The Sengoku Festival (An Oda Nobuna No Yabou fanfic)

Chapter 39

The city of Furukita and it's castle was finally under the Oda's rule but it had come at a heavy price for everyone involved. Most of the army had spent its men trying to capture the city and those associated with them had similar casualty lists. Myself and the Winged Ronin had lost the majority of our units to trying to hold our breakthrough point and as I looked over the city one last time as myself and him were heading back to Oda land, I hoped it had been a worthy enough sacrifice of a lot of good men.

And so we both began our slow trek back to the Oda lands along the road the others had taken, hoping we didn't run into any army along the way or else we wouldn't survive the ordeal to reach Oda territory. That being said, given how we still had roughly 100 men between myself and the Winged Ronin, rather than split up and alone the thought was we could at the very least rely on one another to help defend ourselves against any wannabe attackers by sticking close and thus we kept our columns close, almost integrated, to keep an eye on one another. It would end up being a very quiet trip through the lands of Date while heading towards the Oda territories and by the time we came to the city of Watamoto, we had managed to keep our forces together from roaming off and going through what food supplies we had as we would settle in for the night at the city of Watamoto.

Payments were given, rooms were rented, and for the night myself and the winged Ronin busied ourselves with trying to find what we had left for gear as through we had did our best to grab our fallen comrades gear to use for our next group of recruits, it had been tough finding all the dead scattered around and thus we soon came a bit short of our original numbers of ashigaru when in game to gear. Though that was only minimally bothering given that meant I had to buy replacement gear on top of recruits, what concerned me more was the fact that it may force us to be a more garrison-force then a mercenary force, trying to eek out Koku and existence by doing various jobs spread over Oda territory. This meant rather than being used in other campaigns we could end up be spread out over several places and doing duties no one else wanted to do.

And I really didn't want my whole legacy end up being just some dude on a fort near the border, drinking green tea and watching people go by like some paranoid twerp with a weapon.

But it seemed like I wasn't alone when the Winged Ronin told me, "Gosh at this rate I hope I can request troops from the Oda. I just want to stay active and not get posted on some random place."

"You and me both." I told him.

The border city of Minakonai was quite a busy place when we arrived late on the third day of marching slowly to the city, trying to keep ourselves scarce from any sign of an army which meant we went through some rough terrain. But it at least kept our heads cool and calm, knowing that unless someone else was in those woods that we wouldn't be as easily spotted and the peace of mind helped pay off for everyone as the men relaxed walking through the forests.

But now we were at a city, one could imagine that payments would be given out, equipment repaired and sold if needed, and other general stuff to get us back on the track to staying viable commanders.

Of course, while myself and the Winged Ronin were hanging around together near inns and other such places to see what sort of people and jobs we could find, it seemed like we were being sought after ourselves. We entered one tavern together, trying to pick up info by eavesdropping around us while checking to see what people might want. This ended up proving fruitless as everyone we spoke already had someone else to do a job for them and any job we asked for often was a mere mail run around the city for little reward. But just as I went to talk with the tavern owner, suddenly a armored hand touched by shoulder and I spun to see Yoshiharu, good'ol Oda Monkey General, as the young General then said, "Long time no see, Bloody Handed."