"I will go to Katsuragi," Ren says, not meeting her eyes. "I will tell him your real plan. He will believe me because I will bring him your battle standard—the one with the chrysanthemum. He will think he has won. Then Toma strikes where Ren ‘forgot’ to mention. And I… I will die there. To seal the lie."
Beneath it, in faint ink, someone has added: "Four lived. One loved too much to stay." fylm The Lady Shogun and Her Men 2010 mtrjm - fydyw lfth
Kiyoko gathers her five men in the Maple Hall. Outside, snow falls like ash. Inside, she says: "They have two thousand men at the border. We have four hundred. But we have something they lack. I am not asking you to die for me. I am asking you to live for me—in a way that makes them regret ever doubting a woman’s rule." "I will go to Katsuragi," Ren says, not meeting her eyes
Behind them, on the wall, a new scroll hangs: "The Lady Shogun and Her Men — Year of the Tiger, 2010." He will think he has won