Yoshitsune often visits Yoshitaka with his retainers, feeling sympathy for Yoshitaka as he grew up without his father around as well. One day, one of Yoritomo’s followers suggests to him that they should kill Yoshitaka. Yoritomo, who took the suggestion as an open insult to his son-in-law, decapitates the follower as a warning for the others. Hearing the incident, Yoshitsune feels the difference between Yoritomo’s views and his. Yoritomo tells Yoshitsune that his ideals for a "new country" are to rule the followers by reason and power, not by empathy or bonds. Yoritomo’s vision seems to Yoshitsune to be totally different from Kiyomori’s. Yoshitsune asks himself what a "new country" means to him. Around that time, Yoshinaka beats the army of the Heike family at Kurikara Pass and moves forward to Kyoto. Hearing Yoshinaka’s advance on the capital town, Yoritomo finally commands Yoshitsune to head for Kyoto leading the van of the Genji’s army.
頼朝（中井貴一）から、情や絆（きずな）ではなく道理や力で家臣たちを統制するという「新しき国」づくりの理念を聞いた義経（滝沢秀明）は、それがかつて、清盛（渡哲也）が語ったものとは全く別のもののように感じ、自分にとっての「新しき国」は何なのかと迷いはじめる。一方、倶利伽羅峠の戦いを経て、都に攻め上ろうとする木曽義仲（小澤征悦）の動きを知った頼朝は、義経に先陣として京へ向えと言い渡す。
