INGIS

“Really?” Nobunaga grinned cheekily at the child. “What’s the highest place you fell from?” A pity Zweilous could not yet fly. Maybe he could borrow a Pokémon from one of his soldiers. Give the boy a proper fall. Not a child grew up in Dragnor without being caught in the sky.

He brought the dangling Chimchar close to his shoulder. Its warm pooled where it clung to his arm. What a fascinating little trick it was capable of. It was easy to see how a nation would build around such creatures.

“Is that all?” Nobunaga took a furtive glance around, bringing child and Pokémon closer as he lowered his voice. “What is outside the palace?”

“I fell off a temple once!” The boy proudly explained, “I think it might be the same size as the palace, maybe taller! It’s one in town, during a festival, so there was lots of tents and stuff put up all around for shade. I fell onto one of those.” The monks were not happy with him. Nor his father. But he had fun!

Chimchar understood (or, at least, he thought he did) the motion of the stranger, climbing onto and perching on the man’s shoulder, careful to keep the flame of his tail up and away from the visitor’s robes. You could only get away with that once. 

“Lots of stuff!” Hideyoshi whispered in return, cupping a hand over his mouth to stop nonexistent eyes from seeing. “There’s the whooooole market in town, and the further you go there’s some ranches and the mountains with the temple and the hotsprings and the geysers and the lava. Usually there’s kids playing kemari or chasin’ off Pokemon, and the barracks are fun to go to--”

Nobunaga followed the child’s gaze up to the Chimchar in the rafters. It was easy enough to imagine how they’d gotten there. Enticed by the visitors but reduced, or self-imposed, to spying on them from a distance while the visitors went about the business of adulting. Still holding the boy, Nobunaga gave him a conspiratory grin.

“Good thing I was here.” The boy looked to be around Oichi’s age. Still at that stage where hitting the ground after such fall could be met with little more than a dusting off of clothes and a rearranging of limbs. “Who knows what would have happened?”

He tilted the child down on the stressed word, holding him securely as his arms reversed the motion. Freeing one of his hands, he extended it towards the real monkey on the ceiling.

“Come,” he invited with a warm curl of his fingers. “Seems you two know where the fun is here.” Now that he’d found something truly worth his time, he wasn’t letting the two out of his sight.

“I would have been fine!” The boy protested, cheeks puffing out in a bit of a pout. “I fallen out of higher!” Maybe that wasn’t something worth bragging about, but the testament to his hardiness seemed appropriate at the moment. Of course, he still shrieked in equal parts laughter and fear as he was tilted, but they settled into a small chorus of giggles as he was righted.  

The Chimchar exchanged a glance between his friend and this stranger, but considering the small bout of laughter that came over Hideyoshi, apparently this man was a friend. He leaned over the railing to drop down onto Nobunaga’s outstretched arm, dangling off of it as though it was a branch in a tree rather than a person. The Chimchar made a curious ‘ook’ in Nobunaga’s direction.

  “Hm, I guess so. You should come with me though! That way, you can help me find the best one.” He grins widely, giving a chuckle. Honestly, he just kind of wants to go back to the mainland again. It was fun.

  “Oh, c’mon, Lord Hideyoshi— you gotta have more faith in yourself. That’s why you can’t come up with good ideas! You don’t believe!!” Though, he silently agrees, Kanbei probably would like to retire, too.

“You know if I go with you, you’re not getting your hands on any monkey, right? They’d all instantly imprint on me, and that would kinda defeat the purpose.” But...he would get another Chimchar........

  “I don’t know. Being linked to a Chimchar might make me act more like you, and I don’t think Takakage would like that. Besides, maybe I’ve got enough links at this point. I’ve got, like, three now.”

  “Don’t worry, Lord Hideyoshi. I’m sure you’ll have your good idea soon enough. Hey, maybe the universe will even be super nice after everything and give you two this year.”

Hideyoshi stuck out his tongue for a moment, “Alright, fine. The next time you go to the mainland, put one in those Pokeball things. You got plenty of those now too, right?” A trip back to the other regions sounded awful nice right now, actually...he wondered if Nobunaga would give him leave. 

  He puts his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, sorry—- Chimchar are the very, absolute best. Yep. How could I ever forget that?” Man, he needs to come around Ignis more often. Or get Hideyoshi in Greenleaf more. He doesn’t have anyone to fuck with like this there.

  “Have you had your one this year yet? Do you need your good boy cookie?”

“We should get you a Chimchar to link with one of these days. Then you’d understand.” Though the folks in Greenleaf probably wouldn’t appreciate a monkey with it’s butt on fire running around. 

  “You can be smart? There’s a brain in there? And not just a little Chimchar brain?” And to be fair, anyone is fast to Hanbei.

“First of all, if you’re going to insult me, leave Chimchar out of this. They’re very smart- some of them can learn to use and make tools you know. Second off, I get at least one really good idea every year, and that’s gotta count for something.”

  “Let’s be real here—- the only part of that that doesn’t apply to you is the polite part.”

“But you’re the smartest, rudest guy I know, I don’t think you’re a h-”

@kozarukun​ | one bright, shining moment before it all goes to shit

Nobunaga had never thought something might try his patience harder than when Yoshinari held the floor in a council meeting, but meeting with Hashiba was sliding close to a terrible, uncharted territory of worse. Still, he’d been sent here by his mother for a reason. And for that he’d make all the proper smiles, noises, and gestures needed to maintain business between Dragnor and Ignis.

He would, however, put Nagahide in that role as well while Nobunaga took the much-needed time to clear his head. Nagahide would be his junior warlord someday: he needed the practice. Giving Nagahide a not-so-subtle push between his shoulder blades, Nobunaga stayed behind as the talks left the room. Nobunaga sighed, scratching at the back of his head.

A noise from above caused him to look up, and his arms shot out to catch something that fell from the ceiling.

The something was dirty enough that his first instinct was to classify it as a monkey. The sprawling limbs, however, belonged to a human child. “Daijoubu ka?” He asks.

It wasn’t often father requested for him to come back from the temple, but apparently the presence of northerners was concerning enough to keep him close at hand. Watching the dignitaries flit about the palace was certainly a sight to behold, gawking at their dragons and their fine clothes from hidden corners of the rafters and across the hidden passageways of the palace. Most of the conversation was lost to him, but it was always funny watching people discuss business matters with father. They tried so hard not to make funny faces that it was funny again. 

The meeting had since ended, meaning it was time to follow them out to the next room. Or maybe he should stop and get lunch? He’d figure it out once he climbed dow--

Uh oh. 

The boy slipped, tumbling rather unceremoniously with a small scream from the rafters, only to land in the arms of his father’s honored guest. He was stiff for a moment, frozen in wide eyed terror at the older boy for the reprimanding that was sure to come, but instead.... was he okay?

Hideyoshi shook his head once with an affirmative “Un,” before he began to wiggle, trying rather unsuccessfully to squirm out of the strangers arms to run before he could be recognized. His Chimchar in the rafters let out a small tuttering laughter. 

“Shut up!” He scolded, “You could’a caught me instead!”

But he didn’t, did he? This guy dud. 

    “You… have a son?” He didn’t know why, but that was… incredibly hard to reconcile with his mental image of Hideyoshi. Had he ever even mentioned it before? Surely it wasn’t with Nene, otherwise he was sure he wouldn’t only be hearing this news now, but then that begged the question of who the hell else…

    Okay, that was probably rude. A legitimate question, but rude. “That’s… definitely news to me.” / @kozarukun​

Ah, right! He never really had a chance to introduce everyone to his son, did he? Besides Ranmaru and Nobunaga, of course. Between all of the skirmishes across the land, it sort of slipped his mind. The security of the region meant safety for his child, after all.

Oh, he’d noticed. He couldn’t not notice.

For once, the warlord found himself bereft of words. He blinked and found his eyes to be stinging. A grin appeared on his face with an accompanying huff of laughter.

“Oh?” Nobunaga teased. “Wedding jitters have you forgetting who I am? Son.” His tone on the endearment was full of the same warmth in his smile and the tears that threatened to fall as he stroked a hand through Hideyoshi’s hair.

The brighter Nobunaga’s smile, the more Hideyoshi begun to relax himself, leaving him with a nervous, embarrassed chuckle. 

That is, until he started messing with his hair. Any and all tension in his shoulders dropped. He wasn’t really joking at all, huh? 

Son. 

It was enough to get his bottom lip to quake, but he was still supposed to be a respected general. He rallied his wits, mustering enough of them to speak, “Nothing could make me forget who you are-not after everything you’ve done for me. Way more than my father ever would. Than anyone ever has.”

“I know I say it a lot already, but thank you, Nobunaga.”

The edge is whisked away before any harm can follow the movement. “Hold still, Hideyoshi.” The name is spoken as a stern reprimand; Nobunaga is not a man used to disobedience. Lest of all from one of his inner circle.

Hide flinched at the scolding, but he obeyed again, hunching his shoulders together as though to hide himself in shame, “Yes dad.” ....      ....             ....

Wait.

“D- Oda. Oda-sama. That’s-that’s what I said!”