"Touya, look at this." = Normal speech.
'Touya, look at this.' = Thoughts/Telepathy.
(One hour later.) = Time skip.
~Yo, it's God.~ = Phone call.
"Come forth, fire!" = Chanting.
[Kingdom of Belfast] = Title/Place/Rank/Weapon Name.
{Gate} = Spell name.
=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=
"This is my birthplace, [Oedo]." Yae gestured to the town as she led the group down from the hill the shrine was on.
"It does have a different vibe to it." Setsuna commented as she followed behind the Eashen samurai guiding them.
"So, do you know the location of the ruins you're looking for, Leen?" Touya asked, slowing down his steps to walk beside the fairy.
"I do not know exactly where." Leen hummed, recalling the name of the ruin, "But it's a place known as [Ruins of Nirya]."
"Do you know where that is, Yae?" Touya turned to Yae.
"[Nirya]... I may or may not have heard about such ruins…" Yae hummed as she cupped her chin, "But maybe my Chichi-ue would have some idea of its whereabouts."
As they continued to make small talk amongst each other, they made their way out of the forest and were now walking towards the gates of [Oedo], the town was surrounded by the large moat which covered the entire outer walls of the town, they were on the road for pedestrians as multiple carriages were going in and out of the town, likely travelers or merchants.
The gate guards greeted Yae and asked her what she was doing here, she replied that she was here to visit her family along with her party. The guards took a moment to consider her words but ultimately agreed to let them in without a second glance.
Once they were inside the town, they were greeted with the difference in the architecture of [Oedo], there were many wooden houses and only a few were made with stones, and it reminded Touya of the old Japanese buildings - it had a different vibe from the European designs of [Belfast] or the Indian inspiration of [Mismede]. It felt… Closer to home now that he thought about it.
While not as grandiose as in [Alpehis] or [Berge], [Oedo] made up for it in the sheer cultural atmosphere that no other city has given the group yet, everyone who was not used to it was looking all over the place, mesmerized by the structures around them. Something about the way the houses were made intrigued some of them.
Touya chuckled slightly, he too was at awe of the sights, reminding him of his homeland and the similarities in name were something that interested him, '[Oedo] sounds so similar to [Edo] back in the period of the same name… Wonder if Tokugawa Ieyasu is in charge of [Oedo].'
"Say, Yae." Touya called out to his companion, "Does [Eashen] have a king of sorts?"
"Yes in a sense. However, each region is ruled by a lord." Yae answered, while she continued to guide her comrades through the streets of her hometown, "There are nine lords, their names are, Shimazu, Mori, Chosokabe, Hashiba, Oda, Takeda, Tokugawa, Uesugi, and Date. [Oedo] itself is ruled by Tokugawa Ieyasu-sama!"
"Really?" Touya let out a surprised gasp, then his mind went into overdrive, 'First [Oedo] and now Tokugawa… This is way too similar now and the name Takeda… If I remember correctly, my family name, Mochizuki, served under that clan… Though my surname could just be a coincidence.'
"Yes, is there a problem?" Yae's voice ripped him out of his thoughts.
"No, nothing, just thinking about something." Touya shook his head and gave the samurai a smile, placing the thought into the back of his mind for now.
"Woah! What the heck is that?" Elze's exclamation caught the group's attention as they turned to look at where the silverette was pointing at, "What are they doing?"
"They're called sedan chair bearers." Touya explained as the transport passed them, "You pay money and ride those things, they're an alternative to horse-driven carriages."
"Touya, that person is wearing wooden shoes." Yumina tugged the sleeve of his coat, catching his attention.
"Oh, those are called geta shoes, they're traditional footwear." Touya explained.
"Why's that bell hanging from that tower?" Setsuna asked, pointing at the highest building in the town.
"That's the fire lookout, it's function is to alert people of fire." He explained again.
"What a beautiful sound, it's like those at the shrine, what are they called?" Linze asked.
"Those are wind chimes, they produce a pleasant sound using the wind." Touya smiled as he heard the chimes.
"You seem to be well-versed in Eashen culture despite not being born here, Touya-dono." Yae inquired, crooking a brow, "Are you sure you have never been here before?"
"I'm not, I just have good teachers and my grandfather told me stories of [Eashen]." Touya quickly came up with a half-truth, only changing Japan for the aforementioned country that it reminded him of. He wasn't wrong about the grandfather part though, his grandfather did teach him a lot about the history of his homeland.
"Haven't you noticed something strange?" Sally spoke for the first time, she was looking around just like the others but instead of admiring the buildings around her, she was focused on the people, "The people seem… downcasted to say the least."
Now that she brought it to their attention, the others started to zone in on the people around them and indeed found the slightly gloomy atmosphere that they didn't notice until Sally pointed it out, they were too busy admiring the sights presented to them that they neglected to notice the mood of the town, it was quiet, somber, as if dire news spread out throughout the town.
"Yes… It does seem as though something odd has happened…" Yae murmured, still she shook her head and took the lead once more, guiding her party to her home, telling them that they were nearly there.
Walking around the corner, Yae led them to a large Eashen-styled house, Touya quietly watched in awe, everything about [Eashen] differently reminded him of Japan in its Sengoku period. They watched Yae walk up to the sliding door and opened it, calling out for anyone who was there.
"Is anyone home?" Yae exclaimed, stepping into the house.
"Yes, who's there?" A brown-haired female stepped out, she was dressed in a Eashen-style maid outfit, "Ah! Yae-sama!"
"Ayane! Long time no see!" Yae ran up to her, quickly taking off her shoes and stepped into the inner side of her home, greeting the female as they held hands.
"Welcome back!" Ayane greeted back with the same enthusiasm as the younger girl, the maid turned her head and yelled, "Nanae-sama! Yae-sama! Has returned!"
They heard the sound of rapid footsteps echoing from the hallway, once they started getting louder and louder until an older woman, who looked like an older version of Yae, appeared out of the door frame, the older woman gasped as she headed straight for her daughter and took her into her embrace, "Yae!"
"Haha-ue! I'm home!" Yae exclaimed, hugging her mother back.
"I'm so glad you made it safely, welcome back, Yae." Nanae crooned, after a while, both mother and daughter separated from their embrace, the older Kokonoe turned to the party, "Yae, who are these people?"
"These are my friends, I met them while on my journey and decided to party with them, they have helped me during hard times." Yae answered.
"Oh my goodness." Nanae gasped as she immediately went into a seiza position and bowed her head, "You have my sincerest gratitude for taking care of my daughter."
"It was nothing really, Yae has helped us as much as we helped her, so please, raise your head." Touya said as the older woman rose to her feet.
"By the way, haha-ue." Yae asked, looking around the house and saw no sight of her father nor her brother for that matter, "Do you know where chichi-ue went? Did he go to the castle perhaps?"
Her sentence made Nanae and Ayane slightly flinch, they glanced at each other before turning back to Yae. Nanae let out a sigh before she would give her daughter the dire news, "Your father is not here… He went to the battlefield together with Lord Ieyasu-sama."
"To a battlefield!?" Yae exclaimed, surprised at the prospect of such a thing, there was no major conflict in decades and she never knew her family would experience such a thing, "Who are they fighting against!?"
"The Takeda." Ayane explained, "A few days ago we lost the northwestern town of [Katsunuma] through a surprise attack and subsequently other smaller villages, Afterwards the Takeda Clan are marching toward [Kawagoe] at any time now, and to keep the Takeda at bay, Master and Jutaro-sama went to the [Kawagoe Fortress] to reinforce the defenders."
"So, Older brother went to battle as well… But I don't understand why the Takeda Clan would start such an unprovoked attack. I can't imagine Lord Takeda Shingen doing such a foolish act…" Yae commented, there were many things that didn't add up for the Takeda to take an aggressive stance against the Tokugawa.
"It is concerning news but there have been rumors about the Takeda Clan as of late." Nanae informed, "There is a weird strategist that has recently joined the Takeda, and rapidly climbed the ranks until they became the right-hand of Lord Takeda-sama, his name is Yamamoto, I believe from what I heard of the rumors, he's a swarthy man with an eye patch and can use strange magic… Who knows what things he has done to influence the Head of the Takeda Clan."
Meanwhile, Touya leaned on a wall and his thoughts raced, he tried to figure out why the Takeda of this world would be in a fight with the Tokugawa Clan, if he remembered correctly, the Takeda and Tokugawa fought each other but the Tokugawa won in the end thanks to the Battle of Nagashino, after that, the Takeda Clan started to decline. At least, that's how it was in his world.
Since this was a similar yet different version of the two aforementioned clans, Touya doesn't know what exactly it was that made the Takeda take aggressive action - but with the news Nanae laid for them, he started to think about who Yamamoto is. Then there's the topic of the Mochizuki Clan… He hoped that he wasn't gonna meet any 'relatives' here.
"So, how is the battle going?" Leen asked, curious about the status of the battlefield.
"Due to the nature of the attack, Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu-sama couldn't gather enough manpower in a short notice…" Ayane uttered, her tone somber as she continued, "While our Lordship has been able to gather roughly around five thousand men they're still heavily outnumbered by the sheer numbers of the Takeda Clan. At this rate, the people know that the [Kawagoe Fortress] will fall…"
"But… That would mean…" Yae uttered, her mind coming into a conclusion that she was dreaded by the possibility of it happening was high, she stumbled back a bit, trying to wrap her head around the scenario.
Even then, she was able to steer her nerves and turned to the one person she knew could fix all of this within the tip of his fingers. She wore a face of determination, she made her decision and only needed the approval of her comrades.
"Touya-dono!" She exclaimed, "I have gone to the ridge near the [Kawagoe Fortress]! Please if you can! Take me there!"
"I would, but the others…" Touya wanted to help, he turned to the rest of the party and they all nodded, the clarification he needed to know that everyone was on board with the idea of storming in to help the Tokugawa Clan against the Takeda Clan's invasion.
"I certainly didn't think I'd be dragged into a battlefield." Leen remarked as she watched Touya and Yae use {Recall}, despite her tone she was relatively excited to see what Touya could do, "Still, I understand the plight, I shall come along as well."
After using the null spell, Touya immediately opened up a {Gate} and let the others pass through first, one by one, everyone in the party went through the gate until Touya was the last one left.
He turned to Yae's mother and gave her a smile, "Don't worry, I'll make sure your husband and son will come back alive, I swear it."
"Thank you, but… Who are you?" Nanae asked.
"Right, sorry for the late introduction, Mochizuki Touya, a friend of your daughter." Touya bowed as he went through the gate and it closed behind him, leaving the older woman stunned at the news.
"Mochizuki…?"
=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=
(At a ridge near the [Kawagoe Fortress].)
Once he stepped out of the gate made from his null spell, Touya had a clear view of the fortress, even without his {Long Sense} he could still see the battlefield marks and black smoke appearing around the fortress, likely from the numerous skirmishes leading up to the defense of the structure.
"Touya-dono, please tell us what's going on." Yae pleaded, she can only see the rising black smoke and nothing else.
"I'll check it out." Touya nodded and used {Long Sense}.
He silently used {Multiple} to enchant the prior null spell and scouted ahead until he had a bird's eye view of the [Kawagoe Fortress] and the status of the defenders, he could see numerous Takeda Clan members attacking and charging straight for the structure only to be downed by multiple arrows from the Tokugawa Archers, though surprisingly to Touya, there were many downed Takeda Clan members raising up despite being punctured by arrows, like they were zombies.
"The situation isn't looking good." Touya announced as he focused on a few individual fights, watching as Takeda and Tokugawa soldiers fought against each other, "The defenders are able to slow down the advance of the Takeda soldiers, but the sheer numbers and attacks means that sooner or later the defense will collapse."
"Your brother is safe, he's currently within the fortress walls though your father's whereabouts are unknown to me." He pulled out his phone and could only find Jutaro but not Yae's father.
"Then we must hurry inside!" Just as Yae was about to sprint towards the fortress, Sally was able to stop her. Grabbing one of the Eashen girl's sleeves.
"Hold it, Yae." Sally asserted, pulled her back towards the party, "I know you want to save your family, but you shouldn't just barge in there without a plan."
"Yes, I agree." Leen nodded, gazing over the battlefield with a slight frown, "With the Tokugawa Clan held up inside of the fortress, you'll have to prowl through numerous enemy soldiers before you can even reach the walls."
"But I cannot just abandon my father and older brother!" Yae debated, she was agitated and scared at the possibility of her family being in danger and even the prospect of being killed.
"Calm down Yae." Yumina coaxed, while she sympathized with her plight, Yae shouldn't just recklessly enter a battlefield, "We won't leave and abandon your family, but we need to come up with a plan to get there."
"I think I have an idea." Touya commented, getting everyone's attention as he fiddled with his smartphone, "I can survey the area a kilometer away by using {Long Sense}, then I use {Gate} to bypass the enemy formation. I repeat this process several times until we're at the [Kawagoe Fortress]."
"Will you go alone?" Setsuna inquired, she was ready to fight if Touya needed some backup.
"I guess I can take someone with me, but no more than that, the more we go as a group, the higher our chances of being discovered." Touya argued, shooting down any potential offers to join him on the scouting duty, "I want to avoid alarming the enemy of our presence, so I'll take Setsuna with me. I'll open a {Gate} once I get to the fortress, please wait for me here."
"I see, that does seem like the best outcome." Leen agreed, before nodding and turning to her princess, "Please do be careful, Your Highness or else I'll get an earful from your father."
"Heh, no promises." Setsuna quipped as she approached Touya and stood next to him as he opened up a gate.
"I'll leave the guarding duty to you, Kohaku, Sally, please protect the others while I'm gone." Touya asked as he stepped into the gate with Setsuna trailing behind him.
"Roger that!" Kohaku, for the first time since Leen arrived, said, surprising the Fairy as she thought that the white tiger cub that was following them around was just a normal, albeit rare, looking tiger.
"This cub can talk!?" The last thing Touya and Setsuna heard before the gate closed was Leen's surprise at finding out that Kohaku could talk all along. The master of the divine beast chuckled before adopting a more focused look.
He used {Long Sense} to scout ahead of him and saw multiple Takeda soldiers being peppered with arrows from the defender's archers, while some were killed, others were able to get back up with seemingly no difficulty. He focused harder and saw that some of the arrows pierced the mask and broke through, killing the soldier and he didn't get back up either.
Touya hummed as he kept that information in mind as he deactivated the null spell and turned to his companion, Setsuna was looking around the surroundings and her wolf ears twitched while she scanned everywhere.
"I just scanned ahead, a Takeda squad was taken care of by the Tokugawa Archers, there shouldn't be anything there to spot us." Touya relayed the news, his second fiancee nodded as she chanted her {Ice Claws} around her hands, readying herself in case they encountered any enemies.
Just like before, Touya used his null spells to quickly move kilometer at a time, they hid in a bush to hide from a battalion of Takeda soldiers, but just as they were about to pass them, one of the rear guards stopped and snapped their head towards the bush the two were hiding, the two tensed as they watched the samurai slowly approach them, Setsuna was ready to pounce the moment the enemy came within her killzone while Touya had his hand on [Brunhilde], using the gunmode to provide his companion some fire support.
The Takeda soldier stopped just shy of a few feet away from the bushes hiding the two, they waited with a hitched breath as the Takeda soldier seemed to be scanning for any sudden movements within the bush in front of them. They stood there for a few seconds and seemed to turn around and leave, letting the two to slowly let go of the breath they kept within their lungs. Looks like they were able to hide from the enemy.
Though it seems like they weren't out of the woods yet.
The soldier that was turning to leave quickly turned back and unsheathed the sword on their hip. Had Touya not had any prior knowledge of Iaido, he would've had his head sliced off, thankfully he did along with his honed reaction time which saved him and Setsuna as he blocked the blade with the bladed part of his gun. Touya quickly pushed the blade off his weapon and aimed directly at the head of the Takeda soldier before he pulled the trigger. The sounds of a gunshot rang through the air as the Takeda soldier fell backwards before dissolving into nothingness and leaving only their armor behind.
Taking that as her que, Setsuna pounced towards the rest of the rear guard, emphasizing on their disarray as she hacked and slashed them apart with her claws, though some were able to regain their bearings they were still easily dispatched by the Mismedian Princess, like she was dancing around them like fools. She continued to tear through their ranks, tearing apart the soldiers before moving onto the next up until Setsuna was forced to bring her arms up and block a swing from one of the Takeda soldiers.
She quickly glanced at her opponent and saw them using a yari, Setsuna grit her teeth as she jumped back, trying to make some room for herself and to keep away at her enemy's longer reach. The Takeda soldier had a feminine-looking body and she deduced that her opponent must be a woman underneath the armor. Either way, Setsuna didn't have the time to admire her opponent as she lunged with her yari in hand, the Mismedian Princess simply dodged the thrust and tried to grab onto the shaft of the spear but the Takeda soldier immediately pulled her weapon back and quickly swung it towards Setsuna.
The Mismedian Princess' eyes widened as she barely had enough time to block the attack, she didn't expect her opponent to rapidly change the way she used her spear in such a short amount of time, thus Setsuna was flung away a few feet from her opponent. Setsuna was able to reorient herself back to her feet just in time to parry away a strike towards her head, now with an opening presented to her, Setsuna went for the killing blow only for the Takeda soldier to use the handle of her spear to block the claw slash.
Touya was watching the fight happen as he was finished taking care of the remaining Takeda grunts that Setsuna missed. He was just about to go and assist her but his instincts screamed at him to dodge or bring up {Brunhilde} to block and he chose the former, rolling away from his previous spot as it was reduced to rubble. He turned and saw a big and burly samurai with a kanabo in his hands, the oni mask he wore obstructed his face yet Touya could feel the eyes staring into his own.
The Takeda soldier wasted no time in lunging towards him, Touya had a small window to react and he did, weaving around the metal club, he thought he was able take this as his chance to counterattack, but the Takeda soldier brought up the kanabo up and block his swing, despite the clumsiness of the kanabo thanks to the weight, the Takeda was able to bring it up quickly surprising Touya as he backed off from swing that would've ripped his head off his shoulders.
Touya tried using his revolver to take down the Takeda soldier, but it proved to be difficult than he imagined as the enemy soldier was dodging the bullets and closed the distance between him and Touya, cursing, the adventurer quickly switched his weapon into blade mode and met the metal club - while strong, it was nothing compared to the time Touya fought Jamukha, still, the Takeda soldier was no slouch in the strength department either. So Touya used his quicker reflexes to send a series of swings towards his opponent, some were blocked but many were able to go through and slice his enemy, yet the Takeda was still standing, worse, he looked like he ate up those attacks and sent his own, forcing him to dodge. Though a lucky swing almost slammed into him if he didn't block in time. Knowing that this wasn't going his way, Touya tried to back off but the Takeda soldier wouldn't let him.
And the soldier didn't give him any time to recover as Touya was forced to dodge a series of swings back to back, however, unfortunately for him, Touya was just biding his time and was able to find an opening and he took the opportunity - ducking underneath a swing and quickly switching back his weapon to its default mode and brought the barrel of his weapon underneath the chin of his enemy, he pulled the trigger and the bullet left the barrel before hitting its mark rather quickly. The Takeda soldier fell backwards, as his mask broke apart with a gaping hole in the bottom of his chin; afterwards he dissolved just like the previous soldiers before him.
Touya reloaded {Brunhilde} and pointed it towards the person Setsuna was fighting, he carefully took aim, guiding his shot towards the legs of the Takeda soldier and once she was in position, Touya wasted no time in pulling the trigger. The bullets hit their marks, forcing the Takeda soldier to kneel as her legs were rendered useless and before she could even react to what happened, Setsuna came about and sliced her head off with one clean swipe of her claws. Though that seemed to not stop her as the headless body tried to get up and thrust the yari in her hands.
Touya shouted to Setsuna to leave the body and crush the mask, finding the severed head, the Mismedian Princess evaded the thrust and went straight for the mask, she raised her foot over the mask and immediately stomped it to pieces, destroying it and the body it belonged to dissolved. Standing triumph over her victory, Setsuna turned to her fiance and gave him a thumbs up, thankful for helping her against such a troublesome opponent. She immediately ran towards him.
"I think we overstayed our welcome, let's get out of here before they realize their rear guard is missing and reinforcements arrive." Setsuna stuck her thumb behind her, showing the bodies of Takeda soldiers that lay dead on the ground.
"Way ahead of you." Touya nodded, opening another {Gate} and leaving the skirmish sight with Setsuna trailing behind him.
After that fight, Touya took extra precautions in order to avoid attracting more attention to himself and Setsuna especially since word got around that one of the regiment's rear guard got wiped out, he was able to skip over the paths of numerous Takeda regiments, taking advantage of his {Long Sense} and making sure to take shortcuts in between. After that, he was one {Gate} away from their destination.
"Alright, last stop, be ready." Touya warned his companion, Setsuna nodded as she prepared herself in case the Tokugawa got aggressive, which was understandable since they were barging in unannounced.
Opening the last {Gate}, Touya stepped in first and was immediately greeted with the blades of the Tokugawa Clan soldiers. He raised his hands up, showing that he didn't mean to fight them, "Easy there, I'm not here to fight, trust me."
"Who are you!?" A young man with a long ponytail yelled, his blade pointed at Touya, the adventurer figured that was Jutaro as he looked similar to Yae.
"You must be Yae's older brother, Kokonoe Jutaro, right?" Touya asked, not at all intimidated by the swords aimed at him.
"I am Jutaro… And how do you know Yae…?" Jutaro asked, slightly lowering his blade.
"We're her friends, we came here to help you as soon as we heard of the battle, and we couldn't leave Yae to fight alone." Touya said, as he was just about to open another {Gate} to the rest of the party's location.
"You're with Yae!?" Jutaro exclaimed, he couldn't believe that his sister would just recklessly charge into a battlefield.
"Yup, she's close by, I can cast a teleportation spell to get her here immediately." Touya nodded as he used his null spell to create a gate.
And like he thought, Yae was the first one to come out of the gate, greeting her brother after such a long time and running up to him for a big hug, shortly after the Eashen female the rest of the party stepped out of the null spell, once everyone was accounted for, Touya closed the spell and turned to see the lovely reunion of the Kokonoe siblings.
"I can't believe it, Yae, it really is you." Jutaro was at awe, here she was, the little sister he saw leave their homeland at the ripe age of 13, now a year later, has returned.
"Yes! I have returned!" Yae exclaimed, happily hugging her brother.
"I'm glad you're alright, but I have to ask." Jutaro withdrew from the embrace and turned his attention to the people Yae was with, "Who are these people with you?"
"These are my precious companions! I met them during my long journey and I trust them with my life!" Yae gestured to the group, boasting about them to her brother and everyone in the fortress, "Ah! May I ask, where is our father? Is he safe?"
"He's safe, don't worry. He's escorting Ieyasu-sama, you might see him later." Jutaro informed his sister, "All you see here is the men that stayed behind in order to give our lord the chance to flee before he gets captured by the enemy."
The older Kokonoe gestured to the rest of the Tokugawa soldiers, but most of them were mortally wounded, some grave while others minor but still too injured to fight, despite that, many of them still took up their bows and used the remaining arrows they have to keep up the defense of the fortress, bravely standing up to impossible odds. Touya scanned the room, he saw the bandaged up soldiers, many were even laying on their backs with severed limbs. If Touya was here before the Mismedian journey, he may have lost his lunch, but now, he steered his nerves and pulled out his phone, enchanting it with {Program}, he input the words into the search bar of his map app and tapped onto the many wounded Tokugawa soldiers and healed them with {Cure Heal}.
Many green circles appeared above the wounded soldiers, and a green glow shone over them, healing their wounds, the men gasped in awe, the pain they felt was gone and at the same time felt lighter and stronger than before. Jutaro was flabbergasted at the sight, seeing the men under his command healed from their injuries.
"You never cease to surprise me, Touya." Leen remarked, watching as the Tokugawa soldiers lively celebrated the miracle Touya did for them, "I didn't think you'd be able to heal all of them in just one fell swoop."
"I'm just glad it worked." Touya shrugged, putting his phone back into his pocket, he turned to the one in command, which was Jutaro, "The spell healed their wounds, but the blood they lost isn't recovered, please make sure to not assign them to anything too taxing. They still need to rest."
"I- I see, I understand, I'll make sure to notify the men." Jutaro nodded, as he relayed the news to his right-hand man, the soldier nodded and went around to the newly healed wounded to tell them to rest.
"Before we got here, me and Setsuna encountered a small group of Takeda soldiers… Why were they wearing those oni masks?" Touya inquired, while he doubted the Takeda Clan had anyone who could give him a challenge in a straight up fight, the fact that their soldiers could get back up despite the mortally wounding injuries intrigued him.
"I don't know." Jutaro sighed, he wanted to say more, but even he knew nothing about these never ending enemies, "Neither being impaled by a spear or lobbing off their limbs will kill them, they're nothing more than living corpses. But we noticed that they would dissolve should their mask be broken."
"Hm… seems like something is controlling the corpses." Leen remarked, looking over an open view of the battlefield, her eyes focusing on the Takeda soldiers trying to breach the walls of the fortress, "It might be a null spell, or maybe an artifact, that seems more likely at the least."
"An artifact?" Touya asked.
"It's a term for tools left behind by ancient civilizations that had powerful magic." Leen explained, "That could explain something like this happening, but it can also be from null magic, but from the sheer size of the army, I highly doubt it's from a mere null spell."
The fairy then turned to point at Touya, raising an eyebrow, "And isn't that thing you were using earlier an artifact? How else could you do the things you did just now?"
"These oni masks are gonna be a hassle." Touya promptly ignored Leen's statement, he pulled out his phone again and tagged all of the Takeda soldiers he could find.
"How do you suggest dealing with them? We can't just fight them head on, we're low on manpower and arrows." Jutaro questioned.
"I'll just kick their asses myself." Touya smirked, placing his phone back into the safety of his pockets and pulled out [Gungnir], he figured that with the majority of the Takeda forces being undead, he could let loose a little.
"Are you insane!?" Jutaro exclaimed, absolutely flabbergasted at the young man's suggestion to fight the entire arm by himself, "There's at least fifteen-thousand Takeda soldiers out there! You cannot honestly have me believe that you could just go and destroy an entire army!"
"But he can." Sally said nonchalantly, leaning against a nearby wall as she smirked, "If anyone here has the power to decimate an entire army, it's my Master."
"True." Kohaku agreed. Licking her paw as she sighed.
"...They aren't wrong, ani-ue." Yae voiced her opinion, backing up the claims of her companions, "Touya-dono has extraordinary power. If there is one here that can handle those fiends, it is him."
"Still, there are quite a lot of them." Yumina commented, standing next to Leen as they overwatch the battlefield. While she was confident that Touya could wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop, there's still that underlying feeling of dread thinking he might make a mistake that would cost him his life.
"If anyone can do it, it's Touya." Elze reassured, she was already getting used to Touya's crazy feats, him being able to single-handedly destroy a whole army would just be one of many.
"I agree." Linze was the same as her sister.
"I just wanna see more of what he can do." Setsuna shrugged, before a wide grin overtook her face, "You saw how he fought my dad, and that was when he couldn't use magic, I wanna see what he can do with magic."
"I can do plenty." Touya smirked, his tone confident as he opened a {Gate} to the battlefield, he switched the mode from spear to scythe, he was gonna deal with a lot of enemies, better to use a weapon that can slash in a wide area. "Time to test out [Gungnir]."
When he stepped into the gate and out on the battlefield, what happened next was a slaughter.
=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=
(At the [Kawagoe Fortress].)
"I can't believe it…"
Kokonoe Jutaro is a skilled swordsman, having trained his whole life wielding the blade and perfecting the Kokonoe Sword Style, he was confident that he could take on many skilled swordsmen at once, maybe even more.
When he heard of the Takeda's preemptive strike on their lands, he was among the first that Ieyasu gathered to defend the Tokugawa territories, Jutaro served his lord faithfully, while the Takeda was able to cover a large chunk of the Tokugawa lands, after their initial attack, their other attempts at conquering had proven to be difficult and was thus bogged down to a slow rate, giving the Tokugawa Clan ample time to reestablish command and launch counter-offensive to retake their territories.
It was a long two months of fighting and Jutaro was at the forefront of those counterattacks, taking many of them back from the fiends that tried to steal them from the Tokugawa Clan. But then the main Takeda force attack marched to [Kawagoe], Jutaro and his father hurriedly made their way there to reinforce the defenders.
The battle was long and harsh, multiplied when the soldiers of the Takeda had suddenly risen back up despite their mortal wounds. At that point, the battle was lost and Jutaro knew that, still, he stayed behind to cover his lord and father's retreat, the Kokonoe was prepared to die here if it meant that it would give the others time to withdraw.
With many of the men under his command wounded and their ammunition and supplies running low, Jutaro prepared himself for one last defense of the [Kawagoe Fortress]. His only regret was that he wouldn't live to see his family and sister one last time.
But then, they appeared.
A young man dressed in a white coat along with a wolf beastkin appeared out of a translucent gate, claiming to be Yae's friends. At first, Jutaro was suspicious of the two's intentions but then his sister appeared from the same door the two unknown people came out of.
Jutaro was surprised to see that his younger sister, the person he cherished, was here, but then he remembered that they were still in a battlefield. He wondered how his sister came back to [Eashen] so quickly and so conveniently and before he could voice his questions, the young man created a miracle.
He healed the wounded Tokugawa soldiers, freeing them of their injuries, though the blood they lost was still a problem, thus he asked for Jutaro to not assign them anything too taxing on their recovering bodies.
With their numbers boasted to a considerable amount, Jutaro felt a little more confident at holding the fortress until reinforcements arrived, but they were still outnumbered, even with the unknown factor of Yae and her group, he still doubted they could stand up against the might of the undead army outside.
Then the young man suggested the craziest idea Jutaro has heard since this war had started.
He suggested taking on the entire army by himself.
To say Jutaro was surprised was an understatement.
The older Kokonoe tried to reason with the young man, saying that it was impossible for one man to take on an army, much less one that can keep fighting, yet he seemed to just smirk and ignore his warnings - even more, Yae vouched for him along with the rest of her party. Saying that this Touya, his name if Jutaro was remembering correctly, could make the impossible possible.
Jutaro was still skeptical of their claims, but then Touya showed him that actions speak louder than words.
And hoo boy, was his actions louder.
The second he emerged out the gate he created, Touya immediately dashed for the closest Takeda soldier he could find, slicing their heads in one clean swing, next, he used his magic to take out a large portion of the undead troops, a fire spell that found its targets, killing them without giving the enemy a chance to fight back. Even the few normal human Takeda members weren't spared, though they were either injured or knocked out as opposed to killing them outright, Touya bounced from formation to formation, killing the ones with oni masks and knocking out the normal Takeda members.
Not even when Touya was getting peppered with numerous arrows from the Takeda archers stopped him, he merely disappeared from sight and suddenly reappeared behind the archers, killing them and moving onto the next target. News of this new threat reached the upper command of the Takeda forces and they scrambled to try and deal with Touya, but his rapid appearance and the fact that he was decimating the Takeda so quickly meant they couldn't mount a sufficient defensive formation before the rest of their troops died.
He did this over and over again tinning out the invading forces until he gotten bored of mercilessly murdering the undead Takeda troops and raised his weapon into the air, he chanted a spell and soon enough the sky above them were littered with magical circles, Touya smirked as he mentally targeted all the remaining undead troops under the Takeda and let loose a hail of {Shining Javelins}.
The spells hit their mark, devastating the battlefield as the oni masks the undead troops wore broke, rendering the corpses as just that, corpses.
What happened here wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter.
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(Inside of the [Kawagoe Fortress].)
Once the dust settled, what remained were the stunned and scared human Takeda members, many of them tried to flee the battlefield once they realized that the battle was lost, but Touya simply used {Paralyze} to stop them from running away.
After the whole ordeal, what was once a 15k strong Takeda army was simply reduced to a handful of surviving and captured troops.
The onlookers were stunned, awestruck at the sight of one man single-handedly destroying the opposing forces that attacked their fortress. They cheered for Touya as well as the victory he gave them and their morale exploded, loud cheers and praise echoed through the air around the [Kawagoe Fortress].
Jutaro was once again flabbergasted, he could not believe his eyes. This young man, this Touya, was able to do not just one miracle, but two miracles in a span of half an hour. He turned what would be a hopeless last stand into an unmistakable victory.
A range of emotions filled the older Kokonoe, mostly awe, and a little hint of fear at what power the man he watched had. He thanked the gods that Touya was on his side because if he wasn't, Jutaro knew he couldn't hope to hold a candle next to the raging flame that Touya was.
"And that takes care of that." Touya nonchalantly said after stepping out of the {Gate} he created before it closed behind him.
"That… Was so awesome!" Setsuna exclaimed, breaking the silence as she ran up to her fiance full of praise, "Touya you were so cool!"
"Agreed." Yumina chimed in, a gentle smile on her face as she approached her beloved.
"Honestly, after being with him for so long, it's kinda stupid to be surprised at what he can do." Elze laughed, glancing over to her sister.
"Yeah, funny isn't it." Linze giggled, finding the whole situation to be humorous.
Off to the side, Sally kept her smirk, her eyes closed as she didn't watch the slaughter happen, she didn't need to, her Master was more than guaranteed to win so she just opted to lean on the wall she was at before Touya left. Kohaku agreed with her fellow servant, if her Master could make her, the former [White Emperor], his servant, there was not much that could defeat him.
Yae smiled as she turned to see her brother's stunned look, she gave him a little nudge to snap him out of his spur, "See? There was nothing to doubt, ani-ue."
"I… I… I can't say I'm not surprised…" Jutaro mumbled, still trying to wrap his head around the event that just happened before his eyes, "Still, the power that young man has… What was his name again? Touya?"
"Yes, Mochizuki Touya to be precise." Yae informed her brother, she didn't spot the look on her brother's face when he heard the name leave her mouth.
"Mochizuki…" Jutaro mumbled, the young man that saved their fortress was a Mochizuki and yet… He fought against the Takeda Clan. Whatever the case, he placed that thought to the back of his mind, what matters now is thanking the man that saved their lives.
"Mochizuki Touya." Jutaro announced, catching the attention of the person in question, "On behalf of the Tokugawa Clan, I thank you for saving us."
The older Kokonoe bowed in respect, had Touya not come at the right place at the right time, perhaps he would have perished in the battle, thus he wanted to show his gratitude to the one that saved them from their peril.
"Ah! No need to bow your head, I only did what I had to do." Touya explained, he still wasn't used to people bowing their heads to him.
"I still thank you for everything you have done." Jutaro insisted, keeping his head down in respect, before he stood back up, "I must ask, what are your plans now?"
"Well, we were originally here to investigate some ruins." Touya informed Jutaro, he turned to Leen who was watching the whole time, "Which is why we came to [Eashen] in the first place, we were hoping your father would know."
"What is the name of the ruins you're searching for?" Jutaro inquired.
"The [Ruins of Nirya]." Leen answered.
Jutaro racked his head, trying to remember where he heard of that name before, but nothing concrete came up, the older Kokonoe shook his head and bowed, "I cannot say I've heard of that ruins, perhaps chichi-ue knows more about it."
"Is there any way to contact chichi-ue?" Yae asked.
"I'm afraid not, he and Tokugawa Ieyasu-sama left after the first breach of the battle, last I remembered, they were taking a secluded route back to [Oedo] in order to regroup and counterattack." Jutaro shook his head, he saw the saddened face of his sister so he thought he could cheer her up, "But I can send an envoy telling of our victory and we can request an audience with them, though it will take a day or so."
"Touya-dono, can't you use {Gate} to get back to [Oedo]?" Yae turned to the man who destroyed the Takeda arm prior.
"I can, but we'll still have to wait for the daimyo and your father, so, it's gonna be the same thing, whether we're there or here." Touya explained, even if they were at [Oedo], they'd still have to wait for Yae's father to arrive there, so it was basically a waiting game regardless.
"That is true." Elze agreed, and she clapped her hands together, "So why don't we make ourselves comfortable while we wait? You don't mind, right?"
"Not at all, it's the least we can do after all you've done." Jutaro shook his head, happy to know he can at least provide something to the people that saved the fortress and prevent further bloodshed.
Jutaro immediately called for his second-in-command to send an envoy to the route his father and Ieyasu was taking, telling them to say that the battle for [Kawagoe] was over and ended in Tokugawa victory. The soldier nodded and left to write the letter, Jutaro then told them that they could visit any part of the fortress and if anyone tried to stop them, just tell them that he was the one to authorize it.
After that, the group dispersed, Yae told them that she wanted to spend some time catching up with her brother, the others understood and told her to take all the time she needed; they would just be exploring the fortress while she talked with her brother. They split into pairs of two, while Touya said he wanted to explore alone and maybe grab something to eat, he was a little hungry after exercising his power and using [Gungnir].
Sally gave him a look before she smirked and turned around to join up with Setsuna, Touya raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering what his raven-haired servant was smirking about but shrugged, maybe she was just trying to mess with him like she usually does. He waved goodbye to Leen and Yumina, they would be accompanied by Paula and Kohaku, so there wasn't anything to worry about. Kohaku told him something before he left, saying that he should go get something to eat and he agreed.
Touya was just walking within the fortress asking some of the Tokugawa troops where he could find something to eat, they happily told him that there were some fruits and bread at a storage house, they told him the directions to the storage house and the adventurer thanked them. Smiling, Touya made his journey to the storage house on foot, humming a tone as he followed the directions he was given.
Once he was at his destination, Touya opened the doors, it was dimly lit with candles and lanterns but he still could see enough for it to not be a problem. Touya stepped inside of the storage house and looked around. There were a multitude of supplies, but most were empty. Likely because of the battle prior, Touya searched for anything he could eat but came up empty from where he was looking, so he went further into the place.
Touya scoured through the area in search of food but it was starting to dawn on him that maybe there wasn't any food left for him to eat. He sighed in defeat, what was he gonna do now that he was hungry with no food in sight?
"Man, I'm hungry." Touya sighed, as he leaned on a nearby wall, pondering what to do next now that he was denied the right to eat. He looked up at the ceiling, "How about you?"
The next second, Touya sprung into action, silently activating {Accel} along with {Boost}, making him faster than whoever was trailing him ever since he descended from the watchtower of the [Kawagoe Fortress], his stalker was surprised at his sudden lunge and had almost no time to react.
Touya reached for whoever was it that was trailing him, trying to grab onto their either their arm of ankles in hopes of restraining them, he was able to grab something and Touya took his chance to use all of his strength to reel it in, what happened next was him and whoever it was he was holding onto to tumble about and crashed into the ground below.
Touya rolled around, trying to get into a position where he would be at the top and when he did, he quickly unsheathed [Brunhilde] and switched it to its blade mode, he hovered the sharp blade near the neck of the person and used his body weight and strength to keep them in place.
Because of dim lighting from the candles and lanterns inside of the storage house, Touya couldn't quite make out the face of his stalker, so he created a {Light Orb} using his magic and it lit up the room far better than whatever did prior. Touya's eyes widened when he recognized the face of the person under him.
Her unmistakable violet eyes, the fabric that covered her eyes, her blackish-blue colored hair, she was the last person he thought he would see here, even if it wasn't the same person he knew back home.
"Chiyome…?" Touya muttered.
Turns out, there was another Mochizuki, and it was Chiyome.
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And that's a wrap!
How about that? The start of our next arc, the Eashen Arc starts now! And with the sudden appearance of Mochizuki Chiyome!
Now you may ask, V_KJ, why did you add in Chiyome here? Well, my dear reader, since Eashen was inspired and is an expat of Japan, I thought it would be funny if I added in Chiyome and because she has the same family name as our MC, Touya, it was planned from the start ever since I remembered there was an arc about Eashen, so I thought it would be the perfect time to add that in, doubled by the fact that historically, Mochizuki Chiyome served the Takeda Clan during the Sengoku Period - It was too much of a coincidence to not use!
And with this, Chiyome is the first FGO waifu to appear in this story, I won't tell you how many will be added, just know that many is Japanese related, I literally tried to brainstorm it with my editor but with came up with way too many Japanese than any other nationality…
Oh well, that just means more original arcs to make so I can add them all in!
Speaking of arcs, this Eashen Arc will be extended by quite a bit, since I plan on having Touya bond with the girls more, which in this case is Leen, Setsuna and Chiyome, so the original Arc's ending will be changed to better fit this story's narrative. That and I was currently out on a camping trip, so I couldn't write much, this chapter itself was written within three days after I came back - Along with that is the scripting, I had to script everything from this chapter to chapter 25.
A lot is being planned and finalized, so please forgive me if I don't update like I used to!
Until next time, this V_KJ, signing out.