On the back of a hefty streak of wins that should mostly be accredited to the shogun's army and the helpers from Rema, the daimyo of Haneba proudly marched his personal army to the border of Harubana. Of course, the proud leader was sitting safely in his carriage.
"Say, Mei, how do you like the fields around here?" the daimyo asked, admiring the elegant display of nostalgia painted on the face of the soon-to-be oiran in front of him.
The lady was already looking outside, so it was not hard for her to notice the green fields spreading as far as the horizon would allow. Having gazed enough at the landscape, Mei took a deep breath, and with a slow turn of her head, she answered the question.
"It is beautiful, daimyo-sama."
"It is, right? So, when this little scuffle is over, how about I gift it to you?" the proposed.
"I always found it weird that an oiran is still tied down to that red-light district. Being surrounded by all those other ladies of the night doesn't do justice to your beauty. You would fit so much better in your own mansion around here."
"Oh, you jest, daimyo-sama. But how could I leave the heart of Haneba when the very mountains present there are what I desire most?"
"Is that so? Fine, then I will also give you the mountains in Harubana. But for this, I may have to ask a bit more of you~"
That grin again—his was the grin she had been seeing for more than a week. She was sick of that distorted face. All she could see in the man in front of her was a mass of fat complemented by a lecherous face whose eyes knew nothing more than to trace the fine lines of her body. The desires of the daimyo were clear, but Mei could not resign herself to simply being one of the many concubines of a rich, influential pig. Her goals were set much higher.
No, even were she to return to her old days as a simple girl, she could never accept the advances of this embarrassing excuse of a man.
So, once again, under the pressure of the daimyo's gaze, Mei answered with a smile, hoping that his desires would stop at this stage, given the circumstances they were in.
Shortly after this short exchange, Mei's heart shrank as she felt the sweaty palm of the daimyo touching her leg.
"When we stop at the next castle, I have to attend a meeting with some important people. When I am back, I want to find you in my room, okay?"
With no way to refuse, Mei sat there and accepted her fate. No, there was no need to accept, as she was already used to it. Every night had been the same ever since she had been taken from the establishment in Haneba.
"Yes, My Lord."
"Good. Don't worry, Mei. Soon, you'll also get your share of this victory. It won't be long until we get rid of that warmongering tyrant. And while we're at it, I will make sure to raze the whole province of Harubana to the ground for what they are doing. Who even likes that place anyway?"
There were many degrading traits that stayed true when describing the daimyo of Haneba, but one of them, his ignorance, was the one that disgusted Mei the most.
After all this time, the daimyo still had not the slightest idea that Harubana was the city Mei grew up in—the only place she would ever call home.
"Oh, right. Before I forget… I also have a small surprise for you. I doubt you have any plans of doing something stupid, but it never hurts to take precautions. You know how war can twist people's minds…"
As the daimyo said this, he directed Mei's gaze towards a neighboring caravan.
As Mei looked in the direction indicated to her, every form of acting left her face. She just sat there, in shock, staring at the surprise that had been readied for her.
*****
A sight no kid should see was unveiling in front of Izumo and the rest as every group was lined up in front of each samurai that was commanding them.
"Ok, listen here! I do not care about the scuffles and friendships back at the base. This is a battlefield, and we will treat it as it should be treated! The first rule on this battlefield is that we do not stray away from each other."
Those were the orders Uesugi gave to his group. However, it didn't take long for Izumo to find himself all alone on the battlefield.
"Shit."
A full-on frontal attack was the strategy chosen by the Haneba forces. Of all the war strategies, this one was the bloodiest, most chaotic way to lose your soldiers. It probably served as the way to scare Harubana's troops through a display of sheer numbers.
"The best way to deal with a warmonger is to scare him into submission, huh?" Izumo said to himself in an attempt to try to understand the logic behind this attack.
As he stood there thinking, a strong wind pulled him towards a sword being swung at his head.
Izumo quickly reacted and created a hole in the ground beneath him from which he could jump back and counterattack.
He had lost track of how many people he had felled in this battle, but there seemed to be no end to them. No. Most of them did not even know who the enemy was anymore. The attacker whose life Izumo had just taken was also supposed to be a soldier of Harubana, but neither of them was able to recognize their own people in this chaos.
"At least I don't have to hide anything."
And so Izumo used this chance to juggle his memory with some good fights while he was looking around for his friends. He remembered how to use fire, sound, and even change the properties of water to make it poisonous. It was a very unusual set of abilities that he had acquired, but it was more than enough to get himself out of this war with no major injury.
By the time the sun started setting, the number of people still standing dropped enough for Izumo to notice Ten, Kotaro, and Uesugi fighting together.
"Where are the other two?" Izumo asked the second he reached the group.
"Oh, there you are!" Kotaro answered. "We couldn't find you, so Ken left to look for you and also got himself lost in the crowd. Kotoko went on a spying mission to get some intel on the enemy's base."
"He got himself lost looking for me? I guess war really does change people. I can see Uesugi-san is doing fine, but how are the two of you doing?"
"No problem here? What? You seem pretty disappointed," Kotaro answered jokingly.
"Maybe coming out of this with some scratches would have made you put some effort into training."
"Ouch! I never knew you felt this way about me. Ok, fine, when we get back, we can have a sparring session."
"Not exactly what I was looking for, but you're on!" Izumo answered, replicating the lively energy Kotaro displayed.
"Ten, what about you?"
The short tengu girl took off her mask and signaled with a bright smile and hand gestures that she was fine.
"Oh? This is the second time I've seen Ten taking her mask off in front of you today, Izumo. Teach me the trick! I also want to see her cute face more often."
As she heard those words, Ten's cheeks instantly turned red, and she quickly covered her face with the mask again, making sure to let Kotaro know that she considered him an idiot.
"Ok, if the three of you are unhurt, Uesugi-san, can we go look for Ken?"
"Look around you, the forces of Haneba are retreating. It was clearly a blunder on their side to attack us without waiting for the main army and the foreign reinforcements. It is safe enough for you to go look for that guy alone. Make sure to bring him back to his team and have him prepared to march forward!"
"Ok, sure." Izumo said before stopping in his tracks.
"Wait, forward? Are we not returning to the base?"
Uesugi shook his head to signal a negative answer.
"No," he answered with a stoic look.
"Kotoko's report reached our daimyo. It seems the daimyo of Haneba is close, and most reinforcements are yet to reach him. This is our best chance. He ordered us to rush forward."
*****
"Yo, what are you doing there?"
Before the young Ken could understand what was going on, a boy full of dirt jumped in front of him.
"That's none of your business!" Ken answered as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.
"Huh? What's up with you, acting all mysterious? Oh, I know!"
The energetic boy stretched his hand and smiled at Ken, who was lying on the ground, exhausted from all the training he had put himself through.
"Call me Kotaro! Let's be friends!"
Ken was almost blinded by the bright smile on Kotaro's face—no, he was blinded by the sun positioned right behind the boy, making it hard to distinguish whether the one in front of Ken was sent from the heavens or not.
The boy who had been forced to learn the way of the sword since a young age received kindness for the first time. When the moment to respond came, he knew not what he should do. So he did what he felt was normal. He grabbed the hand in front of him and pulled on it in an attempt to lift himself from the ground.
"Woah!" *Thud*
Kotaro, not expecting Ken to act like that, fell over the boy.
"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"Pfft, Ahahaha! You got me there!"
"Huh?"
Ken was confused at the reaction of Kotaro; even if he had clearly been hurt by the fall, there was no punishment to be delivered. All that came from the boy was unexplainable laughter.
"Come on, it's time I present you to my other friends!"
That evening, Ken got to meet a group of two boys and two girls. Little did he know that those four would be the ones to stick by his side for all his childhood years.
Of the group, there was one boy who Ken was especially interested in.
"Hi… You can call me Izumo. Nice to meet you!"
While conversations between two shy boys seemed to go nowhere most of the time, Ken felt that Izumo understood him best, since both of them were sons of ronins.
That's how Ken spent his childhood from that moment onwards. He would train hard in the ways of the sword while always comparing himself with the friend he deemed as an equal.
Slowly, his attitude towards the others started changing, and by the time a year had passed, the shy Ken was nowhere to be seen, being completely replaced by a proud young boy.
*****
"Feeling better now?" Izumo asked as he approached Ken, who was pulling his sword out of an enemy. Upon closer inspection, Izumo felt his stomach turn as he looked at the heavily mutilated body. It was clear that Ken took out all his pent-up anger in a less-honorable way, but Izumo decided this was not the time to call him out on such behavior.
"Maybe… slightly," the swordsman answered.
"At least that's something. I came to take you back and regroup. It seems we are attacking the enemy castle."
"Then why did he come with you?"
"Huh?"
As Izumo turned his head towards the direction Ken was pointing at, a young teenager approached them with a smile on his face.
"Yo!"
"Kotaro? What are you doing here? Was there a change of plans?"
"In a way. The army already started marching at a slow pace. They said they will catch up with the ones lost on the battlefield. But that's not why I came here first."
"Then?" Ken asked, showing Kotaro that some of his boldness was slowly coming back.
"Listen, I've got an idea!" Kotaro said as he approached them.
"Nope. No way." The two boys who were approached answered together.
"You didn't even listen to me! Look, what if we go ahead and try an assassination on the Haneba daimyo? If it is the three of us, I am sure we can do it!"
"Yeah, it seems we were not missing out on anything. What are you even thinking about? Of course the answer stays unchanged," Izumo replied with no hesitation.
"Oh, come on! Think of how much of a boost in the ranks we can get if we pull it off!"
"And if we don't?"
"I'm in," Ken answered seemingly out of nowhere.
"Ha?"
"See? Even Ken said yes. You wouldn't leave all the fun to us, right, Izumo?"
With no way of stopping them, Izumo was at an impasse. The most logical course of action was to go in with the army, but if they were going to charge ahead either way, then the best thing Izumo could do, besides knocking them out, was to protect them and take most of the danger upon himself.
"Ahh… One condition. If we deem it too dangerous when we get there, we are turning back."
"Of course! I have Kotoko; Ken has Ten. There is no way we would just die here."
"I have whom?"
The two ignored Ken's question in an attempt to not make things awkward.
"And one more thing. I am taking the daimyo's head. The two of you hold everyone back from a safe distance."
"Already thinking of hogging all the glory?" Kotaro asked jokingly. "Fine, Ken?"
"Sure, go ahead."
And thus, the 'Reckless Assassination Plan'—which the knowledgeable Izumo shortened to RAP—became reality.