KATANAGATARI 2

“You sure are brave,”35 said Mitsubachi in a low voice. “It may not be lethal, but this much poison should at least have shut you up by now─maybe I should slip you another, for good measure.”

He aimed his caltrop.

Made a show of it─to terrorize her.

They were about ten feet apart.

Weak as she may be, she was still standing, which made it risky to get any closer. Not when she could come at him with the Mantis Talons or whatever else.

But ten feet─was plenty close.

At that range, the Blunderbuzz would murder anybody. If he did not exercise the utmost caution and restraint, the caltrop was liable to blow straight through her belly.

“Was that─your ninpo?”

“Yeah, it’s called the Blunderbuzz.”

“Ha…haha.”

Nanami smiled─a pained and artificial smile.

Weak as she may be, it was an evil smile.

“You’re fine with─showing me your ninpo?”

So she knew he’d watched her fight with Chocho─the way she said it made that clear, but at this point it was irrelevant. “In your condition, I’m fine with you seeing whatever you want. Even if you were a genius of unparalleled, unmentionable ability, you could never execute the Blunderbuzz.”

Ready, aim─his sights were set.

“Unlike Kamakiri’s Mantis Talons or Chocho’s Harlequin Butterfly, this move demands that you have caltrops─even if you learned it, you couldn’t use it, since you have no ammo. Don’t tell me that thanks to an unshared character detail,36 you happen to have some caltrops up your sleeve.”

“…”

“You think you’re so strong, Nanami Yasuri─but in your sorry state, the threat is empty.”

“When did I ever say I was strong?” Nanami blustered. “It’s just that you guys─are weak.”

“Hah, I’ll take that as another empty threat… Look, if you’re done needlessly resisting, I promise to stop needlessly harassing you. If you’ll be a good girl and let me hold you hostage from your brother, I have no reason to bother you. I’m a man, after all. I’d hate37 to mar your pretty skin.”

“Thanks─so much.”

After Nanami spoke─she moved.

Or rather, went to move.

She was about to make a beeline for Mitsubachi, when she was stymied by a stealthy Blunderbuzz. Had it not stopped her, it would certainly have tripped her from the outset, the only question being whether her body would have made it to his feet─but Mitsubachi did not even let her falter forward.

Her second caltrop to the stomach.

Savaging her kimono, ravaging her skin, and digging deep into her flesh─the blast slammed Nanami back into the tree.

“Guh…”

Such was the breath that leaked from her throat.

Completely losing her posture, and apparently unable to remain upright, she slumped down by the roots of the tree.

Her bleary, vacant38 gaze─cast upon Mitsubachi.

“… … …”

“Looks like I finally shut you up,” the ninja said, declining to prepare another caltrop. Why bother? Besides, even if the nerve agent was nonlethal, three doses would be going overboard for anyone, especially somebody as sickly and infirm as Nanami. If he were to hit her again, he’d need to wash off the poison─

No, he had a better idea.

In a single breath, Mitsubachi drew the longsword at his hip.

“… … … …”

Nanami was breathing violently. Still, the flashing blade failed to elicit a reaction. This time, her eyes were open, but she could have been unconscious─at the very least, Mitsubachi believed, her thoughts were thick as mud.

Poison and illness will take down even the greatest.39

No doubt.

“You might be behaving now, but when the poison wears off, we’ll be back to square one.40 Let’s be real, you pack more of a punch than me. So how about─while you’re still sleepy, I cut off both your arms, to make sure you never punch again?”

“…”

“I doubt that it will even hurt. I’ve no desire to torment a downed foe─the poison works wonders as a painkiller. And don’t hold this against me. It’s your fault, for being so strong…so strong, that I’m in no mood to at least spare one arm. I can’t take any chances─”

Mitsubachi raised his longsword and approached Nanami, hunched down by the tree roots. She remained unresponsive─even seeing Mitsubachi with his sword on high.41

“Haaa!” the ninja bellowed─and let his longsword fall. Ready to chop straight through her arm, into the tree trunk at her back!

“…?!”

He chopped through.

Something.

But the thing his sword chopped through─was indeed the tree. The blade slashed the trunk clear down to its roots, but that was all. While it is true that esoteric tricks of swordsmanship exist for cutting not the target, but the thing behind it, Mitsubachi Maniwa, who never claimed to be a swordsman, could hardly pull such a stunt.

In which case, what of Nanami Yasuri?

When Mitsubachi cleared his head enough to think this far─it was too late. A sharp pain ran through his shoulder. He looked─to find a caltrop buried past its barb.

Savaging his ninja garb, ravaging his skin, and digging deep into his flesh.

“Whah, ugh…”

Nearly falling to his feet from all the pain, Mitsubachi summoned enough strength to turn around─whereupon he saw Nanami, slouching─not leaning against anything, or propped up against anything, and definitely not in any kind of stance… But then again, she had a name for standing this way, with her arms hanging at her sides:

Kyotoryu Form Zero─the Ichijiku.

“Wh-Wh-When did you get behind─”

“Harlequin Butterfly,” Nanami answered quietly─taking the time to sigh. “…That, and some Kyotoryu footwork, for good measure. Not exactly instantaneous,42 but using both at once, I guess I can go pretty fast─that’s how. Oh, and another thing.”

Nanami held up her right hand and flicked her thumb smartly at Mitsubachi.

“What did you call it, the Blunderbuzz?”

“How…”

Considering the caltrop lodged into his shoulder─the time had passed for asking questions and being surprised by the answers. As should be clear by now, Nanami dodged Mitsubachi’s longsword almost instantaneously before countering─with none other than the Blunderbuzz!

“What, so you had a caltrop all along─conveniently enough? Did I just miss the part where they told us you have some on you?”

“You gave them to me─both of them.”

Nanami stopped flicking her thumb and showed him her kimono. The caltrops had torn through the fabric─but only one was there.

The other caltrop, the first Mitsubachi had unleashed, was gone.

“This Blunderbuzz─it’s great that you can attack from so far away, but it’s too bad that with each attack, you give your enemy your ammo.”

“Wha… B-But! Once they break skin, they should be almost impossible to remove! What about the barb─”

“You see…”

This time Nanami showed him her left hand.

Its nails─were much longer than they should be.

Almost like blades.

Mantis Talons─

“I gouged it free, skin and all.”

“…!”

Mitsubachi’s head began to spin.

The shock of hearing that Nanami had gouged into her own flesh was incredible enough─but there was more. If this was the same caltrop that he threw at her, then it was poisoned, and now that toxin was traveling through his body!

“H-How could… How did… When you only saw the Blunderbuzz─me, do it once…”

“Okay─not like this is a compliment, but that is not an easy move. I was aiming for the center of your back, but it strayed way up and to the right…and even this close, it had less force than I wanted. Surprisingly hard to do. I wish I could have seen it twice.”

“Gah, ahh─”

Words failed Mitsubachi.

Perhaps it was the poison, perhaps it was frustration43─

His body would not do his bidding.

No, wait, stick with it─don’t lose focus. The battle isn’t over yet. Nanami may have hit me with a caltrop, but she missed my vital organs, and after gouging out that caltrop with her nails, she’s gotta be in rough shape. I got a dose of poison, but she got double-dosed, far too much for a girl her size. I’m winning, no matter how you look at it─

“Huh?”

Mitsubachi Maniwa finally wised up.

The poison, what happened to the poison?

Not the Harlequin Butterfly, not the Kyotoryu footwork, and not the Mantis Talons or the Blunderbuzz─none of it should have been possible for somebody stung twice by poisoned caltrops!

She had been about to faint!

In so much pain─what happened to the pain?

“I faked it.”

Nanami spoke plainly, and unapologetically.44

“A poison that can’t even kill? That’s nothing for me. I knew you guys were trying to capture me alive. You never would have used a poison strong enough to hurt me.”

“Whuh…”

What the hell… Was she saying that she could have dodged both of the caltrops but let them hit her anyway? Was she insinuating she had feigned exhaustion just so he’d lower his guard?!

To see the Blunderbuzz up close and personal.

To get Mitsubachi Maniwa to talk.

Was she really telling him that she had tricked him, to make sure Mitsubachi was the third and final ninja on the island?

“Ugh…ahwah, ah, ah, uwahhh.”

Tongue-tied.

The poison certainly worked.

How could she call it nothing? That simply couldn’t be. Even if she was a genius of unparalleled, unmentionable ability…poison and illness will take down even the greatest! Indeed, after absorbing but a single caltrop’s share, Mitsubachi was in such pain he felt his body being torn apart!

“Torn apart…” said Nanami, using the nails of her left hand to gouge out the second caltrop, skin and all.

Gouging her nails into her own flesh.

No change to her expression whatsoever.

“That’s nothing─I feel that way every day.”

“…”

“Like you said, the poison worked wonders as a painkiller─pain and suffering are old friends of mine by now. A little more can’t hurt─literally. Even if it does itch a little.”

Nanami Yasuri─a woman who should never have been born.

She’d done nothing to reach the top.

Skills other martial artists acquired only after coughing up their share of blood were hers to embody, through no toil whatsoever.

Her strength broke the mold.

Her strength broke the rules.

Surpassing─what we know as strength.

Which is why the gods punished her.

For being far too superior─they saddled her body with a billion maladies.45 Her body was gratuitously46 packed with these afflictions, each plenty fatal on its own─and inviting a whole suite of complications47 that made her life gratuitously excruciating.

Yet her innate genius rejected the maladies.

Rejected poison, and illness.

Through all the pain and suffering, even on the verge of death, her body refused to die. She could not get any weaker, and was too feeble to function─but held out, living on the brink of death.

She should have died by now.

She should not─have been alive.

Her body possessed an outsize48 capacity to heal, keeping her billion maladies at bay.

The gouges in her belly skin─would soon be gone without a trace.

Mitsubachi understood now.

How despite her inexperience, she had been able to kill Kamakiri and Chocho─for her, pain and suffering, and likewise death, were old friends.

Dying and killing.

And being killed.

Had never been a big deal.

“Really, I’m jealous of you guys.”

Careful not to cut her palms, and playing with the caltrop she’d gouged out safely─she glanced at Mitsubachi.

“You guys can take your health for granted─that makes me incredibly jealous. I never asked for my abilities. All I’ve ever wanted is a healthy body, and a little room─to dream.”

Her body kept her dreams from coming true.

Her abilities rendered dreams unnecessary.

And either─she could have done without.

“Kah…aaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

All Mitsubachi Maniwa could do was howl into the sky with all his might. Crying out─for Kamakiri and Chocho; for Komori, buried in the island dirt; and for Shirasagi and Kuizame, who had sacrificed their lives at other locales on the Sword Hunt.

“Not over yet! I haven’t lost─you’re not the only person with an extreme tolerance for poison! I’m not done fighting─you’re not going to psyche me out! If you think I’m finished, you got another thing coming!”

“No─I’m pretty sure you’re finished.”

His desperate cry was lost on Nanami Yasuri.

“The caltrop that I planted in your shoulder─” she explained, “was dressed with more than just your poison. I freshened it with poison of another kind.”

“…!”

“I got it from the first ninja who attacked me─Kamakiri. He had it stashed in his molar… Looks like I had a few tricks up my sleeve, after all. Did you see that coming? A ninja, dying by the poison of his brethren. Quite the tidy ending, if you ask me.”

“Ah…ahh….ahhhh…”

A lethal poison─their Suicide Poison.

Which meant─he was already dead.

Out of his body, out of his mind.

Faced with inescapable despair, Mitsubachi turned pale.

And yet─pale as he was, he paled in comparison to Nanami.

Whose skin had such little color─she should not have been alive.

“I’d prefer to let you choose,” Nanami told Mitsubachi, who refused to break form, or perhaps was simply dumbfounded, and powerless to act─“whether to die by poison, or by the sword.”

“…”

“There’s a move that I’ve been dying to try out─I only watched him do it once before he left the island, and never actually tried it out myself…but you choose. Doesn’t matter to me either way.”

In response.

Mitsubachi Maniwa gave her a fake-looking smile─but answered without flinching.

“You can kill me with a sword,” he said. “If you kill me with our Suicide Poison, I could never face my friends… I’d appreciate if you would bury me beside them.”

“I would be happy to.”

Nanami tossed the caltrop like a piece of litter49─and arms hanging at her sides, totally natural, she slowly made her way toward Mitsubachi, who could only wait for judgment. He wasn’t interested in making any last-ditch effort50─why bother, with no friend left on the island to watch?

“The Kyotoryu has Seven Fatal Orchids─but with this move, I’ll give you all of them at once─it’s basically the eighth one, or the Last Fatal Orchid─”

Fatal Orchid One: Kyoka Suigetsu

Fatal Orchid Two: Kacho Fugetsu

Fatal Orchid Three: Hyakka Ryoran

Fatal Orchid Four: Ryuryoku Kako

Fatal Orchid Five: Hika Rakuyo

Fatal Orchid Six: Kinjo Tenka

Fatal Orchid Seven: Rakka Rozeki

“Kyotoryu─Shichika Hachiretsu!”

■　■

Flying like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, and preying like a mantis─they were crushed like bugs.

Since these battles had taken place on a desert island, it goes without saying that it was quite some time before the news made it to the mainland─but the sudden loss of three of the Twelve Bosses would have a major impact on the Maniwa Clan, and on the Sword Hunt being carried out by Togame the Schemer and Shichika Yasuri.

Reason being─

“…”

Nanami Yasuri─stood on the beach.

Her kimono smeared with blood and full of holes.

She had looked weak enough already, but now she looked ghastly51 and depleted─in her feeble state, fighting for her life three times in a row had been like walking a tightrope.52

She may have won three times in a row, but that did not mean that the battles had been easy. Mitsubachi had thought he could have licked her with the help of two more Bosses, but in reality, she would have been in trouble if even one more Maniwa Boss-level opponent had shown up. It was a miracle she was not hacking blood up this very moment.

She gazed over the sea.

Across the ocean─to the mainland.

To the nation of Japan─where her little brother and that Whitehaired Schemer were hunting for swords.

“I saw one, finally, after all this time─”

She eyed the longsword, in its scabbard, she was carrying in one hand─and let out a sigh from the bottom of her heart.

The longsword─of Mitsubachi Maniwa.

Indeed, Nanami had been watching.

She’d seen him swing the sword, aimed for her arm, and seen him slash the tree behind her clear down to its roots.

Seen it.

Seen what it could do.

“I’m supposed to be part of the Kyotoryu…but now I understand─how to use a sword.”

On this island where all blades were prohibited, nearly twenty years after Nanami had gained the ability to watch and learn, she had finally seen a sword in action.53

And not merely by coincidence.

Just as she had pretended to torture Kamakiri Maniwa to make him use his Mantis Talons─and just as she had provoked Mitsubachi to fire another Blunderbuzz─

Nanami had lured him into brandishing his sword.

Was the Kyotoryu stronger for being swordless?

Three months before the Bug Unit landed on the island, Komori Maniwa had asked something to that effect:

If the Swordless Swordsman took up a sword…he would have to be stronger than the same swordsman swordless.

By a strange twist, the dictum came true now, via the head of the Yasuri household.

Her genius─reached an even higher echelon of genius.

Then.

“Oh, Shichika… What Last Fatal Orchid? He can really run his mouth54… It has such a glaring weakness I have a hard time even calling it fatal. I should have told him, but you never know until you try… If I don’t warn him soon, he could wind up in deep trouble─actually, no.”

Nanami tilted her head, as if unsure of what to do.

And gazed off to the horizon.

Another deep, deep sigh.

She could sigh─better than anyone.

Then she muttered something.

Wearing an evil smile.

“There’s room for one more─on this Sword Hunt.”