Into the Fire

The Moon Over The Castle In Ruins

The four strangers sat in silence while they watched their chickens roast over the fire, deep in thought as they pondered the strange  circumstances that had brought them together. Tori glanced curiously at the injured samurai, whom she had not yet been introduced to, wondering who might be. She was just about to brave requesting a proper round of introductions when Nobunaga spoke up and broke the silence.

"You said that Nobunaga died. So people really do assume that I died then?" he asked, furrowing his brow in irritation, while he chewed on a chicken feather.

"... Right! He is dead! He was betrayed and killed by his servant Akechi and his hosts in the Honnouji Temple in Kyoto!" the injured samurai retorted hotly, clenching his jaw. "That was... eighteen years ago!!"

"Wha... Do not say such nonsense!" Nobunaga shouted indignantly. "Eighteen years ago!? Less than sixth months have passed since that kumquat-head assaulted Honnouji and I was sent to this world!!"

Honestly, Tori didn't get why they both seemed so upset, especially when the time difference was only a little less than two decades. Was he in denial about the situation or something? Because she was pretty sure he already knew who Yoichi was, and that time difference was a hell of a lot harder to reconcile with. Though, she had to admit, the kumquat-head reference to Akechi Mitsuhide made her laugh a bit on the inside at the image it conjured up in her mind.

"Feh. That's why I'm saying that you are a devil from the Other World, or a wandering ghost," the injured samurai sneered. "Or perhaps... you are simply ordinary folk gone mad."

"Heh heh heh," Yoichi suddenly burst out in laughter. "Hahahahhaha!" The injured samurai glared at the archer, but Yoichi remained unintimidated. "For me, it is just too funny to see you making such a big deal over an insignificant matter like ten or fifteen years," he said, smirking.

"For real," Tori said a bit more grimly, pinching the bridge of her nose. She was starting to get a stress headache trying to wrap her head around everything that had just  happened to her in the last few hours. "How can you two get so hung up on the issue of one or two decades in the face of how impossible it is for any of us to be here in the first place?"

"And... who are you...?" the injured samurai finally inquired, furrowing his brow as he eyed the youngest members of their motley group with suspicion.

"Tell him. Tell him," Nobunaga urged them, sighing in annoyance. To be honest, he was curious about the small foreign warrior in strange armor, but had been too caught up in his confrontation with the injured samurai to turn his attention to her sooner.

"I am... Yoichi," Yoichi said, pausing for effect, as he stood to introduce himself. "Nasu no Suketaka Yoichi. That is my name."

"I know, right?" Tori said upon seeing the dumbfounded expression on the injured samurai's face as he gaped at Yoichi, positively
stunned.

"Don't lie to me!!" he shouted incredulously. "He's a man of the war between the Genji and the Heike clans!! That was some four-hundred years ago!! It's just too absurd a story to believe!!"

"Hmm... as absurd as it may seem, I am I," Yoichi replied calmly.

"That was my initial reaction, too," Tori admitted. "But if you think that's crazy, check this out. I'm about four-hundred and something years away from you, too, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. I'm from the  future, and my named is Tori Reagan. Oh, Reagan is my family name, by the way. We say our names in the opposite order in my country. The United States of America, the country I was born and raised in, didn't even exist yet in your time." All three men looked at her with wide eyes upon hearing this.