Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter Five: A Frat Party in a Blender

"Thank you, Katsu, for making me infinitely richer today," Sasuke told me later that night at what I've been informed was one of Kenshin's 'any excuse to have a drinking party, drinking party.' He had to lean in closer and still shout to be heard. The noise from the vassals and soldiers bumped against the walls and ceiling of the room, bouncing back to surround everyone – it was like someone had thrown a frat party in a blender and pressed "puree."

"I take it you bet on me this time?" I sipped from the cup of the plain water that hopefully no one noticed I was drinking. Joining in the actual drinking part of the festivities was not possible, as I had discovered the hard way that drinking made my insomnia worse, and too much of it brought on memories that were ... well, let's just say that there's nothing like an alcohol fueled bout of PTSD to liven a party.

"It seemed a logical conclusion that if you hadn't spent much time practicing with a sword, you must have been working hard at something else," Sasuke said. "That along with previous exposure to your archery skills led me to calculate the most probable scenario had you hitting at least sixty percent of the targets even while blindfolded." He took out his coin purse, hefted it, and grinned at the weight.

Hm. Yes, he'd reached correct answer – I'd hit six of the targets. However, it wasn't true that I didn't practice my sword skills. I practiced a lot. Some things aren't meant to be. "You couldn't have predicted how well I'd handle the directions of a last minute no warning, no practice, demonstration in front of a crowd of people."

Or the distraction of an attractive man holding a blindfold – a fact that obviously couldn't be mentioned in front this audience. Or any audience. In fact, shouldn't still be thinking about that at all. I'd managed to shut off my brain and rely on the years of practice branded into my muscles to hit those targets. I clearly needed to keep that on/off button handy now.

Yuki, who had been ceaselessly celebrating the win for the no-dessert team, turned to me with a serious expression on his face. "When I was fourteen, my horse threw me. I was all set to stomp home and sulk for a week. Then Shingen tossed me back up on the horse and made me race him."

The picture of a teenage version of Yuki having a tantrum jumped into my head. Yuki had very likely yelled a lot of choice phrases at his horse. "And your point is?"

"The next time you're in a battle situation, what you're going to remember is this afternoon's demonstration, and not the face of the man you shot the other night."

"He goaded me on purpose. That sneaky-" I was all set to continue along those lines when I sensed a disturbance in the force... "and yet extremely perceptive and clever idea, and I will be forever be grateful," I finished, then ducked out of the way before Shingen, who had walked up behind me, could thwap me on the back of the head.

"I did," Shingen said, then thwapped me anyway. "And again, I find myself in agreement with your former master – you're too impulsive." He drew another man closer to us, then managed to herd all of us to a window, where the ambient noise levelled off to a dull roar. "Katsu, my cousin believes he knows you."

I took a good look at the beautifully dressed man and thought back. "Yoshimoto?" We'd only physically met once, but we'd sent the odd letter back and forth, a correspondence that began after he thought (mistakenly) he had seen my brother in Nigata, and I sent him a tiny watercolor as a thank you.

He and Shingen were cousins? Both were stunningly attractive, but there wasn't any obvious resemblance between Yoshimoto's fine boned features and Shingen's 'do you need a body double for Thor' physique. Still...that was quite the blue-chip gene pool their family was swimming in.

"I'm happy to know that I'm memorable." Yoshimoto smiled at me. "Thank you again for the painting, it's lovely. Have you located your brother yet?"

"No." I had shared the story of my search with Sasuke a couple years ago when our respective errands had made travelling together for a few hours convenient, but since Shingen and Yuki were looking curious, I explained the situation to them. "A couple months ago, I had word that he was possibly in Sakai," which, come to think of it, was where I had witnessed Shingen get into a fight in a brothel, but if he hadn't noticed me then, I wasn't going to bring it up now. "Unfortunately, it turned out to be someone else."