Toranaga leads a small party through Osaka’s back streets toward the galley, using two litters—one bearing the dead maid Asa—as decoys while Buntaro guides the main column. Toranaga reflects on heavy losses and, in a recalled conversation with Hiro-matsu, reveals his resignation ploy to free himself from the Regents’ oath and stall Ishido’s authority.

Reinforced by hidden ronin cadres he had seeded in Osaka, Toranaga surveys the wharf: Grays guard his galley and more watch the Portuguese frigate. Yabu urges arson to draw off defenders, but Toranaga rejects the risk. Instead, he orders Mariko, Blackthorne, and six samurai to feign panic, claim a nearby ambush, and board the galley; if safe, Mariko is to signal at the gangway.

The ruse works: over a hundred Grays rush away. Mariko and Blackthorne board amid remaining Gray guards and cooperative sailors who recognize Blackthorne’s past seamanship. With time running out as a Gray runner nears the Portuguese guards, Mariko decides and collapses at the gangway as signal. Toranaga’s ronin charge from the alley to force the gangway.

On deck, the Gray leader orders the “traitors” killed. Blackthorne kills him with a thrown knife and defends the unconscious-seeming Mariko, while she revives, tackles a foe, and fights with a seized sword. Overmatched, she is saved when Blackthorne wounds her attacker and the ronin storm aboard, arrows cutting down the last defenders. Blackthorne, bloodied and exhausted, staggers toward Mariko and collapses as the deck is secured.