9 - Smithing

In the Saniwa room, I found Midare and Gokotai in their sword form, severely injured. I immediately brought them to the repair room and repaired them. While they’re still repairing, I summoned Yagen, thankfully it worked. 

“Master! What happened to your face?!” Yagen shouted once he saw me. 

“Oh…” I touched my cheek, and then I saw blood in my fingers. 

It turns out my body here and in the real world is different. 

“I-I…” Tears welling up in my eyes again. 

“Master, let me patch you up.” 

Yagen pulled out some bandages and other things from his bag attached to his belt. 

“So, where’s Hachisuka?” Yagen asked. 

I feel my breath stuck in my throat,

“I-I broke him…” I’m avoiding his gaze. 

“What? How can that happen?” Yagen was startled. 

“Uh… so, actually, this is a different Honmaru from our previous Honmaru… The previous one lost connection from the Government of the Time, so I went back home using administrator authority…” 

I tried to explain it. 

“What? This is a different Honmaru?” 

I guess Yagen still couldn’t grasp the situation. 

“Yeah, so I applied as a Saniwa for the second time and got awakened again… That made me able to join the battle with the swords.” 

“Oh, so that’s possible…” Yagen pondered to himself. 

“Yeah, and then some strong enemy appeared and resulted in this… I think they’re called Kebiishi or something?” I explained. 

“What?! Kebiishi?! They’re not supposed to show up in the early stage except some foreign force appeared–” 

Yagen’s voice trailed off as I saw him dead in the eyes. 

“Yes, I’m the foreign force, I guess.” I sighed. 

Yagen finally finished bandaging me up. 

“Thank you, Yagen.” 

I touched my face, and then noticed that my hair also had been cut, and now my hair is uneven. Oh well, I’ll just fix it later.

In the meantime, Midare and Gokotai’s repair is finished. 

“Master! You're back!” Midare said energetically after finishing his repair. 

“Uhuuu.. Master, please don't leave us, Master…” Gokotai was sobbing after he saw me. 

“I'm sorry, I will be careful in the future.” I hugged them tightly. 

“Oh, Yagen-nii! You’re here!” Midare said when he saw Yagen. 

“Yes, Midare, Gokotai. Good job on protecting our master.” 

He patted them on the head. 

Midare and Gokotai smiled brightly. 

Thankfully, the atmosphere in the Honmaru isn’t as bleak as I thought it would be after what happened. 

“Let's just rest for today, I won't send you to the battlefield again until we have enough team members.” I patted them, and they went to their room. 

Now it's time to smithing. I currently still have around 10000 for each resource. I started smithing, and I met a lot of new companions this time. The first two are both tantous, Aizen Kunitoshi and Imanotsurugi. The next one is a different kind of sword, a spear or here we call them Yari, Tonbokiri. Another new kind of sword, Wakizashi, a medium sword, longer than Tantous, Honebami Toushirou.

After smithing spree, my resources are depleting so I need to wait until it refills again. So I said goodbye and went back for now. I will try smithing again tomorrow, hoping Hachisuka will come back to me.

The next day, I already have enough Touken Danshi to form one full team, so I send them to the battle. 

Just for countermeasures, I send them to the tutorial battle, Meiji Restoration Era, Hakodate. They are able to clear the battle just fine. So I sent them a few more times until they leveled up a bit before sending them to the next stage.

While sending my teams to the battlefield, I started smithing again. 

Today I got three Uchigatana, Nakigitsune, Souza Samonji, and Kashuu Kiyomitsu. 

Nakigitsune has a companion just like Gokotai, he has an orange fox, unlike Gokotai’s tiger cubs, the fox can talk, and he's quite a chatty fox. Some other swords I got today are Tachis, Shishiou and Shokudaikiri Mitsutada. Once again, I got a sword with a companion, Shishiou has a big Nue companion with him. The last one for today is a Wakizashi, Nikkari Aoe. 

Once again, I couldn’t get Hachisuka today. 

I wonder if it’s possible for me to be unable to get Hachisuka anymore because of all of the anomalies around me. I’m already back in my room, fiddling Hachisuka’s scabbard in my hand. Konnosuke said that I can get some resources by scrapping a sword, right? Will I get some resources by scrapping this? Maybe It'll be worth a try.

17 January, today I’m also going to my Honmaru and do some missions that have been assigned to me. 

I brought the scabbard with me today. The smither spirits are waiting for my order to smith a sword again today, but I walked straight to the furnace, and pulled out the scabbard. 

But wait, if I just toss them here, is it going to go to the resource pool? 

If that’s the case, then I can’t precisely use the resource I got for scrapping Hachisuka’s scabbard for smithing. 

I rolled up my right sleeve and then put them inside the furnace along with my hand. I felt a tug on my clothes, the spirits trying to stop me. I kept my hand inside the fire as I felt my flesh burning. I feel a thousand hot needles pricking through my skin to my flesh, and after a while I can’t tell anymore if it feels hot or cold. The pain became unbearable after a while, I bit my lips until I could taste blood in my mouth. 

I saw the scabbard melted down into a chunk of gold, and finally I pulled out my hand with the gold. I saw my hand was burned severely. It felt itchy and I had the urge to scratch off the melted flesh on my hand. But I think that’s a bad idea so I didn’t do it. 

I turned to the smither and kneeled. 

“Can you use this for smithing?” I asked. 

They nodded vigorously. I put it into their hands and give them one Request Token for smithing. 

1 hour and 30 minutes smithing time. I guess that’s the time for smithing Uchigatanas… 

I give the smithers a Help Token, and keep my finger crossed. 

They finished smithing instantly and they gave me the sword with gold scabbard with fancy carving that I’ll never fail to recognize. 

My wound is already cooled off a bit and the skin is thickened so it’s a bit hard to move them.

Regardless, I still did it, I stretched my hand and touched the sword. 

A burst of sakura petals filled the room once again.

“Hello Master, it’s nice to see you again.”