Story:

Minutes later, in the guest quarters of Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo sat with the stolen letter in her hands, reading it line by line under her long blue hair while her most trusted general knelt and waited.

She finished. She set it down.

"...Interesting," said Kenshin, and the single word had an appetite in it.

"Apparently," she said, tapping the page with one finger, "the Oda witches have found a way to weaken the demon lord—a way that may decide this entire war. And they chose not to disclose it to Oda Nobunaga. Not to their own lord. Not to their allies. Not to me, whose cavalry bleeds for their shrine's doorstep."

She looked up, and her eyes had gone from glutton to warlord to something in between—bright, sharp, and hungry. "They leave in secret, through the rift, on a private quest that may change everything. Very bold women, the Oda sisters."

She rolled the letter closed and turned to her young general, and her voice dropped into the register she used for orders that shaped campaigns.

"Kageie-kun. Remember how I taught you to be a good guerrilla?"

Kakizaki Kageie straightened his back. "Hai, Kenshin-sama."

"Then use that teaching against the demon nest at Fuji. The horde has two fronts to feed—west against Oda, east against Edo—and a nest of one hundred thousand needs supply lines and reinforcement roads like a body needs veins."

"Cut the veins. Raid their supply line. Kill their messengers. Burn what they store, and pick off every column that marches to either frontline before it arrives. Never meet them in strength—haunt them. Make the mountain feel that something is eating it."

She placed one hand flat on the map spread between them. "The silver cavalry—I entrust to your hand. You command in my name while I am away."