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Ryunosuke woke up at the feeling of the earth below him shaking, and, as he woke up, he was shocked at what he saw the Daimyo and his assistant was carrying. They were slabs of granite, each one of them enough to build a small house made of granite. The enormity of the slabs was as if a granite mountain was torn down just to create those slabs. And they just asked the soldiers to carry them, 10 soldiers for each slab? Now that was...

"Difficult at the very least," Ryunosuke muttered under his breath. Just looking at the slabs would tell him that each weighed 400 tons. Now that enormity could not be compared to his puny howitzer, which weighed only 1 ton. He was trained for speed in wielding such weapon, and what the Daimyo asked him to do was really out of his league as a marksman who moved around the battlefield quickly. But...

"I'll try," he muttered again, not promising himself that he could do it. He then selected his group from his immediate companions in the militia, and, with five people on either side of the slab, they started to carry it towards the armory. They had to synchronize their every step, since one slip meant that one would be crushed by the enormity of the slab.

"One, two, three, march!" Ryunosuke shouted beneath his breath as he directed every move of the other people in his team. By their every step, they progressed half a foot from their starting point, and their synchronization made them not suffer much strain on their bodies as they inched closer to the armory. Slowly but surely they have reached the armory, the added heaviness of the water not posing not much of a threat to them as the slab was inherently heavy to start with, and an added 50 tons was too puny to affect the 400-ton weight that they carried. After some rest and a good massage on their arms by their fellow teammates, they proceeded to the training area again. their arms somewhat reddish by the gargantuan weight that was forced upon them, but ready for another round. Ryunosuke himself took another nap before the next exercise would start.

It had been hours since Ryunosuke and the militia stood without the camp asking for entrance, but there were still no reply coming from within. The night had passed without any reply, but Ryunosuke just stood there, waiting for the response from the inside of the camp. Finally the gates of the camp opened, and, as he went inside the camp, Ryunosuke, with mixed feelings of frustration and relief, he said, laughing, "I thought you were not going to let us in! What just changed your minds?" But he had really thought at some time that the soldiers within the camp would really not let them in. There might have been too many people that the Daimyo brought with him that some of them really did want to manipulate the Daimyo's decisions and take command even over the locals of Totomi, Ryunosuke himself included. But Ryunosuke would not let that happen this time. He endeavored to be both the strongman of the Daimyo and the protector of the people of Totomi, and in that respect he dedicated his life upon. Only death would stop his aspirations. 

After some time, Ryunosuke found himself leading both rifle units, which mostly composed of the militia whose talents in gunnery exceed most of the other soldiers, hiding within the hills in the Amakusa side. He just waited there until they would strike, leaving himself under the command of the Daimyo.

EDIT: Ryunosuke's division: 2 rifle-spear units, each composed of 30 Normal soldiers (11 all stats) and 1 Exceptional soldier(23 all stats); each also enjoying faction bonuses due to wielding two-handed weapons.

Ryunosuke stared as the sorcerer flew towards the upper portion of the castle, while not completely oblivious of the charging enemy, as he would parry the katana upwards with his howitzer, and then slash him sideways. "Not fair!" he pouted, and then moved towards the other gunners who was shooting at the flying sorcerer, and the large blade of the howitzer would swing in sideways towards the gunners, hoping to finish them both in one swing. He then would move in towards the castle.

Hearing of the advances of his lord against Shima, Ryunosuke decided to accompany his lord and, with some reinforcements from the Totomi militia, moved towards the camp of the Amakusa that was encamped against Ise. Ryunosuke feared that with such a small number of the force that moved with the Daimyo, they would be defeated. At least when the reinforcements were added, they would stand a greater chance of defeating the Kitabatake. And so Ryunosuke and the militia with him were outside the Amakusa camp, asking for entrance within.

Ryunosuke was surprised when he became reinvigorated immediately, and also when a ball of pure water appeared at his front for him to drink. Whoever that new assistant of Lord Amakusa was, he surely was someone very powerful to make them feel like they were soaked in water, or make them very dehydrated. After gulping down all of the water that was at the front of him, he made himself ready for the next challenge before him.

Strapping the weights onto his ankles, Ryunosuke then tried to walk. The weights bore on him heavily, as if he was carrying the equivalent of his howitzer on each of his ankles, but as they were smaller, it felt much heavier. He struggled to walk with those weights on, and as he saw the next challenge before him, he knew it would never be a cakewalk. He just walked forward, his face wincing because of the weights, and stepped through the first two obstacles. When he reached the third obstacle he used his hands to lift him to the top of the wall, and just dropped down on the ground and walked towards the fourth, in which he used the same movements up to the fifth. When he reached the sixth wall however, he had to jump so that he could reach the top of the wall, and at the seventh he made his highest jump so that he could clear the wall. At the eighth however he had a problem: no matter how high a jump he made, he could not clear the wall. And so he resolved to using his hands to support him on the ground, and then he vaulted himself upward. It seemed that it was a success; he cleared the wall and was going towards the ninth. But it seemed that the ninth wall was too high that it could not be cleared with a single bound. Why was he born with short limbs anyway. Cursing himself for the thing in him that would never change, he then searched for some spot on the wall that could be climbed with bare hands, and then set himself on climbing it. It was a very hard work, but since his weights served as a sort of anchor, he did not use his hands to lift much, and so succeeded in climbing the wall without any problem with his arms whatsoever. Although the tenth wall was taller than the wall before, he climbed it in the same way as the former wall, and succeeded. The last set walls were finished in the same fashion as the walls before, and then Ryunosuke turned around to finish the course again. Although his legs were stretched to its limit due to the weights that he had to wear on his feet, and his arms were sore due to the amount of lifting that he did, he finished again the course with the same procedure that he did on the whole course before. After the whole training, his arms and legs were both reddish due to the amount of force that was exerted with them. He then sat down and took a nap, since although he was not that tired due to the obstacle course, what happened at the former training took a toll on his body.

As he heard the Daimyo and his adviser speak about training in the harshest environments, Ryunosuke, who had also woken up to the shout of the two, understood. They had not been exposed to wars lately, and that meant disintegration of the fighting spirit of the people. He quickly girded his howitzer, but he made sure that he brought no ammunition with him - he meant to train on fighting in close-range, and sometimes taking up some boulder and using it as ammunition. But hearing something that the first training course would be a training run of 100 yards back and forth, Ryunosuke decided to join in the run.

When he started the run, it was such a breeze for him, and he covered 50 yards within one second without much effort. But at that moment, he felt something was odd in his clothes, and he felt so soggy. He wondered why, as he was used to running 50 yards without sweat. When he saw his clothes, he was shocked that he was soaked head-to-toe, and it was not even sweat but a huge amount of water. But as he managed to carry the very large howitzer while still agile in his movements, it was no consequence for him as he ran the remaining 50 yards within a blink longer than a second. Not wasting the momentum he swiveled around and started to run back towards the starting position.

As he ran back however, the moisture started to dissipate, and in return, a thick dryness started to envelop his body. Although he also covered the third 50 yards within a second, his muscles started to cramp, and he felt as if his skin was chipping off him like sheets of porcelain as he ran the remaining 50 yards. Only the momentum of his former run aided him as he covered the remaining 50 yards in 2 seconds. But, as he finished the run, he knelt down on the ground, and then the rest of his body fell down, only his arms supporting his body as he was gasping for air, and sometimes swallowing his saliva which he hoped will pass for water in this time.

Looking all around him to find more enemies, Ryunosuke found nothing. It had seemed that he had finished everyone that he had faced, but since some of them managed to get away, there was bound to be more. He then moved towards the border of the village, only to see that a thin dark shroud bordered the village. This might be good or bad for the village, but anyways, he would stand guard for any bandit activity at the village border.

It had seemed that the bandits were more cautious now, as they only charged one by one while the others just threw bombs at him. Not that it would work much however. Ryunosuke became more focused on in what direction would the most number of bandits charge, and would run away from that direction, charging towards another bandit in that way, cutting down every charging bandit along the way. When he would see bombs being thrown at his direction, he would try to swat them with his howitzer, and just move on until he had defeated that bandit towards whom he was charging, and would continue to run, cutting down obstacles along the way, until he had been clear from the smoke. He would then turn about-face to fire his howitzer towards the bandits that pursued and would pursue him.

((Waiting for Sagi's response, but it seems that the two were also waiting for my response, so setting up the post order: Ryunosuke, Sagi, Sakkaku. I hope we don't get confused next time.))

Ryunosuke seemed not very surprised at the sight of the cannons, since this was a heavily-funded group, and they were prepared for anything and everything that would barge in into their territory. But the number of cannons and guns prepared quite surprised him. They really meant to make disaster all around the land with their weapons, and when they are gone unpunished, it would mean danger and complete chaos. There should be something to stop these.

Ryunosuke would scan the area for some kegs of gunpowder near the gunners and the cannoneers, while urging the horses to turn around and retreat. When the horses had made a maneuver away from the gunners, Ryunosuke would fire on those kegs of gunpowder, exploding them and everything near the kegs, including their cannons and guns already loaded. If he did not find any keg of gunpowder, he would just fire on the cannons already loaded with gunpowder, to make the same results.

"Yeah, too many of that sort of individuals that it would be hard to judge whether they're feeling is true love or not. But surely when their end is near they would realize if their choice was a success or a failure." Ryunosuke then noticed that Kitana, finishing just half of her plate, offered the remaining to him. With a "thank you," he accepted the plate and the dipping bowl, and started eating. It would only be after he had eaten would he continue his words: "That goes on for the rest of life as well. Either a man goes to the grave self-fulfilled, or he goes to the grave regretful that his job in this world is still unfinished. Sometimes a twisted fellow would get advantage of this by inducing the spirits of the dead to roam into the world. They would feel happy at first, but I bet that after some time they would beg to be sent back to the grave. Just like those who ambition to live a long life, but finding out that it was not worth it seeing their beloved die before their very eyes."

From the corner of his eye he saw from the outside that the horse and the falcon was being cared for by... Saito? He really was serious in sucking up on the woman. Well, Ryunosuke hoped that he would come back in time to fill the orders of humans.

He again got some of the water used to cook noodles, and while swirling it with the remaining dipping sauce, he pondered on the woman's words. "Embrace the shadows. Make it your ally." There's no use in trying to evade something that would always be there. He then said, after a sip from the swirled solution, "Balance, you have suggested. That might work, I think. Sometimes you have to make something against your conscience, but is the right thing for the whole. I'll keep that notion with me."

Ryunosuke was about to interrupt the tailor's words when he heard a shriek. He turned towards the direction of the shriek, and he saw a very beautiful woman dressed and poised very beautifully. She seemed to be very affluent, judging from her clothes and the way she conducted, slightly destroyed by that particular situation when a thief stole a purse from her. The thief ran across the main street passing him and the "beggar", and was about to get away when the "beggar" threw a knife towards the direction of the bandit, but being distracted by the woman, the dagger was thrown off-course, and fortunately it hit the thief on the right thigh. If the thief managed to stand up, Ryunosuke would be the one to chase the thief down, but, being not used to the pain, the thief just writhed around the place.

As the beggar walked toward the thief, Ryunosuke turned again at the tailor, and said, "What if I were to tell you that that beggar you always spurned will become the next best thing in the land? Hell, I would even bet my merchandise on it." He then held again the two items that he held a while ago. "How much for these again?"

While Ryunosuke was hiding beneath the bushes saying incantations while holding a pendant, a man showed up and wreaked havoc on the gates of the castle. It had seemed that other people caught wind of what's happening in this land, and Ryunosuke was glad they also would not let this pass. After some more words, he had finished his incantation, and a demon chariot rode towards him from the void. He quickly jumped on the chariot, and controlled it to barge through the castle gate.

"Have no fear, Ryu's here!" he bellowed beneath his mask, his words aiming towards the villagers who were wronged by this hideous and atrocious monster of a landlord. He then aimed the howitzer at the castle gate, and would fire until the gate gives way. He would then proceed to kill the patrols that were outside the castle, who would dare attack him, and would barge through the castle and defeat all the soldiers within the castle.