Years of 17XX, Japan,

In the middle of a plain of Yomigahara, a huge battle between Tokugawa army and Kyougoku army was taking place. The bodies of the fallen warriors were scattered on the plain along side with the broken weapons where their blood tainted the grass and changing the green plain into the red amber color. The plain was filled with silence with only the sound of the wind blowing can be heard. The cloudy sky indicates there will be a huge storm coming soon. Despite of the silence, there was a huge tension in the atmosphere building up between the two armies with their remaining forces.

At the upfront of the Kyougoku army, there was a young man with full armor standing there observing the Tokugawa army's movement. He was wielding a nodachi with katana and wakizashi* sheathed at his waist. After accessing situation, he knew his force was having a very slim chance to survive Tokugawa army's next wave of the attack. Even though they try to retreat now, there will be huge casualties as well since the enemy will land free blows when the retreat is taking place.

"Yoshitaka! Retreat! At the current situation, we need to fall back to Hinowa and regroup before we can push further!" yelled a man on a horse who is the leader of Kyougoku army, Kyougoku Hinowakami Gaoh.

"Sir, please retreat immediately! Just leave everything at here to me!" said the young man without turning his back to face the General.

"No! You will come with me! You MUST come back to Hinowa! I won't let you die meaningless at here! Yoshitaka!" shouted Gaoh trying to convince the young man to retreat together.

"If given a choice, I would like to die at my birth place Hinowa. But, if you manage to return safely to Hinowa and continue to lead the army, it will be the victory of Kyougoku clan even though I and all of the soldiers die at here. Therefore it is not meaningless. I beg you as a subordinate and as a nephew. Please retreat from this battlefield now." said the man again.

After a short silence, the general finally gave in and shouted, "Alright Yoshitaka! I will listen to you this time. But promise me! Yoshitaka! Promise me you will come back to Hinowa alive! You are not allowed to die at here! Not before we crush the Tokugawa!" After that, he left the scene along with two escorts.

Yoshitaka was standing still at the spot as the sounds of the horse galloped disappeared by the distance. He is still staring at Tokugawa's forces. He looked at the sky smirking and said, "What a noisy old man, but he was a great uncle and great commander nonetheless. It is quite an honor to fight side by side with him," He then readied his nodachi and continues. "I will miss him for sure, but it's time to do the job at hand now."

Holding up the nodachi*in his hand, he pointed it to the direction of the Tokugawa forces. With a voice that all of his army can heard, He began his speech, "Listen up every Kyougoku soldiers at here! Cock up your gun**and prepare to shoot! Draw your weapons and prepare to fight! For our time to die has arrived! Our enemy is the Red Demon of the Tokugawa army! They are the toughest and best enemy that we have faced by far! Time to throw our lives is NOW!"

"WOOOOOOOO!" shout the Kyougoku army with a very high spirit in response.

Standing at the upfront of the Tokugawa is a very intimidating man on a horse. He was wearing a red armor with a horn like Kabuto on the top of his head. His weapon of choice is the Jumonji spear* which almost 7 feet long. Known as the Red Demon because of his armor and his strength is comparable with demon in battle. Ii Hideyuki was spotting that the leader of the Kyougoku army was retreating from the battlefield. He thus came with the conclusion that his army currently is having a numerous advantage that forced the general abandon his own army to buying sometime for retreat. Feeling that this is the perfect chance to capture the general and end this war once and for all, Hideyuki decided it is the time to strike with full force

"To let them escape will be a shame for our Tokugawa army! We must crush them with our full might! Let none of them survived!" shouted Hideyuki with a voice that can be heard across the plain.

"We will halt their advance! For every second is gold! And we will fight them! For every soldier that we slain is gold!" said Yoshitaka in response.

After that, both of the leaders shouted, "Everyone! FIREEEEEEE!"

And then, all the hell breaks loose. Multiple sound of gunfire was howling across the battlefield along with the voice of the soldiers charging against each other. Many of the soldier fallen from the bullets. But none of this was stopping both of the army's advanced. Once they were in the melee range, the soldiers start to hack with each other without mercy. Many bloods were spilled with the sound of war cry and dying filling the plain.

In the middle of the battlefield, Yoshitaka was charging towards Hideyuki with both of his hand holding the nodachi supported by his shoulder. A mad grin was on his face like he is enjoying this moment. Everything that happened around him was obsolete for him now. His only focus is to bring Hideyuki's head down with a glory. A cavalry tried to stop his advance but the rider with the horse were swiftly cut down by his nodachi*.

"Woaaaaaaa!" yelled Yoshitaka as he struck down another cavalry that stood in his way.

Watching Yoshitaka managed to take down two of his cavalry and starts to closing the distance between them, Hideyuki then laughed and praised, "HA! HA! HA! That was a splendid move soldier! For the reward of your skills and bravery, I shall deal with you myself!" he then charged towards Yoshitaka's direction with his horse and tried to stab Yoshitaka with his spear. Yoshitaka saw the attack coming and manage to parry the attack.

Thus begin the deadly spar between the two warriors. A series of attack and counter attack was taking place. Then the engagement was in a deadlock because both of them were equal in term of skills and strength. Becoming more and more impressed with the skill of his opponent, Hideyuki decided to ask for his name when they were still exchanging a series of blows.

"What is your name? Soldier," asked Hideyuki with respect as he launched another strike with his enormous spear.

"Kyougoku Nakatsu Shouyuu Yoshitaka ***!" said Yoshitaka while he is parrying the attack.

"Kyougoku Yoshitaka, I will remember your name for it's been quite a long time since I met my match. But too bad this place soon will be your grave since all your forces already wiped up by now. Give me your head so I will be praised!" said Hideyuki.

"NO! You are the one that will give your head to me!" taunted Yoshitaka while trying to strike Hideyuki with his nodachi.

"Lord Hideyuki! Protect our lord!" shouted one of the soldiers. Soon the soldiers start to gather at the front of the Hideyuki and form a formation with their spear and formed a barrier of spears between Yoshitaka and Hideyuki. This had kept Yoshitaka from engaging with Hideyuki.

"Hmmm, very well." said Yoshitaka calmly. He then licked the blood in his mouth and took a deep breath. Then he released the loudest war cry that no one had ever heard before and charged towards the spear barrier. The soldier and Hideyuki were shocked by this suicidal act but manage to regain their composure and keep up their formation. As Yoshitaka closing in, he then suddenly jumped towards the barrier as multiple spears were piercing through his body. Yoshitaka's body was hanging motionless at the spears as he was already dead.

"Fool, what a fool to do that." mocked Hideyuki to Yoshitaka's foolish action just now.

"No, you are the one that been fooled. Ii Jijuu Hideyuki***!" Out from nowhere, the supposedly dead body suddenly talked. In a blink of an eye, a gun was brandished out by Yoshitaka and fired towards Hideyuki.

"Arggghhh!" that was the last word of Hideyuki before he fell down from the horse.

"My lord!" the soldier was shocked by the ambush just now and was totally threw in state of confusion. Their formation was broke and became disorganize. Yoshitaka was released on to the ground as the soldiers and office rushed to examine their leader's injuries.

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I did it! I really did it! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Now I can claim your head now! Hideyuki!" laughed Yoshitaka while struggling to stand on his feet

"Damn it! Retreat! RETREAT!" screamed one of the soldiers. With Hideyuki out from action, Tokugawa's army lost their morale. With wasting any more time, they quickly retreat from the battlefield as they bringing their unconscious leader alongside with them.

Seeing that Hideyuki is taken away, Yoshitaka tried to catch up the fleeing army but no avail because of his injury. He screamed desperately, "What? Wait! Come back here! Leave your head here Hideyuki! Are you trying to mocking me? HIDEYUUUUUKIIIIIIIII!" The scream of Yoshitaka was thundering across the horizon.

The grass plain was peaceful in contrast with the battle that happened at here previously. The rain was falling heavily, washing away the blood that stained the grass plain. Although the rain seems can cleansing everything, it still failed to washed away the stench of the dead that are still lingering in the air. A man with multiple stab wounds on his body was seen walking limply in the plain with a nodachi that acted as staff to support his injured body.

"Must…Return…. To ….Hinowa" Yoshitaka keep mumbling this line weakly. It was a miracle that he managed to make it this far with his current physical states. His strength was starting to flow away from his body as well as his blood. It was only his strong will of making his way to his homeland that made him keep going.

Suddenly, the sound of the rain abruptly disappeared. Yoshitaka then realized that he was not in the grass plain anymore. Instead he is now in a white corridor with an old man sitting with a desk reading a newspaper. Yoshitaka eyes and mouth became widened in surprised from this strange view.

"Who the hell are you? And what the hell is this place?" asked Yoshitaka to the old man.

The old man then put down the news paper and staring blankly into Yoshitaka's eyes silently. His face showed no emotion which fueled Yoshitaka's anger further.

"Hey you, do you hear me? I am asking you a question here!" Yoshitaka started to raise his voice and walked closer to the old man. "And send me back to Hinowa! I still have a battle to…Waaaaaaaaaaah!" All of the sudden, he was pulled away by an unseen force before he can finish the sentences.

The old man keeps watching Yoshitaka as he pulled away from the sight. He then continues to read his newspaper like there were nothing happened just now.

Years of unknown, Sacaen Plain,

"Waaaaaah!" screamed Yoshitaka while he is falling on to the grass plain, His wounds started worsened due to the fall and he had lost all of his strength. His consciousness also started to slip away. Thinking that this is his final moment, he started to hallucinate about his father and his comrade that died in the past.

"This is it huh? Father, I am coming to join you now. May be we can share story of the battles that I have fought. Ha, Ha, Ha!" laughed Yoshitaka as his vision is fading.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a female and a feminine figure came into his blurry sight. It appears like she is speaking something. But with his current state, he was not sure what was the women talking about.

Mustering his final strength, he whispered weakly, "So, you are the one will lead me to the netherworld huh?"

After that, everything in his world was fade into black.

Japanese Historical Term:

*All of these are weapons' name. Katana is a blade with about 60-73cm and is a basic weapon for Samurai. Nodachi is a blade that longer than Katana with the length greater than 90.9cm and used as infantry vs cavalry weapon. Jumonji spears (Yari) is a Japanese spears that have the cross-shaped blade that not only can use to pierce, but also as a slashing weapon.

**Yes Japan did use gun (Arquebus) in battle. In fact, it was one of the favourite weapons used by Oda Nobunaga who ruled the Japan before the Tokugawa.

*** In ancient samurai class especially for the noble, their full name is consisted of family name, their rank in the government and their real name. That's why you see the samurai's name is freaking long sometimes when they introduce themselves in the movie/anime/manga

Author's note:

Sorry for the long update, but recently my work have really occupied most of my time. Plus there were so many distractions from other things that held my writing even further. And YES, I decided to rewrite all of my beginning chapters after I read it again. The first and foremost change is my Tactician's name. This is because Tokichirou sounded like a kid's name instead of a samurai's name. Thus I have rename it to Yoshitaka(義孝) which sounded more like the name that would given an adult samurai. So it's officially the name is Kyougoku Yoshitaka (凶国義孝). Yay…..

Second change is the change of some sceneries and actions of the characters. I was hoping this can improve the flow of the story. Because after I read back my previous version of the stories, I was really ashamed what had I published. May be the changes won't improve my story very much. But hey, at least there was a little improvement, right?

And I really need to thanks for F-14 Tomcat Lover for went all the trouble to rewrite my 3rd chapter of this story. Your version of the story was a good reference for me to grasp what's the style that I should use to write a story. I have made some changes in your version because your characteristic of the tactician was not the one that I had in my vision in the first. Hope you won't made about it.

Finally, this rewrite will be released in all 3 chapters in one shot. Hope you guys can enjoy it while I am struggling to finish my chapter 4.