Disclaimer: CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators still belongs to CLAMP and Tomiyuki Matsumoto, not to me. Pity, i can think of a lot i could do with it.

Prompt: Femslash February 2022 Day 24 – Steel


A sword was the soul of a samurai. Rion didn't know much about swords, but she knew that.

It had always struck her, because a soul was such a precious thing, something to be protected, and yet samurai carried their souls outside their bodies at their waists. They fought with their souls!

And that was fascinating as well, wasn't it? To use your own soul as a weapon? There were certainly enough manga about the concept.

These were the things Rion thought about, but didn't quite dare to ask Mifuyu. After all, she carried her soul around in plain sight too, in the form of her own sword.

But Mifuyu was always pretty open about her feelings, so it was like she was wearing her soul out in the open even if she didn't have her sword with her. Rion liked how open and guileless her upperclassman was.

And, if she was being totally honest with herself, as she so rarely was, Rion also liked how cool Mifuyu looked with her sword. There was just something about a girl with a katana.

Rion sighed. This was what she got for sitting outside on a spring afternoon. Of course, CLAMP School had springlike weather all year long, or at least as close to it as their climate control could manage, but there was just something about real spring, being able to spend time outside for the first time after months of winter cold, that just made the mind wander.

It wasn't Rion's fault. Really, it wasn't.

She was just sitting on the grass, minding her own business, watching Mifuyu run around with the other Class Z students. There was an art assignment she should probably be working on, but Mifuyu was so much better at holding her attention.

And now Mifuyu was coming towards her, so that was the last chance her art assignment had for now. Maybe she should just draw Mifuyu.

Rion's upperclassman plonked down beside her in a floof of full skirts. (Rion wasn't sure how she felt about their uniform's puffy sleeves, but she did like the long skirts. Especially on Mifuyu.) "Hey, Rion-chan! What's up?"

"Nothing much," Rion said shyly. "What about you? Are you on break?"

"Pretty much," Mifuyu replied. Class Z students could decide their own schedule, so maybe that was a dumb question. She wasn't even sure why Mifuyu had come over to sit by her – she couldn't be tired.

Mifuyu herself didn't seem interested in explaining herself. She leaned back on her hands, her sword Kotetsu in the grass beside her, on the far side from Rion. She looked perfectly happy to enjoy the breeze and the warm Sun after having been trapped inside all winter.

Rion didn't know what to do. She never did, but with most of the others in the Supernatural Phenomena Research Association, she didn't have to. She could just follow their lead. But Mifuyu was harder to get a read on, and her tendency to seek out Rion's company was baffling. Rion wasn't anything special.

But Mifuyu didn't seem to mind, and she often chose Rion to talk to, or team up to investigate for the Association's latest project, or just hang out after school. Even now, she came to spend her break with Rion.

Rion should probably say something. The silence was getting awkward, or that might be just her. She turned to Mifuyu and opened her mouth – they could probably talk about Yuki's latest scheme – but didn't get the chance to speak.

"Mifuyu-chan!" one of the other Class Z girls called. "Could you help us out? Our frisbee's stuck." She pointed up into a tree.

"Sure, be right there!" Mifuyu called back. She grabbed her sword by its sheath and turned to Rion. "Could you hold onto this for me?" she asked.

Rion's mind went blank. Completely, utterly, terrifyingly blank, because Mifuyu was asking her to look after her sword, Kotetsu, her soul. She put her hands out, and Mifuyu handed over the sword.

It was heavier than Rion expected. Her hands dipped with the weight, and her fingers closed automatically around the scabbard.

So this is a sword, she thought. This was the first time she'd ever touched one. She'd seen Mifuyu's Kotetsu often, of course, but never this close. She'd never held it. It was solid, and real. A weapon.

And this was Mifuyu's soul. It was a sobering thought. Rion had never been scared of Mifuyu – nervous, certainly, but that was more to do with her own awareness of herself than anything Mifuyu said or did – but now Rion understood that she really was a warrior. She'd seen her fight often enough, but . . . this was different.

Rion's grip tightened on the scabbard. It was made of wood, lacquered smooth and black. It was both beautiful and functional.

"You okay?"

Rion looked up. Mifuyu was back, leaning over her with a concerned expression.

"Uh, yeah," Rion said, offering the sword back up to her. Mifuyu took it with a smile. "I was just thinking, a sword is supposed to be the soul of a samurai. But for yo– a soul to be a blade, it's . . ." A little scary, she was going to say, but she wasn't sure how Mifuyu would take it.

"It's not just a blade!" Mifuyu told her with enthusiasm. "It's so much more than that! It has to be, if it's going to be an entire soul!"

"Oh?" Rion asked. Mifuyu was known to go on and on when talking about swords, but Rion did like listening to her. Even if most of it went over her head, the delight and fascination Mifuyu always showed when talking about her favorite subject was infectious. "What else is there?"

"The whole thing!" Mifuyu exclaimed, drawing her blade for emphasis. "Listen, a katana isn't just a sword. The forging process is the most intensive for any kind of sword, and the steel is different for different parts of the blade. The mune – that's the back of the sword – is made of softer metal, so it's springy, resilient. It can take an impact without breaking. That's something you need to cultivate in your soul too." She showed Rion the back of her sword as she spoke.

"Yes, i can see that," Rion said, and winced. That wasn't the right way to respond, but Mifuyu continued on without noticing.

"Yeah, so you can bounce back mentally from anything and recover." Mifuyu turned the blade around in her hand. "And the ha, the edge, that's much harder. Hard enough to cut and slice through anything, just like your will. Together, the hard edge and the softer back, they create the greatest sword ever forged, the absolute pinnacle of craftsmanship!"

"How do you get that difference, when you're making the sword?" Rion asked. "Do they use different kinds of steel?"

"Not exactly," Mifuyu told her. Her eyes were big and shining. "That's really cool, too – swordsmiths cover the back of the blade with clay before they fire it, while they're forging – that way the mune doesn't get as hot, and the steel there stays softer. That's also why katana have those wavy lines on the blade – that marks where the clay was, where the two parts of the blade were fired differently."

"That is really cool," Rion admitted.

"Right?" Mifuyu grinned. "There's a reason i dedicated my life to this. Swords are incredible!"

What was really incredible, Rion thought, was Mifuyu's passion for her subject. She couldn't imagine talking to other people about anything for as long or with as much enthusiasm as Mifuyu did. She kind of wished she could.

Mifuyu really was like her katana. Nothing ever fazed her; she could bounce back from anything, even if it set her back temporarily. It wouldn't break her. And she could just cut through any obstacle that appeared in her path. Rion wished she could be like that.

But even if she couldn't, Mifuyu was there, and she was always happy to lend her support to Rion. That was worth something.


A/N: For the record, i'm not one of those katana nuts who go on and on about how the katana is the best sword ever (though Mifuyu is), but i also have little patience for the anti-katana crowd who spend all their time arguing about how the katana isn't as good as such-and-such other kind of sword. As far as i'm concerned, the katana is just a sword, no better or worse than any other kind. It's good for the purpose it was designed for, not so good for the situations other swords were designed for.

As an aside, it was fun writing a warm spring afternoon while listening to hail pummel the windows.