With a feral smile on his face, the ronin stalked toward the building where Mai was imprisoned. That smile was a threat, one that I imagined she would see in her nightmares for years to come.
Not if I can help it.
Maybe Mitsuhide would free Hideyoshi in time for them to rescue her… but I couldn't count on it, not when it was possible that Hideyoshi had been tortured and would be in no condition to walk out of his prison on his own. I know I was supposed to stay in the tree. I hadn't forgotten his orders, or his lessons, or his explanation… but I had to get Mai out of there before that man got to her.
Sorry Mitsuhide… but this might be our only chance to free Mai in time.
With half my attention following the progress of the ronin, I swung from tree over the fence, dropping silently down into the same shadow that Mitsuhide had. The ronin was making no effort to be quiet, and if I had made any noise (I hadn't) the sound of his footsteps would have masked mine. As soon as it seemed safe to move, I slid through the doorway behind him, into a gloomy corridor. When he stopped to light a lantern, I was right behind him.
Before he even registered my presence, I slammed the hilt of my sword into his head, with enough force to knock him out. Then I tied his hands, stuffed his shoe in his mouth, stole his haori, and dragged him into an empty room – hopefully those precautions would help ensure I would not be discovered before I had a chance to help Mai – although now that the commander had been alerted by the first missing guard, there was only a finite amount of time remaining before he sent in too many for me to handle. (Ok, technically one alert fighter would be too much for me to handle).
Tick, tick, Katsu. Less planning, more rescuing. Right. I hurried down the hallway. When I rounded the corner into what apparently was once a store room, there was a woman chained to the wall and an unconscious guard at her feet, lying in a pool of food scraps.
The food bucket was in pieces on the floor.
Yep. #Girlpower.
Although… it might have been more powerful if she weren't still chained to the wall.
She clutched the man's sword in her chained hands and awkwardly waved it at me. "Stay back!"
I looked down at the man, then back up at the woman who presumably was Mai. Aside from the stolen sword, she didn't appear to have any weapons on her. "I'm on your side." Not the best form of introduction, but I was in a hurry. "Put down the sword so I can-"
"I'm a witch and I spelled him. You'll be next if you come any closer." The sword trembled in her hands. It was obviously far too heavy and a skilled fighter – or even a semi-skilled fighter/ really determined person … like me - would have had no trouble taking it away from her.
But I figured I'd start with negotiation first. Mitsuhide would be even more annoyed with me if I accidentally hurt her in the process of a prison escape. "I'm with Mitsuhide. He's breaking Hideyoshi out right now." She was probably mistaking me for one of the Mouri because of the stolen haori.
The sword wavered but didn't stop pointing my way. "You could be lying. I've never seen you before. Tell me something only Mitsuhide would know."
Really? We're doing this now? "If only Mitsuhide knows it, then how would I know? The man only has two forms of communication. Teasing and more teasing." That should at least be enough to convince her I knew him.
"What's his nickname for me?" She rattled the sword and glared.
Meanwhile the man at her feet was stirring and somewhere outside the commander was about to lose patience. The longer we debated this the more likely we'd be found out. "I have no idea. He never said. But if I let you get killed, he'll more than likely kill me in a dozen unpleasant ways."
She should know that if she knew Mitsuhide as well as that. I mean, even Sasuke knew tha- Wait… she didn't just know Mitsuhide, she knew Sasuke too. Maybe I should just invoke the moderately awesome ninja time travelling meme lor-.
Ah ha!
"My name is Luke Skywalker and I'm here to rescue you." The Force for the win.
Mai blinked eight times and let go of the sword. "I have about a hundred questions – hang on… you're a girl. Even more questions now."
"All those will have to wait, because I don't know how much time we have." On cue, the guard let out a pained moan and stirred again. I clonked him over the head with my sword, then noticed the red marks around his neck.
"Did you... strangle him with your chain?" And when she nodded, I said, "How very Princess Leia of you."
"Except he doesn't have a key to these." She held out her manacled hand.
I pulled one of the lock picks out of my kimono – have lockpicks will travel. "Well that's what this is for."
"Bellflowers." There was a musing tone to her voice, but there was no time to entertain whatever thought was going on in her Princess of the Rebellion brain. "So many… many questions."
She lifted her hands, and I got to work on the lock. It was seriously rusty and required brute force to jam the pick in there. It felt like it had never even been unlocked with a key. "Did they not unbolt these to let you use a toilet?"
"They unlocked it from the wall, and someone walked me like a dog to their privy." She made a face. "It was really gross in there."
Yeah, I could imagine. But… she wasn't nearly dirty enough to have been locked up for several weeks. "How long have you been in here?"
"Three or maybe four days? We were on a ship anchored not too far from here for a while. I don't know why they moved us." She glanced at the unconscious guard. "On the ship it wasn't as icky. I got to take baths, at least."
I suspected that Motonari moved them because he'd gotten word that Nobunaga's ships had sailed from Azuchi. He wouldn't haved even needed spies to be aware of that – it's hard to move a navy without people noticing.
With a loud snap, the lock disengaged, and recalling this building's acoustics, I caught the manacles before they hit the floor.
"Oh my lord, that feels better." Mai rubbed her wrists and shoulders. "Thank you."
With Mai's help, I dragged her previous guard closer to the wall, and put the manacles on him, just barely squeezing his thick wrists into them. Possibly I cut off his circulation in the process. At the moment, I didn't much care.
Mai grabbed his cloak, and wrapped it around herself – now we were two matching soldiers. Two matching… very short… soldiers. The disguises wouldn't fool anyone for any length of time, but hopefully it would at least buy us a head start to sneak out of the building and be back in the tree.
She tried to pick up the heavy sword again.
"Just leave it - it will only slow you down." She looked regretful, and then I imagined that after a month in captivity, she wanted some way to protect herself. "You can take these." I gave her my daggers. They had been made and balanced for me, but we were close to the same height. I doubted she'd be very good with them, but hopefully they would make her feel safer.
Taking no chances, we locked the man up in the cell and crept down the hall. Mai didn't need to be told to be quiet. If luck was with us, maybe we'd be able to sneak out of here before the rest of-
Clearly, I need to stop thinking 'if luck is with us.'
The commander entered the building and called down the hallway. "Princess! I warned you what would happen if you misbehaved." He strode down the corridor, no stealth whatsoever. I pushed Mai deeper into the shadows, where the lantern light barely illuminated the corridor, and put my hand on my sword.
Please don't let me have to use this.
Don't get me wrong, I would kill in self-defense if I had to. The question was, could I defend myself and keep Mai safe at the same time? There is a reason way a bow and arrow is my primary weapon.
On top of that thought came one of those weird flashes of memory/not memories, in which a man with one blue and one green eye drilled me over and over on swordsmanship.
"We're finished."
"But-."
He started to walk away, then paused, turned around, and went through a kneel-to-stand kata in slow motion. "Do that."
I picked up my sword and repeated the exercise - kneeling position - rise to one-knee-up position, draw sword- horizontal cut to two-handed downward cut and stand. Once I had seen it in slow motion, I recognized it as one Aki had taught me. It had not been familiar hurtling toward me at warp speed.
"Good." The word was nearly a grunt. Not much of a conversationalist. "Repeat that. All morning."
Not now.
Not my memory.
No time for distractions.
Rejecting that unfamiliar image, I concentrated on the approaching enemy. He was so busy looking forward, presumably on getting to Mai's room, that he was halfway past me before he even saw me. By the time I registered in his peripheral vision, my hand was already headed for his face.
Crunch!
Always go for the nose, because you get an extra few seconds while they deal with the pain to get in another hit. Or is that supposed to be with a shark attack? … Details.
Making those extra seconds count, once again I rendered a man unconscious with the hilt of my sword.
"I don't think you're supposed to use it that way." Mai peered over my shoulder at the man sprawled on the ground.
Yeesh. And Mitsuhide calls me bloodthirsty? "Would you like me to wake him up and stab him?"
She paused a moment, and in that quiet, we became aware of a growing commotion coming from the outside. "That's ok."
We crept to the doorway and peeped out, where the all that noise turned out to be Mitsuhide and a brown haired man - one whose bruises and cuts indicated his captivity had been far more harrowing than Mai's - were battling their way across the grounds of the fort.
"Hideyoshi." I wouldn't have thought Mai's soft exclamation was loud enough for anyone to hear, but Mitsuhide, prompted by whatever psychic demon occasionally sits on his shoulder, flicked a quick glance our way, and his battle-intent expression grew even darker. Colder.
Yeah, I was in for it.
Or, I would be, as soon as we got out of this.
After taking in the current state of the battle, I realized that I could provide better protection for everyone if I climbed onto the roof.
I turned to Mai and pointed to the dagger she now clutched. "Stay covered here until Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi get to you. Stick the pointy end into the body of anyone else who gets anywhere near you."
"Wait, where are you going?" she grabbed my arm.
"Up." Mitsuhide had been counting on arrow support from the tree. While the roof of this building would not be as great a vantage as said tree, it would do for now. Using a nearby boulder as a boost, I propelled myself onto the roof. The tile was broken and uneven, but it would hold my weight.
Immediately, I heard one of the ronin shout. "They've got a man on the building!"
Something whistled past my ear and pinged onto the tile behind me, sending up a shower of ceramic fragments. Arrow? Or bullet? After ducking back behind the second level roof, I located a man with a rifle while he was trying to reload. My arrow shot the gun out of his hands before he'd even got the powder in.
Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi were holding their own as they battled their way toward Mai. No… they were better than simply holding their own. They seemed to know exactly how to work together, slicing and cutting in a rhythm that almost seemed choreographed. There was a beauty to their fighting, a balance between Hideyoshi's fierce, almost savage strikes and Mitsuhide's cool elegance. Had this been a less dangerous situation, I think I could have sat back and watched them fight all day.
But I didn't know how injured Hideyoshi was or how long he could keep it up, so I kept my arrow targeted on the soldiers, ready to shoot if any peeled away from the main battle and approached Mai. Only once did I even need to send an arrow into the fray. Oda's right and left hand men were just that good.
As soon as the two reached Mai, I sent a couple more warning shots toward the soldiers, making sure they kept a distance while Mai threw herself into Hideyoshi's arms. The sheer relief of their reunion was obvious even from where I was perched, and I glanced at Mitsuhide to see how he was taking it. No… I wasn't close enough to read his expression. I could imagine that he felt happy and proud to have rescued them, and yet envious of their relationship. But that was just a projection on my part - his posture gave nothing away.
While Mai and Hideyoshi were still embracing, another soldier rushed Mitsuhide. He simply flicked him away as easily as you would swat a fly. I realized I had never seen Mitsuhide battle before. In fact having known him only in covert mode, I'd had the impression that he was almost above physical violence. Now, though, I could see he was an efficient fighter, with an icy calm that made him even more dangerous.
Mitsuhide kept guard over his friends' reunion, then said something to Hideyoshi that had the man glance quickly upward at me. More specifically he looked toward the roof where I was currently perched. While Mitsuhide protected their flank, Hideyoshi then boosted Mai up and followed suit. He gave me a nod before hustling Mai across the roof, helping her to climb over the fence and into the tree that represented relative safety.
Motonari's men advanced closer on Mitsuhide. Without Hideyoshi around, they seemed to believe they could overwhelm him with their numbers. I sent a few arrows their way to remind them why that would be a dangerous move. One of the men stumbled backward, and kicked over a keg of gunpowder, which nearly rolled into the fire.
Whoa. That would be bad. If a whole keg of gunpowder exploded, the entire fort would…
Hmm…
That would be bad... for them.
When Mitsuhide climbed onto the roof to join me, I took aim at the keg. "Are you going to come with us, or have you realized you would be safer with these soldiers?" His low voiced comment was full of menace. I didn't have to look at him to know that his eyes had likely gone cold and hard.
He was mad I had left my post. I had had a good reason, but now was the wrong time to explain. Instead, I indicated the powder keg that I was aiming for. "Yes… or no?"
"Dear me, are you asking my opinion? Now?" But even after the sarcasm, he still looked at the keg, then the firepit, as if judging the distance from it to us. "Do it, then run."
Well, at least he gave me credit for having the ability to hit the thing.
I sent the arrow into the side of the keg, and let physics do the rest. The keg rolled onto the fire, spilling open on impact.
Mitsuhide yanked me to my feet and we took off running across the roof.
Boom!
The storehouse shuddered and buckled in the resulting shockwave. I could feel the tiles slipping under my feet as Mai's former prison imploded beneath us.