It was a day like any other. The sun came up and rose above the sky like a fierce ball of fire ready to destroy anything in its path. From the time the sun peeked up above the mountains in the distance he was up firing up the forge. He had several swords for refining lined up for the day. By mid-day he took a break, sweat sliding down his well toned back, his shaven face, and bare biceps. Stepping out of his shop he gazed up at the blazing sun. "It's sure going to be a scorcher today."
"Are you talking to yourself again? Or maybe your swords this time?" A deep voice spoke from beside him.
"Or maybe I'm talking to you, Yosu Otomaru." Smiling he glanced over at his best friend. The young man stared at him for a moment before chuckling.
"Sure sure, Yashi. As if you knew I would be walking up to right at that moment." Otomaru shook his head before moving closer. "You finish up with that last order you got in?"
Yashi gave a heavy sigh. "I'm down to the last one, but I really needed a break. It's not due for two more days so I have plenty of time to finish up that order. However, I just received another order last night for 5 new ones by the end of this week. I just can't seem to catch up." He ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair.
"That's the price for being famous I guess. Maybe you should think about having an apprentice again?" Otomaru slapped a hand on his shoulder with that fake smile he sometimes gave him. It was almost as if he was forcing it on himself. Yashi never understood his friend sometimes. Was he hiding something from him again? If he was he just wished that he would just come out and say it already and stop with this fake kindness.
With a raised brow Yashi took a step away so he could look his friend in the eye. "You saw how well that went last time. The guy was just starting to get good and he bailed on me."
"I didn't bail on you man. There were things I had to do on my own. Not to mention I felt like I was just getting in your way." Otomaru's smile was a bit more genuine.
Narrowing his eyes a bit he turned away. "And you couldn't have just said what those things were? You still can't, can you?" pausing long enough for his friend to answer and when he didn't he heaved out a sigh and continued, "How about I tell you what I think. I think you left because you felt like I was holding you back. You left to start your own shop, however, it's not panning out like you thought it would be. So why are you back here? Because I don't think it's to catch up on old times. It's been a couple of weeks maybe a month now since I saw and talked to you last." Tilting his head to the side he glanced over his shoulder to look over at his friend.
"I never said any of that, and I'm sorry about not telling you about the shop. It's like I said, I didn't want to hold you back and I thought maybe I could start on my own feet." Yashi could hear a sad tone to his friends' voice. He was still hiding something.
"Whatever, Otomaru. When you decide to come to me with the truth you know where to find me." With that Yashi left him standing there and headed to his house nearby.
"...I wish you…" There was suddenly a sharp stabbing pain in Yashi's back and his world was spinning. Someone was above him talking but the words were distorted as the pain grew worse and his vision was fading. But just as suddenly as the pain came it faded and he just felt numb. From the inside out. Someone turned him over and he realized then that he had fallen to the ground and the soft yet pointy stuff that had been touching his face was grass. He stared up at the sky, the vision of his friend fading in and out of his vision slightly above and to the side of him. The look on his face held anger yet there was a touch of sadness deep behind his eyes. Why was he mad? "..your fault…" What was his fault? He hadn't done anything. There was a choking sensation in the back of his throat and when he went to go clear it blood came up splattering onto his face and lips. Oh god, was he dying? Why wasn't his friend helping him? He felt so heavy now that he couldn't lift his hands from the ground or even move for that matter or maybe he just felt too numb to move. He laid there helplessly while his friend stood there watching. When Otomaru turned away and started to walk Yashi tried to say something, anything to bring his friend back but the words were silent as they left his mouth. No sound came from his lips but the heavy sound of his labored breathing. It wasn't long before even that sound went silent and the world around him was a black nothingness. It wasn't fair, that was the last thought that crossed his mind.
Yashi wasn't sure how long the deep darkness held him. The swell of nothingness that had cocooned him until now. The first sense that came back to him was sound. The oh so familiar sound of a hammer beating against steel. The sizzling sound as you placed that metal into water and then the repeat of the crackling of the flames as he went to reheat it up again. Was he back in his shop? That was strange, he didn't remember falling asleep while he worked. He couldn't see anything also but he was sure he heard the sounds of his shop. He wasn't mistaking it. Next came his sense of smell. He could smell the heat of the fire as it blazed hot. The smell of sweat as it beaded off his body- but that smell was a bit off. It was a new smell and one he wished he could get rid of. It smelled like pine mixed with shit. He wanted to gag and he would have gagged if he had a throat to gag with. The rest of his senses were slowly coming back and when he could see again it was strange. It felt like almost an out of body experience. Like he wasn't really looking through eyes. The images just came to him. It was then that he realized he didn't have a body. Well he did, kinda. It just wasn't a human body. The body he was used to having. What the hell was going on? Panic started to rush through him. He could feel it but it wasn't like he remembered it to feel like. Yashi didn't have a chest that rose and fell with each breath. He didn't even have that.
Looking into the pool of water that he was being dipped into, he could see a reflection of himself. Panic rose in him even more as he thought he was being drowned moments right up to being held under the water. He wanted to flail his arms, well arms that he no longer had. It was like a phantom arms. So this must be what it felt like to lose a limb in battle. The sensation of thinking you still had that limb, the pains of it still being there, but in reality it wasn't. The sausage fingers that held him placed him up next to others like him. Was this his new life now? Had he really just become a sword? So he did die and was what…? Reincarnated as a sword? No, no. This was just some sort of weird ass dream, right? It had to be. What else could it be? He would have given a full belly laugh if he had a belly to laugh with. Any minute now he would wake up. There was no way he was killed by his best friend and somehow reincarnated into a sword. No way in hell was that even possible.