The moon is thin tonight. Three years since I last tied these armor straps, and my hands remembered before I did, which tells me I wasn't choosing to stay all this time. I simply couldn't leave.

• Araki SeishiroThe day the lord walks out that gate, this castle becomes an empty house.
  Toba TsuyuNot empty. Open. If you're the one standing just inside the gate, that's not an open house anymore, that's waiting.
• Asano UtaI packed twenty-three rice balls. I set one aside for when you come back.
  Toba TsuyuPack only twenty-three. Setting one aside is where the count starts going wrong.
• Gen'amiIf you can't drag the cart back, ride in it yourself if you have to. If their bellies fill, our twenty days become ten.