At midnight, wind and snow blanketed Heian-kyō.
Inside the shogun's residence in the Upper Capital, the lights still blazed.
Only twenty years old, yet already shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate for nearly a decade, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the Sword Hero shogun of the Eastern Isles, knelt at the head of the main hall in an immaculate white robe patterned with golden bamboo, his eyes closed in thought. Retainers streamed through the hall below him, bringing an endless succession of reports.
"Report!"
A retainer hurried inside, bent at the waist and taking quick, mincing steps. The short, sharp clacks of his wooden clogs on the cypress floor gave Ashikaga Yoshiteru an ominous feeling, as though bitter wind and cold rain were closing over his head.
"Reporting to the shogun."
The retainer prostrated himself below the dais and reported in a voice he struggled to keep steady, though panic still showed through. "Lord Nanbu Nobunao and his party, dispatched as envoys to the enemy chief, were murdered outside the enemy camp's main gate. Their... their heads have been delivered outside the city. The accompanying master ninja, Momochi Tanba, is missing..."
Ashikaga Yoshiteru's brows tightened almost imperceptibly. Then he waved the retainer away, his face expressionless.
The retainer rose and backed out of the main hall in small steps, still bowing.
Ashikaga Yoshiteru slowly released a long, stale breath. "The art of hiding a sword in a fish's belly is ultimately a petty trick. Little can be accomplished with it."
At this, the lean, gray-haired elder seated in the foremost place on the hall's left quietly replied, "Your words express this humble servant's very thoughts."
Ashikaga Yoshiteru slowly opened his eyes and looked calmly at the gray-haired elder. "Motonari-san, you have long dominated the western provinces through your cunning, and you have fought these