Introduction to the stage Itsukushima: Sanbee Occupation
Unfortunately, I don’t know what they’re saying, but the context of the stage implies that Hanbei is trying to get Kanbei and Matabei to cooperate together to defeat the player. During the stage, the player can antagonize Kanbei and Matabei and make them turn against each other.
Notes: This was drabble prompt for domestic activities requested by @dai-rokuten-maou . It takes place before Kanbei went to gay baby jail and before Matabei had this pride crushed, but while they were with the Toyotomi. I based a part of it on this tweet
It was the first warm day of the year and snow was long out of sight. Seeing how the colours of the bloomed Winter Cress and the orange sunrise over the horizon blended together gave kanbei enough vigour to perform a chore he had long put off; reorganizing his office. He already elected to take half the day off to enjoy the weather, so doing some simple, mindless, tasks will help the afternoon feel well spent.
Kanbei stacked his dishes from lunch together then roared a long yawn as he stretched in the new warmth on the engawa. Sighing contently and patting his full belly. ‘Time to get to work,’ he thought to himself, walking to his office and leaving the door open to let in the breeze.
Satisfied with the setup, Kanbei sat and surveyed his desk in near disbelief at the mess that had grown: out of date documents, books, opened envelopes, misshapen brushes, and useless ink nubs. Kanbei pressed his lips and grunted softly in his mouth. He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in himself for letting debris gather up, especially in a place he spends hours at every day.
Kanbei exhaled sharply before diving into the task. He laid down a large cloth on the floor next to him and started tossing the envelopes and ink onto it. He slowly waded through the mess, pausing at the brushes to contemplate if they could be put back into shape. ‘Nah,’ he thought ‘These are easy to come by.’ and added them to the pile. After the basic trash was picked up, Kanbei set aside the books for later organization and began examining each paper to determine what was worth keeping. He had become preoccupied with letters of an old conversation between him and his father that he didn’t notice his subordinate enter his room.
“Kanbei-san, what are you doing? Whatever it is, your mess is disgusting,” Matabei mocked, wrinkling his nose at the garbage pile on the cloth.
“Eh?” Kanbei griped “Disgusting? That’s kinda rude. I’m just cleaning my desk. What’d you come in here for anyway? No way you came just to insult me.”
“Nee! I can insult you if I please. I came to deliver a message, here,” Matabei explained, grabbing an envelope from his sleeve.
“Ah, thank you.” Kanbei took the letter and opened it. As he read, Matabei took advantage of his distraction to peer curiously at the discarded papers.
He shuffled through the heap slowly, trying to not make any noise. The last thing Matabei wanted was for Kanbei to think he had any interest in what he was doing. The mass was mostly filled with worthless scraps and letters he didn’t have the attention span to read. Matabei squinted and frowned, feeling a little foolish for his curiosity. Without realizing, he had allowed a particularly fat letter to fall on the floor.
Matabei jumped at the soft fwap, spinning his head to see if Kanbei had heard; but he hadn’t moved an inch, still peacefully absolved in nostalgia. Matabei watched Kanbei a moment longer to make sure he stayed unaware. He sighed quietly in relief and continued his snooping. Eventually, he came across a map of a recent campaign he had taken part in; examining the markings and notions scrawled around it. It painted memories of that day, and if memory serves, Kanbei let that campaign turn fruitless.
It had happened around the beginning of March and Kanbei was ordered to quell a small uprising in the Ukita territory. He would normally leave Matabei back in Osaka to take care of any business that may come up in his absence, but during this particular campaign, Kanbei had decided to take Matabei with him. However, Kanbei was told there would be fewer troops then was present and was outnumbered, forcing him to retreat.
Matabei tsked in spite of himself. ‘How dare he,’ Matabei scorned in his mind, ‘Idiot probably knew how many troops there were and dragged me along just to humiliate me. Stupid! Idiot! Aho-Kan!’ In frustration he crumpled the map and threw it at Kanbei, hitting him square on the head.
“Hey! What was that for!?” Kanbei shouted, rubbing his head even though it couldn’t possibly hurt. Matabei only scoffed and hurled more paper.
“Stop that! You’re making more of a mess-,” Kanbei asserted, trying to block the onslaught, but was cut off by a brush hitting his nose. Kanbei grunted and covered his face.
Matabei burst out into laughter and slapped his knee,“Ke! That’s for my pride!” he chortled.
Kanbei grumbled, gritting his teeth but letting it pass. Though he had no idea what Matabei could be referring to, “Well, whatever. Since I’m cleaning up it’ll be a good time to burn that incense that Hanbei-san gave me. He said it’s supposed to ward off bad spirits, so let’s see.”
Kanbei rummaged in his drawers to pull out a stick of incense and bamboo holder. He lit the end of the stick, pinching it to let it smoulder, and set it on the holder; licking the small scorch on his soft fingertips.
Kanbei sat back and smiled at the thin smoke rising from the charring stick.
“Ah,” he breathed, taking a deep inhale through his nose to enjoy the smell, “Hey, it’s pretty-”
“It reeks!” Matabei interrupted “Stupid bear, your incense stinks,” he scolded, pinching his nose and waving his hand in front of his face.
Kanbei turned to him with a quizzical look, but only saw Matabei stomp dramatically out of his room. He sat watching the empty door a moment to see if Matabei would come back. Realising he probably wasn’t, Kanbei shook his head and sighed; returning to his chore.
