Plurk paste

OKAY CHAPTER 22 like I said it picks up right where we left off!! Tanba's holding murashige and then either tears away his box or the box falls out

tanba's like "tea utensils? dafuck? where is the scroll" and murashige just says GUAHGHGH before sakichi rushes in to attack tanba and yells THERE'S NO NEED TO TELL HIM

tanba's like OH HEY if it isn't ishida sakichi and then kicks him away... and then says something like MY HANDS AREN'T THE ONLY WEAPONS I'VE GOT

he says "I'll deal with you later" and then goes back to apparently just crushing murashige's face with his hand or w/e like "if you want me to stop you better fess up asap"

BUT SURPRISE SAKICHI'S A STUBBORN BLOCKHEAD who grabs onto tanba's leg and says "let him go"

tanba's like "..." and kicks him again and starts grinding his face into the ground with his boot, murashige's like STOP and tanba says that if he doesn't confess then he's gonna tear off sakichi's skin

BUT SURPRISE SAKICHI IS STILL A STUBBORN BLOCKHEAD and grabs tanba's foot again... and says "you don't need to say anything. You yourself said you were a coward. When you left the castle you were already prepared to be called that, right? If so, be a coward to the very end" and chucks him onto his creepy horse so murashige can escape

murashige holds up his sword and yells "sakichi! this is your soul, I made sure to grab it"

sakichi thanks him and then basically says ISHIDA SAKICHI HAS CLAIMED THIS PLACE YOU SHALL NOT PASS

tanba's like "you've brought a nice wind eh" which is probably metaphor talk for WOW YOU SURE ARE FIRED UP KID or something

he thinks "it seems he can't see well in the dark... so he's only using noises to swing his sword? His intuition isn't bad, but--" and he says "that's all it is" as he punches sakichi in the chest

he says that that's why he wears the bell, because it's boring if he doesn't give his opponents an advantage

then I think he thinks that sakichi's the same as everybody else?? or something like that, bc he also thinks "I thought it would be interesting, what a let-down"

...BUT SURPRISE SAKICHI CONTINUES TO BE A STUBBORN BLOCKHEAD and gets back to his feet and tanba's like WELP, OR NOT

then this is super summarized but murashige's like GOTTA GO GOTTA LIVE CAN'T DIE FUCK EVEN IF NOBUNAGA TAKES MY CASTLE AND NOBODY ELSE CAN RUN, AT LEAST I--

and then he has a flashback of sakichi saying "you wouldn't abandon your troops and family, would you? :D" and feels a Regret

he wonders when he became such a scaredy cat and thinks about how he wasn't like this when he first got the scroll, back then he was ready to revolt against nobunaga to keep him from getting the orochi

but now he's terrified that everybody's out to get him, he has another flashback of sakichi and is like I'M NOT GETTING REINFORCEMENTS I'M JUST SAVING HIMSELF I'M PATHETIC

back to tanba and sakichi, tanba thinks about sometimes there are people like sakichi, whose instincts get sharper as they're backed into a corner

he thinks that rather than the wild ferocity of a beast, he's got a quiet sort of vigor and that even though his body's weak his mind isn't

and then I think he's still talking about sakichi?? bc he thinks that even at this very moment he's thinking about how to win, and looking for his opponent's weakness

sakichi throws some leaves him his face and tanba's like ah, a smokescreen AND SURPRISE SAKICHI LANDS A HIT good job sakicchan

tanba says "as I thought, you're interesting. people who are prepared for death often risk their own lives, only to give up and beg to be spared"

sakichi says "that's what I look like to you?" (or well 'that's the kind of face you see?') and tanba says no, your eyes are the opposite... don't tell me you think you can actually win??

sakichi says "OF COURSE" because of course he does

tanba (thinks?? says??? I can't tell by the speech bubbles) "dyeing those eyes with despair will be most entertaining"

BUT SURPRISE MURASHIGE IS IN FACT ALSO A STUBBORN BLOCKHEAD and shows up just in time to block an attack to sakichi

sakichi's like WHAT THE FUCK WHY DID YOU COME BACK

murashige says that he forgot about his dream, for the war to end and everyone to live peacefully ASAP, and that somebody who gets cold feet like that can't change the country

sakichi's like OKAY BUT RUNNING AWAY IS ALSO A STRATEGY-- and murashige cuts him off saying something about a body double??? or somebody who's pulling the strings behind the scenes being off in settsu or something... idk what that's about but apparently this guy's pretty great

anyway he yells I'MMA CUT YOUUUUU YAAAAAAAAA and he and tanba fight while sakichi's like WOAH THIS IS MURASHIGE THE FIGHTER AMAZING

murashige yells his thanks at sakichi for knocking some sense into him, sth like WHAT I ALMOST LOST IS RIGHT HERE

he thinks he should've realized it sooner and wonders how he must've looked when he told his people he was gonna go negotiate himself, blah blah blah COWARDS CAN'T SAVE ANYBODY WHO WOULD FOLLOW A BIG OL' BALL OF SUSPICION I'M PITIFUL IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS

he yells that even if this is the end, more than a soldier, he is the murashige who won't give up until his soul is broken

so then of course tanba's gotta break his sword

he tries to strike while murashige's in shock but sakichi dashes in between them, except it's too late and ninja-san (I THINK HIS NAME WAS KAISHIN??) gets murashige in the chest

sakichi yells his name and tells him to hold on, kaishin's like welp our ninja work is done

tanba's like "...kaishin" and kaishin's like look you didn't say NO STEALING FINDERS KEEPERS, SO

tanba looks at murashige and thinks "he can't talk anymore, huh" and then says "well whatever let's go search the castle"

kaishin's like ??? why?? but then gets distracted by nobukatsu like ALRIGHT PAY UP lmao

sakon comes back and sakichi's like WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM???? sakon apologizes and says that he (kaishin) just suddenly ran off

they hear a loud noise and they're like ?? and SURPRISE IT'S AN ARMY and sakichi's like OH FUCK

it's nobunaga with akechi and toubee crew!! sakon's like I THOUGHT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN KYOTO WTF

sakichi's like yeah they should've been??? why'd they suddenly come to settsu...

but he gets distracted by murashige, who reveals the scroll that he hid beneath the tea set and shoves it at sakichi

sakon's like "seems like he's entrusting it to you nii-san" and sakichi says "but... but I'm hideyoshi-sama's--" and murashige says "I know"

sakichi's like SINCE WHEN and sakon says that when murashige was yelling about how he wouldn't hand over the scroll to hideyoshi, that it was obvious by the color of his face (I guess he got pale or sth) that he was connected to hideyoshi

murashige coughs and sakichi tells him he doesn't have to say anything else, but murashige says "not hideyoshi... to you... I want to... give it to... you who brought... the wind that guided me..." and "please... stop... nobunaga"

he says "it's painful... war is... truly painful... I pray for... an end to... this sort of memory"

then he says "無念だ" which can either mean I HAVE REGRETS or could be a buddhist term for attaining perfect serenity of the mind like FINALLY I'M FREE but I'm guessing it's more the former

anyway he says "I leave... this country... to you... sakichi..." and then dies

cut to tanba standing on a tree like the melodrama llama that he is

up comes a dragonfly spy which I'm now just gonna call dragonspies... I think it's from abe no seimei?? or whatever his name is

anyway the dragonfly's like WELP MURASHIGE DIED AND YOU DIDN'T FIND OUT WHERE THE SCROLL IS HUH

tanba says something about a portion of kaishin's money?? I don't know if he means he took some of it (to buy info about the scroll) or what but dragonspy's like "you're really obsessed with money... what? are you building your own army or something? how scary~"

tanba says "battles cost money" and dragonspy's like HUUUU HOW FUN~~~ and tanba says "you're in a good mood"

dragonspy says WEEEELL I FINALLY MET THE KID I'M INTERESTED IN and then comments that tanba looks happy too, and says he heard ishida sakichi was there

he says "Is this coincidence, I wonder? That the orochi's favored vessel candidates have all gathered in this land"

it lists sakichi, kuroda, yuuma and toubee, abe no seimei, akechi, nobunaga and then idk if this is just for effect or if the twins are actually saying it because it says "and the two of us. saa, which one is the orochi?" AND THAT'S THE END