[FIC] Warriors and Generals - Part One: The Generals
Oh god, I'm writing a multi-parter. Which also happens to be an AU.
What is this fandom doing to me?! Or, rather, what the hell are you doing to me, you stupid Rikkai muses?!
I hate you all.
Warriors and Generals - Part One: The Generals
Characters/Pairing: Sanada/Atobe, Rikkai
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5887
Summary: Hyoutei had fallen, and its General, Atobe Keigo, was the only known survivor of its ruling family. Sanada rushed to the rescue. Sengoku-jidai, a Rikkai-centric historical AU that is more AU than history.
“Yukimura-dono! Yukimura-dono!” One of Rikkai’s fastest messengers burst through the doors, panting harshly.
“What is it?” Yukimura looked up from his breakfast, wooden chopsticks clinking softly against porcelain as he laid them down.
“Dreadful news, Yukimura-dono!” The messenger waved his hands around frantically. “Hyoutei… Hyoutei…”
“What happened to Hyoutei?” Sanada asked sharply, seated on Yukimura’s right hand side.
“Hyoutei had fallen, Sanada-taichou. Seigaku… Seigaku had won.”
A loud crash sounded, and the three pairs of eyes, the messenger’s, Yukimura’s and Yanagi’s, turned to Sanada as he stood up hastily, knocking over his bowl in the process. His face had paled to an almost ghostly white.
“Yukimura, I…”
Yukimura nodded crisply. “Get yourself dressed, Genichirou. Renji,” the daimyo nodded to the man seated to his left, “request for one of our fastest horses and get the items Genichirou would need.”
Yanagi nodded, standing up fluidly. He signed for the messenger to follow him and they left seconds before Sanada came to his senses, bowing jerkily to Yukimura once before half-running to his rooms.
“Thank you.”
Yukimura only smiled. “If anyone can get Atobe here safely, it is you.”
-
To say Sanada was surprised to see Marui standing beside his horse, holding a small bag would be a grave understatement.
“What are you doing here?”
Marui snorted. “Do you really think I trust any of the servants to prepare one of our best horses for you? Have more respect for my intelligence, please, taichou.” He handed him the bag. “There’s enough food and water there to last for three days. The servants also packed medical supplies - for Atobe-san - and warm clothes.”
Sanada took the bag, still slightly confused even as he mounted the horse. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
Marui laughed, stepping backwards and bowing slightly to Sanada. “On the behalf of all of us, I wish you good luck, Sanada-taichou. Bring Atobe-san to us so we can have an excuse to declare war on Seigaku.”
“War-mongering bastard, aren’t you?”
“Only as much as any of the others.” Marui shrugged.
Sanada laughed, feeling some of his tension fade away due to the familiar banter. “I have to go now. Thank the others for me, won’t you?”
“Do you have to ask?”
--
Sanada could feel the wind blowing against his face as he spurred his horse westward, towards Hyoutei. The road was nothing new; he had travelled this road many times these past four years. Unbidden, his mind returned to that time, barely three years ago, when he had first met Hyoutei’s prideful (or, as most would say, arrogant) General.
Atobe Keigo.
---
Sanada Genichirou was bored out of his mind.
He sighed, lifting his head from the mind-numbingly boring book on his lap to glance at the plans surrounding him. Hyoutei’s gardens were stunning, especially now, during springtime. Sakura petals were everywhere, and Sanada had to marvel at the richness of their colour.
His reverie was broken, however, when soft and inconspicuous footsteps sounded behind him. He had a hand on the hilt of a katana when someone sat down suddenly beside him.
Sanada raised an eyebrow at the newcomer, surprised at his appearance. The man had short, light brown hair that reminded him a little of Yagyuu Hiroshi, except that Yagyuu’s hair was straighter and of a darker brown. Even odder, the stranger’s eyes were blue.
Well. Hyoutei certainly had some rather interesting looking people. Sanada wondered, at the back of his mind, if this man was related to Hyoutei’s daimyo, Sakaki Tarou. He doubted that many people had light-coloured hair, not in Japan.
“It is not very polite to stare, Sanada Genichirou.”
Sanada blinked at the use of his name. “Nor is it polite not to introduce yourself, stranger, especially when you already know of my name.”
The man laughed, rich and full of good humour. He bowed slightly, still seated. “Atobe Keigo, General of the Hyoutei armies, at your service.”
Sanada blinked again before bowing back, letting his hair cover the slight smirk that had appeared on his face. “And what does the esteemed Hyoutei General need from this lowly stranger, Atobe-sama.”
“Spare me the theatrics,” Atobe snorted, waving a hand negligently in Sanada’s direction, “General of the Rikkaidai armies, Sanada Genichirou. I know perfectly well who you are.”
Sanada shrugged. “It’s always a boon to me if I test someone who claims to be a high-ranking officer if they are ignorant enough to believe me when I call myself a lowly stranger, Atobe.”
Atobe raised an eyebrow, looking amused and slightly impressed. “Then, Sanada, I trust that I have passed that little test of yours? You are no uneducated lout, I see.”
“An uneducated lout would not be able to gain a position of General, Atobe. Not at Rikkaidai, at least.”
“Very true.” Atobe nodded, folding his hands at his lap as he leaned against the sakura tree behind him. “So what are you doing in our humble gardens, Sanada? Aren’t you supposed to accompany your daimyo?”
Sanada barked out a laugh. “According to Yukimura, I am just here for ‘decorations’ and ‘to fill space in list of people I bring to Hyoutei’. Diplomacy isn’t exactly my forte.” He turned towards Atobe. “What about you? Does Sakaki not require your presence in the alliance talks?”
Atobe had raised an eyebrow at him, most likely due to his casual use of Yukimura’s name. “Sakaki-sama doesn’t need his soldiers to fight his verbal battles for him. He does that very well alone.”
Sanada saw a silent challenge appear in those odd blue eyes and smirked. “Since we are both unneeded by our daimyos, Atobe, what do you say about a friendly duel?”
“Wouldn’t that endanger the alliance talks?” Atobe tilted his head to the side, questioning. The small smirk on his lips, however, belied his question.
Sanada chuckled. “I daresay that Yukimura had already expected this from me and had made allowances for it. Whatever we do has no impact on the alliance talks, since we have already established that neither of us have any involvement in them.”
“I agree” Atobe nodded. “Shall we adjourn to the dojo, then?”
Sanada stood, closing his book with a hand while the other brushed sakura petals from his lap. He felt the familiar frisson of excitement in his blood and smiled, knife-sharp.
“Of course.”
-
To be honest, Sanada didn’t know what to expect from Atobe Keigo.
True, the man was the General of Hyoutei’s huge army at such an apparently young age, but that didn’t exactly say very much of his skill with a sword. For all Sanada know, Atobe might have been chosen for his strategic and planning abilities instead of his skill with a katana.
Seeing how easily Atobe handled his katana and wakazashi and their exquisite make and carefully polished state, however, made Sanada doubt that theory.
Atobe had noticed him staring a smirked slightly. “Are you regretting your words now, Sanada?”
Sanada snorted, shedding the restrictive outer layer of his kimono as he returned Atobe’s smirk with a challenging glare of his own.
“Hardly.”
“Then prepare to be awed by ore-sama’s beauteous skills.”
Sanada felt his eyebrow shoot up to his hairline and barely managed to repress a sudden urge to burst out laughing at Atobe’s exclamation.
“We shall see, shan’t we?” He replied mildly, a hand on the hilt of one of is twin katanas.
Atobe’s smirk widened and it was the only warning Sanada had before Atobe disappeared from his line of sight and reappeared right in front of his, katana aimed right at his heart.
‘Fast!’ Sanada thought as he backed up two steps, unsheathing his katana’s just in time to block Atobe’s blow. He parried and feinted towards the right, driving his katana towards Atobe’s left side. Atobe was right-handed; logic and experience told him that his weaker side would be his left.
Sanada’s eyes widened when Atobe unsheathed his wakazashi with his left hand in a lightening-quick movement, blocking Sanada’s katana while, at the exact same moment, sent his own katana to Sanada’s unprotected right side.
Atobe smirked again, and Sanada gave him a tight smile in return as he leaned backwards slightly to avoid a critical injury. He unsheathed his second with his left hand and blocked Atobe’s wakazashi in its path. Atobe pressed his advantage, his katana pointed at Sanada’s right foot. He was almost leaning his whole weight on his wakazashi.
Sanada stepped backwards suddenly, releasing the pressure and sending Atobe suddenly off-balanced. He swept his right hand in a crescent arc, knocking the wakazashi out of Atobe’s surprised hand. Atobe had barely enough time to blink before Sanada’s raised his right hand so that the katana it was holding rested on Atobe’s shoulder, the edge of the blade at his throat. His second katana sat on Atobe’s hips, ready to split if into two if Sanada wished for it.
Sanada blinked slightly in confusion when he saw that Atobe was still smirking, still confident even when he was in a situation like this. He opened his mouth, about to inform Atobe that he had just lost when he felt a sharp prick at his skin, right above his heart. Blinking again, Sanada looked down.
A small, ornate dagger was pressed against his chest, its tip breaking the skin. A small drop of blood had welled up at the wound. Sanada blinked at the sight.
“Would a dagger to the heart kill you first, Sanada, or would your katana at my throat kill me before I move my hand?” Atobe’s voice was silky, and Sanada couldn’t hear any uncertainty in that voice.
He smiled. “Perhaps we would die at the same time.”
“A draw, then?”
“If it pleases you to call it that, then yes. “
Atobe laughed, and Sanada could feel the dagger being removed from his skin. He sheathed his katanas as well, stepping back.
“Sanada.”
“Hm?”
“My rooms are down this hallway. If you are ever as bored as you looked just now, below the sakura tree, knock on the door and we can have another spar.”
Sanada raised an eyebrow. “Are you so confident that I wish to spar with you again?”
Smirking, Atobe replied: “Of course.”
“Would your lady not object?”
Atobe shrugged, picking up his wakazashi from where it had flew from his hand. “I am yet unwed.” He cocked his head towards Sanada. “Would yours?”
Sanada mirrored his shrug, pulling up the outer layer of his kimono and tying the obi. “I am unwed as well.” He turned to face Atobe, smiling slightly. “I daresay that I would disturb you many a time during my stay here, Atobe.”
Atobe only laughed. “I look forward to it.”
--
Sanada had lost count of the number of times he had sparred with Atobe. The talks had gone on for over a month, and there seemed to be no end in sight. For every single day of that month he had knocked on Atobe’s door, and Atobe had always indulged him.
Of course, they didn’t spar every time. Atobe was a busy man with a hectic schedule, and apparently he had felt confident enough that Sakaki would succeed with the alliance talks that he had decided to drag Sanada along when he performed his various duties inside the walls of Hyoutei.
And Hyoutei, as Sanada soon learned, was enormous. Unlike Rikkaidai, where he couldn’t take a long walk without seeing well-kept fields or decorated buildings, Hyoutei had large areas of uncultivated, unoccupied land.
These lands included the mountains.
Hyoutei’s mountains were magnificent. They, as Atobe had told him, also serviced as places of worship for the common people. Sanada managed to spot quite a few temples along the slopes of the mountains he had seen, along with, of course, high towers made of stone and limestone that served as lookout towers for Hyoutei.
These towers were partly the reason why Yukimura had decided on this alliance with Hyoutei. It was half-impossible to invade Hyoutei; any troops would be spotted twenty miles from the main entrance from any of the lookout towards up on the mountains, and the soldiers up these mountains were armed to the teeth with poison-tipped arrows.
The other reason was, of course, that Rikkaidai didn’t need Hyoutei’s land (it had more than sufficient for itself, now), but what they needed was the co-operation with Hyoutei’s huge armies. If Rikkai tried to conquer Hyoutei and even if they won, none of Sakaki’s soldiers would be willing to serve the man who had conquered them. Plus, if they went to war, Hyoutei would lose many soldiers, which completely defeated the reason of why Yukimura wanted Hyoutei in the first place.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Atobe spoke, breaking the comfortable silence between them. The pride in his voice was as obvious as daylight.
Sanada nodded. He wasn’t one for lying when he saw no good reason not to tell the truth. “Aah.” He turned towards his companion, slowing his horse as the other man chatted briefly with a group of passing soldiers, who seemed awestruck.
“You have pride… in yourself, in your soldiers and, most of all, in your city.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Atobe raised an eyebrow at him.” “Don’t you?”
“Of course. There is no greater joy than seeing your people, your city prosper and grow stronger, knowing all long that you have helped it grow.”
“I agree.” Atobe replied, contemplative.
They fell back into silence after back. The rhythmic sound of metal horseshoes beating against the dirt of the ground was the only noise for quite some time.
“They call you the Troika, you, Yukimura and Yanagi. Rikkai prospered because it had the three of you, the Lord, the General and the Strategist, at its helm. Does knowing that make you proud as well?”
Sanada shook his head. “I am proud that I have done something to aid in Rikkai’s development, but I am not proud to have so much credit. No, most of Rikkai’s growth is Yukimura or Yanagi’s efforts. I am simply the man who readies the troops for war and fight with them during said war.”
“Modest, aren’t you?” Atobe chuckled.
“I only spoke the truth.” He shrugged in reply.
“I’ve heard rumours, there’s lots of them here, that Yukimura is the child of a kitsune god, for Rikkaidai had grown from a small, virtually unknown city to the most powerful one in Japan in just a little over ten years.” Atobe’s voice sounded slightly hoarse, as if he was trying to stifle laughter.
Sanada laughed, long and loud, scaring away most of the birds in the vicinity. “Yukimura is definitely the son of a very human pair of parents, Atobe. Rumours are nothing but speculations and nonsense. I have known Yukimura ever since I first met him at three years old. He is human. A genius of the highest calibre, yes, but he is definitely human.”
“And Yanagi?”
“What about Yanagi?”
“Have you known him since childhood as well, Sanada? From what the most of Japan knows, he appeared in Rikkaidai three years ago without warning and had immediately taken up a post as Yukimura’s advisor and a genius strategist. No one had heard of him before that.” Atobe’s tone was casual, but Sanada could hear the honest curiosity clearly.
“Yanagi was born in Seigaku and had spent over half of his life there. I can’t tell you any more than that, Atobe. It is not my story to tell.” Sanada shook his head in exasperation. He wasn’t offended. Atobe wasn’t the first person to ask this question, and Sanada thought it rather strange. Did it really matter where Renji had come from? Sanada didn’t think so.
Atobe, perhaps sensing Sanada’s thoughts, let the matter drop.
The silence dragged on, and Sanada realized that it was oddly uncomfortable, a far cry from the comfortable silence they had shared before.
“Seigaku is getting stronger.” He said; just to break the silence.
Atobe nodded, and Sanada thought that the other man looked relieved, just for a moment. “Their General, Tezuka, is gathering the best samurai of his city and giving them high offices in the army. It seems that he’s thinking of expanding Seigaku’s territory. He has the most power in that city now that the daimyo had died without choosing an heir”
“You should be careful.” Sanada wasn’t very sure why he was warning Atobe.
“Why?”
“If Seigaku is looking for new land, Hyoutei would be their first target. Your city is the largest in Japan right now.”
Atobe snorted. “There is no need to warn me, Sanada. I know that very well, and I also know that there is almost no doubt that Hyoutei would win in a confrontation between my city and Seigaku. We are stronger.” He laughed confidently. “In fact, I half-wish that Tezuka would attack us. I have been waiting for a proper duel with him for a long while.”
--
‘Time flies when you are enjoying yourself.’ Sanada remembered that saying, and he had to shake his head at how accurate it was.
It had been two months since they had taken the ride through the mountains, discussing about Seigaku. The alliance had been finalized after over three months of talks. Oddly enough, Sanada almost felt that only three weeks had passed instead of the three months.
Being in Atobe’s company did tend to make one forget ‘mundane’ things such as time, after all. Sanada chuckled softly at that thought.
He had just stepped into saddle of his horse, bridled beside Yukimura’s carriage, when he saw Atobe walking towards him.
“What is it?”
“We have yet to determine who the stronger swordsman between the two of us is, Sanada. We have to settle that, soon.”
Sanada smirked at the challenge in Atobe’s voice, and inclined his head. “You have an open invitation to Rikkaidai then, Atobe. I do agree with you; we have to settle this.”
Atobe smiled back, showing teeth. “I will visit that city you are so proud of soon, Sanada. It’s a promise.”
He bowed shallowly before turning away and walking back towards the city gates. Sanada, inexplicably, felt a twinge of regret as he watched him leave.
“He’s an interesting man, is he not? That Atobe Keigo.” Yukimura’s voice came suddenly from behind him.
Sanada twitched slightly, turning to meet a serene smile that was belied by the mischievous glint in Yukimura’s eyes.
“Whatever makes you think so, my lord?”
Yukimura frowned. “No formalities, Genichirou. Not in private.” He chastised softly.
“You have been in his company for the past three months, and for those past months, you have told me very much of his various virtues and his many faults. I am neither deaf nor stupid, Genichirou.”
“He is a very opinionated man. His views are refreshing, if controversial, and he is never afraid to speak his mind.” Sanada shrugged. “He is a good friend, I suppose.”
“If you say so.” Sanada had the distinct impression that Yukimura was laughing at him, behind his back.
“Whatever do you mean?”
Yukimura chuckled behind a pale hand. “Genichirou, you are always rather dense about these things. Follow your emotions, they won’t lead you astray, and they tell you very important things if you would stop thinking and listen to them, once in a while.”
“You are being more cryptic than usual, Yukimura. I would not have thought that possible. It is a bad sign when I am unable to understand what you have just said.”
Yukimura simply gave him another serene smile. “I suppose that you will understand in due time, Genichirou.”
--
Over the next year, Sanada was suddenly very glad that Hyoutei was only half a day’s ride from Rikkai. Atobe and he had ridden back and forth between the two cities so frequently that Sanada knew both cities as well as he knew the back of his hand. He was positive that Atobe felt the same.
His men had already gotten used to Atobe’s sudden appearance in Yukimura's or his own manor and had stopped giving him suspicious stares when he visited. Sanada, too, had stopped feeling guarded and suspecting eyes on his back whenever he decided to visit Atobe in Hyoutei. It was quite a relief.
“The spring sun, it comes,
melting the snow and giving
breath to frozen hearts.” Sanada recited the haiku out loud, frowning slightly.
“That was only mildly horrible. Your student is improving.” Atobe commented, seated in seiza in front of Sanada. It was one of his many visits to Rikkaidai.
Sanada’s frown deepened. “Not as much as he should. He is probably slacking off again.”
“You are far too hard on the boy. Kirihara-kun is hard working.”
“His swordplay and analytical skills are improving at a shocking rate. He has unbelievable potential as a common samurai, but he would be utterly useless as a general if his calligraphy and literature remains as abysmal as ever. What use are brilliant strategies if your men are unable to read your instructions or if you can’t explain it to them?”
Atobe sighed. This was a frequent argument. “I still say that you are too hard on him, but I know you won’t listen. Come on, Genichirou. The sakura season has arrived, and I believe Yukimura-sama has organized a viewing banquet in the gardens.”
“He had given you permission to call him ‘Yukimura’, you do realize?”
Atobe shook his head. “Maybe it is fine for you to call him that, but a man who could disarm me within seven moves deserves to be graced with a -sama.” He retorted, crossing his arms. “Not even Sakaki-sama had managed that. It boggles me how Yanagi dared to use his first name.”
Sanada laughed, shoulders shaking with mirth even as he placed a hand on Atobe’s shoulder as a placating gesture. “Renji has Yukimura’s permission. There is nothing ‘daring’ about it, Keigo. It’s not as if Yukimura is a god or a spirit. He is a human man, just like all of us.”
Atobe huffed slightly, but he made no move to remove Sanada’s hand. “He can be as intimidating as a god if he put his mind to it. But never mind that. I know I am being ridiculous; you don’t have to keep reminding me of the fact. We have to leave now, or we’ll be late.”
Sanada didn’t remove his hand from Atobe’s person throughout the whole banquet. It shifted from to Atobe’s back to his waist and back up to his shoulders. Atobe made no complaint. It was a good sign.
“Genichirou, your hand had been on me for almost six hours. Are you trying to tell me something?” Atobe asked, words slightly slurred. The banquet was over, and Sanada had accepted Atobe invitation to sake in Atobe’s room, just two doors away from Sanada’s. He reckoned that, since they had been drinking for two hours, they were both more than a little drunk.
“Not… not really. It’s kind of hard to explain in words when I’m drunk” He felt proud that, unlike Atobe, his voice was as stable as it was when he was sober. “I can show you, though. Would you like me to?”
“Sure. You have to promise not to take this chance to kill me, though.” Atobe’s eyes were overly bright; he was definitely drunk.
Sanada nodded. “I promise.”
He leaned forward, hand on Atobe’s hips, and pressed his lips to Atobe’s, a soft, chaste kiss, before pulling back. He waited. Somehow, his drunken haze was disappearing, and a sense of foreboding was penetrating to his mind through the holes. He felt a vague sense of horror and wondered what was wrong.
“What? That’s it?” Atobe blinked blearily. “Don’t you know how to kiss properly?”
Sanada felt a hand pulled at the front of his yukata, sending him half-sprawling forward when a pair of lips, soft and plush and tasting of alcohol, landed on his own. He gasped, and Atobe took the opportunity to insert his tongue into Sanada’s mouth.
The sense of horror had disappeared half-way throughout the kiss to be replaced by a sudden euphoria. Sanada couldn’t find a reason for his suddenly rapidly-changing emotions, and then decided that he probably didn’t need one anyway. Drunk on both sake and euphoria, decided to kiss Atobe back.
“Genichirou…” Atobe slurred when they broke apart due to being unable to breathe. Sanada could see stars behind his eyes. “I think we should continue this tomorrow.” With that statement spoken, he fell forward onto Sanada’s chest and promptly lost unconscious and started to snore.
Sanada blinked, staring at the rapidly multiplying sake bottles on the table. He could have sworn that he and Atobe only had a third of the number of bottles… He shrugged. It didn’t really matter.
“Good idea… Keigo.”
He slumped backwards and fell asleep.
-
Sanada woke up to a heavy weight on his chest and a pair of groggy blue eyes staring at him. His mouth felt like something had died in it and was rotting. He blinked.
“Keigo? What are you doing on top of…oh.”
He remembered.
Atobe sat up, holding a hand to his head. “Remind me never to drink this much again for no discernable reason. What happened last…oh.” He blinked rapidly, one, twice, three times, before turning to Sanada.
“Do you mean it?”
“What?”
“Last night…the kiss. Do you mean it?”
Sanada could only nod. “I mean every bit of what I said… or rather,” he chuckled softly, wincing as the sound resonated in his head and aggravated his pounding headache nonetheless, “I meant everything of what I didn’t say.”
“Good.” Atobe nodded decisively. “That settles it then.”
“Settles what?” Sanada asked, feeling decided steamrolled. The feeling wasn’t exactly uncommon, especially during this past year.
Atobe turned, and Sanada could see him roll his eyes before Atobe kissed him, close-mouthed and chaste. He got a whiff of Atobe’s morning breath and wrinkled his nose.
“Your breath stinks.”
“Yours isn’t very much better.” Atobe pointed out, matter-of-fact.
“And we both need a bath.” Sanada continued, lifting a corner of his yukata to his nose and wincing at the smell. “We stink of sake.”
“Do you think your people will look at us oddly if we take one together?” Atobe’s expression was neutral, but Sanada knew what he was thinking. Oddly enough, the idea of that appealed instead of disgusted him as he thought it would.
“Of course, but, really, do you really care?”
“No, not really. I’ve received a very large share of strange looks while in Rikkaidai, what would a few more matter?” Atobe shrugged as he stood. “Besides, I think your men have a pool about when this is going to happen.”
“Do they?” Sanada murmured, looking up towards Atobe. He was still seated. “How like them.”
Atobe smiled. “If you say so, Genichirou. So… about my offer?”
“Sure,” Sanada stood, smiling back, “why not? We might give those good men of mine a few more things to bet on.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No, not by far.” Sanada leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss on Atobe’s lips. “Definitely not.”
---
Sanada smelled Hyoutei before he saw it.
He could never mistake the scent of smoke and death for anything else. It had a particular smell, like the scents blood and rot and incense thrown together to concoct a particularly foul mixture. Sanada coughed, covering his mouth and nose with a hand as he dismounted and tied his horse to the nearest undamaged tree he could find. The beast did not have to accompany him.
Tucking the bag into a small compartment in the saddle, he squinted, closing his eyes into slits in order to protect them. Ash and broken pieces of wood and metals were flying haphazardly everywhere, and Sanada didn’t need to be injured before he found Atobe.
It was only until he had reached Hyoutei’s ornate entrance gates that he realized that he had, quite honestly, no clue where Atobe could be. But he gritted his teeth and entered the ruined city nonetheless. He wasn’t one to give up so easily, after all.
Hyoutei was half-consumed by a raging fire, bright and blazing, and he saw the trail of blackened corpses that was left in its wake. He offered a mental prayer for the dead before running after the flames. His instincts told him that the fire would lead him to Atobe. Sanada had always trusted in his instinct, and they had never failed him. In fact, it was because of his instincts that he had become the General of Rikkaidai’s armies.
Just then, a strong gust of wind blew and the fire split into two different directions. Sanada held an arm in front of his face as a piece of burning wood flew pas, barely missing him. He saw a large stable directly in line to the fire, and there was a trail of still-wet blood leading to its shut door.
He knew; all of his instincts were shouting at him: ‘Atobe is in there.’
Starting to run towards the stable, he hissed softly as heat from the fire licked at his ankles. He was going to gain quite a few burns from this, but Sanada couldn’t care less as he threw open the door and stepped inside before slamming it close to keep the fire out. The blood trail led to the darkest corner of the stable, and he spotted the figure huddled there, shaking.
‘Keigo.’
Sanada breathed a sigh of relief before striding towards the shivering figure. For a moment, he was almost afraid that his instincts had failed him for the first time here, and Keigo was dead.
But Atobe was alive, and Sanada had found him. Everything would be alright now.
He started forward, covering his nose and mouth with a hand to avoid breathing in the smoke. Scooping Atobe up into his arms, Sanada took a deep breath, inhaling smoke into his lungs along with vital fresh air, before running as fast as he could, out of the stable, out of the line of fire, straight out of the city of Hyoutei until he reached the tree where his horse was bridled at.
He knelt, placing Atobe on the cleanest spot of the ground he could find before retrieving his bag from the saddle. Atobe coughed, raspy and barely audible; even as Sanada took the blanket he had wrapped himself him away.
He stared in horror at the massive wound in Atobe’s left side. The sides of it were tinged with green, a clear sign of infection that Sanada didn’t need. He could smell the infection, now that his breath wasn’t choked with smoke.
“Keigo, Keigo, can you hear me?”
Atobe blinked, coughing again. He opened his eyes slowly, as if it took a huge amount of effort. “Genichirou…?”
Sanada nodded. “Yes. I’m here, so you’re going to be fine now. Just… hold on while I clean your wound. I need to clean it. It’s has been infected.”
Atobe gave a small nod.
Sanada set to work. He unscrewed the cap of a water skin, pouring it over the open wound. He could feel Atobe jerked in pain, but he continued, taking out a few rags that Renji had packed and his dagger. He pressed the blade into the infected areas, and greenish-yellow pus oozed out, which he quickly wiped away with a rag, wrinkling his nose at the smell. This was repeated this several times, until it seemed to him that the worst of the infection had been cleared away. The edges of the wound were reddened instead of yellowish now, and that was definitely a good sign.
He stared at the dirty dagger and rags in his hand before grimacing and tossing them in the direction of Hyoutei, as near to the fire as he could reach. It could serve as a substitute for Atobe’s body for all he cared. It was disrespectful, he knew, but he really couldn’t bear to touch them.
He took out a second water skin and pressed the opened mouth to Atobe’s dry lips. His lover drank hungrily, and Sanada unscrewed another skin and poured it over a rag and used it to wipe Atobe’s face and neck, until most of the ash had been cleared away. He threw that back towards Hyoutei too. Hopefully the fire would burn that too.
Atobe seemed to have recovered a little due to the water, and Sanada carried him to the horse, hoisting him up before mounting the beast himself. He took a two tiny pieces of umeboshi and pressed them to Atobe’s lips, letting the other man chew and swallow them before he untied the horses and kicked its flank.
“Where are we…?” Atobe was interrupted by a fit of coughing, but Sanada knew what he meant nonetheless.
“We’re going back to Rikkaidai. You need a healer, Keigo, and we have plenty of those in the mansion. Try to rest; we’ll be there when you wake up.”
Sanada could feel Atobe nodding weakly. He drove the horse faster, apologizing silently to Atobe for the bumpy ride, but getting him to safety and a healer was more important than comfort right now.
-
It was just sunset when he reached Yukimura’s mansion. He had taken less than a day to travel to and from Hyoutei. He dismounted and carried Atobe straight to the mansion’s infirmary, ignoring the questions of many of the servants on the way.
Placing Atobe carefully down on one of the beds, he called. “Sengoku!”
The red-haired healer poked his head out of one of the curtains. “What do you… oh, it’s you, Sanada-taichou. You really found Atobe-sama, that’s amazing! Lucky! Dan-kun!” He raised a hand, and his apprentice appeared from behind yet another curtain. “Please check Atobe-sama’s pulse for me, would you?” Dan nodded, and set to work.
“And Sanada-taichou,” Sengoku continued, “please get out of the infirmary, you are disruptive because you are just like this big rock in the middle of the road and it’ll take us longer if we have to walk around you.”
Sanada found himself being pushed out of the infirmary by a chattering Sengoku. "Will he be alright?”
“You mean Atobe-sama?” Sengoku laughed. “Of course he will! You helped us a lot by cleaning his wound, Sanada-taichou, so I’ll reward you by telling you that, yes, he will be fine.” His attitude suddenly turned serious. “He’ll need time to recover, they all do, but he’ll be alright.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Have I lied to you, Sanada-taichou? I don’t lie, not about things like this.” The serious look in his eyes disappeared to be replaced by his normal grin. “And now I’m wasting time here talking to you! Dan-kun~! Have you finished taking his pulse yet?”
Sanada sighed, leaning against a wall. He had never figured how Sengoku managed to be one of the best healers in Rikkaidai as well as the most idiotic joker in the city, but he didn’t want to try. It wasn’t his business, after all. The man did his job well, and that was all that mattered.
Sliding down the wall to sit on the tatami mats, Sanada settled himself for a long wait.
End Part One: The Generals
Next, in Part Two, we get a glimpse into Seigaku and their General's condition. Atobe awakes, and Yukimura's best men gather in preparation. Not everyone is who they seem to be, particularly one Niou Masaharu...
Part Two: Rikkaidai Part Three: Tachibana's Folly
Edits please!
What is this fandom doing to me?! Or, rather, what the hell are you doing to me, you stupid Rikkai muses?!
I hate you all.
Warriors and Generals - Part One: The Generals
Characters/Pairing: Sanada/Atobe, Rikkai
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5887
Summary: Hyoutei had fallen, and its General, Atobe Keigo, was the only known survivor of its ruling family. Sanada rushed to the rescue. Sengoku-jidai, a Rikkai-centric historical AU that is more AU than history.
“Yukimura-dono! Yukimura-dono!” One of Rikkai’s fastest messengers burst through the doors, panting harshly.
“What is it?” Yukimura looked up from his breakfast, wooden chopsticks clinking softly against porcelain as he laid them down.
“Dreadful news, Yukimura-dono!” The messenger waved his hands around frantically. “Hyoutei… Hyoutei…”
“What happened to Hyoutei?” Sanada asked sharply, seated on Yukimura’s right hand side.
“Hyoutei had fallen, Sanada-taichou. Seigaku… Seigaku had won.”
A loud crash sounded, and the three pairs of eyes, the messenger’s, Yukimura’s and Yanagi’s, turned to Sanada as he stood up hastily, knocking over his bowl in the process. His face had paled to an almost ghostly white.
“Yukimura, I…”
Yukimura nodded crisply. “Get yourself dressed, Genichirou. Renji,” the daimyo nodded to the man seated to his left, “request for one of our fastest horses and get the items Genichirou would need.”
Yanagi nodded, standing up fluidly. He signed for the messenger to follow him and they left seconds before Sanada came to his senses, bowing jerkily to Yukimura once before half-running to his rooms.
“Thank you.”
Yukimura only smiled. “If anyone can get Atobe here safely, it is you.”
-
To say Sanada was surprised to see Marui standing beside his horse, holding a small bag would be a grave understatement.
“What are you doing here?”
Marui snorted. “Do you really think I trust any of the servants to prepare one of our best horses for you? Have more respect for my intelligence, please, taichou.” He handed him the bag. “There’s enough food and water there to last for three days. The servants also packed medical supplies - for Atobe-san - and warm clothes.”
Sanada took the bag, still slightly confused even as he mounted the horse. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
Marui laughed, stepping backwards and bowing slightly to Sanada. “On the behalf of all of us, I wish you good luck, Sanada-taichou. Bring Atobe-san to us so we can have an excuse to declare war on Seigaku.”
“War-mongering bastard, aren’t you?”
“Only as much as any of the others.” Marui shrugged.
Sanada laughed, feeling some of his tension fade away due to the familiar banter. “I have to go now. Thank the others for me, won’t you?”
“Do you have to ask?”
--
Sanada could feel the wind blowing against his face as he spurred his horse westward, towards Hyoutei. The road was nothing new; he had travelled this road many times these past four years. Unbidden, his mind returned to that time, barely three years ago, when he had first met Hyoutei’s prideful (or, as most would say, arrogant) General.
Atobe Keigo.
---
Sanada Genichirou was bored out of his mind.
He sighed, lifting his head from the mind-numbingly boring book on his lap to glance at the plans surrounding him. Hyoutei’s gardens were stunning, especially now, during springtime. Sakura petals were everywhere, and Sanada had to marvel at the richness of their colour.
His reverie was broken, however, when soft and inconspicuous footsteps sounded behind him. He had a hand on the hilt of a katana when someone sat down suddenly beside him.
Sanada raised an eyebrow at the newcomer, surprised at his appearance. The man had short, light brown hair that reminded him a little of Yagyuu Hiroshi, except that Yagyuu’s hair was straighter and of a darker brown. Even odder, the stranger’s eyes were blue.
Well. Hyoutei certainly had some rather interesting looking people. Sanada wondered, at the back of his mind, if this man was related to Hyoutei’s daimyo, Sakaki Tarou. He doubted that many people had light-coloured hair, not in Japan.
“It is not very polite to stare, Sanada Genichirou.”
Sanada blinked at the use of his name. “Nor is it polite not to introduce yourself, stranger, especially when you already know of my name.”
The man laughed, rich and full of good humour. He bowed slightly, still seated. “Atobe Keigo, General of the Hyoutei armies, at your service.”
Sanada blinked again before bowing back, letting his hair cover the slight smirk that had appeared on his face. “And what does the esteemed Hyoutei General need from this lowly stranger, Atobe-sama.”
“Spare me the theatrics,” Atobe snorted, waving a hand negligently in Sanada’s direction, “General of the Rikkaidai armies, Sanada Genichirou. I know perfectly well who you are.”
Sanada shrugged. “It’s always a boon to me if I test someone who claims to be a high-ranking officer if they are ignorant enough to believe me when I call myself a lowly stranger, Atobe.”
Atobe raised an eyebrow, looking amused and slightly impressed. “Then, Sanada, I trust that I have passed that little test of yours? You are no uneducated lout, I see.”
“An uneducated lout would not be able to gain a position of General, Atobe. Not at Rikkaidai, at least.”
“Very true.” Atobe nodded, folding his hands at his lap as he leaned against the sakura tree behind him. “So what are you doing in our humble gardens, Sanada? Aren’t you supposed to accompany your daimyo?”
Sanada barked out a laugh. “According to Yukimura, I am just here for ‘decorations’ and ‘to fill space in list of people I bring to Hyoutei’. Diplomacy isn’t exactly my forte.” He turned towards Atobe. “What about you? Does Sakaki not require your presence in the alliance talks?”
Atobe had raised an eyebrow at him, most likely due to his casual use of Yukimura’s name. “Sakaki-sama doesn’t need his soldiers to fight his verbal battles for him. He does that very well alone.”
Sanada saw a silent challenge appear in those odd blue eyes and smirked. “Since we are both unneeded by our daimyos, Atobe, what do you say about a friendly duel?”
“Wouldn’t that endanger the alliance talks?” Atobe tilted his head to the side, questioning. The small smirk on his lips, however, belied his question.
Sanada chuckled. “I daresay that Yukimura had already expected this from me and had made allowances for it. Whatever we do has no impact on the alliance talks, since we have already established that neither of us have any involvement in them.”
“I agree” Atobe nodded. “Shall we adjourn to the dojo, then?”
Sanada stood, closing his book with a hand while the other brushed sakura petals from his lap. He felt the familiar frisson of excitement in his blood and smiled, knife-sharp.
“Of course.”
-
To be honest, Sanada didn’t know what to expect from Atobe Keigo.
True, the man was the General of Hyoutei’s huge army at such an apparently young age, but that didn’t exactly say very much of his skill with a sword. For all Sanada know, Atobe might have been chosen for his strategic and planning abilities instead of his skill with a katana.
Seeing how easily Atobe handled his katana and wakazashi and their exquisite make and carefully polished state, however, made Sanada doubt that theory.
Atobe had noticed him staring a smirked slightly. “Are you regretting your words now, Sanada?”
Sanada snorted, shedding the restrictive outer layer of his kimono as he returned Atobe’s smirk with a challenging glare of his own.
“Hardly.”
“Then prepare to be awed by ore-sama’s beauteous skills.”
Sanada felt his eyebrow shoot up to his hairline and barely managed to repress a sudden urge to burst out laughing at Atobe’s exclamation.
“We shall see, shan’t we?” He replied mildly, a hand on the hilt of one of is twin katanas.
Atobe’s smirk widened and it was the only warning Sanada had before Atobe disappeared from his line of sight and reappeared right in front of his, katana aimed right at his heart.
‘Fast!’ Sanada thought as he backed up two steps, unsheathing his katana’s just in time to block Atobe’s blow. He parried and feinted towards the right, driving his katana towards Atobe’s left side. Atobe was right-handed; logic and experience told him that his weaker side would be his left.
Sanada’s eyes widened when Atobe unsheathed his wakazashi with his left hand in a lightening-quick movement, blocking Sanada’s katana while, at the exact same moment, sent his own katana to Sanada’s unprotected right side.
Atobe smirked again, and Sanada gave him a tight smile in return as he leaned backwards slightly to avoid a critical injury. He unsheathed his second with his left hand and blocked Atobe’s wakazashi in its path. Atobe pressed his advantage, his katana pointed at Sanada’s right foot. He was almost leaning his whole weight on his wakazashi.
Sanada stepped backwards suddenly, releasing the pressure and sending Atobe suddenly off-balanced. He swept his right hand in a crescent arc, knocking the wakazashi out of Atobe’s surprised hand. Atobe had barely enough time to blink before Sanada’s raised his right hand so that the katana it was holding rested on Atobe’s shoulder, the edge of the blade at his throat. His second katana sat on Atobe’s hips, ready to split if into two if Sanada wished for it.
Sanada blinked slightly in confusion when he saw that Atobe was still smirking, still confident even when he was in a situation like this. He opened his mouth, about to inform Atobe that he had just lost when he felt a sharp prick at his skin, right above his heart. Blinking again, Sanada looked down.
A small, ornate dagger was pressed against his chest, its tip breaking the skin. A small drop of blood had welled up at the wound. Sanada blinked at the sight.
“Would a dagger to the heart kill you first, Sanada, or would your katana at my throat kill me before I move my hand?” Atobe’s voice was silky, and Sanada couldn’t hear any uncertainty in that voice.
He smiled. “Perhaps we would die at the same time.”
“A draw, then?”
“If it pleases you to call it that, then yes. “
Atobe laughed, and Sanada could feel the dagger being removed from his skin. He sheathed his katanas as well, stepping back.
“Sanada.”
“Hm?”
“My rooms are down this hallway. If you are ever as bored as you looked just now, below the sakura tree, knock on the door and we can have another spar.”
Sanada raised an eyebrow. “Are you so confident that I wish to spar with you again?”
Smirking, Atobe replied: “Of course.”
“Would your lady not object?”
Atobe shrugged, picking up his wakazashi from where it had flew from his hand. “I am yet unwed.” He cocked his head towards Sanada. “Would yours?”
Sanada mirrored his shrug, pulling up the outer layer of his kimono and tying the obi. “I am unwed as well.” He turned to face Atobe, smiling slightly. “I daresay that I would disturb you many a time during my stay here, Atobe.”
Atobe only laughed. “I look forward to it.”
--
Sanada had lost count of the number of times he had sparred with Atobe. The talks had gone on for over a month, and there seemed to be no end in sight. For every single day of that month he had knocked on Atobe’s door, and Atobe had always indulged him.
Of course, they didn’t spar every time. Atobe was a busy man with a hectic schedule, and apparently he had felt confident enough that Sakaki would succeed with the alliance talks that he had decided to drag Sanada along when he performed his various duties inside the walls of Hyoutei.
And Hyoutei, as Sanada soon learned, was enormous. Unlike Rikkaidai, where he couldn’t take a long walk without seeing well-kept fields or decorated buildings, Hyoutei had large areas of uncultivated, unoccupied land.
These lands included the mountains.
Hyoutei’s mountains were magnificent. They, as Atobe had told him, also serviced as places of worship for the common people. Sanada managed to spot quite a few temples along the slopes of the mountains he had seen, along with, of course, high towers made of stone and limestone that served as lookout towers for Hyoutei.
These towers were partly the reason why Yukimura had decided on this alliance with Hyoutei. It was half-impossible to invade Hyoutei; any troops would be spotted twenty miles from the main entrance from any of the lookout towards up on the mountains, and the soldiers up these mountains were armed to the teeth with poison-tipped arrows.
The other reason was, of course, that Rikkaidai didn’t need Hyoutei’s land (it had more than sufficient for itself, now), but what they needed was the co-operation with Hyoutei’s huge armies. If Rikkai tried to conquer Hyoutei and even if they won, none of Sakaki’s soldiers would be willing to serve the man who had conquered them. Plus, if they went to war, Hyoutei would lose many soldiers, which completely defeated the reason of why Yukimura wanted Hyoutei in the first place.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Atobe spoke, breaking the comfortable silence between them. The pride in his voice was as obvious as daylight.
Sanada nodded. He wasn’t one for lying when he saw no good reason not to tell the truth. “Aah.” He turned towards his companion, slowing his horse as the other man chatted briefly with a group of passing soldiers, who seemed awestruck.
“You have pride… in yourself, in your soldiers and, most of all, in your city.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Atobe raised an eyebrow at him.” “Don’t you?”
“Of course. There is no greater joy than seeing your people, your city prosper and grow stronger, knowing all long that you have helped it grow.”
“I agree.” Atobe replied, contemplative.
They fell back into silence after back. The rhythmic sound of metal horseshoes beating against the dirt of the ground was the only noise for quite some time.
“They call you the Troika, you, Yukimura and Yanagi. Rikkai prospered because it had the three of you, the Lord, the General and the Strategist, at its helm. Does knowing that make you proud as well?”
Sanada shook his head. “I am proud that I have done something to aid in Rikkai’s development, but I am not proud to have so much credit. No, most of Rikkai’s growth is Yukimura or Yanagi’s efforts. I am simply the man who readies the troops for war and fight with them during said war.”
“Modest, aren’t you?” Atobe chuckled.
“I only spoke the truth.” He shrugged in reply.
“I’ve heard rumours, there’s lots of them here, that Yukimura is the child of a kitsune god, for Rikkaidai had grown from a small, virtually unknown city to the most powerful one in Japan in just a little over ten years.” Atobe’s voice sounded slightly hoarse, as if he was trying to stifle laughter.
Sanada laughed, long and loud, scaring away most of the birds in the vicinity. “Yukimura is definitely the son of a very human pair of parents, Atobe. Rumours are nothing but speculations and nonsense. I have known Yukimura ever since I first met him at three years old. He is human. A genius of the highest calibre, yes, but he is definitely human.”
“And Yanagi?”
“What about Yanagi?”
“Have you known him since childhood as well, Sanada? From what the most of Japan knows, he appeared in Rikkaidai three years ago without warning and had immediately taken up a post as Yukimura’s advisor and a genius strategist. No one had heard of him before that.” Atobe’s tone was casual, but Sanada could hear the honest curiosity clearly.
“Yanagi was born in Seigaku and had spent over half of his life there. I can’t tell you any more than that, Atobe. It is not my story to tell.” Sanada shook his head in exasperation. He wasn’t offended. Atobe wasn’t the first person to ask this question, and Sanada thought it rather strange. Did it really matter where Renji had come from? Sanada didn’t think so.
Atobe, perhaps sensing Sanada’s thoughts, let the matter drop.
The silence dragged on, and Sanada realized that it was oddly uncomfortable, a far cry from the comfortable silence they had shared before.
“Seigaku is getting stronger.” He said; just to break the silence.
Atobe nodded, and Sanada thought that the other man looked relieved, just for a moment. “Their General, Tezuka, is gathering the best samurai of his city and giving them high offices in the army. It seems that he’s thinking of expanding Seigaku’s territory. He has the most power in that city now that the daimyo had died without choosing an heir”
“You should be careful.” Sanada wasn’t very sure why he was warning Atobe.
“Why?”
“If Seigaku is looking for new land, Hyoutei would be their first target. Your city is the largest in Japan right now.”
Atobe snorted. “There is no need to warn me, Sanada. I know that very well, and I also know that there is almost no doubt that Hyoutei would win in a confrontation between my city and Seigaku. We are stronger.” He laughed confidently. “In fact, I half-wish that Tezuka would attack us. I have been waiting for a proper duel with him for a long while.”
--
‘Time flies when you are enjoying yourself.’ Sanada remembered that saying, and he had to shake his head at how accurate it was.
It had been two months since they had taken the ride through the mountains, discussing about Seigaku. The alliance had been finalized after over three months of talks. Oddly enough, Sanada almost felt that only three weeks had passed instead of the three months.
Being in Atobe’s company did tend to make one forget ‘mundane’ things such as time, after all. Sanada chuckled softly at that thought.
He had just stepped into saddle of his horse, bridled beside Yukimura’s carriage, when he saw Atobe walking towards him.
“What is it?”
“We have yet to determine who the stronger swordsman between the two of us is, Sanada. We have to settle that, soon.”
Sanada smirked at the challenge in Atobe’s voice, and inclined his head. “You have an open invitation to Rikkaidai then, Atobe. I do agree with you; we have to settle this.”
Atobe smiled back, showing teeth. “I will visit that city you are so proud of soon, Sanada. It’s a promise.”
He bowed shallowly before turning away and walking back towards the city gates. Sanada, inexplicably, felt a twinge of regret as he watched him leave.
“He’s an interesting man, is he not? That Atobe Keigo.” Yukimura’s voice came suddenly from behind him.
Sanada twitched slightly, turning to meet a serene smile that was belied by the mischievous glint in Yukimura’s eyes.
“Whatever makes you think so, my lord?”
Yukimura frowned. “No formalities, Genichirou. Not in private.” He chastised softly.
“You have been in his company for the past three months, and for those past months, you have told me very much of his various virtues and his many faults. I am neither deaf nor stupid, Genichirou.”
“He is a very opinionated man. His views are refreshing, if controversial, and he is never afraid to speak his mind.” Sanada shrugged. “He is a good friend, I suppose.”
“If you say so.” Sanada had the distinct impression that Yukimura was laughing at him, behind his back.
“Whatever do you mean?”
Yukimura chuckled behind a pale hand. “Genichirou, you are always rather dense about these things. Follow your emotions, they won’t lead you astray, and they tell you very important things if you would stop thinking and listen to them, once in a while.”
“You are being more cryptic than usual, Yukimura. I would not have thought that possible. It is a bad sign when I am unable to understand what you have just said.”
Yukimura simply gave him another serene smile. “I suppose that you will understand in due time, Genichirou.”
--
Over the next year, Sanada was suddenly very glad that Hyoutei was only half a day’s ride from Rikkai. Atobe and he had ridden back and forth between the two cities so frequently that Sanada knew both cities as well as he knew the back of his hand. He was positive that Atobe felt the same.
His men had already gotten used to Atobe’s sudden appearance in Yukimura's or his own manor and had stopped giving him suspicious stares when he visited. Sanada, too, had stopped feeling guarded and suspecting eyes on his back whenever he decided to visit Atobe in Hyoutei. It was quite a relief.
“The spring sun, it comes,
melting the snow and giving
breath to frozen hearts.” Sanada recited the haiku out loud, frowning slightly.
“That was only mildly horrible. Your student is improving.” Atobe commented, seated in seiza in front of Sanada. It was one of his many visits to Rikkaidai.
Sanada’s frown deepened. “Not as much as he should. He is probably slacking off again.”
“You are far too hard on the boy. Kirihara-kun is hard working.”
“His swordplay and analytical skills are improving at a shocking rate. He has unbelievable potential as a common samurai, but he would be utterly useless as a general if his calligraphy and literature remains as abysmal as ever. What use are brilliant strategies if your men are unable to read your instructions or if you can’t explain it to them?”
Atobe sighed. This was a frequent argument. “I still say that you are too hard on him, but I know you won’t listen. Come on, Genichirou. The sakura season has arrived, and I believe Yukimura-sama has organized a viewing banquet in the gardens.”
“He had given you permission to call him ‘Yukimura’, you do realize?”
Atobe shook his head. “Maybe it is fine for you to call him that, but a man who could disarm me within seven moves deserves to be graced with a -sama.” He retorted, crossing his arms. “Not even Sakaki-sama had managed that. It boggles me how Yanagi dared to use his first name.”
Sanada laughed, shoulders shaking with mirth even as he placed a hand on Atobe’s shoulder as a placating gesture. “Renji has Yukimura’s permission. There is nothing ‘daring’ about it, Keigo. It’s not as if Yukimura is a god or a spirit. He is a human man, just like all of us.”
Atobe huffed slightly, but he made no move to remove Sanada’s hand. “He can be as intimidating as a god if he put his mind to it. But never mind that. I know I am being ridiculous; you don’t have to keep reminding me of the fact. We have to leave now, or we’ll be late.”
Sanada didn’t remove his hand from Atobe’s person throughout the whole banquet. It shifted from to Atobe’s back to his waist and back up to his shoulders. Atobe made no complaint. It was a good sign.
“Genichirou, your hand had been on me for almost six hours. Are you trying to tell me something?” Atobe asked, words slightly slurred. The banquet was over, and Sanada had accepted Atobe invitation to sake in Atobe’s room, just two doors away from Sanada’s. He reckoned that, since they had been drinking for two hours, they were both more than a little drunk.
“Not… not really. It’s kind of hard to explain in words when I’m drunk” He felt proud that, unlike Atobe, his voice was as stable as it was when he was sober. “I can show you, though. Would you like me to?”
“Sure. You have to promise not to take this chance to kill me, though.” Atobe’s eyes were overly bright; he was definitely drunk.
Sanada nodded. “I promise.”
He leaned forward, hand on Atobe’s hips, and pressed his lips to Atobe’s, a soft, chaste kiss, before pulling back. He waited. Somehow, his drunken haze was disappearing, and a sense of foreboding was penetrating to his mind through the holes. He felt a vague sense of horror and wondered what was wrong.
“What? That’s it?” Atobe blinked blearily. “Don’t you know how to kiss properly?”
Sanada felt a hand pulled at the front of his yukata, sending him half-sprawling forward when a pair of lips, soft and plush and tasting of alcohol, landed on his own. He gasped, and Atobe took the opportunity to insert his tongue into Sanada’s mouth.
The sense of horror had disappeared half-way throughout the kiss to be replaced by a sudden euphoria. Sanada couldn’t find a reason for his suddenly rapidly-changing emotions, and then decided that he probably didn’t need one anyway. Drunk on both sake and euphoria, decided to kiss Atobe back.
“Genichirou…” Atobe slurred when they broke apart due to being unable to breathe. Sanada could see stars behind his eyes. “I think we should continue this tomorrow.” With that statement spoken, he fell forward onto Sanada’s chest and promptly lost unconscious and started to snore.
Sanada blinked, staring at the rapidly multiplying sake bottles on the table. He could have sworn that he and Atobe only had a third of the number of bottles… He shrugged. It didn’t really matter.
“Good idea… Keigo.”
He slumped backwards and fell asleep.
-
Sanada woke up to a heavy weight on his chest and a pair of groggy blue eyes staring at him. His mouth felt like something had died in it and was rotting. He blinked.
“Keigo? What are you doing on top of…oh.”
He remembered.
Atobe sat up, holding a hand to his head. “Remind me never to drink this much again for no discernable reason. What happened last…oh.” He blinked rapidly, one, twice, three times, before turning to Sanada.
“Do you mean it?”
“What?”
“Last night…the kiss. Do you mean it?”
Sanada could only nod. “I mean every bit of what I said… or rather,” he chuckled softly, wincing as the sound resonated in his head and aggravated his pounding headache nonetheless, “I meant everything of what I didn’t say.”
“Good.” Atobe nodded decisively. “That settles it then.”
“Settles what?” Sanada asked, feeling decided steamrolled. The feeling wasn’t exactly uncommon, especially during this past year.
Atobe turned, and Sanada could see him roll his eyes before Atobe kissed him, close-mouthed and chaste. He got a whiff of Atobe’s morning breath and wrinkled his nose.
“Your breath stinks.”
“Yours isn’t very much better.” Atobe pointed out, matter-of-fact.
“And we both need a bath.” Sanada continued, lifting a corner of his yukata to his nose and wincing at the smell. “We stink of sake.”
“Do you think your people will look at us oddly if we take one together?” Atobe’s expression was neutral, but Sanada knew what he was thinking. Oddly enough, the idea of that appealed instead of disgusted him as he thought it would.
“Of course, but, really, do you really care?”
“No, not really. I’ve received a very large share of strange looks while in Rikkaidai, what would a few more matter?” Atobe shrugged as he stood. “Besides, I think your men have a pool about when this is going to happen.”
“Do they?” Sanada murmured, looking up towards Atobe. He was still seated. “How like them.”
Atobe smiled. “If you say so, Genichirou. So… about my offer?”
“Sure,” Sanada stood, smiling back, “why not? We might give those good men of mine a few more things to bet on.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No, not by far.” Sanada leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss on Atobe’s lips. “Definitely not.”
---
Sanada smelled Hyoutei before he saw it.
He could never mistake the scent of smoke and death for anything else. It had a particular smell, like the scents blood and rot and incense thrown together to concoct a particularly foul mixture. Sanada coughed, covering his mouth and nose with a hand as he dismounted and tied his horse to the nearest undamaged tree he could find. The beast did not have to accompany him.
Tucking the bag into a small compartment in the saddle, he squinted, closing his eyes into slits in order to protect them. Ash and broken pieces of wood and metals were flying haphazardly everywhere, and Sanada didn’t need to be injured before he found Atobe.
It was only until he had reached Hyoutei’s ornate entrance gates that he realized that he had, quite honestly, no clue where Atobe could be. But he gritted his teeth and entered the ruined city nonetheless. He wasn’t one to give up so easily, after all.
Hyoutei was half-consumed by a raging fire, bright and blazing, and he saw the trail of blackened corpses that was left in its wake. He offered a mental prayer for the dead before running after the flames. His instincts told him that the fire would lead him to Atobe. Sanada had always trusted in his instinct, and they had never failed him. In fact, it was because of his instincts that he had become the General of Rikkaidai’s armies.
Just then, a strong gust of wind blew and the fire split into two different directions. Sanada held an arm in front of his face as a piece of burning wood flew pas, barely missing him. He saw a large stable directly in line to the fire, and there was a trail of still-wet blood leading to its shut door.
He knew; all of his instincts were shouting at him: ‘Atobe is in there.’
Starting to run towards the stable, he hissed softly as heat from the fire licked at his ankles. He was going to gain quite a few burns from this, but Sanada couldn’t care less as he threw open the door and stepped inside before slamming it close to keep the fire out. The blood trail led to the darkest corner of the stable, and he spotted the figure huddled there, shaking.
‘Keigo.’
Sanada breathed a sigh of relief before striding towards the shivering figure. For a moment, he was almost afraid that his instincts had failed him for the first time here, and Keigo was dead.
But Atobe was alive, and Sanada had found him. Everything would be alright now.
He started forward, covering his nose and mouth with a hand to avoid breathing in the smoke. Scooping Atobe up into his arms, Sanada took a deep breath, inhaling smoke into his lungs along with vital fresh air, before running as fast as he could, out of the stable, out of the line of fire, straight out of the city of Hyoutei until he reached the tree where his horse was bridled at.
He knelt, placing Atobe on the cleanest spot of the ground he could find before retrieving his bag from the saddle. Atobe coughed, raspy and barely audible; even as Sanada took the blanket he had wrapped himself him away.
He stared in horror at the massive wound in Atobe’s left side. The sides of it were tinged with green, a clear sign of infection that Sanada didn’t need. He could smell the infection, now that his breath wasn’t choked with smoke.
“Keigo, Keigo, can you hear me?”
Atobe blinked, coughing again. He opened his eyes slowly, as if it took a huge amount of effort. “Genichirou…?”
Sanada nodded. “Yes. I’m here, so you’re going to be fine now. Just… hold on while I clean your wound. I need to clean it. It’s has been infected.”
Atobe gave a small nod.
Sanada set to work. He unscrewed the cap of a water skin, pouring it over the open wound. He could feel Atobe jerked in pain, but he continued, taking out a few rags that Renji had packed and his dagger. He pressed the blade into the infected areas, and greenish-yellow pus oozed out, which he quickly wiped away with a rag, wrinkling his nose at the smell. This was repeated this several times, until it seemed to him that the worst of the infection had been cleared away. The edges of the wound were reddened instead of yellowish now, and that was definitely a good sign.
He stared at the dirty dagger and rags in his hand before grimacing and tossing them in the direction of Hyoutei, as near to the fire as he could reach. It could serve as a substitute for Atobe’s body for all he cared. It was disrespectful, he knew, but he really couldn’t bear to touch them.
He took out a second water skin and pressed the opened mouth to Atobe’s dry lips. His lover drank hungrily, and Sanada unscrewed another skin and poured it over a rag and used it to wipe Atobe’s face and neck, until most of the ash had been cleared away. He threw that back towards Hyoutei too. Hopefully the fire would burn that too.
Atobe seemed to have recovered a little due to the water, and Sanada carried him to the horse, hoisting him up before mounting the beast himself. He took a two tiny pieces of umeboshi and pressed them to Atobe’s lips, letting the other man chew and swallow them before he untied the horses and kicked its flank.
“Where are we…?” Atobe was interrupted by a fit of coughing, but Sanada knew what he meant nonetheless.
“We’re going back to Rikkaidai. You need a healer, Keigo, and we have plenty of those in the mansion. Try to rest; we’ll be there when you wake up.”
Sanada could feel Atobe nodding weakly. He drove the horse faster, apologizing silently to Atobe for the bumpy ride, but getting him to safety and a healer was more important than comfort right now.
-
It was just sunset when he reached Yukimura’s mansion. He had taken less than a day to travel to and from Hyoutei. He dismounted and carried Atobe straight to the mansion’s infirmary, ignoring the questions of many of the servants on the way.
Placing Atobe carefully down on one of the beds, he called. “Sengoku!”
The red-haired healer poked his head out of one of the curtains. “What do you… oh, it’s you, Sanada-taichou. You really found Atobe-sama, that’s amazing! Lucky! Dan-kun!” He raised a hand, and his apprentice appeared from behind yet another curtain. “Please check Atobe-sama’s pulse for me, would you?” Dan nodded, and set to work.
“And Sanada-taichou,” Sengoku continued, “please get out of the infirmary, you are disruptive because you are just like this big rock in the middle of the road and it’ll take us longer if we have to walk around you.”
Sanada found himself being pushed out of the infirmary by a chattering Sengoku. "Will he be alright?”
“You mean Atobe-sama?” Sengoku laughed. “Of course he will! You helped us a lot by cleaning his wound, Sanada-taichou, so I’ll reward you by telling you that, yes, he will be fine.” His attitude suddenly turned serious. “He’ll need time to recover, they all do, but he’ll be alright.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Have I lied to you, Sanada-taichou? I don’t lie, not about things like this.” The serious look in his eyes disappeared to be replaced by his normal grin. “And now I’m wasting time here talking to you! Dan-kun~! Have you finished taking his pulse yet?”
Sanada sighed, leaning against a wall. He had never figured how Sengoku managed to be one of the best healers in Rikkaidai as well as the most idiotic joker in the city, but he didn’t want to try. It wasn’t his business, after all. The man did his job well, and that was all that mattered.
Sliding down the wall to sit on the tatami mats, Sanada settled himself for a long wait.
End Part One: The Generals
Next, in Part Two, we get a glimpse into Seigaku and their General's condition. Atobe awakes, and Yukimura's best men gather in preparation. Not everyone is who they seem to be, particularly one Niou Masaharu...
Part Two: Rikkaidai Part Three: Tachibana's Folly
Edits please!