23 A Partner

Months Later:

"Come with me Dudley, it's time to choose a companion" Marimo informs Dudley

"Companion?" Dudley asks with a question mark above his head

"Yes, your companion" Marimo repeats after him and walk out of Dudley's room.

Dudley quickly rises up from the bed and follows after him. They head out of the house toward a shack that Dudley could have sworn was not there before. Dudley looks up to Marimo and Marimo says,

"This place only shows itself when it is needed or a teacher calls for it."

When they go inside, Dudley is amazed at how many weapons are in this place. The amount of weapons in there could fill up an army two times over with some extras left behind. He was also impressed at the types of weapons in there every melee weapon one can imagine was in there.

There was nobody in site operating the store Dudley noticed. Marimo looked like he was already used to such a scene so he turned left and walked to the sword section.

"Choose a weapon" Marimo tells Dudley and he nods.

Dudley walks forward while looking around on the shelves for a weapon to choose. 'Hmm, from what teacher says, this place can be called back and I need a new bokken since my old one broke earlier today.'

With that in mind, Dudley starts to look for the practice sword section. Heading in to a darker section of the store he finally finds it and starts exploring the place. He starts swinging a couple around testing the length and the feel of them.

While he is testing some of the bokkens, he sees a shinai bag on a row full of bokkens materials. Seeing it, he cannot help but think of how similar their situations are. He puts the bokken he is holding back to its place and he walks up to it. As he unwraps it, he cannot help but notice how faded the color of the bag is, like it has not been touched for a long time. He slowly pulls out the wooden sword and finds it at a nodachi length.

The weird thing about the shinai was that its Tsuka(handle) and Tsuba(guard) looked like a real nodachi's handle and guard instead of the classic shinai handle.

'If I wasn't looking at the shinai made of dark brown bamboo wood at this moment, I would not believe anyone if they told me they had seen something like this. I mean why would one go through such lengths to make a shinai's Tsuka and Tsuba look like the real thing when it would be simpler to make it look like the ones he passed by in the previous shelfs.'

The moment he finished his thoughts, A jolt passed through him. He almost dropped the wooden sword from the suddenness of it. In fact, he dropped it for a moment but he picked it up again. Another jolt passed through him but this time, he stayed still wondering what will happen.

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'I almost feel like a main character and this is my legendary weapon.' Dudley pauses for a moment and shakes his head, 'What was I thinking about again? Well no matter.' Dudley thinks as he continues to inspect the weapon he is holding

"So you finally picked a weapon, I see" A voice said behind him.

Dudley immediately swung the shinai behind him while turning around faster than he could comprehend. He jumps two steps back, holds the shinai in front of him and looks at the person who managed to sneak up on him with his guard down.

"Woah, kid, calm down, they are getting younger and younger" The old man grumbled and says something Dudley does not hear.

"What do you want" Dudley asks as he raises the shinai even higher tensing his muscles, his gaze sharp.

"It seems like what you are holding has chosen you as you have done it's" The old man states. Dudley stays quiet, his guard still up.

"I'm the owner of this shack, nice to meet ya" The old man says with a smile. Dudley relaxes a little but his guard comes back to place when the old man steps closer to him.

"Calm down kid, I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanna check on the s...shinai you are holding" The old man says as he walks up to Dudley.

"Hmm, two, no wait three, maybe four, never dismiss five" The old says while waving his hand at Dudley. He looks back at the sword and continues, "secrets this shinai is holding. Oh interesting, though not the first time I'm seeing this but this is unique." The old man states as he examines the sword.

Dudley looks at him in surprise and says, "How can you tell? "

"I'm a weapon smith and this place has been in my family for a while. You develop these kinds of skills the more you work on different weapons. You see kid"

"Not a kid" Dudley says but the old man ignores him. "Every weapon is unique no matter who uses it or designs it. No two weapons are the same after all." The old man says in a solemn tone. "Also, one of my great great grandmother's designed it" The man says with a grin.

"Tell you what, I'll give you one for playing the prank on you. One of the first abilities is the ability to become a necklace. Here try it. " The old man says as he gives the shinai back to Dudley.

"How am I supposed to do that? " Dudley asks

"Don't know" The old man shrugged,

"She only said what the abilities were, but not how to activate them." The geezer says while shrugging. "Let's go back to your master before he comes looking for you after all, you have been here for a while. " The old man says and he begins walking.

Dudley quickly picks up the shinai bag which he didn't even realize he dropped again and followed after him. As he follows behind the weapon smith, he absentmindedly puts the shinai back into its bag while thinking about how a shinai could turn into a necklace.

He slaps his head as he realizes what universe he's in. After berating himself, he thinks about whether ihs intelligence is...He almost trips because of the sudden weight displacement and hits the store owner back with his head.

"Hey, kid you did it" The old man says and Dudley looks in his palm.

He finds that the shoulder strap has turned into a chain and the bag itself has turned into a miniature size stick connecting to the strap on both ends.