Chapter two

Seven years later…



Winter. What could be said about this season? “I’m fricken freezing my ass off…”
Kirei was walking up a mountain road, which was covered by a good 2 feet of snow. The surrounding woodlands were in a similar state of wintery accumulation.  Kirei tried to huddle up inside her cloak as much as she could, but even still, the warmth it projected was cancelled out by the ever so light breeze that, despite its meager strength, seemed to amplify the cold at least twofold. “Why did she have to move up here to this village in the mountain? She should’ve stayed in Raitou, it was warmer there…”

She makes her way up the path some more until she sees the village. It was relatively small, what buildings there are constructed in a mix of traditional eastern rice paper architecture and western influences. In the main terrace was the village’s namesake, an impressive sized evergreen oak tree planted in the center of commerce.
“Ugh… I hate this place…”

She makes her way to a fire that was burning in the center of the village - a safe distance away from the tree, which was being used as a windbreaker – and sits down next to a few of the townsfolk who needed a break from the cold before returning to their business. A few of them look over to her, and notice that her cloak obscured most of the left side of her body, but no one said anything to her about. For this at least she was thankful, She didn’t want to waste any more time than she had to by this fire trying to keep warm.

Kirei reaches into her right pocket and carefully unfolds a note using only her right hand. On the note were horribly scrawled Japanese characters and a map. The only thing she could make out was that the note’s sender had at least managed to spell her own name right… Well, sort of. “Saiteke Miyoso… She’d better be happy I showed up at all.”
“Is that any way to speak about an old friend?”
Kirei looks up to the source of the voice. A taller woman with short dark hair wearing a black western style long coat sat down next to her. She brushed her abnormally long bangs from in front of her eyes. “Wow, at least I saved you the trouble of finding a translator, you could at least be thankful for that…”
“Shut it Miyori.” Kirei was fed up with the cold. “How you ended up in a place like this is beyond me. Why not live somewhere warmer?”
Miyori laughs. “It reminds me of home. The only thing that’s missing is the Vodka. You Daimura-jin can stick to your sake, its not the same.”
Kirei pockets the note and stands up. “Well, I didn’t come all this way to freeze my ass off next to a fire talking about getting drunk, can we go inside so you can show me why I did come?”
“Fine.” Miyori gets up as well, dusting the stray snow from her behind. “Follow me, and I’ll show you what my research has turned up.”




The outside of Miyori’s dwelling was, well, just about the same as any other swordsmith’s. She had a table underneath an overhang set up like an inspection shop with various tools sprawled across it, and multiple blades on a separate table to cool, and finished katanas hung up on display. The small shop area was connected to a traditional pagoda.
The inside however, was not traditional at all, it was way more western influenced.  The common room had a wooden floor, and rice paper walls, but beyond that, the walls were steel plated, with various machines and such lying about or hung up.
“I must say, given the lack of technology in this area, this is pretty amazing.” Kirei kneeled down on a cushion the meal table while Miyori shuffled about tinkering with various objects. “It’s not much, compared to Acirema, overseas, but I can run my business a little more expediently.”
She runs downstairs to the basement, and quickly comes back up carrying an object wrapped carefully in a linen tarp. “So, this is why I sent for you.” She lays the tarp on the table and spreads it out, revealing a broken sword.
Kirei inspects it, and her eyes widen in shock. “Mi-…Miyori? Is… Is this the same…?”
“No. This isn’t the same sword that belonged to the woman who left you for dead.”
“It wasn’t her, it was that sword she had! That’s why we started researching this, the old legends!”
“Kirei, calm down. Wow, if I had known you’d get that worked up…” Miyori gets up and removes her coat, revealing the sleeveless shirt she wore, and her muscular physique. “I’ll make you some tea, it’ll calm you down.”
Kirei continues looking at the sword. “You know as well as I do… It said so in the Legend of the Nine Sky Blades. The Red Moon was sealed and hidden at the location currently known as Tanaka Field. Anyone could’ve stumbled upon it, it just happened to be Koko…”
Miyori comes back with two cups of tea, one in each hand, and places one in front of Kirei. “Here. You need to relax a bit.” Kirei sips at the tea while Miyori places a notebook on the table. “I don’t know if this’ll help any, but a woman moved into the old shack not too far from here. I think she said her family name was Koko, not too many with that name, I’d assume.”
Kirei sets her teacup down. “Then I have to go talk to her. I need to know if she still has it or not.”
“You’re not going anywhere, not tonight at least.” Miyori walks over to the kitchen area again, and pours herself some more tea. “You haven’t even taken off the cloak since you’ve come inside, so you must be freezing, and it’s only worse outside at night.” She goes back to the table. “I’ve got an extra room, you can stay the night, and we can go speak with her in the morning.”

All Kirei heard was free lodging in a relatively warm environment. “Where can I lay my sword?”