Chương 36: Book 1: Chapter 12 - Things Unseen [Part 1]

Having been born into the house of a warrior, one's intentions should be to grasp the long and the short swords and to die. - Kato Kiyomasa. Nagai summoned the hunters the following morning. All ten gathered in the concealed council chamber alongside the scholars, priests, and several officers Shimon did not recognize. The maps had multiplied since the hunt, and small wooden markers showed Satomi positions in black while red pieces identified Hōjō fortifications and known concentrations of men.

The powerful senior retainer stood over the arrangement.

"You did well." The chamber remained quiet at his words. Nagai looked faintly irritated.

"That was praise. You may appear pleased." Several men immediately adjusted their expressions. Seki, it must be noted, did not. The commanding man chose to ignore him.

"Three yōma were located and three were killed. No hunters died, which means the method worked well enough to justify repeating it. Certain men also discovered opportunities to improve upon orders while obeying none of them." Kagawa bowed, and Shimon could not decide whether the one-eyed warrior understood the criticism or had merely heard himself implied and assumed praise.

"The important thing," Nagai continued, "is that we learned. The next hunt should therefore be cleaner. Unfortunately for your comfort, there are other matters." He moved one black marker across the map.

"Hōjō men crossed into Satomi lands before your arrival, Ayanokouji. You saw the remains of one part of that fighting." Shimon remembered the battlefield where he had first appeared, the bodies scattered beneath fading evening light, and the broad river beyond them. The senior retainer tapped the map with one finger.

"My lord has tolerated enough. The army moves tomorrow. We will punish the Hōjō dogs for their incursion, break the fortification they have raised beyond the crossing, and take the position for ourselves." A murmur of disquiet passed through the hunters. The veteran commander allowed it before continuing.

"We have another reason to march. Reports of yōma have increased wherever Hōjō forces have passed. Graves have been opened behind their columns, villages emptied, and guardian shrine ropes cut. The thing that called itself Sakurai Iori joined a commission hunting creatures whose attacks, it seems at least, benefited Hōjō interests." The narrow-faced scholar Abe leaned over the map.

"We still possess no proof that the Hōjō summon them deliberately."

"No," Nagai agreed, his tone controlled.

"We possess suspicion, and suspicion is not enough to condemn a man. It is, however, enough to keep one's sword ready." A thin smile touched Kagawa's scarred face.

"The army will create dead," the senior warrior plowed on.

"Many dead. Whether the Hōjō deliberately call the yōma or whether such things merely follow battle as crows follow a harvest of death, we expect them to appear." His finger moved toward the enemy position.

"That is why you are going." Tarō frowned.

"With the main army?"

"With it, behind it, and where necessary beside it. You are not line infantry, and you will not waste yourselves fighting men merely because men are available to kill. You are hunters. Your purpose is to destroy what ordinary soldiers cannot. But before that, you are still soldiers." Nagai's gaze settled squarely upon Kagawa.

"Do you understand?" The one-eyed mounted warrior grinned before bowing.

"Perfectly." Shimon had learned enough about him to consider that answer ominous. The commanding man straightened.

"The Hōjō brought sorrow into Satomi lands. They left bodies for yōma and widows for our villages. This time for suffering is over, the time for vengeance is now. We take the crossing, we take their castle, and if their monsters follow them, we hunt those as well." Tarō's hand tightened against his knee. Nagai noticed with a raise of his eyebrow.

"For the living and the dead," the senior retainer concluded, "we repay what is owed."

The Satomi army marched shortly after sunrise. Shimon had seen enormous armies before, if digital formations controlled by pathfinding could be counted, but real warfare possessed layers of logistics that no strategy game had ever managed to make interesting. Men filled the road from ditch to ditch. Spearmen marched beneath bundles of yari, archers carried bows protected against the weather, and mounted retainers traveled along the sides of the column upon dinosaurs of several varieties.

Some rode lean predatory animals bred for speed and maneuverability, while others used heavier beasts capable of carrying armored men for long distances without complaint. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Banners rose above every formation, the Satomi futatsu-hikiryō, the double line, appearing repeatedly among the devices of subordinate households and allied lords. Kagawa rode the deadly Kurobane near the head of the yōma hunters.

Surprisingly, Nagai had appointed the one-eyed samurai deputy commander of their small unit while the senior retainer attended Lord Satomi and the other officers. Kagawa had interpreted the appointment as recognition of his natural military genius and informed everyone of this several times before they cleared the castle town.

"Keep formation," the mounted warrior ordered from the saddle, an edge of snide superiority in his voice. The broad-shouldered Seki glanced toward Tarō.

"We have been walking along a straight road for half an hour." Kagawa's remaining eye narrowed.

"Silence in the ranks." Tarō looked away to conceal his amusement. The hunters marched behind Kurobane in two loose files, while porters and coolies moved alongside the baggage train carrying rice, cooking vessels, spare weapons, cordage, tents, arrows, salt, and the countless other things required to keep several thousand hungry men functioning. Dinosaurs carried the heavier burdens. Broad-backed herbivores trudged beneath wooden pack frames stacked with rice bales and bundles of spear shafts.

Two armored animals hauled a cart loaded with coils of rope and timber fittings, while farther back an enormous long-necked beast moved above the column with the patient sway of a walking building. A wooden platform had been strapped across its broad back beneath canvas covers, the load secured with enough rope to rig a small ship. Their tread literally shook the ground. Shimon looked up at it.

[VISUAL CLASSIFICATION] Shunosaurus variant [Sauropod-derived organism] Specific correspondence: Low confidence Load estimate: Excessive by known modern biomechanical models"Of course it is a sauropod," he muttered. The scar-chinned warrior marching beside him glanced over.

"What?"

"Nothing," the young man replied. Their first camp spread across harvested fields before sunset. Hundreds of cooking fires appeared as men boiled rice, repaired sandals, checked armor, sharpened weapons, gambled with coins, and complained about officers with the universal confidence of soldiers everywhere. The larger dinosaurs were watered away from the central camp, where handlers could prevent them from eating supplies, pack animals, or one another.

The army moved again at dawn and reached the river before midday. Shimon recognized the landscape before he understood why. The water divided around gravel bars and low islands, while both banks still showed the marks of recent fighting: broken stakes, abandoned earthworks, and broad patches of disturbed soil. His chip helpfully opened a cached map.

[GEOGRAPHIC COMPARISON] Current local designation: Arakawa Prior offline estimate: Edo River hydrological system Historic-map correlation: Poor Observed river course inconsistent with modern reference Alternate hydrological development likely Shimon studied the water. This was not precisely the ground where he had appeared in this world, but it was part of the same contested crossing.

The battlefield through which he had stumbled on his first evening had been only one fragment of the larger struggle the Satomi were now continuing. The realization was strange enough that he declined to examine it too closely. Engineers had prepared the ford before the main army arrived. Heavy lines stretched between driven posts to give men something to hold against the current, while bundles of brush and gravel improved the worst sections.

Mounted dinosaurs crossed separately under their handlers, using shallower approaches chosen for the animals rather than the men. The great baggage beasts required another route entirely. One giant herbivore stopped halfway across and decided that something growing beneath the water deserved investigation, bringing the entire line behind it to a halt while its handler cursed it. Kagawa guided Kurobane through without difficulty.

When the black-feathered fukuiraptor reached the opposite bank, it shook water violently from its plumage and sprayed everyone within several paces. Seki wiped droplets from his square face before attempting humor.

"Kagawa-sama, your mount has attacked the formation." The deputy commander pointedly ignored him. After the river, the army moved for another two days through country that became increasingly empty. Some villages had barred their doors, while others had been abandoned entirely before either army could arrive. Scouts traveled continuously ahead of the main column, and mounted messengers passed between formations with orders from officers Shimon rarely saw.

On the fourth afternoon, the Hōjō fort appeared above the trees. From the grumbling of the men he found its name: Kawamori-jō. But, the name meant nothing to Shimon. His biochip agreed. [HISTORICAL REFERENCE SEARCH] Kawamori-jō: No reliable match Fortification at current coordinates: No corresponding record Strategic divergence detected The castle itself was not especially large.

An earthen hill had been cut into terraces and wrapped with ditches, timber palisades, and plastered structures, while the central compound occupied the highest ground behind two outer enclosures. Hōjō banners moved over the battlements, their scaled triangular device becoming visible whenever the wind opened the cloth. The location explained why the fortification existed in this world. Below the hill, the river widened into a broad, relatively shallow reach suitable for the largest animals.

Steeper banks upstream and marshier ground downstream made this one of the better places for an army moving large dinosaurs with heavy baggage and large quantities of equipment to cross. In Shimon's history, military geography had been shaped primarily by human legs, boats, and horses. Here, different feet created different strategic points. The Hōjō had built Kawamori-jō to guard one of them, and the Satomi had arrived to remove it.