The Big Slash

“Grandpa, what is the Great-Sized Slash?”

At the edge of a cliff, ninety-year-old Kouke Ichiro ran his hand over the cold gravestone and the blade that never rusted, gazing toward the horizon where sea met sky.

“That story begins fifty years ago, with a sword and a bowl of noodles I’d never get to eat again...”

Kouke Ichiro would never forget that blood-red night when he was ten.

A three-meter-tall Red Oni crushed his little Cat Village, along with every ordinary dream he had.

The sole survivor, he wandered with hatred in his heart to the Arashiyama Dojo, rumored to hold the secret art for slaying demons: “Sun Breathing.”

The dojo’s master, Sanada Kunyō, was a down-and-out warrior with a bright red forehead.

Everyone said “Sun Breathing” had long been lost, and that its manual was nothing but a dusty old scroll.

Everyone laughed at the cat-sized boy who dared to challenge the source of all demons, the Earth Mother, Great-Sized Hannya.

Legend had it that only by slaying the Earth Mother could all the souls devoured by demons return to the human world.

Eight years of grinding hardship, from errand boy to the dojo’s strongest.

The “Little Cat” of old had become the sole heir to “Sun Breathing.”

On the day he left the mountain, his master gave him a sword named “Sunwheel Slash,” also known as the “Great-Sized Slash.”

And so the boy set out alone.

In Yunzhou, he swore brotherhood with his dear friends Kazama Ze and Shuangtang Bai, and together they fought demons and evil spirits.

In Luqian, he encountered Daifu Yujiro, received the legacy of a secret realm, and first revealed the edge of his blade.

In Shikoku, he paid homage to the shogun and gained the “Power of the Demon Buddha” before the “Disaster-Burning Laughing Buddha.”

At last, on the coast of Kyushu, he faced his ultimate terror

The Earth Mother, Great-Sized Hannya, mother of all demons, incarnation of the eternal world.

His beloved wife gave her life to forge a sword, and his dearest friends stained the yellow sands with their blood.

The boy raised his blade to the heavens. What he cut down was not only his revenge