Disclaimer: Nope, not Kohta Hirano. Try again.

Yoichi swore. There was a dragon flying towards them. Wasn't it over? Weren't they safe by now?

He checked his quiver. One more arrow. He nocked it and pointed up, noting out of the corner of his eye that the elves were collecting around him. They had too much faith in him. Yoichi didn't trust himself to be able to take out another dragon, especially with only one arrow, but if it had a rider . . .

It did have a rider.

Hold on.

"Wait!" He eased the tension out of the bow as he lowered it. "That's Otoyo."

"Toyo's riding a dragon again?" Shara asked in disbelief.

"Guess so. Along with . . ." Yoichi narrowed his eyes. "What are those?"

Shara shaded his eyes with his hand. "Cat people. And dog people."

"Along with the dwarf leader and another human." Yoichi frowned. "They're fighting."

"Do you think the other human is an enemy, or is it more like when you Drifters fight?" Shara asked.

"They're not trying to kill each other," Yoichi clarified. It almost made him nostalgic for his brothers again, somehow. He sighed and returned his lone arrow to the quiver. "We'd better report in to Nobu."

The dragon swooped low over Nobunaga's field headquarters, circling over the grounds before setting down in a spot that had been hastily cleared. Nobunaga and Haruakira were ready and waiting for them. "Another one?" Haruakira murmured, sounding almost hopeless. Nobunaga snickered. "At least he doesn't need you to control this one."

"True . . . " Haruakira mused. "Why is that, i wonder?"

The two Drifters perched on the dragon's shoulders seemed reluctant to get down, in a marked contrast to their subordinates. The old dwarf in particular seemed to be happy to be back on the ground, falling to his knees and pressing his hands into the ground. Yoichi funneled the cat and dog people away; they'd have to figure out what to do with them later. Right now Nobunaga had words for Toyohisa.

Toyohisa, meanwhile, appeared to be engaged in a shoving match with the other man. As if it mattered which of them got off the dragon first. Don't let it be someone else with his temperament.

One of them managed to overbalance the other, with the result that they both fell off at more or less the same time. They even managed to make a competition of climbing back to their feet. That was hardly the issue at hand.

"Hey," Toyohisa said, turning away and addressing Nobunaga. "I got a dragon, we should–"

"TO-YO-HI-SAAAAAAA!" Nobunaga howled as he catapulted himself at the returning general. Toyohisa's wounds were just starting to catch up with him, so when Nobunaga hit him he went down like a rock. "He's injured!" Haruakira exclaimed in the background, but Nobunaga didn't care.

"You idiot!" he roared, getting to his feet and hauling Toyohisa up after him by his collar. "What use are you if you get yourself killed in one lousy battle? Do you even understand what your position is?"

"You're the one who decided that! I never agreed to it." Toyohisa grabbed Nobunaga's wrist, but didn't pull himself free. "You don't need to keep me alive! If my death can buy time for the mastermind to get away, that will still be a victory for our side!"

Nobunaga was about to hit him again, but before he could make his move, the other man kicked Toyohisa in the back. "What the hell, you bastard? You think that you'll win if you die? How the hell are you supposed to win if you're dead, you dumbass?!"

"Thank you!" Nobunaga exclaimed, as Toyohisa released him to turn on the other man. At least the stranger was someone who was willing to call Otoyo out on his stupid Satsuma bullshit. "Who are you, anyway?"

The man had one hand splayed across Toyohisa's face, pushing him back at an odd angle. "Leader of the Shinsengumi 301st Squadron, 343rd naval air group, Captain Kanno Naoshi! And that dragon is mine."

"I said i'm keeping him!" Toyohisa snarled, breaking free of Naoshi's grip. "You can't claim him after i already called him."

"Who the hell are you?" Naoshi snapped back. "You're not certified for aerial combat, you dumbass."

"I'm Shimazu Nakatsukasa Sasho Toyohisa." Toyohisa folded his arms. "I don't know what that means, what you said, but i'm not letting you take my dragon."

"Don't . . . don't keep it," Haruakira groaned. Nobody listened. Nobunaga certainly didn't. His mind was racing too fast, calculating the potential of the dragon, if they could use it, and assessing the man Toyohisa had brought back with him.

Naoshi was dressed in the most outlandish clothes Nobunaga had ever seen, he realized. The man wore some kind of full-body garment, with straps crisscrossing it in the oddest places, and a leather cap over his head. And he'd thought Olminu's clothes were weird.

From a very different time, then, but he seemed to get along with Toyohisa just fine. From the sound of Otoyo's half-assed explanation, they'd been at loggerheads since they met on the battlefield, and it had only gotten worse when the dragon appeared.

The dragon that was the best trophy they could have claimed.

"So now we need to come up with a name for him." Toyohisa pointed at Haruakira. "Ask that one, i was thinking about Tatsuo earlier with the other dragon."

"It has to be Ryuumaru." Naoshi folded his arms over his chest.

"Ryuusuke," Toyohisa countered.

The two men glared at each other for a long minute. "Ryuusuke is a good name," Naoshi relented, "but you don't get to keep him."

"You could ask," the dragon rumbled, bringing all of them to a halt.

Nobunaga was the first to recover. "You talk?" he demanded. The dragon's lip curled up in what was unmistakably a sneer. "Of course i do. Am i a dumb brute, like a warhorse?"

"So what's your name, then?" Toyohisa asked.

The dragon lowered his head to look Toyohisa in the eye. "You would not be able to say it. Your mouth is not shaped properly."

"Try us," said Naoshi, a stubborn spark in his eye.

The dragon's eyes flicked wider. He raised his head and snarled out a complicated collection of sounds.

"Ryuusuke it is," Naoshi said.

"Ryuusuke," Toyohisa agreed.

The dragon rumbled low in his throat, which might have meant assent.

"From what i've heard," Haruakira said abruptly, "dragons dislike other races, especially humans. They attack them, but never work with them. Until now, when you've started working with the Ends. What changed?"

Ryuusuke turned lamplike yellow eyes on him. "The Black King has powers even the oldest of us have never seen before. The strongest of us cannot fight him. He gave us a choice, to either carry his army into battle or to die at his hand. Many of us chose life."

Nobunaga could see a loaded statement when he heard it. "And i bet you want revenge on the enemy who used you that way, don't you?"

Ryuusuke turned his head slightly to look at Nobunaga. "It would not go amiss," he growled. "If you people do not treat me with the same disrespect the other army did."

"There! See? We're keeping him," Toyohisa said triumphantly.

"In your dreams, asshole!" exclaimed Naoshi. "That dragon's mine!"

"We do not need a dragon," Haruakira said. He looked almost panicked, and faintly green.

"No, we could use a dragon," Nobunaga said. A gleam appeared in his eye. "We could use a dragon. You're not thinking about the possibilities, Haruaki, that's your problem." He turned abruptly to Toyohisa. "Otoyo, go wrestle this guy for the dragon. And don't lose."

"Ha! Sounds like a plan." Toyohisa cracked his knuckles.

Naoshi met him squarely. "I'm not gonna lose at sumo to you, asshole!"

"We'll see!" In the space of a breath, both men grabbed each other's belts.

Haruakira stared hopelessly at them as they strained. "Is this how you settle disputes in your time?"

"It works as well as any other way," Nobunaga said. "I always liked sumo. So, Haruaki. This Kanno Naoshi. You know anything about him?"

"Yes . . ." Haruakira said slowly. "He's a Drifter. Before meeting you, we Oct were trying to form an alliance with the northern armies. I was with Hannibal and some others, but we were unprepared for the Ends to attack. That man appeared in the sky in a flying contraption and shot down a dragon. It bought us time to get away. Contact with him has been sporadic since them, but Scipio was with him. He's one of us."

"I see," Nobunaga said, as Toyohisa forced Naoshi back a step in front of them. "So he's used to fighting in the sky. He may even be from a time when it's a common form of warfare." He watched Naoshi nearly unbalance Toyohisa before the samurai rallied. "We need to be able to counter the Black King's dragons. His experience will be useful."

"I suppose so," Haruakira replied. "I have my concerns about his temperament, but . . . "

Nobunaga knew what he meant. It looked like the two fools wrestling could be peas in a pod. In front of them, Naoshi dug his heels in and pushed.

Toyohisa faltered. It was just for a moment, the flash of an eye, but it was enough. Naoshi flung him off. Blood spurted from his wounds as he hit the ground.

"Ha!" Naoshi raised his fists in the air. "Don't pick a fight with the 301st, asshole!"

Toyohisa let out a sound somewhere between a roar and a groan, pushing himself back up into a sitting position. He was covered in blood.

"Did this have to be settled now?" Haruakira demanded, going to him. "It's a miracle this fool was able to stand; do you fools think a wrestling match can decide anything when he's in this state? Once he's recovered–"

"No," Toyohisa interrupted, as bullheaded as ever. "I lost, so that's the end of it. Ryuusuke is his dragon."

"Yess!" Naoshi exclaimed, exulting in his victory. The dragon seemed resigned.

Haruakira sighed. To Nobunaga, he looked relieved. Nobunaga supposed he couldn't blame him for disliking dragons after Toyohisa dragged him off on the first one, but there were more important things to consider than his feelings. A dragon could be used to ferry supplies, to scout well ahead of the ground forces, to attack from above and strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. Naoshi might be a Drifter and technically part of their forces, but it was a shame to have the dragon in the hands of an unknown.

"And so!" Toyohisa used Haruakira as a post to haul himself to his feet, leaving bloody handprints on Haruakira's immaculate white uniform. "We need to get another dragon!"

Now it was Nobunaga's turn to smack him. "And how are you gonna do that, huh? Do you have any idea what a strike of fortune it was to get the one? They're not running around loose! The Ends aren't going to let another one go that easily!"

"I got two in just the one battle!" Toyohisa said stubbornly, and gestured at Haruakira. "Ask him! It's not my fault the first one got away!"

"You flew a dragon before and lost it?" Naoshi demanded. "I'm not letting you near Ryuusuke ever again, you bastard!"

"And you don't think they're going to learn from that, Otoyo?" Nobunaga demanded. "They're gonna be a lot more careful with their dragons next time! But sure, if you can get another dragon, and keep it from running off, you can have your own dragon. But don't get your hopes too high."

"Yes!" Toyohisa clapped Nobunaga on the shoulder. A little more blood oozed out of his abdomen at the impact. "Ow."

It had gone far enough. Nobunaga clocked Toyohisa over the head and watched him collapse to the ground. "Right, somebody get him to a healer. And you," he said to Naoshi, "we need to talk about sky combat."

"Huh?" Naoshi swiveled around to face him, halfway back onto the dragon's shoulders. "I was wondering earlier, but who the hell are you?"

Nobunaga sighed. Of course one fool wasn't enough.

A/N: OTOYO HAS SUCCEEDED IN BECOMING A DRAGON RIDER NOT ONCE BUT TWICE. Please, please, Hirano, let him keep this one. Let him and Naoshi squabble over who gets the dragon, because the two of them fighting over who got to fly it was just too precious. I know you've never cared about what i want before, Hirano, but please let me just have this.