KATANAGATARI 1

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Unlike with all the schools of swordplay, it would behoove us, from the get-go, to let off trying to enumerate the exact number of “official” ninja enclaves, since their art, by dint of its reclusiveness, evades precise classification─but make no mistake, the Maniwa stand out from the rest. Since long before the Age of Warring States, the ninjas and the daimyo have been inextricable─not only in battle, but in politics. The dirty work─anything too vile for the public eye─was left to ninjas. While the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki reigned over the Age of Warring States, the ninja stars rained over every era. The operatives played a multitude of roles, from spy to assassin, but the Maniwa, matchless murderers, were the most gruesome clan.

A hidden enclave2 specializing in assassinations.

The Maniwa Ninjas.

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Nanami was the only one who moved.

Perhaps this should have come as no surprise. Togame, so thoroughly pleased with the killer line she had just dropped, and Shichika, who had been left speechless and stupefied, were unable to rise to the occasion.

Rising to her knees without warning, Nanami thrust her flattened hands at the shoulder of each. Though it was a light strike, Togame and Shichika, who had been facing each other, tipped sideways, losing their balance─or rather tucked their legs to catch it.

That very moment, the wall, or perhaps more aptly the boards, the wooden slats that gave the hut its shape─in any case thick enough to ward off the heat and the cold.

It went flying.

Inward.

As if imploding.

“Wh…aat?!”

Reacting a heartbeat later than his sister─the young and battle-ready Master of the Kyotoryu screamed and grabbed Togame in all her finery around the waist─and swept her across the room. Nanami flew behind them, as if sucked into the action─

All this, in an instant.

Splinters from the blasted wood stabbed into the wall across the room─shredded wood mixed up with metal─and not scraps of iron, but a gale of blades! Spinning shuriken3 and soaring kunai4─all told, forty-five.

All forty-five projectiles blew through the wood at once─as if the boards were only paper doors─and planted deep into the other wall! Though none shot all the way through it too, each blade had sunken to the tang. If Nanami had not poked their shoulders, Shichika and Togame would have been honeycombed by this fusillade of cutlery.

This was no target practice.

Nor sniping.

It was a surprise─bombardment.

“…ard.”

Shichika sprang up.

His face anything but carefree.

“You bastard! You screwed with the house my dad built!”

Roaring at the artillery strike, Shichika dashed out of the hut, or what was left of it, jumping straight through the blown-out wall rather than the door.

“Shichika!”

By the time Nanami called his name, he was already out of sight, out of the hut and up the mountainside. Chasing the knave5 who had showered them with knives. She knew what he was thinking─mess with me and you get messed!─that simple. She let out a heavy sigh.

“Sometimes he doesn’t get it…”

“No, he’s got it right,” Togame said. Shichika had shielded her but also flung her into the entryway when he bolted. She rubbed her shoulder. “If we held our ground, there’s high chance he’d only strike again. In that case we’d be worse off than the wall. There’s only one way to answer to a missile6: fast. I’m impressed… Seems your brother has a sense for battle.”

“He’s just acting instinctively…”

“Seems that way. No strategy in that. Running off without his sandals was not the brightest move.”

“I’m not so sure. To him, sandals7 and arm guards8 are like sheaths. He has no use for them in battle… Uh, I suppose this breeze feels nice.”