chapter02 · 070-ep62
Episode 62: The Four-Armed Smith
Two days left until we left for Tokyo.
There was no way I was sitting still at home for those two days.
"I'm heading out!"
"Shallow floors."
"I know, I know."
I let big sis's words hit me in the back as I bolted out the front door.
Mom's indigo chest guard, gauntlets, and greaves. I'd gotten pretty used to putting them on. At first I couldn't even figure out how to tie the cords — now I could suit up in a minute.
Shidami dungeon, Floor 5.
In a stone chamber with no one around, I opened 【Vault of Tomes】.
Today, there was a weapon I wanted to try out.
The gauntlet page.
A drawing of a chunky black-and-red armored gauntlet. The fist part was about the size of my head. The arm armor had gear-like components and several thick pipes running along it. Behind the elbows, two jet ports. Flames were blasting out of them at full force.
Beside it, in my handwriting:
"Blasts fire the instant you punch, accelerating the fist"
"You can fly like a rocket"
"The more blasts you stack, the stronger it gets. You can stack them infinitely"
"Name: the fire god (because it's cool)"
"Don't go naming things after gods just because 'it's cool.'"
I retorted — at the me of back then.
But honestly? It was cool.
One deep breath.
"—Its first cry, the kalpa-fire; its very birth, a burning plain."
Heat raced through both arms.
"—One blast, two blasts, three. Make the fist the first arrow of the blaze."
The black-and-red armor assembled itself, clang, clang, from fingertips to elbows. My fists grew a size bigger. Two sizes, even.
"—Breathe fire, 'Kagutsuchi'!"
A flame popped alight in the jet ports behind my elbows.
"Ow — hot!"
It was hot.
The inside of the gauntlets wasn't hot, but from behind my elbows, a heat came soaking through — like standing in front of a bonfire.
But more than that—
"Oh man, this is cool."
Black-and-red gauntlets. Flames flickering behind the elbows.
I clenched both hands, opened them, clenched them again.
I couldn't get enough.
The stone door opened, and three haniwa filed in.
I readied my right fist.
Stepped in, and punched.
And the instant I punched—
The jet port behind my elbow went DON, blasting fire.
My fist abruptly accelerated.
"—Wha?!"
I threw the punch myself, and I surprised myself with it.
The fist hammered into the haniwa's torso.
The haniwa didn't so much shatter as get blown away. It flew all the way to the far wall of the chamber, hit it, and broke to pieces.
"Whoa, it went FLYING."
The second one.
This time, I braced myself first. Then punched.
Blast. Acceleration. The haniwa went flying.
"Yeah!"
The third one came from behind.
No time to turn around.
Actually—
I stretched my right arm out behind me.
Angling the elbow jet port forward.
Fired.
My body, still facing away, got yanked sharply forward. I slipped past the third haniwa's side and came around behind it.
Punched with my left fist. Blast.
The third one went flying too.
"So THIS is what 'fly like a rocket' meant!"
Fun.
This was so much fun.
Punch. Blast. Fly. Punch again.
Floor 6. Floor 7. Chamber to chamber, moving like I was leaping on the blasts.
Floor 7's gatekeeper was a massive haniwa with three shields stacked.
Even a full punch only cracked one shield.
"The more blasts you stack, the stronger it gets."
I remembered the line from the page.
I drew my right fist far back.
Blast.
Midway through the fist's forward swing — another one.
Then one more.
DON, DON, DON — three times. The blasts stacked, and the fist accelerated faster than anything I'd ever seen.
I drove it into the shield haniwa.
All three shields cracked at once.
The haniwa behind them went flying with it, all the way to the back of the chamber, slammed into the door, and broke to pieces.
"Whoa......"
I froze, fist still extended.
"Stacking them makes this thing terrifying."
Except — right after that, a problem showed up.
Right after the three stacked blasts, the elbow jet port made a sad little fizzle. Psst.
"Huh — wait, hold on."
The gauntlet was glowing bright red.
A thin line of smoke was rising from the jet port.
Overheated.
Three blasts.
Until now there had always been little gaps after each blast, so it had been fine. But fire three in a row back-to-back, and apparently it heated up.
Even though the page said, "You can stack them infinitely."
I sat down in a corner of the chamber and waited for the gauntlet to cool.
In about three minutes, the jet port lit again.
"Three blasts in a row, then a three-minute break."
I'd have to think about when to use it.
But even that was fun.
I came to the Floor 10 chamber and stopped.
The broad chamber where I'd beaten the Haniwa Shogun.
Today, I had one more thing to do.
A summoning.
The men first, in order. Vira. Wilhelm. Leon.
Next: the Sixth Seat.
I opened the Executives' volume.
The concept art on the Sixth Seat's page had clearly more detail worked into it than any of the other Executives'.
A huge body. Four arms. Burn scars across everything. A crushed right eye. In his hands: two hammers, one pair of tongs, and a single katana.
Beside it, in my handwriting:
"Four arms means forging twice as fast (genius)"
"Burns are medals"
"Gave the right eye to forge the King's weapons"
"Silent. But get him on weapons, and he'll talk your ear off"
Burns, a lost eye — the me of back then loved these "costs" way too much.
Tvashtri Opifex Aeternus.
The smith god who had forged the gods' weapons.
Still hammering away, to this day — for the King.
"Let's call him."
Words came flowing into my head. Five lines.
I stood at the center of the stone chamber and held out my right hand.
"—He forged the gods' sacred treasures; for the gods themselves, never once."
A line of light ran across the stone floor.
"—Roast the one eye in the furnace; wield the iron with four arms."
The lines drew circles. One ring. Two. Three.
"—Amid the armies of ruin, the one and only who never ceases to create."
A red light, like furnace fire, brimmed within the magic circle.
The air in the stone chamber slowly grew hot.
"—Tehom Rabbah, Sixth Seat."
"—Come forth, 'The Eternal Maker.' Take up thy hammer at my side!"
The magic circle burst.
A hot wind blew through the stone chamber.
When the light settled, a giant stood there.
Huge.
His head nearly touched the ceiling. His shoulders were about three times as wide as mine.
Four arms.
The upper two were thick, like logs. The lower two were a little slimmer, with long fingers. Arms for fine work, probably.
Burn scars spread over every inch of his skin, like a map.
His right eye was covered by a black eyepatch.
The one eye that remained looked down at me.
"......"
He said nothing.
"Ah, um — hello. I'm Ichinose Saku."
"......"
"I'm the one who called you. Um — can you hear me?"
"......"
The giant stayed silent, and slowly lowered himself to one knee.
Even kneeling, he was still a head taller than me.
Then, with two of his four arms — the upper ones — he lowered something he'd been carrying on his back.
A long, slender thing wrapped in cloth.
With the lower two arms, he carefully unwound the cloth.
From within came a single katana.
The sheath was black. The handle-wrap, black. No tsuba.
It resembled Nameless.
But it was slightly different. The blade was a touch longer, and the grip a touch thinner — as if shaped to fit my hand.
The giant held the katana out before me with all four arms, like an offering.
"......For the King."
A low voice.
Low and heavy, like it was echoing up from the depths of the earth.
"......I offer it."
"Eh — me?"
I didn't know whether I was even allowed to take it.
But the four arms stayed frozen there, katana extended.
I think this man had wanted to hand this over for a very, very long time.
Waiting outside the universe, all that time, to be called — re-sharpening it, over and over.
"Th-thank you."
I took it with both hands.
The weight settled into my palm, smooth.
I tried drawing it just slightly from the sheath.
The blade was black. The same light-drinking black as Nameless.
But the hamon was different. Nameless's hamon was a single quiet line — this katana's hamon wavered, faintly, like furnace fire.
"Incredible......"
That was all I could say.
"......I have seen the King's katana."
The giant said, in a low murmur.
"......Nameless. ......Many times, on the screen."
"Nameless?"
"......A fine katana. ......But a touch short, for the King as he is now."
The left eye fixed itself on my hands.
"......You've grown. Arms too. ......Two centimeters since enrollment."
"You — you measured? I didn't even know."
"......One look, and I know."
That was all the giant said. Then, silence.
This man — had he been watching my growth in height, from outside the universe?
And forged the katana to match?
"Um — its name?"
"......"
"The katana's name."
The giant tilted his head, just slightly.
"......The King decides."
"Eh — me?"
"......A name is the wielder's to give."
A name.
I looked down at the black katana in my hands.
Nameless had gone three whole years without a name being decided.
This katana didn't look like it was getting one right away either.
"Then let me think about it a little. It'd be a waste not to — I want to give it a really, REALLY good name."
"......Fine."
I thought I saw the corner of the giant's mouth move, just barely.
"Um — about what to call you."
"......Tvashtri."
"Huh?"
"......Too long. 'Tva' is fine."
"Tva."
"......Mm."
"Then — for me?"
"......King."
"Something other than King."
"......"
Tva was silent for a long time.
Then he said, barely audible:
"......Saku."
"Whoa — no honorifics!"
"......Leon called you that. ......I copied."
"'Saku' it is!"
Tva gave a small nod.
The second one after Leon to drop the honorifics.
Tva's left eye turned to my arms.
To the black-and-red gauntlets, still summoned.
"......Those."
"Oh — this is Kagutsuchi. First time using it today."
"......Show me."
Tva's lower two arms reached out, long fingers gently tracing the jet ports behind the gauntlet's elbows.
"......Well made. ......The angles of the jet ports are good."
"Really?!"
"......But it heats after three."
"I know exactly what you mean."
"......As built, it would never heat, no matter how many blasts. You could stack as many as you liked, and punch. ......Infinitely."
"......Right now, the gauntlet is simply matching Saku. ......As Saku grows, it will be four blasts, then five, and on."
"Then what happens if I stack them infinitely?"
Tva was silent for a moment.
"......I don't know."
"You don't KNOW?"
"......Even the King has never pushed to the true limit."
Even the King had never done it.
The King who could smash the universe in a second.
The black-and-red gauntlets on my hands suddenly looked like something impossibly, enormously heavy.
Tva's left eye stayed fixed on me.
Or rather — on the indigo armor I was wearing.
"......That."
"Oh, this is my mom's. From back when she was an explorer. I'm borrowing it until the armor being made for me now is done."
"......Show me."
Tva stretched out the lower two arms.
Long fingers traced the patch marks on the chest guard, one by one, slowly.
"......Repaired many times over."
"The old man at a shop in Osu called Iron and Leather. He's been at it since Mom was active."
"......"
For a while, Tva stared at the patch marks in silence.
"......Good work."
"Right?!"
"......Not a single trace of a shortcut anywhere. ......This craftsman is a true craftsman."
The smith god who had forged the gods' weapons was praising the stubborn old master's work in Osu.
Somehow, I was as happy as if the praise were mine.
"......Your cords are a little loose."
Tva's long fingers re-tightened the chest guard's cords in one smooth motion.
It took an instant.
But the re-tied chest guard sat against my body far better than before.
"......There."
"Whoa — totally different. Thank you."
After that, I dove a little while with Tva.
Floor 11. Floor 12.
Tva's fighting style was silent, too.
When haniwa came, the upper two arms swung the hammers down.
That alone pulverized the haniwa beyond recognition.
Whether four came, or five, it was just two or three hammer swings.
I put Kagutsuchi away and tried swinging the new katana.
It clung to my hand.
A touch longer than Nameless. That tiny difference widened my reach astonishingly.
"Incredible. Easier to swing than Nameless."
"......Of course."
Tva said, shouldering a hammer.
"......I forged it for Saku."
He said something outrageous, like it was nothing.
What even is that. Way too cool.
In the Floor 12 chamber, it came time to head home.
"Tva."
"......Mm."
"Thanks for today. The katana — and the armor cords."
"......Fine."
Tva lowered himself to one knee.
A magic circle floated up at his feet.
"......Saku."
"Yeah."
"......That katana."
"Yeah."
"......Is not yet finished."
"Eh?"
"......Saku will grow still. Height. Arms. Strength. ......So the katana will grow still too."
Tva's left eye looked straight at me.
"......Call me again. ......I will re-forge it."
"Yeah — I absolutely will!"
This time, the corner of Tva's mouth clearly rose, just a little.
The light slowly wrapped all four arms.
Without a word to the very last, Tva faded into the light.
Only the lingering warmth of a hot wind remained in the chamber.
On the train home, the new katana lay across my lap.
I rewrapped it, carefully, in the cloth Tva had carried it here in.
Through the cloth, I touched the sheath, gently.
A name.
A good name would probably just drop into my head someday, out of nowhere.
"Until then, I'll take good care of it."
I murmured it, and looked out the window.
Tokyo was the day after tomorrow.
My lap felt just a little warm.