#mage mitsunari

[ikesenhell]

Reunion

The Measurement of Time: Chapter 11 and the Finale. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTES: This whole story does not make much sense without the context from To Honor And Protect! Please go back and read that before you proceed with TMOT. Tagging @ikemenprincessnaga at request. Izumi Oda belongs to her. Kaiea belongs to @boopbeepbopblarg

Only Izumi handled Mitsunari Ishida entering the barracks with any semblance of grace. Abbot instantly dropped and started reciting prayers. Date and Tokugawa shot to their feet in a mixture of awe and terror, Takeda toppled from her perch on the table, Aria froze, and Yukimura drew his sword before he really could grasp who stood in their doorway, shielding Kaiea with his body. 

“So we have a mage?” Izumi asked, sipping her tea.

“Of sorts.” Mitsunari smiled at them all. “But I’ll do my best.”

“His best?” Takeda sputtered. “You’re a god.” 

“No, just the ocean. Bit of a difference.”

Seiren ignored all of them and settled in at the table, unrolling a large blank piece of parchment. “We have a mission and very little time to plan. The machine has gone without charge long enough. We’re limited here. We’ve got to figure out how to get in and clear the place.”

“And do it without me losing my abilities,” Mitsunari pointed out, helping himself to the tea as if it were second nature. “I do need to be around the water extremely close to make that work.”

“I...” Aria cleared her throat and stepped forward. “I think I can help with that--provided we’re willing to cause a little destruction.”

Seiren narrowed her eyes, but Mitsunari just laughed. “You sound like your grandfather--Mitsuhide, that is. I’m certain it’s nothing we can’t try and solve later.”

Aria beamed quietly. “Alright then. Captain, let me suggest a few things.”

---

They wrest the well open with little resistance. Seiren inhaled deeply and flexed her hands. 

“Are we really ready? I’ve no doubt that it’ll try and seal us in again.”

“Bring it on,” Takeda answered. “We’re bringing the fight to it now.”

Date gave a simple thumbs up. Abbot double checked them all with his eyes and eventually granted his assent as well, and with that, Tokugawa hauled himself down the ladder first. The rest followed quickly after; Sasuke dropped wetly against the damp cobblestones, staring into the darkness. 

“Here.” Aria handed off the cannon her grandmother had built to Date. “You’re our best shot.”

He just nodded and checked it over, bracing himself between them and the darkness. They didn’t head that way first. Instead, Aria turned and motioned at Yukimura. “Shall we?”

“Got you.”

They half-jogged to the glass hallway. Yukimura unzipped a bag he’d brought and yanked out small explosives, arranging them along the edges of the glass. 

“We’ve got trouble!” Date called, charging up the gun. 

“Hell,” Aria muttered, producing flames in her hand. “It certainly didn’t wait for us this time, did it?”

Sure enough, the screaming wailed out of the darkness, hands and nails scraping ridges in stone. Date fired off the first shot into the belly of it, blinding light searing through a thousand shadowed mouths and burning them away--but more came. Aria launched volley after volley of flames and it barely dented the mass. 

“CLEAR!” Yukimura screamed, and dove for cover. 

The shatter was so loud Sasuke barely heard it; his ears rang with the roar and surge of the ocean filling the void, catching him up under his feet and sending him tumbling into Tokugawa. It only lasted a moment--then they dropped at once to the ground, the wall of water twisting away behind them. 

“Hi!” Mitsunari said brightly, a thousand lances of tide forming behind him. “I suggest you stay down.”

They obeyed. With an earth-rending wail it shredded around them, tearing apart the cloud of screaming shadows, the black tar of them seeping between their boots. The shadows tumbled back against the relentless onslaught, pouring back into the tunnel. 

“Alright.” Date hoisted himself to his feet, reshouldering the gun. “Let’s go.”

They pressed on through the underdepths. Aria sparked the fuse to the lights and watched as they rattled halfway to life, shadows swooping and spiraling in around them. Mitsunari formed a shield over them, water sloshing thick around their ankles as Date took shots off at the worst clusters. 

“We have to move!” Seiren commanded, motioning forward. “Let’s go!”

The black gates to the palace hung like a warning. They scraped and forced their way inside; Sasuke got a nasty slash over his cheek, Seiren’s braid was lopped in half, Tokugawa yelled in pain as something tried very hard to separate him from his shoulder, Yukimura narrowly evaded a lance of darkness through his chest and got a torn uniform for his trouble. The humming casing of the lock suspended before them. Aria rushed to it.

“Alright.” She fumbled over its contents, studying it. “Okay, Mitsunari, a question.”

“Yes?”

“This was enchanted, too. If I break it, the enchantment breaks. What am I going to break? Will it injure us?”

He backed up enough to take a good look at the device. Shadows broke against the swirling sphere of ocean water around him, beads of sweat and water rolling down his forehead. “It looks like a sand spell.”

“A sand spell?” Sasuke repeated.

“It’s slang for a time slower,” Aria answered, jiggling at the lock delicately. “Time was slowed in there for whatever reason. If we break it, it’ll bring time up to normal speed again--”

“Shit,” Izumi muttered, drawing her sword. “We’ve got company.”

The shadows parted, scattering to the winds as the machine staggered inside. Its orange lights were faint now, cables and cords pulsing with strain. It lifted the greatsword and swung it experimentally. 

It didn’t matter if it was low on power. It could still kill them all. 

“She’s been in there too long,” Abbot muttered, readying himself. “She doesn’t recognize who is an enemy.”

“If she’s alive at all,” Tokugawa answered, lifting his gun. “Aria, get that damn thing open!”

“Trying!”

The machine advanced. Izumi and Seiren dove to the side as the blade crashed through the marble floor, fragments of stone spraying them. Mitsunari swore but held the barrier. Date pointed the gun at her and thought better of it. 

“Got it!” The machine clattered to the ground. Aria didn’t bother trying to open the door herself; she pointed a fist at it and the ruined fragments of floor spiraled around her, forming into a massive ball of earth and smashing into its surface. It slammed open. The Nine charged in, looking for a higher ground away from the machine that pursued them--

“What the fuck?” Yukimura asked. 

“Oh my god,” Aria managed weakly. “Oh my god.”

A bright dome of light enveloped the center of the room. A thousand shadows swarmed its exterior, ravenous and enraged, desperate and hungry. 

In the center were two men. One had sandy brown hair. He lay slumped over the other man’s lap, breathing hard but still breathing nonetheless, blood running in thick rivers over his chest. The other--holding his partner, holding an iron staff, his closed eyes tense with concentration and effort--had long white hair that swirled over his back. 

The old insignia of the Nine burned on his uniform. 

“Go!” Tokugawa shouted, bringing them all back to themselves. They dove inside at the right moment; the greatsword shattered down once more. That caught the attention of the men inside. Mitsuhide Akechi lifted his head, eyes never moving, and the orb of light flickered ever so slightly. 

“Clear it, Mitsunari!” Seiren shouted. “Sasuke, come here!”

She didn’t need to order him twice. Mitsunari brought the wall of water into his hands and outward with such force that it nearly knocked him off his feet. Together, he and Seiren drew their swords, the light that glowed between their blades feeding directly from the dome of light behind them. The machine drew herself up to her full, terrifying height, the sword swirling in the air for a strike. 

“We can do this,” Seiren gasped, readying herself. “We can do this.”

“I love you,” Sasuke managed. 

She groped for his hand and squeezed it. The machine’s arm came crashing down as they lifted their swords. 

And the whole room went white. 

He barely had enough time to wrap himself around Seiren before they sailed through the air and smacked hard into the wall; he hissed with pain and clutched her tighter to him, water lapping against his boots and pants alike. When finally the room came back into focus, there were no more shadows. The black crystal gleamed anew, the machine halted in its footsteps, dazed and weaving.

Mitsunari lowered his arms and gazed into the dome. “Mitsuhide?”

“I’ll be damned.” The pale man managed a tired grin. “Took you long enough.”

“Is Hideyoshi alright?”

“No. He took a bit of a beating, but...” He smoothed his hands over the other man’s shoulders, rousing him with a gentle shake. “Hideyoshi. Dearest. Mitsunari, would you please do me one more favor?”

“Certainly.”

Aria staggered to her feet and stood by the edge of the sphere, eyes luminous. Mitsuhide hesitated only a moment and turned his head towards her. 

“Who all is here?”

“I’m...” Aria hesitated. “Aria Toyotomi-Akechi.”

Hideyoshi opened his eyes and squinted at her, his coppery gaze uneven. Despite that he smiled at her. “Oh wow.”

“Help me out here, dearest,” Mitsuhide urged quietly. “What does she look like?”

“Like us,” he managed thickly. “She looks like Kaito--and like you.”

Aria dragged her sleeve across her face and did her best to compose herself. “I always got told by my father that I looked like both Papa and Dad.”

“You do,” Hideyoshi answered. “You really do.”

Mitsunari fed his hand against the orb and stared at the machine. “Once you bring this down, what will happen?” 

“I don’t know,” Mitsuhide admitted. “I only held on this long to try and contain some of the darkness growing in here. Would you please--please--put that hunk of machinery in here?”

It took Tokugawa, Yukimura, and Date all trying their best, but eventually they got it inside the bubble. Unsteadily rising to his feet, Hideyoshi staggered over and clenched at the torso of the casing. 

“Let me help,” Mitsuhide murmured. 

Together they cracked it open. 

Inside was a woman. Her long, dark hair was flecked with silver, her face pale and unseeing. Hideyoshi fumbled at a cable and it disconnected. Burdened by gravity, she tumbled into their awaiting arms, blood running down her neck.

“Darling,” Hideyoshi managed, cupping one blood stained hand around her cheek. “My love. Are you there? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

For a long moment the Nine held their breath. It seemed so far fetched. She’d spent so long inside, and yet--

Her eyes fluttered open. 

“Hideyoshi,” she murmured. “Mitsuhide.”

The white-haired man just dipped his head and clutched her hand, hot tears dripping from his closed eyes. Hideyoshi scooped the three of them together and used all of his remaining strength to clench them tight, kissing each of them over and over and over again. Aria buried her face in her hands as Takeda slipped to her side, cradling her. 

“I love you,” the engineer whispered. “I love you both so much.”

“And I, you,” Mitsuhide whispered.

“Forever and always,” Hideyoshi finished for them. Blinking away hot tears of his own, he propped her up and motioned to Aria. “Look at our beautiful granddaughter.”

Their eyes met. Aria did her best to smile. The woman returned it.

“You look so much like Kaito.”

“I’ve been told,” Aria managed with a strangled laugh. 

Mitsunari eyed the dome. “This won’t last much longer.”

“I know.” Mitsuhide grunted and adjusted. “My old friend. Have any suggestions for me?”

“Nothing... that would bring you back to Kaito.” He sighed. “But I can bring you to join the rest of the Original Nine.”

“Nobunaga will be pissed at me,” Hideyoshi half-laughed. “But that’s where we belong.”

“At least then they can’t say we’re MIA,” Mitsuhide drawled. “I think that’s for the best.”

“Please.” Aria gasped, setting her hands against the dome. “What should I tell Dad?”

“Tell him...” The Engineer paused a long, long time before answering. “Tell our sons we love them. Gin, Saburo, Kaito--if they don’t live, tell their graves I’ll be with them soon. And I love you, too, dearest.”

Mitsunari lifted his hands. “Are you ready?”

Mitsuhide snickered, allowing a snaky grin that looked so much like Aria’s that Sasuke knew this was the real thing. “No. But we don’t have a choice, do we?”

No more words. The trio in the center huddled tight together, buoyed by love, love, love infinite, love that survived, and Mitsunari beckoned the water off the floor. It surged into the room and swirled around them all, a massive typhoon that looked like the abyss and the pathway to heaven all in one. Aria clutched at her girlfriend and sobbed aloud. Hideyoshi gazed around them and locked eyes with Izumi and Seiren, unspoken recognition lighting there. 

“Permission to leave, Captain?” Hideyoshi asked, an amused smile playing at his lips.

Seiren and Izumi stepped to attention, clasping their hands to their chest. 

“Permission granted.” Seiren said

The water surged in around the dome. It shone through the water like a thousand stars, and finally--finally--it was gone. 

And so were they. All they left behind was a trio of wedding bands linked on the floor. 

---

It took ages to clean up the glass from the tunnel. Mitsunari held back the ocean until the City filled in the gaps again. The light system was renewed and adjusted, the tunnels cleaned, and Kaiea clapped her hands as she appeared after a long day of cataloging artifacts. 

“Any trouble?” Seiren asked, balancing her sword in her hands.

“None.” She beamed at them as Yukimura dredged himself from the well behind her. He’d volunteered for guard duty below (though they all knew it was strictly out of fear for her, not out of any particular interest in remaining underground). “We could uncover artifacts dating back thousands of years. It’s an incredible find.”

“Great.” Seiren hummed to herself. “Good.”

The team pattered away, carrying crates of research and objects between them. Sasuke shifted against her arm. 

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Would you take me to Kenshin’s grave?”

They went on a sunny day. She wore a lovely dress the color of the darkest tides, and he made sure to wear his dress uniform as polished as he could make it. She quirked her mouth at him but didn’t ask. In the palace gardens, they gathered around the graves of five of the nine and placed flowers on his. 

“Hi, Uncle,” she murmured, kneeling before it. “I brought Sasuke. I’m seeing him.”

Reverently, Sasuke bowed before the slab of marble, settling onto his knees. “Sir, it’s an honor. And I’d like to ask your blessing to see your grand-niece.”

Seiren stared but didn’t stop him. He continued, nervous and self-conscious. “I love her, Sir. I know you told her once that anyone would have to best her in combat first, but--you should see her with a sword. I don’t think anyone could--and I love that about her.” Clearing his throat, he pressed on. “She’s intelligent and sharp. She commands a room. And I swear that I will honor her the way she deserves to be--the way that you honored her, and your wife. The way that Toyotomi-Akechis honored one another. If you would let me, I would be the most honored man in this world.”

“Sasuke,” Seiren whispered, her eyes glistening. “I love you.”

They shared a kiss there, on the top of the dark cliffs overlooking the vast ocean. Far, far off in the distance, Mitsunari Ishida took a deep breath and smiled at the tides around him. 

Then he surged downward once more to rejoin his love.

#Ikesen #ikemen sengoku #ikesen sasuke #sasuke sarutobi #female!uesugi #captain uesugi #seiren uesugi #Mitsunari Ishida #Ikesen Mitsunari #Ikesen fantasy AU #TMOT #Reunion #The Measurement of Time #my writing #ikesen descendants #Boopbeepbopblarg's Kaiea #Naga's Izumi Oda #fluff #angst #mage mitsunari #ocean mitsunari #violence tw #blood tw

[daeva-agas]

Hi. Would you happen to have the chibis of Masamune, Saizo, Yukimura, Mitsunari, Nobunaga, Kojuro, Genya, and Jinpachi for the current SLBP battle event? If it’s too much work, you can just post the Mystical Mage Robes ones. Thank you. :)

Full size link for PC: 

https://64.media.tumblr.com/4cdb52929aaf7ff6742f85e2ed93bee6/621a709559955286-4f/s1280x1920/0b5df4ef3baa2a12a349986ac8f134fd87780499.png

#anon ask #ask reply #slbp chibi #reply #slbp battle event

[descendent-of-the-sixth-heaven]

*When Nobunaga pulls back, Mai is slowly regaining her colour. She has to have a warm bath and wake up and eat now*

------

*The Duke glares. He takes his sword and cuts both Ieyasu's and Mitsunari's arms, freeing himself*

------

*Shingen saw the horrible sight and the reason why the miasma was spreading. He saw the brugas killing the people and then drinking blood from them. They didn't empty the blood in their bodies. As the bodies pile up with blood flowing down, the miasma gets thicker and stronger. In order to save Selena, he quickly rushed in and killed all the brugas during their ritual time. The miasma was very thick. He needed someone to clear it*

I will prepare the bathtub for you, can you walk, my love?

*He helps her to sit up, stroking her back*

————

Ieyasu: argh! After him!

Mitsunari: we need someone stronger!

Masamune: then leave it to me!

*Masamune ran faster than the duke could*

————

*The his surprise, the mages and the real temple maids were safe, they began clearing the place and checking for survivors*

[cottonfluffballofdoom]

And now, I present something no one asked for... Ikemen Sengoku warlords playing World of Warcraft (part I)

(Kudos to @amenomiko for encouraging me to do it)

Oda forces:

Nobunaga

Race – Human female

Class – Warrior dps/tank

Alt – Worgen Death Knight dps

PvP or PvE? - Both

Guild leader

not reading any guides and somehow he always tops dps

loves PvP, but at the same time he's hardcore raider

the more badass the boss looks the more he get's hyped up

usually last man standing

he feels the best doing arenas and battlegrounds

he usually doesn't camp res points

unless he sees Kenshin or Shingen

then he camps graveyard for like 15 minutes just to annoy them

spams local chat with rude comments on Kenshin and Shingen

“Kenshin has his warrior wear cloth armor!”

his characters always look like MC

“if I have to look at someone's... back.. for this long, it should be my Fireball’s” ( ͡^ ͜ʖ ͡^)

Hideyoshi

Race – Human male

Class – Paladin tank

Alt – whatever Nobunaga asks him to

PvP or PvE? - prefers PvE, but he'll be doing what Nobunaga is doing

always in party with Nobunaga

actual guild leader

yells at voice chat, but never swears

(”moar dots”, but without the fucks)

Language!!!  ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨

hoards gold on Auction House

hoards pets

hoards mounts

yet doesn't hoard achievments

he sometimes likes to relax by doing some quests

lowkey loves the booterang quest

reads all the guides

for all classes

and nags if someone fucks up what he's supposed to do

has a hidden folder with revealing Jaina pics

Masamune

Race – Night Elf female

Class – Demon Hunter dps – bc looks cool

Alt – a ton. All races. All female

PvP or PvE? - both, but prefers PvP, as it doesn't demand strictly sticking to the tactics

secretly admires Leroy Jenkins

always sets the title Jenkins

(is an avatar of Leeeroy Jenkins) \(*´∀`) /

just let him kill some mobs/players

lvls up proffesions only because Hidemama nags him

except of cooking – this is always skilled up to max

he doesn't read tactics before (- 50 fking DKP)

shines brightest in PvP

he can pull some crazy ass tricks to get everyone out of the trouble

(the one he put then in in the first place bc fuck tactics)

afk in Goldshire inn

much into roleplaying

flirts with girls on priv

uses too much emotes

and, yes, he's the one who - while the raid group stops for any reason – instantly starts jumping or dancing if he's not afk

has a pic of half-naked Sylvanas as a wallpaper

Ieyasu

Race – Draenei female

Class – Priest

Alt – Orc Rogue

PvP or PvE? Whatever he feels like atm

reads all the guides for his class and some for other clesses

always ranting on voice chat (눈‸눈)

don't let him lead the party, bc “moar dots” will happen

(Hideyoshi: Language!!! ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨ )

hoards pets

achievment whore

pet battles FTW!

when not doing pet battles or raiding/bgs with Nobunaga he logs on his Horde alt and stalks and ganks Mitsunari

or NPCs in his location

or stands on mailbox while on Traveler's Tundra Mammoth

herbalism is ruinning his life

if you pick up the herb just under his nose

prepare to be stabbed

Mitsunari

Race – gnome female

Class – Mage

Alt – Draenei Priest

PvE or PvP? - PvE

sucks at PvP

though he's good at making general strategies

got flag snatched from under his nose way too many times

stood in the fire

Nobunaga banned him from battlegrounds

Hidemama makes him sit with him and strategize, but he's easily distracted

but in raids and dungeons...

that's where he shines

makes the best strategies for raids and dungeons

loves doing quests

keeps his Loremaster title all the times

and cat pet

he actually read all the quests in game

and in-game books

and all game-related stuff

all guides too ofc

he's shocked that he dies so often while doing quests or farming mats

“why am I dead again? (´◦ω◦`)”

“I was sticking to the road (´◦ω◦`)”

“and why are all the npcs dead (´◦ω◦`)”

“poor npcs Ó╭╮Ò”

he leaves his character in the inn, sitting by the table or sleeping in the bed like all the time when he logs out

Mitsuhide

Race – gnome male

Class – Rogue

Alt – Warlock

Alt – troll druid (bc ofc he's a troll)

PvE or PvP? PvP

kinda sucks on PvE

doesn't read quests like at all

got lost in game more than few times

he'll read quests only if someone reccomends it for being especially funny or exceptionally good

he yeeted himself from Teldrasil bc fun

and from all the really high places

(he secretly worships elevator boss)

another one to level proffesions only bc of Hidemama's nagging

spies on the Horde side with his troll druid

surprisingly, he's into roleplay

loves trolling low-level new players by directing them into high lvl zones or onto elite mobs ( ͡^ ͜ʖ ͡^)

PvP is his world

rogue to the bone

Horde won't even know what hit them

vanish and backstab supremacy

another one jumping/dancing on raid breaks

he also puts up toy train

I would be grateful for any suggestions so I can improve my writing

Kasugayama in part II

#ikemen sengoku #world of warcraft #ikesen warlords playing WoW #ikesen au #bc why not #am I the only one playing both WoW and otome? #no one asked for it #yet here it is #ikemen nobunaga #ikemen hideyoshi #ikemen masamune #ikemen ieyasu #ikemen mitsunari #ikemen mitsuhide #ikemen series #cybird ikemen

[emigotchi]

Mitsunari if you don’t mind 💜💜💜

Hi~!

Here’s a Mitsunari~!

Since there was no prompt, I kind of went ahead and drew him as a mage. (>_>) I hope that it is to your liking!

Thank you so much for dropping by with a request! I had fun with it! (-w-)

Please take care!

Reblogs/comments are always appreciated but please don’t repost elsewhere. Thank you for your comprehension! (^-^)

#ishida mitsunari #emigotchi arts #ikemen sengoku #ikesen #fanart #my art #emitato talks #what are backgrounds #seriously what are backgrounds #I'm glad I added one #now I want to play around with rubbing alcohol on watercolor some more #for that sweet sweet bokke effect #too bad my drawing was dry when I thought of it #but some of it is there...? #if you squint #and press your nose to the screen

[inkis-cupcake]

Hello sweet stuff. I gotta head Canon idea for you and I want to try it out with my spies. Any reaction birthing video to fear or curiosity.

My pals and I invite Mitsunari Koga and Marin Mizuta to the giant birth ceremony that last as long as a house party but because I want Gaskette to give birth without the government knowing, The entire birthing ceremony would be disguised as a "house party". All births would happen in my house as I don't wanna trash anyone else's house. My sister, My mother and my cousin will hafta be stalled by a major decline in loo rolls(Don't ask) and I use some toilet paper as a surgeon mask. The BINR bosses and Benny from Who Framed Roger Rabbit would all give birth in my bedroom(So my parents nor my sister would find out about it) and the minions are also invited to this "House party". Roger rabbit, Eddy valiant and Jessica would be around to comfort Benny. The entire birthing ceremony would be live streamed on Twitch(I'mma make a Twitch account if I have the balls to do that) and music would be played aswell to divert attention from the FBI, CIA and the KGB. Other fictional characters like Monokuma from Danganronpa are also invited. However, Whilst Dewey is giving birth, The music is toned down a bit(Libarians don't like loud music) and the only person who's allowed to comfort him is Koga-kun. Every child born, During this ceremony means the father yells "GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!!!". For example: Chester will give birth three times so I yell "GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!" three times. The only people who aren't invited are Gonta, Hina, Makoto, Komaru and Judge Doom. After all births are finished, The Russian Anthem will play elegantly, The wolves begin to howl and the dragons start to roar. Yes, Your spies will be there, Holding their phones up high to record all five birth scenes. Black has a more mind blown reaction whilst White has a look of shock and amazment. Orange just stands there and watches with confusion. Ayumu Fujimory(Danganrebirth) might accidentally open the door to witness Benny giving birth. Once my parents and sister return home after buying toilet paper and stuff, All I gotta do is act like some mage dropped off the newborn children and IF they believe me, Everything will be fine. They wouldn't know about either the "house party" nor how the kids were really born.

#bendy in nightmare run #mpreg #binr #birthing ceremony #house party #spy vs spy #danganronpa #danganrebirth #project x reference #who framed roger rabbit mpreg #who framed roger rabbit

[darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts]

A Supportive Tide

A very Happy Birthday to Yesha. Here you go, my humble offering for the Birthday EXTRA-ganza! I took the liberty of adding an NB OC here. The picture of them will be at the end of the fic. ^^ Really hope you like it x

Warnings: I guess a very small bit of angsty stuff but mostly fluffy and supportive.   

**Original fic created by Yesha @ikesenhell​ lovingly borrowed to take liberties with it to create this little tale. Please go check out To Honor and Protect series and it’s delightfully enchanting spin-offs (I See Starlight and The Measurement of Time) Yesha’s Masterlist link here. 

---

A Supportive Tide

The ebbing tidal waters made the dock creak lazily as a set of sure-footed feet clad in soft-soled boots bypassed it in favour of the slightly uneven ground near it. It was quiet here and that is what they yearned for most. 

They couldn’t explain it, but back in the city, their head hummed a broken tune that threatened to drive them over the edge. Sometimes it was louder than others. Drowning out the world around them, making it feel like they were standing in the epicentre of a hive of rather annoyed hornets. It had been like this for so long they had begun to forget a time before the noise. Was there such a time?

Slowly they followed the shadow of the cliff face, a small worn leather satchel tucked in tight to their side. Pale hair dragged back into a haphazard ponytail behind their head revealing the darker tips that often provoked comments on changing seasons as Autumn gave way to winter so to did their hair. Their snow-capped hair tumbled into dark chocolate rivers, the tips of it brushing lightly in the breeze over their shoulders.  

It is said that things come in threes. In this city, it had certainly seemed to be the case. Whilst whatever had happened before the records were taken properly had been forgotten what had happened after was well documented. Not long ago there was a time where people feared the magically talented. Times had changed but it was still prudent to exercise caution when casting spells. There was no longer the penalty of death, but that was not to say that there were not opportunistic people in the world who wouldn’t exploit such talents for their own ends. Training had become more intensive, lack of results was both equal parts frustrating and disturbing to them. And still that humming in their head persisted. 

When they were finally certain that they were out of direct view from the dock they arranged themselves on a large rock, their back pressed against the jet black rock of the cliff. The warmth of their body lost to the impervious chill behind them. It was the same rock present in the city, it just seemed to suck and absorb without ever changing. Some would find that frightening but to them, it was strangely comforting. 

Opening up their satchel they took out a book and started to read. The runes were faded and in an old hand but still, they could feel the warmth of that hand gliding over the pages as it spun its story. A tale of a Princess who found love and magic. Who had the strength to stand and change the flow of the tide itself. Protecting and saving her people against unimaginable odds with the help of a few brave men. Stories had a way of drawing the reader in deeper to them. Allowing them to disappear for a few hours in the pages of text that pulled on heartstrings and stirred spirits. Time passed and it wasn’t until the icy water touched their foot that they even noticed the tide had come in. Their mismatched eyes widened as they scurried to stand up.

Panic. The way back was cut off by the swirling water and there was no way forward either. Stranded on their rock all they could think to do was clutch the book they had taken from their father’s library to their chest and curse their own lack of foresight. This was exactly the kind of thing that they had been warned about by their mother. Focus was something inherent in them and ran strongly in their veins thanks to the traits of both their parents. But putting such a thing into practice had proved difficult.

If you didn’t focus in training you were injured, but the same was said for lack of focus during study. One false move during an experiment, one wrong calculation you were at just as much risk as in the training area of losing a limb. They could hear the stern voice of their mother now. All those lessons on paying attention and this is what happens? Their father would have been a little more forgiving even if he too would have a few choice words to say about calculated risk and poor judgement. 

Eyes scrunched shut their senses began to clear. They could clearly smell the fresh salt that hung in the air and clung to their skin. Feel the jet black rocks behind them, strong and steady against the moving tide. The water had risen further, the large rock was little more than a stepping stone beneath their feet at this point. Why couldn’t they do it all the time? Why couldn’t they channel that latent magic they were told they had? It remained trapped like a corked bottle even now when a little magic would have been better than nothing at all. 

“I just… I can’t do this! Why did this have to be my fate? I don’t get it. How do I make it all stop? I can’t hear myself in all this mess. I can’t… I-” The throbbing in their mind was enough to blur their vision as they practically screamed across the surface of the rising northern sea. The book they gripped tight to their chest felt like a lifeline anchoring them in place. Their chest was tightening, their heartbeat pounded away as the air was robbed from their lungs. 

Small bubbles rose in a fast stream to the surface near the rock generating a layer of fine foam on the water. Before they could question what had caused such a thing to happen clear solid jets of water swirled in the air like twisting glass. Growing larger and larger until they joined into a doomed peak and suddenly dropped revealing the soft smiling figure of a man with violet eyes. Water clung to his silver hair and caught the changing light of the day making it appear almost as if he were wearing a crown.

“Hello. Might I be of assistance?” The stranger seemed familiar even though they were certain they had never met before. There was something about his friendly approach that washed over them in a calming wave steadying their erratic heartbeat, allowing them to breathe again.

“Who are you?” 

“I have many names. But you can call me Mitsunari Ishida. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The kindly figure stepped forward a little only at that point did they realise he was standing on the surface of the sea water, almost hovering in defiance of the natural laws.

“Ishida? … THE Mitsunari Ishida? The mage?” Tales, facts and a heavy dose of personal assumption combined to form the only logical explanation. As unbelievable as it was here stood the man from the tales in the book. The one in the history books, the one in the paintings in the castle and the sculpture by the dock. He was here as solid and real as anything else and looking not one day older than the last time anyone living had set eyes on him. 

“One and the same.” He gave a small nod of his head and looked around realising they were balanced on a disappearing rock surrounded by rising water. “It seems you are in a spot of bother. Would you like some help to get home?” A muted reply in the form of a nod came as they fell silent suddenly unable to speak while the fact that a living legend had just materialised in front of them sunk in.  “Very well. Mind your step.” He waved his hand and water began to form floating blocks by them. Every step he took whilst holding on to their hand gently guiding them forward had another block forming beneath him. So this is what it's like to have magic?

“That was incredible.” Stepping foot on dry land once more and looking over the edge of the cliff below they sighed in awe. They knew that was nothing compared to what the great mage could do but it was still impressive to one that couldn’t even so much as command their pencil to move when willing it to.

“Was it? Thank you.” Modestly Mitsunari smiled before allowing himself to incline his head in curiosity, a hint of concern in his voice. “If I might be so bold as to inquire. What were you doing down by the cliff?”

“Escaping.”

“Escaping? I’m sorry I don’t follow.” Mitsunari admitted watching as his companion slipped to the ground on their knees, eyes fixed on the distant horizon at sea. 

“My head. It only ever feels quiet when I'm there. I don’t know if its the distance from the city, the water or the stone of the cliff but my head stops humming. I tried to explain it to my mother she insisted that training would clear my head by giving me something else to focus on. And my father tried his best to understand but I don’t think I made any of what I was feeling clear enough. I’m a little afraid I’m going crazy.” Turning in the direction of their saviour they realised they had been rambling and began to laugh derisively. “Haha, and now I’m talking to the man of the ocean. If I go back now I doubt anyone would believe a word I say.” They leaned back adjusting their legs so they could bring them up to their chest and sit on the ground properly

“Stranger things have happened. Might I see your book?” Mitsunari joined them on the ground gently teasing the tome from their frightened fingers. His touch was soft like a lapping wave on the shore. After flipping through a few pages he smiled. “Ah yes here we go. You see? You would not be the first to see me as I am.” He turned the book revealing passages of his return to the new nine. 

“Still. You appeared back then when there was a need for you. A strong, dire, end of all things need. Why would you turn up to help a kid on a cliff?” They took the book back brushing the familiar writing with their fingertips their expression softening for the first time.

“I wonder. Not all things are set in stone some must be carved out and crafted by our own hands.” He turned his gaze to the horizon. A look on his face that could only be called melancholic as he remembered times past. “Are you a rock or water?” he muttered. 

“What?”

“A man I once knew many lifetimes ago now asked me when I was training if I was trying to be a rock. I’m afraid I was rather terrible with swordsmanship. I’m still not the best at it, and to be honest I always preferred my books. Still, his question set me wondering. Many would see a rock as a source of strength but it is in the strength of water’s ability to move and flow freely, change its own form and adapt that makes it truly the stronger opponent.” Mitsunari calmly guided the youth through the reasoning.

“... So right now I’m being a rock and I need to be more like water.” They frowned. 

“No. Right now you are discovering who you are. You have the potential to be and do whatever you see fit precisely because right now you are neither stone or water.” Mitsunari smiled a beaming enigmatic smile.

“It’s all very cryptic but I guess I kind of get it.”

“Good.” He nodded knowing that even if it made little sense to the other now it would given time. 

“Erm. It might sound strange to bring this up now but why did you show up now? I’ve been here many times and you’ve never once appeared like this.”

“I have always been here and always will be. I appeared tonight because of you, little Princess.” He spoke matter of factly without a hint of a joke. 

“I am not a Princess.”

“No? My apologies you’re right. You will be whoever you want to be and that is something no one can take away. But for now at least you must run home before you miss your curfew. Today is a special day after all.” He had a knowing smile on his face and his violet eyes seemed to hold a warmth to them as he gave them a fond look. They couldn’t shift the idea that they had met before. A distant memory of summer, a kind hand guiding them safely back to their parents. 

“How did-- no, you know what? I don’t care. You’re right I didn’t realise the time I have to run back or I’ll be in real bother.” Standing up they brushed off the loose grass and dirt from their clothing before thinking of something. Reaching into their satchel they pulled out a small notebook full of sketches they had made whilst studying with their father. Most, if they were honest, had nothing to do with the topic they were meant to be looking at and were in fact just doodles of flowers and animals. They had no idea why they thought it would be a nice gift but something unspoken inside guided them to that idea. “Thank you. It’s not much but would you please accept this? Although I have no idea what you would do with such a thing.”

“It would be my honour. Until we meet again…” Mitsunari graciously accepted the small book smiled a blindingly bright smile that rivalled the sun reflecting on the ocean. The wind picked up and they were forced to avert their eyes to prevent dirt from getting whipped up into them

“Meet again?” When they turned to look they found Mitsunari was gone. In his place was a rather pretty looking ocean flower perfectly preserved in some kind of suspended animation. They reached down to pick it up, lost for a moment in the beauty of such magic to be so strong and yet so delicate. I wonder if I’ll even manage to get the hang of it. “Dammit, I’ll end up in double intensive training sessions with mother for a week if I miss my own birthday party.”

Slipping the flower into their bag they took off at a run back in the direction of the city and the tower for the guard. 

---

Image created on Picrew *link* and edited by me later in 3d paint.  

[chanoyu-to-wa]

Nampō Roku, Book 2 (18):  (1587) First Month, Fifth Day, Midday.

18) First Month, Fifth Day; Midday¹.  Ne-no-hi [子日]².

◦ Three-mat room³.

◦ (Guests:)  Hino dono [日野殿]⁴, Yūsai [幽齋]⁵, Sōkyū [宗久]⁶.

Sho [初]⁷.

﹆ In the toko, on an ashi-tsuke [足付]⁸ noshi-awabi [ノシアワヒ]⁹ ・ ne-matsu [根松]¹⁰.

◦ Kama unryū [釜 雲龍]¹¹.

◦ On the tana:     ◦ in a fukube [フクベ], the charcoal¹²;     ◦ habōki [羽帚]¹³.

▵ Shiru uguisu-na [汁 鶯ナ]¹⁴.

▵ Namasu tori [鱠 鳥]¹⁵.

▵ Kuro-me ・ kushi-awabi [黒メ・串鮑]¹⁶.

▵ Ao-ae・suzuna [青アヘ・スヽ菜]¹⁷.

▵ [Kashi] fu-no-yaki ・ shiitake [フノヤキ・椎茸]¹⁸.

[Go [後].]¹⁹

◦ Kokei Shun-fū [古溪 春風]²⁰.

◦ Chaire ryugo [茶入 リウコ]²¹.

◦ Tsutsui ori-tame [筒井 折タメ]²².

◦ Mizusashi Shigaraki [水指 シカラキ]²³.

◦ On the tana:     ◦ hane [羽]²⁴.

_________________________

¹Shōgatsu itsu-ka, hiru [正月五日、晝].

    The date was February 12, 1587, in the Gregorian calendar.

    People usually spent the first four days alone with their family in their homes, and began to receive guests from the fifth.

    Perhaps because members of his extended family were staying in his Ima-ichi machi residence, Rikyū borrowed Nambō Sōkei's Shū-un-an to receive this small group of friends.

²Ne-no-hi [子日].

    This was the first Day of the Rat (the meaning of ne-no-hi) of the year.

◦ It was on this day that the Seven Grasses of Spring were collected (in the fields) and served during the meal.

◦ At this time, seedling pines were also collected, and displayed (and exchanged, as wishes for a long life).

◦ It was also the day when people gathered to enjoy group activities (things done for pleasure, such as playing games; and also chanoyu) for the first time in the year.

    Rikyū observes these precedents during this chakai.

³Sanjō shiki [三疊敷].

    This refers to the Shū-un-an [集雲庵], Nambō Sōkei's official residence in the Nanshū-ji in Sakai, a short walk from Rikyū's Ima-ichi machi home.

    The Shū-un-an was a three-mat room, with the ro cut in the mat on which the lower guests sat.  It was thus used as if it were a two-mat daime room.

    This room contained the original tsuri-dana that was suspended in the left corner of the utensil mat, and so was known as the Shū-un-an-dana [集雲庵棚].  Rikyū appreciated the effect, and subsequently incorporated this kind of tana in his 2-mat rooms with a mukō-ro.

⁴Hino dono [日野殿].

   This refers to Lord Hino Terusuke [日野輝資; 1555 ~ 1623], a kuge [公家]*, who, at the time of this chakai, was a gon-chūnagon [権中納言] or (supernumerary) Middle Counselor.  Later this year (Tenshō 15 -- 1587) Lord Hino would be elevated to gon-dainagon [権大納言], (supernumerary) Major Counselor, and receive the senior grade of the Second Rank.

   Lord Hino (who was born the same year that Jōō died) was also one of Rikyū's personal students. __________ *A court noble.  Lord Hino was a hereditary nobleman (he was the 28th head of his house), rather than someone who had been raised up from the military caste (as was the case with most of the nobles surrounding Hideyoshi).

⁵Yūsai [幽齋].

    This was the daimyō and scholar Hosokawa Fujitaka [細川藤孝; 1534 ~ 1610], who was known as Yūsai [幽齋] after his retirement*. He was originally a champion of the Ashikaga shōgunate, and later offered his allegiance to Oda Nobunaga and, subsequently, to Hideyoshi as Nobunaga’s successor†.

   As a literary scholar Hosokawa Fujitaka’s fame is well known; and it was natural, and almost unavoidable, that they would be intimate colleagues during Rikyū’s years of service to Hideyoshi‡. ___________ *As a direct consequence of the events leading up to Nobunaga’s seppuku. Hosokawa Fujitaka's son and heir was married to the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide, and so he should have joined Mitsuhide in his rebellion against Nobunaga -- this was the expected behavior in this kind of situation.  Nevertheless, Hosokawa Fujitaka decided to shave his head and became nyūdō [入道], taking the name Yūsai; with which act he surrendered his status as a daimyō to his son (though, since he was still considered to be the head of the family, his decision to refuse to join Mitsuhide would obviate his son from being pressed into capitulating to Mitsuhide's demands).

†Hosokawa Fujitaka’s refusal to participate in the battle of Yamazaki probably helped to secure the victory for Hideyoshi, since it kept his retainers from participating on the side of Mitsuhide.  As a result, though Fujitaka was technically retired, he was encouraged to remain active both politically and culturally, and in these capacities he served as an advisor to Hideyoshi to the end of his lifetime (for which Hideyoshi rewarded Fujitaka with an income and land in Yamashiro Province in 1586; which was doubled again in 1595).

    Nevertheless, his allegiance to Hideyoshi aside, Fujitaka supported Tokugawa Ieyasu (perhaps due to a personal dislike for Ishida Mitsunari and his schemes -- one of which resulted in the death of Fujitaka’s son’s wife and his granddaughter), for which the family was honored by the Tokugawa bakufu.

‡Which support persisted even after Rikyū’s death:  the reason why it was his son who went to the bank of the Yodo River to “see Rikyū off” was not because of a lack of affection or esteem on his part, but so that Fujitaka would be in a position to ward off any attacks (on either Rikyū, or Fujitaka’s own family) from Hideyoshi that this gesture may have precipitated.

⁶Sōkyū [宗久].

    This was Imai Sōkyū [今井宗久; 1520 ~ 1593], who, together with Rikyū and Tsuda Sōkyū, was regarded as one of the three greatest chajin of the age.

    At the time of this gathering, Imai Sōkyū was still on friendly terms with Rikyū*, and so he was present at this, Rikyū's first (public) chakai of the year. __________ *Their falling out would not occur until Rikyū was informed that Sōkyū had pocketed the proceeds received from the sale of a number of Jōō's antiques -- money which Rikyū (who had apparently encouraged Hideyoshi's generosity for this reason) had assumed would be turned over to Jōō's son and heir Sōga.

⁷Sho [初].

    The shoza.

    With respect to the kane-wari:

- the toko contains a low stand on which are arranged several seedling pines festooned with noshi-awabi*, and so is han [半];

- the room contains the kama in the ro, and so is han [半];

- and the tana holds the sumi-tori, with the habōki placed beside it, each of which is in contact with a yang-kane, so that the tana is chō [調].

    Han + han + chō is chō, which is appropriate for the shoza of a chakai held during the daytime. __________ *The muscle of an awabi (abalone) cut in such a way that it can be stretched out in a single, long strip, and then dried (with the upper end left in a slight coil, it looks like the kana no [の] and shi [し]).  This is explained below under footnote 9.

   Because of the important significance of the seedling pines (the pines and noshi on the small table functions as the chabana during this chakai), Rikyū has reversed the order of things, and displayed the “chabana” first.  It remains in the tokonoma until the end of the gathering.

⁸Ashi-tsuke ni [足付].

    An ashi-tsuke [足付] is an ancient style of square, unpainted, mage-mono tray, with two pieces of wood attached to the bottom as legs.

    This kind of low tray-table was originally used when making offerings to the God of a shrine; here it is offering the seedling pines to the guests.

⁹Noshi-awabi [ノシアワヒ].

    A noshi [熨斗] (the word literally means “smoothed out flat”) is a long strip of awabi that is cut in a special way (shown in the sketch, below:  this way of cutting was considered a sort of magic, since it results in a single strip) which was then stretched out and dried (it then had the consistency of thin parchment).

    A noshi* was attached to gifts, and signified a gift given without expectation of any return.  In this case, the noshi is attached to one (or perhaps several) seedling pines, the implication being that the host is offering his guests the gift of a long life. __________ *At present the strip of dried awabi is reduced to a tiny snippet, which is enclosed in an elaborately folded envelope (with only one end of the noshi visible) -- or absent entirely (replaced by a printed representation of the noshi in its envelope).

¹⁰Ne-matsu [根松].

    Ne-matsu [根松]* were small pine trees that were uprooted, and their roots were washed clean of soil.

    They were offered to the guests on the Day of the Rat† (who may have taken them home at the end of the chakai and planted them in their garden) as a wish for long-life. __________ *The word means pines (matsu [松]) with roots (ne [根]).  Because the pine tree was said to live for a thousand years, this longevity was considered to be already encapsulated in the seedling.  Thus collecting the seedlings from the wild was like harvesting longevity; and giving the seedlings to other people was like passing this long life on to them.

†Ne-no-hi [子日].  There are various word-plays (the result of homonyms) involved in the things associated with this day.

¹¹Kama unryū [釜　雲龍].

    This was Rikyū's second small unryū-gama, which he asked Yojirō to cast after he presented Hideyoshi with the original small unryū-gama. While the original had a beaten-copper lid, this had a similarly-shaped lid cast of iron (bronze-making was not introduced to Japan until the mid-1590s).

    The kama was suspended over the ro on a bamboo jizai.  Because this kama boils quickly, this would help insure that he inconvenienced Nambō Sōkei as little as possible.

¹²Fukube ni sumi [フクベニ炭].

    Rikyū's fukube sumi-tori was rubbed with black lacquer.

    Fukube [瓢] sounds like the word for good luck.  Together with the ne-matsu, Rikyū is wishing his guests fortune and long life.

¹³Habōki [羽帚].

    This would have been a go-sun-hane [五寸羽], such as was usually used in the small room.

    Traditionally go-sun-hane were made from the feathers of the shima-fukurō [嶋梟], a fishing owl with black and rust-orange striped feathers.

¹⁴Shiru uguisu-na [汁 鶯 ナ].

    Uguisu-na [鶯菜] is a somewhat smaller variety of komatsu-na [小松菜]* (Brassica rapa var. perviridis, a form of the plant from which rape-oil is derived):  it has longer petioles and somewhat shorter leaves than komatsu-na, while the lower stem of uguisu-na swells more than is the case with komatsu-na†.

    Uguisu-na is generally used whole (the roots, however, are removed), with the swollen lower end of the stem pealed (so it resembles a tiny, white radish) and intact.  These greens are blanched in the soup.   One or two of these would be placed in each bowl of miso-shiru. __________ *The name komatsu-na [小松菜] refers to the village of Komatsugawa [小松川], located in Edogawa-ku [江戸川区] in Tōkyō, where this vegetable was heavily cultivated during the Edo period.  The plant itself looks like a miniature Chinese cabbage without the bulk, and is referred to as "Japanese mustard-spinach" in English.

†This seems to be one of uguisu-na’s defining characteristics, and, regardless of the size, the presence of a small, white, radish-like swelling is important when uguisu-na is served.

¹⁵Namasu tori [鱠 鳥].

    According to the account in the Edo period Ryōri Monogatari [料理物語]*:

"tori namasu:  either wild goose (gan [鴈]) or duck (kamo [鴨]) may be used.  The body is cut into two or three pieces, the fat and skin are removed, and the flesh should then be cut as thinly as possible.  [The flesh] is rinsed in heated sake†, after which this sake should be thrown away.  Depending on [the the host -- or the guests' -- preference], a little rice-vinegar may be added [to the sake in which the flesh was washed].

    “It is suitable to serve the previously described fowl as kake-ae [かけあへ]‡; and wasabi [わさび = 山葵] and/or hana-katsuo [花かつを]** may be added.  Adding a little [sliced raw] fish of any sort can also be good.”

    In this case, the prepared fowl would have been mixed with julienned daikon and carrot, and dressed with a mixture of rice-vinegar, soy-sauce or iri-zake, sake, and mirin. __________ *The URL for this account in the on line version of this text is:

http://base1.nijl.ac.jp/~kojiruien/inshokubu/frame/f000205.html

†This “washing” is similar to the way carp is “washed” in hot water for koi-arai [鯉洗い].  The flesh is removed as soon as it starts to firm.

    However, given that the duck or goose would have been sliced as thinly as possible, the flesh would be more cooked than “raw” -- perhaps the fowl could be considered parboiled at this stage.

‡Kake-ae [掛和え] is something similar to namasu, though it includes many other types of fruits and vegetables, and usually a stronger-tasting (sometimes sesame oil based) dressing.

**Hana-katsuo [花鰹] is katsuo-bushi that have been scraped into thin pieces the size of cherry-blossom petals.

¹⁶Kuro-me ・ kushi-awabi [黒メ・串鮑].

    Kuro-me [黒布] is a kind of seaweed that is served raw (if first dried, it is reconstituted by soaking in water), with a dressing made from a mixture of rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce (or iri-zake), sugar, salt, and ginger juice.

    Kushi-awabi [串鮑] is abalone that has been dried on a pair of bamboo skewers (to keep the muscle flat).  It is rehydrated by boiling in broth before being sliced and served.

    Both of these foods were traditionally served with sake.

¹⁷Ao-ae ・ suzuna [青アヘ・スヽ菜].

    Ao-ae [青韲え] is described in the Ryōri Monogatari [料理物語]* as follows:

“dried sea-cucumbers† are thoroughly boiled in dashi [and then sliced or chopped into small pieces].  Ao-mame [青豆]‡ are grated, and [the resulting paste is] salted to taste.  Then the two are combined.”

    Suzuna [菘]** refers to immature kabura [蕪] (turnip), another Brassicaceous vegetable and one of the “Seven Grasses of Spring.”  The suzuna may have been pickled in a manner similar to na-no-hana tsuke [菜の花漬け]:  the suzuna would have been cut into pieces and quickly blanched in salted water, then rinsed in cold water and squeezed to remove the excess water.  The suzuna together with a small piece of dried kombu, and perhaps a small red pepper, were placed in salted water (about 3 grams of salt to 100 ml of water), and kept in a cold place (the pickling solution should never freeze) for one day.

    However, rather than served as separate dishes, Tanaka Senshō says that the coarsely chopped suzuna was parboiled and then mixed into, or dressed with, the ao-ae††. __________ *The URL is the same as under footnote 15.

†Iriko [海参], several species of sea slug, with usually dark brown to black bodies with small papillae (horn-like appendages) scattered over the upper side.  While they can be eaten fresh, they were often dried and then reconstituted by boiling in water or broth.

‡Ao-mame [青豆] are large green soybeans.  The soybeans are boiled in the pod, and then, after removing them from the pod, they are grated (or perhaps “mashed” might be a better word) in a suri-bachi [擂鉢], into a thick paste.  The salted paste is used as a dressing for the boiled and sliced sea cucumbers.

**According to Shibayama Fugen, the kanji was also be pronounced tōna [とうな = 菘].

††In which case the iriko would have had to have been chopped into much smaller pieces.

  Precisely how Rikyū may have prepared this dish -- and whether this represented one offering or two -- is not clear from his kaiki.

¹⁸Fu-no-yaki ・ shiitake [フノヤキ・椎茸].

    Fu-no-yaki [麩の燒] were Rikyū's small wheat-flour crêpes, spread or brushed with white miso, and rolled or folded into bite-sized pieces.

    Shiitake [椎茸] mushroom caps were skewered on a pair of bamboo brochettes and grilled over charcoal, lightly salted, and so served.

¹⁹While what follows refers to the goza, Rikyū* apparently neglected to note this.

    Though the utensil mat in the Shū-un-an was a maru-jō [丸疊] (a full-sized mat), it is used as if it were a daime -- and, further, the mizusashi was supposed to be positioned as if there were a sode-kabe (though none is present).  Thus, it is placed 13 or 15 me from the right heri (depending on the size of the mizusashi†).

    As for the kane-wari:

- in addition to the ashi-tsuke (bearing the ne-matsu and noshi-awabi), the kakemono was added to the toko, so it was chō [調];

- the room contains the kama in the ro, as well as the mizusashi, with the chaire and chawan arranged side by side on the mat (however, as in the daime-gamae, the chaire and chawan were not associated with the mizusashi, and so all were counted separately), making the room chō [調];

- meanwhile, the tana holds the habōki (which was resting on the kane closest to the wall), making it han [半].

    Chō + chō + han is han, which is the proper character for the goza of a chakai held during the daytime. __________ *Or, perhaps, Tachibana Jitsuzan inadvertently omitted it from his copy of this kaiki.

†A wider mizusashi is placed 13-me from the heri, while a narrower mizusashi is placed 15-me from the heri.  According to Kanshū oshō-sama, this is a secret teaching that has been handed down from Nambō Sōkei.

   When a sode-kabe is present, the mizusashi is placed 9-me from the heri, according to the Hundred Poems of Chanoyu:

◎ nijō-dai, sanjō-dai no mizusashi ha, saki ku-me ni oku ga hō nari [二疊臺、三疊臺の水さしは、先九目におくが法なり]:  “in a 2-mat dai[me] or 3-mat dai[me room], the rule is that there should be 9-me at the edge.”

²⁰Kokei Shun-fū [古溪 春風].

   This refers to the ichi-gyō-mono [一行物] featuring the kōan [公案] Shun-fu ichi-jin [春風一陣] that Rikyū had received from his Zen master, Kokei Sōchin [古溪宗陳; 1532 ~ 1598].

²¹Chaire ryugo [茶入 リウコ].

    According to Tanaka Senshō, Rikyū is phonetically spelling the word ryūgo [立鼓] (“standing drum”), as a reference to a drum-shaped karamono chaire (rather than an hourglass-shaped tsuzumi [鼓], a small hand-held drum -- which is the usual image suggested by the word ryūgo [立鼓] -- this drum is a taiko [太鼓], a large barrel-shaped drum that is stood on its side:  a pair of drummers face each drum-head and beat their respective heads of the drum simultaneously, the sound of which was considered to chase away evil spirits away).  A karamono ryūgo-chaire [立鼓茶入]* of this sort is shown below.

    However, Shibayama Fugen, in his commentary, suggests that the name Rikyū is writing is the homophonous ryūgo [立觚], which referred to a ceremonial wine-cup of the type used on the continent for toasting (this kind of vessel had a bulbous bottom and a narrow neck, to keep the “wine†” as hot as possible, and a flaring mouth).

    This kind of tea container is today known as an ankō-chaire [鮟鱇茶入]‡.  However, that name was coined by Kobori Masakazu (Enshū), though several chaire of this type** had been used at least since the sixteenth century (and what they had been known as before his time has been lost††). __________ *In China, this was a gift container for some sort of medicinal liquor (the drum probably being a sort of trade mark of the house that bottled the liquor).  The surviving examples seem to have been made in molds, rather than hand-shaped, and are probably Ming.

†Actually it was similar to sake (which is technically a beer), though it was flavored with medicinal herbs.

‡The name ankō [鮟鱇] refers to a variety of fish known in English variously as the monkfish or goosefish (anglerfishes in the family Lophiidae).  These fish have very wide mouths with which they suddenly envelop prey that are attracted by a fleshy, worm-like lure that is suspended in front of the mouth from the modified first spine of the dorsal fin.

**In addition to the karamono piece shown above (on the left), chaire of this shape were also being produced at the Seto kilns during the first half of the sixteenth century (if not earlier).

    Today, most examples seem to be from Takatori [高取燒], one of the kilns personally patronized by Enshū -- though the shape is actually found in the earliest native pottery (the so-called Sue-ki [須恵器], which was being fired in both the southern areas of Korea, and in Kyūshū, from the third to ninth centuries:  above, the photo on the right is a piece of this type).

††When faced with this sort of question, it is important for the reader to remember that, prior to Jōō (who was the first real “collector” after Ashikaga Yoshimasa -- though in Yoshimasa’s case, it was not so much that he was a collector, but that he made use of tribute that had been accumulating in the shōgunate’s treasure-houses for decades, on the direction of his dōbō [同朋], his foreign-born cultural advisors, who discovered these things during their inventory of the storehouses, and then informed Yoshimasa of the way these things had been used in Korea) virtually all chajin owned only one of each of the necessary utensils, and it was with that single set of things that they performed chanoyu throughout the year, and over the course of their lifetimes.  Pieces that matched the established types (the various named sorts of ko-tsubo [小壺], and the large katatsuki [肩衝]), were referred as such, and their owners were ranked as suki-sha [数奇者]; and pieces that were not so-identifiable were left without a designation, and simply referred to as so-and-so’s chaire (if such things were mentioned in the records at all), and their owners were considered to be wabi suki-sha [ワビ数奇者].

    The pieces now known as ankō-chaire [鮟鱇茶入] were things of the latter sort.

²²Tsutsui ori-tame [筒井 折タメ].

    This means the Tsutsui chawan [筒井茶碗], the original ido chawan that had belonged to Shukō.

    On which was resting the ori-tame [折撓] -- the word refers to a bamboo chashaku that is shaped by bending -- that was made to match the chaire.  The chakin and chasen were also placed inside the chawan, as usual.

__________ *This chawan has been known as the Tsutsu-i-zutsu [筒井筒] since it was broken, by some of Hideyoshi's pages, in the 1590s.

²³Mizusashi Shigaraki [水指 シカラキ].

    This was Rikyū's Shigaraki mizusashi, below.

    In addition to which, Rikyū would have used a take-wa [竹輪] as his futaoki, and a mentsū [面桶] as the koboshi, which he brought out from the katte at the beginning of the temae -- though these things are not mentioned in the kaiki.

²⁴Tana ni hane [棚ニ羽].

    Hane [羽], which means “feather,” refers to the habōki.

[fauzhee10069]

WO: Halloween RPG - A New Threat by Ammelda-Aini

Wizard!Zhang Jiao (The Black Mage) and Witch!Cai Wenji (The Musician) had their first win, Succubus!Gracia (The Demon) is defeated. Here comes another threat, a charming vampire Mitsunari. He looks very enchanting, will this be Cai Wenji's turn to be stunned by him and fall for it? previous

This is not really a comic strip, it's more like a random illustration which happened to be continued.

Lightning brush © FrostBo

#cai wenji #zhang jiao #ishida mitsunari #gracia #warriors orochi #dynasty warriors #samurai warriors #halloween 2018 #ammeldaini_fanart

[ikesenhell]

Heard And Not Seen

This is Chapter 3 of I See Starlight. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTE: SPOILERS FOR TO HONOR AND PROTECT. If you have not read it, please go back and do so before proceeding. THIS WAS A LIVEWRITE! Shout out to everyone who dropped in and made comments! I loved every moment. 

Truthfully? Mitsuhide was terrified. The whole morning felt a little like holding your hopes in your mouth and trying not to swallow them. If this failed--if he couldn’t do this--then he was truly useless to the Nine.

Apparently Hideyoshi was just as nervous. Mitsuhide picked up on some of his ticks better without eyes. He did a faint humming thing under his breath when he wasn’t so certain of something, flexed his fingers until the leather of his gloves stretched and ground. With a quiet snicker, Mitsuhide reached out and patted Hideyoshi’s hand on the breakfast table.

“Anxious, are we?”

A pause. No doubt Hideyoshi wasn’t expecting that. “Do I look that nervous?”

“Nothing looks nervous to me anymore.”

Hideyoshi managed a thin laugh at that. “Ass.”

He picked through his clothing in silence (and that had gotten much easier. He didn’t need any help with the buckles and buttons now, easing his way into his uniform with practiced hands) and met Hideyoshi at the door. As if on cue, the other man adjusted his blindfold to smooth out the wrinkles.

“Am I suitable for the public, dear?” Mitsuhide crooned, the snaky grin on his lips.

Hideyoshi just coughed. “Alright. Let’s go and find your bookseller.”

The sun only gently brushed over him. Was it overcast? Mitsuhide reached out his hand and tried to decide, waving it back and forth. It didn’t feel too moist in the air, so no doubt it really was just a few clouds--or early. “What time is it?”

“Barely eight.”

“Ah. Is it sunny?”

“Overcast.”

Despite himself, Mitsuhide laughed. “I was correct, then. I’ll take my victory. Shall we?”

Hideyoshi tried to guide him through the marketplace by hand, but he rapped his cane against the other man’s boots to make a point and he stopped trying. The scent of fresh bread circled around them. A misty wind swept in from the ocean and he licked his lips, relishing the tang of salt that forever lingered in the City. On habit, he picked around the fruit stall and selected an orange, paying for it and going back on his way.

“That was… You did really well with that.” Hideyoshi commented. “Pretty smooth.”

Mitsuhide grinned and slicked back his long hair, realizing at the last second that he couldn’t wink. He settled for shooting a sly glance in the other man’s direction. “I’ve always been smooth.”

Hideyoshi just groaned.

At last they reached the bookstall. Almost immediately he heard the swish and turn of thick satin skirts, her little patter of footsteps as she came to him and settled her arms on his elbows. She hadn’t even spoken before he heard the smile in her voice. Oh, he could get used to that. “Good morning! You’re by early.”

“Miss me, little mouse?”

She was close enough that he felt the radiating heat of her cheeks. “And who is with you today?”

“Oh, forgive me.” Hideyoshi bowed by the sound of it. “Hideyoshi Toyotomi.”

A slight pause. “The Hideyoshi Toyotomi?”

“Err… yes.” Hideyoshi was blushing, too. Mitsuhide didn’t need eyes to know that. “Were you not… aware of who Mitsuhide is?”

Come to think of it, he’d never given the little bookseller his name, had he? He felt her grip tighten on his elbows. “You’re Mitsuhide Akechi?”

“Oh, and here I thought you knew all that.” In fairness, he’d never made a habit of announcing who he was in the past. Made it easier to sneak around the City and eavesdrop on unsavory conversations. Snickering, he ran his thumb over her cheek. “Never mind all that. I came by to ask a little favor of you.”

She hadn’t quite recovered herself, but she rubbed his arm agreeably nonetheless. “Alright. Alright. What do you need? A particular book?”

“Not quite. I need a braille translator. You do all that yourself for me here, right?”

“I…” A pause. “Yes. I do, though it isn’t perfect--”

“I’ve found your work flawless. Would you be interested in doing a little help for me? I’d consider it a personal favor, but we would also compensate you for your time.”

“Oh, um--sure! Is it more book-related stuff?”

He grinned and laced his arm through hers. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in locking up shop for a bit and coming to find out?”

“Mitsuhide, could you not make that sound creepy?” Hideyoshi cut in, worrying as usual. “We need someone to translate a large number of volumes into braille for him. It’s not an easy job, but it is one we need filled.”

A pause. She clearly thought about it before he felt her nod. “Alright. Sure. Um. Let me just lock up for a moment.”

---

They entered the Royal Library to find Mitsunari chasing the Queen around a table, both of them laughing hysterically. Mitsuhide grinned and paused in the doorway, listening to the patter of their feet. “Did I come in to a stampede?”

“Hideyoshi! Mitsuhide!” The Queen laughed and dashed behind them, clinging to their shirts. “Save me!”

Mitsunari just stopped in his tracks, panting softly after the exertion. Mitsuhide laughed outright and reached for his friend, finding his chest with his palm. “And here I thought your stamina might have gotten better.”

“I don’t think you know what kind of stamina I have?” Mitsunari answered, confused.

“Mitsunari,” Hideyoshi stammered, “We don’t--why--”

“What?”

“Our dear, sweet rosebud is as oblivious as ever.” Mitsuhide snickered. “At any rate, I’m here for tutelage in your fine hands. I suppose we can talk about your stamina afterward, should the good Queen want to--”

“Oh my God, please, let’s change the subject.” Her Highness sounded mortified. “Mitsuhide, you were the one who wanted the training?”

“I volunteered, yes.”

A long moment of silence.

“Um,” Mitsunari paused, clearly considering his words. “Well, the reading might be a little… interesting.”

At this point, the bookkeeper stepped forward, her skirts rustling around her ankles. “Your Highness, I’m so sorry to interrupt. I’ve been recruited to transform the books into braille versions for him.”

“Oh! Huh.” Another moment. The Queen sighed lightly. “That’s very work intensive.”

“I’d love to figure it out.”

At that, Mitsunari clapped his hands together. “Alright! It’s settled. We’ll give it a shot.”

--- Watching the training terrified Hideyoshi.

They cleared the main study table from the center of the library, creating as much space as possible--which also meant there wasn’t much for Mitsuhide to triangulate his position with. Hideyoshi tried to soothe himself with the knowledge that Mitsunari and the Queen would never let him endanger himself--but still. What if the floor was uneven? Surely being in the dark about your positioning was nerve wracking.

Fortunately, he had other things to distract himself with.

The Bookkeeper had set up a little platform on the side table and was squinting at some of the volumes, a small hole punch held in her hand. It took him a moment to understand what she was doing. Had she been hand punching the braille this whole time? How much time had she invested in making the stall more accessible?

“Excuse me,” he murmured, tapping her shoulder. “Can I help you with that?”

“Mmmm?” She blinked up at him before smiling. It was a sweet, pretty little smile. Hideyoshi found himself very fond of it. “No, no. Unfortunately there’s not much you can do. I’m just… I’m just trying to discover the best way to do this.”

“It looks time intensive.”

“It is.” She sighed at that, rubbing her fingertips down the old volume’s thin pages. “Monumentally so.”

The old fears that this just wasn’t possible surfaced in his mind. As one, they watched Mitsunari putting that iron staff in Mitsuhide’s hands, watched the white-haired man trace his palms up and down it to better understand the weight of it.

“You know what?” The Bookseller said at last. “I’ve got a thought. Would you mind helping me with something, Sir Toyotomi?”

“Err, Hideyoshi is fine. And certainly.”

--- The something was a large box of tools and metal. He carried it obligingly back to the library with her, making small talk the whole way. Her favorite color was red. They both came from the same small village out in the southern forests, which was odd. She’d only moved to the City after the Invasion.

“An odd time to come, don’t you think?” He asked, readjusting his hold on the box.

“That’s what my mother said,” she laughed, her giggle soft and pearly.

“That’s not the first time I’ve been compared to someone’s mother.”

“Oh nooo.” But they both cracked up anyway at that. “Well, I understood it wasn’t going to be the most, you know, put-together after all that happened, but…”

He watched her bright eyes flicker over the far-off ocean. Something familiar sparked in her gaze. It wasn’t so unlike the way that Mitsuhide used to watch the world, a keen inner world coloring the shape of things around her.

“I don’t know,” she said at last. “I thought after everything that happened, maybe people would need a bit of another world to escape into. Books are good for that. I’m not gifted at much else.”

That turned out to be a lie. She was terribly gifted. Hideyoshi watched as she took the box of small metal bits and bobs, forming what looked first like a casing, then formulated small, long levers that connected to a central device. He sat by, fascinated in turns by her intricate engineering and Mitsuhide’s intense focus in Mitsunari’s tutelage.

“What are you doing?” He asked at last, enchanted.

The Bookkeeper looked at him from her comically large magnifying glasses. “I’m making a machine.”

“A machine?” He gawked. “For…?”

“I’m… I’m trying to think up a faster way to do this.” And then she flipped over the small tray she’d been working on, setting it onto the casing. A series of buttons laid out on it, each marked with an individual character. “My thought is this: if I could just press a button for the letter and have the corresponding braille character stamp onto a page, then I could do this much faster.”

“That’s brilliant.” Where the hell had this woman come from? Hideyoshi just stared in disbelief. “I’d have never thought of that.”

She flushed bright pink, twirling the screwdriver in her fingers. “I’m just trying to do my best.”

Admiration surged in him. Without meaning to, he reached out and took her hand. “Thank you.”

“Whatever for?”

“For doing this for him.”

He watched her lower her eyes, her gaze flickering over to Mitsuhide. They both watched as he furrowed his brow in concentration, stretching out his hand--and a tiny flame emerged from the tip of his fingers. And oh, oh, the expression on his face was radiance itself. After all those long months seeing a stranger, there he was. There was Mitsuhide, in all of his sharp and predatory and brilliant glory, buoyed by success.

“I don’t need thanks,” the Bookseller murmured. “I’m rather fond of him, as it happens.”

Me too, thought Hideyoshi. Me too.

---

By the end of the lesson, Mitsuhide was sweaty and worn out, his muscles screaming for a stretch and a hot bath--and despite all that, he was so happy he felt fit to explode. He’d done it. He’d done it. Strung together with adrenaline and the taste of normalcy, he slipped in the direction he heard Hideyoshi and the Bookseller in, wrapping his arms around someone’s shoulders. It felt like Hideyoshi.

“I do believe the ocean is receding. Must be low tide.”

Mitsunari laughed at the joke over the Queen’s groan. Hideyoshi shifted and Mitsuhide knew he was rolling his eyes. How good it was to feel their reactions still.

“Mitsuhide, if you would?” Her sweet voice caught his ear. “I just want you to read something for me and see if it is legible.”

“Mm?” Had she spent all of her time here punching out the braille? That must have taken forever. Obligingly, he slipped to her side, ignoring that Hideyoshi braced his elbow as if he might fall. “Do tell. I’m all ears… or fingertips, as it were.”

Into his hand she pressed… a whole book. He frowned and gripped it tighter. There was no way. “Is this the original book?”

“No, it’s the translation.”

Bewildered, he flipped open the first page and ran his hands along the thick pages. He could read it. There it was, in the staccato ridges, the valleys of language itself rising and falling against his skin. He paused in disbelief.

“How did you do this?”

“She made a machine,” Hideyoshi told him. “It’s this brilliant thing.”

“Show me it.”

They reached for his hands at the same time. Without meaning to, he snorted, feeling them both fumble over who would show him what. “You know, I like both of you quite a lot. I’ve two hands. No need to fight over me.”

“Alright then,” Hideyoshi managed, his voice strained with embarrassment. “Here you go.”

Cool metal met his hands. He danced his fingers between the pedals, pressing a few experimentally. “You did this all in the space of time I was training?”

“Well, I had bits and pieces laying around, so not all of it…”

“She’s being modest,” Hideyoshi interjected. “It was insane.”

“Mmm,” he sighed, trailing a hand over hers. “I thought you were a special one.”

Stammering, she managed a simple, “Th-thank you.”

“Hideyoshi, listen to that little mouse.”

“I’m not a m-mouse!”

But he just grinned and placated her with a kiss to her hand. “Of course you aren’t. I am most thankful for you.” ---

They saw her off to her house and walked back together. The sky lanced with sharp streaks of orange and purple and red, a horizon so infinite that Hideyoshi couldn’t conceive of the end of it. He wished for the faintest second that Mitsuhide could see it, too--but then he glanced over at his friend and saw how his long white hair reflected each thread of that infinite rainbow, catching an entire world on its own.

“Hideyoshi?” Mitsuhide finally started. “This blindfold is miserable. Am I unpresentable without it?”

“Hmm?”

“It catches sweat. I’m not fond of that.”

“Oh. Well, try it out. I’ll tell you if it’s really as bad as your normal face.”

Mitsuhide snickered at that and reached behind his head, undoing the silk tie. It slipped away and Hideyoshi wondered that they’d ever thought to put it on him at all. His white eyelashes rested like frost on those angular cheekbones, the eyelids hollower, but still smooth nonetheless.

“It’s just fine,” Hideyoshi reassured him. “You look just fine.”

“Good.” A ghost of a smile flirted with Mitsuhide’s mouth; he straightened and sighed deeply. “That woman really is something else, isn’t she?”

That bewildering mix of jealousy surged in him; for the first time, Hideyoshi wasn’t sure who he was jealous of. “She is.”

“Mm.”

The two of them lapsed into silence. Overhead, the first stars shone through the dipping dark.

#Ikemen Sengoku #Ikesen #Ikesen Fantasy Au #Hideyoshi Toyotomi #Mitsuhide Akechi #Toyotomi Hideyoshi #Ikesen Hideyoshi #Akechi Mitsuhide #Ikesen Mitsuhide #my writing #I See Starlight #ISS #Mitsunari Ishida #Ishida Mitsunari #Ikesen Mitsunari #Mage Mitsunari #Ikesen Medieval Au #Engineer MC #Heard And Not Seen #Bi!Hideyoshi #Bi!Mitsuhide

[ikesenhell]

Epilogue

This is an epilogue of To Honor And Protect. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTE: I wasn’t gonna do this, but then @iamaikotachibana asked a couple things of me, so here we are. 

The City thrived for generations. Rebuilt anew, it played host to hundreds of students to the new College of Magic. Mages harnessed the powers so long denied, serving the public and tapping into the universe. The marketplaces flourished. The land stilled. The bloodshed of the past fell into memory and nightmare.

And the Princess--no, the Queen--grew old.

Mitsunari aged with her. Sort of. It was certainly fake, she knew that much. He could choose to look like whatever he wanted. Still; it was precious of him, choosing where his wrinkles would be, making his silvery hair white. He still gathered her in his arms and kissed her like they were young. 

But they weren’t young. And she was dying. 

One night, they both knew. 

He gathered her up in his arms and together they slipped out the door. Now the stairwells to the docks were deeper and smoother, no longer the slick things they used to be. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he stepped to the edge of the dock and walked off, his feet treading over the waves seamlessly. 

"Are you ready, my love?" He asked. 

 "With you? Whenever. Always." 

And he smiled at her, and kissed her, and it felt like they were falling in love all over. Every day with him felt like that. Then they were going down, the water rushing in over their heads and tangling through her curls, her dress sodden and floating around her, and it was quiet and peaceful. The rest of the world seemed so loud in retrospect. Mitsunari steered her back to him and there he was, young and smiling, kissing her soft as a petal, and as the world darkened around them, all she felt was love, love, love, infinite love. 

Up on the surface, the young Prince watched from his tower as the waves of the Northern Sea rippled, then surged upward, crashing back down with a mighty echo. And he knew. Holding tears back from his eyes, he watched until the waves stilled, knowing that both of his parents were gone--and happy. 

#THP #To honor and protect #epilogue #mitsunari ishida #ishida mitsunari #ikesen #ikemen sengoku #my writing #ikesen mitsunari #mage mitsunari #ikesen fantasy au #ikesen medieval au #angst #fluff

[ikesenhell]

What The Trees Know

This is part ten of To Honor And Protect. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTE: Yes, I put up two in one night. I apologize... but I had to.

She was stiff and sore the next morning, but she just giggled recklessly at his fussing over her, wrapping those glorious thighs over his hip and dragging him into her. How could he feel anything but love when she was so vibrant? Even if he merged into one with her, it wasn’t close enough. His heart was hers, only hers, and he was so far gone he didn’t care. 

Bone-chilling wind swept through the library, their fire barely enough to keep up with it. They bundled together under a cloak. Sometimes her curls brushed against his shoulder as she read, turning pages with focused hands. 

“Anything interesting?” He asked softly, switching out his book for another. 

“It keeps jumping years,” she murmured. “This doctor wasn’t very consistent. I also don’t think he was a doctor.”

“No?”

“No. I think he was another mage.”

Thumbing his way through his notes, Mitsunari lapsed into thought. So if the monsters were bound to someone, who was it? Who was it that held such deep hatred? The timing made a kind of sense; if the Southern Kingdom and The City joined together now, their combined force might have delayed the invasion and turned the tide. And more importantly, how did one break a binding seal? Did the bound person have to come with the force, or could they stay behind? And--

He nearly lurched out of his skin when the Princess shot to her feet. 

“They’re the trees,” she gasped, and raced out of the town hall. 

“Princess!” Mitsunari staggered over the bench and righted himself, sprinting after her. Drizzle pelted against his cheeks as they tore through the village to the edge of the woods, her eyes searching every which way, book clutched in her fist. “Princess, what’s happening?”

“This way.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the canopy. The trees were thicker here, more haphazard, roots laced together and trunks bent inward like lovers. For a long while they crunched through the dead leaves, until finally they reached the edge of the woods and a cliff. 

And there--there on the very lip, driven deep into the earth, was a staff. 

It was a rusty iron thing, an obsidian ball set in the top. Faint bands of dark wood decorated the handle, a vine crawling eagerly around its base. Curious, Mitsunari stepped forward--and it began to glow from within. 

“What did you read?” He asked her.

“The last entry is dated three years ago.” She paused. “There was a plague. It was slow at first, then started coming quicker and quicker. About four years ago they knew they needed help, but since they were all mages...”

“They were marked.” Mitsunari paused. “Mages pick up the magic they’re around after long enough. It’s like an aura. No one would miss it. They knew they couldn’t go to the City for help.”

She held the book out, examining it at an arm’s length. “The last one is cryptic at best. He said he was leaving his staff behind and leaving the island. He said he was the only one left--he’d made sure of it, that he’d saved everyone who was left.”

That didn’t make much sense. Before he could say so, the Princess turned back towards the woods, her eyes wide. “And I thought the trees here were strange already.”

When he turned around to face them, he saw it, too--where once he’d simply thought them strange, now he knew. They bowed toward the staff, outstretched and longing, hundreds of people turned to nature itself. He could see the etched frames of faces high up in the boughs. Grandmothers with crows feet smiling toward the sun, children who never knew the grace of age, couples growing intertwined. Breath hitched in his throat.

But the Princess stepped to the closest one and put her hand on it, a woman’s face serene on the bark. Quietly, she pressed her ear to the trunk. 

“They aren’t angry,” she whispered. “I think they’re content.”

He stood stock still, horror caught in his throat. She slipped between the trees and he wondered what he would do to save her, to preserve her from the yawning mouth of the grave--what this unknown man already sacrificed for this power. 

The staff pulsed behind him. 

Stretching out his hand, he gripped the handle and pulled. It came easily from the dirt. A purple spark flickered and flashed in the sphere’s depths, swirling over his hand and arm, the grip reshaping to his palm. It felt prophetic somehow.

“Mitsunari?” The Princess called, watching him from the trees. He tested its weight with a swing. 

“I think it... wants to be used.” He tried it again, setting the end of it against the earth. Something rippled through his mind; once more he tapped it to the ground, feeling the surge of something primal searching him. “I’ve never seen one of these before. It’s a real staff. It’s meant to call on the magical tides.”

“Is it safe?” She asked. A fair question. He gripped it with both hands. 

“Maybe.” But he laughed. “That’s not reassuring. We’ll do a bit of research.”

Their mystery mage was a father and husband, as best as they could tell. Mitsunari cleaned the staff until it glowed in the fire, and edged carefully into the handle were three names: Lianna, Nahryah, Orsun. The symbol for ‘Loved Ones’ capped them all, a small ring around Lianna’s name to indicate marriage. Mitsunari took special care to not erase the inscription. 

“So what’s the difference between using your hands and using a staff?” The Princess asked. 

“A staff draws on more of the power around you.” Mitsunari waved a finger around his head. “You can be struck by lightning on your own, if you wait a while, but raising a sword above your head will draw it to you much better. It’s a conduit for the thing, as best as I understand--not that I’ve ever seen one personally, just illustrations.”

She frowned and sorted more of the books, still picking through them. “Practically speaking, do you think it could help us break the binding seal on those creatures? I imagine doing one on our own is a bit of a proposition.” 

“You’re right, and probably.” Mitsunari paused. “Though I can’t imagine how we’re going to practice with this thing. It feels ridiculous to go into a battle with a weapon you’ve never tested.”

“Maybe it’s better to think of it as an extension of an arm or something.” 

“Maybe.”

Mitsunari rubbed his thumb over the handle, considering each of the names, and all at once he could hear it. Whispers lapped at the very edge of his consciousness, swirling in the dark tidal waters of his brain. Reflexively he resisted it--then thought better of it. Quietly, he let them slip in one at a time. 

They were memories of a kind. Laughter and music from a wedding. The cry of a newborn. Squeals of children. A village festival. The huff of breath from a lover. Each of them passed through him like a wave, throbbing empty and echoing a single question through the cavern of his chest: what would you do if you were losing everything you loved?

“Mitsunari?” 

He blinked up at her. The Princess peered into his eyes, concern etched in hers. “Are you alright?”

“Me?” He asked, his voice a thousand miles away. What would he do if he lost her? A cavernous gulf hollowed out in the whole of his being, all she was surging and flowing through it, stemmed for now. Slowly he brushed his hand over her cheek, relishing the glow of it. “I think so.”

“What just happened?”

He twisted the staff in his hands. “I’m not sure.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“No.” Mitsunari paused, not certain how he knew that. “No. It just remembers what it means to be loved, and knows what it is to lose that.”

She didn’t ask him any more questions. Instead she slid into his arms and he squeezed her tight. Outside, the trees sang their wind-song. 

#What the Trees Know #THP #To Honor And Protect #ikesen #ikemen sengoku #ikesen fic #ikesen fantasy au #ikesen medieval au #mage mitsunari #ikesen mitsunari #mitsunari ishida #ishida mitsunari #my writing #body horror #angst

[ikesenhell]

Down in the Rain

This is part six of To Honor And Protect. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here.

Their lessons were back on, and each and every one of them killed him. 

They weren’t alone anymore. Usually Sasuke sat in, but sometimes it was Hideyoshi, or Shingen. Other times, Lord Kennyo himself sat in the corner of the study, busying himself with ancient books. He felt the eyes on his back as often as he saw the flit of a gaze under eyebrows. 

She wasn’t much the same when anyone was looking, but he could tease hints of her back out. One time he misspoke during their history lessons, and she got so tickled that they both dissolved into laughter, leaving Lord Kennyo confused in the corner. Her eyes glittered when they shelved books together. She played with the silver chain around her neck when deep in thought, and every time his heart thumped so hard he half expected to pass out. 

“Mitsunari.” Lord Kennyo stopped him one day as he went to leave. “Indulge my curiosity.”

“Yes sir?”

“They tell me you weren’t recruited to the Nine so much as condemned to it.” His dark eyes searched Mitsunari. That was just fine. Mitsunari smiled cheerily back. 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. It’s always an honor to be in the Nine.”

“They say,” Kennyo followed up, sharper this time, “that you were a mage of some power.”

Mitsunari considered carefully before answering. “I don’t know that I’d say of some power, but any magic at all tends to attract attention. I suppose it was simply interesting enough.”

Either the lord wasn’t up to the task of threading the diplomatic needle, or he simply thought Mitsunari oblivious, but either way, he let it go. 

The Barracks never stilled now. A never-ending stream of information poured in from Shingen and Mitsuhide’s spies, painting a confusing picture of backward tactics at the border. 

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were exercising a diversion.” Shingen remarked, tracing the path of the Western Army’s route. 

Nobunaga hummed. “A diversion for what, exactly?”

“That’s the golden question, isn’t it?” Mitsuhide grinned as if the game of war were merely checkers. “But if I were to stretch my imagination, I’d say they were looking to destabilize our region as well as they could before attempting an invasion.”

Their leader narrowed his ruby eyes. “Ah. So you’re suggesting they’ll attempt an assassination?”

“Perhaps. Maybe a coup. Either way, I have little but rumors to rely upon. We should employ our good senses either way.”

“Cowards.” Kenshin sniffed. “Send an army. Fight like warriors. Then we must up the defenses.”

Ieyasu huffed, leaning over the map. “Fine. If they’re going straight for the royal family, they’ll have to work for it.”

“That’s the spirit.” Masamune grinned and slapped his friend encouragingly on the back. “Ieyasu and I can handle upping the wall defenses. Put us straight on those front lines.”

“Obviously Shingen and I are spoken for,” Mitsuhide drawled. 

“Which leaves the King, the Princess, and Lord Kennyo.” Nobunaga rubbed his chin. “Kenshin, you make the most sense guarding His Highness with myself. Hideyoshi, Yukimura, you take care of Lord Kennyo. Mitsunari--”

“Wait.” Hideyoshi cut in. “Wait. Allow me to trade with Mitsunari.”

“Why?”

“Because--” Hideyoshi paused. “I think Mitsunari and Yukimura have a great working relationship.”

With a snort, Nobunaga repeated the question. “Why?”

“Look, I think--”

Rolling his eyes, Kenshin cut in. “Because he doesn’t want the lovesick puppy to be responsible for the Princess.”

And it was out. Any pretense of blindness the other eight had slipped away, Hideyoshi’s expression twisting.

“No,” he snapped, “I don’t want Mitsunari’s emotions to be used as leverage in a combat situation.”

“It’s hardly inappropriate.” Nobunaga remained as cool as ever. “Mitsunari has the most incentive to keep her safe. I highly doubt he’d allow so much as a single hair on her head to fall without her say-so.”

“At best, this is a bad idea. At worst, we’re actively using--”

“Hideyoshi.” Mitsunari cut in. “May I speak for myself?”

All the others fell silent. Rising to his feet, Mitsunari bowed before them. “Let me protect her.”

Kenshin fixed his green-blue gaze on Mitsunari. “Can you keep a cool head? Will you hold yourself together if she comes to harm? Can you keep your sense if she is threatened?”

He held fast, staring Kenshin down. “Have I ever failed to analyze a situation properly before enacting a secure plan?”

“Need I remind you of the last time you were under emotional duress and granted power?”

Point taken. Mitsunari shut his eyes. Would he? “That was many years ago. I cannot promise I’d never use that in her defense, but that is simply an extension of my job.”

“Please think about this,” Hideyoshi implored. “Really think about it.”

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m happy to accept this position. Please allow me to do this for myself.”

With that, Nobunaga nodded his head, and it was done. As they filed from the hall, Mitsunari felt doubt flicker in his heart for only a moment--and then it was gone, replaced with nothing but resolve.

The month passed with the quiet thrum of his lovesick heart as much as the heavy crash of waves. His feelings grew like unchecked weeds into the thick of his throat, watered to life with every glance she graced him with. Their routines were different now: he didn’t return to the barracks at night. Instead he took up residence in the tower, same as Sasuke, close enough to their charge to be useful. 

She took her mornings in delicate silence. Mitsunari never felt so lonely and full in his whole life. The wind rushed around them and the ocean thrashed outside the windows, the crackle of fire warming her tea the only sounds to remind him that this was real life at all, that she wasn’t an angel his mind dreamed into life. In the quiet dawn he was brave. Maybe she was, too--maybe that was why they brushed up against each other in the kitchen, knuckles kissing as they parsed through bread and expensive cubes of sugar, tea leaves and cups and bread. Sometimes he pretended to spill things just to have an excuse to stand by her longer, bound by the sweetness of her perfume. They never spoke. That would break the spell. Eventually the rest of the castle was up, too, and with the rustle of voices, it shattered anyway. 

And night--oh, blessed, blessed night--she took the steps up to the top of the tower and lingered there. Storm-born winds swept through her hair and skirts and flung them out toward the ocean. Stardust scattered over the length of her arms and pooled in her eyes, the gloss of her full lips swelling in the moonlight, and every time the darkness fell, Mitsunari wondered when he might snap utterly and shade her mouth with his. 

Somehow he didn’t. Instead he hovered on the brink of madness each waking hour, dipping himself further and further into the well of her eyes and wondering when he might never get out again. 

“Father is to announce the wedding date today,” she informed her bodyguards one damp afternoon. Rain sprinkled outside the window, scattering over the waves. “I suppose it’s to be a public thing, despite the weather.”

Mitsunari wondered, selfishly, why it couldn’t be postponed, but forced a smile on anyway. “Well, I’ll see to it that you stay dry.”

Sasuke pushed the glasses up his nose and nodded. “And I’ll be only a few steps away at any given time, so maybe I can employ my ninja arts and sweep the water away.”

That got her to laugh. “Oh! Well, if that’s how it works, then I suppose so.”

They fetched an umbrella and headed down the stairs. Mitsunari tried not to fantasize about sharing it with the Princess too hard, but--Lord Kennyo emerged in the doorway, followed by his own entourage, Hideyoshi, and Yukimura.

“Good morning.” He bowed before the Princess, who returned the gesture. “I thought I might escort you to the speech. I brought an umbrella for the occasion.”

“It would please me.” She responded, formal as always. “Thank you.”

Ah. Mitsunari set the one he’d gathered down by a cloak stand, avoiding Hideyoshi’s mothering stare. As a group, they left the tower and headed toward the square. 

A podium arranged for the brief announcement sat squat in the vast marketplace. The people already milled around the edges, eager for news. A royal wedding was exciting, after all. Mitsunari tried not to resent everyone involved and plastered on his smile for the Princess, nodding reassuringly at her every time she glanced back at him. 

“On your guard,” Hideyoshi hissed. “Mitsuhide thinks something might happen.”

Of course. It was too obvious a target. Subtly, Mitsunari separated from the group and eased around the edge of the stage, positioning himself as close as possible to the Princess’ side. Tactically speaking, this was a nightmare. So many people in one space, so many rooftops facing inward, so few places to hide...

He wasn’t exactly surprised when it happened. 

The speech had only just commenced when Masamune’s bellow cut through the ceremony. Mitsunari didn’t need to understand him. Brash as their One-Eyed Dragon was, he wouldn’t interrupt without a reason. In almost perfect unison, the Nine drew their swords. Just in time. The crowd screamed and parted like a flood, three men breaking forward from different positions toward the stage. 

Kenshin caught the first. He swept from his place with wave-grace, his arms fluid as water and sword a deadly silver ribbon, setting upon his opponent. Nobunaga intercepted the second; his sword became the hammer of the Devil, a grave marker not yet embedded in the heart of the soon-dead. And the third--

Mitsunari watched the seconds tick by in half-time. The third lifted a crossbow, readying the bolt. The only two men close enough to stand between their targets and a certain death were gone; the King was nearly ducked, Lord Kennyo drawing his own weapon, but the Princess--

Something in him snapped. 

With savage focus, he yanked his sword free and sliced his hand open. Blood spattered on his uniform, but he didn’t care. Instead he extended his arm. 

“Mitsunari!” Hideyoshi yelled from a thousand miles away. “Mitsun--”

He crushed his fingers closed. 

The man twisted on Kenshin’s blade crumpled and shrieked. Kenshin took one step back before the victim howled again, his neck wrenching with one sickening crack, and then all his blood swept in a massive tidal wave into Mitsunari’s hands. Two thoughts passed through him: the man with the crossbow was slipping his hand into the trigger now, and if he acted, he could wrap the blood around his neck, bring him thrashing into the air with a dripping noose--

The Princess wouldn’t want that. He didn’t want that. And Mitsunari recovered himself in a fractious, tense second, flinging his hand up into the air, and the blood coalesced into a pearly force field. 

And the bolt shattered against it. 

Yukimura had the last one in the next moment, forcing him down with his spear. Mitsunari released the magic and watched the wall dissolve. All was silent for a long, long time... and then he realized what he’d done. 

“Well.” Mitsunari forced the usual cheer into his voice, trying his best not to acknowledge the horrified stares on him. “Well, I suppose I do have to answer for that, don’t I? It is forbidden, after all.”

“Mitsunari--” The Princess tried to go to him, but Sasuke held her back.

“Don’t worry.” He smiled at her, doing his best to be calm, and knelt before the King. “Don’t worry. It’s alright. I know what I did.”

“Mitsunari!” She yelled again, trying to shake Sasuke off. “Father, don’t do anything, he saved us--he was doing his job--”

But the King said nothing. Hideyoshi and Nobunaga came to his side, silent and serious, and clasped him into irons. The Princess burst into tears. 

“It’s alright,” he soothed. “It’s okay. Don’t cry, Princess. It’s okay.”

“We’ll handle this matter later.” Kennyo announced gravely. “For now, we have to see to the people. Take him to holding.”

#ikesen #ikemen sengoku #my writing #ikesen fic #thp #to honor and protect #ikesen fantasy au #ikesen medieval au #mitsunari ishida #ishida mitsunari #ikesen mitsunari #mage mitsunari #Kennyo #Ikesen Kennyo #Nobunaga Oda #Oda Nobunaga #Ikesen Nobunaga #Shingen Takeda #Takeda Shingen #Ikesen Shingen #Mitsuhide Akechi #Akechi Mitsuhide #Ikesen Mitsuhide #Ieyasu Tokugawa #Tokugawa Ieyasu #ikesen Ieyasu #Hideyoshi Toyotomi #toyotomi hideyoshi #ikesen Hideyoshi #Kenshin Uesugi

[ikesenhell]

Death Walks

This is part eleven of To Honor And Protect. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTE: Horror elements and serious harm appear in this chapter. Some people don’t fare well.

Winter was nearly upon them. He felt it in the sharp bite of morning air, in the way the ocean fog rolled in tight about their ankles and he nearly lost the princess in it. Over the water the City was still. Once he swore he heard the crack of a cannon, but there was no way to tell. 

“We have to hurry,” she urged, tense and certain. “They’re relying on us.”

Working with the staff came easier than he expected. It felt like an extension of him, a chisel to crack open the sky. No longer did he offer pricks of blood for flames. Now they came to him easily. 

“What do you think that means?” She peered over a book at him. “How does one make that sort of thing? Did he have to sacrifice something special for that purpose?”

“I don’t know.” Mitsunari admitted. “We don’t have the time to find out. I can only hope that knowledge isn’t lost.”

But he suspected she was right. It felt like part of a soul lodged inside the obsidian orb. He connected too fondly with an inanimate object not to render it the respect of its own autonomy. Absently he brushed a thumb over its smooth surface. “It likely is also because we’re on the edge of the sea. Water is a natural conduit for magic, I’ve read. I imagine this would be more difficult if we weren’t surrounded by it.” 

The Princess’ eyes glassed over. “There’s a thought.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh. Nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s half formed anyway. I’ll let you know when it becomes something.”

At noon they heard the second cannon. Lurched from their reading, they exchanged nervous looks. 

“That’s not encouraging,” she said, her voice stable and calm in ways her eyes weren’t. 

“No,” he agreed. “That isn’t.”

“What happens if we don’t find anything?” 

Mitsunari hadn’t considered that possibility. He paused, thumbing the page under his hand. “There’s always that chance, I suppose. Well, if that’s how it is, then I suppose we’ll have to make an effort anyway.”

“Even if it could wind up with us all dead?”

“I mean--” He paused. “I took this job expecting to die one day, as we all do, Princess. It’s simply a question of what way you leave this world. I can’t imagine many places would be safe if this isn’t stopped anyway.”

A soft smile graced her for only a moment, and then she dipped back into her book. 

The third shot fired only an hour later. 

“Alright.” The Princess flung her book onto the table, flipping it open. “Is it an executive choice on my part if I say we’re out of time?”

They didn’t have anything in the way of a plan--not a scrap. If the person the creatures were bound to came to the field, that was one thing. Mitsunari assumed that Kenshin, Nobunaga, and Masamune would gladly open a route for him to take it down. Maybe a simple dispel charm would work? It felt thin, and if their target didn’t show at all, then they looked at a much worse scenario. 

But she was right. They couldn’t sit on the island forever, and from the sounds of it, things were escalating. 

“Yes, my Princess,” he agreed, calculating their odds in his mind. Who knew what they were? Too many variables existed now. “But come here first.”

She obeyed, and he pulled her in by the waist and locked her there with the staff, planting a kiss on her lips. He could feel the sweep of her eyelashes against his cheek. He could hear the rustle of the tree-villager’s leaves outside the window. He could smell the twist of smoke rising through the library, and the sweetness of her hair, and feel the way her body curved to his and the cold metal gripped in his palms. Never before had he feared forgetting (mostly because he didn’t, nothing important, at least), but now? Now he etched her into his mind. Fear crept like ice through his veins, only cooled and never melted at her touch. 

“I love you,” he breathed. “Will you stay safe by me?”

“I’ll do my best.” Her eyes flitted over his, glossy and bright. “I’ll try. I promise.”

That was all he could ask for. Sweeping as many books as he guessed would help into his arms, they left the safety of the Town Hall and hitched the boat up between them, heading for the shore. 

The trip back to the city was easier for certain, but no less exhausting. Ice slushed around the edge of the boat. Laughing with nervous delight, the Princess shot fireballs from her palms to break them up, but she silenced the moment they grew close to the docks. Acrid smoke hung in the air. Eerie silence filtered down through the staircase, and he wasn’t heartened to see that no other ships had left. Just them. Only them. Motioning for their silence, he eased the boat alongside the dock as best as he could and took the leap over, helping her out after him. 

It wasn’t possible to hold her hand and hold his sword and staff, as much as he wanted to. Mitsunari scooted her behind him and they stole on cat-feet to the edge, staring up the obsidian stairs. Clear--for now. It didn’t soothe him. Step by single slick step, they crept upward. Once the Princess slipped and caught herself, but when she righted her hands were soaked in blood. He nearly panicked and realized all at once that it wasn’t hers. She just stared wide-eyed at them. Gently he reached out, tugging on her sleeve. She caught his meaning and wiped her hands on her shirt, staining the linen a sickening brown-pink, and they carried on. 

On the main path into the castle courtyard was when they first heard it. Snuffling. They halted on the edge of the steps, holding their breath. Again. Something dragged along the cobblestone paving, a ragged moan escaping tight lungs. 

And it stopped. 

Mitsunari knew it caught the scent even before it came barreling around the hedge, but he’d never physically encountered one before. He had three seconds to absorb the massive, twisting creature of flesh before it slammed into him, and then he saw sky before the ground crashed back into his sightline. The Princess screamed and it swung, but he scrabbled to his feet. 

“Hey!” Smashing the end of the staff into the ground, he pointed it at the creature and got a much better look. It was barely bipedal, a labrythine thing of twisted muscle and cording holding it together, the sagging skin of its face drooping over mismatched, salvaged eyes forced into sockets misaligned. Two slits made up a nose. That haunting stare bulged at him. For a half second he felt almost sorry for the misshapen creature. 

But his sympathy blew away on the wind the moment he saw the Princess’ terrified face. Instead he forced all of his will into the staff, and--

BAM. 

A flash of light blinded them both. The Princess screamed again and he staggered back from the force, and next thing he saw, the creature sailed through the air and over the cliff, landing with a splash in the frozen sea. Victory. He rushed to her side, dropping the staff to help her up. “Are you alright?”

“Yes--Yes.” She dry-heaved and recovered herself. “Yes, I think--”

They heard it at the same time: the wet, lumbering slap of loose skin against stone, a rush of slavering teeth and noses coming in their direction. She snatched up the staff and he grabbed her wrist, making a run for it. 

It was impossible to calculate how many there were on their tail. He couldn’t get a good enough look while running, but it sounded like a lot, at least twenty. Together they sprinted over the pathways toward the castle. If anywhere was safe, it had to be the castle. But then again, the castle was in danger when last he was there. Where could they have gone? 

“Hey!” 

Mitsunari had the good sense to keep going, but the shout caught his attention regardless. High up on the towers, Hideyoshi tore down the battlements, waving his arms. “Mitsunari! Get into the Princess’ tower!” 

She screamed behind him. On reflex he yanked her forward to him, swirling around and snatching the staff back, coming face to face with another of the creatures and slamming the head of the obsidian orb into its maw. Not its intended use, but it worked. It howled and granted a brief reprieve before its other brethren were on them, and then--

“Duck!” 

Mitsunari obeyed, a hail of arrows and spikes raining down around him. The creatures that didn’t drop staggered over the dangerous bits and shrieked with pain. As if on a wind, Sasuke dropped in beside him. 

“Shall we?” The man asked, calm as ever.

It was wonderful to have a familiar voice. Mitsunari grinned back and together, the three raced into the tower, slamming the door shut behind them and barring it once more. 

Relief at seeing his comrades safe faded quickly when Mitsunari counted. Four--only four were there, four crowded into the kitchen over a table littered with maps. As one, the King and Lord Kennyo shot to their feet, launching toward the Princess.

“My daughter--” The King caught her and kissed her head a thousand times, petting her hair and sobbing into the curls. “My daughter. My sunshine.”

“I’m here, Father,” she whispered, holding him. “I’m here. I’m safe.”

Kennyo just paused. At last, he added uncomfortably, “It is good to see you both back.”

Well, even in the worst of times they needed a little courtesy. Mitsunari gave him a smile and a bow. “My Lord. Not to be too informal, but--” And he scanned the other men assembled, absorbing their injuries with increasing worry.

“It’s been rough.” Hideyoshi looked alright, for the most part, just a split lip and some scrapes. “We’re down a lot of manpower.”

“The first night was the worst.” Nobunaga agreed with a hum, moving his sword-arm with deliberate, telling slowness. “Kenshin lost his mind. We’re having to keep him in a dark room with Shingen--and Shingen keeps coughing up blood.”

Yukimura paused, his spear braced between his knees. Mitsunari knew the two were close. “Yeah. I’m... we just gotta get this under control. They both need rest.” 

“And Masamune charged in, like an idiot,” Ieyasu huffed. “And then there was Mitsuhide--”

“Well well well. Look what the monsters dragged in?” 

They all turned to see Mitsuhide and Masamune leaning in the doorway, matching grins on their faces. Masamune brushed back his hair with a hand, the strands falling over--oh. Mitsunari counted the fingers twice. “What happened to your hand?” 

“Bah. They took some fingers.” He shook it out, the bandages stark on him. “Big deal. I’ve had worse.”

“And Masamune gets to teach me what to do with only one eye.” Mitsuhide laughed low, adjusting his eyepatch. “One of those things is running around out there wearing mine. Joke is on him: that was my bad eye anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Mitsunari breathed. “I’m sorry. I should have been here.”

“Nonsense.” Nobunaga waved him away. “You were busy doing other things. Now--have you returned with information?”

“Of a sort.” And with that, Mitsunari produced the staff and laid it on the kitchen table. It sparked and flashed; all assembled save him and the Princess backed up.

“What in the Devil have you brought into this city?” Kennyo hissed.

The Princess wheeled on him. “The only answer we have.”

“This could make it worse--”

“Shut up.” She snapped, and her voice was bowstring tight. Everyone fell silent. “Shut up. I fail to see what could be made worse. The entire city that’s left fits inside my tower and our battlements. We have monsters that apparently rebuild themselves from the dead hunting down all left, and you fear that this could make it worse? Look outside, my Lord. The Devil is already here. We just brought the hellfire.”

Floundering for words, Kennyo fell silent. At last, he knelt before her. “Forgive me.”

“No.” She snapped back. “But once this is all over, I may consider it.”

“We uncovered a massive library on the Trinity Islands,” Mitsunari began. “And inside we located what the sign on the monsters is: A Binding Seal. Whoever created them literally bound themselves to these things, sacrificing all else to command an unending army.”

“So kill the creator, kill the creatures?” Nobunaga posited. 

“Possibly,” Mitsunari allowed cautiously. “That’s a theory we’re working on.”

Sasuke cut in. “Or you’re saying that you could possibly interrupt the spell the creator has worked in the monsters.”

“Now there’s a thought.” Mitsuhide tried to lean on a chair and missed, his depth perception suffering from the change. He staggered into the seat and laughed at himself before continuing. “Though the question stands that if the cord is cut, so to speak, do the monsters fall or frenzy?”

Mitsunari motioned in agreement. “And all that is secondary to the chief concern. The difficulty is knowing who the creator is.”

Masamune snorted at the same time as Ieyasu. 

“Nope,” Ieyasu snipped. 

“Nah,” Masamune agreed. “We know exactly who it is. Just couldn’t have put a thumb on it if you hadn’t told us that. He’s the guy who put Kenshin’s mind out of commission.”

Yuki sighed. “Not that it stops him from fighting, mind you, just... he can’t tell who a friend is anymore, except for Shingen and Sasuke.”

“The summoner is in the center of the mob,” Ieyasu motioned to the battlemap. “He has that seal on both of his palms. I think it’s carved in, if I’m honest. It seems to bleed. On his head he wears the skull of a deer, hiding his face, and he wields a staff very similar to the one you hold there.”

The Princess stared into the distance. “Mitsunari?”

“Yes, Princess?”

“I...” She trailed off. “Someone show me him.”

Sasuke led them to the top of the battlements. The City lay in fragments below, whole streets scorched and black, the parks torn to shreds and the markets ruined. Bodies lay torn apart in the streets. Monsters salvaged bits of corpses to add to themselves. And there, there in the center of the town strode the man in question, dipping slowly between alleys and walking fearlessly among the creatures. 

“What’s he doing?” The Princess whispered. “Couldn’t he just attack?”

“Fear,” Sasuke noted. “He’s spreading fear. That is the goal. Conquest, we think, comes secondary.”

The staff in Mitsunari’s hand wobbled and shook. He tightened his grasp on it and it surged frantically against his mind, pressing harder and harder until he allowed the memories to sweep in. 

A plague. A daughter dying in his arms, too weak to move. A love, lying in bed and ghostly. A son too precious to condemn to death. No escape in the wretched, hateful city to the south. No aid for the innocent. Sell your love to save your loves; sell your useless heart to burn the rest. 

Now he understood. And the Princess knew first, no doubt, she suspected it the moment she fit the pieces, but now they exchanged long stares. 

“That’s him,” she whispered. “That’s the mage who made the staff.”

#Ikesen #Ikemen Sengoku #Ikesen Fanfic #THP #To Honor And Protect #Mage Mitsunari #Ishida Mitsunari #ikemen mitsunari #Mitsunari Ishida #Ikesen Nobunaga #Nobunaga Oda #Oda Nobunaga #toyotomi hideyoshi #ikesen hideyoshi #Hideyoshi Toyotomi #Akechi Mitsuhide #Mitsuhide Akechi #ikemen mitsuhide #Ieyasu Tokugawa #Tokugawa Ieyasu #ikesen Ieyasu #Ikesen Yukimura #Yukimura Sanada #Sanada Yukimura #Kennyo #ikesen kennyo #Lord Kennyo #body horror #horror tw #blood tw

[ikesenhell]

The Surge

This is part seven of To Honor And Protect. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTE: Some of this is violent/gory. While I would hope it isn’t considered excessive, you are forewarned.

On the western border, a second patrol was dispatched. 

The first one hadn’t come back from their simple reconnaissance. Some in the barracks grumbled about stupid greenhorns, out getting drunk. Some of them sighed and wondered how you could get lost on a straight path. But the officers worried silently, bolstered by Mitsuhide Akechi’s warnings. 

They found the first body halfway down the track. Were it not for his uniform boots they might not have recognized him at all. The mangled ruin of his torso scatted halfway across the grass, entrails wound around the tree where they found the second one. As for the other three, no amount of searching did any good. 

But clutched in the ruby-red, dripping fist of their unlucky comrade, they found a slip of paper. No--not paper. The men recoiled in fear when they realized it was skin, peeled raw from something inhuman, and branded deep into the flesh was an arcane sigil. 

Mitsunari wasn’t allowed a book in his cell. He tried asking, but they refused, doubtless on the grounds that something in it would assist his skills. His request for a piece of chalk was equally refused. 

“Look,” he sighed at the jailer. “I can’t do anything with that aside from draw. I just want to do a little bit of math to keep myself occupied.”

The soldier stared at him sideways. “How can we trust that you won’t make some kind of summoning circle with it?”

“That isn’t even how it works. I’d need something sharper than chalk to do anything.” 

No amount of words could convince them to fill his request. Defeated, Mitsunari took to counting bricks and calculating them with imaginary equations, solving each with frustrating ease. Time eked by. Each hour passed in agonizing slowness, and even trying his hand at meditation did little for his rushing thoughts. What of the Princess? Was she okay? His last vision of her was her tears, and he couldn’t take that. He’d made her cry. How could he forgive himself?

After a week, Kennyo and the King came to visit, flanked by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. 

“Your Highness.” Despite his stiffness, Mitsunari forced himself to kneel. 

“It’s alright, Ishida.” The King motioned for him to stand. Kennyo was less forgiving. 

“Mage.” He thrust out a piece of paper, a symbol scrawled on it. “What does this mean?”

Mitsunari squinted at it, craning his neck forward. Hideyoshi coughed.

“My lord, he needs his glasses.” After a pause, the King nodded and Hideyoshi stepped forward, presenting Mitsunari with one of his pairs. 

“Oh! Thank you.” Settling them on his nose, he stared at the symbol again. It was... familiar. A thousand thoughts raced through his brain, sorting through each with calculator precision. Well, the symbology certainly wasn’t of a healing kind. It didn’t have the shape or make of a summoning spell in the strictest sense, nor was it some kind of dangerous contraption...

“I’m waiting.” Lord Kennyo snipped. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit longer.” Mitsunari answered as kindly as he could. He didn’t blame the man. How could you trust someone who used blood as a tool? “You have to understand, magical sigils aren’t easy to unpack. Each mage has their own that needs to be deciphered. There isn’t enough unity, obviously, for a uniform system to establish itself.”

“One of our patrols was attacked to the west.” Nobunaga explained. “Mutilated beyond recognition. Three are still missing. One had a piece of skin clutched in his hand, branded with this.”

Oh. Mitsunari hesitated, taking another look at the symbol. “Well...”

“Well?”

“I...” He paused. “I’m sorry. This will sound like a ploy, but I need to see my books.”

“You have books on this?” Kennyo raised both brows. 

“Yes. How else would I learn? I have to do some research on this. If I’m correct, this could be quite bad indeed. I think this is a repeat of the Great Army.”

All save Nobunaga paled. A hundred years ago though it was, the Great Army was not forgotten. It was the single reason for the banishment of magic in the whole region. Once, a great general had made a monstrous army of horrific, twisted creatures of flesh and blood, sending them into the world to destroy and conquer. But though all knew the history, what the books did not detail was how the combating armies stopped the surge--or how the creatures were made in the first place. 

“How?” Lord Kennyo demanded. “We outlawed and burned all the books we could find.”

“Respectfully speaking, not terribly well.” Mitsunari smiled. “I had a whole library of them growing up. May I get to them, please?”

Apparently they knew they had no choice. Reluctantly, the King motioned to the jailer, who unlocked the cell and freed Mitsunari. 

“But you stay in irons,” Kennyo added.

“Lord Kennyo,” Nobunaga noted, amusement in his voice, “If Mitsunari can create shields with blood and take lives, I highly doubt a mere manacle would stop him. If he’d cared to kill us, he would have done so long before now.”

Mitsunari didn’t add to the point (which was terribly correct, if he really put his mind to it). The King sighed and simply set them forward to the library.

They presented him the sample of flesh, which he sat in a clear box on the massive library table, and set to work. The King had the whole of the place locked down just for him, and the silence settled him. Sometimes Mitsunari wondered how he felt more akin with pages than people. If souls were concrete things, he swore his was made of paper and bled ink. Among his kin, he could lose himself.

Hideyoshi visited most, bringing him food and forcing him to eat. Nobunaga brought updates and Mitsuhide further information. Otherwise, the intrusions were few, and the problem weighty enough to keep his interest.

That was likely why he didn’t even notice the door open one day. 

In fairness, he was up on a ladder, poised with a book and balanced just so against the railing. A chair shuffled. Food said his unconscious mind, conjuring a Pavlovian response to Hideyoshi’s coming and goings, and so he gingerly stepped down, never shutting the page. There was too much to absorb. Feeling his way to the table by memory, he settled down into a stool and groped around for a pen, and--settled his hand on another hand. 

“Sorry!” He jerked it back, glancing up to flash a smile at Hideyoshi. But it wasn’t Hideyoshi. Not at all. Instead, a pair of bright eyes stared back at him, mouth poised to say something, dark ringlets of hair swirling over her neck.

Oh. 

He shot to his feet so fast that the chair crashed to the floor behind him. “Princess, I--” Did he bow? Did he kneel? She didn’t want him to kneel before, but he figured now was a good time. He tried to get down, but his heel caught on the edge of the chair and he staggered over instead, catching himself narrowly on the floorboards. 

“Are you okay?” She asked, going to him.

“I’m sorry--I didn’t hear you--” Mitsunari fumbled over his words. “I--I didn’t realize you would visit--”

“I’m not technically allowed to.” A shy, nervous smile crept over her. 

“Then...” He tried to steady himself, to push down the heavy want of his heart. “You shouldn’t be here. I can’t drag you into this mess.”

“I wanted to see you. I didn’t get to after...” She lamely motioned. “You know.”

A long silence passed between them. Eventually, Mitsunari extricated himself enough from the chair so he could kneel properly before her. “I’m sorry, my lady.”

“Stop that.” She was so soft and kind, her hand touching his shoulder. “Stop that. I told you not to do this.”

“But...” He swallowed. “I’m sorry. I told you I wouldn’t do that again. I said I’d never do it again, and then I did.”

“It wasn’t the same as last time.”

“It almost was,” he admitted miserably. “I thought about it. I imagined stringing him up by his neck and watching his neck break.”

Silence. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because--because I didn’t want to. And because you didn’t want me to.”

Soft as a feather, she put a hand on his hair, stroking her thumb over his flyaway locks, and he nearly wept from the kindness. “My mother used to say, ‘What you think first is what you used to believe, and what you think second is what you really believe’. You didn’t want to do it. You’re not the same person. You protected my father, and that man was already dead. Kenshin’s blade would have done him in long before then.”

The full weight of her mercy sank in his chest, and--without thinking--he dropped entirely onto his knees, resting his head forward against her thighs. For the barest second she paused. Then, tender as ever, she pet his head again. 

“Thank you,” he croaked, holding her calves. “Thank you. Thank you.”

The Princess said nothing, just hushed him and stroked his hair. 

She visited him often after that. He suspected she’d spoken to her father about it, because her presence wasn’t a surprise to any of the Nine that came by. While he shoved his face into a book in search of answers, she carefully organized his notes and transcribed them into something legible, did her own cross-referencing and research.

But it was all too late.

The first volley hit the castle at night. It rocked it straight to the core, sending books flying from shelves and scattering over floorboards. Mitsunari recovered himself just before the second one. 

Oh no. 

Shoving as many reference books as he could get his hands on into a bag, he slung it over his shoulder and snatched the sample off the table, tearing into the hallway. He met Hideyoshi halfway to the central hall. 

“What’s happening?!”

“Attack.” Hideyoshi gasped, tossing Mitsunari his sword. “Come on!”

They raced to the throne room. Soldiers scattered everywhere, guided by various members of the Nine, but there in the eye of the storm, Nobunaga, Kenshin, Lord Kennyo, the King, and the Princess stood.

“We need answers,” Kennyo demanded as soon as Mitsunari arrived. “Now.”

“If I could give you any, I would,” he breathed. 

“My lords,” Hideyoshi gasped for air. “We need to evacuate. The castle can’t hold this many bombardments.”

Kenshin frowned, delicate as ever. “I can hold off the forces outside long enough to buy you space to get to a safer place.”

“And I can escort you.” Nobunaga agreed.

“My daughter.” The King managed. “My daughter--she needs to leave the city. I can’t have her in here during a siege.”

“Respectfully, we are a man down, your highness. We can’t afford to stretch ourselves thinner than we are.”

“I can protect her.” Mitsunari volunteered before he could stop himself. “I can do it.”

“No.” Kennyo snapped. “You won’t touch her.”

“I don’t have to touch her to protect her.”

“Don’t play dumb with me. We all know you’re sharper than you behave.”

But the King was staring at Mitsunari, his dark eyes intent. “You broke the law to protect my daughter before.”

“That...” Mitsunari swallowed dry. “Yes, your Highness. I did.”

“And you would stop at nothing to do it again?”

“Your Lordship--” Kennyo started, but the other man held up a hand to stop him. 

Mitsunari sank to one knee before them, planting his sword in the ground before him. “My life would be forfeit before I let anyone have your daughter.”

The ground rocked again. In the windows behind them, a massive storm brewed black and serious, waves beating like a howling animal. And at last--at last, the King nodded. 

“Take my daughter away from here.”

“Your Highness!” Kennyo protested again, but Mitsunari rose to his knees and bowed. 

“Of course. Hideyoshi and Nobunaga can reach me wherever I am. Princess?”

Again, the whole castle rocked. It was too late for any discussion. Grabbing the Princess by her hand, he drew his sword and they sprinted toward her tower, leaving the others behind them. Kicking the door open to hasten their escape, Mitsunari paused only a moment to stare across the city. Rooftops glowed with flame, the screams of civilians echoing down the streets. Distantly, fleshy, horrible things scrambled between houses and shops, followed by the agonizing shrieks of the doomed. There was no exit from the City--not that way.

“Princess,” he gasped, “Stay close to me.”

They took the steps to the dock as swiftly as they could. Wrapping his cloak tight around her, Mitsunari grabbed the nearest boat and unwound its rope, settling her into the seat before they set off into the choppy waves. 

“Where are we going?” She yelled above the turbulent wind.

Mitsunari forced on a smile, trying to look more confident than he felt. “The Trinity Islands!”

#The Surge #THP #To Honor And Protect #Ikesen #Ikemen Sengoku #ikesen fic #my writing #mage mitsunari #ikesen mitsunari #mitsunari ishida #ishida mitsunari #ikesen medieval au #ikesen fantasy au #blood tw #violence tw #gore tw #Hideyoshi Toyotomi #toyotomi hideyoshi #ikesen hideyoshi #Nobunaga Oda #Oda Nobunaga #Ikesen Nobunaga #Kennyo #Lord Kennyo #Ikesen Kennyo #Kenshin Uesugi #Uesugi Kenshin #ikesen Kenshin

[ikesenhell]

“Maybe dont invade the City. Their Queen is dating the fucking ocean.” Felt like drawing the Water Boi in his prime. Can’t color worth shit so here is the black and white.

#my art #ishida mitsunari #mitsunari ishida #ikesen mitsunari #thp mitsunari #mage mitsunari #ocean mitsunari #thp spoilers