Yami No Yojimbo 1 (Cosmic Jidai Bunko)

[Machine Translation] Why now? -Heibei Yasuda, a sword sharpener who lived in a tenement house in Honjo Aioicho with his daughter Mayumi, was horrified. (He was horrified when a piece of paper labeled "Eighteen Nights" was thrown into his workshop. Eighteen Nights" was a request to kill a "459-ya," meaning a "hell shop. Heibei was a skilled swordsman who could instantly close the gap between a man and another in a reverse eight-phase stance, but he had left the killing business ten years earlier for the sake of his daughter. It seems that I am the only one who can do this job. Heibei had a hunch, but he was not confident that he could cut like he used to. However, he still felt that he must use his own sword to slay the evils of the world. He whipped his old body into shape, suppressed his warrior's trembling with sake, and now he was ready to go to Shura! Kill or be killed, an old swordsman turns into a demon of hell once again!

今ごろになって、なぜ?―本所相生町の長屋に年頃の娘・まゆみと住み、刀研ぎ師を営んでいた安田平兵衛は戦慄した。〈十八夜〉と記された紙片が彼の仕事場に投げ込まれたからだった。十八夜とは四五九屋、つまり地獄屋を意味する殺しの依頼である。平兵衛は逆八相に構え、瞬時に間合を詰める凄腕の剣客であったが、十年前、娘のために殺し稼業から足を洗ったのであった。どうやら、おれにしか出来ない仕事のようだ。平兵衛は直感したが、昔のように斬れる自信はない。だがまだ己の剣で、この世の悪を斬らねばならぬ、との思いもあった。老体に鞭打って鍛え直し、酒で武者震いを抑え、いざ修羅へ!殺るか殺られるか、一人の老剣客がふたたび地獄の鬼と化す!!