Countless Heroes' Blood and Dreams

It was another night with a bright moon hanging high, but tonight, the skies soon changed.

Before long, thick clouds drifted in from somewhere, veiling the gleaming silver disk and plunging the earth into darkness.

On the ground, at the far end of the Musashino Great Plain, the allied army's camp stretched for dozens of miles.

Takeda Shingen, hailed as the Tiger of Kai, stared absently at the command banner snapping in the night wind.

"Lord Shingen, you truly deserve your title of tiger! Under your command today, the Hojo Army did nothing but hide like turtles!"

"They were utterly powerless against our allied forces. With your strategic genius, I'm sure we can storm their main camp tomorrow!"

Yet just as Takeda Shingen was lost in thought, someone with no sense of tact insisted on approaching him.

The fighting against the Hojo Army had gone fairly well over the past few days, especially now that the Imagawa Army had been annihilated.

Uesugi Norimasa, another leading figure in the alliance, came over with a cup of wine in hand.

His train of thought interrupted, a flicker of displeasure crossed Takeda Shingen's face.

But he was a shrewd man, and by the time he turned to face Uesugi Norimasa,

there was no trace of anything amiss in his expression. He glanced at the others, who were celebrating victory halfway through the battle and indulging themselves without restraint.

"Heh, heh, heh. This is also thanks to the efforts of Lord Norimasa and all the gentlemen here."

Mutual flattery kept everyone happy, as Takeda Shingen knew well after the considerable effort he had put into securing his position as clan head.

He would never insult someone to their face and sour relations.

After all, however much he despised these useless drunkards, they still made adequate cannon fodder against the Hojo Army, didn't they?

"Yes, yes! So long as we join forces, what does the Hojo Army matter? What does the Kirin of Sagami matter?"

Having received Takeda Shingen's approval, Uesugi Norimasa grew even more exuberant.

Perhaps the alcohol had gone to his head as well, for his tongue was thick and his words increasingly reckless.

"Look, Lord Shingen! Faced with our mighty army, where is Hojo Akitoshi, whom everyone praised so highly before the war?"

"Hah! They claimed he'd left temporarily on urgent business."

"If you ask me, he was afraid of our hundred-thousand-strong allied army, so he found a respectable excuse to run away!"

"Heh, heh, heh! The only true heroes in the realm are those gathered here!"

"The only true heroes in the realm are those gathered here?"

To Uesugi Norimasa's ears, those words were Takeda Shingen's affirmation.

But Takeda Shingen knew perfectly well that he had meant them as a veiled sneer.

Watching Uesugi Norimasa turn away to resume his drinking and revelry, Takeda Shingen felt nothing but contempt. He even wanted to ask, You think you qualify?

Whatever else might be said, Hojo Akitoshi bore the title Kirin of Sagami and stood alongside himself and Uesugi Kenshin in renown.

Your name may be Uesugi too, Norimasa, but are you remotely comparable to that other Uesugi?

Turning away, as if to put the unpleasant sight out of mind, Takeda Shingen gazed up at the night sky again.

He believed Hojo Akitoshi had truly left the battlefield on urgent business.

Business even more important than the Battle of Kawagoe.

"My lord."

Someone interrupted Takeda Shingen's thoughts again, but this time it was one of his retainers-and his own younger brother.

Takeda Nobushige was also the undisputed second-in-command of the Takeda and the strongest supporter of his succession as clan head.

He had fought in every campaign and was renowned alongside his brother as a peerless general.

"Ah, Nobushige."

Takeda Shingen turned with an ease entirely unlike his reaction to Uesugi Norimasa's arrival.

"How are the camp's defenses? Has there been any movement from the Hojo Army?"

"The camp is impregnable. I've inspected every defensive line and made sure there are no gaps."

"Those fellows may be better at ruining things than accomplishing them, but at least they follow orders well enough."

Takeda Nobushige's thoughts matched his brother's as he answered. He might look down on Uesugi Norimasa and the others,

but as long as their troops obeyed orders, that was essentially enough.

"As for the Hojo Army, the ninja concealed near the front lines haven't reported anything unusual."

"I suspect Hojo Akitoshi still hasn't returned to the Hojo main camp."

"Oh? I see."

The two pieces of good news put Takeda Shingen further at ease. Drawing his gaze back from beyond the camp, he asked for his brother's opinion.

"What do you make of Hojo Akitoshi's departure, and the Hojo Army as it stands?"

After a stretch of silence, Takeda Nobushige answered gravely.

"Hojo Akitoshi certainly isn't afraid of our Takeda-led alliance."

"He really is preparing for something. My lord, you saw what happened to the Imagawa Army, didn't you?"

"As the curtain rises on this age of warring states and rival warlords, monsters are becoming increasingly active across the lands beneath these skies."

"Humans may still rule the earth, but if monsters can attack the Imagawa today,

"who is to say they won't attack the Takeda tomorrow-or even go so far as to storm cities, wipe out entire clans, and slaughter the populace?"

"Indeed."

Takeda Shingen let out a quiet sigh. What Takeda Nobushige had said was precisely what he had been thinking.

For so many years, humans and monsters had lived intermingled across Japan, until the boundary between them was difficult to distinguish.

By day, humanity flourished; by night, monsters held their night parade of one hundred demons.

If things continued this way, would Japan return to the chaos of the Heian-kyo era?

"As for the Hojo Army..."

Takeda Nobushige paused, then continued once he had gathered his words.

"The enemy before us is truly a formidable obstacle to the Takeda's conquest of the realm!"

"In my humble opinion, they pose a greater threat to our army than the Uesugi forces under the Dragon of Echigo!"

"Consider this, my lord!"

Nobushige stepped closer and spoke again in a low voice.

"Hojo Akitoshi is absent, yet over the past two days his army has still been able to withstand our hundred thousand allied troops head-on."

"I studied the Hojo Army's formations closely today. They were swift as the wind, measured as a forest, fierce as fire in attack, and immovable as a mountain."

"They have thoroughly grasped the essence of your Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain strategy. Hojo Ujiyasu may be an exceptional man,

"but how could someone like him

"stand shoulder to shoulder with you, my lord? Surely the Hojo Army's training and tactics are Hojo Akitoshi's work!"

"So I believe that, for the sake of the Takeda's great ambitions, we must seize this opportunity while Hojo Akitoshi is occupied elsewhere."

"We must annihilate the Hojo Army's main force before us. At the very least, we must cripple them so badly that their strength is broken!"

"Yes. That is precisely why I have pressed the attack against the Hojo Army these past few days, without sparing our soldiers' lives."

Takeda Shingen wholeheartedly agreed with his brother Nobushige's analysis. His own intentions were no different.

And with the allied Uesugi troops available as cannon fodder, he was even less inclined to let such a fine opportunity slip away.

"But while crippling them may be easy, annihilating the Hojo Army is probably impossible."

Thinking of a certain man who never ceased to trouble him, Takeda Shingen gave a faint, bitter smile.

"The Dragon of Echigo waiting on the sidelines?"

Nobushige, too, thought of the additional factor his brother had in mind.

"Surely Uesugi Kenshin wouldn't strike our flank and rear at a critical moment?"

"Uesugi Norimasa is part of our alliance. If he did that..."

"Why wouldn't he?"

With a mocking smile, Takeda Shingen glanced at Uesugi Norimasa and the others, whose revelry was gradually subsiding.

"Could anyone accomplish great things with that lot? I have no respect for them, and neither does the Dragon of Echigo."

"Nobushige, mark my words. The moment we defeat the Hojo Army head-on will be the moment the Dragon of Echigo attacks us."

"Likewise, if the Hojo Army defeats us, the Dragon of Echigo will immediately attack them as they pursue their victory."

"That fellow has worked out quite a clever scheme!"

"I understand."

Resentment flashed in Nobushige's eyes. He felt the bitter frustration of one great talent forced to share his age with another.

The small region of Kanto already had a tiger like his elder brother lying in wait.

Yet a dragon and a kirin had appeared there in succession as well.

Had any one of the three appeared in a different era, he would undoubtedly have become the overlord of the realm.

Instead, they lived beneath the same sky and fought for supremacy over the same land!

It was truly like the three rival kingdoms of the great eastern land-countless heroes' blood and dreams.

"Hojo Akitoshi, what exactly are you doing?"

With an easy smile, Takeda Shingen paid no heed to his brother's melancholy. Instead, his thoughts turned to that man.

The rival whose name he had so often heard, yet whom he had never met.