“I suspect you think I'm a hard husband."

She edged up to her husband's side, still holding the child to her breast. "No, I don't! Why should I bear a grudge? I look at it all as fate."

People can't be reconciled just by saying that it's fate. The life of a samurai's wife is more painful than swallowing swords. If you are not completely resolved, it won't be a resolution at all."

“I'm trying to come to that kind of an understanding, but all I can think of is that I’m a mother."

“My dear, even on the day I married you, I didn't think that you would be mine forever.  Neither did my father give his permission for you to become a true bride of the Asai.”

“What! What are you saying?"

“At a time like this, a man has to tell the truth. This moment will never come again, so I’m going to open my heart to you. When Nobunaga sent you to marry me, it was really nothing more than a political strategem. I could see through to what was in his heart from the very first." He paused. "But even while I knew that, a love grew between us that nothing could ever stop. Then we had four children. At this point you are no longer Nobuaga's sister. You're my wife and the mother of my children. I won't allow you to shed tears for our enemy. So why are you growing so thin and holding back the milk you should be giving to our child?"

Now she could see. Everything that had been a result of "fate" had been conceived as political strategem. She was a bride of political strategy: from the very first Nagamasa had seen Nobunaga as someone to watch. But Nobunaga had sincerely loved his brother-in-law.

Nobunaga believed that the heir of the Asai clan had a future, and he had trusted him.  He had pushed for the marriage enthusiastically. But the match had been in doubt from the very beginning, because of the much older alliance between the Asai and the Asakura of Echizen. Their pact was not simply one of mutual defense, but a complex relationship based on friendship and mutual favors. The Asakura and Oda had been ene­mies for years. When Nobunaga had attacked the Saito in Gifu, how much had they hindered him and come to the aid of the Saito?

Nobunaga overcame this obstacle to the match by sending a written pledge to the Asakura, promising not to invade their domain.

Soon after the wedding, both Nagamasa's father and the Asakura clan—to which he owed so many favors—began to pressure Nagamasa to regard his wife with suspicion. In the meantime, the Asai had joined the Asakura, the shogun, Takeda Shingen of Kai, and the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei in an anti-Nobunaga alliance.

The following year Nobunaga had invaded Echizen. Suddenly he was struck from behind. Cutting off Nobunaga's path of retreat and acting in concert with the Asakura clan, Nagamasa had plotted the man's utter annihilation. At the time, Nagamasa made it clear to Nobunaga that he was not going to let his judgment be affected by his wife, but Nobunaga would not believe it. The forces of the Asai and the martial valor of the man whom Nobunaga had trusted had become a fire at his very feet. Indeed, they had become chains. After the destruction of Echizen, however, Odani Castle was no longer either a fire or constricting chains.

Nevertheless, at this time Nobunaga was still hopeful that he would not have to kill Nagamasa. Of course, he respected Nagamasa's courage, but more than that, he was troubled with his affection for Oichi. People thought this strange, remembering that, when he had destroyed Mount Hiei with fire, this lord had thought nothing of being called "the king of the demons."

Autumn deepened day by day. At dawn, the dew on the grass around the castle was wet and cold.

"My lord, something terrible has happened." Fujikake Mikawa's voice was unusually perturbed. Nagamasa had slept that night near the mosquito netting that protected his wife and children, but he had not taken off his armor.

"What is it, Mikawa?" He quickly left the bedroom, breathing heavily. A dawn attack! That was his first thought. But the disaster that Mikawa was reporting was worse than that.

"The Kyogoku enclosure was taken by the Oda during the night."

"What!"

"There's no doubt. You can see it from the keep, my lord."

"It can't be." He climbed quickly to the watchtower, stumbling many times on the dark stairs. Although the Kyogoku was far away from the watchtower, the enclosure looked as if it were just below him. There, fluttering at the top of the castle in the dis­tance, were a great number of banners, but not one of them belonged to the Asai. One of the commanders' standards, flying brilliantly and proudly in the wind, quite clearly evi­denced the presence of Hideyoshi.

"We've been betrayed! Fine! I'll show them. I'll show Nobunaga and all the samurai in this country," he said, forcing a smile. "I'll show them how Asai Nagamasa dies!"

Nagamasa descended the darkened stairway of the watchtower. For the retainers who followed him, it was like accompanying their lord deep beneath the surface of the earth. "What-what's going on?" lamented one of the generals, halfway down the staircase. "Onogi Tosa, Asai Genba, and Mitamura Uemon have gone over to the enemy," one general answered.

Another man said bitterly, "Even though they were senior retainers, they betrayed the trust placed in them when they were put in charge of the Kyogoku."

"They're inhuman!"

Nagamasa turned around and said, "Stop complaining!"

They stood in the wide, wooden-floored room at the bottom of the stairs, which was brightened by a faint light. The fortified room resembled a huge cage or jail cell. Many of the wounded had been brought here, and they lay on straw mats, groaning. When Nagamasa passed through, even the samurai who were lying down made an effort to kneel.

"I won't let them die in vain! I won't let them die in vain!" Nagamasa said with tears in his eyes as he passed through. Yet he turned again to his generals and strictly forbade them to complain.

"There is no use in insulting others. Each of you must pick your own course— whether you surrender to the enemy or die with me. There's moral duty on both sides, Nobunaga is fighting to rebuild the nation; I'm fighting for the name and honor of the samurai class. If you think you had better submit to Nobunaga, then go to him. I'm certainly not going to stop you!" So saying, he walked out to check the defenses of the castle, but he had not taken a hundred paces when something much more serious than losing Kyogoku was reported to him.

"My lord! My lord! Terrible news!" One of his officers, drenched in blood, came running toward him and dropped to his knees. "What is it, Kyutaro?"

A premonition that something was very wrong settled quickly in Nagamasa's breast.  Wakui Kyutaro was not a samurai stationed in the third enclosure; he was a retainer of Nagamasa's father.

"Your honored father, Lord Hisamasa, has just committed seppuku. I cut my way here through the enemy to bring you this." Kyutaro dropped to his knees. Gasping, he took out Hisamasa's topknot and the silk kimono it was wrapped in and put them into Nagamasa's hand.

"What! The first enclosure has also fallen?"

"Just before dawn, a corps of soldiers took the secret path from Kyogoku to just outside the castle gate, flying Onogi's standard, saying that Onogi urgently needed to see Lord Hisamasa. Assuming that Onogi was leading his own men, the guards opened the the gate. As soon as that happened, a large force of soldiers rushed in and cut their way through to the inner citadel."

"The enemy?"

"The greater part of them were Lord Hideyoshi's retainers, but the men who showed him the way were undoubtedly the retainers of that traitor Onogi."

"Well, what about my father?"

"He fought gallantly to the very end. He himself set fire to the inner citadel and then committed suicide, but the enemy put out the fire and occupied the castle."