Kapitel 54: Chapter 54
A lot can happen during two months when you dedicate yourself to mastering one skill. At least, that's what I'd like to believe as I hammered away at a piece of iron.
What was I making? A tantō for Eri.
"Stop! If you hammer it anymore, you'll risk cracking it!" one of my mentors barked.
I put the iron back into the forge, watching it heat back to the proper temperature.
"Don't let it stay in there too long! Clean as you go! And widen your stance!"
I followed his instructions, wiping the anvil, splashing water over it, and retrieving the piece again. I hammered, cleaned, and repeated the process over and over. In the end, I was left with a warped blade.
'Why?' I thought, frustrated.
I threw the still-warm failure onto a pile of other botched attempts, hearing my mentor yell from behind me. "You did it wrong again!"
I had to resist the urge to punch him right in his masked face. "Don't rush it! Think before the next strike!"
With a sigh, I left the forge and made my way to where Eri was.
We'd been given a small house when we arrived here two months back, unfortunately it was right next to the eternally yelling Haganezuka Hotaru. And, as if on cue, I saw him looking like he was about to castrate someone.
Then I heard the source of his rage.
"KAMADO TANJIRO!"
I paused, hearing the pure fury in his voice.
"Hahahaha! Just you wait!" Haganezuka's crazed laughter followed his shout.
I waited until Hotaru was panting, having yelled himself hoarse, before approaching him. "You okay, Hotaru-san?"
He turned towards me slowly, radiating pure killing intent.
'If he wasn't a swordsmith, he'd make a great Demon Slayer.' I thought wryly.
Hotaru speed walked toward me, gripping my shoulders tightly. "Okay? Okay?! That damn fool damaged my katana!"
I felt his grip tighten, so I raised my hands and gently pried him off. "Well, at least you have a wielder, right? You can always meet with Tanjiro-kun."
He froze for a moment before bursting into laughter again. I tilted my head.
"You're right, Murasaki! How could I forget?"
I twitched at that nickname. Hotaru had started calling me "Murasaki" the moment I forged my first blade because it somehow turned out purple.
'Still not a fan of that name.' I thought.
Hotaru snapped me out of my thoughts with more manic laughter. "He's coming here today! Hahaha!"
I frowned. "I thought Demon Slayers weren't supposed to come here unless they were high-ranking?"
Eri had mentioned that the Love Hashira, or as she called her, 'the strong pink lady' had visited her, but I hadn't seen many others.
Hotaru waved it off. "Not necessarily true. Like yourself, Oyakata-sama requested you."
He walked back towards his forge, and I followed him. "I refused to forge another katana for Tanjiro-san, so I asked him to come in person. I'll show him what happens! You hear me Murasaki?"
I awkwardly nodded as we neared the house and spotted Eri with Kotetsu, a young boy who was the last descendant of the family that had forged the Yoriichi Type Zero battle doll. The thing was impressive, said to be modeled after the strongest Demon Slayer in history.
I'd even sparred with it once, though Kotetsu didn't want me to get hurt. I found his concern amusing but complied, especially after he explained that he was the only one who could fix the doll if it got damaged.
While the Yoriichi Type Zero was strong and a good way to train, I could still dodge its blows even on the hardest setting. Kotetsu had used some very colorful words that day, and he was lucky Eri wasn't around, or she would've witnessed me giving the brat a well-deserved spanking.
'Damn brat.' I thought with a smirk as I made my way towards the two of them.
Kotetsu straightened up the moment he saw me, standing as rigid as a plank, while Eri ran towards me.
'Still no smile.' I noted as I bent down, scooped her up, and casually threw her onto my shoulder. Once I got close enough, I grabbed Kotetsu too, much to his embarrassment, hoisting him over my other shoulder.
"So, what have you two been up to?"
Both started talking at once. Kotetsu rambled about learning more about the battle doll and how Eri had watched him fix it from time to time, while Eri added that they'd spent some of the day running around, collecting Wisteria flowers to use for decoration.
'Fortunately, I figured out a way to dampen the effects it has on me.' I thought, recalling how troublesome that flower was for me.
After I realized Eri liked it when I wore the Wisteria necklace she made, I had no choice but to come up with a way to suppress the flower's effects. Eventually, I managed to lightly coat my body in a thin layer of cursed magic to counteract it. It wasn't perfect, it took a lot of concentration to maintain, but it worked well enough to let me keep wearing the necklace without feeling like I was walking through a field of poison.
And speaking of poisons, the Nichirin blades came to mind. I had recently spoken with the chief of the village, Tecchin Tecchikawahara, about the materials used to forge the swords, and he offered to take me to the storage where they kept the raw ores.
I quickly regretted asking. The moment I stepped into that place, the sheer potency of the materials nearly overwhelmed me.
'Not my brightest moment.' I mused as I walked towards the house.
Once inside the storage room, I had taken a closer look at the ores. What surprised me most was how they felt. They were blessed, divinely touched in fact. Initially, I assumed it was a blessing from one of the gods in this world, but the more I examined them, the more I recognized a familiar warmth. It was the same heat that radiated from the blessing Amaterasu had given me.
There was only one conclusion I could draw, the Amaterasu of this world had blessed the ores to help the humans in their fight against the demons. I could be wrong, of course, but everything about the energy resonating from the materials seemed to point in that direction.
I sighed as I mulled it over.
'That brings me to my next problem.'
The moment I touched those ores, something strange happened, my pendant the one Buddha had given me, reacted. It wasn't the usual, calm response. No, it felt like a rejection. Almost as if the pendant and Amaterasu's blessing were at odds with one another. The pendant was nearly fully charged, and I'd been counting on it to get Eri and me hopefully back home, but Amaterasu's blessing had thrown a wrench into that plan.
'Just need to find someone to give it to.'
I had a few ideas of who might be able to handle it, but I hadn't decided yet. And then there was the insane backup plan that had been nagging at the back of my mind. It was risky, but if it worked... well, it might just solve everything.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein