KATANAGATARI 2

■　■

Shichika’s wound, his first since they had set off on the Sword Hunt, was not as bad as they had thought─no more than a simple fracture to his lower left arm. In his twenty years of training back on Haphazard Island, he had broken plenty of bones, but always let them heal on their own. This time around, they splinted his arm and held it in place with a bandage made from strips of fabric torn from one of Togame’s kimonos. Naturally the wound had swollen on the first day, causing him to have a temperature, but at this point it had calmed considerably. In his experience, the bone would set in just about two weeks. Specially forged, Shichika Yasuri healed at an alarming rate.

Then, on the fourth day.

Whilst munching on nutritious gobbets of smoked rabbit, which Konayuki had told him he could help himself to while he warmed his bones up by the fire…

Shichika heard Togame say, “Sorry, okay?”

Facing the wall, without turning to Shichika.

“Huh? About what?”

“Oh, I mean, I was just thinking…that it feels like this time, it was my fault.”

“…”

Four days late, she finally apologized.

There was nothing endearing about this delay.

Though omitted here, in the interests of space and in compliance with ethical guidelines, until the day before Togame had barraged Shichika with a maelstrom of verbal abuse. To offer an example that wouldn’t tarnish her favorability rating─well, that’d be impossible, but she’d showered Shichika with all manner of insults, like “No sword of mine would ever lose,” and “What use do I have for a broken sword?” and “Go back to the island.” Not to mention physical abuse in equal measure.

Shichika had just sat there and taken it. He figured she had a point─he was raised better than to make excuses when he failed.

This had made it difficult for Togame to know when to stop. In terms of personality, she had a way1 of ramping up the vitriol indefinitely, so long as the person on the receiving end did not protest. As a result, she became increasingly embarrassed about her behavior─until the fourth day.

When Togame got the nerve up (albeit facing the wall) to apologize to Shichika for the awful things she had said to him.

“Nah, it was my fault. I thought I was prepared for how strong Konayuki was, but I told myself that she was just a kid, and underestimated her.”

“I’m the one who said you could afford to go a little easy on her… It was unreasonable for me to tell you not to hurt her. I made the mistake of thinking of your strength as mine, and wound up going way off base.”

She finally turned around. Shichika was surprised to see her face flush with the color of regret.

“Then I took it out on you. I know I can’t take back the things I said, but…”

“It’s okay. I lost. And my strength is your strength.”

In many ways a perseverant young man, Shichika was relatively thick-skinned when it came to criticism from Togame. As a matter of fact, so far on their journey, he had taken reamings2 this bad on a daily basis. It made no sense apologizing now. In fact, he almost wished that she had reamed him out a little more this time─not because he was a masochist, but because he deserved it.

What Konayuki said to him once she’d injured him and won the battle was another thing entirely.

“Ah, ah, eek! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to! I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were so weak, Mister Shichika!”

“…”

At the moment, Konayuki had left the cave. She had taken Soto the Twin and gone hunting.

Saying─Mister Shichika, Miss Togame, you guys just hang out here, I’m going to fetch us some tasty rabbit, okay?

Her absence had influenced the timing of the apology.

And another thing. Meat didn’t agree with Togame. She could care less about wild rabbit, no matter how tasty. Some wild greens would have been another story.

Still, Togame could not contain her wonderment at how the girl had managed to keep herself alive on this snow-covered mountain. Although…

I was no different. Nor─is that woman.

“Actually, Togame, it may be a little late for this, but I feel like I should thank you─for noticing so quickly. That’s why I only hurt my arm.”

“Okay… Thanks for saying that.”

The second Shichika was hit by Konayuki, Togame called the fight. Perhaps prematurely─a broken arm would likely not have stymied him, and if they’d gone on fighting, things may have ended differently. But Togame doubted it, and Shichika was of the same opinion.

“If we had kept on going, I’d have busted more than my left arm. I can’t believe how strong she is…it was like my hands were tied. Like I couldn’t even see her moving…but I’m glad we did it as a match. Without you as referee, I could’ve been killed.”

Even if Konayuki possessed no such intention─a direct hit from that steel pipe3 of a katana would have been the end of him.

He started wondering if maybe Konayuki was the one who had gone easy on him.

After all─he was only an earthling.

“I broke the rules…”

“Huh?”

“Remember? Never break a sword. Protect Togame. And protect myself─I definitely failed to protect myself. I know she barely hurt me, but aren’t you worried about the future?”

“Quit blaming yourself. As it stands, I think I’ve blamed you enough…more than enough. I’m sorry,” Togame apologized again, sounding genuinely sorry.

Just because she maintained a positive perspective and accepted things the way they were did not mean nothing ever put a dent in her. On this occasion, she was particularly ashamed of making Shichika her whipping boy. Nevertheless, she faced him with a look of resolve.

“You broke your arm, not a rule─in light of what you’ve shared of your own experiences, in a fortnight you’ll be good as new. I’ll say it again. This time, my strategy backfired.4 If anything’s to blame, it’s not your loyalty.”

“Thanks for that.”

After being subject to her vitriol for three days straight, Shichika had started wondering if maybe she would fire him, so this came as a huge relief.

But they could not afford to get too comfortable. Regardless of whose strategy had failed, or who was careless─they had lost.

There was no seeing beyond the fact that they had failed to capture the katana.

“Goes to show I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe a failure was exactly what a Schemer like me needed. If a winning streak goes on too long, you start to drop your guard─all things considered, I think you failed spectacularly.”

What else could Shichika do but smile wryly. “Yeah, but Togame, to be perfectly honest with you, even if you told me from the start that I could go all out─that I could kill her if I had to.”

“…”

“Even if I hadn’t underestimated Konayuki─I’m not so sure I could have beaten her. Once she realized I meant business, she’d have stopped pulling her punches─and left me in way worse shape than this.”

“You sure think highly of her. Truth is, I have a hard time seeing a difference past a certain level of strength─but she’s that good, huh? Looks like an amateur to me.”

“She’s an amateur,” Shichika declared. “The girl’s a total amateur. Her grasp of the martial arts is not even on the level of what some teenage girl might learn for self-defense. Her moves are for hunting, rather than fighting, and those two things are different─but trust me, she’s outstanding… Honestly, this is the hardest thing for me. When there’s no rhyme or reason to it, and they’re just insanely strong.”

Clever as she may be, Togame was no mind reader and could not possibly have known, but at the moment, Shichika had in mind a particular individual, somebody he knew very well─

Someone who never had to try, or even train─but was the strongest person in existence, the embodiment of talent.

And he felt the same way about Konayuki Itezora.

He regarded her that highly, and not just because she’d defeated him─if anyone was worthy, it was Konayuki and her monstrous strength.

Komori Maniwa, Ginkaku Uneri, Meisai Tsuruga, Hakuhei Sabi, Kanara Azekura…

This girl’s overwhelming innate talent differed from that of the other owners of the Twelve Possessed whom he had fought.

“Gives me the creeps,” Togame said. “In that case, I mean…if this kid is only ten or so─imagine how insanely strong the grownup Itezoras must have been.” She was still unaware of the true reason the Owari Bakufu had made Mt. Odori a Level One Disaster Area, but she’d become painfully aware of the power of the Itezoras. “I can’t even imagine how powerful the chief’s eldest son must have been, when the sword was his.”

“According to Konayuki, she was one of the weaker kids… No wonder they started calling us earthlings. So, what’s next, Togame?”

“Huh?”

“With you sulking for the past three days, I haven’t had a chance to ask, but don’t tell me that we’re giving up. What about the Sword Hunt?”

“Course not… Wait, did you just say that I was sulking?”

“No”─Shichika had acquired a new special move: the lie.

Togame leered at him, but she must have truly regretted her recent behavior because she let the comment slide.

“But well, in that case, we’ll need Konayuki to haul the Twin back to Owari─which means I guess I still can’t kill her? Heavy as it is, it’s not like we can take it from her while she’s sleeping. Once my left arm heals, I might have to fight her again, to show whether I’m worthy. You can count on me to do my best, but can you try to think up some kind of a scheme? Like what we did with Sabi.”

“About that, Shichika,” Togame said.

In those three days─she had done more than sulk around. In addition to cursing Shichika and giving him the occasional knuckle sandwich, she had considered their next move─and worked out a scheme.

After entertaining every possibility, she had arrived at a conclusion, and once she was there, she wished that she had seen it when they got here. But the cold had gotten to her head. Everything had happened all at once, and she was too weak to keep up.

However─it wasn’t too late.

While Shichika’s broken arm was nothing but a sign of failure, having suffered this kind of a defeat at this point in her six months hunting for the swords was, even without putting on a brave face, not a bad thing at all.

She had needed a reality check.5

“I suspect─that fighting Konayuki is no longer necessary.”

“Huh?”

Shichika was surprised to hear this. He was banking on a rematch─a showdown in the snow6 against Konayuki Itezora. It seemed like the only natural course of action.

Everything was a pain to him, especially incidental details, but he was by no means an uncompetitive person─in that sense, he was still a little kid.

As a swordsman, he didn’t mind losing, but he did mind leaving it at that.

“Togame… What are you talking about?”

“This is not a theory. It’s a conclusion.”

“But I need to battle Konayuki, to prove I’m worthy to hold Soto the Twin, or else we can’t capture the sword and get Konayuki to cooperate.”

“Well, about that…” Togame slowed her pace deliberately to calm him down. “I think the girl is lying about this whole ‘worthy’ thing.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s so obvious that it barely bears mentioning. Think about it, Shichika. If anyone is fit to own Soto the Twin─it would have to be the Itezoras.”

“…”

The clan chosen by Kiki Shikizaki to be the sheath─just as Komori Maniwa was able to sheathe Zetto the Leveler in his belly, the Itezoras, as veritable sheaths, were worthy owners of the Twin.

“Yeah, I thought about that.”

“I believe her that she found a certificate…though I’m not sure I would call it that. Reading it, she learned certain things that her family had never told her, regarding their responsibility to sheathe the Twin. But the ‘worthy’ bit is bogus. In my opinion.”

“But why…would she lie about that?”

“She’s playing.” Togame let out a heavy sigh, deeply ashamed that she had overlooked such an incredibly childish fib. “She wanted somebody to play with… This may not register for you, Shichika, since training was a way of life for you even at that age, but all kids, girls and boys alike, love playing samurai.”

“Playing samurai…”

This had occurred to Shichika.

In the middle of their battle, Konayuki came off like she was only playing…

Having fun─loads of fun.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the Twin was treasured by the Itezoras. Just look at how the chief, the most powerful figure in the village, and head of what was probably its most prominent family,7 bequeathed it on his firstborn son. But because Konayuki was too young, they never told her─and she was unaware of the true value of Soto the Twin. I mean, she almost gave us the darn thing when we asked.”

“Yeah, she certainly isn’t moved by any fervor or sense of duty…but why make up this ‘worthy’ thing?”

“Again, she was playing around. You suggested as much yourself.” Trying her best not to sound emotional, Togame said, “That little girl is lonely.”

“…”

“We would head home once she handed us Soto the Twin─leaving her alone here on the mountain. The kid just lost her entire family in an avalanche. She may seem cheerful to you, but I guarantee you that she wants someone to talk to.”

“So you’re saying…that she lied, to keep us here?”

“Kinda cute, huh? Might be hard for you to say when she broke your arm, but.”

“Yeah, well, not because of my arm, but I don’t get it. If she’s so lonely, why doesn’t she leave the mountain?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about Ginkaku Uneri and Inaba Desert. When you’ve lived somewhere forever, the place fills up with memories. You can’t just up and leave. Also, from the way that Konayuki calls us earthlings, and knows that earthlings are comparatively weaker, the Itezoras must have interacted in some way with the villages below.”

“Yeah, and if she just went to one of those villages─”

“Must be nice to live inside your head,” interrupted Togame, as if she pitied Shichika’s sunny disposition. “What kind of a village would open its doors to a girl with her monstrous strength?”

“…So no?”

“She would be treated as an abomination.8 And Konayuki knows it. They may have interacted with the Itezoras, but I’m sure no more than necessary. Now that we’ve waltzed into her domain, she will do everything she can to keep us here. Hence testing us to see if we are worthy. So long as Konayuki holds the sword, we can’t go home─or so she thinks.”

“It felt like she was going easy on me, but if you’re right, that would explain why. With my arm broken like this, it’s going to be a while before we can have a rematch. That leaves us no choice but to stay put in this cave.”

“I doubt that her intentions were so wicked as that9…she seems to lack the necessary wisdom. But regardless, this makes things simple. I feel bad for Konayuki, but we’re grownups, and we cannot play along with her cute little lie forever.”

“…”

“Hence why a rematch is unnecessary. I can’t risk you getting injured even worse than last time. There are six other swords out there I need you to round up.”

“Yeah, but─”

“Do you want a rematch?”

“…”

If he said no, he would be lying.

However─Shichika was a sword.

A sword cannot choose who to kill.

Once it starts picking its own targets, a sword ceases to be a sword.

“I think I understand the way you feel. You may be a katana, but foremost you’re a human. You do have feelings,” Togame noted, based on his previous battle against Kanara Azekura. “Still, like I was saying, to make a good lesson out of this experience, we should call a loss a loss, and leave it at that. This is in your best interest. And honestly, in my best interest, too.”

Shichika obviously had his own thoughts on this matter, but Togame the Schemer was his owner, and her word was absolute. If she had come to a decision, he must abide.

His interests were irrelevant.

If it was in Togame’s best interest─the decision was not his to make.

“I wish we had some time to spare…or any time at all, for you to redeem your honor and clear your name and all that. But unfortunately we need to move along. Shichika, do you remember what Hohoh Maniwa said to us last month?”

“Huh? You mean about you mixing up ‘Cheerio’ and ‘Chesuto’?”

“Cheerio!”

She slugged him good. Togame, in her official capacity as Schemer, shunned both weaponry and martial artistry on principle, but over the course of her travels with Shichika, she had learned a thing or two about comic timing.

“Wrong. The stuff about Princess Negative─remember what he said?”

“Huh? Um, actually no.”

“Of course not…”

He hadn’t asked her once about it. Now she could see why. She had imputed it to tact, but tact was not a quality to be expected from Shichika, who could not even keep his mouth shut about Togame’s past.

“Since you already know about my past─allow me to explain. Princess Negative is an inspector general10 for the Owari Bakufu.”

“Inspector?”

“The exigencies of her work demand she not disclose her real name… Look, Konayuki will be back any minute, so I’ll have to give you the full details later. For now, I’ll say this woman is a menace. She seems to think I’m up to no good, and she’s come after me on multiple occasions…a couple of times, I almost wound up losing my position.”

“I’m not sure what an inspector general does…but if she works for the bakufu, and thinks you’re up to no good, doesn’t that mean she’s doing the right thing?”

“Ouch, Shichika. That hurts. I suppose I am the one who let her guard down.11 But that’s not all─hmm,” Togame faltered. “At this point, I regret it, but in my efforts to suppress her, I relied a great deal on the Maniwa.”

“Ah, so that’s why Hohoh went out of his way to tell you.”

“If Princess Negative is on the move, we have no time to waste. We need to convince Konayuki to hand over the Twin as soon as possible, so we can hurry back to Owari.”

“Totally…”

Ezo had been an unexpected detour. No amount of denial12 could alter the fact.

“Well, if the ‘worthy’ test is made up, I guess there is no reason to fight Konayuki… If what you say is true, I could beat her in a rematch and she still wouldn’t hand over Soto the Twin. But what do we do now? We can’t just call her out and make it go away.”

“Lest you forget, I am Togame the Schemer. With nothing but ingenuity, intrigue, and a silver tongue, I infiltrated the Owari command. Fruitless arguments over who said what are my hunting grounds, where I truly shine. Wheedling a kid into or out of something is a simple enough chore.”

“You’re exuding that villainous aura again. I wish you wouldn’t.” Shichika winced, and he seemed to mean it. “Think you can pull it off? Not just convince her to hand over the Twin, but get her to haul it all the way back to Owari?”

“Of course I can. For your information, I have several ploys in mind…and one of them should do the trick. Much of it depends on her emotional reaction, but I think I can help her find peace.”

“Really.”

“We may be overstepping our bounds, but it’s too late now, we’re in too deep.13 We can’t leave a little girl like her alone here on this mountain and say have a nice life…”

In the wake of this uncharacteristic admission, which was fraught with palpable and complicated feeling, Togame began to share with Shichika her “ploys” for winning over Konayuki, when─

“Aaaaaghh!”

A scream came, from outside the cave.

■　■

The girl was lying.

Even if there hypothetically had been a prescribed method for testing who was “worthy” to receive Soto the Twin, the girl was not mature enough to be expected to adhere to family custom.

To be moved by any fervor or sense of duty.

Konayuki may have been an Itezora, but she was just a child.

She did not see things as having abstract value.

Only face value─a sword was just a sword.

Soto the Twin, the heaviest sword in existence─a blunt instrument.

Not the most convenient weapon to take hunting.

She was better off unarmed.

It cannot be said to what degree the Itezoras prized Soto the Twin, but in actuality, young Konayuki was not alone. None of the Itezoras, excepting the chief and his lineage, knew the tale behind the sword─and so to Konayuki, the sword was nothing special.

As far as she was concerned, if someone wanted it, why not give it to them?

And so, when she ran into these two earthlings on the mountainside─Togame the Schemer and Shichika Yasuri…or “Miss Togame” and “Mister Shichika,” and they told her that they wanted it, Konayuki (who at that point knew nothing about the Twin) saw no trouble in running up to the village and digging it up for them.

Because she was lonely.

She wanted to see their smiling faces.

She wanted someone to talk to─and so she helped them out.

No ulterior motive. Strictly good intentions.

But when she returned to the village and beheld Soto the Twin, she thought of something.

If I let them have this.

If she let them have this, they would leave the mountain, and she would be alone again.

Think the venom of the Shikizaki blades was behind this? Preposterous14─the girl was doing what anyone would do, after a month of isolation.

One month alone.

She had left the village and been living in the cave for a whole month.

Lonely, every single day.

Then she happened upon Togame and Shichika─on the brink of disaster. But maybe it had not been happenstance. The rescue had been too convenient to write off as a coincidence.

After moving to the cave, Konayuki had busied herself with hunting, or with finding someplace more comfortable to live, coming up with any number of excuses to leave the house─as if searching for somebody.

Trying to meet somebody. Anybody.

Happenstance or not, she knew. She knew that she could never leave the mountain, not because she was a kid, but because she was an Itezora. She knew that she would never last among the earthlings.

The grownups in the village never shut up about it.

No Itezora leaves this mountain─and lives to tell the tale.

Konayuki could never leave the mountain. She was stuck there, as if bound by chains. Which is why─she waited endlessly for someone to arrive.

Always on the lookout for people climbing up the mountain.

One month─if that sounds short to you, you’re thinking like an adult. To Konayuki, who had barely been alive for ten years, it was a very long time indeed, comparable to an eternity.

But now she was so happy.

When she found Togame flopped on Shichika, almost swallowed by the snow, she did everything she could to make things cozy for her new companions.

She knew. She would never last among the earthlings.

Nevertheless─she had to show them she was thankful for their visit.

But she did not want for them to leave.

If they just stayed another day.

And so she lied, certain that if they played samurai, she would never lose against an earthling. When Konayuki used to roughhouse with the other Itezora children, she lost more often than not, but no “weakling” earthling was going to get the better of her.

And she was right.

It had not been her intention to hurt Shichika. He only broke his arm because he was a much stronger swordsman than she expected.

She felt bad. She had to admit that part of her was thrilled the two of them would not be leaving until the wound had healed, but like Togame said, she was not a wicked child.

She understood─

Things could not go on like this forever. It would be wrong to keep this up.

I’ll say I’m sorry.

After just a little longer, she would say sorry.

Togame need not call her out─Konayuki planned to speak up on her own.

They would probably be mad, but she was going to apologize, and let them have Soto the Twin. So what if she was a sheath. The sword was useless to her.

She gave it a one-handed swing. She had tried to take it hunting, but it was a burden. While she had managed to pick off some rabbits, it would have been much easier barehanded.

It was as good as theirs. A token of thanks, for putting up with her.

Just a little longer.

They could humor her─a little longer. Stick around, at least until Shichika was better.

When they were gone, she would cherish the memory, and keep the loneliness at bay. She could make it alone, until somebody else climbed up the mountain.

Just stay─a little longer.

To make an awesome memory.

She would do everything she could to keep them cozy.

An awesome memory, to replace that awful memory, and make it go away.

“Wha…”

She was done hunting with Soto the Twin. Carrying the sword in one hand and three15 rabbits in the other, Konayuki had trekked home to the cave where her guests were waiting─when a shadow materialized before her.

Not sneaking to hide its movements, nor creeping to hide its presence.

Forget about hiding─in other words, next thing she knew, the shadow was before her. That fast.

Leave it to the stealthy ones─to be stealthy.16

Wearing sleeveless ninja garb, body wrapped in chains.

Every inch of exposed skin─face, neck, and arms, down to the fingertips─thoroughly tattooed. Not with writing or designs, but a chaos of black lines. Tattoos.17

Probably underneath the ninja garb as well.

Long hair tied back at the neck─her neck.

“Hello! I’m one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa─Kyoken Maniwa!”

Smiling rabidly18─the Mad Dog moved.

1 彼女の性 KANOJO NO SAGA her nature not to be confused with 性 SEI gender, sex

2 罵詈雑言 BARI ZŌGEN rasher of vitriolic language

3 金棒 KANABŌ metal rod

4 わたしの失策 WATASHI NO SHISSAKU my error, blunder 失 SHITSU loss/fail 策 SAKU plan

5 戒め IMASHIME admonition, point of caution

6 雪辱戦 SETSUJOKU SEN bout against a previously victorious opponent 雪 YUKI snow

7 本家 HONKE “main house”

8 呪い子 NOROIKO “cursed child”

9 悪辣 AKURATSU vicious; crafty

10 内部監察官 NAIBU KANSATSU KAN “internal monitor”

11 脇の甘さ WAKI NO AMASA “easy armpits” from allowing an opponent’s arms inside one’s own

12 記憶を改竄 KIOKU WO KAIZAN tamper with memory

13 乗りかかった船 NORIKAKATTA FUNE “a ship that one is already boarding”

14 牽強付会 KENKYŌ FUKAI reading too much into things

15 三羽 SANWA “three wings” (counted like birds, rather than with the usual 匹 HIKI)

16 しのび寄ってきた―しのび SHINOBI YOTTE KITA—SHINOBI “it snuck up—a ninja”

17 刺青 IREZUMI “pierced (needled) blue”

18 凶暴 KYŌBŌ savage (“rabidly” based on 狂犬病 KYŌKEN BYŌ “mad dog disease” = rabies)