He was tormented by what he saw in his sleep, tormented by what he saw even before he slept. Miryu looked at Algren the next morning as he trained the soldiers to shoot with live ammunition and found that he was more than a little hungover, but said nothing. She could not catch a wink of sleep the previous night, not when she heard him scream in his sleep… She did not know what caused it all, what he had seen, or done, for that matter, but she knew that it would not be something that she was able to comprehend. However, when she woke him up that morning, he seemed to be perfectly normal, being just a little tipsy from the amount of sake he had drunk the night before.

"We should be grateful that they are shooting in a straight line," Algren commented after the first group of soldiers had fired their first shot. Miryu chuckled, and as always he would return a quiet smile of his own. Wanting to get some results fast, he knew that it all came down in instruction. Perhaps if the soldiers were given more instruction and reinforcement, they would be able to do better. So, he selected the youngest-looking soldier and said to him, through the NCO, "Now, son, butt of the rifle into the shoulder, cheek against the stock, eye down the sight…" The young soldier listened closely to his words, and did just that. "Then slowly… slowly… squeeze…"

As if a sudden miracle had occurred, the soldier actually hit the bull's eye, certainly something that no one had expected. Offering a pat to the young one's back, Algren turned to find Miryu looking away, in the direction on Bagley, and Omura. "Nathan…" the Colonel called towards Algren, who immediately walked forward, followed closely by Miryu as Gant took over the training. As much as the Captain hated his superior, he was his superior nonetheless. Taking Algren aside, while having a close eye on Miryu (who treated him with indifference as he did her), he said, "Katsumoto has attacked a railroad at the border of his province."

This piece of information had come to Miryu in the middle of the night. Saito Hajime had personally sent the message to her in the middle of the previous night, just after Algren had slept, informing her that his agents had confirmed that Katsumoto was already moving out to attack the mentioned railroad. In her heart, she had already made up her mind that she would only attack those who attacked Algren, as Katsumoto's men where men that she had fought side by side with, men that knew her and vice versa. They were men that she could not bring herself to kill, not in ten thousand years.

"We cannot govern a country in which we cannot travel freely," Omura added. His words were of some truth, but Algren did not know that it was this man's steadfast ideas of extreme Westernization that caused Katsumoto's rebellion in the first place. He had forgotten the ways of his people, their needs to reattach themselves to the spirituality of the samurai… It was this fervor in him that made Miryu somehow lost what former respect she had for him, for he had lost all trace of respect for what he had been, all in the name of wealth and greed. "He must be stopped!"

Bagley was somewhat miffed by Algren's hesitance. He always had been so. "The rebels don't have a single rifle," he said, grimacing at the sight of Miryu's katana. Had he already suspected that she was one of the samurai as well? "They are savages with bows and arrows…" Now, if they were in a different day and age, Miryu (and Hasegawa, if he was present at the time) were obligated to behead Bagley for his complete lack of respect towards the samurai. However, they were in an age where the light of the Western civilization was regarded as Japan's only saving grace, and the commanding officer of the man who was to train the Imperial Army was to respected more than the samurai… She merely raised an eyebrow and kept her silence.

Algren, however, did not agree. "… whose sole occupation for the last thousand years has been war." His words made Omura look towards Bagley, and later, at Miryu. Who was the Captain, and who was the Colonel. And more importantly, who was the bodyguard and the charge, in which the bodyguard was supposed to hold her silence? She may have been a proud daughter of great samurai clans, but this was the new age. She, of all people, should have learnt to embrace the new, and cast out the old.

"You have superior firepower and a larger force," Bagley continued. "I am ordering a regiment against Katsumoto. Are you prepared to obey this order?"

The Captain did not answer. He just turned towards the soldier who had shot a perfect bull's eyes and told him to load his rifle. Miryu remained silent and followed him, and was little than amazed when he walked towards the targets. "Tell this man to fire at me," Algren told Graham, gesturing at the boy, cocking his revolver. The boy was reluctant, shaking his head. He would never dare shoot a superior officer! Not in front of the Prime Minister, or the Colonel and General Hasegawa! "Tell him that if he does not shoot me, I will kill him with my third round!"

Graham hurriedly translated Algren's orders to the boy, who looked more frightened by the second, especially after Algren shot a round that barely missed his ear. "What are you playing at?" Miryu whispered to him, sapphire eyes demanding an answer from him. "The boy would rather die than do what is told of him,"

"You'll see…" Algren told her, before cocking the Colt in his hand once more, shooting now at the boy's body, missing intentionally once again. Ah, it was only then when Miryu saw through his intentions. If the soldier could shoot at Algren, now a hostile target, and it would prove that the army was ready to move against the rebels. And when the boy actually fired a round at Algren, he missed completely. Walking back towards Omura and Bagley, he said to them, "They're not ready," after reassuring the young soldier.

Bagley, still adamant in his decision, did not pay any heed to Algren's words. "The regiment leaves at six AM!" he bellowed.