Citadel When You Are Not Here
By Yui Kagamine / LuminouzYui
Pairing: Yamatonokami Yasusada x Kashuu Kiyomitsu
Rating: T for safe measure
Disclaimer: Touken Ranbu is owned by DMM and Nitroplus, Touken Ranbu Hanamaru is made by Doga Kobo. Some translation is from Touken Ranbu Wikia
Synopsis: Kiyomitsu waited and waited, but Yasusada won't come to the citadel he resides.
Hiya, I'm back! Perhaps this is the last time because I will be very busy...
I did sneak out of my training and typed this, don't try this in your workplace XD Because of that, the story may seem like it's so fast and I couldn't even check for any grammar/vocabulary mistakes, sorry...
This story was inspirated by Easy Cynic doujinshis, Touken Ranbu Hanamaru, and my little citadel that suffers from the same fate. I highly recommend Easy Cynic doujinshis if you could get it! The stories are great and the drawings are good too!
Anyway, enjoy the story!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kiyomitsu's POV
"Welcome to the citadel, Souza Samonji. My name is Kashuu Kiyomitsu and I am currently the attendant of our new Master. Let me bring you to our Master's room and then show you around the citadel."
In 2205, there were sights of History Retrograde Armies whose object were to change history, so the present day won't be as peaceful as now. Government recruited many powerful people who were able to breathe life to inanimated objects such as swords to become swords warriors and send them to fight the History Retrograde Armies so they could protect the history. These powerful people were called Saniwa, and they were spread around the country, building bases here and there to accommodate their sword warriors, and worked together to defeat the History Retrograde Armies.
Souza Samonji was the 15th sword warrior that came to this citadel. Before that, there were also many swords from various eras who had joined the citadel, and we fought together to fight the History Retrograde Armies who spawned in various timelines.
Being a sword warrior was really different from the time when I was still a mere sword. Having a human body was really fascinating for us, especially that we still had our previous memories about our previous masters. We learned to eat, to sleep, to be injured and repaired, to be fatigued and need to rest, to do various chores, and to play and have fun as humans do. Many of us complained to it at first, but the longer we stayed here, it became a daily routine that no one dared to question anymore.
At first, I thought there was no connection between us swords, but things changed after more Awataguchi tantous came to this citadel and also Nakigitsune, who claimed to be an Awataguchi too. It left me wondered if there were another connections before Horikawa Kunihiro, the wakizashi belonged to Hijikata-san, Shinsengumi's vice leader, came to this citadel. We quickly back to our old selves, and we chatted the entire night, reminiscing the past. Horikawa complained about there was no Kane-san yet in this citadel and hoped that he would come one day. All the talk made me wanted to meet him, that person favorite sword; my dear partner in the past.
Back to current time, while I was explaining the citadel around for Souza, he spotted Sayo Samonji doing the horse duty that was assigned to him that day, and his expression quickly brightened up.
"O-sayo! So you are here, too..."
"Souza… nii-sama?"
Souza walked towards Sayo to hug him. They didn't exchanged any more words, but their expressions were more than enough to explain everything.
"By the way, Souza, the horse barn is the last place, so I will leave you with your brother?"
"Okay, thank you, Kashuu."
"Yup, find me if you want to ask anything later."
When I left the horse barn, I walked to the citadel while gazing at the clear blue sky and had this thought: What should I do when he come? What should I say?... You will come to this citadel too, right, Yasusada?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Besides doing chores around the citadel and going to the front lines, we were also sent to scout and find materials to the eras we battled before, and also… war training with another citadel's sword warriors. Well, the war training that day was the most shocking one, because I finally met that sword for the first time.
"Whoa, Kane-san!" Horikawa shouted to the other party before the war training started.
The other party's Izuminokami Kanesada, or Kane-san, turned to face Horikawa. Horikawa already ran to his side. "Yo, Kunihiro!"
"Horikawa! Don't interrupt the other party's strategy meeting after we had just done ours!" I shouted when they were about to chat.
"It's okay, we had just finished the strategy meeting too, shall we start?"
I couldn't believe what i'd heard and saw in front of me. "Y-Yasusada?"
"Hey, Kiyomitsu. Why are you so shocked seeing me?"
"Y-You, why are you here?"
"With Izuminokami and Horikawa here, It would be logical if I am here too, right?"
"Well that's true..."
"I assume I haven't come to your citadel?"
"Yeah..."
"You haven't come to my citadel either..." He mumbled, but I can't quite catch his dialogue.
"Eh?"
"Everyone, let's start the war practice!" He suddenly shouted to everyone who were still chatting to each other. Nevertheless, the war practice started and we fought each other.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After the war practice ended, we chatted some more for farewell.
"After 30 minutes, please end your chatting time!" I told my party.
"Okaaaayy~~"
I turned to the other party's Yasusada.
"As expected, neither of us can get rid of that person's habits..."
"That's exactly why it is easy to spot shortcomings in our fencing styles. Okita-kun's fencing style. And that means we still have many ways to go, more practice, ora!"
"You never changed huh, always full of vigor."
"And you too, I bet you still tried to look cute." He grabbed my hand. "What's with these red nails, huh?"
"I coated them with nail polish, it's cute, isn't it?"
"Yeah yeah. Just hope it won't be ruined when you go to the front lines or doing the field works."
I pouted at that.
His expression changed to a sad one, "I hope we will meet each other in our own citadel soon..."
Ah, was this that he mumbled before?
"Good training today, I hope we will meet again in another war practice!" He released my hand to shake it. And I felt I didn't need to ask about the thing before, so I just replied to his farewell.
"With that many saniwas out there, I don't think we could meet again."
Yasusada pouted, "Be more optimistic, baka Kiyomitsu!"
"Hai hai, I will try."
"And I hope we could meet again as pairs in the future."
"Looking forward to it!"
Thus the war training ended, and both parties went back to each other's citadel.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"We're home!"
"Ah, Horikawa-san!" Midare, who was playing with Gokotai and Akita, called to us.
"Me?" Horikawa looked confused.
"Master said she have a surprise for you, so come to her room as soon as you're back!"
"Then Kashuu-kun, I will report the result of the war training too, so you go back and rest, okay?"
"Okay, thanks."
Walking to my room, I was wondering what surprise that Master prepared for Horikawa. After getting out of my battle clothes, I walked towards the banquet to wait for dinner time. After I passed Horikawa's room, I heard the door sliding.
"Kane-san! Let's go to the banquet, dinner is almost prepared!"
Eh?
I turned my back to see Izuminokami Kanesada, the one-and-only beloved sword of Hijikata-san, the one that Horikawa always looked up to and waited, was walking out of the room.
"Hee… So you're the surprise Master prepared for Horikawa."
"Ah Kashuu-kun!"
"Yo, Kashuu. How are you? You have nothing to worry now, because the cool and strong me is -"
"Congratulations Horikawa, aren't you happy that your partner is here now?"
"Oi don't ignore me Kashuu!"
"Yup, I'll do my best to please Kane-san! But you still have to follow the rules here, okay Kane-san? No slacking off!"
"Okay..."
I laughed at him, then all three of us were surrounded in laughter for a while.
"That's right, have you show him around?"
"Not yet, because we were preparing for dinner, maybe tomorrow or after dinner."
"Ah, okay."
"Don't worry Kashuu-kun, he will come soon too! Don't look at Kane-san with that sad look, you will be teased by him and you will regret it."
Izuminokami looked at both of us with annoyed face, "Oi, am I the type to do something like that?"
"You are," both Horikawa and I answered that together, making the three of us laugh together and we went to the banquet together.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Two months after I had become a sword warrior in this citadel, that sword still haven't come. Well, I need to learn how to wait even longer, huh? There were so many things that I want to tell if you had arrived here: about how Hasebe nagged at the other swords for being not disciplined, or how Kasen nagged at the Awataguchi tantous' clothes being dirty after playing in the mud formed after the rain, or how Shokudaikiri's cooking that was loved by everyone, or about each and every welcoming party for new sword warriors. Compared to two months ago, this little citadel that originally only Master and I lived in there, currently had 20 sword warriors all over the place.
I was really envious for the swords that has met their respective partners or swords with same family, but I couldn't be selfish, after all, I was the starter sword that has been sword warrior longer than anyone else in the citadel, and there were others whose "family" haven't come too.
So with it, I enjoyed our snack time by gazing at the blooming Sakura trees around the citadel while eating dangos prepared by Master for sakura viewing session that day. And that's when the thoughts were surfacing again: "I know you will enjoy this dangos too as that person do, so… when will you come here and enjoy it with me?" "I wonder what will you do when seeing the little ones playing together? Will you play together with them like that person do? After all, one of us surely have that person's personality as his former swords."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A few days later after the Sakura viewing session, our second party, who were sent to the Honnouji Incident to fight the History Retrograde Army, came back with a new sword. The sword was quickly brought to Master's room to be manifested into a sword warrior like us. I was working within my field duty so I didn't know about this until Horikawa came to tell me about that, saying that it might be Yamatonokami Yasusada. Well, I was not the attendant at that time, so I didn't have to be there when Master manifested a sword warrior, and I had to work through the field duty unless I wanted to be scolded by Shokudaikiri, who was my partner for the field duty that day.
Still focusing on the tomato plants, I picked up the ripe ones and put them to my basket when I heard a familiar voice from my back.
"Well who thought a sword that hates being dirty like you is doing field work now, Kiyomitsu."
I stood up and turned my back to face the source of the voice.
"Y-Yasusada?"
"Yup, that's me. Forget your past partner already?"
"N-No, that's... I..."
I was at lost for words. Well, I didn't expect him to come so suddenly, but still, I wanted him to come quickly…
A sudden warmth enveloped me as Yasusada hugged me.
"Sorry it took so long for me to come here. Master explained everything and asked me to meet you immediately, so here I am."
"I am definitely not looking forward to meet you, I had met another Yasusadas from another citadel after all." I could feel my face heating up.
"Yeah yeah… But you made me wait so long in the past, so I assume we are equal now?"
I broke the hug. "By the way, how was that person after I left?"
"Well, I could tell you here and now but it seems that sword over there is angry?"
"Oi Kashuu-kun! Do the field work properly! This will be your dinner too, you know?" shouted Shokudaikiri.
"Ugh, see what have you done? Now you have to help me!"
"Oi, don't make me the reason for you slacking off!"
"Whatever! Now help me!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Epilogue
"Hey it's you again, see, i told you we could meet again!" said the other party's Yasusada when we had our war training that day.
"This is just a coincidence though..." I sighed.
"Yeah whatever you said…. Oh, hey me!"
Yasusada looked shocked… Not blaming him as that was his first war training with another citadel, so I explained it to him briefly.
"It still feels strange to see me but not myself..." Our Yasusada looked at the other one intensely.
The other Yasusada slapped his back, "Hahaha, you will get used to it though!"
"So, have the other me come to your citadel?" I asked.
"Yup, but he's not here though. Master asked him to level up with the others."
"That's good for you then"
"I could say the same! Shall we start the war training?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
End Notes:
Well I put Yasusada's and Kiyomitsu's finished sparring lines there, notice it? :D the translation belongs to Touken Ranbu Wikia.
Thanks for reading this story until the end! I hope you enjoyed it :D