KATANAGATARI 2

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Wrested Zanto the Razor from Ginkaku Uneri, the Lord of Gekoku Castle.

And so Sento the Legion from Meisai Tsuruga, the Mistress of Triad Shrine.

In just three months, Togame the Schemer and her bodyguard, Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu, had managed to sequester three of the Twelve Possessed, those masterworks of legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki unattainable by even the Old Shogun, despite his tireless efforts. Bidding adieu to Izumo, the duo planned to make a brief stop at Owari Castle, seat of the Owari Bakufu─it was the following month, in the fourth moon1 of the year.

They were in a tiny village on the outskirts of Suo─on the east coast of present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture. A fishing village, nothing more, and on the way to nowhere─not even an inn to lodge them. Unsure of whether namedropping the bakufu would do them any good out here, they chose not to disclose their identities, posing instead as wayfaring entertainers, only passing through, and pleaded with the village leader to let them spend the evening in his storehouse. He bought their story─and why not? With Togame’s striking hair of white and garish costumery, and Shichika’s outsize yet slender, toned physique, they certainly looked the part. Togame privately decided this would be their standard explanation going forward.

Midnight.

Sprawled out on the straw mats2 lent to them by the village leader (a kind man who seemed to harbor no suspicions and could have won his rank out of sheer goodness, a rarity today), Shichika, eyes closed, heard the door of the storehouse open.

Togame was back from her excursion.

“Wake up, Shichirin.”

“I’m not asleep.”

When called, Shichika opened his eyes. He had only closed them for a spell, and truly wasn’t sleeping. He was a katana. Togame was his master.3 How could he fall asleep before she got home safe? Lying down was the most rest he needed.

He had been waiting for Togame.

“Ah. Well then─”

Togame closed the door behind her, walked right up to Shichika, and tumbled to the floor to join him. He saw this coming, and just before her head made contact, stretched out his arm. It was a bit too muscular to make for a good pillow, but Togame was not about to complain.

“I’m so…tired.”

“Seems like it. You should have said something. I could have helped.”

“Ha. As if I need a scheming lesson from you, Shichirin.”

Though forceful, her words lacked spirit.

Such was the extent of her fatigue.

…By the way. “Shichirin”4 had recently been decided as Shichika’s new nickname. Sparing you the details─this decision resulted from a back and forth much like what you read at the start of Book Two. Shichika had plenty of doubts about this one-sided decision (“How am I anything like a ceramic charcoal stove?”), but at this point, he gave up without a fight. Besides, knowing Togame, it probably wouldn’t last.

Anyway. While he had been raised on an island no one ever visited, in a ramshackle hut compared to which this storehouse was a serious upgrade, it surprised Shichika that Togame, born the daughter of a mighty daimyo and having risen to the rank of Grand Commander of Arms, would settle for lodgings little better than sleeping outside5─in short, he was worried, for once, about her comfort─but Togame seemed fine.

After all, a lot needs to happen for the daughter of a daimyo to become Grand Commander─if you consider for a second what she must have gone through, perhaps sleeping in a storehouse was nothing special.

Point being, this was a woman who pursued her goals by any means necessary.

“We’ll leave in the morning, after thanking our host.”

“Huh?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Oh…”

After such a long pause, Shichika was surprised to hear Togame speak.

“What’s the rush? I thought we were going to stick around6 awhile, until we heard more─you know, about Hakuhei Sabi.”

“It seems─the chase is over.”

“What?”

“The other day I noticed someone following us. Believe it or not, they came right up and handed me a formal challenge─proving my suspicion Sabi wanted us to follow him.”

Togame sat herself up and produced a letter from her kimono. Without much of a flourish, she handed it to Shichika, and retreated to a corner of the storehouse to untie her obi. She was worn out7 from her excursion, and had been on the mat by Shichika only to rest, with no intention of going to sleep fully dressed. As a matter of fact, she would have had a hard time sleeping─with all those extra layers, it was a wonder she could even walk. When it was time for bed, she had to take them off.

“A challenge…to a duel? From what I’ve heard, that sort of thing is rare these days.”

“Sabi is a walking anachronism. Anyway, read it over.”

“Easy for you to say. I can’t read hiragana.”8

“Oh, is that so.”

Togame was working on shedding her layers.

Although it was night, the storehouse was well-lit by the moon and stars; but Togame showed no signs of embarrassment or shame as she doffed layer after layer of sumptuous silk. The Schemer and the Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu had been adventuring together for four months. By now, the bold line delineating private life from business had faded into obscurity, making the distinction blurry and irrelevant.

“Shichirin─”

“What.”

“My hair keeps tangling. Come hold it up.”

“Sure thing.”

He sat up from the mat, as he was told, and stood behind Togame as she undressed, gathering her white hair in his hands.

……

He looked utterly subservient.9

Regardless.

Whatever she had gone through, Togame had been born into nobility and secured herself a high rank in the bakufu. It made sense, to a degree, for her to handle Shichika, her bodyguard, this way, but Shichika’s comportment, showing no signs of resistance or lust,10 was seriously unnatural. Being raised on a desert island did not adequately explain why he felt no desire.

But that is why─thought Togame.

That was why.

Putting aside his first adversary, Komori Maniwa, and his second, Ginkaku Uneri─this was why Shichika had been able to kill off his third opponent, Meisai Tsuruga, even though she was a woman.

It’s only human─we approach those of the same sex and those of the opposite sex11 in different ways. Same goes for when a swordsman makes a kill. No swordsman can kill a woman in the way he kills a man─at least, Togame had thought as much, until the month before.

Some would hesitate to kill the opposite sex.

And some would love to kill the opposite sex.

As a matter of extremes, everyone falls into one of these two categories.

But not Shichika.

He felt neither.

He had slain Meisai─just like the other two.

Talk about extreme.

And even if he was not totally without desire─blaming his behavior on a lack of, or perhaps even a low sex drive did not seem entirely off base. Since the owners of the nine outstanding swords among the Twelve Possessed were not all necessarily male, this detail was good news12 for Togame─

And yet it raised another pressing question.

This man─this sword.

If he saw no difference─had no preference between men and women.

What exactly made him fall for me?

“So, what does this challenge say?”

“He makes his point with lots of formal language, but for your sake, I’ll summarize: ‘Let’s fight. Winner takes the Shikizaki sword.’”

“Direct.”

“Yeah.”

“But don’t you think that sounds a little fishy? The more I hear, the weirder this all sounds. This guy may be old-fashioned and direct─but look what happened last time. Remember when he scrapped his loyalty to the bakufu and ran off with the sword?”

Hakuhei Sabi. The swordsman Togame hired before Shichika, expecting him to carry out her Sword Hunt. He was the Strongest Swordsman in Japan─although after his betrayal, he had earned himself the name of Fallen Swordsman.

But all the same─Sabi was a master.

“His level of mastery makes the venom of the Shikizaki blades all the more potent─and pervasive. Venom courses through his veins.”

“Wow.”

“Even before he came into possession of the Whisper, Sabi was such an exemplary swordsman he had ceased to come across as human─so perhaps this was inevitable. It certainly makes sense.”

When they were entering Izumo, an emissary from the bakufu appeared before them─one of the Onmitsu, the ninja operatives whose standing in the government had plummeted thanks to the misdeeds of the Maniwa.

By his account, the Onmitsu had ascertained the whereabouts of Hakuhei Sabi─apparently, they were on a manhunt of their own, backing up the Military Directorate overseen by Togame. After losing face by association with the Maniwa, the Onmitsu were doing all they could to save their reputation.

But having a lead on Hakuhei Sabi, owner of Hakuto the Whisper, one of the Twelve Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki, did not give the Onmitsu the right to disregard Togame, whose Sword Hunt had been granted full authority13 by the shogunate. Indeed, this was the moment when Togame, having rounded up the Leveler and the Razor, was reaching for the Legion─eliminating Sabi was a task which should by rights be left to her.

Togame and Shichika were heading ever westward, from Kyoto to Inaba, and on through Izumo─from whence they journeyed down to Suo, where it was said that Hakuhei Sabi had gone into hiding.