KATANAGATARI 3

■　■

The Twelfth Master of the Heartland1 School of swordplay─Zanki Kiguchi,2 hearing them out, said these words quietly.

She entertained her visitors in her spacious dojo.

Dressed in her gi and seated on her heels.

Her two guests, facing her, were sitting the same way.

The first a petite whitehaired woman in flamboyant robes.

The second a tall half-naked man with tousled hair.

Togame the Schemer─and the Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu, Shichika Yasuri.

“Still,” Zanki Kiguchi continued.

Stoic in mien.

Eyes resting on the wooden sword placed on the tatami mats between them.

“As Master of the Heartland School─I regret to inform you that I will not relinquish Oto the Cured3 for any reason.”

■　■

The Whitehaired Schemer known as Togame─whose actual name and origins were unknown.

Was born the daughter of Takahito Hida, the Kaoyaku of Oshu.

But the Rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the Yanari Bakufu, is where it all began.

As the only conflict in what one might call a centuries-long Pax Japonica─this missile, flung by Takahito Hida, shook the very bedrock of Japan.

A revolution on the national scale.

It was the product of careful planning and deliberate execution─not to mention a laxened attitude toward crisis management brought on by domestic tranquility. The war spiraled out of proportion, and before long, the bakufu was cornered, by no exaggeration on the verge of being overthrown─a fate only prevented by dumb luck.

Or perhaps.

It was all thanks to the Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu─Mutsue Yasuri.

Retainer of the House of Tetsubi, one of the six daimyos of the Age of Warring States.

The Swordless Swordsman.

Though tempting to depict him as part of a select force, Mutsue simply joined a ragtag group of warriors in their besiegement of Oshu, whereupon he took down Takahito Hida.

Taking the head of Takahito Hida─with the blade of his own hand.

Having lost their mastermind, the rebel army was soon ravaged by a merciless counterstrike, leading to its rapid dissolution.

With no one to take over after Takahito Hida, it was all over without Takahito Hida.

Hence─the Rebellion ended, the war over.

Domestic tranquility.

Peace and order─had returned.

Callooh. Callay.4

Or so was the opinion of the members of the bakufu, and too the modest country folk who had no interest in the wars with which the reigning elite5 amused themselves─but on the side of the Rebellion, especially those close to Takahito Hida, the result was far from peaceful.

Not for the war dead.

Nor those who lived─only to lose their heads.

Nor those who fled but strayed into the fire.

While the Owari Bakufu had created a peaceful body politic, its political body was far from peaceful─as plainly demonstrated by the iron fist it hammered on the rebels.

No room for human kindness─crushing them like ants.

And the family of Takahito Hida, as goes without saying.

All terminated─every single one of them.

No callooing or callaying here.

And yet, somehow there was a sole survivor.

In the girl who would be schemer─Togame the Schemer.

She had watched them.

Watched as Mutsue battered her own father.

Her corvine hair, praised by those who knew her for its deep black color, like raven feathers slick with rain6─lost all pigmentation.

By then, the girl had already pledged─her revenge.

To take revenge upon the bakufu.

Swore on that hair of white─to avenge the murder of her father.

She was still young enough to call a child─but after witnessing the tables turn, their numbers decimated, then obliterated, each rebel killed before they could so much as raise their hands in protest, the girl was first and foremost─a survivor.

Surviving not because she was a child─but through an ingenuity well beyond her years. Not giving a damn about the consequences,7 she flung away her pride and all the rest─in order to survive.

Not that she wanted to live.

Or that she was scared to die.

Her survival was indispensable─to her revenge.

Her ability to outstrip the cleanup efforts of the bakufu─being but one small glimpse of the agile, tactful way she led her life.

Of course.

Were she to have escaped, they never would have ceased to chase her─so she dressed8 another body as a scapegoat,9 which she left for those rats to find. Once they identified the corpse as being the daughter of Takahito Hida, she got away scot-free,10 becoming a girl without a name, without a past.

Since then much time had passed, during which she had not let up for a second, making moves, though blundering some, but making more moves anyway─eventually slipping her way into the Owari Bakufu.

She strode into the all-boys club11 that was the government, caparisoned in all her brash and brilliant finery. The cautious12 style of working out a plan in secret, and taking care that no one noticed─was simply not her way.

On the contrary.

After accessing the inner circle of the bakufu, despite being a woman, she proudly took the brazen name of Togame the Schemer─crushing all those who would crush her and standing on their heads to climb the ranks.

Princess Negative─being one.

That their feud had benefitted the ascent of Togame the Schemer was a fact that could not be negated.

Still─it was also a fact that Princess Negative, popping up each time she pushed her down, had perpetually frustrated Togame the Schemer. The fact that the Princess held the office of Inspector General of the Yanari Shogunate helped Togame none─but regardless.

In this way, she shouldered her way up, vying for power, pushing as high as possible and higher still. Nothing was sacred.

Her efforts paid off, for she attained the rank of Grand Commander of Arms of the Yanari Shogunate Military Directorate.

By then, she had built herself a firm foundation13 slight disturbances could never shake. On the one hand she was making great strides toward her sole goal of taking vengeance on the Owari Bakufu─but on the other hand, this complicated things.

With her high status, no one would be quick to call her out.

A firm foundation slight disturbances could never shake─

The one exception being Princess Negative, ever her sworn enemy, dedicated to their feud─but this relationship was not simply about goals or careers: it was a clash of personalities, a rivalry ordained by heaven.

That the Princess was Inspector General did not help. In fact, taking her on conferred no benefit.

In the end, Togame would be rubbed out.

Worn down─to nothing.

Hence why she had enlisted the cooperation of the Maniwa, tasking them with crushing Princess Negative (─which they had, except she popped back up again─) before devising what would be her last resort.

The Sword Hunt for the Twelve Possessed of legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki.

This warrants a brief explanation of who Kiki Shikizaki was.

It happened before the Owari Bakufu had formed a body politic of peace and order, when Japan was caught in what was called the Age of Warring States─a rumor began to spread among the swordsmen on the fields of war.

The rumor involving swords.

The gist was that by wielding a katana fashioned by this crazy swordsmith, a lone wolf who belonged to no tradition, you would be invested with the power to take on a whole army─while on the flipside, were you to face a swordsman bearing a katana made by the same swordsmith, you would have no hope of winning and be forced to flee─

These swords were called the Mutant Blades.

And the swordsmith was named Kiki Shikizaki.

He made exactly one thousand Mutant Blades.

In the battles between states, the number of Mutant Blades held by a power is said to have been the deciding factor─and in practice, this was true.

The clashes between the twenty-five states of the period were all biased by the number of Mutant Blades.

The Great Unifier14─known today as the Old Shogun, came out of the war with five hundred and seven Mutant Blades.

His appetite for these swords was insatiable.

With that many, it would have been stranger had he failed to rule the land─perhaps.

From his base in Tosa, in Shikoku─he ruled over the nation.

Although by now, his heart had already been poisoned.

Poisoned.

By the venom of the Shikizaki blades.

Although the land had been returned to order, he showed no sign of stopping─nay, he was unable to stop. Now that he possessed just over half the Mutant Blades, he absolutely had to have them all.

To this end, he exhausted his resources.

This should have been a time of nation building.

But disregarding all the varied chores of reconstruction, he gave the quest for swords his undivided attention.

Already well along in years15─he had no time to spare.

No room for scrupulosity.

The most notorious example of his rampage being the Great Sword Hunt, the most ignoble act of legislation in the history of the nation.

Whereby he hunted swordsmen.

This fearsome law took pains to funnel all the swords and all the swordsmen in Japan into Shikoku─dressing it up, of course, in the appealing notion of erecting the Katana Buddha, installed at Seiryoin Gokenji Temple, to commemorate the ending of the war─although his true motive was not even to cull swordsmen, but to amass the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki.

And this unselfconscious lust for swords bore fruit.16

From across Japan, four hundred and eighty-one more swords were brought to him─for a total of nine hundred and eighty-eight.

Twelve remained.

But these twelve─were perverse.

Absurd perversions all─

Of all the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki, these twelve swords were the most precious─his masterworks, known as the Twelve Possessed.

Zetto the Leveler.

Zanto the Razor.

Sento the Legion.

Hakuto the Whisper.

Zokuto the Armor.

Soto the Twin.

Akuto the Eel.

Bito the Sundial.

Oto the Cured.

Seito the Garland.

Dokuto the Basilisk.

Ento the Bead.

These twelve swords had evaded his every effort.

Worse still, in failing to attain these precious twelve, he fell from power, tumbling so far down that in the end, this man who had once unified the nation maintained a fiefdom worth no more than fifty thousand koku of rice.

Because he had no heir, his family line died out─leaving the current Yanari Shogunate to reap the benefits of his accomplishments and legacy.17

The adage about food only feeling hot until it passes down the throat18 is perhaps a little quaint─but it is human nature for us to forget the stench of blood in steady periods of peace.

Or perhaps not to forget, so much as give ourselves permission to forget.

Before long, the name of Kiki Shikizaki, who in his day had been a legend, slipped from memory, together with the Mutant Blades that ruled over the Age of Warring States.

The nine hundred and eighty-eight Mutant Blades that were collected─whiled the centuries away in idleness, treated not as swords but relics, locked in a chamber of Owari Castle.

Until.

Togame the Schemer─set her sights on the rest of them.

The swords not even the Old Shogun had been able to collect.

If she could complete the Sword Hunt─great honors would await her.

In these sleepy times when there was little opportunity for daring feats of valor, this quest would give her career definite traction.19 It may even bring─

The neck of the shogun within her reach.

With honor─would come vengeance.

Hence the scheme Togame conjured from the precipice of her success─her scheme to hunt down all the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki. Of course, she had not launched the scheme herself, but left enough hints here and there so that her immediate superior proposed the idea on his own─and while the higher-ups reacted unenthusiastically at first, eventually they gave the greenlight.

Trouble is, her schemes had a way of varying in quality, ranging from merry success to abysmal failure. Since the outset of the Sword Hunt, Togame had experienced two massive upsets.

The first of which being the betrayal of the Maniwa, whose cooperation she had elicited in suppressing Princess Negative.

And the second being the betrayal of the party she selected to replace the Maniwa, one Hakuhei Sabi─the strongest swordsman in Japan, already in the employ of the bakufu.

Learning from the errors of the Old Shogun, she had captured two swords, only to watch them slip out of her hands when each betrayed her.

Far from a boost to her career─these efforts were a bust.20

Although the foundation of her position was firm as ever, her chosen methods had been dubious. The number of enemies she had within the bakufu remained significant, and only less manifest than at first.

So different from Princess Negative, who despite being a woman, and concealing her real name and actual origins, just like Togame, had no trouble getting along within the bakufu.

If Togame fell from grace─she may be unable to climb her way back up again.

But as the Sword Hunt was well underway─

She had no choice but to hatch another scheme.

And while this may have been her last resort, it was a painful, agonizing plan of action.

She resolved to call upon the man who killed her father, Takahito Hida─and ask this murderer to join her on the Sword Hunt.

The Hero of the Rebellion─

Now banished to a desert island.

The Master of the Kyotoryu would need to be released into the wider world.

Unaffected by the venom of the Mutant Blades, and not enticed by the allure of lucre, this swordsman would be an asset to her quest, as much as she had mixed feelings about the venture─being perhaps her craziest scheme to date.

Indeed.

Hiring the man who had decapitated her own dad, in the name of taking her revenge─was far from an ideal arrangement, and among the toughest choices she would ever make.

From Tango, she sailed across the waters stretching from the Cliffs of Shinso to a nameless desert island out on the horizon.

No, since Mutsue Yasuri had been banished with his children to the island twenty years earlier, it could no longer be rightly called deserted─and was referred to by some as Haphazard Island.

But that is all beside the point.

The man whom Togame had hoped to hire, Mutsue Yasuri, the Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu, the man who killed her father─had been killed himself.

She was about a year too late.

This is when Togame the Schemer made the acquaintance of Shichika Yasuri.

The Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu─

Who twenty years earlier.

At age four, had been sculled over21 to Haphazard Island with his father, Mutsue Yasuri─and for nineteen years had been reared to function like a living, breathing sword.

She saw something─of a resemblance.

The memory was ancient, but Togame had held onto the image of Mutsue.

How could she forget the visage of Mutsue─when he took the head of Takahito Hida? It seemed to her that Shichika was even taller than his father.

In short time─

“Shichika Yasuri. Go ahead and fall for me.”

She chose Shichika─

To be her sword.

And, in turn, Shichika Yasuri─

“I’m going ahead and falling for you.”

Chose to be her katana.

Shichika Yasuri and Togame the Schemer─thus embarked on their Sword Hunt.

Before leaving Haphazard Island, they vanquished Komori Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Ninja Clan, and reclaimed Zetto the Leveler, a sword of superlative hardness that could never bend or break.

Next, in Inaba Desert, they seized Zanto the Razor, a sword boasting a fearsome edge, from Ginkaku Uneri, the Lord of Gekoku Castle.

After which, in Izumo, they received Sento the Legion, a thousand swords in one, from Meisai Tsuruga, the Mistress of Triad Shrine.

Moving on to Ganryu Island, they repossessed Hakuto the Whisper, a sword delicate as glasswork, from Hakuhei Sabi, who like the Maniwa had stabbed Togame in the back.

Thereafter, in Satsuma, they forced Kanara Azekura, Captain of the Armored Pirates, to surrender Zokuto the Armor, a sword unparalleled in armor class.

Whereupon, in Ezo, they accepted Soto the Twin, the heaviest sword in existence, from Konayuki Itezora, the sole survivor of the Itezora Clan.

Following which, in Tosa, they prized Akuto the Eel, the most sinister of all the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki, from Nanami Yasuri, the older sister of Shichika Yasuri.

And finally, in Edo, they bested Skytron, the robot who patrolled Lake Fuyo, and in so doing corralled Skytron, who was also Bito the Sundial, at once a robot and a sword.

Eight swords in total!

The Sword Hunt launched by Togame the Schemer had pushed through to its final stages─but there was something special about Bito the Sundial, the sword they captured last month at Lake Fuyo in Edo.

Designated a Level One Disaster Area, Lake Fuyo had once been home to the forge where Kiki Shikizaki made his swords─the site of which Skytron had been tasked with watching over and protecting.

Having destroyed Skytron─although since Skytron was both sword and robot, a frustrating combination, they could not actually destroy her─they set about finding the ruins of the workshop.

It was just like Kiki Shikizaki to set his workshop up among the rubbish─all the scraps of wood, metal, and rubble burying Lake Fuyo, but if they could locate where it was, perhaps they would learn something essential about the four remaining swords─Oto the Cured, Seito the Garland, Dokuto the Basilisk, and Ento the Bead.

In which case.

Togame the Schemer would be one step closer to exacting her revenge─which just about catches us up.

Except─

■　■

Endlessly energetic as he was, his years of constant training had not prepared him for spending a whole day digging, on his own, through mountains of rubbish. One look and you could tell he was depleted.22

Besides, he had only just finished his battle against Skytron.

“Huh. Okay.”

Togame sounded unsatisfied.

Supervising the excavation from the sidelines.

For the record, she had not so much as offered her assistance.

“It looks like…” observed Shichika, “people used to live here, at least once upon a time, so I don’t think the Princess lied to us about Lake Fuyo being where Kiki Shikizaki had his workshop…but I’m not finding anything that seems like it would help us figure out who owns the four remaining swords, or where they are.”

“Well, we did our best.”

Togame looked off to the side toward Skytron─Bito the Sundial, which they had partially disassembled and bundled up.

“No use digging any further,” Togame said. “I know there’s still a few spots left, but let’s get out of here.”

“Is it okay to leave a mess like this?”

“You mean the heaps of rubbish? What difference would it make to move the piles around? Granted, now that you’ve taken care of Skytron, it’s possible this place will lose its status as a Level One Disaster Area─but Lake Fuyo is still the mess it’s always been.”

“Right. So, are we going back to Owari?”

“Nope,” Togame shook her head. “From here we’ll head for Tendo.”

“T-Tendo?”

This was not the response Shichika had been expecting.

“Wh-Where the heck─is Tendo?”

“With you it’s always in one ear and out the other. Don’t you remember what Hohoh Maniwa told us? He told us where we could find three more of the Mutant Blades─on Mt. Shirei in Mutsu, at Lake Fuyo in Edo, and in Tendo, in Dewa.”

“Ahhh, I remember now.”

Nanami Yasuri had beaten them to the punch with Akuto the Eel, the sword that had been waiting atop Mt. Shirei in Mutsu─but there had been a sword there, like the ninja said. And here, too, at Lake Fuyo, this time in Bito the Sundial, at once a robot and a sword, known otherwise as Skytron.

True to his word.

That being said, it was perhaps too optimistic23 to take for granted that another of the Shikizaki blades was waiting for them in Tendo, in Dewa.

Hohoh Maniwa was a ninja, after all. He made a living out of dirty deeds.

He wouldn’t think twice about bundling24 two facts and a lie. On the contrary, this was just the sort of trap they should expect from a band of expert assassins like the Maniwa. And the stakes were high enough that if they fell for it─the fall might be too far for them to save themselves.

Forget the alliance, the Maniwa were ultimately vying for the Twelve Possessed themselves─and there was no telling the lengths they would go to.

“I only asked because you said that we were gonna lay low in Owari for a while, so you could gather information… We ended up spending our whole time at Lake Fuyo dealing with Bito the Sundial, but wasn’t this supposed to be a search for info too?”

“It sure was─and it bothers me a great deal that there was no information to be found. Especially, if like you said before, the Princess wasn’t lying. In that case, I would have to assume full responsibility for our failure to discover anything of value.”

“What? Don’t say that─couldn’t it just mean that Kiki Shikizaki destroyed anything that could have tipped somebody off about his Mutant Blades?”

“That would certainly make sense. But try explaining that to my superiors. The higher-ups have gotten onboard with the Sword Hunt in a big way─I can’t just show up emptyhanded now. I’d hate to spoil my winning streak.”25

“Why you gotta make things so political?”

Shichika was losing patience.

Dedicated as he was─these intricacies left a bad taste in his mouth.26

“Unfortunately, this is a political situation,” Togame said dismissively.

This had been a difficult27 decision for her.

In the interest of the Sword Hunt, it made sense to head back to Owari and return to her research─but we must remember that her quest to amass all the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki was a means and not an end.

A distinction not to be ignored.

“As a result, we’ll have to tell the bakufu─we found something that wasn’t there.”

“I knew the day would come when you’d start putting straight-up lies in your reports…”

“Honestly, I probably should have given them a mix of truth and fiction all along.”

“Uh, isn’t that what you’ve been doing all along?”

“No. I made sure to draw a line. But now I need to cross it─since these people are actually reading my reports, I should assume the Princess has been reading every word I write. If like a fool I wrote things down exactly as they happened, she would have everything she need to pull the rug right out from under me.”

“We can’t have that─things are finally going well for us. We can’t get waylaid28 now.”

“Yeah, but it seems the Princess has been observing our Sword Hunt from a different vantage point than all the others… She’s more than just curious, she must be up to something… How foolish of me. I can’t believe I failed to consider that Princess Negative would be among the readers of those first reports.”

“Too late now. I guess you weren’t expecting her to pop back up again?”

“Guess not. Still, this way of seeing things raises a lot of questions about what Emonzaemon has been up to…”

“Hmm…you know, I’ve been wondering about him too. But hey, I think I get it now. I’ve figured it out, Togame. The whole political thing aside, you’re basically making a feint against the bakufu, right?”

“That’s the idea. What can I say, attracting attention isn’t always a good thing. I suppose that discouraging the wrong kind of attention has allowed me to enact my schemes however I please thus far─but things have changed. Operating with a disregard for others will no longer do. And I’m not only talking about Princess Negative.”

Come again?

This wasn’t intricate─it was plain complicated.29

That said, there was no way that Togame was going to ask for Shichika to help her out with any of this, so there would likely be no problem if he left it up to her.

This was a division of labor.30

It would be best for Shichika─to tackle only simple topics.

The simplest and most approachable of conversations.

“So, you’re gonna tell them we found something in Lake Fuyo at the former site of Kiki Shikizaki’s workshop? Well─what are you gonna say we found?”

“That’s why we’re going to Tendo. To figure things out. At this point, we have no choice but to use Hohoh’s information as a starting point.”

“Even though it might be a trap?”

Information from that old fox31 of a ninja.

Hohoh Maniwa─head of a ninja clan that perpetrated one betrayal after another.

The chances of this all being some kind of trap─

“Who cares if it’s a trap,” said Togame. “Sounds like fun.32 And if it’s not a trap, all the better─I wouldn’t say we stand to lose that much.”

Hearing her voice, Shichika thought she sounded pretty confident. At the very least, he was convinced this course of action was a choice, and not simply the last option33 that they had.

“Do you have any leads there?”

“I’m not so sure I’d call it that─but what I will say is in Tendo, there’s a dojo where we’re bound to find our footing.”

“Dojo?”

“Yup,” Togame nodded resolutely.

And briefed him on the plan for what came next.

“In Tendo, in Dewa─we’re going to pay a visit to Shogi Village, and the dojo of the Heartland School.”

■　■

In the ninth moon.

Where the tale began, they got an answer from Zanki Kiguchi.

“As Master of the Heartland School─I regret to inform you that I will not relinquish Oto the Cured for any reason.”

1 心王一鞘 SHIN’Ō ISSŌ “the mind itself a scabbard” nuance of being grounded, centered

2 汽口慚愧 KIGUCHI ZANKI “shame for spouting steam” sounds modest

3 王刀『鋸』 ŌTŌ NOKOGIRI “The King Sword: Saw”

4 めでたしめでたし MEDETASHI MEDETASHI Happily Ever After

5 雲の上 KUMO NO UE “above the clouds”

6 烏の濡れ羽 KARASU NO NUREBA wet crow’s feather cf. setting of the author’s debut novel

7 恥も外聞もなく HAJI MO GAIBUN MO NAKU neither ashamed nor mindful of one’s reputation

8 用意 YŌI prepped

9 身代わり MIGAWARI “substitute body”

10 晴れて HARETE “blue skies” in the clear

11 完全な男社会 KANZEN NA OTOKO SHAKAI a total men’s society/world

12 まどろっこしい MADOROKKOSHII irritatingly roundabout

13 牙城 GAJŌ “fang castle” stronghold

14 戦国の覇者 SENGOKU NO HASHA conqueror of the warring states

15 高齢 KŌREI “high age” old

16 実る MINORU ripen 実 MI fruit, nut; substance

17 功績 足跡 KŌSEKI ASHIATO accumulated honor; credit footprints

18 喉もと過ぎれば熱さを忘れる NODOMOTO SUGIREBA ATSUSA WO WASURERU the notion that danger, once impalpable, is easy to dismiss

19 足がかり ASHIGAKARI “foot grip”

20 没落の危機 BOTSURAKU NO KIKI “sinking-and-falling crisis”

21 流され NAGASARE streamed, drifted e.g. 流刑 RUKEI sentence of exile

22 疲弊の色は隠せなかった HIHEI NO IRO WA KAKUSENAKATTA unable to conceal the hue of fatigue

23 楽観的 RAKKANTEKI “view pleasantly” vs. 悲観的 HIKANTEKI pessimistic 悲しい KANASHII sad

24 抱き合わせ DAKI AWASE packaging together; forced purchase

25 追い風 OIKAZE “chasing wind” tailwind

26 苦手 NIGATE “bitter (eschewed) hand (opponent)” not one’s favorite

27 微妙 BIMYŌ dicey; sensitive shares first character with 微刀 BITO

28 横槍を入れられ YOKOYARI WO IRERARE “speared from the side”

29 小難しい 難しい KOMUZUKASHII MUZUKASHII “small-difficult” fastidious difficult

30 役割分担 YAKUWARI BUNTAN splitting up roles vs. 分業 BUNGYŌ (economic) division of labor

31 海千山千 UMISEN YAMASEN “thousand seas, thousand mountains” versed in the way of the world

32 一興 IKKYŌ “point/moment of interest” an amusement

33 消去法 SHŌKYOHŌ process of elimination