Story:

And then Violet Witch stepped forward, bowed with a foreign queen's impeccable courtesy, and played her card with a diplomat's exact timing.

"Honored Shrine Master—I understand entirely. The Yamato Shrine has guarded the dragon's vein for hundreds years, and tonight it guarded it to the last stone. Your grief and your pride both do you credit, and neither deserves a serpent's tongue wagging at it."

She let that settle—even the serpent part, Nobunaga mouthed indignantly at Kicho across the square—then continued, mild as morning:

"But permit me one clarification of jurisdiction. We are not here as the Oda clan's adventure. My Lord and I came at the direct request of the Tenno herself—her Imperial Majesty Ogimachi Michiru-sama, Empress of Yamato. The evil earthquake was felt in the imperial palace itself"

"Her Majesty commanded an investigation of its root cause and the stopping of the crisis. We are, in the strictest sense, on a royal errand. An imperial directive, issued to the Oda clan, sealed at Kyoto."

She smiled, warm and serene and utterly merciless. "So you see, honored Shrine Master—if the Yamato Shrine wishes to spit at the Maou of the Sixth Heaven tonight... it will find itself spitting, by extension, at the throne of Yamato. And I suspect,"

Violet added sweetly, "that a shrine that has defended the realm's heart for centuries would rather die than do that."

Silence.

Chitose stood there, hand pressed to her wounded side, fury caught mid-breath with nowhere left to go.

Her eyes went from the blonde witch's serene smile, to Shiro's pleading face, to Nobunaga—who, having watched his wife finish his argument for him with the Tenno's seal on it, was now smirking with insufferable, triumphant satisfaction.

"...The Tenno," Chitose said at last, hoarsely, "sent the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven."

"The Empress," said Nobunaga expansively, "has excellent judgment."