The Sword of Kaigen

by M.L. Wang

Few things in Carytha were made of wood except the trees. The country’s population was over forty percent tajaka,

Misaki wasn’t used to Yammanka terminology and training methods.

The Kaigenese Empire mainly conscripted from their core provinces, leaving the koro houses of Shirojima and other provinces to arm and train their own.

Azar’s knee-jerk reaction to Misaki’s skill was not to get defensive and competitive. She seemed excited.

was brash, arrogant, and not at all the sort of thing Misaki usually did, but she needed to become something more than just Misaki

It’s not just speed. It’s foresight. Kinoro Wangara moved with perfect timing,

A few months ago, the thought wouldn’t have pulled at this strangely painful feeling in Misaki’s chest. Why was Robin’s face suddenly filling her mind?

“But you don’t train first years,” she said blankly. “I train students who need me.”

When Misaki hid her sword, she nailed the floorboards down over it. It was a promise to herself. She might never be able to destroy the part of her that was aggressive and willful, but she could bury it.

“Most strong things are rigid. If you are water, you can shift to fit any mold and freeze yourself strong. You can be strong in any shape. You can be anything.”

Chefs kiss

She held him close and waited, but the joy she was supposed to feel never came.

It was then that she should have realized that the divine light she had been promised was not coming. It was never coming.

but even she had never heard of such nyama in such a small child.

Matsuda Susumu tended to get particularly ill-tempered any time someone raised the subject of his sons’ overwhelming power. It was a sore subject for him.

Hm

Misaki did, but as usual, Takeru had no interest in his child’s parenting and even less interest in his wife’s opinions on it.

Steam is coming out of my ears lmao

“I’ll train him once he’s worthy of what I have to teach. Now, bring me more tea.”

Poison him (;

“Know your place, you stupid woman. What would you understand of a warrior’s jiya?”

Bro would have an icicle sticking out his neck i stg

“Matsudas fight with pure, untainted water. We have no use for your filthy Tsusano blood magic, and a warrior has no use for a woman’s input.”

Stay, stay. “Let go,” Takeru said without emotion. But Misaki’s hands curled tighter.

This hurts me

“Takeru,” she whispered as he walked away. “Please—” “Do as you’re told.” He closed the door, and in that moment, he might as well have been the one who slapped her.

:(

“Why don’t you try taking responsibility for the things you can control instead of the things you can’t?”

You and I are dewdrops on the grass and notes on the wind. Echo, little sound, through the field, All the things that are forever, All the things that fade away.

“It was a mistake.” “Matsudas don’t make mistakes.” It was what Takeru always said to the boys, but she regretted the words when she saw

"a person who never made a mistake never tried anything"

What’s wrong? She wanted to ask, but that wasn’t the sort of thing you asked a man and a warrior, even if you were his mother.

I hate this :(

“I know, Kaa-chan. I’m sor—” “But they are true.” Mamoru’s head snapped up, bloodshot eyes wide with shock. “Kaa-chan—!”

IM DEAD GO OFF MAMA

the sun is rising somewhere. Somewhere, it’s making someone warm.”

“You never talk about it, but Aunt Setsuko says you went to theonite academy outside of Kaigen, all the way on the other side of the world.”

You learn over time that the world isn’t broken. It’s just… got more pieces to it than you thought. They all fit together, just maybe not the way you pictured when you were young.”

A child can trust in his parents to tell him what to do. A man trusts himself.”

You can learn a great deal listening to people with different experiences from your own.

listening never made any man dumber, but it’s made a lot of people smarter.”

“What?” She tilted her head. “You have dimples.” “I got them from you.”

Its so sad she didnt know this about her son because she was made to feel like he was no longer hers

“Someday, will you tell me about your foreign school?” he murmured. “About all the things you did when you were young?”

She had never thought that anyone here in Takayubi would ask about Daybreak. Hearing the words from her own child was more than she ever would have wished for.

This is it, Misaki realized. This was the joy they had all promised, in a single, simple hope: Mamoru might grow up to be different from his father.

Misaki was overtaken by a memory more distant than Daybreak—giggling through wood-paneled halls with her own brothers.

Izumo’s little body stayed warm, even as his muscles came in, and Misaki found herself genuinely enjoying holding him close through that first month of the cold season.

Kwang Chul-hee showed up at the doors of the Matsuda compound each morning to meet Mamoru, and the two made their way down the mountain together, talking.

:')

“Ours is borrowed power,” she would say, “a gift and a blessing. The true power belongs to the gods.”

“That photo of soldiers handing food out to civilians. They used it a week ago when they reported on the storms in Heibando and Yongseom.”

Damn

“I’m not mistaken,” Mamoru insisted. “That’s the third time they’ve used it.”

“Respectfully, I just want to know how you feel about your government lying to you.”

BRO IS CRASHIING OUT RN THIS WAS HIS LAST STRAW FRFR

deepening of the crease between his severe eyebrows. It was the scariest thing Misaki had ever seen.

And thats coming from Misaki fam

But he was wrong. The Ranganese Union was—and always had been—more powerful and cunning than the ruling Kaigenese were willing to admit.

We are the Sword of Kaigen.” “You say that—everyone says that—but in the end, a sword is just a tool.”

Broo

In one motion, Takeru stood and backhanded Mamoru across the face.

shape the blade and distribute the weight when it came time to form his Sasayaiba.

I wish she would stop throwing random words at me that i dont know

weapon Kyougetsu, the Moon Spire—a blade so bright and clean that it could cut through the dark of night like Nami’s mirror.

Kewl

“Is this your doing?” he asked in a low voice. “Or just that city boy?”

I have steam coming out of every orffice

She had to wonder, that all these years, this boy had been growing up right in front of her—and she had missed it.