The Beauty of the West: The Gold Route

Chapter Twenty Five: Down With the Oda

"Any last words?" I asked. The Demon King remained quiet as I stared him down. "Have it your way."

I leaped at Nobunaga, swinging at him with a right hook, with Lord Ieyasu's heavy gauntlets. He jumped away, and I took that moment to shoot him with as much ammo as I could, but he blocked every bullet with his sword.

I didn't let that get to me though, I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as I had hoped. Even Lord Ieyasu had fallen to him. I couldn't expect it to be an easy fight.

It was difficult. Running around and dodging Nobunaga's bullets and blade while protecting Lord Ieyasu simultaneously was no simple task, but I had to. Although I was anxious that I would make a fatal mistake that would have cost me everything, I kept pushing on. He HAD to have a weakness, right?

As I fought, I was beginning to tire, whereas Nobunaga didn't seem to break a single sweat. I began to weaken; I began to lose hope that I would win this fight.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some of the members of the faction gather a ways from me. They loaded their guns and prepared to fire. Luckily, Nobunaga hadn't noticed. I fought like hell to keep myself from looking directly at them and give away their position, and lose the element of surprise.

"Come on, (Y/N)..." I pep talked myself under my breath. "For Lord Ieyasu." I took some switch controlled mines from my pocket; these were bombs I had grabbed in my tent that I could secretly place and detonate at will. If there was anything I had learned from the Saica faction, it was how to set a trap.

I ran around, dodging bullets and discretely placing small bombs in a circle I was going to lure him into. I backed up towards Lord Ieyasu, shooting the rest of the ammo in my handguns, creating the illusion that I had nothing else up my sleeve.

"Stupid girl." He laughed wickedly. "You do nothing for the Toyotomi name, if that is indeed all you have to offer.

There I was, barely standing, with the detonation switch in my hand.

"I'm not done yet...." I mustered and pulled the switch.

The explosion that took place once he was in the circle of bombs could have been heard from the other side of Japan, with a force so great, it sent Nobunaga straight into the air!

"Fire!" I hear Sensei from some distance behind. They shot him while he was airborne, too many times to count. He was dead before he hit the ground.

I ran to his corpse and kneeled down next to him, then started beating his face in, even though he was already dead.

"I HATE YOU!!!!" I punched and punched and punched "I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!" Repeated as I pummeled his face so badly that with each impact he became less and less recognizable.

"Kid!" I felt a pair of arms around my waist lift me up from the cold, now blood-filled gravel. He held me tightly as I squirmed. "It's over now! "

"Kanbe..?" I gasped and huffed, as I was completely out of breath.

"Yeah it's me." He confirmed. "It's okay now, kid, it's over. "

When he put me down, I had the urge to go right back to Nobunaga's corpse and just completely rip him apart. But instead, I ran to my love, My Lord Ieyasu. I removed his bloody gauntlet from my arms, knelt down, and placed his head in my lap.

"My Lord! Are you still with me?!" I checked for a pulse, and thank God there was one. "My Lord...I am so sorry." I leaned over, so that my forehead was touching his, and cried.
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The remaining men put out the fires that plagued the cliffs. All that was left was ash an rubble.

Tadakatsu found us and picked Lord Ieyasu up to take him back home. Sensei ordered me to stay behind and search for survivors.

The air was filled with silence, with the occasional melancholic moan. I saw dead men from both sides of the battle field, and even men that hadn't made it outside their tent.

"Ahoy Lass!" I heard the captain call to me.  I immediately ran to him and embraced him tightly.

"I'm so happy you are okay.." I cried.

"Most of us are. Some of my men didn't make it, the poor seadogs... They will be buried at sea in a few days." He explained.

We had found all the bodies that were there, and each of the armies wanted to take them home to bury them. I had requested some carriages from Mikawa so that the fallen soldiers could be taken home, since Lord Ieyasu was in no condition to do so. Tadakatsu could have, being technically second in command, but no one would have understood him so he just stood there as back up as I temporarily gave orders.

When we got all the fallen men sorted out, we were able to leave the cliffs. I returned home with our troops, and asked that Motochika had stayed for the burial of our men,  so that I may attend the burial of his. After that, I hoped I could attend everyone else's,  but if not, I would be personally going to pay respects after the fact.

We had made it through the Oda's foul play. We made it to the dawn if a new day without them. Going forward, this country would be free of their evil.