Chapter 7: Dokuhime

 “Hrm… If one decided to rebel, wouldn’t it be better to kill off the daimyo first and then take over?” The calculating rat smirked. Her retainers said to overthrow and rebel against her sister, but it was stupid. Just because the Yokoyama personal army was kind of tiny, it didn’t mean that Yui was weak.

“No, no. That may throw Owari into a state of chaos.” They refused.

Laughing off the worries of the retainers with a feeling of security or at least knowledge of what she was doing, Mayu calmly replied, “Of course, the best idea is to take down the weakest link.”

“Yes, indeed. You are referring to?”

With a laugh she stated, “Of course, the Paru.”

[Murderer]

[The girl is a killer]

[Murderer]

“What’s this supposed to be?” Acchan frowned, there was an uncomfortable feeling in her. She knew that the papers on the wall were referring to Paru, but she also knew that it was probably a lie.

Takamina muttered to herself, “It shouldn’t be such a big deal…”, in this Sengoku Era, you have to kill and in truth, that strangely dressed girl seemed like the type to not kill anyone even if she had to.

[Murderer]

…Keita wasn’t killed by me though…

With the demands of her retainers and vassals who don’t even trust in her, Yui was frustrated. Well, her serious poker face look was present as normal.

To get rid of Paru. But Paru was interesting, Paru attracted her in a strange way, plus, Yui liked her new ‘retainer’.

Every single soldier out there is technically a murderer. In truth, taking the opposing general’s head was a bloody thing, but something typical for promotion.

Yui gritted her teeth. It was likely that it was the doing of that little rat, Nezumi(Mayu).

Looking out the door, she saw Paru out in the garden playing with a grey-ish, dark colored cat.

“Bisu, ah! Don’t do that…” Yui heard the strangely dressed girl murmur to the cat. Was Paru worried or not?

People were so unreasonable. If they would just think for once, maybe Japan would actually get somewhere. She wanted to unite Japan, but if she can’t get Owari to listen, isn’t that bad?

“Excuse me, Yui-dono, a message from Mayu-dono.” A messenger came in and handed the daimyo a letter.

This was extreme stupid to send a letter when they aren’t even too far away from each other, but thinking of Otabe and Nezumi, this type of thing happens. The paper only had a few sentences on it.

All it said was, [Get rid of Paru please. Criminals aren’t really needed. But if you can find proof that she’s not, ok. But, if you keep her past the deadline of 3 days, then, that’s… The retainers aren’t happy~]

“So, Paru-san, could you come with us without struggling?”

A ponytail flew through the air, with a stature so short that she was invisible behind all the people in the oddly busy place, the spear master ran. Looking around, she couldn’t find who she was looking for.

“Paru!!” She yelled out.

No response.

“Find that girl… Takahashi, Maeda.” The lord had said, a worried look across her eyes.

“Minami! Did you find any hints on where she is?”

“Atsuko, sorry… no clues at all.”

“Where the heck is Paru right now!?”

The two, they were tasked with finding Paru. If the said person wasn’t present, how could one prove her innocence?

Actually, the fact that Mayu was making a deal out of it, like that time in Majisuka Gakuen with Maeda that was caused by Nezumi, made it a lot more annoying to deal with.

“Struggling wo-” A man’s voice was cut off.

Smack, with a punch he went down. The others around unsheathed their swords and angrily attacked.

“Nyaaa…” The greyish cat, which Yui noticed had strips, trotted over to the said Daimyo.

She sighed, “Lucky you… Don’t have any problems do ya…?”

“I wonder how this game is going along.”

“As expected from Mayu-dono, a great strategist as always.”

“Is that so…”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing really, I’m just overjoyed that no one has messed up.” Of course, someone messed up. The little mouse showed a bit of disinterest.

Speaking of mice, Yui was currently playing around disheartened with the cat. “It would be great if I could just catch all the mice.” Saying something like a puzzle, just like Otabe does.

“You guys aren’t serious at all!” A punch in the face, darkness, and a tooth fell out. Poor guy was just working under commands.

The midget ran towards Paru as she yelled back to Maeda. “Paru! I found her!”

“Takamina…” The Habu girl mumbled, slightly beaten and bloody. As the taller searcher ran over, Paru suddenly fell down. There was quite a bit of blood, not exactly fatal but dangerous.

Acchan muttered to herself, biting at her fingernails bitterly, “Who…Never mind that, get Paru back immediately, and we need to find out who or what is the cause of this problem, which is really getting on my nerves…”

The ponytail midget nodded and lifted up the strange girl who she met not too long ago. Takamina let out a sigh and ran off as her Acchan began a detailed investigation.

“What? You were beaten by that girl?”

“N-no…we were trying not to kill her, but she punched all of us real badly so we retreated…I think that she might bleed to death though.”

“You guys are useless. You did hide your faces right?”

“……”

“Please cut your own stomach open now and die.”

The Daimyo of Owari held a gray cat in her arms--she sat with furrowed eyebrows and a very troubled look on her face. “…this is troublesome…” Her retainer, Rena, sat by the side. The midget spear-master was tending to Paru who was laid in a futon in the middle of the room.

“Cheer up, at least we’ve got Paru. Acchan is investigating.”

“Rena, go help?”

“Ah… Okay, I’ll be on my way!”

Takamina looked at her lord oddly. Of course, all of them were suspicious of the little mouse Mayu. Mayu was always like that, so it wasn’t so surprising. Yui was good at reading people most of the time and Mayu was good at manipulation.

There was one day left and the little mouse was grinning happily as she chewed on mochi. Even though the getting of Paru had failed, it shouldn’t be too hard to mess things up again. Paru beat up some of her servants, so maybe that’d become something to use later.

“Mayu, can I have a talk with you?”

“…?? Oh, Yui-nee~ come in.” The mouse sneered.

Wha…Takamina…Ow…it hurts…

“Paru, don’t move so much, you’re hurt.”

“…what happened?” Paru tilted her head in confusion.

“People are calling you a murderer and you got kidnapped, so now Rena and Atsuko are out trying to find some clues. Yui-sama is out to see Mayu-sama…” Takamina explained.

The ponkotsu Habu was confused, dropping some honorifics, “…Yui is with Mayu-san?”

“Yea. Why?”

“…I just have a bad feeling about that.” Paru put on a cool look and tried to get into a cool position before slipping and falling clumsily.

Paru’s guess was close. Nothing exactly dangerous happened to the daimyo, well…kind of. The tea served was scalding hot and there were lots of spicy hot peppers in the uiro served. Luckily, spicy stuff wasn’t a problem and Yui just casually complained that if one wanted to make spicy filling to make it spicier. The mouse felt oddly overwhelmed.

“So how’s Paru?”

“…She was attacked by something.”

“That’s kind of sad. Well, she’s interesting, so~ hopefully…hehehe…”

“Have you found any clues?” Acchan asked.

“Urm…Not really. These guys are the ones who kidnapped Paru for a bit though. They’re dead though.”

Gasping, there was a realization--a new clue. “Wait. Those are that mouse’s trash crew.”

“A mail for you, Yui-dono.”

“Thank you.” The daimyo opened the letter that she had suddenly received in the middle of the visit to her sister’s place.

[It’s Mayu-dono’s big scheme!! Matsui, Maeda.]

The mouse gave a questioning smile. “What is it?”

“Oh, so…the murder thing was all a lie. Mayu, could you not lie next time? No, there won’t be a next time…becau-”

Suddenly, Paru flew in with Takamina. “Wait!!!”

Mayu choked on her mochi and Yui was silent. Takamina tried to escape, but there was no way out. In truth, the Habu girl had come because she thought that the daimyo was in danger, but in truth it was that Yui was about to behead her sister for the evil scheme.

Changing what she was about to say, Paru cleared and continued, “Killing your own sister isn’t good!!!”

“Paru, you should probably be quiet now.”

“Yui!!! You have to be serious about your ambitions (to conquer and unite Japan)!! How can you do that if you kill your own sister?”

Yui grimaced, though slightly surprised at the lack of honorifics from a lower person--not that she cared much since it wasn’t trying to be disrespectful.

Mayu looked at the group as if they were crazy. She waved off Paru’s concern, “Just kill me for all I care.”

“No, no!” The Habu girl put herself in front of Mayu.

“Move.” The daimyo unsheathed a katana.

“Like Yui-nee said, move.” The mouse agreed with her sister for once.

Takamina felt like she couldn’t do anything. In truth she agreed with the strange Habu girl though. “I...actually agree…could we-”

“Give her one more chance!” Paru, Takamina, and Acchan who had just barged in pleaded in unison.

The two sisters of Owari looked on at the scene strangely. Yui didn’t really understand what went on in their heads. Smiling awkwardly, she agreed, “Ok. But, Mayu’ll have to stop with all this…”

“I will…Failing so much is a pain~~~”

And things were wrapped up. Rena…she was out there using her Gekikara mode somewhere beating up a bad retainer of the mouse.