Prepare for Battle

[Oda Nobunaga]

[OoC: This is the Oda Training/Recruitment thread. Any Oda officers can train here, as well as any mercenaries looking to join forces or fight with Oda. No mercenaries who have participated in any other training threads may participate in this one. If mercenaries join this thread, they do not have to join Oda, but they will fight alongside Oda during the Battle of Okehazama.

A minimum of FIVE, MEDIUM-SIZED POSTS of TRAINING is required to fulfill the conditions and earn your reward.]

"Nobunaga Speech" "Hideyoshi Speech" "Katsuie Speech" "Toshiie Speech"

Outside the barracks, Oda Nobunaga stood, with Hashiba Hideyoshi, Shibata Katsuie, and Maeda Toshiie at his sides. His three officers rose rifles to the air, firing once each, before proceeding to the barracks and waking up the soldiers inside. "Get up, soldiers! Time for some exercises! We got an important battle coming up, you lot better be prepared!" The three officers would enter the barracks to collect any stragglers, and would pull them out themselves if they had to.

Once outside, the soldiers would form their ranks at the center of the camp, just in front of Nobunaga's throne. He would sit there for a good moment, a blank expression on his face, his hand cradling the hilt of his blade. After a while, he would stand to his feet, walking along the ranks of soldiers.

"Listen," he would speak after a long silence. "In the coming months, we will begin our attack on the Imagawa. When that time comes, you must be prepared, physically and mentally." He would stop at the center of the ranks, his back to the army. "You will train with each of us here, today. Those who come with me will train with the rifle, Katsuie will perfect your hand-to-hand combat, Toshiie will test your mettle with the blade, and Hideyoshi will teach you mounted combat. We will work in a rotation, and by the end of the day, you will have trained with all four of us." With that the army was broken up into four companies, one with each of the generals and one with the Daimyo.

To those who stayed with Nobunaga, "Your goal is simple. I will throw this helmet into the air," he would show them, just so they were aware. "... and you must shoot it back, and onto this spear." There was a spear sticking out of the ground, and that was what he referenced. Each of the men would have to collect a rifle from the pile, and, on his signal, they would begin.

Hideyoshi's group seemed to be led with enthusiasm. "Come on, men!" He chirped, running toward the stables. "This is going to be simple to understand, but it will require some work. to actually implement. You are going to take your weapon of choice - spear, sword, ax, boulder, mountain, clouds, Lord Nobunaga himself - and properly utilize it atop your horse. You will go over mounted combat basics, and then we will go into something Westerners call "jousting"." The armory and stables were available for the people to pick the horses and weapons of their choices before they would begin.

"Listen up!" Katsuie would begin, leading his company to a large amount of tournament rings. "We're going to be pulling a sort of "tournament" here! You're going to be brawling against your fellow soldiers, and we're going to sort out the best of the best! You shine shine here, I'll personally recommend you for the elite squadron who serves directly under Lord Nobunaga! But - be careful! Any foul play will not be tolerated, and if you're trying to kill your companions, you will face ME. AND NO WEAPONS! FISTICUFFS!" Two people would be led to each ring, and the fighting would begin once the people were ready.

"Alright, guys," Toshiie began, cracking his knuckles and popping his neck. "Take your pick of weapons, and make sure you're using something you're comfortable with! You're going to be sorted into pairs, and we're going to do a tournament kind of thing. Once you complete this training and move onto Katsuie's, you'll see how similar it is. But! I will be monitoring each of these matches closely!  Don't be an ass! Take this seriously!" Once the soldiers had their weapons, they would be sorted into pairs and led to combat rings, where the training would begin.

[OoC: It does not matter who you start with, but you will have to complete training with each of the generals. Feel free to control any of the nameless army NPCs. All Generals and Nobunaga himself will be controlled by me. No killing of any soldiers will be tolerated.]

[Morei Haji]

I stood there, staring at the Mon of the Oda. That flower, something about it didn't sit right with me... like it held some sort of significance to me that I wasn't quite sure about. Nobunaga and myself were both from Owari, but something about seeing this symbol stirred something in me, it made me a little angry.

"Training, huh...? It couldn't hurt."

It would be a good opportunity to see just what was going on in this country. I had journeyed to many places, but the motives of the Oda still eluded me. Why attack the Imagawa? They were the strongest force in Japan, and Oda wanted to attack them with a fifth of the men? Maybe that was why he had hired mercenaries like myself.

Walking from the barracks, I would report to where Maeda Toshiie stood, rather amazed that I could see such a famous general with my own eyes. My dual blades were at my sides, but I wasn't wearing my mask today, it was tucked away on my person. Official training with the army could only do me good.

[Tokugawa Iemasa]

Rising from his barracks, Iemasa would have left his bed slightly disgruntled. He wasn't one for mornings, despite being an army man, and today, they'd all gotten up extra early. Lazily getting dressed, the man would run with the others into the ranks, and listened closely to what was going on today.

"Imagawa...? The rest of the Matsudaira are with them..." He had a chance to convince Lord Takechiyo - no, Lord Ieyasu, to side with the Oda. This would be ideal! The man would do all he could to prove himself to Lord Nobunaga, so he could be one of the men entrusted with special duties in the upcoming battle. It would be his own personal request that he talk to Lord Ieyasu!

Being one of the men in the group who would take up Lord Nobunaga's training first, Iemasa listened intently to the instructions. They sounded simple at first, but he then realized all the work that would be put into a shot like that. You'd have to shoot at the right time, hit the right spot, to make it fall back and hit the spear. Even then, Lord Nobunaga's throw made a huge difference. Sighing, the officer took up a rifle and awaited his Lord's command. This would be something.

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Seeing as the Oda had recently done a mass hiring of mercenaries, Takehiro found himself under their employ, and was basically considered part of their army for now. The pay was nice, so he didn't mind living the life of a soldier for a while, but if these mandatory training regimens at like, six in the morning, were going to be a regular thing, he was probably going to end up hating it.

Falling in rank with the rest of the soldiers, Takehiro would kind of doze off, not entirely paying attention to anything after hearing "Imagawa." When the crowd parted, he found himself carried along with a random group, and it was because of this he ended up at Shibata Katsuie's area filled with tournament rings.

If hand-to-hand combat was on today's agenda for training, maybe Takehiro was going to like it.

[Oda Nobunaga]

After everyone got sorted, it seemed as though Haji had no one to pair up with. Taking note of this, Toshiie approached him, a large smile on his face. "Well, merc!" he began, drawing a sword from his waist. "We don't want the training exercise to go to waste. I'll be your training partner for today!" Taking up a defensive stance, the blade would be held parallel to the ground, level with his shoulders. Both hands would grip the hilt, one tightly, the other rather loose, giving him a bit of freedom.

Toshiie's stats for this thread:
Str: 30
Dex: 30
Con: 45
Wis: 30
Spr: 30

Iemasa would receive his rifle, and so too would the rest of the people in his unit. Being told to step forward, the officer would be the first one to take aim. As soon as he held his rifle into the air, Nobunaga would throw the helmet up.

Much like with Haji's situation, Takehiro would have no opponent after everyone was paired up, and Katsuie was rather amused by this. Sizing up the mercenary, Katsuie ushered him into a nearby ring, where the man rolled up the sleeves on his kimono. "Today's your lucky day, ronin," he spoke, spreading his feet so they were shoulder width apart. Without much of a warning, he charged Takehiro, looking to tackle the mercenary at the legs, flip the man overhead, and slam him onto his back.

Katsuie's stats for this thread:
Str: 30
Dex: 30
Con: 45
Wis: 30
Spr: 30

[Morei Haji]

"...Me?"

I looked around for a moment, seeing the great Maeda Toshiie himself approach me and state that he'll be my partner. It couldn't have been me, had to have been talking to Katsuie or something, right? Wrong. He actually picked me, and I was more than overjoyed.

"I am honored, Maeda-sama!" I stated, drawing one of my swords and holding it up near my face, blade facing Toshiie. Taking a moment to observe his stance, I would charge forward, thrusting my blade straight towards his chest level.

[Tokugawa Iemasa]

From the very moment Lord Nobunaga threw the helmet into the air, Iemasa had his rifle at the ready. Pointing his gun up, he would watch the helmet fly up through the air almost in slow motion. As it reached the peak of its height, he fired into the helmet, strike it at the back and sending it flying back, hopefully to land atop the spear, as he was hoping.

He held his breath tightly on this one. Any and every mistake he could make would remove him further from his Lord's favor, and that wasn't something he could risk, not when Lord Ieyasu's life hanged in the balance.

[Amakusa Takehiro]

As the people were ushered into their spots, Takehiro noticed there was no pair for him, and he turned to look at this Shibata Katsuie character. He cocked a brow as the man seemed to get into some sort of fighting stance, and popped his neck. If he had to fight one of Lord Nobunaga's generals, he was sure it was going to be a fun time.

"Do your worst, Shibata!"

As the man charged, Takehiro would bend his knees and look to catch Katsuie mid-charge by the shoulders, and stop his assault. If successful, the mercenary would place the man's head between his thighs and grab his hips, before launching him overhead and behind himself, sort of as the man himself had planned.

[Oda Nobunaga]

Toshiie was rather surprised at this mercenary's speed, but he reacted quickly, swatting Haji's sword to the side! He would charge forward and slam the hilt of his blade into Haji's stomach, before spinning around in a circle and slashing at the boy's back!

As Iemasa fired, Nobunaga watched. A smile came across his lips as he did, watching the helmet fly back and land atop the spear. "Your name is Tokugawa Iemasa, correct?"

Takehiro would catch Katsuie, the large man's eyes widening at the mercenary's impressive strength. Takehiro threw him overhead, and he landed in a roll, though his boy was already aching from that one attack. He grinned, getting to his feet and charging Takehiro from behind. He would push off his feet and look to slam them both into the mercenary's back!

[Morei Haji]

Toshiie deflected my attack, as expected of a warrior of his caliber. I winced a bit as he hit me in the stomach with his hilt, but it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. As he spun around to slash at my back, I would flip one of my blades so that I was holding it upside down, bringing it up to my back in order to block. From there, I would swing the hilt of my other blade for Toshiie's side, attempting to knock him away from me.

[Tokugawa Iemasa]

His shot successful, Iemasa mentally fist-pumped. This was a good sign, considering Lord Nobunaga himself was watching. As he was asked his name, Iemasa felt incredibly honored. Bowing his head, the officer spoke, "Yes, my Lord. Formerly Amaru Kyojin, retainer to the Matsudaira." He tried his best to fight a smile, but it was, at this point, insanely difficult. He was just noticed by Oda Nobunaga, for crying out loud!

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Takehiro smirked, seeing his maneuver was successful, and immediately turned to keep his eye on Shibata as the man hit the ground. As soon as his feet were up in the air, Takehiro would step to the side, catching the man's legs and spinning him in a full circle, before using all of that momentum to slam the man down onto the ground. He would drop his knee down on the back of one of the man's and placed his foot on the man's spine, before pulling the other leg up and applying a huge deal of pressure on his thigh.

[Oda Nobunaga]

Toshiee acted exceedingly quickly, turning his blade to push Haji's away with the flat of his own. He would then strike Haji's wrist with the hilt of his blade, before raising it and slamming it into the back of the boy's neck, before kicking him in the waist to make him fall forward.

"I shall remember that name," he spoke, before pulling up two new spears and setting those into the ground. He would take the one helmet, along with two others, before signalling to Iemasa and throwing them into the air. He assumed it was obvious - get all three helmets onto all three spears.

Katsuie was overcome with surprise at Takehiro's speed and fell face-first, pinned by the mercenary! "Well, Ronin," he laughed, struggling for a moment before halting. "You fight well! What is your name?"

[Morei Haji]

Toshiie was very skilled, and it was evident in the fact that he had completely laid me out. I coughed a bit, grunting after he had kicked me to the floor. The back of my neck ached, but luckily I had a lot of resistance. Gripping my sword and scrambling to my feet, I looked back at Toshiie.

"You are certainly very skilled, Maeda-sama. I pale in comparison..."

Conjoining my blades and extending their length, my hands tightened around the hilt, as I raised the weapon near my face. I had to show my power. I had to prove that I was worth something. I charged towards Toshiie, raising my weapon and swinging it vertically at him with all the force I could muster.

[Tokugawa Iemasa]

The fact that Lord Nobunaga uttered those words made Iemasa grin brightly, his face lighting up. He nodded, taking a step back and raising his rifle as his Lord through the helmets into the air. Once again, it appeared as if they moved in slow motion, and he fired three quick shots into the helmets, watching as they flew back.

Whether or not they hit their mark, Iemasa was unsure, and he held his breath waiting for the moment of truth. If they did, he would have successfully proven himself as a skilled rifleman, in front of Lord Nobunaga's very eyes!

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Takehiro would allow Shibata to squirm for but a moment, and once the man was done, would release him. Taking a few steps back before he could be struck, Takehiro smiled and responded simply. "Amakusa Takehiro, sir." He would continue to keep up a defensive stance, his arms in front of him and his legs spread just enough so he could move quickly should he need to.

[Oshiro Daichi]

“God, I’m hungry………” That’s all Daichi thought about as Oda Nobunaga barked out his orders to the company of men that had assembled outside of some barracks. He probably should have been listening to the man and what he was saying, but the growling of Daichi’s stomach took precedence at the moment. Daichi had arrived in the morning to join the Oda, a group who was in the process of preparing for war. With a lot on the line, you’d think Daichi would be taking the situation more seriously. He wasn’t and in all honestly he’d decided to join Oda simply to increase his odds of scoring some good looking women. Daichi was dressed in his usual attire and had his sword tucked loosely into the sash around his waist.

The group began to disperse and Daichi, having not been listening, just looked to see what others were doing. Men and women were grabbing rifles from a large stack of them and lining up in a row. Daichi did the same. As it turned out this was the first part of his training/examination. The goal was to shoot a helmet that Nobunaga would throw into the air and hit that helmet in such a precise manner that it would be knocked backwards onto a spear that’d been planted into the ground. Well, at least that was what Nobunaga had intended.

When Daichi had his turn to fire he brought the weapon up in a shaky aim and tried in vain to line up his shot correctly. The helmet was thrown and his pudgy finger squeezed the trigger and fired the bullet. I guess Daichi should have been thankful he even hit the target, but then again his shot did have some unintended consequences. The bullet ricocheted off the side of the helmet, whizzed just inches over Nobunaga’s head and eventually struck a man in the foot that’d just been nonchalantly waiting to see everyone complete the task. The man let out a bloodcurdling scream as the hot lead put a hole in his left foot and Daichi promptly threw the rifle where it struck someone in the face and caused them to discharge their weapon into the air.

“Ummm, ummmm, the sun blinded me.”

[Oshiro Daichi]

After the disaster at the shooting trial where he nearly killed Nobunaga, Daichi was rushed off towards some horse stables to pick out a weapon and a horse. He selected a katana and was given the basics of mounted maneuvers and combat. Daichi didn’t do too badly at this, but that’s likely because the horse did all the work. Daichi thought this was his time to shine and that’d he’d be able to redeem himself for the previous debacle. It would have been nice to have caught a break for once, but it’d seem as though fate had other things in store for him.

“Jousting….”

Yes, jousting. That’s what Daichi was set to do next. He had a spear in his hand for this event and looked nervously across the field to the other man. This guy looked dead serious for some reason. That reason probably having something to do with the fact that he threatened to murder Daichi if he screwed up the task and in some way caused his chances of joining Oda to decrease. Obviously he’d been made aware of how his previous test had gone. The horse was spurred into a sprint and everything was going smoothly, but that’s when his hunger came to the surface. He started imagining that the opposing horse was a piece of juicy meet and that the lance was a stick he was going to use to roast it over an open flame.

His hand began to loosen the grip it had upon the spear and when he was nearing the other jouster, Daichi dropped the spear. The forward momentum caused it to stab the horse in the leg and both participants collided in a glorious fashion that even made the battle-hardened cringe. Daichi was fine, but when the two had collided, the other mans horse had landed upon him, breaking his leg. Naturally he was pissed, but fortuitous for Daichi that it’d been his leg. This meant that he would have a hard time catching someone as slow as Daichi.

[Oshiro Daichi]

So the shooting had been a failure, and the horse riding even worse, but this was his time to shine. At the very least, hand to hand combat didn’t offer him much of a chance to seriously injure anyone else and for that he was grateful. Daichi had been scolded yet again for the damage he’d caused as was dragged towards the next part of his recruitment where he’d have to take part in a fighting tournament. This tournament outlawed the usage of all weapons so Daichi casually removed his sword from his sash and placed it upon the ground and than prepared to get in the ring. The commanders at this camp were seemingly trying to get back at Daichi for what he’d done in the past and had seen fit to pit him against one of the most imposing men that’d turned out for the days activities.

This soldier was a mercenary and veteran of a few battles. He was a towering man who stood well over a foot and a half over Daichi and had an extremely muscular physique that was accented by countless scars. The men and women who watched on snickered to themselves as they watched the men square off. Everyone thought that this was going to be a short and extremely entertaining bout, and they were right. Daichi had been psyching himself up for the match before he’d stepped into the ring, so when it came time to get down to business, his veins were filled with piss and vinegar. Diachi rushed the man and attempted to punch him in the gut. He did, but the man’s powerful abdominal muscles absorbed the punch and it felt like he’d just hit a rock.

“Ow, ow, owwww. “

A fit of laughing was heard by this brute and he picked up Diachi by waist and tossed him several feet away. In mid-air a ball of rice fell out from some unseen place and landed upon the ground. Daichi’s opponent had been too involved with laughing at him to notice it and in the process of walking over to Daichi to potentially hurl him out of the ring, he slipped on it. The giant slipped backwards, fell to his back, and his head slammed hard against the floor of the ring with a sickening thud. Blood seeped out from the back of the man’s head where it’d hit and his eyes rolled back. It took Daichi a few minutes to regain his composure and when he looked over at his opponent he realize that the man was likely dead, or at the very least out of commission. He took this time to sluggishly saunter over to the man and place his foot upon the man’s chest and raise his hands in a triumphant manner. Everyone simply placed their faces in their palms and shook their heads in frustration.

[Oshiro Daichi]

His opponent wasn’t dead, but in many ways Daichi wished that he had been killed. That way he’d have one less person trying to skin him alive. With three down, it was now onto the fourth and final portion of the recruitment training/testing. Daichi was given a sword and a new opponent to face, this time under the watchful eye of another commander. His enemy wielded a sword as well and Daichi couldn’t decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand the man wasn’t as physically intimidating as his previous opponent, but on the other hand Daichi didn’t know how to use a sword. Yes, he carried one on his person on almost a daily basis, but it was just for show. He didn’t actually know how to fight with it.

“You’re going down man; I’m not going to go easy on you.”

Daichi decided to talk a little trash before the match actually started. It probably wasn’t the wisest thing he’d ever done before, but maybe there existed some slim chance that his confidence would throw the other fighter off their game and cause them to make a mistake. It was slim odds at best, but it was all he had at the moment. The fight started and as Daichi had assumed before the match, his opponent was actually trained in the usage of a sword. Luckily his skills weren’t too extensive, so Daichi was able to block them with some effort. Daichi knew he didn’t stand a chance in hell of beating this man, so he had to use his brains. Before the fight had started Daichi had gathered some red berried and tucked them into his clothes.

He used these berries to simulate a wound during one of their sword clashes and this made the man lower his guard. Now you might be thinking that he’d done such a good job with the faking of the wound that it was sure to work, but what had really sold it were his girlish screams. The man grew close and Daichi used the chance to grab his free hand and use leverage to throw the man over his shoulder and to the ground, where his own sword was pointed at the other’s throat. This caused wave of shock and awe to roll through the crowd as Daichi, the bumbling jackass, had just displayed some small shred of combat acumen. It was short lived though as Daichi quickly collapsed in a fit of heavy breathing and sweating. He eventually had to be helped off the ring and to some shade to recover from the exertion.

[Oshiro Daichi]

Even though Diachi had completed all the assigned tasks and had even done one somewhat correctly, he was informed that he shouldn't expect to be taken on by Oda and that he should just go ahead and return to the mercenary camp. Diachi was a bit down on his luck at this point as he'd tried to do his best on this day, but unfortunately his best always had a way of turning out badly for himself and anyone else who had the misfortune of being around him at the time.

The disheartened mercenary wandered off and took a seat upon a low wall to contemplate if he'd made the right choice coming out here and trying out. He wished his parents were still alive and that he was once again back home, enjoying a life of peace and tranquility.