Taste

Inferno

Horse hooves rolled thunderously across the plains, carrying Mitsuhide to his destination. The rooftops of Kasugayama glinted in the distance. He was stiff and sore, but more importantly, he was so close, so very close to her again, and finally he could see with his own eyes that she was well.

He entered the gate at a clip and rode the pathway up to the castle, dismounting in the courtyard and handing off the reigns to a stableboy. Sweeping into the main hall, he looked both ways and spied Sasuke.

"Where is the Princess?" Rude, to be certain, but Mitsuhide was in no mood to be anything but curt. Sasuke stared wordlessly for a moment, caught off guard before he motioned down the hall.

"I think she is having breakfast with Kenshin."

"Thank you." And that way he went. Down the hallways he stalked, his mind buzzing. At last, he reached the screen, and–resisting the urge to just rip it open–he knocked.

Kenshin slid it open, looking both disappointed and unsurprised. "Hello."

Mitsuhide contemplated disregarding his usual courtesies, but decided against it. "Good morning. I heard she was with you."

"Mitsuhide?" The Chatelaine emerged at Kenshin's elbow, her face shining with delight. Now was the time to ignore manners. Mitsuhide broke past Kenshin and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her so hard that they nearly fell over. All his worries and fears melted away against her, her lips like a balm on his burning soul.

"Stop that," Kenshin snapped.

"Apologies." Mitsuhide broke away from her, sweeping a strand of her hair from her blushing face. "I had trouble resisting."

If the God of War had something to say to that, he held his tongue. In fact, if Mitsuhide's eyes weren't traitors themselves, it appeared he sympathized. "I take it you are here regarding our new enemy."

"I am. Nobunaga sends his blessings."

Kenshin didn't respond to that. Instead, he motioned to the two of them, stepping back out into the corridor. "Shingen, Yukimura, and Sasuke are all prepping for a war table discussion about it now. I can't abide insects infiltrating my castle."

"It seems Kennyo and his men want a swift death," Mitsuhide chuckled, sealing the Chatelaine's hand in his. Kenshin's mismatched eyes flashed.

"Then let us put them out of their misery."

The first step was finding the monks, a step that had proven difficult in the past. Nothing much was on the infiltrators that betrayed them. They had swords, canes, sandals, and some ropes. It wasn't even clear if they had horses to ride away. Together, they picked through the robes the men wore.

"What's this?" Sasuke peeled a white petal from the underside of a sandal, sniffing it. "Lysichiton camtschatcensis. Interesting."

"What are these ridiculous words you use?" Kenshin sighed. "Speak plainly."

"Scientific name for 'White Skunk Cabbage'," the man explained, shoving his glasses back up his nose. "It is a plant found in the wetlands."

"We have no wetlands near Kasugayama. Are you proposing this is from their hideout?"

"Since there are no examples of lysichiton camtschatcensis near Kasugayama, it's statistically probable that the men passed through a wetland to get here."

Shingen unfurled a map on the table, working his fingertips along the roadways. "And if they didn't use horses, it was very nearby."

Yukimura stabbed a finger down onto the map, just south of the Uesugi borders. "Nikkō. The forest there is wet, and it's not far."