Chapter 11 Day 1
A usual morning in Kajima's house involved everyone coming down for breakfast at first light. Azi would eat a light meal to then go do his morning training while Shizu would have a big appetite due to how she knew that her work would keep her too busy to eat a proper meal later in the day.
But today, Kajima opted to not cook breakfast as he knew that Azi would be a bit hungover from the alcohol and would be cared for by Shizu.
His suspicions were correct as the dining room was empty at the crack of dawn. Knowing that the two were going to have a late start to the day, Kajima left the house and went into town to buy some prepackaged foods.
Returning home a couple hours after first light, he found Shizu at the dining table with reports spread out in front of her. He could also hear the metallic clanging and banging coming from the workshop which he suspected to be from Azi.
"Morning Shizu, Is Azi alright?"
Still focused on her work, Shizu responded to Kajima in a plain tone.
"Yeah, Azi is doing fine. Oddly enough he doesn't have a hangover, so he opted to start his work in the workshop. If you want to see him I don't think he would mind."
"That's good to hear, what did you do to help him get into a better mood?"
Shizu paused for a moment but proceeded to respond as if nothing serious had occurred.
"I just gave him a hug and talked with him during the night. Just be sure to take me with you when you buy that dessert he likes. I want to chip in a bit as an apology."
Setting a few rice balls and a bag of meat skewers onto the dining table, Kajima gave her nod but had picked up on the slight blush she had on her face.
"Thank you Shizu. I was worried he was going to lose his drive if he was stuck in that mood for too long. In any case, you must be hungry. Eat these and pace yourself with your work, alright?"
"Alright and thanks for the food."
Kajima patted Shizu's head which made her pout a little in embarrassment, but she nonetheless acquiesced and grabbed one of the rice balls.
He smiled at Shizu and was glad she wasn't as affected by yesterday's debacle at dinner. He then turned to walk over to the workshop. He did not worry about his attire due to how he always wore his tool belt and blacksmith attire whenever he went into the village or was working.
This was mainly to advertise himself to the villagers and ensure that he always had a presence in the village.
Opening the door, Kajima saw the sight of a blue magic tether moving a black hammer to impact a red-hot piece of metal that Azi was holding with a pair of metal tongs. This was Azi's unorthodox method of wielding his hammer to efficiently save his physical strength by using his magic energy as a source of additional endurance.
Kajima was impressed by how Azi was able to come up with a creative solution to his stamina issue with forging. The boy showed that he had an innovative mind when it came to solving issues, but remembered how reckless and emotional he could get at times.
Noticing the figure at the door, Azi turned his gaze up to meet Kajima's eyes. With his goggles on, Azi asked.
"Teacher, do you need something? Or are we having a lesson today?"
"No Azi, I just wanted to drop off some food for you. You must be hungry yet I am surprised you can work on an empty stomach."
"Yeah, well… I want to keep my promise to Shizu. And since I woke up late, I need to get started as soon as possible to make the promised due date."
Moving to a nearby pile of metal ingots, bags of medicines, and thaumaturgy tools off to the side in the workshop, Azi placed the finished ingot into the respective pile. Kajima noticed just how many wooden crates were empty of their contents.
It was only just last night that Ben and Bail had come with Azi's recent request for materials. While the amount was not as much as the time Azi had first ordered materials, it was still a substantial amount.
Curious why Azi needed so much metal for a single weapon offered a question.
"I'm impressed, you seemed to be able to make ingots a lot faster than before but tell me why do you need so much metal? Is this all for Shizu's weapon?"
"No, I have enough to make multiples of Shizu's umbrella weapon, but I need some as extra just in case I fail. Also, I have future plans to make myself some new tools."
"I see, be sure to tell me if you make anything dangerous. In the meantime, here, eat something before you collapse."
After placing down an assortment of rice balls and meat skewers on the wooden table usually meant for sketching blueprints, Kajima pulled Azi over to get him to eat.
"Thanks, if possible, could you leave food for me on one of the empty workshop tables every day. This project is going to take me a while and I need to do it all at once if I want it to be a success. In fact, after I eat, I am going to begin the process and once I do, I won't be able to stop."
"Again, are you sure about this? What you suggested to me seems crazy. You'll be up for at most 7 days straight. Are you sure you can handle it? The amount of stamina and internal magic energy you have should allow you to stay awake but the mental stain will be quite harsh."
"Yes I'm sure and don't try to talk me out of this. I want to challenge myself on this. I remember from my memories that I always liked a challenge, so maybe if I do this I can remember more of who I was. So please, I am asking for your help, Teacher."
Azi bowed his head to Kajima as he begged for his help. To this Kajima sighed in exasperation but nonetheless agreed as he thought to himself to resolve his worries.
'While it's normal for blacksmiths to stay up for 3 days at a time when doing a very specific project, he plans to stay up for over double that time. He has got some grit, I'll give him that and he seems dead set on his choice. I can't deny him his right to choose so for now I'll do what I can and support him.'
"Thank you, I'll get started after I eat so give me a moment Teacher."
Azi then washed his hand with water from a nearby bucket of water. He then sat at the sketching table and began eating. While Azi was occupied with his late breakfast, Kajima moved to the kitchen. He informed Shizu of Azi's plan and returned with a large container of water to the workshop.
"Here you'll need to drink a lot of water in here, so I'll leave this here and I'll refill it for you. Eat and drink as much as you can when you are able throughout the next 7 days. Just make sure to be careful."
Nodding with his mouth full of food, Azi ate and drank with gusto.
Finally finishing off all his food with a large mug of water, Azi got to his feet and re-equipped himself with his toolbelt, goggles, and gloves.
Surveying to see if he had enough stamina potions, he counted 10 in all which was more than enough than the initial 6 he estimated he needed. Now looking at the pile of blood steel ingots he recently made he sighed in relief and worry.
What he was about to do would be considered reckless as the process he had in mind for forging Shizu's weapon involved the infusion of thaumaturgic practices with blacksmithing techniques of tempering. He planned to infuse Shizu's weapon with a steady stream of magical energy to further enhance the blood steel ingots through the unique magical channels found in blood steel.
He discovered that the blood steel was most receptive to magic when under heat, but the process to infuse the metal took a few hours to complete and depended on the size of the intended piece.
Azi's plan for the first day was to forge the katana first and infuse it. This was the easy part, the hard part was due to the complexity of Shizu's weapon. Azi had to also infuse each metal sheet that made up her new umbrella and he could not just leave the infused pieces of blood steel alone.
This was because he would need to complete the process of infusion by compressing the energies into the metal and inscribing a rune so that the magic energy did not dissipate over time.
But this had a catch, if he did not compress the magical energies in all the pieces of Shizu's weapon at once. If not done this way the runes would all be out of sync due to how he learned from Touma that if the runes were not synced by the exact same magic at the same time, they would not function correctly.
This was why runes were only placed onto a single item like a staff but not onto the numerous parts of a weapon.
Wanting to go the extra mile and to not give a half-baked weapon to Shizu. Azi decided to shoulder this challenge on his own and, to make it more difficult for himself, he told Kajima to not assist him with forging.
In recent days, Azi's competitive spirit came back to him as memories of his past challenges or personal trials were restored.
He remembered doing marathons and long nights of back breaking work to complete some challenge he could not remember, but he did recall his passion and drive when he did these things.
Wanting to figure out more about himself, he came up with a difficult forging process that seemed crazy to Kajima but had an unbelievable pay out if he succeeded.
Steeling himself, Azi focused his mind and the veins on his hands started glowing blue. To the side, Kajima witnessed Azi's magical tethers extend from his hands. Two whip-like lines of blue light extended from his hands, one grabbed the hammer at Azi tool belt and the other grabbed Kajima's 10-pound hammer from an anvil nearby.
Grabbing a blood steel ingot with a pair of metal tongs with his gloved hands, Azi began to heat the metal until it turned red hot.
He then began the process of forging the katana, using his past memories he folded the metal as many times as he could before proceeding to the next part which involved forming it into the shape of a katana.
This took a couple hours for Azi to complete the katana's form and he did not come out unscathed. The burns from the sparks from his hammer strikes marred his arms and the scratches on his fingers from handling the metal with metal tongs were numerous. He applied the medicine from Elder Sung to his injuries and thanked her for her help in his mind.
Observing the still red hot katana in the forge's fire, he began the infusion process. Letting one of his magical tethers split into two, the split tether still held the hammer but the other began wrapping itself around the katana.
He then controlled the temperature of the katana and for a couple hours Azi in parallel infused the magical energies he could spare to ensure he could still do the same to the rest of the parts.
By the middle of the night Azi finished infusing and sighed in relief. He then looked out the window and saw the moon and stars shining in the night sky. The sight of them comforted him and he noticed his parched throat that felt dry like sand.
Moving over to the large container of water Kajima had filled with water, Azi took a drink with an empty cup and noticed the food left on the workshop table for him.
He sat and began to quickly eat. He finished his food off with a drink of stamina potion and he thought to himself mid glup.
'6 more days till the due date.'
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