"Stop standing there and stare at it, it's not gonna grow legs and come to you..." Akashi said while jumping down to the crater.
Once Kurome and Poney heard his voice, they woke up from their shock and quickly followed after him while looking at his back with admiration.
When they arrived in front of her weapon, they were greeted with a slightly different sheath. The original sheath was black with a few red markings made with Akashi's flames but red markings completely disappeared and were replaced by yellow glowing ones. Akashi was slightly worried since he didn't want it to glow at night which would give Kurome a big disadvantage during the stealth missions but the more carefully he looked at it, the more it looked like its glow intensifies with the bigger intensity of the outside light.
"It looks completely different..." Kurome muttered while hesitating to take hold of the hilt.
"Take it, it's your weapon so no one else is going to take hold of it. Be careful, it's not exactly the same weapon." Akashi said with a smile before he warned her with a serious expression.
Kurome nodded and gripped the hilt with one hand and sheath with another. She took it out of the ground and stared at the yellow markings on the sheath for a while.
*Gulp* Kurome gulped down, she herself had no idea why is she so nervous but she steeled herself and very slowly draw the katana out of its sheath. When just a bit of its blade was revealed it was visible that the sharp edge that was previously green was replaced by yellow color and yellow sparks started to dance around it.
Kurome was slightly startled by it but she narrowed her eyes and kept holding it without any fear.
*Inhale* *exhale* Kurome prepared herself and drew her entire katana in one motion. Making an arc of yellow lightning in front of her in the same motion as she drew her blade. However, the lighting was behaving a bit wild and tried to attack Akashi and Poney but Akashi already anticipated it and took Poney by her waist and jumped back out of its reach.
"Ah, sorry!" Kurome looked behind her at Akashi and apologized with a regretful expression.
"Don't worry about it, tame it and show it that you don't need its protection" Akashi said with a smile while still holding Poney. Akashi was suspecting that this new weapon recognized Kurome as its owner but it still acts on its instincts. Kurome needs to show it that she doesn't need its protection but only help.
"...Can you put me down?" Poney asked with a blank expression despite being all shocked just a few seconds ago.
"Sure..." Akashi said and put her down.
'I guess she doesn't like it when someone carries her around, good to know.' Akashi thought with a small evil smile inwardly.
Kurome pointed her katana at the sky.
"Aaah!" Kurome shouted while a big ball of yellow concentrated electricity appeared on the tip of her katana. Soon after that, lighting bolts started shooting out of that ball to surroundings, destroying the ground even further. Her hand started to shake so she gripped the hilt with both of her hands, trying to calm her weapon down.
Poney and Akashi just kept observing from a safe distance for more than 5 minutes before the ball of electricity got sucked into her katana and only small sparks occasionally danced across its blade.
[+2000 XP to your Master Blacksmith class for successfully creating your first weapon on Teigu's level]
Master Blacksmith (Lv. 9; +10 Str, +10 Const) 450/2560 XP
'Successfully? Does that mean there is a chance of failure? Maybe if Kurome failed to put it under control?' Akashi thought with frowned brows.
*Huff* *Huff* Kurome was left breathless as she kept panting.
"Good job, it looks like you showed it that you don't need its protection." Akashi approached and gently patted her back a few times.
"It was much harder than I anticipated, half-way through, it stopped trying to convince me peacefully and started sending sparks of electricity directly into my body through the hilt but I was able to endure it" Kurome replied with a smile but her face was full of sweat and slightly pale.
"T-This is impossible...Yes...this must be a dream" Poney kept muttering behind Akashi as she kept looking around with a dumbfounded expression.
"Is she alright?" Despite Kurome's exhausted state, she still asked if Poney is alright.
"Yeah...Let her absorb it, she will recover soon enough. Anyway, you should name it if you still haven't done it." Akashi looked back at Poney just to shook his head with a helpless smile at Kurome.
"Name, huh? How about..." Kurome muttered while looking at the yellow edge of the blade.
"...Kaminari?" Kurome said with an uncertain expression while looking at Akashi for his approval.
"Good name! However, even if I didn't like it, it wouldn't matter since it is your weapon. Anyway, we should get going and really quickly since that lighting at the beginning was pretty large and loud. I don't doubt that the Capital already send someone to investigate so let's run some distance away from the Capital before joining the main road leading back to the Capital. We wouldn't want to meet any spies or assassins on our way, we would also look suspicious for walking from the same direction as that lighting." Akashi said with a smile while patting Kurome's shoulder.
"I guess we better disappear" Kurome nodded with a serious expression and wanted to jump out of the crater but she noticed that Poney was still inside her own world.
"Don't worry about her, let's go" Akashi said and put Poney under his arm, carrying her like a sack of potatoes.
This caused her to wake up and stare at Akashi with a blank expression.
'Do you really have to carry me like that? You have both of your hands free, so why not something more civilized like princess-carry?' Poney thought while staring at Akashi with a face saying 'Are you serious?'
Akashi noticed her look but he decided to ignore her but he still couldn't help but smile a bit which caused Poney to angrily stare at him for the rest of their way.
When they ran more than 10 kilometers away from the previous location, they joined on the main road leading directly to the Capital.
.
.
"Fuuu, still, that was scary...At first, I thought that it was a Danger Beast but thankfully it was just a thunder...still, it's a bit weird since everywhere I look, I see only a clear sky." A boy with short, dark brown hair and white martial arts headband said with a slightly panicked expression while walking alongside a black-haired girl.
"Ieyasu, don't be such a wuss. I still can't believe how you were able to escape from those bandits..." His companion replied while holding her forehead with a tired expression.
"Hey! You are the one who got scared the most when we heard that thunder, Sayo! And what's the surprise about me escaping unscathed? Maybe you aren't aware but even Tatsumi has problems when fighting me...Hm?" He immediately shouted back at the girl with an upset expression before he started talking all big just to stop talking when he noticed 3 people coming out of the forest and joining them on the road.
'Oh! What a cutie, and we still aren't at the Capital...' Ieyasu started completely ignoring Sayo while looking at Kurome who was all smiles while talking to Akashi who was still carrying Poney.
'Why the hell did he stop talking and started completely ignoring me?' Sayo thought frustrated by this change so she took a look to the side, over Ieyasu and she immediately understood the reason which made her glare at Ieyasu.
'Heh, he has no chance, looking at how that girl has all her attention on that boy...?!' Sayo thought with a wide smile while looking at Kurome and Akashi. She decided to check what is so interesting on Akashi since already one beautiful girl was paying him attention. It was more of a womanly instinct, however, when she was checking him out, he turned at her and made eye contact with her which made her quickly turn away.
'Huh? What's their problem?' Akashi thought with a confused expression. He recognized their clothing and knew that they come from Northern Tribes or at least somewhere near its borders.
"Can you finally put me down?!" Poney who kept quiet all the time suddenly snapped while bearing her teeth at Akashi, ready to bite his hand.
"This cat has rabies" Akashi muttered while holding up Poney in front of him under her armpits.
"Hah?! I am not a pet!!" She shouted and started wiggling all around, kicking with her legs and swinging her hands around.
Both Sayo and Ieyasu who saw this had a blank expression on their faces. At least they got to know that masked figure is a woman by her voice.
"*Hey, should we ask them if we are on the right road? We lost everything during that ambush after all.*" Ieyasu asked Sayo in a whisper.
"*Why should we? It's pretty obvious that this is the main road, we have met a lot of vendors already.*" Sayo replied while giving him a strange look.
"*Well, it's kinda awkward walking next to them without saying anything. Plus who said that we can't make sure if we are going in the right direction anyway?*" Ieyasu said while scratching the top of his head with his hand while having a silly smile across his face.
"*I knew it! You don't care about directions at all! Well, they don't look like bad guys so I guess it's alright*" Sayo replied while glaring at Ieyasu since she knew what was his goal.
Akashi was actually able to hear their entire conversation since they weren't exactly whispering that quietly, not to mention his enhanced senses which include a hearing. However he pretended like he never heard anything, the only thing that caught his interest a bit was so-called 'ambush'. He also noticed that they didn't have and backpacks or anything.
Akashi decided to put Poney down since he was expecting those 2 to approach them shortly.
And as he expected, the boy was the first to introduce himself with the girl behind.
'They definitely came from the village but still...That girl has some fair skin and silky hair...I quite pity her beauty already. She will have a hard time in the Capital.' Akashi thought while he was introducing himself and his companions which showed those 2 that he is the leader.
"If you don't mind us asking, do you know how far the Capital is from here?" Ieyasu asked while looking at Kurome but she simply frowned and tilted her head to the side with a confused expression.
'Cute!' This was Ieyasu's first thought when he saw Kurome tilt her head to the side.
*Smack* "Ouch!" Ieyasu felt something hit back of his head so he turned at Sayo with a confused expression.
"Oho, sorry...I saw a fly on your head but it managed to get away." Sayo replied with a menacing smile while failing to hide it behind her hand but when she noticed Akashi looking at her with a weird expression, she changed it into a flowery gentle smile.
'These guys are naive idiots, they will die the first day inside the Capital.' Akashi thought.
"It's probably about 25 kilometers from here if you will follow this road...We are going there too." Akashi quickly replied since Ieyasu's question was about to be forgotten.