Chapter 130: The Unwitting Decoy
The stalemate held.
It held all the way until dawn.
Four Princess Warriors, each wielding a divine artifact, formed a perimeter around the command tent. The golden light radiating from their forms had not faded, their weapons remained unsheathed, and their gazes were locked on the Oni Samurai whose hand was clamped firmly on their commander's shoulder.
But no one moved.
Naoe Kanetsugu was trapped in his grip. Arcs of lightning crackled and leaped along the joints of her shoulder armor; a fraction more pressure from Hikaru's fingers and the current would surge through her body. Every warrior present saw this with chilling clarity.
Three thousand soldiers stood arrayed in the outer perimeter, a forest of spears and nocked bows aimed at the heart of their own camp, yet not a single man dared loose an arrow.
The air remained frozen for an entire night.
Campfires burned down to embers, were replenished with fresh wood, and burned out once more. The eastern sky bled from inky black to a bruised gray, and finally to a stark white as the first ray of morning light crested the distant ridge.
Golden sunlight spilled over the Uesugi Army camp, dyeing the great banner emblazoned with the character for 'Bishamon' a warm, buttery yellow.
Kobe Hikaru leaned against a wooden pillar of the main tent, the Crimson Oni Mask hiding his face, his posture almost lazy.
He was waiting. He had waited all night.
But Uesugi Kenshin had not come.
It was impossible that she had encountered some obstacle on the road—with that woman's monstrous strength, nothing in the whole of Musashi Province could have stopped her.
Except, perhaps, for Kikyo.
But Kikyo was guarding Kaede Village. She would never take the initiative to attack.
There was only one other possibility.
She had no intention of coming back at all.
The thought grew sharper and more certain as the sky brightened, chasing away the last of the shadows.
At that exact moment, Naoe Kanetsugu, who had stood rigid in his grasp for an entire night, suddenly smiled. It wasn't a bitter smile, nor was it one of mockery. It was a smile filled with the pure, unadulterated pride of a loyal retainer.
"You won't be able to wait for her," she said. Her voice was hoarse from a night without water, but her words were still perfectly clear.
"Our Lord."
Naoe Kanetsugu turned her head, tilting her face just enough within the confines of Hikaru's grip. Her steady eyes peered through the gaps in the Crimson Oni Mask, her gaze frank and surprisingly close. It was as if she, too, had long since discerned his identity.
"I know you're waiting for my Lord to return," she continued, her voice even. "You intend to use me as a bargaining chip to negotiate with her."
"But she won't be coming back."
Hikaru said nothing. Beneath the mask, the Crimson Demon Eyes narrowed fractionally.
"My Lord went to your village alone last night. From the very beginning, she never intended for that visit to yield any results." Naoe Kanetsugu's tone was flat, as if she were describing a long-settled matter of fact. "Whether it was the invitation or the test—that was merely her 'etiquette'."
"Once it was done, she left."
"And we—" Kanetsugu lifted her chin, gesturing with her eyes toward the tense soldiers and Princess Warriors surrounding them. "We are merely the contingency she left behind."
Hikaru finally broke his silence, his gaze fixed on her. "You're saying she never intended to return to this camp from the start?"
"Correct." The corners of Naoe Kanetsugu's mouth curled up again, a smile born from a deep and intimate understanding of her master's art of war. "Did you really think these three thousand men were the main force meant to attack your village?"
She said no more.
But it was enough.
Hikaru understood. These three thousand men were not the main force.
They were bait.
Uesugi Kenshin—her true target—had never been Kaede Village. It had never been him.
He looked up, his gaze traveling over the top of the tent and casting far away—to the south.
Her target…
"Is the Hojo Clan?"
On a small, hidden path winding through the mountains in the southern part of Musashi Province, Uesugi Kenshin walked at the head of a silent procession.
She was dressed in white monastic robes over light armor, a white silk veil covering her head. Her silver-white hair drifted in the morning breeze, punctuated by a few strands of jet-black that swayed gently with her steps.
Following behind her were not many—only five hundred souls. Yet they were the elite of the elite, the personal guard of the Echigo Uesugi Clan. They traveled light and fast, with no baggage train, no grand banners, and not even a single horse.
Everyone was on foot. On this treacherous path that clung to the mountain ridges, horses would have been more of a burden than a blessing.
This unit had not been dispatched from the northern camp.
It had never been in that camp to begin with.
Before marching south from Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin had split her forces. Three thousand men took the main road, setting up camp at the northern pass of Musashi with great fanfare. The 'Bi' character flag flew high for all to see—for Hikaru, for the Hojo, and for the Takeda spies to report back on the formidable Echigo army stationed there.
Meanwhile, five hundred took the winding mountain paths, bypassing strongholds and hiding their tracks.
Kenshin herself moved between the two groups. First, she went to Kaede Village to fulfill the ritual of her invitation. Then, instead of returning to the northern camp as expected, she headed directly south to rendezvous with this hidden force.
The existence of the three thousand was for all to see.
The march of the five hundred was the true blade's edge.
"Report." A ninja, who had been scouting far ahead, materialized silently at Kenshin's side and knelt on one knee. "The forward scouts report no unusual alerts in the direction of Odawara Castle."
Uesugi Kenshin did not break her stride. "And the Hojo main force?"
"They are still deployed in the north, occupied with the pressure from our main camp. As for Ujiyasu herself, she is currently inside Odawara Castle."
"And the Takeda?"
"There is no movement from Kai Province. Yamagata Masakage's unit has not moved eastward."
Uesugi Kenshin nodded slightly. Everything was proceeding as she had foreseen.
Takeda Shingen was a woman who excelled at and loved war, but she was also shrewd—far too shrewd to act rashly when the situation was unclear. Fūrinkazan—as immovable as a mountain. She would wait and see. She would wait until the dust settled before deciding which side to support.
And Hojo Ujiyasu, it went without saying. All of her attention was fixated on the three-thousand-man camp to her north.
The chaos that the ayakashi—Kobe Hikaru—had caused in that camp had, in an ironic twist, done her a great service. It had forced both the Hojo and the Takeda to turn their eyes northward.
No one was looking south.
No one expected that the God of War of Echigo would slip past their watch, leading five hundred of her finest warriors to strike directly at the rear of Odawara Castle.
The real is made to seem false. The false is made to seem real.
The three-thousand-man camp was the feint; the five-hundred-man surprise attack was the reality. The solitary invitation was the feint; abandoning the return north was the reality.
Naoe Kanetsugu's capture—that was indeed real, and not something Uesugi Kenshin had anticipated. But even knowing this, she felt no worry. She knew Kanetsugu was her most trusted retainer, the one person who understood her heart and mind completely.
And she also knew that by the time the Oni Samurai truly realized what was happening, it would already be too late.
Uesugi Kenshin looked up. The morning light washed over her face, and on that exquisite yet indifferent countenance, a flicker of interest finally appeared.
It was not the thrill of battle.
It was an interest in 'Justice'.
"Bishamonten protects the world and slays evil; this is the duty of a god," she spoke softly, as if to herself, or perhaps reporting to some invisible, celestial authority.
"And the order of the human world… likewise requires the hand of a god to set it right."
"Hojo Ujiyasu, you cannot hold this land."
"Not because you are weak."
"But because your 'Justice' is not pure enough."
Those who proclaim themselves gods are always extremists, filled with a holy arrogance. How much more so for Uesugi Kenshin, who already possessed the power of gods and buddhas, and believed herself to be their mortal incarnation?
The wind swept across the mountain ridge.
The footsteps of the five hundred were light and orderly, like the quiet whispering of a mountain stream.
No banners. No bugles.
Only a silent march.
And a young woman who believed she was acting on divine will, walking at the very front.
Southward.
To strike at the heart of Odawara.
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