As soon as you start the game, you can pick Japan on the map and meet Musashi.
While in her Celestial Demon form (before you clear her flags), she’ll be depicted as an unbeatable boss that shows up whenever you go to Japan.
As for her appearance, the only thing you can see is this wild blaze of pitch-black flames, and five fangs whirling at the center of the fire.
The five fangs form a twister by wobbling chaotically like the teeth from the God Warriors in Nausicaä. It will also somewhat resemble the belly of Bemstar, the space monster from Ultraman.
The center point of the five fangs will fire spiral beams that can one-shot most characters.
The five fangs are actually five swords. They come from Musashi’s Noble Phantasm, “Book of Five Rings.” The so-called spiral beam, too, upon closer inspection turns out to be just “Arms of Musashi,” a pack of countless swords being fired together. What makes it dangerous is that each hit packs the punch of an Excalibur swipe.
Musashi was turned into the Celestial Demon due to Grail shards that were shoved inside her body.
With the help of a virtuous monk and an obnoxious old sword saint who actually needs no Grail to be able to bisect the Celestial Demon in a single slash but would rather not try his luck (I’m thinking Bokuden, but there are other options), you can enclose Japan in the Boundary that makes her beatable.
The Bounded Field’s name will be “Grand Anti-Celestial Demon Anti-Swordmaster Bounded Field/Ganryuujima.”
//Dropping the name Ganryuujima here will be the big clue that lets the player find out the creature was Musashi.
With Ganryuujima in effect, the black flames are extinguished from the Celestial Demon, revealing Musashi’s body. She looks like a five-armed critter. As gross as Master Jugei from Kekkai Sensen. Several parts of her body have holes from which you can see the universe inside.
If you somehow manage to defeat her, her ugly body splits in two, revealing our two-armed buddy Musashi, a gorgeous swordswoman soon be smitten with the player character, as she wields two swords to swing both ways.
But that didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, Rock1. (Only this sentence was added in 2026.)
Translator’s Notes
- ^ A reference to Benny’s line to Rock in Black Lagoon.