The Taming

As stealthy as a shinobi, Nobunaga was sitting in his car. He was watching Oichi and Manmi, who were sitting on a bench behind the campus and discussing something, two open notebooks laying on the laps of each. Manmi leaned closer to Oichi, said something into her ear, and she laughed, his palm covering hers. Was he actually flirting? ‘What the hell is he doing there?’ said Nobunaga angrily, through his teeth, and started drumming his fingers on the door impatiently. Inuchiyo looked at him in the mirror and sighed. ‘My lord, you can’t be serious. It was you who told him to befriend her way back when they were in the secondary school.’ ‘Come on, you can’t compare twelve-year-olds to what they are now. What if he’s fallen in love with her?’ Inuchiyo raised his eyebrow, still looking at him in the mirror. ‘Despite the fact she’s in love with another man and you are prepared to kill anyone who would dare even to think about stealing Lady Oichi from her groom?’ ‘Well, you can’t control one’s heart, you know…’ Nobunaga muttered. Meanwhile, Manmi looked at his watch at last, put his copybook into his bag, waved Oichi goodbye and approached the car. ‘What took you so long?’ it was hard for Nobunaga to quell his anger when Manmi sat down beside him. ‘“Long”?’ Manmi resented. ‘Just for the record, we discussed a next Monday’s seminar.’ ‘Was it necessary to hold her hand?’ Manmi sighed, ‘I can’t believe you’re that jealous, my lord.’ ‘I’m not,’ snapped Nobunaga. ‘Then, from now on, I’m not going anywhere near your sister,’ it seemed Manmi hadn’t heard the answer. ‘And no, I didn’t hold her hand. You must be hallucinating.’ ‘Sassing me, brat?!’ Manmi opened the door pointedly, preparing to leave, but Nobunaga took him by the arm. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his teeth gritted, and laid his hand on his knee again when Manmi sat back. ‘Tell me whatever you’ve got.’ ‘Azai disturbed Lady Oichi again,’ Manmi replied absently. ‘He cornered her and seemed to confess.’ ‘Well. How did she respond?’ ‘I didn’t see what actually happened but she was upset when running away from him.’ ‘What about her memory?’ ‘I asked if she had a headache or if anything bothered her but she waved me off. She didn’t seem to remember her past. She looked as she usually does but was a bit pale after the conversation.’ ‘What do you mean — “pale”?!’ Nobunaga clenched his fists. If Azai kept on like this, he would be able to awaken her memories. Nobunaga wanted to kill him. How did this scoundrel dare?! Had he lost his mind or his ability to comprehend human speech? It hadn’t been enough to threaten him once, had it… Nobunaga looked at Inuchiyo in the mirror thinking about if it was necessary to tell him to repeat that ‘educational conversation’. But the latter read his mind and averted his eyes prudently. Had all they conspired against him?! Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Nobunaga asked a little bit more calmly, ‘Oichi didn’t faint, did she? She hasn’t recollected her past, has she?’ ‘She didn’t. And she hasn’t, as I’ve already said. I’d notice if it was otherwise.’ ‘I see,’ Nobunaga muttered. ‘Keep watching.’ ‘My lord,’ Manmi bowed his head. Then, a message popped up on his phone. He glanced at the first line, and turned away to hide the screen. Nobunaga attempted to look over Manmi’s shoulder but he hunched even more, in a really suspicious manner. Was he actually cheating on him? Nobunaga snatched the cellphone out of his hands. The message was open and started with an extremely disturbing, ‘Hey, want to join me for a drink?’ ‘Who is Fujita? Your lover?’ Manmi tried to get his cellphone but Nobunaga hid it behind his back and leaned on the seat. ‘You can’t do that,’ Manmi hissed. ‘He’s my roommate; his girlfriend left him, so he needs comfort—’ ‘In your arms?!’ ‘Have you lost your mind, my lord?!’ Manmi tried to push Nobunaga away but he remained as still as a rock. ‘Could you at least not touch my property without permission? It’s my phone, my privacy and my life!’ ‘How about I break it and buy you a new one?’ Nobunaga wasn’t going to give up. ‘It’s my property all the same!’ Suddenly, Inuchiyo turned around and pulled Nobunaga’s necktie with such force the latter almost fell over between the front seats. This moment was enough for Manmi to take his cellphone back and escape. Nobunaga started coughing and loosened the tie. ‘You’ve grown jealous enough to choke the life out of me at last?’ he inquired without a shadow of sarcasm. ‘I’m sorry, my lord,’ Inuchiyo bowed his head as low as down to cupholders between the front seats. ‘I could no longer take how horrible you were.’ ‘I wasn’t horrible. I just wanted to know if he’s cheating on me.’ ‘You don’t even date.’ They stared at each other. Then, Nobunaga sighed and gestured Inuchiyo to drive towards the clinic. He had an appointment today. ‘I’m jealous of my retainer and Oichi,’ declared Nobunaga as soon as he closed the office door. Nakaba-sensei invited him to sit down. ‘Okay, let’s discuss the issue. What do you feel exactly?’ As Nakaba-sensei was writing down, Nobunaga was actually trying to listen to himself. What did he feel, really? Was it jealousy, after all?.. Well, he did feel angry at how Manmi was whispering to Oichi, as if her bestie. He’d felt angry in the previous life, whenever Manmi had been stared at by servants or retainers. He couldn’t even begin to describe how he’d hated Araki’s glances. He’d hated them so much he’d wanted to dirty his blade with this wretch’s blood. So ungrateful. Nobunaga had granted him a castle while he hadn’t been able to forgive him one young man. He’d even turned out fearless enough to rebel. As a result, Manmi… ‘I feel quite…’ Nobunaga stammered, choosing a more decent word, ‘unpleasant that Oichi and him are so close. Despite the fact I personally told him to befriend her. And it seems pretty unpleasant to me when he interacts with anyone but me. I want him for personal use.’ ‘It’s okay to be jealous of the one you love,’ nodded Nakaba-sensei. ‘In moderation, jealousy is natural. However… could you please explain what do you mean saying “for personal use”?’ ‘It means what I said,’ Nobunaga replied firmly. ‘He’s mine.’ ‘Don’t you think you’ve just expressed your attitude towards him as your property?’ ‘I don’t. I just want him to belong to me as before.’ ‘He’s a person,’ Nakaba-sensei reminded softly. ‘He’s as alive as you are, with his own will. You could ask him how he feels about you. Talk heart to heart. Bare your soul. Then, he might reciprocate. I think, you speak like that out of habit. Since he was your retainer in the past, right?.. ‘He was, sensei. He’s my former koshō.’ ‘May I ask his name?’ ‘Manmi Senchiyo.’ Nakaba-sensei frowned quizzically. Mori Naritoshi, who’d died for Nobunaga at the Honnō temple, was the most famous koshō of his and hadn’t reincarnated. Neither had others. As for Senchiyo, he’d died during the siege of Arioka and hadn’t had a chance to do anything significant… except for getting into Nobunaga’s service in a very special way. Those who cared remembered him as ‘a young man Oda Nobunaga and Araki Murashige were at odds about’. ‘I’m sorry… I can’t remember him,’ gave Nakaba-sensei a predictable answer. ‘Never mind. I had lots of koshō.’ Nakaba-sensei wrote something down. After the session, Nobunaga decided to take a walk. So Inuchiyo drove him to a park, where fullmoon maples didn’t even think to become red, considering the warm weather. Amidst the workday, there were hardly any people, so one could easily concentrate on their thoughts. Inuchiyo was walking just behind, so Nobunaga began to ignore him soon, attuned to contemplating the nature around him. “He’s a person, you say…” Nobunaga raised his head. The sun was piercing through the crowns, untimely green. The same sun had been shining in his previous life, when Nobunaga would have been sitting under a tree, in the garden beside his castle, and cutting one more doll for Oichi, who’d still been so small, out of a thick branch he would have barely managed to break off. His princess would have been sitting beside him at the time — one minute playing with other toys, the other coming back to him in order to look at round head first and then slender neck and shoulders emerging from under the bark… When the doll would have been finished, Oichi would have clapped her hands and accepted the gift gratefully. Sometimes, she would have even hugged Nobunaga’s big arm and allowed to pat her on the head, despite the risk of him being scolded by their mother for ruining Oichi’s coiffure, with just a hair or two actually being messed up. Nobunaga felt the corners of his eyes tingling, so he lowered his head. He could put it all back. He just needed to take one small but extremely impenetrable fortress. Nobunaga turned on his heels, so that Inuchiyo almost bumped into him. ‘Find out what kind of coffee Manmi likes,’ he ordered firmly.