Try using it to hit people instead [OPEN]

[wavesoakedlegs]

WHO: Akechi Mitsuhide (wavesoakedlegs) and anyone who happens to be around
WHAT: A samurai plays the shamisen... badly.
WHERE: The camp. Where the camp SPECIFICALLY is, now... who even knows? 8'D
WARNING(S): Nothing, as it stands.

~

[Do you need a little more music in your life, time-travellers?]

[Well, this corner of the camp area is probably not the best place to get it. There is a man with long hair and a partially-obscured face holding an instrument, and he is playing it, but not particularly well. Which is putting it kindly.]

[In Mitsuhide's defense, he has not been playing the shamisen for long. During those few weeks he'd spent alone in his hut, hidden away from the world, he'd filled a lot of time trying to get to grips with the instrument. It was all he'd had left of Motochika, after all, and leaving it silent seemed wrong. Now, however, he is playing to try and... soothe himself? In truth, he isn't entirely sure of his reasons, but this world and all the people he has met in it have left him a little confused, rather down, and extremely overwhelmed.]

[There is only so much 'you're the father/hi I'm not dead after all/TIME PARADOXXXX' a mind can process at once.]

[Mitsuhide sighs when he messes up yet again. There is one particular sequence in the current song he is working on that he always fumbles, and it's beginning to frustrate him.]

It would seem I am destined to never master this...

Comments

[wavesoakedlegs]

Yes, it was.

[There is a long, drawn out pause, before Mitsuhide closes his eyes and says in a barely audible voice:]

It was wrong to leave it silent.

[He doesn't add to that at all, nor does he directly answer the question. That statement was surely enough. Mitsuhide does not want to add anything more.]

[the_magikarp_link]

[Nobuchika shifts to sit before Mitsuhide, placing his hands on the older man's shoulders and looking right into his eyes.]

How? How did it happen?!

[There is no sorrow in his unwavering gaze or voice just yet, but the intensity of his demand is there, powerful.]

[wavesoakedlegs]

He was protecting me.

[Which is true. Motochika's presence at Yamazaki had been, for the most part, down to his stated mission of protecting Mitsuhide. Just thinking about it...]

[Mitsuhide closes his eyes; the breath lets out then is pained.]

Nobuchika, please, don't ask me to describe that moment.

[the_magikarp_link]

[Nobuchika pauses and considers. The feeling of loss has spread to him too, and is numbing his senses, blurring the outside world. But Nobuchika won't let his mind be affected.]

I will not force you to do what you aren't strong enough to do, Lord Mitsuhide. But I ask that you at least tell me who.

[Nobuchika's grip on Mitsuhide's shoulders grows more firm, as if wanting to anchor him to reality as opposed to the world of sorrow.]

[wavesoakedlegs]

Kuroda Kanbei, under the Toyotomi army.

[Mitsuhide answers quietly, without much thought. He opens his eyes afterwards, however, and regards Nobuchika with an unusual expression. It's hard to put a name to.]

The right one is unlikely to even be here.

[the_magikarp_link]

[Nobuchika blinks.]

Hideyoshi's strategist?!

[He closes his eyes and remains in silence for a long moment. He grieves, and he considers. As Motochika's heir, it is his duty to carry on his father's will... and if his will was to follow Mitsuhide, then...

When Nobuchika's eyes open again, there is determination and intensity there that not many aside from Mitsuhide have seen.]

Lord Mitsuhide. Whether what you seek is to avenge my father or not, I will be by your side. You can count on my full support.