# 603
Chapter 604: Magatsu Blade
Beneath the pitch-black mountain, two youths followed the winding path toward the edge of the city. Dim street-lamps stretched their shadows long across the ground.
“I don’t know,” Lin Qiye said, shaking his head.
“Then do you know about the Amatsukami and the Kunitsukami?”
“That I do.”
Back at the training camp the instructors had devoted a whole lecture to Japan’s mythic system. Broadly speaking, the gods were split into two camps: the orthodox Amatsukami who dwelt in Takamagahara under Amaterasu, and the earth-born Kunitsukami who lived among mortals under the Chief God Ōkuninushi. From the start the Amatsukami had tried to conquer the human world, again and again fanning the flames of war. After ages of strife Amaterasu finally sent Takemikazuchi down to earth; he carved a bloody path clear to the imperial palace and seized the land. The Kunitsukami were scattered and gradually faded from the world.
“After their defeat,” Amemiya Haruki continued, one hand stroking the deep-blue hilt at his waist, “Ōkuninushi refused to yield. In secret he ordered his Kunitsukami to forge nine blades imbued with divine power. Legend says these nine hold the might of the Kunitsukami themselves—blades able to cleave Takamagahara and avenge them upon the Amatsukami.
“Before the ninth blade could be finished, Takemikazuchi had already conquered the world. The Kunitsukami broke, and the nine blades were lost to earth and memory. Because they were forged as weapons of vengeance, their power is extraordinary; the gods of Takamagahara declared them taboo, teaching mortals that any who owned one would know only calamity. Thus they were named the Nine Magatsu Blades.
“This—” he tapped the sinister blue long-sword “—is the fourth: Rainfall Collapse.”
Lin Qiye studied the blade, understanding kindling in his eyes. The power came not from the boy but from the sword—no wonder the unseen presence hadn’t sensed it. Did that mean the Magatsu Blades could hide even from that thing?
In a place where Forbidden Ruins were sealed, he was perilously exposed. A Magatsu Blade would give him at least one safeguard.
“There are nine in total?” he asked carefully. “Where are the rest?”
Amemiya Haruki glanced at him, reading his intent, and shook his head. “If you’re thinking of stealing one, abandon the idea. Know why your blade snapped under the Oracle Envoy’s ‘Blade-Fasting Domain’ while mine didn’t?”
“Why?”
“Because every Magatsu Blade has a soul.”
He eased Rainfall Collapse a finger’s breadth from its saya. Deep-blue steel breathed in the night, and beneath his feet the asphalt rippled like water. A mirror surface spread, reflecting the world upside-down. In that reflection a white-haired man in white robes stood beneath an old paper umbrella, rain drumming above him. His cold eyes met Lin Qiye’s through the puddle.
Black-clad Amemiya Haruki and the white specter overlapped perfectly, each the other’s shadow, their gazes identical.
Lin Qiye froze.
The blade slid home; the watery mirror vanished. Street-light once more lay yellow on ordinary road. Everything had been illusion.
“Your sword has wondrous abilities,” Amemiya said, nodding toward the broken White Slash in Lin Qiye’s hand, “but it is dead. The envoy’s Blade-Fasting Domain channels high-frequency slashes into any object without loss; no material weapon survives. He is called the ‘Weapon Calamity’. Yet he cannot break a Magatsu Blade, for the blade itself is alive—it digests the cuts. Nor can it be stolen; without its soul’s consent you could not even draw it.”
Lin Qiye exhaled. “A blade-soul…”
So theft was impossible. He was an outsider; no soul would choose him. White Slash was snapped, his last trick beyond summoning gone. The odds had worsened again.
“If you want it re-forged, I know someone,” Amemiya said suddenly.
Lin Qiye shook his head. “This isn’t an ordinary blade.”
It was a top-grade forbidden artifact; glue wouldn’t make it whole again. Repair seemed hopeless.
“I know,” Amemiya replied, “but the man I speak of has restored Magatsu Blades. Fixing yours should be simple.”
Lin Qiye eyed the deep-blue sword, thinking. If the craftsman could heal a living blade, perhaps he could coax life back into a dead one.
He had grown fond of White Slash; abandoning it felt wasteful.
Amemiya watched him hesitate, then added, “Perhaps he could even birth a soul within it.”
Lin Qiye looked up sharply. “Birth a soul? I thought only Magatsu Blades possessed them.”
“In theory, yes. Mortal steel cannot bear a soul. But your blade is no mortal thing. It comes from beyond these shores; it might hold that potential. Only the craftsman can say.”
Lin Qiye studied the boy’s eyes. “Why help me so eagerly? Your goal of troubling the Pure Land is already achieved.”
Amemiya’s voice dropped. “I wish to make a deal.”