KATANAGATARI 1
As Shirasagi paraded his reverse speech as if he were readying himself, laying the groundwork, for something─the man in black, without warning, without any tell, suddenly moved.
But moved might be an overstatement.
A slight motion.
No more than his right hand grasping the katana’s hilt─to all appearances.
“Hmm?”
When his foe took hold of the weapon, Shirasagi’s expression changed─but not his easy attitude. It was the attitude of someone with absolute confidence in his own abilities.
“Kcats ruoy wolb I elihw hctaw. Skcajpalf ruoy pilf ot em tnaw uoy snaem tuo drows ruoy gnillup, egaugnal ym ni. Tsal ruoy eb lliw od uoy dnoces eht, denrawerof eb tub. Ekil uoy revenehw tuo ti pihw. Tuo ti pihw annog, tahw?”
“If you don’t mind my asking.”
The man in black finally spoke.
Responding to Shirasagi Maniwa.
But his next words─
“This flapjack-flipping9 ninpo─it allows you to talk even after you’ve been sliced in two?”
─were a farewell.
“Huh?”
Not that holding still would have kept the gash together─but at those words, Shirasagi leaned forward, for the last time.
His torso, unstuck from his waist, tipped over onto the tatami. Because his head landed upside down, his death throes─
“Gaaah! Wh-Whennn?”
─came out forwards, but at this point, how he sounded mattered little.
“…Hiken Zerosen,”10 intoned the man in black.
Not having taken a single step, still sitting.
“Ugh, he’s ruining the tatami─I’ll have to swap it with a mat from one of the other rooms… As for his corpse…I may as well hold off until the gore dries.”
Although he had just killed, the man in black was unperturbed, as if nothing exceptional had happened, and he set his mind to planning how to clean the room.
He let go of the hilt─and rubbed his eyes.
So he did feel a little sleepy after all.
■ ■
Of course, if this were a piece of contemporary popular fiction, you may very well presume that Shirasagi Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan, was killed off after the author cried, “I don’t want to deal anymore with a character who talks in such an annoying way! What sort of ninpo requires speaking in reverse, anyway?”─however, this is no piece of popular fiction, but a historical novel. In other words, the man in black was indeed that formidable.
Of the thousand Mutant Blades forged by Kiki Shikizaki.
One of his masterpieces, the Twelve Possessed.
Zanto the Razor.
Owned by Ginkaku Uneri.11
Undoubtedly the toughest foe to grace these pages so far─okay, out of just two!
We’ll say the tougher.
Behold this unholy history12 full of holes!13
A skittish, scatterbrained sketch!
Tale of the Sword: Book Two ♪
1 襖 FUSUMA thick sliding doors that block out light
2 たたみ TATAMI straw mats
3 殺風景 SAPPŪKEI barren
4 鞘 SAYA sheath of a katana
5 鷺白のり喋さ逆 GISARASHI NO RIBEYASHIKASA “Reverse-Talking Shirasagi” 白鷺 SHIRASAGI “The Egret”
6 しのび SHINOBI alternative reading of 忍 NIN in phonetic characters, another word for “ninja”
7 斬刀 鈍 ZANTŌ NAMAKURA “The Slicing Katana: Dullblade”
8 一目置く ICHIMOKU OKU “place an eye”to recognize (a strength)
9 逆鱗探し GEKIRIN SAGASHI looking for a touchy spot 逆鱗 GEKIRIN flipped scale (as in snakes’)
10 秘剣 零閃 HIKEN ZEROSEN “Hidden Sword, Zero Flash” sword too swift to catch the light homophone with ゼロ戦 ZEROSEN, infamous Japanese fighter planes of World War II
11 宇練銀閣 UNERI GINKAKU “Surging Silver Tower”
12 黒歴史 KUROREKISHI a past one would like to forget
13 嘘歴史 USOREKISHI (neologism) “a lie history”