KATANAGATARI 3

“Please try to understand─Oto the Cured is both the trademark of Heartland Dojo and verification of my identity.”

“I know the sword was passed down through the generations and all,” Shichika said, changing the subject, “but what went down during the Great Sword Hunt launched by the Old Shogun? How did the Heartland School protect the Cured?”

“At the time, Oto the Cured was not in the possession of the Heartland School,” Kiguchi explained with that same serious look on her face.

The fact that she was no less gracious, even now that Shichika had been cast in the role of pupil, and thus Kiguchi in the role of instructor,7 shows you the kind of person that she was.

“If I remember correctly, Oto the Cured became our property under the Eighth Master.”

“So, like─your father’s father’s father’s father?”

“No, it’s true that I took over the school from my grandfather─but for the most part, the Heartland School has not been passed down through a bloodline.”

“Oh, okay.”

Unlike the Kyotoryu, thought Shichika.

“Then maybe you don’t know exactly how the Eighth Master came to own Oto the Cured?”

“Let alone exactly, I have no clue. I know it was more recent than the Great Sword Hunt, but it still happened quite some time ago.”

“Hmm.”

Maybe─it didn’t matter.

All that mattered was that it was here now.

“In my mind…”

Then.

Zanki Kiguchi─had something to say.

“I am nowhere near as honest a person as you say, Master Shichika.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Indeed. I still have a long way to go─but you should have seen me as a kid. I slacked on my training, and spent all of my time8 out in the village, playing shogi. The late master and I were always getting into fights about my behavior.”

“Wow.”

Hard to imagine, from Kiguchi today.

But she was a teenager, too, once upon a time.

On a side note, this would appear to explain why she had decent enough shogi skills to pass muster with Togame.

“When my grandfather passed─I had no interest whatsoever in taking over the dojo, which by then had no more followers, but things changed entirely once I held Oto the Cured. It was so validating.”

Kiguchi held Oto the Cured up sideways in front of her face.

“I felt my entire body firming up9─if that makes sense. Today, if I’m any better of a person than I was before, I think I owe it all to Oto the Cured.”

“…”

In that case, perhaps her intense dedication to her training was an attempt to make amends and recover the losses of her youth.

“Actually, in a similar way, my grandfather used to say that when he took over the Cured from his own master, it gave him a new lease on life─Shangri-Oto,10 he called it.”

“Shangri-Oto…”

This got Shichika thinking: What if this was what made the Cured special?

Not only lacking venom, but going further, leaching the venom from whomsoever owned it, a Mutant Blade invested with the power to detoxify─

Of course, Shichika didn’t strike upon the idea yet.

Could not strike upon the idea yet─that Dokuto the Basilisk, currently held by Hohoh Maniwa and supersaturated with the thewiest11 of venom, was in fact the polar opposite of the Cured.

Oto the Cured.

Shangri-Oto…

“Man, what Meisai Tsuruga would have done to get her hands on this.”

“Huh? Who is this Meisai Tsuruga that you speak of?”

“Uh─no one.”

Shichika scrambled12 to divert the subject.

“But yeah, I mean, if you were able to get a brand-new start13 thanks to this wooden sword, that’s pretty cool.”

“Who knows. Because I’m too worldly,14 not a day goes by where I don’t think about the other options that I could have had in life.”

“Other options?”

“Surely I could have lived for love.”

Kiguchi spoke with extreme sincerity─you could hear it in her voice.

“When I see you beside Madame Togame, I’m unable to suppress this feeling of resignation.”

“What’s wrong with being a master swordsman, though?”

“In this day and age, swordplay has been rendered useless,” Kiguchi stated matter-of-factly─no hint of self-derision,15 no undertones of irony. “I dare say the Heartland School will end with me─in which case, I genuinely hope to do good by my predecessors as a swordsman. Still, I have to wonder if the way I’m obsessing over this has more to do with my inability to let go16 than anything else.”

“That sounds…”

That sounds like me─is what Shichika wanted to say.

After all, if Togame had never shown up on Haphazard Island and conscripted Shichika into her Sword Hunt, the story of the Kyotoryu would have been over, dying a quiet17 death on that desert island in the waters off of Tango.

Ending with Shichika.

Hence his thought, That sounds like me.

But he had stopped short of telling her as much─because at this stage of the game, he could hardly claim that his entire life revolved around his school of swordplay.

His life revolved around Togame.

Like Kiguchi said, he lived for love.

In that sense─he was impure.

Lacking the purity─of Zanki Kiguchi.

He had nothing─like her perfect posture.

“…”

“Are you alright, Master Shichika?”

“I mean…that all sounds fine to me. The Cured wasn’t made for killing, right? And isn’t the Heartland School all about giving life? I wouldn’t call that useless, even in these times of peace and order.”

“Master Shichika.”

It was then─that her tone became self-deprecating.18 Her face was stern as ever, no smile or smirk, but her self-derision was clearly audible.

“Even a wooden sword can kill, if you hit somebody on the head.”

“…”

“A hit to the forearms cracks their bones, a hit to the torso bursts their innards, and a jab to the throat ruptures their windpipe. That is why we wear pads when we spar. It’s just that the Heartland School can’t cut you down─while it was not made for taking life, it can kill.”

■　■

“Cheerio!”

When Shichika arrived home to the inn that night with these good tidings, Togame greeted him with her familiar cry, delivering a flying backwards roundhouse kick to his face. An incongruous attack from someone who eschewed all armaments and lacked any ability in the martial arts, this was questionable behavior to be sure, but after what Shichika had declared, perhaps she could be forgiven for her exaggerated reaction.

“Get used to it? Hello! What happened to the proud Master of the Kyotoryu?”

“Whoa…I’m pretty sure you were the one who forced me into this…but damn, you sure can kick for someone wearing all those bulky clothes…”

Per usual, Shichika had made no attempt to dodge Togame, taking her abuse full force, but her flying backwards roundhouse kick had evidently caught him by surprise.

“Now that my hair’s cropped short, I’m light as can be. Like I might soar into the sky.”

“Ahh.”

Fine with this explanation, Shichika plopped down on the floor.

In turn, Togame hitched up her “bulky clothes” that looked like twice a dozen layers of flamboyant finery, and sat down in front of Shichika.

“Well then, I know it’s taken me a while─but I’ve come up with something,” Togame cut to the chase.

Not giving Shichika a chance to rest after another long day of training.

But as her faithful servant, he had no complaints. “Come up with what?”

“A scheme, dummy. What else would I come up with?”

“I hope you’re exaggerating about that.”

“At any rate, I’ve looked at this from every angle, and I think there’s only one realistic way for you to beat Zanki Kiguchi.”

“So there’s only one way for me to beat Kiguchi, huh…”

“At least, so long as you’re stuck wearing pads, armed with a wooden sword, and following her rules. Granted, if you could be yourself and fight her barefoot, stripped to the waist, without your arm guards, I have the utmost confidence that you would win. But given who we’re dealing with, that won’t be possible.”

“Not possible, huh.”

“I thought through countless ways that you could try to beat her, under those conditions─but up against a person as absurdly serious as Kiguchi, things are bound to go the same direction every time.”

“You think Oto the Cured is what’s making her so serious? Kiguchi said so herself.”

“Oh? Interesting perspective─that’s kind of deep. Either way, though, it’s clear that this time around, we need to focus on Kiguchi much more than the Mutant Blade.”

“So? What’s your scheme for me to beat her?”

“Lean into your weakness,” Togame said simply, aiming her pointer finger19 at Shichika’s face. “I assume you have not forgotten the way Konayuki beat you atop Mt. Odori? In your first defeat of the entire Sword Hunt─”

“Yeah, don’t remind me.”

“Copy her.”20

“Copy?” Shichika looked at her askance, like he had no idea what she was saying. “What do you mean? I don’t have the monstrous strength of Konayuki. I mean, I’m confident in my abilities─”

“This isn’t about monstrous strength. Remember what made Konayuki fearsome? It had nothing to do with her monstrous strength. It was the fact she was a total amateur.”

Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu versus Konayuki Itezora, sole surviving member of the Itezora Clan.

The main reason why Konayuki had beaten Shichika in their first fight was the huge disparity between their skillsets─Konayuki knew nothing of the ways of battle, lacking any real experience or training in the art of war, since she was just a little girl, but that turned out to be precisely why she won.

As an amateur, her moves were unexpected.

As an amateur, her moves were unpredictable.

And due to this enormous disparity in skill─

Shichika lost miserably.

“Take a cue from Konayuki─this time, you’re going to beat Zanki Kiguchi, master of the wooden sword, because you’re the amateur.”

“Hmm…” Shichika nodded, attempting to digest21 this proclamation from his owner. “Still,” he said, once he had caught the gist of her idea. “Remember how you said me losing to Konayuki was no more than a fluke accident?”

“Yes?”

“Yes, you say… I mean, don’t fluke accidents happen on their own? Trust me, I think your idea is amazing, the sort of thing that only you could see─but how are we supposed to guarantee an accident will happen?”

“You could search the world wide over and never find that kind of guarantee,” Togame scoffed. “Even against Konayuki, the odds of you losing by a fluke were one to ten, or even poorer.”

“Uh…in that case, isn’t it a bad idea to bet on such low odds?”

“Of course. This is just the basic premise22 of the scheme─I’ve also come up with ancillary measures to make it happen.”

“Like what?”

“Here’s what I have in mind─for starters, you can sit tight while I battle Kiguchi.”

“You mean shogi, right?”

“Clearly.”

Shichika had just been checking, but Togame assured him resolutely─although perhaps she could save such resoluteness for other occasions.

“Wait, though, isn’t Kiguchi the one asking for a rematch? What reason does she have to play another game of shogi?”

“None yet, but we’ll give her one. I’ll show her a fair fight23… Specifically…this would all depend on how negotiations go, but in terms of my blueprint, I’m thinking I’ll propose a nine-game showdown.”

“Nine games…sounds like a lot.”

“Don’t say that too loud around here, or they’ll laugh us out of town.”

“Alright, but isn’t nine a little random? Why not play ten?”

“It has to be odd to avoid a draw. Since eleven is even more random, we’re going with nine. And here’s where it gets interesting─the final score determines the number of bouts.”

“Number of bouts?”

“Between you and Kiguchi. If I win five out of nine games, you get to fight her once. If I win six, you’ll fight her three times. At seven, it’ll be five times. At eight, it’ll be seven. And if I win all nine games, you’ll get to fight her nine. But regardless of the number of bouts, all you have to do is beat her once, and we go home with Oto the Cured. Those are our terms.”

“Okay, got it─way more involved24 than last time.”

If Togame had asked Kiguchi to give Shichika nine chances at winning─she never would have gone along with it, but by adding in the smokescreen of the shogi showdown, Togame hoped to smooth things over.25

All Kiguchi had to do was win five times or more, meaning the majority of the games, to ensure Oto the Cured stayed in her possession─and if she lost the majority and had to battle Shichika a few times, they could expect her to take full responsibility.

But even if she had to fight Shichika a hundred times, she would still probably go in assuming that at day’s end, Oto the Cured would still be hers.

“I know you didn’t exactly go easy on her, but last time you played Kiguchi, you sort of acted like it was closer than it was, right? Not saying you’re gonna win all nine rounds necessarily, but I can see you winning eight─in that case, I’d get seven chances to beat Kiguchi. That’s pretty good. Seven bouts gives us a decent chance of a fluke happening─”

“Shichika,” Togame the Schemer─summarily negated Shichika’s view of the situation. “I’m not trying to win that many games─my aim is to win five.”

“Huh?” Shichika was baffled, unable to ken her meaning.

“There’s always the chance things won’t go according to plan. I could wind up winning six─but regardless, I need for you to beat Zanki Kiguchi on the first bout.”

“H-How come?”

“Because we’re here to win by fluke─it’s not the same as rolling dice. The fewer chances, the better.”

“B-But…”

Shichika was hopelessly confused.

“Then why should you play Kiguchi again at all? Like I said, as long as it’s one round, I think she would agree to fight right away.”

“Because the shogi showdown has outsize importance.”

“Outsize importance? What do you mean by─”

“Listen─actually, never mind. I’m not telling,” she left Shichika hanging, without so much as a clue. “Thinking it over, I think it’s best for you to go in blind.”26

“Huhhhhh?”

“I don’t suspect that telling you would change the outcome, but just in case─leave it to me. That is, unless not knowing means you’re unable to trust my scheme?”

“N-No…”

Who could answer yes to that?

Especially when she insisted things would go more smoothly if he went in blind.

“I’ll take your word for it. You don’t need to tell me. Let me ask you this, though. How much do these ancillary measures, the ones you’re keeping to yourself, boost my odds?”

“I’d say it’ll be fifty-fifty.”

A little low for her to say, Leave it to me.

Not exactly what you call a boost.

In a sense those odds were not half bad, considering how weak Shichika became once he picked up a sword─but Togame was painfully aware the odds were miserable.

“I spent ten days hashing out ideas, but this sloppy, clumsy scheme is still the best that I could do─somehow, it feels like we’re working harder than necessary. Like we’re making problems for ourselves, taking the long way around, oblivious─but know this, Shichika. I’m not sure whether she has the Cured to thank for this, but Kiguchi is not like anybody else─this once, and only once, I’m making an exception. To the best of our ability, I want for us to protect her honor.”27

“Hmph.”

Shichika felt the same.

Train under somebody for ten days straight, day in day out, hour after hour, and some degree of bonding is inevitable─the last thing Shichika wanted was a dirty fight28 against Kiguchi, culminating in a bloodbath.29 If doing things her way won them another of the Twelve Possessed, and safely, what could be better?

The more he thought it over,30 the more Shichika regretted the way he had behaved until just recently.

Does this mean I’ve gotten stronger─or that I’ve gone soft?

“Wh-What do you mean you bonded… Don’t tell me you’ve had another change of heart! Wh-What exactly were you two doing in the dojo anyway?! To think I trusted you enough to let you spend all this time alone with her! That’s it. I’m fed up with your philandering!”

“…I’m the one who’s fed up. With your jealousy.”

Togame had spun this out of thin air. What a mess.

But then.

Although by no thanks to this outburst from Togame, Shichika noticed something weird about the plan she had proposed.

“Togame, I think we have a problem.”31

“Problem? I’ll admit that I was out of line to force you to train at another school, and certainly regret it, now that you love someone new, but I did the best I could, all things considered. The least you could do is honor that.”

“I mean, I think that’s a lost cause.”

“Lost cause! This is our chance to set things straight! What gives you the right to singlehandedly dismantle everything we’ve built together?”

She was really going after him.

What was a man supposed to do?

“I meant, uh, there’s a problem with your scheme.”

“Huh? You did? In that case…we’re okay.”

“I’m not sure I’d say that we’re okay…”

Despite having spent nine months traveling with Togame the Schemer, Shichika felt as if he barely understood the woman.

“Anyway, your scheme depends on me being an amateur with swords, right? Who knows about ten days ago, but while you were working on this scheme, I’ve been practicing like crazy, directly under Kiguchi, a master swordsman─doesn’t that mean I’m not an amateur anymore?”

“Uh…”

“Honestly, it’s kind of amazing how bad I am at handling a sword─even a wooden one. Without exaggeration, I’ve made almost no progress with the basic moves. But the rules and codes of her school are a different story. She’s sat me down and drilled32 me on those pretty good─at this point, I have a decent understanding of her style.”

“Hmm…”

Apparently, this was not something Togame had considered. For a moment, she was pensive.33 Shichika pressed his case.

“As you know well, Togame, I’m not so bright─so maybe saying that I understand her school is overdoing it, but hold on, because there’s something else. I may have made a fool of myself training, but I also spent ten days watching Kiguchi practice like the master that she is. Not like I can watch and learn like sis or anything, but I think I know a lot more about fighting with a wooden sword than I did ten days ago. Isn’t this scheme less effective the more I know? If that’s the case, I have a feeling the odds aren’t as high as fifty-fifty.”

“Right,” Togame nodded, taking in this insight from Shichika. “I failed to think of that. My mistake─but I know what to do.”

With that.

Walking on her knees like it was second nature, Togame scooched right up to Shichika and rested both her outstretched hands upon his tousled hair.

While seriously confused, Shichika held still.

Not even twitching.

For Shichika Yasuri never dodged an attack from his owner, taking every hit in stride─

“Mwah.”34

Togame pressed her lips to his.

What was she doing to him?

Shichika was slow on the uptake.

But before he knew it, Togame had slipped back to where she was before.

From the look on her face, it was like nothing ever happened.

“Do you remember anything about it now?” she asked.

“…”

Shichika shook his head no.

Then finally spoke.

“I forgot all of it.”

1 突っ撥ねる TSUPPANERU shove aside

2 心底苦手 SHINSOKO NIGATE “averse from the bottom of one’s heart”

3 零す KOBOSU spill

4 ひと段落して HITO DANRAKU SHITE (stop at) a good breaking point

5 三日 MIKKA “three days” evokes 三日坊主 MIKKA BŌZU “monk for three days”

6 私心 SHISHIN “one’s own heart”

7 師範 SHIHAN teacher often used in a martial arts context

8 明け暮れて AKEKURETE “from dawn to dusk”

9 引き締まる HIKISHIMARU “pull tight” grow tense

10 王刀楽土 ŌTŌ RAKUDO “Paradise of Oto the Cured” pun on 王道楽土 ŌDŌ RAKUDO “royal-road paradise” (i.e. realm ruled by a good king)

11 強大 KYŌDAI “massively strong”

12 慌てて AWATETE rushed, hurried

13 更生 KŌSEI “renew life” rehabilitate

14 俗物 ZOKUBUTSU “vulgar thing” philistine

15 自嘲気味 JICHŌ GIMI “touch of self-mockery”

16 未練 MIREN lingering attachment

17 むなしく MUNASHIKU in vain (also written 虚しく with first character in 虚刀流 KYOTŌRYŪ)

18 自虐的 JIGYAKUTEKI “self-abusing” vs. 被虐的 HIGYAKUTEKI masochistic

19 ひとさし指でさして HITO SASHI YUBI DE SASHITE “pointing with the person-pointing finger”

20 踏襲 TŌSHŪ follow suit

21 咀嚼 SOSHAKU chew

22 さわり SAWARI highlight

23 負荷を[…]背負ってもらう FUKA WO[…]SEWOTTE MORAU have someone take on a burden in this case, to even things out

24 発展版 HATTENBAN “developed version”

25 印象をぼやかせる INSHŌ WO BOYAKASERU obscure the impression

26 事前には知らぬほうがよい JIZEN NI WA SHIRANU HŌ GA YOI better not to know in advance

27 顔を[…]立てて KAO WO[…]TATETE allow her to save face

28 泥仕合 DORO JIAI “mud match”

29 殺し合い KOROSHI AI “killing each other” (or attempting to)

30 返す返すも KAESU GAESU MO returning again and again

31 やばいかもしれない YABAI KAMO SHIRENAI “this might be dangerous”

32 座学 ZAGAKU “seated study” classroom learning, as opposed to practical training

33 思案顔 SHIAN GAO “thinking face”

34 ちゅう CHŪ onomatopoeia for kissing