Chapter Text
Mitsuhide felt a growing tension as they approached Azuchi. He’d never feared his duty before, but today it felt like a blade at his neck. He was barely able to keep up his end of the conversation with his little mouse.
“And then we can visit that teahouse, you remember the one with the plum dumplings? I think I’d like to -” She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes going wide as she spotted the flags atop the tenshu. “Look! Mitsuhide, we’re almost home!”
“Yes.”
“Oh my god, I can’t wait for a hot bath and some clean clothes! And to be off this horse.” Her smile was wide and innocent.
Mitsuhide smiled back, his lips thin and pale. “Yes, all of those things.”
Some of his anxiety must have come through because her grin faded. “Is there something I should be worried about? You don’t sound happy to be back.”
“I am.” He closed his emotions off from himself and put his mask back into place. It was time, after all. “There is much to do, little mouse. Remember the summons to Kyoto?”
She nodded mutely.
“Good.” Mitsuhide reached across the gap between them to brush his fingers lightly down her cheek. “I want you to go enjoy yourself though. Even if I am … too busy to enjoy these things with you.”
The chatelaine pursed her lips. “But Mitsu, it’s not as much fun by myself. I can just wait for the teahouse and stuff, until you do have time.”
“Heh, if you feel that strongly, I’ll send Kyubei to look after you. I don’t want you to miss a moment.” He pulled his hand back from where it settled on her shoulder. “Your time here is brief. You should make the most of it before you go home.”
She swallowed, the color fading from her face. “R-right. Yes. Before I go home. I almost forgot.”
Mitsuhide chuckled. “You must be more exhausted than I realized.”
“Mhmm. That’s it.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
They approached the gate in strained silence. Mitsuhide refused to break it. He’d done only necessary damage, a gentle push. It would only hurt more later to breach that distance between them now.
For her part, his little one looked thoughtful. Melancholy. Her gaze fixed on nothing in particular as they rode closer to Azuchi.
Mitsuhide nodded to the guards as they reached the gate. He was only a little surprised when they stepped in front of the horses, weapons at the ready.
More than a dozen men filed out from the guard post behind the first two. Their expressions were hard as stone. At a signal from their officer, they sprang into action. Without a word, they pulled him from his horse and flung him to the ground. They pinned his arms behind him and ground his face into the paving stones.
“Such a warm welcome home,” he murmured. He wished they’d waited until his little mouse was off to her quarters. He hated for her to see this, but perhaps it would be the final break from him that she needed. This betrayal and humiliation.
The chatelaine leapt from her horse, trying to come between him and the guards. “What do you think you’re doing? Stop it!”
Mitsuhide wondered if she was aware of her imperious tone. The aura of command that she wore as a princess of the Oda. He didn’t think so. And perhaps, it was only her natural state. That fire and defiance in her. He loved that about her, and that love caused him more pain than the paving stones bruising his cheek.
The commanding officer ignored her completely. “Mitsuhide Akechi, we are arresting your for conspiracy against Lord Oda.”
His underling, the man with his knee on Mitsuhide’s back added, “I knew I’d get you one day, snake.”
“The agent you captured before confessed everything in your absence. He told us you were working with him the whole time,” the commanding officer said.
“Did he now?” Mitsuhide forced a dry laugh from his cracked lips.
Again, his little mouse tried to order a halt to the arrest. Reminding the soldiers that she was chatelaine, as if that position could command anything from these warriors.
One of the soldiers tried to move her away. “My lady, this is a case of treason-” He began but she twisted out of his reach and knelt down beside Mitsuhide.
“Mitsuhide, please - tell them it’s not true. You just returned from saving the Oda forces! Tell them it’s a lie! Tell them you haven’t plotted against anyone!” Her voice rose into a cry by the end, begging him to set this right.
It tore his heart to hear her like this. He wrenched a hand out of the guard’s grasp and reached toward her, her name on his lips. But the soldiers were faster. They pulled her away.
“Stop it! Why are you getting in my way?” His little one struggled against men twice her size, armed and armored. Her hands looked to small as they clutched and pulled at the arms holding her back. “What’s so dangerous about talking to him? Let me go!”
The commanding officer’s expression darkened. “Why are you so desperate to talk to him … unless … you’re his accomplice?”
Mitsuhide could not miss the shift of attention, the way the guards turned toward her. He couldn’t allow her to be pulled into this with him. “My accomplice?” He laughed. “Do not insult me!” He wrenched his shoulder up, shifting the guard that still held him down. “Do you think I would take an ignorant clumsy little girl into my confidence?”
The look on the chatelaine’s face was heartbreaking. He saw she was near to tears at this new betrayal. But more importantly, the commanding officer looked convinced. He gave a brief nod to his men. They pushed his little mouse out of the way, releasing her.
That was all that mattered. The guards closed around him.
“Don’t even think of trying to escape, Akechi.” One said, gripping a fistful of his hair to wrench his head back.
Mitsuhide smiled. “Now that you’ve found me out, I have no reason to fight. Boil me. Skewer me. Whatever punishment you think is fitting.”
His words had the intended effect. The guards, proud men and warriors, could hear the mockery in his voice. Their attention was on him solely. It might have devolved into a beating there and then, but the guard’s commander ordered them to take him to the dungeon.
Despite his intention to keep his gaze forward, Mitsuhide could not help but look back as they led him away. His little mouse followed behind, tears streaking the dust on her cheeks. Her hair had come undone in the struggle, and strands of drifted in the breeze, floating around her face as if she were a spirit. And perhaps she was, he reflected. A spirit of light and hope, one now firmly beyond his reach.
Mitsuhide smiled at her, despite the sharp pain in his heart. “I enjoyed our journey together,” he called. One truth in the midst of a sea of lies.