East Blue, Shimotsuki Village.
Isshin Dojo, forge.
Shirtless, Sephiroth stood before the forging table. He gripped a red-hot iron bar with tongs in his left hand and swung a hammer with his right, sending sparks flying from the metal.
Kozaburo sat in a chair nearby, puffing idly on his pipe.
After quite a while, he finally spoke.
"You can move on to the next step!"
At that, Sephiroth immediately set down the hammer. He lightly sliced his right index finger across his palm, and blood flowed from his body as though it cost nothing, splashing over the red-hot iron bar and producing a burst of hissing white smoke.
The sheer amount of blood made Kozaburo's eyebrows twitch wildly.
"That's enough. Is your blood free or something?"
"Okay."
Sephiroth nodded, and the wound on his right hand instantly stopped bleeding and healed.
"Next, put it into the furnace and temper it for a day. Continue hammering it tomorrow..." Kozaburo instructed.
"Can this really increase the chances of forging a Great Grade Blade?"
"Sacrificing blood to the blade, combined with Ryou, can make it easier for you to temper the blade's will during the forging process... However, blades forged this way often become cursed blades. Furthermore, craftsmen who use this forging method often suffer severe damage to their vitality after completing a blade due to prolonged blood loss and mental exhaustion from forging. In serious cases, they may even lose their lives. It is a secret blade-forging technique with very obvious advantages and disadvantages..."
Faced with Sephiroth's doubts, Kozaburo could only patiently explain.
Some time ago, Koshiro had told Kozaburo about Sephiroth and Kuina.
Unlike his son's anger, Kozaburo had been much calmer. He had even felt a little secretly pleased...
Koshiro had inherited his dojo, but not his blade-forging techniques, and