End of the Ouchi

In summer 1565, the Ouchi are only one season away from annihilation. There are hardly any defenders left in Kunamoto Castle in Satsuma, the only castle remaining to the Ouchi.

What's left of the Ouchi field army is destroyed by Mori Sanemune and Mori cavalry rampage at will across the fields and farms of Satsuma.

The Ouchi Daimyo and the fragments of his field army are hidden away from the searching Kikkawa somewhere in the forests of Higo or Bungo. He sits under a blue beech tree contemplating the demise of his clan. The thought of death did not bother him. His mind was made up and his heart resolved. He will open his stomach in true samurai fashion. But how will he face the spirits of his ancestors? The kami of the Ouchi who bequeathed the rivers, mountains, fields and forests of their fiefdom to him, only to have it all lost in his hands? It is with such regrets and shame that his mind is tormented. Where did he go wrong? The Ouchi could not expand without removing the Mori which stood like a great boulder on the path to future glory. But by betraying their allies, and reneging on a clan marriage, the Ouchi had gambled all. He had sought and found the most opportune moment to do this. So where did he go wrong? On reflection it was undoubtly the intervention of the Kikkawa that tipped the balance. Without them the Mori would have been shattered at the fortress of Higa, and the Ouchi would have seized the initiative for the rest of the war. Those interfering Kikkawa, he thought bitterly. It was they who kept the offensive alive for the Mori. Who would have thought that the passive Kikkawa haboured such ambition?   

In the after life, these regrets will torment him more than the flames of hell.