“Seven.” Manji rolled his shoulder, feeling the sacred bloodworms shift under his skin. “Lucky number.”
“Had to let them think they had a chance.” He cracked his neck, feeling the thousand-year-old cartilage pop. “Makes it more humiliating.” Blade of the Immortal -Dub-
He stood in the wreckage, wiping a clot of gore from his kama chain with his thumb. Around him, the corpses of the sword school’s finest twitched in their death throes. His own haori hung in ribbons, revealing a chest mapped with scar tissue—each mark a story he didn’t owe anyone. He’d stopped counting after the first fifty years. “Seven
She stepped over a severed hand without looking down. “You took your time.” “Seven.” Manji rolled his shoulder
“You move like a man who’s forgotten how to die.”