KATANAGATARI 2

Fair-skinned, with long hair─she was a child of tender years, around ten or so.

And yet despite her tiny size, Konayuki Itezora had hoisted Shichika onto her back and carried him all the way to the cave, leading Togame.

This was no normal kiddo. And if her name was Konayuki Itezora…

Could she be? She had to be.

One of the Itezoras─owners of Soto the Twin.

“Whew…I almost died back there.”

It took Shichika just fifteen minutes by the fireside to snap out of his groggy state. Togame was startled by the speed of his recovery (since a quarter of an hour by the fire was not enough to stop her shivering), but what startled her the most was where they were: a den at the rear of a cave.

Firewood was stocked up in a corner. At first, she wondered how any wood found in the mountain snow could burn, but the space functioned as a sort of kiln, where the burning fire dried whatever wood was found outside. Smoked meat, of a wild hare or something like it, hung from the roof of the cave. Konayuki was dressed in pelts of white, which looked exceedingly warm.

Togame’s guess that the Itezoras could tolerate extreme cold─may not in fact be wrong, but on top of that, it seemed they had the knowhow necessary to survive in snowy climes.

“You guys really pushed your luck, climbing the mountain dressed like that. If I hadn’t passed you, you definitely would have died.”

“We’re much obliged,” Togame expressed her thanks with grace.

There was no other appropriate response.

“But on the other hand, I’m really impressed. Especially by you, Mister, carrying a person halfway up the mountain on your back. That takes a lot of grit, for an earthling.4 It helps that you have enormous muscles.”

Togame squinted at the strange word earthling, but she surmised it meant “anyone from below the mountain”─essentially, not a member of the Itezoras.

After generations spent in isolation, as the only group of people on Mt. Odori, the Itezoras could be forgiven a few bizarre expressions.

And yet…

Did this girl, Konayuki, actually live here? As an “emergency shelter,” it served its function splendidly. You could not ask for a cozier grotto, but living here would be another story. The cave had plenty of space for one, or three people at best. With Shichika and Togame in there, the space was starting to feel cramped. Because Konayuki was a child and Togame was petite, it was not exactly claustrophobic, but two people the size of Shichika would fill the space entirely, unable to move an inch.

Halfway up the mountain?

It was baffling to think that after so many hours hiking they were only halfway up, but even stranger was why Konayuki chose to live in such a place.

“Talk about grit! That was amazing, carrying me on your back like that. And you’re so little!”

Shichika seemed genuinely impressed with Konayuki. Despite his four and twenty years, he had the mind5 of someone closer to her age, and did not affect his speech because she was a child.

“How are you so strong?”

“I gotta be, how else could I live up on a mountain?”

Konayuki was not the least bit shy about her strength.

“Hey, Miss, Miss,” said the girl. “Could you tell me your name?”

Right─they had yet to introduce themselves.

Togame gave her name: “Togame the Schemer, Grand Commander of Arms of the Yanari Shogunate Military Directorate, Owari Bakufu.”

She had hesitated as to whether to include the part about the bakufu, but decided it would not make any difference to an Itezora.

First they would recover their strength and wait out the snow (according to Konayuki, it was particularly bad that day, even for a Level One Disaster Area like Mt. Odori, a detail which depressed Togame, who had not hoped to die of rotten luck)─and after that the Schemer would make Konayuki guide them to the village at the summit. She decided it behooved them to be as straightforward as possible, although if she could manage, she would prefer not to explain that they were here to round up Soto the Twin─

“And I’m Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu,” said Shichika, giving his name too.

“Miss Togame, Mister Shichika. Okay, got it! My name’s Konayuki Itezora,” the kid introduced herself for the second time, bowing her head low.

Not afraid of grownups.

She sure was charming.

At her age, I was definitely not such a good kid, Togame told herself with a granule of self-deprecation.

But this was no time to be gushing about adorable kiddos.

“Shichika,” Togame called to her katana. “Any better?”

“Not exactly perfect6…but I can mostly feel my hands and feet again. Fire is amazing.”

“Hmm…”

So what if Shichika had fallen. His physical abilities were unbelievable. But to play it safe, thought Togame, they should probably spend the night here in the cave, and plan on leaving in the morning, when the snow let up.

“Well, Konayuki─” Togame turned to the young girl. “Far be it from me to ask a favor, when you’ve just now saved our lives…but you’re someone I had hoped to meet. Tomorrow morning, could we bother you to bring us to your village…home of the Itezoras?”

“Huh?” Konayuki puckered her lips in confusion. “Miss Togame, did you come here to see us?”

Were it not the case, they would have had no reason to set foot on Mt. Odori, Level One Disaster Area that it was, but Konayuki was evidently not expecting this. She looked genuinely surprised.

“Now that you mention it, yes,” Shichika said, as if finally catching up to what had been bugging Togame all along. “Why live in a cave like this? I’m glad that you were here to save us, but unless you’re out here hunting…what’s the point?”

“Yeah. Uhm, okay. I’m not sure how to put this.”

Konayuki did not seem keen on answering Shichika’s question, as if it involved something she would rather not explain.

Has she been run out of town?7

The thought flashed across Togame’s mind. She was just a little girl, but then again, her age would have made her vulnerable. Togame was not privy to the customs of the Itezoras, and knew nothing of their way of life, but some situation must have forced Konayuki to live outside the village─it was no good to ask for her to lead them. The most they could hope for was directions.

Togame arrived at that conclusion in a fraction of a second, but the reality was a far cry from the Schemer’s speculations.

“Our village was wiped out by last month’s avalanche,” Konayuki explained.

“W-Wiped out?”

“Yes. The only person left alive─was me.”

“…!”

This message stunned Togame and Shichika alike, but Konayuki, who had weathered the disaster, wore a casual expression.

Wiped out… The Itezoras, who not even the Old Shogun, in his tireless campaign for power, could invade, were wiped out by an avalanche?

“Not to bring up Inaba Desert─but sounds like these guys were no match for nature either,” grumbled Shichika. “How does this affect the Sword Hunt?”

After twenty formative years on a desert island, he had a lot of catching up to do. He could have been more circumspect. Without a single word of consolation for Konayuki─newly orphaned, a little girl bereft of her entire family, he quickly voiced his concern about the sword. Even Togame, who shared his urgent concern for the safety of the katana, saw this as incredibly insensitive.

She gave Shichika the stink eye. He had no clue why, but seemed to recognize that he’d done something to anger her, and hung his head.

─Wiped out her entire family.

The overlap with her experience was surreal.

The House of Hida, led by the rebel Takahito Hida.

Slaughtered, every one of them─except Togame, who was just a girl.

“Sword Hunt?”

Konayuki was not hurt or even fazed by Shichika’s insensitive remark. He had perked her up.

Who was the child here? Konayuki could easily have had the mind of someone older.

“Right, the Sword Hunt,” said Togame.

She was unsure whether to address this, but with the House of Itezora gone, there was no sense in being oblique.8 This was the ideal time to ask her what had happened to the sword─if the entire village had been buried by the snow, it stood to reason9 they would have to dig it out.

“Hence the purpose of our visit. We are here to ask the Itezoras─to hand over their sword, Soto the Twin, one of the Twelve Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki.”

If Konayuki Itezora was the last remaining member of her clan, that meant she represented their interests in any negotiation. In which case, Togame could not treat her like a child; she would not dream of being as insensitive as Shichika had been just now, but she could only be as delicate as circumstance demanded.

“Have you not heard of such a tale from family or acquaintances? How once upon a time the government came to your mountain, saying the same thing?”

“Nope…never heard of anything like that,” replied Konayuki, but there was something about her tone. “As you can see, I’m just a kid. I don’t want to get involved in complicated grownup stuff. Soto the Twin…hmm, doesn’t ring a bell… What kind of sword is it, anyway? Was this some kind of family heirloom?”

“…”

Could she really─be oblivious?

Like she said, it fell within the realm of possibility that her family had not told her yet, because she was too young.

If so, Togame was stuck.

If the kid was asking them what kind of sword it was, they could not hope for so much as a hint.

“Nobody in your family was a swordsman, or used a sword?” asked Shichika. He had merely spoken his mind, but in fact, the question was insightful. The Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki had one common characteristic, their venom, and that venom was so potent that just holding one made you want to kill─it made its owner an assassin who lived to carry out its murderous potential. An exception the likes of Meisai Tsuruga, who had tried to use the venom to do good, only proved the rule.

Whoever they were, the Itezoras could not have been immune.

One thing was for sure. Swordsman or not, whoever owned the Twin─had used the Twin.

“Hmm.” Konayuki shrugged, and scrunched up her face. “We did everything, from hunting and cooking to building things, without using a knife─oh, wait. The eldest son of the chief10 did have…”

“Have what?” Togame leaned forward to hear what Konayuki had to say. Too far…almost falling into the fire─she scrambled back to safety.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. Fine. Young lady, tell me more about the chief’s son.”

Actually, Togame had singed her hair, but she was not about to interrupt this conversation.

“Um…I remember hearing that he used a sword to hunt, but I never saw the sword myself, and I’m not sure whether it’s the one you mentioned…what was it again, the Soto?”

“…What do you think, Shichika?”

Togame had her own opinions, but for now, she was curious what he had to say, since after all, he was a sword, and felt that lifeforce or whatever when he beheld one of the Twelve Possessed.

“I dunno,” he said, predictably. “I wouldn’t get so hung up on this lifeforce thing, Togame─it’s nothing, probably just a hunch.”

“Hmm…I was thinking that if all else fails, we’d go to where the village used to be, before the avalanche, and use your special sense to find the sword…but it sounds like that is not an option.”

His special sense would do them little good heading in blind. Besides, they had little hope of finding anything by digging around randomly11 in the snow…and here she had hoped to get some kind of lead from Konayuki.

“I suppose the only option left is digging in the snow where the chief’s house used to be…though I suppose after the avalanche, we won’t have any way of knowing if we’re there.”

“Oh. In that case, how about I run up there and grab it for you?”

Togame, stumped, had voiced a tedious plan of action one could hardly call a scheme, but Konayuki offered her the world like it was nothing.

“I lived in the village ten whole years. I’m sure I can find it, one way or another.”

“Uh…run up there, now?”

The middle of a blizzard was no time to step outside─even for an Itezora.

“Don’t worry. I’m not sure about earthlings, but to us it makes no difference how hard it snows. We’re made of snow.” Konayuki giggled. “We? Oops, I meant me, since I’m the only one left.”

This was not an easy thing to laugh at. The declaration left Togame silent, but Konayuki saw nothing to worry about and stood decisively.

The roof of the cave was low enough that Shichika would have bumped his noggin, but Konayuki and Togame had plenty of headroom.12

“I’ll be back with it soon, okay? You wait here, Miss Togame and Mister Shichika…”

“Wait, you’re going now?”

She could get there, that was safe to say. This mountain was like a backyard for the Itezoras; a blizzard was no different from a spring breeze. But digging a sword out of a village buried in the snow was not exactly child’s play.

Or maybe it was the sort of thing only a child can do. Konayuki shrugged off Togame’s warnings and donned another fur before running out of the cave.

Then it was silent.

After a time, a log burst13 in the fire.

“What’s up with her…the girl.”

Inclined as they both were to chase her, neither Togame nor Shichika was about to run out after her, not with the weather the way it was. They had no choice but to do as she said, and wait there in the cave for her to come back.

“Grab it for you… Sounds like the sword is ours. As long as it’s in fact the Twin…” Shichika had to wonder, and for good reason.

“I don’t know… I’m not sure how the other Itezoras saw Soto the Twin, but this girl does not appear to have any attachment to it. Which means…” Togame paced herself, thinking through the situation. “If the sword the chief’s eldest son used when he went hunting is in fact Soto the Twin, and Konayuki hands it over in one piece…we just might finish this stage diplomatically, without a fight.”

“Sounds like it’s all or nothing.” He had a point. They would either break their backs and come up empty, or get the sword without lifting a finger. “But can an avalanche bury an entire village?” he asked. “The Itezoras must have lived here hundreds of years. Kind of a disappointing14 ending.”

“Hmm…that is strange, now that you mention it. But endings are always disappointing. As a rule.”

“Is that why? Is that why Konayuki is being so nice to us?”

“Huh?”

“She must be lonely, losing everything so suddenly.”

“…”

Togame had overlooked this perspective. Hearing a perspective she had overlooked from Shichika, who was normally so insensitive, surprised her.

Had he consciously detected loneliness…and not in himself, but in another?

If he truly recognized that other people have emotions, this island monkey had come a long way.

When Togame lost everything, the Owari Bakufu was there to blame. By rallying her aimless feelings under the ensign of anger, she had regained a sense of purpose.

But the same could not be said for Konayuki.

If nature was to blame, she may never find her way.

Sure of nothing─but her loneliness.

“Hey, Shichika.”

“Yeah?”

“I need to think this through out loud, so hear me out without getting upset. It’s like you said. We might capture Soto the Twin without lifting a finger─however, if negotiations fail, and battle is our only option…can you fight?”

“Huh? Fight who?” Shichika was puzzled. “I thought the Itezoras were wiped out.”

“Yes─but there’s one left. Konayuki.”

“Yeah, I can fight her,” he answered instantly. “She’s a kid. It should be easy. Plus, I’m almost a hundred percent.”

“…Right.”

A sword─will not choose who to kill, no matter what?

But what is there to worry about? I am his owner. As long as I can keep his spirit under reins, we’re fine. I was just checking to see how he’d react. The odds of Shichika clashing swords with Konayuki are miniscule.15

The girl would need to find Soto the Twin within the ruins of the Itezoras’ village─and decide to kill them.

Just having one will make you want to kill.

The venom─of Kiki Shikizaki.

Since Konayuki was not a swordsman, its effects on her would not be so dramatic, as evinced by the fact that the eldest son only used the sword for hunting. In which case, there was a chance they did not actually have much to fear.

I should not have let her go alone.

Nursing this regret, Togame threw another log onto the fire─and so.

While waiting for Konayuki Itezora to come back to the cave, Togame the Schemer considered the situation from every angle, imagining all kinds of possibilities and eventualities─but the reason Konayuki returned to the village alone, in other words, why she did not want Togame or Shichika coming anywhere near the village was beyond even the Schemer. She would have to wait.

■　■

Sure enough, Konayuki carried a sword in one of her hands. But one look was enough to tell both Shichika and Togame that to their chagrin, the sword was not Soto the Twin─a conclusion they could not be blamed for reaching.

Reason being, it was not even made of metal─but of stone, seemingly by chipping away chunks of rock. Lacking an iota16 of the grace of a katana, fired from the finest steel, the sword was more of a club, its blade roughhewn. One might even call the thing inelegant.

It measured17 about two and a half feet long.

No pattern of the kind observed on swords of steel.

Nor a scabbard, nor a handguard─a stone club, shaped basically the same at both ends.

“You look upset. Isn’t this the sword that you were looking for, Miss Togame?”

“Unfortunately…no.”

Feeling bad for Konayuki, who had brought back the wrong sword for nothing, Togame tried to hide just how unfortunate this was by nodding painfully. But Konayuki had more to say.

“Then how come the certificate18 that I found next to it said that it was Soto the Twin?”

“Huh?”

“Want to take a look?”

With that─Konayuki tossed down the sword for them to see. No way to handle a legitimate katana, but not necessarily a problem for what was basically a stone club.

But that did not make it safe.

Togame reached out to grab the sword but missed it entirely,19 whereupon it sank into the earth.

Sank─down.

Grinding─into the packed earth of the cave.

“…!”

Togame snapped back her hand.

But Shichika was leaning over. He reached into the hole to grab the sword…and then reached down with both arms.

Same deal, one arm or both. The sword refused to budge─not even for Shichika!

The muscles that had overpowered Dread Captain Azekura, the giant pirate who stood one or two heads above Shichika, could not dislodge the sword, much less lift it from the hole.

But touching the sword, he could sense it.

He knew─this was the sword.

Lifeforce.

In that moment, Shichika Yasuri thought back to when he faced the polar opposite of this sword, two months earlier─

On Ganryu Island, one of the Two Great Holy Sites for swordsmen.

Against Hakuhei Sabi, the Fallen Swordsman, Strongest in Japan.

Hakuto the Whisper─one of the Twelve Possessed, whose blade possessed an otherworldly beauty, thinness, and fragility…

So light.

This sword was its opposite. Its reverse.

Clumsy, thick, strong─and heavy!

As now abundantly clear, this Mutant Blade had been designed by legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki around the principle of weight.

Soto the Twin!

“What? Hey!”

Shichika had another reason to be astonished. Wide-eyed─he looked up at Konayuki Itezora, who had not moved since she flung the sword.

So heavy that once tossed, its gravity had made it sink into the earth, and too heavy for a muscleman like20 Shichika to lift─yet Konayuki Itezora had held it, in one hand, as if it were no more than a stick!

“Oh, but if you’re wrong, that’s probably not a bad thing. The certificate said that I’m not supposed to just give it to anyone,” Konayuki chirped away, not fathoming the meaning behind Shichika’s gaze. “If an earthling shows up saying that they really want the sword, it says that I’m supposed to use it to test if they’re worthy.”

1 崩す KUZUSU to make (something) collapse or crumble

2 生息 SEISOKU occupy (a habitat) 生きる IKIRU to live 息 IKI breath

3 凍空こなゆき ITEZORA KONAYUKI “Powder Snow under a Frozen Sky”

4 地表人 CHIHYŌJIN “resident of the ground surface”

5 精神年齢 SEISHIN NENREI mental age

6 全快 ZENKAI complete recovery

7 村八分 MURA HACHIBU ostracized 村 MURA village 八分 HACHIBU eight-tenths (excluded from)

8 伏せる FUSERU conceal; lay low

9 順当 JUNTŌ as expected (by a sequence of events)

10 村長 SONCHŌ leader of a village

11 闇雲 YAMIKUMO blindly 闇 YAMI darkness 雲 KUMO cloud

12 頭数個分 ATAMA SŪKOBUN “several heads of space”

13 爆ぜる HAZERU explode, pop (as here, usually describes burning wood)

14 あっけない AKKENAI over too soon

15 万分の一 MANBUN NO ICHI one in ten thousand

16 欠片 KAKERA fleck

17 刃渡り HAWATARI blade length

18 但し書き TADASHI GAKI written conditions

19 目測を誤る MOKUSOKU WO AYAMARU improperly gauge a distance

20 力自慢の CHIKARA JIMAN NO “the strength-proud”