Ikemen Sengoku: Nobunaga Oda

Chapter 10

Mitsuhide: "That's some greeting Hideyoshi. Perhaps you should work on those manners you're always trying to teach me?"

Come on you two, kiss later. Though I was about to demand an explanation myself. We'd reorganized at our new headquarters. I stood with the assembled warlords of the Oda forces.

Mitsunari: "Your arrival saved us, Lord Mitsuhide, but I really must ask you what is going on."

Masamune: "Working behind the scenes again, weren't you?"

Ieyasu: "I want to know how you pulled an army out of your sleeve." Questions flew at him rapid-fire, but Mitsuhide just shrugged.

Mitsuhide: "One at a time, if you would. There's only one of me." The world should be thankful for that.

Mai: "Maybe you should just pick a question to answer instead of evading again."

Mitsuhide: "Call me surprised. Even Mai is scolding me." His teasing smile after everything that had happened was maddening.

Nobunaga: "Mai, quiet. Let him explain." Just me?! Oh you better have a really good reason for that kiss later, Nobunaga! Nobunaga looked around at everyone but said no more.

Hideyoshi: "Mitsuhide. Talk. What have you been doing?"

Mitsuhide: "Why, I've been in contact with Kenshin Uesugi, providing him information about our forces. All so that I could draw him out of Echigo and lure him here."

Hideyoshi: "What?"

Mai: "Why here?"

Mitsuhide: "Uesugi and Shingen had combined forces. If we struck at them deep within Echigo, they'd have the advantage. However, if we could get them to come all the way to us--"

Mitsunari: "You baited Kenshin, setting Nobunaga up as an easy target with only a small number of men."

Mitsuhide: "I'm glad someone here has some brains, Mitsunari."

Mitsunari: "Kenshin's battle lust is well known. You gave him exactly the fight he wanted in conditions too good to ignore. That way you could guarantee he would leave Kasugayama Castle and come here instead." That was sneaky!

Masamune: "Then why lie to us and tell us they were unprepared?"

Mitsuhide: "I needed the enemy to believe I was betraying you. Kenshin has a ninja who'd infiltrated deep into Azuchi Castle. He would have found out."

Masamune: "That makes sense to me." Kenshin's ninja. That's got to be Sasuke. This turned out to be one hell of a tangled web.

Mitsuhide: "If we came here in overwhelming numbers, Kenshin may have well retreated back to Echigo. After all, he'd much rather battle us in a place where he has the upper hand. Once everyone departed, I secretly assembled a force that would put us back at an advantage."

It was an impressively detailed plan.

Mai: "So, you really didn't betray us."

Mitsuhide: "I suppose I didn't." You could sound less suspicious about that. Still, I'm happy. I breathed a sigh of relief. That seemed to go for everyone else too.

Nobunaga: "You did well, Mitsuhide."

Mitsuhide: "Thank you, my lord."

Mai: "Nobunaga, did you know about his plan the entire time?"