Master, will you keep teaching—no, I mean...
Master, I humbly request that you continue teaching me to use a sword.
Of course.
Now that this guy's here, we'll be okay.
After all, I owe Shion-san my life, and he taught me to use a sword.
Ow!
Not even these circumstances can stop you from acting like my teacher.
I'm actually kind of relieved.
You underestimate me.
I told you, I'm used to that.
Tenza!
The one who takes cannot understand.
But their victim never forgets.
Hell's Paradise
A faint flower was blooming unnoticed by anyone
Not a burning red, but flickering serenely in red
I've been pausing for a long time dragging my past at my feet
If I break free from this ambivalence,
will I be able to bloom by its side?
The future is slipping away between my fingers
What mistake did I make to pay this price?
Always hurting myself
and hesitant even to a small joy
I want to stop now
The flower just bloomed in dignity
and that was all I needed to be happy
I just wanted to protect this one flower
Wishing to be strong, I
picked up the vulnerability I had once cast away
Can't break free from the ambivalence
In ambivalence, I become myself
Like rooting strongly into the soil
like swaying ephemerally to the wind
I'm slowly loosening myself to bloom
Hell's Paradise
Master and Student
He's exhausted their tao by continuously striking
the moment they start to regenerate.
The wounds aren't fatal, but their regeneration has slowed a lot,
and their appearance seems to be aging.
They shouldn't be able to do much now.
Inanimate objects can be controlled with the slightest amount of tao.
Die, human!
I'll take this opportunity to recover.
He's exhausted as well.
The repeated tao attacks are shortening his own life.
Sensei!
A childish trick. This is pointless.
Tameshi Itto-ryu: Autumn Rains.
He can't reach my tanden.
Clink?
You're on the brink of death, too.
What's wrong with you?
Stay away!
Sen—
What's wrong with you?
You'd shorten your own life for someone who died?
Why do all of this?
I haven't done anything yet.
I can't mourn him or feel sadness yet.
I can't even be angry while you're still alive.
I'll do it all once I've killed you.
The despair and sadness can wait until after that.
Now, how many more times do I have to cut you to kill you?
This is bad. Really, really bad.
I have to do something.
Somehow...
Don't panic.
Tao doesn't recover quickly.
Did you think you were close?
Don't underestimate me, human.
One of my kind was always both male and female,
circulating their energies by themselves to train.
I copied that.
It's hard to maintain both sexes at once, but I have no choice now.
Besides...
I knew it. I thought that was the case.
If I can change part of myself,
I must be able to do the same with my transformation.
Now, how many hundreds more times shall we continue?
I swear I'll settle this.
I'm used to your little stunts now.
Stunts.
Call them what you want.
This is who I am.
I was scarred by my mother, a traveling entertainer.
See the Blade Master's Son
Our act was a blind child dodging customer's strikes with a wooden sword.
"Behold the blade master's son who predicts attacks without seeing."
Both my mother and I were desperate to survive.
The scars were part of the act, but I was born blind.
As one who'd perceived the world through waves of tao, it was a simple act.
A high-ranking kengyo heard about me
and welcomed me into the Todoza guild for the blind.
Through them, I knocked on the Yamada clan's doors.
For a couple of poor entertainers, it was a golden opportunity.
Your child's skill with a sword makes it hard to believe he's blind.
Where did he get those scars?
This boy's father is famed for his skill with a blade.
Blessed with talent, he was wounded in battle at a young age.
Every time we were asked, my mother told the same lie.
So did I.
Unable to retract that explanation and ruin my mother's name,
I spent my days as a Yamada student hiding my past.
I was ashamed.
It's not like the past matters.
What's important is, you know, the present.
That's not what I meant.
I warned you to act like a Yamada student.
I am, and I wish you'd look at me, not my upbringing.
Tenza-kun and Shugen-san are fighting again.
It's amusing. Leave them be.
I envied Tenza's openness and fearlessness.
As I saw others accept him for who he was, I felt potential.
You're incredible with a sword, sir.
I look up to you.
No, I look up to you.
I will kill you with my own hands, even if it costs me my life!
I can use my Kishikai form while recovering.
You cannot win any—
Silence.
Both your appearance and flashy abilities are empty threats.
You're just focusing what little power you have left on putting on an act.
Soon, you'll have only as much tao as a human.
Your terrible acting can't fool me.
Neither of us can strike a killing blow, so we'll drag each other through the mud.
An ugly and deadly battle of endurance.
Are you ready?
Sensei!
Nurugai.
Stay back. I'll handle the rest.
What?
It's about to get dangerous.
Damn you!
With no ability to hinder them, I can only hope to exhaust them.
So how can I expend my own tao efficiently?
You don't have to cut them hundreds of times.
Wouldn't it be easier to skewer them with your sword?
True.
That should be physically possible.
The Tensen's tanden seem to be ovules within their bodies.
Skewering would be efficient for exhausting their tao
through continuous regeneration.
Sever their limbs, or perhaps...
extract only the ovule and skewer it.
Since we're familiar with the practice of Hiemontori, it should be easy.
The question is whether you can keep them skewered.
Oh, right.
Just imagining it grosses me out. I could never.
Regenerate. Vines grow.
Pull sword out.
Stop you even if you hold in place.
Enter you.
Sensei!
They're weaker than I imagined.
Is it because I exhausted their tao?
I told you it'd be a battle of endurance.
Who will exhaust themselves first, you or me?
I'm here to settle the score.
If we both die, then I win!
Hell's Paradise
This pain is nothing compared to his final moments...
Sensei, stop!
If you keep going, you'll die!
Stay away!
If I keep fighting, I can take the monster down with me.
You should get out of here and find the others.
I will remain here.
That doesn't make sense.
You're smart.
You think things through.
You know how to make the right choice.
This isn't like you!
In that moment, I instantly understood his scream.
He knew we couldn't win and wanted some of us to survive.
I understood his intentions and acted instantly.
It was the right choice.
Why did I have to make the right choice?
Even if it was foolish, why couldn't I have gone to him?
He must've spent his final moments drowning in regret and pain.
And all I could do was run. I can't forgive myself.
Even while losing someone I loved, I made the right choice.
I can't forgive myself.
These eyes can't even shed tears, so at the very least...
Sensei!
Let me handle this and go to the others.
But... that's not...
Hurry!
He's like I was back then.
I lost the people I loved and couldn't forgive myself.
He doesn't know if he should live or die, like me.
I'm the sole survivor. Everyone else died because of me.
I don't get it.
I'm asking if you want to die.
Yeah, that's right.
Until you explain it to me...
Until I understand it, I... I'm not...
Ten... Tenza...
I, um... um, Sensei is... I...
Then there's only one thing to do.
Yeah.
Until you explain it to me...
Until I understand it, I'm not leaving.
I can't hear anything anymore.
I don't know how much time has passed or how much more I can take.
The only thing I can feel is my life slowly and clearly being eaten away.
Slowly means skewering them was effective.
Tenza, finally...
Nuru...
What are you doing?
Holding you so your tao will recover.
This isn't the time.
Girls should be more cautious about who they hold.
You shouldn't be doing that for all kinds of reasons.
Now you're starting to sound like yourself.
Look.
They're not dead, but their regeneration has slowed.
It'll take a day for them to recover.
So we should kill them now.
No, so we should leave it be.
They'll stab you with vines if you get close again.
If you keep going, you'll die.
Let's go join the others.
I can't do that.
Tenza won't be avenged until they stop breathing.
His suffering...
You're wrong.
He didn't suffer or die with regrets.
I'm wrong?
When you carried me away, I saw him.
He smiled.
He saw us running away and smiled.
You've been suffering because you didn't know that.
It's because you had to carry me. I'm sorry.
It was a nice smile.
Sad but cool.
So you don't have to avenge him, Sensei.
We haven't talked much about Tenza because we've been focused on revenge.
Tell me. I want to know more about him.
We should talk more once we leave this place alive.
You're right.
Let's end this. I won't take this too far.
Let's join the others.
Yeah.
Thank you, Nurugai.
You've given me life.
I should be calling you sensei.
You opened my eyes.
You can't hear me, can you?
They got Zhu Jin.
Shion
Nurugai
Shion-dono...
Shion
Won't you reconsider?
We'll both just keep losing people we care about.
It's too sad to continue.
Please.
Yuzuriha
Gabimaru
On the other side, even today
Someone is unraveling, yet they still stand
A stab to the chest, this loneliness
Points and lines, breaking off and vanishing
My shattered mask
It's more than I can bear
But I must keep on living
Tomorrow awaits to greet me
It's endless
And so fragile
Is it better to believe hearts don't exist at all?
Radiant and soft
Was the hand
I squeezed back on that day