Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko (刀使ノ巫女)

Kanami-chan! Hiyori-chan!

The gate is closing...

Yanase, lend me your shoulder.

Even if I put my whole being and all my Toji powers into it...

Please cleanse and purify all the misfortune, sin,

and impurity!

Yukari-sama!

Wait!

These are our wishes we most humbly and respectfully pray!

Yukari-sama?

Hey! What about Kanami and Hiyori?!

Juujou and Hiyori... did their duty.

Then they're both...

God damn it!

Katana Maidens

Episode 24 The United Maidens

After the "End of the Year Disaster,"

the severe criticism against the Sword Administration Bureau

from the public became even more intense,

but with an increase in the frequency of aradama appearances,

the need for Toji to be dispatched also grew.

The Yonemura and Ogawa units will head to the main office.

The Iwakura unit will go to Tachikawa.

All units dispatch!

Yes, ma'am!

The raid squad will go in the first car, the defensive squad in the second.

The attack squad will go in the sixth car.

Everyone, follow me.

It has been two months since then.

Both Etou Kanami and Juujou Hiyori

are still considered missing.

And yet, everyone still believes they will surely...

Hiyori-chan?

How much time has passed since then?

My... house?

Dad?

Brother?

No one's here...

Kanami?

This is my home?

What is going on?

Mom's shoes and mine...

I see, so this is the home from my memories.

Even the feeling and the smell... It's almost like it's the real thing.

I wonder how many days it's been.

And Kanami...

I will go with you, even though I don't believe we will get lost in your loneliness.

Your life alone isn't even remotely enough.

The entire world will go along with me.

I'm sorry, Kanami.

I lied to you.

I know you did.

In Shinkage style, the final blow is delivered

so that you won't need to strike twice.

I can't give you everything, nor can Hiyori-chan.

I will give you half my life instead.

Kanami!

I promised to take half, didn't I?

So another generation meets the same end as their parents.

It's a curious twist of fate, isn't it, Princess Tagitsu?

Fate...

Hiyori-chan!

Right.

Oh, Kanami... so that was your plan all along.

You knew what I was going to do.

You idiot!

That's what you meant by carrying half the load.

Just like our mothers, we have...

I wish I could see her just one more time.

Then I would definitely...

Excuse me...

Who's there?!

Who are you?

Mom?

Mom?

I-I'm Hiyori!

Juujou Hiyori.

I am your...

I am Hiiragi Kagari's daughter!

Huh?

Oh, so this is your house?

You wouldn't know about it, moth—master.

My mother and father got married,

and then had my brother and me after they moved here.

Ugh, I really don't want to picture it. Not with that guy.

You knew my father even back then?

He's a classmate I've kinda been stuck with.

How could I end up with a guy like that?

I'm sure there was a miraculous reversal of fortune.

My father and mother were totally in love!

Yuck...

But you were born thanks to that.

I was.

Then it's fine.

You're so easygoing, as always.

U-Um...

You're the version of my mother from the great disaster,

so that pretty much makes you a different person from my mom.

B-Besides, having someone not very much different from you in age

suddenly saying she's your daughter is—

Kogarasumaru...

You were also chosen by Kogarasumaru, weren't you?

It didn't come to me through official procedures.

I inherited it from my mom, the you from my time.

From me?

And this, too.

This is the one I used.

Yes.

I brought it with me from the Hiiragi household

when I went to go serve alongside Yukari-sama.

We both wield Kogarasumaru.

Mostly likely, you are the one who is real,

while I am just a spirit of the netherworld.

It doesn't exist in the real world, just like me.

Doesn't exist in the real world?

Chidori and Kogarasumaru.

I did not think there would be anyone in the present day

like both Fujiwara Minato and Hiiragi Kagari.

So that's what she meant!

Just like you split off from my mom,

Kogarasumaru also split in two!

And what's missing is supplemented by something in the netherworld...

Is this what it means to be similar to an aradama?

Split in two...

It would be the same Chidori that Kanami, no, Minato-san used.

Chidori? Then Minato-senpai met the same fate as me?

So you cut through Hiyori-chan's lightning.

Then it's no longer Chidori, but Raikiri.

You also wielded Chidori, didn't you?

We might've even been able to meet because we both wield Chidori.

That's true!

Huh?

This is...

So Minato-senpai... I see.

That's what happened over there.

My utter uselessness even got Minato-senpai dragged into things.

B-But you were able to defeat Princess Tagitsu in the end.

What about Yukari-sama?

She was with us till the final battle.

Do you hate Yukari-sama?

My mom...

In my world, you always deeply regretted what happened.

That you were never fully able to defeat Princess Tagitsu

and for getting Kanami's mother, Minato-san, involved.

That is—

The memory of seeing my mom

breaking down on the phone at the news of Minato-san's death still haunts me.

Years later, when my mom was in her sickbed,

she hardly ever smiled.

Sometimes she would mutter in her nightmares

that she had to destroy the great aradama, Origami Yukari.

I see, and so that's why your understanding was mistaken.

Huh?

I was saved by Minato-senpai and Yukari-sama.

Originally, I was supposed to send Princess Tagitsu to the netherworld on my own.

But Minato-senpai took on part of the burden and shortened her life.

And so she saved me, the other me, and...

Now I'm here.

And together, we were able to rival Princess Tagitsu's strength.

No, Princess Tagitsu was a bit better.

Yukari-sama was the one who kept her back from the real world.

Instead, by giving up her body for twenty years,

she is the one who suffered the most.

That is why I hope that you, Hiyori-san, won't hate her.

Perhaps this place we are in is a small gap in the netherworld.

I think it might have been created by the combined force of myself,

Minato-senpai, Yukari-sama, and Princess Tagitsu.

But if Princess Tagitsu is sent to the netherworld,

even this place will disappear into its depths.

That makes sense. I'm glad I got to see you in the end.

Um, Hiyori-san, can you tell me some things

about the version of myself from that world?

I loved the stewed dishes my mom would make,

and she taught me how to make soup stock.

I learned how to make it from my mom, your grandma.

You told me that.

It's so strange.

You know so much about my future that I don't.

Indeed.

What is this sound?

It's resonating?

That means that Kanami might be close by!

It did it again, and it's getting stronger.

Could Hiyori-chan be close?

Huh?

Chidori was guiding me even when I came here,

and I ran into you.

That's why I'm sure it's guiding me again!

Hiyori-chan!

Hiyori-chan...

Kanami...

Hiyori-chan!

Kanami!

Kanami, I thought I'd never see you again.

Hiyori-chan! Thank goodness!

Thank goodness!

It has been quite some time, Minato-senpai.

Long time no see, Kagari.

Minato-senpai, I...

I... I'm sorry.