As the splash from the cannonball rippled out in circles, rocking our boat, I risked standing up to scan the water's surface looking for something, some sign, proof of life, I guess.

How long could Mitsuhide hold his breath, if that was what he was doing?

What if that blast had knocked him out?

Maybe he was even now sinking deeper and deeper?

Before I could second guess myself, I prepared to dive in, but Kyubei had made the same decision, and made it faster. He thrust the crossbow into my hands and tore off his clothing-

As right next to us, a geyser of water and Mitsuhide erupted out of the ocean. He took a deep gasping gulp of air. Casually, he folded his arms on the side of the boat, looking like a Sengoku era Kilroy, and into our silence said, "Kyubei? Where are your clothes?

Relief warred with an urge to-

"Far be it from me to point out the obvious, Kaya, but the Mouri ship is over there, and not in the middle of my forehead. May I gently suggest you point that weapon... that way." He gestured to a point over my shoulder.

For one moment, I entertained a rather murderous thought and kept the weapon where I was aiming it for an extra long pause before I returned the crossbow to Kyubei, who had quickly thrown his haori back on. "It's a wonder none of your friends have murdered you yet." I'd addressed it half to Mitsuhide and half to Hideyoshi, who was still sputtering outraged syllables.

"I've often wondered the same about you." Mitsuhide slid into the boat with athletic grace, and then elegantly knocked some water out of his ears.

"Oh that's easy enough. I don't have any friends," I tossed it out there without thinking, although I suppose it's more or less the truth. Unless you counted Sasuke, who was currently five hundred years in the future (right - Mai and I still needed to compare notes once we got out of this situation). Anyway, now wasn't the time to dwell on my friendless state. The immediate danger of the Mouri's rowboat had passed, but we were still stuck in the lagoon, with a pirate ship blocking our exit.

The morning sun soon revealed that our state had become even more precarious, illuminating the Mouri soldiers who were waiting for us on the shore. Well, since we'd – I'd – burned down their fort, they'd probably be a lovely welcoming committee should we decide to take our chances on swimming back to the island. I doubted they'd be greeting us with a plate of cookies.

Mitsuhide seemed supremely unconcerned by any of that. He'd pulled his clothes back on, though the fabric clung damply to his wet body. I looked away. It wasn't worth dwelling on. As if nothing major had interrupted the morning, he asked Mai and Hideyoshi if they managed to get any rest.

"Until your pre-dawn swim, I did." Hideyoshi's response was a growl, the 'you self-sacrifical ass' went unspoken but was still broadcast loud and clear.

After a quick glance at the position of the sun, Mitsuhide scanned the horizon to the north, and nodded as something large and dark glided into sight. Many somethings. "Perfectly on time," Mitsuhide turned to Hideyoshi. "After all your lectures, is it not gratifying to know that Masamune can be prompt when it's absolutely necessary?"

The long dark thing separated into a line of iron hulled warships. The Oda fleet of atakebune. It was obvious that Motanari's single Portuguese vessel was outgunned. Hideyoshi easily flipped into tactical mode as he gazed at the approaching reinforcements. "What happened to the Mouri navy?"

"We moved up the timetable and got here first," Mitsuhide said, as Motonari's carrack raised sails, the blue sash still flying from the top of it, and booked it out to sea.

The Oda fleet, built for coastal defense, didn't bother to follow.

Mitsuhide smiled and turned his face to the sun. "Lovely day for a sail, would you say?" He didn't quite get to the point of an 'I love it When a Plan Comes Together', but it was implied.

By the time we'd made our way out of the cove to meet Oda's large vessel, Hideyoshi had apparently either forgiven Mitsuhide for worrying him, or decided that it was all a part and parcel of the entity of Mitsuhide. Conversely, Mitsuhide had not forgiven me for leaving the tree to rescue Mai. I was effectively shut out of whatever conversation there was, and left to sit quietly in the end of the boat.

Probably when we got onboard Nobunaga's ship, I would be in for a full lecture, without the audience of Hideyoshi and Mai.

Once we were off Kyubei's little sailboat, Mitsuhide was reabsorbed into his life as Nobunaga's left-hand man, and I was left on the sidelines. I would have volunteered to do something to help… but they didn't really need me. The Oda clan, while completely polite, was a mostly well-oiled machine (with one rather clumsy exception). Everyone had tasks, and everyone performed them diligently, with no stopping to rest or relax or socialize. With Motonari having evaded capture and sailed off into the sunset, the Oda warlords were far too involved in what they called "war council," to find some busywork for me to do (I'd asked Hideyoshi, and been politely told to "take a well earned rest young lady").

Though Nobunaga formally thanked me for my help, he was of course mostly holed up with Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide, apparently plotting out the next step. The ship we were on, was of Portuguese construction too, so of course it could pursue Motonari, but it was too risky a move to pursue without the support of the shore-hugging atakebune, so we were headed... where?

"Sakai first." The only member of the Oda's inner circle to spend any time at all talking to me was a sweet young man named Mitsunari. He had found me sitting on deck watching the coasts of the Southern islands drift past and had paused to answer my question. In spite of, or perhaps because of, his rather absentminded air, I found Mitsunari a restful companion, and during the few times I was in all the warlords' presence, I'd gravitated toward his side.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike any of them (aside from Mitsuhide, I needed to hold onto my hate like a winter parka in a blizzard) but I didn't know them well enough to hang out. For the most part, they were all more focused on nurturing Mai. Though she was Hideyoshi's woman, it was clear she was a favorite of all of them. Maybe even their "center" for lack of a better word. Nobunaga called her his lucky charm, and though she was from my time originally, she had become a true Oda Princess in character as well as in name.

I realized that Mitsunari was still talking. Oops. I'd phased right out. "I'm sorry, I missed that." Impolite Katsu!

"Oh. Do you do that too? Sometimes it is hard to keep what is in my head quiet enough to see what is going on around me." Mitsunari seemed unbothered by my inattention. "Not to worry Lady Kaya. I am certain you have much on your mind too. I asked you if you were coming back to Azuchi with Mitsuhide."

"Um, I don't know." I didn't know when Mitsuhide planned to go on to Azuchi. We'd had an agreement. If we didn't find Aki with Mai and Hideyoshi, he'd promised to keep helping my search. But, would he consider that agreement still valid? The 'tree incident' (for want of a better description) might have invoked a disobedience clause. "I should discuss that with him."

"Hideyoshi asked Mitsuhide if they should prepare one of the guest quarters in the castle for you, but I didn't hear what the answer was." Mitsunari paused, as if trying to form another question in his head, and then dropped the conversation entirely when a gust of wind grabbed one of his papers and blew it toward the sails.

"I'll get that!" I already knew that we did not want Mitsunari climbing around in the rigging. Over the past couple of days, he'd tripped over a bucket, sending dirty water across the entire deck, nearly garroted himself on a sail line, and had knocked Ieyasu overboard (luckily we'd been anchored at the time).

Just as I was reaching for the paper… I've done this before. It was another of those odd not-my-memory memories: a vision of climbing a tree to retrieve one of Mitsunari's papers. I closed my eyes to ward off the image, and that feeling of displacement that accompanied it.

A set of cool hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into the present. Into reality. Mitsuhide. I could feel this touch through my clothing. "I realize that you find vertical surfaces nearly irresistible, but I must insist you refrain from scampering about like a demented squirrel." He plucked me off the mast and set me on the deck.

I handed the paper to Mitsunari, and mouthed 'Help me' at him. He simply bowed and wandered away, leaving me alone with Mitsuhide for the first time since the tree incident. Granted, we weren't technically alone. Not with the Oda vassals and sailors scurrying around us, but Mitsuhide had that way of pitching his voice low and quiet and somehow erecting a force field around a conversation. We might have been invisible.

"I wasn't demented. I was helping Mitsunari. Do you really want him climbing around up there?" Besides this time, Mitsuhide hadn't told me not to climb. He was probably just seizing the opportunity to finish his long delayed lecture and — his hands were still holding onto my waist. I took a step back. Even after we broke apart, I could still feel the impression of his fingers, as if I had been clay, and he a sculptor.

"What I would like is for you start using that brain of yours for something beyond fighting me." He tapped his finger on my forehead. "Think before you leap... up... or down."

Feeling unfairly accused, I fell into the trap and spoke without thinking. "And maybe you should listen before you leap to conclu- "

"Kaya!" Out of nowhere, Mai appeared and grabbed my hand. "Finally. I've been wanting to talk to you forever." She turned to Mitsuhide and gave him a dazzling smile. "Excuse us. Girl talk. You can have her back later."

Before he (or I for that matter) could respond, she'd tugged me away, keeping hold of my hand until we were safely in the quarters she was sharing with Hideyoshi. That man was nowhere in sight, probably he was still strategizing with Nobunaga.

She slammed the door shut, then looked nervously over her shoulder, as if Mitsuhide could or have teleported through it. Then she sighed. "There."

Though well timed, her rescue had seemed unprompted. "Did Mitsunari tell you I needed help?"

"Not exactly. He said you were with Mitsuhide, but seemed to have forgotten how to talk, I got curious. And well, I was gonna let the two of you wallow in your u.s.t, but figured you both needed a cooling off period first." She plopped down on the bed (an actual European, raised off the floor bed) and bounced a little. "I wish we could take these back to Azuchi."

Ignoring the odd tangent, I focused on her initial comment. "First of all, a - that was not u.s.t., that was actual anger. It's hard to tell with him because, b, he is carved from a block of ice, and, therefore, c, a cooling off period is redundant, oh and," I counted off on my fingers to make sure where I was in this list, "d, I don't want to talk about him because it would be nice now that I've found another woman I can talk to, to have a conversation that passes the Bechdel test, especially since you probably actually know what that is." And then, for emphasis, I plopped down on the bed, actually threw myself onto its softness and stared up at the ceiling. "You might have a point about the bed or - at least the pillow." I grabbed the pillow and hugged it to me. "Note to self. Next time I time travel, I'm bringing a pillow."

"Shhhh." She suddenly sat up and looked at the porthole… which was sealed shut. "Sorry. Not too many people know my secret. Just Hideyoshi and Nobunaga … and now you. But how did you know I was from the future when we've never met?"

"Sasuke knows, which is how I learned about you." Well more or less. Because it made more sense to start at the beginning, I did so, summarizing the past seven years as minimally as possible.

"Wait. You time travelled to your father, but he didn't tell you he was your dad? That's kind of," she seemed to be reaching for a word, but too polite to supply it.

So I did it for her. "Shitty. I know. Anyway Aki's note mentioned Sasuke, so I hunted him down and we compared notes. Since you, Hideyoshi and Aki all disappeared from Sakai, Sasuke wondered if you all went into the wormhole. Or a wormhole. There could be more than one. Anyway. Details. Sasuke went to the future to see if he could find you there, leaving me to work with Mitsuhide here." I rolled my eyes to remind her of how that was going.

"He can be a tease sometimes but his heart is in the right place." I must have looked clearly skeptical on that, because she added, "The more he teases, the more he actually means what he says underneath."

So. He really means that I'm impossible. Why are we talking about him again? "Look, let's get back to my father, who may or not be somewhere in the future. Did Motonari ever mention Aki- or Akihira- or Yamaoka Akihira?"

She shook her head. "Honestly, we did not spend much time with him. He basically did some moustache twirling, locked us up on his ship, then sent us to that island. We were the only two prisoners, and once we were on the island, I only saw the guard who brought my food." She shivered, and I felt guilty about making her relive it.

Aki's disappearance was probably coincidence. Which meant, even though Mitsuhide had said he'd still help me after we found Mai and Hideyoshi, the chance of him having the resources to do so, if it involved time travel, was getting smaller and smaller. Even if I could figure out how to go through a wormhole on my own, it wouldn't be right to ask Mitsuhide to come with me. Nor would he agree to leave this era. He was needed by Nobunaga – even, I as an outsider, could see how important he was.

Damn, I Really needed to see the rest of Aki's letter. Hm. Shot in the dark. "Er. Did anyone mention anything about an Iekane? I think," I tried to recall the contents of the letter we'd found at de Sousa's so long ago, "he was using the name Kanemori, and claimed to have access to silver mines."

She wrinkled her nose in concentration – an action I bet charmed everyone around her. "Not ringing a bell. Is he another part of this conspiracy – or whatever it was?"

"He is, but I don't know how. Or how much." And whether the silver mines were the end game, or something very different – something to do with Aki and time travel. "He's who ended up with the Oda's weapons shipment."

"Sorry. Maybe Hideyoshi might know who he is?" She poked at my sleeve, which had gotten ripped in all the insanity on the island. "I need to be doing something with my hands while I talk. Do you mind if I grab my sewing kit and fix this?"

"You were kidnapped with your sewing box?" I hadn't seen it when we were escaping.

"No. Mitsuhide had Kyubei bring it from Azuchi with the rest of our clothing. He was that certain he would find us. He had one of Hideyoshi's pipes too." She rummaged through a trunk, leaving me to sit with the memory of a puzzle box containing a pipe and a lock of Mai colored hair.

The sooner I get away from these people the better.

Mai returned to my side before I'd had a chance to move, or even think more clearly about my plans to extricate myself from this contract. Besides her sewing box, she'd brought a yukata for me to wear while she repaired my clothes. I thought of the turquoise one Mitsuhide had given me. Unlike Mai's clothes, my "Kaya" clothes were still in Sakai. That was ok though. I didn't need to be Kaya, I needed to be Katsu, and I had all of Katsu's identity with me.

"When we get back to Azuchi, I'd love to design something just for you. To thank you for the rescue." Mai hummed happily as she carefully sewed up the seam.

Ignoring the assumption that I'd be joining them in Azuchi, I simply told her. "If you could make a sports bra, I'd follow you to the ends of the earth."

"I know, right? No lycra in the Sengoku." She frowned." I might be able to rig something with cotton? But anyone who saw it would wonder at it. Besides, maybe it's a time paradox too. What if some anthropologist found it?"

Given the whole Kenshin, Shingen, Motonari back from the dead, Nobunaga and Mitsuhide still alive situation, I doubted the existence of a sports bra would cause a time paradox. Not to mention… "No one is going to see my underwear." I pulled the sash of the yukata tighter. Mitsuhide had possibly seen everything while I was unconscious, but that had been a medical necessity. And if he had seen everything, he'd politely not mentioned it. A rare case of non-teasing.

Following my chain of thoughts, Mai produced a fairly credible interpretation of Mitsuhide's smirk. "Not even Mitsuhide?"

Ugh. Here we go again.

"We have a contract. We are all business when we're in private. And he's mad that I left the tree to rescue you." When she looked up in confusion, I added, "I wasn't supposed to be the one who broke you out. I was supposed to give them cover while they went in there. When you overpowered that first guard, the commander sent another guard to check it out, so I needed to get you before the second guy raised the alarm."

"I could explain that to him." She shook out the material, examining it for other tears and signs of wear.

"Don't. If he's not going to listen to me, I don't want him to have to take someone else's word first." Besides, in the past I had given him more than enough reasons to distrust me.

She hummed again, but from the look on her face, I suspected she was going to try and intercede anyway.

"Don't." I warned her once again. "It will work itself out one way or another." The another being that I'd be long gone. If these days on the boat had taught me anything, it was that Mitsuhide's life, his future belonged to Azuchi.

Whereas mine… I'd be moving on, looking for Aki, which it appears also meant hunting down Iekane.