Hanbei's Strategem to Reclaim Tachibana Castle

Life, Career

It was still early in the morning, after returning from Shimonoseki, that Ryūzaki Sanosuke received an unexpected message from Takenaka Hanbei. The waifish strategist, who usually required a full night's sleep, had finally tapped in to the methods of how to use her innate ki as substitute. She was excited about this discovery, but also wanted to discuss a developing plan with Sanosuke. It was high time, she claimed, that the Hashinara reclaimed Tachibana Castle from the Mōri Clan who had occupied it.

Sanosuke raised a very salient point that Mōri Motonari would not let such an action go without retribution of some kind. Hanbei agreed, and stated that this was why they were going to convince the Mōri to give it back to them. Her plot was as follows:   The Mōri commander currently occupying Tachibana Castle was a giant Oni by the name of Kumagai Nobunao. Nobunao was known for his strength, brutality, and stubbornness, but not for his intellect. These qualities extended to his personal squads of oni, who were no doubt in the castle with him, the "Kuma Guys."   To pull off her deception, Hanbei stated that she'd need, at the very least, enough Hashinara banners and symbols to decorate an entire castle, as well as at least a hundred tea buckets of the type favored by General Baby Huey. She'd also need Sanosuke to use his connections to find someone who could magically manipulate dreams. With all this in place, Hanbei would arrange for a great party to be held at Tachibana Castle. The tea buckets, she explained, would be to hold enough sake to drink a hundred giant oni into a stupor.   While they slept, Sanosuke's associates would manipulate their dreams to fabricate an elaborate scenario in which the Silver General and Kumagai Nobnuao became fast friends, and eventually blood brothers. Nobunao would therefore not hesitate to give up the castle when Sanosuke bested him in a fantastical arm-wrestling match with their holdings on the line.   This plan hinged on the Kuma Guys being too stupid to discern reality from fantasy and so, when they awoke to a castle already occupied by and decorated for the Hashinara, they would accept what they had dreamed as fact. Of course, Sanosuke would still have to come along, just in case the situation went south or Nobunao demanded a rematch, as Hanbei suspected was a strong probability. After that, she would rely on Kumagai's incredible stubborness about his actions to make the whole situation too much trouble for Motonari to do anything about.   Bemused, but willing, Sanosuke agreed to lend his aid to the project in the near future, and coordinated with Trivia to get the decorations and tea buckets lined up and ready.