KATANAGATARI 3
“Yet…”
This knowledge had cost Emonzaemon both his swords─but now that he was out of range, he spoke up.
“Your lashings aren’t so powerful after all. From the way you stopped me before I could cut through them, they must be engineered for optimal flexibility.”24
“What can I say. As long as you avoid the razors, you won’t be mortally wounded.”
Oshidori had voluntarily revealed what would appear to be the weakness of her Thorough Thrashing─but in actuality, it was nothing, not a weakness in the least.
“Does this get my points across?25 My Thorough Thrashing is the ideal way of torturing an enemy to death.”
“In that case, how about this?”
And so.
Though freshly disarmed, Emonzaemon transitioned fluidly to his next move─since he was not at heart a swordsman, losing his swords was no cause for alarm.
His next move?
“Aioi Kenpo─Shadow Fist.”
Indeed.
Emonzaemon opted for the very move with which he had offed Umigame Maniwa, the last of the Twelve Bosses to perish, a month earlier in Shinano─launching the move just as Oshidori Maniwa was trying to figure out what he had meant by this strange utterance, “Aioi Kenpo─Shadow Fist”…and in that instant.
Emonzaemon slipped behind Oshidori.
Shadow Fist.
Remaining always behind the enemy, this kenpo had been all but lost, one hundred and seventy years ago, with the demise of the Aioi Ninja Clan─but here it was, from beyond the grave of history, a surprise kenpo freighted by26 the ninpo of the Aioi─
“Thorough Thrashing.”
None of this remotely bothered Oshidori Maniwa. This time she went beyond a flick of the wrists, twitching her elbows─but that was all it took.
All twenty tails of her whips sprayed behind her, firing at Emonzaemon─without so much as looking back, she was countering the rearward Shadow Fist of Emonzaemon.
Those whips of hers─were an extension of her being.
Without having to turn herself around, Oshidori was able to shoot her whips behind her.
Umigame Maniwa, in his fatal encounter with Emonzaemon Soda, had counted himself lucky Oshidori was not with him─but in actuality, as far as handling the Aioi Kenpo Shadow Fist was concerned, her Thorough Thrashing was far more appropriate than any Maniwa Ninpo Umigame could cook up with his rapier!
“No way,” Emonzaemon muttered to himself, just barely dodging the twenty tails─though with more leeway27 than when they had traded blows facing each other. “I must say, I’m surprised. I had thought the Shadow Fist would work on anyone─except for Hohoh.”
“Huh? Wait, how do you know Sir Hohoh?” inquired Oshidori.
Back facing him─not turning around.
“Umigame asked me the same thing─in his case, I gave no reply, but for you, I’ll make an exception.”
Emonzaemon─told her.
“We’re more than acquaintances,” he whispered, “but less than sworn enemies.”
“…That doesn’t answer my question.”
Zipping28 her twin whips through the air, Oshidori guarded her surroundings.
Whipping up a forcefield.29
From within which she responded to Emonzaemon.
“To begin with, Sir Hohoh didn’t even flinch when you showed up.”
“True. But remember─I am wearing a mask.”
NON-NINJA.
Scrawled on the mask covering his face.
“Besides, Hohoh may have forgotten me by now.”
“Sounds like you’re not even acquaintances.”
“Perhaps.”
Smoothly─Emonzaemon slipped into his next move.
Being a ninja, Oshidori could sense her adversary all too keenly, without even having to turn around─but took no further action. Nothing more, that is, than continuing to flail her twenty whiptails in the air.
His Aioi Swordsmanship had failed.
She had blocked his Aioi Kenpo as well.
In addition to their obvious utility as weapons, the twenty tails of her Thorough Thrashing were a superb means of defense─thwarting every offense!
Thus─was Oshidori Maniwa’s philosophy!
And yet.
“No use,” Emonzaemon muttered.
Whereupon─he pulled the trigger.30
■ ■
Bang.
Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang.
Just as she heard the repeated sounds, both strangely hollow and enormous, Oshidori Maniwa felt something strange riddle her body.
Perforating her.
She recognized her body being gored to bits.31
“…Huh?”
She hadn’t let down the defenses of her Thorough Thrashing─for an instant.
She hadn’t even noticed any attack.
Nevertheless─she felt as if she had been stabbed repeatedly in the back by Umigame’s rapier─and her flesh burned, as if a fire had been lit inside of her.
The thrashing ceased.
Her hands could not feel to grip─both whips fell from her hands, and she followed after them, tumbling to the ground.
Her senses stripped.
She had been mortally wounded, several times over─of that much she was certain.
But she had no idea─what had been done to her.
She had made sure that Emonzaemon could not so much as step within her range─had he attacked her from outside her range?
Using something like the Blunderbuzz of Mitsubachi Maniwa?
But even a move like the Blunderbuzz, barring some unusual occurrence, would have been thwarted by the Thorough Thrashing─could this move have outpaced even Mitsubachi’s?
Too fast for even the Thorough Thrashing?
Was it─a flintlock?
Nay, no flintlock could be fired so rapidly─it was impossible! Besides, how could he have hidden its barrel?
“…nkk!”
Summoning her energy, she turned her head to where she thought she would find Emonzaemon.
And in both hands.
Emonzaemon held what looked like lumps of metal.
He must have had them in his pockets, but what were they? Beginning to lose consciousness, Oshidori was unable to make sense of things. Though even if she had full mastery of her faculties, things would have made no sense.
These things─these weapons should not, could not exist in this time or place.
But at first sight, someone from our time would have identified them precisely.
In his right hand he was holding a revolver.
And in his left hand he was holding an automatic.
Indeed.
No smoke and mirrors.32
Just one of the Twelve Possessed, those masterworks of legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki─that pair of swords, Ento the Bead!
Weapons able to repeatedly launch bullets from a distance, far quicker than Oshidori could flick her wrists─
“Not happy,” Emonzaemon said quietly. “When the Princess bid me to take this with me, I was sure that I would never use it─certainly not right away… Though I suppose if you show up to a battle armed like this, all kenpo, swordplay, and ninpo are in vain.”33
Oshidori was too far gone─to hear this faint soliloquy.
“Besides, I let Hohoh Maniwa get away─the assassination was a failure. I’ve wasted too much time fending off this woman. I guess I won’t be heading back to Owari. The way things turned out, perhaps I would have been better off not sticking to my guns34─or rather, if I stuck to them and used Ento the Bead from the outset… I hate to praise one of the Maniwa, but this woman─fulfilled her duty to her clan magnificently. Like a true ninja. With far more gusto than me, a former ninja.”
But Oshidori Maniwa.
Contrary to this speech from Emonzaemon, which she would fail to hear─was thinking, until the very end, not of the ninja village, nor of the Twelve Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki, but of her lover, who had died ahead of her, five months before.
1 統べる SUBERU bring together
2 膝を突き合わせていた HIZA WO TSUKI AWASETE ITA “bumped knees”
3 人里離れた HITOZATO HANARETA removed from civilization
4 聖剣 SEIKEN “holy sword”
5 封印 FŪIN “closure mark” nuance of being sealed away
6 読み解いた YOMI TOITA deciphered
7 最後の仕事 SAIGO NO SHIGOTO final job
8 祝言をあげる SHŪGEN WO AGERU exchange vows before a crowd
9 無難 BUNAN “no difficulties” safe
10 潜る MOGURU dive
11 嘯いている USOBUITE IRU pretend, aver
12 見参 KENZAN audience (with a dignitary) archaic word for announcing entry
13 金髪碧眼 KINPATSU HEKIGAN gold hair and blue eyes
14 手出し口出し TEDASHI KUCHIDASHI “interfere with hand or mouth”
15 反りが合わなかった SORI GA AWANAKATTA “mismatched curves” to be incompatible reference to a sword not fitting in a scabbard because its arc is incorrect
16 口を開いた KUCHI WO HIRAITA opened his mouth
17 自己犠牲 JIKO GISEI self-sacrifice
18 口が滑った KUCHI GA SUBETTA “slip of the mouth”
19 左右にふたつ SAYŪ NI FUTATSU “one on the left, one on the right”
20 永劫鞭 EIGŌBEN “eternal whip” vs. 永劫回帰 EIGŌ KAIKI the Eternal Return
21 早かった 速かった HAYAKATTA HAYAKATTA sooner vs. faster (both rendered as “the first”)
22 軟体動物のごとく NANTAI DŌBUTSU NO GOTOKU in the manner of a mollusk
23 ともすると TOMO SURUTO likely
24 柔らかさに重点 YAWARAKASA NI JŪTEN emphasis on suppleness
25 わかるかしら WAKARU KASHIRA “do you understand”
26 機軸にした KIJIKU NI SHITA using for an axis
27 抜け道 NUKEMICHI “escape route”
28 ひゅんひゅん HYUN HYUN onomatopoeia for fast motion slicing air
29 結界 KEKKAI (mystical) barrier
30 引き金 HIKIGANE “pull metal” small lever that fires a gun
31 ずたずた ZUTA ZUTA onomatopoeia for being torn apart
32 工夫も衒いもない KUFŪ MO TERAI MO NAI “no ingenuity or pretense”
33 形無し KATANASHI (become) formless echoes 刀 KATANA
34 意地を張らずに IJI WO HARAZU NI not be stubborn [the “guns” pun isn’t in the original]