KATANAGATARI 2

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When they heard the scream, Shichika and Togame dashed out of the cave and into the blowing snow without realizing what they were doing. For an instant they were blinded by the endless white, but today the snow was not so bad that they could not see a foot in front of them.

They saw Konayuki Itezora from behind.

Holding Soto the Twin in her left hand. At her feet, and disappearing in the falling snow, were the rabbits. Her quarry, but not our focus.

Our focus is the woman clutching her stomach and crouched before Konayuki, someone neither Shichika nor Togame recognized.

But they recognized the telltale ninja garb.

Togame’s erstwhile betrayers, now supposedly allies─

“A M-Maniwac!” yelled Shichika.

Konayuki turned around and gave him a puzzled look, as if an explanation was in order.

“Umm, is she…a friend of yours?”

“Uh, no…”

“She jumped on me, yelling stuff I couldn’t understand, so I may have hit her back, like as a reflex.”

“…”

Without explaining things to Konayuki─what could they say about a stranger─Shichika and Togame turned their gaze upon the crouching woman, who appeared to be in pain.

She was undoubtedly a member of the Maniwa─but she had her own thing going on. Every inch of exposed skin was covered in tattoos, black lines that could not be called patterns or designs.

“She didn’t introduce herself?” Togame asked Konayuki. Her tone was serious. “She must have given her name.”

“Umm, let’s see…” Konayuki spun her hand like she was trying to remember. “Okay, she said something about Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa… I think it was Kyoken?”

“Hmm. I see.”

Togame had heard the name before. While they had never met, she knew that Kyoken was a heavyweight1 even among the Twelve Bosses─but not that she was a woman. The Schemer found it a little surprising that the Maniwa had women in their uppermost ranks.

But what was Kyoken Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses, doing here─why did she come? When they had made a deal, the month before…

“Serves me right for striking a deal with ninjas, even if I did have my suspicions.” Togame spat the words out, leveling a frigid stare on the woman. “In any case, getting beaten at her own game like this? Such bad form. Konayuki, did she try something weird on you?”

“Yeah, she was running around in circles like a total maniac, but when I hit her, she calmed down.”

Course she did, Shichika told himself. This ninja seemed to pride herself on speed, but she’d made the mistake of trying to use it to counter strength, like he had four days earlier. Konayuki Itezora’s monstrous strength could not be stopped so easily.

A strength immune to speed─the more you ponder it, the scarier it sounds.

“Well, I have to give her credit for climbing up here all alone─leave it to the Maniwa. Well now, what can Hohoh Maniwa do to make this up to me.”

“Getting whooped the second she showed up reminds me of Shirasagi Maniwa…”

“Sh-Shira…”

The woman twitched, as if reacting to the name.

Kyoken Maniwa looked up, glaring at Shichika─and Togame.

No gaze could have been more intense, and it seemed to pierce their very beings.

“Shirasagi… Komori… Kuizame… Chocho… Mitsubachi… Kamakiri!”

“…?”

“Shirasagi… Komori… Kuizame… Chocho… Mitsubachi… Kamakiri… Shirasagi… Komori… Kuizame… Chocho… Mitsubachi… Kamakiri… Shirasagi… Komori… Kuizame… Chocho… Mitsubachi… Kamakiri!”

Grumbling, Kyoken attempted to sit up. But the pain in her stomach proved too extreme, and she toppled forward into the snow.

“Schemer babe─you’ve made a real game out of murdering my friends,” she said, face planted in the snow. “Because of you, the Maniwa are in deep trouble.”

“What of it?”

Togame was not remotely bothered by Kyoken’s words, or at least, showed no sign of being bothered.

“You think I want to listen to a ninja whine? What right have you to complain, when you’re the ones who betrayed me? Or do you want to hear me say, If you hadn’t betrayed me, this never would have happened─”

“Gahhhhhhhhhhh!”

Kyoken, on the other hand, appeared immensely bothered by Togame’s words─in fact, it whipped her into action. She sprang to her feet.

Standing up, she was extraordinarily tall.

She would have made a good opponent for the late Meisai Tsuruga.

“Enough, enough, enough, enough─I’m gonna kill you! Mess with my friends, you mess with me. To hell with the alliance. You’re gonna die die die die die die die die─I’m gonna rip you to shreds!”

“Not your basic ninja,” said Togame, taken aback. “You sure don’t disguise your emotions.”

Out of all of the Twelve Bosses, Shichika had only had a hand in killing one of them, Komori. It would be fair to say that he and Togame were not responsible for murdering the other five ninjas Kyoken named (since they had never met Chocho, Mitsubachi, or Kamakiri)─but when Togame made her deal with Hohoh, she had taken credit for the deaths of Shirasagi and Kuizame. There was no use splitting hairs2 with Kyoken.