Reforging Samehada

The swordsmith refused to give his full name. He only said he'd spent his whole life making swords and was old now, so Lin Qing could just call him Blade Master.

Lin Qing asked, "What about when you were young?"

"When you're old, they call you Blade Master. When you're young—still a strapping lad, of course—they call you Blade Lad."

Lin Qing's lips twitched, but in the end, he held back his comment.

Blade Master was tall. Even with age making him stoop a little, he still stood just over 1.8 meters when he straightened up. His arms were thicker than Lin Qing's thighs.

He wore his hair cropped short, and it was almost entirely gray. He had a high nose bridge and rugged features, and looked quite a bit like Hiroshi Abe.

A jagged scar ran along Blade Master's right arm, from his wrist to his elbow.

Perhaps because of the wound, he'd used his left hand for everything since Lin Qing first saw him eating a rice ball. Now, he'd taken Samehada from Lin Qing with his left hand, too.

"How do you want to reforge it?" Blade Master asked.

"There are different ways to do it?"

"Of course."

Blade Master slowly unwound the bandages around Samehada. "This sword is special. It has layers."

He lightly tapped Samehada's dense, shark-tooth-like blades.

"The outermost layer is the teeth, then comes the flesh, and deepest of all are the bones and soul."

"If you don't like the way its 'teeth' handle, I can replace them with another kind of blade. I could even reshape it into an ordinary greatsword, with just one straight edge.

"If you think it's too bulky, I can remove some of the excess 'flesh' to make it lighter and quicker to swing.

"But if you feel you can't get along with it..."

Blade Master looked at the sword in his hands, his expression complicated. "Then all I can do is break its bones and reshape its soul.

"But I wouldn't recommend it. That would be no different from making you a whole new sword, so you might as well spare it the trouble."

Lin Qing hadn't expected modifying a sword to be so complicated. But he'd worked in a technical field in his previous life, and knew that as technology advanced, any specialized field could branch into countless theoretical frameworks.

Blade Master was even more of an expert than Lin Qing had imagined.

Lin Qing explained what he needed. "I don't know which layer to adjust. My power seems to be the opposite of Samehada's nature, and it's causing it serious damage."

"What nature is your chakra? Fire?"

"It's not chakra."

"Hm?"

Blade Master looked up, his eyes full of suspicion.

"Are you a samurai?"

"Not that, either."

Blade Master's curiosity was piqued. He studied Lin Qing for a long while, then silently turned and pulled an unfinished, unsharpened black blade from the very bottom of a cabinet. He handed it to Lin Qing.

"Pour your power into it. Let me see."

Lin Qing took the black blade and channeled the power of Ripple into it.

A streak of golden lightning flashed. A silvery-white gleam appeared along the blade, making it sharper. A faint ring of steel sounded, and a scorching heat radiated from the black sword.

Blade Master's eyes widened at the sight.

He'd spent his whole life making swords and had seen countless ninjas and samurai, but he'd never witnessed anything so unusual.

Blade Master pulled Lin Qing over to sit down, then took out paper and a brush and asked him about every detail, one question at a time.

The old man and the young man talked from morning until noon. Their stomachs growled with hunger before they finally snapped out of their work.

Blade Master patted the thick stack of draft papers on the table and exclaimed, "Your imagination is boundless, and your thinking is clear. You're more like a craftsman than I am."

After a morning of discussion, the two of them had worked out the best way to modify Samehada.

They would remove the "teeth" and "flesh," then, keeping the "bones and soul," use materials compatible with Ripple to reshape Samehada's body and leave channels inside for its energy to flow through.

When Lin Qing fought, he would use a breathing technique, breathing in unison with the sword. That would let the power of Ripple flow through it far better than through an ordinary weapon.

The theory was sound. All that remained was to put it into practice.

"Leave the rest to me."

Blade Master clapped his hands and stood up. "Give me half a month. Come back for the sword then. It'd be best if you don't leave the village in the meantime. I'll need you to help me test it from time to time."

"Understood."

"One more thing."

Blade Master grinned, showing a mouthful of bright white teeth. "I don't charge cheap rates."

"You know Kamihara, so you should know that."

Lin Qing smiled, too.

"I'm not short on money."

Lin Qing left Blade Master's home, leaving the expert to his work. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Mei Terumi leaning against the wall.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"What do you mean, eavesdropping? I was standing right out here in plain sight. Plenty of people saw me."

As she spoke, Mei Terumi held out a steaming rice ball.

"For me?"

"Of course. I have to keep an eye on you. If you starve to death, I'll lose my observation subject."

"No need."

Lin Qing didn't want to have much to do with Mei Terumi.

"Yeah, a man who says—"

Mei Terumi raised her chin slightly, swept the hair from her forehead, and arched a brow. Her voice dropped low. "'I'm not short on money.'"

"How could a man like that care for my poor little rice ball?"

Lin Qing: "..."

He couldn't be bothered to respond to her sarcasm.

With Aero Smith around, Lin Qing had noticed Mei Terumi eavesdropping outside long ago. He simply hadn't thought there was any need to send her away.

If she hadn't listened in now, she would have come back to interrogate Blade Master after Lin Qing left.

Even if Blade Master told her everything, a suspicious ninja might still decide to rough him up a little.

Rather than add another step and put Blade Master through that, it was easier this way for everyone.

Besides, information about Ripple and the breathing technique, much like Lin Qing knowing that ninjas used chakra, had no effect on combat. It didn't matter if Mei Terumi knew.

Lin Qing turned and walked away, but Mei Terumi wasn't about to let him go. She took a bite of her rice ball and followed him with a swaggering, arrogant gait, asking:

"You let the two samurai go. Aren't you worried the local County Magistrate will come looking for you?"

Lin Qing glanced at the rice ball in her hand. It was stuffed with peanuts, beef, and cucumber. The savory scent of meat mingled with the fresh aroma of cucumber and the rich fragrance of rice. He looked away and said:

"If I'd killed them, would the County Magistrate have left me alone?"

Each samurai had an assigned tax district.

Break their legs and send them back, and the County Magistrate would think they were useless, and that they'd run into someone too tough to handle. But Snowfall Village was already poor. Would he really make a fuss over such a small amount of tax?

Lin Qing didn't think it was worth it.

But if he'd actually killed them on the spot, that would be another matter.

The villagers couldn't keep their mouths shut. The news would spread before long, and then the county would send an army of samurai and ninjas.

Mei Terumi was clever, so she'd naturally thought of that, too. But that wasn't what she meant. She was asking—

"You could've kept out of it and just paid them."

Lin Qing shook his head.

If he'd been alone, he'd have been willing to pay.

But—

Lin Qing looked at Xiaotao, standing silently beside him, who hadn't said a word from beginning to end.

If he paid, the seeds of fear would take root in her heart forever.

Lin Qing wanted to show her through his actions that no one would ever be able to treat her as merchandise again. Anyone who dared lay a hand on her would pay the price.

Mei Terumi saw the concern in Lin Qing's eyes, and a glimmer flashed through hers.

They'd only known each other for a day, but she was gradually seeing through to the core of Lin Qing's character.

"Gentle, strong-willed, and principled... Men like that really are rare."