Archer Infernoâs design is cute! So I translated some snippets from this chapter. This one is from near the end, before you face Archer Inferno.
Fate/Grand Order
ShimĆsakuni - Canto 2: Inferno (KyĆ«)1
The screen is black.
ââHell must be on earth.
The memory opens to a barren battlefield and embers of flames that razed it.
We fought for the people.
Yoshinaka-sama rose up to right the wrongs of proud and mighty Taira clan.
Yes, it must have been right.
If it was for the sake of creating a world truly at peaceâeven if it meant bloodshed.
Kiso Yoshinaka.2 My beloved hero without equal. With the oppressed people of the Minamoto, he opposed the Tairaâs tyranny and continued to fight, and fight, and fight.
Yet the new age without the Taira resented him.
A wicked thing befell him after he took control of the capitalâ
He was betrayed! My Yoshinaka-sama!
Betrayed by the very Minamoto clan who fought by his side!
The flames burn stronger.
I wonât forgive them. I wonât forgive them. I wonât forgive them. Alas, I shanât forgive!
Yoshinaka-sama is deadâslain by the hands of the Minamoto!
I must not forgive them. They are despicable.
They are horrible, horrible, so horribleâ
I detest them. I detest them. I detest them. I detest them. I detest them. I detest them. I detest them. I detest them.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
The Minamoto who betrayed Yoshinaka-sama are despicable.
The peopleâthe Land of the Rising Sunâwho could not accept Yoshinaka-sama are despicable.
This entire world is wretched and vile!
So vile that my hatred cannot be erased!
This must be hell. What is this, if not hell!
A place where wretched sinners do nothing but writhe and corrupt with their rot!
Justice does not exist.
Why, this world was hell from the beginning!
I detest it. I detest it. I detest it. Not a thing has changed since then.
My fury, my hatredâthey burn like flames that turn everything to ashes.
ââNo. Wait. Thatâs not it. Somethingâs not right.
I too had my humanity when I died.
In me who has materialized like this lies a silhouette of the pastâŠ
Yet why? Why wonât my hatred cease?
When I was alive, after the battle, I must have secluded myself from the world without a sound.
Yet it is I who burns so brightlyâ
My existence as a Heroic Spirit, how I materialized in this world, no, no, no, no, noâsomething is wrong!
Why, why, why?!
Unsatisfied with weeping for my beloved, I burst into flames like kindlingâand how could this be?!
Hatred. Anger. The karma for my massacre drove me cruelly to madness.
The flames, blazing brightly without end, now seek me!
Ah...
At last, Iâve fallen to the depths of depravity.
ââAn evil known as a demon.
ââIt is, perhaps, a chronic disease of the blood that cannot hope for someoneâs embrace.
It is revealed that Archer Inferno is none other than Tomoe Gozen. After Guda and company defeat Archer Inferno, another flashback begins. The scene opens with an orange sky.
Kiso Yoshinaka
At this rate, the Land of the Rising Sun will fall to ruin.
Therefore, someone must rise up. Someone must fight.
Kiso Yoshinaka
This is not for the age the Minamoto clan envisions.
I fight so that peoples across the land can live peacefully.
Tomoe Gozen
How wonderful, Yoshinaka-sama.
Kiso Yoshinaka
It is, isnât it? Wonderful indeed.
Kiso Yoshinaka
⊠Hahaha. So it is.
I thought I ought to say something splendid, so I did.
Kiso Yoshinaka
But you see, what I said just now? A front is all it is.
Should anyone else ask, I would give them the same answer.
Tomoe Gozen
Yoshinaka-sama�
Kiso Yoshinaka
I shall tell you my true feelings, Tomoe.
I fight against the Taira clan not for the sake of othersâ
Kiso Yoshinaka
But for a tomorrow when I can live with you. That is all.
Kiso Yoshinaka
A tomorrow when nothing is consumed by the flames of warâ
I fight so I may spend it with you, Tomoe.
How?
How could I forget this sight?
IâŠ
It was not only malice, nor was it only anger or hatred.
I am certain I received something precious from him.
That is why I lived on.
In the first year of Genryaku3, when Yoshitsune-dono tracked down Yoshinaka-sama on Yoritomo-donoâs orders, upon Yoshinaka-samaâs instruction I quickly left him,
lived on,
and narrowly escaped death.
Before long, I gave birth to Yoshihide, became a nun,
and in my final years, mourned as I wished for Yoshinakaâs happiness in his next life.
I was, yesâŠ
A woman who calmly prayed as she waited for her final moments.
Yet why?
Alas, Tomoe, why have you forgotten
Yoshinaka-samaâs face, smiling with his back against the setting sunâ
The flashback ends. We return to Tomoe Gozen, crying blood.
Archer Inferno
⊠Yoshinaka, samaâŠ
Archer Inferno
I rememberedâŠ
Archer Inferno
...how you shyly smiled at Tomoe, Yoshinaka-sama.
Archer Inferno
How I loved the face you made back then.
I will not forget it. Oh, I should not have forgotten it.
Archer Inferno
âŠ...malice, hatred, anger.
Archer Inferno
These things which I should have set aside long ago drove me to madness.
Archer Inferno
I regret them, I regret themâŠ
But...
Archer Inferno
They too must end here.
This is goodâŠ
Archer Inferno
Tomoe shall be like kindling no longerâŠ
Archer Inferno
.....................Iâm glad.
1 Each section of Shimosakuni (Purgatorio, Inferno, etc.) is counted with the kanji æ, which can mean either song or poem, specifically that of classical Japanese poetry. I chose to translate it to the similar Italian canto to keep it consistent with the Divine Comedy. The cantos are further divided according to the jo-ha-kyuu (ćșç Žæ„) structure found in Japanese literature. More on this structure here.
2 Also known as Minamoto no Yoshinaka, a general and cousin of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate.
3 1184 CE
On December 2, Chouroku 1 (1457), the surviving retainers attacked the Southern Court from inside Yoshino in high spirits. One of the retainers was Nakamura Danjou-no-jou Sadatomo, who took the heads of two imperial princes and, as he withdrew, was slain in battle by Southern Court forces. They failed to recover the imperial seal but succeeded the following year (1458). As the loyal retainers of the Northern Court, the Nakamura clan was awarded the chrysanthemum crest. The kamon within the tortoise shell was a paulownia, but was changed to chrysanthemum to honor this.4
As orphans left behind by an esteemed vassal, Nakamura Kawachinokami and Suruganokami were appointed as shogunal guards, but they, along with the Akamatsu clan, went into decline during the Sengoku period. The lack of impetus to keep Kikkou Sadamune naturally followed.
The sword came into the possession of the ancestor of Unshuu Matsue, Matsudaira Dewa-no-kami Naomasa, then it was left in an encampment in Oushuu Province, Kikuta District, Kubota (Fukushima Prefecture, Iwaki City) of the 20,000 koku fief of the Hijikata clan. The clanâs ancestor Kawachi-no-kami Katsuhisa received a Norishige tantou and Rai Kunimitsu wakizashi from the second shogun Hidetada as congratulationsâKikkou Sadamuneâs origins were not a mystery to them. In Joukyou 1 (1684), during the time of the fourth Iga-no-kami Katsutaka, Kikkou Sadamune was also sold in order to end the internal squabble over the clanâs succession.
It is said that either Honâami Koushuu or a certain Akazawa, a goyounin5 of the Nanbu domain, bought Kikkou Sadamune for 150 ryo (around US$131,900) directly from the merchant who bought it off the Hijikata clan. Experts are still looking into whether the Honâami clan or Akazawa bought the sword first, as it was more likely for it to be purchased through the Honâami clan. This was reported to the daimyo Nanbu Shina-no-kami Yukinobu and as thanks, he bought the sword from Akazawa and rewarded him.
In Genroku 11 (1689), when the shogun Tsunayoshi was to visit the Owari clanâs domain residence, the clan was required to present him more than 200 swords. Instead, they wished to offer the Nanbu clanâs Kikkou Sadamune, as the sword was previously owned by Tokugawa clan. Unable to refuse the earnest request of the Owari clan, the Nanbu clan reluctantly conceded and gave the sword to them. In return, the Owari clan gave them the tachi Douyo Ichimonji and the tantou Ayanokouji Yukimitsu. On March 18 of the same year, the Owari clan presented Kikkou Sadamune and the tantou Souzui Masamune to shogun Tsunayoshi.
On December 5, Houei 1 (1704), the sword was passed down to the shogun Tsunayoshiâs adopted son Ienobu. On December 1, Kyouhou 9 (1724), when the 8th shogun Yoshimune named his eldest son Ieshige, he gave this sword to him. On December 12, Genbun 5 (1740), when the 9th shogun Ieshige named his eldest son Ieharu, he gave it to him. On November 1, Houreki 12 (1762), the 10th shogun Ieharu gave it to his eldest son Takechiyo, later known as Iemitsu, to celebrate the seventh night of his birth.
On May 6, 1936, the sword was certified a national treasure by Prince Tokugawa Iemitsu. After World War II, its ownership was passed from the Tokugawa clan to Watanabe Seiichirou. On May 29, 1965, its status was raised from an Important Cultural Property to a new National Treasure. In 1991, Watanabe Seiichirou donated it to the Tokyo National Museum.
1 A compilation of all the registered famous swords of Japan ordered by the 8th shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. It was written by the 13th head of a family of sword appraisers, Honâami Kouchuu.
2 The earliest known compilation of kamon or family crests.
3 The Akamatsu were the shugo-daimyo of Harima during the Sengoku period.
4 I checked meitou.info and itâs one of the possible origin stories, from what I understand. It quotes Nakamura Kawachinokami saying the same thing in archaic Japanese.
5 manager; steward; person next in rank to the chief retainer and in charge of general management and accounting in a samurai family (Edo period) (source)
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