Ten Things I Hate About Mitsuhide

Chapter 2: Tick, Tick...

Six weeks later...

Aki was late.

Not the normal lateness common to people living in an era that didn't have clocks – that I was used to. No, he was over a week late to meet me in Niigata. For the past nine days, I had been holed up in an inn, basically counting the lines on the floor (twenty-four), playing both sides of a game of shogi (to a draw), and teaching myself to juggle. The fact that I could now easily manipulate five makeshift 'bean' bags (wood shavings and gravel sewn up in fabric) said everything about my boredom. Aside from one kunoichi who stopped in to wait out a rainstorm, there had been nobody interesting to talk to (granted, she had been really interesting).

While I would have said that Aki could survive anything and everything that life threw at him – nine days late was an ominous sign. Sure, he'd always been prone to disappearing for long periods of time. He'd also had a knack for reappearing on the exact day he'd promised.

Something's wrong.

It was possible that he would eventually show up at the inn, but I couldn't continue to hole up indefinitely – for one thing, inns cost money. I had paid for the 10-day "week" in advance – did I really want to commit to another week of this?

I need to be looking for him.

If Aki had been around to ask for advice, he probably would have suggested I return home, to the The Mountain, and wait for further communication. But that would just guarantee that Fume would put me to work scrubbing floors for the rest of the year. Hm.... I could continue south, and go to Azuchi. Aki maintained a bookstore there, but that was a front. In truth, it was a message drop for his couriers and spies. If anyone had seen him recently, then Takauji, who was currently manning the store, would know of it. And, if not... well, I could at least leave him a 'where the hell are you?' message while I figured out my next move.

Once decided, I wasted no more time and headed out into a cool late summer morning. The air had a bite to it, and the breeze carried the smell of harvest fruits. If I hadn't been so preoccupied with wondering what happened to Aki, I might have enjoyed the journey to Azuchi. But happy as I was to be on the move, my mind was consumed with images of all the disasters that could have befallen him. Maybe he'd gotten caught up in a petty squabble between neighboring daimyos. Maybe he'd been injured or taken suddenly ill somewhere.

Maybe he simply got tired of you and never planned to return.

Ugh! Mental doomscrolling wouldn't do me any good. Ok. Positive thinking. Instead of worrying why he was lost, figure out how to ensure he was found. Though Aki's system of couriers and spies wasn't nearly as vast a network as some others, like the Takeda mitsumono, there were still a lot of us. If we all worked together, we'd run him to ground... somewhere.

By the time I arrived at the bookseller's in Azuchi, I had nearly convinced myself that finding Aki would simply be a matter of legwork. I could do that. I'd been criss-crossing the country on my own for years now. I had contacts in every city. I could do this... I could d--

"Thank the Gods you're here." Takaugi greeted me, not with his customary vague hello-and-can-you-take-over-so-I-can-go-piss, but a frantic announcement. "Francisco sent a message that Aki is missing, and I don't know what to do."

There is a reason why Takauji is often the one getting stuck in the old man disguise here. He has no initiative.

I dumped my pack on the floor behind the low counter. "Has anyone else heard from him?"

He shrugged. "You're the first courier to come through since I received that message."

Like I said. No initiative.