KATANAGATARI 1

■　■

Her quest to capture the Twelve Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki.

Her journey to Haphazard Island.

These were not for the benefit of the shogunate.

She, more than anyone else in the world, was neither money-hungry ninja nor honor-hungry swordsman.

What, then, did she seek?

Shedding light on the matter happens to be one goal of the present tale.

■　■

Togame knew it.

But what the mistake was, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was coming to this godforsaken island2 in the first place, or maybe it was trying to use the Kyotoryu to do her bidding─why had she chosen them?

Out of all the other schools.

Shichika Yasuri. Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu.

She had learned enough from their exchanges to know that he was not so bright, but she had not expected him to be this much of an idiot. How could he be so absorbed in battle that he’d forget his employer? Granted, there could have been no other way for him to evade Komori’s Star Cannon─which is why he also missed Komori snatching her off her feet and fleeing in the blink of an eye─and maybe she ought to go a little easier on him. After all, she wasn’t officially his employer yet, and from the sound of it, this was his first real battle. Comparing the Kyotoryu to normal schools of swordsmanship may be absurd to begin with, but who ever trained for situations where the opponent cut and run?

Why would he?

But his opponent was a ninja.

Making a living out of dirty deeds.

If you’ll permit me to use my ninjutsu.

Komori had done just that.

After bombarding Shichika with shuriken, Komori launched from the sand and landed in a single bound beside Togame, who like Shichika was so mystified by the ballooning ninja that she lost her chance to run away.

But no.

Truth be told, Togame, who lacked any martial arts skills, could never have evaded Komori Maniwa, one of the twelve bosses of a ninja clan.

Proud as she was of going unarmed.

A Schemer─an eschewer of armaments.

“Holy crap, that guy is crazy! Look at those reflexes. He braced himself before I’d even puked out all the shuriken. Anybody else would have turned and ran. Good going, kyahah! But I should have seen it coming, from any man of yours. Right, Pussycat?”

Snickering, Komori finished tying Togame to the trunk of a tree. The thick straw rope was soppy with saliva─naturally having been stowed in his stomach.

With Togame slung over his shoulder, Komori had run into the forest, sprinting left and right in random zigzags all over the mountain. Unlike Togame on her morning trek, he had taken great pains to leave no footprints and jumped from tree to tree─until, judging that he’d gone far enough, he’d stopped. When he pinned her up against the tree, she had no way of resisting him. He tied her hands around her back, and wound the rope around her body, lashing her ribs tight against the bark.

“That boy is so naive.3 Ready for battle, but not the battlefield. Suppose that’s what you get if you grow up on an island in the middle of nowhere.”

“You…coward!” Togame cursed her captor. Tied up as she was, words were her only weapon. “What’s the matter, chicken? Too scared to face the Kyotoryu?”

“Whoa, whoa. Easy, tiger. I’m no swordsman, nor a warrior, and never claimed to be. Put up a fair fight, as a ninja, and I’d be the laughing stock of the village. Only meatheads rely on muscle. I take a wiser approach─you might even call it tactics. Isn’t that right, Schemer?”

“Don’t compare us, you scumbag,” spat Togame. “You’re just a bully. All you do is take the easy path─I’m the opposite. I stake my life and soul on devising ways for the weak to take on the strong─”

“That sounds so brave. Reminds me of some of the less brave things I know about you.”

“What?”

“In any case, I’m a ninja, not a swordsman. Don’t confuse me with Hakuhei Sabi.” Komori laughed condescendingly, his cheeks threatening to tear up to the ears. “I overheard your conversation with Kyotoryu. What do you expect from a ninja? I must say I was surprised that Sabi was okay with sloppy seconds. I suppose someone had to try and fill my shoes. But then he went and stabbed you in the back─yeah?”

“If you heard me, why are you asking?”

“Don’t look so sour, Pussycat. It’s not as if I peeped in on two lovers making out.4 But you could have been a bit more careful. You may be smart, but you’re wide open.”

What was there to say?

The possibility of the boatman being anyone but himself─much less this ninja─had failed to cross her mind. She should have known─after all, she knew what powers he could muster. Even if the Star Cannon was a surprise. And here she thought she knew his tricks more than she cared to.

“You might not have caught me snooping, but there’s no excuse for that pickup line of yours. ‘Go ahead and fall for me.’ Whew! Laying it on thick. I wish you’d used that one on me.”

“Only to have you double-cross me? Don’t waste your breath. What’s your plan? You think that you can hold me hostage?”

“Hey! There’s an idea.” Komori gave an exaggerated shrug. “But you only just met Kyotoryu and might not serve as one. Personally,” he said, grinning, “I would have picked his sister.”

So he knew about Nanami. How couldn’t he, if he’d been listening; but this proved it.

“Then again, maybe not─that sister of his is more than meets the eye. My Star Cannon was supposed to wipe out you and Kyotoryu─but that girl somehow saw the whole thing coming.”

He was right.

Only now did the Schemer realize that Nanami had saved them from the gale of ninja stars that blew through the wall of the hut. Throwing herself into the line of fire and pushing Togame and Shichika─before the shuriken came through the wall!

Nanami Yasuri.

Was she another master of the Kyotoryu?

“Where’s she gonna hide? She’s on an island. Soon it’ll be her turn to taste what the Hell-Made is serving up─after I kill you and her brother.”

“So go ahead and kill me.”

“Don’t act so noble, Pussycat─I know you inside out. You’re brimming with schemes of how to finish me off. Your guts are far more hazardous than mine.”

Komori got up in her face, so close their breath mixed.

“Don’t fret. I’m not gonna kill you─we have so many things to talk about. Even when I came at you with the Star Cannon, I wasn’t trying to kill you off, much less the Kyotoryu. That line about wiping you out was just my way of speaking.5 I merely hoped to whip you to a pulp─kyahah!”

“If that was the idea, you could have exercised a little self-control─I can’t speak for the Kyotoryu, but it’s a miracle I didn’t die. I’m feebler than you know.”

“Don’t sound proud about it. Kyotoru would have partially shielded you if it had gone according to plan… So, what I’d like us to discuss, of course, are these Shikizaki blades, the masterpiece Mutant Blades. I know where the Leveler is─safe inside my belly. Tell me where I can find the other eleven, along with who has them and what each blade can do.”

“…”

“You said you only knew what was up with six of them, but you can’t be absolutely in the dark about the other six. The Old Shogun had his finger on the whole lot. If you put your precious directorate to work, you’d at least have a place to start from.”

“…”

“Trust me, I’ve done my best to find out all I can. I know all about this Hakuto the Whisper sword that Hakuhei Sabi ran away with. Sounds like a wild weapon. As thin and light as the name implies. From overhead, it’s practically invisible. Fit only for the hands of a true master─right? Designed to be light as the Leveler is sturdy─or so I hear. But that’s what makes it delicate; unless it’s in the hands of someone who can swing it perfectly, it’s bound to shatter. Kyahah! I can see why you ordered Sabi to go after it first. He’s probably the only living swordsman in Japan who could handle it.”

“…”

“Wasn’t there another one that Shikizaki designed around the principle of strength in numbers? I believe it’s called Sento the Legion. A sinister mirage─a thousand swords in one. Anyway. That’s all I managed to discover. I’m dying to know what else you have to share with me. That’s why I followed you to this landfill of an island. But in the end, you tell Kyotoryu nothing that you didn’t tell me.”

“…”

“Cat got your tongue?”

Komori clucked6 at her with disgust before giving her a little breathing room.

“I’m only gonna ask you once, so listen up. Why don’t you just backstab the bakufu and team up with us? You’ll get a fair cut. No funny business.”

“Eat me.” Her reaction was instant. “I can’t trust anyone who works for money.”

“You still mad about what happened? We’ve been over this. You messed up when you put your trust in a pack of ninjas. But I know why you need to get mad─”

“Need to? What are you─”

“Never mind.” Komori steered the conversation in a new direction. “Me and the other Maniwa Bosses, we’ve decided to have ourselves a competition─to see who can snatch up most of the twelve swords. Once we’ve sold them, we’ll divvy up the spoils, but the more swords you found, the bigger your piece of the pie. I’m one step ahead of the game, but the other guys aren’t far behind. Especially that prick Kawauso.7 He knows how to sniff these suckers out. If you and I had teamed up, it would have been lucky for both of us.”

“Guess your luck’s run out.”

“I’ll show you how lucky I am─I can torture you to my heart’s content. What’s the matter? You look a little pale. Kyahah! They say that any punishment beats being tortured by a ninja. Isn’t that a horrible thing to say? I wouldn’t say we do anything horrible. Per se.”

“Creep.”

“Don’t fret. We won’t get started yet. I don’t have any of my toys. With that last Star Cannon I blew through most of my stash, except for the Leveler. It’s not the sort of move I ordinarily pull twice in a day. You’ll have to wait until we return to the mainland for the physical interrogations to begin─first, let me take care of Kyotoryu.”

Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu─Shichika Yasuri.

“This game of swords is crazy enough with just us Maniwa Bosses. I’ll have to take care of Hakuhei Sabi, too, as soon as I have the chance… Kyahah, last thing I want is to be sword-handed from behind while I’m torturing you.”

“Then why didn’t you stay and fight? You didn’t look so cornered that you had to start anew.”

“Remember? Only meatheads rely on muscle. The moment for that sort of thing has come and gone. Nothing’s more passé than a bona fide swordfight. And where’s the sport in a ninja─who regurgitates far better than he ripostes─battling a swordsman who doesn’t even use a sword? It’d be like trying to cuddle with a cuttlefish8─not that cuttlefish aren’t cuddly. Did that pun suck? No bones about it. I know I’m preaching to the choir,9 my dear Schemer, but the best way to stay alive is to avoid fighting anyone stronger than you. To play it safe, I’d personally avoid anyone who’s half as strong. But after that sermon of yours on the glories of weakness, I get the sense I’m not so much preaching to the choir as casting pearls before swine.”10

“Stuff your nonsense11 down your star hole. I have no interest in battling anyone weaker than me.”

“Well, I guess you and I have different tastes after all.”

“So you think highly of Shichika.” In essence, that was the Maniwa Boss’s assessment of that untested youth.

“Head to head, he would be hard to take. If I were a swordsman, I may even have lost. He had a chance. But I’m a ninja─and I know how to eliminate that chance.”

“Lofty remarks, from a man relying on a hostage to lure his enemy into the mountains for a sneak attack.”

“Tsk tsk tsk. To be a hostage, you need to be desirable. And these mountains are hardly the place to try and snare that Kyotoryu. This is his turf. Were he to show up now, the disadvantage would be mine. And if he comes for me, he’s taking you down, too.”

“Take me down?”

Could that happen?

Togame doubted the efficacy of a hostage scenario, but she had no way of predicting how that simple man would react to a situation like this.

When you’re smart, you can’t imagine being stupid.

And what if─

If the Kyotoryu…is that kind of school…

“So I’m not going to ambush him. We’ll square off. I’ll be a good sport.”

“…”

“Don’t look so skeptical. You know what I can do. You’ve seen my ninja skills.”

Komori Maniwa. One of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa.

Defying physics and anatomy to stuff a plethora of exceedingly long or sharp or useful things, like rope, inside his body─was not the main attraction.

This was just a taste of him─merely the first sip. Komori had mentioned how Kawauso could sniff them out, but Togame had originally hired the clan because it was Komori whose powers were best suited to the task at hand.

His face was melting.

It transformed as she watched.

As if it were clay, he thumbed the skin and muscle of his face─but didn’t stop there. He tugged and squeezed at his entire body until─

“How’s this look? Think I’ll pass?”

Before the count of ten─Komori had molded his head into hers. From the neck up, he was Togame.

This was no mere disguise.

His bones and very flesh had changed.

He had her long hair─white of course.

And had even copied the bump on her forehead.

“Yuck!”

To repeat, Togame already knew about this move─but it never failed to disturb her. Komori’s ninpo12 allowed him to modify his body, on command, to have a different figure, a different feel, a different skin.

This is how he had transformed into the boatman.

The boatman she had vetted so severely─and that was why, when Nanami raised the possibility, Togame saw instantly that it was Komori who had bombarded the hut.

She’d been so careful about being followed.

And never dreamed she’d be accompanied instead.

The actual boatman─was surely no longer of this world.

“Behold, the Body Melt13─kyahah! Whoops, don’t want to forget the rest of my body. And what a fine body it is─”

He yanked and pinched and tugged and squeezed.

Stretching flesh and bone into shape.

Transforming from a muscly man into a skinny woman─yes, with Komori’s Body Melt, body type was no concern, and even gender distinctions14 were meaningless.

Perhaps it’s a cliché to describe ninjas as masters of disguise, but in Komori’s case, his powers were absolute. Nobody knew his true identity─whether he was a he or a she, or old or young. Even the figure we saw on the beach might have been artificial. In all likelihood, Komori Maniwa had forgotten his original form.The Softeninja.15

His ability to load that bare sword and those prickly shuriken into his body without a drop of blood was owing to this fearsome elasticity.

The owner of the supplest body in existence claiming the hardest and firmest katana was ironic, perhaps─but maybe this was necessity.

After all, it was why Togame had enlisted him to seize the Leveler, just as she had tasked Sabi with capturing the Whisper.

Pinching and squeezing to make the last few touches, Komori completed his transformation into Togame. It may have taken slightly longer than ten seconds by now, but far less time than you might expect. Forced to watch herself take form before her very eyes, Togame was hardly at ease.

“That just about does it.”

Even the voice was Togame’s.

“Kyahah!” he laughed─in her voice. “You think that doesn’t sound like you? People never hear their own voice as others hear it. But that’s what you sound like to everybody else. Doesn’t it make you squeamish?”

This was no impression. It was far more sinister than mimicking her voice─Komori had her vocal cords. He probably even had the same lungs and other vital organs─which is why.

It was exactly her voice.

Indeed, she felt squeamish─

Not at the sound of her own voice.

At the thought of her insides being replicated.

“Is this how you’re going to fool Shichika?”

“You know it. And if you think I’m playing dirty, keep it to yourself. I’m only doing what I did for you when I seized the Leveler.”

“…”

He was right.

She had utilized his transformative powers to the utmost.

“Actually─you need to keep it to yourself all the time.”

With that suggestive declaration, Komori plunged his hand into his mouth. This topped the list of feats Togame hoped he would not execute as her, but lashed to the tree, she was powerless to stop him. Perhaps he was making her watch simply to force her to savor her powerlessness.

The hand he eventually pulled out of his throat was gripping a bindle16─packed with carefully folded clothes, from the looks of it. Of course. Togame put it all together. Komori hadn’t worn his wacky ninja garb as the boatman─

“Even with your skin and bones, I’d never pass for you in clothes this baggy. If I had time to strip you bare─I would enjoy every minute of it, trust me─but I thought ahead and packed accordingly. The same kimono.”

He had wrapped the clothes to prevent them from being drenched in spit. He had to have another outfit, for the boatman, packed somewhere else in his body─was his stomach connected to a fourth dimension? It was a mystery that could not be explained in terms of flexibility alone. That said, it would be futile to attempt an understanding of ninjutsu based on logic─

“Kyahah! Don’t forget to write in your report to your superiors how I brought a change of clothes. Make sure you say exactly what I’m wearing. Lots of guys go crazy for those details. But I digress─the only thing you’ll be submitting to your superiors─is your resignation.”

“…I’d rather not have to explain how a maniac ninja like you showed up.”

“I bet. Man, these are some fancy duds. By the way, I got a receipt. Can I expense this? That price tag made me sick to my stomach. But I guess it’s nothing compared to what I’ll get for a Shikizaki sword─no, not even close.”

“Aren’t you ashamed for being such a money-grubber?”

“Of course not. Like I said, that age is over. These days, shrewdness is a virtue. It’s proof of your intelligence, your cleverness. Though I suppose the Schemer would have to disagree.”

Komori sloughed his ninja clothes and changed into the outfit wrapped up in the bindle. Donning17 a kimono is an art, and he made it look easy. A little too easy─at times, he moved his arms in ways a normal human skeleton should not allow, like when he was adjusting the position of the obi at his lower back. He slipped on a pair of the same sandals as Togame and finished off by wrapping up his ninja garb, throwing open his mouth, and swallowing the whole package in one gulp.

“Now I just need to tear apart the hem a bit…like so. Hey! Look at that. Twinsies! Kyahah! Imagine if I showed up like this at Owari Castle instead of you? That’d be a laugh. If I caused enough of a scene, you would become a wanted woman, and you’d have to help me, like it or not.”

“Fool… You won’t get very far. Bump into enough people, and someone will catch on.”

“Don’t act so serious. I’m kidding. You’re so uptight. It’d be great if I could replicate your brains, but I’ll need some more practice to get there. By the way, where’s your weapon? When you left the boat, you had a big sword─too big for you─dangling from your hip. Did you leave it at the hut after they confiscated it?”

“I must have…”

Yep.

Unaccustomed to carrying a katana, Togame didn’t think to reach for the sword when she ran off to chase after the two men. Even if it had crossed her mind, Nanami would hardly have given it back. Besides, Togame could barely swing the thing.

“Oh well. Looks like I’ll have to finish this with the Leveler. I can’t exactly fight him hand to hand, not with a body like this…and I’m all out of shuriken.”

“Think you can pull it off?”

“Sure. He’ll never see it coming. You’ve seen my bag of tricks, but Kyotoryu thinks I’m just some ninja who pulls swords out of his stomach. He’s too gentle for his own good. Doesn’t seem to have the temperament to ambush me or anything. But what do you expect from an island monkey?”

“I thought you said you’d be a good sport.”

“I said we’d square off─not that I’d fight fair and square. It would have been much better if I’d turned into his sister, but sadly, I don’t know her face well enough to make it work. Maybe I should have peeped while I was eavesdropping. I wonder what happened to her. Think she’s still sitting up in that hut?”

Togame wouldn’t say.

But that is where Nanami had to be.

You go and watch─I’m sure my brother will take care of things─go see the Kyotoryu in action─was what she’d told Togame.

Nanami trusted Shichika with her life.

That trust had gotten Togame into this mess…but it was no reason to inform Komori of her whereabouts.

Togame held her tongue. She wouldn’t answer.

But it didn’t seem like he was waiting for an answer.

“Who cares,” Komori said. “Once I’ve thoroughly18 squashed Kyotoryu, I’ll take his shape and kill his sister. On this small island, she can run, but she can’t hide. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait here till I’m done.”

“No! Wait.”

First the Maniwa double-crossed her.

Then Hakuhei Sabi double-crossed her.

And now she had to wait here while Komori killed the Kyotoryu?

She would run out of options.

She would have no hope of rounding up the Shikizaki blades─it was that simple.

Whether or not it had been a mistake, at this point, relying on the Kyotoryu was the only strategy19 available to her─her only scheme.

I’ve come this far.

How could I possibly give up now!

“What do you care anyway?”

Komori laughed, with Togame’s face, narrowing its eyes.

“Whether I kill him or not, that kid isn’t going to cooperate with you. What was that hot line of yours? ‘Go ahead and fall for me’? Man, do I wish you’d used it on me. My comeback would’ve been ‘No one in this world would ever fall for you.’”

“…”

“Sure, I stabbed your back for money, but if I had known what kind of person you are, I never would have signed up in the first place. And know what? I only asked you to team up with me just now so I could stab you in the back again.”

Then he said it again.

His comeback line.

“No one in this world would ever fall for you.”

■　■

Given his awesome power, now come to light, pronouns are an unresolvable dilemma, but for the sake of continuity, he─a ninja upon being born in the Maniwa enclave, was raised as a ninja of the ninjas, by the ninjas, for the ninjas.21

No values or ideas of his own.

When his turn came, he became a Maniwa Boss.

That was all there was to it.

A nonpartisan unit with allegiances to no country, the Maniwa Clan was, in a certain sense, a perfect portrait22 of the ninjas. It was organized around a principle of free agency,23 but this was not because they didn’t get along. It developed organically: each ninja was a true army of one, and when they tried to work together, they couldn’t help getting in each other’s way. Komori fit right in, distinguishing himself as among the most reliable of the Twelve Bosses. And while the unprecedented proposal that the entire village go rogue did not come from him specifically, you can bet he was behind it.

The Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki.

His twelve masterpieces.

If they sold the lot of them─

They could all give up on being ninjas.

No more slinking around in shadows.

They would no longer have to hide, and no longer have to endure.24

Something unresolved was how they would unload the Possessed. One sword was supposedly enough to buy a country. Who had that kind of money? With the exception of an area of Nagasaki, Japan was pursuing a policy of isolation,25 but they would have to seek a patron overseas. While they were at it, why not move the entire clan overseas? Japan no longer had a place for them.

It never did.

“If for no other reason…” muttered Komori, in the voice of Togame the Schemer. “I need to make sure and finish off Kyotoryu.”

To recap.

He couldn’t have Togame crying out for Kyotoryu or his big sister to come save her. Tying her to the tree was not enough; he had gagged her (at this point, you don’t need to be told where he pulled the gag26 from) and sprang off─zipping into action.

He had already laid his trap.

Repairing into the mountains with Togame in his clutches, Komori had made frantic zigzags up and down as a cover lest Shichika follow his tracks─but had left discernible traces here and there. Not pointing toward Togame, they’d lead Shichika somewhere completely different.

Tracks he would follow─without fail─precisely because of his comprehensive knowledge of the island and the mountains. A ruse, intent on laying bare the poor interpersonal skills of a youth who’d barely met a soul. Because he had never been the victim of malice, the possibility would never occur to him.

It was a matter of experience.

Plain and simple.

According to plan, Shichika followed the false tracks until he was right where Komori wanted him─the site of the natural spring, which Shichika had meant to visit earlier that day with a bucket on his back. That detail was not known to Komori, who had only picked the place because it was a clearing. Which made sense─after all, the Yasuri family had been drawing water here and tending to the spring for twenty years.

From up in the branches of a tree, Komori watched a nonplussed Shichika find himself at the end of the trail.

Kyotoryu was tall and muscular, but far from oafish.

Lengthy arms and legs.

The shuriken were gone, the bleeding stopped.

His heart and his lungs in tiptop shape.

A perfect man, one hundred percent.

Back at the enclave, Komori had trained day in day out to reach this level of skill─but it was becoming clear that Shichika Yasuri had trained at least as hard. Komori was observing Shichika in order to assume his form and slay his sister back at the hut─but his body was so fine it almost put the ninja in a trance.

Komori could shapeshift into any kind of body─but he needed a model.27 The humanly impossible─like becoming a giant ten times taller and infinitely stronger than any man─was beyond him. If he continued training and honing his ninjutsu, perhaps someday he could accomplish such a feat, but it was just like in the fine arts─imitation was easy, but creating some-thing new was challenging. At present, his Body Melt was limited to imitation, falling short of true creation.

Hence.

Komori found Shichika’s toned body, in the flesh, so beautiful.

It’s a shame I have to do this─

The uncharacteristic thought did cross his mind.

From a business perspective, that body was a hot commodity, so maybe the thought wasn’t so uncharacteristic after all.

Still, it was a shame.

You could say it wasn’t in the stars.

In his first true match, Kyotoryu, a swordsman who never used a sword, was up against a ninja, rather than a swordsman, who moreover came brandishing the unbreakable Leveler, forged by Kiki Shikizaki to be the hardest sword imaginable.

These were no terms for swordplay, nor could the sword be snapped.

Too bad for the youth.

No─his bad luck began when Togame chose him. If the two hadn’t met, Kyotoryu would not be embroiled with the Shikizaki swords, much less the Maniwa Clan.

Nevertheless.

Something told Komori that this kid was too big a fish─or monkey─for this tiny island. There was something about him.

Just a hunch.

What if Komori could get him to be an ally instead?

As a Boss, he could invite Kyotoryu to be part of the New Maniwa.

No. No way.

Maybe under different circumstances, but not now. This job was supposed to be the last hurrah for the Maniwa. Galvanized by their fraternal competition to collect the Twelve Possessed, Komori already had a lead on several of the swords. If he asked around─posing as Togame─back on the mainland, he could no doubt locate several more. This was not the time to add an unknown quantity to the mix.

It was nowhere in the stars.

Komori felt bad for the youth.

Thinking like this was truly out of character.

“Weird,” Shichika muttered to himself, pacing around the spring. “What happened to the tracks? Where’d everybody go?”

“…”

Komori’s eyes were darting, but his body was motionless. He would not be discovered. Then again, he thought, this man was not like other men. Komori had opted for this plan of action because he doubted that Togame would be effective as a hostage, but it was still a gamble as to whether she’d even serve as bait28…and yet Shichika had swallowed it right up.

Judging from his use of the word “everybody,” which lumped Komori with Togame, Shichika, wild animal that he was, had chased them simply because the ninja had run. In that sense, Komori had been correct in opting not to use Togame as a hostage─but as bait she wasn’t much good either. As far as the gamble was concerned, Komori had lost, but things were working in his favor.

He had him good.

Absolutely. Without a doubt.

Komori checked for the Leveler in his stomach. He had flipped its orientation─no longer hilt side up, it was ensconced with the point at the top of his throat. He would probably have to catch Shichika off-guard once they were close. He wouldn’t have a chance to reach down into his mouth and extract the blade. If he did that as Togame, it would be a miracle for him not to blow his cover.

Then he would launch it.

Not the Star Cannon but a Sword Cannon.

The straight sword was a perfect missile.

Since he could hardly get away with blowing up like a balloon, it would not have the same unfettered strength, but one breath in was enough to fire the Leveler through the organs of whoever stood before him. Though of course this was a move he could never execute with any other sword, not even the other Shikizaki blades. Only the Leveler could withstand such abuse.

“That’ll do it.”

He had memorized the shape of Shichika─and was thus prepared to pay a lethal visit to his sister. Shichika was confused, but the ninja would do well not to spook him; if Komori was forced to leave the clearing, his plan was ruined. His Cannon attack─whether it flung ninja stars or a sword─would not be possible in a confined environment.

Since it would be absurd for the real Togame to hop from a tree, Komori made a different entrance. As if merely walking down a staircase, he footed his way down the perpendicular tree trunk without a sound.

And pranced his way over to the spring.

He figured why not go all out.

What was it she had called Kyotoryu? Yasuri? Shichika-dono?29 No, Togame had certainly skipped over those courtesies even in second person.

If they talked too much, the truth would come out.

He only needed one line: He abducted me, but I fought for my life and managed to break free. The Togame that Komori knew would not attempt such a thing, but it didn’t matter. He would run straight, with arms outstretched─

And lance Kyotoryu through the guts.

“─Shichika!”

“Ah.”

When Togame, or rather Komori, called to him─

Shichika Yasuri turned around.

■　■

Which is where the trail broke off.

Shichika had not the slightest inkling of having fallen for a trap. Unlike his father Mutsue and his sister Nanami, he was clueless about such maneuvers. Outside the context of a battle, he was quite vulnerable. His level gaze around the clearing for a continuation of the tracks was less humorous than it was piteous.

Dad.

What would he do now?

How would Mutsue Yasuri have combated the Star Cannon? Or would his father’s Kiku have already snapped the Leveler in half? Komori said that it could never break or bend, but maybe at the hands of Mutsue Yasuri─

Or maybe not.

Shichika wasn’t sure.

But his father─Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu and Hero of the Rebellion─

“…”

Ninjas.

Kiki Shikizaki. The Possessed.

This was unknown territory for Shichika.

An unknown world.

For nineteen years, he had trained under Mutsue, whom they even called a Hero of the Rebellion… That hadn’t given him a big head, he hoped, but he wasn’t prepared for the ninjutsu of Komori or the nature of a Shikizaki sword. He felt like a frog in a well30 that had been sucked out into the ocean.

…The ocean.

Across the sea.

Were such things fairly common on the mainland? Komori had called himself one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan…in other words, there were eleven more of these guys, each probably capable of that sort of thing. And of the twelve Shikizaki blades, eleven more remained, each peculiar like that.

If he crossed over.

“…”

What would happen to his sister?

With his father gone, he couldn’t leave his feeble sister on the island by herself─but this line of reasoning failed to settle in his heart of hearts.31

His sister was the head of the house.

Nanami needed to be protected, but he was overprotective to a fault─that much he knew. Self-reliant in spirit, she wanted to help with the chores and would certainly hold it together without him around.

He was the one who couldn’t separate himself from her.

No, that wasn’t it, either.

It was worse than that.

At the end of the day, it was a pain─leaving this island for the mainland would be a colossal pain in the butt. What he had told his sister, by way of making an excuse, had been far closer to the truth.

I’ve been on this island as long as I can remember─

I can’t just up and go over to the mainland─

I don’t know anything about the outside world─

And I don’t care to learn─

“…”

She said she came here in a boat.

Which meant there was a boat on Haphazard Island.

In which case─

All he needed was a reason.

A good enough reason to leave the island.

He wouldn’t work for money.

He didn’t care about honor.

What would make him move?

─Go ahead and fall for me.

Remembering Togame’s line made him chuckle.32 There was no way that was going to be his reason─but…

Hm.

About that boat. The ninja said he had masqueraded33 as the boatman for the ride here… But according to Komori and Togame’s exchange, they’d met before─that is to say, even before she hired the ninjas to track down the Leveler. In fact, as Grand Commander, she had hired them for countless other jobs.

In that case, how on earth had the ninja traveled with her in the boat without Togame wising up? She called herself the Schemer or whatever, but for all her insistent emphasis on her brains, the woman…

What disguise?

Could a disguise work so well?

“Hrrm.”

Had Shichika been capable of redirecting his suspicion, he could have seen the light─perhaps. But guessing that Komori, no mere masquerader, could mold his body into any shape he chose would have been a tall order for anyone.

There was a chance─and yet.

Shichika stopped there.

Thinking was such a pain.

Putting that aside─and also putting aside why he might leave the island, he had to find those two.

Maybe he should head back to see his sister.

She was probably at the hut, sipping sayu.

And so on.

That was where his mind was, when from behind─

“Shichika!”

Togame rushed toward him through the underbrush.

Togame, who he was certain had been captured.

She ran towards him, nearly tripping over.

Not, of course, the real Togame, but Komori as Togame. All the same, Komori played Togame so well, right down to the way she walked, you would never notice─even if you knew.

“Ah.”

Hence Shichika, not fathoming the extent of the ninja’s powers, hardly stood a chance…

“Kyotoryu─Botan!”34

…and yet.

Playing off the turn of his hips, Shichika displayed the Botan, a spinning rear kick of Kyotoryu’s own. In rapid-fire, he aimed the left blade of his foot at Togame’s─at Komori’s belly.

The ninja ran straight into the attack.

And doubled over in midair.

“Bwah!”

The point of the Leveler slipped out of Komori’s body.

Leaving himself wide open─naturally, since pulling off a believable Togame meant leaving himself wide open─he took Shichika’s foot at the center of his spleen meridian.35 It was a brutal blow. He fell on his stomach─and puked up a mess.

A hot and slimy mess.

Which happened to include the Leveler.

The air he had sucked in was gone, blown into the sky upon impact.

His raid36 was an utter failure.

The Leveler was out of him, handle and all─Komori shot Shichika a rueful glare.

Togame’s face…Togame’s eyes…

Had the disguise not worked on Shichika, then?

A minute before, right before he quit thinking about Komori masquerading as the boatman, had he arrived at the truth of the matter? Unlikely. That very expression, the truth of the matter,37 and Shichika Yasuri were strangers to each other.

So had he seen any difference between Togame and Komori posing as Togame? Surely not even Komori, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa, could perfectly imitate another person. There had to be some tiny difference─had Shichika not overlooked it? Unlikely. Komori’s Body Melt was no stingy sleight of hand.

What of the palpable blood lust? When Komori took a deep breath preparing to deploy the Leveler at close range from his cannon belly, to send it piercing through his enemy’s heart, did Shichika, raised in the wilds of this island, feel a tremor in his skin? Had he leapt before he looked, reacting faster than his mind? Unlikely. Komori, who could hold himself utterly still, could surely suppress any cues to his attack.

After all…

“Hey, Togame is that you?”

This was Shichika Yasuri─

He hadn’t suspected that the person rushing at him from behind was even Togame, much less Komori Maniwa.

“Hm? But you just puked out a sword. Can everybody from the mainland do that, after all? Wait a sec, isn’t this the Leveler?”

“…nkk.”

Consider this.

Shichika knew every tree on the island, down to the last leaf. Which meant he could tell every tree from every other tree, tell every leaf apart. And why not? He saw them every day. He knew them intimately.

In contrast, when most people see an animal, whether dog or cat, fish or fowl, unless they see the creatures regularly, they all look the same─but why limit our example? Even among fellow humans, foreigners can look the same, and few could pick somebody they just met from a crowd. Our brain is incapable of distinguishing between unfamiliar objects on command.

Herein lies the problem.

Since before he was a conscious being, Shichika Yasuri had been living on Haphazard Island, nary another human in his life but his father and his sister─the real question we should be asking is: between Togame and Komori, did any difference register?

For example, size.

Were they as different as, say, a dog and a puppy?

Gender, you say?

How many people can tell if a fish is male or female?

Their voices?

When a bird sings, can you tell whether it is male or female?

Their clothes? Their hairstyles? The color of their hair?

That brash kimono and transparently white hair─

How would he ever have memorized all of that?

The only people Shichika Yasuri could recognize on sight were his family; and since his father died, that meant only himself and his sister─which is another way of saying that Komori needn’t have transformed himself to dupe Shichika. If he had only done what he told Togame he would do and squared off against Shichika instead of rushing him from behind─

Shichika would never have launched a kick, his instinctual reaction to an attack from the rear.

“G-Ghak…”

“Ah, okay, I get it. You’re a shapeshifter. I heard that kitsune and tanuki38 can transform, but I had no idea people could too. Crazy. So wait, though. Are you…the ninja?”

“Dammit.”

Komori couldn’t stand up.

Sure, he had been caught off-guard─but he had no idea Kyotoryu could kick with such terrible strength. A direct hit could knock an opponent out of commission! Komori’s plan to shoot the Leveler from his belly may have sputtered, but it was perhaps providential39 for him that he had swallowed the adamantine sword before battle. For had he not, the spinning rear kick Shichika had called the Botan might have cracked his spine. The Leveler had played a surprise role as a buttress─but it had also transferred the blow and sent it radiating through his whole body.

Komori was not moving anytime soon.

As done as a prey frozen by a snake’s stare.40

“I guess this means I’ve captured the Leveler?” Shichika asked himself.

He looked back and forth between Komori, in the aforementioned state, and the Leveler, which had rattled to the ground.

“Togame requested something spectacular…but the Botan is a pretty boring move. Oh well. I made short change of a shapeshifting weirdo, so she better thank me. This is what she wanted for her report. If the cast of characters includes a guy who can disguise himself as other people, you won’t ever know who’s really speaking. It’d be hard to─”

“Hey…you,” Komori whimpered. “Why are you…so happy to help…this woman?”

“What?”

“I’m asking…why you’d want to let her use you. Listening to the likes of her will do you no good…”

“Huh? I’m not trying to be useful, or not useful─”

Use41 him?

Is that what he just said?

“I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just glad she’s going to have the Leveler back.”

“Didn’t you find something fishy about this one’s story?” Komori continued, still on the ground. “At this point, why would the bakufu bother with the Shikizaki blades?”

“Uhh─they’re scared of an uprising, right? Like, if someone with all twelve of the Possessed started an uprising on the scale of the last Rebellion…”

“That makes sense as a reason. It’s reasonable. But it sounds a little too pat. Don’t you think?”

“…”

Hmm.

Maybe?

Was there…another side to it?

“Today’s bakufu isn’t as entranced by the Shikizaki blades as the Old Shogun. They’re far more…realistic. This is about all about her. This little Sword Hunt42 of hers is no more than a career move. It’s only happening because Togame the Schemer, Grand Commander of Arms, wants the bragging rights.”

Komori spoke in a voice thick with spite.

“Collecting the last twelve swords wasn’t some idea that came down from on high at the bakufu. It was this woman’s idea. Even if the shogun made the proclamation, she’s the one who lit the fire, just so she could put it out. And now you hear her spouting, ‘It’s not as if I don’t have my own opinions on the matter,’ and ‘I’m in no position to quibble over the particulars of an order.’ But the Sword Hunt is happening on her terms. Every bit of it is for the good of her career.”

“Career?” Shichika wasn’t sure what the word meant. “Isn’t the Grand Commander already a pretty high position? Sounds like it anyway.”

“It is. She’s up there. But is up there enough for this woman? Hell no. She’s heading for the summit─you’re gullible, kid. You don’t know to doubt, do you? No way a woman this young isn’t going to play dirty on her way to the top. A world where only ability counts is almost impossible to find.”

“…”

“When I first met her, I was stunned─by her smoldering ambition, by that eye. I could tell that she would sacrifice anything─or anyone─to get her way. She certainly had no qualms about using the Maniwa Clan. We’re talking an entire band of ninja assassins. She’s out of control. And you too,” Komori said. “Now she wants to use you, too. Can’t you see, Kyotoryu? You’re being exploited. No good will come from teaming up with this woman.”

“…So you betrayed her before she had the chance?”

“Yeah. But the stuff about money aside, I couldn’t hope to keep up with her. I told you she wasn’t satisfied with being up there. What do you think she has in mind? The very top, at the side43 of the next shogun.”

“What?”

“Kyahah,” Komori laughed wheezily─but also like he was enjoying himself. “No matter how cooped up and simpleminded a life you’ve led here on this island, I hope you can understand how outrageous an idea that is. The shogun is getting on in years. It won’t be long before he steps down─and when he does, she’ll be there, beside the new shogun, who is at present still a child. And you know what that means.”

“The world─”

There it was.

Don’t you desire the world? she had asked him.

Right at the beginning, and not just as a way of launching into her tale of the Shikizaki blades─she was saying that she, herself, did!

That was some serious ambition, if true.

She hoped to bring to life the illusion about the Shikizaki blades…in pursuit of her goal?

“Still,” Shichika got out, flummoxed though he was, “you can’t blame her. Working your way up is a natural part of working for an organization─or so my dad taught me. But I can see why you guys might not feel so good after being used and all…”

“We could care less. I use you, you use me, that’s what makes the world go round. The problem is what she used us for. Working your way up makes sense, most of the time, but this lady is aiming too high. Taking over the nation all by herself, not by waging war, but through sheer politicking!”44

“…”

It sounded like she was living in the past.45

The Age of Warring States was over.

No one was interested in superfluous conflict─well, almost no one.

“I did some research of my own about this Sword Hunt. Just because the Maniwa are known for being assassins doesn’t mean we can’t do our due diligence.46 My ninpo is especially well suited for that line of work. And since we have this competition going among the Bosses, I went all out─a passion project, if you will─and I hit pay dirt. Found some fun facts. Or not so fun facts.”

“Stop beating around the bush. You need to understand I’m not big on thinking about stuff. I can’t understand you when you talk like that. Let’s back up. What you found, when you were digging. Was it that stuff about Togame working her way up? About positioning herself beside the next shogun?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t stop there─I knew there was something else. There had to be some other reason being Grand Commander wasn’t good enough─some reason she would stop at nothing, even suffer the betrayals of the Maniwa and Sabi, if it meant collecting all the Shikizaki blades.”

Komori hacked through a cough.

It must have hurt to speak─and yet.

He was regaining his strength, which Shichika failed to notice, too focused on the conversation.

“This woman,” Komori said, pointing his finger at himself, “is the daughter of Takahito Hida47─the Mastermind of the Rebellion.”

The words chilled Shichika to his core.

The Rebellion is fresh in our memories─

But who could deny the determination of the rebels?

Togame had described the spirit of the uprising thus, to Shichika.

“In a different world, she would have been a princess, with a castle of her own. The bakufu branded the Hida family enemies of the state and annihilated every last one of them─yet somehow, a child was spared. I’ve yet to figure out where that little girl grew into a woman and how she snuck her way into the bakufu─but I can tell you this much, she’s shameless about clawing her way up. She won’t stop until she’s at the side of the next shogun. Is it not clear what she is plotting?”

“What is she?”

“It should be obvious by now why being Grand Commander will never satisfy her. While by no means a low rank, it stops short of direct audience with His Excellency.”48

Komori was melting.49

His bones shifted.

The flesh of his body changed by degrees.

But Shichika completely failed to notice.

That was the last thing on his mind.

Takahito Hida─Shichika knew the name.

He had heard it from his father, Mutsue Yasuri.

The name of the Mastermind of the Rebellion.

Uttered by the Hero of the Rebellion─Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu, Mutsue Yasuri.

“This is revenge. Plain and simple.”

Komori’s voice was clear.

“Either vengeance for the obliteration50 of her family line─or a reboot of the Rebellion to bring her father’s vision to fruition. In my opinion─kyahah!─it’s the former. Apparently, that woman watched her entire family get murdered one by one. I hear that’s when that hair of hers turned white─with terror!”

Meanwhile, Komori’s hair was no longer white.

It was changing into black─black tousled hair. Which is why he said that hair of hers─instead of this hair of hers.

Not this woman─but that woman.

“…”

But Shichika did not react to this grotesque display.

He was distraught.

In a state of confusion.

Takahito Hida. Kaoyaku51 of Oshu.52

The Traitor.53

Their father, Mutsue Yasuri, Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu, had always talked about it─even bragged. How magnificently, using nothing but his own two hands, the blades of his hands, he had beaten off the leader of the rebel army. A glorious tale of heroism if there ever was one!

But not necessarily common knowledge.

Shichika was sure that after the Rebellion, all mention of the Kyotoryu and Mutsue Yasuri, who had been banished to this island, was taboo for the House of Tetsubi. Apparently, Komori had not even known the Kyotoryu existed until visiting the island, in which case he couldn’t possibly have known it was Mutsue who had vanquished Hida. Perhaps he hadn’t dug that far, but this was not a story you would ever figure out by digging.

Still…

Togame must have known.

It involved her, after all.

I knew Mutsue Yasuri of the Kyotoryu by name─

But not by face─

That was a lie.

Having seen her father slain before her eyes, she must have known.

Known the face of Mutsue Yasuri.

And that was why.

She had arrived on Haphazard Island knowing everything─having witnessed, like no one else, the fearsomeness of the Kyotoryu─so thoroughly it turned her hair white.

What if his father─

If Mutsue were still alive─would she have entrusted her father’s enemy54 with rounding up the Shikizaki blades?

I’m the son of that enemy.

And yet.

Why did she─

Not see it as a mistake?

No, she must─at least, she must by now. Nobody could overlook the error of someone with her past coming to this island.

But she was out of options.

Betrayed by the Maniwa Clan─and by Hakuhei Sabi.

Betrayed!

“That dirty little scion of an insurrectionist55─and no innocent herself, the wormy traitor─dares call me a backstabber and a coward? Kyahah! But look. I’m an assassin. I know exactly what she’s plotting─what I saw in that eye wasn’t ambition after all. It was a burning desire for revenge. Madness─no other word suffices. Me? I work for money─she’s trying to pull off the unthinkable, and it’s not even for the money. I can’t go for that. And you, Kyotoryu. Don’t you think it’s foolish, after all the years you’ve spent honing56 your skills, to let her use you as a tool?”

Let’s make this clear─

I didn’t inherit my title from my father─

She’d said that too.

After Shichika, who couldn’t have known better, asked Togame his superlatively insensitive and distorted question about whether his dad had─of all things─worked for her dad.

It was just as Komori said─Shichika had been too soft in the head to see what might have driven Togame to follow the path of a Schemer.

Right, she hadn’t followed in her father’s footsteps.

She had become Togame the Schemer.

To inherit her father’s cause.

“If you did the research on your own,” Shichika whispered, “does that mean you’re the only one, for now, who knows all this?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess so. What about it?”

“In that case─”

Shichika assumed a stance.

Spear hands.

Kyotoryu Form Two─the Suisen.

“If I defeat you for good─you’ll take that information to your grave,57 where it can’t hurt Togame.”

“Whaaat?”

Komori couldn’t believe his ears. Was he being challenged to battle?58

“What the hell are you saying? You should be mad at her, not me─how did that boost your morale?”

Komori would never understand.

Who could have understood where Shichika was coming from, raised as he had been on this tiny island, only ten miles around? He had truly believed that his father, Mutsue Yasuri, was a hero, from the bottom of his heart.

He had swallowed whole59 the title of “Hero of the Rebellion.”

A sense of inferiority─is no more than a love turned inside out. While Shichika was not about to step up and declare his affection for his father, he revered the late Master of the Kyotoryu enough to lose his temper when the hut Mutsue built was reduced to splinters─enough for his sister to tease him that he always thought of Daddy. Even banished to this island, Mutsue Yasuri was, in Shichika’s reckoning, a champion of justice.

Which is why, until now.

He had never even given it a thought.

People had fallen victim to the Hero of the Rebellion.

Shichika Yasuri─so face-blind he was unable to tell men from women─was recognizing for perhaps the first time the existence of the other.

“I am Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu. Prepare to die.”

“Alright…fine!”

Airing the details of Togame’s plot to deaden Shichika’s fighting spirit was a miscalculation─it had only flared up─but Komori seemed to have fulfilled his foremost objectives.

Recovering from his wounds.

And buying time60 for a transformation.

“I, too, am Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu!”

He took to his feet to face Shichika─as Shichika.

The robust build, the fit body─and the tousled hair.

From every angle, it was Shichika. A flawless replica.

Lying on the ground, holding Shichika’s attention with Togame’s story, Komori had slowly remade his body from the inside. The disclosure may have failed to discourage Shichika but had bought the ninja more time than he had bargained for. The replication process was complete.

He was still wearing Togame’s luxurious kimono, which helped to tell them apart─but his voice, too, was Shichika Yasuri’s.

“You don’t sound like me at all…”

Komori didn’t bother to recapitulate for Shichika what he had told Togame.

The air was already heating up.

Hot enough to boil.

“Kyahah! To tell you the truth, being an assassin, my ninpo isn’t suited for direct attacks. My only real move is the Star Cannon, which you saw. And you already beat that move, Kyotoryu. Honestly, if I fought you head to head when I was me, you’d probably win.”

Shichika didn’t flinch at the words issuing from his own figure.

“But what’s this? Now we’re square!61 Same biceps, same forearms, same thighs. Same strength. Actually, one each of your arms and legs got cut up by my shuriken, so I guess I have a little edge?”

“Hmph.” Shichika kept his cool. “If you’re gonna bother doing that, why not make yourself into someone even stronger? Like that swordsman Hakuhei Sabi. Or maybe you guys never met? But you have lots of experience, I’m sure you’ve met all kinds of guys who are stronger than me. Right?”

“I’m almost jealous of how you could be so clueless. No, those guys wouldn’t necessarily be stronger than you. A fight is all about the matchup. It’s like how rock beats scissors, but is weaker than paper, which loses to scissors. So what’s the best scenario? Two rocks,62 one stronger than the other.”

“I hate to break it to you, but my cuts are basically fine. They may have bugged me if we’d done this right away, but now they barely even hurt.”

“Okay. Great. So we’re even then. Rock versus rock.”

Komori as Shichika─

Looked at the Leveler lying at his feet.

Zetto the Leveler, which he had spit out of his body.

One of the Twelve Possessed, the masterworks of Kiki Shikizaki.

A sword that would never bend or break or lose its edge.

For the Kyotoryu, it was the worst match possible.

“This ought to make me the stronger rock.”

“…”

“Kyotoryu─the Swordless Swordsman. But really. If the Swordless Swordsman wielded this, he would be stronger than the same without it. No contest.”

Komori made it sound like he had already won.

The Leveler had fallen right by where he stood. He would have no difficulty grabbing it. Even if Shichika tried, he’d never get there first: they had the same legs. In this fight, distance was the only variable.

“Only meatheads rely on muscle─when there’s an easier way, I say take it. If you want to call me out for fighting dirty, go ahead. As long as it’s not her who says it, I could care less. I might even like it.”

“Are you sure you aren’t making a mistake?”

Shichika answered Komori’s gloating with a frigid stare.

“The Kyotoryu is strong because it doesn’t use a sword.”

“Come on. We both know that’s a front.63 Assuming each side has the same potential, there’s no way a guy without a weapon can be stronger than a guy with one. Or are you telling me the blades of your hand and your foot cut better than the real deal?”64

“Like I said, you have it all wrong. It’s not because the Kyotoryu uses hands and feet as blades that I’m a swordsman even though I don’t wield a sword─I am already a katana, on my own, in swordsman form. My school using a sword would be like a dog walking another dog. So listen up. I’m not losing to me with a sword. It’d be like─”

“I get it. No need to pile on excuses. If you keep yapping, the sun’s bound to go down. Go have your pity party somewhere else─hell, for instance. Alright, me, let’s go.”

“After you, me. I’m gonna slam you with a spectacular knockout move. The last-but-not-the-least, held-in-reserve, ultimate secret of the Kyotoryu!”

In a blink.

Komori jumped first.

But Shichika didn’t move at all─and kept up a defensive posture.

Without even trying to stop Komori from grabbing the Leveler, he stood with spear hands─waiting for his doppelganger to come and try to chop down the real him. Like Form One (the Suzuran), Form Two (the Suisen) was a countermove. Because the fingers point, it has a slightly greater range than the Suzuran, but not enough to matter against a long sword─

“Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Side Splitter!”

Gripping the handle of the Leveler with both hands, Komori leapt high into the air─vastly higher than when he jumped on the beach. The forest floor around the spring was much easier to leap from than sand, but upgraded to Shichika Yasuri’s mighty legs, a poor footing would have made no difference.

A strike from on high─

Made the heavier by gravity, swung─

“Uh… Ack.”

─Did not swing down, or swing at all.

Komori’s hands, as he started falling from the sky─did not grip the Leveler. The sword danced in the air, spinning in circles, above him.

Like it had lost its owner.

It danced.

Spinning.65

“Wh-Why?”

“You should learn to hear people out─even if the sun starts going down.”

From the ground, Shichika spoke to Komori as he fell.

“Know what, though? You were right about me making excuses. The truth is that out of all the masters of the Kyotoryu, not one of us could swing a sword to save his life. It’s not that we don’t use swords─we can’t!”

Thus it was for Shichika Yasuri.

And for Mutsue Yasuri.

And, needless to say, for the founding master Kazune Yasuri─too.

That was why Kazune forsook the sword despite being a swordsman. He took the discipline to places nobody had dared to venture─but what able swordsman would willingly forsake the vehicle of his skill?

“The same applies to me, born into this family. Today I saw my first katana… It was fine to copy my arms and legs, but my ability with weapons won’t do anything for you, me.”

“Ahh… Nkk, me…bastard!”

Komori fell, empty-handed.

Gravity now his enemy.

There was no use rushing now.

In the end, there was only one reason for Komori’s defeat. Nanami’s confidence in her brother notwithstanding, no one would normally expect a veteran Maniwa to lose to a novice Yasuri.

But lost he had.

And Zetto the Leveler was to blame.66

He just could not resist─using the katana.

Maybe the Hell-Made was simply being serviceable the first time─and so could maintain self-control. Still, even if his Star Cannon was depleted, Komori─a ninja, not a swordsman─reached again and again for the Leveler: proof that the sword’s poison was coursing through his veins…as wary of this as he had been.

The venom of the Possessed.

Owning one made you want to kill─

“It’s a good thing you let go of the sword. The ultimate secret is so insane I’m sure it would have snapped the Leveler in half. By the way, I keep calling it that67 because I only came up with it yesterday.”

As Komori continued to fall helplessly to the ground, Shichika spelled it out for the ninja.

Exceedingly politely, in simple terms.

All told, the Kyotoryu had seven secret moves.

Fatal Orchid One: Kyoka Suigetsu

Fatal Orchid Two: Kacho Fugetsu

Fatal Orchid Three: Hyakka Ryoran

Fatal Orchid Four: Ryuryoku Kako

Fatal Orchid Five: Hika Rakuyo

Fatal Orchid Six: Kinjo Tenka

Fatal Orchid Seven: Rakka Rozeki

“Too bad you won’t be around to see each move on its own─but the Last Fatal Orchid is when I hit you with all of them at the same time. To put it your way, it’s like an unstoppable68 combination of rock, paper, and scissors. Every one of them is lethal, but when I hit you with all seven simultaneously, you’re going to explode. See for yourself.”

Then Shichika pulled it off─spectacularly.

Just like Togame requested.

“Kyotoryu─Shichika Hachiretsu!”

■　■

It wouldn’t come loose.

Writhe as she may, the straw rope held fast to her body─not your normal knot. This was a ninja knot. If only she hadn’t been gagged, she might have chewed through the twisted straw─Togame thought, chagrinned.69

Could things really end this way?

Could things really end up here?

Had she given up her name, her lineage, her everything─passing through mountains of corpses and rivers of blood70─only to breathe her last stuck on this nameless island? To think she had been poised to seize the Shikizaki swords that had eluded even the Old Shogun. Delivering the remainder of the thousand to the shogunate─would have advanced her plan to the final stage.

Her scheme, to which she devoted her entire life.

Close enough to see.

Close enough to touch.

…Oh, Father.

I was so close to avenging you!

My thoughts go out to you.

My heart goes out to you!

“…nkk!”

Calling on the Kyotoryu was my undoing.

I must have been out of my mind.

As out of options as I may have been…relying on the man who murdered my father…or even his son… Telling myself the real enemy is the bakufu, the shogun…what a convenient excuse! Did I really vow to restore the honor of Mutsue once the job was finished? Even if I had to at that moment, how could I offer to vindicate the man who killed my father?

Was this her lot?

A perfect disgrace.71

Was she not the daughter─of a warrior family?

“…”

Taken to the mainland by Komori as his hostage and subjected to torture, she would eventually divulge all she knew of the Possessed. She prided herself on the tightness of her lips, but she had never been trained to withstand torture. Left to a ninja’s devices, she would not last an hour. There were a myriad ways to extract information out of someone, and Togame could name a few─a ninja would know thousands more.

But no.

Before any more disgrace.

She would act.

“…Hmh.”

Togame laughed.

With her gagged cheeks.

Fearlessly, invincibly.

“Hmhmhmhmh!”

How could I be so foolish!

What will never come undone or come loose? Not the rope.

My determination.

What will never bend or break or lose its edge?

My schemes.

I am the Schemer. I’ll scheme my way out of this mess. That’s how I made it this far!

If I must rely upon the Kyotoryu, my father’s nemesis, to avenge him─so be it. Let my soul, my life, get whittled away, I could not care less at this point!