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It was almost exactly as they had planned it. A cannon that sat on two layers of track. The first of which was circular, and allowed it to rotate around and change angle given a push by the crew. The second – which sat on top of the first – was a straight piece of track, and gave the cannon enough room to recoil. As it was now, it sat in the loading position.

"Have ya tested it yet?" Morohira prodded. They hadn’t heard any explosions, but he guessed they might have been other ways of making sure it worked as planned.

But the smith shook his head in response, prompting the obvious answer from him.

"Well, we’d better get it tested then, eh? Sasaki, go and get us some gunpowder, would ya? Have you made any cannonballs yet Takeshi?" He asked, as he looked around the lower deck, trying to spot one of the metal balls.

"Two... over there." He pointed off into the corner, where they sat smothered in straw so that they would not roll away. He had not had time to make more than two, as he had put all his efforts into finishing the cannon as fast as possible. As it happens, he was rather pleased with the results. It was complicated, certainly, but it was extremely functional, and served it’s purpose well.

"Hoho..." Morohira purred as he walked and stooped low to pick one up. He was prepared for them to be tremendously heavy – and they were, to a degree – but they did not turn out to be quite as heavy as he had expected.

With the cannonball clutched tightly against his chest, he strutted over to the end of the barrel, and prepared to let it slide down, but was stopped by Takeshi.

"Gunpowder... Gunpowder goes first." He corrected. It should have been obvious enough, even to someone who wasn’t familiar with this type of weaponry, as the gunpowder was what caused the explosion that propelled the projectile forward. But in Morohira’s defence, he was plenty excited.

"...Sasaki! Hurry up, this is heavy y’know?" He shouted, trying to hurry up the supplier of the gunpowder. But as he finished his sentence, Sasaki was already waddling down the stairs, with a barrel under each arm.

"Oh, good timing."

"I’m all about good timing boss." The big man replied with a smile, setting the barrels down next to the cannon, before he spoke to Takeshi. "How much gunpowder do we need?"

"This much." Takeshi responded with action, removing the lid from the barrel, and scooping out two handfuls, and allowing them to fall to the bottom of the raised cannon. Immediately after he had done that, Morohira inserted his cannonball, for it was beginning to cause quite the strain on his arms.

"Phew..." He let out a sigh of relief having been relieved of his load.

"Aren’t we going to fire it?" Rin pushed, even more excited than he to see the weapon in action. Even the slightest pause was enough to irritate her at this point. Akiko smiled warmly at her friend’s enthusiasm, whilst Isabella watched on with folded arms and an apparently indifferent expression.

"Yes... Please pick a target." Takeshi replied quietly. The cannon was currently aimed towards their little beach, and it would cause quite a bit of destruction should they let loose on it. The way he had set the cannon up at the prow of the ship, it was able to rotate round to cover around 180 degrees.

"That rock over there, let’s go!" Rin announced, taking the initiative to push the cannon round herself. Even against her touch that lacked a man’s strength, the cannon still turned smoothly, and aimed towards an old rock that jutted out of the water.

"Please... Step back." The smith said, pushing the cannon forward into its ready position, as he altered the elevation slightly, and made sure the shot was lined up properly. Then, he brandished a flaming stick with which to light the fuse.

His warning lay in the eye-contact he gave them before he pressed the flame to the lit barrel, and covered his ears. They made the mistake of not following his example. When the gunpowder ignited, and its groan thundered across the cove, it was their ears that was left sore because of it.

The booming noise caused them to flinch, and that single second of blinking was all it took for the cannonball to vanish from their vision and propel itself forwards, crashing into the poor rock that had stood there for thousands of years. Once it had been part of a mighty cliff. Then the sea had reduced it to a stump. And now here it was, facing its end at the hands of feeble humans.

SMASH

The heavy ball crashed into it mercilessly. The aim was true and it stood not a chance. It shuddered apart sending rubble everywhere, and startling the fish that lay below. It was destruction at it’s finest.

"Now... That’s... That’s damn STRONG!" Morohira roared with glee, clapping his hands in triumph, as though they had overcome an actual opponent, and not just some rock.

The rest of the crew were in a similar state of uproar as they paid homage to the remains of the sea-covered rock, anticipating all the damage that was to come at the hands of such a terrifying weapon.

"You have my respect, Takeshi-san." Togashi stated, as he patted the little smith on his back, and looked into his eyes before nodding.

"Aye! And mine too! Any man that’s capable of making something like that had better be respected, else you’ll wake up in the middle of the night to find your house has been blasted out from atop you!" Jikouji bellowed. He’d had confidence in the smith’s ability all along.

The little smith was already blushing in response to their praise, and that was before any of the girls had said anything.

"That was really cool, Takeshi-san!" Rin said loudly, still celebrating the destruction.

"Yup, Takeshi-san is really clever." Akiko agreed.

"Things should be easier from now on..." Was all Isabella managed to say, as she pondered the future. It truly was feasible for them to seize Toyokawa now. She’d spend a good few days there, collecting information on incoming and outgoing sh.i.p.s, and she had no doubt that they’d be able to raid until their lower deck was full.

Tomorrow – if her memory served her correctly – there was a shipment of gold from the northern mines coming in, though there wouldn’t be a lot of that. There was a shipment of armour for the city guard, as the Toyokawa smiths had been unable to keep up with the demand, what with all the new guards that kept being recruited to fill in the spaces of the fallen.

And then, finally, there had been another shipment of gunpowder, because the first one had been robbed by someone. She couldn’t quite remember who. It was a wonder to her that people still dared to sail in and out of that retched port, even after the chaos that they had caused. She would never go against their black ship. Not even if someone offered her all the gold in the world, for there was nowhere in hell that she could spend it.

She he heard the commander of the city guard bark all kinds of reassurances to the traders, saying that there was a plan in motion, and they only need to wait a few days before they took the pirates heads. She’d told as much to the rest of their little crew. But in response they had merely laughed, for it was definitely a bluff. The only thing that commander had was a severe lack of competence.

"We will be leaving tomorrow then, yes?" She asked quietly, sending her voice into the clamour around her. Perhaps it was because the difference in pitch, because all seemed to hear what she said.

"I should expect so. What does the captain think?" Jikouji responded by passing the decision off to Morohira, with a sly smile on his face.

Morohira frowned in response as though it was the most difficult question he had ever been asked. He opened his mouth to respond, before closing it again, and looking as though he was deep in thought. And then, he tapped his forehead as though he had been silly all this time.

"Obviously. What point is there in waiting when we can take down the guard’s sh.i.p.s as though they are nothing more than legless seagulls, waiting to be stoned to death?"

"Hahaha! Well put captain, we’ll show those guard bastards what happens when we get hold of gunpowder too!" Il said cheerfully. He was usually the most apprehensive when it came to danger. But after seeing their new weapon in action, even he was unable to feel any fear anymore. Their time had truly come, he reckoned. This would be the first town that they conquered on their quest to rule over Mikawa.

Oh, how surprised Gengyo would be, when he saw how far they had come by themselves. They had truly done well, and they knew it. He should be back soon – surely. Any day now. And with a town to present him with, how could they not long for his return.

"But there’s cannon balls to be made, right Takeshi? Will you manage to make enough today?" Sasaki asked, concerned for their young smith, as kindhearted as always.

"I... I can make 15 cannonballs if I push myself." He replied with a smile in response to Sasaki’s concern. He had grown fond of the big man, as all eventually did.

"15 is a good number! Good work Takeshi, we’re counting on you." Jikouji said with a grin. He was planning on coming on this raid as well, since it had been so long since his last. Affairs at home had been cleared up, and he was more or less up to date. This would be his time to unwind, and let a few of his more savage emotions come to the fore, and wreak a bit of havoc for a few hours. It would be fun. Fun indeed.