Yasu was agitated, when he had returned to the castle and asked to be brought before Lord Moto so they could speak of the reason he had been pulled him away from his outing. Yet he had been refused and sent to his apartments where he had waited. He had been back at the castle for the better part of 2 days and lord Moto had just called for him. The situation with the Ito was getting worse, one of his spies from castle Ito had sent him a message that the Ito were marching, he was not sure of their destination but he had an idea and that did not bode well. He was escorted to Lord Moto’s War room and was told to take a seat his lordship would be in shortly.
Lord Moto entered the room moments later and motioned for Yasu to speak “My lord” Yasu said, “The Ito have begun to march and without preparations for battle we will be weakened and while we will crush them if they are stupid enough to attack Castle Moto all of our lands will be helpless to their pillaging, you must allow me to take my men and meet them in battle away from our homes.
“Enough” commanded Lord Moto “Preparations have already begun. Our troops have been called to regroup here and we have set up a little surprise for those that the Ito have seen fit to leave behind in their castle. With all of their strength arrayed against us, we can cripple them in one blow. We need to move quickly as the other clans seem to be entertaining ideas of forcibly removing us from this world and we cannot allow this to happen. We need you to prepare for battle, that is all for now.” And with that Yasu was dismissed.
Night fell not long after the army had departed, and Junichi sent a detachment to scout the area and determine if it was an acceptable campground. They took an unusually long time, and just as Lord Ito was about to send a scouting party to look for them, they arrived with the heads of ten Moto samurai. "We found another scouting party. At first we thought they were our own, but then they asked who we were, and we attacked them, taking then completely by surprise, just as the Moto did to ours." was the scout leaders declaration. "Very good," said Junichi, "your men get double rations, and they have scouting off tomorrow, barring a battle." The scouting party leader bowed and left, and Junichi motioned with his finger for one of his servants to come to him. The servant bowed and the Lord of the Ito whispered to him, "Get together a secret scout group of servants, and spread them between Moto Castle and our own." With that Junichi entered a farmhouse, and without saying anything went upstairs, opened a door, lay his head down on a futon, closed his eyes, and fell asleep...
Originally posted by Rikku Gullwing
Tomoko said goodbye to the kids promising them that she would be back to play with them soon and she followed Kuro-u soon after.- "My lady, is everythin ok?" - Tomoko asked her new mistress.
Kuro-u's where darker than usual and anyone that had known her for a time could tell that her form was tense. She sighed slightly and shook her head regretfully, "I am afraid not Tomoko, we may well be on the verge of a war which will be almost impossible to avoid."