The very next morning Mana felt excited to check on Meiko’s progress. The redheaded blacksmith was pretty confident that she could finish working on Mana’s device overnight but somehow the magician just couldn’t really believe that the strange girl could actually do it. After all, the device had a bunch of complicated gear-work as well as its visual enhancements such as engravings and various decorations meant to make it more visually appealing than a bunch of scrap. There was also plenty that the magician wanted to know about the blacksmith herself.
Meiko was apparently the Kirikuzu blacksmith’s daughter, he did look at her with a great amount of fondness and love and did address her as his daughter but she didn’t take the clan name from her father. More so she looked very little like him, having only taken his muscular structure from her parent. When the topic of her inheritance was brought up Meiko didn’t deny being of the clan of famed Kumogakure blacksmiths but she did bring up the obstacle of being unable to use the manipulation of the Kirikuzu iron dust. That meant she really had roots with the clan and normally should’ve been able to do it, there was something really interesting hidden in the girl’s origins.
After spending quite some time meditating and then taking a break to visit the archive and read up on some ancient history. The magician girl loved reading up on the Settlement period, it happened somewhere during the lifespan of Princess Satsuhimasa of whom Mana read during her mission to discover the hidden archive. Princess Satsuhimasa worked together with Senju Gan, a man who would later become the First Hokage. Reading on the relationship and deep kinship of the two was refreshing, however it was about during that period that the reputation of Satsuhimasa started to dip into the gutter so the stories of the two were filled with strange inaccuracies left there by purpose. It took a great deal of logical skills as well as skills of deduction together with a rich background in history to put the pieces together.
The Princess and the First had a very interesting mentor-student relationship. The Princess was seen as a living legend and Gan was someone who was taught under her wing and grew into quite a wise and remarkable ninja himself. He was really brave and powerful, known for the crushing strength of his Wood Release ability second only to Satsuhimasa’s own. It was said that Gan’s Wood Release could rip through tempered steel and once grinded a meteorite headed towards into a storm of beautiful falling stars, still, when compared with Satsuhimasa’s destruction of the Moon using her Wood Release, Gan’s own paled greatly. It was like comparing an exceptional prodigy to a legend. Gan may have been the King of Ninja but Satsuhimasa was on the level of being called a Goddess of Ninja.
Just as the collections of books turned to recalling the succession of Gan by his wife Uchiha Hakari “ the Second Hokage, Mana put the books back and glanced through the window only to see the night changing the day and the slothful dance of the snowflakes going down taking over the view. Having put the books together and taken all of her notes and other things she took with her Mana dashed out.
“I’m astounded by your ability to restrain yourself from eating in the archives…” the librarian smiled at Mana fixing his tie and glasses as he jumped up to see the girl out with his eyes.
“If you found someone eating there you’d clip their head off” Mana joked giving the man a wink. The man lifted his hand wielding his scissor blade and clipped it playfully, the girl just barely managed to contain her giggling and ran out.
“It’s quite chilly outside, should’ve taken a sweater!” the archive keeper tried to let the girl know but at that point she already bolted to the streets. The man just sighed and sat back down, flipping his table light to illuminate his own book “ “Tales of Shikio the Great”. The man took great pride in the edition of the tales without the bare-chested version of the main character on the cover, that usually attracted too much attention and giggles from the visitors as it was basically an image of a topless well-endowed man and the keeper loved to enjoy his book in peace.
While Mana had not heard the warning of the archive keeper before she left, she somehow came to the very same conclusion. She had to clutch herself by wrapping her hands around her chest and shoulders. Konoha was very peculiar with its seasons, spring and winter changed around, the seasons went and gone like normal but it was either warm enough to walk in one’s casual clothes or it got slightly below freezing temperature when the winter came. That was why while in theory there were four seasons, Konoha only felt two of them, half of the year was warm but not hot, the other half was cold but not freezing.
The other parts of the world had it much more extreme, the air got much hotter to the East, the Wind Country had it pretty badly as they barely saw any snow and the desert was searing hot, people in Sunagakure had to deal with both the blinding sandstorms and the searing heat. It was up to the North where the weather was the oddest “ the Snow Country was the coldest place in the world where one could easily freeze to death unless prepared for the freezing cold, however farther to the north laid the Lightning Country “ a large mountainous wasteland that was surprisingly hot and then Kumogakure which was almost as hot as Sunagakure in the Wind Country when it was hot and almost as cold as the warmer spots of the Snow Country during the winter. Kumogakure was a country of extremes both weather-wise and as far as the reputation of the personality of its people went.
Mana wasn’t really sure just what kind of weather was around Kirigakure, based from what she heard and read it was mostly just damp rainy days all year long. It wasn’t that the place saw much heat, it was that it was too wet and gloomy to not get a major case of seasonal depression. No wonder the people there had their children kill each other in order to graduate the Academy… So much rain and mist could’ve driven anyone mad. However some of the Kirigakure’s Archipelago of islands were quite tropical, they were supposed to be quite popular tourist hotspots if advertisement was to be trusted…
Still rubbing her arms and shoulders Mana finally reached the Kirikuzu workshop. Meiko’s father was sitting in the workshop and resting at that time, his work for the day must’ve been already finished. The girl bowed upon her entry to show respect, for some reason she felt like the man didn’t quite like her based on their first impression but surprisingly enough his reaction to the young magician looked quite warm.
“Oh, magic girl! You look pale and cold, I’d give you some sake to warm up but you are just a kid. Maybe my wife can make some green tea… Mari! Make some green tea!” the man roared so loudly that Mana had to clench her ears for a moment. Normally she’d have wondered if anyone inside the home which was right behind the workshop, connected to it with a system of small corridors and halls would’ve heard it but having the strength of the man’s lungs in mind the whole neighbourhood must’ve heard him.
After the woman called “Mari” came in Mana instantly realized that Meiko must’ve been the daughter of those two “ the woman was of average height, wearing a black casual tracksuit and she had long red hair, even her eyelashes were bright red and extremely thick! Her facial features were much kinder and slicker than the strict and sharp edges of her husband and the colour of both Mari’s hair and her eyes matched that of Meiko’s. The girl blacksmith must’ve been the child of the two, having inherited her mother’s hair and eyes as well as her looks and taken her father’s muscular structure and several stricter features like sharper cheek bones and a longer and pointier nose.
“I’ve already prepared a cup for you, you always drink your tea after work, would the young lady care to wait for a moment?” the woman smiled politely at Mana with an apologetic look as if feeling bad for not predicting the girl’s arrival.
“This is Mana “ Meiko’s new best friend…” the hulking blacksmith informed the woman after spilling a small gulp of sake into his green tea and flipping the cup down before handing it to his wife.
“Ummm… I guess…” Mana squirmed a little uncomfortable, why would the man think that she’s Meiko’s best friend. The magician only met the girl yesterday and barely even knows her, the whole time of their acquaintance it appeared that the blacksmith was more interested in Mana’s project that the client handing it to her.
Mari laughed out, “Oh, don’t be shy like that, if you give Meiko something to work on, she’ll be your best friend for the duration of the time she’s working on it. I’ve heard she’s especially excited about this project of yours…”
The woman disappeared for the refill of the blacksmith’s tea and Mana’s cup, the man stood up and stretched his tired muscles out. “Yeah, really fiery this kid… She almost exploded in a fistfight, coming at me to get me to work on those miniature gears! Can you believe it? Her own father! That’s one kid who takes her job seriously…” the man laughed out, strangely to him almost having to fistfight his own daughter appeared more of a joke than a relationship problem.
“There you two go, I checked up on Meiko, she said the project is ready, you can go examine it now!” Mari soon returned with the tea. Mana carefully caressed the burning hot cup to take as much warmth from it as she could. The workshop was pretty warm and had all sorts of smells, the smell of burning, smells of oils, smell of sweat… Carefully the girl took a sip taking great enjoyment as the small sip went down warming her from inside.
Mari lead the magician to the young blacksmith’s little workshop that she had, it appeared that the whole eastern part of the workshop was handed down to the girl. It was quite messier than that of her father’s, it had a whole bunch of unfinished projects, parts and pieces of armours, handles and blades of swords thrown around. Meiko turned around with a creepy impression reminding of that of a mad scientist having just built a twisted masterpiece. She approached the two and nodded at the large finished deathtrap near the working table.
“She’s done!” the redhead blacksmith smiled showing off her teeth so hard that she had to squint.
Mana laughed out awkwardly, “She?” she asked curiously examining the perfect craftsmanship of her device. It wasn’t the exact copy of the blueprint but it wasn’t supposed to be.
“Yeah, they’re not tools, they’re babies! They have personalities and they need to have their mommy give them some care of her own, it needs to be a perfect fusion of personality of the builder and that of the designer… I figured it’s supposed to have that classical horror feeling to it so I eased up on the flower motifs with the engravings, added some spikes and made the whole frame bulkier… Hope you like it” Meiko explained waving her hands and making strange gestures, the magician could’ve sworn that at one point she tried to portray the cradling of an actual baby.
Mana awkwardly looked at Mari, the mother of the young woman just smiled pleasantly, “She didn’t play with dolls as a kid, instead she insisted on building her own toys, that one time the boys invited Meiko to play ninja and she built actual ninja tools to play with them… She’s a little quirky” the mother explained.
“No, it’s amazing, I love it! I love the classical gothic feel of it, I thought that a monster face on the head would be scary but this beautiful woman’s face is much creepier! Awesome, you’re really talented, Meiko…” Mana’s eyes just ate the deathtrap up, she couldn’t believe that with just a couple minor alterations to the visuals the blacksmith brought up what Mana wanted to say with the device without actually knowing what it was that the magician wanted to portray. Meiko pulled out a scroll and sealed the device into it, the girl must’ve had some skill with sealing techniques as well since she complained previously that her chakra control is too wobbly even to use her clan bloodline ability which even most non-ninja Kirikuzu could use. After sealing it into the scroll the tinkerer gave it to Mana and the magician paid her a little extra for all the effort.
All of a sudden the magician’s eye got caught on a peculiar thing Meiko had hanging on the wall instead “ a long sword, the blade was of the length of an adult arm, maybe even longer. The handle looked almost like made of bronze entirely with a fake emerald on the centre, crafted and molten in a way that resembled the consistency of a tree bark with rough edges and the texture of a rough tree bark. The blade was so impressively crafted, it looked like a blood crimson coloured steel but the blade wasn’t simply edged, it reminded more of a pin cushion. It was a collection of smaller almost miniature blades erupting form it, like a tree of swords, a long concentrated stream of blades that upon contact would left a nasty collection of cuts.
“Is this “Ranma”?!” Mana whispered out unable to believe her own words. Hanging on the wall of this young blacksmith’s workshop was the legendary weapon used by the infamous rogue ninja who plagued the entire world during the times of Uchiha Hakari “ the Second Hokage. The man was called Nakao Magobei, he was a man who was unable to manipulate chakra but he was a great swordsman who had such unfathomable willpower and conviction that he managed to tame a Tailed Beast and ride it into battle. He did not beat it, seal it inside of himself becoming a Jinchuuriki, he didn’t trick it “ he just fought it, befriended it and rode it to battle. That may have been why he was known as Yonbi no Magobei or Magobei of the Four Tails. He was a man who achieved more with his guts and “fuck it all” personality than most ninja had achieved up to his time and after with some of the greatest bloodlines of the most elite clans…
“You know what “Ranma” is!?” Meiko shrieked out like a schoolgirl who was invited to a date by her childhood crush. Mari smiled and left the workshop having decided that the two would just drift into conversation, maybe she had just seen it happen too often, or perhaps it was that this was the first time that her daughter finally saw someone who could match her own knowledge of weapons and legends…
“Yeah, the blade of Nakao Magobei, it is said that it was the sword that nearly killed the Second Hokage, or at the very least shortened her lifespan greatly… She was never the same after the battle against Magobei and the Four Tails… Some sources claim she almost went blind, truth be told, it isn’t too hard to believe, she was really out of shape having just given birth to her son five days before the battle” Mana explained adding some history to the tale of the blade, she wasn’t sure if Meiko was interested in the historic aspect of it, she most likely just loved the weapon itself.
“Wow, you know so much about history! Nah, this is just a copy I made, this isn’t even the real alloy of the sword, I can’t work blades that are chakra conductive yet, my control isn’t good enough… It’s just a steel blade dyed red, it looks pretty legit though” Meiko explained switching between fangirling over Mana’s knowledge of history and the real “Ranma” the image of which must’ve still been in the girl’s mind.
“The reason why I was so surprised by seeing this sword hanging is because I was quite sure that the real “Ranma” was broken, it was never explicitly stated in any historic sources but during the battle the Second used her Susanoo forming her own legendary sword “ “Kinshu”, it is said that it was a sword made of pure chakra, as sharp as the willpower of the user. Such a tool would’ve broken even “Ranma”… I suppose that may have been why Magobei was so obsessed with the Second, he knew of her possession of the blade and in his hands it would’ve been able to cut through anything in existence, his willpower was unmatched…” Mana told her speculations and theories just blankly staring at Meiko’s replica with dreamy eyes.
After turning around she saw the rather creepy sight of her blacksmith friend standing behind her with another sword, a construct of steel that had a ring instead of a handle and just grew into a blade with gold-like engravings around it. It was the best replica of “Kinshu” Mana had ever seen.
“Once again, it’s just a cheap copy made of ordinary steel used to craft swords and kunai and shuriken, it’s not made of pure chakra and willpower…” Meiko’s emotions shifted from sheer happiness to complete disappointment.
“It’s really refreshing to meet someone with a similar fascination in history even if it just the legendary tools you’re interested in…” Mana smiled.
“So… You think “Ranma” is broken then?” Meiko looked really sad, it was almost like she grieved over a loss of an actual friend. Mana gently placed her hand on the young woman’s shoulder, having to reach a bit up as Meiko was a bit taller than the magician was. Mana could relate to that specific emotion on Meiko’s face “ the loss of one’s lifelong dream. The blacksmith must’ve wished to acquire “Ranma” for herself at some point.
“It’s fine, there are plenty of other great blades for you to acquire, you said your chakra control is “wobbly”, are you a ninja? How good are you?” Mana tried to change the subject onto something else.
“Nothing to write home about, I just finished Academy last year, I decided not to take the graduation exam for two years longer than my peers because I was afraid I’d fail, and after graduating I only had small chores. No sensei wants to take me into their team because I really suck at pretty much everything but punching people and weapons… I wouldn’t ever deserve to wield “Ranma” or “Kinshu” or “Dokyo” or “Chie”, I’m just a wannabe who dreams big…”
Mana couldn’t believe but she wrapped one of her arms around Meiko’s head and gently hugged the young woman. It looked like after being informed that her dream weapon may have not survived the trial of time she remembered some past insecurities.
“It’s really alright, you may not believe me but at the moment you’re much more fantastic of a ninja than I am…” Mana smiled thinking of her loss of chakra manipulation.
“No way! You’re Konoha’s Sorceress, I’ve heard this one girl on one of my teams remark that you’re one of the village prodigies on genjutsu despite the fact that you’re still a genin…” Meiko pouted.
Mana smiled, “That’s a cheat, genjutsu isn’t something many people work on so it’s really easy to be one of the best at it… Tell you what, maybe one day we can go on a mission to find a legendary object? I’m not sure if they’ll let you keep it but… You never know…”
Suddenly Meiko’s eyes opened up with glee and she burst out of the magician’s arms and started jumping around in joy.
“I’d love to! What sort of item would we look for? Would it be the legendary “Ruyi Jingu Bang” or one of the “Swords of Virtue”!?”
Mana smiled and shook her head, “No, if we looked for something material, something we can bring home we’d never be allowed to keep it. We need something that doesn’t seem all that useful from the first glance, something so incredibly obscure that the Fifth wouldn’t even want it for the village”
Meiko curiously scratched her chin with a shade of childish playfulness, “Is there even such an item?”
Mana grinned and devilish sparks burst in her eyes from her childish joy, “Our target is “ The Box of Ultimate Bliss!” she declared boldly as if this declaration was a sign of great triumph already.
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