After the Takeda were destroyed, my heir Nobutada came back to Azuchi. I sent everyone away, and the two of us were alone in a room in the keep. It had been so long since I'd sat face to face like this with my own son, my own blood, that I couldn't remember when the last time was.
At first Nobutada was terribly stiff. He always was in front of me. To him, I, his father, was still a forbidding Demon King. Even after being handed the headship, even after winning glory against the Takeda, he knew nothing at all of his father's true face.
"Nobutada."
I spoke to him as quietly as I could.
"You did well in the campaign against the Takeda."
"Yes... no, sir. It was all thanks to your might, Father."
His voice was tense. The usual answer. Everyone says that.
I hesitated a while, then took the plunge and asked.
"Nobutada. Now that you've inherited the headship of the house of Oda, do you feel it as a burden?"
Nobutada's shoulders jerked.
After a long silence, still looking down, he forced the words out.
"...With respect, Father."
His voice was shaking.
"If I am to be honest. I am afraid to succeed you, Father."
"I am not strong as you are, Father. I do not feel I could ever carry on after the man they call the Demon King."
"Even when I am told to bring the realm together, the burden is far too great for me. There are nights I cannot sleep."
Bit by bit, a little at a time, my son admitted his weakness to me for the first time.
Watching that trembling back, my heart was full.
Ah.
So he was like that too.
So naturally that it surprised even me, I'd put my hand on my son's shoulder. Me, who hated touching people so much.
"...Nobutada."
Just a little, for the first time in my life, I let slip the truth to my son.
"Wanting to get down. I feel the same."
Nobutada's head came up with a start. He looked at me with eyes that couldn't believe it.
At that startled face, I gave the faintest smile.
"If you don't want it, you don't have to force yourself to carry it. Burdens can be set down somewhere, quietly. That's allowed."
"Father... what on earth do you..."
"I can't tell you yet. But soon, I'll tell you what I really have in mind, too."
That night, I felt the long misunderstanding between my son and me melt, just a little.
Those who understood me: Kicho, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. To them, my son Nobutada and the worn-down Akechi might be added.
The cast was beginning, little by little, to come together.
My world's most ridiculous plan quietly began to move, here in the keep at Azuchi.
All that remained.
Was Honno-ji.