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It took her a long time to get use to the way things worked in this time, but she managed. After working past most of the drama and excitement that came with living in the sengoku era, she managed to find her routine. Her routine made things easier, made it easier to focus.
But still... she knew she didn't completely belong here. She had this fear that things would try to correct themselves. Things that were meant to happen... would happen, regardless of what she did. And the thought of what could happen and what could be lost terrified her.
She'd come to make friends here, a family even. The men who she saw in Azuchi were practically her brothers. Then there was Nobunaga. She and Nobunaga had a rocky start, but now there isn't a day that passes where she can't say she loves him. She loves him with all her heart. And the thought of losing him killed her on the inside.
She shook the negative thoughts from her mind. Everything was okay, there were no signs of bad things to come. If anything was happening, she'd have been told. She gave herself a confident nod before preparing for bed.
She didn't know how long she'd been asleep before a loud sound had woken her up. She jolted upright, looking around her room as sleep faded from her. She couldn't place quite what the sound had been. It was certainly very loud, booming even, but she couldn't connect on what it had actually been.
She listened, waiting to see if it happened again.
Nothing.
She briefly considered laying back down and going back to sleep... but consider her curiousity piqued. She kicked off her blanket and stood up, she approached the door and slid it open. She peered out into the dark hallway, dimly illuminated by candles.
Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, she stepped out and closed her door. She once again looked up and down the hallway before deciding which way to go.
She kept looking around for anything strange, listening for any strange noises. But... she couldn't hear anything at all.
She stopped walking, listening closely. Something wasn't right... it was completely silent. Completely. She looked around again. No sound whatsoever. She needed to get to the bottom of this. She continued walking, paying closer attention for any sounds that weren't made by her.
She rounded a corner and gasped, someone was walking down the hall!
“Mitsuhide?” Yes, it was Mitsuhide! She laughed softly at herself for being so startled.
“Mitsuhide!” she called out to him.
He stopped walking completely, but did not turn to her or show any other sign that he had heard her.
She called out to him once again, in a more questioning tone. She stepped in his direction, but he started walking again. Quickly reaching the end of the hallway and turning out of sight.
“Wha-- wait up!” she called after him, rushing down the hallway to catch up to him.
However, when she reached the end of the hall, Mitsuhide was nowhere to be seen. She looked around, but there was no sign of where he could be... she briefly considered that he could be hiding right out of view, waiting to spook her. But, she had the feeling that wasn't the case.
She suddenly felt cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and continued walking, eager to find someone to help dispel this tense atmosphere.
She eventually found herself in the gardens. She wasn't sure what brought her here, but it felt like something pulled her here. She walked around, hoping that maybe it could help calm the rising concern in her chest.
She hadn't seen any sign of Mitsuhide, he hadn't jumped out at her.... why was he even here so late? She could have sworn he'd gone home to his own castle. Where had he even gone so quickly that she didn't even hear or see him again? Where was everyone else who was suppose to be at the castle? Where were the night guards?
Why was everything so quiet?
She suddenly stopped walking when she thought she heard something. She realized in that split moment when she looked up, that she'd stopped looking around and had been staring at her feet. When did that happen?
Whatever quick noise she'd thought she'd heard was gone now, but the possible source wasn't. On the other side of the garden, she saw them. She was filled with relief at the familiar forms. She quickly rushed over.
However... she could feel the relief be snatched away as she drew closer to them.
They were standing in near complete darkness, barely illuminated by nearby lanterns, they stood in a circle.
Masamune, Ieyasu, Hideyoshi, Mitsunari...
She was hesitant to call out to any of them.
Even as she stood right next to them, they didn't respond to her. They didn't respond to each other. They were just there.... unmoving.
“What are you guys doing?” she asked, but she received no response.
She stepped into the circle they were creating, trying to get a reaction, but they all continued to stare blankly at the ground where she stood.
“This isn't funny, you guys are scaring me.”
She was hoping this was some kind of prank, a joke or something. She turn to one of them, Mitsunari.
“Stop, I don't like this.” she reached out and brushed her fingertips across his cheek.
She yelped and yanked her hand back.
It had burned. But... everything in her mind was screaming that he was ice cold.
How was that possible? She looked to her reddening fingers. That had definitely burned her, but why was she so convinced he was freezing?
Something caught her eye behind him, someone heading back into the castle.
She quickly looked around at the men making the circle, they were still all present.
That left only two possibilities. Whoever that was, was either Mitsuhide or Nobunaga.
She felt her stomach twist as she thought of Nobunaga.
Something wasn't right.
She quickly followed after whoever had entered the castle.
Once again, there was no sign of whoever it was or where they had gone.
She huffed, starting to feel a form of anger forming. This wasn't funny. Whatever this was, she didn't like or appreciate it.
She stopped looking for the person and decided to look for Nobunaga directly. If he saw the kind of distress she was in, he'd put an end to this, for sure.
She quickly made her way to his room, barely announcing herself before throwing the door open.
She wasn't really surprised that he wasn't there, that would have been too easy. She was about to turn and leave, but the door suddenly slammed shut behind her. She yelped and jumped forward, then whirled around to look at the door.
She tried to slide it open, but it wouldn't move. She pulled with more force, but it still wouldn't move.
When she couldn't get it to open, she started yelling. Yelling that she was stuck, that this wasn't funny, for whoever closed the door to open it right this second. But nothing happened, it remained painfully silent.
She knew she was denying it... but she refused to believe that any of this was real. This had to be some kind of joke, she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle it if it wasn't. With no way out, she realized she'd have to wait for someone to open the door.
She marched over to Nobunaga's futon and sat on her knees, crossing her arms as she tried to hold herself together.
She didn't know how it was possible, but she'd fallen asleep at some point. She she opened her eyes and realized she'd been asleep, she quickly sat up, looking around.
She was still in Nobunaga's room.
The door made a sound and slid open a little, she flinched and looked at it.
She saw something briefly shining before it was completely dark beyond the cracked door.
She quickly got to her feet and opened the door completely, exiting before the door could somehow be slammed shut again.
She looked for whatever was glinting in the darkness, but found nothing and heard nothing.
'Maybe I should just go back to my room and sleep until morning.'
This thought flashed through her mind, but quickly vanished as she heard something. It was faint and far away, but it was something. Something was making noise and it wasn't coming from her. She quickly followed it.
It grew louder as she returned to the garden again.
She must not have fallen asleep for long, it was still very dark.
'Where are the stars?' she'd only just noticed that the stars were missing from the sky. It was completely black, save for the moon. The only thing currently providing light.
She continued to follow the sound she'd heard, now nearly deafening. She recognized this sound. It was the sound of two swords hitting each other.
She soon found the source.
“Nobunaga!”
She could see him clearly from where she stood, but she could see no one else. Yet, whenever he brought his sword down, it appeared to meet resistance and let out the sound of hitting another sword.
Against her better judgement, she approached, calling out to him once again. But, like the four before, he did not acknowledge her being there at all and continued to fight his invisible foe.
The closer she got, the heavier she felt, like she was being held back from getting closer to him.
Soon, another sound joined the sound of swords. The crackling of flames.
The gardens around her and Nobunaga suddenly erupted into flames. She screamed in surprise and fear.
Nobunaga was unaffected by the flames and continued his fight.
She attempted to rush to him, to get him out of here, but she suddenly felt hands grip her arms and legs. She was pulled towards the ground and pinned. But she couldn't see anyone at all. She struggled, fearful tears escaping her.
She noticed Nobunaga stop moving, he had sheathed his sword, as if he had won his fight. She decided to try one more time.
“NOBUNAGA!”
He visibly jolted, looking in her direction, noticing her. He seemed surprised and concern, taking a step towards her with an outstretched hand.
She noticed a glint behind him, and it all seemed so familiar.
“Behind yo--”
She once again screamed as a blade came bursting through Nobunaga's chest. She caught the eye of the man behind him, familiar golden eyes.
“No...”
'….up...'
“No.”
'ak...p...'
“No!”
“Wake up!”
She jolted upright, screaming loudly.
“Woah, woah, calm down! It was only a bad dream!” she felt an arm wrap protectively around her shoulders. It took her several moments of looking around to realize she was in her room. And that Hideyoshi was there, attempting to comfort her from the nightmare she'd just had.
She shrugged his arm off her shoulder and quickly stood up.
“Hey, where are you going?!”
She ignored him and ran out of her room, not even bothering to change clothes. She needed to find him.
Nobunaga was still in his room when she burst in. Mitsuhide was also there, giving a report of some kind. She didn't care about that, what she cared about was throwing herself into Nobunaga's arms and crying, desperate to make sure he was okay.
She was nearly inconsolable as she tightly gripped the fabric of his kimono and cried into his shoulder.
Hideyoshi, who had chased after her, was the one to explain that she'd just woken up from a bad dream of some kind. Nobunaga simply wrapped his arms around her, waiting for her to calm down enough to explain her dream and why it had her so upset.
She didn't know if the universe would be so cruel and take him away from her, but was she did know, was that she'd cling to him and wouldn't let him go without a fight. She loved him, and she couldn't bear the thought of losing him.