#soichiro arg

[drgnrder82]

Forging Bonds - Kaiju No 8 Fanfic

A/N: I kept thinking about my little one-shot fanfic Steel's Melting Point and wanted to expand on it. It's going to be a series of one-shots from different points in Soshiro's life around (oc) Akiko. Because now I have backstory in my head for them. Minor spoilers for the manga later on with Soshiro and his brother, Soichiro.

***

“I’m Akiko!” 

Soshiro thought, even in his six years of life, his parents had taught him that introductions came before barreling into someone. The girl grinned down at him, her smile lopsided, with large front teeth that were almost comically big for her little mouth. She wore rough pants and a linen shirt, both smudged with dirt or soot. 

“Did you see the butterfly?” 

“No! Get off me!” Soshiro pushed, but the girl didn’t budge. She was heavier than her small frame looked. And then she sat on him. 

“Arg!” Flinging his arm back, Soshiro reached for the fallen shinai, but it had rolled out of reach when Akiko ran into him. “Why are you sitting on me?” 

“Why are you so serious?” 

“I have to train!” 

She shrugged. “I do, too. But there’s more to life than training.”

“Yes, well, I’m supposed to meet my…” Soshiro laid back, staring up at the thickening, ominous clouds hanging overhead. Perfect for his mood. 

“The Tachikawa and Hoshina families have been allies for many generations. Many Hoshina swordsmen have married their bladesmith counterparts in the Tachikawa family. It looks like their oldest daughter has shown an adeptness at swordsmithing.”

“What does that mean?” Soichiro towered so tall that Soshiro stood fully in his shadow. 

“There may be a good match for one of you boys, though truth be told, the girl’s age would make her a more likely candidate for Soshiro.” 

“What?” Soshiro tried not to stumble backward; it would only lead to more training. 

“Yes, well. We want to keep the relationship with the Tachikawa family in good standing. It might not be ideal, but she would not be a proper master bladesmith in time for Soichiro.” 

“Someone’s getting married…” Soichiro sang under his breath as soon as their father was out of earshot. 

“No, I’m not!” 

“Father wants to keep good relations with the Tachikawa family. You’re not going to have much a choice.” 

Akiko suddenly jumped off Soshiro’s chest, running off into the flower garden. He was grateful for the girl being off him, but when he rolled onto his stomach, Soshiro realized she’d run into the garden… off the path. His mother would kill him if her plants were trampled.

Soshiro ran through the tall decorative grasses, through to the bushes with the purple flowers and found Akiko delicately tiptoeing over and around plants to stop at the middle bush and crouch down. Sticking her finger out, a vibrant blue and black butterfly crawled on. “Found you,” Akiko whispered. 

Soshiro carefully crept into the bushes, fearful of snagging his clothes on the bushes and what that would mean for him, and settled near Akiko and her bright smile. 

She held the butterfly out closer to him, her smile brightening. “Pretty, huh?” 

The butterfly flapped, and he thought it would flutter away, but it hopped from Akiko’s finger to… Soshiro’s nose!

Akiko fell into a fit of giggles. She leaned back, but Soshiro caught her arm and held her from falling onto a prized bush. Her hand and arm were warm against his, but her smile… cracked Soshiro’s hard exterior. 

“Thanks! What’s got you so angry?” 

“I’m not—” The butterfly flapped off, leaving Soshiro holding Akiko over his mother’s flowering bush. “—angry!” 

“You seem angry.” 

“I don’t want to get married!” Who marries off a six-year-old? 

“I don’t think you’re getting married today,” she laughed. “You’re too young!” 

Might as well be getting married today. “I’m meeting my future bride.” 

“Ah,” Akiko said, pulling Soshiro up with her as she stood. “Who’re you marrying?” 

Soshiro realized he was still holding her arm and dropped it. “A Tachikawa. Who are you, anyways? I’ve never seen you on the grounds. Are you the new gardener’s daughter?”

“I told you, my name is Akiko.” She ignored the dirt clouds — the gardener had not watered this garden yet — spun and bowed low. “Akiko Tachikawa.”  

Brilliant. Stupid. Stupid! STUPID, Soshiro! 

“I guess you’re Soshi-kun!!!!” Rushing in, Akiko enveloped Soshiro in a painful hug and pulled him off his feet. He hit something in her bulky pocket and small music started playing, which set off a new riotous dance, which fortunately she’d set him down first. “Oh, this is my favorite song!” 

However, he found it hard to find a spot to stand that was both safe for him (from Akiko’s exuberant dance) and not trampling his mother’s flowers. 

When he had his bearings again, Soshiro marveled as she flowed in great circles and hopping around to the tinny rock guitar riff and even began singing along. 

“Wha—? Come on! Don’t you love this song too?” Akiko asked. 

Excuse me?? Soshiro’s free time was his practice time. Hours with his brother…

Soichiro, over a head taller than Akiko, slammed his shinai into Akiko’s shoulder. Soshiro lunged for her, his momentum carrying them past the bushes and back onto the path of the garden — thankfully not a flower or branch harmed. 

The items in Akiko’s pockets slid free, skittering along the gravel path. Soshiro knew what was coming and still, his heart raced. He crawled over Akiko since his shinai was somewhere… the bushes still? But Soichiro’s shinai flashed down again, spraying glass and plastic in Soshiro’s face. A small music player died before his eyes. 

“Well, I was worried about this match… but I guess I got lucky.” His brother cackle echoed on the garden walls, the mocking tone growing with each repetition. “A useless bladesmith for a second-rate swordsman.” Another scoff, and as Soichiro turned and walked away, Soshiro heard his brother mutter, “If she’s a bladesmith, I’ll eat whatever sword she forges.” 

Pain flared in Soshiro’s fingers as he clawed the path. Hands full of clay and gravel and opened his mouth to yell back but cool droplets falling on his hand gave him pause. They weren’t his tears, not this time. Soshiro rolled over, rain pattering on his face. But only for a moment before Akiko leaned over him, her smile as wide as ever. “Are you alright?” 

“Me? He insulted us. And broke your player! Aren’t you…” 

“I have others. I break them all the time in the forge. Ojiisan used to not let me bring them, but he said they help keep my rhythm. I work the whetstone wheel so often, it’s hard to keep them from getting wet.” 

Rain drummed them harder, fat and heavy, and soaked their shirts quickly. Akiko stood, her hand out for him to take. Something else had fallen from her pocket. A knife sheathed in leather. Soshiro seized her hand, dragging Akiko to the cherry tree. His father had commissioned a lovely bench for his mother after finding out they were expecting Soichiro. Soshiro often found his mother sitting here, marveling at the garden when in full bloom. 

“You should stand up for yourself!” A newly fanned flame sprung up in Soshiro’s chest, with the usual accompanying tears. 

The skies opened up on them, strong enough to break through the thick leaves and flowers. Petals rained down into the growing puddles. 

“Why?” Akiko’s voice steady and calm while she took back her knife. “I know who I am.” 

“Really? How can you possibly be a bladesmith! Look at you! And…” 

“I’m the oldest Tachikawa daughter and pupil to my Ojiisan — Hiroshi Tachikawa —, the greatest Tachikawa bladesmith in all our family history. And I’m going to be even greater than him!” For once, her smile vanished, and her eyebrows knit together. “No!” Akiko pushed past Soshiro in a panic. 

“Where are you going now!” Why was he even following this crazy girl?

But he did, and he found her amid more flowering bushes, pushing branches around in search of something while muttering, “Where did you go?” 

It was probably a mistake, but Soshiro asked, “What’s wrong?” 

“The butterfly. It was knocked out of the sky by the rain… It could drown!” 

“How can a butterfly drown?” 

“Just… help me find it!” 

Why on Earth did he start looking through the bushes? It was stupid, pointless, and…

And then he found the blue and black butterfly, struggling to flap against the rain and in a puddle. 

“Hey, Tachikawa, I…” 

Her shriek nearly shattered his eardrums, but Soshiro grinned when Akiko crashed into him again. She bent, holding her hand under the water and sliding it toward the butterfly. With a steady hand, she picked up the butterfly, shielding it with her other hand, and returned to the cherry tree. 

“Will it be ok?” Soshiro asked, watching it struggle off her finger and onto a low-hanging branch of the tree. 

Akiko’s pause sent an ache through Soshiro. “I don’t know.” 

But as they watched, the butterfly’s struggles lessened. It shook off and flapped its wings slowly at first, climbing towards a relatively dry portion of the branch.

Pitter-pattering rain became louder, mixed with older voices. Soshiro snapped around to find his father and another man, both with umbrellas. His father’s mouth set down further the more he saw of the mud-soaked children—a far cry from what the future of the Hoshina family should look like. 

The other man was tall, with a graying beard, and also dressed in a designer suit. His smile reached all the way to his eyes. He clapped Soshiro’s father on the shoulder, giving it a shake, but Soshiro’s father grimaced all the more. 

All his father did was clear his throat, but Soshiro felt a deep chill run down his spine. 

“Otōsan!” Akiko cried and went to make another crashing hug to her father, who’d even dropped his umbrella to embrace her. Soshiro’s father not only caught the umbrella but also stopped everyone in their tracks with a single glare. 

“You’re such a spoilsport,” the other man mumbled.

“This is the future swordsmith?” Soshiro’s father inspected Akiko, but more as if she were a bug annoying him. 

A thick lump formed in Soshiro’s throat, the weight of it pressing down on his chest. He nudged Akiko gently, trying to ground himself in the moment. Her warm grin remained though; and it was a stark contrast to the tension he felt. With deliberate grace, she bowed low to his father, presenting the knife Soshiro had saved moments before with reverence.

His father hesitated with an unreadable glare. Then his father inhaled sharply, and Soshiro braced himself. Here it comes, he thought, his stomach twisting into knots.

“How can a child be a swordsmith so young?” his father questioned, his voice cold and skeptical. “She doesn’t look… strong enough.”

Akiko’s father responded with hearty laughter, the sound echoing through the garden. He clapped a hand on Soshiro’s father’s shoulder, the gesture almost jarring in its joviality. “She’s a child, Hoshina-san! Come now, I let her be a child!”

But Soshiro knew that wasn’t the answer his father wanted. Standing as still as a statue, he felt a bead of sweat slide down his temple. Please, don’t get angry. Pleeeeeeease, he silently begged, the fear almost suffocating.

With a reluctant sigh, Soshiro’s father finally took the blade, his exasperation evident. Akiko’s father gave another jovial slap to his father’s shoulder, to which he responded, “You were the one to claim…”

“Oh, she’s in the forge every day with the master. She does so well at the whetstone and firing. My girl loves the forge more than anything,” Akiko’s father continued, overflowing with… pride.

At that, Akiko popped up from her bow, spinning happily as if she were twirling in a dress, her joy unleashed again. Soshiro watched her, a mix of admiration and anxiety swirling inside of him. Despite everything said to or about her by his family, her spirit remained shockingly undaunted.

“In fact,” her father continued proudly, laying a hand on Akiko’s head — not that it dulled her dancing, which she was doing to unheard music — and he cupped her cheek, “she followed all the procedures for making the ceremonial marriage blade to the letter. Her design work with the clay is fantastic. She fired the clay and began the polishing.” 

This seemed to placate his father, at a least a bit. But still, his father reserved nothing but glares for Akiko. 

“They’ll make a handsome match!” Akiko’s father declared jovially. 

Soshiro’s father dropped the blade back into Akiko’s hands and the two fathers turned back towards the main house. 

“When was the last time you let the boys be children?” How Akiko’s father was not laid out in the middle of the garden by Soshiro’s father simply for slapping his father’s shoulder again… well it left Soshiro confused. 

Akiko hopped into his line of sight. “For you.” 

Soshiro removed the knife from the leather sheath. A wavy pattern had been fired into the shiny blade, much like a katana. Inscribed near the handle was partner. 

For many generations, spanning far more than two centuries, when able, a Hoshina swordsman has taken a Tachikawa bladesmith as his partner. 

Akiko grinned at him again, then her eyes moved back up to the tree branch where the butterfly slowly flapped its wings at them.

He’d never held a blade so well made. His father’s were always out of reach, and honestly he’d known they were reserved for Soichiro — the ultimate incarnation of the Hoshina clan. 

A damp, black braid knocked into the knife, with Akiko’s truly effervescent smile shining over the dangerously sharp blade. “I’ll make the best swords anyone’s ever had. Just for you.” 

His brother’s insults, not just of Akiko a few minutes earlier but also from earlier in the day, slashed through his thoughts. 

Wimpshiro! Go cry to okāsan! 

Why bother? Just play with your action figures, reject. 

Soshiro yearned for whatever made Akiko so light and carefree. 

Ack! Until she emitted an earsplitting gasp. “Do you want to come to the forge? I can show you how to make a sword. Or, well, jiisan can!” He’d been unable to utter even a noise before Akiko scooped Soshiro into a hug and spun him around. 

“What good would that do?” Soshiro wheezed. He needed to get better, faster! 

Akiko stopped mid-spin, holding Soshiro at arms length. “Well, then you can teach me to…” Setting Soshiro back on the ground, she gave a hop, and took a terrible stance with an imaginary sword. 

Soshiro felt all the air in him rush out. “I need to practice. If we’re going to be… partners…” 

“Isn’t it fun?” She tapped my shoulder with her hand as if it were a sword, then danced around tapping him again on the arm and knee… she was fast. 

“It is… no, wait… it’s not if I can’t… would you stop that!” Soshiro grabbed for her once, twice… he kept missing her by a hairsbreadth. “I have to go.” 

The rain continued, lambasting the garden and creating newly carved rivers out of the pathways. 

“Jiisan says the best way to learn something is to teach it.” 

Soshiro turned, finally meeting her eyes. They were warm and brown, and somehow still so bright. He took a moment to think before he opened his mouth again and truly considered what Akiko was saying. “You want to help me?” 

Stepping over to him, Akiko took the knife and nestled it into his belt. “Partners.” Then she leaned in and added, “We can wait on getting married.”

___________________________________________________________

Based on my original one-shot: Steel's Melting Point

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