Japan, 1573.
The shogun has been driven from Kyoto, Nobunaga's power is spreading, and old loyalties are collapsing.
Sent west with Saburo to secure Morioka's supply routes, Akitsune Mori enters a country of broken bridges, forced levies, burned villages, and shifting authority.
In a land where choosing can kill-and refusing to choose can kill just as surely-loyalty becomes a question of survival.
The Ashes of the Shogun is a historical epic of samurai warfare, brotherhood, and survival in the final decades of the Sengoku age.