The Blacksmith Origins -First Edition-

**The Blacksmith Origins -First Edition-** is a series of stories detailing the origins of The Blacksmith as well as the modern day character, Adan. The story alternates between the past (beginning as early as 913 A.D. in Sar, Rural NInava) and the present day (2033 A.D. in the City of Asahi).

### Published on

2021

The full story can be read on the ADA Ninjaz Content Hub.

## Story

### Chapter 1

**948 AD**: A young boy witnesses a blaze engulfing an old workshop when suddenly, The Blacksmith, a figure the boy had studied so well over the past years, darts out carrying a small girl on his back and a long katana in his hand.

The boy, in a state of fear and confusion, takes one long look at the Blacksmith and notices the katana shining with a blue glow from the inside. The boy shifts his eyes back to the blaze and in an instant, the blacksmith is gone.

**2033 AD**: The legend of the Blacksmith is held within Ninavan culture as a lesson to young children, stating that, once a year, the Blacksmith comes down from the Lakontey Mountains and wraps naughty children in his dirty rags, taking them away forever.

### Chapter 2

**913 AD**: A young girl, Mizuki, gives her best friend Tsukuyomi a piece of wire to sculpt as a gift as they watch the Old Blacksmith hammer away at a new piece in his workshop.

Suddenly, a blue light shimmers behind Tsukuyomi, growing until a loud crack pierces through the air and Tsukuyomi feels a hot pain on the back of his head, leaving a crescent moon shaped wound.

The Old Blacksmith rushes Tsukuyomi back to his mother, Hanabira, where he follows Mizuki’s lead in fabricating a story to rid the Old Blacksmith of blame for Tsukuyomi’s injury, knowing that this was the way to continue Tsukuyomi being allowed to spend time in the workshop, studying the work of The Blacksmith.

Tsukuyomi’s dreams of following in the footsteps of the Old Blacksmith are shot down when his father, Arcan, explains Tsukuyomi’s duty to run the family farm one day as this is the will of the Emperor, Daigo.

**948 AD**: Tsukuyomi–now a full blacksmith–and his wife, Mizuki, visit the graves of Tsukuyomi’s parents. Tsukuyomi places a finely crafted bronze flower on the grave and the pair mourn the difficulty in procreation they have been having. On their way home, the pair are ambushed by Samurai sent by the Emperor Murakami to receive an update on the status of a plethora of weaponry Tsukuyomi was to create, including that of a katana crafted in the mysterious blue-glowing ore that one samurai in particular is intent on wielding.

### Chapter 3

948 AD: Iwaro, a plump and grumpy old man–along with his weak-looking donkey–struggle to deliver a haul of iron ore to Tsukuyomi, The Blacksmith, who had agreed to help Iwaro.

As usual, Tsukuyomi got lost in his work and forgot.

Iwaro, slacking on the job, is reminded by an imperial guard to continue his work in the mines. He tests the strength of the mine with his pickaxe. The mine crumbles slightly but this doesn’t bother Iwaro too much. He investigates the fallen wall as the dust settles and from within, a soft blue glow emanates…

### Chapter 4

**948 AD**: Iwaro brings the glowing blue ore to Tsukuyomi’s house.

Tsukuyomi wants nothing to do with the ore, thinking it will land him and Iwaro in some kind of trouble with the emperor for stealing from their land. Iwaro justifies his ownership of the ore as it is a piece of Ninava, a land that rightfully belongs to the people. Iwaro suggests Tsukuyomi keep the ore and use it to create something beautiful for his wife and future children.

### Chapter 5

**948 AD**: Tsukuyomi waits anxiously for Mizuki to leave before attempting to open the glowing blue ore.

He places it in his furnace and chisels it open. To his surprise it cracks open like an egg, revealing a strange metal octahedron with a soft blue shimmer.

Mizuki returns home and writes the letters 自己, telling Tsukuyomi that this should be the name of his next art piece. Unfortunately Tsukuyomi struggles to read and write and so doesn’t understand its significance. Mizuki, pregnant, tells Tsukuyomi that she has a good feeling about this pregnancy after so many devastating endings prior. Tsukuyomi and Mizuki share a moment and Tsukuyomi folds away an old piece of paper with Mizuki’s name on it. The pair go to sleep as a faint blue glow emanates from Tsukuyomi’s workshop...

**913 AD**: A young Tsukuyomi, struggling to read and write, is getting increasingly frustrated at himself, desperately in need of an alternative way of expressing himself...

Mizuki sneaks up on him and steals him away where the two lay in the middle of a field below the night sky. Mizuki gives Tsukuyomi a piece of paper with her name written on it. Knowing that Tsukuyomi is struggling with his literacy, she wants the first word he comprehends to be her name.

### Chapter 6

**924 AD**: Tsukuyomi finds Mizuki sitting in the village, waiting to greet him with exciting news.

She offers Tsukuyomi two sets of Kanji characters for him to pick from. When Tsukuyomi admits he is unable to understand, Mizuki reveals that she is pregnant and these are baby names to choose from.

**948 AD**: Tsukuyomi tinkers with the blue ore in his workshop trying to figure out what properties the alloy holds. A fly lands on the ore and is met with a soft glow dancing around its body. Tsukuyomi is dumbfounded when a second fly seems to appear from the ore. Before long, the fly disappears and Tsukuyomi is frustrated that his eyes would deceive him like this. He takes a hammer to the ore and slams it down, striking the blue surface with all of his might, leaving a dent on one of its edges that seems to be more reflective than before. Tsukuyomi stares at his reflection but struggles with not quite recognising the face staring back at him/ He moves the ore around, noting that the angle of incidence doesn’t seem equal to the angle or reflection.

**924 AD**: Tsukuyomi and Mizuki get the unfortunate news that despite great care and love for their unborn baby, they have lost the child.

**948 AD**: At dinner with Iwaro and Ida, Mizuki and Tsukuyomi reveal that they are pregnant once again. Iwaro, taken aback, celebrates with a characteristically exaggerated reaction before Ida calms him down. Iwaro goes on to ask Tsukuyomi if he has had a chance to tinker with the special ore. Mizuki and Ida, having yet to hear news of the ore, start to question their soul mates’ intent on hiding news of a ‘special ore’. Ida startles Tsukuyomi and Mizuki by shouting at Iwaro, accusing him of stealing from the imperial mines.

### Chapter 7

**948 AD**: Mizuki screams in terror as her beloved Tsukuyomi is knelt down with a katana blade raised above him, ready to fall at any moment. The katana begins to fall...

**947 AD**: Kamino, an eight-year-old boy, watches Tsukuyomi hard at work, trying not to get caught intruding on the blacksmith. Tsukuyomi catches the boy glimpsing through the window and drags him inside. The boy fears for his life, pleading his innocence before Tsukuyomi greets him with a bowl of candy and pastries. The boy stuffs his face while Tsukuyomi attempts to make a friend out of the boy, hoping to show him the beauty of the craft as the Old Blacksmith once did for him. Tsukuyomi hands Kamino a small rabbit statue he calls ‘Mizu’ and sends him on his way.

**948 AD**: The katana hits the ground right next to Tsukuyomi as the Imperial guards demean his existence. They note that they must keep Tsukuyomi alive as his skill is not one found commonly among Ninavans, a people who the empire consider lesser than themselves. The samurai, having discovered the existence of the blue ore, orders Tsukuyomi to craft a bespoke katana from the alloy, just for him.

The samurai stops Tsukuyomi just before letting him leave. He takes out the piece of paper that holds the baby names Mizuki had given him. The samurai points to one of the names and looks at Tsukuyomi. “I want you to call my katana this.”

### Chapter 8

**948 AD**: Iwaro and Ida lovingly bicker as they have done every other day in their long marriage. Little do they know of the horrors that are about to besiege their family as imperial guards march down the street towards their house. The guards stampede in, destroying everything in their path to find Iwaro.

Tsukuyomi hammers away at the katana, surprised to see that the blue ore seems to desire the form he is crafting it into. He suddenly hears Mizuki screaming his name from afar and rushes to meet her. “IT’S IWARO!”

Iwaro is knelt on a large platform in the town center. The samurai behind Iwaro is reading an excerpt of a piece he had written, hoping for a resistance uprising against the callous reign of the empire. The samurai raises his blade, ready to sever the thin threads of freedom Iwaro had begun to sow...but grants mercy to the old man. The samurai eyes the crowd, waiting. Tsukuyomi and Mizuki rush into the town center and the blade falls. Tears streak down the cheeks of Tsukuyomi, Mizuki, Ida, and the three children who have lost their father.

Tsukuyomi hammers away in his workshop, working harder than he has ever worked until this dreadful day. Mizuki tries to comfort the husband she loves after such tragedy, but is instead berated and urged to “give up hope” of freedom, family, or child, as Tsukuyomi now believes they are cursed. Mizuki, heartbroken, refuses this idea and swears to never give up on their marriage or their child.

Tears of anguish speckle both their faces as each deals with this new pain in their own way.

### Chapter 9 (Finale)

**948 AD**: Tsukuyomi stands over Mizuki’s lifeless body as his workshop burns all around him. In his hand he holds the katana, blood slowly running down the blue-glowing metal and dripping off the tip of the blade. Tsukuyomi hears a gasp and notices Kamino who ducks behind a nearby fence. Tsukuyomi picks up a pale little girl that lay next to Mizuki and with his sword in hand, runs away up the Lakontey Mountain range.

Tsukuyomi pauses for a rest during his ascent, placing the girl and the katana on the ground near a massive rainbow eucalyptus. He reminisces of the times he had spent in this exact spot, beautiful memories from the past, now a painful reminder of the journey he must now endure.

Kamino rushes home and alerts his father, Jensu, a town guard, of the horrors he has just witnessed. Jensu and the other guards burst onto the property of Tsukuyomi and Mizuki. The town guards, assisted by the townsfolk, move into the house with water and sandbags to attempt to tackle the blazing home. Inside, they see a trail of blood across the room with Mizuki laying in the crimson pool.

Outside the house, dozens of townspeople watch in awe as a horrendous sound fills the skies, followed by a monstrous flood of blue lightning growing from the Lakontey Mountains.

Up on the mountain, the blacksmith throws three blue glowing pieces of what was once a katana into the waters below. The pieces drift apart. The katana now a mere story to be slowly unwritten with time.

**2033 AD**: Adan sits in class, scolded by the teacher for daydreaming of Ninavan mythology. Adan’s teacher is increasingly frustrated by his poor attention span, especially with his history of being a golden student.

A deafening sound shakes the class as Adan and his classmates look out of the window to see two spirit guardians fighting one another, an Aramar and an Atsuko. The warriors exchange blows without surrendering an inch of ground. One katana blade intercepts the other, raining blue glowing sparks across the ground. The school begins to evacuate, preparing for the worst, but Adan just stays and watches. He asks himself a question: “Were Clan Wars really about to begin?”