Yabu and Blackthorne's cooperation and suspicion

Yabu and Blackthorne's cooperation and suspicion are defined by a plan that is hinted at, withdrawn, and never clarified. In Osaka, Yabu furtively suggests that he may have a secret plan, but later denies having one and explains their predicament as the difficulty of escaping. Blackthorne does not accept the denial as a full answer: he wonders whether Yabu had intended betrayal, while admitting that he does not know how. Their relationship is therefore marked by practical coordination without secure knowledge of the other's aims.

A Secret Plan, Briefly Offered

At the end of an afternoon conversation, Yabu tells Sumiyori that he is going back to his house and asks him to fetch him when Mariko returns. He then crosses to Blackthorne, who is sitting on the main steps, and speaks furtively. Yabu says he may have a plan and stresses that it is secret, checking that Blackthorne understands the word. The exchange offers no explanation of what the plan might involve, but its secrecy makes Blackthorne a participant in a confidence—or at least a listener whom Yabu wants to believe he has brought close to one.

The moment is set against the castle's measured passage of time. Bells announce the change of hour; people turn toward the sun and mark its position. Blackthorne asks what the plan is, but the available exchange gives no answer. That unanswered question matters to their relationship: Yabu has raised the expectation of shared purpose without providing the information that would make trust possible. His approach joins an offer of cooperation to an immediate limit on what Blackthorne is allowed to know.

Searching for Blackthorne

Later, Yabu goes through the audience-room and private-quarter corridors to look for Blackthorne. Guards allow him through, and he reaches the room and calls quietly. There is no answer. The room is empty, with an inner shoji ajar; Yabu crosses toward the dim inner passage, where Chimmoko, a knife in hand, blocks his way. The episode places Yabu in the position of seeking Blackthorne while moving through guarded, private spaces, but does not establish why Blackthorne has left the room or what Yabu intends to do once he finds him.

When they speak again near dawn, Blackthorne returns directly to the afternoon's suggestion. Yabu replies that there was no secret plan and says Blackthorne misunderstood: he had only meant that escaping Osaka would be difficult, and that they had to escape or die. He underscores the danger with a gesture across his throat. The explanation shifts the focus from a possible scheme to the immediate stakes of flight, but it does not settle whether the earlier hint concealed anything more. Yabu regrets having been so open; his correction confirms that he had disclosed enough to feel exposed, even as he now denies that there was a secret to disclose.

Escape and the Limits of Trust

Blackthorne answers that they now have a pass and can safely leave Osaka. Yabu agrees and speaks of leaving by boat and getting men at Nagasaki. Their exchange shows real practical alignment: both discuss departure, and Yabu supplies a route and a destination for obtaining support. Yet this cooperation is not the same as confidence. Blackthorne's question about the plan has elicited a denial rather than a fuller account, and Yabu's answer emphasizes escape without resolving what prompted his earlier secrecy.

The pass changes the terms of their immediate discussion. Earlier, Yabu described escape as a desperate necessity; now Blackthorne points to permission to leave, and Yabu responds that departure is coming soon. The prospect of a boat and men at Nagasaki gives their cooperation concrete direction, while leaving the earlier plan unexplained. The passage thus presents an alliance that can function through shared immediate objectives even when its participants do not share—or cannot verify—everything they know.

Blackthorne's Suspicion

After speaking with Yabu, Blackthorne tells Mariko that Yabu shrugged off the question and may have changed his mind. He allows that he might have been mistaken, but recalls thinking that Yabu had something planned, or was planning something. Mariko asks whether he means betrayal. Blackthorne says that he does, while conceding that he does not know how it would happen. His suspicion is explicit but incomplete: he names the possibility of treachery without claiming proof or identifying a method.

Mariko suggests that Blackthorne may have been mistaken and reassures him that they are safe now. Her response contrasts his unresolved doubt with her immediate confidence in their safety, but the passage does not confirm that either reading is correct. Yabu's initial secrecy, his later denial, and Blackthorne's inference remain in tension. The relationship's defining feature here is not a revealed betrayal or a settled reconciliation, but cooperation conducted under uncertainty: Yabu and Blackthorne can discuss escape and its practical means, while the question of what Yabu had planned remains open.