'Shun, what are you doing?' repeated Heihachi, his voice frantic.
'I'm not controlling anything,' I managed to say, as I tried to resist to take control of the katana with all my might and strength, but it was only a matter of time before the demonic curse blade would win over my mental control.
I would never have thought that the rumor which said that, once a Muramasa blade was drawn, it had to draw blood before it could be returned to its scabbard- even to the point of forcing it's wielder to wound himself or commit suicide- was founded.
Muramasa blades were demonic cursed blades that created blood-lust in those who wielded them.
I have been imprudent!
'Forgive me, Shun! This is going to hurt!' exclaimed Heihachi, as he picked up the scabbard, and unexpectedly, he hit me at the side of the face with it with all his strength.
The blow was such that it knocked me down on the floor, the katana slipping my hand in the fall and clattering on the ground.
Holding the side of my face in searing pain, I stared at the katana as Heihachi managed to put it back into its scabbard.
***
A few minutes later…
'Where did you get that?' Heihachi asked me, as I put as many talismans as I had in my bag on the katana.
'It's Master Kagami who gave them to me in view of such situations. I hope that they are going to hold for sometimes until we get back to Toda and have the master seal it.'
Thanks to Heihachi, I was still alive at this moment.
If he hadn't known how to react and that, in the nick of time when I had turned the katana onto myself, I would have been dead right now.
I considered myself lucky that I ended up with only a large bruise at my right cheek and a small cut over my cheekbone.
We headed to question Ryoji Urushibara about the cursed weapon without delay.
'Where did you get this katana?' I asked the man, showing him the sheathed and temporarily sealed katana.
'Well, I've bought it around a year ago from a young mendicant monk who was wearing a takuhatsugasa,' he replied, and Heihachi and I exchanged a meaningful look.
It was by the same time that the murders had started!
'There's no mei on the nakago.'
'Many Muramasa blades had their signature removed or changed due to the stigma attached to them,' I explained. 'The nakago had a tanagobara shape, didn't it?'
'Yes. I remember now that you mentioned it. I found that a bit unusual.'
'The kendōka were all in competition against one another to be better at the mastery of the art; they were rivals, and thus, in other words, enemies. My father had once told me a story of an incident in Edo Castle where a man named Geki Matsudaira killed three men against whom he held a grudge for a long time and the weapon he used was a Muramasa blade.'
I supposed that if I didn't attempt to Heihachi's life, it was because I didn't have any grudge against him. That was why, the katana had tried to push me to commit suicide.
And I supposed that if the katana didn't try anything against Ryoji Urushibara, or the police, it was for the sake of preserving itself, in order not to get exposed as a cursed weapon.
This katana could think on itself!
Something occurred to me at that moment.
Ryoji Urushibara had said that he had bought the katana from a mendicant monk. This sounded strangely familiar.
Is the latter the same monk of the Hangonkō incident?
'What can you tell us about the monk who sold this katana to you?'
'Oh, you won't believe me; I've met him earlier at the train station!'
'What?'
Heihachi and I exchanged another meaningful look.
'Yes. I was attracted by one of the things that he was selling, but I didn't have enough money on me. He proposed to offer me the object in question, in exchange of a lodging for the night, but I refused since I've closed the dōjō and I'm not allowing anyone inside of the propriety, for safety precautions.'
With some luck, the man we were talking about was still at the train station at this moment!
Heihachi and I began to hurry for the station without losing a second.
With the day having just come to a close, the trail station was all but crowded.
'Over there!' exclaimed Heihachi, and I followed his eyes onto the young dark-haired man in monk's clothes who was crouched in front of a group of objects laid on a cloth on the ground, a good distance away. The said monk- if monk he was- was closing boutique.
Tying the cloth in a bundle to hold its contents, he threw it over his back and put on his takuhatsugasa, preparing to leave.
There was no doubt; he was the person we were looking for!
Heihachi and I began to run after him.
Noticing us, the latter paused momentarily to look at us in curiosity, and then, without any warning, he took to his heels.
'He's running away! He shouldn't escape us!'
Heihachi and I pursued the mendicant monk through the streets of the city.
When we arrived in a desert spot, Heihachi called for Emaki to appear.
As he unrolled the scroll, three of the creatures on the emakimono appeared in front of the monk, causing the latter to stagger to a stop.
Terrified, he fell down on his behind and started to back away from the three colossal creatures blocking his way. When he finally dared to detach his eyes from them, he looked over his shoulder at Heihachi and I, who arrived behind him on the street.
He was cornered, with nowhere to escape.
'Well! Well! It's a pretty impressive emakimono that you've got there!' he called at Heihachi, trying to put on a good face.
He picked himself up awkwardly, turning to face us, taking off his takuhatsugasa.
He was around twenty-six of age.
'I'm ready to give you all the objects in my bundle in exchange of this emakimono! I'm sure that I'll earn a bit of a fortune from it.'
When Heihachi didn't reply and simply looked him down, he put on a disappointed face. 'You don't want to sell it to me? Well, then, never mind!'
He closed his eyes then, letting out a heavy sigh.
'I was well telling myself that it's not a good idea to come back twice in the same city!'
Looking at us again, he put his forefinger up and declared, 'Let me guess! I've sold you something and you're not happy with it! Sorry! What happens after sale does not concern me!'
'So, you know that the objects that you fob off on people can be dangerous?!' muttered Heihachi, with disgust.
'I've got to earn a living!' the older male shrugged.
'Never mind if people have got to die for that!'
His eyes widened at us in shock.
'Woah! I know that the objects that I fob on people are sources of problems the quasi-totality of times, but I doubt that someone has ever died from them!'
Heihachi and I looked at each other, wondering if he was sincere or just pretending not to know.
'People have died,' I said, showing the latter the katana in my possession. 'This katana, it comes from you, doesn't it? It's a demonic cursed object. It's a Muramasa blade. Several adepts of kendō at the Urushibara dōjō have found death with it. I've drawn it just a while earlier and I almost killed myself with it.'
He gave us a skeptical look, but I could tell that he was growing frantic. 'You're kidding, right?'
'Do you think that we're in the mood to joke around?!' Heihachi snapped at him.
***
A quarter an hour later…
'So, people have died because of me?' mumbled the older male, holding his head in-between his hands, his expression tortured.
We were sitting on a bench in the public park of the area.
Just like I suspected, he wasn't a real monk. His name was Yorinaga. And apparently, he truly didn't know that the objects he fobbed on people could be mortal.
'You know, this money, I don't use it on myself,' he informed us. 'Having no parents, I have grown up in an orphanage. Have you any idea about how we live in such a place?' He gave us a miserable look. 'We always eat the same things and wear the same clothes over and over again. We live on charity. I wanted to give the children of the orphanage, in which I had grown up, what I didn't get; I wanted to bring them some joy in cakes and new clothings, even if, I know that it's not sufficient to make them completely happy.'
'What will these children think if they learn that the money with which you've bought all these things for them is stained with the blood of innocent people?' demanded Heihachi, who was sitting beside him.
As Yorinaga took a glance at the katana sitting in-between he and I, I guessed his intention on the spot. Even before he could reach for it to draw it out and put an end to his own life, I snatched the katana up in my arms and jerked to my feet, backing away.
Simultaneously, Heihachi- who had guessed the other male's intention too- incapacitated the latter's movements, pulling him to his feet and away from me.
'Let go of me! I want to die!' Yorinaga shouted, struggling in Heihachi's grip, and the latter yelled at him, 'Dying will not not change anything! Unfortunately, there exists no law against people like you. Even if you didn't know that these objects could actually kill, people have died. You're going to have to live and pay for your faults!'
Breaking into tears, the fake monk sank down onto his knees, holding his face in his hands, as he sobbed. 'Yes. You're right. I'm ready to atone for my sins.'
Looking at me, Heihachi asked, 'Does he remind you of the same person as me?'
'Hiyoribō,' I murmured.
'Hiyoribō?' repeated Yorinaga in bewilderment, and we began to tell him the story of the yōkai which stopped rainfall.
'Several kilometers away from here towards the east, there exists a small village named Ogita,' I told him then and explained to him the situation in the region. 'The old man Shūshin Daidōji is searching for someone to succeed him.'
'The people of the region will curse me and I'll be treated like a pariah. I'll see people afflicted by the loss of their dear ones and people who would have died of despair. It'll be an exemplary punishment for me, and at the same time, a way for me to find redemption,' he said in a murmur, his tone serene.
'Well then, we'll see each other in Ogita Village the next time we meet. I'll contact you to give you the date of our rendezvous.'
I had to warn Agasa first and see when she'd be free.
***
This was how Heihachi and I parted with Yorinaga.
With our mission accomplished at the dōjō, we set our way back home in the morning.
Upon our return to Toda, we headed directly to the organization to see Master Kagami for the latter to seal the demonic cursed weapon permanently and put it out of everybody's reach.
I didn't meet Tsunan at the organization, the latter having already left for his clinic. And Agasa was gone on a mission. I'd have to wait to talk to her.
Since the sky bore signs of imminent rainfall, I began to hurry back home after that.
'I'm sorry, Heihachi, that you have to play the bodyguard with me,' I apologized to the dark-haired male, while he walked me home.
'Stop it! Don't say that!' he said, staring at me in the eyes. 'You always fight and sacrifice yourself for others. But you, who protects you? Let us protect you!'
I stared back at him, touched. 'Oh, Heihachi...'
Out of the blue, a pair of hands covered my eyes from behind playfully, a familiar voice calling, 'Who am I?'
Thank you for reading!