Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom or any sort of related media. I simply wrote this as a venting way for my weeaboo tendencies.

Prologue: Thoughts

The morning of the Third day of the Chu invasion, the sky seemed clear at first but further inspection would reveal the looming clouds. Xin feared it. He feared the clouds. He feared the rain. But most of all, He feared this day. It's been twenty days since his appointment as the Commanding general of the Chu invasion force, an army 200,000 man strong. He'd insisted on Zheng to give him command of the army, promising him that he'd take over Chu with only 200,000 men. Zheng seemed reluctant to give him command. He had a right to. This was the greatest step to end the campaign to unify all of China, the campaign that Xin put his heart and soul into for the past fourteen years. He was afraid of disappointing the people around him. He was afraid that he'd be thought of as too rash for taking only 200,000 soldiers to fight the mighty state of Chu. He wouldn't blame anyone to think of him as that. In fact, He himself was starting to see that this was a mistake. A mistake that would be forever engraved in the annals of history as Xin's greatest failure as a great general, as a soldier, as friend, as a husband and as a man.

He was already a great general by the time he reached the age of thirty three, but that did not please him. The only reason he was promoted to such rank was because of his participation in the Yan campaign. He felt undeserving of the rank he was bestowed. He promised Lian Po that he'd race past all of the past generals by unifying China. The fact that he was promoted before he could do that was gnawing at him. He thought that he'd be content with just the rank of great general. It seems he was wrong and morning never passed for the past three years without being reminded of that fact.

He missed his family. He missed Lei. He missed Diao, his eldest. He missed Piao, his youngest. He wondered if he'd be able to make it home in time for the birth of his third child. He pondered if he should just leave everything and go live the rest of his life in peace. He'd already saved up a considerable amount of money and he was well-acquainted with farming and woodcraft thanks to the war-restoration operations he'd be forced to do in the past. Maybe he could convince Lei to desert with him. He could pass the rest of his days as a simple farmer, living with his wife and three children in a simple remote hut. These thoughts were always there. They were there whenever he woke up. They were there whenever he put his head down. They were there during his and Lei's lovemaking. And they were there whenever he killed a man. He dreaded and yearned for them, wondering if general Wang Qi, Teng and Meng Ao ever thought the same.

"Let us go, men" He called to his vice-generals "Today we lay siege and tomorrow we take the fort"

Grunts of approval were heard and Xin proceeded to mount his horse, Wang Qi's glaive and Piao's sword carefully set on the horse's sides. What would you have done if you were here, Lei? I bet you'd have made a plan to take the fort by noon. Thoughts of his dearest Lei always made Xin happy whenever and wherever he was. He rarely was happy nowadays. His smile was as rare as the eclipse and his laugh was ever so rarer. When has he become this dull? Perhaps it was the weight of this campaign setting on him.

The horse moved slowly. He was the commander and he was required to boost the morale of his men, especially on the first siege of the war. The army mostly consisted of proper soldiers, those could take care of themselves and they held high morale at all times especially the ones of his personal army, but there were also conscripts, simple farmers and craftsmen forced to go to war. Those were the ones that truly needed his presence.

He felt odd every time he went up in front of the soldiers for his battle speech. Some of them were tens of years his seniors while others were over twenty years his juniors, almost old enough to be his sons had he and Lei married a few years earlier.

"Men of Qin" his voice boomed "It has been over fourteen years since the quest to unify China began. Some of you might have been but toddlers grasping for your mothers' breasts at that time but today. Today you are men fighting for Qin. Today you are fighting for China. Today you are fighting for the future of your children and their children. Qin shall unite China under the rule of our King and the world shall know our might" He took a deep breath. His calm yet loud voice still echoing in the plains.

"GENERAL XIN! GENERAL XIN! GENERAL XIN!" the soldiers started shouting with weapons raised to the sky.

Good. They seem to be in high morale. Thought Xin with a faint smile on his lips. He motioned for the commanders to set the men and ready them for the siege while he went back to the command tent. Perhaps we have some hope after all.

The siege went well on the first day. It seemed that the one commanding the fort is just a 5000-man commander and the fort only had 14,000 soldiers stationed in it. Xin even dressed as a simple soldier and went to fight on the eastern wall. The effect of his presence was evident as the eastern wall's assault was the most successful out of rest. It was probably because I was wearing normal militia attire that we had such success despite the eastern wall's force largely consisting of conscripts and militia. He thought as he plopped down on one of the cushions in the command tent. His vice-commanders and generals were all present and most of them wore smiles on their faces because of the successful first day.

"Great general, since the eastern wall was the most successful today, tomorrow we should focus on the western wall. The enemy probably thinks that we will focus our assault on the eastern so we'd surprise them by having some of the northern and southern walls' archers stationed there and one fifth of the eastern wall's foot soldiers posted on the west" one of the vice-generals spoke calmly. His proposal did make sense and they were planning to take this fort in two days time.

We could take it in a single day…..But I'd rather delay the progress of the invasion as much as possible. He remembered his men's protests to the idea, saying that they should go faster, but Xin knew better than that. He'd rather not delve into Chu territory too hastily; otherwise, something similar to what happened to Meng Ao twenty years ago could unfold. He would be separated from Qin and surrounded by enemies if he were to do as his men said. No fort can hold 200,000 men. At least none that were less than ten days walk. In short, this was a matter of the life and death of thousands of Qin soldiers.

"No, we should focus on either the northern or the southern walls. Those walls have the city's gates. Opening the gates should allow swifter taking of the fort" another of his vice-generals called.

Those two are disagreeing at every turn. Makes sense since they're half brothers. A bored expression took over Xin's face. Let's see. What should we go for? The western wall that contains the element of surprise or the northern that holds the key to a faster victory?

"We'll go for the northern wall tomorrow. Attacking the western wall would force our men to fight for additional hours and I'd like to not exhaust our men more than that."

"Understood" The vice-generals said in unison. Despite their differences and arguments, the two of them were the best of friends and they always followed Xin's orders to the letter.

"Well, Now that we agreed on tomorrow's plan, this meeting is over. Good work today, everyone." As soon as he finished his sentence a soldier appeared at the entrance of the tent.

"Excuse me, great general" he bowed his head and held a piece of paper out to Xin "This letter was entrusted to me by general Li Lei"

As soon as he mentioned the name of his wife, Xin practically leapt at the letter, shredding the thin bamboo casing before addressing the man "When did she give this to you?" he inquired, his impatience evident.

"S-She didn't personally give it to me, sir. I-It was given to me four days ago by her handmaid, saying that it was for your eyes only" the messenger spoke nervously.

Didn't hand it personally? Did something happen? Could it be…? "I'll take my leave now. I'll be at my tent. Do not disturb me even if the enemy attacked." Xin spoke murderously. It was only logical that he would. General Li Lei was Great general Xin's wife and mother to his two children. She took a leave to their private residence a few of months ago and rumor has it that she's pregnant with his third child.

Xin walked into his tent, throwing his cape and helmet at the entrance. He was worried about Lei. She's supposed to go into labor around this time. Perhaps she already did. He was worried that something might have happened to her. He saw many women die during birth. Granted those women were mostly war refugees but that didn't help with his paranoia. He first felt this during the birth of his eldest, Diao. He couldn't shake this fear, this fear of losing Lei. He'd feel far less remorse if the child died. I'm a terrible father, aren't I? He understood that his thoughts will take him nowhere sohe started reading the letter…..

Tears started flowing down his cheeks. He desperately tried stop them, but all his efforts were for naught. What would the men say if they saw their general crying while grinning like an idiot? The letter had three words only. How could mere three words do this to him? He did not know.

Come back safe

was all that was written. on the other side of the paper was a simple drawing of a smiling woman holding a small child. Perhaps, he was straining himself too much the past few days. Thank you, lei. Was all he could think of. This dependency on Lei that he developed felt strange. He didn't know exactly when he had developed it, but he did. The hot-blooded beast suddenly became docile. If he could give a rough estimate of when, he'd say that it was around the time he became general. Lei, who were promoted only a few months after, followed him like a shadow. They were never more than four meters apart, whether on the battlefield or not. He never did reprimand her for that because he knew. He knew what kind of mark being a general put on his head, what his enemies would do to have his head. He knew all too well because he did the same thing to Qing She, When the Hi Xin unit practically threw themselves into a raging inferno in order to take his head. Xin carefully tucked the letter in the Duke's shield and lied down on his bed with renowned resolve for tomorrow's battle, thinking he'd have dreams of what he'd do when he finally returns home.

Author's notes:
Hello, everyone (although I doubt anyone would read this considering the fact that Kingdom's fandom is small). I'm living-under-a-brick or you could simply call me Brick. I've already written many stories, but this is my first entry as a writer in . The stories I've written up till now were based upon Adventure time, Oregairu, Teen Titans, and as you can see here, Kingdom. I've started reading Kingdom a few months. The story felt gripping and the battles were some of best that I've had the pleasure of reading in a manga or in any form of entertainment media, But what gripped me the most was the Shin and Kyoukai dynamic. Yes, I know. "but why are you using the Chinese pronunciation then? Well, the answer is quite simple. The Tiger is actually my take on the true historical war against the Chu state. Since I'm not a very historian type of person, I resorted to our Nigh-omniscient lord, Wikipedia. On Wikipedia, the names were, however, in Chinese. I expected such so I chose to write the story using the original Chinese naming so here goes:
Li Xin: our dear beloved main character, Shin. I'm not quite sure if Li is simply his family name or if it's a name used by orphans, but even so I choose it as a family name.
Li Lei: Formerly Qiang Lei, AKA Kyou Kai. Well this was to be expected so I guess I shouldn't talk much about it. Fun fact; Chinese women used to take their husband's family names up to a few years ago. So…yeah. Li Lei FTW :P
Meng Ao: the esteemed general, Mougou.
Wang Qi: The monstrous bird of Qin, Great general Ou Ki.
Qing She: The spider general, Kei Sha.
Teng: It's pretty obvious who this is, but whatever. Tou, the Tou-est man that never was.
Lian Po: The great suck- I mean general, Ren Pa.
Other character names shall be given when those characters are introduced into this story.
Please note that most characters would remain unnamed. This story is mostly set around Shin's rise and what could have happened to him during and after the Chu invasion. Feel free to leave a review. All reviews would be read and taken into account in future chapters.