#TBT12Lies
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Epilogue: Sky Clad Promise -Shingen fulfills a promise that he made months ago in the cave.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
The letter sat innocently on Shingen’s desk – all three of our names were written across it. For a moment, none of us made a move to open it, although I did pick it up and shake it. No telltale rattle of shogi tiles. I supposed that was a message in and of itself. “Did you see who delivered it?”
“Reddish hair, big ears,” Sasuke said. He took the packet and turned it over and back, then set it on the desk again. “I questioned him, but he was insistent that he didn’t have any additional knowledge.
“That’s Takauji. He probably doesn’t know where Aki is now, but he usually delivers through the San’ido circuit, that might be where Aki last was – or he may have picked up the message directly from the Mountain.” The latter was less likely as Shingen’s mitsumono had been pretty closely watching for him there. Also, Taka was the least naturally inquisitive of Aki’s messengers so it would have been useless to press him for more knowledge… a fact that Aki was well aware of.
Finally, Shingen took the initiative of unfolding the letter and reading it to all of us.
By this time, all three of you have realized that I spend a considerable amount of my life travelling between and amongst various timelines-
“Skipped the greeting.” Sasuke helped himself to some tea.
“Aki is only warm in small doses.” You’d think after seven years, though, he would have offered at least a ‘best regards’ to me, instead of what amounted to a generic, ‘to whom it may concern.’ Then again, who was I to complain – I’d been guilty of skipping a greeting often enough.
Lord Shingen, while I appreciate the amount of work you have done to create your mitsumono network, it is not the best use of resources to send them all after me.
“Noticed that, did he?” Shingen flexed his wrist in memory of the hours he and I had spent writing instructions to his spies.
I would not like to interrupt my work to have to fish one of them out of a timeline.
“That would be bad.” Sasuke settled down at the desk with his tea. “Although Sute would probably get a kick out of it.”
I took a moment to envision the chaos that Sute could cause in a timeline. “She might, but Sasuke Mach 2 might not.”
“Oh… I might.” Sasuke was typically blank faced, but Shingen shot him a look. Hm. There was something here I was missing. I’d have to get it out of Shingen later.
Katsuko, I apologize for not telling you that I knew you were from the future, and that I was a traveler as well. It was my belief that you would adjust faster and more easily that way. There was a rather specific task that I needed you to perform – and rest assured you have completed it. I was unsure when and how this situation would present in this timeline. Readying you for that was essential.
“Do you think it was related to…?” Sasuke inclined his head in Shingen’s direction.
“I am sitting right here.” Despite the sarcasm, Shingen gave Sasuke a look of affectionate patience.
I shook my head. “No. I think it must be the boy. Hikosane. I ran into Aki in Kasugayama a few weeks before you and Shingen went to the future, and he said something to the effect that I had done whatever it was he wanted me to do.”
“You never mentioned that to me.” Shingen flicked my forehead, but too gently to sting.
“I had other things on my mind.” I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it in any case, but I truly had forgotten.
This timeline has stabilized, and I am addressing this comment directly to Mr. Mikumo--
Sasuke tapped his chest. “He sounds so professor-like there.”
It would be best if you traveled to the future as infrequently as possible. I realize that forbidding such excursions would be futile, but please treat this as a serious request.
Sasuke shrugged. “So there goes Mai’s request that I make occasional chocolate runs.”
“She likely wouldn’t have needed to ask if someone hadn’t raided her stash.” I eyed Shingen and contemplated a forehead flick of my own.
He winked at me then gave me that wicked smile. “I thought it was for all of us.”
Sure you did.
Katsuko, while I wish I could say that you are released from any additional obligations to me, and I’m sure you would argue that these obligations are on my side, the future is fluid. If I call on you, it will be because the matter is urgent. There are circumstances unfolding which may affect multiple timelines. As the three of you are self-aware to the multiverse, you may be needed at some point.
“Well… that’s not ominous at all.” Although deep down… deep deep down… I was intrigued by the possibility of performing an interesting timeline mission – as long as Shingen was with me. But I would never willing go into a wormhole alone again.
Although you may not believe me, I truly wish for your happiness. Yamaoka Akihira
Shingen tossed the message back on his desk. “This… didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, or at least, suspect.”
“Likely why he wrote the letter instead of allowing us to question him in person.” There were a lot of things I wanted to know. I also wanted to go out to the archery course and shoot arrows at targets with Aki’s face on them.
“It sounded like he’s abandoned this timeline, doesn’t it?” Sasuke got up and began pacing, the way he did when he had the tendrils of a theory but nothing to grasp onto. “The question is whether or not there are other versions of Professor Yamaoka in the other timelines too, or if he has figured out how to avoid duplicating himself.”
“I know you want to locate him and question him further – and I do as well – however…” Shingen paused. I could see he was trying to figure out an easy way to tell me that he had other priorities. He was right. He did have more important things to do. If he put all of his resources and energy toward finding Aki, it could be at the expense of this timeline’s history.
“But there’s too much going on in the here and now – you’re right.” We’d just been talking about some of those priorities before Sasuke came in. “Use your mitsumono for the purpose that you built them. If they happen to run across Aki, then they can bring him in, but until then, I guess we have to let it go.”
Of course, I did intend to take a trip up to Aki’s manor at The Mountain and see if there was any useful information to be found there. Shingen might not love that idea, but I was sure I could talk him into it. I slanted a quick glance at him – and was rewarded with a suspicious stare.
Alright… I could possibly talk him into it.
But for the moment – the mystery of Aki would have to keep; I was happy enough to live in the present.
The pre-dawn early Spring air had a bite of chill to it, but it felt invigorating as Shingen and I picked our way along a path behind the castle. Our feet were splashed with dew and wet blades of grass clung to my toes. The birds were just awakening, and their nesting songs serenaded our short hike.
Shingen had whispered me into wakefulness less than twenty minutes ago, and without allowing me to do more than throw on an extra robe, had taken me by the hand and led me out here, saying he was fulfilling a promise he’d made to me a long time ago.
He’d refused to give any more details, but since he had my blanket – the one he had stolen from me at the lake – slung across his shoulders, I was pretty certain I knew where we were headed…
The field of spring wildflowers filled the landscape, their ‘faces’ turned toward the horizon, where a pink-purple sky was lightening with the sunrise. It was like walking into an impressionist painting.
After spreading the blanket on the ground, Shingen wrapped his arms around me as he guided me to a seat. “You’re not too cold are you?”
I shook my head. Though the air was a bit chilly, I wasn’t cold sitting close to Shingen. “You’re nice and toasty. It helps.”
I leaned against him, warmed more by his presence than the actual heat of his body. He picked a flower, stuck it randomly in my hair, then grinned and repeated the action a few more times. “My nature Goddess, ready to greet the sunrise.”
“You promoted me from devil?” One of the flowers dislodged and hovered over my eye. I caught it before it fell and tickled his nose with it.
“Devil, Angel, Goddess… it’s all you.” His hands slid inside my robes and eased them down my shoulders. “I love all your identities.”
My brief thought of ‘what if someone comes by and sees us’ was followed by the knowledge that Shingen would have taken that into consideration and planned to avoid that. There were a lot of perks to being involved with a strategist. “All of my identities love you too.”
As he shrugged out of his clothing, a tiny movement at the edge of the blanket caught my attention. It was a caterpillar inching its way across the field. I let it crawl onto my finger then ferried it over to the stem of a nearby flower. Otherwise, it was likely to get squished in a few moments. “There you go,” I told it, though of course, it would have no idea what I said, or perhaps even hear me.
“What’s that, Devil?” Shingen claimed my attention again and drew me to him.
“Pre-butterfly.” Then all thoughts of the caterpillar’s future left my head, as Shingen kissed the hollow of my neck, and I gasped, just as I always did when he kissed me there.
The sun was just barely peeking at us over the horizon when Shingen carefully guided me onto him. “I knew you’d look beautiful clad in the sky, Katsuko.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, and we began to move together into a new day.
Into a future.
CODA: AKI
Not too far outside Kasugayama, Akihira paused when he heard rustling in the trees above. Although he couldn’t see who was up there, he had been expecting this encounter, so he waited patiently until the ninja flipped down into his path and drew his sword.
“No need for that, Mr. Mikumo.” Mentally, Aki sighed. Prior to his relocation into the Sengoku timeline… or timelines, as the case was now, Mikumo Sasuke had been a quiet student, intent on his studies. The Kenshin-trained ninja version of him was somewhat jarring, no matter which timeline Aki encountered him in. “I suspected you’d make an appearance sooner or later.”
“Er. Right then.” Sasuke took off his mask and put away his weapon. “Here I was feeling rather proud of myself for figuring out that you would spend a few days watching over Katsuko before you left.”
“I have the advantage of knowing several versions of yourself,” Akihira pointed out. “Though none of you are completely identical, you’re all intelligent enough to have determined my location.” Then, as Sasuke appeared poised to let loose a torrent of questions, he added, “I am not able to discuss anything specific to the multiverse – some of that is to try to avoid a paradox, and some things I simply do not know.”
Sasuke made an annoyed sound. “That eliminates the majority of my questions.” He pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Katsuko believes that the boy who fell in the river was important – are you able to tell me anything more about him?”
Akihira paused. Discussing Hikosane was a grey area – but the current crisis was nothing like any of them had ever encountered. “He’s not magical. He’s not a future Emperor, or even a future daimyo – at least not in most timelines. He is simply needed to survive his childhood, because for whatever reason, he is, as Katsuko might say, the butterfly.”
“Ugh.” Sasuke shuddered.
Right. Akihira had momentarily forgotten that Sasuke was afraid of butterflies. “Someone doesn’t want him to survive and has been going into various timelines to make sure he doesn’t. Timelines in which Hikosane otherwise would have lived.”
“And my original future was one in which he survived.” It wasn’t posed as a question – Sasuke had grasped the essence of the situation. “How did you-”
Aki held up his hand. “Will you accept that in another timeline there is a version of you that has the answer to these questions?”
“I’m sensing that I don’t have a choice.” Sasuke reached into his kimono, then withdrew a modern envelope. “In that case, I’ll proceed to a non-timeline related question.” He pulled a photo out of the envelope and handed it to Akihira. “Why didn’t you tell her?”
Akihira automatically glanced at the photo, then caught his breath when he saw her face. Sometimes simply seeing an unexpected picture, had that effect on him, even though he had become somewhat used to seeing her face on their children. The picture had been taken at a party – he couldn’t even recall the occasion. In those days, Francisco had regularly thrown parties for the lab staff, to as he said in his broken Japanese, “To blow the steam.”
Although Sasuke’s parents hadn’t officially been part of the project, they’d been extremely helpful in obtaining archival data on the Sengoku period – Francisco must have invited them. Sasuke’s mother had been somewhat of an amateur photographer in those days and lugged a Nikon everywhere. She must have snapped this candid of himself and Mayumi, capturing an intimate moment of a relationship that had lasted less than a year. One year, in the hudreds that he had travelled across. Not much time comparatively. But. Enough.
“Katsuko looks a lot like her mother,” Sasuke commented, breaking a silence that had grown while Akihira gazed at the photo. “Though once I knew to look for it, there is a resemblance to you as well, especially her eyes.”
“When I left your time period,” Akihira said, then cursed his wording because he knew Sasuke would pick up on the phrase ‘your time period.’ “I did not know Mayumi was pregnant.”
“That… is something you ought to discuss with Katsuko. And Toshiie, I imagine. However… why didn’t you… and give her that, um, Cloud City moment?” Sasuke held his glance.
Trust Sasuke to find a mediated reference. “In some of the other timelines, I’ve told her… or she discovered it through other means. It’s… rarely turned out well. She’s happy here. She’ll be happier not knowing. I’ve run simulations in enough timelines in the multiverse to be certain of that.”
“Timelines… multiverse… simulations?” Sasuke cocked his head. “Less Darth Vader, more Dr. Strange, then.”
“If you persist in these sorts of comparisons, then I suppose that works as well as any other. I really must cut this conversation short, as I have places and times that need my attention.” Then, because it amused him to use Sasuke’s own tools against him, he tossed a few ground spikes and a smoke bomb on the ground. “Ker-vanish.”
By the time the smoke cleared Akihira had slipped into the forest. He planted his walking stick in the ground, and continued on his way, foot kicking a stone out of his path.
The stone bounced a short distance before colliding with another, which, in turn rolled off the path and landed near the base of a tree, disturbing a butterfly which had been resting on the trunk. The butterfly took off, winging its way toward the sky.
Thank you for joining me on the Throwback Thursday Reblog project! I had a lot of fun revisiting Shingen & Katsu's story... but as you can see, it's not quite over. There are two one-shot stories that I can reblog, and I will probably write other shorts with them. Also in this particular timeline, there is still a short story coming about Sute & Sasuke (.... & Yukimura). Plus... what really did happen in the lingerie store when Sasuke and Shingen went shopping... hmm?
Additionally due to the multiverse destabilizing, they do appear in the other Tempest in Time stories (including a yet to be published time jump to 1586), so we'll see them again.
I do plan on doing a Throw Back Thursday for A Mitsunari Night's Dream - but I'm going to wait until I finish posting the first run of Mitsuhide's story. It might be too confusing to see one version of Katsuko ("Okatsu") being romanced by Mitsunari, while another version of her (Kaya) is working with Mitsuhide to rescue Hideyoshi & Mai.
Anyway... wow, this ended up being a ten month project! Again, thank you for joining me on it. I'll miss my Thursday morning reblogs.
@bestbryn
#tbt12lies#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#ikesen fanfic#ikesen sasuke#throwback thursday
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Chapter 51: Past Perfect -The gang's all back together again.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
“The wormhole is manifesting.” Sasuke’s announcement was unnecessary. By this time, we all had been through a wormhole at least once. Even if we hadn’t seen the cloying grey fog, we couldn’t miss the thunder and lightning, let alone the rain that was pelting us.
Shingen tightened his grip around my waist. I had one hand hooked to the back of Sasuke’s kimono. None of us wanted to be separated. None of us wanted to be surprised by a bandit attack either, so our free hands were on our weapons. I wasn’t scared, exactly, but given what had happened the last time, I was apprehensive. Would we end up in the correct timeline? Would we end up in the correct decade?
Would there be dinosaurs?
None of these fears came to pass. The fog swept through us as unpleasantly as always, but the trip was mercifully fast. We stumbled out of the wormhole into a fresh pine-scented breeze. No bandits or dinosaurs attacked us. Instead, there was a welcoming shout from Yukimura, as he rushed to greet us.
“Yo! Bestie!” Sasuke yanked Yuki into a hug before either Shingen or I could react. Well, Sasuke had been the third wheel often these past couple months. I imagined he was relieved to have his bro back for company.
Once Sasuke let go, Yuki approached Shingen, and bowed. “My lord, you’re looking wel-” was as far as he got before Shingen also hugged him.
“Don’t be so formal, Yuki. It’s good to see you.” He punctuated that by ruffling Yuki’s hair in all directions.
Yuki stepped back, sputtering, but before he could recover, I grabbed him for yet another hug. Iekane’s actions had meant I had not been able to say goodbye or thank Yuki for traveling with me to Ikuno. He and Sasuke might be ‘besties,’ but in some ways, Yuki was as much a friend and brother to me as Toshiie. A hug was not adequate, but the only way I could say all that.
He embraced me briefly but fiercely, then stepped away. “So, you got eaten by the whole worm. Dummy, you have to be different, don’t you?”
“Yuki. Thank you for -.” I stopped. He knew why I was thanking him, and he never had been a words person anyway. “I’m sorry I made you worry… and glad that you survived those bandits.”
“Of course, I did.” He lightly punched my shoulder. “There weren’t that many of them, and once Iekane and you disappeared, they all turned tail and ran.”
“Oh! You brought our horses!” I rushed over to Moonlight, who promptly showed her displeasure at being left alone for over a year by trying to bite me. I jumped out of the way of her teeth, then turned back to Yuki. “Have you brought them to greet every wormhole?” I knew Sasuke had given him a list of potential dates.
“Eh.” He rubbed the back of his head, further ruffling his hair. “It was only a couple times here and once in Kyoto, so it wasn’t that bad. Besides, it got me away from Kenshin for a bit.”
Shingen mounted Good Horse, who as usual, was a lot better behaved than Moonlight. “Alright boys. Move ‘em out. If we hurry, we can be back before sunset.”
Once we were on our way, I hung back with Sasuke to let Yuki catch up with Shingen. It looked like their relationship had picked up where it left off a year and a half ago – and I knew that Yuki had been as worried as I was about being forgiven for sending Shingen through the wormhole. A long separation can make these things seem unimportant anyway.
I tuned back into their conversation when Yuki gave him a status report on the Oda. “He’s been kept busy with the Mouri – apparently Motonari came back from the dead, along with a heavily armed navy.”
“There’s a lot of back from the dead going around.” I elbowed Sasuke, wondering if he would make a zombie joke about that. “I’m really glad I’m not in charge of keeping the timelines str…”
As I trailed off, Sasuke and I looked at each other with probably the same thought. “Is that what Professor Yamaoka is doing?”
“I just got an image of the multiverse as one giant game of cat’s cradle and Aki with a big ball of wool.” He always had loved pulling strings. I glanced over at the mountain in the distance, where Aki made his home. Detouring there was tempting. But… I wanted to go home. Somewhere along the line, I had begun to think of Kasugayama as my home.
“That’s another thing we ought to ask him once we locate him.” Sasuke sounded like he was all in on this. Of course, Aki wouldn’t be his primary responsibility - Kenshin would likely have some things for him to do once he killed Sasuke a few times for leaving.
Shingen and Yuki continued to strategize. “If Oda is occupied with the Mouri, perhaps it would be worth pressuring him to cede Kai back to me in exchange for avoiding a war on two fronts.” He was clearly content to be back in his tactical element – and I was happy to see him so intent on his plotting.
“Kenshin’s not going to be pleased if you avoid a war,” Yuki pointed out, then immediately contradicted himself. “Although I know Mai doesn’t want him to attack her friends in Azuchi, so maybe he’ll be ok.”
“Thanks to Mai, he’s become more mellow?” I brought my horse alongside theirs to join in the conversation. “Does that mean we’re less likely to be killed on a daily basis?”
Yuki sighed and rolled his eyes. “No, he’ll still do that, and he’s been talking about how much he’s looking forward to killing Shingen, if he’s healthy.”
Shingen muttered something under his breath.
“You know, I would pay to watch that,” I told him. “Try to last more than ten seconds.”
He gave me a look… I was going to pay for that too. “You didn’t have any complaints last night.”
Yuki made a disgusted noise, then continued as if we hadn’t interrupted. “Thanks to Mai, he’s also learned more um, creative ways to punish people he’s unhappy with.”
“Please don’t tell me he’s picked up the habit of practical jokes.” Sasuke looked ready to take the next wormhole back to the future. “I imagine the fatality rate at Kasugayama has increased exponentially if that is the case.”
“No. He let Yoshimoto redecorate your rooms.” Yuki laughed at the look on Sasuke’s face. Then he turned to me. “There’s a good surprise waiting for you, too.”
Kenshin lurked outside the gates of Kasugayama, sword in hand. Mai and Yoshimoto were ranged behind him, and they both appeared to be trying to reason with him. Suffice it to say, that did not look like a good surprise. “Who gave you permission to stay away for so long?” He might have been carved out of a block of ice.
I glanced at Sasuke. “Did you not visit him when you came through last year?”
“You ought to know by now that Kenshin doesn’t keep conventional time. As soon as anyone is gone long enough to be missed, it becomes too long. Usually that’s … a week, depending on the person.” He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, cracked his knuckles, and said out of the side of his mouth, “I’m going in. Cover me, Porkins.”
“I’m right with you Red Three.”
He got off his horse and bowed deeply before Kenshin. (I personally, would not have presented such an easy target for Himezuru Ichimonji.) “I am happy to have returned to you, my lord.”
“Hmph.” Sasuke began to get to his feet. Kenshin poked him with the sword. “Did I give you permission to move?” Sasuke stopped moving.
Kenshin stepped over him and approached Shingen. “Are you well?”
Shingen inclined his head. “I am.”
“Good. I look forward to killing you tomorrow.” He paused and shot a glance at me. “Do not think that I will forget to kill you too.”
Well, won’t that make for an exciting wake-up call. “Looking forward to it.”
“Katsuko!”
I whipped my head around at the sound of Toshiie’s voice.
My brother hurried up to the castle, followed closely by Hana – who was carrying an infant – and Nao…. who blew right past my open arms and attached himself to Yuki’s leg. “Uki!”
Sigh.
Toshiie pulled me into a hug. “As soon as we found each other, you disappeared again! What happened?”
As if it had been my fault. But brothers gotta brother. “It’s a long sto-.”
AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I was interrupted by an outraged howl from the baby in Hana’s arms. In fact, all conversation ceased. Baby had a healthy set of lungs on ….Him? Her? Them?
Toshiie took the baby from Hana. “Sorry. She’s teething,” he said, pitching his voice louder. “This is Mayumi.” Oh. He named her after our mother. I supposed Toshiie had less conflicted emotions toward her than I did.
I hoped he didn’t want to dump her in my arms because Mayumi did not seem impressed with me. Or with any of us.
AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Nao slapped his hands over his ears and yelled, “SHE DOES THAT ALL THE TIME.”
“Let me try.” Mai picked Mayumi out of Toshiie’s arms, cooing while she bounced her up and down.
Mayumi continued to howl like she was possessed by a demon.
I met Shingen’s eyes and pointed at Toshiie. “My brother,” I mouthed.
Shingen immediately made his way over, but introductions were impossible over Mayumi’s screams.
AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Kenshin leaned over Mai’s should and stared down at Mayumi. He gently touched her nose with his finger. “Hello little Mayumi. If you will please be quiet, I won’t have to kill you.”
Mayumi stopped mid-howl.
She blinked twice.
We all held our breath.
AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Yoshimoto eyed the baby like she was an unexploded bomb and edged himself away from the blast zone. Nao climbed Yuki like he was a tree (the climbing gene comes through!) then buried his face in Yuki’s shoulder.
Sasuke was still bowed at Kenshin’s feet. He started to rise, but Kenshin poked him again with Himezuru Ichimonji.
AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Mayumi continued to make a noise that was probably causing them to take cover all the way down in Azuchi.
Finally, Shingen grabbed my banshee of a niece out of Mai’s arms and cradled her. “Hello Princess. Aren’t you the pretty one with those big eyes just like your aunt’s?”
Mayumi quieted instantly. Her little fists reached out to touch his face. He rocked her for a while longer, as she started babbling and giggling.
Of course.
Mai leaned over and said softly, “I think my ovaries just exploded.”
Toshiie sighed. “Mine too.”
I elbowed my brother. “You don’t have ovaries.”
“I just grew them. Then they exploded.” Yeah, and someone gave him medical credentials. Or whatever passes for that here.
Shingen very carefully put Mayumi back in her mother’s arms. “Here’s your little angel. If she grows up to be half as lovely as you, she’ll be spectacular.”
Even the self-possessed Hana blushed at that. “Thank you, my lord.”
“May I get up now?” Sasuke asked.
Being the only sober person at a party where everyone else rated on a spectrum from pleasantly relaxed (Shingen) to face down on a table (Toshiie) was one part isolating and one part amusing. I consoled myself with the idea that I might actually have a shot of winning a sparring match tomorrow morning.
Two more vassals slid to the floor.
Tomorrow afternoon.
Before he passed out after a long session of “cap the movie quote” with Sasuke, Tosh had told me he’d moved his family to Kasugayama. Not into the castle itself, as Hana didn’t think small children needed to be exposed to stabby people and weapons, but into the town proper. I liked that plan. My brother and his family would be close enough to visit as often as I wanted, but we wouldn’t be in the same thin-walled building at night. Some things siblings did not need to know about each other.
Though – and possibly because – Shingen had effortlessly charmed Hana and Mayumi – my brother was still suspicious of him. I suppose that relationship would take time. I’d let them work that out on their own.
Since Shingen was occupied with Kenshin and Yukimura, I made my way to the back of the room, where Yoshimoto was sitting by himself. He seemed to be gazing into his cup of sake as if it were a scrying glass, and something about that look and posture sent a shiver through me.
Taking a seat next to him, I watched as he transformed his attitude into the nothing-bothers-me indifference that he sometimes put on. “Good evening, honorary cousin. You ought to be with them,” he indicated Kenshin and Shingen, “celebrating your return.”
“So should you.” Er, that didn’t come out right. “I mean, there’s a place over there for you as well.”
He put his hand on top of mine. “I wanted a bit of quiet. Kenshin can occasionally be - overbearing – in his impatience to see me take up arms again as the leader of the Imagawa. Though I was sitting alone, I was not lonely.”
I would have to take him at his word. Perhaps my experience with my mother made me see depression with every set of drooped shoulders. For now, I would drop the subject. “Thank you for screen and tapestry you put in our rooms.”
He inclined his head. “Though Shingen’s quarters weren’t as chaotic-” he winced for emphasis, “as Sasuke’s, I thought it would suit you to have a few feminine additions. Although I did worry a bit that you might prefer pick some things out on your own.”
I shrugged. “I might have done so eventually, but I wouldn’t have come up with anything as beautiful or tasteful as what you did.”
“Yes. That occurred to me as well.” He poured himself another cup of sake and winked at me over the rim.
“Shingen said that you mentioned having encountered another time traveler. I think it might have been my mentor.” I started to describe Aki, only to have Yoshimoto interrupt me.
“Not unless your mentor was a short Portuguese merchant with an impressive ability to mangle our native language in the worst possible way, at the worst possible time.” He closed his eyes at what was apparently a painful memory.
“Francisco Botelho.” It couldn’t be anyone else. My erstwhile Portuguese instructor was an “old friend” of Aki’s. It made sense he was also a time traveler. Did that mean Fume was as well? Why couldn’t she have been the one to have gotten stuck in the wormhole and punted into another reality?
“Katsuko!” Kenshin yelled across the room and gestured to his table. “Join us.”
I paused and gave Yoshimoto a look. “You’re coming with me – there’s room there for both of us.”
“As you wish, but if I expire due to overexposure to your and my cousin’s domestic bliss, it is on your head.” He languidly rose and followed me across the room.
“Katsuko,” Kenshin said again, as Sasuke filled his sake cup from a bottle that we’d brought him from the future. “Why do you not drink with us?”
“No insult is intended.” I scooted in next to Shingen, who automatically put his arm around me while continuing his conversation with Yuki. “Sake and other drinks give me terrible dreams.”
He drained his cup without blinking and held it out in front of Sasuke for another pour. “The solution to that is to wake up and drink more.”
I think he was joking. Probably.
“If you will not drink, then you must try these pickled plums.” A bowl of them was thrust under my nose. Yoshimoto and Shingen both recoiled at the sight of them.
“Ah yes, the ceremonial dish of foot-scented plums.” Yoshimoto broke out his fan and flapped the odor away.
“Eat with me.” It was an order from the Laird of the land.
Ah. I got it. As incredibly possessive as he was, Kenshin also wanted everyone to appreciate the things he loved (from a distance… a far distance… in Mai’s case). Since I couldn’t share his love of sake, I would instead be invited to partake in this culinary … delicacy? I eyed the dish hesitantly. I had eaten umeboshi before and thought it tasted mostly like salt, and if the modern version was mellowed out from the ones served here, I was risking a highly unpleasant experience. “Thank you, Lord Kenshin.”
I reached to try the plums, conscious of Shingen’s reassuring pat on my back, and prepared myself to not make a face in case I put a saltlick into my mouth-
Huh.
Actually.
Ok, yes, I tasted salt, but the predominant flavor was sour. Very sour, kind of bracing, and not… bad.
“I… I… I like them,” I was able to say truthfully.
“Better than those too sweet chestnut buns Shingen’s always going on about?” Kenshin challenged me and unfortunately, it was during one of those conversational lulls that brought everyone’s attention to me.
Shingen tugged at my hair. He spoke loud enough for the entire table to hear. “I would think very carefully about how I answered that, if I were you.”
Hm. I was pretty sure I knew what my clever spymaster was doing and picked up on the cue. “Why? Will you punish me if I choose the plums?”
While Mai giggled uncontrollably, Shingen kissed my cheek. “Yes. I will punish you all night long.”
“Ah geez,” Yuki muttered.
“In that case, I definitely choose the plums.” I would have done so in any case… which Shingen had to have known. Sneaky tactician.
Kenshin held out the dish for me to take another. As I reached over with a pair of chopsticks, the sleeve of my kimono slid back, revealing the scar on my arm. Kenshin stared at it. “Tomorrow, I will kill you twice.”
“Thank you.” I wasn’t being sarcastic. He just wanted me to learn how to protect myself better. Of course, tomorrow, once I was in the middle of what promised to be a grueling training session, I’d likely be feeling a lot more sarcastic. But right now, I was happy that I was with my family – both the blood relative and ones that I had chosen.
By the time we’d been back for a couple weeks, we’d already smoothly picked up the threads of our Sengoku lives. I hadn’t realized just how much Shingen had been compensating for his illness before, and I soon got used to sight of his long-limbed form striding down the corridor, enthusiastically sparring with Kenshin, or conducting long strategic discussions with visiting Daimyos.
I continued to perform the local message route – I liked getting out and about in the early morning. It was almost like going for an early run that woke me up… and got my blood going for the morning sparring sessions (where Kenshin continued to kill me… but not as easily as before).
Most afternoons Shingen would teach me tactics and strategy – it was fascinating how his time in the future had informed his decisions. He had made a good attempt to cram nearly five hundred years of politics, military history and domestic policy into a year and a half of self-learning. This man’s brain continued to fascinate me.
“You keep looking at me like that and we’ll never get any more work done today.” Shingen raised his eyes from the report he had been reading – the Mouri were still encroaching out of Chugoku, into the border regions, becoming bolder as they harassed Nobunaga. He reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, then let his hand linger on my face.
I knew if I said the word, reports would be abandoned on the desk, and our clothes would be tossed on the floor somewhere between here and the futon. From the look in Shingen’s eyes, he knew that too.
Hm. He never had managed to ‘punish me all night long’ after Kenshin’s banquet the other week. Shingen, along with nearly everyone else in the castle, had stayed up drinking with Kenshin until sunrise. One of these days, I was going to cash that rain check in. But I knew that he still had a lot of work to catch up on, especially now that Chiyome had transferred authority back to Shingen.
I kissed the palm of his hand, then regretfully schooled my face back to a neutral expression and asked, “Which would be more advantageous in the long run? Offering aid to Motonari’s forces in the hope of breaking Nobunaga completely, or offering to help Nobunaga in return for him ceding Kai back to you?”
“There’s no denying I still want to take my shot against Nobunaga,” Shingen said. “But the latter option would be better for my people.”
If Nobunaga agreed.
If he then kept that agreement.
“What is Motonari like?” He might not be the type of person Shingen would want to ally with in any case. “Though if he’s mostly concerned with sea power, I guess he’d be more interested in using your mounted archers to attack Azuchi, than taking over Kai in Nobunaga’s stead.”
“There is that, true.” Shingen sifted through a few reports. “He appears to be two parts mystery and three parts loose cannon. I’d rather ally with smaller territories and put pressure on Oda in that fash-” His musing were cut off by a knock on the ceiling. Then Sasuke poked his head in and stared down at us.
“Sorry to disturb you, but a messenger dropped this off at the gate.” He executed a double backflip to the floor (I’d been teaching him some advanced tumbling moves for fun). “It’s addressed to all three of us.” He brought a thin packet to the desk.
I recognized the handwriting immediately – it was from Aki.
#TBT12lies#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#ikesen fanfic#shingen takeda#ikesen sasuke#ikesen yukimura#ikesen kenshin#ikesen mai#ikesen yoshimoto#throwback thursday
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Chapter 49: Buttons - Katsu, Shingen, & Sasuke continue to piece together the multiverse; Katsu and Shingen make up for lost time.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
Warnings - this is very much a Minors DNI chapter.
“Shingen, do you remember the name of the boy who fell into the river?” I had helped myself to the hotel stationery and was writing down everything I could remember about my trip into the alternate timeline. Not to poke around in it as I imagined Sasuke was doing (he’d been typing like a madman on his tablet all afternoon), but because I still had a Sengoku era puzzle to solve. I thought I remembered the boy’s name, but Shingen had spent more time talking to the boy’s father than I had.
He looked up from his drawing pad (he claimed to be trying to figure out how to rig a flushable toilet in his castle). “Are you asking me if I remember, over a year later, a name I only heard once, after two sleepless nights, during a day that contained multiple events, one of which was witnessing your near-drowning?”
Well, I wouldn’t have put it like that, but... “Yes. Do you?” I had a theory and didn’t want to skew the results by putting it out there too soon.
“I do not.” He tugged on my hair. “Though I am flattered you credit me with that sort of memory.”
Hm. “And the other Sasuke… he told you that I was trying to save the boy who will be named later?”
Sasuke looked up at the sound of his name, alert to the potential of an interesting conversation. “Did he… I mean, did I…. er, my alternate tell you that Katsuko had fallen in?”
“No – that hadn’t happened yet. I had the luck to witness that for myself. You said that a child had fallen into the river, and then when I asked where, you told me that Katsuko had gone after him.” Shingen paused for a moment, then looked back at me. “Hiro. The boy’s name may have been Hiro.”
Close enough. “Or. Hiko?” I tapped my pen on the page.
“Yes. Or that.” He closed his eyes. “Yes. Later his father called him ‘Hikosane’.”
“He told me he was pushed.” I looked down at the paper where I had written the phrases, I handed her the note, but it’s possible Mitsunari recognized me followed by hopefully, they will take the message seriously and protect Hikosane. “In another timeline, there are some people, one of whom is named Mitsunari, who were given a message by, um… I think, to use Sasuke’s term, “alternate” me … to protect someone named Hikosane.”
“Ishida Mitsunari?” Shingen alerted at the name and glanced over my shoulder to read my notes.
“No idea. Do you know him?” I had encountered a Mitsunari when I was ‘observing’ Azuchi, but he had not struck me as capable of protecting anyone else, unless the someone else was carrying an armload of books. No. Not even then. He’d rescue the books first.
“Not well. He works for Nobunaga, and therefore my limited experience with him has been across the battlefield. He’s a brilliant strategist. If I could have found a way to arrange it, I would have lured him to Kasugayama.” As always, when talking about Nobunaga, Shingen’s posture grew tense and his voice harsh. “Mitsunari is not at all ambitious or acquisitive, but unfortunately for me, what he is, is loyal to the Oda.”
“Eidetic memory.” That non-sequitur came from Sasuke, who looked up for a moment before resuming his note taking.
I puzzled over his comment for a moment before realizing that Sasuke was describing Mitsunari. “I suppose it doesn’t matter which Mitsunari she was talking… but apparently Hikosane is so important, that alternate Sasuke risked interfering with our timeline to make sure he didn’t drown, and alternate Katsuko risked the same in a different timeline to make sure he was protected. When we get back to our time, we should try to find-”
“It’s far more difficult to locate a peasant than it is to spy on a warlord,” Shingen said, as he pulled me closer to him. “But I will see what my spies can do.”
Sasuke stood up and stretched. “I believe I’ll go back to the observatory tonight, simply to confirm when the next wormholes will open.”
“You’re not going to work on how to do the lateral jumps are you?” Even though he had said he wouldn’t, I figured the multiverse would prove to be an undeniable temptation for him.
He picked up his phone and tapped in a quick text to someone. I heard Shingen’s phone chime a moment afterward. “No. I am simply seizing upon a logical excuse to leave the hotel room for the night so that the two of you can have some privacy.”
He blinked at us a couple times, then grabbed his jacket. “Ker-vanish,” he said before slipping out of the suite.
I turned to Shingen, who was looking at his phone. “He sent you another eggplant, didn’t he?”
“The modern invention I missed more than anything else was the shower,” I told Shingen a little while later, as I emerged from the bathroom happily clean and dry. I figured I’d better stock up on showering while I could, even though Sasuke had said it would be three or four months before the wormhole reopened.
“I have very fond memories of a lake that contained a certain moon Goddess.” Shingen was sitting on the bed reading a book on – I eyed the cover – civil engineering. The combination of that academic looking text against his strong work-roughened hands was incredibly sexy. Brains and bod. “I believe I could construct an outdoor shower, of sorts, for use in the summer – the sun would warm up the water, which would, ahm, need to be stored in a large wineskin.” He flipped the book upside down on his chest. “I suppose I ought to ask. You do want to go back, right? Now that you’ve returned to the modern conveniences you grew up with, does the future tempt you at all?”
“I want to go back.” I crawled under the crisp sheets. “I felt like I had a purpose there – I never felt that here. Not to mention, I have a nephew who really needs to be shown how to climb a tree.” If I left that task to Toshiie, Nao would never learn. I turned the question back to him. “Now that you’ve seen the future, does anything make you want to stay here?”
He gestured to his book before setting it on the nightstand. “All of these books, medicines, electricity, technology, transportation, and buttons are wonderful.”
Buttons?
“But this is not my time, and there are things I need to do for the people of Kai.” He reached over and turned out the lamp, although the city lights outside kept the room bright enough to see his face. “I’m looking forward to finally meeting your brother.”
I flipped over on my side and rested my head on my arm. “Don’t be offended if he goes all big brother protective.”
His voice took on the authority he used when he was giving Katsu a lecture.I had missed his lectures. “As he should.”
Ok, maybe I hadn’t missed them that much. He might currently look like a modern man, in one of those Henley shirts he seemed to favor, lounging against the headboard of the bed, but his mind still held some old-fashioned values. Still, it wasn’t like anything he and Toshiie said to each other would impact any of my plans, so might as well let them think they were taking care of things. “If you say so.”
“I don’t trust your tone of voice at all.” That amused look in his eyes indicated he didn’t mind, though. “Come closer. We have a year to make up for.” Without waiting for me to move, he pulled me to him and nipped at the hollow of my throat, that spot that always drove every rational thought out of my mind. “The only good thing I can say about a year of separation, is that I get to rediscover all the things I can do that make you squeal.”
Squeal? Seriously? I would never.
“Squeal? I’m not that girlie. When we were ten Toshiie put a mouse in my boot, and I calmly carried it outside and set it free.” Squeal. Honestly. “And when a spider went down my kimono…” I trailed off. There was a picture in my mind of a room full of books, and a spider disappearing under the folds of a pale pink kimono. But I didn’t own a pink kimono. Must have been a dream, I mentally concluded as Shingen’s actions in the present distracted me.
“That sounds like a challenge to me.” He continued his attentions on my throat, pressing slow sensuous kisses across the skin until I was squirming with anticipation.
“It wasn’t meant to be. I just want you to –ah!” I bit my lip to make sure that didn’t come out as a squeal when he sucked at the side of my neck, his tongue making tiny circles on the increasingly sensitive flesh.
“To what?” He gazed into my eyes.
This time I had no trouble at all telling him the truth. “Love me. The way I love you.”
“I plan to. Thoroughly.” He kissed my forehead. “And I do. I love every version of you, Katsuko – the messenger, the boy, the liar, the Goddess, the Devil. I even love the you that falls out of trees.”
“I didn’t fall.” Are we going to be debating this for the rest of our lives? Ok… wow… we could be having this debate for the rest of our lives.
Shingen’s thoughts, apparently had taken the same direction as my own. “We’ll be having this discussion until we’re old and grey.” Shingen smiled at me. “I will also tell you how much I love you every day too.”
Hm. I could possibly deal with the tree thing if it was followed up by a daily dose of ILY. (#priorities). I brushed back that lock of hair that always dipped over his eye. As usual, it immediately sprang into place. “So will I.” Might as well start right now. “I love you.” Then, because it was still making me curious, I asked. “Buttons?”
“What?” Shingen murmured directly into my ear, and even that question was asked in come-hither tones, right before he fastened his teeth around my earlobe.
“Mmmm. You said… um … that you would miss buttons.” It was getting hard to concentrate on my thoughts while my body was telling my brain, just go rest, I’ll take care of this. “Why buttons and not electricity?”
He hooked one finger around the top button of the sleep shirt I wore. Then, so slowly that it felt like time stopped - then flowed backward, he undid the button, letting his finger glide across the skin revealed below. “Does that answer your question?”
“I’m… still not sure. Maybe further demonstration would be in order.” I couldn’t pull off a saucy wink, so I gazed at him from under my eyelashes.
He laughed, then pulled me on top of him, so I was straddling his waist. The sudden change in position pulled me off balance and I quickly braced my hands on his shoulders. “Something about undoing these one… at… a… time… adds to the anticipation. I can feel your heartbeat under my touch.” He pressed his index finger to the base of my throat, and in response, my pulse raced through my veins.
I took a deep breath, when once again, he leisurely unfastened another button – the one securing the shirt across my breasts. I didn’t realize I was holding that breath until the soft snick of the button’s release was echoed in my quick intake of air. His fingers brushed across my skin, following the curve of my breasts, but never venturing past the territory still covered by the shirt.
“Your purchase of this shirt was inspired.” I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy the play of his warm hands and the cool air against my newly bared skin. He paused on the next button, hovering, unmoving… tantilizing.
“You looked rather worried before you opened that bag.” Snap. Another button was freed. Shingen inched my shirt down and kissed my shoulder, his lips and tongue lingering on my collarbone.
It took me a moment to remember. “Oh. Well, I imagine you noticed some of the other outfits in that store.” Presuming Sasuke’s escapades hadn’t completely distracted him. “I was afraid it would be something that would be an uncomfortable mess of lace and straps. Something only worn about five minutes before it’s ripped away – which always seemed to me like a waste.”
There was only one button left holding my shirt together – Shingen trailed his finger along the v of the shirt, down one side, then the other, but did not seem to be in any hurry to undo it. “Not only a waste of fabric, but I wouldn’t treat you that roughly.”
No, he hadn’t, even in the aftermath of our fight in the training room the night Iekane had forced my unmasking. Even now, those hands that had looked so sensuous holding a book were reverently cupping my breasts, thumbs brushing across the nipples, lightly teasing their hardened peaks. “I know that. Though if you wanted to be a little less gentle… I would be ok with that.”
For him it had been a year, and yet here he was, patiently taking the time to worship me. But I didn’t need him to hold back. I didn’t want him to hold back.
He froze underneath me. “Devil, exactly what are you saying? I can't imagine you want to be restrained.”
I leaned forward to hug him close. “No, not bondage.”
“No, you wouldn’t enjoy that,” he said just as I continued, “I don’t think I would like that.”
No, I would not want to be tied up and abandoned, unable to leave. Ugh, issues. I moved on quickly. “Although, a blindfold I might be fun… someday. When you blindfolded me the day of the archery exhibition, I nearly lost my concentration completely.”
Ah. There was his wicked grin. “That was not my intent, and you recovered quickly. But as to the topic at hand-” he caressed my breasts again, “if you have a fantasy, I want to know it. I will do my best to make it come true.”
Which… was so not my point. “You’re always taking care of me first and while I love that you are so generous… sometimes I want you to take care of yourself first. However fast or hard that may be.”
I wanted to be able to look at his face when he let go and be able to think, I did that.
Shingen was quiet a long moment, but those eyes darkened and smoldered with something hot and wicked. “You are a treasure.”
That final button was ripped off with his teeth-
I found myself flipped onto my back –
--his hands pinning mine over my head –
--his body hard against mine-
--my heart roaring in my ears-
He stared into my eyes, intent, fierce. “You will let me know if I’m too demanding.”
“I promise.” He knew me well enough to know that although I’m a liar, I never made a promise I did not intend to keep.
“The thing is, Devil,” he said. “It makes me incredibly, stupidly happy when I am able to satisfy you. Therefore, what I’m going to demand is that you enjoy this, because I intend to thoroughly pleasure every inch of your body.” Then his teeth raked across my shoulder, deeper and more urgently than ever before.
“I’m… good with that,” I managed to say, before his sweet and sharp attentions clouded my mind with desire, his lips and teeth igniting a trail of fire across my throat. I wanted him to touch me everywhere.
His tongue plunged into my mouth, and he released my hands to pull me closer, his body sliding across mine. Somehow, clothes were discarded, blanket and sheet kicked to the foot of the bed as we devoured each other.
Yes. This. I wanted this tumult, this passion, this--
My hips rose to meet his, only to be stopped by his hands firmly pressing me into the bed. “Hold on, Devil, I want to be sure you’re ready for-”
I’m going to kill him. I punched his shoulder. “I’m ready. I’m beyond ready. Even if I weren’t. I. Don’t. Care.” This was for him.
He touched the valley between my legs, fingers dipping inside me, drawing out my wetness like a spoon from a jar of honey. “Ah, so you are.”
Just for that, I licked his chest, then fastened my mouth on his nipple, batting at it with my tongue. Would that do to him what it did to me?
He groaned.
Empowered, I ground my hips against his, pulling him closer. He grew harder in response.
“Now. I need you right now. Gentle can wait until later.” I had thought I was pushing for this for him… but it was for me too. I wanted… I wanted…
“You win, Devil.” Without any further fanfare he rocked into me, filling me fully, completing the intense connection. I wrapped my legs around his back, driving him deeper, hanging on to his shoulders mindlessly as he pulled back, then pushed into me again, his pace increasing.
I eagerly met every demand his body made, raking my fingers through his hair then down his back, while at each thrust, I gasped at the delicious sensations that friction sent through my being.
We both win.
Urging each other onward, the pace increased, faster, harder—
-- though I had been determined that he would take his pleasure before mine, I lost track of that goal in our frenzy. And so, it was my cry of satisfaction that echoed through the room first.
As if that was the signal he had been waiting for, his answering moan filled my ears, then he stiffened and relaxed. “Treasure,” he whispered again, as his hands found mine. He brought my hand to his mouth, kissed my fingers, then his eyes eased shut.
Our hands were still linked as he drifted into a light doze with a smile still tugging at the corner of his mouth.
I swept my fingers through his hair, and I thought to myself, “I did that.”
@bestbryn
#tbt12lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#your periodic reminder that the historical Shingen really did install a flushable toilet in his castle
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Chapter 48: Two Degrees of Separation - Comparing notes with Sasuke and Shingen leads to more questions about the multiverse.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
“I brought these in from the car.” Sasuke slid open the door to the bedroom wide enough to pass a few shopping bags through.
“You can come in. We’re both decent.” I took the bags, noting one of them was from a high-end lingerie store. That… had the possibility of going very very wrong, in a number of ways. I dropped the bags on the foot of the bed, as Sasuke settled in a chair by the window. “You let Shingen loose in a lingerie store?”
There was a rather embarrassed cough from the ninja by the window. He looked away from us.
“I was fine. He’s the one who can’t be trusted around women’s underclothes. I may be scarred for life.” Shingen shot a glare at Sasuke, who seemed to take great interest in the parking lot outside.
“I thought it was a mannequin and not a live model,” Sasuke muttered.
“Nope. Don’t need any more details there.” Instead, I dove into the bags, finding a couple pairs of jeans, some t-shirts… “Oooh, Black Widow, nice.”
“Figured Natasha Romanov would be your jam.” Sasuke sounded more confident now that we’d left the subject of underwear.
“Oh yeah… and I’ve got about seven years of MCU to catch up on. And I don’t know how many seasons of Game of Thrones.” It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that I’d finally learn how some of these continuing stories ended.
Shingen and Sasuke looked at each other, then Sasuke shook his head. “Um… about the Game of Thrones conclusion… you might actually find the story of my adventures in ladies lingerie categorically less traumatic.”
Huh. I returned my attention to the bags and pulled out a hoodie! I hugged it to me. It was red, not the blue-grey shade of the one that I had been wearing on the day I had initially gone through the wormhole, but it was soft and warm and felt like home in a way that no other article of clothing had. “How did you know?” I slipped it on and zipped it up.
There was a tug on the hood. Shingen flipped it up over my head. “Red hood. The better to see you with.”
“Alright, Sasuke, are you ready for all the wormhole weirdness I need to tell you about?” The three of us had relocated to the living area of the hotel suite to eat lunch that Sasuke had picked up from one of the hotel’s onsite restaurants. He’d asked me if I wanted pizza, but until I was sure how my digestive system would readjust to modern food, I’d decided to stick with soba noodles and a light soup. I was wearing my first pair of jeans in nearly seven (or was it eight now?) years, and they fit surprisingly well (Shingen: “I know every inch of your body, it wasn’t difficult”).
“Before we debrief, I have something else for you.” Sasuke handed me a sealed manila envelope. He didn’t say anything else, so I went ahead and opened it, pulling out identification papers, including a passport as well as a bank card. The accompanying account information made me do a double, then a triple take to make sure I was reading the amount correctly.
“Sasuke, do you have previously unrevealed connections with the Yakuza?” I took a second look at the passport. Yes that was definitely me in the picture – it looked like my old student ID photo, had been “aged up” slightly. The birthday was correct as well. Someone clearly had skills.
“No. Not that I am aware of. This came from a Professor I know.” Sasuke glanced over my shoulder to look at the paperwork. “Holy mother forking shirtballs.”
“From your advisor? The one who arranged my hospital stay?” Shingen examined the passport. “Nice picture… but not as nice as the real thing.”
“No. Different professor. My advisor in Kyoto who helped get you into the University Hospital is Professor Sakaki. These – as well as Shingen’s papers and bank account … which did not have nearly this many zeros – came from a friend of my parents. I’m certain they have nothing to do with the Yakuza.” He laughed off the idea. “Actually, their friend, Professor Yamaoka was the man who gave the initial idea that led me to study wormholes and their relationship to temporal anomalies.”
Wait…what? Who?
“Professor Yamaoka.” I said it slowly, to confirm I had heard that correctly.
Aki, you have some ‘splaining to do.
“Yes.” Sasuke took the envelope and folded it up. There was a rattling noise within. “There appears to be something else inside.” He shook it. “Given the amount of money in your account, I can only surmise it’s a key to a safety deposit box that contains the Holy Grail.”
“The what?” Shingen apparently hadn’t worked his way up to European literature – or the Monty Python film (the latter was something I would make sure to correct before we went back to the Sengoku era).
“No.” I already knew what was rattling around in that envelope. “It will be a shogi piece. A lance… or maybe a knight.” It had better not be a pawn after all he’d put me through. I turned the envelope upside down and dumped the item onto the coffee table. It landed with a clink, spun a few times, and landed tokin side up.
The knight.
Sasuke blinked at me a few times. “How did you know?”
“I’ve been working for Yamaoka Akihira for the past seven years. Shogi is his… calling card.” I sank back into the sofa cushion. On the day he’d left me with Shingen, he’d kept his face in the shadows. Later, when I’d thought about it, I’d figured that he’d been trying to keep Shingen from seeing his face… but no… he’d been hiding from Sasuke.
A lot of explaining.
“Your old master… the man in the woods. He’s the same?” At my nod, Shingen turned to Sasuke. “You said this man is a friend of your parents?” Shingen quickly put things together, and I was sure he could tell this information had unsettled me.
“Yes… I mean, they aren’t besties, but I know he’s consulted them on history.” He picked up the tile and examined it. It was a modern tile, made out of some kind of tempered porcelain, and not one of the wooden ones we’d used when we played at The Mountain. “They might, possibly have some old photos of him that I could try to get my hands on.”
“Anything they have would be terrific. I feel like five mysteries just got solved, but five times that many new mysteries appeared.” Popping in and out of time would explain Aki’s many disappearing acts. But why had he never told me he was a fellow time traveler? Why had he never sent me home? And what was he doing in the Sengoku era to begin with? ‘Putting things on the right path’ seemed a lot more ominous now that I knew he was from the future. “Can they scan what they have and upload it to the cloud?”
Sasuke shook his head. “They’re mysteriously attached to paper. The last time I tried to talk my father through attaching a file, he emailed me his entire hard drive and crashed my laptop.”
I put the questions about Aki aside for the moment. Possibly Sasuke and Shingen, once I told them about my detour into another timeline, might be able to help put the pieces together when it came to Aki’s involvement. “Sasuke, remember when you said you thought Togakushi might lead to a different timeline than this?”
“Theoretically, yes, though I suppose since you made it here, that must not have been the case.” He was typing up notes on a tablet faster than I’d ever seen anyone type before. He glanced up and caught the expression on my face. “Ninja fingertips. I didn’t used to be able to type this fast.”
I led him back to the topic. “Yeah, about that. My trip through the wormhole was not like the original trip. I felt like I sort of… well, stuck.” And even though I was trying to be so totally blasé, like, ‘oh yeah, I got trapped in a temporal anomaly, NBD,’ I could feel my lungs tighten at the memory of the feeling of that fog sifting through my body. Shingen put his hand on my shoulder and gave me an encouraging squeeze. Yeah… he could tell I was upset.
“Given that the passage of months here and according to Yuki, in the Sengoku, was the same, you may actually have been stuck in there a year.” Right, Sasuke had gone back and for the between here and the Sengoku while I was missing. “But you didn’t experience that physically – or that wound on your arm would have healed completely – and you’d have starved to death.”
“Thanks Sasuke.” That time I did shudder. And the mental experience had been unsettling enough without throwing in starvation. “When I did come out of the wormhole, I was told I was in the wrong timeline.”
Sasuke stopped typing. He looked like he was trying not to bounce up and down on the couch. “Do you know what this means?” He hurried on before either of us could respond. “Proof that the timelines are connected to a multiverse. Who told you that you were in the wrong timeline?”
“You did.”
“I did? I did! That is… that is frakking awesome!” He pumped his fist, then bent over his tablet and did that supersonic speed typing again. “What did I say?”
Shingen and I looked at each other, exchanged a silent mental shrug, then back at Sasuke.
“You… or I guess technically Sasuke Mach 2, looked surprised to see me, and I asked you where Shingen was, and that’s when you – he said I was in the wrong timeline.” While Sasuke seemed to be having his nerdgasm, I glanced at Shingen to see how he took that. Aside from holding me even tighter, he appeared to be following along fairly well.
Sasuke continued to fire questions at me faster than I could process them. “Were you still at the Togakushi shrine? Were you in present time or the future of that time? What was I wearing? Did I have any cool tech? Did anything unusual happen before you got stuck?”
“Yes. Present, as far as I could tell. A parka. A cell phone – I think it was a cell phone. And…” Right before I got stuck Iekane had pushed me and told me… wait, before that. In my head, I rewound things back to when I was in the tree. “Shingen, have you ever heard the phrase don’t bring a knife to a gun fight?”
He pondered for a moment. “No. However it makes sense.”
I turned to Sasuke who was already typing into his tablet. “Yes, but not sure… ah. The Untouchables. 1987.”
“I’m pretty sure Iekane was already familiar with wormholes… and has been to the present before… in fact… he said… ‘I came here with him’ … him being Aki. I thought he meant he was with Aki before Aki based himself on the Mountain. But he could have meant that he came from this time with Aki.” Before Sasuke could ask more questions, I told my story from the moment Yuki and I had spotted Iekane. “Iekane looked happy to have gotten into the wormhole. If what Sasuke Mach 2 told me is true, maybe Iekane is the one who is messing up the timelines.”
“It wasn’t this Sasuke who talked to me at the flood site?” Shingen stared at Sasuke, as if he were trying to determine what was different about the other version of him. “I do remember thinking something was strange about you, but after all that happened, I’d put it out of my head once he said a child had fallen into the water.”
Pushed. The child was pushed. The boy… what was his name? His father had said it, hadn’t he? I tried to put myself back into that moment, but my thoughts were interrupted by Sasuke.
“Huh. I wonder how I travelled there without a wormhole… no wait, you said I told you that getting back here was ‘lateral jump’.” Sasuke turned his tablet into a sketch pad and began drawing some kind of schematic. “That would mean we could jump between different points in the multiverse, and-”
“Sasuke!” He looked up me, started by my tone. “You told me not to let you investigate. It sounded like getting me here stabilized this timeline. Maybe we should do as little interfering as possible.” For my part, once I was back in the Sengoku, I was going to stay as far from the wormhole nodes as possible.
“Agreed, Devil.” Shingen pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “The wormhole stole you from me once. I do not intend to let it happen again.”
“Investigating is not interfering.” Sasuke pointed out.
“Sasuke. I know you. You wouldn’t be able to resist poking around in alternate timelines… but, from what I can tell from the conversation I overheard,” I decided not to mention that I was pretty sure Sasuke Mach 2 had been talking with Katsuko Mach 2, “there’s a timeline where Kenshin is running around modern Toyko, causing all sorts of mayhem.”
Both Shingen and Sasuke were silent at that.
In fact, Sasuke literally turned pale.
Sasuke erased the schematic he’d begun to sketch on his tablet. “New plan. We stick to this timeline, and only use the wormhole to go back to the Sengoku era when it reopens – which should be in about three months.”
“That sounds like an excellent strategy,” Shingen said.
@bestbryn
#tbt12lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfiction#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#ikesen sasuke#fanfic#ikesen fanfic
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Chapter 50: Radiance -While waiting for the next wormhole, Shingen and Katsuko enjoy domestic fluff, birthday cake, and snowboarding… but an old video leads to an unsettling discovery.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
With ten weeks until the next wormhole opened, modern Japan ended up being kind of a vacation for Shingen and I. Rather than join Sasuke in Kyoto, we elected to stay in Nagano since it was more or less home turf for both of us. Thanks to Aki’s generosity (I considered it an employee bonus and figured I had earned every penny – especially since he hadn’t ever paid me an actual salary), I had more than enough money to rent a decent furnished apartment for a few months.
Before the winter kicked in, we rented a motorcycle several times and toured through the countryside, riding down to the Yamanashi Prefecture, formerly Kai. After some discussion, we elected not to visit the Tsutsujigasaki historic site – it would be too strange and jarring. “When we go to Tsutusjigasaki Castle,” he told me, “it will be as it was, so I can introduce you to its people.”
In return, I showed him all of my old kid haunts – not that there were that many – and my favorite places to hike and climb. And of course, Shingen being Shingen, we created our own tour of Teahouses and bakeries around the city.
Sasuke came up from Kyoto every other week, mostly to hang out, but also to report what was going on with the wormhole and his investigation into the mystery of Aki. The latter was unfortunately stalled due to his parents having taken a sabbatical trip through China – they’d rented their house out to a businessman from India.
On my own, I was doing similar research on my old mentor, but to no one’s surprise, he kept an extremely low internet footprint. Nothing like putting your primary residence 450 years in the past to help you stay off the grid. Similarly, though I haunted the library and archive sites, I was unable to find a lead on “Hikosane.” If he had done something important during his lifetime, it wasn’t in the historical record.
The first weekend in December, Sasuke came up and took Shingen out for a man-bonding afternoon. That was how Sasuke described it. I described it as “get him out of the house so I can bake him a birthday cake.” The birthday meal itself, I would trust to delivery, but I wanted to at least make him something sweet.
Cooking and baking were not activities I had done a much of after my mother died, but prior to that, I’d been the primary cook, not just for meals but also desserts. I had gone through a phase where I baked the most decadent things I could find, hoping to tempt her to – Ah… maybe that was why I wasn’t a huge fan of sweets now? I jotted that down in a notebook my therapist was having me keep. I had decided to see a therapist for my claustrophobia and nightmares. They were never as bad when I was with Shingen, but I felt it wasn’t his job to deal with my mental health – I needed to take responsibility for that. Obviously, there wasn’t a lot I could accomplish before we headed back through the wormhole in the Spring (I told my therapist I was moving to Vancouver) but I hoped to at least have the tools I needed to keep moving forward.
I checked the temperature of the cake layers that were cooling on wire racks. Online, I’d found what looked like (per the number of stars the recipe had) an extremely decadent recipe for chocolate and strawberry cake. While I might never win any cake decorating contests, I was confident the cake would at least taste good. Just as I finished mixing up the buttercream frosting, Shingen and Sasuke came through the door, stomping snow off their boots.
“Sorry to bring him back early – the snow’s getting fairly deep.” Sasuke hates driving in snow. For that matter, Shingen’s not terribly fond of being a passenger when Sasuke is driving, so I ought to have expected an early return.
“No worries.” I’d been listening to the weather reports. Deep snow tonight meant this weekend I could finally take them snowboarding – an excursion that we’d planned for as soon as the weather cooperated.
“What’s all this?” Shingen eyed the cake and the bowl of frosting with the intent interest of a sugar fiend who’d been held hostage in a health spa for a decade. “If it tastes as good as it smells, then I’d say we’ve gotten back right on time.”
“I hope that wasn’t supposed to be a surprise.” Sasuke headed to the coffee machine that we kept out just for him, as neither Shingen nor I had ever developed a taste for it (though Shingen did have a fondness for those fancy caramel mocha lattes they sold at the chain coffee shop – go figure).
“No, it was to prevent… that.” Shingen had grabbed the bowl of frosting and a spoon. I took the bowl away. “That goes on the cake,” I said. He gave me an adorable little boy frown. I leaned closer and said to him quietly. “If there’s any leftover after that, we can have it later… I’ll take the role of the cake.”
Shingen had been stealthily reaching the spoon for a raid on the frosting, but upon hearing that hastily aborted the mission. I ran my finger along the edge of the bowl, scooping up a small amount of frosting on it, and held it out to him. “Will this hold you for a while?”
He sucked my finger into his mouth and licked away the frosting. “For dessert, yes. For you, my sweet Devil, not even close.” He backed me into the counter and dipped me into a kiss. He tasted of chocolate and snow and promises.
“Not a full wall, so I suppose that’s a half-kabedon,” Sasuke toasted us with his mug of coffee.
“Only the Russian judge will care.” I scooted out from under Shingen’s arms, then handed him my phone. “This cake will not frost itself. Why don’t you guys pick a place and order dinner. In this weather it could take a while to get here.”
Shingen opened up the restaurant delivery app. “Any preferences?”
“Your birthday, you pick. Just order something vegetarian for me.” I began putting the crumb coat of frosting onto the cake and pretended not to notice when Shingen stole another taste.
Sasuke rescued the cake from becoming a “naked cake” by taking Shingen into the other room to watch TV – they were working their way through the original Star Trek. I’m not sure Shingen was all that into the show, but it was fun to watch Sasuke watch it. Apparently, he and Gene Rodenberry had incompatible views on the science of space travel. Already I could hear him grumbling that spaceships didn’t need to ‘bank’ in zero gravity.
While I lost myself in the soothing rhythm of cake frosting (given the number of tiktok and youtube videos of people frosting cakes, I wasn’t the only person to appreciate the ASMR quality of cake decorating), I let my gaze wander from where I could see Shingen and Sasuke joking around in front of the tv set, to the window, where the late afternoon snow was lightly brushing against the window.
Respite.
There was that word again. Away from the stress and danger of the Sengoku, Shingen and I were cocooning in this little apartment, learning how to be together without distraction. Once we got back, we’d both have our battles to fight. I was determined to find Aki and demand an explanation, while Shingen was making plans to try to wrest Kai from Nobunaga. But until then, it was nice to have this comfort of daily living together, in order to strengthen what we’d need to face these challenges, both as individuals, and as ‘us.’
Later, after we’d finished dinner and a good portion of the birthday cake, the sugar crash hit, and we all sprawled lazily on the couch, good naturedly debating what to watch, without making any real effort to actually make a decision.
“Are you going to finish that?” Shingen indicated the remainder of the slice of cake that I hadn’t managed to eat.
Oof. Even if I thought I could move (too full), or wanted to move (too comfortable under Shingen’s arm) I didn’t want it. I’d made the cake to his tastes, not mine. “It’s about eighty percent frosting – go ahead. I’ve never liked that much sugar.”
He reached for it, then paused. “Except for the sweets from the Teahouse in Kasugayama – you liked those.”
I made a show of looking innocently at the ceiling and folding my hands penitently while Sasuke snickered quietly from his end of the couch.
Here came the forehead flick. “Really, Devil?”
“I never actually said I liked them. I simply didn’t correct your assumption that I did.” I resisted the urge to rub spot he’d just flicked. No need to encourage him.
“What am I going to do with her?” Shingen addressed Sasuke, who looked like he wanted to yeet out of the conversation completely. “She happily lies to me, steals my clothes” (oh yeah, I was wearing his shirt again), “-falls out of trees-”
“Alright, enough about that.” I gestured to Sasuke’s tablet, which was currently wirelessly connected to our TV. “Sasuke, go to youtube.” I gave him the address of the old youtube page that Toshiie and I had put up when we were still teenagers. Hopefully after so many years, it was still there. “We’re going to settle this tree thing once and for all.”
Sasuke did that ninja typing thing again. “Password?”
“Tony_Stark1610.”
“Ironman? Really Katsuko, you need better privacy settings than that.” He brought up the page. The freerunning videos were at the top, but we were going to go further back than that.
“Shut it, Spidey I was fourteen when I created this page.” No one would have been looking for it in any case.
He sighed. “At least you didn’t use your pets’ name or your birthday.”
“Sixteen ten is her birthday,” Shingen offered.
Also, Tony Stark had been the name of my cat, but I was not going to bring that up to Sasuke. “I’ll change the password later.” I directed him to the oldest video on the page.
It had been the last time I’d ever competed in artistic gymnastics – a small local competition. My mother, who normally was my biggest supporter had been having a bad week and that morning hadn’t left her bed. Toshiie had filmed the event so she could see it later. As far as I knew, she’d never watched. I’d quit soon after that – I’d only been doing it for her to begin with, and I didn’t have the funds -or the talent - to move up to an elite level. Not that that mattered now. What was on the video would likely look more impressive than it actually was.
Shingen and Sasuke watched my fourteen-year-old self tumble and flip across the balance beam. “There will be no more talk of me falling out of trees.”
“Can you teach me some of that? It would come in handy for a moderately awesome ninja.” Sasuke had a faraway look in his eyes. Likely imagining surprising Yuki or Kenshin with new tricks.
“Ah, now I understand what you meant about training as a performer from a young age.” Shingen watched teen Katsuko slide into a full split then dismount the beam with a flourish. “Are you still that flexible, Devil?”
Nobody with breasts and hips is that flexible. I was about to reply to that one with a forehead flick of my own, when the next video began. “I had no idea he posted this – Sasuke click stop.”
It was the freerunning video from the day of the wormhole – just seeing the view of the building that I was about to ascend brought back the feelings of restlessness and anxiety from that year.
“What’s wrong?” As usual, Shingen was tuned into my emotions and he picked up my hand and held it comfortingly.
“The day we got swept into the Sengoku, Toshiie filmed this. I was just surprised that he’d had time to put it on the page.” Discovering this was like time-traveling to my younger self in an archival wormhole.
“May I watch? I’d like to get a sense of the weather conditions that day – it’s a rare opportunity to have this type of data for analysis.” Sasuke had instantly become alert, ready to flip into Weird Science Mode.
“Um, if we play this, I need to warn you in advance – I was a lot more of a daredevil back then, and my brother and I fought about what I did here.” Which was why I was surprised he’d uploaded it. Maybe to try to talk me out of taking risks.
“So noted.” Shingen didn’t actually promise not to get upset, but Sasuke had already pressed start. I resisted the urge to watch Shingen, especially when I almost fell off a three-story building, but I could feel his tension at that point, and… what was that? “Wait, Sasuke, can you play that back?”
“I really don’t want to see you almost die again.” Yeah, Shingen sounded upset and his hand was almost squeezing mine too hard.
“Don’t watch me – look beyond that… left side of the roof.” Something had distracted me that day – that was why I had nearly fallen to begin with. “There.”
“I see it!” Sasuke paused the video and pinch zoomed. “What the hell is that?”
There had been someone else on the roof – a blurry, foggy figure who then vanished into the horizon almost as if they’d unzipped the sky and climbed in. “Now I am creeped out.” There wasn’t any way to tell who – or what – that had been. “Sasuke..?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He zoomed in some more, but that just added to the blur. “Permission to send a copy of this to myself?”
It might have been Aki.
It might have been Iekane.
It might have been someone completely unknown to us.
Who the hell were these people?
In any case, tracking down and confronting Aki suddenly became a lot more important.
The snowboarding expedition was a mixed success. Sasuke’s Ninja training had come in handy, and after a few basic pointers, he had left to try out his skills on an intermediate course… or more accurately, he’d wanted to further bond with a cute tourist he’d met on the ski lift.
Shingen was athletic, but this was one of the places his height was a disadvantage. With his higher center of gravity, he’d had some trouble getting into his knees. Eventually though, he’d picked it up, and soon was swooping down the training hill. He did fall a couple more times after that, but since both times he’d managed to take me down with him, I figured those had been on purpose.
After a couple hours, he noticed I was eyeing one of the half-pipes. “If you want to do that, I’m ready for a break.”
Hm. It had been seven (or, was it eight – I was never sure how to count the unknown amount of time I’d been stuck in the wormhole) years. Could I still manage it? But with Shingen voluntarily encouraging my daredevil tendencies – why not? I gave him a quick kiss. “See you at the bottom of the hill.
In no time at all, I’d dropped in and traversed the pipe. I’d kept it simple, without trying any of the tricks I used to do, aside from simple 180 turns at the top of each wall. But the rush was still there, and I zipped to the bottom with a whoop. Flying. Me and the sky. But the bigger rush? Seeing Shingen waiting for me at the base of the hill, smiling as he watched me skid to a stop.
“I once called you a moon goddess,” he said as I disengaged from the board. “I was wrong. You’re pure sunshine – made for daylight – the most radiant being I’ve ever seen.”
I smiled up at him and took his hand. “You keep that up and you’re going to melt all the snow.”
“What time are we meeting Sasuke?” he asked, while we were waiting to return our rented equipment.
“We’re not.” I pulled a hotel key card out of my pocket. I’d already packed some luggage for both of us in order to keep this a surprise. “Sasuke took an uber back to the apartment.” Or possibly he was furthering his acquaintance with the tourist he’d met earlier. “You and I are going to that hotel over there,” I pointed to the resort attached to the snow park. “Where we can celebrate your birthday by soaking in a private hot spring.”
Later, under the clear star filled sky, Shingen lowered himself with a sigh into steaming hot water. He leaned back against the natural rock formation and gazed out on the view of Mount Kosha. “This was a good idea you had.”
“I do have them, occasionally.” The combination of the snow kissed air and the hot water felt wonderful on my skin and ok- slightly – aching muscles. “I am a little sore after that… are you?”
“Given that I am close to five hundred years old, yes. These bones aren’t what they used to be.” In opposition to his statement, he swiftly pulled me onto his lap.
“I think you’re in great shape… for your age.” I ran my hands over his chest muscles.
“I fell a little bit in love with you the moment you said that. You had this challenging glint in your eyes.” He put his finger under my chin and drew my face up to his. “Yes, just like now. You hung onto that basket of pastry and acted like an insubordinate recruit.”
“In my defense, you had just set me up to be killed – hey!” Shingen removed my wet tankini top and tossed it aside. My nipples immediately tightened in the cold air. “That is not a place I want to have icicles dripping from.”
“Can’t have that.” He fastened his lips to my breast and warmed it with his mouth and tongue. “Hold still, Devil. I want to see if I can put the same look on your face that you had when you were zipping across the half-pipe.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him closer to me. “You do, Shingen. You might not always be looking my way when it’s there, but… you do.”
@bestbryn
#TBT12lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#ikesen fanfic#ikesen sasuke#sasuke sarutobi
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Chapter 37: *Ahem* Katsuko distracts Shingen from working too hard. Shingen distracts Katsuko from discussing Sasuke’s plan.
N.S.F.W. Chapter, Minors DNI
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
“I can hear you thinking again.” Shingen massaged my shoulders as I prepared a cup of ‘Chiyome’s tea’ for myself and a regular blend for him.
Hopefully he didn’t literally know my thoughts because they were all over the place. One of those places was frustration. I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t even considering Sasuke’s recommendation. But it was easier to dwell on that frustration than to consider the ramifications of loving this man. I needed to put that emotion in its own compartment for a little while. If he knew I loved him, would he be more – or less - willing to go with Sasuke to the future? My gut told me it was the latter.
Instead, I waited until we were settled with our tea, and changed the topic entirely. One of Shingen’s favorite ways to avoid a conversation was to distract, and I used that method against him. I handed him the gift which had been sitting on the desk since before we’d had the discussion with Yuki and Sasuke. “Here, this is for you.”
He examined the cloth wrapped bundle without opening it. Ha! I bet he was going to sha-
He shook it and listened to it, but there wouldn’t be much in that to give it away. “It’s not my birthday.”
“My brother and I had this tradition of ‘just because’ gifts. We’d see something or think of something that we believed the other would like and go ahead and gift it, even if there was no occasion. Just because we wanted to.” In fact, usually the just because gifts ended up being items I got more use and enjoyment from than the official occasion gifts. Once he had given me a key hanger in the shape of a cat that basically had prevented me from locking myself out dozens of times (which… probably had been his strategy as whenever I did lock myself out, he was the one I called to bring over my spare key).
He hefted the package a few times. “Clever. If he ever forgot your birthday, he could always remind you that he’d given you gifts all year around.”
“I suppose. Not that he ever forgot my birthday.” He couldn’t unless he forgot his own.
“A paragon, your brother is.” Had Shingen ever forgotten a birthday or other special occasion in his time? Unlikely – the man remembered everything – he would make it a point to remember birthdays. “I almost worry what he’ll think of me.”
I let him stew another moment before I added, “We were born on the same day.” Was he ever going to open it? The anticipation was driving me crazy.
“Ah, twins. You never mentioned.” He seemed to be filing that away in his brain somewhere. “I had the impression he was the younger. You seem like you’re protective of him.”
“No, he’s older, but not by much.” Aki had informed me that twins were considered unlucky in this era, so I normally didn’t mention our shared birthday. “I guess I’m protective because he’s very clumsy. And he gets motion sickness.” And because it was my fault that we ended up here in the first place.
At last, Shingen untied the bundle to reveal the puzzle box. Using various types of wood, Tokuro had created a mosaic-like picture of a moon over a lake, surrounded by trees. It reminded me of the lake where Shingen had first “met” me as Katsuko and stolen my towel.
“This is beautiful.” He spent a moment turning it around to examine the lacquered wood from all sides. “Does it open? It sounds hollow, but there doesn’t appear to be a lid to it.”
“That, you have to figure out on your own. It’s a puzzle box. It does open, but there are twenty-one steps you must perform in the right order before it will.” Puzzle boxes were not completely unheard of in this era, although they wouldn’t become more popular for another century or so. I had been extremely lucky that Tokuro made them.
“Twenty-one steps?” His eyes bright with interest, Shingen set about trying to solve the puzzle.
Yes! Gift giving achievement unlocked. I rested my head on my hands while I watched him try to work the various levers and catches. He glanced over and caught my eye. “Thank you. This is a perfect gift… although, I imagine it might distract me from my reports… and… you thought of that already, didn’t you?”
I buffed my nails on my shoulder. “It crossed my mind that it might be a good strategy to get you to take a break on occasion.”
“Thank you for caring.” He smiled at me, his eye crinkling up at the corner, and I was struck anew at how attractive he was, when he was relaxing like this. Then he looked into my eyes, and his gaze turned hot and intent.
My memory saved that look and the perfect moment that surrounded it – the late afternoon sun turning the tips of his hair to deep red, the crisp coolness to the air that signaled the approach of Fall, the sharp scent of tea and the whisper of the kimono across my skin. I took a deep breath… and held it… waiting…
The sly smile crept across his face, and there was no need for him to ‘hear’ me think, because what I wanted was being broadcast from every cell in my body.
He crooked his finger at me, and when I leaned closer, he put his hands on my face and pulled me in for a kiss. The kiss was brief, but even after he drew back, his hands remained tangled in my hair, as he focused those darkening eyes on mine. “It occurs to me that there might be another strategy you might utilize to get me to take a break.”
Then his mouth was on mine as he kissed me again – not the light affectionate pecks I’d been the recipient of this past week but one with a hunger that hinted of barely contained desire. The passion of his embrace left me short of breath, and I hurried to steady myself on his desk before I collapsed into him. Papers crinkled under my hand. “Your reports!” We’d almost knocked them all to the floor.
“I don’t care at the moment… but you’re right, I’d care tomorrow if I had to sort through them again.” He stood, then scooped me into his arms. “The remainder of work can wait until then.”
“It’s still daylight outside.” Well, more or less anyway. Not that I was complaining.
“The better to see you with, my dear.” He gazed down at me with a combination of desire and tenderness.
“It’s ten steps from here to your futon. I can walk, you know.” Although the Rhett Butler impression was kind of hot, I was still worried about his health.
“I know.” He gently set me onto the futon. “This was more efficient.” He knelt next to me and began raining kisses along my jaw. “Plus, it has the added benefit of showing you how much I’ve recovered – and believe me, I’m about to thoroughly demonstrate that.”
“Which I look forward to but weren’t we going to discuss—ah” I forgot where I was going with that, when his teeth raked across my earlobe then nipped down the side of my neck to the hollow of my throat - a place he’d already learned could take me from zero to sixty in a flash.
“Talk later. I’ve got other plans for your mouth.” His tender attention to my throat had been more than enough to convince me - talking could wait.
“Alright… later,” I breathed out before his lips claimed mine again in a searing kiss and no, there was no talking, as any thought or intention I may have had evaporated in the heat of his mouth. I slipped my hands under the soft fabric of his kimono, sliding them across his chest, then his shoulders, wanting to feel the texture of his skin beneath my fingertips, his warmth in my arms. As the kiss took over, we melded to each other- my legs wrapped around his waist, and his hands caressing my hips and butt. Though fully dressed, our bodies found a rhythm and we moved against each other. Hands, hips, tongue, teeth… I couldn’t get enough of his kiss. I couldn’t get enough of him. I would never have enough of him.
Eventually, we broke apart to breathe, and perhaps I was hyperventilating… even looking at him made me dizzy. Or maybe I was dizzy with the need to be closer still.
I reached for my obi, intending to yank my clothes off, but he stopped my hands. “Let me.” He skillfully made short work of untying the knot. Reverently he loosened my kimono, slipping it off my body, his fingers lightly skimming across my skin along the way. “Two presents that I get to unwrap today.”
“Why do I feel like I’m the one receiving the gift?” I watched him shrug out of his own clothes, admiring as the last rays of daylight outlined his muscles and illuminated the faint shimmer of sweat across his chest and stomach. Sasuke had been accurate when he compared Shingen to Thor.
With that wicked smile across his face, he slowly lowered me backward onto the futon, his hands protecting the back of my head. “Because you. Are. Very. Perceptive.” He emphasized each word with light pecks across my cheekbones, forehead, and nose, then punctuated the phrase with a deep kiss that stole my breath. While his tongue swept into my mouth, coaxing mine out to play, his fingers traced a path from the base my throat to my belly before reversing course to palm my breast.
It wasn’t until he answered one of my gasps with a moan that I realized I was unconsciously performing the same explorations on him. Maybe I wasn’t ready to say out loud the words, ‘I love you,’ but my body declared it in countless nonverbal ways – fingers pressing into his strong shoulders, breasts sliding against his chest, leg hooking around his hip to draw him closer.
“Not so fast… we have all night,” he said, his voice low and thick as caramel, “I intend to worship you properly.” He brushed my hair out of my eyes, then for a long moment simply held my face in his hands and gazed down at me. The combination of heat and affection in his eyes nearly broke whatever little control I had left. If he intended to let this fire build all night long, there was no way I would make it until sunrise. But anything I might have said in protest of that plan was lost in my moans of pleasure when he slid his lips to my breasts to lick and tug on them, his tongue lapping the nipples, until they were tight and aching with a need for release. Even then there was no respite – instead he sucked lightly on them. I moaned as I writhed beneath him.
At last, he took pity on me and returned his attention to my neck – or maybe he was simply extending the torture, making sure our lovemaking indeed would continue through the night – then he hugged me closer and whispered, “You’re so beautiful… strong… vital… I barely believe you’re real.”
“Maybe … I’m not real.”
“Hm… better check.” His hand glided down my body, taking the time to caress every inch of skin encountered. “Feels real. You taste…” He sucked on my earlobe.
I gasped and bit his shoulder in response. “Sorry!”
I hadn’t meant to bite him.
“Don’t apologize… I’m happy that pleased you.” His hand dipped lower and lower, light fluttering touches along my inner thighs, before he parted my legs; flicking and teasing that already over-sensitive place between them.
Once again, I gasped then squeezed him closer, feeling like I needed to hang on to something, or I would fall, but I was already lying down, where would I fall? Into him, I was falling into him.
He took his time with those caresses, banking a fire, but in no apparent hurry to build it up… just slow, deliberate strokes, as I arched into him, pressing him onward. At that encouragement, he inserted one, then two, fingers inside me. My brief thought of ‘wait, not there, go back to the touching’ was immediately cancelled by a ‘Oh! There! There is good after all,’ when his calloused fingertip brushed across a spot that sent a jolt through me.
He laughed suddenly. “You know, this is the only time your thoughts are visible on your face… I should just keep you like this all the time, Devil.” He laughed again, as my face very likely projected my opinion of that plan.
Just for that, I let my hands do some exploring too, gliding down the length of him, and feeling a surge of feminine power at his answering groan and the way he hardened at my touch. I wanted to do to him what he was doing to me. I wanted him to feel at least some of what I was feeling.
Victory was short however as his fingers continued that persistent rhythm inside me and soon it was all I could do to hold onto him, as breathless with anticipation and the increasing pressure deep inside me, I dug my heels into the futon and pushed into his hand, frantic for more. “Shingen, please.”
Finally, he gazed into my eyes as he positioned himself above me and leisurely pressed forward, entering me so slowly that every advancement sent waves through me.
As he held still for an extended moment, I breathed through the internal sensations… the soft skin covering the hardness … an unfamiliar, but not unwelcome fullness… adjusting around him … and the intimidating thought that we were closer than we ever had been….
He brushed my hair out of my eyes. “Good?”
I nodded. Good. Slightly overcome. But… good.
He kissed me again, whispering, “Then, look at me,” before gradually moving, a glacial pull and push that started the pressure building up again, especially when he brought his hand back down to tease the skin in the valley between my thighs.
I arched to take him deeper, faster, my breath releasing in half-sobs and gasps, as he increased his pace and… I didn’t want that feeling of anticipation to end, and yet I couldn’t stop urging him onward… until…
A shower of sparks spread throughout my entire being, my legs spasming around his back, then while I was still vibrating with the pleasure of that explosion, he allowed himself to reach his own release with a moan, then relaxed on top of me.
We lay there, simply breathing…
Being…
His now-damp hair tickled my forehead… or maybe it was my hair… I couldn’t even tell where the boundary of me ended and the one of him began.
Eventually, when my heartrate slowed enough to allow speaking, I sighed, “God.”
He pushed himself up on his elbows – yes, his hair had fallen into his eyes – it was always falling into his eyes, wasn’t it? I brushed it back into place, letting my hand linger on his forehead. He smiled down at me with a look of wicked glee, “Yes, Devil?”
Which is why our afterglow devolved into me snort laughing into his shoulder. He laughed with me then rolled us over, and we lay there, hands linked together, legs still entangled, sharing another moment of joy.
I wish I could say that after that night, Shingen and I had a long talk and he agreed with the wisdom of going to the future with Sasuke. In fact, it would also have been acceptable if we’d talked and he convinced me that he was healthy enough to wait until the Togakushi “node” (as Sasuke had taken to calling it) opened.
Neither of those things happened.
Instead, he continued to duck the conversation altogether. I knew what he was doing. And he knew that I knew. It didn’t make pinning him down any easier. He’d simply say, “I don’t want to fight about this – lets discuss it later.”
But he always had an excuse, a distraction, a way to avoid that later discussion.
Meanwhile the nights were *ahem* lovely, and aside from avoiding a certain topic of conversation, the days were pretty stellar too. I was learning a lot about tactics and strategy.
“I wish my instructors in school had been more like you,” I told him one afternoon. “I might have skipped school less often.”
“Was that a prelude to a teacher – student fantasy?” Shingen gave me one of those wicked grins. “If so, let me get through a couple more reports and we can explore that.”
“It wasn’t.” Although now that he mentioned it, it was going to be on my mind. “I’m learning so much more from you than I ever did in school. You make it all interesting, even things I never would have been interested in before, like the flood management.” I didn’t throw that out there randomly – I was curious about the zutsumi that he’d engineered that was still in existence in my day.
“And what were you interested in, Devil… also, what does skipped school mean?” Hm… maybe I had been too subtle in my questioning.
“Um, well, it means instead of being in school like I was supposed to be, I was out doing something else.” That comment got me a stern enough look that I moved ‘student-teacher fantasy’ higher up the ladder of things that might be fun to try. “What I was interested in, and what I skipped school to do, is go snowboarding.”
Before he could ask the obvious question, I continued, “Um, when you were a child, did you ever use a large piece of wood and slide down a snowy hill on it?” I didn’t know when sleds made it to Japan.
He appeared to think about it, then grinned. “Not that I can recall, although it sounds like something that I would have enjoyed.”
“Snowboarding is something like that, except you stand on the board, it goes a lot faster, and there are snow parks that build courses you can ride.” I waved my hand through the air in an approximation of a half-pipe run. “It’s the closest thing to flying without an airplane.” I had already explained modern transportation to him previously.
“I’m not completely picturing it, but I believe I have the general concept… it sounds dangerous.” He gave me a chiding look. Yup. Teacher/student fantasy keeps zooming up the charts. “Therefore, it must have been something you did every moment you could, Devil.”
“I wore a helmet,” I said. But we were getting away from the original topic, and since I was trying to be a good student, I steered the conversation back to the reports on the flood plains. But as I continued to subtly question him (although I don’t know why I was bothering to be subtle, given the amount of things Sasuke, Mai, and I had already affected, there were probably hundreds of temporal paradoxes already in play) about his ideas for damming and diverting the rivers, it became clear that Shingen hadn’t built the zutsumi yet.
Was this a sign that his illness would be treated successfully in the future? Or did it mean that in this timeline, the project would never be completed, potentially putting hundreds, maybe thousands at risk of losing their lives and homes over the next five centuries? Something definitely to discuss with Sasuke. I had a list. It was very long at this point.
I turned back from my musings to see that Shingen had paused in his report reading, seeming frozen in place. His knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of his desk.
“What is it? Bad news?” I peered over his shoulder – the report seemed fairly innocuous.
“No.” His voice was rough. He cleared his throat. “Thinking… time for a break.”
“Alright.” I was happy he seemed to be taking better care. “Tea?”
“I’m… out. Run to the kitchens… and beg for more leaves?” He squeezed my hand, almost painfully.
“Of course,” I gave him a quick smile and headed out the door. I walked about ten feet away, then took off my sandals and tiptoed back.
He was not out of tea.
He’d sent me away on purpose.
I thought I knew why.
I hoped I was wrong.
A moment later my theory was confirmed when there came a painful sounding cough. Should I allow him to think his distraction had succeeded?
But the coughing went on and on, then-
CRASH!
The clatter of something falling had me rushing back inside to find him doubled over, struggling to breathe. He held a handkerchief to his mouth – but his hand couldn’t cover the red stain that was spreading across the pale fabric.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#slow burn payoff
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Chapter 41: Miles to Go Before I Sleep. Katsu and Yukimura set off to look for Toshiie, and try to convince themselves they’ve done the right thing. Also... Katsu gives Yukimura advice on women.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
“What the hell did you guys just do?”
Maybe it was my imagination, but Mai’s question felt like it echoed in the quiet temple. What the hell did we just do? Saved his life, saved his life, saved his life. Was that the answer? Or a mantra? Please, let them be able to save his life. What if all we had done was send him to a new world where he would die alone?
“It was necessary. Sasuke will take him to a healer in your time, and they will cure him.” Kenshin spoke firmly, as if no modern doctor would dare fail in that task, or Kenshin would hop into the next wormhole and stab them in retaliation.
“Cure… of what?” Mai turned to me. She’d not only been kept out of our plans – she hadn’t even known they were necessary.
“I don’t know. He was dying. He told me he didn’t believe he would s-s-survive…” I took a deep breath. “Survive past this winter.” Honestly, I couldn’t talk, or even think about it any longer, so I gave Mai an apologetic smile, made an excuse about wanting to check on my horse, and went outside. Kenshin or Yuki could explain it to her.
Once outside, I ignored the muzzling rain and buried my face in Moonlight’s neck. Up until that last moment, I had hoped that one or all of us would call it off, or that Shingen would change his mind and volunteer to go to the future. But the look of shocked betrayal on his face, and Mai’s horrified What the hell did you guys just do, was playing like a skipping record in my mind. I had no way of turning it off. It would likely loop all the way to Ikuno.
“Katsu?” I lifted my head to see Yuki standing there, looking about as uncomfortable as I had ever seen him. “Aw geez, you aren’t crying, are you?”
Was I? I brushed my hand across my face. “It’s the rain.” Who was he to sound so horrified over a few tears when his own eyes were wet? “What?”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Nothing. I wanted to make sure you hadn’t up and left for Ikuno.”
Oh. Actually, I’d probably been about ten minutes away from reaching the conclusion that I could just leave. I gave him as much of a smile as I could manage. “Well, to quote Sasuke, there was a nonzero chance of that happening, but I won’t leave without saying goodbye.”
He scrubbed his hands through his hair so that it stood on end. “Kenshin and Mai will be out in a moment. We can say goodbye to them then.”
“Alrigh- what?” We? Them? Did I hear that right?
“He’s going to be mad enough at me enough already. There’s no way I will let Shingen’s woman travel alone to Ikuno.” It was said in a casual tone of voice, but the set of his shoulders told me I shouldn’t argue.
Even so, I put up a token protest. “I can take care of myself.” I could. However, to be honest, I felt torn between wanting to stew in private misery and wanting company to keep me from doing just that.
“I know. You don’t have to. Besides -.” He looked over his shoulder to where Mai and Kenshin were emerging from the temple, looking like they were a single unit unto themselves. “The last thing I want is to be the odd man out on their trip home.”
Hm, ok, yeah. Yukimura trapped for four days with Kenshin and Mai without the mitigating presence of Sasuke was a stabbing incident in the making.
Mai hurried over to me and I braced myself for a lecture. “I’m not sure I agree with what you did.”
Fair point, given I wasn’t convinced it had been right either.
“But I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing, if I were in your shoes, so I understand.” She hugged me, and I imagined that she was also offering a shoulder to cry on, if I wanted.
I didn’t want that though. If I allowed myself to cry, to really cry, I might not be able to stop. So, I stepped out of her embrace and simply thanked her.
Kenshin convinced us (translation, at sword point) to get a few hours of sleep before setting off, pointing out that we’d be safer travelling in daylight. Yukimura and I reluctantly agreed. After a few hours of fitful sleep at a posting inn on the outskirts of Kyoto, and one last morning ‘kill,’ I was more than ready to get on the road.
As shattered as I still felt at saying goodbye to Shingen in such a manner, there was, behind that sadness, anticipation of the reunion with my brother. For the first three quarters of my life, he had been my other half, the person who could always be counted on to balance me out, the one person I didn’t need to tell anything to, because he’d been there through all of it. Now that we’d missed six and a half years of each other’s lives, would we still have that connection?
“Safe journeys, Katsuko,” Kenshin said. “I hope you find your brother in good health. He is as welcome in Kasugayama as you are.”
Well. That was an interesting idea. I imagined that Toshiie would be in sheer bliss, surrounded by all that beefcake in the castle. “Thank you. But you can’t kill him. Toshiie is a healer, not a fighter.” At least the Toshiie of my memory had been. But I wasn’t the same person I had been seven years ago – I wasn’t even the same person I had been that day seven weeks ago, when I shot the sniper out of the tree. Therefore, I shouldn’t freeze my brother in time either.
Kenshin scowled. “He must train to fight. It is a necessary skill.” He looked ready rhapsodize on the issue, but Yuki stepped in and reminded him that we needed to get going if we were going to reach Ikuno in another three days.
Without any additional fanfare, Yuki and I set off. Behind us, I heard Mai suggesting that since they were so close to Azuchi, they should drop in on Nobunaga so she could say hello to her friends. We encouraged our horses into a trot, neither of us wanting to be anywhere near Azuchi if Mai succeeded in convincing him that was a good idea.
Yukimura proved to be a good traveling companion. Though I at first had resented the thought of company, Yuki was the type to stay quiet unless he had something worth saying. He would occasionally point out something or someone interesting along the route and he had a knack for befriending other travelers to the point where they would tell him their entire life history. It was a useful talent to have – I imagined that Aki would have enjoyed having him as one of his scouts.
“What’s so funny?” Yuki asked me, on the third evening of our journey, when we had stopped to camp for the night.
I handed him a bowl of rice, then found a log near the fire to sit on while I waited for the tea water to boil.
“I was just thinking that my previous employer would have appreciated your um, people skills.” Then, because he looked a little confused at that, I added. “Basically, I was admiring your ability to talk to anyone, no matter what their station in life.”
“Any man,” Yuki corrected, with his mouth full. Ok, yeah, his table manners might be a little rough (and Aki... would likely have called him feral). “I can’t talk to women, remember?”
Would it be worth pointing out the obvious? Reminding Yuki of my gender when I was dressed as Katsu might actually prove his point, so I approached the issue from another angle. “So, when you talk to a woman, pretend you’re talking to man.”
Once again, he roughed up his hair with his hands. I could always tell where Yuki’s emotions stood, just by looking at the top of his head. “Yeah, yeah sure. If I wanted to have a conversation. I’m terrible at flirting – and I hate it anyway, so why bother?”
“Conversation is really important Yuki.” The tea water was finally boiling, so I got up to prepare a couple cups. “If you prefer to just talk, I guarantee lots of women would be happy with that.”
That comment was rewarded with a patented Yukimura Eyeroll (TM). “Yeah. Right. Hard to take your word for that. You’re with one of the biggest flirts in the country.”
Was this some kind of Sengoku era Godwin’s Law where all conversation inevitably returned to Shingen? “Well, that’s a bug, not a feature.”
“Katsu, please don’t think you have to take Sasuke’s place by making weird comments… Thanks,” he added when I handed him a cup of tea.
“Aw. So I shouldn’t call you bestie?” I plopped back down opposite him.
“Please don’t.” He sipped at the tea, and when he didn’t wince, I figured I had remembered how he liked it. “What did you mean about the bugs?”
I thought back. “Oh. The flirting thing. I fell for Shingen because of how he treated me when he thought I was boy.” His kindness… the way he took me seriously… the way he helped me after I had killed the sniper… the way we could just… talk.
“Huh.” I could tell that Yuki didn’t believe me, but I didn’t plan to go into any more detail, so that was that. “And, not that I was around for any of it,” a fact that I was really grateful for, “but I cannot imagine that Kenshin flirted with Mai.”
“No. He threw her in the dungeon.” He rolled his eyes again (a sentiment I agreed with one hundred percent).
Ugh. Right. She’d mentioned that. “See. No flirting. Although I wouldn’t recommend imprisonment as an effective romantic tool. Everyone is different.”
Yuki kicked his feet in the dirt in front of him. “Where do the bugs come into it?”
I sighed. “Well, probably you’re going to need to find the girl who understands that when you put a bug down the back of her kimono, you’re actually telling her that you think she’s cute.”
He threw a twig at me. “I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
“If you say so.” Anyway, I imagined that if Yuki ever found a woman he wanted to pursue, he would figure it out, or… er….. huh. “When you meet the girl of your dreams, come and ask me, or Mai for help, ok?” Between the two of us, we’d make sure he didn’t torpedo the relationship before it set sail.
“Yeah. Alright.” Sounded like he didn’t think such a girl existed anyway.
“We’ll sort you out.” Or. Mai would, if I wasn’t around any longer.
He was quiet a long time, and we sat there listening to the cicadas buzzing and the wind rattling the trees. “First or second watch?” he eventually asked.
“Second, unless you are really tired.” On our first night after leaving Kasugayama, Yuki had had the watch immediately after mine, and I nearly had to dump a bucket of water over his head to wake him up.
What the hell did you guys just do?
What the hell did you guys just do?
Kaya, it was too late – you just cursed him to die alone… as will you. You’re a tool that has outlived its usefulness. No use yelling. This time there’s no one around to hear you.
My hands pounded on the side of the crate, fingers scrabbling at the splintering wood. Without seeing it, I knew the sides of my coffin would be smeared with blood.
I kicked and pounded at the sides of the crate, yelling for someone to hear me.
“Katsu! Katsu! Wake up, damn it!”
Clearing the border between sleep and awake in seconds, I sat up. “What? Are we under attack?” I reached to grab my dagger from where it was sitting next to my bedroll and discovered a fistful of twigs and leaves was already in my hand.
“No. Shit. You were making so much noise I thought you were the one being attacked.” His face shadowed by lantern light, Yuki rocked back on his heels and raked his hand through his hair. It was at critical mass. I must have scared the crap out of him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I have bad dreams sometimes.”
Yuki awkwardly patted my shoulder. “Unless you, um, need a hug.” His tone of voice pleaded for me to not need a hug.
“I’m ok. Thanks. It’s probably time to switch out anyway.” I scrubbed the sand out of my eyes.
“Yeah.” He looked away while I got out of the bedroll, a polite, but unnecessary gesture, as I was fully dressed.
“Yuki?” Maybe it wasn’t worth asking his opinion, but the dream had left me rattled. Iekane always left me rattled, even if the dream Iekane was only a product of my subconscious. “Did we do the right thing?”
Again, the hands went through the hair. He was likely to be bald by the time we got to Ikuno if he kept that up. “Shit. Yes. We had a good reason. That counts, right?”
Yeah, but that thought wasn’t keeping the nightmares away.
But he wasn’t finished speaking. “We did it. There’s no use thinking about it now.” He sighed. “As long as we’re both awake, why don’t we just get an early start?”
Maybe I should have objected – he hadn’t had a chance to sleep… but I wanted to see my brother, so without another word, I nodded and packed up my stuff.
Thanks to decent weather and no sudden obstacles, we made it to Ikuno late that afternoon. Ikuno was a small mining town – small enough that I only needed to ask one person where to find the Healer, in order to be pointed to a small house on the outskirts of town.
In my head, I was chanting, please be the right person, please be the right person as we approached. A woman was gardening out front. When she saw us, she dropped her spade and put her hand to her chest. She jumped to her feet and rushed inside.
This can’t be good. Moments later, a man rushed out of the house, musket in hand. He stared into the road, and raised the gun, pointing it right at us.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen fanfic#ikesen yukimura
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Chapter 39: Unwanted Advice. Shingen's POV of last chapter, and new scenes, in which Yuki, Kenshin, and Yoshimoto all attempt to convince him to seek immediate treatment.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter (posted earlier today): Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
As a student of tactics Katsuko proved to be as bright and eager in front of a desk as she was when she joined him in bed. Sometimes, Shingen would set a problem to her simply to hear what solutions she came up with. “Oftentimes, your initial first instinctive plan will be the best one – never discount that – but it’s always worth working out what could happen if you enacted your second, third, or fourth plans.” Her first and second plans were generally solid. Her third alternated between awfully brilliant or brilliantly awful… her fourth… unworkable, inelegant, but highly entertaining.
“I wish my instructors in school had been more like you.” They’d been strategizing solutions to hostage scenarios, and she had just rescued the pastry that was standing in as the ‘hostage.’ “I might have skipped school less often.”
“Is this a prelude to a teacher – student fantasy? If so, let me get through a couple more reports and we can explore that.” Shingen wondered what she would say if he told her how he’d once considered bending “Katsu” over the desk and-
“It wasn’t.”
Too bad. She’d wiped her face clean of any expression, but he thought he’d caught a gleam of interest. Another time, perhaps. He stole the pastry back, knowing that she wouldn’t eat it anyway, and popped it in his mouth. It still tasted delicious, none the worse for wear from its stint as a war hostage… although Katsuko did look a bit traumatized that the hostage she had worked so hard to rescue had met such a violent end.
“I’m learning so much more from you than I ever did in school. You make it all interesting, even things I never would have been interested in before, like the flood management.” There was a considering tone in her voice… of course after her experience in the river, he imagined she had incentive to be interested in flood prevention.
He wondered what she had been like in her own time… or for that matter what education was like in the future. It sounded like it might be formalized. “What were you interested in, Devil… also, what does skipped school mean?”
“Um, well, it means instead of being in school like I was supposed to be, I was out doing something else.” Ah… so she had been a naughty teenager – and still could be. Such as when she had stolen his clothes and dumped them in the dry garden… leaving him to negotiate with Mitsuhide to get them back. “What I was interested in, and what I skipped school to do, is go snowboarding.”
Snowboarding? Before he could ask, she filled him in.
“Um, when you were a child, did you ever use a large piece of wood and slide down a snowy hill on it?” She gestured with her hands to mimic the action of sliding down a hill.
“No, although it sounds like something I might have enjoyed.” However, not an activity that would be worth the risk of getting caught in misbehavior.
“Snowboarding is something like that, except you stand on the board, it goes a lot faster, and there are snow parks that build courses you can ride. It’s the closest thing to flying without an airplane.” Once again, she mimed sliding down a hill…and up a hill… and upside down?
And there was that look she got on her face when she was climbing trees. Where were her parents during these escapades? He’d noticed that she avoided discussing any family aside from her brother. “I’m not completely picturing it, but I believe I have the general concept… it sounds dangerous, and therefore something you did every moment you could, Devil.”
Damn, he’d sounded like an old man there. Hopefully she hadn’t noticed any disapproval in his voice.
“I wore a helmet.”
She noticed.
Katsuko picked up the report she’d been looking at before and asked something about the Kamanashi river. But her voice faded into a swirl of vertigo as he felt a familiar tightness in his throat and lungs. Not now! He tried to order his body to function normally, but already the breathlessness was taking over. Damn it, normally this happened when there was no one about – the last thing he wanted to do was alert Katsuko to the-
“What is it? Bad news?” She peered over his shoulder.
Get her out of here before it’s too late.
“No.” His voice sounded rough even to his own ears. He cleared his throat. “Thinking… time for a break.”
“Alright.” She got up and turned toward the hearth. “Tea?”
He seized upon that as an excuse to send her out of the room. “I’m… out. Run to the kitchens… and beg for more leaves?” Again, the spasm in his chest as his lungs struggled to find air.
“Of course,” Katusko smiled at him and headed out the door.
Fingers gripping the side of the desk, Shingen managed to hold on until he could no longer hear her footsteps. Only then did he allow the coughing to overtake him.
Would it not stop?
Feeling the telltale metallic taste in the back of his throat, he grabbed for his hand towel, knocking the puzzle off the desk in the process. An instant later, Katsuko was at the door. She locked eyes with him, then rushed back outside for a moment. He thought he heard her accost someone, but the words were inaudible over the sound of his own coughing.
Then Katsuko returned, and carefully put her arms around him. He could feel her hand hesitantly rubbing his back. Which didn’t help… but didn’t hurt either. “Sounds worse … than it is, Devil,” he said as he tried to get control of the spasms radiating through his chest.
Then Yuki rushed into the room and took in the situation in a glance. “I knew it.”
“What should I do for him?” Katsuko asked. He imagined she was worried, but at least that didn’t come through her voice.
“Let’s get him to the futon,” Yuki said as he ducked under Shingen’s arm, using his body to prop up Shingen’s weight.
“No,” Shingen said. That was the last thing he wanted. Ashamed of his weakness in front of them, he tried to straighten, but another spasm jolted his ribs, and for a moment the vertigo returned and there were two Yukis and two Katsukos.
All four of them were frowning. “Stop pretending you’re ok!” Yuki practically snarled the words.
“I’m not… Breathing is…. easier… when I sit up,” Shingen explained. At least the spasm seemed to be easing up. He closed his eyes and concentrated on getting air in. For a while, no one spoke, but he felt their warmth on either side of him. He would have preferred that no one learn of these… episodes… but since that horse was out of the stables, he admitted to himself that there was something comforting about have the two of them with him.
“How often does this happen?” Katsuko asked a question he’d been dreading. “This can’t have been the first one if you knew sitting up is better for you.”
“Not very often.” He edged the blood-flecked towel under the desk.
“We both saw it … My lord.” That aggrieved edge was still in Yuki’s voice.
“I’m aware of that. It doesn’t mean I want to continue looking at it.” Then, because he knew Katsuko would be even more suspicious if she had to ask again, he turned to her and said. “Not very often at all.”
“Specifically, how many days a week, and do you have more than one a day?” She sounded impatient, and, clearly suspicious anyway. If he hadn’t been the object of her questioning, he might have admired it more – someday, she might be good at interrogating prisoners – she didn’t miss a trick. Rarely had, in fact.
Still, he downplayed it. “Two maybe three times a week. It’s usually when I overexert myself.” He looked up in time to see Yuki and Katsuko exchanging a meaningful glance. “Both of you, stop that. These spells are intense but brief.”
“We’re allowed to care about you,” Yuki said. He leaned over and put the burr puzzle back on the desk. “You scared the hell out of Katsu. She was shaking when I got here.”
Shingen filed that away to think about later. Not much scared his Devil.
And, already she was defending herself against Yuki’s comment. “I was startled, that’s all. Now that I have a better idea what to expect and what to do, I’ll handle it better next time.”
“God. The two of you deserve each other,” Yuki muttered. “This incident proves you need to be treated sooner, not later.”
Again with this? Days like today aside, he could manage to hang on until they could go through the time doorway at Togakushi. The future could wait until Katsuko could be there with him. “I do know what my body can and cannot handle. In the greater scheme of things, three months is not very long.” He put his arms around their shoulders. “And I’d prefer to spend that time with the people who are closest in my heart.”
Katsuko got to her feet. “I’m going to see if there is any willow bark tea in the kitchen.” She gave him a long, firm look. “When I get back, you will drink it.”
“What will you give me if I do?” Though he tried to ease the mood back to playful, Katsuko wasn’t having it - she simply whirled around and zipped out of the room.
“Now there are two of you treating me like a child,” he muttered once he was sure this time that she had gone and wasn’t going to return immediately.
“Don’t act like one.” Yuki stood up and put the kettle back on the brazier – likely so the tea water would be hot by the time Katsuko got back.
“I’ve lived with this curse longer than either of you have been aware of it.” Neither of them had been with him when he’d realized that the lump pressing into chest, rather than disappearing, was growing bigger. Neither of them had to wake up every morning and try to determine whether it would be a good breathing day. “I’ve gotten used to knowing what I can or cannot do.”
“Or maybe you’ve gotten used to the daily worsening of your health to the point where you no longer notice it,” Yuki pointed out. “I remember how you used to be – how long has it been since you trained on a daily basis?”
A… while. He ignored the implications of that. He’d been busy. As a response, he gestured to the pile of reports on his desk. “You can’t have it both ways, Yuki. Either you think I am pushing myself, or I’m not training?” Yes, he knew full well that that wasn’t Yukimura’s point – but he also knew that he could out-argue his young friend any day.
Yuki sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair. He looked like he was gritting his teeth. “I don’t understand why you don’t want to go for treatment immediately – look, I know you are concerned about Katsu, but there are people here who will look out for her. Mai’s all but adopted her as an honorary sister, which means that Kenshin thinks of her that way too.”
“Katsuko can be impulsive. It’s entirely possible that she’ll ride off to see her brother as soon as she can.” Yuki started to say something, but Shingen cut him off. “Ikuno is a mining town – she might think she can handle herself, but her overconfidence could get her into trouble.” Even here, she had gotten into trouble with the Shogun’s men. If Kennyo’s ninja hadn’t been on hand to help, the result could have been far worse than the black eye she had received.
“That’s possible, but… those silver mines are now under Oda control, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi recently took charge. Say what you like about the man – and I’ve said plenty – but he’s about as law and order as they come. Katsuko might be safer there than you would be,” Yuki said.
“Unless they find out she’s… mine.” At which point she would be a valuable hostage. But not wanting to dwell too deeply on his own claim to her meant to him, he added, “I want to be the one to take her to her brother. She’s met those whom I consider to be family,” he nodded at Yuki. “I’d like to meet hers.”
“Tell her that, then. If you phrase it like that, I bet she’d be happy to wait. ‘Meet your family’ seems to be one those things women get all giggly over.” In his typical Yukimura fashion, he rolled his eyes.
What if I don’t come back?
Katsuko and Sasuke’s world might boast better medicine, but neither of them claimed that Shingen would be cured. Only that he might be. But… this wasn’t a conversation he was willing to have with Yuki. Or even Katsuko. “If, as you say, and I agree, that Katsuko is a strong and competent woman, then you should trust her to help me get to the future via the time door that will open for her.”
“I do trust her… but she shouldn’t have to do that.” Apparently feeling like he had capped the argument, Yuki bowed to Shingen and left.
The best thing to do would be to go back to work as if nothing had happened. That should prove to his persistent daredevil that he could recover quickly from these attacks. By the time Katsuko returned, Shingen was calmly sitting at his desk, working away.
She quietly prepared the tea with the hot water Yuki had started for her and set it next to him. Was she trying not to disturb him or… he got a look at her face. “You’re angry with me because I don’t want to go with Sasuke.”
“I’m angry with you because you’ve been hiding how bad it is.” She settled down across the desk from him.
He could point out that deception, hiding, and lying were things that she was familiar with and regularly practiced herself. But… if he did that, there would be no returning from there. He was trying to avoid an argument, not make the one that was brewing worse. “I thought to spare you exactly that kind of scene,” he replied. He patted the cushion next to him. Come over here and let me help you forget what you just saw.
“You can’t shield me from everything. There’s no need to. I’ve been crisscrossing this country by myself for years – I can handle things – if I know to prepare for them.” She crossed her arms and gave him a steady look. “Drink the tea. I know you don’t have a fever, but it should help with the pain.”
Ugh. Must he? But to prove that he would do what was necessary to keep himself well for another three months, he sipped the tea. It… wasn’t terrible. He thought maybe she’d put some honey in there to cover the taste? “At least it’s not as awful as chewing on bark.”
Katsuko watched him finish off the tea. “Am I understanding correctly that you don’t have an objection to going to the future for treatment, but only to the timing of the journey?”
Once again, she showed an ability to see clear to the heart of a dilemma. “Yes, that’s it exactly.” Although he didn’t want to get into the why that was, any more than he had wanted to with Yukimura. “I drank it all. Where’s my reward?” Maybe he could get her to tell him another one of those folk – fairy tales.
Instead, Katsuko shook her head. “I’m sorry… I need to be by myself for a little while.” She gave him a quick kiss, then hurried out.
That was not supposed to happen.
An hour later, she had not returned. The next person through the door was Kenshin, who, rather than take a seat, stood in front of the desk and looked down at him. “What is this I hear about you turning down a method of treatment for your illness?”
Shingen wondered if it had been Yukimura or Sasuke who had tattled. Katsuko, at least, knew how to keep a secret. “I haven’t turned it down. I’ve simply postponed it.”
“You’re a fool.” Kenshin rattled his sword in his scabbard, and Shingen started the mental countdown to the moment he unsheathed it.
“I disagree with that assessment, but even if it were accurate, I don’t recall giving you a say in the matter.” Damn it, he felt another cough starting. He cleared his throat, hoping to force it back.
“I don’t recall being given a say in the matter when you started stirring up trouble in Echigo when I locked myself away after Isehime… died.” And there went the sword. Kenshin swept it through the air a few times, before bringing it close to Shingen’s throat. “If you die before I am able to kill you, I will kill you.”
Apparently, he felt like he had said his piece, and he turned and marched out.
Shingen barely had a moment to grab another cup of tea – Katsuko had been correct that the willow bark tea made him feel a bit better – before he was cursed with another visitor – Yoshimoto, who, like Kenshin, walked in without announcing himself. “Katsuko’s not with you?” his cousin asked. “I expected to find the two of you cuddled up in an overt display of domestic bliss.”
“We’ve had… a slight difference of opinion.” More than slight, but Yoshimoto was the last person he wanted to discuss his personal life with. Or perhaps second to last – Kenshin was low on that list as well. “What brings you here?”
Yoshimoto’s acquisitive eyes lit upon the puzzle box that Katsuko had given him. He picked it up and ran his fingers over the inlay wood. “I ordered one of these for myself. Tokuro is an exquisite craftsman.” At Shingen’s impatient sigh, he added, “Do I need to have a reason, other than to visit?”
“You generally have a reason.” Shingen resigned himself to spending the next chunk of the evening dancing around whatever topic Yoshimoto wanted to discuss.
“I may have had one when I left my room, but it has flitted out of my head like a butterfly now.” Yoshimoto folded himself onto the cushion that Katsuko had recently abandoned. “Which opinion do you have and which does she have, and how different are they?”
“What are the odds that this particular line of questioning will flit out of your head as well, if I decline to respond?” Shingen replied. Aside from not particularly wanting to discuss this with Yoshimoto, there was the fact that his cousin wasn’t aware of the time travel issue.
Yoshimoto again fondled the puzzle box, and Shingen’s fingers itched to snatch it out of his hands. “It has taken root.”
“Like a weed?”
Yoshimoto inclined his head. “If you say so.”
Weeds could be yanked out of the ground forcefully, but Shingen didn’t feel like making the effort. “There is a possibility that the healers in Katsuko’s home … village… will be able to treat my illness. However, there are only two possible ways to make the, er, voyage, and the first one, for various reasons, is too dangerous for Katsuko. I could make that journey with Sasuke. But I prefer to wait for the second -.”
“You’re talking about the time travel?” Yoshimoto spoke as if time travel was as common as travel by palanquin.
“She told you?” Not that he minded her sharing the information, but considering how difficult she apparently found telling him, Shingen was annoyed that Yoshimoto had been so easily brought into the secret.
Yoshimoto smiled. “She did not. It was something I suspected of Sasuke and Mai. Recently Mai said that Katsuko was from the same ‘village’ as she was, so it was not difficult to put that together.” He shrugged. “I might, possibly, in my wanderings in search of art and antiquities, encountered a person not of this time… and as they say, ‘there are more things on heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy…. Er, that last bit is from a stage play, that… might not yet be written, but the person I encountered, enjoyed quoting from it.” He fluttered his fan. “That’s neither here nor there. You were saying?”
There were several comments and questions Shingen considered posing to Yoshimoto, but it was too much effort. Discussing anything with his cousin felt like chasing after a piece of paper that had been caught in the wind. It would flap about, changing direction without warning, and then suddenly blow back and hit you in the face. “If I were to go to the future for medical treatment, I must either leave Katsuko behind to travel with Sasuke in a few weeks from a Honno-ji, or wait for another three months and travel with Katusuko from the Togokushi Shrine. I prefer to wait. Katsuko and Yukimura believe I should go with Sasuke.”
“Ah.” Yoshimoto nodded. “What does Sasuke say?”
“Aside from mentioning that the earlier trip would be optimal, he has declined to press an opinion on me forcefully.” Although for Sasuke, that probably was his way of being forceful. “And you?”
“Are you asking for my opinion?” Yoshimoto seemed flattered.
“Rather I am bowing to the inevitability that you plan to share it whether or not I ask.” Not that he intended to put any more stock in it than anyone else’s.
“It seems to me that when it comes to illness, treatment should be sought sooner, rather than later,” Yoshimoto said. “If your concern is being parted from Katsuko, waiting too long might result in a more permanent separation… although I expect she might not be alone for terribly long in the latter scenario.”
Well.
Shingen sat up straighter and fixed a glare on Yoshimoto. There was that piece of paper, changing direction and slapping him in the face. He realized that Yoshimoto had only chosen those words for effect, but that didn’t stop him from asking, “You?”
“Oh, no. I was speaking in generalities not specifics. While I like Katsuko very much, she is not a restful person. I wouldn’t have the energy.” Yoshimoto punctuated that statement with a theatrical yawn. “But as I’m sure you are aware, there are many who will find that spiritedness very attractive.”
Apparently deciding that was enough conversation for the time being, Yoshimoto got up and flitted away like the butterfly he had recently compared his memory to.
So… that was four people in a row who had claimed the last word in a discussion and taken themselves off before he could respond. Not wanting to suffer a fifth instance, Shingen gave up and went to bed. It didn’t look like Katsuko was planning to return anyway.
He’d been deeply asleep at the time, but at some point in the middle of the night, Katsuko had decided to come back. Rather than try to determine when, he was simply grateful that she was there, curled into him like a kitten. He supposed his body had recognized her coming home, because his arm was around her, hand resting on her stomach. He felt her deep even breathing against him.
Some lingering tension from the previous afternoon and evening slowly drained from his body. He closed his eyes again, floated back into the soft fog bank of sleep, until the sunrise tugged him into awareness.
Katsuko muttered something about a … half… pipe? Which made little sense, but fairly typical of her. Though he’d once teased her with a made-up story about sleep-narrating an intense session of lovemaking, it was true that she could carry on long, nonsensical conversations in her sleep. Once of these days, he would break that news to her, but for the time being, he was having too much fun knowing something she didn’t.
She continued to chatter for a while, until he sensed that she was moving into wakefulness. “Are you sleeping?”
“Half,” was her adorably sleepy mumble.
Hm. He wasn’t much more awake than that either, except for... “Do you want to be sleeping?” Her eyelashes were fanned out on her cheeks. Shingen lightly tickled her eyelids.
She lazily batted away his hand. “That depends on the other options.”
He decided to give her a hint and moved his hand back to her stomach. With intent, stroked her belly, dipping lower and lower with each circle. “I do have another option,” he said.
Her answer was to turn toward him and tug him closer. Her tranquil acceptance of his overture was a balm to him, and he whispered his joy and thankfulness into her ear. He eased into her, or maybe more accurately they eased into each other, a long, extended, intimate hug. This was not an explosion of passion, but something quieter, something… essential.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#fanfic#ikesen yukimura#ikesen kenshin#ikesen yoshimoto#tw serious illness
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Chapter 35: Future…. An overdue confession and a striptease fail.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
How does a known liar tell the truth about something that sounds like an outrageous lie?
“So… the shipwreck… I um, may have… skirted around the truth a bit, but I had a good reason. I said we ended up here after a storm – and that is true, but most people assume that meant we were shipwrecked.” I gave Shingen the same bland, innocent look I had given Kenshin earlier. “Is it actually a lie if I don’t bother to correct that assumption?”
As I had hoped, he laughed. “What am I going to do with you?” He rolled onto his back and looked at the ceiling as if there was an answer there. I remembered the night in the training room when he’d given me lessons in combat – we’d ended up lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, and I’d been so tempted to reach out and take his hand – well… now I could take his hand. So, I did. He gave my fingers a light squeeze. “Alright, Devil. What did bring you here?”
“It was a storm, but it didn’t drag us across the sea, but through time. It pulled us over four hundred years into the past.” He didn’t respond to that, either verbally, or even physically, so I hurried on. “The short version is that I am from the future.”
“You’re from the future.” He said it like he was testing out how the words tasted on his tongue. “Four hundred years from now?”
“Closer to four hundred and fifty, to be completely accurate. Although I guess it doesn’t matter whether it is one hundred years or one thousand, right?” I turned to look at him, to see how he was taking the news – he simply looked thoughtful. The way he looked when he received a report of new information from one of his spies and was determining how it fit in with what he already knew.
“It sounds like a wild, fanciful tale.” He squeezed my hand again. “Devil… you and the truth are not-”
“I know. We’re barely acquainted. If I passed the truth on a road, we’d wave to each other, then the truth would scurry away and wipe its brow over a narrow escape. But, in this ca-” I stopped when he put his fingers on my lips.
“As it happens, I’m inclined to believe you. You’re a good liar because your lies are plausible. Whereas this… travelling through time… sounds…” I could tell he was struggling not to use the word ‘insane.’
“I know, even to me, it sounds crazy. Because really… time travel?” I wished I had some future things to show him. Not just to prove my story, but because I imagined he’d get a kick out of them. I bet he would have taken my phone apart to see how it worked. “In the future, something like this would still be considered science fiction.”
“Science… fiction?” I supposed it was easier for him to latch onto the last words I’d said. “Myths about science?”
He seemed to have accepted the premise well enough. “Yeah, it’s a form of literature – and tv and film too, but you wouldn’t know what those are, so let’s stick with literature for now – that speculates about the science and technology, oh and even politics of the future. Like air travel and landing one the moon.”
We… were straying a little from the topic, but his eyes lit up with interest at the possibility of travelling to the moon. “Air travel and landing on the moon then are examples of science fiction where you come from?”
“Er, actually not anymore. We already have air travel and the Americans – that’s a new country across the ocean –will land on the moon, oh, in less than four hundred years from now. But… we don’t have time travel. At least. We didn’t. Until… it happened to me. One minute my brother and I were taking a walk around the Togakushi Shrine,” which, thankfully, pre-existed the Sengoku time so I wouldn’t have to take another tangent to explain that one, “and it was summer. We got caught in a thunderstorm, and a lot of fog and mist, and then we were at this era’s Togakushi, and it was winter, and before we could figure out what was going on, we were attacked by bandits – and the rest of it, you know.”
He shook his head. “I know you’re brave, but even so, that must have been terrifying.”
I started to protest… but he was right. I’d been terrified. Terrified that it was real. Terrified that it wasn’t real and I was simply crazy. “Yeah… I alternated between terror and thinking it had to be a dream, and that any moment, I’d wake up back in my own bed.”
“I will have hundreds of questions about the future and time travel … not the least of which is whether we ever defeated Nobunaga,” Shingen told me. “But I need to do this first.” He pulled me close, so that I was half on his chest, and held me. We lay there in the quiet, the only movement was Shingen combing his fingers through my hair. “You don’t need to be scared any longer. You can take a moment to rest from being brave.”
I closed my eyes and let the terrified teenager I had been back then accept his comfort for a little while. It was nice to let someone else take that on. “As for the mechanics, I don’t know how it works. If you want a lesson on the science of it all, you’ll have to ask Sasuke.”
His fingers stilled. “You told Sasuke about this before you told me?” There was a note of jealousy in his voice. Odd, I wouldn’t have thought he was the jealous type.
“Only after I figured out that Sasuke is also from the future – as is Mai.” I once again paused to let Shingen digest that, but apparently having accepted the idea of a single time traveler, it was less of a leap to accept three. “Anyway, he’s the one who understands how these wormholes – time doors? – work and when they’re due to appear.”
“That suggests that you have the means to return to your home.” It was his turn to speak in bland, neutral tones, leaving me no hint as to how he felt about that.
“I suppose. I only learned about that possibility a few weeks ago. It doesn’t make a difference though. I’m not going to go home and leave my brother still stuck here somewhere.” Unsaid was that there was now also this, whatever - this affair? relationship? - was with Shingen. My desire not to leave him, especially not now when I didn’t know how much longer … well, I didn’t want to leave. “Sasuke’s decided to return though – at least temporarily. I guess he’s leaving in a couple weeks, and…”
Something occurred to me – would it be possible for Sasuke to bring back medicine to treat Shingen? Except… without a diagnosis – how would he know what medicine to bring back? And what doctor would prescribe medicine without seeing the patient? No, too many variables. But… if four people could get flung back in time, shouldn’t it work the other way too? Could Shingen go through the wormhole to the future for treatment? Was what he had curable in modern Japan? I imagined myself presenting this possibility to Shingen, telling him that maybe there was a way to cure him, that he would see next Spring and beyond … but… no, not yet. I was getting too ahead of myself. I needed to talk with Sasuke to find out if it was even possible.
“What are you puzzling out now, Devil?” He tapped my nose with his index finger. “I know that look. It generally means I’m about to acquire more grey hair.”
“Sorry. I had an idea I want to investigate.” No use giving him hope until I floated this past Sasuke. I gave Shingen my full attention. “You were saying?”
“I know I can’t stop you, but I hope you won’t do anything dangerous when I’m not around to protect you.” He gave me a stern look as he brushed his thumb over my swollen eye.
“It’s nothing dangerous. We just talked about this - I can take care of myself.” Were we really going to have this argument again?
“And yet less than two weeks ago, you fell into a river.” I saw the forehead flick coming before it connected and moved to block his hand.
“Once again, I did not fall.” The branch fell. I simply happened to be on it when it broke. And because I really did not want to go over this ground yet again, I asked, “Anyway, what were you about to say before?”
“Is Mai was planning to leave with Sasuke?” His voice was rougher now – he likely was tiring for the day. I ought to leave him to rest soon.
“There’s no way she would leave Kenshin, even for modern conveniences like showers and phones. Nor could I imagine that he would let her go.” I had given up trying to figure out his and Mai’s relationship. It still seemed codependent to me, but clearly it gave both something they were otherwise missing. And Kenshin was growing on me. A little. Besides, I was in no position to judge at this point.
“They clearly feel they have something worth fighting for in each other,” he said, then yawned. “I under-“ he yawned again.
“And there’s my cue to say goodnight, and let you sleep.” How long had he been awake before I’d arrived? The shogi game with Kenshin looked like it had been going on for a while. While technically it was still summer, the days were getting shorter, and it was turning dark outside.
“Good night,” he said, then rolled us both over, turning me into the little spoon. “You did say you’ll stay.”
I hadn’t said that, and he knew it. However, right at that moment, I felt warm and … I searched through my emotions to find the right word… cherished. I decided to stay until he fell asleep – it wasn’t worth arguing otherwise. He’d probably use some sneaky rhetorical tactic on me. Easier to slip away once he was out for the night. “Feel free to pitch me onto the floor if I bother you,” I said, as if confirming that I intended to stay. I reached for the lantern and shuttered it.
“I would never do that, Devil.” His lips brushed the back of my neck, and then once again, I heard him say, “Good night.”
As he couldn’t see my face anyway, I kept my eyes open as the room got darker and darker, while I listened for his breathing to deepen. Yikes, I really could fall asleep here too. I bit my tongue to keep myself awake. Eventually, when his rhythmic breathing indicated he was sleeping, I began to inch my way out from under his arm, and I found myself yanked back to him. “Eep.”
“Nice try.” It sounded like he was holding back laughter.
Huh. He faked me out. I sighed and shifted around trying to get comfortable – which only resulted in my getting tangled up in my clothing. “Honestly, you’re probably going to regret this.”
“If you keep wiggling around like that, what I’m going to regret is not being able to do something about it,” he said. Uh. Yeah. I could feel his regret hard against my tailbone.
Now I was tangled up in my clothes, and it was getting a bit warm in here. “At least let me get my night clothes. I’m all twisted up in this.” While I could easily sleep in Katsu’s clothing, this was one of Mai’s designs and the obi had gotten turned around – or something.
“Wear one of mine.” Apparently, he didn’t trust that I would come back… which, good call. “Or nothing at all?” he added with a note of hope in his voice.
By this time, it was too dark to even find his clothing, and after I whacked my shin on his desk, I heard a clink as he struck a quartz to light the lantern. “Thanks.” The lantern’s glow provided enough light for me to find the kimono I’d worn in the cave – it looked freshly laundered. Of course, at that point, I was irreparably a prisoner of my obi, and I cursed after my third attempt of unknotting it.
There was a hastily muffled snort of laughter from the home audience. I turned to find Shingen had propped himself up on his elbow and was watching me with that sly grin on his face. “Really? You could offer to help.”
“I don’t know. Didn’t you just say you can take care of yourself? I don’t want to offer help if it would be an insult.” He winked. “And I’m enjoying the view.”
“I have a varied set of skills and talents, but burlesque is not one of them,” I grumbled, as I yanked ineffectively at the cord. Nor is escape artist, apparently, except in the figurative sense.
“You’ll have to explain that to me later. Come over here, you’re making it worse.” His sly grin upgraded to that wicked smile I loved so much. “Removing women’s clothing is definitely one of my talents.”
“Consider me shocked by that confession,” I said, while he worked skillfully to unsnarl the knots in the cord.
“You don’t appear to be especially bothered by that either,” he noted, as he eased the layers of my kimono off my shoulder, and lightly kissed the bare skin below, setting off that now-familiar reverb.
“It would be hypocritical to complain about something I am currently benefitting from,” I said. I was less bothered by the fact that he had a past, than I was apprehensive about the expiration date of my place in his present. But it wasn’t his job to prop up my ego.
Instead, I stood up and slowly removed the top kimono layer. If he was going to request that I stay, I was going to torture him – just a little. I took the time to stretch out my arms and legs before shrugging my shoulders so that the kimono slid off my body and pooled at my feet. Well, he had noted he was enjoying the view. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. Yep, he was watching. I bent over and picked up the discarded kimono, running my hands over the silky material, then slowly and neatly folding it. Then I took my time putting his kimono on, again taking a moment to appreciate the softness of the material on my shoulders.
This morning I had witnessed Chiyome perform this act in reverse, but I had a much more … appreciative audience?
Or… not.
When I turned to climb into bed, I realized his eyes had drifted shut – Shingen was asleep.
I was right the first time. Burlesque is not one of my talents.
I awoke to pinkish daylight and Shingen’s grey eyes watching me. He seemed pretty alert – must have been awake for a while. “Hi,” I said, feeling a bit of ‘morning after’ awkwardness, even though it wasn’t ‘after’ anything.
“Hi.” He smiled and kissed me thoroughly enough to chase away any lingering cobwebs of sleep. I could get used to this. Still-
“So, just making sure I didn’t kick you or steal the blankets or…” snore. Please don’t tell me I snored.
“You talk in your sleep.” There was an amused look in his eyes. “A lot.”
“I do?” Eek! What did I say?
“If the sounds and words I heard are any indication, you dreamed of me, and per your dreams, I am an incredibly virile and skilled lover – a dream, I might add, I intend to make come true soon.” He leisurely trailed his hand along my hip, and the part of me that wished I could remember the dream was drowned out by the part that was mentally going, ‘how soon?’
Shingen, however, was still going on about my sleep monologue. “I believe I heard you say, ‘oh, Shingen, you’re a magnificent beast!’” He spoke in a girlish falsetto. “Yes, there, you’re amazing. Ooh, yes!”
“You… you’re a beast alright, but I’m taking the magnificent out of the equation,” I said when he could no longer continue the joke and started snickering. I glared at him. “Laugh while you can, because I am not usually that gullible.” Oh, if only I had a modern pillow, I would whomp him with it!
“I know, Devil.” He kissed me again. “That’s why I enjoyed it so much. That, and the fact that your eyes sparkle when you’re trying to stay mad at me.”
“You’re impossible,” I said, but without any real anger, because it was such a relief to see that he was looking better today and acting so close to his old self.
He confirmed that by saying, “I ought to get to work on all those messages and reports.” He eyed the stack that I’d been adding to over the past couple of days.
I got up and stretched, my joints cracking a bit. “If you have anything you want to take care of immediately, tell me, and I’ll make a morning delivery run.”
Shingen had already grabbed the message on top of the stack. “I’ll want to alert my cousin that I’m up and around.”
“Yoshimoto?” There was a rattle at the door, and I almost expected it to be Yoshimoto, summoned by his name like Beetlejuice, but it was just a maid bringing Shingen’s breakfast. And … oh… my breakfast too. Yeesh. #Castlegrapevine. “He probably already knows. Everyone knows everything in this building.”
“Not Yoshimoto. Chiyome. She’s my cousin as well. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if she also already knows.” He shot a quick glance at the ceiling.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were related.” Especially since the Takeda charm gene seemed to have bypassed her. But that reminded me of the other thing I needed to float by him. “She gave me tea.” Which was back in my own quarters, along with Susumu’s fish guts kimono. I made a mental note to retrieve both.
It didn’t look like a lightbulb was going off over his head, so apparently the tea had been Chiyome’s idea and not his. “She served you tea? That… doesn’t sound like her.” He sat down in front of the breakfast tray. “You are going to help me eat all this, yes?”
I plopped down across from him and began dishing up a bowl of rice and stewed fruit. “Um, no. She sent me home with a packet of tea and told me to drink it every day… um-” Well… best to just dive right in. “Apparently it’s a contraceptive tea.”
“Ah.”
Which was all he had to say about that. And I thought telling him I was from the future would be the most awkward conversation we would have. “Is it sa-” I started to ask at the same time that he said, “Do you want-”
We both broke off, mid-sentence. He gestured for me to go first. “Is it safe to drink? She wouldn’t poison me… would she?”
“I wouldn’t think so, but you could take it to the castle healer and have him examine it, if you’re worried.” He looked down at his breakfast, poked at it with chopsticks, without putting it into his mouth. “Does that mean that you would drink it if it were safe?”
“I would, yes. I hope that doesn’t upset you.” I would still drink it even if he were upset… in fact, I likely wouldn’t have brought it up, if I hadn’t wanted reassurance that Chiyome wouldn’t poison me. Although I had told her that I didn’t think it was poison, that statement had been more bravado than anything else.
“If I weren’t sick, I might feel differently… but the last thing I want is to leave behind a child who will never know his or her father.” He pushed his breakfast away, uneaten. “Drink the tea.”
I had lost my appetite too but didn’t have the will to push the dish away as he had. “I’m sorry I mentioned it.”
“Katsuko.” I looked up at the unexpected sound of my name on his lips, instead of one of the many nicknames he liked to use. “I’ve had a long time to get used to my fate.” He rubbed his chest. “You didn’t suddenly remind me of something that I haven’t learned to accept. I’ve known for years that I would never have a family, that growing old with someone and watching our children have children was not in my future.” The regret in his voice was more powerful than the words – powerful enough to convince me that losing the opportunity to have a family had been the most difficult thing for him to accept. “I… would rather not remind other people of that though. The look on your face right now … the one I see on Yukimura’s face from time to time, is what is more painful to me.”
He beckoned me closer, put his hands on my face, and kissed me with such passion and need that I nearly lost all power of thought. “I like this look on your face much better – and I promise to take every opportunity to keep it there.”
Yup. Power of thought. Gone.
As if to prove his words, he kissed me again, before sighing, “Alright, as much as I would like to continue this, we both have things to do. Yours involves your daily death-by-Kenshin. Once you’ve been resurrected and have finished your message rounds, you can help me sort through these – if you’re interested in learning more about tactics and strategy.” He gestured to his pile of messages and reports.
“Would I sound too much like Yukimura if I cautioned you to not push yourself too hard? And, you know, take breaks every so often?” I could just imagine that once he sat down to those reports, he would still be at it when I returned.
“You would, but it feels better coming from you.” He settled himself in front of his desk and drew the pile of parchments and scrolls closer to him.
Yep, he was going to push himself – that would be the second thing I needed to deal with. The first? I needed seek out one time-travelling moderately awesome ninja.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#ikemen sengoku#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#fanfic
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Chapter 31: Sweet. Katsu finally gets to see Shingen, and a necessary conversation is followed by some light distraction.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
“Everything alright?” Sasuke found me standing where Aki had left me. “You seemed lost in thought.”
“I’m fine.” #spoilernotfine. But as much as I liked Sasuke, he wasn’t someone I could confide in about emotional things. Generally, though, he’s an easy one to redirect if you ask the right question. “How is your research going?”
“The existence of a second wormhole – or second node – has opened up a fascinating array of potential.” He offered to hold the basket – something he never would have done for ‘Katsu.’ I gave him a look. “Sorry. Originally, I intended to stay here when the Honno-ji wormhole opens, but I have decided to travel back through so I can conduct research with more powerful telescopes.”
“Aw, really?” I guess I wasn’t the only person here who had some decisions to make. “I’ll miss you.” I’d known Sasuke longer than most people here, and I’d gotten used to running across him on my travels.
“If my calculations are correct, it should be feasible to come return via Togakushi a few months after that. Theoretically.” I’d noticed that the less sure Sasuke was about his theories, the more often he pressed the bridge of his glasses. So far, his hands had stayed away from his nose. “I believe going backward in time will be possible at either location – the problem arises in the other direction, because… well… I’m still working on a few…” And there went the glasses push.
“Theories?”
“Indeed.”
We slowly walked back to the castle – as much as I wanted to see Shingen, Aki’s words about the man’s short attention span had left me rattled enough that I was willing to put off seeing him for a little while longer. We had shared an intense experience in the cave, but now that we were back in “everyday life” I wasn’t sure where, or if, I fit into his.
“I know I’m not the most empathetic conversationalist,” Sasuke said. “But clearly something happened that upset you. If you do want to talk, I can at least be an open ear and provide an impassive and nonjudgmental face.”
Hm, that was true. I could talk about the job thing. “My former employer wants me to come back.” I shifted the basket of pastry to my other arm – the reeds were digging into my elbow. “And to be honest, as much as I like it here, I’m not sure I’m needed. Anyone can do this.” I gestured to the messages I had retrieved from the drop sites and the basket of sweets.
“Are you considering his offer?” As promised Sasuke looked and sounded completely neutral.
“The man did save my life and spent seven years teaching me how to survive in this era.” Aki wasn’t much of a warm fuzzy, but deep down, I knew he cared for me.
“Always an important thing – although I hope his survival lessons were less stabby than Kenshin’s.” Sasuke rubbed his chest and I imagined he was remembering an early lesson in swordplay. Or even this morning’s lesson. “Is your former employer aware of your true origins?”
“Until I figured out about you, I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.” We reached the front gates of the castle, and sure enough, another pile of messages waited for Shingen. I added them to my stack.
“Ah well, I don’t know about your former boss, but it might be a good time to bring it up to your current one,” Sasuke said. “Because I-“
Whatever he meant to say was interrupted by a roar from Kenshin, who came stalking around the corner, sword in hand. “Sasuke! I haven’t killed you yet today!”
“Ker-vanish!” And Sasuke was gone.
“You!” Kenshin pointed Himetsuru Ichimonji at me (again). “Go visit Shingen before he makes good on his threat to leave his bed and hunt you down.”
He acted as if I was avoiding the visit, as if less than two days ago, he hadn’t almost decapitated me when I tried to leave my room. But it wasn’t like I was going to argue with him. “Um. Ok. Thanks.” I ducked under the sword. “I will do that.”
Kenshin took off in the direction Sasuke had gone, sword still in the air. I guess his mother never warned him about running with pointy things.
When I arrived at the entry to Shingen’s room, he already had a visitor – Chiyome. I’d never seen her out of her lair, but even in this environment, she was imposing, beautiful, and… in her own way, scarier than Kenshin. Something about her always made me feel insignificant. Perhaps because she had managed to become a powerful woman in an era when most were wives and concubines. I didn’t exactly want to be her, but I did want to find a way in this world to be something more than what I was.
The two appeared deep in conference over a report, so I hung back. She said something that made him laugh, and I considered turning around and returning later. But the conversation appeared to be over anyway, for Chiyome bowed to him then turned to leave. She stopped short of the door when she saw me hovering there, and ignoring all conventions of personal space, she grabbed my chin in her sharp fingers and stared into my face. “Come see me tomorrow morning.” She released me, then strolled away, without any other hint that she recognized me from prior encounters.
Tomorrow morning? What could she want with me?
But that was tomorrow. I shook off my apprehension and turned my attention to Shingen. He was propped against the wall with a stack of cushions. While he looked better than he had the last time I had seen him, he didn’t look well. He was pale and that aura of energy that usually surrounded him was muted. “There you are, Devil, and my room is infinitely brighter. What took you so long?”
I held up the basket of sweets as an explanation. The odd thought that the combination of the pastry basket and my red kimono made me feel like Red Hood delivering to her grandmother crossed my mind and I laughed to myself – did that make Shingen the big bad wolf? “As promised, I have dessert for you.”
“When you didn’t visit, I worried that you were sicker than they told me.” He looked me over from head to toe. “You are alright now, though, yes?”
It was typical of him to ask about my health when his own was so precarious. “I was not that sick. Your ally is-” a mother hen. “Overcautious. Though the bigger worry was that my illness would make yours worse.” I felt bad enough being the cause of his dunking in the river and the forced overnight in a cold, damp cave.
“Seeing you would have been worth the risk,” he grumbled, then held out his hand for the basket. “Well, I’m not turning down sweets.”
I dropped his messages on the writing desk, brought him the basket, and--
Whump!
– again, thanks to Shingen, I ended up staring at the ceiling. Shingen had pulled me onto the futon with him… in the process nearly dumping his pastry on the floor. “Careful. It’s not like you to endanger your dessert like that.”
He looked down at me. “I have my favorites right here. I’ll take one of these,” he kissed my hand. “And one of these.” He kissed my cheek. Then, resting his forehead against mine he said, “Very tasty indeed. I missed you.”
He cupped his hands on my face, held me still, and kissed me again, a slow reverent exploration of my mouth that found the banked fire deep in my core and let it burn freely again. The doubts that Aki had raised turned to ash.
Then he stopped, gasping for air, before falling into a coughing fit. I rubbed his back until he caught his breath, knowing there were things worse than doubts lurking out there.
“I am better,” he said, “even if that didn’t sound like it.”
I nodded my agreement, since I knew how bad it had been the morning in the cave. “You said you’re always sick.”
“To a degree.” He lay down and patted the space at his side, and I curled into his embrace. “I will get worse, and then better, but not as well as before. Then I will get worse than the time before, and there will soon be a day when the worse times pile up so high that I will no longer be able to get past them.”
God, what was I doing getting wrapped up in another person who was going to leave me – maybe not by choice, but it was going to happen.
“S-soon?” I buried my face against his chest and shut my eyes. I refused be the one to need comfort, not here, not when he was facing the worst. All I could do was hold on tight in the hug and breath in and out the fact that we were here now. That there was a ‘now.’ This now.
You can’t hold on to a moment, but I did my best to seal it into my memory. I could lock inside myself the feeling of being cocooned in his arms. I could hold the warmth, the care. I could imprint in my heart how it felt to have his fingers stroke my cheek, the sensation of his lips brushing across my eyelids, the rhythm of his heart against mine.
“It won’t be tomorrow, but I doubt I’ll see another Spring.” His large hand and the late summer sun warmed the back of my head.
We held on through another moment…
… and another, quiet and still…
… the beam of sunlight moved slowly across the room, illuminating the tiny dust particles in its path.
…then the room’s shadows deepened as the sun slipped behind the castle’s western wall.
As those moments crept by, I became more aware of the rattle in his throat when he breathed, a sound that refused to let me forget that a moment is finite.
Eventually, he propped his head up on his elbow and tickled my nose with a lock of my own hair. “When you came in, there was something that looked like it made you laugh. What was it?”
Message received – no more talk of serious things. My default mode is to lie. His is to distract. It’s amazing we’ve gotten this far. But if he needed a distraction, I could do that.
“Oh.” I gestured to the basket of sweets from the Teahouse. “I was thinking of a folk tale from my… village,” I hedged, using the term that Sasuke always used.
“A folk tale? Which one?” He crossed his arms behind his head, clearly expecting to be entertained.
“I doubt you’ve heard of it,” I said. Because the Brothers Grimm haven’t been born yet. “Actually, we call them fairy tales and they always begin and end the same way.”
He rolled his hand in a ‘go on’ gesture.
I sat up and crossed my legs lotus style, getting ready for story-time mode. “Once upon a time, which is how all fairy tales begin, once upon a time, there was a girl who always wore a red,” I paused to think of a substitute for cloak. “Haori, with a red hood.” I shook out the red kimono that Mai had made for me.
He caught my hand and kissed it. “It looks lovely on you. I meant to say earlier, but I was struck dumb by the vision of radiant beauty.”
I poked his arm. “You’ve never been struck dumb in your life. You were probably winking at and flirting with the midwife in the middle of your birth.” I reclaimed my space in the story. “She was called Red Hood because of her,” again, I gestured to the kimono.
“One day, Red Hood entered the forest carrying a basket of sweets,” I lifted the sweets basket to the futon. “As a gift for her aged and decrepit grandmother.”
“Aged and decrepit?” He frowned so hard that his eyebrows nearly met over the top of his nose. “Devil, I am not liking where this is going.”
“Don’t worry, you aren’t venerable Grandmother in this scenario.” I edged the basket closer to him.
He made noise suspiciously like Kenshin’s ‘hmph,’ then dug into the basket. He offered me a choice of them but I shook my head. “All for you… So, Red Hood, skipping through the forest.”
He interrupted yet again. “Skipping? Through a forest?”
Geez, he is not easy to tell a story to. I let out a stop-interrupting-me sigh. “It’s a fairy tale, Shingen. Little girls in fairy tales skip. Sometimes they dance.” And sometimes they get awakened after 100 years of sleep by the kiss of a prince, but let’s not distract ourselves here. “And in the forest, she happened to meet a wolf.”
“As you do in the forest in, as you called it, a fairy tale.” He picked up a bun and popped it whole into his mouth.
“Right. The wolf asked her where she was going, and since Red Hood was innocent and naïve, and ok, basically stupid, she said, I’m going to bring this basket of goodies to my grandmama who is bedridden. And the wolf said, ‘that’s interesting, have a lovely visit,’ and she went on her way.”
“He let her go – just like that?” Shingen slanted a wink at me, licked red bean paste off his fingers and I ended up distracted anyway. “That’s a rather uncharacteristic wolf.”
I gave him my best ‘library lady’ look. He returned it with a heated glance. Ha! Now, who is distracted. “This particular wolf in this particular fairy tale was strategic. And sneaky. And so, he took a short cut and got to her grandmother’s house first, jumped through the window, pounced on grandmother, and swallowed her whole.”
Shingen paused with another pastry halfway to his mouth. “That took a dark turn. This is intended to be a story for children?”
“Hm, I think it’s supposed to scare them into good behavior – good little girls don’t talk to wolves in the woods, or –“ I poked him again. “Tigers in the moonlight or bad things will happen.”
“Oh, very good things will happen to girls who talk to tigers in the moonlight.” He put his arm around me and kissed my neck in the very best of wolf, er, tiger fashion. “Is that the end?”
I shook my head. “No, the wolf put on grandmother’s clothes, got into her bed, and when Red Hood showed up, the wolf pretended to be grandmother.”
“Previous criticism about the intelligence of the wolf is withdrawn.” Shingen reached over me to put the basket away. “I take it Red Hood didn’t run screaming into the night?”
“No, she said, ‘oh my, grandmama, what big eyes you have!’ And the wolf said, ‘the better to see you with my dear.’ Then Red Hood said ‘my, grandmama what big ears you have,’ and the wolf said, ‘the better to hear you with, my dear.’”
And here came that wicked grin. Yeah, he saw where this was going.
I continued, “My, grandmama, what big hands you have.”
Shingen took my hand in his, taking a moment to measure the large span of his hand against my much smaller one. “The better to touch you with.”
“My, grandmama, what big teeth you—” was all I could get out before Shingen started nibbling on the pad of my thumb.
“The better to eat you with.” He jokingly nommed his way up my arm, then sat back. “Well, then what? Oh, grandmama, what a big--“
I couldn’t hold in my laughter. “No, it’s a children’s tale!” Although, I imagined that there likely was a pornographic version out that that asked that very question (internet rule 34). “Actually, she was rescued by a friendly hunter… but in this case, I’m more than happy to let the wolf win.”
“No friendly hunters allowed,” Shingen agreed as he grabbed me, and flopped backward, letting gravity pull us both to the bed.
Which is of course, with perfect (ly bad) timing, Yukimura came in to check on Shingen.
Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, I thought to myself, a task made more difficult when Shingen muttered something rude in my ear pertaining to certain activities being blocked by friendly hunters.
Feeling like I’d just been caught by my mother, I scooted off Shingen, and combed my fingers through my hair.
Yukimura got instantly blushy (I felt that way myself). “Oh. I. Sorry. You. This. What’s?” He scrubbed his hands through his hair then said, “You are supposed to be resting.”
I edged further away, but Shingen didn’t let me get far. His attitude was all very casual, as if he always conducted conversations with his vassals while at the same time consorting with a woman in his bed. Which… maybe he did. “I am resting. Katsu brought me something to eat, and she’s been entertaining me-“
Yuki looked away with another blush.
“-by telling me children’s stories from her village.” Shingen relaxed back against the cushion again. “Rather bloodthirsty tales – I’m not surprised you turned out so fierce, Devil.”
“And I didn’t even tell you the one where the friendly hunter had to cut off the girl’s feet,” I said. “In any case, I should let you rest, and I want some time on the archery field before the sunlight is completely gone.”
I started to get up, but Shingen grabbed my hand and pulled me back. “Come back after dark then.”
It seemed a little too soon after Shingen’s acute illness to be planning ‘after dark’ activities. “To say goodnight, yes, but I agree with Yuki in that you ought to be resting.”
“I will rest better if you are here. As much as it pains me to admit it, I’m not up for anything more than sleep, yet, but with you in my arms, I’m sure my dreams will be sweeter.” He gave my hand a squeeze.
“I’ll stop by later,” was all that I would promise. But for the moment, I did need some alone time. I bowed to them both and headed for the door.
Shingen called after me. “Is that how they all end? A friendly hunter comes in and saves the day?”
I paused, half in and half out of the door. “What?”
“You said these stories all start and end the same. If the beginning is once upon a time, what’s the ending?” In the fading daylight, his face was shadowed, with deep lines of exhaustion carved in his skin.
They lived happily ever after.
I pasted a smile on my face. “Foolish children learn their lesson, good triumphs over evil.”
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#ikesen sasuke#ikesen kenshin#ikesen yukimura
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Chapter 26: Fade Out. Two people, one cave, and one giant case of claustrophobia.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
Why did it have to be a cave?
It’s ok… it’s ok. I can do this.
But… I couldn’t go in there alone. Instead, I waited at the mouth of the cave while Shingen got Good Horse settled under the dubious shelter of the trees. There wasn’t much he could do to keep him completely dry, although Shingen rigged a rough lean-to out of tree branches that might at least keep the worst of the wet off Good Horse.
Once Good Horse was taken care of, Shingen walked past me into the cave. He paused, then turn back to me. “Coming?” The subtext was clear - I could walk in under my own power, or Shingen would sling me over his shoulder like a sack of rice and carry me in.
I can do this.
My feet were not convinced. Ok, look feet, we’ll keep the entrance of the cave in sight, so there will be fresh air, ok? Fresh air is all you really need. I forced my feet to follow him into the cave and got about half a meter inside before they succumbed to a full body nope.
Shit. It’s dark.
My logical self reminded my chickenshit self that it was not afraid of the dark. Dark was never the problem.
Logic didn’t work on my feet, which refused to budge beyond that point. They were going to stay at the entrance, where there was still a sliver of light visible on the horizon. “Do you have a lantern?”
“I was more concerned with catching up to you, than I was with grabbing a lantern.” His sarcasm was cutting, but I latched onto it as a distraction. At least the internal flinch at his tone gave me something different to think about. I heard him rustling around. “The slightly good news is that I never had time to unpack my saddlebags, so at least I’ve got a change of clothing.” More rustling. “Not completely dry, more’s the pity, but the oilskin protected them to an extent.”
There was a whoosh, then something cloth landed in my arms. “Get out of those wet things.”
I automatically grabbed onto the material before it fell to the ground. Seemed to be the inner layer of his kimono… and one of the furs the trapper had pressed upon us. Focusing on peeling my wet clothes off my body kept my mind off the suffocating dark. The soaking material felt like it had suctioned itself to me. I could hear similar squelching noises from where Shingen was in the deeper, darker area of the ca-
I can do this.
His kimono was huge on me, but I wrapped it around like a hug, then clutched the fur, pretending it was a friendly dog, keeping me company in the dar-
There was fresh air coming from the entrance. I concentrated on the breeze that caressed my face and took a deep breath of it to remind my lungs everything was fine.
I slid down the cave wall to sit on the ground, then turned my face toward the entrance, watching that patch of dimness grow fainter and fainter until it was a small square of light…
The television was a small square of light in the room that had already darkened in the winter twilight. She sat on the sofa, a wool shawl slipping off one shoulder, her gaze pinned to the television. Was she paying attention to it? Was she watching? She seemed equally oblivious to the show and unaware that I was standing over her holding a tray of tea and the strawberry daifuku I had spent all afternoon preparing.
I set the tray on the coffee table in front of her. “Hey… mom… want a snack? Or tea?” Automatically, she picked up one of the pastries and held it in front of her mouth. I didn’t breathe until she finally took a tiny bite of it. But there was no evidence that she enjoyed it.
After pouring her a cup of tea I plopped down on the sofa next to her and pushed the shawl back up her shoulder. It wasn’t really that cold in here – Toshiie and I took turns reminding her to pay the utilities, so the heat was on – but I couldn’t stand to see her all messy like that. In the good months, she was so fastidious about what she wore… about what I wore. Granted, her preference was to see me in pink, a shade I did not love, but she made so few demands on me that it seemed silly to rebel against a color.
“What are you watching?” Stupid question. I could see that it was some retrospective of American? British? music videos from the 1980s. But I hoped my question would remind her I was there. Toshiie had escaped for the afternoon – and likely the night – with his boyfriend, so aside from the television, it was my responsibility to be entertaining.
She turned to me, and then gave a shrug. “Music videos… from back when they were still clever and new.” A poppy keyboard riff got her attention, and she turned back to the television. “Your father liked this one.”
My father? She rarely talked about him. We’d never met him, had been told that they’d broken up before we’d been born. I sat up straighter, hoping to learn something about the man who had been little more than a random sperm donor. “He liked this song?”
I’d even heard the song, when it got slung into a randomized playlist based on whatever algorithm had decided that I would like it. The chorus, “take on me, take me on,” was certainly catchy. I did like it – but I’d never seen the video before.
She picked up the teacup and held onto it with both hands. Cradling the warmth. “The video. He liked the video’s concept.”
Huh. But before I realized it, I’d gotten sucked into the plot of the video as well, about a girl in a coffee shop who was pulled into a black and white comic book by a dark-haired boy with beautiful cut glass cheekbones. In three minutes, the two had an adventure, before the girl was tossed back into the real world and separated from her comic book love-interest.
*Click*
She turned off the tv and dropped the remote into the depths of the sofa cushions. “I forgot how much I hate that video.”
“Because they got separated?” That would make sense… if it reminded her of their break-up.
“No. In the end, he came back for her.” She set the mostly untouched tea back on the table and got to her feet. “I think I’ll take a nap.” With a sigh, she shuffled off to her bedroom, a fifty-kilogram woman moving as if she weighed four times that much.
Once the door shut behind her, I turned on all the lights, unearthed the remote, clicked the tv back on, and surfed around to find a decent movie. I eyed the abandoned snack on the table. No use wasting the food. I grabbed one of the pastries and bit into it.
Blech…
I’d made it too sweet… although all I tasted was sawdust.
“If you can manage to bring yourself closer to me,” said Sarcastic Sam, “I’ve got some field rations of dried rice.” There was a dry rattling sound, and then a clink. “And the trader gave us some…” more clinking, “Sake.”
If I ate anything right now, I was sure I would throw up. “No thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” Yeah, he sounded over it.
The first time I had one of these attacks, Aki, who had at least tried to sympathetic about the whole thing, suggested that I focus on counting backwards from one hundred. That had helped a little, but not enough, and when the attacks continued, I worried that he was feeling impatient. That he had given me tools which I wasn’t using. That my fear had rendered me useless for any jobs more complicated than delivering messages.
The counting hadn’t worked anyway. More recently, I’d tried to deal with things by picturing song lyrics in my head.
Ok brain, give me a song, something more complicated than “Happy Birthday” um, but isn’t “Take on Me.”
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around…
Really brain?
Fine. Rickrolled beats panic attack, so I continued to picture the lyrics in big neon letters.
Ok, I can do this.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you…
The light from the front of the cave disappeared completely and sinking us into total darkness. I pressed my palms against the ground, feeling the grit and dirt under my fingertips. Even the sharp rock that was poking me in the butt was a welcome tether to reality.
Touch… rocks.
Smell… rain… pine needles… dirt…
Sound… rain… Good Horse whuffling around outside…Shingen chomping on rice…
Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around…
There was a roaring in my ears and my chest felt tight. I gave up on the song lyrics and concentrated on breathing. It was mind over matter, and I could force my body to obey my brain and not panic. There was nothing truly wrong with me. This was in my head.
I can do –
I can’t do this…
My mouth tasted like sawdust. I was going to do something completely humiliating like scream or faint… can’t breathe…. Don’t be stupid, of course you can breathe, get out of your head...
How much time has passed? It was as dark as ever … my knees and elbows bumped against the side of the crate. My nose was centimeters from the lid. Yeah, I really needed to move around. I grabbed the latch and –
The lid didn’t budge.
I tried the latch again, and again. No, it was unlatched, but the lid wasn’t moving. It was like there was something on top of the… another crate maybe? I pushed on the lid harder, but I couldn’t move it. That’s when I started kicking.
Nothing.
My breath started to come out in sobs – was I trapped in here? How many crates was my crate under? How long would it be before someone came to get them? If I screamed, would anyone hear me?
My throat constricted…
Time passed – I lost track. I phased in an out of nightmare filled dreams and dreams of rescues that became living nightmares when I woke up again and faced the emptiness and the dark and the walls. I could sense the weight of the other crates pushing on the top and the sides of this one, shrinking it… in moments, it would collapse in upon itself, upon me and-
“Katsu? Is something wrong?” Shingen’s previous impatience… that cutting sarcasm… had given way to concern.
Oh God, this is ridiculous. Embarrassed at my weakness, I put my face on my knees and tried to make myself as small as possible.
Then Shingen’s voice was right above me, softer and kinder than it had been in days. “You’re really not ok, are you?”
Without even thinking about it, I reached out, found his hand, and clung to it. “N-n-no.” My internal voice winced at the need in that tone, but at the same time, I didn’t care anymore. I needed someone to hear me and see me.
He sat down next to me, put his arm around my shoulders, and it was all I could do not to crawl into his lap, into his skin. “I’m here.”
It wasn’t lover-like, or (thank God), fatherlike. He lightly patted my back and spoke in a calm friendly tone, like you might speak to another soldier sharing your foxhole. “When you were wandering around Kasugayama, did you see the bear cub? His name is Koro, and he’s a bit… mischievous. Once he even got into Kenshin’s supply of pickled plums, and…”
To be honest, I couldn’t even focus on what he was saying, but the shape and the texture of the words and the basic… normalcy of the conversation, the story he was telling me unspooled like a ribbon that I could follow out of the labyrinth of my thoughts.
At the other end of the ribbon was Shingen, sitting beside me, solid, and warm, and alive and present. It was exactly what I needed. He was exactly what I needed. I sat there, unmoving, until finally I had my breathing under control and my heart stopped racing and was able to take one last shaky breath that came out as a sigh. “You probably think I’m crazy.”
I felt his fingers brush my hair away from my face. “Aside from your habit of flinging yourself out of trees, Devil, no.”
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#ikesen shingen#cw ptsd#fanfic#shingen takeda
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Chapter 32: Spilling the Tea. In which Katsu receives an unanticipated gift and is followed by a mystery ninja.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
Unlike the other times I had visited Chiyome’s household, instead of being taken to her official reception room, I was shown into what must have been her private quarters. The décor was austere: she took the concept of minimalism to new levels – almost no furniture, no personal items, no tapestries or decorative screens and … no clothing. She was lounging on her futon with a young man. Neither were dressed.
Why am I always walking in on naked people?
Chiyome patted the man-boy’s cheek. “Leave us.” With a pout, he picked up a silk kimono, carelessly slung it over shoulder, and basically flounced out of the room.
“Don’t gape, child. I’m sure that was no more than you must have seen working for Shingen.” She stretched, then slowly and theatrically dressed in a pair of European style breeches and a shirt.
The performance was aimed toward me, possibly to shock, possibly out of her own sense of personal amusement, and I did my best to keep an impassive expression. I wasn’t shocked. Mostly I was annoyed that she chose to make me her captive audience. “I wasn’t embarrassed… only, he seems a bit… lightweight for you.”
“Child, I’m not concerned with what’s between his ears as long as he knows what to do with what’s between his legs.” She gestured for me to sit down. I sat. “Given what I do every day, that last thing I want to do in my free time is talk. Or think. I just want a straightforward fuck.”
Ok then, and more power to her. That didn’t explain why I’d been invited to her private rooms. At least, I hoped it didn’t. Was she warning me off Shingen? Did she even have that sort of relationship with him? I imagined coming up with all sorts of clever and impressive things to say to her. Unfortunately, what came out of my mouth was, “why am I here?”
Ugh, Katsuko can you at least try for some semblance of wit?
“For tea, of course.” She gave me a look that clearly said, ‘you’re an idiot,’ and I suppose I was, because it had never occurred to me that she would want to take tea with me.
Nor did I want to have tea with her, as the thought of trying to make conversation with her over the course of a tea ceremony filled me with dread. I was feeling awkward and gauche enough already. “You want to have tea with me?”
There was mockery in her laughter. “No. I am giving you tea.” There was a movement outside the room, and then, likely by some pre-arranged signal, a woman my age glided in. Hm. Glided was not the right word. She moved as silently as a ninja, but there was a restlessness about her that suggested she was holding back on a stockpile of energy that could explode from her at any moment. Chiyome addressed the newcomer. “Sute, this is Katsuko. Please get her a supply of tea.”
Until that moment, I had no idea that Chiyome knew my name. Which meant that Shingen had probably mentioned it to her… had this meeting been his idea? If so, it would have been nice to have been warned yesterday. Or maybe he had intended to mention it last night when I came back ‘after dark.’ As promised, I had returned to say goodnight, but he’d already been asleep, and I’d left without trying to wake him up.
Sute’s eyes skimmed me over with amused interest. “The girl from the Inn. So, he finally found you. You’ll definitely need tea.” She turned back to Chiyome. “How much?”
With a wave that indicated she didn’t really care, Chiyome said, “use your own judgement. I’m well aware you have experience with this particular matter.” It felt like they were having a conversation around and over me. Obviously, I was a joke to them, but it was difficult to understand what exactly about me was the joke.
The woman went to a cupboard, withdrew a large tin, and poured most of its contents onto a square of paper, which she then neatly folded into a packet. “Here.”
I automatically took the packet and sniffed it. Yes, it smelled like tea, although, I caught the scent of… carrots? Wild carrot tea?
“Don’t look so worried.” Sute laughed. “It’s actually rather tasty – we all drink it.” She gave Chiyome a look. “She must think it’s poison.”
“No, I don’t.” Although I would feel better if I could witness them drinking some of it too. “If it were a fast-acting poison, you wouldn’t have given me such a lot of it. It would be a waste of poison. And there are more efficient ways to kill me than a slow poison. I imagine that a signal from you would have Sute slitting my throat with the dagger she has in her sleeve.” Despite my bravado though, I intended to double check with Shingen before I drank this stuff. If Chiyome had any intention of killing me, I figured he’d have picked up on it.
“Hm.” Chiyome finally displayed a spark of interest in me. She withdrew one of those obnoxious cigars from a red lacquered box and lit it from the flame in a lamp. “It seems you might have a brain after all.”
“Does this mean you and I won’t be getting naked?” Shouldn’t have said that. But I was tired of her treating me like I was a child.
That got a laugh out of her. “Drink one cup every day, unless you’re having your monthly courses.”
Oh.
Sengoku era birth control.
“Unless you want babies. I always said I’d like a few around to play with but Chiyome-,” Sute paused and gave the older woman a mischievous look, “said that I would get bored and forget to feed them.”
I looked down at the packet of tea. I hadn’t thought. I should have. I suppose this also meant that Sute’s ‘experience with this particular matter’ implied a prior (hopefully prior) relationship with Shingen.
Sute continued to babble into my silence. “You don’t want a baby, do you?”
“Oh. God no. Not now.” My life was far too complicated to bring a child into it. I could just see the expression on Aki’s (and Fume’s) face if I showed up on their doorstep with a child in tow. Not to mention… temporal paradox? I wouldn’t want to give birth to my own grandmother. Or would the timeline naturally prevent that somehow? Maybe it wasn’t possible for a time traveler to get pregnant (or father a child) when they were out of their own era? Even if it were though… given my mother’s history of depression, having a child of my own had never been on my personal bucket list.
This, however, was a theoretical discussion that I ought to have with Sasuke – if, I could manage to do so without hideously embarrassing the both of us.
“You may go.” Chiyome waved me toward the door.
“Er, thank you.” Truthfully, I wasn’t sure whose benefit the tea was for – mine or Shingen’s - but I was grateful to have it. Even if… given his current health, there wasn’t any urgent need for it.
I bowed and left, with Sute at my heels. As we made our way out of Chiyome’s manor, she chattered away as if she’d decided we were to best friends. And… maybe I ought to dislike her… but I didn’t. She was like a golden retriever, too friendly to dislike. “Why were you hiding? How did he finally find you? Did you actually work for Mitsuhide? What’s he like?” Even once we were on the road toward the main part of town, Sute stuck with me.
Absently, I answered her questions. My attention, however, was not on her, but on a hooded figure who was following us. I couldn’t get a good look at him – he was good at slipping into the crowd whenever I stopped to look his way.
“Do you know we’re being followed?” I interrupted Sute’s fit of giggles – the revelation that I had been living under Shingen’s nose for weeks was highly amusing to her.
“The ninja? Yep, He’s good, but I’m better.” She made an adjustment to her clothing, pulled a hood up over her hair, and palmed one of her daggers. “I’ll take care of him if you want to go back to the castle. I haven’t had a good chase in a while.”
Without waiting for my agreement, she whirled and took off. Ok, not a golden retriever – a greyhound. When our pursuer realized she’d turned the tables, he ducked into an alley. In moments, I saw him, then Sute, scurry up the side of a building.
I could have done that too! But it was too late – they were already zipping across the roofs.
Feeling left out of the fun, I headed back to the castle. The whole day seemed like it was conspiring to make me as insignificant and useless as possible. Was it true that the only possible use I could be to Shingen was as a bedmate? He’d treated both ‘Angel’ and Katsu as if they had more intelligence and agency than he treated me as Katsuko.
Could I be something more than that? As Katsu, I had been investigating the assassination attempts and learned from Susumu of Yoshiaki’s involvement. As Katsuko – I hadn’t done much – yet. I stopped in the middle of the street, to the displeasure of the merchant who had been walking behind me. What was stopping me from picking up that investigation? If I wanted to be something more, I would have to make that happen for myself.
I about faced (annoying that merchant even further) and headed for Susumu’s restaurant.
The restaurant was in its post-breakfast lull, although a few patrons were lingering over the tea and hot soup Susumu always kept ready for travelers.
“What may I get you, miss?” Susumu didn’t recognize me. Another day I might have left it at that, but I had spent too much time cultivating him as a source to want to begin again. I pulled my hair away from my face. “It’s me. Katsuhira.”
To his credit, his surprise only lasted a moment before he smiled. “Good morning, Katsuhira. I see it has been an eventful couple of weeks for you.”
I acknowledged this with a wink. “Lord Kenshin came a bit too close with Himetsuru Ichimonji, and this,” I gestured to my feminine appearance, “is the result.”
Susumu laughed so hard at the joke I was afraid he would herniate himself. Then, more quietly, he said, “I’m happy to see you today.” He lowered his voice. “The men in the corner – I’ve not seen them before, but they were meeting with another of Imagawa’s vassals today. The vassal passed the taller one a message.” I sneaked a quick look over my shoulder. Two men, non-descript, dressed as in travelling clothes. Neither were overly armed, aside from the swords anyone would carry for defensive purposes. Susumu then returned to his normal speaking volume. “Yes, the fish soup is fresh and hot today. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll bring some out right away.”
Joy. More. Soup.
I gave Susumu a quick smile, then casually took a seat directly behind the men in question, hoping they were the careless sort and I would be lucky enough to overhear something worthwhile.
I … was not that lucky.
Maybe only TV detectives are able learn important information while eavesdropping? All I heard was a bunch of slurping and a brief comment about wanting to get on the road before it got much later. While I listened to the nothing useful, I considered my options. Following them would be a waste of time. They weren’t planning to meet anyone else; they were simply leaving town. Nor could I join their table and subtly question them myself. In this era a woman couldn’t simply sit down and join a table of strange men without being thought a prostitute. Anyway, I didn’t want to talk to them – I wanted to get my hands on the message from the Imagawa vassal.
For a quick moment, I reconsidered the prostitute angle. Obviously, it was a ploy that Shingen and Chiyome’s spies employed on occasion – otherwise there would be no use for the tea that as Sute said, ‘we all drink.’ If I pretended to be a prostitute, maybe I could leave with them, and steal the message somehow? But how?
No… I discarded that idea. Too many variables, and I had no idea how good these two were in a fight.
I might be a daredevil, but I’m not stupid.
However, I needed to come up with a plan fast because it sounded like they were nearly finished. Maybe I wasn’t stupid, but I still felt like a failure for missing out on this opportunity. In my head, I heard Chiyome’s mocking laughter, while I stared into my nearly empty teacup. Dammit, that information was less than a meter away from me, right for the taking.
What would Aki do in this situation? His most-used ploy was to play a drunk to get close to his mark, then surprise them when their guard was down. While that wouldn’t work here, it occurred to me that… I didn’t need to pretend to be drunk… just clumsy.
I took my teapot up to Susumu and asked for more. Mentally, I apologized in advance for what I was about to do to his crockery. He replaced my pot with a new full one, and then I paused, waiting for the men to stand up in preparation to leave and then put myself on a trajectory that would -
WHAM!
SPLOOSH!
CRASH!
“Oh no! I am so sorry! I hope you were not burned!” While the man was still sputtering angrily, I dabbed at his clothes with a hand towel. Under the pretext of drying him off, I lifted the message and his coin purse (if I were caught, it would be safer to be thought a thief than a spy. Probably.)
Susumu did his part, adding distraction as he barreled over and yelled about the broken teapot and the wet floor. He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the kitchen, complaining all the while about the existence of clumsy maids. Pitching his voice loud and shrill (too shrill… my ears were ringing) he monologued about the woes of owning a restaurant where every odd traveler did nothing but spill food and break his dishes, culminating with a capper, “I should have become a stableman! At least horses are useful!”
(That… didn’t actually make sense, but I supposed he was going for volume over content).
He took a quick peek into the dining area. “They are gone, Katsu.”
“Thank you. I never knew you had hidden talent as an actor. Sorry about the teapot.” I tossed him the stolen coin purse. “I hope there’s enough in there to pay for a replacement.”
He rifled through it. “More than enough. I could build a new restaurant.” He thrust the purse in his kimono.
“In that case, may I buy, or rent one of your kimonos?” As much as I loved the one I was wearing, Mai’s handiwork was pretty distinctive. I’d be better off slinking out of here in a plainer outfit.
He agreed to load me a spare kimono he wore when he was gutting fish. “The smell alone ought to keep people away – though you may end up leading a parade of cats.” He let me change clothes in his storeroom and when I left through his back door, he was recounting the coins from the stolen purse.
I walked through the alley in my most casual I-don’t-have-a-stolen-message-tucked-into-my-kimono manner. It ought to have been simple to simply stroll my fish-scented self back to the castle.
It would have worked.
Except… there he was again - the ninja who had been following me earlier. He seemed to have managed to evade Sute, and whoever he was, he was not fooled by my new outfit. As soon as he saw me, he ran right at me.
No idea what he wanted, but the chance of it being something good was low to zero. I didn’t stick around to find out.
Before he got any closer, I led him on a chase through crowds…
…weaving around people,
…jumping over barrels,
…before rolling under a fruit vendor’s stall.
I dove into a passing a hay cart and held my breath while his feet pounded past.
A few minutes later, when I was sure he wasn’t coming back, I climbed out of the cart and emerged in the innyard…
Where I ran right into the two men from the restaurant.
Well. Hell.
Keeping my head down, I muttered a fast, “pardon me,” and turned to take off again.
The man whose purse I had stolen grabbed my wrist. “Not so fast, little thief.” He yanked me to him and held me tight against his body. “I think you have something of mine.”
It was the middle of the day, and we were in the castle town, so I wasn’t afraid that they would carry me off, but I didn’t want to be in this fight I either. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Let me go!”
“I think not.” His grip on me tightened. “Not until you return my… things.”
“You must have me confused with someone else. I work at Kasugayama. I’m no thief.” The implied relation to Kenshin ought to have given them a pause, but since they didn’t let me pass, I lashed out with my fists and feet.
One of them grunted when I got him in the stomach, but I took a hit almost in my eye, so we’d call that even, I guess. I managed to free up one of my daggers – just in time, because the one who hadn’t grabbed me came at me with his sword.
I slashed the arm of the grabby one – he swore and let me go.
The one with the sword charged toward me, and I deflected with the dagger. The other one drew his own sword, and I found myself outflanked.
I wasn’t worried yet… I still had my patented best move ready, the never-fail, ‘duck out of the way and run like hell’ maneuver.
And that was when the man who had been following me reappeared.
Great.
“Oh, this looks like fun,” he practically chirped. “Can I play too?” He pulled out a pair of daggers and…
…launched himself at my attackers in a flurry of metal.
He was helping me?
By this time, the innkeeper had come out to see what was going on, and the two men must have decided that was too much attention to attract in what was likely enemy territory for them. They grabbed their horses and fled.
I turned to my follower/rescuer. “Thank you for the help.”
“Just evening the odds.” He pushed off his hood and turned to me with a cheerful grin on his face. “Katsuko, don’t you remember me? I do consider myself extremely memorable.”
My brain slowly de-aged this long-haired ninja, replacing him with the memory of a chatterbox young monk I had met nearly five years ago. He’d changed a lot. But the smile was still there. “Ranmaru? But… why were you chasing me?”
Another smile, then he bowed deeply. I wondered how and why he had made the transformation from monk to ninja but this wasn’t the time or place to discuss such matters.
“I didn’t know it was you! Not at first.” Ranmaru withdrew a thin packet from his sash. “I have a message from my former master to Shingen. I thought to leave it with Lady Chiyome, then you were pointed out as his personal courier.”
“Former master? Then you no longer work for Kennyo?” Given the list of crimes Kennyo had committed against both Nobunaga and Kenshin, it was understandable that Ranmaru might want to distance himself from the man.
“There is not much I can do for a man condemned to live out the remainder of his life in an Azuchi dungeon.” Ranmaru’s smile faded. “It’s complicated as I am Nobunaga’s page.” He handed me the letter.
“I hope Kennyo doesn’t want Shingen to intercede with Nobunaga.” I couldn’t imagine that going over well.
Ranmaru shook his head. “Nothing like that. The two of them were friends at one time. I believe Kennyo wishes to apologize … and to say farewell, before…”
Before it’s too late.
Had word of Shingen’s condition travelled to Azuchi? Or maybe Kennyo had another reason to say goodbye. “Thank you. I will make sure he gets it. And thank you again for your help back there. I doubt I would have gotten through unscathed otherwise.”
Given Shingen’s lectures to me on my so-called daredevil behavior, it would probably be a good idea to keep today’s adventures from him.
No need to worry him when he was still sick.
Or well, worry him about this at all.
No, I wouldn’t mention any of this – I’d just have to come up with a good story about how I’d gotten my hands on the message from the Imagawa vassal.
Ranmaru preened before giving up and laughing. “It was fun. But you’re not completely uninjured.” He reached out and touched my cheek, and I winced at the unexpected pressure. “You’re going to have quite the black eye.”
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#ikesen#fanfic#ikesen shingen
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Chapter 47: Shingen's POV: A Promise for Tomorrow - The Reunion from Shingen's POV, plus a few extra scenes that take place while Katsu is asleep.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
Shingen sat outside the noodle stand until the wind turned cold. Spending time in cold damp air would no longer bring on another illness – but it wasn’t a terribly pleasant way to spend the evening either. Or, rather it wasn’t a pleasant way to spend the solitary evenings that were his status quo these days. In the summer, Sasuke had dragged him out to explore Kyoto’s nightlife, and while he found the people and places fascinating to observe, but he never felt like he was part of things. He didn’t fit. There was a lot about modern Japan to admire and enjoy, but this was not his time.
Tomorrow, when Sasuke returned from the observatory, they would have to sit down and come up with another strategy to locate Katsuko. He had lost patience with inactivity.
After tossing his food containers in the recycling bins – throw-away containers… another strange modern concept he’d had to get used to, he hiked back to the parking lot where he’d left the motorcycle.
The seat and the helmets were soaked – apparently it had rained harder than he’d thought while buying his noodle snack. He checked out the storage compartment under the seat and found a semi-clean rag to dry everything off.
No use stalling any longer. He climbed aboard then joined the few vehicles in line to exit the parking area as everyone grimly prepared to leave their outings and return to whatever daily grind their lives served up.
On impulse he glanced back at the mountain path for one last look at a place he knew was special to her. At dusk, it was difficult see much, but walking toward the parking lot was a figure wearing a kimono, rather than the jeans and puffer jackets most of the hikers wore.
Was she a product of his own wishful thinking; or, had the greasy rag he’d used to wipe off the helmet distorted his view?
It was almost as if she’d stepped out of his memories – she was as bedraggled as she had been the day they’d met, with that same defiant set to her shoulders that said, ‘the world can keep throwing things at me, and I’ll throw right back.’ Just like that day, there was an intent look on her face as she likely was formulating a strategy for how to survive whatever situation she’d found herself in.
There you are, Devil. There you are.
He turned the bike around and circled to the bus stop, where she had stopped to read the schedule. A hundred poetic greetings clashed for supremacy in his head, but his mouth settled on the short and to the point, “Need a ride?” It was the first time in memory that he’d failed to access any of the smooth flirtatious openings he had stockpiled.
She turned around, defensive, fists clenched.
Helmet.
He removed his helmet, and watched as that defensiveness evaporated, replaced by joy. Again, nothing glib was coming to mind, just a semi-plaintive, “It’s about time you got here, Devil.”
She formed his name on her lips, too quiet to be heard, then she was in his arms. Finally. Again.
There you are.
Here you are.
You are here.
(Commissioned artwork by Butterfly n' Lace: https://www.facebook.com/butterflynlace )
She was in his arms. There was her face… her cheeks…her hair… he wanted to touch her everywhere, brand the valleys and plains of her features into his hand. Then the need to fit her to him, cocoon her in his arms, took over. He welcomed her back with a kiss, the voice inside that always cautioned him to be gentle was overwhelmed from the start with the intense craving for her. It had been more than a year. Gentle was not possible. If they hadn’t been surrounded by tourists and hikers, he would have carried her into the trees and taken her on the soft blanket of fallen leaves.
Surrounded by tourists and hikers. Right. Surrounded by tourists and hikers.
“I missed the taste of you. Not even this century’s chocolate can compare to one moment on your lips.” He held her again, that initial rush of intense unwavering desire merged with the simple longing to hold her, to breath her in. He let his chin rest on the top of her head. There was time now. The desire, the want could wait. A little while, at least.
Katsuko leaned back and looked up at him. “Are you ok now? Your illness? They could treat it here?” There was a mix of hopefulness and fear in her voice, and the defensiveness had returned to her posture as if she were preparing to shield herself from a blow.
“According to a large team of doctors, I am now cured. But it took a long time, and I was in the hospital several weeks.” He pushed her hair out of her face, and this time the gentleness came easily to him. Fear had led her to her actions, he needed to calm that fear before they could move forward. “It was a benign lung tumor, but it was pressing against my throat, causing the chronic pneumonia. They removed it surgically.”
The relieved smile lit up her face. It occurred to him that she did not smile often. It wasn’t that her natural expression was sadness or anger… or what was the term Sasuke had used to describe the thoracic surgeon? Resting bitch face? No, none of that would describe Katsu. It was more that her features, when not schooled into the businesslike impassivity that suited a messenger, or a scout, reflected an intensity, excitement, passion for whatever task was at hand. She could deal out a teasing grin, lips quirked with mischief, or let her mouth relax into a soft contented line. But a true smile from her was rare, and he always felt gifted when he saw one.
She clung tighter to him, resting her body against his, fingers stroking his arms, and once again he had to remind himself – tourists and hikers. “You learned how to drive a motorcycle in three months?”
Three months? Did she not realize? “A year. It’s been over a year.”
The smile changed to an expression of panic. He could see her struggle to process that before suddenly she let go of him and would have slid to the ground had he not scooped her up in his arms. “Katsuko!”
Alerted either by his shout, (or perhaps he looked like a serial killer with his latest victim in his arms?) the family packing up their car nearby looked over at him and started chattering over each other. The woman got out her phone.
He hurried to reassure them before they called 110 and involved the police. “My girlfriend fainted. She was very tired after a long hike.” Given the shadows of exhaustion evident on her face, it was very likely true. “Do you have any water?”
Their son scrambled to open a cooler which had not yet been packed into the car, while Shingen carried Katsuko over to the closest bench. Her breathing seemed to be ok, and – he felt her forehead – no evidence of fever. “Katsuko. Come on, Devil, wake up. Katsu.”
In a moment, she stirred and opened her eyes. She looked around – seeming more embarrassed than ill. “It’s ok. The thought that I was stuck in that thing for over a year kind of… freaked me out. Oh… thank you!” The little boy from the family handed her a bottle of water.
With shaking hands, she twisted the cap off and gulped down the water. Shingen held her tighter. After all this, he refused to lose her again. How long had it been since she had had anything to eat or drink? Where had she been?
“Maybe I was dehydrated too.” The rest of the bottle was emptied.
“What I think, is that you’re exhausted.” He held her until there was a bit more color to her face. “Let’s go home.” The hotel wasn’t home, but any place where they could be together was in a sense a home.
He hoped she knew how to be a passenger on a motorcycle… hoped even more that they wouldn’t be stopped by the authorities, as he didn’t have a passenger license. But he wasn’t about to wait for Sasuke to get…
Sasuke.
While Katsuko settled herself behind him – thankfully the rental had come with an extra helmet – he sent off a quick text to Sasuke. She’s here! There was no immediate response – he was likely still driving, and had his phone safely hidden in the glove box. “Ready?”
She wrapped her arms around him, and they were off. In some ways, two people on a motorcycle was far more intimate than two on a horse, as they needed to lean their bodies in tandem around curves. The hotel was only a few kilometers away, and the ride was over far too quickly – but they’d take longer rides in the future.
Yes. He had a future now. They had a future. We have a future.
By the time they reached the hotel, Katsuko was asleep on her feet. Ignoring her tired protests that she could walk, he carried her up to the suite, juggling her and the key card. “I can walk,” she repeated.
Probably yes, but he liked carrying her around, especially now that he had normal lung capacity.
Once inside the suite, Katsuko perked up a bit at the sight of the bathroom. “Oh. Running water. Bliss.”
“You want a shower, don’t you?” He was fond of that device himself, although he admitted a greater fascination with flush toilets. In fact, he’d been having fun trying to figure out how to rig such a thing in Tsutsujigasaki Castle.
“Yes. So very much yes.” She drifted into the bathroom, and Shingen sat down on the bed to wait – and to keep an ear out in case she fainted again. Sometime in the future – again there was that tidal wave of happiness at being able to envision a future, especially one with Katsuko in it – he imagined sharing a shower with her. Many showers. But for the moment, he figured she only wanted to bathe off whatever horrors she’d experienced in the wormhole.
His phone finally buzzed with a text from Sasuke. As usual, it was full of abbreviations and emojis that Shingen had to think about to decipher. How? Did wrmhl open? Where wz she? Where RU? Should I stay here? This was followed by a picture of an … was that an eggplant?
He replied, in full sentences, and maybe that made him old fashioned (ha!), but he’d never gotten a handle on SMS, let alone emojis. No, come back. She’s exhausted, but I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you as soon as possible. I’m not sure where she was. Then, because he had to ask, What is with the picture of a vegetable?
Maybe it meant Sasuke wanted to know if he should bring in take-out? Hm, Katsuko was possibly hungry.
The text chime alerted again. Eggplant is fruit no veg. Thnk abut it or ask K. Followed by a lot of winking smilies.
The shower water stopped and her heard her rustling around.
“Katsu?”
“Yes?” She peeked out through the partially open door. She was wrapped in a large towel, her hair was streaming water, and he was almost transported back to that night at the lake when he had stolen a blanket from her and bargained for two kisses.
He waved his phone at her. “What does an eggplant emoji mean?”
“Who sent you an eggplant emoji?” Interesting. She didn’t sound particularly happy there.
“Sasuke. He said you’d know.”
“Oh.” She blushed and directed a look toward the bulge behind the zipper of his jeans.
Ah. Well then. He laughed though his jeans were feeling tighter. “It only took me a while to figure out because I was distracted by the thought of you.”
“Smooth.”
“I try.”
She disappeared back into the bathroom for a couple more minutes, then re-emerged with her hair bundled on top of her head. She was still wrapped in the large towel, and he was enjoying the mental image of unwrapping her like a gift, when she began rummaging through his open suitcase. She grabbed one of his shirts. “Stealing my clothes again, Devil?”
“You have several identical ones; you’ll never miss it.” Without any self-consciousness – or possibly she was still too tired to notice, she dropped the towel and pulled the shirt over her head in one smooth motion, then tugged it further down around her hips.
They had purchased modern clothing for her, knowing that if – when - she came through, she’d need something to wear, but the bags were in the back of Sasuke’s vehicle. Shingen was happy to have her walk around like that, clad only in his shirt, but he figured that wasn’t her preference – and, well Sasuke probably wouldn’t appreciate that (or maybe he would – but in that case Shingen wouldn’t appreciate that), so he unzipped the side pocket of his suitcase and found a clean pair of boxer shorts for her. They’d likely be far too big though.
She stepped into the boxers – yes too big – then somehow knotted the fabric at the side so they stayed up.
Then she wandered into the main room of the suite and looked out the window. The lights of Nagano glowed in the distance. “It’s so bright. I’d forgotten what that was like.”
He stood behind her, hugged his hands around her waist. She sighed and leaned back into his embrace. “Sasuke’s on his way back – should I text him to grab some food? Or do you want something from the machine in the lobby?” He didn’t want to leave her though, even for the few minutes it would take to get her a snack.
She looked confused, as if the concept of food was something she’d forgotten about altogether. That alone sent a pang of worry through him. “Maybe later.” She yawned. Hopefully, she was simply too tired to eat. He led her over to the sofa, and she tucked herself under his arm. She fit there, fit in a way that no one ever had.
“I’ll tell him to get something vegetarian, yes?” There wasn’t a response. He realized she was nearly asleep. He watched her doze off, then jerk herself awake twice before he said, ““It will be a while before he gets here. Why don’t you go to bed?”
“The shower woke me up. I have a second wind.” She was obviously fighting off a yawn.
Stubborn devil. He could take care of that though. “Then, rest those pretty eyes for a little while until he gets here.” Shingen drew his fingers across her eyelids, forcing them to close. He repositioned her until she was lying down, with her head on his thigh for a pillow.
And… she was out.
He ran his fingers through her hair. She mumbled something in her sleep, then shifted, revealing a long gash on her arm. It was rather deep, and still somewhat fresh, and why she hadn’t even seemed to notice it was another worry altogether. He lightly touched the wound – it didn’t feel hot, so it probably wasn’t infected - yet, but it needed to be treated, somehow.
He was still researching “katana wounds” and “blood poisoning” when Sasuke arrived.
Sasuke, in spite of his (too often) repeated joke that he was a physicist, not a doctor, didn’t think Katsuko’s wound necessitated a trip to a clinic. “It’s already started healing. Fascinating though. There’s been a passage of a year both in this time and in the Sengoku, but the wound looks like it’s no more than a day or two old.”
She hadn’t stirred, even when they doused the cut in antiseptic then spread a layer of antibiotic gel across it. Sasuke put some butterfly strips on to hold it closed. “Unlikely to need stitches, although it might heal smoother with them. Probably a little too late either way.” Again, Sasuke flipped into theoretical mode. “Could it be possible that she ended up in a place where time had no meaning at all?”
Since the ninja-scientist looked like he was tempted to awaken her and ask, Shingen had simply picked Katsuko up and carried her into the bedroom. “Goodnight, Sasuke.”
Katsuko always claimed she didn’t need much protection, but he would protect her from nosy ninjas tonight.
After nearly fourteen hours of sleep, Katsuko finally stirred. Though Shingen had been awake for about seven of those hours, he hadn’t left her side for more than the few minutes required to take care of certain biologic necessities. It was less about worry – she’d settled into her normal sleeping pattern and her temperature stayed cool – and more about making up for lost time. For the moment, it was enough to just have her next to him.
He put aside the game he’d been playing to kill time. “Sleeping beauty awakens.” He felt gratified to see that smile bloom across her face. “If I could paint, I would do one of you in this moment – relaxed, sleep flushed, burrowing in my shirt.” Burrowing might not exactly be the word he was looking for – the shirt was too large on her, and dipped at the neckline, allowing him to admire the curve and shadows of her breasts.
Katsuko’s wit had caught enough sleep too. “Sleeping Beauty was awakened with a kiss.”
Well then. He could fix that. He pulled her close and in his best impression of Prince Charming, placed a gentle kiss on her lips. She sighed into him, then molded her body to his, and forget gentle, he had to be with her now – it had been too long. Hands tangling in her hair, teeth nipping at her throat, he rolled onto her softness –
She made a tiny yip of pain.
The sword injury. Instantly contrite, he pulled back. “Damn. I’m sorry, I forgot about your arm.”
Katsuko pushed up the sleeve to examine her forearm. The confusion was back in her eyes.
“You had a gash on your arm. You were so tired you slept right through when we cleaned it up.” He gently ran his finger around the border of the bandage – good, the wound didn’t feel particularly warm under the gauze.
Comprehension. Katsuko threw off the covers. “Iekane went through the wormhole. I need to warn Sasuke!”
He tried to sooth her panic, and took her hand, easing her back into bed. “He knows. Last year, while I was still in rehabilitation, Sasuke went through at Togakushi to let you know how I was doing. Yukimura told him what happened.”
She relaxed back into his arms. “Then you knew I was in the wormhole somewhere and hadn’t reappeared?”
“Sasuke has been monitoring the wormhole activity – there’s been a lot of it – and we’ve been travelling back and forth between here and Kyoto, hoping you’d come through at some point.” If there hadn’t already been roads, he likely would have worn a path between the two wormhole nodes.
He tried to keep his words impartial, but some of that worry and stress must have come through, because she placed her hands on his face, and said, “I’m sorry it took me so long.”
“I never doubted you’d get here eventually.” Shingen kissed the top of the bandage. “That said, I hope you’re comfortable here in my arms, because I’m not letting you go again.” He was only half-joking. “In fact, not only are you forbidden to leave my arms, I’m not letting you leave this bed.”
“I’m not sure I can leave this bed – I don’t have any pants!” She punctuated this statement by placing her cold feet on top of his.
He debated whether to let her know they had clothes for her. It wouldn’t hurt her to rest an extra day or so in bed. Wouldn’t hurt him either. But he’d been hearing Sasuke bumping around in the main room of the suite for the past couple hours, and it probably made more sense for her to tell her story to both of them at once. “That’s one way to keep you out of trees, but not to worry. We did actually purchase clothing for you.” He took her hand. “That’s how certain I was that you’d find your way through.”
“Thank you.” There was a relief in those two words for far more than being assured of something to wear, and Shingen wondered at that.
“For getting you clothes? As much as I would enjoy the view, I realize you can’t walk around half-dressed.” Were it not for the fact that he was living with Sasuke, he might have encouraged her to spend more time semi-clothed. Katsuko had great legs.
“I meant, thank you for believing I’d get here. Especially after -.” Her body tensed, and she gripped his hand tighter. “We – I – betrayed you and I wouldn’t have been surprised if you never wanted to see me again.”
Too much time had passed for his initial anger to linger. He knew they would be better served discussing the deeper issue that had led to the betrayal, because otherwise, they’d never move forward – and he wanted, very much, for them to move forward.
“I can’t say I wasn’t angry, especially at first – but your actions saved my life. According to the doctors who treated me, even though the tumor was benign, the secondary illnesses would have been fatal if I had waited much longer.” He rubbed his hand across his chest. “Sasuke had as much part in this as you, and I realized that once I forgave him, it would be hypocritical not to forgive all. Then you were missing, and all I wanted was to see you again.”
There were tears rolling down her face now. Shit. He’d made her cry. What had he said? What had he done? “Why are you crying?”
Her hands flew to her face, and she swiped away the tears. “I don’t know. I don’t deserve your forgiveness because I’m not sorry. I mean, I’m sorry that we did things the way we did them, but I can’t be sorry because you’re better.”
Yes, deeper issues. He suspected he knew what those were, too, but she likely needed to cry through everything to get to those realizations on her own. “I could tell that last week that something was tearing you apart. I know you didn’t make that decision easily.” He held onto her while she sobbed into his neck.
And cried.
He patted her on the back, while she sniffled and hiccupped.
“I’d probably do it again.” The words came out stuffy with the aftereffects of her crying spell.
He kept her close to his chest and stroked her hair. This had all come about because he’d batted down the conversation whenever she’d tried. He hadn’t wanted to voice what frightened him about the initial plan, and he’d known that she would have gone there. “You wouldn’t have to. I should have listened to you instead of putting you off every time you tried.” If he had allowed the conversation, then he would have learned earlier what that deeper issue was. “If I had known earlier what your mother had put you through – I might have realized what I was asking of you.”
“She couldn’t help it,” Katsuko said, then flinched from the implication that Shingen could have helped it and hadn’t. Maybe that had never been on her mind, but her past had informed every decision she’d made when it came to his health. “I meant-”
He was quick to reassure her – but perhaps only time would provide the reassurance that even a promise could not – that he had no intention of ever abandoning her, not by choice. “I understood what you meant. I won’t leave you. You’re stuck with me, even when I’m a fat and bald old man.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, where he was getting an ache from this awkward sitting position. “The old part of that equation is quickly approaching.”
He intended, in fact, to become an old man, although he would do his best not to become fat and bald.
She laughed as she eyed him up and down. “I’m good with that.”
“From now on, I won’t redirect you when you want to discuss the difficult things.” He put his hand under her chin, looked directly into those gorgeous eyes. “And you too?”
“Yes, I promise.”
Good. She might be a liar, but he knew she had kept every promise she’d made. “I promise too, Katsuko.” Their kiss was a promise too, a promise for the future – one that would include both of them, no matter when they were.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#ikesen fanfic#shingen takeda#throwback thursday#ikesen sasuke#twelve lies i told shingen takeda
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Chapter 46: About Time - Has Katsu finally made it back to the correct future?
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
Before I began my trek down the path to the lower shrine, I paused at one the cedar trees. The bark was still damp from the wormhole’s storm and felt rough under my fingertips. These trees had always been my favorite part of the Togakushi Shrine area. Their massive trunks instilled a feeling of comfort in me. Permanence. Their roots had been in the soil for generations. But now, knowing that they hadn’t been here during the Sengoku era, I felt the weight of those five centuries pressing down on me. When I’d originally been swept into 1575, the shock had kept me from thinking of anything except survival. Now, as I looked up into those giant 400-year-old trees, I felt lost. The cedars had grown up in between the then and the now.
Maybe I had too.
By the time I got to the middle shrine, I was already on sensory overload. It was so loud. I had forgotten how much ambient noise the modern world produced. From the roar of the planes overhead, the low hum of electricity, the people walking by talking on cell phones, and a distant sound of traffic, my ears were ringing.
To be honest, what I wanted was to take a nap. I couldn’t of course. I needed to get to the entrance before the last bus left… and what time was it anyway? For that matter, what month was it? There had been a blizzard in 1582, and a mix of rain and sleet in that other timeline. But here, it was much more obviously Autumn. That didn’t mean that it couldn’t be the exact same date only hundreds of years apart – the blizzard Yuki and I rode through had been an early season storm, and global warming might have delayed winter here in modern Japan.
Below the middle shrine was a tourist information center with a small noodle stand. There was an American (or maybe Canadian?) group of tourists milling around the information desk, so I headed to the noodle stand, where the two clerks were gushing about some hot guy who’d been in there earlier. I waited patiently for them to notice me while they argued good naturedly about which of them he had smiled at more. “Oh, good afternoon. Would you like to order?”
Aware that I didn’t have any money on me and likely made a ridiculous sight in my kimono, I shook my head. “Um, my purse was stolen, and I lost my phone – can you tell me what time it is?”
Both girls were horror struck at the idea of being without a phone, and one of them pulled out an android in a case decorated by images of what looked like a K-Pop band. I didn’t recognize them. They were cute enough that I probably would have been into them if I had never time traveled. She unlocked the phone and showed me the time. Four-fifteen.
I knew I couldn’t get away with asking her what the day was, but luckily that was visible on her phone too: November sixth. It had been closer to the equivalent of November 21 when I went through the wormhole. That meant I hadn’t done a date-to-date travel. I wondered if it also meant Sasuke and Shingen were still in Kyoto, and not planning to arrive up here for a couple more weeks. “Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.” I belatedly realized the girl had asked me a question.
“Did you want to get any food?” She buffed her phone on her arm, then put it back in her apron pocket.
“I wish, but stolen purse, no money.” I turned to go, but gratefully accepted the cup of tea that they gave me, likely out of pity.
Once back outside, I sat down on a nearby bench – looked like someone had already wiped the rain away – sipped the tea and contemplated my next move. The date had basically confirmed that Kyoto needed to be my next stop, although it was late enough in the day that I doubted I’d be able to find an open antique store in Nagano where I could exchange my dagger for cash. I was going to have to figure out a place to sleep – sleeping in a bus or train station didn’t hold any attraction for me. I’d rather slip off the trail and camp under a tree.
Tempting thought… but I was probably better off at least getting to Nagano and figuring things out from there. Maybe I could barter something at an internet café and find Sasuke online. Again, always assuming that I had managed to land in the correct timeline. I allowed myself a few more minutes to finish the tea before hauling myself to my feet. Alright, enough stalling. Get moving.
It took almost an hour to get to the parking lot, where a couple happy families were loading up their vans to head home after what probably had been a hiking outing. Several cars and a motorcycle were threading their way out the exit. Idly I wondered what had happened to Toshiie’s moped that that had been left abandoned in this parking lot seven years ago. Hopefully, someone who needed it got some use out of it.
The bus stop was empty – I checked the posted schedule, good – there would be another one coming in about twenty minutes. Could I con my way onto it with the same story about having my purse stolen? Might be simpler to give the driver a sob story about losing my IC card on the trail. It was, more or less true, although the trail I had lost it on was over four hundred years in the past. Guess I still needed to put those lying skills to work after –
“Need a ride?” The motorcyclist had circled the lot and pulled up to the curb next to me.
I turned with a ‘hell no, asshole’ waiting on my lips when he removed his helmet and gazed at me through those intelligent grey eyes. “It’s about time you got here, Devil.”
Shingen.
His name was a whisper on my lips, then I threw myself into his embrace. He caressed my face, touching my cheeks, my eyelids, my forehead, then he buried his hands in my hair, as the abandoned helmet fell to the ground and rolled across the grass. Then he crushed me against his chest and kissed me hungrily until I was dizzy and gasping for air.
“I missed the taste of you. Not even this century’s chocolate can compare to one moment on your lips.” He enveloped me in his arms, resting his chin on the top of the head. We simply stood there and breathed each other for a long moment. If someone had walked up that moment and offered a billion yen to let go of each other, I do not think either of us would have taken it.
“Are you ok now? Your illness? They could treat it here?” To my untrained eyes, he looked healthier - vital… but I was so happy to see him that it may have been wishful thinking.
“According to a large team of doctors, I am now cured. But it took a long time, and I was in the hospital several weeks.” He pushed my hair out of my face and looked down at me. “It was a benign lung tumor, but it was pressing against my throat, causing the chronic pneumonia. They removed it surgically.”
Then it had been worth it. The knowledge that he was alive and healthy released that dark worry that had dogged my days and nights. Being apart from him these past three months had been difficult, especially not knowing if modern medicine could cure him, but he would live. He was going to live.
I held tighter to him, reveling in the solidity of his body against mine, the soft leather of his bomber jacket under my fingertips. I wanted to tell him about Toshiie, and Nao, but what came out of my mouth was, “You learned how to drive a motorcycle in three months?”
He stilled, and when he spoke, his voice was rough with worry. “A year. It’s been over a year.”
A year?
Had my encounter with the fog lasted that long? The memory of that first claustrophobic trip that spit me out into the wrong timeline overwhelmed me, almost as if the dizzying grey was taking over again. For a moment, I thought I might throw up, though after a year what would even be in my stomach? The overwhelming background noises faded away. I felt myself slipping into—
My girlfriend fainted. She was very tired after a long hike. Do you have any water?
Katsuko. Come on, Devil, wake up. Katsu.
But this time, there was a voice calling me out of the grey. I opened my eyes. We were on the bench of the bus stop, and Shingen was cradling me in his arms. At the look of sheer panic on his face, I tried to wave away the worry. “It’s ok. The thought that I was stuck in that thing for over a year kind of… freaked me out. Oh… thank you!” One of the kids who had been in the parking lot brought me a bottle of water.
I downed half the bottle in two gulps, only just noticing how thirsty I felt, even after getting that cup of tea along the trail. “Maybe I was dehydrated too.” I finished off the water, while Shingen kept his grip firmly around me. I didn’t think I was likely to faint again, but I wasn’t going to argue with being held.
“What I think, is that you’re exhausted.” Shingen pushed my hair out of my eyes. There was just enough vanity in me to worry about what my hair looked like after a year of not being brushed.
‘Exhausted’ might be going a bit too far, but since the rest of the evening passed in a blur, from the short motorcycle ride back to the hotel suite in Nagano that he and Sasuke were sharing; to a shower that I sleepwalked through, he might have been right.
I wish I had been awake enough to enjoy both of those experiences. Once clean and dry, and wearing a comfy Henley top that I borrowed from Shingen (“stealing my clothes again, Devil?” “You have several identical ones, you’ll never miss it.”), I was curled up on the sofa, tucked comfortably under Shingen’s arm while we waited for Sasuke to return from the observatory in Nodeyama, where he’d been tracking all the wormhole activity.
It felt like I had been running from something and could finally stop. Running for years, maybe, since before I’d even gone through the wormhole. But maybe I had been running to something. To him.
“It will be a while before he gets here,” Shingen said. “Why don’t you go to bed?”
“The shower woke me up. I have a second wind.” Then I gritted my teeth to fight off a yawn. There was a part of me that was afraid if I went to sleep it would all disappear.
“Then, rest those pretty eyes for a little while until he gets here.” Shingen drew his fingers across my eyelids, closing my eyes with a butterfly touch.
I burrowed into his warmth. Mmm. Ok. Just for a min…
Warm bed… thick quilt… big pillow… I floated in a haze of modern comfort, then by slow degrees came to awareness that it was morning. When I opened my eyes, it was to see Shingen propped up against the headboard, phone in hand, intent on some sort of puzzle app. He turned, and looked down at me, his hair turned red by the sun shining through the window.
“Sleeping beauty awakens.” He set the phone aside on the nightstand, where I couldn’t help but be happy to see he also kept the puzzle box I had given him. “If I could paint, I would do one of you in this moment – relaxed, sleep flushed, burrowing in my shirt.”
Someone’s been catching up on fairy tales, I thought, before pointing out, “Sleeping Beauty was awakened with a kiss.”
Without another word, Shingen pulled me close and brought his lips to mine in the gentlest fairy tale kiss that within moments became less gentle and more arousing. Ok. Yes. More of this. He swept his tongue into my mouth, and rolled over, his hot weight on me and –
Ow?
I hissed at the sharp tight pain in my arm. Shingen stopped immediately. “Damn. I’m sorry, I forgot about your arm.”
What? I lifted my arm, pushed back the soft knit of the shirt to reveal a gauze bandage wrapped around it. I could see the faint hint of a butterfly strips underneath the gauze. I looked at Shingen, unspoken question on my lips.
“You had a gash on your arm. You were so tired you slept right through when we cleaned it up.” He gently ran his finger around the border of the bandage.
Oh. Oh shit! I remembered Iekane whirling out of my blind spot and slashing at me with his sword. “Iekane went through the wormhole. I need to warn Sasuke!”
I threw the blanket off, intending to leap out of bed, but Shingen pulled me back to him. “He knows. Last year, while I was still in rehabilitation, Sasuke went through at Togakushi to let you know how it was going. Yukimura told him what happened.”
So Yuki was ok then. I hadn’t thought he’d have any trouble with those bandits, especially once Iekane was gone, but it was good to have confirmation. Shit. He must have been frantic when I went into the wormhole. “Then you knew I was in the wormhole somewhere and hadn’t reappeared?”
“Sasuke has been monitoring the wormhole activity – there’s been a lot of it – and we’ve been travelling back and forth between here and Kyoto, hoping you’d come through at some point.” The words were matter of fact, but the concerned look on his face and the knowledge that I had been missing a year made me feel guilty for putting everyone through all that.
“I’m sorry it took me so long.” Not that I had been aware of the passage of that much time. If I had known, would I have figured my way out sooner? Or would the ‘messed up timelines’ have kept me trapped no matter what I did?
“I never doubted you’d get here eventually.” Shingen pressed a kiss over the bandage. “That said, I hope you’re comfortable here in my arms, because I’m not letting you go again.” He pulled me closer. “In fact, not only are you forbidden to leave my arms, I’m not letting you leave this bed.”
“I’m not sure I can leave this bed – I don’t have any pants!” I was not going to do the 1980s romantic comedy thing and walk around pretending a long man’s shirt was a dress. Only Madonna could successfully pull that one off, and I am not Madonna. Nor did I want to put back on the sweaty and probably bloodstained Sengoku period clothes I’d been wearing when I arrived.
“That’s one way to keep you out of trees, but not to worry. We did actually purchase clothing for you.” He linked his fingers with mine. “That’s how certain I was that you’d find your way through.”
I’m glad he had had so much faith in me. More even than Tosh, who had accepted without questioning the news that I had been killed (by a bear!... No, I wasn’t going to let go of that). “Thank you.”
“For getting you clothes? As much as I would enjoy the view,” he ran his hand along my bare thigh, “I realize you can’t walk around half-dressed.”
“I meant, thank you for believing I’d get here. Especially after -.” Even thinking about it made the feelings of guilt return. “We – I – betrayed you and I wouldn’t have been surprised if you never wanted to see me again.”
“I can’t say I wasn’t angry, especially at first – but your actions saved my life. According to the doctors who treated me, even though the tumor was benign, the secondary illnesses would have been fatal if I had waited much longer.” He rubbed his hand across his chest. “Sasuke had as much part in this as you, and I realized that once I forgave him, it would be hypocritical not to forgive all. Then you were missing, and all I wanted was to see you again… why are you crying?”
I was crying? I casually pressed my finger against my eye. Wet. Huh. I was crying. All I knew was that my emotions were exploding all over the place. “I don’t know. I don’t deserve your forgiveness because I’m not sorry. I mean, I’m sorry that we did things the way we did them, but I can’t be sorry because you’re better.”
He gathered me to him and let me snuffle all over him. “I could tell that last week that something was tearing you apart. I know you didn’t make that decision easily.”
This was true, I hadn’t, but… “I’d probably do it again.”
He stroked my hair. “You wouldn’t have to. I should have listened to you instead of putting you off every time you tried.” Yes, he had done that. “If I had known earlier what your mother had put you through – I might have realized what I was asking of you.”
Once again, he understood what was in my head before I did. If he had been of this century, or the previous one, I imagined he might have made a good therapist. Although the instances of transference would probably be epic.
“She couldn’t help it,” I said, almost automatically, then realized that implied he could have. “I meant-“
“I understood what you meant. I won’t leave you. You’re stuck with me, even when I’m a fat and bald old man.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “The old part of that equation is quickly approaching.”
I laughed at that image. I mean, sure it was possible given his eating habits, but, whatever – he’d still be him. “I’m good with that.”
“From now on, I won’t redirect you when you want to discuss the difficult things.” He put his hand under my chin, so that I was forced (not that it was a hardship) to look into his eyes. “And you too?”
“Yes, I promise.” I knew it wouldn’t be as easy to do as it was to say, but I was as willing to do the work as he was.
“I promise too, Katsuko.” He sealed those words with a kiss.
We would have sealed that promise with additional activity, had Sasuke not knocked on the door, apologetic, but impatient to hear what had happened to me in the wormhole. And, given what I had learned about the other timelines, I realized that a debriefing session was likely critical.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#shingen takeda
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Chapter 27: Shelter. Shingen's POV from the river, the rain, and the cave.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
It had been too late even before they started terracing the hills and trying to divert the waters into overflow ponds. A project like this ought to have begun months, perhaps years before the flooding, not in the middle of a deluge. Shingen thought this might even be the biggest sin to lay at Nobunaga’s feet, for in diverting their attention to battle, needed projects such as this had been postponed, or ignored.
Even knowing that it was a futile effort, they were giving it everything they had to redirect some of the water before it reached the river. Sasuke, at least, instantly grasped what Shingen had in mind, and scurried from one post to another, giving practical suggestions without having to ask for further instructions.
But after working through the wet, miserable night, and into the next afternoon, with the rain continuing to fall, there was that feeling that… it wasn’t going to be enough. Homes would be lost. Lives maybe, too. The specter of failure pulled at him. Another project potentially left undone.
He shut his eyes to the raging waters, while the rain poured off his helmet and dripped down the back of his neck.
When he reopened them, she was standing in front of him, looking, as usual, like a drowned rat. Angel or devil, he didn’t even know any longer. But what was she – easier to just ask. “Why are you here?”
Katsu, because in those clothes, with that mirage of soldierly decorum, it was Katsu, and not duplicitous woman he had revealed himself to be, said, “Yukimura asked me to deliver a status report and a message.”
I don’t have time for this. “Well? What is it?”
Since Katsu seemed unusually reticent, Shingen glanced over his shoulder. “Sasuke! Tell them to bring more rocks to shore up that retaining wall!” Sasuke gave a salute to indicate message received and headed further up hill. Shingen turned his attention back to Katsu.
“Kenshin’s got the banks of the lowest point of the river built up about this high, and we’ve evacuated all of the towns up to the coast.” She drew an invisible line right about at her waist. That’s not going to be high enough. Time was running out, on this, on him.
But she was still talking. “Yukimura said … that you should return to the castle and have Sasuke take a shift.”
Had he? What had he told her? Was that why she was here? Because now she knew about his illness? He studied her face. No, there was no sympathy or knowledge in that expression. She was here because Yukimura told her to be here. Just following orders. For once. “Message delivered. Tell Yuki no.”
She continued to stand there, and again he wondered why she was still … well, with them at all. Once her masquerade had been revealed, she ought to have left. Yoshimoto had told him that he’d managed to prevent her – at least temporarily - from leaving on what would amount to a suicide mission to confront Yoshiaki. But even that didn’t explain why she had joined the teams outside. Though if she had been telling the truth about losing her home in a storm – and that was a big if – then he supposed she would feel strongly about helping those in a similar situation. “Anything else?”
“Um. N-no. It’s… j-just that Yukimura was pretty insistent that I make you leave, which, I know I have no way of doing, but I’ve never seen him look that worried about anything,” she sounded a lot more hesitant than normal. “I guess if you’re not going to leave, can you at least go inside that tent over there and eat something, so I can at least tell him you’re not … pushing yourself.”
Yuki was worried – worried enough to send Katsu all the way up here. Shingen wasn’t going to leave, couldn’t leave in the middle of this project, but he could at least send back some reassurance. “Tell him this is worth the risk. And not to worry. I’m doing fine.” For now. He was doing fine for now.
She nodded and turned around without saying goodbye, slowly making her way down the muddy path toward the river. If all that had happened over the past couple of days, well, if it hadn’t happened, he would have been happy to see Katsu, might have taken a moment to show him what they were doing here. Actually, if things had been different, Katsu would have been with him up here from the start. But everything was different now.
His friend Katsu didn’t exist.
Because it had been Yuki who asked him, via Katsuko, not to push himself, Shingen did follow the suggestion and grabbed a few morsels to eat. He’d only just picked up a bowl of now-cold rice, when Sasuke appeared at his elbow, slipping into his vicinity in that silent way he had.
Something was slightly off about Kenshin’s ninja though. Shingen couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. Was it that his clothes seemed cleaner than earlier? That odd thought fled his mind, when Sasuke spoke. “A little boy just fell into the river.”
“Where? How close are we?” Was there time to get a rope? Unlikely. He dropped the bowl, not caring that is splattered on the ground, and rushed after Sasuke.
Sasuke pointed. “There… downriver – Katsuko ran after him.”
Once again, he felt that fist around his heart tighten as he ran for his horse. “Can she swim?”
He looked back over his shoulder, but the ninja had vanished.
Of course, he couldn’t have expected her to keep her promise not to take any insane, stupid risks. She could likely toss off false promises as easily as the lies that were a second nature to her.
By the time he was on his horse, galloping along the riverbank, there was no sight of either Katsuko or a child in the water. Across the raging waters, a group frantic people were running alongside the river – the boy’s family, he assumed.
They were pointing – finally, he located the boy, floundering in the water. But where was Katsuko? Had she gone in after him? Had she--?
As he rounded a bend, he saw her up ahead, hanging half upside down from a tree that stretched out over the river. Even as he fathomed her plan; recognized its merit, there was a part of him that wanted to drag her down from the tree, pull her to safety.
All he could do was hold his breath, watching as his daredevil messenger dangled over the river, one arm reaching toward the child who in moments would pass underneath.
Katsuko snagged the back of the boy’s clothing, while he reached up and clung to her arm. Shingen hurried toward them, prepared to help pull the boy to shore if she didn’t have the strength to lift him into the tree.
CRACK.
He would be replaying the image of Katsuko, no, it was Katsu, falling into the river for the rest of his life. He might lose them both – the mischievous forest sprite who played kiss-and-run, and the puzzle-loving messenger who he’d looked forward to seeing every afternoon.
Even while his mind was reeling, his body already had urged his horse into a gallop, flying along the riverbank, as he kept them in sight, feeling that clench of panic every time her head disappeared under water.
She’d kept her grip on the branch though, and the boy – good girl. Admiration for her determination broke through the fear. Yes, that’s it… keep your head up. As they continued to gallop along the riverside, his brain flipped into tactics, as he analyzed the current, assessing where the water was most likely to send them. He knew this river, had studied it. Up ahead, the channel widened, which would lessen the rapids, somewhat, but hopefully still be shallow enough for his horse to cross.
Without hesitation, his well-trained horse entered the river at his signal, and at least at first, seeming to find a foothold on the bottom. But the further toward the center he got, the less steady his horse was.
He’d gotten used to measuring out the remainder of his life in months – was that measurement going to be down to heartbeats?
Fortunately, his horse had found his footing again, and he pressed forward, aiming for a place that would intercept their progress. Then Katsu was slammed into a boulder, ricocheting them almost out of reach… but…
He had them. He had her. She looked at him, seeming dazed – had she hit her head on that rock? – before blinking the water out of her eyes, and pushing the boy into his arms while she climbed onto his horse. I have you.
They weren’t nearly out of danger, but at least Katsu and the boy weren’t being flung about in the rapids. Worried that he was asking too much of his horse, especially when once again, he faltered, he climbed off, hoping to help lead him to the bank. “Hold on,” he told Katsu. Would she listen? He sensed, rather than saw her make a move to help. “If you get off this horse, I will drown you myself.”
Muttering under his breath, every obscenity he knew, in random order, he guided his horse toward the closest bank. Even after he sensed the moment his horse once again was able to touch the bottom of the river, he didn’t relax until they were all safely out of the water.
And then it was simply enough to stand there and gaze at where they had all been. They were out of the water, but in front of his eyes was the image of Katsuko tossed about in the rapids, being slammed against the rocks, tangled up in the debris. He looked over at her, just to confirm that yes, she was there. She too was staring at the water. He wondered if she realized she was still hanging onto the little boy as if his life was still in danger.
“Hiko!”
An older man – presumably the boy’s father rushed up. He grabbed his son, alternately hugging then yelling – and Shingen related to every change of mood. “Thank you for saving my only son. Hiko is a careless whelp, but he would be missed.”
“No thanks are needed,” Shingen said. He ruffled the boy’s wet hair.
“Be that as it may, I am grateful,” the man said. He looked over his shoulder at where the rest of the family group was making their way along the riverbank. “I would have been left with five useless daughters.”
He didn’t have to see Katsuko’s face to know how she felt about that, and even before she took a step forward, Shingen prepared to haul her back to his side. He placed a warning hand on her shoulder. Immediately she stiffened. Did she still fear his touch?
Annoyed, he turned his attention back to Hiko’s father. “I’ve found a multitude of uses for them,” Shingen said. “But I’m glad we were able to be of service to you.”
The boy’s mother scurried up with a blanket and wrapped her son up in it. Before rejoining his family, he turned and hugged Katsuko. He imagined that being in the river together had been somewhat of a bonding experience – and if he were being completely honest, he wasn’t sure if the boy would have survived without her. Shingen likely would not have gotten to him in time, were it not for Katsuko keeping Hiko’s head above water. But even that honesty couldn’t overcome the fear and anger that still coursed through him.
“I cannot repay you, but, would you like to have one of my daughters?” The man gestured to where five girls were lined up. “Sho,” he said, and the tallest girl stepped forward. She gave him a shy smile.
She was a pretty child, but possibly young enough to be his daughter. He smiled at her, and tried to be kind about the rejection. “I couldn’t separate you from your family, Princess.” Then he addressed her father. “You do me honor, but I am not in any position to add to my household.”
The man bowed, then went to his wagon, and returned with a couple sea otter pelts and a sack of something that clinked. “Please accept these as a token of my gratitude.”
Shingen nodded, and stowed the gifts in his saddlebags.
The family all bowed and headed back up river.
Katsuko looked at him warily, and it was on the tip of his tongue to give her a lecture that she would never forget, but on the heels of that thought was the memory of her falling into the river, and before he could think better of it, he’d pulled her into his arms. Simply to confirm that she was real and alive and here and … ahhh… not wearing that binding she normally wore around her breasts when she dressed as a boy.
He stepped back quickly and didn’t miss that flinch she gave when he gripped her shoulders. “Didn’t you promise never to do something that dangerous again?”
“I did not!” She gave him a calm and steady glare. “I said I couldn’t promise that. I might be a liar, but I don’t make promises that I don’t intend to keep.” She yanked herself out of reach.
Does she think I’m going to strangle her? He was tempted to do all sorts of things, but of course he could control those impulses.
Meanwhile, she continued to protest. “What I said was that I would consult you if feasible. It was not feasible.”
That… was likely the correct assessment of the situation, but that didn’t lessen the anger he felt. “Do you have any idea what could have happened if Sasuke hadn’t gotten my attention in time?”
“Yes.” The look she gave him was easily translatable. “But, if the tree branch hadn’t broken, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Did she not remember they had fought about this before? More likely she remembered but hoped he didn’t. “The hell we wouldn’t. Just because you survived, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a stupid, reckless thing to do!” Again, some part of him recognized that her actions had likely saved the boy’s life, but he couldn’t stop himself from yelling.
“I didn’t have much time to think-“
“That, is obvious-“
“What else was I supposed to do? Let the boy drown?”
No… that was not in her nature. If he were honest with himself, if this had been almost anyone else standing in front of him, he would have admired them for it. Maybe she was a liar, but whatever was in her dubious moral code wouldn’t allow her to stand back when lives were at stake.
His horse meanwhile, apparently had had enough of both of them, and chose that moment to try and shake off the river. Right. They couldn’t stay here all night. “Come on. We’ll need to find shelter before we lose daylight.”
Not bothering to check whether or not Katsuko was following, he mounted his horse. He didn’t notice he was holding his breath until he felt her climb on behind him. At least she was willing to let him take the lead in finding shelter. That relief had him prod his horse forward sooner than he’d intended, and Katsuko let out a little, “eep” as she hurried to wrap her arms around his waist. Possibly the only time she’d ever rushed to grab him.
He doubted they would find any structures in the area, but the hills were riddled with caves; it was only a matter of finding one large enough to shelter them. Hopefully before the sunset – otherwise, they’d have to build something out of branches. Either way, an uncomfortable night loomed ahead of them.
Katsuko’s grip on him slackened – was she falling asleep? He reached to take her hand, and he sensed her startling into awareness again. The near-drowning must be catching up to her. If she’s that exhausted, she ought to be in front … better to ensure she didn’t fall off. It was unlikely that she would accept if he made that suggestion, so he simply did his best to wake her up every time he sensed her dozing off.
Finally, he found a likely cave set back in the hills and pulled his horse to a stop. “This will have to do,” he said.
Katsuko shook herself awake, and peered around him. He could feel her actually shudder when she saw his idea of a shelter. “Th-that’s a c-cave,” she said.
Was she still afraid to be alone with him? The implication was insulting. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to take the opportunity to push my unwanted attentions on you again.” He wouldn’t have pushed them to begin with, if he’d had any idea they were not welcome. Usually, they were quite welcome, if not invited. In fact, often, they were encouraged.
Not wanting to even look at her at this point, he busied himself with finding the driest possible place to settle his horse, built him a bit of a rain-break out of branches, then walked past her into the cave. “Coming?” If she didn’t follow him inside, he would literally carry her in there – whatever her feelings were toward him was no reason to spend the night sitting in the rain.
After a moment of hesitation, he heard her footsteps patter in. She halted again, right by the mouth of the cave. “Do you have a lantern?”
“I was more concerned with catching up to you, than I was with grabbing a lantern.” He did have the saddlebags, though, and hopefully, between the leather of the bags and the oilskin wrappings, his clothes would be… they were damp in places. But not soaked. “The slightly good news is that I had yet to unpack my saddlebags, so at least I’ve got a change of clothing. Not completely dry, more’s the pity, but the oilskin protected them to an extent.”
He wrapped a layer of his kimono in one of the pelts. “Get out of those wet things.” He tossed the bundle toward the direction of her voice.
The faint light from the mouth of the cave was just enough to outline her body, but her features were in shadow. He doubted that she could see him at all. Even so, he made sure to look away from her, as he changed into dry – drier – clothes. Hopefully, although he doubted he would be that lucky, he wouldn’t get sick, or if he did, that the worst of it would hold off until he could be back in Kasugayama.
Once drier, he took stock of their provisions. He always kept a packet of rice cakes in his saddlebags – not that there was any danger of starvation, but they ought to eat. “If you can manage to bring yourself closer to me, I’ve found some field rations of dried rice.” What else – what had the trader given them? He rooted through the sack, found a couple of bottles. He opened one and took a tentative sip. “And the trader gave us some sake.”
The stilted reply came from the front of the cave – apparently she’d parked herself as far as possible from him. “No thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” More for him then. He took a quick bite, got some petty satisfaction at the echo of the crunch.
At some point, they needed to have it out, clear whatever misconceptions and lies still stood between them, this discomfort was becoming unbearable, but he didn’t have the energy to take that on. He would still have to keep a distant eye on her at Kasugayama until they could prove to her that going after Yoshiaki was unnecessary. Say what you will about Nobunaga – and Shingen had said plenty – he would deal with that problem himself.
Hopefully, by the time she moved on to whatever life she chose for herself, they’d at least part if not as friends, but with a better knowledge of who they were, and who they weren’t.
Once she left, he could always have his mitsumono keep track of her, simply to assure himself that she was alive and safe. He’d like to know that, and, well, in a few months that would no longer be an issue. Maybe she’d find her way to someone who could keep her daredevil impulses in check, keep her safe. Someone who would appreciate the way she threw herself into investigating puzzles, who would recognize her latent talent for strategy– perhaps he really should send her to work for Mitsuhide. Let the two of them drive each other crazy. She’d probably prove enough of a distraction for Nobunaga’s spymaster to keep him out of Kenshin’s hair for a while. It was a rather elegant solution… and he hated it.
He looked toward the entry to the cave, but it was now pitch black. He could no longer see Katsuko, but he could hear her breathing… and…
Something’s not right.
He’d certainly spent enough time laboring to breathe, to recognize when someone else was struggling. Struggling with what, though? “Katsu? Is something wrong?”
Her breath choked off with a sharp intake – the sound of someone trying to pretend that everything was fine. He knew that sound too. He’d performed that masquerade. Katsuko was terrified. Maybe of him. But more likely, he’d been mistaken …about many things.
He stood up. Keeping one hand over his head to make sure he didn’t accidentally walk into the low hanging ceiling of the cave – the last thing he needed on top of everything else was a concussion- he hugged the wall as he made his way back to where he believed Katsuko was sitting. “You’re really not ok, are you?”
She reached out and took his hand. Some of the tension he’d been holding uncoiled at the feeling of that hand in his. There was trust in that hand. She needed him. “N-n-no.”
He slid down the wall to sit next to her – she was curled up, her face on her knees. He’d seen this before – sometimes in battle. Sometimes after, when soldiers could not erase the scenes of battle from their mind. “I’m here.” The battle, whatever it was, was in her mind. There wasn’t much he could do, but he could be here. To give her something else to latch onto besides her thoughts, he started talking, a half nonsense, half-truth story about the orphaned bear cub he had adopted and a day that it had gotten into Kenshin’s stash of pickled plums.
He put his arm around her shoulders and felt her relax slightly. He remembered the horror in her voice when she saw the cave – was it the cave, or the dark? She’d asked for a lantern. And yet, it had been fairly dark at the lake, and she’d had no trouble blowing out the candle in the Inn. He’d walked into Katsu’s room once at night, and there hadn’t been a candle or lantern left burning.
Not the dark. The cave itself?
A fragment of memory from the night he’d tried to forget presented itself. He’d been too mad at her at the time to take it in, but he’d heard everything…
“Was the opportunity too great to pass up when you tried to kill me before?”
“I tried to kill you a few times… can you be more specific?”
“Box.”
“Oh, the crate. That one I just left up to fate whether or not you survived. If Motonari had let you out before you died of thirst, I imagine he’d have found some use for you. It didn’t matter to me as long as you were gone.”
The vassal, Iekane, also from Katsuko’s past – he’d locked her in a crate, apparently loaded her on a ship? A Mouri ship? How long had she been shut in there? An experience like that – yes, that could leave a person with a fear of dark closed in places. The idea of his daredevil forest sprite locked inside a…
His?
Yes. She had followed him home, and he was keeping her.
His.
For as long as he was able, he was keeping her.
His.
Katsuko sighed and melted against him. “You probably think I’m crazy.”
He didn’t. Everyone was afraid of something. He attempted to lighten the mood. “Aside from your habit of flinging yourself out of trees, Devil, no.” He brushed his fingers through her still-damp hair, resisting the urge to cup her face, and seal her lips with a kiss. Not the right time.
But hopefully, soon.
[Very soon... look for another post later today]
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#TBT12Lies#throwback thursday#ikemen sengoku#shingen takeda#ikesen shingen#twelve lies i told shingen takeda
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Chapter 44: Full Circle. As they head toward Togakushi to (hopefully) greet Shingen, Katsu discovers an odd connection with her modern life and Yukimura's.
And Chapter 45: Shingen's POV - Missing Person - Checking in with Shingen on the other side.
Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)
Previous Chapter: Here
Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.
We stayed several weeks with Toshiie, which, among other things, allowed my brother and I to celebrate our birthday together. But once the weather changed from Autumn to almost-winter, we took our leave, with hugs and good wishes from Hana, one last ‘Uki’ piggyback ride for Nao, and promises to Toshiie that I would return as soon as I was able.
I gave Toshiie directions to Kasugayama as well as Aki’s house on the mountain in case he needed to get in touch with me. “Where will you be – I mean… which place? I don’t want to lose track of you now that we’ve found each other again.”
“I’ll let you know.” I couldn’t make any decisions or plans until after the wormhole opened at Togakushi. “There’s also a bookseller in Azuchi where you can always leave a message that will find me.” I gave him the location of that as well. That would be the most convenient for him since Azuchi was so much closer to Ikuno than the other two locations.
One last bro-slap between Yuki and Tosh, and one last long hug between my brother and I, then we were off. “See you soon!” he yelled after us. Tosh still hates saying goodbye.
As we made our way out of the town, Yuki gave me one of his suspicious side-eye glares.
“What?” I hoped he wasn’t going to question all the sly glances and eyebrow raises Toshiie had been unsubtly deploying. If he did, I was going to ruthlessly shit talk my twin and claim it was a tic.
“Bookseller. Azuchi. I knew I’d met you before. You were the old man who spied on me.” He punched my shoulder. “What the hell were you doing there?”
“I wasn’t spying on you… or anyone… exactly. It’s a long story.” Although I supposed we had plenty of time.
The journey to Togakushi took a week – which was faster than I had anticipated – as I had been worried we would be delayed by early winter storms when we got into the mountains. We had so much extra time that Yuki suggested we spend the night in his castle, which was less than a day’s ride from the shrine.
“I didn’t know you had a castle.” I tried and failed to picture Yuki as a Kenshin-like lord of a castle. “Of course, you should visit it.”
“Thanks. Except I shouldn’t thank you – I bet there’s a pile of tasks waiting for me,” Yuki said, and further explained that he hadn’t been there in months.
We turned our horses in the direction of what one day would become Nagano. The landscape was both familiar and unfamiliar in a way that felt jarring. Like a puzzle piece that looked like it would fit, until you tried to place it. “I grew up in this area. It still weirds me out, seeing this part of the country without a big city in the middle of it.”
“How big?” We were riding along the banks of the Chikuma River, and I looked around, feeling the displacement in time more vividly than before, especially since this was close to where I had gone to high school… years that I definitely had not enjoyed (hence the truancy to go snowboarding whenever I could get away with it).
“Um, I guess something like three hundred and seventy-five thousand people? So not huge, but bigger than a village.” I shrugged. “It seemed like a lot of people when I was growing up, but the first time I visited Tokyo, I realized it wasn’t that much, comparatively.”
Yukimura paused and looked out at the mountains in the distance, and the war damaged land in between. “I don’t know whether to be glad that the area came back from this, but that many people is kind of… well, it’s a lot… And this… Tokyo is bigger?”
“A hundred times bigger, I think. Tokyo – well in this era, it’s Edo, but in my time, it’s one of the biggest cities in the world. Maybe the biggest? I’m not sure.” The few times I had visited, it had seemed too big to me. But I had always been one to prefer outdoor spaces. “Maybe I shouldn’t be giving you all this information about the future.”
“Eh, I don’t know what I’d do with it anyway. It won’t change the way I live.” He turned his horse northward, and I got a good look at the building on the hill overlooking the river.
“Ueda Castle? Your castle is Ueda castle?” Had I known that? I should have known that. Not only should I have paid attention in school, I should have paid attention to it. Or, technically, I guess I hadn’t connected the Yuki I knew with the Sanada clan of Ueda castle.
“Yeah… why? Is it still there in your time?” He grinned at me. “I like the idea of it lasting that long.”
“Parts of it have been reconstructed… but yes, it’s still there. It’s a school now. It’s where I went to school.” I laughed suddenly. “I should leave a note for my bratty fifteen-year-old self to find.”
“A school? That’s really great. I mean, if it was no longer needed for defense… yeah… a school.” Yukimura smiled, then pointed to the castle gates. “Race you!”
Yuki was mobbed when he made his unexpected appearance, not only by vassals with issues he needed to solve! Right! That! Instant!, but also from people who were plain old happy to see him. I felt guilty that he’d had to spend so much time escorting me across the country, but when I tried to apologize, he’d gotten all bristly. “Stop that. I wouldn’t have been here either. I’d have stayed in Kasugayama.”
As soon as he crossed the threshold, he was borne off to his main audience room to deal with those urgent issues, so I followed a maid to the guest quarters, then used the bathhouse to clean the week’s travel off me.
After I cleaned up, I took some time to wander through the castle’s garden. Over the past couple of months, I’d had very little alone time, both a blessing and a curse. No time alone meant no time for dwelling on what I was going to say to Shingen when (not if) we were reunited. My time with Toshiie had given me some perspective on my feelings and behavior, but the dreaded worries were returning and I needed to be away from other people to drop the masks I’d been wearing during all of my interactions.
The garden in Ueda Castle allowed me that time and space. I spent an hour or so with my eyes closed and my face turned up to the sun. How do you apologize for something you would do again? I was sorry for how things had played out, but if modern medicine cured him, I would be happy. If it didn’t… then I’d robbed myself of time spent with him. But until I knew the result, I couldn’t regret. I could only hope.
Beyond the apprehension though, I simply missed him. Everything about him: his wicked smile, easy confidence, vast intelligence, and that way he could walk into any situation and know what to do. I missed the way he’d always had of making me feel smart and valued and cherished.
In a day – presuming Sasuke’s theories of time travel were correct – that wicked, smart, confident man would be back. What I didn’t know was whether he would still want to make me feel cherished or whether he would never want to talk to me again.
But… if he was alive, and healthy, it would have been worth it.
I stayed in the gardens until the wind became bitter, the sky became dark and my stomach became hangry. No one had come to look for me (possibly no one remembered that I was there), which likely meant that Yukimura was still trapped doing business with his vassals.
After a few wrong turns, I located a kitchen and begged a tray of food, which I then brought to Yuki’s audience chamber. The poor guy was huddled over a stack of reports. And yup… hair was standing in all directions – I imagined he had raked his hands through it multiple times over the day.
“As much as you’ve yelled at Shingen to not push himself, you’re just as bad.” I carried the tray into the room. “Eat.”
He laughed suddenly, sounding half-amused, half-something else I was not able to determine. “You’re always feeding me.”
“I am?” I thought back. Yeah, I had shoved a bowl of rice or a cup of tea at him on more than one occasion. “Huh. Well, maybe that’s a sign you need to pay more attention to mealtime.” I set the tray down at his elbow. “Anyway, you look busy, so I’ll leave you to it, but… eat.”
He nodded and set the paper he was reading aside. In the process, he knocked the chopsticks off the tray. Both of us jumped to catch them before they hit the floor, our hands touching in the process.
Yuki yanked his hand away as if it had been burned, and he resolutely stared at his reports… but not before I had gotten a look at his face.
Shit.
Toshiie had been right.
I set the chopsticks back on the tray. “Eat,” I repeated one last time before leaving the room. There was absolutely nothing I could say that would not make things worse.
Yuki was my friend – and I loved him like a brother. All I could offer him was, as Toshiie had put it, a steady affection. I could imagine what a life with him would be like… and it was not unpleasant… but it was not what I wanted for myself. It was not what I wanted for Yukimura either.
Even if I could envision a life on a different path than the one I had set myself on, a life that even offered a contentment, a life similar to what Toshiie had with Hana, I knew that I would never take a step on that path. I was not my brother, and Yukimura deserved better than to become someone’s Plan B.
The late Autumn blizzard began that night. It was probably heralding the arrival of the wormhole, which obviously enjoyed creeping around in storms. At least the weather gave Yuki and I something to focus on. I didn’t think that Yuki was aware that I had discovered his feelings, and I certainly didn’t want to embarrass him (or me, for that matter) by calling attention to them.
“Damn Fume and her weather forecasting knees.” Ice pelted my face like little stinging arrows. Besides the snow and sleet, it was even thundering.
“Is that another one of your modern expressions?” Yukimura asked. There were icicles hanging off his hat. He broke off one and tossed it away.
“Sadly, no.” I pointed to another mountain off in the distance. “Before I came to Kasugayama, I was based over there. Fume is the chatelaine and claims she can tell months in advance when we’re about to have a bad winter by how much her joints ache. She started foretelling a bad winter as soon as last winter ended.” Actually, she was always claiming we were going to have a bad winter. And we always had a bad winter. I do not think the two were casually related.
“Oh yeah. One of my vassals is the same way.” He paused and glanced over at the mountain. “You didn’t want to visit her?”
“No. First because if we make it up there, there’s no guarantee of getting down again until Spring.” The path to Aki’s manor wasn’t exactly vertical, but it sometimes felt that way. “Also. She hates me.”
“Maybe she’s grumpy because her knees hurt,” Yuki offered.
“No, she actually hates me. She calls me ‘that- “. I pulled Moonlight to a halt, catching sight of what was ahead of us. “Son of a bitch.”
“You’re right. That is mean—Son of a bitch!” Yuki had belatedly seen what was ahead of us.
Right about where Sasuke had predicted the wormhole would open, a group of armed bandits was camped out. Most were carrying swords, but at least two of them had muskets within reach. Maybe more than that… it was hard to tell with the snow slapping me in the face.
“I think this is where I came in.” Bandits armed with muskets – just like the ones who had attacked Shingen, Yukimura and Sasuke this summer.
“Why here?” Yuki asked quietly. “There’s nothing out here but the shrine, and it would be stupid to attack anyone going there.”
“Fate.” Shingen had once said that we can’t fight fate. Was that what this was then? Had I saved him from that first sniper, sent him to the future to be cured, only to put him in the path of another bullet? Because if the wormhole opened up and dumped Shingen and Sasuke here, they would not be expecting an attack.
“I don’t believe in fate. We make our own futures.” Yuki eyed the bandits. “Something else is going on.”
We observed the group for a little while – were they simply camping here coincidentally? Why would you camp on the side of a mountain in a blizzard? Then the apparent leader of the bandits stood up and stretched, twisting to give us a full view of his face.
Iekane.
Of course, it was Iekane.
“Son of a bitch,” I said again. While I otherwise would have welcomed the opportunity to capture him, the timing… sucked. And we needed to get him and the others away from here before the wormhole opened. The sound of thundersnow in the distance was a warning that we didn’t have much time.
Yuki and I retreated a few paces to be sure our voices didn’t carry. “What do you think he’s doing here? Do you think he’s after you?”
“From what he said at Kasugayama, it’s Akihira he has some sort of grudge against, not me. Although I’m sure if he had the opportunity to hurt me, he wouldn’t turn it down.” There was only one path to get to Aki’s home and we were on it. Iekane could be lying in wait for Aki to either come or go. Or potentially, I supposed they could be on their way to attack his manor. It wasn’t all that well defended, as its location in the mountain terrain made it an unattractive prospect. You’d have to be extremely motivated to attack it. For whatever reason, Iekane was extremely motivated, although I never understood why. “Besides, how would he know I’m here?”
It didn’t matter why they were here. They were here, and they were in the way.
Yuki peered through the trees. “There’s not that many of them.” He indicated the cover of trees surrounding the bandits. He nodded at my bow. “How many can you shoot before they take cover?”
“Three. Maybe four if they’re slow.” Obviously, I’d want to take out the ones with the muskets first. “The storm is going to add to the confusion on both sides.”
“Three’s enough.” Yuki said drew his sword. “If I outflank them from the left, I should be able to take care of the rest. I’ll give a signal when I’m in place.”
He sounded confident – and if those were run of the mill bandits, then I’d have the same confidence. But Iekane had trained with Aki, and then for an unknown amount of time with Kenshin, so he was a higher-than-average threat. Still. Yukimura was the commander of the Akazonae. He knew what he was doing. I wasn’t about to insult him by telling him to be careful. “Sounds like a plan.”
Good luck.
We peeled off in opposite directions. As soon as I was able, I climbed into a tree and made my way to the best possible blind. The tree limbs were icy, and twice I nearly slipped off – but Shingen’s often repeated claim aside, I’ve never fallen out of a tree, and I don’t intend to start now. Eventually, I settled against the trunk of a beech tree that overlooked the bandit’s campsite and readied my bow.
The storm intensified, with fat flakes of snow whirling from all directions, making it impossible to see whether Yukimura was in position. While I waited for his signal, I kept my arrow aimed at Iekane.
Unfortunately, with the worst timing known to mankind, one of the bandits decided it was time to take a leak - at least that was my assumption given he had untied his hakama and was already rooting around in there as he headed off to the same shelter of trees where Yuki was hiding.
One bandit wouldn’t have been a problem for Yuki. And he wasn’t. But everyone in the camp was able to hear, “Hey! Who are-” before the words were cut off with a gurgling cry.
Iekane leaped to his feet, just as I sent my first arrow winging his way.
Dammit.
He dove behind a boulder, sending up snow flying in his wake.
As fast as I could, I shot the two gunmen, then aimed at where Iekane was hiding. He’d have to come out sooner or later, to either face me or Yukimura, who came charging out of the trees, sword swinging. While the other bandits converged on Yuki, Iekane grabbed the musket abandoned by his fallen comrade and aimed it at where I was hiding. The storm winds were whipping the tree limbs, alternately revealing, then concealing my position on the branch.
“Kaya! I know you’re up there.” He clamped the fuse on the gun. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to bring an arrow to a gunfight?”
“That’s knife, you dipshit,” I said to myself as I shot two arrows in succession. Once bounced off his armor and he ducked out of the way of the second.
As I reached for another arrow, Iekane pulled the trigger. The shot was low. It missed me, but it hit the branch I was perched upon, weakening it enough for it to break underneath me.
Good thing I know how to safely exit a tree (I’ve had enough practice these days). I tumbled into a snowbank and scrambled to my feet.
Iekane frantically tried to reload and light the fuse, but the snow was coming down hard enough to make that task more difficult than normal.
My bow sadly had not fared so well in the untimely exit from the tree, so I grabbed my sword – this was one time that I had ample motivation to attack. Shingen would be proud of me.
Above us, the clouds were swirling and churning – the wormhole was materializing.
Seeing my weapon, Iekane gave up on the musket and drew his own sword. “You never were very good at this, Kaya.”
“I’ve gotten better.” Kenshin had been killing me all summer. I could now last several minutes against him – and Iekane was not nearly the swordsman Kenshin was. “And my name isn’t Kaya.”
“Katsuhira. You’re the only one he gave his name to.” Iekane advanced on me, sword swinging randomly. I spun and tumbled under several wild lunges, but the strikes that did connect nearly disarmed me. Rage may have lessened his accuracy, but it also increased his strength. He followed up one vicious strike with a spinning kick, that I was barely able to block with my shoulder. Forget rules of combat. I grabbed a handful of icy snow, and hurled it at his face, hoping to temporarily blind him.
“What are you talking about?” I gripped my sword in both hands, hoping to hang on until Iekane tired himself into a mistake that I could take advantage of.
“Iekane. Okitane. Takauji – he named us. I came here with him, and he never treated me like anything more than a student.” He chopped down at me, but I spun out of the way in time.
Behind him, that bank of fog crept closer, a wall of writhing grey, as the wormhole began to form.
I jumped backward a few paces – anything to keep Iekane away from Sasuke and Shingen when they came through.
“So what? He ran out of names. Or he couldn’t bother to get creative when he got to me.” It was getting harder to see, as the wormhole’s fog churned around us. Behind me, I could hear the clanking swords, telling me that Yuki was still holding his own against the remaining number of Iekane’s men.
“Why you? A stupid useless girl, and he treated you like you were his son.” Clearly Iekane had missed out on the conversation where Aki slut shamed me, but… details.
If Sasuke and Shingen were coming… shouldn’t I be able to see or hear them by now? I wasted a valuable second of attention to look for them, just as Iekane whirled out of my blind spot and almost hit the sword out of my hand, slashing my arm in the process.
I felt a sting of pain across my forearm, but I’d learned my lesson and didn’t take my attention off Iekane, even to check myself for serious damage.
He charged again. I repositioned myself and whirled away, finishing that up with a kick right into his stomach. He grunted, nearly doubling over, and I advanced on him—
--sword swinging—
-- pushing forward –
and then in my ears, a worried shout from Yukimura-
“Katsu, dammit, be carefu-”
…as momentum carried Iekane and me into the center of the wormhole.
Grey.
Iekane’s fingers dug into my shoulder. His voice rasped in my ear. “You are indeed stupid, putting me right where I wanted to be.”
Then he flung me away—
Far--
Past the center of the wormhole.
This… this isn’t what I remember… at all.
My world filled with the numbing grey.
Was… I… dissolving?
Chpater 44 - SHINGEN POV CHAPTER – Missing Person
Kyoto, present day…
“Much better, Mr. Takeda. Your FVC and FEV readings are in the normal range for your age and build.” Endo Minori, the respiratory therapist Shingen had been working with for the past few months, examined the spirometer. “I wish all my clients were as faithful with their exercises as you.”
Though Shingen nodded in response – why go to therapy if you weren’t going to do everything in your power to ensure its success – he also acknowledged that restlessness had driven him to it. Learning about the modern world through books and film had been his main activities in the early weeks of his recovery, however as soon as he was feeling more energetic, he’d needed exercise. With Minori’s permission and guidance, he’d added to the assigned rehab activities by taking walks around the city and swimming laps in the University’s pool.
Still, there was only so much he could find to do with his time, especially after Sasuke stopped him from dissecting the furniture and appliances. Shingen had thought that was rather harsh, given that not only had he repaired a too-short leg on the coffee table, but he’d gotten the toilet to work better (once he finally managed to put it back together). It wasn’t as if Sasuke wasn’t used to a lack of running water, given that he’d lived in Kasugayama for four years.
Of course, as soon as Sasuke had left on a trip back to the Sengoku era, Shingen had disassembled and reassembled the toaster, the electric tea kettle, and the shower without any problem. Any leftover hardware… probably was unnecessary. Everything still worked. What Sasuke didn’t know, wouldn’t harm him.
“Mr. Takeda…?” Minori cleared his throat to catch his attention. “I’ve uploaded the next series of exercises to the therapy app – but to be honest, they’re mostly for maintenance at this point.”
“Which means?” His phone chimed, alerting him to the successful upload.
“Your follow-up is complete. Continue these exercises daily… but I see no need for additional outpatient visits. The pulmonologist will want to review your chart, but I expect he’ll concur with my assessment. There’s still some scarring left from the surgery, but no reason to expect you won’t have a long and happy life.” He bowed to Shingen. “Er, at least as long as you look both ways before you cross the street.”
Later, after stopping at the Nishiki Market to pick up dinner, and indeed, looking both ways before he crossed the street, Shingen let himself into Sasuke’s high rise apartment. Three months ago, Sasuke had returned to the Sengoku era via the Togakushi wormhole as planned, intending to meet up with Katsuko and Yukimura. At that time, Shingen had only been out of the hospital a few weeks – he’d been told that in order to recover completely, he would need several months of therapy in the Kyoto rehabilitation clinic.
He toed off his boots, then opened the shoe cupboard and – Sasuke’s shoes were in there. He was back. Shingen stared into the cupboard, looking for - and not finding -shoes that would belong to Katsuko. Shingen had hoped that Sasuke would have found a way to bring her back with him, especially since Sasuke’s route had been through Togakushi.
Maybe… she didn’t want to come?
“Sasuke?” Shingen saw the younger man’s shadow behind the frosted glass bedroom door.
Sasuke slid the door open and peered out. He wore one of those absorbent yukatas and was towel drying his hair. “Lord Shingen. You’re looking… I’m pleased that you’re looking well.”
Though he knew he ought to say welcome home or ask how the treks through the wormhole had gone, Shingen went straight to the one question on his mind. “How’s Katsuko?”
Sasuke gazed at him steadily, but as usual, without any expression to hint at what was going on in his head. “Er… we should sit down. I’m told that is the best way to relay… unwanted information.”
Togakushi Shrine Area: Eight months later...
Another wormhole had materialized, then closed, and still no Katsu. Shingen glanced up at the clearing sky, and wondered, for the thousandth time, if she was in another year, or if Iekane had killed her when they’d tumbled into the wormhole together. Next to him, Sasuke straightened from the tense crouch he’d been holding, and Shingen sensed an apologetic platitude was on the way. To prevent hearing another one, he said, “She’ll figure it out. Or you will. I have faith in both of you.”
Sasuke had been apologizing, and theorizing, for months. The apologies never got any better, although they’d never been worse than the first one… the night when Sasuke had explained that Katsuko had disappeared into the wormhole, and apparently not reappeared anywhere. “I was hoping she and I had unknowingly crossed paths in the wormhole,” his friend had said, “and that she would be here with you. But clearly… that isn’t the case. I’m sorry. Theoretically, she-.”
Shingen had been unable to listen any longer and retreated to the balcony of the apartment. Resting his forearms on the metal railing, he looked at the horizon, wondering if the sky had any answers for him. Sasuke always found answers in the cosmos. But Shingen preferred to simply look for beauty in the night sky and find answers in text. Words had a pattern for him that, in spite of all of Sasuke’s impassioned explanations, the sky didn’t contain.
It’s been over a year…
They hiked back to the parking lot, feet splashing in the puddles left by the storm that accompanied the wormhole. “I’ll go back to the observatory in Nodeyama – maybe there’s something I missed.” Sasuke’s voice broke the silence.
“Sounds good.” But Sasuke never missed anything. Though Shingen didn’t want to give up… wouldn’t give up… he was starting to wonder if they’d be better off going back through to the past at the next opportunity. It was possible that Katsuko had found her way back to the Sengoku era. But what if that simply started them on a cycle of endlessly going back and forth and continuously missing each other?
“I will see you at the hotel tomorrow morning,” Sasuke said, as he climbed into the SUV that he used to haul his astronomy equipment around between Kyoto, Nodeyama, and Nagano.
Shingen nodded. He’d rented a motorcycle to get from Kyoto to Nagano. The experience wasn’t at all like riding a horse, and yet he preferred it to being trapped in a four wheeled box… especially if Sasuke was behind the wheel. The ninja-scientist had many many skills… but driving was not one of them.
Once Sasuke drove away, Shingen was in no hurry to leave, especially not to return to the impersonal hotel suite. He wandered over to a soba restaurant that popped up on his phone mapping app – how quickly he’d become used to these modern shortcuts – and ordered a light snack. He’d timed his entry into the restaurant well – managing to avoid a short rain shower that ended just as he left the restaurant with a takeout order of cold noodles.
He made his way to bench that was sheltered under enough tree cover to have escaped the worst of the recent rain and swiped the rest of the wet off with his hand. After finishing off the noodles and washing the snack down with a cup of tea, he reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out the puzzle box that he carried with him everywhere. He’d long since solved it, but it made him feel closer to Katsuko to keep it within reach. The rote sequence of slides and levers was soothing to him, and he occupied himself by running through the series to open it.
Inside, a length of her hair (by way of Yoshimoto who’d saved it after he’d given Katsu a haircut) and a letter that she’d sent via Sasuke. He didn’t need to open the box to re-read the letter. At this point, he had it memorized. She’d obviously been feeling emotional when she composed the letter, it had a rushed quality to it, as if she’d blurted everything out on the page without taking time to craft something poetic. Somehow, that made the contents feel even more intimate.
Dear Shingen, I hope you are reading this, but I wouldn’t blame you if you threw it away unopened. In which case you are not reading this. Maybe Sasuke will fish it out of the trash and you will read it someday. I know that sending you to the future with Sasuke is against your wishes, and if Sasuke would let me, I would go with you. I guess have gone, because if you are reading this, you’re reading it in the future. I want to be there when you speak with the doctor, be with you whether it is good news or bad, and be by your side while you were treated. I know that was how you wished it too… but I’m scared to wait. No, that’s not exactly true. I once watched someone I loved choose to die a little day by day, and no matter what I did, I could not keep her alive. What I’m afraid of is not being able to keep you alive long enough to get you to a hospital. And you need to live. I can’t tell you what I know exactly, because it might be some kind of time paradox if I do (ask Sasuke, he will explain time paradox), but you do amazing things in your lifetime, things that saved a lot of people’s lives. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the courage to tell you in person, or if I’ll get the chance to, so I’m writing it down here. You are the smartest, kindest, person I know. You made me feel like I mattered, even when I was just Katsu, the “boy” who delivered your messages. You matter to me too. When I’m with you, or even when I’m not with you, you inspire feelings that I never imagined feeling. I love you.
What she hadn’t said in the letter, was that sending him to the future against his wishes had not been her idea, but Yukimura’s. Sasuke had told him that Yuki had initially gone to Kenshin and cooked up this scheme. Only then had they brought it to Sasuke and Katsuko. “She was really torn about the idea… we both were, because in our time, the wishes of the patient are honored. And she was willing to risk coming with us, but I told her that if something happened to her in the wormhole, it could make things worse for you.”
In truth, he had been furious. At her. At Sasuke. At Yuki and Kenshin. The anger hadn’t lasted. Not after a discussion with the doctor who had immediately admitted him to a hospital following a series of tests. “While often we watch and wait benign tumors such as these, yours has already obstructed seventy-five percent of your airway. This in turn is putting stress on your heart and could lead to heart or multi-organ failure.” He didn’t have to understand modern medical terminology to get the gist of that. Though he disagreed with their methods, his lover and friends had likely saved his life.
By the time he had been released from the hospital, all he’d wanted was to see her again. That feeling had only been magnified once he learned she had vanished. These days, there wasn’t much left except love and hope. Katsuko was resourceful. If other timelines existed, and she was in one, she’d find that timeline’s Sasuke, and he would help get her back to where she belonged. And if history had simply erased her? He’d go to another timeline and find her in that when.
It was a plan that Sasuke likely wouldn’t approve of, but at least Shingen would be doing something more than waiting for the sky.
@bestbryn
#TBT12Lies#ikemen sengoku#fanfic#ikesen shingen#shingen takeda#ikesen fanfic#twelve lies i told shingen takeda#ikesen yukimura#ikesen sasuke
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