#kimuspu

For who’s wondering the Leviathan is a demonic sea serpent noted in theology and mythology, often an embodiment of chaos. From the early 17th century has also been used to refer to overwhelmingly powerful people or things.

There’s plenty of variations of this way to say though as some mention a snake or, more generally, just a head (“Cut off the head, and the body will die”, “Cut off the head of the snake, the body dies”, “When the head of a snake is cut off, the rest of his body is an ordinary rope”...).

It’s also worth to mention this strategy wouldn’t work equally as well if Tsurumi were to deploy it as we’ve both Hijikata and Sofia in charge of his enemies (though Noda is really not using Sofia much) plus Sugimoto who’s not the sharpest pencil in the box but is a charismatic fighter so troops would still go fighting after him.

But whatever, I’m running ahead.

We start… with a flashback… which I think Noda will want to fix in the volume version because, although some important points are made… well, they aren’t made in a smooth, relevant and clear manner.

Anyway let’s look at it.

Wilk is tattoing Hijikata. Hijikata, old fox that he is, points out how, instead than going through all the troubles of doing things in such a roundabout way, he could just tell him where the gold is.

Now… this is not quite exact because it’s due to the fact they were tattooed prisoners carrying a map on their back that Tsurumi had his men ‘steal’ them from Inudou’s prison. Shiraishi couldn’t escape from Abashiri on his own which is why he joined Hijikata’s tattoed group so it’s not so easy to leave Abashiri, probably even if Hijikata could count on Kadokura’s support. So, well, they would still need to tattoo Hijikata and the others.

Of course Hijikata might be referring to the gold hunt.

Wilk could have given them fake tattoos and while Tsurumi chased after a fake map Hijikata could have snatched the gold. In this case yes, Wilk could have just tattooed them then told them the truth as Sugimoto said Wilk should have done when he met him, this is a fair question, but there’s a problem Sugimoto didn’t consider.

Wilk is apparently unsure if that guy he’s tattooing is the real Hijikata as not even Kadokura met him before. Now, okay, the government said Hijikata died, but Kimuspu told Wilk Hijikata lived and since neither Inudou nor Tsurumi know Wilk counted on Hijikata to deliver the land deed, they would have no reason to have Wilk met a fake Hijikata.

Siromakur apparently wasn’t even with them when they discussed about Hijikata so he can’t think he would have talked about him with Tsurumi.

So the whole ‘maybe you’re not Hijikata’ feels a tad weak to me because otherwise why should that guy claim to be Hijikata? But whatever, Wilk might have grown paranoid and, after all, there’s plenty of mad criminals in that prison so maybe assuming one of them could believe he’s Hijikata could make sense.

Whatever.

Hijikata retorts asking Wilk to prove he’s an Ainu… because?

Wilk explains about his eyes being blue due to his father being a polish man exiled in Karafuto… because this proves he’s an Ainu? Besides, didn’t they say in the past there were Ainu with blue eyes due to them being mixed with Russian blood?

Whatever, I just wish they had, at least, said Wilk’s father’s name. I hate not knowing characters’ names.

Hijikata is up to date with how the Polish, who live on what for him might be the other side of the world, kept on revolting against Russia. We know he’s used to read newspapers but I don’t know how much Japanese newspapers cared about Polish situation back then. Whatever, let’s assume he knows.

Hijikata, with this new info, assumes Wilk wanted to steal the Ainu gold from Hokkaido Ainu and use it to fight against Russia. He’s not so off track as this was basically Wilk’s original plan when he moves to Hokkaido. What Hijikata is missing is that Wilk wanted to fight for Russian minorities instead than Poland and that he would have had Hokkaido Ainu to join his eastern federation. The fact they might not be interested to join never dawned on him… until he had a daughter and decided the Hokkaido Ainu were better off on their own and it was the other minorities who could move in Hokkaido if they really wanted a place to stay.

I can’t help it, I think Wilk’s plan was bad from start to the end. Toni scolds them, claiming if they talk so loudly he can’t hear the sound of the warden’s footsteps, showing us Toni was already into the plan. I’m not sure though why Hijikata didn’t recruit him back then already into his own forces, beyond they needed to fight him for the blind bandit arc to take place.

Hijikata drops the whole ‘maybe you aren’t an Ainu’ or ‘maybe you want to steal the Ainu gold for the Polish’ and goes on saying they’ve a common goal, stopping Russia’s advance to south making Hokkaido into an independent, multi-ethnic country. Well, overall, this is not wrong.

It’s just that Hijikata wants the Ezo republic to be a buffer state so as to protect Japanese while Wilk wanted it to be a place for Ainu to live keeping their own culture so what they would make of Ezo republic is completely different.

We don’t know how Wilk planned to handle it, but we heard Hijikata would sustain it by investing into coal mining… which isn’t really something that would preserve the Ainu lifestyle, not mentioning I doubt Wilk wanted Hokkaido to exist as a protection for Japanese. Whatever, since their goal is similar on the surface and Wilk can’t escape anyway, Hijikata summarizes this forces Wilk to trust him no matter who he might be. Because, really, Hijikata, we needed you to start throwing us doubts on your identity at us at this point in the story.

Not that I’m gonna believe you’re actually your secret twin brother but whatever.

Wilk goes and tells us something we already knew, that if the guy he is tattooing isn’t Hijikata it would be a real problem as there’s something only Hijikata can do.

Actually there are two things only Hijikata can do, one is to bring the land deed to Enomoto, the other is to find the gold as he’s the only one who knows about the old well. But the visual tells us Wilk cares only about the land deed.

Hijikata asks explanations he doesn’t get as Wilk states he can’t be sure Hijikata will work for the sake of the Ainu.

Hijikata’s idea to reassure Wilk is to explain him he’ll continue to fight for the sake of JAPAN as Japan is an extension of the family he loves and of the hometown who raised him, claiming this includes Hokkaido Ainu as well.

I’m not quite as sure this is a solid reasoning because his plan is to basically use them to protect the rest of Japan but whatever. Hijikata is one who’s fine with sacrifice so maybe he really doesn’t see a problem here.

He then admits he’ll also do it because, on a personal level he owes a debt to the Ainu, more specifically to Kimuspu and his friends. This seals the deal for Wilk who DOESN’T TELL HIM THE PLACE IN WHICH THE GOLD OR THE LAND DEED ARE HIDDEN, just his daughter’s Japanese name and how Hijikata should meet her.

The next we see is another mini flashback, one in which Hijikata does Citatap with Cikapasi before they break into Abashiri. Here we can see that in that moment his gaze was actually focused on Asirpa, which he planned to bring to Nopperabou so as to get the information he wanted about the gold... and probably had already devised the plan to get Sugimoto out of the picture.

So okay, no, I don’t get how Wilk’s mind work.

He still doesn’t trust Hijikata so that he doesn’t give him the location of the gold or of the land deed, nor Asirpa’s Ainu’s name but gives him a way to track her which means if Hijikata wasn’t trustworthy now he has put his daughter in troubles too… and Asirpa can’t really vouch on him being Wilk until she met him so it’s not like she can confirm his identity… I think the idea is that Wilk wanted to push Hijikata to bring Asirpa to him, so it was very convenient for him that Asirpa had already decided to go see him and that the fake tattooed skins made the whole infiltration in Abashiri a plan that seemed easier than managing to recognize fake skins from real ones.

Anyway all this told us… that Wilk more or less believed Hijikata was who he said to be and therefore he trusted him enough to entrust to him his daughter… sort of as he didn’t quite give him her true name… but not the gold… which we… kind of already knew?

I’m not against flashback, I’m all for them but this is really no new info.

If anything the only thing we discovered was how Wilk learnt that Hijikata remembered Kimuspu and felt in debt with him… which yes, might have caused him to trust him a little more but the plan was already started anyway so… I don’t know?

On another, completely different note, this flashback reminded me of something relevant.

For the plan tied to the land deed to work they need Hijikata (or possibly Nagakura as he too likely had connection with Enomoto) to survive and bring the land deed to him. Only they’re likely both going to die in this fight… because if they could survive and join Enomoto they would likely lose their chance to die in battle here at Goryokaku… unless Enomoto is going to drop a visit.

Kadokura likely can’t work as a connection as, prior to Abashiri, he didn’t personally know Hijikata which makes me think he didn’t know Enomoto either so it would be hard for him to be received (though if we’ll make it a matter of luck Enomoto could just happen to stumble in front of Kadokura).

Ogata was probably sent there to keep the land deed away from Tsurumi’s hands. His grandfather was likely on the losing side of the Boshin war, fighting for the Shogun and might have fought for Enomoto as well. In a past ask I wondered if it was possible he’ll be the one who actually has the connections with Enomoto which are needed to use the land deed… but truth is we know really little of what’s behind Ogata so it’s hard to say anything about him… through this would explain why he had to remain a player up till now, he’s ultimately needed for the land deed to be put to use.

On the other side, using the land deed would change history so Noda might not wish for that.

So, either the land deed is going to turn completely useless or we need someone to manage to have the connections that’ll allow him to make it work.

We’ll see.

If I were to take a wild guess I would say so far Ogata’s interests lied in the land deed not being found by anyone, more than in putting it to use, but this is just me.

Ogata has been absent for so long Noda might be up at everything with him.

Back to the story we go… only what remains is just Hijikata defeating soldier after soldier in a rather awesome way.

However he also gets shoot, hit...

...stabbed and recognized...

...then Sugimoto comes to his aid and then they beat up more soldiers because together they’re an awesome duo (and in the past Noda had fun at making them pretty similar)...

...but then Sugimoto soon realizes they’re in a pinch.

Credits when it’s due, in truth Sugimoto, in the Japanese text, isn’t saying the whole 7th division soldiers are stronger compared to the Russian partisans, just that the soldiers OVER THERE are stronger.

‘Mukō no heitai no hō ga tsuyoi. Jōkyō wa kanari kibishī zo.’

向こうの兵隊のほうが強い. 状況はかなり厳しいぞ

“The soldiers over there are stronger. The situation is pretty tough!”

If they’re stronger compared to the Russians or compared to the ones they had previously fought (either because they’re fresher troops and therefore less tired or just because they’re just better, or just because it’s Sugimoto’s group who’s worn out and therefore perceives the soldiers as stronger) is up to speculation, but it’s clear that they’re presenting more troubles for everyone, from the Russian rebels to Hijikata and Sugimoto (who also gets shoot though, knowing him and his immortality, it’s probably just a flesh wound).

Hijikata, being the planner he is, tells Sugimoto he, being the best fighter they have but also one Hijikata wouldn’t mind doing without once the battle has ended (was the pre Abashiri flashback in this chapter placed here to remind us about how Hijikata isn’t actually a Sugimoto fan and wouldn’t mind to use him to hold back his enemies and, at the same time, get rid of him?), has to find Tsurumi and get rid of him because, if they get rid of him, his troops will lose their strenght.

Sugimoto points out Hijikata didn’t give him the easiest of the tasks but goes anyway.

Meanwhile Shiraishi makes the point of the situation. With the south and east entrance taken by the 7th all that still stands is the north entrance. Should it fall all the soldiers would come after them so they should run away now, in order to protect the land deed, meaning they’re also leaving behind the gold, unless Shiraishi managed to get some gold dust for himself, likely not much though as he doesn’t seem to have any bag, at best enough to fill his pockets… though honestly, Sugimoto pulled him up short after they found the gold because the bombing started so I’m not sure Shiraishi managed to collect any of the dust which had fallen on them.

On another side... I wonder if Asirpa will be willing to leave without Sugimoto again. In a way this attack parallel the Abashiri arc, which ended with Asirpa escaping with Shiraishi (and Kiro and Ogata) leaving Sugimoto, Tsurumi and Hijikata behind. Of course in that arc she believed Sugimoto to be dead, that’s why she let herself be carried away (that and also Kiro first and Shiraishi after picked her up and physically dragged her away).

It’ll be interesting to see if she will prioritize the land deed and her people or Sugimoto.

There’s also something else to take into consideration, which is Vasily. Previous chapters made clear Vasily was using Asirpa and Shiraishi as baits to draw Ogata out. Will he try again what he did in Shizuka and shoot either at Shiraishi or at Asirpa in hope this will force Ogata to act? Or is he aiming to use Sugimoto as bait this time so he’ll be the one who’ll shoot Sugimoto in the head this time? Or is he up to something completely different?

Really, Noda had kept him around, albeith not used him for all this time, I just want for him to finally do something plot relevant to start this goddamn sniper duel he so longs to have.

Anyway we’ll see.

And with this, the chapter ends.

So we had a flashback of 5 pages, 12 pages of fight and 1 page for Shiraishi to tell Asirpa the situation and that they’ll do better to escape.

As the flashback wasn’t very meaningful this, more than a chapter on the art of war, felt like a filler. Sure, I’ve to say showing Hijikata and Sugimoto fighting for 11 pages (opposed to the single page in which we see soldiers and Russian fight) made this 12 pages fight more interesting than the previous as we have emotional involvement for Hijikata and Sugimoto while the poor Russians and the poor soldiers feel just like mob characters to us, and this chapter also managed to deliver how their situation is getting more dire but still it feels like it used a lot of pages to say something that could be said in a lot less of them.

Is it due to the pacing? Does Noda need to get to a specific chapter number before having something happen? Or the next thing that’s going to happen needs a good amount of pages so the little that was needed from this chapter couldn’t be inserted in the following one?

At this point though, I would recommend waiting for when you’ll manage to read the story, because of course the story explains in details what I only skimmed briefly so yes, in my summary there’s plenty of holes that I didn’t fill to make it as brief as possible.

Anyway, for a super short explanation...

We knew from almost the start though, that Nopperabou had spread misinformation over the gold, so what he said wasn’t trustworthy.

From the story Huci said the gold was hidden only god know when.

Chap 267 tells us that Tsurumi found out some of the Ainu, 50 years before the series started, tried to use the gold collected to buy weapons. The idea was dropped for technical problems and the gold remained or was hidden again.

The men involved in hiding either die or disappeared, Kimuspu, the old Ainu man in question, was also assumed to be dead.

Wilk and the other 6 Ainu with him find Kimuspu and learn from him where the gold is, take it and hid it in another place so as to become the only ones who know where the gold is (in fact it turns out Kimuspu’s brother also knew of the old hideout but when he send his sons there after the Nopperabou incident he finds it empty).

That’s why they become the only ones who know where the gold is hidden now, because they placed it in another hideout prior to the Nopperabou incident.

Then, due to Tsurumi spreading discord among them (as he managed to figure out who one of them was and got in contact with him), they and Kimuspu killed each other and only Wilk remained so he became the only one who knows where the gold is now hidden.

I hope it can help for now, if you’re still curious here are the detailed ramblings for chap 267, 268, 269. I recommend reading them as you might find the answers to your questions in them.