KATANAGATARI 1

Swordless, alright.

That move with his foot, when he guarded Togame from the Zerosen─if that was any indication of the Kyotoryu─

From what I can recall, it was not so far from iainuki…in which case, was that…a form of kenpo modeled after swordplay?

Under normal circumstances, a swordsman would have no reason to give up his sword─but if he did give up his sword, he would surely have a reason. And the school centering around that reason was the Kyotoryu.

So much for that.

No use dwelling on it.

What kind of swordplay the Kyotoryu entailed was absolutely immaterial─Uneri saw no need to brood over the schools and skills of his adversaries.

Because.

Enter his space, and they were dead─

That summed up the Zerosen. What could be simpler.

“─Hm.”

From the shaft of light─Uneri perceived that the fusuma had opened.

He had been reflecting, he believed, on his circumstances─but when he came to his senses, he realized that he must have fallen asleep. Now, to ensure that he would wake up whenever he had “guests,” Uneri had sabotaged the fusuma, to make it stick (this being yet another of his domain’s chief quirks38). He was such a restless sleeper, woken up by almost anything, it would be fair to call his sensitivity a condition, and a grave one at that.

He slowly opened his eyes, which had shut unbeknownst to him.

Beyond the doorway was Shichika Yasuri.

“…Hey.”

Since Togame was nowhere to be seen, for a second Uneri assumed that the woman (who seemed unfit for battle anyway) had stayed outside the castle, but that was not the case. Hidden by Shichika’s enormous body, her petite figure39 was merely out of view─but right behind him. Uneri could see her gaudy kimono through the gap between Shichika’s feet.

He’s hiding her─no.

Protecting her?

Could his request to start anew have been motivated by a hunch that she’d been in danger? True, Uneri had aimed to kill her with his Zerosen─but if that was a concern, why wasn’t she left outside as Uneri had presumed?

Was he choosing to have his back against the wall40─or rather, a woman? Was he cornering himself, steeled by a determination never to withdraw or retreat? In any case, Uneri saw no good reason for it─why go so far? Instead one might simply─

No.

Rooted with the Razor on his hip, Uneri was in no position to judge. To keep something safe, you kept it by your side─if that was what Shichika was thinking, then Uneri could understand.

But understand was all.

“Sorry that took so long,” Shichika said.

His expression was all too cheerful, too lax for someone about to engage in combat. Thus far in life, Uneri had met all kinds─and anyone who showed up for a fight wearing a face like this was either reckless or fearless, or terrifyingly good.

Possibly all of the above.

“Ah… And?” answered Uneri.

He felt a little sleepy.

No matter, the Zerosen will dull none from a little drowsiness─nor will the Razor.

“Young man, have you come up with a strategy to best my Zerosen?”

“More or less,” Shichika met Uneri’s provocation with a casual reply. “I’m nine-tenths sure it’s gonna work, but it’s my first time using the move against an actual practitioner of iainuki─I haven’t had a chance to practice.41 That would be my one concern.”

“Are you telling me the Kyotoryu has specific measures against iainuki?”

“It has recommended ways of battling iainuki, nothing like an overarching strategy─but up against someone as skilled as you, I think I’ll succeed.”

Shichika’s carefree tone made him sound almost too dauntless.

“With this move, the faster your sword goes─the more surefire my hit will be.”

“…”

The faster it goes.

Letting these words sink in, Uneri caught wind of a change in Shichika’s appearance. Like the first time he showed up, he was bare to the waist─but now he had shed his arm and leg guards and stepped out of his sandals. With sand drifting in from every opening, the castle was in such a state that keeping your shoes42 required no apology─(even Uneri slipped on sandals when he left his domain)─and yet.

He’s drawn his sword.

If the Kyotoryu used no blade that was not the foot and the hand, it made perfect sense for arm and leg guards to play the role of sheaths. In which case, Shichika was pointing his bared sword at Ginkaku Uneri─or so it appeared.

“By the way, Mister Uneri, I have a request,” Shichika said. “Just once, could you pull out the Razor─Zanto the Razor, and show me the blade? When you do iainuki, or the Zerosen or whatever, it’s way too fast for me to see. I know it’s odd for the Kyotoryu master to be saying this, since I don’t use swords myself, but I’d be lying if I told you my interest isn’t piqued by the idea of a katana that cuts through anything.”

“…Hmph.”

If he were to unsheathe the sword and bare its steel, it would take a split second to return the Razor to its scabbard and unleash the Zerosen─was this some cheap ploy to create a chance to strike? It was too half-baked43 even to be termed a measure… Still, Shichika’s delivery all but vouched that it was no strategy or the like, but his sincere wish to see the blade… After all, the young man had removed his arm and leg guards and bared his own weapon, as if to say, I’ll show you mine, you show me yours.

Either way.

Sincere or not, the answer was the same.

“Not happening.”

“Whaaat.”

“In our iainuki, concealing the blade from the opponent is essential. Sorry…okay, I’m not, really…but if you want to see it so bad, why not just defeat my Zerosen and knock me down and take the sword as yours? Then you can look it over all you want.”

“Sword hog.”44 The request was made to be denied, but Shichika’s puffed cheeks seemed to indicate that he was genuinely upset─however. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll try it your way.”

Thus ended the preliminaries.

Shichika─assumed a stance.

“Kyotoryu Form Seven─Kakitsubata!”45

He straddled his feet, parallel, but one ahead of the other, sinking into his knees and bending at the hips, to make his upper body lean slightly forward─his hands pointed like spears, his elbows at right angles, parallel again and offset, like his feet. His weight on the front leg, as if to tumble forward, and facing straight ahead─eyes trained upon the seated figure of Ginkaku Uneri.

Poised like a runner, ready to dash.

Well now.

For all his playful nonchalance, Kyotoryu seemed mighty orthodox in his approach to battle. Was he of a mind to sprint from that room into this─to settle the score once and for all?

He said the faster your sword, the more surefire the hit…but those words seemed either a foolhardy diversion or a bluff─he was aiming, simply, to land the blade of his hand or foot before Uneri had a chance to draw─

But that would never breach this domain.

Resolved to fighting face-to-face, he looked poised to barrel straight into the thick of it, but such a stunt only meant he thought too lightly of the Zerosen, where the sword leaves and meets the scabbard in an instant.

Not that I was looking forward to this─but how disappointing.

“Kyotoryu─a foe that gives no satisfaction.”

“Wow…it’s an honor to be recognized by someone as strong as─wait, ‘no satisfaction’? Was that a putdown?”

Playing the fool so late in the game, Shichika got the silent treatment from Uneri.

Either way.

The second Shichika passed through the doorway, the fight would be over. In a space this cramped, none could evade the sweeping path of iainuki─and if he blocked it, more fodder46 for the Razor.

Behold, Ginkaku Uneri’s─Danger Zone!47

“Alright. In that case. On your mark…”

Shichika─sank deeper into his knees─

“Get set… GO!”

And mounted a frontal assault.

Springing off his rear foot, throwing his momentum ahead─clearing the threshold in one bound.

Onto his second step─and third…

No third step!

“Zerosen!”

Uneri’s right hand clasped the handle of the Razor. The moment he did, the move was already over, and the sound of his tsuba reaching the sheath─shing!─rang through the air of the cramped room─

Yet.

“─…?!”

There was a reason Uneri failed to notice right away. Zanto the Razor was of such astounding sharpness that whatever it cut─be it animal, vegetable, mineral, or scoundrel48─the blade met almost no resistance. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say it met with no resistance whatsoever. Every substance─sliced like tofu. The blade could even slice the air─and as such, it was all the same. Moreover, the Razor belonged to Ginkaku Uneri, and he had unleashed the Zerosen, an iainuki move unique to his family─thus there was sufficient reason for his failure to cut Shichika Yasuri asunder to take an extra instant to reach his brain.

That mere instant was fatal.

“Kyotoryu─Bara!”49

■　■

Done it, Shichika had─but what he had done was hardly unusual, as pedestrian as it got in the world of swordplay. The only difference was that the move was executed with incomparable dexterity, so high it was off the charts.

He had feinted50─faked him out.

Kyotoryu Form Seven─the Kakitsubata.

In contrast to Form One, the Suzuran, and Form Two, the Suisen─the static and defensive stances he had employed against Komori Maniwa the month before, back on Haphazard Island─Form Seven, the Kakitsubata, was a dynamic move, deployed offensively.

Even somebody oblivious to the martial arts would comprehend this at first glance─which is why Uneri thought that Shichika was charging full speed at him to beat out the Zerosen even if it meant being mowed down.

But that was not the case.

Despite being an attack move─the Kakitsubata was no simple battle charge.

Shichika had not delved into details with Togame during their strategy meeting because it would have gotten too complicated, but just as his school taught him to run through an overhead slash, Kyotoryu had a response to horizontal swipes: Attack either before the swing, or after. If a lateral strike could not be blocked or evaded, there was no other choice. It was a basic teaching in any case, as basic as it could get─

Uneri had expected him to attack before the swing.

But Shichika had opted for after─as obvious a strategy as this may seem up against the Zerosen, a move so fast that it could not be seen, Shichika did more than opt for it. He made Uneri think the opposite─that he would attempt to strike first.

Feinting, with the Kakitsubata.

When Shichika crossed through the doorway, intruding upon Uneri’s domain, between his first step and his second step─and his zeroth step when he was immobile, to be precise─he altered his movement speed.

From his zeroth step into his first─in other words, as his rear foot sprung from the tatami, he was soaring, as far as Uneri was concerned. But from the first step into the second, as the front foot sprang to action─Shichika threw the brakes.

The difference between his opening speed and closing speed was unbelievable. Seeing him accelerate, you never expected the coming drop─he slowed down twice as fast in that sense. The effect was marvelous─Uneri, skilled as he was, misjudged the timing of his iainuki.

His opponent hadn’t taken a second step─much less a third.

He motioned for it─but didn’t follow through.

Or he did follow through─but only afterwards.

All of it a single move.

Uneri was sure he had seen Shichika pass through the doorway and all the way in─a misjudgment.

Iainuki has a shortcoming, in that once the blade is drawn, it cannot be stalled midway─unlike the kaleidoscopic51 footwork displayed by Shichika in his Kakitsubata, its speed cannot be adjusted freely, and can only mount ad infinitum.

The Danger Zone had also worked against Uneri─in being so determined that mere passage through the doorway guaranteed a kill, he effectively claimed to kill by reflex.

A wall.

What was absent, then, could be envisioned─to the extent that Uneri might as well have foolishly announced to the world when he would strike. He could not but draw against a charging foe, regardless of his velocity─

And the clincher:52 the Zerosen was simply too fast.

The Razor returned to its sheath with a shing!─and a frame later, Shichika’s front kick, the Bara, exploded toward Uneri’s left shoulder.

Uneri shot backward─slamming his back against the wall behind him. He groaned as if the air were purging from his body.

“…nkk!”

And yet.

When Togame asked her question─“Did we do it?”─Shichika could not respond with a forthright, We did it! Far from it. He clicked his tongue in disgust and leapt back─through the door into the other room, where she was standing─

And suddenly resumed Form Seven.

“Shi-Shichika?”

“Crap. I barely even hit him… How could that bastard spring back and dodge me like that…”

Shichika was not complimenting Uneri for nimbly springing from his preferred position, so much as blaming himself for flinching, at the last second, and turning the Bara’s full-bore charge into a hit and run.53

The strategy, at least, had been successful─as hoped, the Zerosen had only grazed the skin of Shichika’s chest and whiffed. Nevertheless, its force was intimidating enough54 to usher a minute change of heart.

Simply put:

“I chickened out.”

The faster the sword goes, the more surefire the move─too true. If the Zerosen had launched a split second later, Shichika would likely be in two clean pieces─and in the corner of his mind, he had pictured this. The picture had the necessary mass, all the more due to its position in the corner, to throw his heart off-balance.

Thus his own reflexes came into play, and kept him from catching his speed again after he slowed down─it was this failure on his part that permitted Uneri to dodge the Bara.

Shichika’s lack of combat experience─was to blame.

Togame probably should have made him practice against actual swords rather than wooden replicas on their journey, even if a training session with iainuki was asking for too much. Shichika did not know real swords, outside of his battle with Komori, which had not lasted long.

It wasn’t the swords the young man feared, but their moves.55

A fear of swordplay that used swords.

To Shichika, who had been raised, by order of the Kyotoryu, apart from blades of almost every kind, this fear would prove, without a doubt, to be an issue of extreme urgency.

“Shichika! You─”

“Don’t move, Togame. Don’t step out from behind my back.”

They could not attend to the issue now─nor was it the one to be tackled here. What mattered was Ginkaku Uneri, who had yet to receive a decisive blow.

Just like that─he was getting up.

Yes.

At long last─Uneri stood from his seated position.

“A nice surprise,” he muttered as if to himself. “I thought it was a fluke, the first time─but it can’t be, after the second… I’m wide awake now, Kyotoryu. I haven’t felt so alive since they spanked me the day I was born.”

“…My pleasure.”

Good morning, Shichika greeted.

Good morning, Uneri returned.

“And goodnight56─I suppose.”

He stood with a pronounced sag in his left shoulder. It seemed that the Bara─hadn’t been ineffectual, hadn’t been dodged entirely. But with Uneri’s mastery of iainuki, he needed only his right hand to draw a katana; an injury to his left shoulder was not a serious concern. In fact, the adrenaline57 put Shichika at a disadvantage.

Now Uneri was for real.

“My iainuki is all about waiting─no fancy footwork for me. But I can tell what kind of state58 you’ve achieved from what you just did.”

“You think? Nah. That was the Kyotoryu at its most basic. True, it’s the seventh of the stances.”

“Is that so. I’m impressed.”

“Don’t flatter me. I can’t handle praise.”

“Nonsense. Now that you’ve knocked me off my high horse, how else do I nurse my wounded pride? Take it like a man─but that footwork. Your hakama must’ve blocked my view.”

“I bet.”

Easy to move in. Easy to fight in.

This is what that meant.

When Shichika sped from his stance and slowed back down, the movement of his feet and muscles was obfuscated by the garment Togame bought for him─hence, easy to fight in. Uneri might have guessed what Shichika was up to, were his legs exposed. In this sense, the hakama was Shichika’s armor.

“Even so─don’t expect it to work twice.”

Having complimented his foe, Uneri reached for the katana on his hip.

Shichika instantly went tense, but this far from the doorway, fully beyond Uneri’s domain, it was perfectly safe, wasn’t it─

Shing shing shing shing shing!

In rapid fire59─Uneri’s tsuba chimed.

Ringing like a round of voices in his room.

“Zerosen Hentai60─Flight of Five.”

In rapid fire─Uneri had unleashed five Zerosen.

Of course, Shichika could not see the blade’s path.

Not even one out of the five arcs. The tsuba clanged away, but as far as he could tell, Uneri’s hand never left the handle of the katana─

From quickdraw to scabbard, five times over, in a row!

“This way, you can speed up and slow down all you want─to no effect. The Razor will slash through the margin of error.”

“Urk…”

He was right.

Against a swipe, attack after the swipe─but the teaching did not account for this rapid fire. Two or three, perhaps, but five…and that may not even be the limit─

In the Uneri school of iainuki, not showing the blade to the opponent was essential─still, when you think about it, if the hype is true about iainuki, and the first swing is always fatal, drawing is one thing, but there ought to be no need to rush the sword into its scabbard─even in the way of remaining alert61 just in case, it was excessive. Shichika must have only hit and run with his Bara because he intuited this.

Indeed.

The quicksheath after the quickdraw allowed for a series of strikes.

“That was your secret move62…”

“Secret move? This? No…”

Uneri grinned.

But when he did.

Shing!─the tsuba clanged again, and the shoulder of Uneri’s black kimono, where Shichika had grazed him with the Bara─burst open, spilling vast quantities of blood.

“Whoa!”

“Bloodlust63─a Zanto the Razor exclusive!”

Uneri winced with pain─but the grin had yet to leave his face, and he only looked emboldened. His blood began to drench his kimono and his feet─he must have severed a main artery.

“Yikes…did you just go and cut yourself? What for?”

With the horizontal swing of iainuki, it should have been impossible to cut himself─he must have done it after the quickdraw, while the blade was on its way back─so fast this, too, had been impossible to see. Commendable, and yet…

Why would he ever cut himself?!

“Don’t get it, huh?” Uneri’s voice was tortured. “You see, Kyotoryu, this was the secret behind Kinkaku Uneri felling ten thousand. Look.”

Plip. Plip.

From the tsuba of the Razor, blood dripped into the puddle forming at Ginkaku Uneri’s feet and created little ripples.

From around the tsuba─no, it was the mouth64 of the scabbard.

Blood was leaking─flooding, from inside it.

Clearly the blood was Uneri’s. After cutting himself, he had slipped the blade (too fast for Shichika to see) into its sheath, without shaking off the blood that clung there.

Plip. Plip.

Drops of blood─drip after drip.

“L-Look at what… I still don’t get it.”

“Take ice, for an example. Know how it’s more slippery when it begins to melt than when it’s frozen solid?” asked Uneri. “Same principle. Moistening the inside of the scabbard, filling the whole thing up with blood until the cavity is sopping wet─makes the quickdraw even quicker. When you drastically reduce the friction factor between blade and sheath─the Zerosen meets the speed of light. That is the Bloodlust, a Zanto the Razor exclusive. Usually,” Uneri added haughtily, “I use the blood of an opponent.”

His bleeding showed no sign of stopping─and while his face was losing color, he didn’t seem to care.

“The more it cuts─the faster it gets.”

The Zerosen’s peak speed.

But it knew no limit, according to that logic. Supposing the tale of Kinkaku Uneri and the ten thousand was true─what kind of instantaneous peak velocity had the Razor clocked when it vanquished its ten-thousandth foe?

“…!”

The faster the sword, the more surefire the hit─despite having been forewarned, and suffering precisely such an attack, Uneri doggedly65 persisted, going so far as to slice his own flesh to quicken the Zerosen.

Faster, faster, faster, faster, he seemed to coax.

As if speed alone were something to be proud of.

As if speed were his reason for being.

As if what he protected─was worth it.

Shichika had an opportunity to stop fighting fair and square─and the chance had not escaped him. Filling a scabbard with blood demanded quite the wound─and the gash on Uneri’s shoulder was not only ugly…if left unattended, it was liable to take his life. In any case, as long as he didn’t step through the doorway, stayed outside Uneri’s domain…he could assume Form One, Form Two, whatever he liked─they would be at a standstill. If he only waited it out, eventually the blood inside the scabbard would begin to clot,66 working contrary to purpose and increasing the friction. Ill-disposed to thought as Shichika may be, he didn’t need to think to understand this much. The Bloodlust was a move meant for large numbers─best used on the battlefield, where an endless supply of blood can be procured, which was not the case in a duel. Against Ginkaku Uneri as he stood now, merely waiting would not only afford Shichika the upper hand, it could hand him victory─

And yet.

Taking an idle stance and waiting it out because he no longer needed to fight fair and square─was not how Shichika Yasuri had been taught.

As the Kyotoryu.

A katana incarnate.

Facing Ginkaku Uneri, who truly had cornered himself, Shichika maintained the Kakitsubata─poised for attack.

“Nice moves,” Shichika said.

“Huh?”

“Seeing you─I’m ashamed I was hiding my best one.” Shichika sounded genuinely embarrassed. “Enough holding back─I’ll show you what the Kyotoryu is made of.”

“What? You mean you had an ace up your sleeve, too?”

“I wouldn’t put it─that way. But you could say I’ve been holding back a tad.”

“Hmph…”

Uneri opted not to call his bluff, or say this was a ploy or a distraction.

He didn’t think so─and in the face of the Zerosen, slick with Bloodlust, it hardly mattered anyway. Ginkaku Uneri had that much confidence.

In Zanto the Razor.

And in his Zerosen.

“I see.”

But then─Uneri spoke again.

Not to Shichika, but toward Togame, standing behind him.

“Out of curiosity, young lady, if I may… You offered to grant any wish if I handed over the sword.”

“…? Ah, yes,” Togame replied from behind Shichika.

Her face was hidden, but her voice conveyed her thorough bafflement. Why was Uneri bringing it up this late in the game?

“The bakufu will certainly make it worth your while─effective67 immediately, that is, if you so please.”

“Then,” said Uneri─his voice anything but sleepy. “If I hand over the Razor, could you restore Inaba to the way it used to be?”

“…”

They were talking through the buffer that was Shichika.

Diplomacy.

Just as Shichika could not see Togame’s face behind him, Uneri could not see Togame, nor could Togame see Uneri, with Shichika between them as a wall─perhaps this was why Uneri opened up, and perhaps he meant it.

Perhaps it was also why Togame─could not bring herself to lie.

Lying now─was not who she was.

“Out of the question,” she refused him outright. “In the eyes of the bakufu, Tottori is as good as lost. But that aside, there is no way, even in theory, to return a land that the dunes claimed68 to its former state.”

“Understood…” Uneri nodded, not the least bit morosely, but like a man freed of doubt. “So I wasn’t making a big mistake when I tried to kill you─what a relief.”

“Hey, I have a question,” Shichika butted in.

He couldn’t help it.

“Why are you doing this?”

“…Beats me.”

“Is this about the dignity you mentioned?”

“Who knows.” Uneri shrugged it off.69 “Just because I said that doesn’t mean I meant it.”

“…”

“I just wanted something to protect─that was all I ever wanted, but I had nothing else to protect.”

“I see…”

Something to protect.

For Shichika, it meant Togame.

He had chosen to protect Togame.

Even if the Kyotoryu, and Shichika himself, were targets of her vendetta─he had decided to protect her.

She was his reason for fighting.

He fought in order to protect her.

“Alright─let’s go.”

“Sure. The Zerosen is ready to fly.70 It’s time for you to witness the speed of light. And if you really do have an ace up your sleeve─I’d love to see it.”

“See? Not if you’re torn to smithereens.”

The catchphrase they had picked that morning.

Such execution─that was perfect.

“On your mark, get set…”

Set for kaleidoscopic footwork.

Kyotoryu Form Seven─the Kakitsubata.

As if to tumble forward, at any moment.

“GO!”

Shichika took a step, igniting his reserves of energy.

Except this time─he did not spring off of the back foot.

He sprang off of his front foot, shooting backwards.

With a snap, he threw his forward-leaning weight into reverse─making for quite the feint, poised as he had been to sprint ahead.

Not motioning without following through─or following through, but only after a delay─this time Shichika stepped backwards.

His feint was not ineffective.

By reflex, Uneri drew the Razor.

Even though─Shichika had not set foot into his domain.

Shing!─rang the tsuba.

But not once.

“Zerosen Hentai─Flight of Ten.”

Shing shing shing shing shing shing shing shing shing shing!

An onslaught of Zerosen, to catch him no matter how he stalled─and all the swings at speeds far outstripping71 the same move executed seated. It was as if sword was meeting scabbard sooner with each successive strike and accelerating without reserve.

Not even the Bara of the Kyotoryu.

Could violate.

Or infiltrate.

His razor-thin Danger Zone─

“──nkk!”

And yet.

Shichika’s next move flabbergasted Uneri. Who wouldn’t read stepping back as a stall, a harbinger of springing into the fray? Yet Shichika drew what had been his hind foot in the same direction, behind, only even faster.

The kaleidoscopic footwork of Form Seven allowed him not only to boost or brake his momentum but to travel backward at will─but under the circumstances, why shoot back at full speed?

He had fallen back the length of one tatami mat.

He could charge all he liked, but the Zerosen was bound to catch him when he had to close such a distance. The feint and fake-out made no sense.

To begin with─

Behind him stood what he was trying to protect, Togame─had he not positioned her there so he could not back out when he faced Ginkaku Uneri? Steeled by a determination never to withdraw or retreat?

Wrong.

That wasn’t why.

“…Huh?”

As stated elsewhere, she was not proficient in the martial arts. Or rather, prior to that issue, and not to mince words, her reflexes were impossibly dull.

Thus─when Shichika started back in her direction, darting towards her, the thought of dodging or evading him did not so much as cross her mind.

“Hmh?”

Not even when his sole was an inch away.

If this were a manga, set in the present day, now would be the time for a sound effect like “DGSHH!” Having leapt, Shichika Yasuri planted a backwards dropkick square in the face of Togame the Schemer, so perfectly that it was a work of art.

“Gadzooks!”

Her scream, so novel72 in its day, filled the air.

This was the last thing Uneri expected to see─but unlike the Kakitsubata footwork, Shichika had not jumped back and kicked Togame in the face as a feint. Surprising Uneri was not Shichika’s intention.

He flexed the leg that hit Togame like a spring─and leapt once more.

Yes.

Togame was his wall─or in this case, springboard.73

Shichika crossed through the doorway─but did so without entering Uneri’s Danger Zone. To be precise, he did not cross over the threshold─so much as under the lintel of the doorframe.74 Feeling it graze his back, he launched into Uneri’s den at a steep angle.

A cramped room, every inch within range of the Zerosen.

A cramped space, every inch within range of the Zerosen.

However─this was only if you conceived of the room two-dimensionally, rather than three-dimensionally.

Area is not the same as volume.

Small as the rooms may be─they had high ceilings.

Too high for Shichika, tall as he was, to reach even on his tiptoes─and thus, as long as he cleared the range of the Razor, he would be outside the Danger Zone.

…Shichika had asked Uneri to show him the blade as a precaution. He had wanted to know how long it was. Naturally, Uneri had not obliged, and Shichika had guessed its length by eyeballing75 the scabbard. It seemed to him like it would be okay─and thankfully, it was.

“U-Urk…”

Uneri held the handle of the Razor─but could not move.

The tsuba did not make its sound.

He had not drawn─he could not draw.

Making a series of spins, Shichika slowed his flight off of Togame and landed in the middle of the ceiling, directly above Uneri.

“K-K-Kyotoryu!”

“What’s the matter, in over your head?”

Uneri gripped the handle of the Razor, at a loss.

All he could do was stare and shudder.

The Danger Zone had been inverted.

Within this room─no place was safe.

Ginkaku Uneri would have done well to think more deeply about the Kyotoryu, if only in his dreams. A form of kenpo modeled after swordplay…was not a good place to stop.

If he had thought more, perhaps he would have understood.