Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 89

Final Chapter: Bearers of Battle

Okay

I think

I’m gonna have fun with it

Point Allocation (Eh!?)

“Huh? Musashi is joining the Honnouji Incident? Can they do that?”

Kasuya saw Mitsunari straighten up at Sakon’s question. Mitsunari’s shoulders slumped on the deck of the ship taking them to the Lake Biwa Azuchi. The eastern town that signaled the end of the K.P.A. Italia nightscape was passing by behind her.

“It just kind of turned out that way. Or rather, one of our people has embarrassed us.”

“It’s not your fault, Mitsunari,” said Kasuya.

“That’s right,” agreed Hirano, her hair blowing in the wind, which was losing the sea scent. “Once Honnouji begins tonight, a whole lot will be set in motion. We have the Battle of Yamazaki, so that’s first up for us. A lot is going to happen and it might all come to an end at Honnouji, but we have no role there.”

So…

“As restless as we’ll be feeling, we just have to wait and see what happens to the world.”

She was right.

There was so much happening now it was honestly hard to keep track of. They would probably have to adjust their schedule, but…

“We made good use of the break,” said Kasuya.

“Yes, and it had been so long since I got to spend so much time with you.”

Then, a lernen figur arrived. It was from the Lake Biwa Azuchi.

“Oh, is Kiyomasa back at Azuchi already?”

“Testament,” confirmed Mitsunari. “And Kani-sama sent word that the Shibata Team cannot depart yet because Fukushima-sama has yet to return from the mountains.”

“The mountains?” said Hirano with a tilt of the head, but that made sense to Kasuya. Fukushima had always been the athletic type. But Mitsunari also tilted her head. Sakon and Ootani both looked curiously at her.

“What is it, Mitsunari-sama?” asked Sakon.

“I detected some kind of communique reaching you, but what was it about?” asked Ootani.

“Testament,” said Mitsunari. “It seems Niwa-sama and Sakuma-sama have regrouped with the Shibata Team. I hadn’t been informed that was their plan, so I will need to subtly rework the schedule. Now, then,” she said. “We must hurry to the Lake Biwa Azuchi. I think we can arrive before the Honnouji Incident, but everything is so unpredictable at the moment.”

Kani felt like giving up.

…I might not get back to the Lake Biwa Azuchi tonight!

She had her luggage and she had a ship, but Fukushima wasn’t here.

Fukushima had contacted them to say she was rushing back while carrying her luggage, but she was running extremely late. When returning for her luggage, she claimed to have fallen asleep and then made friends with a herd of deer, neither of which seemed like much of an excuse, but Kani was surprised to learn just how naturally careless Fukushima had become.

…That must be the mountain effect!

Terrifying. Oversleeping is the bane of a greengrocer. I need to be more careful. Don’t ask me what’s up with the deer, though.

But some incredible guests had arrived while they waited for Fukushima. Kani currently had her folded luggage and blanket lying next to each other at the land port in a now-snowless field, but…

“Is that Niwa-sama!?”

Niwa’s P.A. Oda ship had landed and begun unloading its cargo. Are those supplies!? wondered Kani, but all of the officers were equipped for combat.

Niwa, Shibata, and the others were gathering in front of the ship. Kani had never seen either of them, but Shibata was really big and looked strong, while Niwa was wearing an M.H.R.R. uniform, partially to deal with the cold, which was apparently a very rare outfit for her.

With Niwa’s arrival, the ships exchanged weaponry and caused a lot of hustle and bustle.

The Honnouji Incident was tonight.

Kani had heard the general outline for that, so she had an idea of what was about to happen. Her initial opinion was…

“That’s so cool!”

But at the same time…

“Won’t that be tough!?”

She felt both at the same time, but when she voiced the latter, Matsu rubbed her head and Mori wept, saying he wished more people were like her. What’s that supposed to mean!?

The Shibata Team said they had known the Honnouji Incident was coming. According to Maeda, they would work to stop anyone who tried to intervene in Honnouji. He said that was why they had withdrawn from the Battle of Novgorod and come here.

…Does that mean they’re on their way to pick a fight with Musashi!?

Then a large hand rose into the air.

“Heyyyyy! Kani-kuuuuuuun!? Get over here! Hey, you! Yeah, you!”

“You’re going to scare the poor girl, Shibata-kun.”

“So what?” he replied, but Kani was just glad that such a ridiculous superior was calling her by name. He had returned earlier, but she hadn’t had a chance to properly greet him. That was because they had been so busy, but…

“Testament! I’m Kani Saizou! I support Fukushima Masanori on the Hashiba Team!”

“Wow, you’re young. And such nice skin. You must eat your vegetables!”

“Thank you very much, Niwa-senpai! My parents run a greengrocer!”

“Is that so?” Niwa smiled a little, but then her eyebrows drooped. “Oh, but this is a problem. We were just getting so excited about meeting Sakuma-san, but…”

“But what!?”

“Testament. I’m here as Takigawa-san’s replacement, you see.”

“Takigawa-sama’s!?”

Kani had seen Takigawa Ichimasu briefly during the Siege of Odawara. If her memory served, Takigawa had lost at the Siege of Kanie Castle and retired. She had even given up her inherited name, so if Niwa was her replacement…

“That must be tough for a supply runner.”

“Yes, it really is.

“Because,” said Niwa just before Shibata placed his hands on Kani’s shoulders from behind.

Eh!? she thought and Niwa continued with a smile.

“The thing is, we’re about to announce the Battle of Shizugatake.”

“…Huh!?”

She knew about the Battle of Shizugatake. That was the showdown between Hashiba and Shibata’s forces. Hashiba officially took control of the Oda clan’s forces after winning the Battle of Yamazaki, but Shibata saw that as usurping the Oda clan and rebelled. But…

“I thought that didn’t happen until after the Honnouji Incident and the Battle of Yamazaki!?”

“You gotta go with the flow! You get what I mean, Kani-kuuuuuun!?” Shibata slapped her shoulders. “Okay, while the others are having fun at Honnouji, we’ll be doing Shizugatake as some rapid training for our underclassmen! That okay with you, Kani-kuuuuuun!?”

Shibata laughed.

“Which makes you our hostage! Run away if you can! Give it your best shot!!”

Sanada’s end-of-summer festival had been delayed to September due to Hashiba’s training camp and Chancellor Nobuyuki searching for a way forward.

As a shrine maiden, Unno was in charge of the festival ceremony, so she felt the need to wear something other than a track suit while she started the fire, made an offering, recited a prayer, and made a song and dance offering.

“Okay! Now we can party!! Go nuts, everyone! Who’s got the first song!? You! You’ve got a ‘first song’ kind of face! Get on up here! What’ll you be singing!? I’ll play along with whatever you choose, so just start!”

As they set up the festival stands, the festivities really got going.

They discussed Kyou and Honnouji too, but…

“Sanada is already ready for Sekigahara and those of us here are looking ahead to the Edo Shogunate, so don’t worry about that so much.”

“Besides, even if you visited now out of curiosity, there’s nothing you could do.”

“True,” agreed Torahide while drinking. Soon, the conversation shifted to the Shibata forces starting the Battle of Shizugatake.

Unno had met Shibata back when she was in P.A. Oda. That was before his inherited name, but he had been something of an elite even then. Everyone had gotten a chance to greet him when he visited their academy.

She was curious, so she waited until everyone was a little drunk next to the shrine and made a divine transmission.

UNO: “Hey, Kiyomasa. How are things over there?”

Kiyo-Massive: “Eh? D-do I know you? I don’t recall an Uno-san.”

She heard some merciless laughter and a shout of “take that, you idiot!” from Torahide, but she ignored it.

UNO: “It’s Unno. I misspelled my screenname and never bothered fixing it. So I hear things are getting exciting over there.”

Kiyo-Massive: “Y-yes. I only just arrived, but I’ve already been given work to do. Asano-san was really upset with Katagiri-kun earlier, so it’s kind of a pain.”

Unno couldn’t wait to tell Mochizuki about this. But…

UNO: “Hey, it could be worse than being busy. When things get really bad, you feel so overloaded you just give up on doing anything at all.”

Kiyo-Massive: “Yes, I will do what I can. Um, what are you doing?”

Unno held the sign frame up to the others, switched to voice input, and let them all respond in unison.

“We’re getting drunk!!”

UNO: “Get the picture?”

After a moment, Kiyomasa responded with some suppressed laughter.

Kiyo-Massive: “S-sorry. That just struck me as really funny. But…thank you for this. I feel a lot more relaxed now. When you aren’t in the center of it, all our work is nothing more than something to drink to at a festival, isn’t it?”

UNO: “I think that’s how these things always work. I’m sure you have a lot on your plate, but good luck. Oh, and one other thing.”

Kiyo-Massive: “Yes?”

UNO: “When you’re sleeping, you mutter the name of who you’re dreaming about. You should probably try to stop doing that if you’re sleeping around the others there.”

Kiyo-Massive: “Huh!? I, um, do what!?”

UNO: “ ‘Ah, wait, Masanori-sama! you can’t just shove that hard thing in so soon. You need to rub the salt in first!’ Why does pickling cucumbers get you all hot and bothered?”

Kiyo-Massive: “P-pickles are delicious! Especially on summer mornings!”

Her desperate attempt to dodge the issue was hilarious. But…

UNO: “You have my support. I may be new, but I’m still a shrine maiden. Should I make you a good luck charm and send it to you?”

Kiyo-Massive: “Eh? W-well, if you don’t mind.”

We worship Izanami. Making a romance charm with her will probably be a real pain, thought Unno, but…

UNO: “Again, good luck. If things get too bad, come visit us.”

Kiyo-Massive: “Thank you.”

All she does is thank people, thought Unno. But she took that moment to end the divine transmission. That was probably best for Kiyomasa too. And…

…So things are on the move.

A lot of history was about to happen in Kansai. It would be Sanada’s turn once all that was over, but how would it end? Meanwhile…

“Excuse me, Unno-sama.”

Mochizuki arrived from the southern path coming up on the side of the shrine.

“Huh? What do you want?”

“Testament. You have a visitor.”

Who could that be? she wondered. Torahide twisted around to look and bent his head too. While they waited, someone climbed the path after receiving a nod from Mochizuki.

It was a girl. Probably middle school age. She had black hair and wore a Far Eastern uniform, but she had added Houjou decorations. She wore a merchants backpack full of merchant tools.

“U-um, are you Unno-sama?”

“Yup. This dangerous-looking lady is Unno.”

Only when Torahide spoke aloud did the girl notice the Terrestrial Dragon’s presence, so she jumped back in fright. She froze up so perfectly you could tell she had never seen a dragon up close before. Not that most people have. This is probably normal. Unno smiled and patted the girl on the shoulder.

“Just think of him as some weird artwork. So why do you want to see me?”

“Testament.” The girl reached into her pocket. Old habits die hard and Unno instantly readied herself for battle, but Mochizuki shook her head. She must have already searched the girl. In that case, thought Unno, taking a look.

“I was given this from the person who protected Houjou’s water source.”

The girl held out a bundle of long needles.

…Are you kidding me?

“Um, I was told to get it to you during summer break, but so much was going on in Houjou. I’m sorry. He didn’t give me his name, but, u-um…”

“O-oh, I see.”

Unno couldn’t make fun of the girl’s reaction to the dragon now. Not when seeing some ninja needles were enough to make her hands tremble.

“He said to give them to Unno of Sanada,” said the girl.

When Unno accepted them, her vision suddenly blurred.

…You idiot.

It’s over, she told herself. Now you’ve completely dealt with that last piece of reservation.

It was all over.

Even if she did go give these to Nezu, she doubted she would ever go to the front line again.

This was her home now.

And right now, she only wanted to help build up that home.

Yes, that’s right.

When she had been speaking to Kiyomasa, she had also been speaking to herself.

But now it had all come true.

The words weren’t what mattered. It was the passage of time and the facts that tied it all together.

Tears spilled from her eyes. At the same time, the Terrestrial Dragons stood up from the forest, everyone behind her stood up as well, and they all pointed at her.

“Someone made you cry this time!!”

Stop trying to make me feel better, idiots.

“Milady! Milady! Now the Shibata Team is starting the Battle of Shizugatake! As if we didn’t have enough on our plate already!”

“Damn! We need to focus on Honnouji! Where did the Vice President get off to!? Bathing in the Dangerous Waters after holding a meeting at the Asama Shrine!? Is she messing with us!?”

September 2nd was going to be a long night.

–I’m so fortunate.

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