The Daimyo
- Setting: Fall 1851 (5th year of Kaei, Year of the Rat)
- Manjiro's in prison.
- It's a nice prison; in fact, it's more like a peaceful Zen garden. But still… it's prison.
- A couple of seasons have passed already.
- The guys have been denied their families; they can't even send messages to them.
- Officials interrogate and observe them.
- The guys manage to tell the officials things like how thunderstorms and the Milky Way exist or can be experienced in other parts of the world.
- One day, Manjiro is ushered into a room for a solo interrogation.
- Lord Nariakira—a daimyo—wants to know about America.
- Manjiro gives simple information, like how American women look like and how American toilets are, but the daimyo isn't satisfied.
- So Manjiro tells him about the technological innovations America has made, like the telegraph and the railroad.
- Manjiro gives details at length about whaling ships, as well as the structure and philosophy of the American government and military.
- The daimyo really wants to know about weapons, though.
- Manjiro tells the daimyo how fortified America's ports are, but he adds that America's too busy building itself to go on the offense against other countries.
- Then he shows the daimyo the map and what Americans want: The ability to land in Japanese ports in order to refuel and restock.
- The daimyo says that the weather is changing.
- Manjiro adds that so is the world, but that this is going to be a good thing.