The Uesugi men came back with Gengyo, albeit reluctantly. They made camp with the men that night, just as the Takeda soldiers had done before them, and they were surprised to find that there was no animosity from amongst the men. They had known from the start that their Lord would be sure to recruit the enemy if they were given the opportunity. And many of them had been enemies themselves at one point. They were welcomed.
They were given soft sleeping mats to rest their head, and many fell asleep almost immediately, when darkness had only been in their presence a short while.
They fires licked at the night sky, reminding the nearby villages of their presence, and of the fate that they had avoided when Kenshin had been defeated.
They brought out the very best of their rations and they laid it out in a lavish feast complete with an abundance of rice wine. Both allies and enemies were encouraged to indulge. When the alcohol in their blood was raised, the line between allies and enemies grew thinner, and they were merely one and the same. They were men that had spent their day fighting a horrific battle, fearing for their lives. They had much in common. Friendsh.i.p.s were forged that night.
There was still an enemy out there, in the Takeda lands, but he was far from being of Kenshin’s calibre. He was lamb with a crown on, playing at the game of Daimyo. Gengyo hoped that he would not run for too long, for he still feared for Matsudaira at home.
The scouts had come at the start of each day, giving him news. The army of Hojo and Imagawa men had begun their siege of Matsudaira’s fortresses. That was as far as Gengyo knew. Matsudaira was holding out for now, but it seemed that it was only a matter of time before things went sour. Between them, they had amassed a shocking army of fifty thousand men. Much of that number was made up of untrained peasants, but it still made it less than threatening.
"The Hojo are experts at the siege," Jikouji had told him days before. It was not something Gengyo had wished to hear, for it only heightened his worry.
"Are they?" Gengyo had asked back. "I thought their talents lay in raising structures up. Their fortresses are well known to be the most resilient. Be it an earthquake or siege weapons."
"Exactly. It stands to reason, doesn’t it? That clan has technology that allows them to raise the strongest fortresses in all of Japan. If they know what it means to make them strong, do you not think they would know just as well where the weaknesses lie?" Jikouji had said.
"...You have a fair point," Gengyo replied back. He still thought on their conversation now, scratching his chin. Through it, he could not truly enjoy the celebrations. He wanted to keep moving and complete his mission with as much speed as he possibly could. It was a feeling he knew he would have to get used to. Soon all of Japan would be his enemy – he would be fighting a war on multiple fronts at once. There would never be a moment’s peace or respite, it would always be careful manoeuvring and battles won back from the brink of defeat.
Losing Matsudaira Motoyasu would be the greatest blow to his prospects of future domination. He was one of the most capable commander’s Gengyo had available to him, and he was extremely loyal to boot. He would be the key piece that allowed him to fight in multiple places at once.
"Drink," Akiko told him, growing irritated as Gengyo sat there in thought, staring deep in the flames of the fire. "Since I can’t drink anything, you must drink enough for both of us." She raised a cup to his lips and all but forced it down his throat, pushing him to relax.
"Guh..." Gengyo coughed as it went down too quickly, but another mouthful and that problem was solved. She had a plate of grilled fish in front of him as well. She worked with her chopsticks cutting it up into mouth-sized bites for him.
"Say ’ah’," she said and she began scooping it into his mouth.
"What are you doing?" He asked. This was strange, even for Akiko.
"I’m practising," she told him. "It will not be long until I need to do it for real, everyday, and when that happens I want to be good at it."
"Ah," he smiled at that, placing his hand on her belly. There was that in the future for him as well – a child of his own. He wasn’t sure exactly how he felt about it, but he thought he was at least as excited about it as Akiko. The idea of teaching a younger version of himself all that he had learned throughout his long life – it was greatly appealing. He was sure that he could teach the child much, and have it become even more capable than himself at a much younger age.
But then he worried that the child might grow bored of all his lessons. It might be that it preferred art and dancing, something that he would never be able to understand or relate to. That would be a difficult child for him to raise, he realized, for there would be little he could teach it.
"You’re frowning again," Akiko told him, using her fingers on his forehead to straighten out the frown wrinkles. "You need to relax, even if it is only for tonight. It will do you good."
"I know," he said with a sigh, "ah, give me those." He took from her chopsticks and spooned a few more mouthfuls into his mouth, and then he forced a couple into hers. When his plate was empty, he wrapped his hands around his wife, and lifted her up onto his knee. Resting a chin on her shoulder, he watched the celebrations of his men.
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