
"That's not all. Once you meet up with Myou, your task is to create a distraction and eliminate a certain person during the chaos." He painted an 'X' onto a place on the scroll which was presumably the area Sumire was intended to head to and raised his hand for silence "
"Who's the person I need to kill?"
Izuna gave a flat smile " Takenaka Hanbei. He's far too dangerous to keep alive and we can't risk him jeopardizing our client's request. Understood?" He began shuffling through the cupboard at the back, not noticing Sumire had suddenly gone uncharacteristically silent and was chewing her lip slowly "Your current wardrobe will attract too much attention. Change into these and wear that mask on your face. We'll be referring to you as 'Tenka'" Izuna didn't seem to notice or was ignoring her and kept churning out instructions. "Once you bring me his head, I'll give you the full payment."
He stacked the clothes neatly onto the table and gave a emotionless nod to Sumire who was now chewing her thumbnail .
"...kay..." she nodded less than enthusiastically and remained quiet. "I'll head out now."
~x~X~X~x~
"Hanbei! Hanbei!"
"Wah! It's Sumi!" Hanbei waved happily at which Sumire placed a finger over her mouth for silence and tossed him a scrunched up scrap of paper. She made a bowing motion and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
"I'm so so sorry! I'm helping out a bunch of new friends who said they would pay off my debt. I think they're planning to do something big! nii-san might know what's going on. The only thing is, they want me to bring Hanbei's head back to them. Can you pleeeease pretend to die when I fake kill you?
-Sumire
"Oh! That's so horrible!" Chisa gasped loudly and hugged Hanbei "Who would want to kill someone as nice as Hanbei anyway!"
"Hmm. I suppose a certain organisation like the Chishirou would." Kalypso spoke in a matter-of-fact tone and took another sip of tea. Hanbei's face was lowered and his shoulders were trembling . "What seems to be the matter?" Without raising an eyebrow, Kanbei took a sip of tea and glanced over at his 'friend'. "Hehehehe! This is going to be interesting." Hanbei laughed and tucked the paper into his sleeve "You see? This is going to give me a great opportunity to trap the Chishirou and find out their goal."
"...I see. Their demand was for your head. Though it did not specify in what state." Motonari nodded with approval and smiled "That is certainly one way to go about it." Aki was quietly picking away at the embroidery on her kimono due to being so nervous that so many people were in the same room as she was. Her eyes darted around and stopped on a certain sleeping swordsman who kept twitching in his sleep. "...T-takeshi..?" she poked him slowly with a finger and when he didn't react froze up and looked away, slightly embarrassed.
"Hey!" Izanami stood up and slammed her hands on the table in annoyance "Don't think I'm just going to sit back and let you 'fake die' brother! I've got a plan." She placed her hands on her hips and smiled at Hanbei who winked at his sister "Ah! I was just thinking the same thing. Everyone! Listen up!"
~Kyoto~
"Ama! Just how long are we going to be walking?" Gracia was pouting as she trailed after Amaya who sighed and tried to keep calm. "We should be there soon..eh." She stopped short as some faint figures ahead were waving energetically. "Wah! It's Mago! and oh! A very beautiful woman is with him! Mago!" Gracia clapped her hands with enthusiasm and smiled at the mercenary who sighed and pulled the energetic girl off. " Geez stop calling me Mago. How are you kid?"
"My! Such an adorable little girl." Okuni smiled her cat-like smile and stroked Gracia's head gently "I've been asked to help you! You don't need to worry anymore."
"Ah? I need help?" Gracia looked confused and turned to Amaya for confirmation, causing her to tense and hesitate on whether to tell Gracia the situation Mitsuhide was in. "well..."
"Someone has framed your father for the assassination of Lord Nobunaga.." Motochika leapt out of a lake and stood in front of them with a serious expression on his face. "...however, this isn't the place to talk. Let's go to Lord Tokugawa's castle."
~x~x~x~
Quietly standing at the back of the castle, Takeshi yawned three times and decided to stretch in order to fight the tiredness. "...hraah..." He sighed and rubbed his head, hoping that the nagging worry inside him was just his over protectiveness for Sumire and not anything else.
"...!" A subtle but slightly audible padding sound above him instantly snapped him awake. "The enemy have arrived...I'm guessing...the assassins have split up...hmm...2?...Hanbei figured it out?...Impressive.." Stifling another yawn, Takeshi rubbed his eyes and pressed his back against the wall in anticipation of the intruder. To his surprise, after waiting for a long moment, there was nobody at all. "...?...I've gotten ...soft.." He scratched his head with confusion and closed his eyes trying to zone in on the area around the room.
"...I wonder where it is..."
"e-eek! I'm so sorry!" A young woman, presumably one of the maids around the castle was carrying a small tray which contained a little package and a cup of tea. "Um...sorry about this but do you know where Lord Hanbei is? I was asked to bring him some medicine..." The maid looked around nervously as Takeshi stared blankly at her. "u-um...I'll t-try ask around. Forgive me." She bowed and began heading off
"...keep going down and turn right..."
"Ah, thank you so much!" The maid smiled gratefully at him and "Oh...please don't tell anyone I got lost again. I'll get scolded again...thank you Lord...?"
"...Takeshi..." Takeshi spoke slowly mid-yawn "...don't call me Lord though.."
The maid just smiled and laughed lightly "Well then, Takeshi, what do you plan to do now that you're debt free? It's not very nice to leave your little sister to shoulder the burden. Mmm?" She laughed softly and turned a corner, disappearing before the shocking reality of what she had said sunk in like a slap.
"That maid is a spy!"
~x~x~x~x~
"Aww. Now I need to find this Myou person." Sumire checked the swords at her side and stroked the hilt gently before taking a deep breath. "This is just another job~ Teehee! This is going to be a piece of cake!" Sumire giggled softly to herself as she snuck quietly through the roof of the castle. The kimono which Izuna had made her change into amazingly didn't get in her way, despite how unusual the design was, though she preferred her normal outfit. "ah!" she ducked her head down and nimbly swung onto the other side as she spied Hideyoshi and several officers talking to each other and armies of soldiers marching out the gates. "ooh. Somethings happening teehee.! Hmm~ok...I'm past this here...ah! I need to head to the Peony Quarters. Ok!" She looked carefully at the scroll Izuna had given her and nodded firmly to herself.
"...eh?" There was a small group of women, probably courtesans or some of the noble ladies sitting inside. ".erm...ah! Myou is the one with the purple kimono...and has a beauty mark under her right eye...ah!" Sumire grinned to herself and quickly tossed one of the smoke bombs she had been given onto the ground. It exploded with a soft hiss and soon all the women bar Myou had passed out from the smell. "Myou! Yoohoo! Over here!" She leapt down nimbly from the roof and waved the scroll Izuna had instructed her to show Myou as soon as they made contact.
"..." Myou gave a slight nod, quickly pulled off her kimono and grabbed a large tsurugi hidden underneath the floorboards. "I assume Izuna told you everything? " As soon as Sumire nodded, Myou was off "I don't need to explain then. Good. We'll split from here.."
"Oi." Myou hefted the large tsurugi onto her shoulder without any difficulty and frowned at Sumire who was slowly walking towards the door "What's the delay?" she frowned and jabbed a finger in the opposite direction "Takenaka is over there. Get going." He gave a curt nod and scaled the roof, leaping through a window and exiting Sumire's line of view.
"..teeheee..." She grinned to herself and licked her lips "Yes! I know EXACTLY what to do! now, to find Nii-san!"Smiling brightly to herself, she unsheathed her swords and sped off through the hallways of the castle, either not realising or choosing to ignore the small black shadow which had been tailing her the moment she left the Chishirou's base.
~x~x~x~x~
"Cough" Hanbei coughed a few times and patted his chest while Chisa looked on worriedly. "Hanbei, are you feeling ok? " She looked concerned since his coughing had been becoming worse as the days went on and now that a group of assassins or whoever the Chishirou were wanted him dead..."Lady Chisa? Lord Hanbei?.." There was a knock on the door and a maid walked in carrying a tray with a cup and medicine packet. "..I've brought your medicine. Please take it quickly."
"Thank you so much!" Chisa gratefully took the tray from the maid and thanked her politely , to which the maid shook her head "oh no, I should be thanking YOU. Well, I'll leave now Lady Chisa."
Hanbei coughed a few times and sighed as Chisa poured the powder into the teacup. "Aww, Chisa I hate drinking medicine." Hanbei made a face and groaned "It tastes horrible and bitter! Like Lord Kanbei's tea!"
"Hmm, I'm feeling kinda tired now.." Hanbei yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes when the door burst open with a loud bang. "...Chisa?" Takeshi burst through the doorway, "shh!" Chisa raised a finger to her lips for silence "Hanbei's sleeping!"
"..." The mercenary narrowed his eyes at the familiar teacup and tray next to a sleeping Hanbei and slammed his fist against the wall of the room. "T-takeshi? what's wrong?" Chisa looked worriedly at her friend .
"...we've been infiltrated. That tea ...probably...poison...Sumire..." he muttered something and pulled out his rifle, rushing towards the back of the castle.
~Azai Domain~
"It...can't be helped..." Nagamasa had a sad almost regretful expression on his face as all the advisers with him nodded. "We'll have to fight against the remains of the Oda and Lord Hideyoshi...I don't know why they would so something like that though.." he looked sadly down at the scroll which had a declaration of war written on it and looked up at Oichi as she squeezed his hand tightly. "Nagamasa. I trust in your decisions." She smiled back at him and nodded.
"Ichi...thank you." Nagamasa smiled back and turned to Lord Kazaru, who was just another one of Izuna's disguises and stood up. "We shall march at dawn. Now is the time to fight against the Oda, to achieve justice for our innocent allies who were killed."
Izuna smiled fleetingly and gave Oichi and Nagamasa an affirmative nod. "Understood. I'll send word to my father to send troops for assistance."
"...Chisa...I hope you're ok...and I'm sorry..sister.." Oichi murmured softly and held her husband's hand. "Let's go. " She picked up her hoops and tightened her grip with determination.
*ahem* I'm so sorry for the lateness! My assignment took longer than I thought teehee~ Well things are starting to get more exciting~ * I hope* Thanks for reading !