Hitogatana 11

[This chapter has already been scanlated by Maigo. This is just the original translation.]

Hitogatana
Chapter 11
Those who Writhe


p.01 (39)
Togs?: Bookshelf,
Bookshelf…
Sign: Bookshelf

Togs: Hmm~
Togs: Since the room itself isn’t too big, something like this should be all right.

Togs: Make sure you read the books Oyassan gave you.
Togs: Let’s see what else we need…
Chapter 11
Those who Writhe
Girl: Um,
Togusa,

Togs: …Hm?

Girl: I’m sorry… you’re buying so much furniture for my room.

Togs: Oh,
I’ve got a lot of money piled up that I have no way of using.
Girl: ………
Togs: …Ummm,


p.02
Togs: It’s like Oyassan got a daughter and Ane-san a little sister, so they’re happy.
Togs: ……It-
It’s like I have more family, too, so,
Just think of it as being considerate to those feelings.

Togs: But you do the cleaning.
Girl: Huh?
That’s obvious…

Togs: There’s just one person who can’t do that obvious thing.
Sis mutter: Achoonable


p.03
Tsuki mutter: What the heck kind of sneeze was that
Girl: Onee-san and Tsukiyama-san were at a meeting, was it?

Girl: It’d be great if they finished soon.
Togs: I wonder about that. It’s not very often that there’s an all-squad meeting.
And I have a feeling it’ll take a while…


p.04-05

Shikoku: Ooh,

Shikoku: First Squad’s Kagami ain’t it.
I haven’t seen her in a while.
Minamoto: So the squads have all gathered.


p.06
Togs: Are you getting along in your studies?
Oyassan has been teaching you since last week, right?

Girl: —Yes,
But we’ve still only touched upon Katana…

Togs: I see…
Togs: —Wait, what is this? It’s like a conversation between a father who got custody of his daughter taken away…

Togs: —…Oh,

Togs: Hahagiri.
Girl: ?

Togs: What were the conditions to obtain the swordsmith license?


p.07

Girl: Umm…

Girl: To succeed in refining Hihiirogane,
Girl: As well as master the skills to maintain it,
I think.

Togs: Then what’s Hihiirogane?
Girl: It is a type of liquid metal that changes its form through the transmission of people’s thoughts…
If I remember correctly, the key to refining it was only in the Takeuchi text—


p.08
Togs: That’s Takeuchi [ b]document[ b].*
*[Takeuchi monjo is a real ancient text. I wanted to put “Takeuchi record” but Google results all translate it to document, so I felt compelled to use “document” here :P]
Togs: Almost.

Girl mutter: Oh, I see…

Girl: —Wait,
Girl: Togusa, you knew and asked me that?

Togs: Oh, sorry.
Togs: But you’re properly being an apprentice, huh.

Togs: Do you have any questions at this point?
Girl: Hmmm…


p.09
Girl: Hihiirogane is used as the core of Katana to trap souls in, right?

Togs: Yeah.
Girl: Does that mean it’s a metal with two properties… shapeshifting and being a vessel for the soul?

Togs: As a property, they’re the same thing.
Togs: It’s just that if the soul can travel between a body and hihiirogane…
Then it’s possible to move all of it to the hihiirogane.

Togs: By the way, while the hihiirogane is fulfilling its role as the core, it can’t afford to function in any other way.

Togs: To use hihiirogane as a weapon like I do, you need another one separately,
But the soul disperses as you increase the vessels… so this is difficult.


p.10

Girl: Then,

Girl: Are there
Girl: No Katana which use hihiirogane as weapons?

Togs: Nope…
Togs: Oh,
No, I think there was an exception, but…
What was it?

Togs: Try asking Oyassan when he gets back.
Girl: Okay.


p.11
Togs: !

Togs: I- I’m sorry,
Mutter: That was lame of me…

Suzushiro: Ouch…

Suzushiro: No, I wasn’t paying attention either…
SFX: Squish


p.12

Store: Please come again~

Suzushiro: Thank you onii-san.
Togs: No, we’re the ones at fault.

Suzushiro: I was asked to get this,
Suzushiro: But I didn’t have any more money, so that helped a lot.


p.13
Suzushiro: Thanks a lot.

Togs: …Err,

Togs: Yeah, please… go home carefully.
Suzushiro: Yeah!

Togs: How to put it…

Togs: She was a really cute girl.
Girl: Togusa,
Girl: Togusa,
Togs: Hm?


p.14
Girl: That person just now
Girl: Was probably…

Gogyou: Yo.


p.15
Gogyou: How was he? The AKCD’s hidden dagger,*
*[futokorogatana]
Gogyou: The half-human, half-katana,
Suzushiro?


p.16
Kagami: Within these past few weeks,
Kagami: There has been an increase in reports of someone preventing petty scuffles between commercial-use manned androids and robots.

Kaori: Uuh,
I haven’t had anything like that~,
Kaori: Like, my first time hearing it.
Box: Fifth Squad Squad Leader Yamashiro Kaori

Shikoku: I wrote it in the weekly report, didn’t I?
Kaori: Oh, sorry~, I didn’t read that report.


p.17
Todoroki: Hey, I wrote it too.
Box: Third Squad Squad Leader Todoroki Koutarou

Kaori: Huh?

Samon: As for me, I’ve e-mailed the scatter plot.
Karoi: Huh?
Box: Seventh Squad Squad Leader Samon Tsutomu

Kaori: Oh~ really, I’m like sorry~
Kagami: Over there,

Kagami: Quiet down.
Box: First Squad member Kagami Sakura


p.18
Kagami: The information concerning this “someone” was obtained previously on the eighth from a similar incident.
Kagami: There was a request for this meeting from Squad Leader Minamoto, who took the importance of this into account——

Kagami: ——Squad Leader Minamoto.
Minamoto: Understood.
It’ll most likely be quicker if you see the video rather than the data.

Sis: !


p.19

Minamoto: It was left in the memory space of a commercial-use android that was attacked.
Minamoto: Many of you may be able to tell from these silhouettes.
The one up front is “Mikazuki Munechika.”* The one in the back is “Ootenta.”**
*[Representative blade of Sanjou Munechika who lived in the mid-Heian period. Part of the “Tenka Goken.” These are old Japanese swords, like tachi and stuff.]
**[Can also be spelled Ohtenta, and also called Oodenta. Made by Mitsuyo in the Heian period. Part of the “Tenka Goken.” I’m just throwing random things out there.]

Minamoto: “Tenka Goken”


p.20
Minamoto: Proposed after the termination of automaton research,
Minamoto: The ace in the hole of anti katana crime that attempted to combine “core” and “weapon” hihiirogane… or what should have been.

Minamoto: “Mikazuki Munechika,” “Ootenta,” “Juzumaru,”
Minamoto: “Doujigiri,”
“Onimaru.”
*[Juzu-maru Tsunetsugu was created by Aoe Tsunetsugu in the Heian period. Douji-giri, “Douji-slaying Yatutsuna,” said to have been used by Minamoto Yorimitsu to kill the Shuten-Douji, and called “the yokozuna’s of Japanese swords of the East and West,” was created by Yatsutsuna in the Heian period. Onimaru Kunitsuka created by Awataguchi Kunitsuna in the early Kamakura period.]

Todoroki: But those
Todoroki: Were supposed to be disposed of as “unusable products” that exceeded the capacity of the human soul, right?

Tsuki: ——No,


p.21
Tsuki: They’re things the country invested a lot of money to make.
Tsuki: They were actually stored in a research center’s warehouse without being disposed of.

Minamoto: ——That’s right.
Minamoto: Of course it was within the realm of conjecture but I tried confirming it.

Minamoto: ——The result was


p.22

Minamoto: The Tenka Goken, which were supposed to be stored,
Paper: Artisan whereabouts unknown
Minamoto: Disappeared along with the swordsmith in charge of managing them.


p.23
Kagami: Since two appeared together,
Chances are high that they are acting in the same group.
Kagami: It is unknown at this point whether they have any hostility towards us,
But always go to incidents of attacks in groups of multiple people from now on.

Kagami: If they are to stand in the way as our enemies,
Kagami: The Tenka Goken are unmistakably the worst opponents to have.


p.24
Suzushiro: Ah~
Suzushiro: Oh, I see~
Suzushiro: That onii-san, huh.
He seemed to be a rea~lly nice person.

Gogyou: !
Suzushiro: But he didn’t seem to be used to associating with people.

Gogyou: ——Hey, hey,
Gogyou: We asked you for ingredients for dinner.

Suzuna: Like I said, Gogyou,
“Not suited for it”
——Neither for scouting nor for shopping.
Suzuna: There’s a few marbles missing


p.25
Suzuna: From my big brother. [From Nii-san. The big bro thing seems to fit better, but I also used onii-san for other places, so it’s kind of weird maybe.]

Suzushiro: Oh come on, Suzuna,
Suzushiro: I tried to scout properly, too.

Suzushiro: That onii-san was too normal.
Suzushiro: It felt like he was all tamed already.

Suzushiro: But you see, I know this saying.
Suzushiro: “The skilled hawk hides its claws.”


p.26
Suzushiro: If he was truly hiding his claws,
Suzushiro: What a skilled hawk he must be… I’d like you to praise me for holding my excited self back.

Suzuna: ——…

Suzushiro: Oh yeah, Gogoyou, where’s Tabirako and Hakobera?
Gogyou: ………
Suzushiro: They’re both baiting today. They’ll probably be back soon.


p.27
Suzushiro: How could they do something so boring~?
Suzuna: Agreed.
Gogyou: Don’t say that.
It’s almost time for the finishing touches.

Gogyou: Good job putting up with it.
Gogyou: You guys must be sick of meager meals and appetizers by now.


p.28
Gogyou: The main dish is a big one.
Gogyou: We are Artisan— we will
Devour our prey extravagantly and magnificently.

Togs: …A boy?
Huh? Really?
Girl: …So you’re okay with boys too, Togusa.
Togs: Like hell I am.


p.29
-Hitogatana-


p.30
AmanoHahagiri – Belongs to Anti Katana Crime Division Eighth Squad
[Personality]
An automaton girl created by Ujiyama Sakon. Research on automatons was outlawed due to their risk of becoming uncontrollable, but because Hahagiri had not been given any armaments whatsoever, she is deemed to not be of any danger. This is due to Ujiyama, who lost his family, making his goal the manufacture of an automaton as close to human as possible. The well-mannered Hahagiri, who shows a fresh reaction to everything, is doted on as a younger sister by the members of the Eighth Squad.
Katana / AmanoHahagiri [I dun think we should get rid of the English :x]
Her model is the sword of legend which was said to have been used by Susanoo to kill the Yamata-no-Orochi. There are various views on the anecdote, and there is also a theory of it being a divine sword with a personality. This piece, AmanoHahagiri, manufactured to be human, does not hold any armaments at all. Hahagiri, having been agonized by Ujiyama in various ways in order to further draw out humanlike emotions, ironically obtains even more humanlike emotions from learning joy through meeting with Togusa and the others.