KATANAGATARI 2

He won because he saw through his opponent─and yet.

Some opponents cannot be read. Any effort of analysis is meaningless, even counterproductive, and this had been true of Konayuki Itezora.

Distracted by her monstrous strength, he misread her entirely.

She was a total amateur, oblivious to moves or movements─and he had gone and tried to read her.

When you think about it, what could be more meaningless? Taking it upon himself to read into things, to read between the lines, he’d been taken down─by himself.

The moves of an amateur are lost on a veteran.

When it seemed like she had nabbed him, she misjudged their distance and missed─she dodged his kicks far too dramatically─when he tried a throw, she just plopped over─and to cap it all off, she changed the path of her sword mid-swing…

Thanks to those amateurish moves, Shichika found her impossible to read.

They fell outside the precepts of his school.

In the realm of combat, her moves were nonexistent, even alien.

The Kyotoryu was designed for fighting swordsmen. Ninjas, former brigands, pirates, and the like was one thing─but regular people fell outside its purview.

Reason being, they were unreadable. Meaning their moves were invisible.

The gap in skill between Shichika and Konayuki Itezora had been so vast, it had thrown everything off, like when the cogs jam in a gearworks.

But now, he could see.

Now that the body of Konayuki Itezora held the memories and knowledge of a seasoned veteran and expert assassin, Kyoken Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the dastardly Maniwa Clan─and the experience of several thousand former hosts─he could see her.

Now that she was packed to the gills with precepts.

Visually and spiritually, he could see her every move, without a single blind spot. Once the total amateur became a veteran, the cogs began to whir.

“…Gahhh!”

Kyoken realized now, but it was too late. Searching Konayuki’s memory, she had surmised the way the girl had beaten Shichika.

In retrospect─Kyoken had been hit by Konayuki for the same reason. Lightning fast, she had expected to play cat and mouse19 with Konayuki but was knocked down by her monstrous strength─because the gears had jammed!

Yet this realization would not do her any good. There was no measure she could take.

Nothing is harder for a veteran than posing as a total amateur; the precepts become a physical reflex, no longer answering to the mind. No matter how you feign to be unschooled, your body springs to life, and the body of a would-be amateur comes alive!

Something else also─shocked Kyoken.

Her precepts were rooted in experience and based upon the memories of thousands of other warriors─this was still true, and she had put them into action with the monstrous strength of Konayuki Itezora, the fearsome Itezoras.

But Shichika had brushed her off.

It was clear once she had fallen that he had gone easy on her with the Ume. Poised as he was, he could easily have snapped her head off of her spine.

Check in, he’d said. How could he afford that, in the middle of a battle?

“…nkk!”

Back on Haphazard Island, when Shichika had faced off against Komori Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses and, like Kyoken, a member of the Beast Unit, he had been victorious by virtue of his lack of experience.

This time, as similar as it may seem─it was the opposite.

The implications were entirely different.

Shichika had lost to Konayuki Itezora because of his enormous advantage, and now, thanks to that gap narrowing adequately, he was overwhelming Kyoken Maniwa!

His fears had been entirely unfounded. The injury to his left arm─was not an issue!

In his six months on the Sword Hunt, during which he had “probably only been in twenty battles,” he had boosted his ability to the point where he could hold his own against a ninja ranked among the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa.

“Ugh, urrr…”

“…?”

Despite her mood swings─Kyoken Maniwa was still a ninja. Glaring at Shichika, who seemed to be the only person left who was a little confused, she realized that she could not beat the Swordless Swordsman. Not with her ninpo…

“Nghhhh.”

Groaning, Kyoken looked toward Togame.

The Schemer stared back at her with frigid eyes and seized the reins. “Shichika, about your orders,” she said as though Kyoken were not even there. “If that woman usurps my body, kill me without delay. As savagely as possible.”

“Got it,” assented Shichika, as readily as ever.

During the exchange, Kyoken had eyeballed the distance between her and Togame, but now she gnashed her teeth. Togame drove the point home.

“Taking a hostage won’t work against my sword─and anyway, I’m about as strong as shoji paper. Trust me. I could die just from tripping and falling. I’d lose in a fight against a rabbit.”

“…Urk.”

“If I were you, I’d bet against the odds and try to battle Shichika the way you are…but I have no obligation to dispense advice to backstabbers who sabotage alliances. If you want my body, then be my guest─”

“But not if you’re torn to smithereens.”

Shichika finished Togame’s sentence─and took position.

This time, it was Kyotoryu Form Five: the Yorugao.20

Straddling his legs shoulder width apart, hands relaxed and open, and poised in front of his chest, with elbows bent─somewhat aggressively for an idle stance, his body appeared ever so slightly to lean forward, allowing him to keep a steady footing in the unfamiliar snow.

“Nkk… Gahhhhhhhhhhh! I’m done listening to your yapping. You killed my friends! You killed my friends! You…pet dog!”

Fuming, Kyoken dragged herself to her feet.

“Houndstooth!”21

She pounced─coming helter-skelter after Shichika.

Soto the Twin, the heaviest katana in existence.

That roughhewn and inelegant sword of stone.

Shaped the same at both ends, ambiguous, with no obvious head or tail, and hence the Twin, the sword allowed perversely for the handle, not the blade, to hit the enemy. By switching your grip and holding it at the other end with both your hands, you could batter your opponent with the hilt─a knockout move, up close and personal…

But this, too, fell under a precept.

Nothing unconventional─the whole move was predictable. Maybe not six months ago, but in his current state, Shichika could handle it no problem.

He launched from Form Five into Fatal Orchid Five. Up against Konayuki, he’d feared that he lacked the time for this secret move, but now!

“Kyotoryu─Hika Rakuyo!”22

Shichika thrust out both his open hands at once and hammered down on Kyoken─Konayuki─not slapping so much as cuffing her in the shoulders of her tiny body.

The sidelong blows, from left and right, shook her frame.

■　■

Playing off Form Five, the Yorugao, this secret move could be described as the antithesis of Ryuryoku Kako, the secret move playing off Form Four that Shichika had used the month before against Kanara Azekura.

If Fatal Orchid Four, Ryuryoku Kako, transmits the impact, ravaging the insides, not the outsides─Fatal Orchid Five, Hika Rakuyo, cracks through the shell without harming its interior.

The closest the Kyotoryu had to a sheathed attack.23

By cuffing opponents on both their shoulders simultaneously, the blow is radiated over their entire body surface─a fatal shockwave to their mortal coil. To put it simply, the trauma spreads over their skin. The result can easily be lethal─at full force, the move can mow down an opponent just as well as any of the six other secret moves─but by dialing it back, a single blow (or technically, a dual combo) can rattle opponents so completely as to render them unfit for battle. Of the seven Fatal Orchids of the Kyotoryu, this was the only one that could stay a foe.

So Shichika dialed it back.

But not because he was held back─Hika Rakuyo.

Cracking the shell without harming its interior.

The trauma spreads over the surface, radiating over every inch of skin.

“Her tattoos,” said Togame─observing Kyoken Maniwa, who had fallen on her back. “They’re disappearing…”

Kyoken’s hallmark tattoos, which she had transferred onto Konayuki’s body from the one she had presently chopped to bits, faded away…and soon were indiscernible.

Disappearing.

Kyoken Maniwa, said to be among the founding ninjas of Maniwa Village, a persistent presence who had usurped thousands of bodies and roamed this world for centuries─

It was she who disappeared.

Leaving behind the body of Konayuki Itezora.

“Shichika… What is this?”

“Hmm. I guess by hitting only her tattoos, I took down Kyoken without killing Konayuki.”

The girl’s expression shed its treachery─becoming placid.

Naive and innocent.

Simple and artless─the face of a child, around ten or so.

No longer possessed, in more ways than one.

“I mean, it only worked because I got the upper hand. If I’d been unable to see her like when I fought the actual Konayuki, it would’ve been impossible, and either way, Hika Rakuyo is finicky, I wasn’t sure if I could do it with my left arm broken…but seems like it worked great. Awesome. Now we just have to ask Konayuki to bring the Twin back to Owari, right?”

“Right…” Togame nodded in answer to his question. “Exactly, well done, Shichika.”

She was paying Shichika a compliment, but inside she was conflicted.

He had done the right thing. Banishing Kyoken’s persistent presence while leaving Konayuki Itezora unscathed was the best imaginable outcome. That said, there had been no guarantee that Hika Rakuyo could take down Kyoken Maniwa─things truly had gone as well as possible.

Yet this was not the problem.

Togame had ordered the katana to “kill her.”

But Shichika had disobeyed─by not killing Konayuki Itezora.

This was the first time he had disobeyed her in the six months of their journey.

Deciding not to kill her, on his own.

Her sword.

It didn’t mean he had been weighed down by compassion… He was probably stuck on the earlier version of her order: they needed for Konayuki to survive, so she could carry Soto the Twin back to Owari. And if Hika Rakuyo had not gone according to plan, Shichika would have simply felled24 both Kyoken Maniwa and Konayuki Itezora with a single, ruthless strike.

That summed it up. But this was─the second time.

If you included Kanara Azekura from the month before, this was the second owner of a Mutant Blade whom he hadn’t killed, though with Azekura, Shichika had done exactly what Togame ordered him to do.

This time, he did the opposite.

“…”

Kyotoryu, the katana incarnate.

He was the Kyotoryu, but foremost, he was human.

Togame had tried to help him see this─to give him an agenda, as a human being and not a sword. Otherwise, they would face an impasse before long.

But how was that playing out? Togame was starting to feel uneasy.

Taking a hostage won’t work against my sword, she’d told Kyoken, but now she wondered…if the ninja had usurped Togame’s form, would he have followed his orders? Would he have killed her?

As readily─as he had answered?

Have I fouled up the blade of my own sword, over the past two months? Simply because I, as its owner, couldn’t handle the katana?

“…Cheerio.”

Bop, Togame the Schemer punched Shichika in the stomach.

A soft fist, with no energy behind it. It did make Shichika look her way─but at that moment.

“We may be too late after all,” a voice came from the mountainside.

Upon hearing it, Togame reflexively hid behind Shichika, while he leaned forward to protect her─and to peer ahead.

In the snow…nay, slipping between the snow, were two shadows.

Sleeveless ninja garb, chains wrapped around their bodies.

Maniwa Ninjas!

And one of the two shadows was familiar─effectively the head of the Twelve Bosses, they had chanced to meet in Satsuma.

“Hohoh Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan.”

“And Kawauso Maniwa, likewise one of the Twelve Bosses.”

The ninja beside Hohoh sent them a friendly25 wave. This did not enthuse Togame, who responded, still hiding behind Shichika, in a voice teeming with anger.

“You have some nerve to look me in the eye, Hohoh. And you─Kawauso.”

The latter, undaunted, might as well have been whistling. “Whoa, don’t look at me like that, Togame. Not after all that we’ve accomplished.”

“Silence!”

Togame was irate. This was Shichika’s first in-person encounter with Kawauso Maniwa, as it had been with Kyoken, but apparently she had a history with him, and it would seem that she did not look very fondly on their work together.

Shichika shrugged─here we go again.

While Togame kept her cool when they encountered Kyoken, who was down for the count, she had a tendency to lose it when they ran into someone from the Maniwa─or Hakuhei Sabi, who had betrayed her too… Her staunch refusal to forgive and forget accorded with what she was doing to the Owari Bakufu.

Eyeing the pulverized remains of Kyoken Maniwa, then the body of Konayuki Itezora, resting at the feet of Shichika, and finally Shichika and Togame, Hohoh said, “What we have here…looks to be a worst-case scenario. Kyoken slain, the sword lost, and Madame Schemer viewing us once more as enemies, her trust in the Maniwa extinguished.”

“You think I ever trusted you?” Togame was not dialing it back. “Now what? You here to steal Soto the Twin? Not a bad time─you’ve caught my katana with his left arm broken. If he has to keep on fighting, even two ninjas like you have something of a chance of winning.”

This, of course, was all talk.

The Schemer seethed with indignation for the Maniwa, but she would not allow this to distract her from the task at hand. Fighting two Maniwa Bosses at the same time was too much to ask of Shichika, in his condition.

He could have handled Kawauso, taken singly─the trouble was with Hohoh.

A month ago, the ninja had chopped off his arm, but today he had shown up with two.

The Divine Phoenix, Hohoh Maniwa.

“Now don’t jump to conclusions, Madame Schemer─Kawauso and myself came here to waylay Kyoken. She acted rashly and dogmatically. I would hate for you to think that her behavior represents the viewpoint of the Maniwa as a whole.”

“Is that so─how should I know?”

“Come now, you know as well as I do just how passionate we Maniwa can be. Especially Kyoken, that feisty ninja. A real handful, even for me.”

“Hmm. But if she had killed us both, I assume you would be fine with that.”

“I cannot disagree, I’ll give you that. But as it stands,” said Hohoh, “we find this situation unacceptable─if this means you want to dissolve our alliance, Madame Schemer, we will abide.”

“Abide? Too late for that. Like it or not, the deal is off.”

“Nonsense. This time, we were entirely to blame. We hope you will allow us to assume responsibility.”

“Responsibility? You better have some juicy news to share. That last batch is looking pretty iffy right about now…”

“Go ahead, Kawauso.”

“Yessir.” Unfazed by Togame’s sardonic remarks, Kawauso took one step forward, cracked a condescending smile, and began, “Now Togame, you’re no stranger to my ninpo. You remember my ninpo, right? The Infovac.”