Chapter 26: A Sword
Yori could hear Howard giving Steve a lecture on the exact meaning of fondue as Josie explained it to her. She heard Howard clap Steve on the shoulder and their voices get louder as they returned.
"Fondue is just cheese and bread, my friend," he finished. Steve sounded confused.
"But I didn't think…"
"Nor should you pal. The moment you think you know what's going on in a woman's head is the moment your goose is well and truly cooked."
Yori's eyes flicked to Josie and she saw amusement glittering there. The two women exchanged glances. They'd both been eavesdropping.
"We'll just swing by Josie's desk and grab Yori."
Howard and Steve emerged from behind a filing cabinet. The moment Steve came into view, Peggy gave him a very pointed look and stalked off to the other side of the lab. Steve winced as she passed him, but was smart enough not to try and stop her.
"Go play with your new toys," Josie encouraged, waving her hands at Yori. Her eyes were sparkling encouragingly and she looked proud. "Just remember to come thank me – I had a lot of input on the design."
"Design of what?" Yori asked blankly, not quite sure what kind of equipment she might need. She came with her own personal arsenal of ways to cause damage.
"You'll see," Howard said, beckoning her over as he guided Steve to a table. "At the moment, my work is making sure you and your team come back in one piece." He paused, laying his hand on a piece of what seemed to be an extremely thick, armored kind of fabric. "Carbon polymer, should withstand your average German bayonet. Then again," he admitted, "HYDRA's not going to attack you with a pocket knife."
Yori sneered. "You can't get close enough to me to use a bayonet."
"Oh I've been assured," Howard promised her. "Trust me, I've got something special for you. Just wait your turn, Stark Clause's got to come to Steve first." He patted the battered shield tossed casually on a table and glanced back at Steve. "I hear you're rather attached?"
"It's handier than you might think," Steve explained with a shrug.
Howard stepped behind another table covered in a white cloth. With a dramatic flick of his wrists, he ripped the sheet away. On the table were various shapes and styles of shields. Many had electrical gadgets fitted onto the front. They all looked clunky, overly-modern, and not very Steve.
"This one's fun," Howard said, tapping one. "It's been fitted with electrical relays that allow you to-"
"What about this one?" Steve asked, ignoring the table full of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and reaching for a round shield polished to a silver sheen.
"No, no, that's just a prototype!" Howard protested, but Steve ignored him.
"What's it made of?" he asked as he picked it up, eyes widening.
"Vibranium," Howard explained as Steve flipped the shield around, looking at it from all angles. "It's stronger than steel and a third the weight," he said as Steve fitted his arms through the straps. "It's completely vibration resistant."
Steve traced his fingers along the edge and asked, "How come it's not standard issue?"
"That's the rarest metal on earth," Howard said with a scoff. "What you're got there, that's all we have of it. Well, almost all," he relented.
The sound of clicking heels announced Peggy's return. Both men turned to look as she approached.
"If you're quite finished Stark, I'm sure the Captain has some unfinished business," she said coolly.
Steve grinned at her hopefully, holding up the shield in front of his chest. "What do you think?" he asked cheerfully. Yori rolled her eyes. He really was an idiot around women.
Peggy sucked in her cheeks, picked up a pistol from a nearby table and raised it. Steve ducked behind his shield as Peggy cracked off four shots. The lab techs all looked up in fright as the shield gave off small, bell-like peals as the bullets connected. The smashed bullets fell to the ground at Steve's feet. When the assault stopped, Steve's wounded puppy-dog face emerged from behind the shield.
Peggy let out a satisfied sigh. "Yes, I think it works," she said simply, before turning and walking away. Both men watched her go, dumbfounded looks on their faces. Yori smirked as she watched Peggy strut away.
Weakly, Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "I had some idea about the outfit…"
Howard took the paper. "Whatever you want, pal…" he agreed faintly.
"If you two are done," Yori said tartly, yanking them out of their stupor. They both turned to face her. "You said you had something for me."
"Oh." Howard blinked away the last of his daze and a grin split his face. "Oh yeah! Yeah, this is really great, wait until I show you. Had to outsource some of it because I don't know jack about Japanese swords…"
Yori's eyes widened in delight and she sucked in a breath. "You made me a sword?" she asked eagerly.
"Yeah, Josie said you'd be pleased," Howard said knowingly, gesturing for her to follow him over to a table where a long wooden box lay. Next to it were a couple of tall, thin bundles of straw wrapped in twine. Yori smiled at the sight of them – she got to play.
Steve drifted after them curiously, gathering around the table. Howard spun the box around to face Yori and flipped open the latch with a flourish. Then he lifted the lid. Yori gasped.
The sheath was gorgeous on its own, a smooth black and red lacquer. Gold-painted spikes pointed down from the mouth of the sheath, homage to the marks on her face and body. The guard was gold with a similar spiked pattern. The hilt was wrapped in a traditional criss-crossed pattern by alternating red and black ribbons. Wrapped around the sheath were two thick woven cords. One was red, one was black, and they had heavy golden beads tied above fringed ends.
Yori's hands were shaking as she reached out and lifted the katana free. Deftly, she tied the cords around her waist and slid the sheath through them and the belt she was wearing. She let the sword rest and gripped the hilt tightly, savoring the slight bite of the wrappings into her palm. Moving so fast she blurred, Yori pulled the blade out. It came loose with a hum that ran down her spine and made her shiver.
"Oh…" she breathed as she saw the blade. It gleamed with the same burnished silver color as Steve's shield. Her eyes didn't leave the blade as she asked, "Is this…?"
"Yep, that's the rest of it," Howard confirmed.
Yori's eyes combed over the blade. There was no fuller, but the hada was visible on the edge, a pattern of straight, unconnected lines. A horimono was etched into the blade just above the hilt. Yori held the sword up in front of her, staring at the blade. It was a simple, elegant pattern of a branch of cherry blossoms. She smiled.
This would be what Josie meant when she said she had design input. Josie would have been the one to make sure they stuck to red, black, and gold. She was also the only one who could know just how much Yori missed seeing the cherry blossoms bloom. Yori felt her heart swell and had to bite her lip to keep from crying. This was a sort of kindness she wasn't used to.
"May I?" she asked thickly as she stepped closer to the straw. Howard nodded eagerly.
"Please," he encouraged, stepping back. He wisely grabbed Steve's arm and pulled him back. They'd already had one woman let loose with a weapon in the lab that day, and he had a feeling they were about to go for two.
Yori slid the sword back into the sheath. She stood in front of the first straw bundle, bending her knees slightly. One hand gripped her sheath, the other the hilt. Steve and Howard watched as, with a cry, she pulled the sword free and made an upward slash. The cut was so smooth, the top of the cut straw didn't fall. Yori brought the sword back down and sliced again, and this time two pieces of straw went flying.
Yori turned into a spin and sliced the second straw piece in half before cutting it again as it flew. She advanced on the last straw bundle and slashed at it several times, sending thin cuts flying as she worked her way down until the straw was barely three feet tall.
"I'd forgotten how good you are with a sword."
They all turned to look as Josie approached, her arms crossed over her chest and a smile on her face. Yori flicked the blade and seemed to draw it across her arm before sheathing it. With three quick steps she approached Josie and threw her arms around the younger woman. Josie hugged her back with a chuckle.
"Thank you," Yori said earnestly, beyond thrilled with her knew blade. It was gorgeous, it was light, it was well-made, and it cut like a hot knife through butter. It was even better than the short sword that HYDRA had taken from her and done who knew what with.
"Hey, I just made it pretty," Josie said, pulling Yori away from her and turning her toward Howard. "He's the one that found someone to make it and got the metal."
Yori came towards Howard, who paled slightly and took a step back. Steve couldn't blame him. Yori was scary with a sword. She got this wild light in her eyes and her movements were so fast she blurred. He wasn't quite sure the physics of what went into half of the movements she'd done.
"You made me a sword," Yori said with a grin on her face. Neither man had ever seen her look so happy, and for good reason. It had been a good three decades since Yori was that happy.
"Er, yeah, you like it, right?" Howard asked uncertainly. "Like, you're not going to take my head off with it or anything?"
Yori smirked. "Not today." She bounded forward and kissed a startled Howard Stark smack on the mouth before pulling back and outright giggling. She turned to Steve, who took a large step back and raised his shield. He'd already gotten in trouble with Peggy for kissing one woman today, he wasn't going to add to that list.
"When are we going on a mission? Soon?" she asked him hopefully. She patted the sword. "I want to try this one something a little more… alive."
"Yori, you're being creepy, stop it," Josie chided. "Have you decided what you're going to name it?"
"Name it?" Howard said blankly, still looking a little thrown from the thank you kiss. Josie nodded.
"Her old sword was called Yōkai no Teki," Josie explained.
"And what does that mean?" Steve asked curiously. He knew a little bit of French from school but he had no idea about Japanese.
"Roughly, enemy of demons," Yori translated. "As for this one, I think… Kuroihana," she decided.
"And for those of us in the audience who don't speak Japanese," Howard requested, raising a hand.
Yori grinned. "Black Flower. You like it, Tora?" she asked curiously.
"I think it definitely fits," Josie approved. Yori turned and bowed deeply to Howard, who bowed back uncertainly.
"Arigatō, tensai," she said seriously. Howard straightened up.
"Uh, right back at you?"
Yori snickered and rolled her eyes at that before turning back to Steve. "Please let me know when we're going out for the first time, taichō." She turned to Josie and smiled. "I'm going to go practice. It's been entirely too long since I cut something into tiny pieces."
Josie rolled her eyes but stepped aside, clearing the way for Yori, who left eagerly. The three of them watched her go, a skip in her step as she ran off the practice with her new sword.
"You weren't kidding, she really liked that sword," Howard said, running a hand through his hair and huffing. Josie laughed at that.
"Yeah, Yori's carried a sword since before I knew her. It's been strange seeing her without one, to be honest."
"Hey, what's that she said to me there at the end?" Howard asked curiously. "And what did she call you? Dora?"
Josie chuckled. "Tora," she corrected. "It means tiger. And she said thank you, genius."
Howard smiled smugly at that."Well, she's not wrong."
Steve moved over to Josie and asked uncertainly, "What did she call me?"
He had no idea how Yori felt about him, but he wasn't altogether sure that she liked him. Some of the things she'd said, particularly after the incident out by the filing cabinet, made him think that she didn't.
Josie smiled and reassured him. "You mean taichō?" Steve nodded. "Don't worry, it just means captain. She was being nice. Which is weird, for her," Josie admitted. "If anything I'd expect her to call you baka like she does most people."
"Which means?"
"Idiot."