An Urgent Messenger from Sō

[Tsuji Village, 10 *ri* to the Southeast]

A messenger had come from the direction of Sō to the southeast, so Marie headed once more to Tsuji Village.

"Shuyu-no-kami-dono, would this be about the matter of Awa?"

"You knew already?"

The messenger was Okamoto Shuyu-no-kami.

"That Awa intends to attack us with a great host, and, should the chance arise, to seize this dungeon, I can surmise that much, but the particulars are beyond me. For our part, mind you, we won't go so far as to say to Sō, 'block Awa.'"

"To cross swords with Awa would bring harm to our Sō as well, and if they merely pass through, there's no particular cause to refuse them. However, should Awa end up like Tsukuba, that would be favorable for our Sō. Such is the matter. And on top of that, if the malcontents of Sō who are in league with Awa were dragged down along with them, there'd be nothing left to wish for."

"Kazusa-no-suke-dono means to sweep away the opposition faction without dirtying his own hands. Even should they be men of Sō, we may strike them down if they attack us, is that the understanding?"

"It comes to that, yes. In particular, the Unakami clan holds the town of Iinuma at the eastern edge of Sō, where there's a dungeon that yields fish, but they've gotten carried away and won't follow Kōnodai's instructions. We've heard from the outset that this dungeon 'takes no prisoners,' and I'd be glad enough if you'd root them out entirely while you're at it."

"Rooting them out is impossible. A dungeon can basically only defend, so we can strike down only those who attack us. Now then, gauging Awa's military strength is simply a matter of counting them as they pass alongside Kōnodai, but how do matters stand within Awa?"

"In Sō, the lord of the province is Kazusa-no-suke-sama and the provisional lord is Shimōsa-no-kami-sama, but in Awa there are two lords of equal rank: Miyoshi Moku-no-kami-dono as Awa-no-kami, and Satomi Uma-no-kami-dono as Awa-no-kami, each written thus."

Shuyu-no-kami wrote out the characters 阿波 and 安房.

"So there are two heads, then."

"The two are on poor terms, though not to the point of fighting, but this time they're cooperating. Still, neither has any mind to come under the other's command, so the neutral Hosokawa Minbu-no-shō-dono serves as supreme commander."

"So there are three heads, then. If I knew each of their temperaments, I could imagine how to handle them."

"Temperaments, is it. I can't say for certain, but if rumor will do."

[Core Room]

"Satomi I follow, but Miyoshi? That's a Warring States warlord from the Kansai, isn't he."

"It's the Awa connection; this isn't the otherworld. Given that Awa's specialty products are sugar, citron, indigo, and sweet potatoes, it's Awa (阿波) rather than Awa (安房), and what's more, the Edo period. That it isn't the Hachisuka clan is no doubt because the historical course of events differs."

"Satomi, then, I suppose I summon Hakkenden from the library, scatter copies about, and call him a dog?"

"What to watch for with Satomi is, by report, an Eight-Dog warrior corps composed of dog-beastfolk."

"… That's Hakkenden to the letter. That thing's fiction, isn't it."

"The otherworld's Hakkenden may itself be an influence from this world. As for me, I'd be something like Ōgigayatsu Shuri-no-daibu, I suppose. In otherworld history that's none other than Miyoshi Nagayoshi's court rank, mind. And Miyoshi fields a red-armored corps. An elite unit composed of tanuki-beastfolk, known commonly as the 'Army Tanuki.' That said, for a tanuki to shapeshift requires dungeon energy, so naturally, unless this dungeon grants permission to use it, they cannot transform. In the otherworld there's a legend that tanuki distinguished themselves in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars and the World War, mind you."

"I see. The World War's expeditionary force to Europe was trench warfare, so the tanuki distinguished themselves at digging holes, is that it. The army contributed nothing whatsoever to the war situation, while the navy got two battlecruisers blown up off Jutland that had only just been completed the year before, and the World War came to a thoroughly miserable end, by all accounts. So, the last one, Hosokawa, is?"

"Hosokawa appears to have no unit worth special mention. Of these, since Satomi is the war faction, by report, we should beat down the dog-warriors into a beaten-dog corps, and at the end make them a cast-off-dog corps."

"This dungeon 'takes no prisoners,' so I have the feeling we can't go casting them off."

"True enough. They're no running dogs, but shall we boil them, then? Though with beastfolk we can't make a dog-suki of them, so it won't solve the food problem."

There is, naturally, no culture of eating beastfolk.