Cold Steel - Inazuma Gaiden

XIV: Tatara Tales - The Passing Act

Despite being so close to Narukami Island, Kamisato Ayaka could clearly see the jarring differences between the two regions. Geographically speaking, Kannazuka's terrain was noticeably much more... dramatic compared to that of the mainland's. Narukami Island mostly had rolling plains and low-angled slopes for its hills, with the only region having extreme changes in elevation being Mount Yougou. Kannazuka, on the other hand, probably had more cliffs with steep drops than it had sandy beaches and flat plains.

The lay of the land was treacherous, and that was putting it lightly. Even discounting the falling snow currently pouring on their heads, she would guess that traversing the island on an ideal summer day would still be equally as dangerous - perhaps even more so, considering the more rampant presence of armed bandits along the main roads leading up to and from Mikage Forge during warmer days.

She thought that she would be more concerned with her immediate safety on her journeys towards the Delusion-manufacturing facility of the Fatui, that she would be always on her guard - considering she was traveling with the man that was hired by the very same organization to bring an end upon her family and to an extent, Inazuma as a whole, even going as far as to refer to him as her confidant, while never truly knowing whether the thief could ultimately be trusted or not.

For all she knew, this reserved man with the name of Hinode Nobutada could still be working with the Fatui and was just attempting to draw some kind of sympathy from the lady to perhaps catch her off guard. A small voice inside her head certainly didn't her to trust him, especially now knowing that his mind might be slowly - but surely rotting from the vengeful influence from the fallen Serpent God of Watatsumi.

Her thoughts were ultimately cut short when the quiet pair reached a small cliff overlooking the greater mainland of Kannazuka, Tatarasuna. The main landmass itself had equally strange geography as the smaller isles and islets surrounding it, having steep clips with noticeably extreme drops on numerous parts of the island.

Tatarasuna looked just as bleak and almost disheartening to look at like the rest of Kannazuka, with its jagged and rocky edges, rare plains and the lack of natural lighting that illuminated the snowy lands due to the presence of heavy cloud cover, the island was basically plunged into a state of almost pitch black darkness. Only the rare, dimly lit lanterns that were left burning on the main roads of the island kept the premises from being straight up invisible to the human eye.

Of course, there was also the ominous yet striking purple light radiating from the sizable construct located just at the center of the island, the infamous arsenal and forge for many of Inazuman blades. Part-village, part-forge, part-fortress, part-mine, and part-source of the highest concern of the land - the Mikage Forge.

Even just by staring at the currently inactive and abandoned area from afar, Ayaka could already feel the almost revolting energy coming from the region, which almost exclusively uses the Tatarigami energy to power its mighty furnace and machinery. The effects of which, certainly showed on the battered landmass that surrounded the region in question, causing unstable climate and even directly changing the landmass of the immediate premises surrounding the forge.

Perhaps it was even thanks to the Tatarigami that Tatarasuna gained its distinctive landscape, with its many gorges and occasional strike of Balethunder that charged the lands and waters around the forge with unsafe amounts of Electro particles, Kannazuka was practically made almost uninhabitable if it wasn't for the demands of the Shogunate to build a mining town directly on top of the forge/mines to house the workers in order to speed up the production of the nation's weapons.

But the fascinating and somewhat horrifying history of the forge wasn't the one that the lady in white was truly concerned of. It was the fact that the forge also used to be the home of the still-silent thief right to her flank, his face fully hidden by the roningasa stuck to his head, but she could still see that the narrow slits of the headwear were still directed towards the general area of the mining village. Steady puffs of fog still escaped through the openings of the straw hat, indicating that there was likely no change in his passive emotional state.