Test Moves

Morning had barely cracked through the cloudless sky as the armies of Aya and Yumi marched out. By the time normal people finished their breakfast to start a hard day of labor, their armies stood in organized units spread out over the open foothills of central Japan. Rough terrain crept in from the north making flanking difficult and distant forest to the south potentially hiding threats. At the back of Aya’s forces carved a wide river restricting positioning. The open field presented an ideal battlefield, but the terrain narrowed the tactical options.

Back at the rear of their main forces the respective Commanders, and to be determined future Empress of Japan, sat on horseback with a wide view of the field. All eyes of the country watched in anticipation as the two women destined to rule would finally clash. A surprising turn of events for most that saw Aya’s rule to be unchallenged, yet many saw the signs of inevitability.

But once it became clear, tension and excitement spread everywhere. Legends battled for control. The Hero of Miracles and the All-Seeing Empress headed to war, that no one saw coming and yet seemed all too obvious now. No one questioned the battle that would begin shortly, as though it was meant to happen. All people wondered was the betrayal of the Hero something that the Empress foresaw as well.

Chapter 550 - Test Moves

Riding out to the front were the battle hardened Generals of the Hero’s army, Yuki and Seiji under their guises while in Yumi’s world. Tension of the troops could be felt in the air. Their men still stood with them even now against the supposedly undefeatable Empress. “This is going to be a complicated battle,” remarked Yuki.

Seiji gave a grunting reply to start before speaking, “We knew that before this even began. We all agreed to follow her.” Age had begun to show in the face that Seiji wore, now deep into the age of an adult. Fiction or no, it hadn’t been how he imagined it and his modern sensibilities left him longing for things that this life couldn’t allow him.

It was no different for Yuki or the rest of their friends, time found them all claimed, creating distortions of their real life and fake life. None of what happened was what they had signed up for, but for Yumi they kept going, trapped reality notwithstanding.

Stroking his fingers over an early-graying moustache, Yuki looked out of the corner of his helmet to Seiji. Age taught him many things, one in particular was a better poker face. Perhaps Nerine’s influence had rubbed off on him. “I know. Just making sure you’re still up for this. It’s not going to be a straightforward fight.”

“When has it been?”

“Fair enough.”

“You shouldn’t be worrying about me. I know how these things are fought. And a battle against Aya is going to change all the rules.” Seiji appreciated the concern, but it made it all the more clear how worried he was about this battle. There was more than either of them could admit to their men in this battle. It might have been years in the making, there was more than that on the line. A final battle for Yumi and the culmination of everything that she struggled for.

Like Yuki, Seiji wondered what waited them on the other side. Having been within her mind for so long, the real world almost felt more like a fake one. They lived more within her mind than their own lives. Just putting that into perspective in his head seemed difficult. With how he was now, he wasn’t sure if he could go back to the same life. Yumi had changed his life completely. “We just need to focus on our part so that she has her chance to finally end all of this.”

A nod came from Yuki as his eyes focused back on the front and Aya’s men. ‘I certainly hope this is the end...but something about this feels off…’

In the rear upon her horse, Yumi scanned the whole field. Her years of battle both on and off the battlefield trained her eyes to see more than what was at the surface. Those that tried to provide her advice outside of her close circle attempted to stir her away from this conflict. They already believed she would lose against the Empress, who had made her name upon the art of war completely redefining the way Japan fought. Undefeated and unchallenged, Aya had no equal and even Yumi understood that.

She was determined to see that mindset change today.

For any other Commander that she faced, there were five different plays she could see for an opening move. However, Aya had only a single one as it was the only one that she would make in this situation. A messenger rode up on horseback next to Yumi. “Ma,am, scouts are reporting movement in the foothills using the terrain to hide their positions.”

Nodding to him, she affirmed and played out the moves on repeat in her mind. “Squad J is to continue their mission and Squad M is ordered to advance.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The messenger hurried off to his subordinates to send out the orders. Communication would be the part that hurt her the most, but it was an equal field. ‘It’s begun Aya...our game…’ Aya played exactly how she expected. It was a test, as she was so fond of doing. Against anyone else, the Empress would have played differently going to crush her opponent without them even knowing they were defeated.

However, this battle was different for them. Aya saw something in Yumi, she knew, even more now that she had finally shown her hand. This sort of move made her more invested than ever before. The woman enjoyed boldness and people with a mind of their own that didn’t follow social conventions. As a woman of that same ideal, she sought out others with the same sort of willingness to spit in the face of humanity's self-constructed delusions. Such things in her mind were to be praised and rewarded.

Yumi rewarded Aya with what she longed for in her whole life. And thus this battle was never going to be like any of the others. The opening move, a mere test to see if Yumi had become someone truly worthy of Aya’s complete attention. ‘She’s tested all of us and though she did find some bit that interested her, enough that she kept us close to her. We all still showed her the one thing that she detested, fear. Determination before her was important, but she was still all bearing fear of that woman and her other-worldy presence. And so she could never truly see any of us as worth her time. We were useful to her, but nothing more than pawns she could use.

‘But pawns were enough for us. It was finally time to promote.’ She sent out new orders as the battle changed again. Troops moved around the field in feints and counter feints. Brief skirmishes sparked throughout the region, but nothing serious yet. The bulk of each army only continued to move in a dance that none of the men understood.

At this point Yuki and Seiji were no longer together already having to order around part of their troops over into diversionary moves or feints keeping the idea of what side might have the upper hand unclear. They both knew that Yumi knew what she was doing, but at this point the tactics were already well beyond them. Trusting in their friend was all they had anymore.

Troops formations spread over the region as the battleline started to become more well defined by Aya and Yumi’s plays. It appeared in complete disarray to anyone that might have been looking at it, but in the two women’s minds it was still a stalemate with no clear sign of victory.

Squads and divisions became like shogi pieces on the board of the war within Yumi’s mind. Across from her Aya stood looming with her dominating presence applying the pressure to every counter that Yumi tried. Their battle of the minds had already gone on for three hours, an unusual war with so little bloodshed.

‘She’s as strong as I forecasted with all of my mental training. At least things are still going as planned. But damn, if she’s not intimidating.’ All the times that Yumi spoke or confronted Aya in the past, each encounter made it quite clear how strong she was. But even in their games of shogi they never felt like this. She couldn’t even see the woman, but each move that she witnessed felt like she stood in front of her with her eyes piercing her very soul.

Yumi did her best to not sweat, though after hours in full battle attire on horseback it was difficult. ‘I’m not sure which is more unnerving about her. The fact that I know that she’s not even serious yet and she’s already this rough to deal with or that she’s still got room to get even worse…’ All of the mind games to prepare her for this day still did no justice to the woman.

Pulling out of her mental game of shogi, Yumi looked at the real field of battle. The one that at the end only mattered. She couldn’t only see it as all pieces on a board to move around as Aya did. Before her were the men that she commanded and those men had limits unlike pieces of wood that could be played all day without exhaustion.

Fake or not, the reality was that real battle was tiring and often fairly brief. There were few that could keep swinging their weapon all day and still have some form remaining in their attacks. All they had been doing was marching around largely, but that still would drain them. It was something that Aya wanted from Yumi. All part of the test, she put before her challenges to see how she overcame them.

Though, there was another reality to Aya’s tactics. She needed the main troops exhausted for a good reason. One that Yumi understood and made sure to keep their actions to a minimum for the right time.

However, with the sun high in the sky and starting to come down, it was time for Aya’s test to come to an end. ‘I think I’ve satisfied you enough. It’s time to change the rules…’ Yumi raised her right hand over head, a signal to the messenger that remained behind her in reserve for this very moment. He bolted into a full charge on his horse completely ignoring stamina. “It’s time for you to face that which you fear, Aya. A game that’s no longer under your control.”

Piercing through the discordant sounds of men marching, a clear ringing of a horn reached the front of the battle. Both in their separate areas, Yuki and Seiji heard the signal and stared distantly back in the direction where Yumi would be. “It’s time. All troops, charge forward! We smash their lines!” Deep warcries came out of the two men getting their troops psyched up for the real fight to begin.

Across the field, Aya monitored the sudden change in the formation of the opposing troops. “You’ve decided it’s over then. You did well enough, but still far from satisfactory.” She could see the bright green of Yumi’s troops piercing through her front lines. Exhausting her two Generals hadn’t succeeded, but she had plans for that. It just meant that the so-called Hero did have some of her intelligence.

She motioned over to the messenger. “Give word for the reserves to advance. They think our line is broken, but everything is still within my vision.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The messenger quickly ran off to deliver to her secondary forces that far exceeded the numbers that Yumi and Seiji’s men came charging in. They were the wild cards that Aya tried to manage in the battle. The men that followed them believed strongly that no matter the odds they could win, because neither had ever lost since Yumi claimed them. And both had become skilled warriors making standard tactics difficult.

Within the thirty minutes that Aya forecasted, her line collapsed and the two Generals came charging with their men. Everything opened up and it looked like the Hero of Miracles found herself another miracle, but Aya remained unchanged. It continued as she expected.

A messenger arrived breaking Aya out of her focus, something was off. “An urgent report! All of the reserves have been wiped out, ma’am!”

Aya turned her eye to pierce straight through the man that stood before her. Terror gripped him almost immediately, especially being the one to report on ill tidings. “What happened?”

“We don’t know yet, scouts are investigating, but I saw it myself. No one is alive. It’s a complete mystery.”

“The Hero of Miracles,” whispered some of the men having overheard the poorly controlled messenger.

The Empress looked back at the battlefield seeing Yuki and Seiji charging and in her mind the confident stare of Yumi having made her play. A smile came over Aya’s face that a few witnessed that day. “Miracles indeed. I looked forward to the next stage. Show me what more you can do Hero!” She turned her horse around as she waved to the field commanders the retreat orders.