A Saniwa's Duty

Starter

"What? Duplicate?," the sage cocked her head to the side. "You mean like, you have a twin or something?"

Her brother nudged her side yet again and shook his head before giving her a disappointed look. The redhead merely rolled her eyes at him.

"Kidding bro. I'm not that stupid." Chiaki stood up and neared the sword to take a closer look, which took the latter by surprise. She grabbed the wrist that was about to tug at the cloak again, gently moving it aside. With her free hand, she slowly pulled the hood down.

Then, she screamed.
With ecstasy.

"Oh my gods!," she holstered an arm behind his neck, bringing him closer and squishing their cheeks together. "Aniki, look! Blue eyes!"

Whipping out her phone, she opened the camera app and rapidly switched to the front camera. The man watched her with fascination, unaware that she had already taken a photo. Then she unhooked her arm from its place and began to type.

As Kunihiro marvelled at the piece of technology, he pulled his cloak back up. "Aruji?"

Firguring that he was talking to her, Chiaki raised an eyebrow, still composing her Tweet. "Yeah?"

"You're kind of... hot."

The girl almost dropped her phone. "Excuse me, what?" She could feel fire beginning to spark inside her, a scowl slowly forming. "You think I'm-"

"Chill out sis," Tetsuo interrupted quickly, standing up and extending an arm as if to bar the man from his sibling. "I think he meant that literally."

His sister shot him a look and he quickly added, "You look like you came out of a sauna after six hours. Not good."

The sage put a hand to her own forehead and realized her new comrade and brother were telling the truth. She did feel a little warmer, and that she was sweating a lot now.

Chiaki made a noise of disgust as she hurriedly finished her post and pocketed her phone, doing her best to wipe her sweat. She turned to Yamanbagiri and said, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It's so uncool of me, figuratively and literally."

Kuroba stepped in, wearing a baby blue apron with a Gudetama print and「Take it easy!*」 written in hiragana, wooden spatula in hand. "Sorry it took me a while. I had to prepare lunch."

He fell silent to register the scene before him, his mouth slowly curling into a smile. "You've awakened your first touken danshi! Excellent!"

For the umpteenth time today, the siblings shot each other confused looks. "Touken what?"

"Ah, let's just discuss this over lunch, hmm? Set up the table here for now. Master Tetsuo, why don't you help me bring the food over?"

"Aniki," the sage said. "Could you get me a few towels while you're out?"

The boy gave her a thumbs up, following the smith out of the room.

★★★

When they returned, Chiaki hastily took the towels her brother brought and began drying herself with them. Afterwards, she left them to dry on a nearby windowsill, then proceeded to help ready their dining area.

Once the low table and cushions had been set, they all sat down and dug into the meals: three servings each of curry fried rice, chicken katsu, flavored with kikkoman soy sauce, creamy crab and corn soup, and tall glasses of water.

While the siblings were busy heartily eating away, the smith noticed that the cloaked man had only eaten a small portion of his meal, instead idly moving around the chicken cutlets. "What's the matter?" Kuroba addressed him, inquisitive.

A lone blue eye peeked from behind the white shroud, looking at the android meekly. "Ah," Kunihiro began in a soft tone. "I'm just... not used to this." He gestured to himself and the meal for emphasis.

"Not used to this?" Chiaki interrupted through a mouthful of food. She chewed for a bit, then swallowed. "How so?"

"Moments ago, I was but a spirit trapped within my sword. Now that you've freed me and given me human form, I don't know what to do." Their comrade exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, pushing his meal aside. "Everything feels so... strange."

"Well," Kuroba began in a knowing tone, before the sage could say anything. "It's as you said: This is the first time you've been given human form and sentience. It's only natural you feel that way."

And with that, he laced his fingers together and rested them on his lap, then added, "You'll get used to it. Eventually."

The rest of the meal was silent. The siblings finished their meals, as did Kunihiro, the latter albeit reluctantly. Then Tetsuo turned his attention to their smith, folding his arms. "Alright, Kuroba-san. You've got some hefty explaining to do. Talk."

"What would you like to know about?"

The siblings glanced at each other, then simultaneously said, "Everything else about this place that mom never bothered explaining properly."

★★★

A/N:

*ゆっくりしていってね! = 「yukkuri shiteitte ne!」Means "Do it slowly!" or more commonly, "Take it easy!".