10 Kurikara

When Nate returned to the village he found his dad at the foundry forging something.

"Dad.. What are you forging?" asked Nate.

"A sword." said his father "You have been using bokuto to train and I thought its about time you had a sword of your own."

"Really!! I can finally have a sword of my own!?" asked Nate excitedly.

He asked his dad for a sword many years ago but his dad has put him of all the while by saying that he needs to learn how to wield a sword first before owning one.

"I am almost done, just wait for few more minutes. I need to quench the blade and I don't want to be distracted" instructed his father.

Nate kept quite and moved back from the vicinity while thinking about what to name his sword.

After almost an hour he heard his father shouting. "Finally completed.. Finest of my works ever."

Nate rushed towards his dad and took the sword from his hand and examined it. It had the form similar to traditional chokuto but bit longer. It was a straight, double-edged blade with no guard and long grip. It kinda reminded Nate of Sasuke's sword from Naruto.

"Although its not at the level of a 'O Wazamono' but depending on the user it could be even stronger." stated his father "The sword is not complete until its named, go ahead and name it."

Nate pondered a bit and said "Alright, it shall be named as Kurikara."

It is an apt name considering that he is gonna have a Djinn residing within it and in the anime Blue Exorcist it was used seal away the Rin's demon powers.

"Nice name, I like it. Now would you like to spar a bit with your new sword." asked his father as he took an old katana from the shelf.

"You want to fight against a sword like this with that broken katana." asked Nate confused

"Just like I said before the worth of a sword is determined by its wielder." instructed his father. "These seas aren't as forgiving as you think it is, there are abundant amount of people sailing these way stronger than you."

Nate listened carefully to what his father was telling him about. He knew how dangerous this world is from the anime but watching and experiencing are completely different and he didn't want stake his life without even giving his all.

As they faced each other Nate noticed his father's sword getting dyed in black and knew that he is using Armament Haki, he followed along by coating his sword too in Haki and it was then that he saw the difference. His Haki, even it though has completely coated his sword had lighter shade while his dad's sword almost looks like Mihawk's Yoru from the anime.

First one to make a move was Nate as he moved in and slash in from left only to be parried by his father who followed it with a reverse stab on his abdomen and effectively knocking him away.

"You still have lots to learn son. Let's just stop it here, or I might end up breaking my finest creation." said Leon as he sheathed his sword.

Nate got up from floor and sheathed his sword while ruminating about his faults.

"I have something important that I need to discuss with you." said his father waking him up from his contemplation.

"What is it dad?" asked Nate

"Tomorrow I plan to sail to the nearby island in order to procure some materials for forging, and I thought maybe you might want to come with me for a change"

"Seriously!! Of course I want come with you." Nate said, he was quite excited to explore other islands.

"Alright, we need to get your mother's permission first before anything else. Even I can't help you if your mother disagrees." said his father

Both father and son duo left the forge and went back to their house while thinking of ways to convince Lilly.

Lunch was prepared by the time they got home and the family of three sat down all together to have lunch. Leon initiated the conversation regarding taking Nate with him to the sea for the next trip and was faced with great opposition from Lilly. Nate begged his mother to let him go with his father. They where finally able to convince Lilly but was reminded repeatedly to be extra careful when traveling at sea.

Nate along with his dad boarded the ship at the harbor the next day early morning, Nate was quite restless yesterday night his eye's where sparkling as he set sailed along with his father.

"The island's name is Tetsutetsu island and is one of the islands where iron and rest of the minerals are mined in East Blue." said Leon "There is a marine outpost there, so pirates are rarely found and due to that lot of auction houses and tourist attraction are there."