KATANAGATARI 2

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“Ha…”

However harsh, this advice came from a place of deep concern─and yet the whitehaired woman, dressed in at least two dozen layers of flamboyant finery, laughed it off.

“Hey, Shichika. This guy’s oblivious. Clue him in on just how marvelous I am.”

“Sure thing, Togame.”

Beside the whitehaired woman, the young man whom she had called Shichika─tall, muscular, stripped to the waist, wearing nothing but a hakama─nodded his tousled head of hair.

“Alright, so Togame, who I’m totally in love with by the way, is the type of person who can find herself in deep trouble, even on the verge of death, and never regret one of her decisions.”

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Blizzarding so violently you could not see a foot ahead of you, the sky rang with this admission of regret from Grand Commander of Arms of the Yanari Shogunate Military Directorate, Owari Bakufu.

Even this bloodcurdling scream was swallowed by the blowing snow. Avalanches awoken by a screaming climber may be common as a plot device, but nothing about this circumstance was common.

Ezo. Mt. Odori.

The terrain itself was not precipitous─less than half as high as Mt. Taizan, which they had climbed together in their third month of the Sword Hunt, on their way to Triad Shrine, the home of Meisai Tsuruga.

But this was the Absolute Tundra of Ezo.

Even near in the sixth moon3 of the year, the average temperature was a frightful twenty-two degrees below freezing.4

The snow never relented the entire year, regardless of the season.

It was a known fact that Mt. Odori was a land of blizzards; alongside Mt. Shirei in Mutsu and Lake Fuyo in Edo, it had been designated by the Owari Bakufu as a Level One Disaster Area.5 Nobody in their right mind would go near it, nor would they have any reason to. If you insisted on making the ascent, you would need to spend over a month in rigorous preparation, and craft a plan of action, and assemble a large climbing party─but once the schooner left them harborside, Togame the Schemer hopped on a dogsled in a bee line for the mountain, whereupon she and Shichika, after zero preparation whatsoever, entered Mt. Odori on foot.

Which was understandable.

On her mission to round up the Twelve Possessed, the masterworks of legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki, she could not rely on help from strangers, and she had no time to make careful arrangements.

But as a denizen of the grand halls of Owari, Togame underestimated the Absolute Tundra and its status as a Level One Disaster Area. I’m already overdressed. Being cold is nothing I can’t handle, or so she thought.

Frivolously.

“Brrr! I’m freeeezing! I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die… I’m such an idiot. Why didn’t I listen to that kindly stevedore?!”

“Lighten up, Togame…”

In snow like this, not even Shichika could go shirtless. Togame had bought him a coat at the harbor; by then, it had been already so cold he needed it.

She was riding piggyback.

Since the snow was piled deep enough that even Shichika sank to his knees, it would have been physically impossible for her to make the climb. Unwillingly (?) she had hopped up on his back, a position she’d refused to take on Mt. Taizan (opting instead for a bridal carry, an odd preference). But a Schemer had to eat too,6 had to conserve body heat, and she’d resigned herself to this intimate orientation. As it turned out, Shichika’s muscly body was a fine body warmer, and she tossed aside her pride and hugged him hard, holding on for dear life. If she didn’t, her petite frame would be lost into the blizzard.

“Ugh, uggggh… I wanna go home, I wanna go home…”

“Too late now. We’re halfway up the mountain.”

“Aren’t you freezing?”

“Should I be? I’m wearing a coat.”

“Look, my…”

Togame was about to tell him that even her hair had frozen, but when she noticed that his was in the same shape, she held back. Shichika was apparently dull to the pain. His body made a wall between Togame and the blizzard, making the cold somewhat easier to bear, but only because he was confronting it full blast.

“This snow’s crazy though,” he said. “Guess the wind must be why it’s only piling knee-deep. The wind’s even crazier than the snow. It’s like climbing through an avalanche. Hard to go in a straight line.”

“Shi-Shichika, when I die…” Having presumed she’d freeze to death, Togame pleaded feebly, “Popularize ‘Cheerio’ as a battle cry, throughout Japan.”

“Wh-What are you saying?!” he roared. “Pull yourself together! This is no time to feel sorry for yourself!”

“I can’t go on… That’s about all that I can take. Please, Shichika. Take care of ‘Cheerio’ for me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! How am I supposed to make everyone use ‘Cheerio’ the wrong way?”

“If anyone can, it’s you…my chosen sword…”

“No! Togame, I’d be lost without you! There’s no way I could popularize ‘Cheerio’ without you. Togame!”

“Nonsense, in these six months, I’ve taught you everything I know. You no longer need my schemes… Spreading the word about ‘Cheerio’ should be a piece of cake…”

“Get ahold of yourself! Togame, there’s so many things you need to do!”

“Need to do…” Togame let her eyes fall shut and chuckled. “But do I really need to? Heh, I was hung up on that stuff for far too long. Yikes, I can’t catch on so quick…”

The Schemer was beginning to sound delirious from the cold.

“They murdered my family, tarnished the family name. I sought revenge and fought alone… But traveling with you I started to wonder, somewhere along the way, if it wasn’t all meaningless.”

“Togame…Togame!”

“I was a fool. True happiness comes not from dwelling on the past, but from moving on, with someone by your side…stepping forth, together. What took me so long?”

“Y-You can’t catch on so quick, Togame…”

“For twenty years, I walked that road alone, but in less than half a year, you’ve showed me…how to live.”

“No, nothing I’ve done so far could have changed your approach to life!” Shichika jerked back his head and whammed it into Togame’s brow. A head-butt. The pain brought her to her senses.

“Funny… I feel like I got ahead of myself there for a minute.”

“Must be your imagination. Anyway, you said you’d fill me in once we were on the mountain.”

“Huh…about what?”

She had forgotten. It would seem Togame the Schemer was quite pervious to the cold.

“About who I’ll be fighting─and Soto the Twin.”

“Ahh, that’s right.” All she needed was a nudge to jog her memory. Togame nodded knowingly. “Yes…we came here seeking Soto the Twin. That is why we sojourned all the way from Satsuma to Ezo.”

“…”

In actuality, she’d had no intention of winding up in Ezo, having planned to set sail out of Satsuma for that stronghold of the bakufu, Owari Castle. She had stepped into a vicious trap7 laid for her by Kanara Azekura, Captain of the Armored Pirates and erstwhile owner of Zokuto the Armor, their fifth conquest of the Twelve Possessed, those masterworks of Kiki Shikizaki. Their boat was bound for Ezo, not Owari─but either way, her memory of the past had been redacted.8

She had a way of making situations work for her. Since Mt. Odori in Ezo was supposedly where they would find Soto the Twin, they needed to make the trip up here eventually.

“Hey, Shichika, I feel we may have already discussed this, but I’m not sure what kind of sword Soto the Twin will be.”

“Huh? Oh, right. You mentioned that when we were climbing up Mt. Taizan…but how’s that possible? I thought you knew the owner and location for one more sword, and this was it.”

“I know its owner and its whereabouts.”

“Well?”

“I still don’t know what kind of sword it is.” Togame’s tone was resolute, perhaps in part to take her mind off of the cold. “Since the days of the Old Shogun─nay, since this masterpiece was forged by Kiki Shikizaki, Soto the Twin has stayed in Ezo on Mt. Odori. Not once has it been said to leave.”

“Does that mean Kiki Shikizaki came here too?”

“Precisely. The legendary swordsmith trekked into this Level One Disaster Area…and made this Mutant Blade in situ. This sword is no joke. We should expect it to be more powerful than all the others we have seen thus far.”

“I bet…it’s strong against the cold?”

Kiki Shikizaki had invested each of the Twelve Possessed with special characteristics: Zetto the Leveler boasted hardness, Zanto the Razor sharpness, Sento the Legion strength in numbers, Hakuto the Whisper fragility, and Zokuto the Armor, armor class.

“Strong against the cold? That wouldn’t be much of a sword.” Normally, Togame would have shouted “Cheerio!” and bopped Shichika upside the head, but right now she couldn’t help but think, Sounds pretty good. Besides, she was too fatigued to bop.

Pressing her body even harder into Shichika, a sword “strong against the cold” in his own right, she instead rubbed (i.e. nestled) her cheek against his neck to generate more warmth through friction.

The Schemer and the Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu were getting quite familiar, but her life was on the line, making the situation hard to snicker at.

“So…the Old Shogun must have failed to capture the Twin too.”

“Yes, once he launched the Great Sword Hunt, he caught wind of a sword having been forged here. But his troops faced, at Mt. Odori, the very circumstances we do now. Before they could locate Soto the Twin, their ranks were decimated, and they had to regroup again and again.”