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From the look on Morohira’s face, he seemed not to be able to hear a word Rokkaku was saying, but from the smile on Rokkaku’s face, he could likely guess.

"If that was half the size, it might even have reached their camp," Gengyo exclaimed excitedly. "These really do have some power to them."

"They do, they do," Matsudaira seconded with equal excitement.

"Can you make a smaller ball, Takeshi?" Gengyo asked. "Then we could sit here and fire upon them, preventing them from sleeping."

Takeshi blinked wondering whether it was a serious question, but when Gengyo continued to look at him expectantly, he realized that he would have to answer. "...I don’t think it would work quite like that," he explained, "it would take far too long to smith enough balls of that size, and then when we did, they would just move their camp further away."

"...True," a drunk Gengyo agreed despondently. "But we don’t need lots, do we? Just a couple to cause havoc and have some fun."

"To havoc and fun!" Rin toasted, downing another bowl full of sake. Akiko stared at her in horror.

"Where on earth did you get that?" Akiko squeaked. "Stop drinking," she begged, "you’re going to kill yourself!"

"Rokkaku gave it to me," Rin said, pointing at the man. Rokkaku noticed them looking towards him and he gave them a flattering wink. Akiko glared angrily back.

"...I have ten," Takeshi said quietly, immediately regretting having said anything at all.

"What was that, Takeshi?" Gengyo asked.

"I have ten..?" He repeated, slightly louder, truly regretting it by now. His drunk generals were in no position to be firing cannons upon the enemy.

"Brilliant!" Gengyo exclaimed, jumping up with glee, "load them up, the Hojo won’t be sleeping tonight!���

With a sigh, Takeshi went towards the ladder, having to explain where he was going to a drunken Matsudaira. "They’re back at the forge," he explained.

"Oh. They’ll be heavy too, do you need us to go with you?" Matsudaira asked.

"No, it’s fine. I’ll get one of the soldiers to help me," Takeshi said firmly.

"Okay, if you’re sure," Matsudaira shrugged.

Within a few moments, the smith had disappeared completely. Akiko sighed, sharing his exhaustion. Without the same alcohol running through their veins, it was difficult to keep up with the whims of the intoxicated.

"Is this really a good idea?" She checked with Gengyo.

"The best one I’ve had in a while," Gengyo said, though it did not help that the alcohol was making him grin like a fool as he made that claim.

"If you fire upon them, you’ll be shaking up the hornet’s nest. Are you really in a state to be doing battle?" Akiko pressed worriedly.

"It’ll be fine," Gengyo assured her. "Here," he stamped his foot on the solid stone ground to ill.u.s.trate his point, "is where we’re strongest. If they’re stupid enough to attack us directly, we’ll ruin them."

"Oh, that sounds fun," Morohira overheard, his hearing having recovered. "Do you think they really will attack?"

"Who knows," Gengyo shrugged, "they’re definitely pretty angry already, but whether or not they’ve become stupid is another matter."

"They’re definitely not stupid," Matsudaira asserted grimly, managing to grow serious for a second. He had fought with them a while. Every move was clear and calculated. It was only Gengyo’s strange manoeuvring that had managed to unsettle them.

They heard movement from across the courtyard and they went to the edge of the wall to see Takeshi speeding across the cobblestones. Behind him, two soldiers did their best to keep up, sharing the burden of a heavy-duty wooden box. Gengyo guessed that the cannonballs were inside.

"Nine," Takeshi said breathlessly once he reached the bottom of the ladder, "I miscounted. There are only nine."

"Nine is better than none!" Gengyo shouted back down.

It took the soldiers a while longer to reach them. Even if they were smaller than a normal cannonball, only fist sized, they were still heavy lumps of dense metal. They had tried to go as fast as Takeshi, but they had tired quickly and had to set it on the ground to continue any further.

Another four soldiers jogged over to help them. Fresh hands gave fresh speed and they managed to set the box down on the wooden platform of the pully elevator.

"All secured, Miura-dono!" A soldier shouted up, nervous to be talking directly to his leader.

"Very good! Thank you for your help!" Gengyo shouted back down.

With Sasaki and Togashi working together on the rope, they quickly pulled the elevator up to the top of the wall. When it was level, Morohira and Rokkaku plucked off the wooden box and waddled over with it towards the nearest cannon.

"We’re going to need to move the cannon as well," Takeshi told them. Sasaki took charge of that. The cannons had been set on wheels, which made the moving of them ever so slightly easier. The big bear of a man dragged it away from the wall, and aligned the end of its barrel with the middle of the Hojo encampment as he had assumed Takeshi would want him to.

"...Good, we need to tilt it up as well," Takeshi said. Sasaki took care of that as well.

"Gun powder and fuse," he said next. It was the same cannon they had fired earlier and so the explosives needed replacing.

Finally, it was all set in place. Gengyo was holding onto the cannonball himself, desperate to slide it into the barrel. Whereas a normal-sized cannonball was bigger than a man’s head, these were only slightly bigger than two fists. They’d definitely fire much further, though the damage they caused would be minimized.

"Go ahead, Miura-dono," Takeshi said when everything was in place.

And so Gengyo slid in his cannonball and prepared to terrorize the miserable Hojo camp.