The seven Ainu killed each other.
As did Wilk and Kiroranke.
And the ones at Abashiri Prison.
The prisoners with the tattooed skins.
Hijikata Toshizou and his crew...
They all try to kill each other.
Shiraishi Yoshitake.
Sugimoto Saichi.
Everyone you love will be killed.
Just like Fina and Olga, the ones I loved...
Give up on the gold, Asirpa.
You already know how to crack the code, don't you?
No, Asirpa!
Stop it!
I knew from the start that threats were meaningless against you.
But if you need a little push, I'll give you an excuse.
Tell me, Asirpa.
I have an idea...
But I'm not certain... yet.
Tell me about this idea.
Aca's Ainu name. That only I know...
What is it, Asirpa?
Tell me.
Horkew Oskoni.
Golden Kamuy
Episode Fifty-Six Ipopte
Private Ariko. You're alive?
1905 Russo-Japanese War, Mukden
Yes, I'm alive, Warrant Officer Kikuta.
Talk about something, Ariko.
So that we both know we're alive.
What should I say?
Anything.
What you want to eat when you go home.
What you want to do.
Something about the future, ideally.
I want to practice making a makiri.
Makiri are those Ainu knives?
Yes.
A man gives the woman he likes a makiri.
The woman can tell how good a partner he is by looking at its quality.
So a man has to be able to make a makiri.
You're afraid the woman you like will reject you?
No.
I want to make one for myself.
Some parents might take the time to teach their children.
But instead, my father made me watch him make one, every step of the process,
so I could make one for myself when I grew up.
'Cause he knew if he forced me to make one, I'd rebel.
But it must've upset him terribly...
"To make a makiri,
you need the wood from an Ezo itaya tree, which is light and hard."
"If you make it with other wood,
the handle will break before you've finished dressing a single deer."
Someday he'd mumble things like that, loud enough so that I could hear.
But... I didn't really care.
If somebody made fun of me for being an Ainu, I'd fight back as hard as I could.
And if someone asked me for help, I'd help even if they were Japanese.
I didn't think about any of that stuff, but everyone else treated me as an Ainu.
I remember thinking that being an Ainu was a pain in the ass.
But the pattern on my dad's makiri had been passed down for generations.
So he probably wanted to make sure I knew it.
When I went off to war, he started making me a makiri, I heard.
"If he has a real one," he'd said, "He can someday learn to make his own."
But he died before he finished, I'm told.
And nobody knows where the makiri went.
I should've paid more attention...
Warrant Officer Kikuta, are you alive?
If you're alive, say something.
Oh... sorry.
Sorry, Ariko.
1908: Noboribetsu Hot Springs
What's this makiri doing here?
It's a shame...
You forgot the moon we saw from that trench, didn't you?
Horkew Oskoni...
Lieutenant Tsurumi.
Ariko?!
I've come to tell you the location of Hijikata Toshizou's hideout.
If we strike now we can kill them all and capture every last skin.
Ariko Rikimatsu...
You're sure that's the path you want to follow, right?
Give me all those skins!
Run, Asirpa, now!
Were those gunshots from the church?!
It's stuck!
Go! Go!
Asirpa-san!
Jump on, Asirpa-chan!
Ipopte was shot!
Sugimoto, stop!
Don't stop! Go!
Get down! It's too dangerous!
Asirpa-san! Get your head down!
Asirpa! Go!
It is Norabo...
It is Kikuta-san!
Ariko?
What are you doing here?
Warrant Officer Kikuta...
Ipopte!
The fire's almost all put out.
It's brick, anyway. It won't spread further.
Nice work. We've got enough people here, so go sleep.
Did he hesitate, I wonder?
I learned this trick from Hijikata Toshizou in Barato.
Don't push yourself too hard, Kadokura.
Let's get some rest.
Asirpa-chan, it's dangerous. Sit down.
Ipopte...
It's Ushiyama!
Call Hijikata Toshizou.
I know how to find the fakes.
Golden Kamuy
Don't die on me, Ariko!
Ariko!
Hey, wake up!
You still haven't made your makiri yet, right?
Ariko...
Your dad saved your life, huh?
Cultural Museum
Somewhere in the present day, at a cultural museum in Hokkaido,
Cepker (Salmon Skin Boots)
a makiri lies in a forgotten display.
Ecius \h\h\h\hSake jug
Makiri (Knife)
Its description says that it was created by an Ariko Ipopte.
Makiri (Knife)
He copied his father's makiri exactly,
but added his own design at one single part.
But that's another story...
Warrant Officer Kikuta.
I won't forget the debt I owe you for saving me.
But once my wounds are treated, I'll fight along Asirpa and her friends.
I won't help the central government.
Now, now.
You won't be going anywhere with those wounds for a while.
Take your time.
And let's go to a hot springs again, Ariko.
Sergeant Tsukishima is rushin' after Asirpa!
May I be sendin' reinforcements after 'em?
Nikaidou!
"Tsukishima is in pursuit of Asirpa.
May I send reinforcements after him?"
"Tsukishima is in pursuit of Asirpa.
May I send reinforcements after him?"
He said.
No, bring back Tsukishima.
I think the key to crack the code is correct.
We don't need Asirpa anymore.
See? Lieutenant Tsurumi is amazing!
I knew it! It was all Tsurumi Theater to get Asirpa to give him the key!
Nikaido, are you drinking?
Is your nose so messed up you can't tell?
I didn't realize 'cause we were just at the beer factory...
But you smell like someone dropped a keg of beer on your head.
Tsukishima...
No...
Even if he knew we were listening in the next room,
that doesn't mean it was all a lie, right?
The Russian military port
Vladivostok
right across the sea whose name means "Rule the Far East"
is still a huge threat to Japan!
It's okay to believe that
his real objective is to protect and enrich Japan, right?
More than anything, Sergeant Tsukishima, who's offered up everything...
Must've wanted to hear those words he said more than anything!
Thanks, King.
I remembered what a certain woman told me.
She said that Attus kimonos, made with thread from tree bark,
were so beautiful that no one could copy them.
Attus thread is dyed with Japanese alder sap that we call Kene.
But it's hard to do right. If you mess up, it turns brown.
But the woman was obsessed with doing it right.
Her threads were a more beautiful red than anyone had ever seen.
She used that thread to make a kimono for her beloved husband.
One day he wore it to go to work in the mountains.
But the rain was strong that day, and he rushed home.
And he realized that the area around his hips had turned brown.
He had an ax at his hip.
That wouldn't happen with normal Attus.
They realized the rain had made the red sap bleed out from the kimono,
and the part where it had touched the iron changed color.
Her obsession had made it too delicate.
Kadokura's skins got soaked and then touched the metal of that tank.
I saw that some of them turned black, and some didn't.
There are several ways to tan leather.
Sugimoto used alum, which is cheap and easy to get.
We use it as well.
But for softer, more expensive leather, you can use plant sap.
Stachyurus praecox, for instance. Or Kene sap.
The taxidermist who made the false skins
may have had his own obsession about tanning leather.
He may have made fakes that surpassed their originals.
I knew it. The ones who didn't meet the condition were fakes.
And there were two real ones mixed in with the ones Ipopte brought.
He mixed the real ones in with the fakes to stop us from cracking the code.
That's a bold move.
And the key to cracking the code is my father's name...
Ainu for "Catching Up to the Wolf."
Horkew Oskoni.
I'm sure of it.
Horkew Oskoni.
I get it...
Each skin had different kanji that could be read with the same pronunciation.
I realized that, but...
Catching Up to the Wolf...
Well done, Kiro-chan.
You told this to Lieutenant Tsurumi, right, miss?
Yes. He's already starting to crack it.
Three Hours Since Beginning to Crack the Code
If we don't hurry and decode it, he'll get there first.
There's only one way to get the drop on them.
We'll bet on the last bit of information Botaro the Pirate gave us.
The first place the Ainu hid their gold when they gathered it many years ago.
We'll head there and solve the code on the way!
I found Kadokura's group!
Wait for us!
It's a little too small to spread out the skins and crack the code.
Should we rip out a few seats?
There's plenty of room here.
Oh my. Third class is behind you.
First class tickets cost four times as much, I think.
You didn't know that, I assume.
You look filthy, so you should leave now.
You'll annoy the passengers who come later.
Starting to Crack the Code 6:00 AM
Each skin has several kanji that can be read the same way.
But every one except Horkew Oskoni is a decoy.
There are at least four kanji on every skin
that match the characters in Horkew Oskoni.
And some line up perfectly when they're overlapped.
Ko
Shi
He knew his daughter wouldn't know kanji,
but gave her a kanji-based code anyway.
Perhaps it was also a message from Wilk that you must work
with the Japanese to find the gold?
The message might've been,
"Trick those Japanese into helping the Ainu," for all we know.
It's entirely possible you could've been doing this with Lieutenant Tsurumi, right?
This is a gold coin Botaro gave me.
Aca made it and lost it in Lake Shikotsu.
Some of the coins' patterns are similar to the ones on the skins.
This one, with a single line that doesn't intersect with any other,
is also found on the tattooed skins.
Does it perhaps have some meaning?
Does that mean when the Ainu made the gold,
the plan to have the prisoners escape already existed?
He became Nopperabo deliberately?
No.
Aca would have had no idea that the Ainu would kill each other,
or that he'd become Nopperabo.
Meeting me may have been part of the plan, though.
This is great.
We get the entirety of first-class seats to ourselves.
Yeah.
I've got a first-class seat to hell.
Forget about me.
And all about Hanazawa Yuusaku, too.
Next Time Tokyo Love Story
Next Time: Tokyo Love Story!