Chapter Text
About a week had passed, and you are still adjusting. As expected, probably, but underlying feelings of frustration refuse to disappear. It's not like you were obsessed with the television, or social media, but its abscence has grown painfully noticable.
Kashuu and Midare do not understand it, though. But how could they? They have known no different. Yesterday you had tried to explain the concept of a smartphone to them, and while they said they got what you were talking about, the confused looks in their eyes told you that their words were not entirely true.
Most of all, you miss music. Of course, it isn't like you couldn't have some kind of singalong with your new friends, or get your hands on some kind of instrument and start learning it (with the amount of free time you have found yourself with, such a feat would not be a challenge). But thoughts of your iPod, lifetimes in the future, does bring you down sometimes. You keep telling yourself that you'll find a way to sneak it back with you when you next go back to the future.
In all honesty, though, you do not know for sure whether you will actually get to go back. Ever.
And even if you did, would your swords come with you? You are being expected to raise an army. How were you supposed to bring said army into a time period centuries after their own? They aren't even humans, barely adjusting to the world they were living in now; Kashuu's initial uneasiness with the car (something you had very much forgotten in the excitement of the moment) flashes through your mind. You would not like to imagine him face a highway full of cars.
"Master?" a high, slightly breathy voice enters your ears and you turn from the window to see Midare in the doorway. His short, pleated dress catches the breeze and shfits in the air a little, stirring around the sheathed tantou at his side.
Master. Yes, it was Midare that had come up with it, and you found that you quite liked it. One would initially find it perhaps slightly impersonal, but the sense of importance it gives you distracts you a little, making you feel slightly lighter in the gravity of your situation.
"What is it?" you ask quietly, hands slipping from where they were lightly brushing the wall. The room around you feels warm. It must be summer, it has to be.
"Uhhh," he looks away for a second, and fiddles with the hem of his dress, "well, it was Kashuu that sent me to ask this actually..."
You raise your eyebrows and walk over to him, a knowing smile on your face. Placing one hand on his shoulder, you use the other to rub your eyes. Tiredness has been becoming more and more overwhelming ever since Midare took his first breath as a human, and it has made you wonder where this power of the saniwa has any adverse effects. Or it could just be this new environment.
"He wants to go on a sortie, doesn't he?" you ask before he speaks again, and Midare does not seem surprised that you have read his mind.
He nods and shuffles on the spot, "although..." he begins, after taking a moments thought, "I don't think that he's particularly bloodthirsty or anything." The tantou shrugs, "I think he's just bored. Or... hmmm..."
You notice his mouth straighten, and then bend into a small frown. He brings a hand to his mouth and pinches his lips; it takes you to encourage him to continue before he says anything else, and even then it's hesitant enough to worry you.
"It's like..." he struggles, and then rethinks his sentence, "well, I don't know if it's the same for Kashuu... but, the idea of actually getting to fight, instead of just being the weapon, it's..." Midare's hands are flailing, trying to use actions to aid his meaning but not really getting anywhere. "You're not a sword," he finishes, giving up, "I don't think you'll get it anyway." Those words hit harder than you think he ever meant, and when he continues the smile begins to fall from your face, "of course, Kashuu understands what I mean, but you're just a human, so.."
Just a human.
It was not meant as an insult at all, but your head is spinning. It's true. You can never be like them, and they can never be like you, either. It's like you're understanding each other on a superficial level; these people you gave life to simply don't think the same way that you do. The meaning to that is so vague you can barely grasp it yourself to form as a thought in your head, but its result - this strange, metaphysical barrier between you and the swords - is obvious.
"Well, we haven't even organised for his sword to be repaired yet," you break the silence, choosing to gloss over that last part of your conversation, "and that's going to be a proper challenge. Okita Souji couldn't even get it fixed, so we might even have to send it into the future to get it looked at properly, Midare. They'll have the technology there to sort it out."
"Ah," he gives a small nod.
"You two will be able to go on a sortie as soon as that happens," you try to pick up a happier expression again, "I promise."
"Don't you mean, 'you three'?" you both turn to find Kashuu just out into the hallway, clutching a parcel. Your eyes widen, and Midare gives a little jump.
"Looks like it came early," the uchigatana said, and walks past you into the room with it, setting it onto the floor. "Although," and he eyes you over his shoulder with a teasing glance, "we are running low on materials now... and I seem to remember that the scientists would give us some if we helped them out on... sorties."
"Oh, be quiet," you playfully push him aside, "you know what you just heard me say. Just wait a little longer." You turn your attention to the box, "I wonder who we've got this time?"
"I think Midare should open it," Kashuu suggests, and you realise the three of you have naturally formed an awkward circle around the new sword.
The blonde lets out an excited gasp and leans forward. "can I, master? Please?"
"Of course. Go ahead."
"The sword's name is Imanotsurugi!" he exclaims upon seeing the slip of paper, and when you see him lean over to check the characters with Kashuu, your eyes narrow in obvious curiosity. Now that you're thinking about it... how can they read? Who taught them such a thing? It is a skill that is nowhere near inate for a human, let alone a sword.
"Oh, wow: another tantou!" Midare lifts the blade out of the box and it catches the sunlight. You blink the glare away to see the blonde shaking Kashuu's shoulder, "I told you, Kashuu."
"It's only because you guys are cheaper," he remarks, keeping the pride and confidence in his voice. They must have made some kind of bet.
Midare shrugs, "I didn't realise price was the same thing as emotional value," he turns to you, "master, please bring Imanotsurugi to life!"
"I'll try," you say, maybe a little quieter than you should do.
Once again, the blade just has to sit in your hands for something to happen. Soon, there is yet another person in this new bedroom of yours (which, despite its size, is now starting to feel a little small).
Imanotsurugi is about the same height as Midare, with similar young-looking features. His eyes are red, however; like Kashuu's but much more vivid. His small body feels very delicate in your arms, and he is only in that strange trance for a few seconds because all three of you are working on that idea that a smile will bring him out of it, and it does.
"I'm Imanotsurugi!" he says, and you hear that his voice is a little deeper than Midare's, "the sword that protected Lord Yoshitsune! How's that, amazing right?"
"That's pretty cool!" you agree with a small nod, and you introduce yourself and the other swords before he speaks again.
"Since his time at the temple," he continues, "I have been by the lord's side, all the way until the end! That's right..." suddenly, his expression grows dark, voice wavering, "until the very last moment..."
His smile has faded, and his body slouches on the floor. Mist seems to have clouded over his eyes and when you send a look at Kashuu you notice that his hand has found his way to sit on his uchigatana, his grip on it growing tight.
You work your jaw for a second, but your hands are still firmly on his arms. His hair is the longest out of your three swords, the grey colour surprisingly warm, doing nothing to take away from the youth filling his face.
"I'm a Tantou as well!" Midare broke the silence, the grin on his face spreading fast but naturally.
Imanotsurugi looks at him for a second, and then picks up his own blade. He is hesitant.
"Feels weird, doesn't it?" the blonde says, and you make a mental note to ask one of them about their blades later. Their attitudes towards them are starting to become noticably... odd.
You also didn't realise that Kashuu had disappeared from your side until he returns, prepared with something that both of you had forgotton upon Midare's 'birth': something for him the newborn blade to wear.
"You'll get to pick out your own clothes soon," Kashuu takes his body (still very weak, most likely) and puts the simple robe over his shoulders, "but you can wear this until then." And you realise that what Imanotsurugi now had on was the one that Kashuu had been given.
"Do you know why you're here?" Midare asks him, and the other tantou shakes his head slowly, awkwardly trying to position himself until he found a comfortable way to sit in Kashuu's lap. "Well... it's to go to battle! At least..." and he shoots a look at you which brings Imanotsurugi's eyes on you as well, "at least when master says that we can. Kashuu's still got to be fixed as well."
"Don't remind me again, gods..." the uchigatana grumbles, blushing behind Imanotsurugi's hair, "it's... a little embarassing."
"Really?" Midare smiles sweetly, "or is it just because you can't handle that fact that two little knives are currently in a better condition than you?"
Imanotsurugi looks rather confused, and you shrug at him. It seems like a friendly sort of rivalry; Kashuu has indeed shown himself to be a very proud character, and Midare is definitely not just a pretty face. You have a feeling that it will be when they take to the battlefield that you will finally see their true colours - whoever they were painted by.