Interlude: Shigure

A/N: Thanking all of you individually has become increasingly harder, but allow me to say thank you, to all of you who comment, give power stones to the novel, or simply read.

Truthfully I did not expect my small fanfic to gain the attention of all of you.

Once again thank you all.

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Shigure had lived most of her young life without a name, her biological father simply calling her girl. Only after his death, was she given her current name, Shigure by her first surrogate father, Akisame, she liked the name, it was hers.

Akisame, after the fight with her father took her to his friend and second surrogate father, Hachirobe Kōsaka, who gave her a last name, and taught her how to fight with the only memento of her biological father, her sword.

As she grew, she made it her mission to take all of her father's swords out of circulation, at first it was easy having hunted some down. But she was mostly interested in another, an Ōdachi, much like her own, and her father's first masterpiece. The only other sword she knew of that contained 'the secret of steel' beside her own.

Tracking that sword down, she saw him for the first time, pale blond hair tied into a ponytail, with one large bang, covering one of his eyes, he seemed extremely fit, not at all muscular at a first glance.

He seemed to be enjoying his walk, so she sent Tōchūmaru to try and steal the sword without bothering him. Regretfully he noticed her friend trying to take the sword.

It would appear he had sensed her, How? She was hidden, her ki at a minimum, worrying about Tōchūmaru she quickly confronted him, pointing her hand at her best friend on top of the sword she only said "Sword" believing the man would understand.

It seemed he was dumb, he didn't understand, she told him again, this time however he seemed lost in thought. She started getting annoyed, he was seemingly stupid. "Give me the sword," she said. Not getting why she needed to use such an unnecessary amount of words to get her idea through the man.

He had refused her, before telling her, too large a story about training or something, but she called her….little lady…. why? This was so embarrassing, why? How? Why? why? Without realizing she blushed.

He seemed distracted so she attacked. She continued attacking, never able to connect, surprising her on how strong…. what was again….Azuma? Azuma was.

Eventually leading the fight in the forest, Shigure continued to attack him, her clothes were torn but, so what. The fight kept going until the man gave her his shirt, he called her a lady, again, and told her to cover herself. Oh god, she was so embarrassed, the man once again called her a lady, and even gifted her his shirt.

She was too distracted to notice the man had gotten away.

Do not mistakenly believe Shigure is stupid, she may be a little naïve, and lack some common sense, but stupid she is not.

Tracking him again, fighting, he would do something embarrassing to her and then run away, this kept repeating, and before she realized, after the fight they would keep talking.

He made fun of how she spoke, saying it was surprising she told him her name without a pause. Her father tried telling Shigure that she needed to use more words for people to understand what she was saying that they couldn't read her mind. She was trying but didn't he knew she was embarrassed about people pointing out how she spoke?

No, he didn't.

Then he had the audacity to use -chan with her name, how embarrassing, and the worse part was that Tōchūmaru was having fun out of her embarrassment, the traitor, he would not be getting cheese anytime soon.

Azuma had the nerve to call her -chan once again before leaving, once again her mind on how dare he and she was no -chan.

After he left Tōchūmaru told Shigure they were pretty much friends, Shigure had a new...friend?.... Friend!

She had a friend other than Tōchūmaru….. even if he didn't understand her and had to use an unnecessary amount of words with him, maybe he was dumb, but it didn't matter, Shigure had a new friend.

Before one of their usual fights, Shigure talked with Tōchūmaru, asking him if it would be okay to tell her new friend, Azuma, about her past. He seemed equally happy about having a new friend. She didn't realize that Tōchūmaru was not happy to have a new friend, he was happy that she got a new one.

They kept talking after the fights, slowly revealing more about themselves.

But Shigure heard something that made her angry, Azuma had no problem with killing, even having killed before, and more than once. Hadn't she told him about her thoughts on Katsujinken?

Angry, Shigure tried to stop talking with him, she couldn't be friends with someone that did not respect life. She ignored him on their next encounters, Azuma seemed sad, but Shigure didn't care.

Until Tōchūmaru intervened, he told her that he did try to explain his thoughts on both, Katsujinken and Satsujinken. And while she didn't need to agree, Tōchūmaru could see some reason in Azuma's ideas, he seemed to be a good person, that did not kill for fun, or simply because that's how things needed to be.

After her best friend made her see reason, Shigure needed to apologize, she made Azuma sad and didn't try to understand him, she was a bad friend.

Gladly he accepted.

As the months passed Shigure was enjoying her time with Azuma more and more, waiting with anticipation their next meeting, Shigure still asked him for the sword, but she enjoyed being with him more, not that she had noticed, to her, the priority was getting her father's sword, Azuma would still be her friend after that.

She felt weird when she was with him, her stomach would feel different, and her heart rate fastens, Shigure tried to tell Tōchūmaru about it, was she sick?

But he only looked at her with pity, why would he pity her? She kept asking him, and Tōchūmaru would only keep the same look of impatience and pity on his eyes.

Soon a year after their first meeting, Shigure's dad called her back, saying he needed her, she was happy that her father needed to see her, but also sad that she wouldn't see Azuma for some time.

Shigure hoped they could meet again, she would miss him, their talks, and how he treated her like a girl, she started enjoying it some time ago, but don't tell him, or she'll have to do horrible, horrible things to you.