Chapter 24 Shopping Date

After Shizu was satisfied and got her fill of cuddling with Azi's small body, she finally released him and laughed at his now completely red face.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy teaching you many things." A sultry smile played on her lips while Azi tried to recompose himself. As face returned to its normal shade he spoke a single word so plainly as his eyes squinted at her in derision.

"Lewd."

Taken aback by his accusation, Shizu flushed when she realized how promiscuous she was being.

"Ehhhhh, No, no, no. Who said it was going to be anything lewd?"

Panicking at his misunderstanding, she soon realized that she was being teased as Azi just grinned at her outcry. Before she could smack him, he got up and went to the door and before leaving he turned around with a smug smile plastered on his face.

"You just implied it. Hahahaha."

He quickly moved the door to block the incoming pillow Shizu threw at him in her embarrassment. After the pillow made a soft thump, Shizu could only hear Azi's laughter behind the door as she continued to pout with her cheeks puffing up with a ting of red.

"Hahahaha, I'll see you in a bit. I need to ask Kajima a few questions but after that I'll accompany you into the village. BYE BYE"

Leaving Shizu to stew on her thoughts, Azi made his way to his own room and found a new set of clothes that Kajima had likely prepared for him.

Wiping himself down with a towel and a bucket of water that were provided with the clothes prepared, Azi got dressed. His new attire was a blue and white tunic and trousers that had an eastern design as the simplistic symbols and patterns reminded him of a place called China.

After also changing his undergarments, he secured the clothes with a white cloth around his waist. He then took a moment to get the feel of his attire. The long sleeves of the shirt kept his forearm warm from the winter's cold air and the pants went down just below his knees.

Both provided adequate coverage from the winter weather but was close to form fitting that it did not hinder his movements. He then brought the pair of leather boots he had to the front door of the house. It seemed that wearing shoes indoors was considered improper, so for now he would be barefoot while in the house.

Seeing that he got everything he needed from his room and had prepared his footwear, Azi then moved to the dining room. There he saw that Kajima had finished eating his own breakfast and had set out a breakfast for Shizu and himself. Kajima was observing some records in his commission book but looked up from it in response to Azi's approach.

"Morning, breakfast is ready for you. Go ahead and eat."

"Thanks, and thank you for the new clothes."

"Not a problem. In any case, is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Yes, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure, go ahead." Closing the commission book, Kajima faced Azi across the dining table. He could see the glimmer of curiosity in the boy and was willing to nurture his passion.

Azi had numerous questions to ask, but he got straight to the point and started with what he needed. Bringing a spoonful of porridge ot his mouth, he began

"So, what are the tools of the trade for a blacksmith?"

Azi had no knowledge of blacksmithing from his memories and whatever he knew from his remaining memories of college was insufficient. He did know some tidbits from anime and manga but they would be of no use to him in a real-life situation.

To ensure that his understanding was more concrete and based in reality, he wanted Kajima to teach him as much as he could as he saw just how professional he was from the weapons he created.

Kajima was multi-talented as he had a varied knowledge but was mostly specialized in blacksmithing.

The proof could be seen in his storehouse as it was chocked full of enormous greatswords to short swords. Even unique weapons like Shizu's umbrella were within Kajima's ability to create.

This became more apparent as Kajima explained the basics.

"Well of course you will need a forging hammer, but there are a variety of them for forming metals into different shapes. I'll let you use my tools in the workshop, but you'll have to buy or make your own in the future. What you will need for Shizu's weapon right now are the right materials, which will be difficult as her katana was made from refined steel which is only found in the Capital Yamato and is difficult to create. You can make it in the workshop but unfortunately, it's expensive to buy the needed materials and the process to create it is quite advanced."

Azi wanted to sigh in defeat as the problems were already starting to pile up, but to his misfortune it only got worse as Kajima continued.

"While I can teach you, it doesn't fix the fact that you don't have access to the materials to make it. I also don't have any extra materials on hand that I can give you since I have a lot of commissions I have to fill, so good luck."

Giving Azi a thumbs up after his explanation, Azi could only let out another sigh. 'What have I gotten myself into? This already seems impossible.' As he mumbled this to himself he began to organize his thoughts on what he should ask next.

In summary, the task in front of him was going to be a challenge bordering on the impossible due to how the materials he needed were of a high quality and are not commonly found in Shisayama.

An possible solution popped into his head and for the next few minutes, Azi asked more questions concerning possible substitute materials and about more details concerning Shizu's weapon. He learned how Kajima made it and what Shizu wanted from her custom weapon.

During this time, Shizu was getting herself cleaned up and went to her room to change into a new set of clothes.

Her room was next to Azi's but was a bit bigger as it looked to have been a storage room in the past. With it came a larger closet, which she opened to then get changed to another set of her usual attire which consisted of a red and white ensemble with a long red skirt which revealed a peek at the sides of her thighs and the front of her hips.

Shizu realized that Azi was right about her attire being too revealing and felt that she should wear some more clothes to cover up more skin. In the past, she didn't really care about being seen by other men as she only needed to direct a glare at them to set them in their place but with Azi, she wanted to present herself in a better manner while keeping her womanly charms.

Looking for something she could use in her luggage she realized that all she had was a long strip of yellow cloth.

The rest of her wardrobe were more of the same set of clothes she was already wearing. Sighing, Shizu made her peace and made do with the yellow cloth. She tied it around her waist and began attempting to tie it into a bow that rested under her ample breasts and above her hips.

"Maybe this will draw some of the attention away from my skin."

After fastening the messy yellow cloth bow, Shizu gathered what she needed and left the room to go see Azi. Hearing her approach, Azi turned to Shizu and he gave her a frown as he got up from his seat. He approached her while reaching his hand out to her lower abdomen.

A bit surprised by Azi's forwardness. Shizu began to brace herself for what she thought was a hug. 'Just what is he up to? Did he fall for me already?'

Defying her expectations, Azi instead just undid Shizu's messy attempt at a bow and tied it in a neater manner. Nodding in satisfaction, he smiled at the neat bow he had made and gave it one last check by pulling on the cloth to see if it was secured tight enough.

"I'll show you how to tie it properly next time so you can do it yourself. With this you should look more presentable. Did you get everything you need?"

A bit disappointed by the turn of events, Shizu pouted but nonetheless took a seat.

"...Yeah. Just let me eat something first..."

Oblivious to her sudden pouting, Azi stepped away and let her proceed with her breakfast as he asked a few more questions to clarify the details of what he wanted to learn about from Kajima.

When Shizu finished her breakfast, Kajima then turned the conversation in another direction as he had noticed the somewhat dower mood Shizu had. While he was against her agenda to groom Azi, he suspected that she might really have true feelings for Azi and wanted to give her a nudge.

"Alright you two, get going and have a nice date. I got work to do so get out of here and don't come back until dinner time."

He then pushed Azi and Shizu to leave as he had a grin on his face. He then slid the door shut behind them as he then began engaging multiple locks on the sliding door with audible clicks, clanks, and strangely, a loud thump that was disconcerting to the pair.

"Hahaha, I guess we look like that in front of Kajima. Hope that doesn't bother you too much Shizu."

Looking over to her, Azi saw the blush Shizu had on her face which in turn caused him to somewhat do the same. Shaking off the feeling, he abruptly grabbed Shizu's hand and began to tug her away from the house.

"Let's get going. Since I am the older one I'll take point for today."

Recovering a bit from her blush, Shizu rolled her eyes at Azi's prideful claim of being the adult in this situation.

"Do you even know where you are going?"

"Yes, Thanks to you and Kajima, I should be able to get to where I want to go. Also, Kajima told me where I could find what I need. So come on, don't you want your weapon fixed sooner?"

Tugging on her hand a bit more, Azi hoped to get her to follow but Shizu just frowned a bit as she didn't like being forced to walk by another person especially if that person was weaker than her.

"Alright just stop pulling my hand. You can hold it but at least let me walk next to you rather than behind you. I don't want the villagers to get the wrong idea. In their eyes I am a proud Kujyuri knight, so I have to show some dignity."

"Ok but keep up. I'm excited to see the village unguided this time."

"Didn't you say you were the older one? Why are you so giddy like a child?"

A teasing smile on her lip, all Azi did in response was huff as all he wanted to do now was to hurry this along. There was so much he wanted and needed to do that he didn't want to waste anymore time.

He planned to visit a local thaumaturge, an apothecary shop, a weapons shop, and a local inn. In all, this was too much to do in one day but he was determined to do it before the day's end.

Seeing his excitement, Shizu chuckled at how overly pumped he was and acquiesced as she quickened her pace.

As the two began to enter the more populated sections of southern Shisayama, villagers began to notice Shizu. What was shocking to them was how she was holding the hand of a boy who looked a lot younger than her.

This caused the villagers to whisper amongst themselves and some guessed that Azi was Shizu's younger brother while others thought Shizu was helping a local village boy find his way home.

But what eventually became common among most of the villagers were whisperings about how the two looked like a couple who were on a date.

"Oh my, oh dear. Shizu seems to have found another man to torment." "I hope he survives." "No he's dead for sure."

Not able to hear what they were whispering, Azi was still reacting to all the stares he got that made him feel awkward. While he didn't think of himself as a shy person, the amount of attention he was getting was disconcerting.

Shizu on the other hand brushed them off as she was used to this kind of attention. Due to when news of her 4 failed fiancés had spread to the populace of Kujyuri, she began getting many looks of fear from men and looks of envy from women that were jealous of her beauty.

The people still respected her but they thought twice when it came to harassing or courting her in public. Seeing Azi feel uncomfortable from all the stares, she giggled softly to herself as she enjoyed watching him be so flustered.

Hoping to take his mind off the glancing villagers, Azi posed a question.

"So why did you decide to become my combat instructor? Was there any particular reason?"

Taking a moment to consider her answer with what Kajima discussed with her the night prior, she spoke in a formal manner to get across how serious she was about making him her apprentice.

"I was impressed by your performance during the investigation so I decided to see if you could be of use to Kujyuri. This is why I stayed instead of leaving with Ozen. You are quite smart and I hope we can work well together."

While she did expose part of her reasoning, she did not expect him to suddenly have a downcast look on his face.

"Oh.... I see." His previous energy soon sapped away from him and his tone was depressed and somber as her words brought back some memories that he would have liked to have fully forgotten.

He realized that Shizu was only interested in him for his potential talent rather than it being because they were getting along as friends.

He thought that the reason for Shizu's stay was because he felt like they were becoming close friends, but this made him realize just how naive he was to the world at large. Shizu was a knight and he was a peasant, their societal classes were too far apart to form an actual bond of friendship.

This reminded him of how people from his past days in school or college would only be friends with him since he would help them with their work, but as time went on he realized he was just being used as his "friends" would never do any of the work.

When he complained to them, they never approached or talked to him ever again. This then led to rumors of him being a snitch for reasons he had no idea of and being made out to be a selfish person. Rumors like these continued to his college years and he was soon somewhat isolated from people.

Feeling somewhat lonely from his memories, Azi sighed and let go of Shizu's hand to begin distancing himself a bit from her. This was done unconsciously by Azi as it acted as an instinctual defense mechanism.

Feeling that she might have been a bit too blunt with her words.

Shizu believed, in hindsight, that she should have also told him it was also because she wanted to test him to become her potential fiancé since she was somewhat interested in him as a man but was too embarrassed by the idea of saying it straight to his face.

She thought that revealing her more serious intentions would be the correct method as it was her preferred method to be direct rather than scheming.

Unfortunately, while Shizu would speak her mind when it comes to personal life and work life, she liked to keep the matters of her heart to herself unless it was to people who were her family or were family friends like Kajima.

In an attempt to mend part of the rift she had unintentionally created between herself and Azi, she slowly closed the distance between them and re-grasped his hand which startled him a bit.

She then flashed him a teasing smile.

"Come on, like you said, you're the adult in this situation so you have to take point today."

"Yeah, I guess you are right."

Seeing that Shizu was making an effort to at least treat him well, Azi felt a bit more upbeat.

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