the calm before the storm

The more news came to the castle that there was an army approaching, the more Harumi could feel the tension in the air. Since everybody from the castle town had jobs to do, there were few people who could look after the children. Only elderly and women in their third trimester or had just given birth were with all the children in Harumi's private quarters. Next to Nobunaga's private quarters those were the safest places in the castle. Since Harumi's quarters were located at the back of the castle, the tension from everywhere else didn't seem to reach them as much. Harumi had been scared that all the mothers in the village wanted to stay with their children what would mean that they wouldn't have enough manpower to prep the castle. Luckily everybody understood the situation and most of the women proudly applied for jobs. Most of them were at the moment helping in the kitchens and infirmary, but those jobs were just as important as all the other ones. Harumi walked with some ladies to her quarters with trays full of food. She still tried to help everywhere she could, even though her maids pleaded for her to not do any manual labor. She didn't want to sit still the whole time. She wanted to keep busy. Every time she had a moment to spare and relax, her mind automatically went to doomsday thinking, making her insane. She noticed that when she was physically exhausted, the scary voices in her head were a bit quieter so she tried to do as much as possible. Right now she would help with feeding and taking care of all the children and elderly.

They were greeted with a lot of joyful cheers when they entered Harumi's quarters. A dozen children run to her and grabbed her legs while Harumi made her way into the room smiling. This reminded her of home. When her brothers and sisters were smaler they would do the exact same thing when Harumi came home. She hadn't thought about her family for a while now since she was so occupied with the upcoming battle. She didn't need those thought right now either. They made her so incredibly sad that she had no idea how to continue so she locked them up far away within the deepest parts of her soul. She blinked a few times to regain her posture and began to serve bowls of rice. Since they had no idea how long they would be locked up inside the castle, they had started to ration right away. The people who were getting prepped for battle got the most meat and stuff so they would become strong. The people who were working in the infirmary got the most vegetables to stay healthy so they wouldn't spread any diseases. Another lady walked around the room dividing one of the side dishes to people. Harumi walked up to a small group of elderly sitting in a corner of the room and sat beside them. They already gotten some side dishes when Harumi gave them the rice. Some of them had arthritis and parkinson, making it impossible for them to feed themselves. Harumi picked up a set of chopsticks and began feeding an older lady. She had been helping these people eat for the last couple of days and they were rather nice company. In the 21st century she didn't really like old people. In her mind they were always whining about the old days and that everything was better back then. But there people were really nice to hang out with. They were very wise and actually hilarious. She had thought that the woman she was feeding at the moment had be be at least a hundred-and-ten. It came as quite a shock to learn that the woman was only fifty-six. Later she learned from her maids that most people died around fifty, making that woman a living fossil for this day and age. When Harumi heard that a cold shudder ran trough her. Her father would be fifty in only two years, she didn't want to think about the fact that he had lived now, he could be death already.

It was a sunny day when the enemies army finally had reached the castle. The army wasn't as big as Harumi had feared, but they destroyed everything in their path. They set up their camp just far away from the castle that the arrows they could shoot wouldn't reach them.

"What do we do now?" Nagahide asked. He, together with Harumi and Hidemasa looked over to the enemies camp.

"We wait..." Harumi sighted. She hoped that Nobunaga would quickly return, but she had no idea were he was, or if he even had win the battle. What if he had lost? Than not only wouldn't he come back, but the army that he was fighting would come to the castle as well.

"Are you sure?" Hidemasa asked.

"Yes." Harumi said, convinced that her decision was the right one. " They want to take over the castle, so they will try to not damage it too much, and the easiest way for them to win is to just lock us up in here until we starve or surrender. In the meantime we can train people even more for combat."

"And what are we gonna do if we starve?" Hidemasa asked, a sliver of fear creeping trough. Harumi understood that he would be scared to starve to death. Not for himself, but his wife and seven children were also at the castle at the moment.

"That won't happen, I will not let that happen." Harumi said before turning her back to the enemy, walking back to Nobunaga's room and continue working.