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Orihime reserves the Lady and the War General a kind of quiet admiration, as one would to a fairy tale, or to an older couple who had been together for 70 years, something like that.
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It's only been a year when the headline read: Ishida clan hands over 300-year old katana to gov't: the War General's! spread across daily broadsheets and online feeds - that was the start of it.
Before that, the Lady and the War General were grouped with other old folklorish tales, lesser known compared to Japanese literary giants like The Tales of Genji or The Tales of Ise. They belong to those tales that occupy the bottom shelf - not very prominent, some passing maybe-not fiction.
And Orihime, of course, had read much about them.
Orihime watched when the current head of the Ishida clan, now a family with extensive local and international medical and pharmaceutical ties, turned over the centuries-old katana to a government official, and affirmed the Lady and the War General's place in history, gave their real names, too. There were low respectful bows and all - was news.
It was true, letters and a sword, the Lady and the War General were real. Orihime felt a thug in heart then - they were real.
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