Oda Nobukatsu, younger brother of Oda Nobuna, emerges as an arrogant noble basking in the admiration his status affords. Favored by their mother to lead the Oda clan after their father’s demise, his inexperience in governance and warfare left him vulnerable to manipulation by cunning advisors, Sakuma Nobunori and Hayashi Michikatsu, who stoked his ambition to challenge Nobuna. Repeated rebellions—culminating in a humiliating defeat at Suemori Castle, where his forces abandoned him—were crushed by his sister. Spared execution through familial pleas, he shed his identity, becoming Tsuda Nobusumi, a subdued vassal bound to Nobuna’s will.

Forced into a political union as part of Nobuna’s strategy, Nobusumi assumes the fabricated persona of Oda Oichi to marry Asai Nagamasa, a daimyō presumed male. The marriage’s facade begins to crumble when Nagamasa’s concealed identity as a woman surfaces, fostering an unexpected bond of authenticity between the two. Publicly upholding their roles, they privately nurture mutual affection, their shared duality deepening their connection.

Nobukatsu’s arc traces a descent from hubris to reluctant submission, shaped by Nobuna’s clemency and the fallout of his miscalculations. His story intertwines personal reinvention with the Oda clan’s intricate diplomacy, as his political marriage becomes both a shackle and a sanctuary. Once driven by entitlement and external scheming, his eventual acquiescence to a subordinate role mirrors the era’s harsh realities, where survival hinges on adaptability and fragile alliances amid ceaseless conflict.