Author's Games: Samurai

Battle Task 2: Hirotei Imagawa Attacking Jyubei Takeda

Clan 8: Hirotei Imagawa 

Hirotei picked at the dirt in front of him in the dark. He had spent two weeks locked inside the Takeda outpost.

There was no escaping. The six samurai who had subdued him watched him day and night. Hirotei could tell they feared him. It showed in their cockiness.

He deduced there was a village nearby from the woman that came there to bring food. It was she whom he would use to free himself.

At noon all the samurai would be outside when the woman came. They gave her the door key and she would quickly set the bowl on the floor and slam the door shut. However, she was not fast enough for Hirotei.

He grabbed her wrist and yanked her inside the small room, spilling the bowl. She started to scream but he thrust her against the wall and covered her mouth with his hand, "If you scream, I'll break your neck."

The woman nodded frantically.

Releasing his hand, he kept a firm grip on her shoulder to make sure she knew she wasn't going anywhere.

"Tell me everything about this area."

That had been three days after he was put there. The next day, the woman tried to be quicker to avoid him, but she still couldn't move fast enough. This time, Hirotei was gentler, "I can tell you how to save your family if you send a message for me."

"How will you know if I've sent it?" she said in a spurt of defiance. At least she wasn't entirely stupid.

"When I receive a reply."

For the next week he asked her if she'd heard anything, but there was nothing. Hirotei didn't have to grab her wrist anymore to make her stay. She asked a few harmless questions of her own. When she finally asked who he was, he smiled, "Diaymo Imagawa."

Her eyes went large and she gasped, "If they've captured you, why are you alive?"

"... I don't know."

Finally word came.

"A man came to me and said to give this to you," she said as she passed a folded piece of paper.

Hirotei quickly unfolded it.

"We will water the flowers after saving the fish."

He chuckled to himself. It was Yoshitada's handwriting.

Tucking the paper inside his kimono, he turned to the woman, "I will fulfill my promise."

A couple more days passed in anxious waiting.

Now as he sat, he rubbed his hands of soil and stood to pace the room. If not only for some type of exercise, it gave him something to do.

He started as the rumbling of thunder made the stone walls shiver.

He frowned to himself.

If a storm was brewing, it could prove trying in their plans. The only time lightning and water got along was when they both fell from the sky.

The storm came closer over the next hour, every crack and boom making his hair stand on end.

When the doa burst open, he leapt back against the wall.

"Well, well, if it isn't the fish-face himself!" Yoshitada smirked as he tossed Hirotei his obi.

"Why did you take so long?"

"It's not important. Get on your armor and we'll head out. Half of the company is almost there," Yoshitada said as he pulled Hirotei's armor from a chest against the wall.