CHAPTER 245: CHAPTER 177: SUPER ODA GREAT BATTLE

Owari once again descended into chaos, so Harano had no choice but to temporarily give up exploring the Ise Mountains and return to New Wanjin to muster his army, in order to help Oda Nobunaga deal with the challenges from Saito Yoshitada and Oda Nobuhide.

There was really nothing he could do about it—he was still highly dependent on the trade routes controlled by the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family. Even though his ally Oda Nobunaga was a huge pain, constantly demanding him to join this battle or that, he still had to go. The truth was, only with New Wanjin in good shape could he keep exploring the Ise Mountains—without the power of New Wanjin and all these elite subordinates, he’d last maybe three days alone in the mountains before getting gored to death by a wild boar. So much for exploration.

Of course, Oda Nobunaga seemed to have realized he’d been calling for help a bit too often—or perhaps he simply needed more and more support from allies now, and was becoming increasingly hooked on New Wanjin’s gunpowder. So he waved his hand and actually returned Old Wanjin to him, saying Old Wanjin could serve as a camp for the Wanjin Army, so that Harano wouldn’t have to set sail every single time he came to help out.

And just like that, the war between Owari’s Upper and Lower Four Provinces began, and both sides started gathering their own allies, plotting how to counter each other.

For example, Oda Nobunaga, through a political marriage, sent off another sister and became kin-allies with Oda Nobuaki, lord of Inuyama Castle. That more or less shifted the balance back in his favor and cost Iwakura Castle an arm. Inuyama Castle, after all, was a major city in the Upper Four Provinces, and the lord Oda Nobuaki’s father, Oda Nobukane, had been retainer and childhood companion (think something like Ikegami Keisuke was to Oda Nobunaga) to the former Iwakura lord Oda Nobuyasu. Refusing to submit to the rebel Oda Nobuhide, Nobuaki decisively threw himself into Nobunaga’s arms.

This was also a powerful counterstrike against Saito Yoshitada’s "schemes." Inuyama Castle’s location was unique, sitting in the northeast corner of Owari, like a dagger aimed at Minoh’s flank. Now that the Inuyama clan was falling in with Oda Nobunaga, Saito Yoshitada would have to devote a lot of energy to keeping them in check and could no longer fully support Iwakura Castle—the situation was turning into a direct showdown between Oda Nobunaga and Oda Nobuhide.

Seeing how things were going, Oda Nobuhide and Saito Yoshitada weren’t idling around either. While skirmishing with Nobunaga, they began plotting to rope in another "experienced rebel" from the Oda Danjo Chonosuke household—the star of Nobunaga’s mother’s "scrap the eldest, crown the youngest" plot back in the day: Oda Nobunaga’s full brother, lord of Mosen Castle, Oda Shinsei.

"So, his rebellion failed—again?"

Right now Harano was stationed at Ino Castle in Haidong County, leading the Wanjin Army on Oda Nobunaga’s orders. His job was to suppress the local powerful clans so they wouldn’t stir up trouble, and keep an eye out in case Iwakura’s forces tried anything in the area—a key node in the current frontline between Owari’s Upper and Lower Four Provinces.

He stared at the latest intel Ah Man handed him, hesitating, not knowing what to say. Honestly, with all these Odas, things were such a mess it was starting to feel Lovecraftian.

Originally, just Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobuaki, and Oda Nobuhide had been enough chaos. But throw in Oda Shinsei popping back up, and add the Oda Nobuyasu–Oda Nobuyasu father-son combo from before...the whole field was wall-to-wall Odas. And that’s not even counting the endless family elders, senior retainers, and random hangers-on. Between them, about three hundred Odas were fighting in this war. An Oda royal rumble if ever there was one.

All you could say was—the Oda Family hadn’t spent 180 years breeding in Owari for nothing. They really had popped out quite the litter of kids.

But right now, what Harano cared more about was Oda Shinsei’s fate. After all, there aren’t many people who get a second chance at staging a rebellion. Meanwhile, Ah Man was sitting cross-legged in front of him, munching on a ripe peach from the local lords’ tribute, juice dripping everywhere, and mumbled, "Of course he failed. That shitball tried to betray us again—was thinking of sneaking up on Nagano Castle—except his own retainer, Katsuyori Shibata, beat him to the punch by betraying him first, tied him up, and delivered him straight to Qingzhou City."

"So what did Oda Nobunaga do?"

"Oda Nobunaga locked up Oda Shinsei with their mom, so they could keep each other company," Ah Man mused, "But he really praised Katsuyori Shibata for fulfilling his oath—after being pardoned last time for rebelling with Shinsei, Shibata had sworn never to betray his lord again. So now, for stopping his Lord’s treacherous act, he’s held up as a samurai role model, and put back in as a senior household retainer to Oda Danjo Chonosuke...only a bit below Sakuma Shigetaka, probably!"

"I see..." Harano nodded slowly. So you could rebel twice and still not get killed? And, man, fate is pretty crazy—Oda Nobunaga’s four main family elders: one was essentially ruined by a rebellion, one committed suicide, two were killed in battle, and yet the two chief retainers of his always-rebelling brother are now both safe and sound. Not only that, one of them has now become Nobunaga’s own top retainer.

His thoughts wandered as he marveled at this quirky little bit of history, then shifted focus back to Katsuyori Shibata.

This guy, after all, would one day be known alongside Takakawa Ichimatsu, Akechi Mitsunari, Niwa Nagahide, and Hashiba Hideyoshi as the "Oda Four Heavenly Kings"—which, as everyone knows, always seems to mean five people. And anyone who’s played the "Taikou" games will know him—he was the classic Owari big-shot, constantly sniping at "the protagonist (Monkey)" along with his sidekick Sasaki Nagamasa, forever mocking and belittling him—the standard mid-boss/villain archetype in-game.

And so now, our big baddie has been brought back into the fold, officially becoming Oda Nobunaga’s man—and, by the looks of it, even earning his favor. Harano guessed that sooner or later, he’d be doing a lot of business with this so-called villain.

As for the junior antagonist, Sasaki Nagamasa, he seemed to still be a kid at the moment. As the fifth son of the Sasaki Family, he was still grinding away in temple school. Probably wouldn’t switch over to Nobunaga’s service until after his elder brother, Sasaki Masachika, died at the Battle of Okehazama—so it’d be a while before he made his entrance.

Ah Man finished off her peach and, seeing Harano was spacing out, didn’t think much of it—used to him by now—then jumped into her routine update: "Nothing new from Hibi Village, latest report is completely normal."

This was something Harano had specifically instructed: Hibi Manor had to report in every three days. Coming back to himself, Harano figured this meant the latest search party still hadn’t found anything.

There was nothing he could do about that—he simply had no clue what was going on there. By now they were just grinding it out, hoping for blind luck. He shook his head slightly and asked, "Got it. Anything else going on in Owari?"

"Nope."

"What about Minoh, then?" Harano asked. "How’s progress there? How many people do we have available now?"

"Not many. Most just got settled and are actively looking for intelligence contacts. As for the reports we’ve received..." Ah Man pulled a little notebook from her pocket and flipped through it, thinking aloud, "Most of it’s still unconfirmed, but one unusual thing: Saito Yoshitada just broke through Akechi City. The Akechi family head, Akechi Mitsuyasu, died by suicide when the city fell."

"Akechi Mitsuyasu?" Harano looked surprised, then hesitated, "Doesn’t he... Didn’t he have a son named Akechi Mitsunari? Have you heard of him?"

Right now, the "life-saving group" from New Wanjin had only just started infiltrating Minoh, so a lot of their info was spotty or unorganized. Ah Man flipped through her notebook, squinting at her own indecipherable handwriting. Hesitantly, she said, "We have no formal records on that, but according to some earlier intel Grandpa submitted, yeah, there’s someone like that—Akechi Mitsuyasu’s adopted son, twenty-something, goes by Jūbei, but he’s not famous. Grandpa never paid much attention to him."

"Akechi Mitsuyasu’s adopted son?"

"Yep. Mitsuyasu is both his uncle and his foster father."

Harano suddenly suspected Oda Nobunaga was about to finish assembling his "Oda Four Heavenly Kings," so he asked with concern, "Well, where is he now?"

Ah Man rifled through her notebook again. She really felt this job as "East Factory Director" was grinding her into the dust—her dumbass boss had new whims daily, and now he was suddenly interested in some minor nobody. But she’d gotten used to it. After searching for a bit she declared, "No idea. The dude’s just too low-key. Who knows what happened to him after his home got trashed."

That made Harano puzzled. "Then why did you bother reporting on the Akechi family? What’s so special about Saito Yoshitada taking Akechi City?"

Ah Man gave him a "seriously?" look. "Because Akechi Mitsuyasu is Nobuji’s uncle—so he’s Oda Nobunaga’s uncle too. Didn’t you know? The Akechi family is a branch of the Togashi, who are lords of Minoh. Nobuji’s mother is from the Akechi family. That’s why the Akechi family has always been pro-Owari, which is why they got targeted by Saito Yoshitada."

Harano honestly hadn’t known that—he’d never paid much attention to Minoh politics. He mulled it over for a bit, then said, "So, that would mean... Akechi Mitsunari is Nobuji’s cousin?"

He used to wonder how Akechi Mitsunari suddenly became one of Oda Nobunaga’s chief ministers, suddenly so trusted. So it was all about nepotism? Akechi Mitsunari was actually Nobunaga’s cousin?

"More or less!" Ah Man replied, a little bemused. "What’s so weird about that? Daimyo and samurai are all related anyhow—it’s just a big web. No matter who you look at, they share some tie. You’re in it now yourself, aren’t you? You and Nobuji could even count as kin, and the Akechi family’s not far from you, either."

So Japan’s Warring States Period was basically just a brawl between a bunch of relatives...

Harano got it, but it really didn’t mean much to him—he didn’t care about these relatives. Only Princess Dog counted as family; the rest could go to hell. If it came down to fighting or killing, he wasn’t going to show mercy.

He ordered directly, "Alright, have our people in Minoh keep an eye out for him, try to track his movements...if he’s still alive."

Ah Man jotted down his order in her notebook, ready to send word to Minoh to search for Akechi Mitsunari. After that, she left him to it—Harano always came up with these random tasks. One day this, one day that. Pretty much par for the course. She still had her own stuff to do.

Harano stayed put, taking a moment to savor the feeling as all these familiar figures from history finally began moving into their destined places, with the curtain slowly rising on Japan’s Warring States drama. He felt that a historical turning point was growing ever closer.