Chapter #1 - The beginning

Japan, during Sengoku Period¹

I see buildings burning around me as far my vision allows it. Screams of people fill my ears and people with katanas² running around, yelling at each other. There are bodies of women and children lying about everywhere, just the view makes me want to vomit. How did it even got to this point? I am but a high school student and just couple of hours ago I was minding my own business, just loitering around with some manga³ in my hand and thinking about what does the new Sengoku Bushin³ -model that was just released looks like.

My name is Sana Itori, freshman of normal all-girls highschool⁴ in Kyoto, without presence, avarage in every way. I do not have any particularly interesting hobbies by the stantards of others. I like to read some manga or watch anime⁵, but that's what everyone does, right? I also like to tinker with small mechanical trinkets and electric circuits to get my thoughts in order. I do enjoy my Sengoku⁶ generals though and am a bit of a history geek. I've played games like Nobunaga's Ambition⁷ for hundreds of hours, watched tens of period dramas concerning the era, without forgetting manga and anime covering the topic. Something about the way those noble men had their way with blade and politics has always had my interests piqued and I've felt immense appreciation and awe towards them. "That's a ground I could never stand on", is a sentiment I've been having ever since they first taught about them in school.

Now that I am in this situation I think that my motto should have been something like "Normal life is just the best" or "I only want peace and quiet" like in manga or novels as it seems that my way of thinking about Sengoku generals has led me to trouble and a situation I could've never imagined myself to be in. But lets return to the burning village as I'd like to consider it as the starting point of this whole mess I am in right now.

"Ow! What the hell is going on? Where am I? I was just walking back home and then... Then what? Did I faint? Did someone drug me and drag me in the woods? But are there even forests this dense around Kyoto? I do not understand anything! Wait, more importantly, who was it that brought me here? If I was drugged, doesn't that mean that they had their way with me? No.. No, I do not want to believe that! Plus, I do not feel that weird, I'd assume to have some kind of after effects or bleeding or something worse if that was the case." My head is a mess and I have no idea where I am, but I feel like I can't just sit here, especially since everywhere around me a settlement is burning. When taking in the scenery I notice that I do not see even a single piece of concrete anywhere, everything looks fairly new when looking at the buildings closest to me that the fire had not spread to yet, at max ten or fifteen years old buildings, but everything is made of wood and they do not even look that sturdy. Peeking in from windows reveal old style paper walls and candlestands with half melted candles on them, no televisions or even lights anywhere, which strikes me really weird.

Scourging the area whereI found myself revealed that my bag was also with me, if I were kidnapped I'd think the abductor would've taken at least the stuff they could've sold like my laptop or my Vita⁸ with them, but outside of stuff moving around a bit from being thrown nothing seemed to be missing. I still had my school books and assingments in there, same as with my laptop I carry everywhere with me. My gym clothes were also in there as well as the frontal pocket of the bag still had all my smaller belongings, like my phone and Vita, as well as couple of volumes of manga I was reading. Stuff that I always carry with me that people would think is weird, like a small soldering iron and a toolbox for a small set of screwdrivers and a bunch of nails and screws are also there. Why would someone first drug someone and then dump them in the middle of forest near a burning village with all their belongings with them? And if the plan was to kill or rape me, why not do so? Did I get incredibly lucky? Did the perp actually get caught before he was able to do so? But why are there no police around then? I'd find it weird if they just left the victim on her own, especially since she was unconcious. Also those people with katana and spears, why hasn't police done anything? The village is burning and these guys are clearly killing each other. What is going on?

My frantic pondering is interrupted by a female voice from behind me urging me to stop and identify myself. Maybe the police just were checking the area for other perpetrators or figuring out what to do with the riots, but when I turn around I see a girl around my age holding a naginata⁹ she was keeping her distance and pointing the blade at me, obviously ready to impale me the moment I made a wrong move, this is bad!

"Do not make me repeat myself! Identify yourself? What is with that outfit, you're clearly not around here, are you one of Imagawas spies? Depending on your answer your head will be on your shoulders for just a moment longer!" She half yelled at me and I got even more confused. Imagawa she said, spies she said... What have I been pulled into?

"My name is Itori and I come from Kyoto, I have no idea where this is and why am I here and only Imagawa I know is a warlord that lived hundreds of years before me! I am unarmed and I have no will to fight. Hell, I don't think I can even lift a sword, those things are way heavier than what they look, or so I've at least heard." Is a reply I deem the best at this situation, I see no reason to try and lie my way out of this, especially since I have insanely bad poker face and I suck at deception, my thing just has always been to go in the straight line and not try to go around topics, it seems to work most of the time.

After hearing my reply she just stared at me for a second and then said to me: "You're quite far from Kyo¹⁰ and your outfit still confuses me, but you said that Imagawa you know lived hundreds of years ago? That's rich! If you really are a spy then you're doing really bad job at trying to hide the fact." After this she burst into a loud laughter and began rolling on ground holding her sides. "Yeah, I don't think anyone giving this dumb of a reply can be a spy and I can see you are no warrior. You should run along now, it is dangerous here. Imagawa forces are closing in and the reinforcements haven't arrived yet, wouldn't want a girl from Kyo to get hurt because she was in a wrong place at wrong time. There is around half a day of travel through the forest until next village, if you aren't hurt you should be able to make it without any problems, just keep going forward and don't stop."

She barely was able to finish her sentence when a wooden shaft flew right past us, she immediately tensed up, jumped to side of a large treet that now had an arrow stuck on it and pulled me behind the trunk. "Shit, we took too long, Imagawa forces have gotten here to finish what they started and as we look like survivors they do not want us to leave alive." With her right hand holding my against the tree trunk by surprising force for such a small girl, my breath got caught in my throat and when I finally remembered how to actually perform normal bodily functions I managed to question her about the situation.

"What's going on! Don't just go grabbing people and throwing them around like they're some kind of rag! Also, what's this with Imagawa and not being able to leave this place alive?" I looked at her angrily and she sighed, gaze still fixed to direction where the arrow came from while holding a stance that looked like she'd start a dash in track and field.

"You say you are from Kyo. You tell me you do not know Imagawa Yoshimoto and you tell me you've never held a weapon, but I hope you can at least use your brain a little, your reply earlier was so out of there that I was starting to question your sanity, but now I have to wonder if you've lost your memory also." After this she continued: "I can see two, there are probably more lying in wait, but if we start moving randomly we'll get an arrow to our backs. Still, we can't stay here I can protect myself if warriors with blades and spears try to corner me, but with you here I exactly can't do that." She sighs: "I may regret this later, but do you have any ideas? We'd just need to get depeer into the forest and you'll be safe."

This is serious, I was almost shot by a real arrow and unlike bullets, those rarely give you a clean death, it must hurt to get hit by one, I don't want that! Also what is she talking about? And did I really hear the name of Imagawa Yoshimoto? One of the more prominent Daimyo¹² of Warring States! This makes absolutely no sense, but when looking at all the facts it looks like I've traveled back in time, I can't believe it and I will get to the bottom of this, but for now, I do not want to die.

But I am no warrior, I've played strategy games on a computer and I've read manga that handles situations like these, but...

"Wait a second! You said Imagawa Yoshimoto, yes?" I ask my companion as I really have to confirm my suspicions. "That Imagawa Yoshimoto? A daimyo that lived during Sengoku period and died in battle of Okehazama against Oda Nobunaga?"

"What are you talking about? Okehazama? Sure Yoshimoto has clashed multiple times with lord Nobunaga, but what's this about Yoshimoto dying in Okehazama?" My companions eyes went wide as plates and she dropped her stance carelessly. "Now is not the time to crack jokes! We need to figure a way out!"

"Just as I thought!" I say to myself, I still do not know what's going on, but thanks to that information I have a plan. I take my gym outfit out of my bag and hold it at the end of a stick, poking it out behind the tree trunk. Immediately two arrows pierce it through chest, knock the stick out of my hand and pin the shirt on a tree behind us. Afterwards I start dashing towards a tree closer to the village and yelling "Nobunaga-sama¹¹! I knew you were here! Help us!" This was a gamble, but if my hunch was right it was one of the only solutions I could've done, I can hear my companions horrified gasp behind me as she shouts at me about being suicidal. Effect is immediate, I can hear confused shouts behind houses and from the direction the arrows were shot: "Nobunaga is here? Wasn't she supposed to be at the frontlines? This is bad!"

I could've heard wrong or the dialect may be weird, but did they refer Oda Nobunaga as she? Oh well, my plan had an effect, immediately I make a full turn and start dashing to the way I came from urging my companion to follow. By the time we hear arrows flying towards us, we've already reached the thicker part of the forest and the satisfying thunks of arrows hitting trunks of trees can be heard.

When we finally stop about fifteen minutes later my companion throws my bag at me and chuckles: "You really are an idiot, who in the world would do something this reckless! I also have tons of questions to you, so prepare yourself!"

"You be quiet, I need to think! And do not haphazardly throw stuff you don't own around, what if you broke something!" I angrily reply and think: "Damn, if my laptop or Vita broke I am screwed! I spent pretty much an year worth of allowance and working on part time job to save money for those and all the games I own, I will choke this girl if those won't work after this careless behavior!" she has a confused look on her face, I can pretty much see question marks floating around her. "Hey, I already introduced myself, isn't it bad manners to at least tell your name now that we've been through a life and death situation together?" I ask while rummaging through my stuff, piling them on ground.

"What is this?" She asks while picking up a manga from the pile of stuff and flipping through its pages, "such peculiar form of art, I've never seen ink paintings like these." she looks even more confused than before and pretty much ignoring my question. "You can borrow that if you answer my questions, I am pretty much just as confused as you look right now. Who are you?" I repeat my question and continue going through my bag, while she keeps going through my stuff as they land on ground.

"Oh, sorry! I just have never seen items, books or trinkets like these so I got really curious! My name is Toukichirou Kinoshita, I used to work for Imagawa clan, but realised that lord Nobunaga actually knows what she is doing. And unifying Japan seems like it could be fun! That's why I decided to leave Imagawa clan and head towards Owari as a free soldier, you kind of stumbled upon them trying to hunt me down for treatchery, you have kind of rotten luck." She says and again a huge grin appears on her face and she continues flipping the pages of my schoolbooks.

I immediately drop whatever I am holding and gawk at my companion with my mouth wide open. "You are, Toukichirou Kinoshita? And you just refered to Oda Nobunaga as "her", is this some kind of a weird joke?" I ask while trying to remember how to collect my jaw from the floor. Toukichirou drops the book as well and is clearly shocked, then starts looking at me with clear pity in her eyes. "At first I thought there was something wrong with your brain, but now I think you may have hit your head and lost your memory too? There have been no male daimyo¹² in years so most of them are female nowadays, lord Nobunaga included. And you even called me a man, I am hurt you know!" After that she laughed, hoisted her naginata and thrust out her chest. "I am proud to be a female warrior serving under female daimyo. I am but a commoner by blood, but I feel like I can be of use to my lord!" she says while looking immensely proud of herself.

"Yeah, I didn't ask about that. We're going to have a long chat at some point, but for now I just want to get somewhere with electricity and population and food. I've decided to trust you for now, it is not like I have many choices and you're the first one who hasn't tried to seriously kill me, so I hope that you trust me enough to believe that I am not a spy of some hundreds of years old warlord." I answer and start packing my stuff back to my bag after quickly checking that everything seems to at least be in one piece after that mad dash through forest.

"I didn't understand half of what you said, is that some Kyo dialect? Whatever, it is not good for me to stand around here, we should be heading towards one of the still standing Owari settlements, we also should try to make sure that it is on road to Nagoya Castle, the center of Oda clan and when she returns from battle, she will most likely use roads that go through settlements dotted along the way so we should be able to meet her that way." She still looks confused, but after a while gives me a confident smile. "I will trust you for now, but know that, if you betray me or my lord at any point, I will be having your head! After that she giggled and I could do but let out an exasperated sigh and plant my palm to my forehead. Afterwards we both chucled a while and started walking. According to Toukichirou it would take at least half a day until the next settlement and another day until another that is actually on road we want to be on to hopefully meet with Oda Nobunaga.

This was the beginning of my story in this world that I know nothing and that I know lot at the same time.

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Writers notes:

1. Sengoku period was time between years 1467 and 1615, it is also known as the time when Japan unified under a single flag, mostly because of three Daimyo (see note 12): Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

2. Katana is a japanese long sword.

3. Sengoku Bushin ( 戦国武士ん) literally means "Sengoku war god", implying that the main character collects figurines of Sengoku period warlords.

4. In japan, gender differentiated schools are actually fairly common, all-girls and all-boys schools are nothing new.

5. Manga = Japanese comics, read from right to left top to bottom. Anime = Japanese animation. Shows and movies both fit this category.

6. These generals refer to Oda Nobunaga and co. I mentioned earlier. There are tons of these guys that are really famous!

7. A video game, historically really accurate and a huge inspiration for writing this. It is a strategy game where you play as one of the daimyo during Sengoku period and complete famous events, such as wars to progress.

8. Vita refers to Playstation Vita handheld gaming console. This novel is not sponsored by Sony, I just like to use real life objects in a story based on actual things.

9. Naginata is a japanese halberd, but unlike western version with broad axe head, it has slightly curved, crenscent moon shaped tip. Easy to poke in between opponents armor or behead someone.

10. Even if it still used, back in the day Kyoto was often refered as "Kyo" I will be throwing this around depending on character actually using the word.

11. the -sama honorific at the end of someones name is a thing with how honorifics work in Japan. I have touched these in the preword, but -sama is used about someone with higher rank than yourself, usually of royalty and such.

12. Daimyo stands for a feudal lord, these people were high ranking officers that owned a ton of land, usually multiple cities and castles as well as their own army. Some clan heads were also called "daimyo", but in those cases it was more of a honorific loosely translating to "lord". Oda Nobunaga first belonged to the latter and after gaining power, quickly rose to being a proper daimyo with tons of land and a huge army.