SNAFU: Hunters

Izō made a sour face. Mitsuhide was the general tasked with pacifying the Hatano lands. He'd also been the one that had negotiated Lord Hatano's surrender. "Had I known you were Nobunaga's lapdog, I would've let the oni have you."

"Then I'm glad you didn't" General Mitsuhide's smile cast the gaunt angles of his face into harsh relief. "I regret the chase, but I needed to capture you."

"You shot at me."

"Only a warning. I asked you to stop first."

"You shot at me."

"Sorry, it usually works." Mitsuhide shrugged. "Come, our camp is not far from the mountain. You have my word you won't be harmed."

"Wouldn't be the first time you guaranteed the safety of one of my clan."

Mitsuhide gave a pained wince. "Your lord's murder casts a shadow over us all."

"Some shadows are darker than others."

"If I were going to kill or capture you, why not do it here? You're hardly in a state to resist."

"I might surprise you," Izō said.

"Please, come and talk."

"We can talk here."

"So be it." Mitsuhide gave a pained hiss as he sat across from Izō, one hand pressed to his ribs. "They say you kill demons."

Izō snorted then nodded at the oni's cooling corpse. "Is that what they say?"

Mitsuhide glanced at those ashigaru who'd managed to stand. "See to the wounded."

Nodding, they limped away, and Mitsuhide leaned close to continue in hushed tones. "Do you know the name Dairokuten Mao'ō?"

Izō snorted. "The Demon King of Six Heavens? Isn't that what the peasants are calling Nobunaga?"

"There is truth to the name." Mitsuhide gave a nervous shake of his head. "Nobunaga was always cruel and paranoid, but it has grown worse. There's a shadow about him. He lets his soldiers ravage the countryside, burns monks and priests in their temples. Several of his generals spoke out against the atrocities, and he had them executed. Then there was the betrayal of your lord."

Izō's grimace was not only for the pain in his bruised ribs.

"You must believe me when I say I didn't know he would murder Hatano in cold blood. More than that, he laughed as your lord was beheaded."

"So Nobunaga is vicious and dishonorable," Izō said. "Many lords have done far worse and not been demons."

"There's more." Mitsuhide glanced over his shoulder, as if to even continue might draw his lord's wrath. "The last time I was in Kyoto, I was passing his chambers late at night and I heard him muttering. Lord Nobunaga is oft given to speaking to himself, so I thought little of it until I heard another voice answer. I swear he was alone in his room, but more than that it was the sound of this thing – like wind blowing through a graveyard. I consider myself a brave man, but it was as if I was a child lost in the dark. I swear by my ancestors that what I heard speaking with Nobunaga that night was not human."

Izō sucked air through his teeth. Nobunaga's rise to power had been almost uncanny. Powerful as they were, no spirit or oni could've engineered such victories as the Oda clan had won. Sometimes, men with ambition and cruelty often turned to pacts with dark forces to realize their grand desires. If Nobunaga had truly dragged some demon from the twisted labyrinth of Jigoku it would be no mere oni or hungry ghost, but something ancient and unspeakably evil.

"All the creatures around Kyoto were killed centuries ago. We have no hunters, no warriors skilled in combating these things. I didn't know where else to turn." Tears glittered in Mitsuhide's eyes. "If Nobunaga become ruler of Japan, I fear it will become a living hell."

"You would betray your lord?"

General Mitsuhide straightened. "I would save him."

Izō shook his head. How could he have missed this? He'd gotten so caught up in vengeance that he'd lost sight of what were birds and what were stones.

"I'll need some new clothes, a few good meals, and no questions from you or your men."

"Yes, of course. Anything." Mitsuhide grinned. "I'd give you thousand broken swords if you wished."

"No need," he said with an almost regretful look at the dead oni. "I'm hoping one will do."

* * *

They crept like thieves through the darkness, faces masked, armor and weapons blackened, and swords muffled in their sheaths. The night was hot and humid, high summer in the city of Kyoto. They stuck to the back alleys, avoiding the frenzied buzz of conversation and laughter that filled the capital even in the small hours of the morning. Those merchants and drunks who happened to notice a score of armed men pass by quickly found other things to occupy their attention – nighttime killings were not uncommon under Nobunaga's rule, and those who spoke too loudly of them often found themselves next on the list.

"Our enemy is at Honnō Temple," Mitsuhide whispered. "My lord has always enjoyed despoiling places of worship."

"Guards?" Izō asked.

"A few dozen at most. Kyoto is Nobunaga's stronghold, he would never expect an attack here." Mitsuhide was grim. "My army is ready to march on the city should we fail."