And Part 4, this was originally supposed to be the final part, but then it just got longer and longer and I started on a part fove eventually. That part isn't done yet (it's looking like a part 6 might happen though) but when it is, I'll post it here and SB simultaneously.
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Dove and Shrine Maiden - A Union of Bread and Butter Part IV
Lunch is taken in companionable silence but as the afternoon wears on and the rain shows no signs of letting up Colombe and Tokunotakai find themselves growing restless. The shrine buildings lack somewhat for modern pastimes but while the practice yard is rained out, the dojo has room for them to spar so long as they don't go overboard.
On a day like today 'not going overboard' suits Colombe just fine, but Tokunotakai surprises her by poking through the weighted wooden training weapons in the racks on the walls. "Can we not simply charm our edges blunt as usual?" Colombe asks curiously as her partner weighs a Shinai in hand and, seemingly finding it satisfactory, tosses it towards her. The Rapier manages to avoid an undignified yelp of surprise, but does not manage to keep from nearly fumbling the training weapon out of shock, drawing laughter from Tokunotakai to which she responds with an aggrieved look.
Turning away, Colombe tests the weight of the blade, finding it well-balanced for a Katana, though her familiarity with the Japanese swords is limited to fighting against them rather than wielding one herself. Looking back, she sees Tokunotakai take another similar practice blade and her brow furrows. "You want me to learn this?"
"Of course~" Toku replies cheerfully, though she can't help but notice the tsukomogami's cheeks are faintly pink. "I'll not let you eh…
wield me without proper instruction first after all." Colombe's brow furrows further. Wield her? That's…
Oh…
"N-not for a while yet of course!" Tokunotakai quickly clarifies, but the thought is well and firmly planted. "A-and you'll need to teach me how to fight with a rapier as well! It's only fair after all." The japanese sword spirit's face has gone nuclear and Colombe is pretty sure she's done the same, the thought is undeniably appealing yet frighteningly intense to imagine. Sparring with Lyra that once, letting the other woman wield her back then had been exhilarating on every level, yet there was something both dangerous and appealing at the thought of doing the same with Tokunotakai, of knowing that perhaps her sparring partner was feeling the same things…
But not right now, no, not right now, it would be too much, too fast, they've only really
known each other for a year or so, but starting to learn… Would that really be too much on it's own? Tokunotakai -she realizes- is watching her with equal parts anticipation and apprehension, face smooth, yet her eyes revealing both hopes and fears in equal measures.
It is the fear that makes the choice for her in the end, knowing that this is not simply a matter of Toku moving too far too fast, but a matter of wanting to build up to something. "
Oui," Colombe finally agrees, raising the practice weapon slowly, a sly smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "So I should call you Toku-Sensei while we're in here?"
Toku nods, "
Hai, that would be correct." Her blush subsides as she finds her footing in the familiar pattern of instruction of a student in the dojo.
Colombe's smile grows and becomes more smug with her next words. "Alas, I shall have to beg Toku-Sensei's forgiveness at my unpreparedness, for I left my practice rapiers back home in the
salle d'armes at the castle. My lesson for her shall have to wait until she visits."
Toku's blush returns briefly, then Masamune visibly steels herself as she steps to Colombe and adjusts the Muramasa's posture, using the familiar routine of teaching a novice kendoka
chudan position to center herself. "I see that I shall have to m-make arrangements to t-travel then." Toku speaks in a hushed, gentle voice. "It is something that I have thought of often, but," The Masamune, satisfied with Colombe's stance, walks to face her, "I have not had the courage to place my own desires and wants above my duties here."
The rapier's eyes meet the katana's, sparkling crystal blue staring into shadowed blue-green. Colombe says quietly, "
Non, Toku-Sensei. Standing to your duties despite
all else in the universe but your will wishing such matters to be otherwise. That is true courage. Duties and responsibilities can
never be shirked, and only death removes them from us truly, but they can be
adjusted to modify the load that we carry. You now have a duty to teach me, as I have a duty to learn from you. And I shall also have to pick up the duty, and joy, of passing down my knowledge to a pupil."
The shadow in Toku's eyes vanishes, as her eyes are filled with understanding. "
Hai. The first fundamental strike is
Men. We stand in
chudan, and I shall demonstrate the three steps of
Sankyodo Shomen uchi for you as I issue the commands for each step."
"
Sankyodo Shomen uchi, Hajime! Ichi!" Toku's arms raised as she brought her shinai horizontally behind her head and took a step forward with her right foot.
"
Ni!" The shinai flashed down to end with the point at her eye level in a smooth arc.
"
San!" Toku smoothly stepped back into
chudan as her hands lowered to her waist with her sword point at her throat level.
Toku then spoke again. "To focus her spirit and will, as she performs '
Ni' the kendoka shall channel her spirit into her kiai shout of '
Men!' as I demonstrate with
Men in one step."
"
Ikkyodo Shomen uchi, Hajime! Ichi!" Toku's arms raised and she stepped forward. Colombe sensed the Masamune's fierce spirit coiling like a striking cobra as she began her strike. Then as the blade swung down, the energies of Toku's spirit shot down the wood as Toku shouted "
Men!". Like lightning, the spiritual energies returned to Toku's body as she smoothly stepped back into
chudan.
Toku then looked into the eyes of the fascinated rapier as her hands automatically performed the motions to clean the blood off a katana before sheathing her shinai at her hip. "Are there questions? Do you need another demonstration of
Men?"
Colombe spoke softly. "No, Toku-Sensei."
Toku gave a smile that never reached her lips. "Very well then. Upon my command you shall perform
Sankyodo Shomen uchi as I call the strikes. You shall continue until I give the command of '
Yame' at which point in time remain in
chudan."
"Understood, Toku-Sensei." Colombe's grip on her shinai tightened.
"
Sankyodo Shomen uchi, Hajime! Ichi!"
Toku's focus sharpened as Colombe stepped forward and her arms raised her practice blade, looking not only at Colombe's posture and balance, but also the spirit of the Muramasa rapier as she circled her student.
"
Ni!" The blade flashed down two inches too far as Colombe expelled the tension in her frame with her kiai of
'Men!', a trickle of her spiritual energies filling her blade as she did so.
Behind her impassive face and measuring eyes, Tokunotakai nodded in satisfaction at her evaluation. It was
almost adequate, especially for a beginner's first step along the Way of the Sword. She could forge something worthy of her steel with this student.
"
San!" Colombe stepped back into
chudan smoothly.
Unsurprising, Toku mused,
considering how precise
Colombe's footwork and blade position was when they sparred with their steel. Some corrections for her would be needed, of course, but the bare bones of a strong foundation to build this kendoka up were available for Toku at first viewing and evaluation.
"
Ichi!" Toku barked out the command to begin again as she prepared herself to issue the needed corrections and adjustments for Colombe to master
Men.
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"Hah…" Colombe's breath comes in ragged gasps as she finally lets the point of herself fall to one side, sweat shining on her skin as she nods sharply, holding posture as she salutes and then finally,
finally letting herself relax. After nearly two hours of instruction, Tokunotakai had declared the lesson sufficient and they'd moved on to sparring. With the rain still pouring down outside they'd decided to forgo spellcasting and mixed arts for a duel of pure physical skill, blade against blade. They'd dulled their true selves with a temporary spell and flung open the doors to let the cool air in and fought to the pounding beat of the storm without.
It was dangerous, reckless even, both blades going all out -or at least as much as they could without bringing magic to bear- against each other, yet each deflection was like a caress, each clash a forceful kiss. Despite the remove at which their avatars found themselves, the lengths of their blades separating them from each other, their true selves met again and again. It was heady, exhilarating, easy to lose one's mind in the heat of blurring steel and pounding hearts.
Until is was all over, and all that was left was the rain slackening to a gentle hiss and the harsh breathing of the two blades.
Colombe's stomach growled plaintively, and Tokunotakai stifled a giggle as they glanced at the clock. It was past dinner now, and then after…
After…
Leaving Tokunotakai's shrine had always been a little bittersweet, but as much as the thought of going home made her happy knowing she would see the rest of her family again, the thought of leaving here made her heart ache slightly. Not getting to see Tokunotakai for a week or more? Colombe wanted to slap herself for acting like such a maiden but as seemed more and more often the case of late, her heart hardly listened to the mind that was telling her she was far too old to be feeling this way.
The idea of a Home that did not include the Masamune blade seemed suddenly just that slight bit less inviting.
The hand on her shoulder pulled Colombe from the morose introspection and Tokunotakai,
Toku-chan's face loomed close. "What's wrong Co-chan?"
Colombe bit the inside of her lip, took a deep breath, inhale, exhale…
"...I don't want to leave… But… I can't just stay here forever. Fu-... Bleh..." She reached up and palmed her face. "I should be better than this, you'd swear I never had a lover before."
"And how long ago was that?"
It takes a moment for Colombe to think it through, how easy it can be to lose track of time when one has so much of it. For that matter Tokunotakai's proximity does nothing to help with her clarity. "Sixty years… Mmp?" Whatever else she was about to say is cut off physically by a kiss, and subsequently forgotten as the contact holds for seconds? Minutes? Counting is a task somewhat beyond her, when all she wants to do is pull Tokunotakai closer, to feel more.
"Six. Decades." Tokunotakai murmurs as she pulls back. "Don't be sorry." The second kiss comes less unexpectedly, though it is no less intoxicating. "If anything it's… Flattering." She smiles shyly as she pulls back. "But you and I are well acquainted with the unfortunate demands of duty."
Colombe blinks, something about that line tugs at her memories.
Lyra..? Something familiar in the more aggressive posture, though not in the nervousness still lurking in her eyes. Not nerves enough to hold her back as she kissed Colombe a third time, but nerves enough to be easily visible, nerves that were out of place in the faint tableau of distant memory.
Sixty Years…
Finally, somewhere between the fourth and fifth meetings of their lips, Colombe musters the wherewithal to push back a little, not pushing entirely away, but holding her back just slightly, giving a moment of respite from the intoxicating touches. To breathe in the smell of the rain outside and close out the temptations of the Shrine Maiden looking up at her. "I shall still need to go back to Moulbaix at some point."
"It is still raining quite heavily…" Tokunotakai counterpoints, thunder rumbling in the distance as though to punctuate her words.
"And you and I are both still hungry."
"Wouldn't you prefer to… T-to…" Toku's best flirtatious smile fades as her flush goes from 'aroused' all the way to 'mortified' within a span of seconds, losing her nerve at the very tail end of the line, and Colombe
knows it is a line. Finally things come together in her mind to paint a picture that makes sense of the scene before her.
Colombe's lips twitch up in a triumphantly smug smile and she gently lays a finger on Toku's lips to silence the Masamune's budding panic. "I confess that Lady Chastity's Thrilling Adventure #6
is one of my favorites in the series. I do think that Lyra was a little melodramatic when she named that story from India in 1767 'Lady Chastity and the Women of the Waterfall', though. If you want, I will tell you about the real story of that trip and my experiences."
Tokunotakai's blush goes nuclear at that point, she'd known ever since she'd been present for Tsukiakari and Colombe's meeting that some of the rapier's adventures had been turned into a niche erotica series as 'The Thrilling Adventures of Lady Chastity', but in the time between she had quite forgotten, or perhaps she'd simply pushed those memories down and away. She'd read her illicit collection of those stories over and over again but while Colombe hadn't exactly been absent from her fantasies, but now she was forced to connect the two directly instead of just thinking of the heroine, 'Lady Chastity Dovesworth', as a merely
fictional character. She had placed a face and name on her actions both on the battlefield and in the bedroom. The same face and name who is causing her heart to beat uncontrollably and whose finger is a molten bar of steel against her lips.
Colombe leaned in and breathed. "
After dinner, though. No need to get worked up on an empty stomach. One thing I learned from my travels is to always get a good meal when you can, since you never know when a crisis will erupt."
Toku nods slightly hastily, biting her lip as her blush slowly fades from nuclear to merely embarrassed as they leave the dojo. "H-hai, Co-chan. Um… I am sorry, it is just…" She trails off, trying to find the words for what she is groping towards.
To be honest, she does not know herself what she is trying to say.
An apology for owning the books waiting in their hidden space under her futon? Curiosity about the real
stories behind the words that she has scanned over and over again? Perhaps even...a secret wish to act out the role of Lady Chastity's many, many lovers, many of whom, she realizes with a start and a redoubling of her blush were female?
Toku's confusion is relieved as her Co-chan, just like in their earlier duel, shows yet again her ability to penetrate the Masamune's defenses and strike to the heart of the matter when she must. Colombe gently hugs her around the waist from behind as they reach the kitchen, "It is alright. I would not have agreed to allow Lyra to publish very thinly fictionalized stories of my exploits if I was ashamed of them, or did not enjoy them. You did enjoy that book yes?"
Toku gives a shy nod, visibly relaxing in the embrace as the embarrassment fades with this acceptance, and arousal and curiosity gain the upper hand in the blood turning her cheeks scarlet. "H-hai, I did. Do."
"So did I, both in the doing, the retelling, and then later when I got a signed copy of the first drafts from Lyra for my library's complete collection of her works." Colombe shrugs. "You are not the first person to enjoy them, and you won't be the last either. You are easily the
cutest to be flustered by it however. If you want… well if you have any particular scenes from that book you want to act out after we retire to the bedroom tonight, or just if you would prefer to talk about it, I am at your service, To-chan."
Toku finally steps out of the embrace and begins to pull ingredients from the shelves and refrigerator. "Talk, yes. I have to ask… How much of the books are
true?" As she asks, her blush returns to color her cheeks. Silently, she resolves to bring out one of her favorites in her collection tonight and 'discuss' some of the events in it with her Co-chan.
Colombe frowns as she melts butter in the frying pan. "Good question. It depends a bit on the specific book of course. Probably about ninety percent for most, give or take. The one that is the most fictional is Sultana of the Sands, mainly because that was Delilah's big adventure where she got the heroine's reward. I spent the time between leaving Lyra's embrace and returning to her nursing me back to health either celibate or in a coma with a dagger in my guts during
that one."
Toku nibbles her lip thoughtfully as she starts the rice cooker. "Dagger.. .your daughter Ehren? Also, I have not read that one, which one is it?"
Colombe places slices of fish on the frying pan. "Ehren, yes, and Number Seventeen. Came out in 1944, the actual events happened in 1941-42. Some of the details were changed because of ongoing security concerns and of course Delilah was written out for various reasons. I happen to know that Del and Zamarad got a signed first edition of that one as well."
Toku shakes her head as she muses. "I only have up to number fourteen." She then blushes darker scarlet as she realizes that there are more books out there that she has not read. Yet.
Glancing over at Colombe, Toku relaxes at the fond smile on her love's face. "Not surprising. Lady Chastity and the Duchy of Doom came out in 1936 when you presumably got it. Then Lady Chastity and the Menacing Monastery came out in 1938 after the Spanish Civil War ended for me. Probably by that point, there was an embargo on them in Japan thanks to the runup to World War II. So you could not have picked up number fifteen, nor sixteen that came out right before Hitler stormed Poland. Sadly, Lyra died in 1949 before she could do more than a rough draft for number twenty-one."
Colombe trails off, looking sad and wistful at the memory of her old flame. Toku felt her heart reach out to her friend, and now lover, and walked over to embrace her. "She sounds like an extraordinary woman."
Colombe leans into the embrace, then reaches up to wipe tears off her cheeks. "Like you would not believe. She and Ian, her husband, saved my soul after the Congo." She turns and gives Toku a bittersweet smile. "I trust you do not mind me always carrying a bit of a torch for them?"
Toku shakes her head, that much had been obvious for some time already. "No, Co-chan. Not really. I also had a first love, although I was too young to know it at the time, and unlike you it was never consummated. Twenty years after I manifested, Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest swordsman of Japan, visited the shrine and taught me the beginnings of the Way of the Sword that I follow to this day. I…"
Toku licks dry lips as she fills the rice bowls and then moves the food to the table, "I confess that I have often dreamed about him
wielding me as we fought evils together. Even though one of my sisters was his acolyte then and follows his memory still, I wished to serve him as an apprentice, a blade in his hands, and perhaps in his bed as well. One of my regrets is that I did not go on musha shugyo, warrior's pilgrimage, with him when he and Musashi-oneesan left to further their understanding of the Way."
Colombe squeezes Toku's hand as they finish setting the dinner on the table. "You honor his memory by following his teachings to this very day. Just as Lyra made your Co-chan what she is today by healing her spirit, so did Miyamoto Musashi's teachings hone my To-chan into the wonderful person who I shall eat dinner with."
Paths upon paths, intersecting, twining around each other, from two smiths, to dozens of swords, to a collection of unique women and a legacy of heroism.
To two blades from different lines, brought together by history.
"Neither of us would be here without our pasts." Colombe looks up from her rice at that final pronouncement and then tilts her head ever so slightly, regarding Tokunotakai with curiosity. "So…" The Masamune continues, smiling, albeit bitterly. "I am thankful for them both… Lyra-sama, and Musashi-dono… Because together, they brought us to each other in their own ways."
Colombe nodded, then thought for a moment. "I
would say that I doubt they knew where we would end up, but if Lyra could have somehow set this up, I'm sure she would have done so." She smiled wistfully, and Toku's lips curled slightly as well. The rain continued to fall outside as the grey clouds faded to black with the distant sunset.
The food was simple, but Colombe wouldn't have traded it for anything in that moment.
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In another place, at a similar time. A Phone rings in a darkened room.
"It's done?"
"It's done... Hachiman was more than happy to be of assistance. Apparently he's been trying to figure out how to get a signal to his devoted little bird for quite some time."
"Excellent... And they're happy?"
"No relationship is perfect, especially when it comes to those particular families, but they didn't need much help to fall for each other. I've no doubt they'll be together for a very long time."
"Good. Thanks so much for your help Takami-sama~"
"It was no trouble at all Lyra-chan~ Now about that book you promised me..."
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Produced with the permission and assistance of
@SisterJeanne by which I mean they actually wrote some pretty huge chunks of this one where I mostly just did editing work. Thank you again for your help!
