The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 8

The morning dawn slowly rose into the sky and as I heard the sounds of the camp coming alive to the dawn, I looked over to see the Blue Handed snoring on his bunk and I knew he had taken been over by the Yellow Handed for patrol duty. As I got up, I walked to my armor and began the task to put it on along with my weapons but when I looked outside, I saw that the camp seemed to be already awake.

"Good morning, sir!" said the Yellow Handed one as he popped up and as he bowed to me, I said to him, "Everything went well, last night?"

"Yes, sir." said the Yellow Handed one as he straightened up and as he watched me put my armor on, or attempted to, he then asked me, "You need help, Bloody Handed One?"

"Yeah." I said as I kept my mask on and as I allowed him to put my armor on me, I watched as the village defenders march right by my tent as they seemed a mixture of tired and refreshed.

"Has the village defenders gotten any sleep?" I asked as I looked at him.

"Yes, sir. Its been a rotation for all of the patrollers. Everyone is either refreshed from recently waking up or exhausted from the last shift." said the Yellow Handed as he finished up.

As I put my katana where it needed to be, I picked up my yumi bow and slung it over my shoulder as I did the same with the quiver of arrows and then I looked around when I saw my yari spear and I picked it up as I finally looked over to the Blue Handed and shook him awake.

"Is it morning already, sir?" he asked in a mumble and shook his head as he rubbed his eyes.

"Yep, so lets get the place up and moving towards Watamoto. We may not have much time left before the Ronin and Bandits that attacked the village come back for whatever reason." I said as I began to make my way around the camp to gather everyone up and prepare them for the trip.

The moment the village was on the move was the moment that we saw it. Marching down the road, coming towards us, was none other than a Takeda army with their red armor and flags as I hissed to everyone, "Off the road! Now!!"

As everyone hastily got off the road, I watched as the Takeda, about 100 Ashigaru with yari's with maybe 50 armed with yumi's as well and behind them the infamous Takeda light cavalry. In total, it was a 200 man strong army and it vastly outnumbered my force of 15 mercenaries and 10 village defenders. And there was also some 2 dozen villagers with us that couldn't fight for one reason or another.

So all we could do was stay out of their way and pray we didn't draw their attention. Sadly, that wish didn't come true this time as I watched the whole army stop while the Takeda General, his crest a huge horn that was about a foot wide, stopped on his horse as he looked down at us.

"You, Ronin! Who are you and where are these people going?" he asked as he pointed a Fan of war at me.

I tried to be courteous as I said, "General, I am the Bloody Handed One. These villagers come from the ruins of Okugawa after a bandit raid leveled it."

I waited, as I bit my lip, as I watched the Samurai look down at the group as he then said, "Where do you plan to take them?"

"Watamoto." I said as I held my spear up next to me, the point pointing to the sky as I held it on its butt.

The general looked at them all as he saw the families and then he said to me, "So... I am assuming you are being paid in return?"

"I'm asking only that some of their men and some of their koku be given." I said.

The general snapped his horses remains as he said, "Take care who you take with you, Ronin." and then the army continued past us and as I watched them, I almost sighed in relief when I said to everyone, "Alright! Lets get those carts back on the road!"