This will be it… Xing thought to herself as she looked over the plains from the castle battlements in front of the main keep. This is where we make our stand, and fade into history. Her face was pale, due to the cold weather of the foreign climate, which was affecting all of her soldiers under her command. Rin, their self- appointed mascot, placed herself in charge of the main defenses in the central plaza of Osaka, her forces also outside the central gates of the four others around Osaka’s south end. Wecos was placed in command of the westernmost gate, her troops focused in and out of the western plaza. Vinosec was put in command of the defenses at Osaka's southwest gate. And Lusec was put in command of the defense of the southeast gate, also in the southeast plaza. So, Xing thought to herself again, heading for the inner castle in its far north, where the castle itself was. The four Guardians and the archangel are at play at last. In all, the allied forces under Xing totaled to be around four hundred thousand troops, but Swan was coming with an army of at least a million more.

 "The enemy is finally approaching." Caiy said, looking over the battlements, but directing it to Xing. "Flee into the castle itself, my friend." "No!" Xing yelled out. "We did not come this far to wait to be slaughtered. I will make my main camp just in front of the front castle gates themselves! I will not just sit and watch my men die." she added without hesitation.

 "Okay then, my friend." Caiy said. "The four surrounding plazas in the grounds are being defended by your Guardians, and Rin is in command of the main central plaza. I will be your last line of defense if the enemy is able to break through. If any of the five gates Rin and the Guardians are defending fall though, our fates are sealed; there is no retreat from this place."

 "I know that...” Xing replied. “But we could not be any more ready than we are now. If we do fade into history, the world will have us to remember and look up to in the dark reign that is to come. And we will make Swan remember us too, forever..."

****

 "So they charged and chose Osaka for our final showdown." Swan said, more to herself than anything.

 "This is going to be a tough siege, my lady." an officer at her side said as he gave a low bow. But as soon as he righted himself Swan drew her long katana and struck. In one move, the officer's head was on the ground. The surrounding soldiers gasped and backed away a few steps.

 "I will not have any discontent within the army of the shogunate." Swan said to the troops. "If you are all going to serve within the army of the shogunate, then you all shall abide by my rules! There will be no speaking without my approval." The rest of the soldiers immediately stepped back into formation and stood at attention. "That's better." Swan said to them, looking them all over. "Back, to business." She said as she raised a hand to the soldiers to her right and sheathing her blood stained blade. "Our military meeting..." The commanders then stepped forward and formed a circle, the officers under their command setting up a temporary camp.

****

 "Swan's armies have halted." An officer said to Xing, who was now at the main camp just in front of the inner castle gates. "Then she is meeting with her generals." she said, almost at a whisper. "She must know that, because Osaka is so large, it will be folly to attack it head on without the support of cannons. But I think she has plenty of them for the siege. No, she is up to something else. We will just focus on defending the main keep and the castle itself. To your post!" she shouted at the officer, pointing to the stairs that lead to the top of the battlements.

 ”I will do as you wish, my lady." He said, and then he was off.

****

 "It shall be done as I say!" Swan shouted as soon as the meeting was over. "Men, this Rin character they have is not to be underestimated. Approach them with caution. But our forces vastly outnumber the enemy, so there is no need for concern; we are endless! But, this battle is not for the sake of any one individual; it is for the sake of securing a long-lasting era of peace and beauty for this world! The chaos ends now, with the blood of the enemy, forward!!" She shouted as she drew her long katana yet again and raised it to the sky, while mounting her black-furred steed. All her warriors shouted a war cry, and they marched off for the glory of Swan and her final battle.

****

 “They’ve finally begun advancing!" the officers shouted to Xing. "I can't see what’s going on, so you all have to be my eyes for now," she said, staring up at the officers on the upper battlements.

 "Lady Rin!" an officer called, approaching the young girl, who was now on horseback, dressed in full green armor and a flowing green robe, slit open on the right leg, exposing some thigh.

 "It seems we no longer have any chance of winning this battle now." she said, pushing back her black bangs with her left hand and uncovering her eye. Her hair was now cut to the middle of her back. She was wielding a newly crafted black spear in her left hand.

 "All there is left to do now is to find a dying place worthy of a samurai warrior." she stated with her head held up high, her expression unwavering and fierce. "Misao, go out to meet their four advancing battalions! We must lure the enemy, and show them the essence of Shu warfare!!" she yelled out to a female officer a few feet in front of her.

 "Yes, right away my lady!" the female officer Misao replied without complaint, drawing her broad sword and charging out of the open gates from the central Osaka plaza.

 "Swan wants to test our strength. She does not yet know Osaka has been equipped with cannons. We shall reveal them to her on those advancing battalions. Load the new cannons!" she cried out to the surrounding troops. "We shall reveal the Sanada-maru cannons to the enemy!"

 "Right away!" the soldiers yelled, following their orders.

 Misao charged out with a small platoon of soldiers to entice the advancing battalions into charging the front gates of the battlements, into the central plaza. Not to let them inside, of course.

 “You!” Misao screamed, pointing her sword at an officer at the front of the marching troops. “I challenge you! Draw your blade!”

 “You are not worthy of facing us!” the officer cried out. “All troops, charge them!” he ordered the soldiers. As the entire battalion began charging them, along with the other three battalions, Misao and her ragtag group of soldiers turned around and sprinted back to the battlement gates, closing them as soon as they were in with great effort.

 “Ha, there you go you cowards! Come out and die!” The charging officer yelled out.

 As the four charging battalions began closing in on the front gates, Rin came forward on her steed behind the gates.

 “Now, begin the attack!” she cried out, lifting her black spear to the sky.

 The rebel soldiers began cheering as the first shots of the cannons began leaving the barrels and blasting the front troops. As their bodies began to blast apart, Rin ordered the front gates open once again, and she herself charged out. When the cannons stopped firing the Nai forces were decimated, and Rin led the charge into the enemy ranks, forcing them to flee back.

 “Fall back into the battlements!” Rin ordered her forces when the enemy was in full retreat.

 The rebel forces closed the front gates behind them as soon as every soldier was inside.

 “Now we await their next move.” Rin whispered to herself, closing her eyes to think, calming her steed with her left hand. “We wait.”

****

 “My lady, our front lines have been decimated by enemy cannon fire!” an officer cried when he approached the new shogun, Swan.

 “So Osaka has cannons. That was a very impressive move, Rin. But how will you fare against my own cannons? Men, bombard the enemy battlements until they beg for mercy!!” she ordered her troops.

 “As you command my shogun.” The officer replied, sneering.

****

 They are coming with their own cannons. Rin thought to herself. “All forces brace for incoming fire!” she shouted out to her men. “The enemy is preparing their own cannons!”

 She watched as her men scattered and loaded their own cannons to prepare the coming shelling.

 “Lady Xing Cai must stand at the head of our forces now,” Rin spoke out loud. “Or all those that have died will have done so in vain. Open the gate!” she shouted to the soldiers at the top of the back gate behind her. “I seek an audience with Lady Xing Cai!”

 “Do not open that gate!” Caiy shouted to the gate captain. “The archangel may be in league with the enemy. We cannot put the castle in unnecessary danger.”

 “Are we still so distrustful of each other, in this late juncture? I need an ally, perhaps the Guardian Wecos?” she said to herself.

 “Alright, open the front gates! I shall go and meet general Wecos!”

 The gates opened to her will and she charged forth from the gates as enemy cannon fire began falling from the sky.

 Tracing the walls of the battlements, Rin rode all the way to the front of the west gate, where Wecos and her forces were centered in.

 "Open the gate!" Rin shouted as the enemy shells began chipping away the stones of the battlements.

 "I seek an audience with Lady Xing!" she screamed.

 "Ah, the little Rin..." Wecos said, looking at her from the top of the battlements. "So you are going to try to convince the lady to come out? Hmmmm...... Alrighty then. All men, we must help her get to the lady! Hold off the enemy advance!"

 The soldiers were already storming out of the gates as she yelled out the order. Rin then rode into the battlements and began ascending the great staircases that lead to the actual castle gates.

 "Lady Xing," Rin said as she slowly approached the heiress, shells falling all over the castle and battlements.

"Yes?" Xing called out to her.

 Rin then kneeled before Xing on both knees.

 "You must join our troops on the battlefield, my lady." she said. "Your presence can provide us with the morale to keep fighting, and eventually win this battle. Please trust my words, I vow that we shall be victorious!" she finished with a great smile on her face.

 Xing looked doubtful, and Caiy stepped forward and spoke in her place.

 "She understands, Rin. Your point is taken. Now go, and return to your post, lady Rin." Caiy told Rin in a stern voice.

 "Very well, I shall return the way I came in..." she said, getting up from her knees and grabbing her spear. She then remounted her steed and rode all the way back to the central plaza.

****

 Hmm... Lord Masamune thought out loud as he watched the great siege from afar, on a far off hill top. This should be interesting to interrupt.

 “All forces, we shall charge Osaka's west gate!" he shouted, drawing twin katanas. "We shall not help Swan take over the world, you imbeciles! Our only objective is to show the world the might of the Date clan, and take this so-called heiress of China's head! Forward!" he ordered yet again, raising one of his katanas to the sky. He then charged, heading straight for the west gate of the Osaka battlements.

****

 "Lady Rin!" a soldier called out to her.

 "Yes? What is it?" she asked the soldier.

 "Our scouts have seen an unknown force with yellow banners charging towards the west gate!"

 "It is of no concern. General Wecos shall hold them off. It is just the warmongering Date clan."

 "Very well, my lady Rin."

 "Continue concentrating our fire on Swan's cannons."

 "Yes my lady." he said as he resumed his orders.

****

 As the Date forces closed in on the west gate, Wecos slowly rode to the front of the great gates, blocking the entrance.

 "Get out of my way!" Date Masamune shouted as his steed stepped closer to Wecos. "My conquest will not be marred by the likes of you." he said as he dismounted his steed and raised his twin katanas.

 "For the glory of our lady you shall not pass by me!" Wecos said, raising her scythe-spear.

 "Fool!" Masamune shouted, charging at Wecos.

 In one swift move, Wecos had Masamune Date's left arm cut off, and followed up that move with a slice at his chest. As he fell to the ground dead, his men gasped and turned immediately around, running from her and their slain lord.

 "That was for Veniet..." Wecos whispered to herself, lifting her scythe-spear to rest on her shoulder.

****

 "My kunoichi," the shogun Swan said to her personal ninja unit.

 "Inform me of what is happening inside Osaka itself." she said to them. They bowed and disappeared into the shadows.

 "Hanzo," she said to the head of her ninja force. "What news from the front?"

 "All is ready, shogun." Hanzo replied behind a black mask, bowing low.

 "Good. All forces charge! We shall now tear the heart out of China! Eradicate the Shu and their heiress!"

****

  "Swan's entire force is charging. The Guardians shall hold the four gates to their dying breaths." Rin said as she lowered her head.

 "A lost cause" Rin said, tears swelling up in her eyes. "No! The warrior spirit within me refuses to accept that! Such is the way of the samurai. I will take the shogun's head!" Rin shouted as she charged forth from Osaka's fifth and front gate.

 "I shall charge into the shogun's main camp! Those that can still fight, follow me!” The men under her command responded by mounting their own steeds and charging after her.

"What the hell is she doing?!?" Xing shouted as soon as she heard that Rin charged from the main gate. "Support her charge with as many forces as you can spare! We cannot let Rin charge the entire enemy army alone!”

 "As you wish then, my heiress. Will you join her in this final charge? She is already charging through the enemy forces, regardless of the numbers." a soldier named Qian said to her.

 "Lady Xing. The battle does not go well. Flee into the castle itself at once." Caiy said loudly.

 "But is that right?" she replied, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Our men are still fighting, as are the Guardians and the archangel herself."

 "Please leave everything to them. The Guardians shall defend the four gates to their deaths, and the archangel is charging to her death or to glory, for you. Whether she falls or takes the shogun's head, you must live, to restore the Kingdom of Shu and China. . I shall protect the castle gates with my dying breath. Go now!” she shouted violently, but proud.

 Xing heeded her friend Caiy's words, and turned around to open the gates of the main castle itself right behind them. She stepped into the castle halls themselves, tears in her eyes while her soldiers closed the great gates, Caiy seeing Xing's face until the gates were completely shut.

 We no longer need to worry about the heiress being harmed. Caiy thought to herself, awaiting Swan’s armies as they finally began to break through the west gate.

****

Charging through Swan’s entire Infinite Army alone, the desperate cavalry trying to follow, Rin surged forward, regardless of the wounds she's received during the earlier engagements and charging through the rest of Swan's forces, which seemed endless immediately ahead, at least a hundred li forward

She surged forward, regardless of casualties to the cavaliers charging behind her. She surged forward regardless of what even the heiress herself thought. She surged forward regardless of how absolutely hopeless her actions were. She surged forward to take Swan, the shogun of Japan's head and offer it to the heiress as a symbol of a new age of peace. For all of these reasons, Rin charged forward, regardless of everything, with tears streaming from her eyes...

End of Chapter XIII: Besieged at Osaka