Zataki is coming

A courier from Hiro-matsu at Mishima: Zataki is coming under safe conduct as the new Regent, with Father Alvito in his party. Omi proposes intercepting him at Yokosé; Buntaro rides ahead with five hundred archers. "The Taikō's peace has ended." Blackthorne wakes beside Kiku and laughs at the moment of climax. Kiku, shamed for what Omi once did to him, must still bow him out of the gate before Omi, and stands in the square until he turns the corner. Mariko reports Gyoko's price: three thousand koku, or two thousand five hundred for a private stick of time with Toranaga. Toranaga orders both to the Shuzenji Spa at dawn, Mariko going on to Osaka, and takes a thousand koku from Blackthorne. Blackthorne leads Omi to the crevasse to "find" Toranaga's swords, then names Kiku; both hands go to hilts, neither draws. Mura plants Uo in the baggage train to report to the priest.

A hinge chapter dressed as a morning after. Zataki's approach reopens the war plot while Blackthorne's laughter in bed with Kiku marks his acclimatisation. Clavell stages the crevasse walk with Omi as a duel that never draws, the two young men who will inherit Izu measuring each other.