KATANAGATARI 1

■　■

And yet, if Togame and Shichika had arrived in Izumo slightly later, they could have sidled through the checkpoint as they pleased─it would have only taken seven more days.

The trouble started the day after they arrived at Triad Shrine.

The checkpoint they had used when entering Izumo─was destroyed.

The garrison installed there was annihilated. Dozens of lives wasted.

Destroyed─devastated.

“If slipping by is not an option, I may as well cut my way through.”

Skin drenched with blood, a man with noteworthy bangs was strolling through the mass of corpses─having a ball.

“Ah, there we go, there we go, there we go─I love it when I don’t need to sneak around. Good, good, good.”

Dressed in ninja garb, but with the sleeves torn off.

But wearing no mask, parading his face for all to see.

Chains wrapped around his body.

There could be no clearer tell─for a Boss of the Maniwa Clan.

“Not a word from either of those guys, Komori or Shirasagi─not like either of them needs the likes of me to worry where they are─but by now, there’s a chance that someone knocked them off when they were reaching for the Shikizaki blades. Not sure about Shirasagi, but I know Komori got one, Zetto the Leveler─if someone beat him, what the heck happened to the sword? Intriguing, intriguing, intriguing.”

The man wore a pair of ninja swords on his waist.

One look at the destruction of the checkpoint, and it was evident these swords were to blame─oddly, rather than wear them on the same side, left or right, he wore one on each hip, with the chains wrapping his arms linked to the handles of each sword.

“I may as well follow my lead and devote myself to capturing Sento the Legion. For the sake of my friends, and for my own sake. Triad Shrine…where am I going, Mt. Taizan? Alright─here I come, here I come, here I come.”

Being one of the infamous Maniwa Bosses, this ninja could have easily bypassed the checkpoint, sneaking through the mountains or down the river, but he opted to destroy the border crossing. The most ruthless, flashy method of invasion possible.

“What could be better─than murder.”

One of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan, Kuizame2 Maniwa.

The Hungry Shark.

■　■

But still.

Things seemed upside-down─something was up. There had to be a downside.4

Shichika sprawled out on the tatami─thinking.

It wasn’t like him, and didn’t suit him, but he was thinking.

Togame wasn’t in the room.

He was alone there.

“…”

Worse came to worst.

That was how she put it. In other words, as a result of her diplomacy, Shichika Yasuri would be fighting Meisai Tsuruga, one on one. Good thing he wouldn’t have to fight a thousand enemies at once. What a relief.

But Togame had looked so glum.

She had wanted them to go about their business peacefully─that was part of it, but the main reason for that look was the set of stipulations Meisai had tacked onto their duel.

If Meisai was defeated, dead or alive, ownership of the Legion would be granted to Togame─the shrine’s mistress gave her word. But in the event of the opposite outcome, where she defeated Shichika─her request was for Togame to grant her ownership of the Leveler and the Razor, the two swords they had captured.

Blatantly unfair.

If he risked his life and won, all they got was a single sword, even if it was actually a thousand…but if Meisai won, she got two─she had a lot of nerve to ask for terms like that.

Apparently Togame saw this coming─or had even intentionally led them to this outcome. After all, she had made that suggestive comment on the stairs: Third time’s a charm─and now we have the Leveler and the Razor. Togame must have dangled them on purpose in her negotiations. Once she agreed to Meisai’s unfair terms, they sealed the deal─a good scheme, when you thought about it. Meisai had a much higher chance of taking the bait, versus a more equitable arrangement where each side had one sword on the line─though Togame would have likely still called it the worst.

Yet Meisai had the gumption to tack on yet another stipulation─something Togame had not anticipated. A task she would need to perform if Meisai were to battle Shichika. Perhaps it was not so much a stipulation as a demand. A demand concerning Sento the Legion.

“As you know, the Legion is a Mutant Blade comprising one thousand identical swords, forged in a huge batch5 on the premise of quantity, or numerousness. Seen together, they’re impossible to differentiate─in fact, there would be no reason to try. May as well compare the raindrops. Since they are all the same, you have no way of telling them apart.”

Meisai paused.

“Or so you’d think. But Togame the Schemer. What if I told you that among the thousand swords, one sword was the original?”

The original, she emphasized.

“Think for a second. If you want to make a thousand of the same sword─you need a template, for everything to follow. A sample, if you will. Add in the nine hundred and ninety-nine swords based upon it, and you have Sento the Legion.”

The first sword─among the Legion.

“Or maybe,” said Meisai, “he modeled the second sword after the first, and the third sword after the second, the fourth after the third─and the thousandth after the nine hundred and ninety-ninth. Even so, one sword would have been the first… Ever since I came into possession of the Legion, as a brigand, when it was passed down from the chieftain who came before me─I’ve had this suspicion. What would I need to do to figure out which one was first?”

However.

She had tried in vain.

For this was one of the Twelve Possessed, masterpieces of the celebrated swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki─it stands to reason that swords crafted to be indistinguishable would be just that: indistinguishable. Otherwise, the Legion would not deserve to be called a Mutant Blade.

Except.

For that reason.

For that very reason.

“There’s my condition─Togame the Schemer. If you can figure out which sword among the Legion was the first─I agree to fight this master of the Kyotoryu.”

Meisai had something else to add.

“You are free to question the Kuromiko as you please─I hereby grant you access to however many you may need to carry out your search. But hear this: your boy is not allowed to help you.”

Those were the terms.

Which is why Shichika was waiting, with nothing to do, stretched out on the tatami. An idler6 at heart, so quick to be bothered, he was in his element.

It’s been─what, a week?

Shichika had a poor grasp of dates, but that seemed about right.

Togame had accepted all of Meisai’s stipulations and started the investigation. First she examined the swords carried by each of the fifty Kuromiko at work around the shrine─after which, she descended the thousand steps, returning to the world below, again and again. Taking a cue from Meisai, she began by consulting five of the Kuromiko on patrol, who instructed her on where to go in her quest to inspect the remaining nine hundred and fifty swords.

In the evenings, Togame came back to the shrine─or rather, Shichika went down and picked her up. While she was able to descend all thousand steps herself, she was unable to make the climb. She must have gotten over her humiliating encounter with Meisai, since on the way back up, she would not deign to take a single step herself.

Perhaps this was her characteristic hauteur, or maybe she was only tired. The radius monitored by the guards that Triad Shrine dispatched was not exactly narrow─meeting with all nine hundred and fifty of them and examining their swords proved to be quite the project. While I have no specific date in mind, she said to Shichika, I hope to bring the process to an end within the month. Until then, gather your strength.

Thus, for the most part, Shichika had nothing to do during the day.

He wondered why he wasn’t allowed to help Togame─not like he would be much of a help in finding the original sword out of all thousand, which sounded like a real pain. But it beat actually sitting around all day (as far as Shichika’s mood was concerned).

That aside, he did worry about Togame. They were being treated well, but they were smack in the middle of enemy territory─if you thought about it, surrounding herself with Kuromiko, who were supposed to be the enemy, and asking to see their swords was basically a form of suicide. Shichika’s job was not only to capture swords; he was Togame’s bodyguard7─

This had occurred to him on the third day (a little late) of the investigation. He brought it up with her, but her answer was blunt.

“Ridiculous. Why would Meisai botch her chance to obtain two of the Twelve Possessed?”

Yeah.

That made sense.

By the way. When Togame was out in the field, she dressed not in her usual extravagant kimonos, but in the costume of a regular miko, which she had borrowed from Meisai, arguing that a stranger wandering around Izumo stood out too much, even if she was just conducting research. Evidently Triad Shrine had regular miko costumes in their inventory. Too bad for Shichika he didn’t have a weakness for miko, or he would have been in for a real treat─but presented with this departure from her usual attire, he did not feel nothing at all, it is told.

So─a week.

About a week.

Togame had said that she was almost through with looking over all the pieces of the Legion─the real investigation had yet to begin, but he was glad, at least, for Togame to be finished up with traveling back and forth between the shrine and the world below.

Though she could use the exercise.

He still had his misgivings.

Togame was so laborious in everything she did.

What made the Legion special was its massive quantity. Unlike with Komori and Uneri, he couldn’t simply topple Meisai, and unless she promised otherwise, he would likely end up fighting all thousand of the miko─still, Shichika felt like Togame was playing too much by the rules too seriously.

He sat up from the floor.

And slipped out through the tiny door.8

It was a beautiful day.9

He had some time before venturing below to pick up Togame─but he was tired of napping and felt like taking a little walk. Togame had told him to take it easy, but there is a limit to how much a person can sit still. Waiting expends a surprising amount of energy.

He was bored.

However, there was another major reason, albeit one beyond his comprehension, for his irritated mood. Ever since Togame had shown up on Haphazard Island, they had been together constantly, not parting for a moment─never really doing their own thing. This was only because Togame felt so obligated to shepherd10 him around, since at first he really did know nothing, but now that he was spending all this time alone, he was feeling a lot of pressure. True, it also meant that she trusted him enough to leave him alone.

But basically, he was lonely.

Lonesome.

Heading towards the honden, for no specific reason, he noticed someone coming his way─a Kuromiko with no sword, Meisai Tsuruga. Carafe in one hand.

“Hey,” Meisai was the first to speak, easygoing as ever. “I was just heading to the teahouse─what’s up, Kyotoryu boy? Time for a chat?”

“…Sure. I don’t mind.”

He was okay with that.

He wouldn’t have approached her on his own, but now that they were talking, there was something he did want to ask her. She led him toward the honden, where they sat on the narrow deck11 engirdling the building.

“Figured you were bored,” she said. “I’d like to show you a good time, but as head of the shrine, I had some pressing business to attend to.”

“Sure. I don’t mind,” he repeated his previous reply.

When it came to conversation, his moves were limited. But he went on.

“Since we’re here, though, talking─there is something I want to ask…if that’s okay.”

“Sure.”

Meisai was happy to oblige.

She was hard for him to read─no, hard to understand. Perhaps this was to be expected, for someone who had met so few people in his life, but Shichika had never met anyone like her─he had questions.

A few.

Fact is, if Togame succeeded, he was going to have to battle Meisai─so he had to ask, What was the Sentoryu?

Sentoryu─he had first heard about it from Togame.

It was the school that Meisai Tsuruga belonged to, she who was not a swordsman.

The moves of a woman who didn’t look that tough─she wasn’t carrying a sword, so he couldn’t ask her to show him. Even if she was, Meisai was no dummy and would never tip her hand─but learning more about the Sentoryu was Shichika’s top priority.

At the moment, however, none of that was on his mind.

There was only one thing that he wanted to ask.

“You know how Togame’s looking for the first sword in the Legion? How come I can’t help?”

“What? You wanted to help?”

“Not wanted to─but because of your weird rule, I’ve been sitting around all day. I’m so bored I could die.”

“I bet.” Meisai giggled. “Well, the young lady must not have informed you of the ways of Triad Shrine─you make it sound like it’s my fault that you’re bored, but even if I hadn’t made that stipulation, the young lady would have refused your company.”

“Hunh?”

“The investigation must proceed without a hitch. I made the stipulation just in case─given the Schemer’s smarts, there was probably no need, but I figured why not.”

“The ways of Triad Shrine? What do you mean?”

Togame had not told him.

Was it─classified?

“Mm, I doubt it was classified. Certain people know─what goes on ‘behind the scenes,’ as the young lady put it. She’ll probably tell you when the time is right. ‘Behind’ is in fact an apt term, and if Izumo didn’t enjoy autonomy, this shrine would be crushed in no time.”

“What are you saying? I can’t understand you.”

“Remember how I said this shrine was like a convent?” Her tone was even. “That wasn’t the best metaphor. We’re more like a sanctuary12 for women.”

“Sanctuary?”

“A place for women to escape13 bad marriages.”

Meisai averted her eyes from Shichika and scanned the scene before them. Perhaps she thought to point out an example, if a Kuromiko was nearby, but unfortunately, none were in sight.

No, not unfortunately.

Dim as he was, Shichika understood.

The Kuromiko were openly avoiding him.

They behaved differently toward Togame─but toward Shichika, they were openly─even morbidly distant.

“Buddhism and Shinto stem from completely different mindsets─but this is not about doctrine. It’s a Triad Shrine tradition. Call it the legacy of the priests of our past who stood outside the mainstream.”

“I’m not sure I get it…who are all these miko? And how come you don’t wear a sword─but give them swords?”

“Because for them, the swords are necessary…maybe even a necessary evil.”14

Shichika was confused. Maybe I’ve been waiting for people like you to come here all along, Meisai muttered, only deepening his confusion.

“The Kuromiko are all─victims,” she explained. “Continually abused for long periods of time, by men who broke their spirits. They run the gamut. We have women who served the finest households, girls sold off by their parents─even daughters of daimyos.”

“Broke…their spirits?”

“It’s a whole world that happy-go-lucky boys like you don’t know of,” Meisai jibed. “Not only their spirits. Their hearts and bodies were ravaged to the limit. And beyond the limit, the ravages continued. Their abusers must have felt guilty because they only beat them under lock and key─it stays hidden, until the woman falls apart in some clear manner. You want to know what happens once they fall apart? They’re cast off, just like that.”

“…”

“The thousand Kuromiko, working at this shrine─were rescued from those painful circumstances. Do you see now why they would be scared of you? To the Kuromiko, men are to be feared and evaded, just for being men. Which is why I cannot have the young lady, in her inspection of these thousand swords, accompanied by a man.”

“Feared and evaded…men, women.” Shichika had to be honest. “I don’t understand.”

“I see. Perhaps that’s no surprise. You are a swordsman, after all. A different world.”

Swordsman.

Shichika had not missed Meisai refer to him this way─Togame had said as much, but this was proof. Meisai knew about the Kyotoryu…

The true colors of the Kyotoryu.

“But─that explains why Togame kept telling me to stay inside and take it easy. Makes sense now. She didn’t want me startling the Kuromiko. She was watching out for them.”

“Watching out for them, as another woman.”

“Huh.”

“Have you also figured out, by now, why I give them pieces of the Legion? The venom of Kiki Shikizaki’s swords works like medicine.”

“Medicine?”

“Just as too much medicine is poisonous, this venom can serve as medicine. Of course, the swords allow them to defend themselves as well. The miko of a fortress shrine bearing arms is to be expected. But most of all─the venom plays an important role in healing the parts of them that have been broken. Assuming that these Mutant Blades really do have powers that surpass human comprehension─”

“…”

Just having one will make you want to kill.

So a sword infused with such a poison─could rehabilitate a damaged heart in the right hands. Perhaps that dose of aggression was exactly what a wounded spirit needed─

This was a surprise.

Shichika had never imagined─the Shikizaki blades could heal. No, Meisai Tsuruga was probably the first person in history to use them for that purpose.

But she was not off the mark.

These were broken blades, forged by a broken man.

Could a broken sword undo a broken heart? It sounded possible.

Could the latent murder of the Legion vivify, too?

“And if they don’t, psychology15 has the placebo effect16─this is what legends do for us. In the end, it doesn’t make a difference whether the power is real or a fantasy.”

“…I was sure, because you were the owner of the sword─you scattered the pieces to avoid the venom.”

“Sounds like you were expecting a real villain. To be honest, I think the power is mostly symbolic, but it has been fairly effective, if I may say so as an observer of the last seven years. Even forgetting the question of the venom, the power of carrying a blade allows these women to stand on an equal footing with men. And to protect themselves.”

“Huh.”

Togame thought─the opposite.

To an obstinate degree, she shunned the idea that being armed would make you strong. Equipping the katana known as Shichika Yasuri for the Sword Hunt had surely gone against her natural inclinations.

“So this shrine─is like an infirmary?”17

“In a way─you could say that.”

“What about those talismans that hide their faces? Are they some kind of charm for healing their spirits?”

“No, no. They simply hide their faces. Like I said, all of these women come from trying circumstances. They need to hide their faces so they can devote themselves to anonymity. And being a shrine, blatant scare tactics have a place here.”

“Okay.”

“The talismans are only masks. What matters─are the swords.”

The pieces of the Legion─one of the Twelve Possessed of Kiki Shikizaki.

They did the job alone. According to Meisai.

“I thought the Kuromiko up here ranked higher than the ones working below, but from what you’re saying, I guess that isn’t true.”

“Actually, you’ve got it backwards. The fifty who stay up here are the sickest of the thousand─their hearts were marred so violently they can’t sleep through the night.”

“…”

“But by carrying swords, they are able to maintain a sense of self─the Legion guides their hearts. And therefore,” Meisai said, arriving at her point, “I cannot give up the Legion.”

Here, for the first time.

Meisai Tsuruga shifted from her easygoing mood.

“I want to help as many women as I can. By beating you, and gaining the Leveler and the Razor, two more of the Possessed─I can help another two girls. This is why─winning against you is my only option.”

“Uh huh. Sounds good to me.”

His mood had not changed whatsoever.

Earlier in their conversation, they had said that Togame had hitherto kept quiet on the details of Triad Shrine─hinting, but never actually telling Shichika─out of a fellow woman’s consideration for the Kuromiko. However, this was perhaps not the reason. Or not the only reason. In reality, Togame, in her position, had perhaps a pair of reasons to be cautious─first, if she told Shichika, he might start sympathizing with the Kuromiko─and with Triad Shrine as a whole, in which case her katana may begin to stray. And second─if she told Shichika, and he showed no concern whatsoever─

Whatever Togame thought might be the case aside.

It was the second of these two that actually transpired.

“I’ll fight for my own reasons. You fight hard for the girls. Sounds like this is going to be a good battle.”

“So much for my plan to invite pity,” Meisai said, looking rather pleased.

She hoisted the carafe and took another zealous swig before offering it to Shichika.

“Drink up! Then we can get down to business.”

“Yeah.” Shichika drank from the carafe as told. “Blegh! Gahak…hack… This water’s gone bitter!”

“This is the good stuff.” Appalled, Meisai took the carafe back from Shichika. “Bitter water… What are you, boy, a teetotaler18 or something?”

“Oh, is that alcohol? I’ve actually never drank before.”

“Why didn’t you say so? I would never have made you. Forcing a drink on someone is a disgrace to drinkers19 everywhere… Anyway, for someone so happy-go-lucky, you sure are callous. I suppose I’m the one who tried to take advantage of your sympathy, but no dice.”

“It’s because I’m a sword.” Shichika coughed. “Nothing moves me but Togame.”

“If you usurp the Legion, hearts could be torn afresh─are you fine with that?”

“Fine or not, it’s just the way it is. If Togame wants the Legion, there’s nothing else for me to do. You have to give up.”

“I take it,” Meisai asked pointedly, “you have no use for inner turmoil?”

“…?”

“Give up, you say─once you’ve decided, do you never have misgivings? Aren’t you just being lazy about having any? And scared of making your own choices? Because it’d be such a pain?”

“Such a pain─I’ll give you that.”

“How many people have you killed?”

It was a sudden, stunning thing to ask. But it seemed not to faze Shichika remotely. “Two,” he replied.

“Two─a low body count, for a person like you.”

“I’m an island monkey. My first battle was only two months back.”

“In gathering two of the Twelve Possessed, you killed twice─in other words, each of the owners.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

Thanks to Togame’s cunning fudge,20 these “owners” weren’t identical between Shichika and Meisai, but since it was beside the point, and thereby not an obstacle, their conversation continued.

“Will you kill me too?”

“Guess so…but didn’t you use to be a brigand? If this wasn’t Izumo, you would’ve been nabbed ages ago─that’s what Togame said, anyway.”

“Same goes for the thousand miko. More than a few of them are wanted by the law.”

“Whoa, really?”

“Just escaping can be a crime─which is why they hide their faces.”

“Right─the painful circumstances. What about you, though? How many people have you killed so far?”

“Too many to count. But at least forty-three─that much is certain.”

“Forty-three? How do you know?”

“I had forty-three comrades,” she replied without missing a beat. “That’s how many I killed to quit my life as a brigand, seven years ago─it’s a number I can’t possibly forget.”

“…”

She never saw those friends anymore, Meisai had said.

So─that was what she’d meant.

“Although you could spin it around and say those forty-three are the only ones I remember. Some might say that makes me a savage butcher. But the same woman is unable to kill if she lacks the resolve. Or has nothing to relinquish. You, however, don’t seem to have that issue.”

“I─don’t really…I guess.”

“In that case,” probed Meisai, “what are you fighting for?”

“I told you. I’m doing it for Togame,” Shichika answered the provocative query without faltering─it may have surprised Meisai even if she saw it coming. “I’ve fallen for her. What else could it be?”

“…And so much for my plan to foster doubt,” Meisai muttered with a sigh of grief.

That sigh reminded Shichika of the sister he had left behind on Haphazard Island─his sickly sister, who could sigh with the best of them. How was she doing? Was she eating and everything?

Then─he remembered. Something else.

“My mistake.”

“Huh?”

“Not two─it’s three. I wasn’t thinking. I killed one other person.”

“You did? Was it─on this Sword Hunt, like with the others?”

“No, before that. About a year ago, back on the island. I killed my dad.”

■　■

Togame the Schemer was the daughter of Takahito Hida, Kaoyaku of Oshu.

Takahito Hida, the rebel who needs no introduction. Takahito Hida─mastermind behind the only major conflict to take place under the Owari Bakufu, the Yanari Shogunate’s reign. A close call─but in the end the Rebellion was suppressed, and with so relentless a counteroffensive that the entire Hida family, excluding Togame, perished in the flames of war.

And the man who dispatched Takahito was none other than Mutsue Yasuri.

Sixth Master of the Kyotoryu─Hero of the Rebellion.

Togame escaped with her life, but only after her father was slain before her very eyes─overnight, her hair turned completely white. This was the turning point, what made her who she was today, and her traumatic first encounter with the Kyotoryu.

Thereafter, her life was pandemonium21─she lived only for ambition and revenge. Infiltrating the bakufu, that limitlessly hateful entity responsible for murdering her family, she climbed high, despite being a woman, by dint of her wit and ingenuity.

Commanding the military directorate was no more than a waypoint. The neck of the shogun was still out of reach.

Which brought her to─the Sword Hunt.

The idea that it was for the good of the nation was a pack of lies.

And Shichika─knew as much. Komori Maniwa, the first person he killed off in battle, had spilled the beans.

Her ambition. Her desire for revenge.

That did it for Shichika. If Togame, who saw the shogun as an enemy and could not possibly have a soft spot for the Kyotoryu, had come all the way to Haphazard Island to ask for help because she had no other choice─then quite frankly, she won his heart.

There was a part of him that sought to make amends.

For the first time he realized that his father, his hero, had left victims like Togame in his wake. The desire was real─to atone for her life in place of his father, who had been absolute for Shichika.

But more than that, as a katana incarnate─he chose her.

Her spirit22 made him─fall for her.

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” his older sister Nanami, head of the household, replied when he told her he was joining Togame on her Sword Hunt─despite Nanami’s languid tone and indifferent bearing, her gaze alone was severe. “But Shichika, I think you had better keep quiet about knowing her personal history…” she advised.

That sounded about right.

But right or not, Shichika always did his sister’s bidding. Thus, Togame had yet to grasp the actual reason he had joined her─

“Also,” Nanami said, “Mutsue Yasuri was her mortal enemy─don’t tell Miss Togame how you’ve killed our dad too.”

Which is why Togame didn’t know that, either.

“…Huh?”

“Hey.”

Perhaps Nanami hadn’t thought twice about her choice of words, but in truth, she should have warned her faithful younger brother not to tell anybody─a rare fumble for her. Because of this oversight, Shichika allowed the crucial piece of information, so key to the entire story, to slip out in a chat with, of all people, Meisai Tsuruga, an enemy.

Luckily, if that’s the word─it was all that he was able to reveal.

For it was right when she made to respond to the crucial bit─that she and Shichika both noticed.

Rising simultaneously from the deck─they looked way up there.

Nurtured in the wild, Shichika trusted his eyes─and if Meisai was looking the same way, she saw it too.

Atop the Grand Torii─which even he had kept himself from climbing─a man stood tall.23

In sleeveless ninja garb.

Not even a mask.

Chains wrapped around his body─a man with bangs.

It hardly mattered how long the man with ninja swords on both his hips had been there─what mattered was that he was there now.

“Hey, hey. You noticed me already? You guys are quick.” Despite the stares he was receiving from Shichika and Meisai, the man on the torii didn’t sound the least bit apologetic. Though he was a good distance away, and not really shouting, the hum of his voice seemed to whisper in Shichika’s ear. “I was hoping to hear what was coming next─tantalizing stuff. Still, I’ve caught the gist of it. Enough to grasp the situation. Thank you very much. Really, I should be bowing low and waiting for you to tell me it’s fine.”

“…”

“…”

Shichika and Meisai were speechless. They may have been absorbed in conversation─but both of them had been facing forward. Even in a psychic blind spot24 like the top of a torii, a person standing so dramatically─

“Allow me, from on high, to announce myself─ah, feels good to be announcing myself instead of sneaking around. Good, good, good, good,” sang the man. “I am Kuizame Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Oh…”

Once the man gave his name, Shichika noticed (really late)─the same weird ninja outfit, right, as Komori Maniwa, from the fight back on Haphazard Island, and Shirasagi Maniwa, found dead in Inaba Desert─the chains wrapped around this one’s arms seemed a little longer than the first two’s, but he had to be─