New Plans
(Mari – Same time as the talk with Kotori)
'Its cold tonight.' Mari thought as she walked through the castle, till she reached one of the gardens with a certain blunette standing in the centre watching the stars, Mari stood a moment watching the blunette a moment with a smile.
"Lady Mari," Kanan said as she noticed the blonde standing watching her "Is something wrong?"
"No, I was just enjoying the view." Mari smiled.
"Your terrible."
"Guilty."
Kanan let out a sigh before she spoke again "Did you wish to see me?"
"Yes, I did." Mari said as she walked towards the blunette before she hugged her.
"Mari this…"
"Relax, Mama is away for a few days, you can drop the act now."
"But what about…?"
"Oh come on Kanan." Mari whined with pout "Please."
"Are you sure she's gone?" Kanan asked with a sigh.
"Yes, I saw her leave myself."
"Ok fine, I could never say no to that beautiful face of yours."
"Ooh Kanan, so forward."
"Down you."
"That's the idea isn't it."
"Your awful." Kanan sighed in defeat.
(Nozomi – Evening)
"Thank you for coming so quickly." Nozomi smiled as everyone sat down in their usual seats minus Kotori who had taken a seat opposite those from Lady Minami's land and at the end of the group next to an unhappy looking Umi who was holding Saki in her arms.
"Sadly we don't have a lot of time, and we have a lot of things to cover, first we need to take Tatsumi's castle but given the current situation we can't do that as the castle blocks the bridge making it too costly to try and Eli's troops are suffering raids, also if Kira gets reinforcements in to Tatsumi's castle we will be forced into a stalemate, so we need to siege the castle and prevent Kira from reinforcing the castle, for that I have a three part plan. We also have a rescue we need to complete and we need negotiate with Ohara's."
'And pray they aren't going to be too difficult.' Nozomi thought to herself "Nico if you would start off, please." Nozomi said turning to the ninja and gesturing to the sand map in between the two rows of people.
"Tomorrow morning, a party of four including myself will ride for the Watanabe castle, we will ride down to the fords that lead on to the Sonoda island here and here." Nico said pointing to parts of the Sonoda island "From there we plan to infiltrate the caste and effect a rescue."
"And how do you plan to infiltrate the caste and get out?" Lady Minami asked.
"Thanks to Lady Riko we have some armour and clothing of Kira's troops, also Lady Tsuki told us there is a Saki brewery near to the castle that sits on the main road leading to the castle, once there we plan to hold up, disguise ourselves as some of Kira's troops and will then go with one of two options, either we will sneak in with any troops entering the Watanabe at the time, or to sneak in with the escort for any Saki being brought into the castle from the brewery."
"And your confident of this brewery's loyalty?" Lady Minami asked.
"I know the owner, he's been a friend for years, I don't doubt his loyalty." Tsuki answered confidently.
"And what do you plan if you can't disguise yourselves as soldiers?" Nozomi asked.
"In case we can't go in as soldiers we plan to enter as workers from the brewery." Yoshiko answered, "Though we are hoping to not need this plan as it would be harder to move around then as soldiers."
"And your escape plan?"
"We have two options, our first option is to sneak out through the fort as a patrol, failing that we will escape via the boat to the Ohara lands or to this side of the river, it would really rather depend on their state when we reach them and weather we were detected."
"Thank you, Nico." Nozomi smiled as the ninja sat down "Oh I forgot to ask, whose going with you?"
"Myself, Yoshiko, Riko and Maki." Nico said glancing towards Maki with an unsure look.
"That's a bit inconvenient." Nozomi sighed.
"Why, Nya?" asked Rin.
"Well I had hoped Maki would lead the next part of my plan." Nozomi said standing up "I wanted her to take the remaining ten thousand troops we have here to cross after the rescue party and set up at the bridge at Umi's castle to form a blocking force against Kira from reaching Tatsumi's castle and protecting Eli's sieging forces at Tatsumi's castle, it would also give a friendly force for Nico's group to fall back to."
"If I may Nozomi." The twin tailed girl heard Maki speak up "I do have a recommendation for a replacement if you wouldn't mind my suggestion?"
"Of course, who is it?"
"Rin."
"Me?" Nozomi hear the ginger ask with a shocked look.
"Yes, Rin you."
"Wouldn't Yukiho be the better choice though?"
"She's needed for another part of my plan involving the main army." Nozomi countered.
"But…"
"Rin," Maki said cutting the ginger off "You were able to ride on you own to reach Yukiho and reach us, plus you're the best cavalry commander we know, you'll do fine."
"I have faith in you Rin." Nozomi smiled "And I had hoped you would agree to support this part of the plan anyway and you do not need to worry, not long after you cross you will have help close by."
"But…" The ginger spoke again only this time Hanayo stopped her by placing a hand on the gingers shoulder.
"Rin, I know you'll do fine, please." The brunette spoke quietly.
The ginger dropped her head slightly "Ok, if you're ok with me doing it then I will." Rin muttered with her head down and an uneasy look.
Nozomi gave Hanayo a nod before turning back to the sand map "Good, now as Rin marches to secure the bridge, Yukiho will head off to Eli, once there she will take a portion of the troops there and move at night to cross after Rin and bring the caste under siege." Nozomi said before looking over at Alisa "Can I trust you to tell her?"
"Of course."
"Good, once Yukiho has brought the castle under siege Eli will be able to cross the bridge safely, once she's done that, she will take charge of the siege."
"While all of this is happening a small group of use consisting of myself, Lady Minami, Tsuki, Umi, Kotori, Honoka and Tsubasa, plus a small escort will be heading to negotiate with the Ohara's, we need their manpower to win."
"Provided Kira hasn't got to them on his side already." Nozomi heard Riko mumble.
"I doubt they have done that; Lady Ohara hates Kira far more than me right now." Lady Minami said.
"Indeed." Nozomi said with a smile before it dropped "Now I know you've had to take in a lot of information but we have one more piece of information that you all need to hear."
Nozomi turned to face Lady Minami who gave a small nod, before standing up with a resigned sigh "As you all know, my husband disinherited Kotori and sadly we can't just ignore it, so after a lot of thought and discussion with all those involved, I have decided that Tsuki will be the new heir and will keep the Watanabe name."
"What about Kotori?" Hanayo asked quietly.
"Kotori will be left in Umi's care from now on." Lady Minami said, glancing over at the bluenette, Nozomi noticed the ronin seemed to shrink slightly at the mention on her name.
"Ok everyone, that's all for tonight," Nozomi spoke up "a lot of you have a lot of things do tomorrow so I suggest you get a good night's sleep."
"Umi?" Tsuki spoke up before everyone started to get up.
"Yes, Lady Tsuki?"
"Would it be possible to speak with you in private before you head to bed?"
"Of course."
(Kanan)
"I missed this." Mari whispered as she hugged the blunette closer.
"You just missed my chest." Kanan grumbled.
"Ah, I've been discovered." Mari giggled.
Kanan knew the blonde was just joking, but this time the words were like an icey dagger to the heart that began to chill her body.
"That's not funny."
"Aw, come on, it's not like I haven't made that joke before."
"Yeah, but things are different now."
"How so?"
"You know the Tojo's are going to be reaching out to us to join forces, your mother's likely going to arrange a marriage for you as part of the deal." Kanan grumbled.
"That's not going…"
"Don't lie to me!" Kanan growled turning over so the blonde couldn't see the tears begin to build up in the blunettes eyes "You know full well what your mother wants and she wants this to end and more standing and these negotiations are the perfect opportunity for both."
"Hey, you know Nozomi's not going to agree to that." Mari said hugging the blunette from behind.
"It's not her people, so she might not have a say in the matter." Kanan growled "Besides she might not have a choice, she needs the Ohara's troops."
"I know your worried about it, but don't be, we'll think of something." Mari whispered.
"But…"
"Don't." Mari whispered, "We'll think of something even if involves running away together, I love you and I'm not giving you up."
"I love you too." Kanan whispered holding onto the blonde's hand that was across her stomach "So don't leave me, promise."
"I promise." Mari said squeezing the blunettes hand "You're the most important person in my life, you are life and one day I'll make you, my wife."
"That was so terrible." Kanan giggled.
"Maybe, but it's a promise, ok."
"Ok."
"I love you Kanan." Mari whispered in the blunettes ear before kissing it.
"I love you to." Kanan muttered as she felt a tear roll down her cheek.