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He had come so close to slaying Nobunaga.

It was all going to plan, just yesterday. Mitsuhide had been diverting his men back to Kyoto, Nobuyasu had been gathering up the men he could trust to rendezvous with his partner, and Nobunaga was vulnerable. He had no one but a few guards, alongside a few members of his family. A single strike, and the Demon King would lay dead in Honnoji.

It had been a shot in the dark, risking everything to reveal his intentions to Mitsuhide. Had Akechi decided to play it safe and reveal Nobuyasu's plan....

I'd be where I am now. Tied like a dog, his forces either scattered, fled, or turning traitor, and awaiting the man who would have him executed for treason. Not to mention Akechi's betrayal of the cause. It was almost enough to make Nobuyasu laugh. Almost.

Laughter was something foreign to him during the past three years.

True, he had never been the most cheerful of children, but the cruelty of his 'ally' had killed what was his sense of merriment. The thought of it gave Nobuyasu new life, new passion, and most importantly, new anger. Gritting his teeth, Nobuyasu kept his gaze firmly set forward.

Think of the men of Hamamatsu. Of Okazaki. Of Nagashino. Of Mikawa. Of Father himself Nobuyasu began to feel ashamed of his self-pitying.

Would his father have moaned and wailed of his fate? No. Ieyasu Tokugawa had been made of stronger stuff. When defeat became certain, he rode down to attain glory and his place in the annals of history, without regard for his own life. The Takeda had underestimated the fury of a man with such determination.

There were families that lived on, because of his father's actions. As there were families because of how the Takeda had been held off at Hamamatsu, forcing them to fall back. How the men of the Tokugawa held firm when Shingen smashed through Noda Castle, and went straight for their final stronghold, thinking his victory was ensured.

Nobuyasu had only heard of the bullet wound later. For so long, he had become convinced that it was the work of the heavens that Shingen Takeda would have been slain the way he was. It gave some comfort, after the death of his own father.

The same went for Nagashino. Forced to eat their own dead, all for Katsuyori's ego, the defenders of Nagashino still fought on and allowed for both Nobunaga and Nobuyasu to reach them in time. For all the tortures that he wished on Nobunaga, for all the sins of the Demon King, the destruction of the Takeda was not one of them.

It was righteous justice, or at least the closest thing to it that Nobuyasu could see.

It was the same justice that seemed unable to strike down the master of the Oda. After this, there would be no others who could stop his conquest. The Mori, Uesugi, Hojo, none of them had the power to stop him. Those that weren't being invaded were frozen by fear, hoping that they could somehow survive the crisis at hand.

Nothing could be further from the truth, especially now. The man who exiled retainers like Nobumori, and Hidehasa on a whim, for all their years of service, and who seemed to delight in the death of the loved ones of his retainers was not one for small mercies.

I weep for Japan. A man like him ruling over all. The thought made Nobuyasu grit his teeth. At the rate of his madness, he'll be slaying the Emperor next! Who else could challenge his delusions of grandeur?

His room had been spacious but barren, a likely mockery of samurai values from a man who lacked knowledge of what the word value even meant. All that Nobuyasu had was the evening sky shining through a window on the left, and a door in front of him, where he expected someone to enter and inform him of his fate.

Speaking of the devil, the sound of footsteps echoed into the room. It came from the hallways just outside of the room, and they were getting louder and louder. Nobunaga had likely come to see the face of the man that almost took his life. The face of the man who had been the son of one of his only friends. The face of the man who he had wronged.

He no doubt expected grovelling, or some kind of tearful explanation. As if Nobuyasu was a boy to be commanded. Nobunaga had never seen him as an equal, the way he had with his father, but that did not matter. Nobuyasu was going to die, and it was going to be on his terms.

If Mother's murder did not break me, neither shall the words of a monster. That was the promise he made to himself, as the footsteps stopped just in front of the door.

As it slid open, Nobuyasu would admit to being shocked by what he saw. Perhaps it was only his pride that made him think that he would have a final conversation with Nobunaga Oda, to lay down all the evils that he had done, and to have a moment to spit on the monster. A final confrontation for the history books for the price of his life.

What he got instead was a man and a boy facing him. The man was easily recognisable from the start, after Nobuyasu had spent so long fighting a campaign alongside him, as Nobutada Oda looked down upon the likely now-former leader of the Tokugawa. It was almost unnerving to see how much the son resembled his first memories of the father.

The boy by his side was likely Katsunaga. Nobuyasu had known that the former hostage of the Takeda had only been released last year, and had been sent to his father's side for the campaigns ahead. The urge to hide behind his brother seemed to be fought at every turn, fear coursing through his whole body. What made the sight truly bizarre was that he resembled Nobutada more than the other Oda brothers.

"I'm not in a position to kill you." He said, looking Katsunaga right in the eye. "That fact is why I'm here now."

"Nobuyasu, if you would direct your attention to more important matters," Nobutada said with the lord of the Tokugawa happily obliging. "I suppose you are wondering why you are here."

The meaning was understood instantly. "Who betrayed us?" Nobuyasu growled.

"Mitsuhide, out of love of my father, faked discontent with him to lure you out. He long suspected that you would be making a move, after the Takeda were exterminated, and stringed you along long enough to lure you into an ambush." Nobutada explained. "It was quite a good thing that that was his intention as well. We had just heard of a joint plot and were ready to assume the worst."

At the time, he had gone ahead with a small vanguard to meet with Mitsuhide in time. There was no chance that he was trusting Mitsuhide to be the one to slay Nobunaga, and then take power for himself, leaving Nobuyasu in the same place, but with Mitsuhide instead of Nobunaga. He had hoped to keep a check on the man.

Only I ended up being caught in his damn trap. Nobuyasu grit his teeth, knowing that Mitsuhide's wasn't the only cowardice. "Who among my retainers betrayed me?"

"I will not compromise their identity. Needless to say, they knew what was best for the Tokugawa." Nobutada replied, his younger brother preferring to remain quiet. It was amazing how his voice refused to shift in pitch or tone one bit. "The provinces of Kai and Shinano will be distributed with the Tokugawa in mind. Just as certain retainers of ours shall benefit from the destruction of the Mori."

"So our vassalage will be complete. No doubt you have a puppet arranged for my replacement."

"Iemoto Matsudaira will be a fine ruler. Not one to pick fights with their followers, or engage in meaningless grudges." Nobutada's eyes narrowed. "Did you really think that Tokuhime would not come to us in woe? That she wouldn't mention how you curse our name? Was it so hard to at least pretend affection?"

Nobuyasu looked to the side. "For the woman who arranged the death of my mother? For the crime of wanting me to have a son-"

"With a woman once of the Takeda." Nobutada rolled his eyes. "Do you realise how many years it took for us to convince Father that you could be trusted again? That you could be just as good an ally as Lord Ieya-"

"Don't say his name!" Nobuyasu snapped, the ropes around his legs being the only thing keeping him from standing. Katsunaga's face paled, but he remained in place. "Should I have knelt on the ground and kissed the ground Tokuhime walked on, after I had to order my own mother's death? Should I have called Nobunaga 'father', for the prize of being allowed to tour Kansai with him? Or perhaps I should have offered him Mikawa? He seemed very happy to turn us into a junior partner, once he was done with the Azai."

While I had to be the one to unite my clan. The one to endure the doubts, the murmurs, and the plots. How many of his followers had contemplated defection at one point? That had been a question that haunted him.

Stupidity was not something people thought of, when they spoke of Nobuyasu Tokugawa. Arrogant, violent, hot-tempered, all of those things, but never stupid. The fact that he had been propped up by a group of retainers, from Il to Tadatsugu to Mototada, was always apparent. Even more so that it took Nobunaga to have the process confirmed so quickly. It was only after Nagashino that he was trusted to rule on his own, even if he was stuck as a junior to the Oda.

In hindsight, there were many moments when his men could have exchanged their true loyalty to the Oda. It only took one member of the inner circle to destroy a man, and it was clear that that member had been one who never truly believed in Nobuyasu. Who could it have been?

His death poem could serve as a warning to the others. At best, he would serve as a martyr to rally the Tokugawa against Nobunaga. There was still time for an uprising, but not if they all suspected one another.

"Your victory is not certain, Nobutada. No matter how much you think it is." Nobuyasu did the closest thing to standing tall. "Do you truly think that men like Tadakatsu and Naomasa will simply bow to you? They will rise up, with the strength of the men of Mikawa, and they will fight until the last. The Hojo will smell the blood in the water, and then where will your campaign against the Uesugi be?"

It was a long-shot, yet it still gave Nobuyasu the warm light of hope.

"I'm sure they will." Nobutada turned back to the door, flanked only by Katsunaga. "Your mother was executed on suspicion of planning with the Takeda to undermine the Oda. You have obviously been doing the same. My men will escort you to a room where you may write your death-poem, and then you shall be granted the right to commit seppuku."

"Should I thank Nobunaga for such an honour?" The last true lord of the Tokugawa asked.

"No. He wanted to publicly execute you via sawing." Nobutada walked to the door, just a single step from leaving the room. "I felt that you deserved more. We might have been true friends, Nobuyasu, just as our fathers were. It's just a shame that the son's anger has forced him to follow their father into the afterlife."

With that, Nobutada stepped outside and left the room, Katsunaga following behind him like a whipped dog. As the two left, fully-armed guards entered the room and lifted Nobuyasu up in their arms, dragging him forward. It appeared that his ropes would only be cut once he was in the room where he would die.

Knowing Nobutada, it would be a small mercy that he would be allowed a friend to be the one to take off his head. In regard to allowing dignity in death, Nobutada easily outpaced his father in that regard. Craning his neck, the last thing he could see was Katsunaga whispering something to Nobutada, who merely just nodded and whispered back.

A sinking feeling hit his stomach, before he forced it back. The time for last words will come soon.

Nearing the room where he would end it all, a name came to Nobuyasu. One of the men who would have done anything for his father, but would have betrayed him easily. The two never got along, and he wouldn't be surprised if his 'loyal' retainer didn't sell his mother down the river in the first place, before advising him to execute her over angering Nobunaga. It all made sense.

It was a gamble, but the only one he had left. If anything went wrong, he'd just have to hope that natural causes would take the Demon King down instead.

With nothing else left, Nobuyasu's thoughts went to his mother and father.

Perhaps if it were him, instead of me, things would be different, Nobuyasu had no doubt that Ieyasu Tokugawa wouldn't have let his wife be murdered the way she was. He'd have succeeded where I failed. I'm sure of it. I'll have to apologise for my failure, when we meet again.

With that, despite facing death, the thought brought a smile to Nobuyasu's face.

---

"Brother," Katsunaga only spoke up when they were out of hearing range. Nobutada silently thanked his brother for that, although he wished that he didn't have to strain to hear him. "Why didn't you tell him who it was? It surely wouldn't have mattered."

"It would have hurt him, that's how it might have mattered. I'm sure Father might have had me tell me about Tadatsugu's actions." Nobutada's father probably would have done many things that he wouldn't. "Then we'd be wondering if he mentioned it in his death poem. The rest of the Tokugawa forces are just a few miles away, and I would rather we get this over and done with."

Nobutada had been a veteran of enough battles with the Tokugawa to know when they were loyal. Nobuyasa was brash, hot-tempered, almost cruel, and clearly one to hold a grudge, but he was also intelligent, passionate, and able enough to inspire some of his retainers to loyalty close to that of what Ieyasu could do. For now, the retainers were tamed, but that depended on a smooth transition.

If the Oda were seen as trading in bad faith, Iemoto could be convinced by some means of rising up again, creating a distraction that no one needed. That included creating a death poem that was suspected to not be Nobuyasu's own work. Another was that one of their own was a traitor, and had allowed the Tokugawa's power to fall even further.

No. Better to keep them guessing, keep them at a level that we can control. Nobutada calculated. The sooner it was all over, and attention could go back to aiding Hideyoshi's efforts, the better. The thought of future campaigns reminded Nobutada of something. "Father thinks you might benefit from accompanying me on the Shikoku Campaign, once we have eliminated the Mori."

Katsunaga's eyes widened at that. "What help could I be?" He asked.

"You've done well at running Iwamura Castle, and Father believes that you may have potential." Nobutada replied. "Nobutaka is already preparing to move into the eastern areas, and we'll be striking down north with Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu." He almost grimaced at the last name.

"It all seems so easy. Merely knocking down the last few pieces." Katsunaga said as his tone turned from meek to inquisitive.

"The Shimazu may give us some trouble, if they decide on needless resistance. The same goes for the Uesugi and the Hojo." Nobutada said, before finding his confidence again. "They will fail. Our victory is certain."

At that proclamation Katsunaga stopped in his tracks. Nobutada took two steps before his mind registered what had happened, turning his attention to his younger brother. The boy, well as much as someone could be a boy at fourteen years old, was almost shaking with fright. It seemed to be only willpower that kept him relatively steady.

"What's the matter?" Nobutada asked.

"It wasn't inevitable. We would have been defenceless. Akechi might have killed us, if it wasn't for Tadatsugu's warning." Katsunaga said. His voice kept itself steady.

"Yes, and that's why he'll be enjoying his land. When we are done with the Mori, he will have all the time in the world to bask in Father's forgiveness." Mitsuhide's betrayal of Nobuyasu, and excuse for why he was moving in soldiers, was enough for them to keep him alive for now.

When they were done, however, his fate would be different to what he expected. If he was lucky, he could be exiled to a monastery for the rest of his life, languishing the frugalities of monk-life. As time went on, however, Nobutada knew that his father was preferring the punishment he gave all would-be assassins.

The heir to the Oda would be lying if he said that he didn't sympathise with the idea. Sawing was brutal, but well-deserved in Mitsuhide's case.

The fool thinks he can take back what he would have done. To think that he assumed he could reach for the mountain-top and be safe from falling. Nobutada grimly smiled at such insanity. Only for him to remember certain other parts of Tadatsugu's report. The Hosokawa wouldn't have joined him, would they?

When they made the call to gather defenders, in case Mitsuhide tried to fight, or Nobuyasu overcame Akechi, the Hosokawa happily offered men to send out in aid. It was only the realisation that the Oda were safe in Azuchi Castle, rather than Honnoji, that made Mitsuhide back down. Yet he seemed certain that his father-in-law stood with him.

So who was right? It was clear that Nobunaga Oda had been giving in to some more of his...eccentric urges. His disdain for the Imperial Court and retainers who failed him was a particular sign of that, as well as the fact that he put his own name on a picture of Kami. Some were talking of him destroying the Imperial Court and making himself Emperor. Madness, but one that could spread.

Enough. Such thoughts are unnecessary. Nobutada focused on the important matter at hand. Mainly, rallying his younger brother. "The important thing is that we have nipped this in the bud. The Tokugawa will be busy bickering amongst themselves, and searching for evidence that isn't there in Nobuyasu's last words." Katsunaga nodded at that.

Even if Nobuyasu somehow discovered it and wrote down a clue, it couldn't be proven for truth. All of the Tokugawa inner circle knew that Nobuyasu and Tadatsugu did not get along in the best of times, for they knew, it was just hatred and paranoia taking over. At worst, Sakai Tadatsugu would become a figure of loathing to some, for what happened to their lord.

Those that wanted to make a stand now lacked a leader. Iemoto was not a fool, but he was not Nobuyasu, and he was certainly no Ieyasu.

Katsunaga shook his head. "Like father, like son. Both perish because of their rash nature." Katsunaga sighed. Nobutada's expression was clearer than he thought, judging by Katsunaga's confusion, or his brother was better at reading expressions than he thought. "Did I say something wrong?"

The Ieyasu that Nobutada remembered was bold, but not in the way that Katsunaga seemed to view it. The sort of man who disregarded strategy and culture for a fight, charging ahead without a care or plan. Ieyasu was anything but a fool, if ready to take a risk in leading his men forward. Was that how those who did not know him see him?

Then again, with what happened at Mikatagahara, were they wrong to think so? Did the reality truly matter?

"No. No, you didn't. I'm just thinking of something else." Nobutada muttered. A smile came to his face, happier memories coming to his mind. "Matsuhime has just been late in sending a letter."

Perhaps it would be the right time to give Sanposhi a brother and secure the line of inheritance even further.

Still, Katsunaga didn't completely believe him, showing that he had a head on those shoulders. From the looks of things, Katsunaga would be closer to Nobutaka than Nobukatsu, in terms of skill and character. With any luck, their father's hopes for him could be fulfilled.

With that, he put all thoughts of the Tokugawa family out of his head. In time, we will see how things are. Just negotiate with whoever the retainers have chosen to send, calm any tensions, and then hand over Nobuyasu's corpse. If it goes bad, then the Tokugawa can be assimilated in time.

It was a sad fate, but one that many clans saw, to be honest. Once they were true allies, the only one that the Oda could truly trust after the Azai's betrayal. With Ieyasu's passing, they inevitably became junior allies, closer to the highest retainer than an equal ally. Now the power balance between Oda and Tokugawa was clearly in the former's favour, and the latter's expense.

Had Ieyasu lived, perhaps things would have gone differently, Nobutada mused.

With a tired sigh, he and Katsunaga moved on.
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