Smoke is rising from the castle called Kokokuji Castle in the early evening sky and flames flicker from the damaged areas of the stone walls around the two-story castle. The main castle stronghold in the east of Sunpu province that is controlled by the Imagawa. If this castle falls it will have a direct route along the Tokaido coastal road to Sunpu castle in the west which is the Imagawa home castle and if that castle falls the Imagawa power is defeated and Takeda clan will now be the new power in Sunpu province. Kokokuji castle has been under siege for two weeks and still stubbornly has resisted Ryuzen efforts to take the stronghold. Along with Ryuzen 500 men an additional 5,000 men from Shingen Takeda were sent to aid him in taking the castle. The castle has been completely surrounded and efforts to aid and resupply the enemy in the castle have been stopped. Thanks to Ryuzen's Iga shinobi spies they know the castle is running low on food and is matter of time before starvation begins to start taking a toll on the poor souls in the castle. Yet repeated attempts to attack the castle have failed and Ryuzen has not used fate this time because he knows he has to wait them out and will not use it as a crutch like he did on the border fortress he took a month earlier. Ryuzen resolved to use cunning and strategy for the rest of the campaign unless he had absolutely no choice but to use his power again. He resolved to respect fate and not carelessly use it like Melanios does like a child playing with a toy. So far it has worked well with Enkai at his side he managed to take the remaining three Imagawa fortresses with no issue at all and now the final stronghold just remained before they can finally march on the Imagawa home castle. Once this castle is taken Shingen Takeda and his additional 6,000 men in Kai will join with Ryuzen forces for a combined army of 11,000 men and will then march on Sunpu castle. As Ryuzen stared from his tent at the castle he thought I just need to wait for starvation to do its job as they should be running out food in the next few days. However, Ryuzen did order that the artillery fire at the castle at random times of the night and day to keep the enemy from trying to rest. Enkai suggesting that the lack of rest and fear would also be a factor in forcing the enemy into surrender. Yet despite Ryzuen hatred of the Imagawa clan for trying to aid Melanios in his attempt to abduct Isabel and inadvertently being associated with the death of his father, he held a grudging respect for them in trying to resist this invasion of their homeland and still trying to fight the Tokugawa in Totomi province also. However, Ryuzen was glad to be rid of them soon and hopefully the brat of the Imagawa the annoying Ujizane Imagawa would be finished and unable to harass Ryuzen and his family anymore and he could from now on concentrate more on defeating the Hojo in the east.

  Just as Ryuzen went back into his tent to rest a horsemen came riding into his camp at breakneck speed and only just stopped in front of Ryuzen tent. Ryuzen recognized him instantly as one of his men from his clan assigned to guard the estate and his family. Ryuzen heart instantly started pounding in fear of his wife and son, the samurai dismounted and then stood in front of Ryuzen and bowed standing and pulled from his satchel a letter. Ryuzen then directed the rider to rest for the night and then return to the estate in the morning. The rider bowed in acknowledgement of his lord's command and then left Ryuzen alone in his tent with the letter. Ryuzen hand trembled slightly at what ill news might he read about his wife and son. Ryuzen never cared if he lived or died and accepted that as a warrior death could come at any moment even if he controlled fate, it does not mean it could save him every time, however since he is now a family man with a wife and child he must protect, he has been more cautious in his moves and being extra vigilant in ensuring there safety but even then he still agonized being away from them and not being there in person to protect them and must rely on others to do the job. Ryuzen opened the letter and it was from Isabell which read, "My dearest love I have missed you so much since you have left on your campaign against the Imagawa and have prayed to God for your safe return, your son is growing bigger every day and I love his beautiful blue eyes that stare at me and fill me with such joy to see him smile at me and I look forward to the day when I will see you be able to hold our son in your arms again. However, pleasantries and affection aside I have sent this letter to warn you of a fragment of a dream I had this very night about you. I pray you will heed this warning and take whatever necessary steps to ensure you come back home to me soon, In the fragment I saw you are sitting in your tent sitting on a chair at your desk and from a dark corner of your tent I see Melanios emerge from the shadows with a dagger come up behind you ready to stab you and then the dream ends. I then woke up desperately afraid thinking that I was already seeing your demise and when I finally calmed down, I sent for a messenger and gave him this letter to warn you. This fate I saw is not set in stone and I urge to take precaution for your safety, I believe having a little time to dwell on the dream that it may not be Melanios himself but a proxy from the shadows ordered by Melanios and most likely the assassin may be a shinobi or a traitor who will reveal themselves and will attempt to kill you. Which I urge with all haste prepare for such a strike as much as possible and be on guard. With all my love and affection Isabel"

  Ryuzen having just read the letter out of instinct turned around in his tent to make sure no one was there and realized no one was there then, he then quickly wrote two sperate notes and called for a trusted servant to deliver the first note to the messenger that just handed him Isabell letter and then ordered the second note be sent to Enkai in his tent with all haste. As Ryuzen sat on his bed and contemplated what he read from Isabel note and realized that a shinobi would make sense as Melanios had sent one before and his circle of trusted advisors and friends was really just Enkai, Gensei, Katsuyori son of Shingen Takeda. Both of his advisers had plenty of opportunities to kill him at home at the mansion and would have been easy to do so compared to being in camp under constant guard, Katsuyori being the son of the daimyo would not need do it from the shadows either as he had more men than Ryuzen and could easily overpower Ryuzen in a simple battle. So, shinobi were the most logical conclusion to this mystery, then Enkai entered the tent. "My lord I came as fast as I could what has happened? Has something happened at the enemy castle?" "No Enkai it has nothing to do with the castle; I have received intelligence from a trusted source that my enemies will attempt an assassination on my life soon with shinobi who will infiltrate the camp and enter my tent to kill me and this is supposed to happen soon" "If I may lord who is the source that gave you this information?" "I prefer not to reveal my source as it would endanger them, and I am not willing to risk such a valuable source" "I understand lord a leader must sometimes compartmentalized his pieces to achieve his set goal. How can I be of service to you?" "I wish to set a trap for this would be assassin would like your input on how we might be able to stop this assassin" Enkai was thinking for a minute for he they could draw in this killer, and then he smiled and said, "We use bait to draw them in but not so obvious that they would suspect a trap but to tempting that could not miss the opportunity to try" Then Enkai laid out the trap of how they will entice the ninja to strike and how Ryuzen will participate as bait in the trap.

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  Three nights later around 12am as Ryuzen artillery was firing at the castle causing noise and chaos. With most of the camp attention directed at watching the artillery strike on the castle a camp cook noticed how most of the guards and soldiers were at the front lines watching and from his kitchen tent washing dishes he could see just two guards in front of the general's tent. The cook was twenty-two years and had served the Kuroda clan for less than three months and he was short in stature with short stubby legs and round face with stubby facial hair around his cheeks but still from years of training had built him into one of the most successful ninjas in eastern Japan. He was born in the Kanto region of Japan under control by the Hojo and was the son and apprentice of a cook under his father in his childhood and had learned how to cook well but his parents died when he was young and orphaned him at the age of 12 had been recruited by the Fuma ninja clan to train to be a shinobi under the service of the Hojo clan. He was trained to infiltrate enemy castles and camps as an unassuming cook and would work himself into the castle hired as a cook. He would then watch and study his target and learn his routines and wait for an opportunity to strike. Over the course of 6 years, he had successfully killed nine leaders in service to his clan. Mostly by poison but he had occasionally used knives to get the job done. He was personally told by Kotaro Fuma that he was ordered to kill Ryuzen Kuroda, although he thought he was doing it in service to the Hojo clan in actuality he was being used as a proxy by Melanios to kill Ryuzen in the hopes it would slow down or even stop the Takeda clan from continuing its march against the Imagawa clan. Melanios was desperate to stop them as he was still building his power in the west and could not directly engage Ryuzen yet but had hoped somehow this gambit might work and he could keep his most powerful disciple in the east alive to fight another day. He had been noticing for the last three days that every time the artillery would commence its bombardment the soldiers would gather to watch the show. The bombardment had become so routine that the general at night would go to sleep, and everyone would watch except for two guards. As he was left alone in the kitchen tent to finish the dishes as the other cooks also had gone to bed and the ninja decided this was the time to strike. He removed from under his washing bucket a small poison dagger that had been hidden there and pulled it out and concealed it under his sleeve in his shirt and then slipped out the back of the tent. The camp was mostly dark accept a few torches placed in various places around the camp, plus it was a moonless night which added to it being much darker. The cook moved quickly and silently past three tents that went behind the general's tents entrance where the two guards were standing. The sound of the artillery firing helped conceal his movements perfectly, he finally reached the back of the tent and began to cut a small hole in the tent to allow him to crawl through. Once he cut the hole big enough, he crawled carefully inside the tent and stood up crouching in the tent, the only illumination in the tent came from the occasional blast of light from the artillery outside and the fires glowing from the castle. He could see a bed in the far-right corner of the tent and with the general soundly asleep under a blanket and carefully made his way toward the bed. Once in position next to the bed he carefully stood up and pulled his poison dagger out and raised it to stab the general in his sleep. Then with quick stab downward he aimed for the chest and repeatedly stabbed into his victim. Then he felt a pain in his stomach and looked down to see a ninja come under the bed holding a short sword and his sword was lodged in his belly. The ninja was Hanzo and he pulled the sword out and the enemy shinobi dropped his dagger and fell to the floor bleeding heavily and in much agony and pain. Then Hanzo got out from under the bed and walked to the entrance and the two guards came inside with a torch to look at the assassin and one of them with a covered mask removes it to reveal Ryuzen and the other guard was Hanbei. Earlier that evening the cook had seen Ryuzen enter the tent like before, but a guard covered in a guard mask had also followed in him also and emerged 10 minutes later. The cook assumed he was giving the guard orders and then dismissed him for the night. Enkai had planned for his shinobi to switch outfits with Hanzo and Ryuzen and Ryuzen would be outside guarding his own tent and Hanzo would be concealed under the bed in the darkness awaiting the assassin to try and for three days nothing happened. They were about to give up and come up with another plan but decided on one last chance to try again. This time they were successful in thwarting the enemy ninja. Ryuzen observed the dying man and thought it was a simple cook disguised the whole time and that he was watching and waiting all this time only to fail. Pity really, luckily the ninja could not anticipate that fate had already worked against him and was already doomed to fail before ever starting. Ryuzen thanked and rewarded Enkai, Hanbei, and Hanzo for their service and Ryuzen wrote a quick letter to his wife explaining they had successfully stopped the assassin and sent it right away so she would not have worry anymore. Then Ryuzen laid on his bed and finally fell asleep quickly for a much-deserved rest.

  Another three days passed by, and the castle finally surrendered to Ryuzen but he had two conditions that would be met first before he would spare the remaining soldiers in the castle. First the remaining three hundred samurai would swear loyalty to the Takeda clan and join Ryuzen's clan, secondly the enemy commander would be forced to commit seppuku outside its walls as an act of submission and surrender to the Takeda clan. At sunset a short samurai dressed in white robes who was in his fifties with a face hardened by a lifetime of war armed with only a simple short sword walks outside the gates with attendant armed with a katana. He then kneels just outside the castle in front of his men in the castle and Ryuzen and his army looking from the front lines. He then places a carefully written piece of paper to his side which is his death poem, then the attendant behind him pulls out his katana and waits for what will come next. The old samurai carefully removes the top part his robes exposing his belly and upper body. He then takes one final look up at the sky and without hesitation pulls out his short sword from its scabbard and with both hands plunges his weapon into his belly and begins to cut across his midsection exposing is entrails and he is in extreme pain and the attendant quickly decapitates his general to relieve him of his suffering and with one swoop his head falls off to the ground. With the deed done Ryuzen and his men bow in respect to the fallen general and the men on the wall from the castle do the same to honor the general's bravery and sacrifice.

  The way to Sunpu castle is now opene and Shingen Takeda has joined Ryuzen near Kokokuji castle and with the 11,000-man army they begin their march to Sunpu castle for the final battle to take the Imagawa home castle and finally end this campaign to ensure Takeda dominance and power. The large contingent of cavalry shakes the very ground as they move out, the locals hide in fear of this giant host and pray it passes them by unnoticed. The twilight of the Imagawa is about to begin now with all the pieces in place ready to begin.