In western Harima, there stood Kozuki Castle.
The overlords of Chuugoku, the Mori Clan's fifty thousand strong army assembled together to rescue the Miki Castle that had been surrounded by the Oda Clan.
On this day, the little girl that had inherited the ancestral name of Ashikaga, which was also known as the Shogun Clan, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, ascended the hastily made Tenshu and was using a telescope to peer towards the east where Himeji Castle was located. [1]
"Ho ho ho, rejoice Kikkawa, Kobayakawa, Honbyo temple has already sent us a reply, they said that they would respond to our call to arms and engage in battle with Oda Nobuna!"
Ashikaga Yoshiaki who had fled to the Ming Empire before returning to Japan, pleaded for the Mori Clan for assistance and during this period of time had not stopped working her brush thereby living up to her name of 'Shogun of Letters'. The content of the countless numbers of letters generally was badmouthing Oda Nobuna who ignored the authority of the Ashikaga Shogun Clan and created the current Imagawa Shogunate as well as empty promises like 'As long as I am able to return to Kyoto, I will definitely reward you with lots of territory.' but in any case, she still officially inherited the position of Shogun from her predecessor, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
Therefore, the 'Mori Twins' assisting the Third Generation Mori Clan Head, Terumoto in other words, the twin daughters of the Mori First Generation, Mori Motonari, Kikkawa Motoharu as well as Kobayakawa Takakage decided to support her, choosing to oppose Oda Nobuna and thus sending their troops to invade Harima.
However, the Oda Army had shown an unexpected unity, not only was the Mori Clan's stronghold of Miki Castle completely surrounded by the Oda Clan, furthermore, the Kuki Navy also took to and appeared on the field of battle, thereby turning the war into a stalemate,
On the other hand, Ukita Naoie who was the lord of Bizen and Mimasaka and had taken the field as the vanguard of the Mori Clan accidentally fell from his horse while in a battle and hurt his back, eventually had to pull back from the battlefield due to the pain.
Therefore, the strategist general Kobayakawa Takakage who controlled the Mori Army's San'yodo's divisions as well as their navy, came up with a grand strategy to break the stalemate and break the siege of Miki Castle through the use of naval combat which was her forte and was currently making preparations for it. [2]
"Onee-sama, even though we intend to seize control of the sea of Osaka and then use this sea route to resupply Miki Castle, but we need to first acquire the support of Honbyo Temple first, let's let the garrison of soldiers at Miki castle endure a little longer."
At the younger sister, Kobayakawa's side, Kikkawa Motoharu whose head had the 'Greater Mori' headband wrapped around it was lying down while reading the Sengoku Yamato Monogatari 'Taiheiki'. Whimpering and crying 'Wuu, wuu, beautiful warriors life once again dissipate, ahhh, the tears won't stop' while writing something, she seemed to be wallowing in her subtle hobby of completing the story of beautiful generals which was fabricated through appropriate means.
Even though Kikkawa Motoharu was undoubtedly a ferocious general, yet when she was not fighting, she had a great deal of excess energy and concentration. Therefore, Motoharu, who was uninterested in real men, indulged in these fantasies.
"Cough, exhibiting this kind of perverse hobby similar to that of Fujoshi is a bit... Onee-sama."
"The San'yodo divisions as well as the navy were all placed under your command Takakage, all I need to do is listen to your instructions and go cut down our adversaries.”
"Osaka's Honbyo Temple itself is a fortress-port that is hard to attack, furthermore in Ise, Echizen, Omi and Mikawa they have a huge amount of followers, if they rise in revolt in all these places, the Oda Army will definitely be pinned down and unable to move against us. By then, Oda Nobuna can only set up a massive blockade by building up cities in Osaka's surroundings."
"Like the great fortifications that they built outside Miki Castle, Takakage?"
"I'm afraid we need to quickly send troops and rations to Honbyo Temple as soon as possible, the decisive battle against the Oda Army should be a fight between soldiers, and should not implicate the believers of Nyankousou to take up arms due to this incident, or else, it would involve more innocent civilians and thus bog down the war, making this country even more chaotic."
Kobayakawa Takakage frowned due to this 'unintended situation',
"Onee-sama, if this goes on it would no longer be a test of whether Oda Nobuna possesses the capability of becoming the overlord of the world."
Even though it was unstated, Takakage euphemistically expressed her unspoken disapproval for Ashikaga Yoshiaki to drag Honbyo Temple into the conflict through her letters.
'Wuu, could I have done something wrong?' Ashikaga Yoshiaki lowered her head.
"I... I only wanted to replace my Onii-sama who wanted to end the chaotic era but was setback on the way as the Ashikaga Shogun, so...so I continuously wrote letters around the clock...Wuu...I'm s-sorry."
"Shogun-sama, the world is not something expressed in a few sentences, but something that affects the lives of countless people, it does not simply end in a war of words, should something go wrong, it would cost a great deal of people to pay the price with their lives."
"...I'll keep that in mind from now on, I'm sorry Kobayakawa."
"With this realization, please continue to advance along the path that you believe in."
'I understand' Ashikaga Yoshiaki nodded her head with an expression of being rescued.
"I understand only one thing Takakage, and that's battle, even if I perish in battle it's just a warrior's job."
"That's right Onee-sama, speaking of which, we'll have to ask the Murakami navy for help this time again."
"Do you still remember? That decisive battle at Miyajima that decided whether or not we the Mori Clan would become the overlords of Chuugoku, and we made our brother..."
Kikkawa and Kobayakawa let out a sigh at the same time, the two sighs coincided to sound like there was only one sigh, this let Ashikaga Yoshiaki who was at the side enviously feeling that they really were a pair of good sisters.
"Even though the master is still very young, but as long as the Mori Twins are around, the Mori Clan can remain secure, yet I, after separating from my Onii-sama, am so lonely, wuu."
"Shogun-sama, even though Takakage and myself looks the same, but we are completely different, furthermore, there was a time where our relationship in the past was quite bad."
"Un, every time we saw each other we would argue without end, and got scolded by Otou-sama many times."
"What, it doesn't look like it at all now."
"This was the blessing of our late Onii-sama."
Kobayakawa Takakage looked at the Western sky, with her face revealing a lonely expression.