The Blacksmiths
"He's awake!" a voice cut through the desolate silence, the dark curtain lifting as streams of light curled. "Hisahide, he's awake!"
Muffled footsteps rang out, and as rough fabrics slid on skin a single gold eye blinked, dazed, at the young men who stood by. One possessed dark chestnut locks with a red strip, and the other had dark, almost midnight black strands cut with a similar red strip.
"Wh-" the drifter's voice cracked, before speaking hoarsely. "Why can't I see?"
A shaky hand rose, unsteadily reaching for the darkness obscuring his right side; feeling the scratchy bandages that had been wrapped over his eye. The dark haired one stepped over, offering water.
"I'm Niwa Akari, and heś my older brother, Niwa Hisahide. Some of the fishermen found you drifting in the ocean near Nazuchi Beach, and carried you over here. Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to see from your right eye again. But at least they're a really cool scar!" the
"Akari, that's kind of insensitive. And anyways, I need to ask for identity and other information for safety, remember? I'm the Armory Officer after all." the brunette-Hisahide, sighed, gazing at his sibling fondly.
"Call me Tsurumaru. I fell into the water and got swept away in the current during a storm. Where exactly am I? And what day is it?" the male asked, the borrowed haori and hakama pants shifting with his movements.
"We're on Kannazuka Island in Inazuma, and it's Error"
Inazuma.
A place Tsurumaru had never seen before, yet heard from the stories that were swapped around by some of the merchants in Khaenriah. The nation of the Electro Archon, of violet lightning and eternity (?).
How ironic, for a sinner to have become the epitome of a god's will. His visage had remained unchanged despite the passage of time, other than his damaged eye, and yet he had been one of those punished for others' sins.
The memories of the children, of the Performer, had all been washed in film. The hazy curtains fluttered, thin and weak against the relentless battering, and a fuzzy white muffled all noise in the room, Akari and Hisahide's voices lost.
"We'll leave you here for now if you'd like."
"We'll return later. I'll have to discuss any living arrangements with Katsuragi, Nagamasa, and the others."
"Strike precisely, and control your strength. When you're ready, quench the blade."
Many moons had waxed and wanted since Tsurumaru's arrival in Tatarasuna. Akari had taken it upon himself to teach the drifter the arts of the forge.
"Shouldn't the officers be handling the training?" Miyazaki Kaneo, the vice Armory Officer asked grinning, and the older Niwa let out a startled laugh, looking up from the blade he was shaping.
"You wound me so much, Kaneo! I'm good at forging too, you know!" Akari's cry of outrage only brought out more laughter.
"I think our newest forger is already better than you~ Don't want your junior to surpass you~" An older man walked up, his voice holding a teasing lilt.
"Agh-you too, Kinjirou? I thought we understood each other!" Indignation bubbled, and crocodile tears escaped from Akari's umber eyes. "Even Nozomu is nicer to me! Tsurumaru, help! They're all bullying me!"
"Huh? I thought this was called bantering. Maybe it's just my poor teacher who can't handle a battle of words." the drifter tilted his head, an amused expression betraying his cover of confusion.
"You're all traitors, all of you." Akari slumped over, before dramatically reaching up to the sky. "Celestia take me!"
:"You all should get back to work before the Inspector find out you've been slacking off, you know," Nagamasa's yoriki, Katsuragi called out, "He wouldn't be happy about having to pause work on the Daitara Nagamasa, and Nozomu's been working on the blueprint for weeks now. The project's probably going to take some more Jade Steel, and the supply the Shogunate want aren't going to magically form."
"Sorry, sorry."
The cheerful atmosphere remained, a bubble of comfort in the hammering, hissing, and crackling that followed.
"The trip really wasn't that difficult, Lord Akame. The prospect of lending a hand in another nation's advancement is a great honor in itself, and it's be my pleasure to assist in any way possible."
"Yes, yes. We'll start a bit simple just for clarifications, and then we'll give you the full project if your work proves satisfactory."
This chapter has proven to be quite difficult. *sigh* I spent probably the better of two hours focusing on research and other topics including Wanderer's backstory in order to try to get ideas for how future chapters would shape out, as well as how to actually write the residents of Tatarasuna, and because of how limited the knowledge I could obtain about actually living there, I spent more time skimming through other authors' works based on Kabukimono and Tatarasuna. I won't be including Kabukimono until the next chapter as per my writing plan, which made the whole process even harder because I didn't know what exactly to add, because unlike Kabukimono, Tsurumaru is not newly born, and his original home is [Redacted].
Anyways, complaints aside, all the people mentioned in this chapter actually existed and aren't fictional (probably), other than Akari who will serve a more, important purpose *insert evil grin*. The Daitari Nagamasu is an in game weapon that can be obtained after complete Tatara Tales: Last Act and finding the three keys to someplace else-although it is called Katsuragikiri Nagamasa.
Please let me know if something is inaccurate because I don't read lore at all until I actually have to.
IMPORTANT: Also please, please, please, please fill out my polls for the traveler and the abyss twin, and for any potential love interests (or just comment any because my stupid brain probably forgot the existence of most of the characters). The genders of the twins roles will be filled out as the canon (Aether-male as the traveler and Lumine-female as the abyss princess) if left undecided, and love interests will be left to a random wheel spin of five.
I need to get back to my school project, and RIP to my sleep schedule.
Your author who is running off of stored sleep,
-Aquamarine
Credits
Lore: The Genshin Wiki
Art: u/kohi_bean on Reddit