❝i would never have thought you to be so careless, ishida.❞ akkorō speaks from behind mitsunari, blade dripping red from a fresh kill, fresh body crumpled at his feet. ❝are you not the famed strategist of the toyotomi? or simply a boy playing at his lord's war. this man would have had your head were it not for me, and i have already killed five like him waiting in the cliffs above. you are fortunate that, even in this strange world, i remember my debt to you. now, tell me why *we* serve orochi.❞
FALLING MEN SCREAM, BLADE CUTS THROUGH FLESH, the sounds of bodies dropping to the earth and guns firing and arrows piercing skin. the snap ! of his tessen, heavy breathing, and akkorō’s voice pierces through the cacophony of war and brings mitsunari back to earth ——
even if he’s scolding him. but the last time mitsunari had seen akkorō, he watched him die. he’d ratherakkorō be alive and hate him than be dead. he’d do anything to keep him alive ; he’ll let him go if that’s what it takes.
it’s hard to tell while the man wears his mask, but judging by disposition alone mitsunari knows that thisakkorō must have come from a timeline far before his own ; this had to have been shortly after coming into mitsunari’s service. that was all too long ago.
akkorō’s scolding him stings, to be sure ; were he the boy akkorō ought to know, maybe he would have even bitten back, just as fierce. maybe he would have seen the soldiers so close to felling him. if he regrets anything now, it’s that he was separated from lord hideyoshi from the start. he’s in too deep to go back to him, now. even if he’s going to wind up back on the chopping block if they ever leave this godforsaken world, he refuses to die without trying to make a difference --- without freeing at least some of the warriors within orochi’s captivity.
maybe he would have been better able to control his impulses were he the boyakkorō ought to know, would be able to stop himself from immediately wrapping his arms tight around the younger man, just to be able to embrace him one final time.
he says nothing ; and when he lets go of him, he’ll try his best not to address that he’d even done it at all.
he swallows, clears his throat, keeps his voice low --- in case someone hears him, in case his voice breaks.
“ i’ve earned da ji’s trust ; and, therefore, his. they no longer keep a close eye on me, which allows me to free captive warriors as i please. ” and, perhaps, for the first time in a long while, he feels pride. his lips twitch, an imperceptible smirk. “ sabotage. ”
he’s older, now ; and though it has made him wiser, has made his arrogance more of an act than ever before ( has made him humbler, although not as many have seen that ), it has made him bolder, has filled his heart with more passion and emotion and pain than he knows what to do with. it has made him realize that he’s been given a second chance, in orochi’s twisted world, to protect the toyotomi even from afar, to do some good before he reaches the end.
“ will you help me one last time, akkorō ? ”
one last time, before he returns to a world where he will soon cease to exist, and a world where he has lost his love.
