Oda Nobuna no Yabou [Light Novel]

[ReaperxKingx]

Wait Sumeragi, I thought you said the Kemari is suppose to keep the ball from touching the ground. How do teams play the Kemari?

[Awrya]

There are no teams competing with each other in Kemari, rather it is a group of players cooperating in keeping the ball from touching the ground.
You're basically allowed to use any part of your body, except your hands.

From the Vol.6 illustrations and the anime, Kemari in the LN is apparently played like football (Imagawa playing against a goal keeper), with the opponent losing if he can't keep the ball afloat/out of the goal.
Kemari is a game focusing on teamwork&exercising your body I guess.

[Sumeragi]

Spoiler for Sumeragi's Volume 9 Summary Part 1:

The main points of Volume 9 are the death from illness of the historical Hanbei during the attack on Mori and the rescue of an isolated Kanbei.

Our Hanbei was initially a weak girl, and the breaking up of the dragon lines to free Japan from the curses of the Sengoku era not only takes a toll on her life as a onmyouji, but also destroys her own lifespan, leaving her in a near-death condition. At the same time, with all the retainers going to the front, Nobuna is alone in Kyoto. Basically, the situation is similar to the historical Honno-ji. Not only this, but because of a false order sent by a spy from the Hojo (who are trying to eliminate Nobuna), Nobuna is in a BSOD from worrying that Moneky will abandon her. It is in this situation that Matsunaga Hisahide starts a rebellion.

Monkey is in the position where he need to save Hanbei who is near the end of her life and also rescue Kanbei who had been captured by enemies.

Somehow Monkey obtains the medecine necessary for extending Hanbei's life, which he gives to Goemon to take back. Then, in order to save Kanbei, he gains a new comrade. She is Yamanaka Shikanosuke. Finally amidst the loli brigade of Monkey comes a sexy and lively girl..... if it weren;t for the fact she has a very negative attitude towards life and even has a sort of M personality.....

Monkey goes to Kanbei's mentor and Ashiya Doman's descendent to learn the art of disappearnace (this is where we see the meditation scene) in preparation to save Kanbei. Using Shikanosuke as a bait, Monkey manages to inflitrate the enemy's camp and rescues Kanbei, but with the sacrifice of Zenki who took a bullet from Naoie (the sniper) for Monkey. Still, Now Monkey has another addition to his loli harem (damn you!).

As this was happening, we have BSOD Nobuna, due to her problems with Monkey and the rebellion of Matsunaga, who was a stepmother figure to her. It's here that Yoshimoto slaps sense into our Nobuna. Nobuna regained her resolved, and suggested that Yoshimoto help her put down the rebellions. However, Yoshimoto excuses herself saying that her chronic waist pain prevented her from going with Nobuna.....

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Spoiler for Sumeragi's Volume 9 Summary Part 1:

The main points of Volume 9 are the death from illness of the historical Hanbei during the attack on Mori and the rescue of an isolated Kanbei.

Our Hanbei was initially a weak girl, and the breaking up of the dragon lines to free Japan from the curses of the Sengoku era not only takes a toll on her life as a onmyouji, but also destroys her own lifespan, leaving her in a near-death condition. At the same time, with all the retainers going to the front, Nobuna is alone in Kyoto. Basically, the situation is similar to the historical Honno-ji. Not only this, but because of a false order sent by a spy from the Hojo (who are trying to eliminate Nobuna), Nobuna is in a BSOD from worrying that Moneky will abandon her. It is in this situation that Matsunaga Hisahide starts a rebellion.

Monkey is in the position where he need to save Hanbei who is near the end of her life and also rescue Kanbei who had been captured by enemies.

Somehow Monkey obtains the medecine necessary for extending Hanbei's life, which he gives to Goemon to take back. Then, in order to save Kanbei, he gains a new comrade. She is Yamanaka Shikanosuke. Finally amidst the loli brigade of Monkey comes a sexy and lively girl..... if it weren;t for the fact she has a very negative attitude towards life and even has a sort of M personality.....

Monkey goes to Kanbei's mentor and Ashiya Doman's descendent to learn the art of disappearnace (this is where we see the meditation scene) in preparation to save Kanbei. Using Shikanosuke as a bait, Monkey manages to inflitrate the enemy's camp and rescues Kanbei, but with the sacrifice of Zenki who took a bullet from Naoie (the sniper) for Monkey. Still, Now Monkey has another addition to his loli harem (damn you!).

As this was happening, we have BSOD Nobuna, due to her problems with Monkey and the rebellion of Matsunaga, who was a stepmother figure to her. It's here that Yoshimoto slaps sense into our Nobuna. Nobuna regained her resolved, and suggested that Yoshimoto help her put down the rebellions. However, Yoshimoto excuses herself saying that her chronic waist pain prevented her from going with Nobuna.....

Ah thank you very much. The Sadists in here are going to love the new addition to Sagara's harem.

[willx]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Spoiler for Sumeragi's Volume 9 Summary Part 1:

The main points of Volume 9 are the death from illness of the historical Hanbei during the attack on Mori and the rescue of an isolated Kanbei.

Our Hanbei was initially a weak girl, and the breaking up of the dragon lines to free Japan from the curses of the Sengoku era not only takes a toll on her life as a onmyouji, but also destroys her own lifespan, leaving her in a near-death condition. At the same time, with all the retainers going to the front, Nobuna is alone in Kyoto. Basically, the situation is similar to the historical Honno-ji. Not only this, but because of a false order sent by a spy from the Hojo (who are trying to eliminate Nobuna), Nobuna is in a BSOD from worrying that Moneky will abandon her. It is in this situation that Matsunaga Hisahide starts a rebellion.

Monkey is in the position where he need to save Hanbei who is near the end of her life and also rescue Kanbei who had been captured by enemies.

Somehow Monkey obtains the medecine necessary for extending Hanbei's life, which he gives to Goemon to take back. Then, in order to save Kanbei, he gains a new comrade. She is Yamanaka Shikanosuke. Finally amidst the loli brigade of Monkey comes a sexy and lively girl..... if it weren;t for the fact she has a very negative attitude towards life and even has a sort of M personality.....

Monkey goes to Kanbei's mentor and Ashiya Doman's descendent to learn the art of disappearnace (this is where we see the meditation scene) in preparation to save Kanbei. Using Shikanosuke as a bait, Monkey manages to inflitrate the enemy's camp and rescues Kanbei, but with the sacrifice of Zenki who took a bullet from Naoie (the sniper) for Monkey. Still, Now Monkey has another addition to his loli harem (damn you!).

As this was happening, we have BSOD Nobuna, due to her problems with Monkey and the rebellion of Matsunaga, who was a stepmother figure to her. It's here that Yoshimoto slaps sense into our Nobuna. Nobuna regained her resolved, and suggested that Yoshimoto help her put down the rebellions. However, Yoshimoto excuses herself saying that her chronic waist pain prevented her from going with Nobuna.....

^ OOOH! Yay, Sumeragi! Thanks! Marry me!

The intense drama keeps me on the edge of my seat, although the pacing of inserting comedy into it (as per Mechatrill's summary) seems a bit off to me at times

But yay! Hanbei! I couldn't hear any better news! And geez, so all the foreshadowing about manipulation and betrayal.. I guess it's keeping with the shifting alliances of the Sengoku Jidai.. I wonder if the Miyoshi are involved as well?

[Undertaker]

Kemari is also listed as Imagawa' hobby (as with all the court officials and royalties at time) in history and was know to be very good. So much so that this image overshadows the fact he was nicknamed as 東海一の弓 (The best archer in Tokai Region) and was responsible in restoring Imagawa clan's prominence.


Back to Oda mom. While this doesn't excuse her from it, but the mom, Tsuchida Gozen, is of court descend. The Gozen in her name/title is a proof that she was either a court maiden herself, or she is from families with Kuge (court background) descend.

That been said, she basically married down to Nobuhide (maybe due to his talent and as a way to keep him in line.) After all, you don't usually see a retainer of a retainer to have a court-related marriage. But that would explain the divide here.

As for the names that got thrown out, all of them have much higher social standing as Bukai (samurai clans) royalties so their well-manner were not surprising.

But with that been said, ao far in this series, the ones that would fit the court manner has been Imagawa and, believe or not, Mitsuhide.

Originally Posted by darthfanta

Shingen CAN actually be well-mannered and courteous if she wanted. At the very least, she treats Monkey better than any other girl from Nobuna's group does. As for Hojo, she's a schemer, yes, but that by no means meant she can't be well mannered if she wanted be. The difference in these characters is that they can adjust accordingly to the situation and deceive others.I haven't read anywhere beyond volume six yet, so my information may be wrong, but it really seems that Hojo can act.

And so can Nobuna, but like Nobuna, Shingen didn't which is why she rebelled against her father to take control both in LN or in history.

The difference here is that Nobunaga was been opposed by virtually EVERYONE when he took over and have to proof himselve. While Shingen had the support of most retainer as well as the younger brother whom his father favored when he started his coup.

But I agree, Nobuna is weak when it comes to putting up a front or a show. It not that she can't do it, she just didn't want to.

But in her defense, she shouldn't have to wear a mask in front of her own mom.

Originally Posted by Awrya

There are no teams competing with each other in Kemari, rather it is a group of players cooperating in keeping the ball from touching the ground.
You're basically allowed to use any part of your body, except your hands.

From the Vol.6 illustrations and the anime, Kemari in the LN is apparently played like football (Imagawa playing against a goal keeper), with the opponent losing if he can't keep the ball afloat/out of the goal.
Kemari is a game focusing on teamwork&exercising your body I guess.

You were right, Kemari was a sport from Chinese royal court. It's basically soccer/football without the scoring part of it. In novel, V6 to be precise, it was still that way.

Spoiler for V6::

Sagara just use the fact that Kemari was a royal sport that can only be played by people with certain social status and the fact it was basically soccer. He introduced the concept of scoring and goal keeping and call it Nanban (Barbarian) Kemari so the girls in Ho-Neko-Ji has something to do instead of wanting to go all Ikko-Ikki all over the place. So this way peasant can play Kemari that wasn't actually Kemari.

[weincruzvier]

Thanks Sumeragi! Sagara must have one really fast horse to get everywhere he needs to go in a quick manner like that.

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

Kemari is also listed as Imagawa' hobby (as with all the court officials and royalties at time) in history and was know to be very good. So much so that this image overshadows the fact he was nicknamed as 東海一の弓 (The best archer in Tokai Region) and was responsible in restoring Imagawa clan's prominence.


Back to Oda mom. While this doesn't excuse her from it, but the mom, Tsuchida Gozen, is of court descend. The Gozen in her name/title is a proof that she was either a court maiden herself, or she is from families with Kuge (court background) descend.

That been said, she basically married down to Nobuhide (maybe due to his talent and as a way to keep him in line.) After all, you don't usually see a retainer of a retainer to have a court-related marriage. But that would explain the divide here.

As for the names that got thrown out, all of them have much higher social standing as Bukai (samurai clans) royalties so their well-manner were not surprising.

But with that been said, ao far in this series, the ones that would fit the court manner has been Imagawa and, believe or not, Mitsuhide.






And so can Nobuna, but like Nobuna, Shingen didn't which is why she rebelled against her father to take control both in LN or in history.

The difference here is that Nobunaga was been opposed by virtually EVERYONE when he took over and have to proof himselve. While Shingen had the support of most retainer as well as the younger brother whom his father favored when he started his coup.

But I agree, Nobuna is weak when it comes to putting up a front or a show. It not that she can't do it, she just didn't want to.

But in her defense, she shouldn't have to wear a mask in front of her own mom.





You were right, Kemari was a sport from Chinese royal court. It's basically soccer/football without the scoring part of it. In novel, V6 to be precise, it was still that way.

Spoiler for V6::

Sagara just use the fact that Kemari was a royal sport that can only be played by people with certain social status and the fact it was basically soccer. He introduced the concept of scoring and goal keeping and call it Nanban (Barbarian) Kemari so the girls in Ho-Neko-Ji has something to do instead of wanting to go all Ikko-Ikki all over the place. So this way peasant can play Kemari that wasn't actually Kemari.

Thanks for the information, I learnt some interesting stuff. Also, Akechi seems like she would fit in a royal court or something plus her eyes and hair color is purple which means royalty.

[NoirX]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

You were right, Kemari was a sport from Chinese royal court. It's basically soccer/football without the scoring part of it. In novel, V6 to be precise, it was still that way.

Spoiler for V6::

Sagara just use the fact that Kemari was a royal sport that can only be played by people with certain social status and the fact it was basically soccer. He introduced the concept of scoring and goal keeping and call it Nanban (Barbarian) Kemari so the girls in Ho-Neko-Ji has something to do instead of wanting to go all Ikko-Ikki all over the place. So this way peasant can play Kemari that wasn't actually Kemari.

Rather than soccer/football, wouldn't it be fitting to call it "juggling" at first?

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by NoirX

Rather than soccer/football, wouldn't it be fitting to call it "juggling" at first?

I think I would call it hot potato or something like that, juggling require a lot more objects to juggle.

[NoirX]

Originally Posted by ReaperxKingx

I think I would call it hot potato or something like that, juggling require a lot more objects to juggle.

Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects.

The term juggling itself can apply to either one object or many, so it doesn't really matter if there is only one mari it's still called juggling term-wise.

[Undertaker]

The problem with juggling analogy is the no-hand rule in Kemari and the object used is a round ball and not some random object.


As such, IMO, it is still closer to soccer than your typical juggling which don't have the no-hand rule and is not of entertainment/showing purpose.

Keep in mind that passing of the ball is also part of Kemari and it is a multi-players sport. And while Kemari in Japan didn't evolve to have a score keeping, in China, where Kemari is from did ended up with some sort of team competition with score-keeping and goal keeper during the Tang Dynasty (around 600-900AD) before that version (Cu-ju/Tsu' Chu) disappeared by 1700s.

BTW, Cu-ju(or Tsu' Chu, depending on romanization) is acknowledged by FIFA as a form of ancient soccer/football even in it's earliest form during Han Dynasty in 3rd centry B.C. Since Kemari is a direct descendant of that, by association, it wasn't a bad comparison to say the Kemari is a form of soccer minus the scoring concept.

FIFA's History of Football webpage:

http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/...torygame1.html



But I do agree with the Hot-Potato analogy, even though Kemari involves more skill and athletic ability than that simple game.

[churchblue]

Juubei's love confusion for Sagara will lead to the Honnō-ji incident in the LN, right?

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by churchblue

Juubei's love confusion for Sagara will lead to the Honnō-ji incident in the LN, right?

Too early to say, but yeah i think many of us here think that. This has taken the word Love Triangle to a new level, because usually a typical love triangle doesn't involve literally killing your rival.

Though we are getting ahead of ourselves, I think there will be a couple of more volumes before Honnō-ji occurs. Right now we are at Matsunaga Hisahide at vol 9.

[Undertaker]

Originally Posted by ReaperxKingx

Thanks for the information, I learnt some interesting stuff. Also, Akechi seems like she would fit in a royal court or something plus her eyes and hair color is purple which means royalty.

Yeah, Akechi Clan is a branch family from the Toki Clan who is of Minamoto (Genji) descend. So Mitsuhide himself very well manner and under Nobunaga, also acts as the primary contact between Oda and the royal court. Simply put all the Daimyo at time were technically part of royal family, but compare to Oda, Akechi clan is much closer in blood therefor are more prestige as they are direct branch from Toki, above that would be the smaller controlling clans like Takeda, Date, while clans like Toki, Imagawa, Hojo, Uesugi, Asakura and Oda's controlling clan Shiba Clan are even a tier above that.

Originally Posted by ReaperxKingx

Too early to say, but yeah i think many of us here think that. This has taken the word Love Triangle to a new level, because usually a typical love triangle doesn't involve literally killing your rival.

Though we are getting ahead of ourselves, I think there will be a couple of more volumes before Honnō-ji occurs. Right now we are at Matsunaga Hisahide at vol 9.

Yeah, with Shingen and Kenshin both still alive not to mention Hojo and Mori, and even Date. There are still tons of stuff here that is throwing bunch of curveballs to the history that we know. Especially, with Takeda clan, because we still have not get to Battle of Nagashino that lead to Takeda's slow decline.

And we still don't know if clans like Tachibana, Shimada, or Chosokabe will appear or not.

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

Yeah, Akechi Clan is a branch family from the Toki Clan who is of Minamoto (Genji) descend. So Mitsuhide himself very well manner and under Nobunaga, also acts as the primary contact between Oda and the royal court. Simply put all the Daimyo at time were technically part of royal family, but compare to Oda, Akechi clan is much closer in blood therefor are more prestige as they are direct branch from Toki, above that would be the smaller controlling clans like Takeda, Date, while clans like Toki, Imagawa, Hojo, Uesugi, Asakura and Oda's controlling clan Shiba Clan are even a tier above that.



Yeah, with Shingen and Kenshin both still alive not to mention about Hojo and Mori, and then we still Date. There are still tons of stuff here. Especially, with Takeda clan, because we still have not get to Battle of Nagashino that lead to Takeda's slow decline.

And we still don't know if clans like Tachibana, Shimada, or Chosokabe will appear or not.

Yeah there are plenty to explore, all the Daimyo are interesting characters.

[Sumeragi]

I'll be writing a short special on Juubei within a few days. She's probably the most interesting character among the Oda faction.

[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I'll be writing a short special on Juubei within a few days. She's probably the most interesting character among the Oda faction.

I bet she is, she is one of the few female characters that is dense about her feelings. Ranking her in the Ichika Orimura dense scale, I say she is a 4 out of 10 I think.

[Syokool]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I'll be writing a short special on Juubei within a few days. She's probably the most interesting character among the Oda faction.

Actually, for some odd reason, I like her the most, over the other females

[Mechatrill]

Okay, volume 6, let's go.

Spoiler:

To start with, we see Yoshiharu surrounded by a harem of cat-girl maids. To make things even stranger, he's not very happy about it at all. So, let's go to flashback mode and see how this all happened.

Let's start with some background first. Remember that Christmas ceasefire last chapter? Well, although they stipulated that it'll start and last for Christmas day, they never stipulated an end time for it. Plus, with Masamune attacking Shingen's territory, and Nobuna wanting to finish off Azai-Asakura first, it's still in place. On Shingen, we see her allying with Hojo to stand against Masamune Date's new aggression. The two do not seem to get along (Shingen making fun of Hojo's flat chest). None of this is all that important yet though, so let's go back to the main characters.

On to our heroes and their campaign against Azai-Asakura, the enemy forces are currently holed up in Odani Castle. Yoshiharu's forces are currently responsible for the siege (really, they're just making sure the enemy doesn't escape, not trying to attack at all), which Hanbei's basically taking care of using her stone sentinel maze.

One day in the siege, Nobuna came over to visit. As soon as the two of them were alone in the tent, Nobuna activates her dere mode and the two share a moment. Just as they were about to kiss though, they get interupted by Juubei. Yes, she somehow followed Nobuna over. Although she's really dense when it comes to relationships, since she herself is in love with Yoshiharu (even though she doesn't even realize it herself), she's still instinctively sensitive to the atmosphere between the two and tries to get between them even though she's not sure why she's doing it.

Juubei does have an excuse though: that castle Nobuna had her construct is done (vol 4, mentioned in vol 5 as her and Yoshiharu's new "love nest"). While there, Juubei continues where she left off last volume and goes on and on about the "love nest" and her and Yoshiharu's marriage. She even reasons it out when Yoshiharu tries to object: Yoshiharu's only flaw is that he's a pervert, and that can be taken care of by getting someone to marry him. From her research, Hanbei/Nene are too young, Katsue would kill him, and Niwa said that Yoshiharu already likes someone. That someone obviously had to be Juubei, since Nobuna's obviously out due to the status difference, so they should get married there and then. Sagara and Nobuna can't refute her either, since the two has to keep their relationship a secret, so to prevent the marriage, Nobuna desperately pulls out a delaying tactic, "a little castle like this is nowhere near good enough for two of my top retainers, if you're to get married, it needs to be something at least as good as the Azuchi Castle" (which she's currently constructing in the western style). Juubei accepts the reasoning, but wants to see Azuchi Castle so she'd be able to compare.

I'll skip the bit on how they want to construct Azuchi Castle and get on with the plot: News came in, the cat cult is rebelling and declared that they'll take down Nobuna. This is due to the Corrupt Official (remember him from vol 3) spread news that Nobuna wants to burn down the cat temple (blatant lies). A rebellion from the popular cat cult will be very problematic though, so Yoshiharu and Frois leaves to try to convince them of the truth.

Yoshiharu and Frois goes to meet a contact of theirs for information on the cat cult, and were introduced to an expert: Sen no Rikyu, tea ceremony master and alchemist (she can transmute gold from her tea. Only a spec of it, but still...). She gives them some information. To get into the temple and see the head of the cult, they need to prove themselves to be "interesting", and by that, it means they need to come up with a Manzai routine that can make the cat cult people laugh. After a number of false starts, they end with a sure-fire routine where Yoshiharu acts perverted and Frois smacks him with a paper fan in retaliation.

They manage to get into the temple eventually, and here we meet the head of the cult and Suzuki Magoichi (her big feature is her butt, and she's mighty proud of it). After some negotiations, Yoshiharu manages to get across the fact that the rumor that Nobuna wants to burn down the temple is a lie. Still, that doesn't solve everything, the temple has a ton of gunners, and they're getting itchy to show their might. Yoshiharu ended up mentioning the Olympics in the future, where different factions compete in sports to show their might without too much intentional violence. Yoshiharu goes through sports (baseball for one) until he arrives at soccer (football for the rest of the world that's not the US). He's apparently very good at it, and for that and teaching the cat cult, they basically proclaimed him as the god of soccer and intends to keep him at the temple. Frois joins them (she is somehow convinced that Yoshiharu is a saint or manifestation of God and falls for Yoshiharu, I think?).

They gave a pretty sweet deal for keeping Yoshiharu too: they won't fight Nobuna, and with their good relationship with Shingen, they'll also get her to make peace with Nobuna too. Yoshiharu understands that it will really help Nobuna, and even through he wants to return, he decides to agree with it. Also, he knows that Nobuna won't want to let him go, so he makes Frois take back a message that makes him sound like a perverted jerk to make her give up in disgust (I'm going to be a harem king!).

Yeah, that message did not work the way Yoshiharu thought it would. In fact, it backfired. Nobuna and Juubei went nuts at the news and went to attack the cat temple to take back Yoshiharu, punish him, and burn down the temple. Frois (or someone else maybe, I forget) managed to get Nobuna to calm down and try to do thing peacefully, and Hanbei comes up with a plan (and what a plan it was)...

To get Yoshiharu to come out, Nobuna and all the other females of Oda dressed up as catgirl maids and begged him to return from outside the temple walls "please come home nya" and so on... I personally found Niwa's reactions the most interesting here "I, I just can't say it, 15 points, nya" and "It's over, my reputation's ruined now. 0 points, nya"... In the end, the cat cult decides to let the Oda forces try the Manzai challenge. If a routine could make all of them laugh, they'll let the Oda forces in peacefully.

In the end, Magoichi was the biggest obstacle, who consistently rejected one act after another, until finally, Nobuna and Frois stepped up and ended with a routine where Frois made fun of Nobuna's chest (I think?). Thus, Nobuna enters the temple. There Yoshiharu finally admits what he was trying to do and that he really would rather return with Nobuna instead of staying with the cat cult. At that point, Nobuna and the cat cult head(s) did some debating, and they finally settled on settling the whole issue of Yoshiharu via a soccer match.

In the match, the Oda side (plus Yoshiharu as goalie) is kind of a mess... Nobuna and Juubei just could not cooperate, Katsue got red carded when she kicked a ball so hard that it exploded, and Ieyasu is so physically inept that she couldn't do much of anything. Magoichi was also so tough that Nobuna had to send three of the team to block her just to survive. Yoshiharu as goalie was all that saved them, since he tuned his dodging senses to detect where the ball would fly, and used that to save one ball after another, getting hit repeatedly and was injured over and over.

Finally, the cat cult side managed to score a goal using a distraction, and just as the Oda side was sinking into despair, Imagawa Yoshimoto shows up, joins the game, and with one kick sends the ball over everyone's head and into the goal. Before she could to anything else though, she trips on her junihitoe and had to be carted off the field. Even though that tied up the game again, the Oda side was still in trouble since there was the rule that in the event of a tie, the winner is the host, aka, the cat cult side. Finally, Juubei brings the ball all the way over to the other side, but was blocked with no one to pass to (she advanced to quickly). However, there was still Ieyasu, who's still gasping for breath over there (no one noticed her). Juubei tries to pass the ball to Ieyasu, but Ieyasu's physical ineptitude is still acting up, and rather than receiving the ball, she instead receives it in the face, which knocks her glasses off. While Yoshiharu is desperately trying to get to the ball before the game ends, a miracle happens.

Ieyasu, with her tanuki-like appearance, was blindly feeling the ground, going "glasses, glasses". The sight of it was so hilarious that all the cat cult people fell to the ground laughing, giving Yoshiharu a chance to get to the ball and score a goal just before the end of the game (coincidentally, the MVP of the game was declared to be Ieyasu). Nobuna and Yoshiharu embrace in happiness at the victory and being able to stay together (thankfully, everyone else just thought that Nobuna was happy over winning and didn't over think it). The cat cult accepts their loss gracefully (glasses tanuki just too funny), but they do set up an agreement to have another tournament next year.

Back to the war, the Oda generals are in a meeting on what to do about Shingen. Hanbei puts out a plan: they could help Shingen with Masamune and get her to agree to peace with Nobuna in return or they can ally with Uesugi to check Takeda. Either way though, they should definitely send Yoshiharu for the negotiation. Massive objections ensue "If we send him he'll definitely get captured by girls again", so Hanbei adds an amendment and closes her strategy: "In that case, let's send Nobuna with him".

After the strategy meeting, Juubei confronts Yoshiharu with what happened at the end of the soccer match (him and Nobuna embracing). With tears leaking down her face, she asks Yoshiharu if the one he likes is Nobuna.

And the volume ends right there. Holy emotional cliffhangers, Batman!

And that's all for summaries. The Chinese translation of Vol 7 is nowhere near done, and I have no idea if it's even ongoing. Vol 8 and on haven't even started, so I doubt they'll be done anytime soon. Thus, this is the last summary out of me that you'll be seeing for a while...