Thousand Year Old Cherry Tree

Chapter 3: Smithing

The next day, I was able to get enough rest and energy to walk around the so called Citadel Kashuu talked about after getting dressed in clothes Kashuu managed to find in the Citadel. It resembled a lot like a shrine maiden's outfit. He introduced me the areas of each place. Besides the bedrooms, there was a training room for practice. A field. Horse Stalls, so far there are only two horses in the stalls. A place for laundry and a kitchen. Though the sad part was that even though this was the future, the Citadel seemed more of like those houses back in the countryside, with very little electric outlets. I should be grateful grandma taught me how to cook without using a stove if I wanted to cook the old fashioned way.

"Then Kashuu, is there any food that you liked in particular?"

"Food?" He blinked at me a few times and replied. "I may have a human form master, but I'm not required to eat like you."

"Oh..." I at least wanted to cook for him. To say thank you for taking care of me.

"Well it doesn't mean I can't eat food." He added, causing me to turn my frown upside down. I thus rolled up my sleeves and got started cooking miso and rice. It wasn't too hard since the kitchen had enough ingredients for at least two people. Besides I'm confident in my basic cooking skills! By the time I finished, we ate together in one of the rooms with a table long enough to fit more people. As I waited for Kashuu to say whether my cooking was good or bad. I silently prayed hoping it'd be good.

"Not bad. Then again this is my first time eating food, and I can't say it's horrible since I don't know how it's supposed to taste." Was Kashuu's response.

"Wait was it bad?" In a panicked haste, I quickly drank some of the miso to check, but it tasted like my usual miso. "Oh thank god, it's not bad."

"I never said it was bad in the first place, Master." He replied, before continuing to eat.

'T-That's true.' I thought while chewing on some more rice.

After eating I asked Kashuu out of curiosity, "So are there more swords than just you?"

"Heh, is master planning to give her love to some other sword than me?"

"W-What are you talking about?!" I shook my head, trying to stop my face from heating up. "I'm just talking about-"

"I'm joking." Kashuu really likes to tease me, doesn't he?

He guided me over to a new area called the Smithery. He explained that another way to gain more allies was by forging swords through smithing or by going to the front lines and fighting the retrograde army. However with only Kashuu as of this time, we can't go out into the front lines.

So I decided to give smithing a try, the small person in there of whom we called Mr. Smith helped me forged a sword however it was going to take some time. Kashuu left to tend to the horses while I decided to wait for the sword. Once the sword was finished, Mr. Smith said to go ahead and awaken the sword. Though here's the next question...do I just hug the sword?

I tried to take hold of the sword, but dang they're heavy! Hugging them didn't seem to work.

I stared at the sword sitting atop of my lap and called out for Kashuu, who just so happened to tread by the Smithery.

"Kashuu!"

By the time Kashuu arrived, he noticed that I haven't summoned the other ally. "You're still trying to summon?"

"Yes..." I frowned, "Are you sure you don't know how I did it?"

He nodded a bit and gave a suggestion, "Why don't you just try kissing the sword?"

"K-Kiss?!" What?! My eyes were wide as a plate, "Kiss the sword?!"

"If hugging doesn't work then why not?"

...

I kept glancing back at Kashuu and the sword that have yet been summoned. Until I heaved a heavy sigh, "Fine."

It's not like I never kissed a boy before, but kissing a sword seemed like a weird image.

Raising the hilt of the sword closer, I placed a light kiss only to feel a huge swirl of wind envelope me. The feeling of sword laying on my lap was gone, and I raised my head to find a guy in blue standing right before me.

"Yamato no Kami Yasusuda. Difficult to handle, but a good sword."

My eyes widened upon seeing them. Another shinsengumi sword? I wasn't sure of which person this sword belonged to, but the famous haori he wore was no joke.

"N-Nice to meet you too." I greeted in surprise, before regaining my composure. "My name is Yuna. Ibusaki Yuna."

"What took you so long Yamato?" Kashuu instantly greeted the guy wearing the shinsengumi haori.

"Kashuu!" Yasusada, his first name was too long for me to pronounce, grinned at the sight of seeing Kashuu.

"You guys know each other?"

"Yeah." Kashuu nodded while Yasusada explained, "We were both Okita Souji's swords."

"Okita Souji." He was indeed a well known sword wielder next to the Captains of the shinsengumi. To think he'd own two swords, both with very different personalities. Kashuu's was more mischievous whereas Yasusada was more polite. "I can't believe I summoned two swords from the Shinsengumi."

More importantly, how come the both of them originated from Okita Souji in particular? Was there some kind of connection between Okita and I? Soon I realized that I was being stared at by Yasusada, causing me to snap out of my thoughts. "What's wrong Yasusada?"

My face flushed in realization of what I just said, "I-Is it alright if I call you Yasusada? I-I'm sorry for calling you that without permission!" I bowed right in front of the new sword, his eyes wide in surprise of my actions.

"Master." I lifted my head to see Yasusada giving me a small smile, while lending a hand out to me. "It's fine. You don't need to apologize."

Staring at his outstretched hand, I placed my hand atop of it and ended up getting pulled up to my feet. However in the midst of being pulled up, I ended up held in Yasusuada's hold causing me to blush at how close we were. "There we go."

"Thank you." I muttered softly, trying to calm my heart down. C'mon Yuna, don't start having such feelings. You had a boyfriend!

...Oh that's right.

I dumped him. Biting the inside of my cheek, I gave a small smile in attempt to welcome Yasusada. I wasn't sure if I was able to get away with it or not however I could tell that Kashuu and Yasusada were looking at me worriedly.