10 YEARS AGO, FALL MONTH 1, DAY 15, SAMURAI COUNTRY NAGASUKE
The next day was the last day they planned to stay, so they scoured the city full of man, trade and distraction before finding a good blacksmith.
They had asked if their sites could be experienced – from the street corner shows, to the good-looking clothes, some weapons and even potions – but Drisnyl Hashna Tsuyo-sa downright rejected them all after being almost distracted each and every single time as this place was many times better than the Gathering of Oniga which they had come from, back-to-back.
[1]
Funny enough, Skrylla was preoccupied by mounts or what someone wore or a certain smell or a circus performance so much so that it was until nightfall that they found one, in one of the corners.
As far as the eye could see, shops lined the roads.
And although they didn’t strictly adhere to some curb, they never entirely blocked the road as customers were always in sight.
Walking, talking, haggling, eating and admiring.
The man was hunched over and looked young but had white hair with deliberately slow steps as if painfully comfortable, even in his speech.
“Hello friends.”
Where they stood in the morning sun was an outside porch of sorts except it wasn’t too accommodating; a bench to one side of the open space, which reminded them more of a military open room, that was entirely covered with a black leather of some sort with metal poles and wooden screens to hold it up from inside.
“Good evening, I’ve been looking for a strong blacksmith.”
He chuckled and straitened his back, rolling his shoulders as he seemed much taller.
“Yes, I can tell you cultivate, too.”
The silence dragged on so she spoke first.
“We want to smith a sword, a traditional Katana.”
“No, sir not traditional, but part Katana”
“You brought materials?”
Skrylla brought his box from his back and handed over all the wooden swords.
“These are all wooden.”
“Yes, but they are special.”
The man cocked his head as the Mistress placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Then, Skrylla Yokuta remembered not only his mother’s warning about letting too many people know about the special properties of the wood itself.
His breath caught though, as he couldn’t miss this step in becoming a samurai.
So, how was he to get a sword out of the material he believed to be the best without letting the blacksmith know too much?
Seeing the troubled look on his face, Hashna Drysnil Tsuyo-ya spoke got him instead.
“What materials can I use?”
When Skrylla Yokuta walked in, he marveled as this was one of those shops which were inside was bigger than outside.
The door here had shelves upon shelves that held materials and even more materials.
There were anvils and tools arranged neatly, either hanging or on the ground.
“What can 100,000 get?”
Genjiro, Karin and Jin looked at her like she was crazy as the man chuckled, then went into the shelves and beckoned them to come.
Skrylla Yokuta wacthed again at the actually space of this place as the blacksmith walked longer than possible because it looked as if the door had been on one spot but the distance between the man and the entry to the other section of this place was farther than should be possible.
And when he stopped, it was a damp, almost wet room where he brushed his hand over materials from plastic to leather to clay then glass and even rubber.
Gold, silver, diamond, Onyx, Beryl and so forth.
“Woah.” Skrylla Yokuta walked to the door to experience it himself abd was looking up at the material until Aershi Daro spoke again.
“This material is called Tomb Steel and is a natural occurring Potent Artifact.
It grows in graves when there is lot of death and a stone absorbed it all.
Usually for a millennium.”
“How strong is it?” Skrylla Yokuta was skeptical because he knew about his own Swords.
“Very, very, very.
Also, heavy.”
Skrylla Yokuta beseechingly looked at The Mistress as he was trying to come up with something, who winked at him.
He then turned to the Blacksmith and nodded in half-agreement.
So, 100,000 Bronze Hyur exchanged hands from the mistress to the blacksmith and Skrylla Yokuta was happy.
With Gejro, Karin and Jin with them, they were glad that they could leave the inn environment as the rooms had been very distracting.
Especially for the boys, their sleeping spaces had been next door to very active rooms, being the outermost in their group.
“So, apart from its story, what is good about the material?” Skrylla Yokuta was lost for words, he could only stall.
“I know samurai work with the spirit, theirs or the beasts they can use or tame,” He walked over his workshop gathering the materials to begin forging.
“This one is used to the presence of spirits so it might make it easier to capture and keep them.”
“Wait,” Skrylla was genuinely confused as his thought patterns had been broken.
“My mum told me that the Breathing Techniques were for molding the Samurai’s own spirit, so what does it have to do with the weapons?”
“A spirit can be stored in a sword, preferably one made with Potent Artifacts so that it is stronger, which would make it a Brio-Relic.”
“What is that?”
“It is a sword with the ability to cultivate.
Hence, it gains the ability to naturally have Sword Abilities, Sword Lights, Sword Shadows, Sword Potentials and Sword Intents.”
“Wait, so if we were making a spear, then?”
“Yes, Spear Abilities, Spear Lights and all that.” The man stretched out his hand.
“My name is Aershi Daro, you haven’t asked.”
“Skrylla Yokuta” He laughed then immediately went back to his question.
“So, how do I learn mine?”
She snickered at his bluntness, “let him make it first.”
“Okay, I’ll be silent.” Skrylla Yokuta went to one of the benches and at down, kicking his legs in excitement.
Then, he remembered his problem.
The man laughed, showing missing teeth and some bronze, “come here, kid.”
“Um, Miss,” Jin cleared his throat and placed his hands together as if in prayer, “can we see stuff?”
“And get to buy stuff, after we sample stuff?” Gejiro joined him too and not with a smile but with humble expectations.
“Let’s stay, let’s stay,” Skrylla pulled at her hands.
The Trio from Oniga had their expressions twitch because they were all meant to be on the same side.
“You guys, go where you will, *after* selling the loot we have harvested,” She squatted and smiled at him.
“I’ll be here.”
Aershi Daro walked to the end of his shop and pulled away a canvas that covered a furnace, then he told Skrylla to wait there.
His eyes were on what looked like a box, which was twice his height in length, black from smoke and had a crisscross of *countless* scars atop its body.
The man retrieved the TombSteel and brought them, his bulk of muscles bulging with each heavy step.
Skrylla was in shock.
“I’m going to be working with something that heavy?” The TombSteel had inscriptions on them that gave off an eerie glow.
They were dark black like granite, but *heavy* and *dense*.
An impression of matte paint did not reflect black.
Whereas, this one even looked like it absorbed it; they looked like the blackest night.
Aershi Daro waited to drop it down before he took deep breaths and spoke, wiping a trickling sweat off his brow as he did so.
“Imagine if you carry that every day, *and* practice with it; what amount of power would you unleash.” He punched his arm, “don’t limit yourself, boy.”
“Wait then,” Skrylla Yokuta said and raised his hands then pulled out his weapons again.
I have a proposition.”
Aershi Daro paused, curious.
“What if we add the wooden swords into the Blades?”
The Blacksmith paused, then realised what was being said.
“Oh, I see what you mean; Katana do have several edges to their blade.
So, it is indeed possible to add the wooden ones to one.”
“But,” the Mistress spoke what was on Aershi Daro’s mind, “that would ruin the strength of he Weapon.”
“Hah.” Skrylla Yokuta puffed his chest.
“My buddy will never be outclassed.
No material can beat it!”
The Mistress laughed at what Skrylla Yokuta said and spoke to clarify what the Blacksmith did not understand.
“He refers to his weapon as his Buddy.
The wooden swords, you see.”
Aersho Daro stared back into the boy’s eyes and laughed, then shared a look with the Mistress.
The sense of wary that flashed in her eyes made his laughter reduce into a smile that did not reflect his curiousity.
“Fine then, show me your blade.”
“My buddy!”
“Oh, sincerest apologies,” Aershi Daro raised his hands in humility.
“Show me your Buddy.” He knew people that treated their weapons as literal extensions of themselves.
So, if anything he respected the boy now.
“That’s better!”
Laying them all on the floor, they were 30 of them.
And he wanted to give them all but picked up only half that he pushed towards the Blacksmith.
The honest truth was Aershi Daro was still largely skeptical but he had not gotten a request all week, plus the boy seemed interesting enough.
“To melt all these and add to the blade, or to make the wooden swords an edge in the weapon.”
“Just make sure Buddy is a part of it.”
Aershi Daro considered what was being required of him;
If he simply made it an edge, he could use paint to hide the difference in material.
Plus, if he child actually awakened the blade, it would be a purely inseparable part of the weapon.
But if he added it to the TombSteel… he might actually hamper the weapons ability to store spirits.
Considering he money they brought, this was the bst he could do for them.
So, he would only diminish the one thing that made it special as it was not the only heavy material he had in the shop.
But that was not even where the dilemma lay;
If he burnt the sword it would become ash, was that what he boy wanted?
To spread ash over the melted material.
But, with the love Skrylla Yokuta had for his weapons, should he really burn it to ash before him?
Explaining the situation first would benefit everyone.
“If I am to integrate it them to the TombSteel, I will have to burn it to ash and sprinkle it upon the sword.”
Skrylla Yokuta laughed.
“You said, you wanted to burn it.
Good luck.”
The man paused and looked at the Mistress whose eyes flashed in a devious light before she took 2 steps back and fell on her butt.
Hashna Drisnyl Tsuyo-ya had just attempted to probe his level of cultivation and he was so far above her realm of understand that sbe had no way to keep the boy’s secret.
“Please take the 100,000 Bronze Hyur as good faith so that you will not tell the secret to anyone.”
She then slapped Skrylla Yokuta’s head.
“He was not supposed to tell anyone.”
The Blacksmith squinted his eyes and the Mistress’s heart skipped a beat.
“… Are you afraid because you mean he is being serious?”
“Yup, good luck trying to bu-“ she slapped his head again and this time she shouted in pain.
The man laughed, “no need to fear.
I am a Blacksmith and I represent a guild I cannot even dare to think of bismirching because of greed.” He then took a hold of one sword so fast it seemed as if it were always in his hand.
“Plus, if you worry about me this much and my integrity, you must not know who I am.”
Holding Skylla Yokuta in her arms, she placed him behind her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.”
Aershi Daro looked at the blades and then found nothing special about it.
Outside of its 50 kg weight, he did not find it to be nothing of note.
He then decided to put it to the test.
“Let’s make a deal,” now she was reaching for her weapons.
“If this weapon is truly special then I would
Not only craft this for half the price but I would also lend him techniques that he will need to help his growth.”
“However, if there is nothing special about the material then I will simply charge you at my normal rate and I will proceed without the wooden swords.” He then pinched his chin.
“Or, I will simply only use then as the hilt – or the TSUKA – of the blade.”
She waited to hear a threat and stiffened up.
“Either way, no one will know about what happened here.”
She still did not speak.
“Hey, it sounds lile a good de-“
“Shut up!”
It was the first time she was harsh on him, and the shock made him pout.
“Hey, look at it from my point of view;
“Firstly, this is my trade.
Secondly, this is someone who takes his training seriously.
And finally, he is someone who is willing to let go of what he considers to be a secret only because he wants a sword.”
Pointing at Skrylla Yokuta, he further stated.
“I see before me a man of ambition.”
However, the blacksmith still glimpsed the doubt and hesitation all over her face.
Aershi Daro could only sigh as he reached one part of the wall of his workshop and applied pressure on it.
Following, a long compartment fell out of the wall, attached with hinge joints so that it fell to form a 90 degrees from the wall.
“Here goes.”
Aershi Daro then tossed the Sword inside, shut the compartment back up, waited as the wall glowed up to outline a screen from the heat being produced on the Inside.
“If we tried to snatch every material brought here would we be an organisation?”
The woman’s face eased up a little as she stood up but Skrylla Yokuta seemed unaware of her tension and jumped reapeatly, in attempts to see what was happening.
The Blcksmith laughed and held up the boy at the pits.
And it was only after holding him in one arm that Skrylla Yokuta almost fell from his grip because of his shock.
The Wooden Sword inside was not even red.
Touching a part of the wall, the temperature within reached 100 degrees Celcius but there was no change after 5 minutes.
Glancing at the Mistress then the boy with a frown he turned it up higher.
150 was no change and neither was 200.
250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900… 1,000!
Aershi Daro blanched.
The weapon was not even red!
Aershi Daro pressed a part on the wall again and the heat dissipated within the compartment.
So, the view from within dimmed until it was only the coals that were still red hot.
Then he waited an extra 30 minutes to make sure the paranoid Mistress would be at even more ease before opening up the compartment.
The complete Sword was cool to the touch!
[1] Back-to-back means continuously and unending