KATANAGATARI 2

Nanami─was expressionless.

A face that gave no cues.

And yet, attentive father that he was, Mutsue was able to read Nanami.

Gently─nay.

Apologetically, he placed his mighty hand upon her little shoulder.

“Forgive me, Nanami.”

Considering her age at the time, it would have been normal for her to fail to grasp what her father was saying. But unlike her little brother, Nanami understood what he had said, what had been said to them.

Shichika had been chosen.

Which meant─she had not been chosen.

She had been left out─that much was evident.

Mutsue defended his position.

“My true wish was for you to take over the school─but that will not be possible.”

“…”

Nanami remained expressionless.

But she was only stifling36 her expression.

And thereby─stifling her sense of self.

“Try to understand,” Mutsue said. “There’s nothing I can do. At this point, the only one qualified to take over the Kyotoryu is Shichika.”

When she heard these words─Nanami shot a glance at Shichika, who stood beside her. Oblivious, dazed, literally sucking on his thumb, and staring at his sister and his father talking.

Mutsue noticed Nanami’s line of sight.

“Let’s make this absolutely clear, Nanami─don’t hold this against Shichika. This may sound harsh, but I can’t have you getting sore or teary-eyed about this. Honestly, I shouldn’t even be apologizing.”

“…”

“Make no mistake, you hear me?”

Mutsue let go of her shoulder. Nanami looked not at his hand, but at the shoulder where his hand had been─watching its warmth escape.

“When I say you’re not qualified to inherit37 the school, it’s not because you’re a girl, and it’s not because you’re sick. That wouldn’t amount to a reason. It’s just that I─no, not just me, this goes for all the martial artists in the world, from every discipline─Nanami, no one…”

Mutsue Yasuri, Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu, and Hero of the Rebellion─rued the very words he spoke.

“No one could raise a person of such unparalleled strength as you─”

■　■

No one grasped what happened.

There was no one there to witness it, and Kamakiri Maniwa, despite being the receiver of the blow, couldn’t grasp what had happened to him.

Next thing he knew─he was sent flying.

Every one of his ten nails had been snapped off.

And each of the broken nails─had turned on him and plunged relentlessly38 into his abdomen.

Causing him to slam his head into the tall tree behind him─and lose consciousness, never knowing what hit him.

“…Huh?”

Meanwhile─Nanami Yasuri, despite being the one who delivered the blow, had also to catch up with the happening. A bunch of freshly foraged greens in her right hand, she spun around, angled her head quizzically, and regarded the scene with disbelief.

Kamakiri Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan, and Captain of the Bug Unit, a fearsome enough ninja to have earned the nickname “Head Hunter,” had used his ninpo and pounced upon her from behind─

For Nanami, however, this disturbance could be handled by mere reflex.

“…?”

If Hakuhei Sabi was now Japan’s Strongest─then twenty years prior, around the time when he was born, and before Mutsue Yasuri was banished to the island─without a doubt the title had belonged to her.

Certified by the Hero of the Rebellion.

At the time, seven years old.

Once39 the Strongest in Japan─Nanami Yasuri.

1 散切頭 ZANGIRI ATAMA haircut popular in early Meiji, following the heyday of the topknot

2 刈り上げた KARI AGETA snipped back

3 親切 SHINSETSU kind, generous

4 詭弁 KIBEN tricky arguments

5 まとめる MATOMERU group together, to command

6 蝶々 CHŌCHŌ “The Butterfly” the original is glossed てふてふ TEFUTEFU, an old way of transliterating the word, rather than ちょうちょう CHŌCHŌ, but it is pronounced the same

7 蜜蜂 MITSUBACHI “The Honeybee”

8 蟷螂 KAMAKIRI “The Praying Mantis”

9 大太刀 ŌDACHI long katana

10 後悔 KŌKAI regret “belated guilt”

11 唯々諾々 II DAKUDAKU acquiesce

12 しおらしい[…]しらじらしい SHIORASHII, SHIRAJIRASHII meek vs. disingenuous

13 無重の蝶々 MUJŪ NO TEFUTEFU The Weightless (but also Fold- or Ply-less) Butterfly

14 食らう KURAU eat, devour; the original does not pun here

15 独裁体制 DOKUSAI TAISEI “alone-deciding regime”

16 天文学的 TENMONGAKU TEKI astronomical; often used figuratively to denote scale in Japanese too

17 乱破 RAPPA “chaotic gash” a synonym for ninja emphasizing the outlaw facet

18 風魔 FŪMA “Wind Demons” famous ninja clan based in modern-day Kanagawa

19 飾り物 KAZARI MONO decoration

20 金の亡者[…]亡者 KANE NO MŌJA, MŌJA “lost one for money” vs. the dead (figuratively, lost soul)

21 人情[…]忍情 NINJŌ, NINJŌ “human feelings” vs. neologism that swaps in the character for ninja

22 合理 GŌRI “matches reason” rational, reasonable

23 故郷 KOKYŌ “late country”

24 うぶ UBU “newborn”

25 共同行動 KYŌDŌ KŌDŌ “group movement”

26 自ら立候補 MIZUKARA RIKKŌHO announcing one’s candidacy; nominating oneself

27 臙脂水晶 ENJI SUISHŌ alludes to 臙脂虫 ENJI MUSHI cochineal insect (source of scarlet dyes)

28 半刻 HANKOKU half of 一刻 IKKOKU, an Edo-era unit roughly equaling thirty minutes

29 死に装束 SHINI SHŌZOKU white clothes traditionally worn for burial, and especially ritual suicide

30 消極的な協力者 SHŌKYOKUTEKI NA KYŌRYOKUSHA a so-called “negative cooperator”

31 忍法爪合わせ NINPŌ TSUME AWASE “Ninpo Meeting Fingernails” plays on the hardly violent 詰め合わせ TSUME AWASE assortment (usu. of food)

32 首狩り KUBIKARI neck hunter; 首 KUBI “neck” can refer to a severed head in Japanese

33 初登場 HATSUTŌJŌ “first appearance”

34 行為 KŌI act, deed

35 純粋培養 JUNSUI BAIYŌ “pure culture” as in lab biology; intentionally anachronistic

36 殺している KOROSHITE IRU killing

37 跡取り ATOTORI “take the track/site”

38 容赦なく YŌSHA NAKU without mercy

39 前 ZEN usually means “front/before”; here “former(ly)”