Thousand Year Old Cherry Tree

Chapter 7: The Silly Crane

"Yo. I'm Tsurumaru Kuninaga. Are you surprised that somebody like me came here so suddenly?" The self-proclaimed sword announced upon arrival. The funny thing is, I imagined an actual crane puffing it's chest out to show how proud it was in comparison to how Tsurumaru greeted himself. Honestly, I wasn't expecting this sword to arrive at all. However his presence in general overwhelmed me, especially the way his golden eyes stared back at me with the look of a prankster ready to plot his next tricks.

"Hm?" He hummed out of curiosity as I got a bag of chocolate, adorning a white ribbon, from Mr. Smith to hand over to the sword. "This is?"

"It's to commemorate the arrival of new swords." I explained while giving him a warm smile as I recalled the idea Shokudaikiri suggested. "Welcome to Citadel, Tsurumaru."

Wearing a cheeky smile, I never knew what to expect from him especially as the days go by.

"UWAH!" For example, one day I was scared to death by the sudden appearance of a figure wearing a terrifying bloody (probably fake blood from the general store) mask and sheets. I practically ran over to Kashuu and Yasusada's room for help, until the perpetrator decided to reveal himself before I could get the two swords. I whacked him with the back of my hand. "What's the meaning of this, Tsurumaru?!"

However I would only get a chuckle and a grin in return toward my anger-filled expression.

"Tsurumaru..." Another was putting food coloring in certain food to make it seem suspicious such as purple rice porridge. Akita refused to eat rice after seeing the color immediately. But I still question on how he found out the purpose of using food coloring. Not only that he used food coloring on some of the white clothes that were being washed when it was his duty to do laundry.

No matter how many times I lectured the sword about his pranking habits, Tsurumaru just manages to do it by the spur of the moment.

"When am I going to stop running around for these random prank attacks?" I can barely even run through this shrine maiden's outfit, it's heavy like the kimonos I had back home. Stopping to catch my breath, I soon come across a sleeping boy on the wooden pillar. The children's book was lying on his lap as five small tiger cubs curled around to give warmth.

"Gokotai." I softly called out to the tantou hoping to catch his attention. Unfortunately Gokotai continued to sleep peacefully in his dream-like state. There was a small smile on his face, I wonder what kind of dream he's having. As I watched the tantou and his tigers sleep in peace, I shifted to sit right next to the boy to see what he was reading.

'Ah...this story...' I thought to myself as I stared at the pages. 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf.'

If I recalled correctly, this story was about a boy who constantly cried wolf to gather the attention of the villagers on purpose but when an actual wolf arrived to endanger the village. The boy cried wolf...however no one believed in his cries. They all thought it was a mere prank spun by the boy's mouth. When in truth, it was real. This story ended with the boy being eaten by the wolf. Luckily Gokotai hasn't gotten too far into the story to know that. However if Gokotai did, I'm sure he would've asked: why didn't the villagers believe in him? I'd probably explain using the karma answer of how the character shouldn't have fooled around. Though, I loved how this story teaches people a lesson. The lesson of how someone shouldn't joke around when something serious has happened.

Now that I think about it, my current round about regarding the constant pranks made by Tsurumaru was kind of similar to this.

A small realization came to me, as my eyes widened in surprise. 'No way.' I covered my mouth to hide my gasp, turning to make sure the tantou was still sleeping. "Was Tsurumaru doing these pranks just to get my attention?"