KATANAGATARI 3

■　■

Though it had been a curiosity for the majority of their journey, Shichika did not seek out the Katana Buddha in the entire week since their arrival at the hallowed grounds of Seiryoin Gokenji Temple.

The second they had shown up he had dropped everything and fought his sister, and we all know about his sorry state after the fight.

He gazed up at the Katana Buddha─in all of its enormity.

Your typical giant Buddha stands over sixteen feet high, but the Katana Buddha stretched at least a hundred feet into the air. It was so tall you could barely see the top, and so unnecessarily enormous, even grasping its true size gave you a headache.1

Quite aptly for a statue cast from a hundred thousand swords, its four arms each gripped a katana, while its furious expression, so unfamiliar on a Buddha, was the very face of war.

Built so as to encompass the gargantuan Buddha, the Inner Sanctum of Gokenji Temple was ginormous2 in its own right, and propped here and there by girthy pillars.

Night had come.

Outside the temple, tucked within the steep folds of Mt. Sayabashiri, all was black─inside, however, it was bright as day.

That the Katana Buddha might be always bathed in light, the courtyard of the Inner Sanctum had been lined with candlesticks. Hundreds of candles brimmed the Inner Sanctum with an orange light.

Burning for the Katana Buddha.

Sending up their wagging orange light─from all directions.3

And standing in this light─Shichika regarded the Katana Buddha.

The Great Sword Hunt.

That notorious decree of the Old Shogun.

He amassed one hundred thousand swords, from every corner of Japan.

Plundering the souls─of one hundred thousand swordsmen.

Shichika was raised to be a sword, and thought himself a sword today.

So facing the Katana Buddha─he felt something.

Something altogether different from the lifeforce that he sensed when faced with any of the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki─but felt something all the same.

An impossibly imposing impact.4

“I hate to mar your first impression,” Nanami said, standing before him, “but the Katana Buddha…is chock full of impurities. Maybe it’s odd to speak that way of gold and silver and other treasures,5 but the point is that it wasn’t purely fashioned from katanas. When you add it up, a hundred thousand swords would never be enough to make a statue this enormous.”

Hearing this─Shichika looked at his sister.

“No use for dreaming─huh, sis? Why try to disappoint me?”

“I can’t believe I need to spell it out for you.”

Nanami sighed.

A sigh that suited her exceptionally well.

“You know as well as anyone that dreams are useless to me. My body makes dreams unnecessary─out of the question.”

“Not anymore though─right?”

“Right.”

Nanami was dressed in monkish robes.

Though no longer fully bared, her chest must have held that dagger, Akuto the Eel.

The change was so minute that only Shichika would have noticed, but Nanami’s face had taken on a bit of warmth. Pale, to be sure, but with a hint of health that bore the promise─he could see it─of a full recovery.

Health.

The one thing that Nanami─and Shichika─wanted for her more than anything.

If either of them had a dream, then this was it.

And yet something─was awry.

What was it?

He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he sensed it.

It wasn’t right for her.

Seeing Nanami bearing Akuto the Eel─

“I guess you could call me Nanami the Heel,”6 she jested. “Hey, if you want to spend your whole day sightseeing, be my guest─but Shichika. You’ve got some nerve to stand in front of me like some kind of a tourist.”

“I wasn’t doing it on purpose, sis. Can I just ask one thing, though?”

Nanami refused. “Don’t even bother. The answer hasn’t changed. I’ll only give you Akuto the Eel if you defeat me, I won’t simply hand it over. If you want to round up this sword for your owner─you’re going to have to take me down.”

“…”

“Kill or be killed,”7 Nanami said─and stood there.

Her form was formlessness.

Kyotoryu Form Zero─the Ichijiku.

“I’m happy to do the killing─”

“Sis.”

“Please, don’t disappoint me. We’re here because you asked me for a rematch─come on, assume your stance.”

Hearing this─Shichika did as he was told.

And took position.

He straddled his feet, parallel, one ahead of the other, sinking into his knees and bending at the hips, to make his upper body lean slightly forward─his hands pointed like spears, his elbows at right angles, parallel again and offset, like his feet. His weight on the front leg, as if to tumble forward.

Kyotoryu Form Seven─the Kakitsubata.

Nanami Yasuri and Shichika Yasuri.

Both choosing the same stances as the week before.

“Hmm.”

Nanami─glared at Shichika.

Watching, with those eyes of hers.

Fixated.

Focused.

Rapt─

“Seems like you’ve sharpened up a bit, knocked off a little of the rust. Still soft… Not mushy, but not solid either. Which reminds me, how’d things go with Shichika Hachiretsu? Did you find a way to make up for its weakness?”

“’Course we did. I didn’t think of it myself,” admitted Shichika, “but we came up with a perfect fix.”

“Really. I should hope so─otherwise there’d be no sense to have a rematch.”

“Sis, you’re about to witness Shichika Hachiretsu as you’ve never seen it before. You won’t be able to brush it off like last week.”

“Maybe not.”

While Shichika gritted his teeth, ready for battle─

Nanami’s expression was relaxed.

In the Ichijiku, even the face was normal.

Same face that she made every day.

Natural posture.

Natural as ever─

“Miss Togame,” she addressed the Schemer, there by the wall like that other day.

The only other person present in the grand hall─Emonzaemon was long gone, but not even the monks of Gokenji Temple were around. As both their witness and their referee, Togame kept as much distance as possible to ensure that she was not embroiled in the fight.

“Yes?” she answered, still leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed.

“Go ahead and give the sign, please─there’s no use putting on airs.”

“I thought I’d give you two a chance to speak, since this might be the last chance that you have.”

“Here we go8 again,” Nanami said─laughing wickedly.

An apt laugh for the owner of Akuto the Eel.

“Don’t fret─I’ll make sure this is the last time that we speak. We won’t have another sloppy bout like last time─right, Shichika? Remember how things were when you killed Dad?”

“Yeah, I remember,” replied Shichika, holding position. “What about it, sis?”

“Never mind. I realize that I’ve yet to thank9 you─but I’m not exactly thankful, so don’t hold your breath. You could’ve let Dad─kill me.”

“…”

“You should’ve let him kill me. I don’t belong among the living.”

“Come on, sis─”

“You come on,” Nanami said, “and kill me.”

Once again─she eyed Togame.

Not giving Shichika a chance to protest.10

“I’ve made myself clear, so go ahead and give the sign…or are you trying to buy time? Do you need another moment for whatever scheme you’re working on?”

“…Okay, okay.”

Togame clicked her tongue like she was fed up.

She closed her eyes and raised one hand, like she’d stopped caring.11

“Go ahead and kill each other. You’re siblings, but you’re swords. Who am I to try and stop you. May the best sword win─”

She let her hand fall through the air.

“─Fight!”

That very instant.

Togame the Schemer’s scheme─activated.

■　■

She suspected firearms.

What if they shot at her with guns set up outside, or off behind the pillars holding up the Inner Sanctum, or from behind the gigantic Katana Buddha?

But her suspicion was not the same as fear.

A fact all too apparent in light of her rumble, back on Haphazard Island, against Mitsubachi Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Ninja Clan─whose Blunderbuzz had one-hundred-percent accuracy, able to nail a target from two hundred feet away… Yet Nanami had seen through it all too easily, and turned its powers against him.13

Nanami did have firearms on mind─but this also assured her that they would not come into play.

It would be far too typical a scheme.

Togame would never try something so trite.

So what did she have up her sleeves?

Nanami could not begin14 to speculate.15

Nay─she had no need to speculate.

Nanami could simply─watch and learn.

Speculation be damned─she had those eyes.

She could watch and learn.

Seeing.

Seeing everything.

Seeing through things.

Seeing into things.

Seeing beyond things.

Seeing to the end of things.

Seeing made them hers.

Looking at─over─through─into─and out for it.

Observing─and examining it.

Hence.

Regardless of what trickery Togame the Schemer tried to pull, Nanami was ready to fight back─however!

“─nkk!”

Once they had received the signal, Shichika launched from the Kakitsubata, charging full speed for Nanami─but without making even one of the twenty-four feints he had made last time.

Nanami saw that much.

But once she had seen it─the vision crucial to her strength went black.

Nay.

That wasn’t possible.

At times like these, Nanami would not even allow herself to blink─both of her eyes were open wide.

What had gone black─was the Inner Sanctum.

Once brimming with the orange light of hundreds of candles─swallowed in darkness.

Because the burning candles─had gone out.

Hundreds of candles─all at once.16

“…nkk! …nkk!”

─So that was her scheme!

Nanami understood immediately.

Why Togame had asked for them to battle not in the Fifth Hall, but the Inner Sanctum, where Nanami may manage, but Shichika would find it hard to negotiate the pillars and the various other obstacles─that was why!

She understood why she had asked for them to fight at night, too.

And in a place where oh so many candles were no oddity, but a necessity─none other than the Inner Sanctum of Seiryoin Gokenji Temple, at the very feet of the Katana Buddha!

If it had been the dojo, she would have seen it coming.

There, candles, even hundreds of them, would have only served one purpose─shedding light on Nanami and Shichika─and would have been impossible to miss. But candles in the Inner Sanctum served a higher purpose, namely illuminating the Katana Buddha.

─The Katana Buddha.

Did his presence─

Baffle even me?

For the past week.

The Schemer─had been hoarding17 candles.

Then she’d swapped out the candles of the Inner Sanctum with her own collection.

Not rigging them with any special mechanism, however─since Nanami would have noticed any trickery.

These were run-of-the-mill candles.

She had merely modified their lengths.

So once all of them were lit─the candles would burn out at exactly the same time.

If it was possible to estimate how long a candle will burn before going out.

It was equally possible to make two candles burn out at the same time.

Or hundreds of candles, for that matter─

It could be done.

And the Schemer─made it happen.

Using candles of the exact same length would have stood out, so she must have mixed things up with candles of all different shapes and sizes and materials. Moreover, since she could only light one at a time, she had to gradually reduce their length so that the last one finished at the same as the first─

As agonizing as this mathematics and their realization18 sound─the Schemer must have done it all alone.

Not calling on the temple monks for aid.

This temple was under Nanami’s control.

The monks she lorded over with an iron fist had seen their holy land usurped, and could hardly be regarded as her friends─but neither could they be expected to voluntarily abet Togame’s schemes.

The candles went out in a flash.

Followed by total darkness.

The veil19 of night.

Needless to say, Nanami was not completely blinded by the darkness, but the sudden shift from light to dark, as if the sun had fallen from the midday sky─shrunk her field of vision instantaneously.

All she had to do was watch.

And she could see through any scheme.

But she couldn’t see through schemes─she couldn’t see!

“Nkkk…gh.”

Nanami was not so much surprised or confused─

As she was overwhelmingly impressed.

In this case, perhaps the difference was a matter of semantics─but the source of her reaction was the sheer scale of the ruse that the Schemer had cast over their simple duel.

Nanami asked her whether she was buying time─but had not thought that she was really doing such a thing. While listening to Shichika and Nanami hash it out, and following up with a few comments of her own─

Togame had a clock ticking inside her head.

Keeping time─with lunatic20 precision.

Eyes never drifting toward the candles.

After giving the signal, she dropped her hand─out like a light.

May the best sword win─hah.

It was a truly─loveable performance.21

Even in Nanami’s eyes.

Utterly fascinating!

“…Whoahhhhhhhhh!”

Shichika too.

Shichika Yasuri, the Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu.

Obviously Togame filled him in beforehand that the candles would burn out immediately after she had signaled them to start the fight─sending the effulgent Inner Sanctum into darkness.

Knowing in advance had only saved him from the element of surprise; Shichika could not escape the darkness either.

This scheme was indiscriminate,22 affecting everyone, not just Nanami.

But knowing that his field of vision would go black─gave Shichika a foothold in the fight. Which is precisely why he charged full speed for Nanami, without adding a single feint.

Leaping through the darkness─Shichika landed at Nanami’s feet.

And inside her reach─took Kyotoryu Form Four, the Asagao.

His answer to the darkness.

Something that Nanami, depending solely on her vision─could not possibly have done.

“Alright, sis, here I come─”

The weakness of Shichika Hachiretsu─was in the pause preceding Fatal Orchid Four: Ryuryoku Kako. Togame had alerted him, and even told him he should launch the sequence of attacks from Ryuryoku Kako, so he could rip through all the others in one go─but Shichika kept on thinking and added to the strategy.

He was fighting for Togame.

For the owner of Shichika Yasuri, sword that he was.

Thus he arrived at a conclusion.

If any of the Seven Fatal Orchids could be said to have a pause, Ryuryoku Kako was the culprit, but all of the other six had some kind of a pause or windup. It was just that Ryuryoku Kako was the most conspicuous─in which case.

Among the five thousand and forty possible permutations23 of the Seven Fatal Orchids, there had to be a combination more efficient than the rest─

An order of attack that bested any other combination.

Shichika had thought hard.

As bad at thinking as he may have been─he tried like crazy.

Tuning his Last Fatal Orchid to have minimum interference─and maximum ferocity.

The ideal combination.

From five thousand and forty─down to seven hundred and twenty.

And again─down to a single sequence.

Fatal Orchid Four: Ryuryoku Kako

Fatal Orchid One: Kyoka Suigetsu

Fatal Orchid Five: Hika Rakuyo

Fatal Orchid Seven: Rakka Rozeki

Fatal Orchid Three: Hyakka Ryoran

Fatal Orchid Six: Kinjo Tenka

Fatal Orchid Two: Kacho Fugetsu

Unleashed in this specific order simultaneously, the Seven Fatal Orchids went beyond a medley─they formed a maelstrom!24

This was it!

Last Fatal Orchid of the Kyotoryu─Shichika Hachiretsu Redux!25

■　■

For over time─the eyes become adjusted to the dark.

Starlight wafted through the windows here and there around the Inner Sanctum─this particular scheme was only advantageous in the moment after all the candles had burned out.

In darkness of the Inner Sanctum of Gokenji Temple.

All that remained to be seen─is who had won.

And Togame the Schemer could see for herself.

Shichika Yasuri─held his guard.26

Nanami Yasuri─lay face up, a short distance away.

This genius that had been labeled a monster.

Lay with her back on the floor.

“Hey, Togame.”

Togame had been at a loss for words at this display, but snapped out of it when Shichika called her name.

“Wh-What.”

“Look.”

Togame looked.

Shichika held up his hand─gripping a dagger.

Akuto the Eel.

Struggling in the darkness, or perhaps attacking her and meeting no resistance, Shichika had wrested the sword from her breast.

“Here’s another one─check.”

Shichika lobbed the dagger at Togame. Lacking the reflexes to catch it, she allowed its point to sink into the floorboards─then prized it free.

A faint numbness wiggled through her fingers.

The blade was charged─with lightning.

It was unclear how it worked, but one thing was for sure.

“That makes seven.”

Zetto the Leveler, Zanto the Razor, Sento the Legion, Hakuto the Whisper, Zokuto the Armor, Soto the Twin… This made seven.

“What about Nanami? Is she─dead?”

“Nah, she’s the same as ever, she’ll live. Even in the darkness, she found a way to block me, and Shichika Hachiretsu Redux, my new Last Fatal Orchid, only found so much purchase. It took everything I had to yank out Akuto the Eel. But I gotta say, her defense was less than perfect─she probably couldn’t see that well.”

Shichika turned over to his sister─prostrate and motionless.

“It was kinda like this after Sabi… It sorta feels anticlimactic… At least half of it was thanks to your idea. Anyway, I guess we won? But wow…take her eyes by turning out the lights. You sure think up some crazy stuff, Togame. This time you really cooked us up a banger.”27

“I had no choice against someone as strong as her. You wouldn’t believe how much it cost and what a pain it was to come up with a scheme that Nanami and the monks wouldn’t catch on to─but it was all worthwhile.”

“Yeah─seems that way.”

“Still, that was quite the gamble. Everything was riding on that one shot. If you had missed with Shichika Hachiretsu Redux, it would have all been over. But it seems like you picked the winning set of numbers for the sequence.”

“I dunno though, I think it still needs lots of work28─but we can save that conversation for another day. Can you call us down a doctor, Togame? Without Akuto the Eel, I’m scared that sis won’t last.”

“Right, the air here on the mainland is too rich for her… Got it, then─Shichika!”

When Togame screamed─Shichika burst into action.

Togame’s eyes─were on Nanami, of course.

Prostrate in her monkish robes─but moving.

Or so it seemed─from where Togame stood.

“…!”

Shichika assumed Form Seven, the Kakitsubata, and faced his sister.

But Nanami did not so much as shiver29 where she lay─

“Uh, Togame─”

“Eyes on her─it can’t be true…”

However.

If it were true─they were in serious trouble.

That scheme would never work a second time─and she was fresh out of ideas.

It had been one hell of a gamble.

They could dispossess Nanami of the Eel─but they could never strip30 her of her genius. Togame was at a loss for schemes, and Shichika no better.

If it wasn’t over yet─

“…Phew.”

Indeed.

Still lying on her back─Nanami heaved a sigh.

A sigh only Nanami could have sighed.

“Looks like─I underestimated you.”

Then─no rush.

Not rushing─Nanami sat herself up from the floor.

When she was hit or perhaps when she tumbled to the floor, her monkish robe had come undone─baring her chest.

And in the middle of her chest.

A yawning gap.

Left by Akuto the Eel.

Hollow─not a drop of blood.

The shape of nothingness31 itself.

The shape─of darkness.

Perfect darkness, impossible by definition.

“Akuto the Eel? You do realize that bogus sword tempered32 my strength─in revitalizing me, it slowed me down33… As for Watch and Learn… Taking on the moves of others─made me weaker by design.”

Looks like, she muttered.

Looks like─I was wrong.

Nanami Yasuri─stood up.

“I was wrong…to try and live a little longer─to fight you head-to-head in my condition.”

“Huh?”

Watch and Learn.

One would think─the skill would make a person stronger.

That it would mean the acquisition of additional strength.

However─

A genius like Nanami Yasuri.

Took on the skills of others─to become weaker.

In order to be weak.

A weaker being.

Governing34─her strength.

That she may live.

Nanami Yasuri watched and learned not to increase her strength─but to survive.

And thus─she watched and learned voraciously.

Maniwa Ninpo.

The monstrous strength of the Itezoras.

The necromancy of the Sacred Guardians of Mt. Shirei.

The Gokenjiryu of Seiryoin Gokenji Temple.

And yes.

Even the methods of the Kyotoryu!

“S-Sis…”

No wonder Akuto the Eel didn’t suit her.

That it seemed like a bad fit─as fitting as it seemed to be.

The Mutant Blade, the work of Kiki Shikizaki, inarguably revivified Nanami─but only because it contained her strength.

To Nanami, Akuto the Eel worked as a handicap.35

A handicap she needed─to survive.

To make her weak enough.

“Alright, come on, Shichika,” Nanami said.

And took her position─or lack thereof.

Kyotoryu Form Zero, the Ichijiku? Not even that!

This time─she was standing there, and nothing more.

Even Togame, a stranger to the martial arts, could see─and perhaps see all the better.

This was everything and nothing.

Nothing─just Nanami Yasuri, being herself.

Like Konayuki Itezora, back on Mt. Odori in Ezo, she was not working off a pattern. Yet Nanami was no amateur─but a genius!

“I’m still alive. Hurry up and kill me please.”

“But sis─”

Shichika─was shaking.

Completely spellbound.36

Even without using her eyes─Nanami was capturing the essence of Shichika Yasuri.

He was terrified.

And overwhelmed.

Togame could not sense it.

But Shichika, being halfway strong, took the full brunt of the fearsome energy radiating from Nanami.

“Enough!” Togame cried in a voice that echoed through the Inner Sanctum. “What’s the point? We have Akuto the Eel! Call it a day! You have no reason to go on fighting!”

“Quiet.”

Nanami─spoke softly.

And moved again.

Turning toward Togame, she appeared to merely whip her sleeve─but something else had happened here.

Her hair.

Togame’s hair of white─fell to the floor.

It had been snipped off.

In a straight line─just above her shoulders.

“…nkk!”

The line cut clear across her slender neck─

Lopping off her signature white hair in such a clean and perfect path that she was lucky she hadn’t lost her head as well.

On the floorboards of the Inner Sanctum.

The hair sat in a pile─at Togame’s feet.

A pile of white.

“Wh-What the… H-How did you─from over there?”