Swords & Saniwa

Clarity

~Tsurumaru~
鶴丸

Requested by The_Insane_Reader!

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Every morning, the sage would always be seen in the kitchen preparing breakfast for her swords. Mitsutada was with her as always, persuading her that two was better than one. Both cooked up dishes quietly with no unneeded conversation until the crane entered.

"Tsurumaru, don't forget what I've told you.

"What, it's just duties-"

"Two weeks. Mitsutada, inform everyone that Tsurumaru will cover the duties."

"Y-Yes..."

~~

Ending the day off with major repairs done, she took a shower again and changed out her clothes before sitting at her office. While she was finishing the reports, the lights were suddenly off, surprising her.

Darkness was her greatest enemy.

Walking to the switch, she flipped it repeatedly to turn on the lights, but it didn't work.

She started to break into cold sweat as she held her chest while finding a corner to sit, hugging her knees as well. It was cold and dark due to the autumn season, and she could feel her heart being eaten up by the surrounding darkness slowly.

Erratic breaths soon took over, as bad memories started to replay in her mind. The dark room. The tight ropes eating into her reddish skin. The sound of thunder clapping among the rain. The red hot iron lying in the firepit.

The man's voice.

A flame appeared as the person ran to her suddenly with a fox mask, causing her to scream and fumble to safety. The lights soon returned, and all she saw was that familiar sword.

"Surprised aren't you? Aruji...!" She looked at him with erratic breaths still taking over her before she collapsed to the mat, shocking the sword.

He admitted that he was overboard with his prank as a revenge for what happened in the morning.

"Surprise!" She suddenly dropped her acts and stood up with a cheeky smile hanging on her face.

"What, I got pranked instead... You're good, Aruji! I'll turn in for the night then!" Laughing at his own demise, he then left the room. The smile soon turned into open mouths as she tried to control her breaths. Grabbing the mirror from the table, her face was returning colour from the ghostly white.

She didn't want anyone to know about it. It just felt so bad if it was made known, like a wound exposed to salt.

No one should know about it.

~~

"Hmm... I think General went through a traumatic event or something, so that's why it happened. Did it happen yesterday?"

"Yeah. She was acting that she was fine, but she even collapsed after I scared her."

"Is that so..." The tantou's face was filled with concern as he thought about her. On the other hand, the crane then left to ponder on yesterday's event.

Does she have something that cannot be revealed to him or the others?

~~

"Please.... Stop it... Please..!"

"Aww, hearing that voice makes me want to do it even more. Get ready, bitch." All she saw was the iron being pressed onto her back once again in a different spot.

Jolting from the table, it shook from the impact as she took in huge breaths with beads of sweat on her forehead. What happened in her dream remained clear in her mind.

It was nothing more but a terrifying past.

She received another shock as the crane suddenly entered her room without even announcing his presence. Before she could nag at him, he looked at her with determined eyes.

"Tell me everything about yesterday."

"W-What..? Didn't you just pull a prank on me yesterday? Oh god, I admit that you're getting better, Tsurumaru." She then laughed at her demise, but his expression didn't have a hint of change.

"Don't lie, F/N."

She stopped her laugh and changed into a serious expression that no one had seen before.

"You knew everything?"

"No, it's just that my instincts told me that something bad had happened in the past before you came here."

"I was raped, tortured and humiliated by my father for two months. Happy?" She revealed the truth while trying to control the fear rising from her heart. She didn't want to be seen as a helpless person in front of him. Tsurumaru was obviously shocked at her dark past before taking her hand and leaving the room. Entering the storeroom, he then locked the door as the sage was in a completely dark environment once again. She disliked this place the most in the entire citadel.

"Let me leave here, Tsurumaru! What do you think you are doing!"

"You need to face it instead of sinking deeper into it! I am here with you!"

As expected, the symptoms started to show as he heard her breaths getting quicker with shuffled footsteps. He knew that she was scrambling to find a corner to calm herself down from the anxiety she felt. She knocked a shelf accidently while going deeper into the storeroom, and all the wine bottles fell on him as he shielded her from the fall. The alcoholic smell of rice wine soon wafted around as he sat up to look at the terrified sage who started to mumble and hide her head in between her knees.

"Shh... Look at me, F/N. Look at me. I am here, okay? I am here..." Lifting her chin up gently, he then wiped off her tears before embracing her, running his hand on her back as he did. He could hear her breathing becoming more stable after a few minutes and released her. Her eyes were now puffy from all the crying. Giving a smile, he then gave a peck on her forehead before looking into her eyes.

"Next time, we'll face it together again, alright? You have this idiotic crane by your side 24/7."

"Even when I am sleeping or showering?"

"Ah, you're so cute. I am melting from the heat."

"Go change out. You smell of alcohol."

"Here? Well, if that's what you want... I'll let you see it."

"Idiot!"

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Happy Anniversary! It's been a year since I started playing! ^^ (Wondering how would Muramasa debut...)