Wow. I hope I don't have to clean this up.
Possibly not the most appropriate first thought to have upon riding into Center Gate, but I really am hoping I don't have to. I've got enough seniority to avoid having to do the really shit jobs, right?
Right?
If not seniority, the fact that I've been up all night making this happen should get me some slack. Mifune has vanished with the general, still need his name, and I wasn't assigned to any of the regular army units, so I'm somewhat at a loss.
Cloud snorts under me and I nod, "You're right. That is something we can take care of right now." With that we turn and go looking for the stables. Cloud may not have been with me all night, but I doubt she slept much either.
She tends to worry about me.
Fortunately, finding the stables is easy, as it's somewhat logically located right on the main courtyard just inside the main gates. It only takes a moment to dismount and push the sliding wooden door open, and I immediately recoil from the smell.
Cloud looks for a moment into the dark interior of the stable, pins her ears back, and swings her head around to look at me incredulously.
I scrub my face with my hands. "I totally forgot that the defenders would have horses as well." Cloud snorts at me, which I interpret as something not complimentary. "I've been flying around all night and I'm currently functioning on no sleep or food. Cut me some slack." Cloud looks away from me clearly denying my request, before she turns back and starts nosing me insistently. Her fore hoof paws at the ground, her ears perk forward as she huffs at me before nosing me more and tossing her head.
Demanding horse.
"I know, I know, I'm on it," I grumble.
I still refuse to clean any of this up, so how should I...?
My ears catch the sound of a distinct kind of angry shouting.
Ah. There we go.
Looking around, I see what I hoped for. A sergeant chewing out a group of soldiers who had apparently been left to their own devices too long and so had found something to entertain themselves with. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that nobody else found whatever they'd done entertaining.
My grin is probably more than slightly malicious as I head in their direction, Cloud following along next to me. It takes a moment after we arrive for the sergeant to finish his current invective, at which point he turns to me suddenly becoming a perfect example of military courtesy.
"Ma'am," he bows to the perfect slight angle and then straightens, "What can I do for you?"
"I couldn't help but overhear, sergeant. From what I understand these soldiers are in need of something to keep them occupied?" I ask mildly.
The glint in the man's eye is downright evil. "Indeed, ma'am. Do you have something for them?"
"Yes, I think I do. As it turns out, the stables will need to be thoroughly cleaned out before they're suitable for habitation again." I glance at the assembled soldiers standing stiffly and trying to blend into the background. The majority of them have gone pale, except for the few that are sporting a festive green tinge.
"That does sound like something that will keep my boys and girls appropriately busy for a while," the sergeant nods slowly. "Will you be overseeing, ma'am?"
I shake my head, "I've been up all night, and haven't eaten anything since dinner yesterday. I'm going to need to address those problems before I fall over. Besides, it's not me they'll have to satisfy anyway." I pat my horsey friend's neck. "Cloud will make sure they get things up to standards, though. No worry."
The sergeant doesn't even blink at the idea of having a horse in charge of some of his men. "Good rest then, ma'am. Lady Cloud, why don't you show us what needs doing." Things are delayed just long enough for me to pull Cloud's saddle off, before I take it with me and head to see if Nell has found me a room yet.
###
The sound of knocking drags me towards consciousness in spite of my best efforts. Fortunately I can hear the door open and the sound of Nell handling whatever it is, which gloriously means I don't have to. So I slip easily back into deep sleep.
I'm awakened again from my much needed sleep, what seems like only moments later, by the sound of soft purring and an even softer paw patting my cheek. I groan and turn my face into the entirely insufficient pillow in an effort to go back to sleep. Instead the paw goes from soft to somewhat harder as I'm bapped in the back of my head.
Apparently I'm done sleeping.
I roll my head again and crack an eye open to see Nell standing next to my futon, paws on her hips, as she looks down at me. Nell is wonderful, but at some point she realized that while I'm her princess, I'm also a teenager, and has on occasion started to treat me like one.
I'm not sure if I like it or not.
"Princess, you've been summoned by the generals." Fuck. That means I actually need to get up. "I've prepared clothing for you, and a bath you should be able to use if you move quickly. It would not do to go before the generals without cleaning yourself."
I groan, heave myself to my feet and stagger my way to the steaming copper tub that Nell managed to get her paws on somehow. I'm glad I don't need my eyes to move around because opening them seems like far too much effort at the moment. With a moan that I'm glad only Nell is around to hear, I slip into the hot water, taking a moment to enjoy the water, as my faithful maid gets ready to help me get clean.
Normally I'd insist that I'm capable of washing myself, but right now that sounds like effort, and honestly she'll do a faster and better job than I will. The idea tugs forward a memory from my first life, before DxD, of trying to explain to somebody that changing their clothes will actually go faster if they just do what we say and nothing else. I think it was backstage of a theater? In any case doing more than letting Nell take care of me sounds like work, which I just don't have the energy for at the moment.
...
"Nell, how much sleep did I get?"
"Not nearly enough." I can hear Nell's pinned back ears in her voice. She's almost hissing.
Probably best to just let her do her thing...
###
My cat maid gets me cleaned, dressed, and pushes a hot meat and vegetable filled bun in my hand before she ushers me out of the door. Following along behind me like the faithful attendant she is, Nell subtly nudges me right or left, guiding me to where my meeting is supposed to be.
How the hell Nell has already learned her way around the city sized fortress we're currently living in is utterly beyond me. She's clearly managed somehow, though.
By the time we arrive I'm completely awake, and have more than enough wherewithal to be nervous. I take a moment to straighten and smooth out my wrap shirt and hakama, and use the time to try and get a feel for what's waiting for me.
I can hear two voices discussing what sounds like some logistical issues surrounding refugees wanting to avoid the war by fleeing south, that are being very carefully let through Center gate. Something which fortunately lands solidly in the category of 'not my problem'. I can only feel two sources of chakra inside, so the two people talking are the only people in there. Finally, I take a deep breath through my nose, identifying Mifune and the still nameless general.
Great, I'm starting to hate meetings.
If I stall any longer it'll start being rude, so I nod to Nell, who slides the door open allowing me to step in, and then closes it behind me. Inside I find a small room with a bare wooden floor and a low table where Mifune and the general kneel and appear to be sorting through a great deal of paperwork. I bow appropriately to the two men in the room, then kneel on the hardwood floor and wait for them to tell me why I'm here.
"Welcome Rhostana-san..." Mifune starts.
"After seeing what you accomplished with Center Gate," the bear of a general interrupts, something that doesn't appear to endear him to Mifune at all. Mifune doesn't do anything about it though, "and having the opportunity to talk to Mifune and various others, I've been convinced to give your reputation more creedence than I'd been inclined to previously." The man grunts and his tone of voice makes me think that he resents everything about what he just said. "So we're giving you a trial run."
Mifune slides a scroll across the table to me and I open it to give it a look over while he continues to talk. At the very top is the picture of a very attractive blonde woman, maybe four or five years older than I am, wearing a full formal kimono suitable for a Daimyo's court.
"This," Mifune explains, his smooth, calm voice, a nice contrast to the general's gruff rumble, "is Lady Tomiko Sasaki. She is the daughter of a noble of the Land of Fire, recently married to Lord Sasaki and unfortunately was trapped at their home in the north when the coup happened. Lord Sasaki has voiced no opinion on the various political and philosophical issues surrounding the current war, but has generally been supportive of the Daimyo. So we believe that he would default to our side in the absence of other pressures."
"But the rebels have access to his new wife," I grimace, poor guy. She's really pretty too, I hope for her sake the marriage wasn't entirely political.
"Precisely." Is that surprise I hear in your voice general? Well, fuck you too. "We know where she was supposed to be when the coup kicked off, and we, or rather Lady Hamaguchi, believes that between the disaster the coup ended up being for the rebels, and how fast we've moved afterwards, it's unlikely that they've realized that she's there. Or what it could mean if they get their hands on her."
"So you want me to get to her first?" It's pretty obvious, and nice of them to include a map of the castle she's supposedly in, and their best guess as to what the interior looks like. They marked where the Lady's chambers are supposed to be, but blueprints aren't something that's really kept in this era. So the layout is likely the result of getting a few people that have been in the castle previously, and asking them to draw what they remembered. A method that's far more likely to be accurate with the general location of important rooms than the details of the hallways. So the general location of the lord's rooms could come in handy. Or at least give me a place to start.
"Precisely," Mifune says and glances to the side at the other man at the table as he repeats the general's earlier word choice. Though his expression and tone of voice don't change in the slightest, he smells happy. The general glares back at him.
Some friction in the command staff?
Come to think of it, what was Mifune's rank before the coup? Did he take over by simply showing up with an army and getting shit done?
None of my business either way, so I refocus on my target. She really is pretty, the blond hair makes me think that there's a Senju or Yamanaka in her ancestry somewhere. The pupiless bright green eyes make me lean towards a Yamanaka. Or they could have been somebody from Sand, I suppose.
The racoon jinjuriki's sister will be blonde won't she?
Who knows, I barely remember the girl. And it's not really important either.
I look up at the two men giving me orders, they're perfectly composed. No sign of whatever little spat they may or may not have had.
I hesitate for a moment, my gaze flicking between the two. After several long moments of silence, I ask to take my leave.
Leave given, I get out of there as quickly as I can. That whole meeting was just incredibly awkward.
...And I still don't know that general's name!
###
I don't leave on my mission immediately. I can't really. Center Gate is a mess of epic proportions. The army is moving in, most of the food stores are being replaced, rooms are being prepared by servants or low ranking troops in need of something to do. It'll take several days, assuming good weather and no hostile encounters, to get to where I need to be. So I need supplies, food, water, a tent, and probably some other things I'm not thinking of off the top of my head. Which means I need to wait for the quartermasters to get their act together.
This isn't made any easier by the presence of refugees already fleeing through the Gate from the north. Mifune and the generals apparently want these people somewhere else as quickly as possible, just to get them out of the way, the risk of infiltrators apparently being judged as acceptable. It does seem unlikely that the rebels have people standing ready to sneak into what they at the time considered their own impregnable fortress. But the refugees are getting everywhere and slowing down the quartermaster by trying to purchase or trade for supplies to continue their journey south.
Basically, it's just a huge mess.
The good news is that my mission is something of a priority and I'm also a favorite of Hayato's. And what with him being the Quartermaster General, I get slightly preferential treatment.
Won't get me out of the Gate any sooner than tomorrow morning if I'm lucky, so probably some time later than I really want to leave. Leaving me with a day to occupy. So I take the rare opportunity to sleep in. I fuss over Cloud, brushing her to within an inch of her life while playing a game of Go with her.
Which I manage to win, in no way because she's half asleep from the brushing while playing.
I spar with various other samurai and soldiers who are similarly at loose ends while waiting for their shift, or like me waiting to be able to pursue their own missions.
Spend a while after that soaking in a hot bath, which feels absolutely heavenly after being in the cold of the open air practice yards.
I try to help out where it looks like it's needed. It seems like another pair of inhumanly strong hands to move boxes around would be welcome. Not the case it turns out. I'm told no fewer than five times to stay out of the way with frustrated politeness. The sixth time I'm actually chased out of the kitchen by a tiny woman wielding a wooden spoon nearly as big as she is.
All of this manages to keep me occupied until some time in the mid-afternoon, when I'm reduced to people watching, and utterly bored. I'd start practicing Ripple the Still Pond, Ku's anti armor technique, but I don't have the practice tools up here or the time to make them. I'd start working on my next Script project, but that's the sort of thing I'd need to sink weeks into at least to get anywhere, and I'm leaving for a mission in a day, two at the most.
So I've devolved to wandering aimlessly through the city sized fortress watching the collection of soldiers, servants, refugees, and the occasional samurai. The soldiers, servants, and samurai aren't that interesting. I live with these people, or at least their kind if not these specific individuals. The refugees come in far more variety though.
A group of children numbering in the dozens have been corralled off to one side of the large courtyard serving as a staging point for the refugees. They're being watched by a group of teenagers roughly my own age, or a couple of years older at the most. The kids appear to be playing some bizarre version of tag that doesn't involve them moving all that much... I think. The teens are keeping a nominal eye on the kids, but mostly seem to be watching one of their number, a boy that seems to have gotten the short straw in the puberty process looking incredibly awkward with limbs that he hasn't nearly grown into yet, attempt to flirt with a girl who has to be one of the older ones there. Nineteen at least. I can say he's got good taste at least. The feeling of sympathetic awkwardness is too much, so I move on.
A brightly painted caravan of wagons seems to be some sort of traveling circus. Or smugglers. Their leader, a large round man wearing an overcoat covered in stars, seems to be trying very hard to convince the soldiers that they don't actually need to inspect his many carts. It doesn't seem to be going well for him as the soldier is obviously losing his patience. A couple of squads already have the caravan surrounded and are obviously looking for an excuse to get involved, so that seems handled.
Five mercenaries, dressed in cold weather gear and generic flack jackets that seem to be used as armor outside of Iron. Swords on their hips, knives tucked into their belts, one of them has a bow, unstrung. The five of them are escorting a figure in enough cold weather gear that they look like nothing so much as a marshmallow. A long braid of black hair falls out of the fur hood the escorted figure wears, making me think that they're female. Possibly some sort of noble, the hair doesn't look nearly bad enough to have gone more than a few days without extensive care. Can't see much more of them as they're wearing a scarf around their face to trap as much heat as possible, leaving only the bright green pupiless eyes visible, and only for a moment as she looks back over her shoulder in my direction. Then the mercenaries lead their charge out of the courtyard and into the interior of the fortress, apparently already checked and cleared.
An aged couple huddle together against one of the walls to stay out of the gentle wind that occasionally blows through the courtyard. A man in his early to mid twenties is carrying two steaming bowls to them...
Okay, the mercenaries are bugging me.
...
Not sure why, though.
I run over every detail that I noticed about them again, and don't come up with anything. I start towards the door they took into the Gate as I continue to rack my brain for what's bothering me. Swords, bow, armor... Their charge's eyes.
Those eyes are familiar.
For some reason.
Something recent...
I push my way into the small side door that the mercenaries had entered and find myself in one of the small sub halls. Largely empty except for a few servants who are the hall's intended users. The mercs are just rounding a corner further down the hallway as I get to it, the servants looking after them as though they'd done something surprising.
I break into a run after them making the corner they'd disappeared around, and find them halfway down an even emptier hallway. They've pulled their hoods back in the warmer air of the fortress interior. I'm still not sure what's bugging me about these people, but I've got an easy way to rule out a lot of things at least.
I push mana into my eyes and feel it saturating them. Even if I can't see it happening I can feel the white's of my eyes bleeding to black. If they're hiding anything then...
Holy shit!
These people are covered in lies.
Their clothes? Lies.
Their armor? Lies.
Their weapons, their faces, their very body shapes, are all lies.
The only thing that's not a lie are the woman's... eyes.
Bright green pupiless eyes. I hadn't recognized her in the context of the Gate, but I'd just been looking at a picture of her this morning. This is the noblewoman I'm supposed to be leaving to find tomorrow. I'm not sure who these people are, but I'm supposed to be securing her. Which means that here or at the castle I was supposed to find her in, I can't let them take her.
"Hold!" My voice echoes and bounces down the empty hallway, rolling over them like a physical thing. The woman staggers and the mercenaries lose a step, then they all turn to look at me. I start to stride down the hallway towards them.
"I'll take care of her." Oh, you will, will you?
I frown, but before I can speak, the one who's apparently going to 'take care' of me, snaps a hand forward and several shuriken come flying directly at my face, and I flood my body with earth-aspected mana.
Feint
The sharp steel flying at my face feels off, through my shinjitsugan they look less important than they should. A distraction, though one that could hurt me if I ignore it. I slap the shuriken out of the air, and raise my off hand and the kunai held by what I'm assuming now is a ninja, scrapes along my skin with the sound of steel on stone.
He'd tried to use focus blindness to cover his approach, intending to stab me somewhere important before I caught up to what was going on. Unfortunately for him my eyes spotted the feint for what it was, and I could hear his every move coming down the hallway towards me.
I grab his wrist and slide one foot forward as I drop my center and chamber my fist. Then I pull him towards me and into the boxing straight that slams into his chest with all the power my body can generate. His momentum abruptly reverses itself and he's launched back down the hall leaving behind a small puff of chakra smoke.
Must have been using a henge to change his appearance. But since a henge is an illusion technique, it's invisible to the shinjitsugan. Which is why he doesn't look any different to me.
The other ninja take a moment to look at their downed teammate, and I take the opportunity to summon my artifacts. Shadow and black mist explode out from my body, obscuring my vision for a moment, then pulls back to my body condensing into my armor. Its weight is as comforting as the feel of Sclamhaire in my hand and the weight of my athame on my back.
The armor appears with my hood and mask up, so by the time the ninja look back at me they're confronted by black armor, a light eating sword leaking freezing mist onto the ground, and an empty hood.
For once I'm actually pretty happy with how intimidating my armor looks.
It must be working too, because the one who'd been leading them starts swearing softly, but with feeling.
None of his words look like lies at least.
Extra points for creativity though.
