Author's Games: Samurai

Task Four: (Quarterfinals)

Thump... Thump... Thump...

Magoichi's heart pounded furiously in his chest as he stumbled through the woods. The Saika fort he had rode to and fought inside had been taken by Oda forces. He and a few others had managed to escape, but they both had been cut down by Oda scouts. The slash mark on his back throbbed with pain, but he held his breath as he hid inside a river.

Above him, the muffled shouts of soldiers and riders echoed to his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut; fortunately, the water already ran crimson with blood, so Magoichi's quickly flowing blood from his back wound wouldn't make him stand out in the water.

It was the perfect place to hide.

When the shouts died down, Magoichi's head emerged as he took in a huge gulp of air. He yanked himself up onto the bank, coughing up water. His entire body ached, but his only thoughts were of home.

The fort was along the border, but Oda's army is storming through Saika lands. By now... They'll—they'll be at Mount Hiei! Panic and dread oozed through Magoichi's veins, even though he shivered. Mount Hiei was the small capital of the Saika lands—what little they had—and it was his home.

He had to get there.

I hope I'm not too late.

***

Nobunaga overlooked Mount Hiei from atop a hill. For once, there was no grin on his face... Just a grimace. They betrayed me. The butchery is necessary, Nobunaga told himself.

"Oda-sensei," Mitsuhide said.

Nobunaga turned to see three samurai throwing four women and two children down at his feet.

"They surrendered to us. What would you like us to do with them?" The samurai on the left sneered as he asked the question.

Images of Hanzo's betrayal formed in Nobunaga's mind. Hanzo stabbing Ayumi. Nobunaga charging toward him, katana raised. Hanzo slipping out before Nobunaga could do anything about it. Ayumi's grief of losing the baby afterward. A messenger informing Nobunaga that the Saika had been hired to help the Asai clan against Nobunaga by Hanzo himself.

Nobunaga shook his head. They must all pay. I cannot stop until Hanzo is dead, he thought. "Kill them all," Nobunaga said out loud.

Mitsuhide gaped at him. "Nob—Nobunaga-sensei!"

"Do it." Nobunaga growled.

Mitsuhide didn't move, but the other samurai did. He unsheathed his katana and sliced off one of the women's heads. As it rolled across the ground, Nobunaga unsheathed his own katana—not Bushikatagi; his vow never to unsheathe it until the moment he used it to cut Hanzo down was too sacred—and sliced off the other three women's heads. They all rolled across the ground.

Nobunaga glared at the two children.

They trembled as the boy held the sobbing girl in his arms. All Nobunaga could see was Reiko and Oichi—his own two children.

The samurai sliced off their heads, surprising Nobunaga.

The samurai commander shrugged. "You ordered us to kill them."

"Not the children!" Nobunaga held his blade to the commander's throat.

Another commander behind him bowed low to the ground. "Oda-sama... 'Burn their entire village to the ground. Every Saika man, woman and child will burn,' y—you said."

Nobunaga sliced the blade across the first commander's head and then glared at the one trembling on the ground. Whirling around, he sheathed his katana and stared back at Mount Hiei. The walls of the village were burning, fire licking the walls as smoke bellowed up and into the sunset-painted sky.