Story:

The curtain shifted faintly. Then the Tenno turned her attention—Nobunaga could feel it, a change in pressure like weather turning—toward him.

"And to Oda Nobunaga-dono," the beautiful voice said, "the capital owes its gratitude as well. Tell me—what does the leader of Gifu wish as reward for his support?"

No coyness, no ceremony. She had asked directly. Nobunaga answered in kind.

He did not dress his words in petals. "I request the decree to instate Yoshiaki-sama as the Fifteenth Shogun." His voice was even, unhurried, each word placed like a stone in a garden.

"He has the full support of the Oda clan—in finance, and in military strength. The realm needs a Shogun. The realm needs this one, with my house behind him."

Silence, soft as snowfall. The bamboo curtain's weave caught the light.

"An instatement with full backing given freely," Michiru-sama said at last, and there was genuine curiosity in the tone now, the amusement of a chess player watching an unexpected opening.

"What does the Oda clan gain, by such one-way giving?"

A lesser man would have filled the air with flowers. Nobunaga simply looked at the half-raised curtain and spoke.

"I am a son of Yamato. To be faithful to the Shogunate appointed by the Tenno herself—this is what I have always wanted to do."

Through the curtain's weave came the faintest sound—the Tenno, perhaps, smiling. Whether she believed him in whole or in part, the words had landed where they needed to.