Geten no Hana (comic)

Geten no Hana (下天の華) is the comic adaptation of the eponymous game. Its narrative roughly follows Nobunaga's personal route with slight deviations and events from other romance routes. Ruby Party wrote the scenario and directed it; Yuka Kumada created and illustrated the comic.

It was originally serialized in ARIA magazine, starting with its July 2013 issue and ending in its October 2014 issue. The comic finished in fourteen chapters. Kodansha published the story into three collected volumes.

Summary
Volume 1=

Hotaru receives a mission from her village chief to meet her employer at Azuchi Castle. She knocks out the guards at one of the gates, which causes Ranmaru to alert Nobunaga. Impassive to the threat, he leisurely enjoys the evening breeze with his brother and Hideyoshi in his quarters.

When Hotaru reaches her instructed destination, she is captured by Mitsuhide. Her avian form and kunai are thwarted by the general so Hotaru tries to disarm him through her kunoichi charms. Mitsuhide returns her fabricated flirtations with his own and mocks her inexperience by squishing her cheeks together. Her transformations impresses him enough to employ her. He gives her two main assignments: to guard Nobunaga from enemy spies at night and pose as the general's younger sister for information during the day.

Next morning, Hotaru is introduced to the castle as Kikyou. Before she meets Nobunaga, Hotaru mulls on the limitations of her disguise and the importance of her acting. She earns Mitsuhide's irritation when she is too slow to respond to her princess name. Oito and the maids enter to introduce themselves to their mistress, gushing over her fake origins that Mitsuhide had spread around the castle. Hotaru responds to their chatter like a burly samurai; she realizes from the ladies' surprised reaction that she committed a fault. Oito remarks that their lady must be surprised from their rapid-fire questions to ease the tension. The maids leave with excited cheers for the Akechi siblings.

Critical of her rehearsal, Hotaru swears to be a perfect princess before Nobunaga and his entourage. They meet face to face within the outdoor walkways of the Akechi manor. The kunoichi acts the part but subconsciously drops it when she notices a frog crawling on Nobunaga's coat. She holds it in her hands and gently returns it to the garden pond. The nearby maids and the stoic Ranmaru panic at the gesture, but Nobunaga is amused. He remarks the princess must fear nothing and marks her as his wife. Her flushed face convinces Nobunaga that she is new to love and takes his pardon for the day. He welcomes his guest and invites her to visit him whenever she wishes, dragging the reluctant Hideyoshi with him. Left alone with her employer, Hotaru and the general know that their lord is joking. Mitsuhide laments her guilelessness with romance before giving her an order to seek "Idaten no Kimi", the only key person who was absent from their arranged meeting.

The next day Hotaru transforms into a frog to eavesdrop on two maids chatting in one of the castle's gardens. The ladies are chatting about Hideyoshi so the kunoichi decides to change into her maid disguise to extract information directly. Before she can leave her bushy cover, the same frog from the day before hops on top of her. She realizes he is male and frets about what to do about his advances without blowing her cover. A young man in the bushes fawns over them, scaring away the male frog. While he muses over Hotaru's docile frog form, the maids hear him and suspect him as a spy. He excuses his rudeness while he hightails from the premise. Hotaro learns from the solaced ladies that the man was "Idaten no Kimi" Ieyasu. Hotaru sleeps on her observations of his behavior to decide her approach.

Declining Oito's offer to guide her, Hotaru chooses to follows the maid's directions to Ieyasu's manor. She is loses her way in her wandering. Ranmaru finds her and mechanically guides her to her destination, commenting that he is only performing his duty. After the page leaves her, Nobunaga criticizes the pair to be too stiff.

Once he learns she came to say her greetings to Ieyasu, Nobunaga is surprised that his friend hadn't seen her yet. He barges inside the manor and shoves Hotaru straight towards Ieyasu. Following their shaky introductions, Ieyasu explains that he was tending a wounded bird and was late to the arranged meeting with the Akechi princess. He had nervously watched them from the garden and was moved by her kindness towards the frog, but Ieyasu is scared witless to voice his full appreciation for her. Nobunaga encourages Ieyasu to chat with Hotaru to overcome his fear of women, jesting that he will enjoy the competition for his wife. He inquires if preparations are done for the outdoor tea party and Hotaru asks to join. Ieyasu appreciates her consideration for nature and faces her; he becomes aware of his actions and faces away from her. Irritated by his friend's regression, Nobunaga brushes aside Ieyasu's bangs to make direct eye contact with Hotaru. The Tokugawa lord faints again.

Later, Mitsuhide informs her that Nobunaga is hosting a martial arts tournament. Hotaru asks permission to watch so she may personally gauge the Oda patrol. She shape-shifts into a man to help blend in with the crowd. After groping her chest to see if it is flat, Mitsuhide ups the stakes by having her participate under the name Shichisuke. He instructs her to win, in spite of her wishes to remain inconspicuous. Hotaru beats her opponents but meets her match against Ranmaru. Though she loses, Ranmaru is impressed with his opponent's skill and warmly welcomes her. She is surprised to see his smile for the first time and excuses herself before the next match. When Hotaru and Ranmaru meet by chance the next day, the page confesses he is looking for Shichisuke. He wanted to know the mysterious newcomer's master and offer another sparring session. She reassures him that they will meet again someday; the page is taken off guard by her caring words and pardons himself.

Before Hotaru resumes her patrol, the Oda siblings finds her. Nobunaga drags her to a tea brewing session which leads to the brothers discussing Nobunaga's dream. Hotaru had the impression that all samurai merely fought for territory and is surprised by Nobunaga's desire to do it beyond personal gain; he wants to unify Japan so as to create an entertaining land. When he inquires for Hotaru to state her dream, he is dishearten to hear she has never thought of one. He playfully flicks her forehead and challenges her to discover it during her stay at Azuchi Castle. Nobuyuki teases his brother's persistence is tiring the princess and extends an offer to entertain her. Nobunaga plays on the jest by stating that Hotaru should direct all concerns to him.

Leaving their company and contemplating Nobunaga's words, Hotaru wanders into the nearby woods to locate a secluded place for training. She drops her agenda when she spots Nobuyuki crying beside a bent spider lily. Hotaru approaches him in her princess disguise and makes the flower upright with a makeshift stake. He thanks her and reminisces about his father, asking her to keep his tears a secret. Hotaru respects his wishes yet thinks to herself that his tears are admirable.

It is late by the time Hotaru returns to the Akechi manor. Oito gifts her a letter Hideyoshi had written for her during her absence. The maidens hear the castle patrol raising a ruckus and decide to retire. Hotaru excuses Oito from her duties and transforms into a bird to investigate. Oito forgot to inform her mistress of the change in schedule for tomorrow and enters the princess's empty room. Worried that the princess may be wandering the castle while a spy is on the loose, Oito leaves the manor to look for her.

Meanwhile, the avian Hotaru visits Mitsuhide. He informs his little bird that Nobunaga was attacked by a spy and is currently resting within his personal quarters. Neglecting the rest of her master's orders, Hotaru flies there at once and morphs into her Kikyou disguise to check on his condition. Nobunaga welcomes Hotaru into his quarters to give himself a breather from a paranoid Ranmaru. When she is seated next to Nobunaga, Hotaru is dumbstruck that she came out of pure concern for his safety. As he pulls a spider lily petal from her hair, Hotaru notices the shallow cut the spy gave him on his arm. Nobunaga pins her and jests that she could poison him now. Hotaru takes the joke badly and slaps a bandage on the cut. Amused by her unpredictability and rudeness, Nobunaga rewards her with a candy he tosses into her mouth. He invites her to be more gentle if she tends to his injuries in the future.

While Nobunaga is a little miffed that his charms didn't work on her, Hotaru ruminates about the situation by herself. Her concern is genuine but unacceptable for her mission. She ponders if Nobunaga suspects her as a spy. Hideyoshi's letter rubs against her ninja scrolls and she remembers to read it. The kunoichi does her best to wipe away the incense perfuming his love letter before searching for the spy. She instead discovers Oito being accosted by a lustful man. Hotaru surmises that the maid was looking for the princess and throws a rock at the man's head to alert the nearby guards. Hotaru dashes out of sight into a nearby garden. Hideyoshi drops down from his tree perch and identifies the kunoichi as the Akechi princess.


 * -|Volume 2=


 * -|Volume 3=

Volume Extras
Each compiled volume has the following bonuses for readers:
 * 1) Front cover has alternate versions of the illuminated book cover. Hotaru changes into her kunoichi or princess form depending on the visual. Back cover includes another comic for its alternate continuity Azuchi Kindergarten.
 * 2) Additional comics for Azuchi Kindergarten after main story.
 * 3) Uncolored illustrations in between chapters.
 * 4) Creator commentary from Kumada.

The first two volumes included previews for the next volume. The second and third volumes have short Yumeakari stories.

Consumers who purchased the first volume could have accessed a website that offered voice clips for the then unreleased sequel Yumeakari. The offer expired May 31, 2014.

The second volume had a ticket giveaway for Yumeakari and a chance to win an exclusive Kumada autograph and illustration. It expired July 7, 2014. Her autograph and illustration was available again for the third volume giveaway, which combines them with a ticket file book. The deadline for this present was December 6, 2014.