KATANAGATARI 3

And thus Shichika Yasuri, the Swordless Swordsman.

Had no choice but to fight using a wooden sword─and sure enough.

The outcome was deplorable.

■　■

It made no sense13 to get depressed, but it was hard to shake it off.14

Following this upset, they took leave of the dojo and repaired to the village inn─but Shichika was unable to pull himself together.

His mood was placid compared to Togame’s. Kiguchi had behaved in a completely unexpected manner, and the result had been the Schemer’s undeniable failure as a tactician.

At least that was how she saw things.

Kiguchi, on the other hand, most likely saw things differently. How could a swordsman be less competent by taking up a sword?

The Kyotoryu.

Founded way back when, amid the chaos of the Age of Warring States.

Its founder, the First Master, being Kazune Yasuri─who had thought long and hard about the drawbacks of the katana, so long and heavy. Its length made it lethal, as did its weight─but the length of the katana, like its weight, made wielding it impractical.

Its pros and cons were two sides of the same coin.

Its perks and faults were two sides of the same coin.

Most people would take these paradoxes in passing15─but not Kazune Yasuri. Instead, he passed beyond them, taking the idea even further.

Get this.

If a katana could somehow be neither long nor heavy─

It would be the strongest weapon imaginable.

To truly be the strongest swordsman, perhaps the swordsman had to forsake the sword.

And that is what he did.

Forsaking the sword, Kazune retreated to the mountains for ten years and transformed16 himself into a katana.

Toning17 his body until it shone like a katana.

He became a living, breathing sword.

And gave shape to a school─the Kyotoryu.

But this historical episode came with a caveat that had been unknown to Togame the Schemer until she heard it straight from Shichika, in that Kazune had tossed the sword aside out of necessity─he couldn’t swing a sword to save his life.

The Kyotoryu─that school shrouded in darkness.

Had a skeleton in its closet.

What’s more, this complete and utter inability to wield a sword turned out to be hereditary, passed down to all the scions of the House of Yasuri─not even that genius Nanami Yasuri, much less her father, Mutsue Yasuri, could shed the fetters of this spell.18

Which is to say─Shichika Yasuri was no better off.

And although, on one occasion, his ignorance of how to use a sword had actually saved his life, this time around things were essentially reversed.

To partake in battle, he was forced to use a wooden sword.

Saddled with this condition, even Shichika Yasuri, who thus far had slain numerous fearsome foes, battering Hakuhei Sabi and earning himself the title of the Strongest Swordsman in Japan, was as good as helpless.

Worse, the pads only got in the way.

Kiguchi had lent them to Shichika out of genuine concern, what one might even call goodwill,19 but to him they were impediments20 and nothing more.

As Shichika preferred to fight stripped to the waist and barefoot, they were an encumbrance, and one that he would sooner do without.

Thus armed and padded, Shichika was literally unable to bare his blade─but there was yet another reason for despair.

There would be rules.

The fight between Kiguchi and Shichika was bound21 by many rules.

The rules of kendo.

All of his previous fights had essentially been free-for-alls─even the more formal duels were only regulated nominally, starting on the signal “Fight!” and ending on the word “Match!”

This time was different.

While Togame played the role of referee as usual, Kiguchi defined the starting line and boundaries, and even indicated the appropriate stance.

Shichika did not know what it was to foul.

Because in a real fight, there was no such thing as going out of bounds.

And though he’d never deal in dirty deeds like those despicable Maniwacs, this time his ignorance was not an asset.

The Kyotoryu was meant for taking life.

Whereas the Heartland School was meant for giving life─the difference between which had been demonstrated vividly.

In a certain sense, Kiguchi wielded her sword for sport.

Hers was not a sword for killing.

Hers was a sword intent on cultivating the soul.

Though perhaps rooted in and aiming at the same goals─in essence it bore no relation to the Kyotoryu.

That being said, if mortal combat could not be avoided, the Heartland School allowed for her to take a lethal blade in hand─but such mortal combat had been ridden from the world amid these times of peace and order.

The one exception being the battle in which Mutsue Yasuri, Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu, had proved himself a hero, that is, the rebellion started by one Takahito Hida, Togame’s father, but evidently the Heartland School had declined to join the fray.

Of course not.

The dojo was already without almost any followers.

Eleventh Master Zanki Kiguchi, who at the time headed the school, was far too old by then to head away to war─having retired as a swordsman.

Which meant─for ages, the Heartland School had fought exclusively with wooden swords.

The outcome had been clear from the beginning.

And things had gone exactly as they looked like they would go.

The rules dictated the fight and its results; and while raw ability prevented him from being beaten to a pulp,22 Shichika handled the wooden sword so ineptly that Togame almost had to cover her eyes.

He was so bad that Togame wished that she was in there instead with the wooden sword.

From someone who took pride in being weak as shoji paper, who claimed that she would lose in a fight against a rabbit, this reaction was inconceivable.

“I know you told me, but still…”

Upon returning to the inn, the two of them had sat without exchanging words for quite some time, but at a certain point Togame got sick of the oppressive silence and cut to the chase.

She had considered starting with a different topic, but knew there was no way around it.

“You can’t swing a sword…to save your life.”

“Nope…”

Shichika nodded dejectedly.23

“How is that possible?” asked Togame. “Forget the Mutant Blades. You’re the sword shrouded in mystery today. Like the lady said, how can you be worse off with a weapon in your hands? No wonder she saw it as some excuse.”

Togame conceded, however, that the pads would have slowed anybody down.

Shichika looked distraught─she supposed he couldn’t explain it himself. If he could tell her what was stopping him, then it would stand to reason that he could have told himself, as well, and overcome it.

To begin with─when Shichika held a katana, he lost sight of his duty as the Master of the Kyotoryu.

“Hold on, though. I’ve been meaning to ask you, how exactly did you train on Haphazard Island? Doesn’t the Kyotoryu have moves that you would need to practice on a sword to master?”

“Well yeah, I couldn’t master them,” replied Shichika. “The first sword that I ever saw was Zetto the Leveler, when that Maniwac Komori Maniwa whipped it out down on the beach. I told you, right? Blades were forbidden on the island. But hey, since I knew how the moves were done, I’ve managed to master a bunch of them since coming over to the mainland. I practice every time I’m in a fight.”

“I see. So you’re saying your skill sharpens every time you battle… You knew the basic premise of the moves, but you had yet to have a chance to try them out. And here I was thinking that you made up all of those moves on your own.”

“Sis is different, though. Once she understands the premise, the move is hers.”

“What a genius…”

That little mystery had been resolved, but it got them nowhere closer to the resolution of their actual dilemma.

“Well then, what to do,” Togame said, doing her best to rid her voice of desperation, her eyes directed at the ceiling. “This situation is almost funny, like a cruel24 joke or something─we’re stuck, alright. I saw this coming. We couldn’t just keep bumping along25 like that. There had to be some kind of pitfall26─but no way was I expecting this. Since Kiguchi has no cruel intentions, we can’t exactly just give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“If she did this to us on purpose, then wow, I’m speechless,” admitted Shichika. “She says she doesn’t want to fight unless it’s fair, and wants to make sure nobody gets hurt─what a pain in the butt. She must be immune to the Shikizaki venom.”

“Maybe─she is.”

Watching her in action, it was abundantly clear that Kiguchi was different from the other owners of the swords.

No madness or creepiness.27

The closest they had come to this was Konayuki Itezora, who was so innocent and naive; but when Shichika and Togame met her, she had only just become the owner of the Twin.

The venom of the Twin had needed more time to sink in.

But with Kiguchi─a considerable amount of time had surely passed since she inherited the Cured from her predecessor.28

“Perhaps that’s what makes Oto the Cured special,” Togame said.

“Huh? That? What do you mean?”

“This sword─is the only Shikizaki blade that has no Shikizaki venom. To put it plainly, the lack of poison is what makes the sword Oto the Cured.”

“Uh, but wouldn’t that disqualify it from being a Mutant Blade?”

“Maybe. Or maybe he was just testing his own limits. Judging from the other Mutant Blades, this crackpot swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki loved exceptions. Or who knows, maybe you were just unable to get her going enough to show us what the Cured can do.”

“And where does that leave me?”29 griped Shichika with a wry smile. “Still, I’m not bitter like I was after I lost to Konayuki or sis─if I had still won with a wooden sword and pads and all those teeny tiny rules, I wouldn’t be the Master of the Kyotoryu.”

“Fair point. But Shichika…”

Togame had decided to go ahead and ask him─not necessarily to get them anywhere, but more to get the question off her chest.

“Hypothetically, if you faced off against Kiguchi without pads or anything else, and didn’t have to play by any of her rules─do you suppose you’d have been able to beat her?”

“…Could I kick her?”

“Kicks, elbows, headbutts, all fair game─” Togame hesitated before going on, but deeming it a way of speaking, she spat it out. “No need to hold back. You could even kill her, if you had to.”

Shichika took this in.

“Hmm.” For a moment it appeared that he was thinking─but his answer raised more questions. “I’m not sure. Like you said a little earlier, I couldn’t get her going─so who knows how she’d fight back once I do.”

“Make an educated guess.”30

“I can’t even do that. But, I mean, if I had to…I’d go by the way she acted when we saw her practicing, rather than when we sparred.”

“Say more.”

“Her form was impeccable. Like tight string.”

Shichika spoke slowly, like he was picturing himself back in the dojo.

“She was so full of spirit. I could feel it radiating from her body. I’ve never seen a person so incredibly devoted to the way of the sword.”

Togame─felt the same.

So far on their journey, Togame and Shichika had encountered a variety of swordsmen─but never had she seen somebody so absorbed31 in her training. For all the others, the sword was but a means to an end. Even Hakuhei Sabi, nature’s gift32 to swords, was mostly interested in how his sword made him a saint than in the act of swordplay, in and of itself.

But not Kiguchi.

To her, the sword was everything─both endgame and end.33

For somebody like Shichika, who took things as they came, no personal goals, content to go through life doing whatever he was told, somebody so devoted to their cause was, well, frankly kind of scary.

For the record, the reason Shichika had fallen for Togame, who in her case lived only for revenge, had something fundamentally in common with what he saw as scary in Kiguchi─but at the moment, Togame failed to make the connection.

No need to go there.

“I mean─even if I fought her barehanded, in the way I usually fight, I’m pretty sure she’d make life hard34 for me. She’s nowhere near as good as Sabi or sis…but she’s definitely up there, out of all the owners that I’ve fought so far.”

“Right.”

“We know sis is strongest, no contest,35 and second place is definitely Hakuhei Sabi, but Kiguchi would come in somewhere between third and sixth─”

Shichika had a low tolerance for people playing tricks on him.

At least, that was how Emonzaemon Soda had sized him up─and while Kiguchi was by no means what you might call a trickster, she had left quite the impression on Shichika.

In fact, she gave him the chills.

“How are we supposed to have you beat this lady in a weakened state, armed with a wooden sword? I’m getting a headache.”

This was not a turn of phrase. Togame actually had a headache.

Their dilemma had taxed her brain immensely.

“Can’t you come up with a strategy, like you did with Sabi, or with sis, or Skytron?”

“Strategies I can do, but you know that I’m an outsider when it comes to battle. I’m afraid that if I go too far, things will just backfire… Remember what happened to us in Satsuma, when we were going after Zokuto the Armor. That armor-piercing move that I proposed was useless against Azekura.”

“Huh. I guess I forgot about that.”

“For the most part, the schemes that I devised when you fought Sabi, Nanami, and Skytron played off of your strength and expertise─but when it comes to having you fight in a weakened state, I have to admit, I’m fresh out of moves.”

“Out of moves, huh?”

In other words─stuck.

While Togame had not intended to make a pun, her figure of speech got Shichika thinking about shogi.

“How good was she, anyway?” he asked. “At playing shogi.”

“Half decent. If she devoted all the energy she puts into the Heartland School to playing shogi instead, she’d be a force to be reckoned with─I dare say out of my league.”

“Wow. That good, huh?” Shichika sounded a little surprised. “So she’s a poet warrior!”36

“Poet warrior… Yeah, I guess you could say that. Although they say that cultural pursuits and war are incompatible.”

“With us, I’m obviously the warrior, and you’re the cultured one. I’d say things have been going pretty well so far─but if I can’t be the warrior, we’re in trouble.”

“Not just in trouble. Done for.”

“But you’re more cultured than Kiguchi, right?”

“I suppose. Although if she can play shogi like that while dedicating her entire life to swordsmanship, I have to give her credit.”

“Think you could try it out again?” asked Shichika. It would seem that all the talk about Kiguchi’s shogi skills was just buildup to the question that he really wanted to ask. “The whole thing where you beat her first, and she and I decide things over battle?”

“If I play my cards right, I think I can talk her into one more showdown…”

All disputes were settled over shogi.

In this town, that’s the way things worked.

“But suppose I can. If you two fight under the same circumstances, there’s still no way we’re winning Oto the Cured.”

“What if the circumstances changed? I don’t care if she uses the Cured or body armor. If we can get her to let me fight barehanded─”

“Impossible. She would never go along with that, even if I gave myself a six-piece handicap. There’s a chance I could convince her to do things the other way around, where she’s without a weapon or protection. She’d put herself at a disadvantage, but won’t put her opponent at a disadvantage. That’s her way.”

“…”

“There are people like her out there in the world─as hard as it is for somebody like me, only interested in plots and schemes, to comprehend.”

“Honest, huh?”

“Though when you go that far, you start to seem inhuman. Sort of sheds some light on why the Heartland School has no more followers. Unless…”

Unless.

Togame stopped herself.

There was a sound outside their room, a sound of footsteps coming down the hall. It was too early for mealtime─and doubtful that an inn worker was bringing their dinner to them.

But in that case, who was it?

Togame ran through all sorts of possibilities, but before she could gather her thoughts, a voice addressed them from beyond the fusuma.

“Sorry to disturb you. Mind if I come in?”

That gracious way of speaking was a giveaway.

When Togame permitted her to enter, the fusuma slid open, and as expected─

It was Zanki Kiguchi.

Dressed in the same gi as earlier.

Although considering how drenched her gi was when they found her at the dojo─she had probably changed into a fresh gi before paying them a visit.

You can only do so much to dress a gi up.

Her closet must be full of these things. She would have looked pretty good in a kosode37─but Zanki Kiguchi was the picture of austerity and fortitude.

Hawkeyed, stoic in mien─

She looked down at Shichika and Togame, seated on the floor.

“Wh-What seems to be the trouble, Madame Kiguchi?”

Ever cautious, Togame offered Kiguchi a cushion, but she refused.

“No thank you. I can’t stay very long.”

She had told Kiguchi where it was that they were staying, and even mentioned that they checked in using fake names─which explains how she had found them at the inn─but why?

The fight was over. What could she want?

As it turns out, the fight was actually what Kiguchi wanted to discuss.

“Madame Togame. About the match.”

“Y-Yes?”

“I’m afraid that the conditions were unfair.”

This─is what she was here to say?

“After you and Master Shichika left, I thought things over, and, well, if Master Shichika is that weak, I don’t think we can fairly call the game─I’m afraid it was unjust.”

“…”

“And I want to make it right,”38 Kiguchi said.

This was a declaration.

Loud and clear.

“I want Master Shichika to study under me. I will personally teach him everything I know. Then, once he is ready, we can have a rematch. What do you say?”

1 惨敗 ZANPAI miserable defeat

2 類 TAGUI variety, sort in biology, 類 RUI genus

3 対局 TAIKYOKU a bout of the game go or shogi

4 それで問題ない SOREDE MONDAI NAI would make it a non-problem

5 うまくあしらった UMAKU ASHIRATTA handled it/her well

6 棋譜 KIFU a breakdown of a game of go or shogi

7 前哨戦 ZENSHŌSEN preliminary match

8 上回らない UWA MAWARA NAI not come out on top

9 看板 KANBAN (store) sign; emblem

10 実戦稽古 JISSEN KEIKO “actual-battle training”

11 取り付く島もない TORITSUKU SHIMA MO NAI “not even an island to cling to” inaccessible

12 侮辱 BUJOKU insult

13 おかしいし OKASHII SHI would be odd, funny

14 開き直る HIRAKI NAORU “open anew” stand defiant

15 呑み込む NOMIKOMU swallow; accept

16 鍛え上げた KITAE AGETA forged (up)上 UE above 上げる AGERU raise

17 研ぎ上げた TOGI AGETA honed (up)

18 呪縛 JUBAKU “enchained by a curse”

19 善意 ZEN’I good intentions

20 枷 KASE shackles

21 がんじがらめ GANJI GARAME entangled

22 滅多打ち METTA UCHI brutal thrashing

23 力なく CHIKARA NAKU “no power” floppily

24 悪質な AKUSHITSU NA malicious

25 とんとん拍子で話が進む TONTON BYŌSHI DE HANASHI GA SUSUMU story unfolding to a steady beat

26 落とし穴 OTOSHI ANA hole used as a booby trap

27 狂気も妖気も KYŌKI MO YŌKI MO neither deranged spirit nor enchanted air

28 先代 SENDAI preceding generation

29 立つ瀬がねえ TATSU SE GA NEH “no shallows to stand on”

30 印象でよい INSHŌ DE YOI “an impression would be fine”

31 入れ込む IREKOMU “go all in” to be committed

32 申し子 MŌSHIGO “the child one prayed for”

33 目的であり、目的地 MOKUTEKI DE ARI, MOKUTEKICHI the purpose, and the destination

34 苦戦 KUSEN “bitter battle”

35 不動 FUDŌ immovable

36 文武両道 BUNBU RYŌDŌ master of the pen and sword…or in this case, shogi board and sword

37 小袖 KOSODE short-sleeved kimono

38 是正 ZESEI straighten out, correct