Ikémen Sengoku: Transcriptioned Romances Across Time (Masamune)

Masamune Date Eternal Route Chapter 12

Masamune: "Just when I expected you."

Hooded Man 1: "Masamune Date, your head is ours!" A sneak attack?! Here in camp?

I was still gawking at the arrival of the Uesugi forces when a dozen armed men in black charged into camp.

Hooded Man 2: "Resting easy in the rear? I didn't imagine you'd let us get this close to you!"

Masamune: "That's just your sad lack of imagination." Masamune grinned as a false curtain at the back of camp fell away. Behind it were Yojiro and a contingent of guards who swarmed our attackers. Guess they've been out-sneaked!

"Now, me? I've got more than enough imagination to guess what happens next."

Hooded Man 1: ". . . You used yourself as bait? The One-Eyed Dragon is as great a daredevil as they say. But you're still the weakest commander in the Oda forces right now!" 

"Weakest?"  No one would EVER describe Masamune as weak. Which is how I realized—

. . . They know about his injury! Who else knows?

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          Mitsuhide: "Gunshot wounds are prone to sudden infection and slow to heal properly."

          Masamune: "Tell me about it. It aches just to be up and about. I'm not even sure I should be out of bed."

          Shojumaru: "Is that so? Greater apologies for making you go out of your way, my lord."

Mr. Two-Faced information dealer! And don't we have a mysterious bad guy who's manipulating things behind the scenes?

          Nobunaga: "A wounded creature makes for a poor strategist. Someone has charmed that snake into doing their bidding. First, we'll chop off his head and then we'll find out who's behind this."

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He took the bait about Masamune still being in rough shape, and let everyone know to target him. In which case, the reason Masamune was left in the rear was to play along and lure them into a trap!

All the white lies and misinformation suddenly made sense now.

Masamune: "Heh! Weakest, am I? Looks like I've got a reputation to rebuild!"

Hooded Man 1: "You won't have the chance! We were ordered to bring back the head of one of the Oda commanders!"

Masamune: "Better look elsewhere. As you can see, mine's pretty well attached! Mai, stay close!"

Mai: "As close as I can get!" A fight was erupting, and the smartest place for me was to be was behind Masamune.

Hooded Man 1: "Kill them both!" The assassins drew their swords. Wide blades, their shape noticeably different than Masamune's dual katanas. The thinner swords sparked as they caught the assassin's blade in their crossed fangs. Masamune smiled a fanged smile himself.

Masamune: "Tough blade you got there. Foreign?"

Hooded Man 1: "Where it came from doesn't matter. What we pillage belongs to us. The stronger take from the weak. They always do! The Oda use force to unite the land! Our captain wants the chaos we live in now!"

There's someone out there who wants to keep the warring states period as it is?

Masamune: "And how do they plan to get it?"

Hooded Man 1: "By crushing all the warlords, we can plunge the world back into constant war. This land was never meant to be united!" They're serious—?  . . . But then the fighting would never end!