Beast Hunter |Inosuke Hashibira|

Chapter 6🌲A New Journey

↣A New Journey↢

It had been a long wait, sitting in a village with people who would anxiously ask if you've gotten 'that legendary color-changing sword' every time you pass by. To be quite frank you had gotten tired of it; you'd much rather sit at home sleeping and eating if it weren't for your grandfather, who was much to busy, telling you to run errands. Even going to get groceries from the farmer and butcher warranted you inquiries of Final Selection, the sword or your technique. This had gone on for fifteen days nonstop, tiring you more than ever. It wasn't until wind chimes awoken you from another day of nonstop sleep did the murmurs stop, instead it was your little siblings and their friends yelling at you to get up like the end of the world was near.

You shot up as Hakaru yelled in your ear. The ten year olds giggled quietly as you whipped your head to look around your room of filled with atleast twelve little kids. They stared at you, starry eyed, yelling over each other about something. You sighed, figuring they wanted you to tell them the story of your adventure for the thirtieth time since you got back, and fell back onto your futon.

Daichi shook you awake again, his big dopey grin shining brightly on his face, "The sword man is here! The sword man is here! Wake up, Onee-chan!"

"The sword man?" You whispered, cracking an eye open and snuggling further into your blankets.

"He has your color-changing sword, big sis! We heard these chimes and when we found where they were coming from a man with a thingie on his back," Hakaru's friend, Diane, cheered from behind her. "Mama said we should go get you."

This time you opened your eyes fully and rose from your blankets to stare at the girl inquisitively, "My nichirin sword? Are you sure? You guys aren't pulling that prank again where you say it's here when it's really not?"

They all shook their heads and anxiety immediately overwhelmed you. You got up from your bed, stumbling from your not fully awoken body and mind, and shrugged your haori lazily onto your pajama clad shoulders. The flock of children followed behind you to the front door, you accidentally slammed it open and looked around.  A man with a straw hat that chimed in the wind stepped ominously near your home. The familiar faces of the village elders peered out windows and the other adults stopped whatever outdoor chore they had tasked themselves with to watch the man walk ever closer.

A shiver ran up your back and you gulped, not being able to see his face and him walking slower than a snail putting fear in you. You pulled yourself back into the house and rushed to get your grandfather from his workspace.

"What is it?" He hummed, not bothering to look up from the papers he filled out.

"It's here." You quickly responded, scurrying back to the front porch of the house. The man sat silently on your porch's steps, head still cast down as he unwrapped the package on his back. The children around him whispered incoherently to each other about this and that, not noticing you sit a comfortable distance away from the man upon the steps.

Without raising his head,  he unraveled the hilted sword and clustered arrows from it's wrappings, rambling quietly about the ore you had chosen for it. You eyed the tsuba and tsuka of the sword; it's tsuka beautifully wrapped in a dark green with dark oak wood hidden beneath it, the tsuba on the other hand was a ordinary hexagon, gold carvings of bear tracks wondering aimlessly around the dark iron. Only when a hyottoko mask popped into view and a rough hand gripped you chin, turning your head left to right roughly, were you shook back into reality.

"I expect a white sword from you. Your eyes tell me you're the cloud-headed type... Though they hold an anger..." the hyottoko man murmured to you, yet it sounded more like he was talking to himself.