SWORD GAI
Are you okay, Gai?
What are you doing?
Go home, miss.
If you get involved with that guy, it'll ruin your future.
Regression to childhood, eh?
But you can't run from who you are.
Show me what you really are!
Enough!
Just kidding.
Mr. Kigetsu!
Who are you, old man?
You're with the Shoshidai, right?
So, Shoshidai boy, what do you intend to do with the kid?
That depends on him.
If he can control himself, I take him to the Shoshidai.
But if he becomes a Busoma...
I kill him.
Don't kill him!
So, old man, how do you know about the Shoshidai?
As you get old, you form all sorts of relationships.
Not just the Shoshidai.
Like, for example, with the Gabi.
The Gabi?
They're not even worth mentioning. They're just playing a child's game.
The most they could do is get in our way.
That is unforgivable.
We're just playing a child's game?
It is heresy to use evil to defeat evil.
Indeed, the righteous path is for human hands to defeat Busoma.
This is Soin of the Gabi.
He's been residing here as he tracks down a Busoma.
I hate watching the Gabi play soldier. You're merely human, after all.
Fighting Busoma is too difficult a task for you.
The wicked Shoshidai should back off. Alas, you too will become Busoma.
Perhaps I should kill you here.
Oh, you want to fight?
Mr. Kigetsu!
Looks like they won't be satisfied unless they fight.
You don't often get to see a fight between the Gabi and the Shoshidai.
The Gabi wield the techniques of the Hollow Kenpo school.
We empty our minds and gather our divine energy into a single punch,
and here, is the fist of justice!
Look at that powerful aura!
Mr. Kigetsu, please stop them!
No way! I want to see the fight!
I see.
I take back what I said.
I didn't think you could make me use my Chakram.
Now it's my turn!
Maybe one of them will die here.
You...
Hey, what about your fight with me?
I'm sorry! Gai is a child right now!
Move!
A child? Nonsense! His aura is filled with evil!
A Busoma? It was hidden within his shadow?
The Busoma he was chasing waited in his shadow for a chance to strike?
So, he's finally awakened?
That's not Gai. That's not the Gai I know!
His aura is overwhelming.
Good. Show me what you really are.
Gai!
Is it over?
Not yet. His murderous aura is still strong.
It ran away?
Looks like I have to find out for myself whether you'll become a Busoma!
The Shoshidai and the child with the Shiryu.
Looks like the child is at a disadvantage.
Stop it!
Here we go!
Gai!
Gai! Hang in there! Gai!
Miss, can you please move.
Gai! Gai!
Sayaka.
Gai, thank goodness.
So, you're awake?
But that's not the face I want to see.
Wh-What?
You're really cute, aren't you?
You smell so good!
Gai, get up!
G-Get off me, you old geezer!
I can have more fun with you than I can watching the fight!
I'll kill you.
Are you sure?
Now that the child's escaped, don't you need me to tell you where he is?
You bastard.
His arm is made from a sword called the Shiryu.
I can take you to someone who knows more.
Alright.
But the next time you get within one meter of me,
I'll slice off your head, you stinking old man!
You've got a lot to learn!
So he's come to me to learn about Gai and the Shiryu?
Indeed.
You said that you gave the boy the Shiryu to cut the blade of his heart, yes?
Indeed.
And what is his blade?
As you know, Gai's mother took her own life.
Even now, years later, his heart is trapped within her dark womb.
Gai?
Sayaka.
Are you okay?
Yeah.
How strange.
It's healed already.
What happened to me?
Kill.
The Shiryu.
It's fine. There's nothing to worry about, okay?
Once the rain stops, let's go back and ask Father for help.
He'll do something to fix this.
Anyway, remember how we always used to come play in this cave?
This brings back memories of when we were kids.
I don't have any pleasant memories.
I always ran away from home when I was a kid.
I know.
But you always came back.
That's right.
Because every time I ran away,
I realized I had nowhere to go.
Running from what?
You don't mean from us?
I mean the darkness.
The darkness?
No matter how far I ran, it followed me.
I searched as hard as I could for a different world.
But it was no good. There was only one world.
This dark world followed me everywhere and would try to kill me.
It was waiting for me.
I couldn't escape, even if I tried.
That's why I decided to change the way I thought.
I would kill the world.
Using the swords I forge,
I'd slice open the world, and the darkness trying to kill me.
Stop it, Gai. You're scaring me!
Even if you can't run from the darkness, there's still light in the world!
Light? I don't have anything like that.
You and I live in different worlds.
We see different things.
You have Father and me!
We've been your family since you were born!
I have no family!
I'm grateful to my master, but he's not my father.
No.
I'm going to sleep for a bit. Leave me alone.
Gai.
But what is the Shiryu?
You told me before that it was a sword made by something inhuman.
Yes, it's a legend that we swordsmiths have passed down for years.
The Shiryu was forged by a dragon.
In the middle of the Muromachi period,
at a place not far from the capital,
there was a shrine where the horn of a dragon was worshiped.
But one of the servants was overcome with a wicked idea.
Hurry!
But is it true? Is it really a dragon horn?
If we do all this and it's a fake...
That's impossible!
The girl became pregnant and gave birth.
But the baby was covered with scales, and had the eyes and horns of a dragon.
So they wrapped it up and sent it down the river.
The baby was taken in by an aged swordsmith
and later became his student.
Strike straighter, along the back side.
Y-Yes sir.
After that, the dragon swordsmith continued the business.
He improved his skills, and eventually became famous.
The eyes are okay, and also the skin. Good, and any claws?
He's not like me! Not at all!
The dragon swordsmith's reputation reached the shogun at the time, Yoshiki Ashikaga,
who ordered him to create a sword without equal.
So he began work to create the greatest blade of his generation.
We'd like you to present it to the shogun in person.
But I cannot present myself to others.
The shogun demands it!
So you made this? Raise your head.
Your reputation precedes you, and I've anticipated seeing this sword.
What is that?
That covering on your head! Remove it!
Take it off now!
Disgusting. A blade made by a monster.
Put him and his family to death!
His wife and child were then executed.
Please don't hurt my wife and child! I beg of you!
It has already been done! They await you in the next world.
This cannot be! This cannot be!
But blades could not pierce his skin.
His life energy was beyond human understanding,
and no method of execution could harm him.
In the end, they gave up,
and settled on throwing him into the sea many leagues away.
Why can't I die?
Does my existence go against the laws of nature?
Why did heaven and earth grant me life?
Very well.
Then I shall reject both heaven and earth,
and leave the scars of my wrath upon this world.
Yoshiki, know my wrath!
And with the lesser of the swords, he slew himself.
It's said his immortal body, which no blade could pierce,
accepted the Shiryu with no resistance at all.
What is that?
After that, the two Shiryu went missing.
But it's sometimes said that the shadow of the Shiryu
can be seen when important or powerful people are slain.
A terrible story.
It explains the Shiryu's murderous rage.
Right?
Are you crying?
How awful.
That part where the wife and child were murdered was so sad!
H-He's more tender-hearted than I thought.
Here, wipe.
But there's plenty of stories about kids who had hard lives due to cursed swords.
At least, among people like us.
I sense you are the same as Gai, one who is chased by darkness.
Who are you?
Someone as fortunate as you doesn't need to know who I am.
I'm only interested in that Gai kid. I'm staying here till he gets back.
Hey.
You're...
The look on your face says it's kill or be killed.
You want to go to a different world than this?
A different world?
This isn't the world you belong in.
I'll tell you who you are, and of the fate you can't avoid.
At the Shoshidai.
The Shoshidai?
Wh-What are you talking about?
It's your decision, Gai. You're old enough to leave if you wish.
Master.
You may stay here and follow the path of the swordsmith.
But I see that he walks the same path as you.
Perhaps it's best that you go with him, along with the Shiryu.
But Father!
Let him go, miss. That man is not a bad guy.
Y-You too, Mr. Kigetsu?
Gai is a sword yet to be fully forged.
I can't wait to see what kind of sword he becomes!
B-But...
Is this yours?
Why is it in such bad shape?
Shut up.
You really will take me to the world where I belong, right?
Just get in. A real man never goes back on his word.
Gai, wait!
Let's go.
Sayaka.
Gai!
I'm heading out.
Have a good day, sir.
The Shiryu is crying again.
Subtitle translation by Adam Lensenmayer