KATANAGATARI 1

All he could see─was swords.

Just swords.

Sword after sword.

Nothing but swords.

Kiki Shikizaki’s Mutant Blade─Sento the Legion.

Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion!

An iron maiden21 for the eyes─one thousand swords!

“Here’s what happens when the Sentoryu partners with Sento the Legion,” Meisai’s voice, alone, sounded in the shadows of the thicket. “Terrain Effect: Thousand Sword Odyssey!”22

■　■

This time, into the life of Meisai Tsuruga.

Her father was the commander of the second of the Three Goshin24 Regiments, perennial protectors of the land of Izumo, and she was his only daughter. It goes without saying that at this point neither Meisai nor Tsuruga was her name─but there would be little reason to disclose what it used to be. For one thing, it all happened so long ago, and for another, her family no longer existed.

In addition to being commander of the second of the Three Goshin Regiments, her father headed a historic school of swordplay─specializing in the Sentoryu. The dojo and its signature style were so obscure that not even Togame had heard of them, but it was pedigreed, and unknown only because Izumo was autonomous.

Meisai was to be the next head of the dojo.

Which is why she had been drilled in the methods of the Sentoryu from her early years─

Swords are expendable─the school was founded on that premise. When swords are treated as expendable─there is no longer any reason to carry one yourself. Why bog yourself down with such a heavy thing when your enemies can carry your swords for you─simple. The ultimate unarmed means of self-defense,25 and the ultimate defense of the sacred.26 Such was the slogan of the Sentoryu.

The school had things in common with the Kyotoryu, and even with Togame’s motto.

But it went further─expendable swords.

As any reader must have recognized, this was the exact premise upon which legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki forged the Legion. Swords are expendable─obvious? Perhaps. But a school of swordplay and a Mutant Blade existed based on that same obvious principle, giving Meisai’s ownership of the Legion a non-coincidental air, of destiny─or perhaps (though there would be no hope of proving such a thing), Kiki Shikizaki had been spurred to forge the Legion by an awareness of Izumo’s tenacious school of swordplay. Sentoryu, Sento the Legion─if the overlapping names are no coincidence, the theory may very well be fact.

At any rate.

Looking backward─twenty years, to the time of the Rebellion.

During that unprecedented,27 unmentionable28 uprising, spearheaded by Takahito Hida, Kaoyaku of Oshu and father of Togame─not even Izumo, autonomous as it may be, was spared. Indeed, you might say that autonomy made things worse for Izumo, since they received no aid from the bakufu: not out in the open, and not behind the scenes.

All three of the Three Goshin Regiments were routed.

If it were not for independent contributions from neighboring provinces, the haven of the gods would have been wiped from the map. That they had staved things off at the proverbial water’s edge had been a precious bit of good fortune among bad.

But misfortune was all Meisai knew.

Nothing that could be termed fortunate ever seemed to come her way.

Losing her family and her family name─she lived on the road, a young vagabond29 by the time the Rebellion was suppressed. A war orphan.30 Nobody to help her─and not about to ask for help.

Why not? Her value system had been irreparably shattered and pulverized by the Rebellion.

The Sentoryu, its dojo small enough to fly off if you blew on it, however obscure, was the ultimate form of self-defense, and the ultimate defense of the sacred─Meisai had believed this from the bottom of her heart. Surely it was the reason her father had risen to become commander of the second of the Three Goshin Regiments.

But such pride served no purpose during the Rebellion─her father perished, and every last one of his disciples died in battle.

She had stayed behind, becoming the only survivor.

Her pride and soul had not been worthy.

From there, the fall was straight down.

Waylaying pilgrims trekking pleasantly to Izumo, stripping them of all their belongings, and sometimes killing them without mercy─she became, in a word, a brigand. In these surprise highway attacks, it made no difference if her victim was a man at arms─actually, it made it better. The Sentoryu preferred an armed opponent.

Meisai had absolutely zero qualms in using the pedigreed Sentoryu for ill. After all, it had not proved itself worthy. She worked alone at first, doing as she pleased, but came to find that even the crime world had its factions and power structures. As an only daughter set to take over the family dojo, she had failed to see─or never thought to see that even the sacred land of Izumo was home to ruffians. Finding her legs in these rough waters, sometimes clashing swords, at other times colluding, Meisai eventually joined what was, at the time, the greatest band of brigands in Izumo, where she found her place.

The fact that Sento the Legion had been passed down among the brigands, from one chieftain to the next─was not what had attracted her, but she certainly did know that they held the Mutant Blade prior to joining them.

Well. No sense going any further.

A tale Meisai, at least, wished she could forget.

No need to reminisce.

What are you fighting for? she had asked Shichika─and the answer volunteered by Kuizame Maniwa, one of the Twelve Bosses of the Maniwa Clan, was correct.

If you have to be asking such questions, don’t even bother fighting─

Nobody has time for your philosophy─don’t be ridiculous─

And it was─ridiculous.

Indeed, during her thirteen years as a brigand, she never stopped to think about it once. What are you fighting for? What are you killing for? She did not have the time for philosophy.

She simply fought.

Simply killed.

Not exactly to survive.

Not because she didn’t want to die.

She just did what she did─nothing more.

It was a few years after she had found herself the chieftain, after being with the brigands thirteen years and coming into the Legion─that Meisai faced the question for the first time, in her raid on Triad Shrine.

She showed up alone, a scout scoping things out in a manner unbefitting of a chieftain, and wound up killing all the priests─including the old Meisai Tsuruga, who led the place at the time. Triad Shrine had yet to become a fortress, so the priests were unarmed─hence she did not kill them using the Sentoryu.

She strangled them. Neck by neck.

A primitive way to kill.

But she had no remorse.

The raid was not her idea, but she had known about the shrine’s beginnings since she was a little girl who would someday inherit the dojo. The place was a sanitarium for suffering womankind31─then how come─

How come they hadn’t saved her?

She had become a brigand of her own volition.

Refused to ask for help, too, of her own volition.

And yet.

Saving even hopeless people is what makes the gods the gods!

“Forgive us,” the head priest squeaked out while he was being strangled.

The old Meisai Tsuruga.

She thought he was begging for his life. In which case, she had heard it all before.

She had never once listened to them.

But no─she was wrong.

“Forgive us─for not being able to save you.” His voice was terribly calm. “But please, find it in your heart─to spare those girls.”

Those girls did no wrong.

Those were his last words.

Not one of her victims had ever said anything of the sort, which must be why she found herself pondering, for the first time─

What are you fighting for?

What are you killing for?

And what are you living for?

She was not feeling guilty; it was not some awakening32─nothing had changed. She just found herself pondering the questions.

If there was a precise moment when she became Meisai Tsuruga─this was it.

Upon returning to the brigand stronghold,33 she killed all forty-three of her comrades. It took very little of her time. Unlike the unarmed priests, her brigand friends were always armed. And the more heavily armed and numerous the opponents, the stronger the powers exhibited by the Sentoryu─ironically, these thirteen years of living without pride, and using the Sentoryu as an instrument of the brigands, had served to polish her technique. She had been particularly effective in the last few years, as Sento the Legion’s inheritor. Her brigand friends─perhaps a pleasantry like “friends” was no longer appropriate─at any rate, those guys never knew what hit them and were massacred, all forty-three, with no time to fight back. Whereupon she took up residence at Triad Shrine under the name Meisai Tsuruga, bringing with her Sento the Legion, one of the Twelve Possessed, the masterpieces of Kiki Shikizaki.

Thus Triad Shrine was reborn as a fortress.

It had been seven years.

She still thought back on it sometimes.

What was it about that handful of words that gave her such a push─to utterly reject34 those thirteen years?

Was it sympathy? Regret?

She wasn’t sure.

If she were to ask Shichika Yasuri, he would probably answer that he had no idea─he didn’t understand what made her tick,35 at all. Togame, on the other hand, might. She was the daughter of the Mastermind of the Rebellion who was responsible for altering the course of Meisai’s life─as well as her own.

They had both abandoned their names.

Perhaps they could see eye to eye.

But Meisai had lost interest in that sort of thing─at this point, all she knew for certain was that helping the thousand Kuromiko sheltered at Triad Shrine was helping her.

She seemed to be helping them─but in fact was saving herself.

Right, the gods wouldn’t save her. The gods existed to be served.

To paraphrase a politician36 from a later era─ask not what the gods can do for you, but what you can do for the gods.

Thus─Togame’s offer was just what she needed.37 No matter how dangerous the bridge,38 she was prepared to cross, overlooking any danger, if it meant obtaining two more Mutant Blades.

Zetto the Leveler and Zanto the Razor.

Two more of those girls─could be rescued.

No, the venom would not be split into a thousand portions, like with Sento the Legion. They would be more potent, saving Meisai all the more.

Which is why she had absolutely no misgivings about defeating Shichika and acquiring two more of the Possessed.

She hatched a plan.

Laid her trap.

Fought dirty.

Because I’m fighting for those girls!

Which was to say, for herself.

“What’s it gonna be?”

About half an hour after Togame had signaled them to start.

Meisai Tsuruga called out to Shichika.

With his back to a great tree, he scanned the thicket─but couldn’t see Meisai anywhere, while she could see him just fine.

She had the home advantage.

In her seven years as steward of these woods, these grounds, and all of Triad Shrine─she had not been steward in name only,39 but in earnest. Seeing Shichika backed up against the tree─she knew a Legion had been stashed there.

If she shot over to where he stood and grabbed the blade─she could almost certainly kill him. Since invoking the Thousand Sword Odyssey, she had kept Shichika running, and he was showing signs of fatigue. Of course he was. That was her plan─in fact, for the last half hour, she had not been trying to kill him. That went for the sword she hurled at Shichika at the onset of the battle, needless to say, and so too the One Liner at the offertory box was meant to be dodged.

She was trying to tucker him out.

Clearly, she would never best a man as big as him through strength alone─which was why she had been pulling strings40 all week. Although she hadn’t been so bold as to lace his food with poison, the two meals per day she had been feeding them, while fine for someone as spritely as Togame, could not have satisfied a man like Shichika.

She had set the scene for victory, from the first detail.

And now they were arriving at the last.

It was time to finish things up.

“We agreed surrender was an option─as a servant of the gods, I will never take a life for no good reason.41 The gap in skill is clear. If you say mercy, I am ready to oblige.”

“…”

No answer from Shichika.

Try as he may to pinpoint where her voice was coming from─it was in vain. Her words were not a tease intent on laying bare her position. Taunting was a rookie move─and one she had surpassed long before becoming a brigand.

She went on.

“Resistance is futile─the Kyotoryu is no match for my Thousand Sword Odyssey. Our schools may share the practice of not carrying a sword, but in the heat of battle, the Sentoryu is a cut above.”

…If Togame had been present, she would have shot down Meisai with a few choice words─the fact of the matter being that it was irrational, even now, to claim that Shichika was automatically at a flagrant disadvantage to Meisai.

He had assumed that he would have the upper hand, and if all that the Thousand Sword Odyssey accomplished was to upend that premise, they were simply even.

Losing his advantage did not place him at a disadvantage.

Shichika had not been cornered.

Unleashing her Double Cross on Kuizame Maniwa, ostensibly to offset her unfair knowledge of the Kyotoryu, had an element of deception that was far from sporting.42

She had granted him a temporary sense of superiority only to snatch it back.

If Shichika won the duel, their prize43 would be Sento the Legion, but if Meisai won, both Zetto the Leveler and Zanto the Razor would be hers─and just as Togame had used these disproportionate, overtly advantageous terms as bait, so as to lure Meisai into the duel─Meisai had granted Shichika a temporary sense of superiority to lull him into complacency.

Just so she could visit her Thousand Sword Odyssey on his lulled mind.

And now─reminding him that he could ask for mercy was more deception at a far cry from niceties like her supposed aversion to needless slaughter.

It was better to win without a fight.

Breaking his spirit, so that he saw himself at a disadvantage, as being unable to win, as having no hope of winning─was better for Meisai. Going for the kill, into the fray, there was no small chance that she would meet her match.

In a clash of blades─Shichika would likely realize he was at no disadvantage.

Meisai was not so doggedly opposed to throwing down as to avoid it at all costs─but she was hoping to get by without allowing Shichika to rally.

Fear and aversion.

Meisai was well versed in their application.

“What’s it gonna be─”

While easygoing as ever, Meisai was adamant─persistent in her speech.

She was well aware these circumstances were not in fact so advantageous─but from her tone of voice, the sort taken toward a misbehaving child, you never would have known. Even if Shichika did not accept her ultimatum,44 she was sure her domineering language would make him agitated─and start to think things.

Thinking─that was good.

He could think and think─until his brain went flop.

A man of Shichika’s intelligence would not get far by thinking.

Which is why, regardless of his inclination, Meisai needed to spell things out.

“Why not call it a loss? I’m sure that for the shogunate, this Sword Hunt is no more than an amusement. It’s not worth risking your life. Not for this mission. The Kyotoryu was no match for the Sentoryu. That’s all there is to it─”

Shichika Yasuri. Island monkey. No combat experience.

Meisai Tsuruga. Thirteen years among brigands.

The disparity was insurmountable.

Unless.

“…You do eat meat, right?” Shichika asked softly. He had given up on figuring out where Meisai was─and spoke looking nowhere in particular, as if to himself.

“Huh. Meat?”

“Yeah, meat─eating animals. I do.”

Faced with this non sequitur, Meisai was bewildered─had she pushed him over the edge? That had not been her intention. Now she would never get him to plead for mercy─

With no regard for what she may be thinking, Shichika continued with his gobbledygook.

“Togame has no problem drinking that bitter water of yours, but then she goes and says she can’t believe that I eat meat, like it’s so gross… Me and sis did from the second we got teeth. Raw, fried, boiled, steamed…it tasted totally different from whatever plants we dug up or the fish we caught─I haven’t eaten meat since I started off with her, and man, I miss it…”

“…? What’s stopping you? Eating meat─is far from strange, at least among warriors. Not that I partake myself─”

“Back on the island too, beasts were quite nimble─you couldn’t catch them just by chasing them. So they were a rare treat. You’re fast, but it’d be hard for you too. If you really wanted some meat, you had to lay a trap.”

A trap─a trap like the Thousand Sword Odyssey.

“But that’s easier said than done for an idiot like me. Once, I set one near our hut…and sis got caught in it… That was crazy.”

“…”

“Get it? Traps are for prey… You don’t surround your house with them.”

“What are you trying to say?” demanded Meisai, exasperated by his ramblings. “What is it that you’ve been trying to say this last minute? If you’re ready to surrender, then─”

“One,” Shichika stated emphatically. “One idea is all I’ve got.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been trying to figure a way out of this─Thousand Sword Odyssey. No matter how perfect it looks, there’s gotta be a hole or─”

“No holes,” Meisai interrupted. “The Thousand Sword Odyssey is invincible. The Sentoryu is the ultimate means of self-defense, and the ultimate─defense of the sacred.”

“I want to test whether that’s true─whether the Sentoryu is really better than the Kyotoryu!” yelled Shichika─before dashing off.

His choice of direction gave Meisai pause─crap! Instantly, she grew tense. Impossible─but with the way things were going, impossible no more.

Had the boy─figured it out?

Slow as he was?

“Nkk…”

In a mind game, Meisai dominated Shichika─that much was true.

How─ever.

In her desire to provoke and agitate, she had made the one mistake which, as Shichika’s opponent, she would have done well to avoid─in passing judgment on the Kyotoryu, she should have accounted for the incompleteness of his personal development as a swordsman. She should never have condemned the school outright based on his performance.

You could also say she had made too much of his comment about killing his own father, the previous Master.

In any case, it was a genuine mistake─having thrown away her pride in her own school long ago, well over twenty years now, she no longer felt its absence, making the error practically inevitable. The Thousand Sword Odyssey is invincible. The Sentoryu is the ultimate means of self-defense, and the ultimate defense of the sacred─but since nobody believed this less than Meisai, sound judgment of another school evaded her.

The difference was this: while Meisai had ranked the Sentoryu against the Kyotoryu simply in order to define her strategy─Shichika regarded their duel as a true test of his school against hers.

After nineteen years of incessant training under his father, the pride that Shichika felt for the Kyotoryu was─extraordinary. Carefree as he appeared, his affection for his school was unimaginable.

Which is why Meisai should never have put down the Kyotoryu.

Along with fear and aversion─she had fostered anger.

She knew better─anger links to passion, and passion, dissolving fear and aversion, can even hatch a kind of miraculous intelligence.

“Whah─what the heck!”

Of course Meisai could not have known the reason for her error─lacking pride in her own school, the paradigm was lost to her. Without a clue─all she could do was pursue Shichika.

While nowhere near as muscular as Shichika, Meisai had higher odds, as the better runner and a master of the game of tag─if she could only catch up with him before he reached it, she could use one of the swords stashed here and there and slash him from behind!

But in the end, Meisai could not catch up with Shichika. Starting from the thicket worked against her in this instance─she certainly had the home advantage on these premises, but once they had plunged into the thicket, the gap between them narrowed─growing up on Haphazard Island, where almost everything was mountain, Shichika had lived for twenty years among the trees.

Wherever the earth was unmaintained, Shichika expanded his lead in the footrace, but such an easy rationale sounds forced─perhaps we should say that he was angry enough to overcome any difference in running ability. Bursting from the thicket, he made one last enormous bound and kicked up a cloud of dust where his bare feet touched down.

When Meisai saw him fly, she stopped.

Stopping was her only option.

No use catching him now.

Because─they had arrived at an area where not a single Legion had been stashed. Even if she reached him, she would have no sword with which to slash him.

“Yup…thought so…” Shichika said slowly, as if his suspicions were confirmed, before turning to face his foe. “Thousand Sword Odyssey or not─there’s no way you’d stash any here…isn’t that right, Meisai Tsuruga. Say what you will about me, but you gotta be real careful around Togame─”

They were standing at the place the guests had been staying for a week─the teahouse. Right in front of it.

■　■

The Sentoryu in concert45 with Sento the Legion─swords stashed all around the battlefield, Meisai could face her enemy unarmed. Thanks to this tour de force, Shichika felt like he was fighting one on a thousand.

It mattered that the thousand swords were Sento the Legion, that mass-produced masterpiece of Kiki Shikizaki. In the Sentoryu, it was not some trusty46 weapon that was wielded, but the enemy’s─thus it changed from one enemy to the next. Except in the Thousand Sword Odyssey, where all thousand of the swords were the same. Every sword could be wielded the same way.

Sento the Legion might have been made expressly for the Sentoryu─if a katana chose its owner, the Legion had most definitely picked the Sentoryu.

A custom fit, in every way.

But in spite of, or perhaps because of this─it was crucial to set up the Odyssey with the utmost care. A trap can only be effective if it is not discovered prematurely─which is why all thousand swords had to be stashed around the grounds the night before. And in such a way that neither Shichika nor Togame would catch on.

Hence the hole in the stash.

The teahouse─where they slept.

It may be going too far to say this was a defect47 in her strategy. Expecting things would come to this, Meisai had asked them to sleep in the teahouse, and not the honden, to minimize the area where no swords were stashed.

She had been positive the winner would be decided before Shichika─or Togame─noticed the defect. She had bolted when the duel began, luring her foe into the thicket and the vast number of Legions stashed therein─but her main objective was to create as much distance as possible between Shichika and the teahouse.

If she had not been so gratuitously provocative, he might never have realized. Or perhaps if she had retained a shred of pride for the Sentoryu─

But she was a day late48─if not a sword short.

Turning toward Meisai, Shichika assumed Form One─the Suzuran. He was tired from their tour of the thicket, and it showed─but the crushing claustrophobia49 had dispersed.

He was no longer one against a thousand.

And the stifling situational disadvantage─was no more.

“Phew…” Meisai sighed morosely at the sight of Shichika in his stance. She had the mood of someone totally acknowledging, and accepting, her defeat. She spoke equally morosely. “Even if you win the sword, you’ll still need to figure out a plan for shipping it back to Owari, right?”

“…”

“If I should lose the duel, the Kuromiko have been asked to cooperate, and will hand-deliver the Legion to the bakufu… Having each tote a piece will hide50 the treasure in plain sight. Feel free to adopt the plan.”

“…Tell me you’re kidding.”

Rather than respond, Meisai persisted. “In exchange, I ask the bakufu to safeguard the futures of the thousand Kuromiko─all but me─and the fate of Triad Shrine.”

“Come on. That’s─”

“In appointing my successor, they will need to dispatch someone with the necessary level of compassion and sensitivity toward matters of the heart. While the bakufu may be a swamp full of ghosts and goblins,51 there must be at least one person who fills that description. The Kuromiko who has made the furthest progress in her recovery, whom I have already designated, will serve as a proxy until then─if you have questions, you can ask her.”

“Does this mean─you forfeit?”

“Um, no?”

Meisai shook her head and reached down by her feet─to where a Legion had apparently been buried in the earth. She leisurely freed the sword from the soil and held it up at middle guard.

“But the possibility of losing has become too real to ignore─so much so I feel obliged to get my affairs in order. But I am not forfeiting this match. I will stop at nothing to obtain the Leveler and the Razor.”

“…”

“In my book, without due resolve nothing is gained─I say this risking everything, prepared to lose my life. Which is why I have no problem asking that much of the Schemer. Both of you are still too young to understand, but being outsmarted by someone younger than you is not such an awful feeling. Yet…yet. It may sound like I’m contradicting52 myself, but I went into this duel ready to be defeated…it’s like I said. Maybe I’ve been waiting for people like you to come here all along.”

“…”

“As far as contradictions go─to think I used the katana’s poison to help these women. Relying on those murdersome swords for life─I always believed it was a mistake. But also a necessary evil─”

“…”

“Poison or medicine, at the end of the day, the Legion is a butcher knife.53 I would be lying if I said there was no other way. I mean, the old Meisai Tsuruga needed nothing like a Mutant Blade─because he knew how to run a shrine. I say I’m going to help these women─and then I give them weapons. But was that correct? If these women were abused54 under the sword─how could giving them swords ever save them? They may be using the venom as medicine─but if I cannot bear to part with them, the medicine must be poison after all. Force is the only way you’d ever take them.”

“…”

“But correct or not, perhaps I had no other choice. Because I was waiting, for people like you, who would crush my worthless views, and the necessary evil of the sword’s venom─kindly negating my erroneous methods─”

Hold on though.

What if this was all part of her strategy too?

Diversionary tactics.

What if she was only being sentimental to stir up Shichika all over again, when he had finally calmed down─regardless of her intentions, with the way her story was developing, the outcome was highly probable. Meisai should have known from their talk the day before that such diversions rarely worked on Shichika─but he was not entirely immune.

However─Shichika was thinking something altogether different. He had been silent thus far not because he was processing what Meisai said─but because he was fixated on the Legion that Meisai had pulled out of the ground.

This sword─made him feel it.

The exact same sensation he had felt the month before beholding Zanto the Razor in the hands of Ginkaku Uneri, back at Gekoku Castle.

Shichika was positive.55

The sword Meisai Tsuruga was pointing was Sento the Legion─no.

The original Legion.

Togame’s argument stood the test of logic─or at least was sufficiently persuasive─but Shichika now realized that she must have been wrong. Her “first piece” was not the original.

No matter how neatly the argument had stacked, her inference could not be absolute─what was absolute was this sensation.

In crafting the original Legion, Kiki Shikizaki had left no identifying mark, after all.

Doing so would have been antithetical to his abnormality.

But this─was the original.

The Legion’s template.

That she would draw the piece here, at the final stage─a one in a thousand chance─Meisai Tsuruga…

The katana had chosen her.

Just like I chose Togame─Meisai was chosen, by the Legion.

That said everything. Shichika braced himself.

If gaining the advantage, once and for all, had spawned even the slightest negligence in Shichika, this purged it. In which case, drawing the original Legion against thousand-to-one odds was in fact luckless.

But this, too, was fate, and necessity, if she had been chosen.

Chosen to possess─Sento the Legion.

“I am Shichika Yasuri, Seventh Master of the Kyotoryu─bring it on.”

Answered Meisai, “As Mistress of Mt. Taizan, Izumo’s Triad Shrine…no.” She broke off and closed her eyes. “I am Meisai Tsuruga, Twelfth Master of the Sentoryu─here I come.”

It was hard to tell what she was feeling when she said this. She had neither regained her pride in her school, nor meant it as some mind game.

“Time to show you the secrets of the Sentoryu.”

“Not if you’re torn to smithereens.”

Finally─the fight began.

A fair fight, with no strategies, or tactics, or mind games, or traps.

Meisai Tsuruga versus Shichika Yasuri.

The Sentoryu versus the Kyotoryu.

And Sento the Legion versus Kyoto the Diamond.

May the best sword win!

“Hah.”

Just like at the beginning, Meisai threw her sword spinning through the air at Shichika, and once again, he swatted it heavenward─as expected.