Through the Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter 40

Chapter 40 - The Wall

Now he was really confused. Though they were making steady progress towards the Azuchian wall, the information Kojurou had provided to Daichi and the information he himself was given were not quite matching up. Firstly, he was pretty sure Naoe was planning to stall Kurora at the Herba-Acqua border, though the chances of him turning traitor and instead raiding the Acquan capital while it was exposed were too high. Which either meant the guys from Herba couldn't be trusted... or something was going terribly wrong.

Glancing sideways at his mentor, Riichi felt for his gun, debating whether or not to say something. They were on their way to the Wall, yes, but if it turned out to be a trap and people were killed... it was this squad in particular that he could not risk losing. Each held the heavy respect of his lord Masamune, and each had a loving household to return to. This wasn't like the old days where they would risk their necks for a petty strip of land. They were fighting for everything: the loss of their homeland, the loss of their people, the prospect of a better world through their lord's eye, their own simple, human lives.

"Daichi-sama-" he started out, reaching out to grab his companion's attention. But at that moment, gunfire sounded in the alleyways ahead, halting their movements and shifting them into high alert. Pressing himself up against a wall, Riichi watched as Daichi reached for his pistol, stopping halfway to grimace at something. 'Oh no! Please don't tell me he was hit!' the younger Colonel thought with dismay, his mind then beginning to spin with all the worst-case scenarios.

His blood poisoning could still be around. After all, he only had a week to recover and there was only so much they could do with Ignese medicines. The Herban RAOs hadn't thought to bring any with them, having viewed it as too risky. He could also have been hit somewhere and, like the stubborn man he was, concealed it even after Riichi and Kojurou had openly fussed over his tired condition.

He just... he couldn't lose Daichi like this. Mercenary or not, after Naoto had... And aside from Namikawa, Riichi had truly felt alone. Like half of his being had been stolen from him, bled out on the ground before him. He was always the quieter one, the weak, unsure one. Naoto was the strong one. Why did he have to die?

Even after all these years of half hoping that he would be ended so that, should heaven exist like the preachers said, he'd be reunited with his other half; he didn't know why he still remained in the military. I was true that he could have returned home to his family farm, there was no shame in retiring from a volunteer army. But he stayed. Was it his loyalty to his lord that bound him? Or perhaps there was more to his being in the infamous squad that Masamune had once used to acquire his own gains as prince?

"Daichi-sama!"

"Really Satou, aren't we past the honorifics phase by now?" the marksman grunted as he fluidly slid a bullet into his revolver and whipped around the corner to fire ahead of them. A few others followed in suit, shooting each other nervous glances. They should have expected some sort of a force to block their advance... even so...

"Saika mercs; every man for himself!" Daichi shouted once he had flattened himself back against the wall, hands shaking as he fumbled with his gun.

Yes, the thing that made the Saika difficult to match was the fact that their movements were random, with no real pattern in terms of the overall group. They were bound together by a name, not by a lord or loyal bonds. Not even Magoichi himself could rule over these men. Should one of them decide to go out solo or band together under another leader (in this case, Magoroku), there was nothing the Saika Boss could do. Riichi knew this much from Daichi's secretive apprenticeship of him way back before the breaking of the Peace Meeting.