The town smelled like fire, fish, sweat, and old blood.
We walked side by side down the packed, dirt street. Yumi kept her hood low, murmuring as we moved. I kept my head high. I wanted to see everything.
The buildings leaned over us like watchers, their wooden beams cracked with age. Between each home, children darted like feral animals, barefoot and smudged with coal. A fat woman screamed at a shop boy for cheating her. A beggar slept under a tarp made of patched fishing nets. Soldiers in iron-stitched armor stomped past, their spears clacking on the stone.
"What are those markings?" I asked Yumi, nodding at a passing soldier's chestplate. His armor was etched with swirling lines, like flowing water captured in steel.
"Clan rank," she whispered. "See that pattern? That means he's second-tier infantry. The basic soldiers are called Iron Reeds. Middle rank is Steel Bloom. The highest are The Lord's Blades…. personal guards to the Kusanagi."
I watched the soldiers disappear into the crowd. "Too slow," I muttered. "Wouldn't survive five seconds."
"Maybe not," she said. "But they'd surround you. Drown you in steel."
I grinned. "Let them try."
She rolled her eyes and tugged my sleeve as we passed a bread stall. "Alright, next question. What do you want to know?"
"Trade," I said. "How do these people eat? How do they get weapons, clothes, tools?"
"Bartering, mostly. Some coin. Depends on the region." She spoke low, quick. "The clan issues silver tokens. Merchants accept them. But if you don't have tokens, you trade labor or items of equal worth."
I nodded. "So… strength is still power."
"In a way. But if you go smashing stalls for meat, they'll hang your body over the wall before you can say 'kill or be killed.'"
"Sounds like a challenge."
She elbowed me. "Focus."
We passed a ragged schoolhouse. A teacher barked at a row of children scribbling on wooden slates.
I tilted my head. "What's that?"
"School. Most towns teach basics. Reading, clan history, math, prayers."
"Prayers?"
"Yeah." She slowed. "Most clans worship their god-dragon. That's where the power comes from. The Iron Clan worships Shinzoku, the Steel Dragon."
"Does the dragon speak?"
"Only through the Immortals, mostly. Each clan's dragon gave their blessing to one immortal founder, like Kusanagi. The god-dragons don't really appear, but their energy flows through the clans. Or so they say."
"Hmph." I looked at the old temple rising at the far end of town. "A dragon that hides. I'll rip him out one day."
Yumi sighed. "Please don't start declaring war on gods yet."
A gust of wind blew through the street, scattering dust and loose cloth. We turned down a narrower alley, the air thicker with smoke and sweat.
Yumi gasped and darted to a nearby post. She tore down a crumpled piece of parchment, eyes bright with excitement.
"Look!" she said, shoving it in my face. "This is perfect!"
The parchment showed a crude sketch of a scarred man with wild hair and a long knife. The words below were large and bold, though I couldn't read them yet.
"Is this someone strong?" I asked.
"Not exactly," she said, flipping the paper over. "He's a serial rapist and killer. Has a price on his head. Ten silver tokens."
"So?"
"So, bounty hunting." She jabbed the poster. "You hunt bad people for pay. It's legal. You get money, weapons, a reputation. And we don't have to worry about the clan chasing us."
I didn't answer. My attention had already drifted.
The sound came first. Metal ringing on metal. Rhythmic. Deep. Like thunder trapped in a cage.
I turned my head.
Across the road, a building spewed smoke from a stone chimney. Sparks flew from its open side. Inside, men and women moved like machines, bare-chested and sweating, hammering red-hot steel.
A forge.
I stepped forward. Yumi grabbed my sleeve.
"Renzoku," she hissed. "Wait—"
But I didn't stop.
I walked across the road, my eyes locked on the glowing red iron. My feet moved without thinking.
I had killed with stone blades. Spears made from bone. Swords of chipped coral and shark-tooth. I had built weapons with my own hands.
But this… this was magic.
They shaped the metal like meat. Melted it, folded it, whispered to it through fire. They sharpened it until it shone brighter than moonlight. My heart thudded in my chest.
The blacksmith nearest to me was a broad man with arms like tree trunks. He slammed his hammer onto a glowing blade.
Clang!
Sparks exploded into the air.
I stepped closer, mouth open.
"Hey!" Yumi hissed, running after me. "Don't—!"
I stopped right in front of the blacksmith, between him and the furnace. He looked up, confused and irritated, sweat running down his soot-streaked face.
I stared into the fire. Then into his eyes.
"Teach me," I said.
The forge went silent.
A few smiths looked over from their benches. A woman with short hair and burns across her arms frowned.
Yumi caught up to me, panting. "Renzoku, what are you doing?!"
I didn't take my eyes off the man.
"Teach me," I said again. "How to shape this. How to bend steel. How to kill better."
The man blinked, slowly. "You crazy or just stupid, boy?"
"Both," Yumi muttered, grabbing my sleeve.
I shook her off.
"I'll work," I said. "I'll learn. I'll break every bone in my hands if that's what it takes."
The blacksmith studied me, then looked at Yumi. "He always this intense?"
She nodded quickly. "He… really wants to learn. He's new to the city."
"New to life, more like."
The smith grunted and wiped his hands on a rag. "I don't train idiots who'll burn my shop down."
"Let me prove myself," I said.
"You know how to swing a hammer?"
"I know how to break bone with one. I'll learn the rest."
The woman from earlier walked over, arms crossed. "He's serious."
"Yeah," the big smith grunted. "I can see that. Fine."
He jabbed a thick finger at a pile of raw ore near the wall. "Stack that. By hand. Then scrub every forge stone clean. Then we'll talk."
I grinned. "Done."
"Don't mess up my place, wild boy. Or I'll beat you bloody."
Yumi opened her mouth to protest, but I was already moving. Grabbing ore, stacking it, dragging heavy baskets across the floor.
I would learn.
I would shape the metal the way I shaped my own body.
I would craft a new kind of blade.
And with it, I would carve open this world.