[The Unlucky Game Master]

Arc 2.3

Putting down the kushi he grabs a large gold Koban coin, before leaving his room.

He walks up to a twelve or thirteen year boy who is playing with the white makeup powder.

Bending down slightly he casually takes the powder away while slipping the coin into his hand.

The boy looks at him surprised when he takes the powder away from him.

Giving a soft chuckle he rubs the boys hair to appease him and consoles.

"You're so beautiful, why would you need to wear this silly thing?"

He's seen what happens to his sisters when they wore the powder, when he first arrived at the brothel they told him the exact same thing.

His sisters didn't care about a so called fashion or beauty, but they were forced to fit themselves to what was considered "beauty".

He's lucky he had such thoughtful and sincerely caring sisters, often times he saw other brothel sisters try to ruin one another.

It's understandable when they were taken in at a young age and then received the brothels twisted teachings, but why try to make life harder for one another when it's already so hard to just get by?

Blushing, the boy follows and talks with him as he heads to the reading pavillion.

This boy is the one who told him about the shogun having sex with another man.

He was forced to be in his Ooku and after the shogun took his virginity, he was forgotten and cast aside.

Once inside the pavillion he follows him to open scrolls and read quietly.

The shogun sleeping with another man when feeling slightly suspicious of him is normal.

One of the reasons why the Yoshiwara street is so popular, is precisely to escape the confines of this strict hierarchical society.An illusive dream masks and numbs their senses from the truth, that is Yoshiwara.

Looking at the darkened sky he puts back the scroll, glancing down he sees the boy fast asleep.

Chuckling helplessly he picks him up to carry back to his room.After setting him down and leaving his room, he can see a woman standing outside the sliding door.

Leaning casually with her slender arms crossed over her chest against the wall she cooly looks at him in her black kimono decorated in waves and tides with a dark blue obi.

"Have you told him about the shoguns plans in the west?"

Looking at her with a faint smile of comradeship he replies coyly while slightly batting his long black eyelashes at her.

"Of course"

She smiles when she sees how he replied.

"As skilled as always aren't you?"

He looks at her in mild shock then turns and lowers his head with blushing cheeks while bending his wrist so only his kimono sleeve covers his mouth as he says with slight accusation.

"You're teasing me."

She lowers her head and gives a low chuckle.

"Don't try to petend to be shy.Your relationship with him, you have to be careful."

He steps along the narrow corridor and stops in front of a sliding screen door.The shoguns wife helps him to conceal his actions and is a close friend, which he gained when he failed to seduce her and ended up being molested instead by that rogue in a female body.

He rummages through the shoguns room and records the data in his terminal, he has to gather as much information as he can, before everything gets burned.He already has the shoguns wife evacuating all the innocent people secretly, this night is bound to be a restless night.

When a draft law was issued many of the former discontent farmers and peasants switched sides and became an added military strength to the daimyo governing their area, the ones who hadn't joined the rebel army yet became impossible to convince and also joined the opposing forces.

Koizuma stands peacefully reading a scroll in a commanders tent wearing blood stained armor with the sounds of fighting echoing outside.

This scroll was sent by one of his subordinates, it tells him of the areas they already took under their control and how their only waiting for him to finish in the west to advance.

When they were taking over the city and luring them into a field battle, he suddenly stopped the troops before they headed to a certain area.At the same when the shogun was preparing to announce victory, he was suddenly shocked when he was surrounded and captured.

How could they have known where he was?When even his own troops thought that his body double was their lord leading them into battle and that unnatural stopping before walking into his prepared gunman siege.

He doesn't want to admit that his love could be a spy, but he only ever told Ishi the full details of his plan.He surprisingly doesn't hate him, but instead is reluctant to leave him.

Koizuma puts down the scroll and sits before looking at the kneeling shogun in slight pity.

Truthfully he wouldn't have been able to capture the shogun with his ragtag rebel army.Even if he had prepared for a long time, there is still a large difference between them and trained warriors.

Also with the shoguns numerous excellent strategically prepared countermeasures, if he didn't know the full details he would have possibly died here instead of the shogun.He only picked one of the easiest to capture the shogun with and followed along with his prepared scenario.

He never understood how a man could be so infatuated with beauty until he met Ishi.

Beauty or power?

The shogun chose beauty and he chose power, but did he really?

He admires him with his restraint slowly breaking away from his control, why would he suddenly feel the urge to tell him who he was?But he's afraid and also refuses to end up like the shogun, he won't be controlled by his desires.