She will strike back at any weapon that strikes at her.
More cries, the sound of weapons cutting through the night, discombobulated sounds that blend into a single lump in her chest, beating with her heart, pulsing—
Until it fully synchronizes with her heartbeat, drowning out all other sounds.
In the bloody haze, the vicious Oni keeps walking and killing, leaving behind a trail of blood and bodies, until she reaches the run-down shack and kicks the door open.
I picked this empty lot by the riverbank rather than those ruins along the way, so you won't be distracted by the memories. No need to thank me.
Mifune
Good timing, too. The fireworks show isn't over yet.
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
What? Getting cold feet now?
Hoshiguma
No.
Hoshiguma
I just wanted to clear up everything before we started fighting.
Mifune
What else isn't clear?
Hoshiguma
Only one thing.
Hoshiguma
Where did your hatred come from?
Hoshiguma
I ran into Tetsuya at the TV station and heard from him what happened when Uncle Tessai died. You didn't have to be so cruel.
Hoshiguma
I don't know how he treated you all these years, but he must not have seen you as an adversary if you got as far as to turn him into a figurehead.
Hoshiguma
Beside, I didn't think I did you any wrong. When I came back to Mitsukue, all I wanted was to make sure that my sacrifice wasn't meaningless—
Mifune
Sacrifice?
Mifune
That's why you make me sick, you and Tessai.
Mifune
You're a fool, and he's an even bigger fool. Even if you really did accidentally kill the candidate, did you think he wouldn't know to frame me for it, since I was there too?
Mifune
He favored you, so I kept waiting for the day when he would make me 'take responsibility' for the murder.
Mifune
It would have been the best result. He would protect his favorite, while eliminating a subordinate who had been going over his head.
Mifune
As for that little thing about killing one's brothers... what does it matter? Who would be foolish enough to speak up, with Hannya in your hand and his support behind you?
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
But he chose to cut ties with his favorite, choosing honor over family... how sickening.
Mifune
Did he really not know that the oyabun of the Kinsekikai was the furthest thing from 'honor', or did he just pretend not to know?
Mifune
Honor is a personal thing. When a group of people start acting in the name of honor, they'll either fall apart, or they're just dregs of society fooling themselves.
Mifune
Tessai always liked to boast, talking about how yakuza were pathetic outcasts that could only live under the protection of the syndicate.
Mifune
Retired veterans, hoodlums, gamblers, peddlers, orphans... Tessai united them under the banner of Kinsekikai, hoping they would love each other like family...
Mifune
Forget everything before that night for a moment and let's just talk about what happened after the diet candidate's death. Shimasu tried to blackmail me, Gouda tried to undermine me, and Sanoguchi tried to exclude me as he once excluded you...
Mifune
Family? Nothing more than old Tessai's pipe dream.
Mifune
Besides, is it anything more than just an excuse for one's failure to fit into society? What do you say, Officer Hoshiguma? If what he said was true, then what are you, and what am I?
Hoshiguma
If this is your idea of fitting into society, I'm glad I was the one who took responsibility.
Mifune
Finally, you're making sense, Officer Hoshiguma. You have no idea how lucky you are.
Mifune
You took responsibility and left. I chose silence and stayed, cleaning up the mess that you and Tessai left behind.
Mifune
Are the public up in arms about the yakuza killing a Diet candidate? Then spend money, build industries and tread on your own dignity to butter up real Diet members.
Mifune
Getting hit by TV reports? Build your own media through crystalline industry, and change the image of the yakuza.
Mifune
People starting to have designs on your burgeoning industry? Set your pride aside, and cling to the people who have the most use of you.
Mifune
Run into someone that you can't soothe over? Then there's no choice. Eliminate them.
Hoshiguma
And you're complaining about it? Didn't you choose it yourself?
Mifune
Yes, I chose it. I let my own weakness shut my own mouth that night!
Hoshiguma
You chose the twisted path of shame and guilty conscience—
Mifune
Guilty conscience?!
Mifune
Don't make me laugh, Officer Hoshiguma!
Mifune
The path I chose showed just how incompetent Tessai was, how hypocritical his honor was, and how close his Kinsekikai was to destruction!
Mifune
He was an incompetent, blind shogi player who began to abandon piece after piece for his precious Kinsekikai as changing times threatened to checkmate it.
Mifune
Your incident was just the beginning. The concept of 'Diet' had just emerged, and he had already abandoned you.
Mifune
When the relationship between North and South was at its most delicate, he was foolish enough to buy weapons from Northern Court factions, just to destroy a gang that was acting out of line in his eyes, one that had better weapons than the Kinsekikai.
Mifune
He didn't even have that much of a grudge against them, other than the fact that they had once harbored the 'Wandering Vicious Oni' who killed his family.
Mifune
Ostensibly, he was taking revenge for his wife and son. And look what came of it! He abandoned Tetsuya's mother and turned Tetsuya against him.
Mifune
As for me? How many times would he have abandoned me, but for the fact that this lieutenant of his never believed in this 'honor' of his for even a moment?
Mifune
I was proven right, time and again. He's no more than a Pawn who thinks himself a King, charging blindly into the fray...
Mifune
Did he think promotion awaited? No, everyone else, friend or foe, was walking in the opposite direction. There is nothing but a dead end awaiting him at the end of the road.
Mifune
To hold back the tide for that fool, clean up his mess, all the while getting walked all over by him?
Mifune
I would rather you had killed me in your madness that night!
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
Happy now? Is that enough reason for you to bring your sword or shield to bear?
Hoshiguma
I only have one question. Are you putting on an act?
Mifune
...An act?
Hoshiguma
I agree that he could have reinforced his position by putting the blame on you.
Hoshiguma
I can understand why you say that the oyabun of the Kinsekikai is the furthest from honor.
Hoshiguma
I believe you when you say you stemmed the tide of Kinsekikai's destruction, and that you are angry at Uncle Tessai for being in the way.
Mifune
Then what do you want to say?
Hoshiguma
I just don't know what to think anymore.
Hoshiguma
It was you who brought me back to Kajimachi. It was you who tried to make me lose my reason and eliminate me once and for all.
Hoshiguma
It was you who earned Tetsuya's fervent loyalty. It was you who made him witness his own father's death at your hands.
Hoshiguma
It was you who cut off your own finger in front of Uncle Tessai. It was you who cursed his incompetence, even unto his death.
Hoshiguma
Your analysis was very clear, very rational. I fully understood what you were saying, and how you got to this point.
Hoshiguma
But the clearer and more rational it is, the less I could believe it...
Hoshiguma
Is this really you? Or is this all one final act of madness, written and directed by yourself, so that I would believe that this is the kind of person you are?
Hoshiguma
Uncle Tessai said you were faking it when you cut off your little finger that day in Kajimachi. I didn't believe it.
Hoshiguma
But now, I really want to know... how many fingers are there under your left glove?
Mifune
......
The Phidia freezes.
He stares into Hoshiguma's eyes, as though waiting for her to avert her gaze.
Realizing that it is pointless, he snorts and displays his left hand in front of him, before slowly removing his glove.
A little finger made of machinery rather than flesh and blood trembles where the pinkie should be.
Mifune
I want to tell you that the little finger I cut off had been with me for decades, but you wouldn't believe it, would you?
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
Haha... very good, very good.
Hoshiguma
Of all the things you said, there's only one that has a little bit of value.
Hoshiguma
Honor... is a personal thing.
Mifune
Are you done?
Hoshiguma
Yeah.
Hoshiguma
If you've got any men hiding out here, now would be a good time to holler for them.
Mifune
There's only me. No one in hiding, no traps, no tricks.
Hoshiguma
Is the life of a media mogul, a politician's favorite, the oyabun of the Kinsekikai, something to be taken so lightly?
Mifune
Mogul? Not for long.
Mifune
Politician? You made sure to put an end to that personally.
Mifune
Oyabun of the Kinsekikai? Remind me who crashed the accession ceremony again?
Mifune
If you think I've been acting, congratulations, because I'm tired of it.
Mifune
I'm just a yakuza. A yakuza backed into a corner.
Mifune
If that's the only death I can have, then I would have a clean death... a beautiful death.
Hoshiguma
Even if everything you've done up to this point was one big pile of dishonor?
Mifune
I'm not talking about honor—that rusty piece of trash floating around your and Tessai's heads.
Mifune
I'm talking about beauty.
Mifune
What's about to happen may not compare to making a son watch his father die for him, but you cannot deny...
Mifune
There's a beauty to a duel by the riverside, under the fireworks, the blood spilling on the banks, perhaps even a head flying into the air.
Mifune
Don't worry, Hoshiguma. In the event that I'm not the one who dies, I'll admit that you wrote a beautiful ending for yourself as a yakuza.
Hoshiguma
I don't need it.
Hoshiguma
I'm fighting you for one reason. To cut my last ties with you, with the Kinsekikai, with Mitsukue and with Higashi.
Mifune
Suit yourself. But how should I sing the song of your death, in the event that it happens? Who did I kill? An Oni?
He pulls his long sword, which seems far too long for most men, but just right for him.
The blade is sharp as snow, but hidden in the night, as summer frost that should not be, that could fade away any moment.
Mifune
I had a thought, Hoshiguma.
That pompousness that had filled his voice up to this point is completely gone.
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
When we were young, Tessai took us to watch the snow, here by this very riverside.
Hoshiguma
I remember.
Mifune
He said, don't look down on yourself just because you're yakuza.
Mifune
He said we're descendants of warriors. He said generations after generations of samurai since Shigekazu Onishoubu have given their lives for loyalty and righteousness, and we are their legacy.
Mifune
He said that even without noble status, without power, without a liege to serve, even without the bloodline of warriors...
Mifune
Loyalty and righteousness never die. The warrior's spirit never dies.
Mifune
Jingi, ninkyou, honor in all its names.
Mifune
The warrior's spirit lives on, even if it has fallen on hard times, even if it has become distorted, even if it has taken on many different names, even if no bonds of blood tie us.
Mifune
He was spewing nonsense, wasn't he? It was all an act, wasn't it?
Mifune stares straight into Hoshiguma's eyes.
Hoshiguma
......
Mifune
You don't know the answer?
Hoshiguma
There's only one thing that I know.
Hoshiguma
Someone you hated so much would never put on an act for you.
Mifune
Sure enough.
Mifune
You trusted him, and I trust you. I believe you when you say that Tessai didn't lie to me. I believe that we're the last descendants of warriors, here in Nan'in Anzai Mitsukueooyashiro.
Mifune
As for the true blue-blooded warriors whose emblems are passed on from generation to generation...
Mifune
I suppose they're all speculating in real estate right now.
The one-horned Oni walks past the ruins of old buildings, past the indifferent bustle of the entertainment district, past the foe who had crossed swords with her a moment ago, and into the glaring dark night.
A cool breeze blows from behind, bringing fresh liberation, and sounds that do not belong to the present.
Going to the summer fair with her father, and the unscrupulous yatai owner giving her a net made of the flimsiest paper for scooping fins.
That summer night after her father's passing, she licked the apple candy Tessai gave her that did not seem right for her age.
The throwing rings that seemed too juvenile for her, but which could never seem to hit their mark, as though they were imbued with some sort of Arts.
Going to the shooting stall with a 'Holy City of Laterano' sign that only had cheap stuff, after getting drunk with her Kinsekikai brothers...
She takes one step after another towards these scenes of Higashinese summer nights.
But they are ghosts of the past, brushing by her, fading into the distance like the one she has defeated...
And the fireworks.
Yes, the fireworks of Higashi's summer nights, which she may never have a chance to see again.
A surprise encounter with someone wearing a surprising smile on her face, and carrying a surprising gift.
Hoshiguma feels tears coming to her eyes.
The tiny fireworks in front of her seem brighter than the rest of the city combined.
Hoshiguma
It's beautiful.
Momoka
Fleeting... but beautiful.
Hoshiguma
Where are the others? Kichisei, Sarasa, Moriuchi... and Tetsuya?
Momoka
Kichisei and Moriuchi-san are being questioned by that tired-looking cop. They should be coming out soon.
Momoka
Sarasa suddenly fell asleep one block before we ran into the cops. She told us to just leave her there. By the time I talked to the cops and went back for her, she was nowhere to be seen.
Momoka
As for Tetsuya... I have no idea.
Hoshiguma
Oh, we should also let the police know that Kinbee is still lying on the river bank, and someone should go and get him—
