Into the Fire

Stand Up to Victory

"Are you going to crawl like vermin and die in shameful regret, or are you going to soar the skies and die for your dreams?" Toyohisa asked gravely, staring down all the elves. "Which one do you prefer!? Choose!!"

"D... Do you think that we aren't ashamed...!?" the older brother of the two boys who saved Toyohisa asked through gritted teeth, trembling with frustration. "Do you think we don't want our country back!?"

"Do you think we want to live as slaves!?" some of the other elves joined in.

"Good," Toyohisa said, smiling confidently. "Then we will commence the conquest of the country."

'My, my. He's got a good face,' Nobunaga thought, smirking as he watched from the sidelines. 'Somehow... he reminds me of...'

"Hey," Toyohisa said as he marched over, getting his attention. "Why did you make me the commander? You should be the one doing this, shouldn't you, Nobunaga?"

"Feh... hahahaha! I prefer being the eminence grise! Hahaha!" Nobunaga said, trying to laugh it off. Toyohisa stared at him, unconvinced.

"I am not your son Nobutada," he said, stunning the feudal lord into silence. "Your son died at Azuchi! He was killed by Mitsuhide! I am Shimazu Toyohisa! I am not Oda Nobutada!!"

"I... I know that, you fool!" Nobunaga shouted. "What are you talking about you idiot!? You have no resemblance to him, stupid fool!! Stop talking nonsense, Idiot," he said, lowering his voice as he turned away and stared at the wall. "Feh. You fool."

'I said one word too much,' Toyohisa thought regretfully. What he said had obviously affected the proud man in front of him deeply. 'If my father was alive, I guess he would be more or less about his age...' "!!" Toyohisa said, surprised when Nobunaga suddenly spun around and stared at him with a nasty leer, as though he knew exactly what he had just been thinking.

"I am not your father!" Nobunaga retorted, imitating him. "Iehisa is long dead! I am Oda Nobunaga! Where the hell is Satsuma?"

Multiple veins throbbed and threatened to burst on Toyohisa's forehead as he glared death rays at the feudal lord.

BAM!

Without warning Toyohisa unleashed his rage and punched the Devil Lord of the Sixth Heaven in the face.

WHAM!

Nobunaga crossed his arms and launched himself at the younger samurai, striking back without hesitation.

"What did you say, you moron!?"

"What, you want a fight!?"

"Take this!?"

"W-What's going on!?" one of the elves cried in alarm as they watched the men whose hands they had just placed their lives in duke it out with each other. They had even started to throw things!

"Aaaah!"

"Gaaah!"

"Stop them! Stop them!"

"Well, that escalated quickly..." Tori commented wryly while she watched the scene of chaos from a safe distance with Yoichi.

"Oh, my, this brings back some fond memories... of the fights I had with my brothers..." Yoichi said, smiling nostalgically.

"Oh, you had brothers?" she asked curiously. "That must've been fun." She knew about him because he was famous, and the trick he did with shooting a fan, but to be honest, she didn't really know much else other than that he had participated in the Genpei War, which she knew very little about... aside from the fact that it happened.