Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 300

In a castle hidden away since the Tokugawa Shogunate, Momo's team has descended upon the strongest fighters in Japan, including a strange tea drinker! What bizarre battle maneuvers will this fighter of Bugen Castle manipulate!?

Chp. 300: The Bewitched Sword: Shiranui!!

67.
Caption: —NATIONAL DIET—
(TN: The “National Diet” is the name of the Japanese parliament)
Officer: Well, sir, your car.
(TN: The “sir” is actually “Giin” [which for some reason is given the reading of “sensei”, usually used for “Doctor” or “Teacher”], which is a member of the Diet)
Member: Yes.
Member: Hoo, a swallow…!!
(TN: The swallow here refers to the barn swallow, also known as “Hirundo rustica”)

68.
Member: It’s fixing up a nest right in the middle of a city with its dirtied air. They haven’t abandoned Tokyo yet.
Officer: Well, please quickly don’t cause a problem to us SP.
(TN: “SP” refers to the Security Police”, a close protection unit used to protect VIP on their soil akin to the US Secret Service)
Member: Fu, understood. If I were to die now, then there would be many pleased people.
Member: Uuh!!
SP: !!
SP 1: Ho…how did this happen, sir---!!
SP 2: His…feeling is………!!

69.
SP 1: N…no, it’s a heart spasm----!!
SP 2: Qu…quickly, to an ambulance----!!
“Ninja”: Fufu, you won’t need an ambulance. He already isn’t alive!!
Shikibu: Shikibu, one of Bugen Castle’s Four Battle-Hermits, has truly gotten your life……!!

70.-71.
Voice: We have a report for the lord of the castle!!
(TN: The “lord of the castle” is actually “Oyakata-sama”, which I doubt is really his name at this point. “Oyataka” is Japanese for “Castle-sama”)
Messenger: Right now we have a contact from Shikibu. The task was completed without delay.
Lord: Well………that is justice………!!

72.
Lord: After all, politics and violence are inseparable as two sides of the same object…………!! In any sort of world, the governors of the times will certainly need our power.
Lord: Therefore, this Bugen Castle has existed without dying out from the world of Tokugawa to now like this. We will never be known to the general public of the world.
Lord: My next client has been in the antechamber since earlier…!! Don’t mind me, I’ve kept them waiting…………!!

73.
Lord: Those are the party called Otokojuku?
Voice: As you will.
Lord: Fufu, they’re helpless guys. They’ve arrived and are quickly being welcomed by Yukinojou, one of the Bugen Castle Four Battle-Hermits. They surely are the devilishness of this world…………!!
Otokojuku Students: ………

74.
Yukinojou: How about some tea!? I don’t want you to hurry to death as such.
Toramaru: What is that idiot letting out----!!
Togashi: Ri…right: even if he didn’t say it seeming like he was a snob, it’s at right now---!!
Momotarou: Fu, that’s just fine. I am thirsty.
Togashi: Mo…Momo---!!
Togashi: Wh…what are you thinking---!! There may be poison in it----!!
Yukinojou: Fu

75.
Yukinojou: Hoo, you possess a considerably great sword. Somehow it seems like a zanbatou that was used in battle made by Tomoyasu of Bizen Province.
(TN: A couple things:
-A “zanbatou” or “horse-slaying sword” is a super-long style of sword usually used for attacking cavalry riders akin to a Chinese weapon known as the zhan ma dao. Then again…it’s always nice to find out finally a bit about Akashi’s old sword.
-“Tomoyasu of Bizen Province” is a slight parody of “Tomonari of Bizen Proviene”, a notable swordsmith who had created several notable swords that are found throughout Japanese history. Bizen Provence, BTW, is a province in modern Okayama Prefecture notable for it’s iron and sword-making)
Momotarou: I can’t understand its signature. It’s an item left to me by a dead senpai.
Yukinojou: Understood………
Yukinojou: I am extremely interested in swords.
Yukinojou: Do you know of the bewitched sword Shiranui!?
(TN: The “bewitched sword” is in Japanese “youtou”, with “you” being either “bewitched” or “calamitous”. As for Shiranui, it’s literally a Japanese word for “phosphorescent light” or “mysterious lights of the sea”)
Momotarou: The bewitched sword Shiranui…………!?
Yukinojou: In place of refreshments, I’ll tell you about its origin.

76.
Yukinojou: The sword was made about 800 years before today, before the existence of the Kamakura Bakufu where the Taira and Minamoto split the world in two and fought.
(TN: The “Taira”, also known as the “Heishi” or “Heike”, refers to a notable Japanese clan typically tied to the line of the emperors of Japan. On the other hand the Minamoto or “Genji” clan were another clan known as an offshoot of the emperors but typically those who weren’t eligible for the throne.)
Yukinojou: In those days, an old swordsmith who was the greatest of his day and had the highest of honors named Umeyoshi Myouju, who was an employee of the Taira, lived in a mountain hamlet called Sanjou.
Yukinojou: But one day, that town was invaded by the soldiers of the Minamoto, with it as land related to the Taira. They came to kill every person in the town, even down to the women and children.
Yukinojou: There was no more than one man……!! They excluded the swordsmith, who had gone out in search of ore to be used for creating swords in the distant mountains……!!

77.
Yukinojou: His beloved wife, son and grandchildren……the swordsmith’s despair and anger at the people of the village all being killed was a tremendous thing.
Yukinojou: And thus, when night came, the swordsmith stood up. In both his hands were possessed large water buckets……
Yukinojou: The swordsmith took the blood that was flowing from all of the corpses of his family and the villagers and started to gather them in the buckets.
Yukinojou: Immediately the buckets were filled up. From there, the swordsmith transported the buckets to his own workshop.
(TN: The word here shouldn’t really be “workshop”, it is actually in Japanese “kajiba” which has a literal translation of “armor-healing/fixing place”, but at this point “workshop” works)

78.
Yukinojou: As you know, swords are objects that fuse a unique raw iron taken from a certain ore, use fire and water, and are prepared into a shape with an iron hammer. The old swordsmith continued to strike it putting in all of his own body and spirit.
Yukinojou: As it should be feared, the swordsmith used the blood he gatherd in place of water. The blood of the mass of his family and villagers that died amidst the pain of their hell of terror and regret……!!
Yukinojou: When he reached the morning of the 7th day, the swordsmith emerged from the workshop.
Yukinojou: And then, he died in that place. He grasped tightly to that one sword in his hand……

79.
Yukinojou: THAT IS THE BEWITCHED SWORD SHIRANUI……!!
Yukinojou: For decades after, it came to be the source of the fall of the Minamoto. When Minamoto-no-Sanetomo, the 3rd generation shogun, was assassinated by the scheme of Houjou Yoshitoki, the sword in the hand of “Kugyou”, the nephew of Sanetomo that lopped off his head was, without confusion, this Shiranui…!!
(TN: There is a bit of history regarding this comment here: “Minamoto no Sanetomo” was the 3rd shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate and the last head of the Minamoto clan. He was murdered by his nephew/adopted son Kugyou (Minamoto no Yoshinari) on the Buddhist New Year in 1219 at the shrine of Izu.)
Yukinojou: I don’t know why it passed into his hands for some progress. But the swordsmith fulfilled his revenge.

80.
Yukinojou: How was that!?
Momotarou: Fufu, interesting………!! So then, what came of that sword after that!?
Yukinojou: In a certain era, it was said to be possessed by Oda Nobunaga; in a certain era, it was possessed by a shogun said to be a homicidal maniac…that sword was always there within the shadows of blood-stenched history.
Yukinojou: An apparition lurks within the sword, which has absorbed blood up to the number of the stars. And the one who possesses this sword themselves changes into a devil.
(TN: “Devil” is actually “Mashou”, which is the “devilishness” I used in a previous translation)

81.
Toramaru: ………!!
Togashi: I…I had so…some chill come to me……….!!
Gobarski: Gahhaha, what are you all scared of----!! It’s a lie, a “lie”. That was a fable for all of you. There isn’t a reason that a devilish power would exist in this world~~~~!!
Yukinojou: Fu, it’s not impossible to not believe it.

82.-83.
Yukinojou: But the bewitched blade Shiranui is now in my hands!!
Yukinojou: Eight hundred years have passed and this bewitched blade has gained it’s true user. When I become one with Shiranui, there are no matches for me!!
Momotarou: ……!!
Hien: Th…that’s………!!
Souketsu: Wh…what is that thing like blue-white flames that are being released from that sword blade…!?
Toramaru: Be…besides, l…look, th…that’s…!!
Togashi: Huh!?

84.
Togashi: Bl…blood---!! Th…though it hasn’t cut anything, blood is dripping and falling from the blade----!!
Yukinojou: Now, you should come on out!! Shiranui is crying in wanting to suck your blood.
Momotarou: Thanks for the treat.

85.
Momotarou: That won’t suck my blood. That’s because my blood is too hot and it will become burned!!
Yukinojou: Show him, Shiranui!! Your grand devilishness!!

TN: Now that was a freaky tale. The saga of the Shiranui somehow seemed somewhat like an entry from Minmei Publishing, but it got across the point of how deadly and destructive the sword is to whomever weilds it. Then again...somehow I liked that Momo not only listened to Yukinojou's tale but likewise partook of some of the tea offered by him. It's sort of a part of Momo we never get to see anymore: the enigmatic character who seems to show formality and interest in an enemy instead of just being a badass on the battlefield like he's been for some time now only. That scene with Momo drinking tea just took me back to the early part of the series from how it was done and I liked that flash of what the series used to be there. Likewise, I really like the whole "evil classic Japan" feel of Bugen Castle and the whole shadowy manipulation they hold...but I just have this uneasiness that somehow it's all going to go wrong somewhere or another. I just don't know if...or when.