At dusk Blackthorne returns to his new house, numb from Yabu’s threat against the village. Mariko and Fujiko try to settle him; he drinks heavily, demands study materials, and rejects Fujiko as consort. Mariko explains the binding duties of samurai households and the law of life and death, urging acceptance to spare Fujiko disgrace. He calms briefly, contemplating the sunset and his powerlessness.

Omi arrives to seize Blackthorne’s pistols before summoning him to Yabu. Blackthorne draws on Omi, then, heeding Mariko’s counsel, entrusts the pistols to Fujiko, who aims one steadily and compels Omi to stand down. Acknowledging hatamoto privileges, Fujiko provides samurai swords, which Blackthorne dons before going to Yabu.

In the fortress, Yabu makes Omi apologize and silently Omi vows to kill his lord for family slights. Yabu reviews defenses and advances a secret musket regiment, complete with reserve cadres and a kill code, while planning to fold Toranaga’s men into the units.

Yabu demands European strategy; Blackthorne agrees but petitions to rescind the village threat and reclaim his ship in five months. Yabu refuses the decree change. Declaring the shame unendurable, Blackthorne commits to die by their custom and suddenly thrusts the dagger at his heart. Omi seizes the blade and is cut; Igurashi helps stop the strike. Shaken, Yabu accepts Omi’s compromise: whatever Blackthorne learns in five months will be deemed satisfactory, under an oath of secrecy and total effort. Blackthorne and Yabu swear by their gods, and Blackthorne departs on foot, exhausted but alive.

Afterward, Yabu savages Igurashi for misjudging a bluff, banishes him to the stables, and doubles Omi’s fief and rewards. He orders taxes doubled, decides to keep Mariko longer as interpreter and leverage, notes Toranaga’s first grandson and Ochiba’s move to Ishido, and resolves to extract Blackthorne’s knowledge quickly—then possibly test or discard him later.