Sanguinem

To his word, I spent the next year assisting him while he smithed. I learned by watching each movement of the hammer engraving itself on my mind. And in between sessions, I focused on my devil fruit powers, my control becoming even faster and more precise.

I also began to teach Tama swordsmanship, then one-day, Hitetsu informed me it was high time I make my first sword. He gave me a week to prepare. Little did he know I already had the design for my dream sword.

Then the day came, Hitetsu and I walked out to the bamboo forest to begin forging my blade. "Can I see the design of your blade? I have a feeling that I am going to be surprised?" Grinning, I handed my mentor a stack of papers, "Don't worry, I didn't deviate too far from the traditions."

Hitetsu flipped through the pages, and his eyes furrowed and widened at a furious rate. When he reached the last page, he was in shock, "You can't seriously be thinking about using your bones and blood? You'll be disabled for the rest of your life, not to mention the fact that it's impossible."

Touched by how much my mentor cared for me, I smiled, "I guess I should show you my powers now. Just promise not to freak out." Before Hitetsu could reply, I covered my arm in bone and the other in blood.

"You have magic. Why didn't you tell me." I shrugged, "It wasn't necessary to tell you, but I've run some experiments in my free time, and I think I can make an alloy as part of my magic. My body is much stronger than normal."

Hitetsu glared at me before he humphed and turned around, "You can try it but don't come crying to me when it doesn't work."

Smiling, I started to generate bone fragments until I had a small pile I could use, then started at the furnace. I went about making steel, but I added ground-up bones into the mixture. One week later, I pulled out the bed of metal to see if my experiment worked.

Breaking away the worthless pieces, I uncovered a head-sized node of white metal, "It seems as if I have lost some face." Hitetsu said as I showed him the milky white chunk of metal, "Don't fret too much over it. You can apologize by helping make a masterpiece."

Over at the forge for the first time, I was the one at the anvil hammering shaping the metal while Hitetsu helped me. Making the blade was the same as any traditional katana, but I occasionally added more bone powder.

When it came time to heat treat the blade, I covered the sword's spine in clay to protect it from the heat. I stared intently into the flames, not looking away until I grabbed the piece of metal and plugged it into the bucket of blood I collected.

The blade was finished, the clay peeled away, revealing a pure white blade that shone in the light. The entire forging took us two weeks of back-breaking effort, but the results were worth it.

When I finished sharpening and fitting the blade to the hilt, I looked at the finished product, keeping with the theme the handle was wrapped in white leather with a red circle handguard and a red pommel.

Grabbing the finished blade, I almost felt a tangible connection to the weapon. My blood and bones were infused into the sword, "Your name is Sanguinem."

The sword vibrated in my hand, and it started to glow with blood-red energy. I could feel Sanguinem try and take me over, but I was its master. I pushed back with my Haki forcing Sanguinem back, making it submit.

When it realized it couldn't win against me, my sword vibrated once again before going silent. Smiling at my blade, I sheathed the before turning to Hitetsu, "It is a fine blade, though I do believe It is cursed."

"As you kill with that blade, the spirit inside will get stronger and will regularly test you to see if you are worthy of wielding it," Hitetsu said with a frown.

"Test me? I made it, and I can destroy it, and I'll make sure it knows I'm the one in charge." Hitetsu nodded, "So are you going to leave now? Tama is going to miss you."

I sighed as I pictured the purple-haired girl, "I plan to leave in a week or two. I've been away for a year now. I need to get back."

"Maybe it would just be easier if you left without seeing her again. I'll tell her that you had to leave because your friends are in trouble," Hitetsu suggested. I sighed, "That is probably for the best, tell her that I said to practice every day."

"I will." Bowing to my third mentor, I grew a pair of skeletal wings and shot up into the air. Looking one more time at the village, I flew away, ready to rejoin my crew.

-----

Bane looked up at a shadow overhead, and he smiled, "It's been a while. Did you have a nice vacation?" I landed next to my best friend, "It was nice, but I still missed this place."

Bane looked down at my waist, seeing my new sword, "Woah, where did you get that? Can I see it?"

I smiled and unsheathed Sanguinem, "I visited Wano and had this made, and it's a cursed blade, so no, you can't touch it." Bane raised his eyebrow, "What the hell do you mean cursed. Your joking, right."

I smiled and tossed Sanguinem up in the air suddenly, there was a gust of wind, and the blade pierced the deck in between Bane's legs.

Needless to say, Bane didn't question me anymore. That night there was a party to celebrate my coming back. I was about three barrels in when someone sat down across from me.

"I heard you're pretty strong do you want to fight?"