And So, Bell Became a Hero Volume 2
DISCLAIMER: Danmachi belongs to its respective owners. Everything that occurs in this story is of my own creation and the characters abide by the fictional laws in the setting.
Author's Note: This Omake was released on October 10th, 2022 in both my Patron and Discord; there's likely to be other Omakes that will be released early in discord/patron before appearing in Fanfiction, and no, nothing that I write is pay-locked. It's all public, the only thing behind paywalls are requests, commissions, and artworks.
Discord code is 42SQENPj5
Omake commissioned by: Mazzel
Tsubaki Omake 2 (Omake 7): Progress is Progres
Author Note: Double Update on same day, please look at previous chapter for Chapter 26. Order is Chapter 26, Omake 7.
Inside a certain workshop on the eastern side of Orario, the strikes of hammer on metal bounced off enclosed walls. Sparks flew from the point of strike before the creator of the sound tilted the piece she was working on; keen amber eyes roamed the length of her work before a dissatisfied smile appeared on her face.
"Trash."
With a dejected sigh, the woman let the piece fall back on the battered anvil. The stress of another failure made her roll her shoulders which eased both the weight of her useless bosom's weight and the accumulated soreness from working for hours on end.
A crackle and a wave of heat from the forge beside her made her turn to it, a frown of contemplation as she thought whether to start a new project or try to salvage what was left of her ongoing work.
One look back at the misshapen piece on the anvil gave her the push to simply shut off her forge for the day, as she knew that it would be unlikely for her to continue working with her current mindset.
A few days had passed since her investigation of a certain exquisite equipment maker from her own Familia, a few days after she had tried one of said blacksmith's equipment in order to obtain her redhaired friend's attention.
Safe to say, those 'Clothes of Sed' enchanted effects did not give her the desired results.
Certainly, the equipment's effects of revealing her target's hidden thoughts worked on Welf but those thoughts had nothing to do with her and all to do with the craftsmanship of the equipment itself.
Welf had a keen eye for imperfections and possible improvements on any piece, however that keen eye of his never worked for his own creations. That same keen eye had seen her dressed in something she would normally never wear, as embarrassing as that experience was, and only received an 'it looks good on you' for her troubles.
Just recalling those memories made Tsubaki groan out loud and throw her safety gear on the crafting table behind her, leaving her with naught but her red hakama and her chest bindings.
"Ya' really never looked at me, huh…" Tsubaki told herself as she grabbed one of the towels to clean the sweat she accumulated from her hours of hard work.
Another dissatisfied smile graced her features as one hand work on undoing her bindings to decently clean the sweaty dark skin beneath while the other with the towel already worked on cleaning her face.
A few swipes between her bosom left the towel sporting black splotches from ink that she had no idea how it got there since she did wear her smithy apron this time. Perhaps, she had taken it off at some point to cool herself?
Wouldn't be the first time she took off her safety gear in the middle of smithing, after all.
Either way, now that she knew her body was splattered with materials that could catch fire if she wasn't careful, Tsubaki carefully put away the rest of her smithing equipment before leaving her forge through one of the back doors.
Unlike most other workshops in the eastern district, Tsubaki made sure hers was built with several extra rooms not just for storing equipment and materials but also to improve her quality of life.
Obviously, nothing too expensive, depending on who you asked.
Three additional rooms besides the other various ones meant for her work. One bedroom for herself, one guest bedroom in case her Goddess wanted to crash at her workshop after drinking with who knows whom, and the last room being a rather simple bathroom.
While she could be considered rich with how much she was paid for her works, most of that money went back into the materials required to work on the actual equipment, so despite all the money that flowed into her pockets her workshop's bathroom was quite small compared to the rest of the other rooms.
There weren't that many articles in it either, as it was meant mostly just for washing up after an exhausting day of work. There was something she did insist on spending on which were two full body mirrors, each one placed across the other so they would reflect off themselves.
And when she stood right in the middle, fiddling with the sash of her Hakama to let the last piece covering her skin fall to the ground, both her front and back were reflected and visible on both mirrors.
She was not vain, not overly so at least, despite what her Goddess believed for her mirror's setup. The mirrors had their function, and it was to allow Tsubaki to see whether there was any remaining material stuck to her body which she wouldn't be able to see or feel.
One downside of becoming a blacksmith was the certain stiffness to her limbs from working her muscles on a set pattern for so long. A stiffness that restricted her hands from reaching the center of her back, which more than once had something stuck to it.
And today was no different, just as it had been inside her cleavage, various splatters of blue ink adorned her back.
"Was I that lost in my thoughts?" Tsubaki asked herself with a frown. Her left hand reached for one of the splatters but the muscles on her shoulder immediately tensed and she ceased her attempt. "Guess I was."
Tsubaki huffed and quickly undid the binding on her ponytail before carefully taking off her eyepatch. Freed from the bindings of her clothes and accessories, she was swift to enter into the bath to wash herself.
The cool water did wonders to her mood and the scrubbing of her back with a washing towel eased some more of the tenseness in her muscles.
Another look in the mirror after she was done with the bath confirmed there was no remaining ink on her wet naked body, however it brought something else to view and that was herself.
Again, she was not vain, nor really proud of her looks.
Certainly, she knew a lot of men liked a girl with big breasts, which she certainly possessed in abundance but besides that, she couldn't really find much else to like about herself.
For one, she was taller than the average men of the dwarven half of her race and of (self-believed) average looks when compared with other female adventurers with well-balanced lifestyles.
There were also the years of working as a blacksmith which made the muscles on her right side slightly more defined, casting a rather bizarre view were one to look at her naked body for too long.
Tsubaki wasn't one to worry about her appearance but after Welf's low blow to her self-esteem, she had taken a few minutes longer every day staring at her reflection in the mirror.
Amber eyes sought the blemishes on her own reflection, finding several of the small scars from close encounters in the dungeon and various burnt marks from stray sparks and accidents when she forged equipment.
Though none were really noticeable with her darker skin tone, heck even the pinkish tone of her nipples was lighter than those of her scars and those were already somewhat hard to find!
Maybe Welf's keen eye not only worked on equipment but also on her skin?
She didn't believe him to be that shallow of a man, but once she brought into equation the person who had Welf's attention…
Hephaestus was – no, is a Goddess.
Compared to her, Tsubaki didn't have it easy at all.
Certainly, both her and her Goddess possessed attributes Welf probably liked, but what Tsubaki had, Hephaestus possessed in spades.
They both had attractive bodies, but where Tsubaki had scars, Hephaistos was unblemished except for their eye scars, which again, were the same for both.
They both had advanced blacksmith knowledge, but Tsubaki was a human blacksmith whereas Hephaistos is the Goddess of Smithing.
They both had a certain soft spot for the greenhorn red-haired blacksmith, but where Tsubaki received the cold shoulder for trying to be nice to him, Hephaistos turned Welf into a bumbling mess with a few words or one compliment.
Truly an unfair to compete with.
"Nothing I can do about it but keep trying, I guess." Tsubaki told to the naked solemn reflection on mirror before drying herself and go to her bedroom to change clothes.
Again, she was not one to let those depressive thoughts get to her, but Welf's lack of attention had really done a number on her.
The Cyclops, as she was nicknamed, opened her wardrobe and immediately saw the equipment that had started it all off tucked into a corner. Despite her hurt, she had still bought it because 'it looked good on her'.
Her hand moved towards it, for a split second thinking of wearing it again and trying its effect on Welf a second time for a different reaction but once her fingers plucked the rather naughty metal star-shaped nipple protectors, she discarded that thought by pushing the equipment further into the corner.
The brusque motion shuffled the clothes hanging above and bring the piece to her attention, one that she hadn't seen in a long time.
"Ya' were there all this time?" Tsubaki picked the piece and let it unfold entirely to give it a once over. "S'been a while since I last used ya'"
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake (7) - 0 -
Tsubaki locked the front door to her workshop, turned around the plaque reading open to closed, then fixed the strap to her dress as she glanced at the rather busy streets of Orario.
Wherever she looked, several carts transported goods guarded by whom she knew were members of the Ganesha Familia reminding her that she was also quite short on time to finish the last commission the Ganesha Familia had made for the Hephaestus Familia, specifically, for the higher ranking members of the Familia.
The Monsterphillia was right around the corner and not only were the Ganesha Familia preparing the equipment for the participants, but also the adventurers had been making last minute arrangements to have their equipment checked out before the day of the event.
Tsubaki huffed at another reminder of the work she had yet to do, the motion made one of her dress's straps slide down again which she fixed with a slight disdain. Maybe trying a dress that hadn't seen the light of day for more than a year wasn't that good of an idea.
Regardless, she had already placed it on and was outside of her workshop so she might as well make the most of her day and try to clear her mind before returning to her duties.
She joined the steady stream of people going about their day on the streets, careful to not walk in the way of incoming carts and carriages while waving from afar at those who greeted her.
The Cyclops noted the varied reactions from the people who knew her, knowing that to them it must've been a truly rare occurrence to wear something other than her smithing or adventurer clothes.
Though she could do without the male populace doing a double take at her appearance.
She wasn't one to flaunt her body often, at least not when it didn't gain her benefits like an extra round of alcohol or convincing a fellow merchant for a discount, but she knew there was no reason for that many double takes at her current appearance.
Hell, even her adventurer clothes revealed more skin than her current dress did, so there really shouldn't be that many wandering eyes straying to her.
For one, the dress was a dark shade of purple with thin straps and almost the same amount of cleavage displayed as her regular adventurer clothes. Maybe it was the addition of being able to see her clavicles but various of the adventurers eyeing her had seen her wearing only her chest bindings while working on items, so it couldn't be just that either.
The dress did cling rather tight to her, though the way it was woven allowed the thin material to mold to her shape rather than constrict and push out her decent curves.
Oh, maybe it was the bottom part that was attracting the unexpected attention.
As it was a dress, the bottom part rather than being a skirt or her usual pants, was various long cloth's stripes going from above her waist down to her ankles with the barest of skin showing between the slits.
The piece wasn't really meant to be wore for a daily walk around Orario, moreso since Tsubaki had bought it to attend an informal party her Goddess made last year, but it was far too comfortable to not wear it outside of fancy occasions.
Or maybe it was that she had let down her long hair?
Whichever was the reason for the men staring at her, Tsubaki chalked it up to another one of the things she wouldn't understand about men as she fixed, yet again, one of her dress' straps.
Something twisted in her belly accompanied by a quiet growl which made the Cyclops wander off from the center of the streets towards the edges, eyeing which stalls offered the best solution to the well-known sensation in her stomach.
Though one look just further up ahead, and she spotted the healthiest and most filling choice of all.
"Oh my, if it isn't little Tsu!"
"Hello Klama," Tsubaki smiled kindly and waved at the woman behind the counter who greeted her. "Business' good?"
"Mhm, this time of the year's the best for the stall." The woman who couldn't be past her forties grinned and spread her hands over the food covered under the tempered glass case. "You came at a good time! I've got all three of your favorites on hand right now."
"Really?" Tsubaki immediately eyed the case and spotted al three street fried dishes she enjoyed the most. "Wouldya' look at that. Klama give me one of each!"
"That appetite of yours never ceases to amaze me." The woman giggled as she fumbled around her stall. "Will you have it here or on the go?"
"Here's good."
Klama fumbled around some more and brought out a wooden plate to place Tsubaki's order. "By the way, what's got you so fancied up?"
Tsubaki blinked, "Ya' mean the dress?"
"Well yeah!" Klama rolled her eyes and closed off the case again before placing the plate over the counter. "It's been ages since I last saw you wore anything other than those rags you call equipment."
"Rags?" Tsubaki scoffed and bit into one of the many fried snacks. "I'll have ya' know that's one of my better creations."
"Sure, whatever you say honey." Klama replied in kind and leaned over the counter. "So, what's the occasion?"
"There's no occasion." Tsubaki huffed as she paid for her meal before taking the plate. "Just found this over the corner of my drawer gathering dust."
"Right." Klama bemoaned into her hands. "That attitude of yours is why you haven't snagged a guy yet."
Tsubaki paused mid bite. "Yeah, no."
"Uhuh, weren't you trying catch that one redhaired guy's attention the last time you wandered over here?"
"Wha-" Tsubaki coughed. "No!"
"No?" Klama leaned backwards. "Crap, I might lose the bet at this rate."
"Bet?"
"Well, ya'know how it's around here on the streets." Klama shrugged. "There ain't much to do when the stall's slow other than chatting up with the others around."
"Yeah, I know but betting?"
"Don't judge me."
"I'm not but… bah, whatever." Tsubaki sighed. "So, what's the bet about?"
"Oh… you know, just guessing which guy will tame that temper of yours'." Klama shrugged to the affronted Tsubaki. "I betted on that redhaired guy since he seems to be more hotheaded than you."
…
"Yeah, he does have a bit of a hard skull to get through." Tsubaki scratched her eyebrow over the many memories of Welf's hardheaded attitude giving her issues.
"So, you ARE trying to get his attention." Klama grinned unrepentantly and leaned closer over the counter.
Tsubaki sighed in defeat and placed down her empty plate on the counter. She should've known better than to try and hide her feelings from someone who worked on reading people's feelings. "Yea' I am, but he's interested in someone else."
Klama cringed at the defeated tone of the normally upbeat Cylcops. "Oof, you think you got a chance though?"
Welf did say she looked good with the… exquisite Clothes of Sed so…
"… maybe?"
"Hmm…" Klama looked Tsubaki up and down before nodding to herself. "Come over here, you're wearing your dress wrong."
"What?" Tsubaki gasped and immediately glanced at herself to see what was out of place.
"Nothing's out of place but that ain't the way you wear those clothes dear," Klama eased her worries and called her over again to the back of the stall. Tsubaki hesitated for a bit before moving towards the back of the stall.
"I've seen my fair share of ladies with similar outfits to yours and there's some tricks that may work on finally getting what you want." Klama explained and made sure to clean her hands before touching Tsubaki's dress. "Hmm, yep. Finnah wore a shirt of the same texture last month, here's what she did."
Tsubaki waited as Klama walked in circles around her, eyes roaming over different sections of her dress before she finally got to work. One touch to a section below her armpit made something click and Tsubaki felt her bosom become snugger.
"Huh?" She looked down at the spot only to find an invisible buckle she didn't know had been on the dress since ever. "That-"
Click
The section on her waist tightened too, "-was there!?"
"Yeah, this kind of dress have in-lined fasteners to bring out anyone's shape. You're lucky to have such a good one too." Klama complimented her as she pressed another buckle on Tsubaki's back. "Last one should be on the front."
The vendor grasped Tsubaki's breasts and lifted them up, startling Tsubaki, before another click was heard and the vendor released her. "There we go, now that's how you should wear that."
Tsubaki palmed herself, feeling how the dress now hugged her skin on an extremely unique way which even made her stand straighter from the tightness around her entire midsection. "I… never knew."
"Of course, you wouldn't." Klama palmed Tsubaki's shoulders. "You ain't one for fancy dresses so I can't blame you, at least this should give you an edge over that boy."
"… ya' might be onto something…"
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake (7) - 0 -
The captain of the Hephaestus Familia spent a while longer chatting up with the street vendor before finally leaving the presence of the nosy, if helpful, woman. Her mood a lot better than when she started her walk thanks to the reassurance of Klama's words about her appearance.
Just as Klama had said, Tsubaki was never one to wear dresses unless the occasion truly required it and those were too far in between to learn the designer's magic Klama had shown her.
Such magic touch made the stray eyes quite literally stick to her as Tsubaki continued her walk around Orario, enjoying the fresh breeze and jovial nature of the city.
Her destination had changed from aimless wandering towards a certain workshop of a certain hardheaded friend of hers. It wasn't rare for her to drop by unannounced by his place on random days to see how he was doing, but this time she expected a different reaction from Welf.
Maybe not as one as ego-boosting as the general populace eyes glued to her, but certainly better than the time she wore the 'Clothes of Sed' for him.
Had she paid more attention to herself, she would've noticed the fact that she had sped up after imagining one of the many ways Welf would've complimented her, so much that in fact she didn't even notice the man that tried to approach and court her and literally waltzed right past him.
She did hear the laughter of his friends but chalked it up to a random group doing their thing and having a good time.
Her fastened pace brought her to the street where Welf's workshop was located, the building in question stood out in the rather busy street with the smith's gadgets hanging of the wall from small plaques.
However, the person standing right by the workshop's made Tsubaki do a full stop.
"Are you going to stand there all day, or will you invite me in?"
Even from as far as she was, she could still hear her voice rather clearly and see the sheepish smile on her target's face.
"N-no, err. Please, come in." Welf stumbled over his words and pointed to the insides of his workshop.
An emotion unlike a whirlpool formed in Tsubaki's stomach, one that had nothing to do with the hunger she had satiated, as she stared from afar at two redheads enter the workshop together.
…
She wasn't certain for how long she was rooted to her spot, but once the turbulent emotion went away Tsubaki snorted, "Should've known something like this woulda'happen." She fixed the one strap that still bothered on not staying where it should before she marched forward.
It didn't matter if her Goddess was there already, in fact it may have lowered Welf's defenses and allow him to truly look at her…
Or it could backfire again and end up with him not even paying attention to her.
Either way, her hand was already on the workshop's door and pushing it open.
"Yo Welf!" Tsubaki cheerfully greeted, her single eye searching for the two redheads but saw neither. "Ya' here!?"
Welf stumbled out from the back, eyebrows pursed before he noticed the one calling for him. He blinked twice and frowned deeper. "Tsubaki?"
"There ya'r." Tsubaki grinned, glad that Welf was quick to recognize her, before marching towards him. "You busy?"
"Not really, no." Welf grumbled before looking at her up and down which made her skin tickle however before he could voice out whatever his thoughts where, someone else popped out from the same backdoor.
"Tsubaki?" Hephaestus immediately recognized her Child and smiled at her. "This must be my lucky day. I was going to visit your workshop after coming here but now that you're here you've saved me even more time today."
"Huh?" Tsubaki scratched the side of her head. "What do ya' mean Goddess?"
"I have an important errand to run today but Welf just asked me to help him out with one of his new customer orders." Hephaestus glanced at the novice blacksmith in question. "So, I was going to ask you to help him in my stead."
"It's fine if you don't want to." Welf quickly added, something Tsubaki knew must be because he wanted their Goddess to be the one to be there for him instead of her.
But life was unfair, and she would take whatever chances she had to achieve what she wanted. "Sure, I had nothing planned for the rest of today so we can start now if you want to."
Hephaestus smile widened and she moved to pat her captain's shoulder. "You're a real life-saver Tsubaki, I have to take my leave now but if you two need any further help then I'll be available after tomorrow."
"Wait Goddess-" Welf raised his hand to stop Hephaestus, but she was out of his reach by the time he tried.
"Remember what I told you Welf and you'll be fine, see you two soon." Hephaestus bid them goodbye with a wave of the hand and went off.
"… Haa…" Welf sighed out loud, shoulders dropped.
"What? Ain't ya' happy to have me here at least?" Tsubaki poked Welf's shoulder, her mood greatly improved from actually having some alone time with her target.
"No." Welf automatically replied, dampening her mood before he shook his head. "Wait, no. I mean, I am happy you're here its just you weren't the one I was expecting to get help from.
Tsubaki raised an eyebrow, "You're gonna' have to be more specific than that Welf."
The blacksmith scratched his chin before nodding and asking her to walk with him into his workshop's forge where she saw various materials on the workbench which she knew Welf had never worked with.
"How did you get your hand on these?" Tsubaki asked slightly surprised as she poked around the monster materials.
"Remember Bell?" Welf moved around his forge room, searching for a parchment with the design of the aforementioned adventurer's equipment.
"White hair, crimson eyes and the bane of all your weapons?" Tsubaki cheekily replied causing Welf to wince during his search.
That 'bane of his weapons' was one of the running jokes she teased Welf with, because that white-haired adventurer was what it took for Welf to finally see the flaws on his 'special' assortment of equipment and work towards bettering his craft rather than keep trying to make his items be special.
"Yeah, that one." Welf grumbled when he finally found the parchment he'd been looking for and brought it for Tsubaki to see. "He's finally commissioned me for his first big order and… well…"
Tsubaki's eyebrows rose as she saw how the usual hotheaded smith hesitated over his next words.
"I don't want to disappoint him."
Welf's eyes gleamed fiercely as he found his words, fist closed to further show his conviction.
Tsubaki smiled.
"He's been a great help with testing out my weapons, as defective as he's found them to be, so for once… I want to craft something that will leave him speechless."
Tsubaki grinned from ear to ear.
So, Welf had finally found another spark besides chasing after their Goddess to improve his craft…
"I see." Tsubaki looked over the parchment, the blacksmith side of her brain processing the design inner and outer workings of the piece before nodding. "Welf, close the workshop."
"Wha?"
"With your current level, you can't afford to have any distractions if you want to craft this piece on your own."
Forget wanting to get his attention for herself, that was something that she could try at any time.
"I'll use a portion of the materials to teach you how to work with them," Tsubaki set the parchment down on the workbench and grabbed onto a stray roll of bandages.
Welf worked his mouth several times before getting his head in the game, "Alright, alright, I'll go close the shop."
As her redhaired target left to close the workshop, Tsubaki giggled to herself and went about the forge room to prepare herself for what would be a long process of teaching Welf her knowledge and further help him become an even better version of himself.
"The next time we meet, I'll be sure to give ya' a good hug for what you've given him, Bell." Tsubaki told herself before sliding off the straps of her dress.
She might not have received a compliment for the clothing that fell and doubled over her waist, leaving her naked bosom exposed, but it had worked as a lucky charm to bring about the one thing she really wanted outside of everything else.
For Welf to become better.
The Cyclops used the roll of bandages she had plucked earlier from the workbench to tightly tie her bosom, no sooner had she finished that Welf walked back into his forge with the tightest expression she'd ever seen on his face.
"Will you need the forge to heat the material?" Welf asked, eyes never leaving her face regardless of her now exposed dark skin, something that he most likely had come to get used to since he saw her like that whenever she worked on something.
"Yeah. Ya' have extra aprons, right?" Tsubaki replied and gathered her long hair into her trademark ponytail by using a stray string on the workshop to tie it.
"Behind you." Welf spared one last glance at her as she slipped off the remaining part of her dress from her waist, leaving her with only her fitting boxers. "I'll prepare the forge while you finish getting ready."
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake (7) - 0 -
Tsubaki hadn't expected for her day to turn out the way it did, what with the opportunity both her Goddess and Bell Cranel unknowingly created for her, an opportunity to spend her time with the source of her fluttering feelings without doing things out of character for her.
She couldn't wipe the smirk off her face as she taught Welf how to work with the materials Bell had gathered for him, less so when Welf attempted to process them as any other material he'd been given beforehand by the Familia.
As it always was with him and his pride, he'd put quite a fight when she stopped his attempt.
For once she decided that instead of explaining through words that wouldn't get through his thick skull, it would be better to show him the difference between his regular method and the way she was going to teach him.
So, both of them carved a minor portion out of the materials and went their own way to process them into moldable materials that would then be heated for the real metalwork.
Since the samples they took were small, it took no time for the raw materials to become an assortment of fine powder, threads, and iron-like material and as soon as they both put their respective samples on the workbench, Tsubaki's grin widened wildly at the disparity between them.
As members of the Hephaestus Familia, both blacksmiths never lacked a way to obtain processed materials for their personal use but there was an enormous different between working with already processed materials and the raw materials adventurers could provide from the Dungeon's lower floors.
Which was the case with the materials the white-haired adventurer gathered for Welf.
Every monster's drop had certain properties within itself that depending on the crafting method used, the quality could rise or drop, and by using the standard method Welf had grown used to, the quality dropped a whole lot.
If he truly wanted to impress Bell Cranel and prove that Welf could craft equipment befitting of the expertise the white-haired adventurer innately possessed, then Welf would truly need all the help she was providing.
"I don't understand how they came out so different." Welf grumbled as he, too, inspected the quality disparity between Tsubaki's method and his. "You didn't use any of your abilities or skills, right?"
"For the fourth time Welf, no." Tsubaki replied with crossed arms. The Cyclops moved to stand by Welf's side on the workbench and picked up one of his processed materials, a thin silvery thread from the Silverback fur. "I can't blame you for the quality of the threads since you're focused mostly on metallurgy."
Welf tilted his head to frown at her, "Right, but that doesn't explain this." He pointed at the two different samples of fine powder made from the Rabbit Needle horn.
Not only did Tsubaki's had a whiter color, but the grains were infinitely smaller, whereas Welf's had grains stick together in gray clumps.
"Did you really not use your abilities to grind the horn that finely?" Welf complained, yet again.
"No." Tsubaki curtly replied and flicked Welf's forehead. "Now, are you going to let me teach you or not?"
Welf rubbed the spot on his forehead, muttering more complaints under his breath before finally giving in. "Yeah, yeah. What's the trick?"
Tsubaki sighed in relief and moved the powder Welf made into another bowl, "We'll use what you've already worked with and try to salvage as much of it as I teach you."
She moved over to one of the benches in the workshop with a low table specifically set up for slicing and dicing materials and waited for Welf to sit down since he would be the one to work on the material.
Once the redhaired blacksmith was in position, she sat behind him and pressed herself against his back while placing the bowl on the table in front of him.
"Do you need to be this close?" Welf uncomfortably grumbled and leaned forward.
"Yeah," Tsubaki's breath was hot on his back as she picked up the metal file on the table and gathered some of the powder on her hand. "Put your hands over the back of mines and feel the muscles as I work."
Again, the redhaired blacksmith grumbled but complied with her orders despite how awkward their position became as she had to press herself further against his back however whatever reservation Welf had disappeared as soon as Tsubaki started grinding the powder in her palm with the metal file.
There wasn't much movement from her left hand that held the powder except for the slight shift of the muscles in her palm to avoid the powder falling down, but the story was much different from the muscles of her right hand and forearm.
The way she held the file switched with every stroke; upwards had a gentle and slow motion, downwards pressed the file harshly against her palm and moved in short, precise, strokes.
Welf forgot all about the body on his back as he watched, mesmerized, how the gray clumps that were his materials were ground into a finer particle in the matter of seconds. His keen eye and natural talent immediately picking up on the subtle differences of his own method with how Tsubaki used the tools at her disposal.
Her thin, slightly bruised, and coarse fingers held the tool tightly as she stroked upwards, but her knuckles belayed the point of pressures as she stroked downwards until her small finger lifted entirely off the tool and she stroked right back up.
She repeated the process several times until all the powder in her palm had turned into a similar one as hers, "Now, I want you to hold the powder in your palm while I grind it so you can feel the pressure I put on my own palm."
This time, Welf didn't hesitate to follow her order and gather a suitable amount of his clumped powder and held it in the same way she did. Tsubaki put her hand over the back of his to mold the shape of his palm into how she actually needed before she started the process again.
The experience become more personal then, for the redhaired blacksmith, as he felt the powder grind against his skin and the teeth of the file undo the clumps in the palm of his hand.
Every movement of Tsubaki had a certain gentle bruteness to it and instead of speeding up, as he was accustomed to doing to process the materials faster, she kept a steady pace until the clumped powder in his palm was no more.
"With more practice-"
Welf jumped, having forgotten Tsubaki was even there.
"-and experience, you'll be able to do this faster." Tsubaki put the metal file down, Welf's hand still on top of hers. "Now, I'll hold the powder and you'll be the one to grind it."
"Right." Welf grabbed the file and waited for Tsubaki to hold the powder before trying his best to imitate her technique.
His grip of the file was the same as hers, the position over her palm was the same as hers, the slight tilt of the file as he started the first upwards stroke should've been the same as hers, but when he stroked downwards, he felt something wrong.
Very wrong.
"It's alright." Tsubaki's voice was level and steady, betraying no change in her feelings or emotions despite the blood dripping from her palm. "You did everything exactly as you were supposed to."
"But you are-"
"Bleeding, yes." Tsubaki snorted and tightened her grip on Welf's hand holding the file. "You are supposed to grind the horn directly, not grind the powder from one's palm. That requires more experience but with your talent, it shouldn't take you long to get it down."
Welf frowned, not that she could see.
He'd been told by both, his Goddess and Tsubaki, several times about how he possessed an innate talent for crafting and what would take others' years to learn, it would take him months at best.
However, he had to work his ass off just as bad as any of those others had done to truly put into use that talent of his, otherwise it was simply rotting away with him.
"Now, continue grinding, Welf. I'm not letting you stand up from here until you've fixed that clumpy powder of yours." Tsubaki pressed herself further against his back and forced his hand with the file to press against her bleeding palm.
"But I'll ruin your hand." Welf tried to fight back but Tsubaki's superior Strength made it impossible.
"Then try your best to not hurt me further." Tsubaki snorted, then used one of the tactics that she knew would get Welf's ass back into gear. "Or are you telling me your smithing skills aren't good enough for that?"
Provoking his pride.
"You…" Welf's teeth clacked shut and he huffed angrily. "Fine, have it your way. Don't blame me later for your own foolhardiness."
The redhaired blacksmith started the process of grinding the powder on Tsubaki's bleeding palm again, albeit with a lot more care to try and find the angle that would stop grinding the powder along with her skin.
"I never would." Tsubaki's softly replied to him a moment later, her tone never betraying the painful sensation of the material digging and shredding her skin.
What followed were several minutes of Welf trying, and failing, to avoid shredding Tsubaki's skin as the dark-skinned blacksmith continued holding onto new clumps of powder and forcing Welf to continue working on getting the method down to a T.
In the end, Welf did manage to grind all the clumps into a much finer material that resembled Tsubaki's work were it not for the red color it obtained from how much blood spilled from the dark-skinned woman's palm.
"I knew you would get it down fast," Tsubaki complimented him as she inspected the worked powder, not in the least mindful of her dripping palm. "Now the next step is for you to grind with that method the entirety of the horn, think you can do that?"
Welf nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving the wounded hand of the woman behind him.
"Good." Tsubaki finally moved away from him. "You do that while I go clean and heal my hand, then." She made to walk away but Welf grasped her forearm.
"Thank you."
She could see the conflict in his eyes. So, she made it easier for him.
"It's too early for you to thank me, now get your ass back to work." Tsubaki smirk served its purpose to reignite Welf's temper, as she expected. He released her arm with a scowl, muttering about ungratefulness.
She left the forge room as Welf went about preparing to process the Horn Needle with the method she had just taught him, all the while keeping her bleeding hand firmly closed to avoid spilling any more liquid and giving him more work for when he had to clean.
Only once she was out of his sight inside his workshop's bathroom did she open her palm to inspect just how bad the damage was, which thankfully, wasn't anything an unhealthy dose of potions wouldn't heal in a short time.
But first, she would have to wash all the blood and peel all the ruined skin off her palm before applying the unhealthy potion treatment.
"To think I worried about scars this morning, and now I just added another one…"
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake (7) - 0 -
By the time Tsubaki returned to the forge room with her healing hand bandaged, Welf had just finished processing all the Needle Rabbit horns into fine powder worthy of the design Bell Cranel had left for him.
Sure, Tsubaki's sample was still of higher quality but that was simply because she had more experience than Welf did with that method. She was certain that if he continued employing that method for a month more or so, then he'd reach her proficiency with that method.
"Yo'" Tsubaki made her entrance with her easygoing grin. "Ready for the next lesson?"
Welf glanced at her, then at her bandaged hand. "… Yeah."
"Good." Tsubaki paid no mind and went to the workbench with the remaining materials, "Now, we both know there's no point in me trying to teach you how to do your metallurgy since our methods are vastly different, but!"
Tsubaki pulled at the Silverback fur on the table, "You know nothing of weaving material like this into actual equipment, so that's what I'll be teaching you next."
Welf, for once, didn't scowl at her remark. "Right."
"To be honest, weaving this will be the easy part." Tsubaki laughed awkwardly as she scratched her cheek. "The hard part will be processing this into a malleable thread."
"It's not so different from turning raw wool into yarn, right?" Welf curiously supplied.
"Yep, the initial process is the same." Tsubaki nodded and set down the fur to pick up her own processed sample of the fur. "The later part of the process is what we'll be focusing on. Turning the yarn into the thinnest thread while still keeping the properties of the fur intact."
"Hmm, that doesn't sound too bad." Welf rubbed his chin.
"Wait until we get to that point." Tsubaki's smirk spelled doom for him. "Now here's how we're going to do this…"
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake (7) - 0
Forging was a slow process, one that could take hours or even days depending on how taxing and complicated the design was. In the case of Welf Crozzo, the design that Bell Cranel left for him, should be one that he could've completed in two days at most since it was simple.
However, simple does not always equate to easy.
For all his knowledge and experience, Welf still found himself lacking when Tsubaki took it upon herself to show him just how far behind he truly was. Sure, he could've used his Crozzo lineage to create something that would be on par with the dark-skinned captain's creations, but to Welf, that wouldn't be a weapon made by 'Welf' Crozzo but by Welf 'Crozzo'.
Then again, what Bell had commissioned from him had nothing to do with his Crozzo lineage, so he couldn't even think about using his heritage from the very start.
But for all he wanted to whine and complain about, Tsubaki had been nothing but helpful from the very beginning. Her overbearing nature could drive him insane at times, like her foolishness to continue teaching him her method to grind material at the expense of her own wellbeing, but he couldn't deny that she had done that for him.
Maybe she was trying to build up favors to cash in at a later date, and with how far she had gone for him, he wouldn't be able to find it in himself to refuse unless he wanted to look like a massive asshole.
For six hours already Tsubaki had been with him in the forge of his workshop, tirelessly going over the smallest of details over the methods he should employ to complete his latest and most stable customer design.
He did learn a lot from Tsubaki, mainly how to keep the material properties as potent as possible without wasting said material in exchange for working at a much slower pace said material.
Which, talking about slowing down, the woman in question was finally starting to wind down after hours of moving back and forth. She finally sat down on one of the benches near a corner of the forge, away from the heat and sparks, but there was little she could do for the sweat she had already accumulated.
There was not an inch of her dark skin that was not drenched and the rag she was using to clean herself was just as soaked through as the tight boxers she wore.
That was one of the reasons he found it hard to be around her.
Welf wasn't blind, he could easily appreciate his captain's figure, but to him, seeing said figure wearing so little almost thrice a week –if not more– made him desensitized to it. The fact that she always tried to stick to him when they were together also bothered him greatly, as he liked to have his own personal space to breathe.
Then there was his pride as blacksmith too.
Too often would Tsubaki put him down with offhanded comments and expect him to take her rude remarks without getting angry, only to then get angry herself when he reacted like any other person would when their pride was wounded.
"That's looking good."
Welf jumped, blinking several times as he registered that Tsubaki had returned to stand by his side near the anvil while he worked on shaping the ingot.
"Maybe a little slow but you're doing well." Tsubaki complimented him… with what he felt was another offhanded remark.
"Thanks." Welf huffed and cleaned the sweat off his forehead with his forearm. "Is it alright for you to stay here for so long?"
Tsubaki hummed before replying, "Not really, but I can afford to do so."
Welf raised an eyebrow before striking the ingot again causing several sparks to fly in all directions and for the captain wearing nothing but her underwear and bindings to move behind him lest she get burnt, again.
And then do exactly what he didn't like.
Tsubaki ran her hand across his back, "Less strength and more strikes, or you're going to waste the original material's hardness."
Welf blew hot air through his nose, "I know."
"Are you… angry?" Tsubaki retracted her hand and frowned at him, not that he could see.
"… No," Welf rotated his shoulders before striking the ingot again. "Is just, I can't work well with your hands on me."
"Ah," Tsubaki stepped back, "Do you want me to… leave?"
Welf paused the hammer, leaving it hovering over the ingot as he thought over her offer. "Is there anything else you wanted to help me with?"
Tsubaki almost replied with a 'yes, everything' but one look at Welf's stern countenance, and she realized that the redhaired blacksmith had had enough of her presence.
"… No." Tsubaki's arms fell to her sides, "I taught you everything you needed for that kid's design. How it turns out is up to you."
Welf remained quiet after her words, possibly out of consideration or not knowing how to send her away without being seemingly rude. So, again, she made it easy for him.
"Guess I don't really need to watch over ya' shoulder for every step of the way, right?" Tsubaki turned around and went for her discarded clothes. "I have stuff to do myself that I really should get started with too, so maybe I'll just drop by again after you're done with that kid's equipment and see how it turned out."
The Cyclops received no response from Welf as she stepped into her dress' and rose it up her waist, the material clung uncomfortably to her sweat-stricken skin. She glanced at said blacksmith that had yet to respond.
Welf's hammer still hovered over the ingot, a somewhat confused if relieved stare adorning his eyes that were far away from her figure. He gave his back to her to push the ingot back into the forge to heat it again, "Just try to come by in the evening when I'm not too busy."
With his back to her, Welf couldn't see the disappointment marring Tsubaki's face. For a split-second, she thought about staying for a while longer to continue watching him work but it was far too obvious that he was sending her off.
She didn't want him to hate her, after all.
Tsubaki released a long breath before pulling the remaining part of her dress over her chest, which again clung uncomfortably to her wet skin, and undoing the bindings since she didn't own the bandages used for tying her useless lumps of weight.
"Then, I'll see you around some other time." Tsubaki neatly coiled over the bandages and placed it on the bench she had found them.
"Yeah, see ya'" Welf merely waved his left arm without facing her.
Maybe… just maybe… she had expected far too much, but well…
Progress was progress, right?
- 0 - AsBBaH Vol 2: Omake End (7) - 0
Author's Note Written on October 10th, 2022: There's a 3rd part to Tsubaki's omake series, but that will have to wait until the 2nd interlude of AsBBaH Vol2, otherwise there would be a lot of spoilers about not just the story but for the upcoming characters appearing in it.
This Omake was meant to be released almost 4 months ago when AsBBaH Vol2 started, but there's been too many issues poppin' about. The latest, and most bothersome of all, is the insecurity I have when it comes to what I've written and/or want to write.
So, hopefully, this omake is well received and I can use the little emotional burst to push me into releasing the other (extremely) delayed stories without rewriting them any further.
P.S: This omake was reworked at least 8 times before finally turning in the way it is, I hope you all liked it, and special thanks to Mazzel for commissioning it all those months back and patiently waiting for me to release this!
- Jas / Shiiva