Two days into the siege and the Takeda clan have been building ditches to surround Sunpu castle and work has been nonstop day and night and it is now almost midnight and the sounds of workers digging and mulling about removing dirt, digging, building stakes by torchlight continues unabated. While the workers work a contingent of soldiers guard the workers from any attack from the castle. Surprisingly the castle has remained quiet and has not attempted to do anything to stop the siegeworks which makes everyone in the Takeda army uneasy and unsure why they have not responded yet. Two groups starting from opposite sides of the Takeda camp are building a ditch to connect and meet at Katsuyori northern camp to ensure easy movement for the army and to give the soldiers cover for any other plans that may be decided in how best to attack the castle without the Imagawa being able to see their movements. Outside the camp, Ryuzen ninjas are patrolling the Tokaido road west from the castle ensuring no reinforcements or even the Tokugawa clan might try to attack and keeping eyes on the passes and borders near Sunpu castle, Takeda cavalry squads are roaming Sunpu province looking for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, supply wagons continue arriving from Kai and inside the camp the artillery has been positioned and proper barricades to protect the artillery has been set up, cooks, camp guards, servants, attendants, all sorts of people connected to the army are moving about like ants on anthill and all seems calm and normal even as the witching hour approaches and all seems surprisingly calm and busy even despite the lateness of the hour. Yet for all the activity on land and all eyes facing the castle no one has decided to look out toward the sea in its big black void on this particularly moonless night. It's as if the Takeda army feels no threat the big black empty sea might conjure up. Lulled into a false sense of safety and security when looking at the dark waves at night.

  On the deck of one of the ships from the Shimazu fleet is a female wearing a left eyepatch covering her eye and large scar on her face from the top of her forehead going down her left eye. She is in her mid-twenties with black shiny hair cut short and slick black and her right eye had a beautiful light brown eye, her face despite her horrible scar was pale and spotless, she was athletic and strong from a life living on the ocean on various ships. She was the only female among a navy made up entirely of men. Extremely unusual for the time. Her name Kurohime Shimazu "Black Princess" given to her by Takahisa Shimazu for her efforts in building a small navy of twenty black armored sailing ships armored with black armored plating, and the black cannons placed on her ships. This young woman washed up on southern Kyushu shore when the ship she escaped on hit rocks on Kyushu rocky shore and was found almost half drowned and starved when she was brought before the daimyo of the Shimazu clan six years ago. Her story of survival and her knowledge of the European navies intrigued the daimyo. She was captured taken with her mother from a fishing village on shikoku island as slaves to Portuguese pirates when she was fourteen, they were unfortunately used in a dishonorable way and her mother died soon after from sickness not that long after they were taken to Macau a newly formed Portuguese colony in China. For the next several years she was passed around on the pirate ships and yet despite all of the humiliation and abuse she learned from her masters their language, tactics in naval warfare, and fighting techniques to the point they was no longer kept her confined in a cell on the ship and became part of the crew earning their trust. Yet always yearning for a life of freedom and revenge upon those who had abused her and her mother. She learned navigation from men who had chained her and then learned freedom by killing them one night. One night while their armored ship was docked on an isolated island in south China sea, the pirates had acquired a large amount alcohol from a recent raid in the Philippines and decided to celebrate, Kurohime finally decided to make her move and she made sure to isolate the captain of the pirate crew by using her feminine charms to get him into his cabin and once he fell asleep beside her in his bed she then slit his throat with a knife she had taken from his dinner table. Once he was disposed of, she got dressed and took his keys from the armory and armed herself with a sword and dagger. Since most of the crew was on the beach asleep and it was the dead of night she quietly and quickly dispatched the remaining few sleeping guards on board accept one who was still awake and sober enough to resist Kurohime and left her the scar she carries now but he was still cut down by her. Once in control of the ship, she navigated the ship by herself back to Japan which was amazing feat by itself but unfortunately, she had not seen the rocks on the coast at night and wrecked on the coast of southern Kyushu washed up ashore. The daimyo after learning her story stated, "The sea took her childhood but she took the ship in return" He saw the wrecked ship and once he learned of her story as told by her once she recovered, saw the future of naval warfare and immediately asked her to teach his men the barbarian tactics of warfare and introduced them to reinforced hull plating, early naval artillery formations, coordinated cannon broadsides, and night lantern deception tactics and to restore the black plated ship and once it was finished it was used to aid the Shimazu in attacking the rival clans fleets in southern Kyushu. She quickly earned the title, "The Black Admiral of Satsuma" as she easily destroyed the much weaker wooden ships of the enemy rival clans. Due to her leadership the Shimazu quickly gained control of the sea lanes and coasts around southern Kyushu and as the Shimazu clan power grew, the number of ships grew to a small powerful fleet of twenty black armor-plated ships. Although not as powerful and large as the mighty Mori fleets yet it was still a force to be reckoned with. She became the admiral of the Shimazu fleet and was given by the honor by the daimyo using the clan's name in her name. With this background she was ordered by the daimyo to travel to Imagawa province of Sunpu and to commence a heavy naval bombardment of the enemy army encamped around the Imagawa castle. She was to hit the camp and keep moving past the castle and hit the camp around and then turn around and then sail back to Satsuma. The daimyo did not have the strength to break the siege but could hurt the enemy and make them pay a heavy price for attacking his and the dark monk's allies.

  As her she observed from her ship the torch lights and campfires lighting up from the camp and castle she grinned hungrily at the unaware prey of her black navy fleets presence in the dark night getting ready to unleash a furious hell upon them as they slept unaware peacefully. Her second in command stated to her everyone was waiting on her command as the rest of the fleet would follow her lead once her ship fired and each ship would unleash 10 rounds of cannon fire from each cannon on every ship continuously until the ten rounds was finished and then turn around immediately and sail back from where they came from. Then with the wave of her hand her twenty cannonades opened with the thunder of a storm and immediately upon impact small clouds of explosions around the Takeda camp began to explode and ignite fires causing chaos and confusion. The rest of the fleet followed suit and the entire landscape lit up briefly showing the positions of their ships and the noise and impact of the shells shook the entire plain around the castle. For the next thirty minutes unending rain of fire came down on the Takeda camp. The large blazes of fires raging in the camp and allowed the fleet to see all the people scurrying around for cover, trying to put out fires and helping wounded. Then all of sudden a large ball of fire lit up on one of the Shimazu ships had exploded immediately causing it to light up the area and then sink and then a second ship also exploded and sank and finally a third and fourth ship to the horror and shock of Kurohime. She immediately ordered the ships to withdraw and leave as quickly as possible and to retreat back to Satsuma. The Shimazu could not afford to lose so many ships, or they could lose control of their dominance in southern Kyushu. She slammed her fist against the mast of her ship in frustration and shock as her ships were finally under way to retreat as she was not expecting to lose so many ships as this was supposed to be just a hit and run. However, the mission was a success, and they did manage to hit the Takeda camp effectively, but the loss of so many ships caught her off guard. How did the enemy manage to destroy so many of her armored plated ships. Was it a lucky shot hitting a gunpowder magazine, was it an accidental explosion on one of her ships, she vowed one day to return the favor to the Takeda for hurting her precious black ships. Then the fleet stunned and shocked sailed into the night and left the coast of Sunpu province.

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  Thirty-five minutes earlier, Ryuzen was in his tent sitting in the middle of the floor meditating and controlling his breathing, the hum of the camp movement even at night with its rhythm of movement allowed Ryuzen to focus his mind and concentrate. Then without warning his entire tent shook from explosions nearby and he immediately got up and exited the tent to see fires and explosions happening all around the camp and immediately gave orders for his men to take cover in the ditches that were being constructed. Ryuzen grabbed Kurokane his time marker katana and Yamiuchi his black katana and ran with his men toward the ditch and took cover from the explosions and for the next thirty minutes he had to watch as the camp was being destroyed by cannon fire. Then after thirty minutes he grits his teeth in his frustration at his inaction for not doing anything and then grabbed his Kurokane and began to concentrate and closed his eyes on freezing time like he had practiced before but now he would use it to save the camp from complete destruction. Then everything became completely silent, he opened his eyes and looked around and could see his men huddled in the ditches taking cover but not moving or breathing, he stood up and could see a cannon ball about to hit the ground nearby but it stood still and fires stood frozen and people frozen mid run, horses jumping frozen in midair. Then as he turned around and looked past the castle, he could see blacks ships off the coast lit up because of the cannon fire, and he began to run toward them it took him almost 15 minutes to reach the beach and he was by then covered in sweat because of his continuous use of the time marker. He then ran into the ocean and because time was still frozen, he could run on the frozen ocean and then reached the first black ship immediately he then wrapped and tied Kurokane with a rope around his back and unsheathed Yamiuchi and with both hands feeling the extreme cold of the handle he had a special thick cloth wrapped around it to help him withstand the extreme cold of the handle. Ryuzen had been practicing for several years of extreme stamina training to better withstand its cold effects when used but he knew his time was limited with using Kurokane his body would begin to break down and he would lose control quickly. He reached the deck of the ship and saw the men frozen in time loading and firing the cannons on the first deck and noticed the clan banner of the Shimazu on the ship and immediately swung his black blade at the cannons and the instantly cut it in half but still frozen. Then Ryuzen hands had started to shake uncontrollably, and the time started to unfreeze very slowly, and he saw the little spark growing in the cannons he had just cut and knew his time was running out. Ryuzen immediately jumped overboard and ran to the next nearest ship and proceeded to do the very same thing as the first ship but again everything was starting to move a little faster. His heart was pounding from the pressure of holding time in place, but he knew he was not done and needed to keep going, luckily the third ship was closer and reached it much faster than the previous two, his hands were completely numb and with violent shaking his sheathed Yamiuchi. He saw the small barrels of gunpowder on the deck of the third ship and ignited the gunpowder barrel and opened the primary hatch for cargo threw it into the interior of the ship. At this point people are starting to move extremely slowly as opposed to being frozen before, Ryuzen is now slowly starting to bleed through his nose and with the heaving sweating, shaking hands and faster heartbeat he must hurry. He then grabs another small barrel of gunpowder from the third ship and despite the shaking hands manages to carry it another 10 yards to next ship and then reaches the deck ignites it as before but this time next to the cannons on the fourth ship. Unable to go any further he jumps ship and runs back to shore, and he is seeing everything moving much quicker and quicker around him and he then starts to sink in the ocean as waves and water start to slowly move. Finally, he reaches the edge of the beach and collapses bleeding from the nose and exhausted lying on his back and he can see from the shoreline as each of the ships he just sabotaged explode in succession and then he laughs out loud in satisfaction, which was unusual for his normally reserved character, but he was satisfied he stopped the enemy and then passed out from the pain and exhaustion of using his time marker Kurokane and Yamiuchi and laid still on the beach unconscious.

  Several hours later in the early morning as his men searched for their lost leader, Hanzo found his lord laying on the beach and looked out at the smoldering heaps in the ocean and surmised his lord had somehow managed to sabotage the burning ships off the coast. Then he carried his lord on his back and was met by Katsuyori Takeda who was inspecting the damage to the camp, and he asked what had happened to Ryuzen and explained he found him on the beach near the burning ships. Both of them realized the achievement and they immediately brought him to Shingen personal physician and was placed in Shingen's meeting tent and laid him down to have him rest and await his explanation on how he managed to destroy four enemy ships once he awoke.

  As Ryuzen slowly awoke from being passed out unconscious, the sound of Gensei biwa music playing filled the sound of the tent and as he slowly opened his eyes, he could see Shingen seated cross-legged at the other end of the tent on his large pillow with his head bowed and eyes closed listening to the music dressed in his monk robes holding his sheathed katana with both hands placed on his lap. To his left was old Gensei playing his biwa, seated a few feet in front of Shingen was his son Katsuyori and dressed in typical samurai robes colored in red crimson, Enkai was seated to the right of Katsuyori and in front of Shingen as well. Ryuzen then despite him feeling drained of energy and exhausted managed to sit up and immediately bowed face down in front of everyone. Gensei despite being blind was the first to notice and finished playing and immediately stated the lord Ryuzen was awake finally. Everyone then turned to face and look at Ryuzen, Shingen then spoke, "Rise and face me all powerful Dragon of the Fields" Ryuzen then raised his face and upper body to look at Shingen still seated and Shingen continued, "I have no idea how you managed to defeat the enemy. I have decided to reward you with a castle of your own once this siege is won and we have taken firm control of the province in honor of your loyal service. Now I must ask how you managed to accomplish such a feat" Ryuzen knowing he could not reveal he used the time marker stated to his lord the partial truth that he did run to the beach and swam to the first ship and immediately set about killing a gun crew and igniting the gunpowder barrel which ignited nearby ships as a result of the explosion on the first ship, which was a plausible explanation rather than saying he took on all four ships by himself. Shingen believed the story told by Ryuzen and then commended him again and dismissed him and his advisers back to their camp so Ryuzen could continue to rest. Along the way Ryuzen could see the extensive damage to the camp and realized he should have acted sooner. The Takeda clan lost 500 men in the bombardment, and several tents and some equipment were destroyed but the vast majority of the camp remained intact. The soldiers and servants all bowed when seeing this mythical dragon walk back to his tent in awe of his accomplishment. Once Ryuzen was alone in his tent he sat near his desk and staring out toward the castle and ocean with the smoldering heaps beyond and realized this was barely the third day of this siege and already several hundred men lay dead because of his inaction swore to himself he would do better and hoped he could anticipate and stop the next problem before it gets out of control and causes more death and destruction. Plus, the Imagawa still have not reacted to the siege yet and who knows what they might have planned and he needed to be ready for it. Barely three days and already the Takeda clan are facing serious challenges to their siege and yet despite the hardships the siege is still holding strong.