For a long time, Norihiro did not speak.
He sat in chains before his daughter, his head lowered as the candle burned quietly between them. The room that had once felt cold and threatening now seemed smaller, filled not with the weight of a defeated Daimyo but with the silence between a father and the daughter he had failed.
Sakura remained before him on her knees.
Her tears continued falling.
Norihiro looked at her hands.
They were small.
Gentle.
They had never held a sword against him. They had never tried to take power from him. They had only reached for him.
At last, Norihiro spoke.
"I am sorry."
The words were quiet.
Sakura looked up.
Norihiro's gaze remained on the stone floor.
"I have not been a good father to you," he said. "I always knew that."
His hands shifted inside the restraints.
The chains gave a soft rattle.
"But I had already gone too far," he continued. "I could not change it."
Sakura shook her head.
"You could have."
