KATANAGATARI 1
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The “Maniwacs”─the cutesy nickname fast becoming standard between Shichika and Togame, although that band of expert assassins, demented as they were, would surely have resented nothing more than to be branded thus─had, by now, gone rogue1 en masse. Until the Mutant Blades of Kiki Shikizaki made things complicated, the enclave had worked with the Owari Bakufu on what could be called intimate terms─or at least in close cooperation. It would be exaggerating to say the Maniwa answered directly to the shogunate, but relative to the Onmitsu, who did, the ninjas had certainly been held in higher esteem for their ninpo.
The Directorate for which Togame was Grand Commander was often responsible for backroom operations that never saw the light of day. It would be fair to say she knew more about the Maniwa than any other personage of the shogunate. But even her knowledge had limits: her intelligence on the Twelve Bosses was spotty and she understood the ninpo of only a few of them, one of whom had been Komori─and yet.
The dead man, slashed in two and left to rot, had a face she recognized.
Yes.
It was Shirasagi Maniwa. One of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan.
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It was like a nightmare, thought Shichika.
It had not been there before─the only thing in sight had been the two halves of the abandoned corpse. But when he and Togame rushed to see the body, the wind picked up.
The next instant, a castle2 towered over them.
Without warning.
No gate or moat or ramparts or embankments─only the keep,3 rising from the sand.
“What the…” Shichika was sure the castle hadn’t been there. Or at the very least, they hadn’t seen it.
“I told you it was a natural fortress.” In stark contrast to his bafflement, Togame reacted with total nonchalance as if she had expected nothing less.
“Do you know about mirages? They’re a natural phenomenon, where a difference in temperature causes light to refract, making faraway things appear close, or things on the ground appear to float, or flip. They can even make things you know are there invisible… We are in a desert, with the sea nearby. The conditions are perfect. One might call it atmospheric camouflage.”
Togame casually explained that the castle had no gate or moat or ramparts or embankments so as not to disrupt the mirage.
“Unless you come this close, you’ll never notice it─that’s what makes Gekoku Castle hard to attack and easy to defend. Unknown to most─but legendary, to a select few.”
“What? So you knew it was going to do this? You should’ve warned me. That scared the crap out of me. Stop keeping secrets. Did this really need to be classified?”
“Oops. I thought it would be funny.”
“…”
It was a prank.4
At the worst possible time.
It bombed,5 more or less.
“Look at this guy…”
Not like she was changing the subject, but Togame crouched beside the corpse and looked it over. The body had started to decay, but remained recognizable. While Shichika did not exactly crouch, he mimicked Togame and peered down at the body over her shoulder.
Sleeveless ninja garb.
Chains wrapped around him.
But this ninja, while a denizen of the shadows, wore no mask─combined, these features should have been enough to jog his memory of Komori Maniwa, whom Shichika had fought the month before, but the only living people he could recognize were his sister, Nanami, and Togame the Schemer, after considerable practice. Nothing about the dead man struck him as familiar, but the expression on Togame’s face made him wonder.
“Someone you know?” he asked.
“Shirasagi Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan.”
Togame’s voice was neutral.6
“I know of him… Unlike Komori, we never worked together, and I know little of his ninpo. But we’ve crossed paths several times. I mentioned him when we were talking about catchphrases. He’s the one who talked backwards.”
“Oh,” Shichika nodded. “So I’ll never find out what that was like…for better or for worse. But for starters, what’s a Maniwac Boss doing all the way out here, in two pieces?”
Growing up on Haphazard Island, Shichika wasn’t used to corpses. He was also never taught to find dead bodies scary, and thus, the pitiable sight of what was left of Shirasagi Maniwa wasn’t particularly unnerving─but having witnessed firsthand the skill of Komori, another of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan, he was unable to take this situation lightly.
“This guy must have packed at least as hard of a punch as Komori.”
“Komori was tough, but his ninpo wasn’t meant for battle. His Star Cannon and Body Melt were perfect for assassination, but not ideal for fighting face to face. While I can’t say for sure what style of ninpo Shirasagi favored…rumor has it that his skills were well-suited to combat. In which case, at least in terms of fighting prowess, he would outrank Komori.”
“Yet somehow─he got chopped in half.”
Shichika examined the cross-sections of Shirasagi’s body. What a smooth cut─the blade had not even remotely strayed. It almost felt like if you pressed the halves together, they would stick. The cut went clean through flesh and bone, like it was all the same─but even more foreboding was the way that it had razored through the fat chains the ninja wore over his costume. After finishing off Komori, Shichika had learned from Togame that these chains were a variety of chain mail7─the Maniwa wore them as a kind of armor. If his armor had been slashed, Shirasagi Maniwa must have been felled by a blow so powerful that nothing could stop it.
“As you may recall, the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa are competing to see who can snatch up the most of the Twelve Possessed. Shirasagi must have caught wind of Zanto the Razor being at Gekoku Castle, in the hands of Ginkaku Uneri, and come out to investigate, only to be slain.”
“By who?”
“By Ginkaku Uneri, obviously.” Togame raised her head─gazing at Gekoku Castle, which (apparently) had materialized out of nowhere. “If he could do this to a Maniwa Boss, perhaps I underestimated his abilities. I had thought the Razor would be one of the easier swords─evidently, I was wrong.”
“Yeah, well, I already beat one Maniwa Boss…”
“Indeed, but luck was on your side.”
Shichika couldn’t argue with that. He had been more than lucky─his opponent had practically fallen at his feet. All the same, Shichika was confident he could have beat the ninja anyway, no matter what the circumstances, but knew enough not to say so. It was pointless.
“Let’s look on the bright side…” Togame shook her head and stood. Her expression told Shichika nothing, but he had never been good at reading other people, especially when they were silent. “The Maniwa may have beat us here,” Togame elaborated, “but their attempt to seize the Razor was in vain. From a certain angle, this is a boon for us. If Shirasagi had won himself the Shikizaki blade, we would have trudged into the middle of Inaba Desert for nothing.”
“Got it, bright side.” Shichika nodded, but he wasn’t so soft as to miss the message behind what she was saying. “Still, Togame, if the ninja failed to catch Ginkaku Uneri off guard, he must be on the lookout. There’s no way he doesn’t know how valuable the Shikizaki blades are─well, who knows what this guy said to him. Backwards or whatever. Worst-case scenario, Ginkaku Uneri could have fled Gekoku Castle. And brought the Razor with him. Not like that gives us any clue about where it is.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem. Even after the whole of Inaba was consumed by desert, this man refused to leave. A couple of ninjas would hardly be able to push him over the edge. What’s more, from the looks of Shirasagi, Uneri has the utmost confidence in his abilities. This is no two-bit samurai who cuts and runs.”8
“What, then?” asked Shichika. “Maybe we should come back another time.”
“Out of the question,” Togame replied straightaway. “Look, at the pace the Maniwa are moving, we have no time for setbacks.9 In fact, I’m feeling good about where we are. Thanks to this plot twist from Shirasagi, my report to my superiors just got a lot more interesting. Collecting one of the Possessed from a foe who defended it from the treacherous Maniwa makes for a great story. But the real triumph here is that I no longer need to worry about writing dialogue for that obstreperous ninja. To be frank, I was dreading his arrival because conveying his speech would be such a hassle. He also overlapped with my brand─Shirasagi and shiraga10 were a little too close for comfort. But that’s no longer a concern.”
She was beating a dead horse. A bit cruel given that the guy wasn’t in one piece.
“This setup is simply too good, Shichika. I can’t have you suggesting that we head back with our tails between our legs. Am I to write that we did?”
“The bright side, huh?”
The hot air11 behind her last line was not lost on Shichika─but he had no reason to protest when his employer was right.
“That’s why I fell for you.”