KATANAGATARI 1

“It was the Maniwa. I’m sure of it.”

Pensively uttering the name of the ninja clan, Togame tugged free one of the shuriken embedded in the wall and perused its features. Sure enough, the star was of the very shape the Maniwa preferred. This flagrant indiscretion suggested they weren’t trying to hide─and maybe even wanted to be seen.

“Ah.”

Nanami nodded. She didn’t seem particularly rattled.

After all, when shuriken start flying, ninjas aren’t much of a surprise. And they had only just discussed the Maniwa. The thought of them was fresh.

“How many of them?”

“One, I suspect.”

Togame’s reply was all the more ludicrous for its casual delivery. What’s more, her tone was certain. One? Nanami had not seen this coming. She was baffled.

“The Maniwa stay out of each other’s way─those guys work better alone.”

“But how─”

Nanami turned from the shuriken lodged into the wall to the gaping hole where the other wall had been. No point in even asking. A squad of forty-five ninjas, each throwing their own star, would have been infinitely preferable to one ninja throwing forty-five in unison.

“How could they know I was here, though? They couldn’t have followed9 me. I didn’t tell a soul where I was going…”

“Miss Togame,” Nanami caught her mid-thought. “About what you asked Shichika. You have my blessing.”

Her voice was weak, and her bearing weaker still, but her eyes bespoke conviction.

After the embarrassment of weaponry, Togame was perplexed to hear Nanami revive the conversation. What surprised her even more was what Nanami said.

“I was certain you would be against it.”

“I can see why…but frankly, I couldn’t care less about your story. Like my brother, I don’t care about money, or about honor, or the government, or Shikizaki’s swords. Not to brag,10 since I can hardly claim to have taken vows,11 but at this stage of my life, I have no interest in the world outside. Shichika sees something in the Shikizaki challenge─and he’s the master of the school.”

“…”

“I want him to go out into the world, whatever the reason. He and I have spent the last two decades on this island. After watching him train for so long, perfecting one move after another, I can’t bear the thought of his skill going to waste.”

“Forgive me, but wasn’t it your father, Mutsue─the previous master─who was exiled? Now that Mutsue has passed away─”

“My body isn’t strong enough to last outside. When I told you that I had no interest in the world─I meant it, but there’s more to it. I fear the air on the mainland would be too rich for me. And my brother─worries about me.”

By now Nanami’s weak constitution must have been apparent to Togame. The sister was fragile─even brittle.

“It’s none of his business,” Nanami asserted. “I’m done being coddled by my little brother─and have no interest in chaining him in place. What matters most to me, Togame, is for the Kyotoryu to go back into the world, where it belongs. With your rank in the bakufu, surely you can handle that?”

She wasn’t so much asking as confirming.

Togame nodded urgently.

“Of course I can─I never thought it sensible for a Hero of the Rebellion to be shut up in a place like this. If your father were alive, and amenable… I would see to it that his honor was restored.”

“I see,” Nanami responded with some nuance to the claim. “Then how can I stand in your way?”

She stood up straight and bowed. “He managed to silence me earlier, but I’ll speak to him. Take good care of him, Miss Togame.”

“Let me warn you, the road will not be easy. No matter who takes care of him, he may never come home. I almost wish you’d not make such a request of me. He would be taking on the Maniwa Clan, needless to say, and also Hakuhei Sabi─and who knows whose grubby hands have made it to the six swords we don’t have any lead on. Could be monsters. Demons. Serpents…”

Nanami lifted her face again and spoke.

“If you’re unsure about the true power of the Kyotoryu, why not go see it in action?” For Nanami, always so marmoreal12 in her speech, this was uncharacteristically bold. “Assuming you’re correct and there is just one ninja, I’m sure Shichika has guided him down to the beach below. Go see for yourself─if you can make it there before he’s through.”

“Are you sure? Up against the Maniwa?”

“The Kyotoryu would never succumb to a mere ninja.”

She sounded certain.

When Nanami had spurred the conversation, Togame felt puzzled─but now she saw Nanami’s great faith in the power of her brother and his school.

The sister smiled.

It was─an evil smile.

“Bless your heart, Miss Togame. I can tell you’re really looking out for Shichika. With you, he’ll be in good hands, request or no.”

“What?”

Togame went red.

It seemed as though she couldn’t take a compliment.

Though it was not so much a compliment as a jab.

“W-W-W-W-W-Wait. We need to focus. Why is this ninja here?!”

“Sure…” Nanami giggled. “I’m focusing.”

She sounded pretty evil.

Maybe she was evil.

“Miss Togame, are you sure that no one followed you? We’re dealing with ninjas here. Stalking13 is what they do.”

“Thanks for the insight. I’ll have you know I factored ninjas into my scheme, taking the utmost precautions to hide my tracks. That’s why I told nobody where I was heading. We face numerous adversaries apart from the Maniwa and Sabi. I am perplexed as to how─”

“Miss Togame? Just one thing. Did you come to our island alone?”

“Huh?” Togame shook her head. “What do you think? The Maniwa aren’t the only ones who fly solo─so do the strategists of the Directorate, and the Grand Commander is no exception. In any case, we’d want as few mouths flapping about this mission as possible.”

“Okay. So how’d you get here?”

“How else do you get to an island? A boat,” Togame gave the same answer she’d given Shichika─though with a moment’s hesitation.

Of course. A boat.

How could she even ask? The rube.

But Nanami saw no reason to be flustered. She wasn’t finished.

“Did you paddle here yourself?”

“Myself? Don’t be silly. I’m a thinker. Cogitation is my forte. Do I look like I could scull over from─wait.”

“By any chance─did a boatman bring you?”

“Uh, yes…no, but─”

That was it.

The boatman.

Just one more soul, turning the oars, ferrying Togame from the Shinso coast to this island─she’d told the man to sit tight, at the spot where they made ground, to keep the boat from drifting off.

“The boatman! But if it’s the boatman…” With a gasp, Togame’s hot face lost its blood. “He has a Shikizaki sword!”

■　■

Ninja or otherwise, no one could outmaneuver Shichika on this terrain. Amidst the chase, his quarry seemed to accept this.

Jumping from tree to tree.

Descending the mountain.

To the sandy beach─and the rote of the waves.

It was just as Nanami had predicted─although Shichika hadn’t quite guided the ninja.

In the teachings of the Kyotoryu, a shuriken was not a sword. When Shichika saw the cross-shaped stars and kunai that had blown apart their hut, he hadn’t the slightest clue who was behind it. He had never heard of shuriken and barely knew the first thing about ninjas. His father had once told him about the faithful soldiers who had your back no matter what, but Togame had upended that definition. The Maniwa didn’t so much as cross his mind.

Which is why─

Down on the beach, watching this clown step from the shadows of the mountain14 and out into the sun, he didn’t recognize his ninja garb for what it was.

But that wasn’t Shichika’s fault. This ninja had a style all his own. Sleeves shredded at the shoulders, body bedizened with chains. Far from a stalker─he made you look.

He didn’t even wear a mask.

Spiked hair pointed to the sky.

Seeing Shichika leap from the woods, the ninja welcomed him with a grin that threatened to tear his cheeks from ear to ear.

“Hey, tell me, Kyotoryu. Did you chase me here? Or was it the other way around?”

“…”

Zum, Shichika landed face to face with his foe─and realized he hadn’t considered his next move. He’d come this far coaxed by his anger at seeing his home violated, but─

What now?

It was sad. Apart from his father and his sister, and Togame whom he had just met, Shichika knew no other human beings. He was unsure of the right way to behave when you run into one.

The right way.

As if there were such a thing.

His home wasn’t flattened; its posts were intact. The house had been made by hand, and with a little work, it could be fixed by hand. Why did I lose my mind like that, Shichika even began to wonder.

But that was it.

His father built that house─that was enough.

To make him yell.

His father.

Boy, he’d lost it.

What did sis think hearing me yell like that?

Needless to say, the ninja paid Shichika’s disposition little mind. He struck a pose and gave his name.

A grand pose─especially for a ninja.

“I am Komori15 Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Ninja. Take heed, Kyotoryu. I bear no grudge against you, but I need to take your life.”

His voice was shrill enough to turn your insides out.

A voice that couldn’t possibly be issuing from a mouth.

“Maniwa? Oh, right. I heard about you.”

“That was an error you will pay for with your life. If you hadn’t, I might have let you go. I came, originally, to hear that woman’s story.”

The knave─the ninja─had more to say.

“Not much of a story. Barely worth my time, though I was surprised to hear she called on Hakuhei Sabi after we parted ways. She must have told him the same story she told you, which puts him next in line. For me to kill.”

“Were you eavesdropping?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s in bad taste.”

“You mean good. Kyahah!”

Komori’s laugh was as shrill as his voice.

“Did you follow Togame here?”

“Why be so sneaky? We came together, in the same slow boat. I paddled, pumping like a seesaw the whole way─it was no joke. She sat on her derriere watching the sea and didn’t lift a finger. I’m telling you, there’s something wrong with her.”

“Well, I’m being swamped by visitors16 today.”

Two didn’t make a swamp, but Shichika said so anyway.

He’d always wanted to try out the expression.

“Kyahah, here’s some more advice, Kyotoryu. Stop wasting your time wondering how I got here. I’m here, baby. And there’s something that you need to do.”

“What would that be?”

“Don’t be cute. Start begging for your life,” Komori instructed with a callous grin. “How about, I’ll give you anything so please don’t kill me! I love that one. So much. Wow. And I reply, I’ll take your life and nothing else.”

“…”

Were people this weird in general?

Shichika wasn’t sure.

But one thing was clear: this man was scum.

He knew that much─instinctively.

“Hmm… How am I supposed to fight a ninja, though?” he wondered out loud. “As far as I can see, you carry no ninjato17 either.”

Huh?

Shichika had noticed something.

Not only did Komori Maniwa lack a ninja sword, he was totally unarmed. He could be packing weapons in his clothing, but it didn’t look like it. What about the shuriken? Had he blown through his supply? No, the ninja must have more tricks up his sleeve─sleeveless as he was.

“Ninjato? Oh, right. You’re the Swordless Swordsman. And for proper swordplay, I suppose there needs to be at least one sword. Kyahah, you’re that kind of a swordsman.”

“No─the Kyotoryu doesn’t only work on swords. It isn’t mutodori. I just never saw a ninja before.”

“Don’t talk back. Obedience is a virtue. Or perhaps your master skipped that lesson. But don’t fret. I may not be a swordsman─but that doesn’t mean I can’t use a sword.” Komori let this sink in. “I hate to keep you waiting… I know I left that precious sword around here somewhere.”

The ninja raised one of his chain-wrapped arms and stuffed it in his mouth. In any generation, there will always be some kid ready to show off how he can fit his whole fist in his mouth, but it would be mistaken to compare what Komori was doing with such shenanigans.18 Down his throat went his hand, and after it his wrist and his elbow, even his bicep…his jawbone dislocated entirely. He was like a snake eating its own tail.

“What the hell? People can do that? I had no idea.”

Shichika was stunned. They can’t, of course.

Don’t try this at home, kids.

“Geg gahfu hah fahra kago gah fuhrah, ge googoo ga gehgeh ga rah gongfah fugerah ga geh.”

Komori felt the need to go on speaking, but it didn’t amount to anything intelligible. He had reached down his throat as far as his shoulder─and now he was backing the arm out, inch by inch.

Inch by slimy19 inch.

At last his fist appeared─closed tight around the handle of a sword.

The grip of a katana.

Stymied by this grotesque carnival display, Shichika could only watch as the ninja pulled the handle from his throat, until finally the blade met air.

It was long. So long.

Far too long to fit in his torso.

Shichika had no idea how Komori had stuffed it in his body, but at least this solved one mystery.

This ninja didn’t hide the tools of his trade on his person but─in his body!

He was a monster. No other word sufficed.

“Khak…”

The tip of the blade cleared Komori’s lips.

He wielded the weapon, smugly.

The blade was slick with gastric juices and saliva, but there was no trace of blood. Fearsomely, he’d drawn the blade out of his body without so much as nicking himself. No rookie ninja move.

“Behold! Beware! Bear witness to Zetto the Leveler, one of the Twelve Possessed, the masterworks of Kiki Shikizaki.”

For real?

What Shichiki needed to beware of was the guy’s stomach.

“Care for a taste of hell? Kyahah! Coming right up. My friends call me Komori the Hell-Made because I’m so ready to dish it out. Now be entertained.”

“Your nickname is Hell Maid?20 It’s not cool or scary. More like, I dunno. Cute, for some reason.”

But why?

The reason would not be clear for centuries.

“Hey, Kyotoryu. Try making sense for once. And while you’re at it, tell me what you think.” He brandished the sword. “Look who has one of those Shikizaki blades the woman was blabbing on about.”

“Hm…”

Despite being more interested in the ninja’s stomach trick, Shichika eyed the blade.

It was altogether different from the sword Togame drew on the mountain.

First off, it had no curve.

Unlike most katana,21 the blade was straight, forged in the kiriha zukuri22 style.

It also lacked a handguard between the blade and grip.

Almost five feet23 long.

Twin blood gutters24 were engraved into the whorled face25 of the blade.

This was one big sword.

“…”

“Come on, nothing? Speak up!”

“No, it’s just─more like a sword than I expected. Like you were saying, Togame kept going on about these legendary enchanted swords. I thought it would be, you know, weirder. Not like I was expecting it to be covered in spit and mucus. Can’t you keep that thing in a sheath?”

“This sucker is way too long to carry on the hip─and it doesn’t need a sheath.”

“Why not?”

“Kyahah! Shall I make an example out of you? But first, some good news─I’ve never killed somebody with this sword─but only because I just laid hands on it. Use that to your advantage, and you may beat me yet. Kyahah! Oh, how I love to entertain.”

“Isn’t that thing supposed to be valuable? You sure it’s okay to walk around with it? I mean, shouldn’t you keep it somewhere safe?”

“Other way around! I wouldn’t let go of something this valuable. It stays inside me, wherever I go. Really, what place under the sun is safer than my belly?”

He had a point.

“This sword is something special. That woman spoke of poison, but no, it’s the best medicine.26 Just having it makes me want to kill!”

There was no more time for talking.

Without a running start, Komori leapt into the air, held the long sword high, and executed a swing aided by gravity.

“Side Splitter!”27

Komori was in the game.

Shichika didn’t know much about how to interact with others, but this he understood.

In fact─it was the moment he’d been waiting for.

His first sparring partner in a year.

Except this wasn’t sparring.

For the first time, Shichika Yasuri, Master of the Kyotoryu, was tasting battle.28

“Hmph!”