Chapter #2 - Plans

Sengoku period, Owari Province, Atsuta Shrine¹

A conversation can be heard at the back of Atsuta Shrine between two miko.²

”Do you think your vision will actually come true, hime-sama?³”

”It is hard to say, this is first something like this has happened, but if it holds true our lords dream of conquest may be closer than ever.”

Sengoku period, Owari Province, somewhere near Nagoya

My name is Itori Sana, 16, freshman in an all girls high school in Kyoto and apparently I got transferred to Sengoku era Japan, why is that, I do not know. I am totally normal girl no matter how you look at me, little bit on a short side, wearing glasses and having my tea colored hair reach at the back of my neck and curling upwards at the ends. I am wearing my school uniform that because of my current circumstances has been little bit tattered and I'd pay good money for a change of clothes. Of course I am carrying my gym uniform with me in my bag, but I'd rather not walk around in bloomers and t-shirt so I'll just deal with this situation until I figure something else out.

I am currently travelling with someone I know from history books as Kinoshita Toukichirou aka. Toyotomi Hideyoshi⁴, except that that Kinoshita Toukichirou I know is an old dude that after Oda Nobunaga died in Honnouji Incident⁵ took over him and unified Japan. This Kinoshita Toukichirou I have with me is a 17 year old girl in an armor that is some kind of a mix between farmers vestments and a traditional samurai getup and wielding a japanese naginata spear. She is a good head shorter than I am, and I am not really a tall person so it is kind of rare to find someone shorter than I. She has black hair that's cut short. It is messy and gives a tomboyish image of her. She loves to talk and is infinitely curious about stuff I have with me and about my origins. Sweet girl all in all, I just hope that she truly trusts me like she said and helps me make some sense in my situation in a long rung in case I'm stuck here.

The information I got about my situation by saying that I lost my memory is that we're currently at Owari Province in Japan and (after much complicated math in my head) the year is somewhere between 1559 and 1560, from what I heard the battle of Okehazama⁶ is yet to happen, which means that because it seems to be winter season, we're either at the end of 1559 or at the very beginning of 1560. The Battle happened around may-june so I still need something more so I can place myself in a correct time for some peace of mind.

As I mentioned, I was coming home from school, blacked out and found myself in Sengoku era Japan in the woods near a village being raided, got interrogated by Toukichirou and almost got shot by arrows from the soldiers from Imagawa Yoshimotos⁷ army. We managed to escape because of my dumb and suicidal gamble of ”let's shout out the name of the biggest threat to Imagawa and run -strategy” as I like to call it.

It took a bit longer than half day of travelling for us to get out of the dense forest we set out from and after getting to small road I felt honest joy about not having to deal with roots and foliage any more. Quick surveillance around informed that we're not too far from civilization. Pillars of smoke were climbing towards skies far south from us, which I assumed to be the village I found myself in being razed to ground. To east was the forest we used as a cover for our escape and to west there was a river and some mountains. We were standing on a small dirt road leading northwards, away from the death and destruction I had witnessed not too long ago, it still caused an urge to vomit swell in the pit of my stomach when I thought about the scenery the moment I came to and opened my eyes.

Apparently there is a village not too far from the place we're currently standing and we decided to head towards that. I was tired and hungry, we sat down to rest multiple times and my companion shared some bread and water with me, but to be honest I could really go for a large fries and a hamburger and soak in a bath for long time afterwards.

”Come on! I am just a normal high school girl! I'm not made for treks meant for army men to deal with! I just want to get in a bus with AC⁸ and after getting out of it go to convinience store and buy some ice cream and oolong tea!” Totally not acting my age, I started whining at myself while drudging along after my companion. This continued for about an hour more until we finally saw some hints of civilization and I was able to give out a sigh of relief.

On the contrary, my travelling companion kept asking questions about words I used and giggling to herself every time I opened my mouth to complain, that annoyed me greatly, but in these couple of very short hours I've grown fond of this girl. Back home I barely ever hung out with other people and shut myself in my own little world with books and sautering iron, I feel out of place when I am surrounded by people. I also have a tendency to panic quite a bit. I don't think I can express the pure fear I felt when I first met Toukichirou and she started interrogating me, or when I saw all those dead bodies, decapitated and lying in pools of blood, or when those soldiers attacked me and Toukichirou, I am still shaking a bit but thanks to Toukichirou, I've calmed down a lot compared to earlier. Despite her appearances she is easy to be with and her curiousity of everything new to her gives me a reason to chat so that also helps with my nerves.

We arrived to the settlement, it doesn't have a name yet as it was mostly built by the ones who lost their homes from the raids of late. There were tents and couple of finished wooden buildings, an inn that acted as a makeshift medical facility and a small barracks. After suggesting to Toukichirou about checking the inn and looking towards the homely looking wooden building longingly, she smiled at me and agreed. I of course didn't have any money of the time and only carried small amount of modern yen with me, after promising to Toukichirou that I'll pay her back my share, she got a room in the inn and a modest meal of white rice and dried fish, but after dry bread rations and water, tea and rice tasted heavenly, because this inn acted as an hospital of sorts there was a bath that people could use for a fee. I giggled at myself for this accidental variation of public bathhouse and accepted Toukichirous offer to refresh ourselves before heading to bed.

”So, what is your story? It is hard to believe you're from Kyo, you foreigner? You speak fluent Japanese so it is hard to place you anywhere. Also, I really don't think you've lost your memory you're not the kind of person who knows how to lie and deceive, but because of the situation we were in I kept my doubts to myself.” Toukichirou scratched her cheek and, her body deeper in the bathtub. ”I can't trust you if you don't trust me, so how about you tell me about yourself. I've already told you my goals and answered your questions, but you still kept to yourself afterwards. You may have your reasons, but I really like to know the people I let close to myself.” After that she leant backwards and rested her neck at the edge of the tub.

She made sense, but even I was not sure what was going on. I had accepted the fact that I was somehow sent to the past, but the people of this era were really sensitive to paranormal. Even Europe had the witch hunts⁹ going on and castles hired miko from temples to perform onmyoji¹⁰ arts to exorcise evil spirits or bring luck at war, so how would she react to me telling the truth? If she was not accepting type of anything weird, she just might drown me in this bathtub and call it a day. But the curiousity she has shown towards my stuff tells me that she is actually interested in stuff she hasn't seen before.

Using that as my cue I mimic her actions by leaning back, let out a sigh of relief after being able to actually relax in a bath after a long day full of fear and confusion. While staring at the low ceiling of the bathroom and feeling the wooden tub with my hand I answer to her quesitons, she saved my life so I feel like I should at least trust her somewhat, like I said earlier.

”You may find this hard to believe, but I come from around 450 years in the future. The stuff you saw are all things we use in our education. I didn't lie when I told that I come from Kyoto, I just do not come from Kyoto you may know. I have no idea how I got here and what my purpose in this era is nor do I know how I can go back home. After we survived the attack near that village I decided to stick to you as you saved my life and I had no idea about where everything is.” I take a deep breath, contemplate for a while and continue: ”I also wasn't lying when I said I wanted to meet Oda Nobunaga with you. If someone can make any sense to this, especially if I'm stuck in this era for a long time, it his her. Oda Nobunaga is a man with great power in history I know, but I do not know how her future will shape out and that's something I want to see. So that's my situation as it stands. It pretty much is quite close to the effect of me losing my memories when you think about it and as I said, I know now one around here so I ask you again, please allow me to come with you, I probably won't survive one day without someone from this era so having someone I can trust with me is worth a lot to me.” After this I turn my back to Toukichirou and lean my upper body at the edge of the tub. It's been a while since I've shared a bath with someone and I can't lie that this doesn't feel nostalgic and that I do not have fun. I've kinda missed this kind of skinship, being the loner I am.

”I see.” I hear a quiet voice behind me as well as a noise of water splashing. Yeah, I knew that my story would be hard to swallow, maybe Toukichirou is going to leave me here and continue her journey, forgetting all about me. I open my mouth to say something, but the moment I try to do that two hands come from behind me and start groping my chest and a familiar giggle can be heard.

”Coming from anyone but you I probably wouldn't have believed such a story, but I've seen more than enough proof to solidify your claims. I also understand why you would've liked to lie and keep this stuff to yourself and to be honest, I think we should stick to the story of you losing your memory, it is good that you met me and not someone more close-minded, you'd probably could've taken to a temple and you'd be stuck in there with no way of leaving.” She kept fondling my breasts and I hit her with a washing basin, how embarrasing! But despite all that, I was honestly smiling for the first time since I found myself in this era, at least I know I wasn't kidnapped by a rapist or murderer and was able to find an ally in a foreign world with very few problems.

We chatted for a while in a bath, I promised to show how the stuff from future actually works, while avoiding the topic of the history. As I told her earlier I do not know what is in store for Oda Nobunaga of this world, so naturally I do not know what is going to happen to Kinoshita Toukichirou of this world. Of course I didn't mention that last bit to her, because I am sure she would roast me about herself until I dried out. And just like with Nobunaga, her future is unsure to me. But now that I actually am here, I want to try messing with things a little. You do not get chances like these ever and my love for this era and my own curiousity are taking a better hold of me than my common sense. So for now, I will try and meet with Nobunaga with Toukichirou and stop the fool of Owari¹¹ becoming the demon we know him as. That requires me being able to place myself in a proper year and month.

We stayed at the settlement for couple of days and doing some odd jobs around here and there to get some money to pay for food and our stay in the inn. Toukichirou didn't have much money coming from a commoner family and I needed to carry my own weight. I've never really done any physical work, all the part time jobs I did were done as a convinience store clerk or taking orders at McDonald's, actually carrying firewood or bandaging wounded was really rough for me and it took a while to get used to it, but thanks to Toukichirous help, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, even when she kept making fun of my stamina and physical strenght. During our stay the raids to nearby villages had been mostly shut down by Oda forces and closer to the week of our stay we heard that Oda Nobunaga and some of her retainers were on their way past this settlement, so naturally Toukichirou and I were really excited. We took jobs helping around the edge of the town where some men were building barricades just to be able to keep track of the horizon to south and close to the hour of an ox¹² we saw a cloud of dust approaching fast and the alarm was sounded. People of the settlement came to the roadside with small food offerings¹³ and knelt down to the sides of the road. I who wasn't used to the era just kept staring at the approaching sounds of hooves and dust cloud and quickly noticed something was wrong, there were screams and shouts of rage accompanying the sounds of approaching people, taking my phone from my pocket I opened the camera software and zoomed it to work as a makeshift spyglass. I saw in the blurry image familiar blue and yellow flag with five-leaf flower mon¹⁴ of Oda Clan flowing in the wind, but there were very few of them. Only about three or four at the head of around twenty-or-so horsemen, others were sporting the comb-shaped mon of Imagawa clan. I told about this to Toukichirou and she paled immediately, no matter how great of a warrior Oda Nobunaga and her retainers were, unless something was done they'd get caught and beheaded sooner rather than later.

Looking around, there were the barricades we were building and some leftover logs, time for my time with strategy games to shine. I instructed Toukichirou to gather some men from the village and arm them with whatever. I myself asked couple of men kneeling down next to me to help me dig a small ditch to the road, when I explained that their lord was lacking men against Imagawa troops that were chasing her and her retainers we needed to give them some time to turn the tide. So we dug a ditch as fast as we could and braced one of the half finished barricades in it in an angle, and a simple rope system to hold some of the leftover logs on top of it. The men seemed confused about this kind of contraption, but with only weapons around here being Toukichirous naginata, couple of swords and some pitchforks I decided to bring some future building technology in here. We repeated this couple of times until there was a wall of barricades and logs secured on top of them. Afterwards we coated them with oil and waited for the group to arrive. Now everything was hanging on how Nobunaga reacts. Toukichirou took her weapon and the men and women she had haphazardly gathered armed with couple of swords and pitchforks and ran to assist the Oda clan. I instructed her to tell Nobunaga and her retainers to jump over the lowered barricades that come after the bend before the settlement where we are lying in wait with couple of men.

The contraption we built is quite simple. There is a log that can be pulled from under the barricades, making them fall in the ditch we dug, that way they are not too high for Nobunagas forces to jump over with horses, afterwards we can pull on the ropes to lift them back up and get the logs rolling. They're coated in oil so we can light them on fire with torches from the watchtower. The road slopes somewhat so the logs should roll quite a distance and when on fire, unless the horse is really well trained, it should cause a terror effect on horses and disarray in troops chasing Oda, giving them time to get some distance between them, which in turn will be making turning the tides on the opposing forces easier with Toukichirou, Nobunagas retainers and the men and women of this settlement to rout them. Toukichirou disappeared with her troops and I went over the plan once again with people around me, afterwards we lowered the barricades and waited, all this setting up took around an hour and almost the same time went for us to set this up, it didn't take too long for us to hear the hooves coming from behind the bend and I finally saw Oda Nobunaga and her forces from up close.

Or so I thought, but leading the charge was a girl shorter than even Toukichirou, she had a long, red hair and glasses. On her waist was western-looking weapon belt and a long arquebus-rifle¹⁵ accompanied with two katanas that looked like they'd be as tall as their wielder when held. Her face was actually kind of cute, one could say that if she wasn't in this situation she'd look like a doll. Two samurai accompanying her were both taller than her, one holding a naginata like Toukichirou and other was holding a more western-like spear and to my surprise Toukichirou was sitting behind her shouting backwards for her troops to keep running towars the settlement or if need be just ordering them to jump aside.

”There are the barricades! Jump you two!” shouted the small girl and urged her horse to gather more speed, two others followed the suit and when the three arrived at the wall, and jumped over them, first plan of plan was success! I heard the Oda troops slowing down and turning around behind us, while I gave an order to pull on the ropes to two men across the river and next to me and to light the logs to men closer to the barricades themselves. Ropes were pulled and the barricades rose from the ditch, I pushed the log back to its place and the wall was again high enough to stop a full speed horse if they weren't prepared, the logs were set ablaze and fire burned the ropes holding them in place. With a small rumble the sea of flames started rolling towards the bend in a row where Imagawa troops appeared in pretty much a perfect time, leading horses bucked and some riders crashed into each other, that allowed troops that dodged the charge and bought some distance for Oda to either stab them or knock them unconcious, couple of the more well bred horses reached the barricades and crashed to it thanks to the surprise placement just outside the bend in a road. Their riders flew from their mounts and were dealt with the samurai behind me and Toukichirou. Orders of retreat were heard from the remaining few horsemen and they turned their mounts around and started to back off while the men and women cheered and Toukichirou that had appeared next to me gave her usual super confident smile.

After this whole thing was over, some guards were assigned to keep an eye of the horizon in case Imagawa troops got backup and were planning to return, the Oda samurai did some kind of an exchange with the villagers and I asked Toukichirou about where is Oda Nobunaga, as I thought she was supposed to go past here with her retainers.

”Are you blind, lord Nobunaga is right there!” Said Toukichirou while pointing at the samurai and when I took a better look at them, I noticed that some women from before were kneeling at the side of a road, handing out some mochi¹⁴ to the small samurai girl, while the other two stood guard and smiling.

”Wait, Oda Nobunaga is this small girl that looks like she could be an elementary schooler? Yeah, I knew that in our history he was supposed to be quite young, but not this young! Man, this era doesn't make any sense.” I lamented and while looking confused Toukichirou said: ”You know Sana-chan¹⁶, lord Nobunaga is older than both of us, even though she has a small body she still is at least year or two older.”

Stop calling me ”Sana-chan”! I swore in my mind, she got into that habit after our exchange in bath she got into a habit of calling me that and insisting that I keep calling her with her first name. For some reason I've been doing so any way, it just felt natural to do so, so I had no problems with that. But I do not quite agree with that cute nickname and when I told her that, she stuck with it just to tease me. Such a troublesome girl!

”I still can't believe that.” I said to no one in particular and Toukichirou just shrugged. ”Those two accompanying her are Shibata Katsuie, the one with naginata, and Niwa Nagahide, they say that those two are Oda Nobunagas second left and right hands and her most trusted retainers.” she said without paying much heed to my rudeness towards her supposed lord. After that she just started giggling and sat down to ground, only to jump up straight away to change her position into a kneeling one. I copied her, planted my knees and my right fist to the ground, put my left hand to my chest and lowered my gaze. Reason to this was that the three samurai had started to move towards us after exchanging some words with settlers around here.

To be honest I was feeling a little sick, seeing men and woman get killed by my own plan and my awkwardness with new people didn't help the situation. I really felt like vomiting and was shaking all around when the feeling actually caught up to me. Oda Nobunaga or not, it would be immensely embarrasing if I threw up in front of high-ranking officers in this era.

They arrived in front of us and to my surprise first thing I heard was a really gentle voice questioning my health.

”Is this little one fine? She has been shaking ever since we jumped over that contraption earlier, she also looks pale.”

”No Niwa-dono¹⁷, she just has trouble handling war and she is bad at dealing with new encounters. My deepest apologies for all the trouble we've caused to you.” I heard Toukichirous voice, but didn't dare to lift my head thanks to my state. Apparently the one who spoke eariler is Niwa Nagahide, from the history I know him, he helped Oda Nobunaga with his conquest in tons of major battles and always emerged victorious, he also married into Oda family and became a daimyo later. But this Nagahide, I can only see her sandals and a hem of a kimono under an armor she was wearing on horse when they passed me. She has a very gentle voice and seemed sincerely concerned about my state. I also noted her usage of ”little one” that caused me some discomfort, but it doesn't really matter. Second one to speak was a clear and confident voice that also had a hint of concern hidden in there.

”If she isn't feeling well, then she should rest soon de gozaru¹⁸” after that she continued: ”I still want to talk with you before that. I heard that this whole plan was of your doing?” The question was most likely directed at Toukichirou as she answered: ”I was just a part of the forces creating a gap between my lord and Imagawa forces, she is the one who thought this contraption out and executed the strategy, trusting its success to my lords skill and experience even when she hadn't met my lord before.” is it just me or did she sound a bit proud when she said that? Whatever, my shaking had gotten worse, probably because such a high-ranked people I've never met before were talking to us and I felt a stare constantly at the back of my neck.

”Is that so, de gozaru” said the voice. And you came up with this on the spot with not much more than couple of hours before we arrived? I commend you!” The voice sounded really impressed.

”In the end you may have saved our lives, so ask for anything and if it is in my power to produce, I will give it to you.” she continued and this time questioned both of us, to what Toukichirou immediately answered:

”We would like to become your retainers my lord!” I winced at that answer and earlier voice gave an amused chuckle, after which a third voice joined in: ”Such insolence! These two may have some value when looking at the ability of working outside the box thinking, but my lord can't really be expected to allow just anyone to join her retainers!” The voice wasn't cold or sharp, like the contents of the objection would have you think, but just like the earlier voice it was really clear and she used easy-to-understand words. Even though the voice was kind of loud, I did not sense much malice in it, mostly just surprise because of Toukichirous proposal.

”To be honest, I really wanted to have you two lend your power to me the moment I heard that this plan earlier was made up in such a short amount of time and executed so perfectly. And Riku¹⁹ please, do not always be so pessimistic. It is more fun to share your dream with lots and lots of people, don't you think de gozaru?” with that sentece I was able to connect voices to people. The loud voice belongs to Shibata Katsuie, nicknamed Riku by Oda Nobunaga, so that hasn't changed. Which means the other, totally out of character, voice belongs to the lady of an hour itself, fool of Owari, Oda Nobunaga.

After I come to this conclusion, my vision is blurred and soon I see nothing but darkness, I can hear someone jumping down from a horse and Niwa Nagahides voice shouting about carrying someone to bed at this instant. I also hear someone saying about continuing this conversation later at some other place and Toukichirou answering something, before I finally pass out.

Next time I wake up it already is morning, I've had my clothes changed into a light dress and my upper body is being washed by someone. I groan and the moment I show signs of being alive I get hugged from behind:
”You idiot, do you know how worried people were when you suddenly passed out like that? Even lord Nobunaga did show concern by allowing Niwa-dono to take care of you with nanban²⁰ medicine.” I hear Toukichirous voice with some light sobs mixed in, she must've been really worried, sorry Toukichirou, I say to myself inside my head. I stretch my limbs and notice I am in a room at the inn, I was probably carried here after I fainted and Toukichirou has been taking care of me, how long has it been since that happened I wonder.

”You've been out cold for almost a full day, our carriage will be here sooner rather than later! I do not have time to explain, but lord Nobunaga is requesting our precence at the castle. I've packed your stuff and villagers gave you some clothes, so get ready and we head out. We're supposed to leave the moment you woke up and I was starting to get really worried because you just kept tossing and turning but never waking up.”

”Sorry.” I say, this time out loud and with true regret in my voice, afterwards Toukichirou just giggles, gives me one last hug and leaves the room. Man, that girl is so glingy.

Just as she said, pretty much the moment I get some food in me and clothes on and head outside, there are two horses waiting with one of the samurai earlier, as well as a fancy wooden carriage. I immediately blush fiercely when I meet the eyes of the girl waiting for us, but she just gently smiles at me and opens the carriage door. Now that I think about it, these kinds of horse carriages weren't that common in feudal Japan so it is kind of weird to see one, but before I get thinking about the matter any more, I get a push from behind by Toukichirou and end up climbing the vessel with the samurai girl and her, after that one of the willagers climbs up on the drivers rafter and urges the horses to move.

When we get settled, I keep staring at my knees and blushing, I made such an embarrasing show of myself yesterday that I really don't want to talk much. That doesn't last long though, the one who is in the carriage with us greets us warmly by introducing herself: ”I am sorry, we didn't get a chance to get acquinted yesterday. My name is Niwa Nagahide and I am one of lord Oda Nobunagas retainers. I was ordered to retrieve you little ones to castle so my lord and you two can continue your conversation yesterday.” the voice is gentle and warm, I can't help but to look up to who is talking. She looks like to be around my age and she is wearing a kimono with flower pattern under her armor. She isn't carrying her spear with her and is instead holding a steel fan at her hip. She has medium-lenght black hair and really gentle eyes, she radiates with that aura of motherly love you hear being talked about. After my little gesture she happily exclaims: ”Yay! I got to see your face! You shouldn't hide it, you have such a pretty figure that it would be a shame if you couldn't go on with your life without looking forward. Come on now, let's talk, face to face. It is even more embarrasing to talk at the top of your head you know.” After this she gives a super radiant smile and lifts my chin with a gentleness of a lover, or so I at least like to imagine. I can't help but smile and Toukichirou starts her signature giggling next to me.

”You didn't act like this when we met, I wonder what happened.” She said while giggling and poking at my cheek, such a troublesome girl I think.

”My name is Itori Sana, it is a pleasure to meet you Niwa-dono.” I say with a small voice, but the awkward feeling I've had is slowly getting better and I am finally able to sit normally.

”What an interesting name you have Sana-san, where are you from, I've never seen an outfit like yours that you had on yesterday.” Niwa Nagahide said, never erasing the smile from her face, making this actually feel like a really pleasant conversation. I felt like I could grow to like this person. After this, Toukichirou looked at me and nodded as a sign of keeping the story up, even with this person. I can understand that, the fewer people know about my situation the better. I had practiced this story a ton with Toukichirou and the villagers all bought it, so it comes out fairly easily when I need to explain it, so I do tell to Niwa-dono about me only remembering that I am from Kyoto and about how I found myself near a village being raided and Toukichirou saving me and how we escaped and ended up in the settlement earlier and how we decided to stay there to wait for Oda Nobunaga to pass by in hopes of being able to join her retainers.

At this point Toukichirou introduced herself and had a short small talk -session with Niwa-san¹⁷ afterwards the latter stared at me for a while and said: ”As you explained, if someone has contacts and resources to help you it is lord Nobunaga, but you two sure thought far ahead. What if lord Nobunaga doesn't allow you two as her retainers? There will also be the buzz for newcomers between the old retainers and that may trouble you two. To me you two seem like reliable people and I can't disagree with how your brain works, but you still need to be prepared to the outcome different you are expecting.” While saying this her smile turned into a fairly serious expression and that made my heart jump. She can be really intimidating if she wants to, I thought.

”But I will root for you two, I will try to explain the situation to my lord with you two and maybe we can figure something out!” she said with her radiant smile returning to her face.

After this we three started some small talk and our trip towards Nagoya Castle begun, only time will tell what will happen with the audience of Oda Nobunaga, I do have my trump cards, but I really hope I do not have to use them.

--- Afterword ---

Hello again!

Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter of To Sengoku and back. I tried to open up the characters of Sana and Toukichirou a bit more than in the first one and hopefully succeeded in it. They also met with Oda Nobunaga and begun their journey, we will see how that audience goes in the next chapter!

Writing this has been tons of fun and I do love the characters I've created, I currently have about two notebooks full of stuff about characters we've already met and about characters we're yet to properly meet. This is actually fairly hard work I've noticed. I need to keep on doing research so I can stay true to the original Sengoku Era daimyo and people mentioned in the history books as well as to keep things consistent through the story (which I hope I've actually achieved!)

Some may wonder why I made Nobunaga be a character like she turned out to be. I had honestly over ten drafts about her nature, look and even the clothes she wears because Sana is such a nervous wreck we weren't able to get a good picture of her in this chapter, but do not worry. I think she, as not-cool she may seem, will turn out to be a really interesting character that interracts well with our main heroine and people around her.

You history geeks like myself may have noticed that some stuff is different than it actually is, for example Nobunaga really didn't fight against Imagawa Yoshimoto THAT much, but he(or she in the context of story!) felt like a good antagonist for the beginning of the story, so I decided to give his (hers) armies little bit more ”screentime”. I also hope you guys like this decision!

Niwa and Katsuie are two other characters introduced in this chapter. I decided to give Niwa a very specific nature and a way to act towards others. I wanted her to act older than she actually is and be kinda over-the-top with it. I will explain more of this in later chapters, but you who have followed Sengoku-era history may already guess why that is.

What comes to Katsuie, she only got one line in this whole chapter, but we will get to know her later. Just like with Nobunaga, we only heard her voice but I hope that at least gives some hints about her personality. She is infinitely loyal to Oda clan and opposes change, making her a difficult character to deal with, but I am sure our protagonist can figure something out!

Until the next chapter then! Time for me to get Mr. Wikipedia to help me explain all those weird words and phrases and such that I used during the text so you guys won't be TOO confused.

Writers Notes

1. Atsuta Shrine is one of the most famous shrines, it is said to originally be founded to house a one of Japans heridatiary heirlooms: Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (草薙の剣 lit. Cutting Grass Sword) (also known as Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, or ”Sword of gathering clouds of heaven” 雨の村雲の剣) Nowadays it is a popular tourist attraction.
2. Miko (巫女) aka. Shrine maidens are ones who tend to shrines around Japan and work under the head priestess. They don red and white ceremonial clothing that is often seen as really cute and used a lot in anime and manga for purposes of making characters look cuter. They used to perform all kinds of cleansing rituals and excorsisms.
3. Hime-sama can stand for ”princess”, but in this context it is used to refer to the head priestess mentioned earlier. It wasn't that uncommon to refer to females in such a high position as such by their retainers and others working under them. The -sama-suffix is used when refering to someone in higher position than yourself. It is a very polite way of addressing people.
4. In history books, after Oda Nobunaga died, after a while Kinoshita Toukichirou changed his name to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and finished unifiying Japan to complete the dream of his former superior.
5. Honnouji Incident aka. the incident where Oda Nobunaga died. Not much is known about HOW he actually died, but betrayal of his retainer played a huge part in this. The most common speculation is that the retainer in question burned the temple while Nobunaga was still inside, others speculate that he performed a harakiri (cut open his stomach, a suicide form in Japan used to punish high ranked soldiers and officials) after figuring out the betrayal of his retainer.
6. The battle of Okehazama is probably part of the Oda Nobunagas most famous deeds. Severely outnumbered and cornered, he launched a sneak attack to Imagawa Yoshimotos camp and took his head. That can be said to be a starting point for Nobunagas serious unification of the country.
7. Imagawa Yoshimoto was pretty much the first ”real” opponent for Oda Nobunaga, he died at the battle of Okehazama.
8. Air conditioning.
9. Witch hunts started at 1450 and ended at 1750 in Europe, church did hunt down women who acted differently from how church expected them to. For example by acting against the ten commandments from the Bible. Probably one of the more famous witch hunt cases was the one involving Jeanne D'arc who told that she heard voice of God and used that to boost the morale of armies in numerous situations that turned the favour to France (for example, siege of Orléans). Despite that she was later burned on stake as a witch and years after that she was granted a sainthood.
10. Onmyoji arts were one of the practices that mikos practiced and used them to perform cleansing rituals mentioned in note 1. The Onmyoji basis is in the spiritual movement of the earth and spirits that hang around the world.
11. The nickname Oda Nobunaga got early on was ”The big fool of Owari” because of his interests in foreign affairs, like trade and religions. As well as his head thinking years ahead and no one really being able to understand him. That allowed him to surprise his opponents in many wars on his way conquering Japan with strategies that could've not been expected or created by any one except him.
12. The concept of time back in the day in Japan didn't work like we're used to. In villages there usually was only one large bell, that a spesific person rung every hour. An hour of ox started from eight bell ring after dusk (So it is around 6-8 PM when converted to current format.)
13. It was a custom to bring sweets or goods from their own fields to temples and shrines as offerings. Same goes when someone like Daimyo or people working really close to emperor were on foot and people noticed them. It was concidered really bad manners if you had nothing to offer and a great honor if person offered stuff gave them a compliment.
14. Mon, as in a sigil printed on clans flags and tapestries and kimonos. Oda clans mon looks like two five leaf flowers inside each other. It is actually really pretty! Oda also used colors of yellow and purple a lot.
15. Firearms were rare in Japan at that time, but Oda Nobunaga imported a lot of them from European traders coming to Japan. Later coming to be known for his large rifle squads in war. Arquebus is an old long rifle that was fairly inaccurate and had to be fired by lighting a fuse (like a handheld cannon with a long and thin barrel). The accuracy was a downside, but also the fact that the guns themselves may explode if the fuse is lit for too long.
16. -chan-suffix is used as an emphasis of cuteness, usually used about little / pretty girls or just as an addition to nickname. In this case Sana-chan is more of an nickname.
17. -dono-suffix pretty much stands for ”lord” and is used when talking to people in royal positions (or positions compared to those.) Extremely, EXTREMELY polite way of speaking that you barely ever hear nowadays.
18. The phrase ”de gozaru” can be translated as ”I see”, but it honestly doesn't stand for anything but a pattern of speech. It is usually associated by ninjas back in the day, but it was also used by some people as making their point clear. Some people used it at the end of pretty much every single sentence and others just couple of times in conversation. It wasn't that common, but back in the day it happened every now and then.
19. Shibata Katsuie was known as ”Riku” (陸), a nickname given by Nobunaga. It stands for ”land” or ”earth”.
20. Europeans were called ”nanban” (南蛮人) translated to ”barbarians”, it really didn't hold as much malice as one would think as they brought trade and technology to Japan that helped the country to prosper, especially around port cities. That also meant that medicine and spices and such were incredibly expensive and common folk barely every had enough money to pay for those. So the fact that Sana was given some for free is quite a present!