There was one man who trembled more than any other at the news of Kanbe'e’s rescue from Arioka Castle. It was Masamoto Kodera, the Lord of Gochaku in Harima—the very master who had sold Kanbe out to Murashige Araki and plotted his death.

  While Kanbe'e focused on his recovery at Himeji Castle, his gaze remained fixed on the shifting tides of Harima. Having reaffirmed his hollow loyalty to Nobunaga and confirmed the safety of his son, Shojumaru, only one task remained: to settle the accounts of his past. That meant Masamoto Kodera.

  Masamoto had once called Kanbe'e a "thorn in his side" for his selfless dedication to the clan's survival. When Kanbe'e risked his life to head for Arioka, Masamoto had secretly requested Murashige to "dispose" of him. The man who had thrust his most loyal vassal into the depths of hell was now the primary target of Nobunaga Oda’s pacification of Harima. Treachery was returning to him like a massive tidal wave, ready to swallow him whole.

  January, the 8th year of Tensho. The fields of Harima were locked in deep snow and freezing winds. Gochaku Castle, counted among the three great strongholds of Harima alongside Himeji and Miki, stood defiant with its sturdy stone walls and deep moats. Before it stood Hideyoshi Hashiba’s army of twenty thousand. Jet-black war banners fluttered against the winter sky, and the Red Armor of the Kuroda clan stained the snowy plains crimson.

  Inside the main camp, Kanbe'e lay quietly in his sickbed. A year of gruesome imprisonment had robbed the former "Prodigy of Harima" of his ability to walk freely. His knees were as stiff as stone, his legs as thin as withered branches. He would never again swing a sword with fury or gallop upon a horse. Yet, his eyes held an unfathomable intensity—the gaze of one who had peered into the abyss of death.

  "Gochaku is no longer worth spilling blood over... I shall make them open the gates without a fight. That is my final service to the Kodera, following in my father’s footsteps."

  Kanbe'e advised Hideyoshi against a forceful assault. Instead, he loosed arrows of words designed to tear at the hearts of the besieged. He used his uncle, Kyumusai Kodera, as a secret envoy to relentlessly manipulate the minds within the castle.

  "Miki Castle, your only hope, is starved to its limits. The Mori reinforcements are but a snowy illusion that will vanish. Continue this resistance, and the same unspeakable tragedy that befell the Araki clan will be repeated here in Gochaku. But open the gates now, and not a single soldier shall die. Your lives are guaranteed."

  Despair eroded the castle faster than the winter cold, freezing the will of the soldiers.

  Realizing the hopelessness of his position, Masamoto cast aside even his pride as a samurai. On the midnight of January 15th, under the cover of a snowstorm, Masamoto abandoned the castle—and even his heir, Itsuki—fleeing through the back gate with only a few attendants. Ironically, it was the exact same cowardly path taken by Murashige Araki.

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  The stronghold, having lost its leader, surrendered just two days after the siege began. Not a single battle cry was raised; the gates opened silently and with startling ease.

  Kanbe'e had brought down his former master's castle while still confined to his bed. It was a silent funeral rite for the "past" known as the Kodera clan, which his family had protected with their lives since the time of his father, Mototaka. Strangely, he felt no rage toward the lord who had sent him to his death. He felt only a profound disappointment at the sight of a man who would abandon his people, his vassals, and even his own child.

  (The master is finished. But I shall not let the blood of Kodera be defiled...)

  Kanbe'e decided to take in Itsuki, Masamoto’s abandoned son, and raise him within the Kuroda family as if he were his own. He had lost all affection for the individual who betrayed him, but he sought to honor the debt of his ancestors in a characteristically ironic way: by nurturing the enemy’s orphan.

  Following the fall of Gochaku and Masamoto’s flight, Kanbe'e enacted two great reforms upon his own existence.

  First, he reclaimed the surname "Kuroda."

  Until now, he had pledged absolute loyalty as "Kanbe'e Kodera," wearing that name with pride. But the bond that name represented had rotted away in the earthen dungeon of Arioka. There was no longer any reason to carry the Kodera name in Harima. From this day forward, he would stand as "Kuroda," rooted in his ancestral lands of Omi—not as a mere subordinate, but as a lone strategist.

  Second, he changed the family crest.

  The Kuroda family had traditionally used the "Mutsu-ishi" (Six Stones) crest. It was a symbol of their roots as merchants who built their fortune through the eye-medicine trade. Since serving Hideyoshi, they had also used the "Koku-mochi" (Black Mochi) crest, gifted to them in honor of an anecdote where rice cakes saved Kanbe's life on the battlefield—a name that also punned on "Koku-mochi" (Lord of a Province).

  But Kanbe'e gave a new command. Henceforth, the primary crest of the Kuroda would be the "Fuji-domoe" (Wisteria Whirl).

  The Fuji-domoe: three wisteria blossoms arranged in a circular whirl, chasing one another. It was the wisteria he had seen swaying in the sliver of light that reached his dark dungeon in Arioka. Amidst the solitude and despair, those flowers had whispered "live" to him, acting as a beacon of life.

  And above all, the crest contained a perpetual prayer and atonement for Fuji, the young girl who had comforted him at the cost of her own life, only to meet a tragic execution. Even now, if Kanbe closed his eyes, he could see the innocent smile of that lovely girl flickering in the pitch-black darkness.

  (Fuji... Because of you, I survived that hell without letting my heart rot. Your life has become my life now...)

  Kanbe'e sat the young Tamamatsu—the child entrusted to him by Matazaemon Kato—on his lap. Looking at the boy’s small profile and clear eyes, the image of Fuji overlapped within them. With his stiffened fingers, Kanbe'e stroked Tamamatsu’s head gently yet firmly.

  (I wanted to bring you back to Himeji and let you smile under the wisteria in full bloom... Fuji, I will raise this Tomoe banner and surely create the peaceful world you wished for. Please watch over me from the heavens as I build a new era unstained by blood...)

  A new war banner fluttered in the winter wind.

  A "Fuji-domoe" painted in ink upon a white field. It was the cry of rebirth for the man now known as Kanbe'e Kuroda—a man who had discarded his old self to carry the weight of another's life. At Arioka, where he had gone to save his master, he lost that master and gained a new life as "Kuroda" instead.

  The wisteria of Arioka did not wither; it became a Tomoe, dancing eternally through the history of the Kuroda.

  Produced and written by a Japanese author, rooted in authentic Japanese history. Translated with the assistance of Gemini (AI).