The Beauty Of The West

Chapter 25: Not So Alone

The moment we stood up, we were grabbed from behind. Not by Nobunaga though. By a strange silver haired man with monk's robes.

"Can't have you killing the Demon King.." he laughed psychotically. "I exhausted all of my resources to make sure this happen!"

"The hell are you??" I asked, which seemed to piss him off. He yanked my hair, and I squealed in discomfort.

"Mitsuhide...why are you doing this??" Oichi asked. He didn't answer. Somehow they all knew each other. Part of me didn't even care.

"Let us go." I demanded in a monotone voice. We didn't have time to deal with him, to be honest. We needed to get Nobunaga, and this guy would just be a nuisance.

"You shoulda run away when you had the chance!" Mitsuhide continued to laugh like a psycho. "Now, you both will be sacrifices to his Lord!" He held a scythe to my throat, and one to Oichi's.

"This is gonna get ugly..." I sighed and moved swiftly without warning to take his weapons. I was successful, and now had both of his scythes in my possession. "What was that about being a sacrifice again?"

"No matter..when the Demon King rises to greatness again, everyone on this earth will be either praising him or dead!" Mitsuhide explained.

It was rediculous, really. Probably some guy that didn't get enough recognition from Nobunaga back in the day, and now he was eager to show him his loyalty. I sighed and slashed his throat, easy as it was to overcome him, and let him collapse and die. To his very last breath, he kept that evil laugh. It was creepy and I preferred not to dwell on it. I kept the scythes to aid in our fight.

Oichi and I caught our breath, and then headed to the ledge to face Nobunaga again. Except this time he was gone.
"No, no, no..." I looked around for any sign of him. The towers were still lit so he must not have gone far, but I didn't know where he was, he could have the upper hand. Luckily I knew the place pretty well because of my attempted escapes.

"He is this way..." Oichi began leading me in what seemed to be a random direction, but lo and behold, Nobunaga was in sight, looking for us. Oichi was like a Nobunaga detector or something.

I ran to get a jump on him. Quiet as I was, he heard knew I was there, and retaliated by trying to shoot me, but I moved just in time.

"Damn it..." I grunted. I readied the scythes that I had obtained from Mitsuhide.

"Those look familiar...where did you get those?" Nobunaga asked, calmly.

"Your buddy Mitsuhide gave them to me." I lied. "And I will use them to make sure you're dead."

He only chuckled in response. I was insulted that he thought it was funny.

He moved at lightning speed to grab me. I was barely able to keep and eventually he was able to shoot my knee. It hurt, and I collapsed to the ground, but played a helpless victim until he was close enough for me to slice his leg with one of the scythes. Oichi then lifted me with her shadow arms, and I shot him in the chest. Once again, he fell over lifeless. While he was regenerating himself with more of his men's souls, Oichi helped me make a break for it.

That pain I was in was excruciating! How was I supposed to kill Nobunaga 4 more times??

"Ochi...I can't move." I cried, trying to move my wounded leg. "What do we do? We are sitting ducks!"

"Sh...someone is coming..." She whispered. I looked around though, and didn't see anyone. We heard steps in the distance. Nobunaga knew where we were. He pointed his gun at me while keeping his eye contact, looking deep into my soul.

"And now, I will never have to worry about your interference. " he stated like he was having a normal conversation, and that what we were doing wasn't serious. I clenched my eyes shut. I heard the bang of his gun, but I wasn't touched.

When I opened my eyes, someone was standing in front of me. Instsantly, I felt relieved. He came just in time!

"Mitsu..?" I cried, as he stood in front of me in a fighting stance, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"We will talk about this later." He grunted. Yeah, he was pissed. I was definitely going to hear about this later.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked.

"The damn badger came and got us."

"Us...?"

I looked around, and could see an entire artillery surrounding the area. My fellow faction members were locked and loaded, ready to shoot this man down.

"Maeda. Get her out of here." Mitsu demanded. He was standing nearby, I suppose. Someone came to help Oichi, but she refused to go. She wanted to stay near her brother as he was shot down.

Keiji scooped me up into his arms, and got out of their quickly as Mitsu guarded his back. He brought me to Sensei, who was also standing nearby, ready to shoot.

"(Y/N)...Sis..." Keiji began, as he gazed at my knee. "Why did you not come and get me??" He too was upset.

"We can scold her later, Keiji. We need to take care of her knee first." Sensei chimed in and I was glad for that. I knew there was a long line of people that wanted to say something because I didn't say anything.

I watched as Mitsu engaged in swordplay with Nobunaga. They were really well matched. A medic from the faction tended to my knee, and I was forced to sit there, useless.

As soon as Mitsu killed Nobunaga, everyone was surprised to watch him come back.

"I WILL CUT YOU DOWN AS MANY TIMES AS I NEED TO! ROT IN HELL!" Mitsu yelled. He wasn't even winded from the combat with Nobunaga. Maybe I should have told him. But no, I HAD to do it myself!