Murayoshi swept his angry glare across the small assembly of students. Very few of those who had managed to make it through the first lesson had bothered to arrive for the second. Aside from Lee Jia’s immediate circle of friends, only Minami Yuuko and Guan Yi had shown up—and Guan Yi seemed to have insinuated himself into some manner of apprenticeship. Murayoshi spat off to the side.

“Tch, more o’ ya than I expected.”

He seemed...disappointed by that as he turned to bark at Guan Yi.

“Boy! Throw that damn thing in the scrap pile and melt it down later. Ya fucked it up while ye were distracted tryin’ to pretend not to notice the girly starin’.”

“Yes, Grandmaster.”

“An’ stop callin’ me that!”

“Yes, G—sir.”

Guan Yi stiffly moved to obey Murayoshi’s orders, and though his face was impassive, his body language seemed to indicate embarrassment—it was thanks to Guan’s infamous stoneface that Jia had gotten so much better at reading body language in the first place.

“Arright you lot. Let’s see ‘em!”

Murayoshi didn’t clarify, but everyone knew what he was talking about. Jia and Eui each raised their gloved hands, Eunae produced some kind of tightly rolled scroll, Dae had a book, Rika had some kind of nicely tailored robe in a style that Jia was unfamiliar with, and Yuuko had a fine looking wooden staff. Guan Yi picked a polearm off of a weapon rack, it didn’t look any different from his usual guandao, but apparently it was what he had made.

Murayoshi cast a scrutinizing gaze across them, and clearly found them wanting. He pointed at Dae.

“You! Hand it over.”

Dae stepped forward and presented his book.

“This is a handwritten autobiography. I made the paper, cover, and bindings myself out of—”

Murayoshi unceremoniously tossed the book into the furnace, and Dae let out a cry of dismay.

“Ah! W-why!?”

“Ye git a few points for hand-craftin’ the book, but it’s just words! Ye ent gonna truly capture who y’are with just that. Look at ye! Yer disappointed, I can tell—but tha’s it! Ye know y’can write it again. Not enough!”

Jia was starting to feel a bit nervous about the fate of her project as Dae dejectedly returned to his seat with his ears and tail drooping sadly. Murayoshi picked his next victim, seemingly at random—Eunae stepped forward calmly with her scroll. Jia wondered if Murayoshi was just picking the ones with easily burnable creations first.

Jia cocked her head curiously as Eunae unfurled her scroll. It was a beautiful tapestry, rich with color. At a glance, the scene depicted a monstrous creature of some kind being hunted by heroic figures, smiling in celebration as they cornered the creature. On closer inspection, the monster’s hunched posture seemed to huddle protectively over a group of smaller creatures—almost too small to make out—and the smiles of the hunters seemed to take on a sadistic edge.

Looking at the tapestry filled Jia with a profound sadness, and she couldn’t really describe why. She couldn’t stand to look at it for too long, but Murayoshi had no such qualms as he carefully scrutinized the scroll, stroking his chin and frowning thoughtfully.

“Arright, you pass. Next!”

Eunae bowed politely and rolled the scroll up before returning to her seat. Hmm? Jia did a double take as she watched Eunae—had she always had three tails? Jia had been certain it was two. Oh well, she’d just have to ask about it later. The next student for judgement was Rika.

Following Eunae’s example, Rika stepped forward and presented her robe without any further explanation. The style of the robe was very different from the uniforms that Jia was accustomed to, or the Qin-style clothing that Yan Yue often wore. It was mostly white cloth, with grayscale patterns woven into it—mostly on the back, which had a large, stylized symbol that Jia didn’t recognize.

The design of the robe was a short-sleeved jacket with a mid-length skirt that terminated just below the knee. Jia knew that Rika didn’t have much modesty, but that design seemed to push the limits of what would be appropriate for a girl to wear. At the very least, Jia couldn’t imagine wearing it without pants underneath. Murayoshi took the robe and inspected it thoroughly, inside and out.

“Ye ent yer family, girl, but I see it means a lot to ye. It’s an odd design fer a gi—some personal touches, eh? Bit showy, but I s’pose that’s the way y’want it. Arright, pass—barely! Next!”

Yuuko’s staff was met with even more derision than Dae’s book.

“A stick!? S’fine wood an’ y’done an arright job carvin’ it, but it’s a fuckin’ stick! ‘Least the idjit with the book tried!”

Murayoshi punctuated the statement by snapping the staff in two and tossing the pieces into the fire. Yuuko cringed as he did so, but bowed deeply as she responded.

“My apologies, grandmaster. I should not have rushed it.”

Murayoshi spat.

“Tch, it ent about how much time y’put into it, it’s about how much of yerself y’put into it! Don’ bother comin’ back if y’cant even figger out that much!”

Yuuko nodded and returned to her seat with a sigh. Jia was about to console the girl when Murayoshi’s eyes fell on her.

“You! Nosey girl, yer next!”

Jia stood up nervously, then hesitated. She glanced at Eui, who nodded and stood as well. Murayoshi grimaced as he glanced between them.

“One at a time, mousey girl. Ye’ll get yer chance after nosey girl.”

Jia and Eui both shook their heads and held up their gloved hands. They hadn’t really considered that they’d have an audience for this, but they were glad that it was mostly friends.

“We made ours together, grandmaster. Two pieces of a set.”

The sour look on Murayoshi’s face told them all they needed to know about what he thought of that, but he beckoned them forth anyway. He looked closely at each gloved hand, then scowled.

“Why’re you wearin’ hers, and she’s wearin’ yers!?”

Jia’s mouth felt dry, and she swallowed nervously. How could he tell!? She really really didn’t want Murayoshi to throw their gloves in the fire.

“W-we made them for each other, grandmaster. We each made one that represents ourselves, but designed for the other.”

Murayoshi pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head incredulously.

“Fuckin’ idjits—arright, hand ‘em over. Let’s get a closer look.”

Jia and Eui hesitantly removed their gloves and handed them over. Murayoshi examined each one carefully.

“Very fine materials—a waste—an’ it looks like y’were tryin’ to capture yer elements rather’n yerselves. Loose threads here...unfinished?”

“Yes, grandmaster. It represents—”

“Stow it! I didn’t ask. Y’bring me an unfinished work made from extravagant materials and shoddy craftsmanship, and I dunno what kinda cutesy fuckin’ bullshit y’were tryin’ to pull by makin’ ‘em for each other, but it ent worth shit!”

Jia felt herself beginning to panic as Murayoshi’s rant reached a crescendo. Just as she feared, he moved to toss the gloves into the furnace. Without thinking, Jia dove to try to catch them, but she was a hair too slow and instead found herself on a trajectory to fall into the furnace after them. Before she could attempt to stop herself from falling in, Murayoshi caught her by the collar of her robe.

“Idjit girl! Ye tryin’a git yerself killed!? Go sit down afore I—huh?”

Murayoshi held Jia back as she struggled to escape his grip so that she could try to recover the gloves—or whatever was left of them. He glanced to the side as if there was some unseen person whispering to him.

“Wha—whaddya mean ye—? Arright, arright! Fine, ye pushy-ass kami.”

Murayoshi ignored the looks of confusion and shoved Jia out of the way, stepping up to the furnace and reaching in without any hesitation. After a moment, he fished out the gloves, which were completely unharmed.

“Yer in luck, girls. I woulda failed ye, but Forge sees somethin’ in ye that I don’t. She knows better’n I do, so ye git a second chance—fer now.”

Murayoshi tossed the gloves unceremoniously at Jia, and she fumbled to catch them. To her surprise, they weren’t even warm despite the fact that she could feel the heat of the furnace on her face even from where she stood.

“Go sit down. Next!”

Jia returned to her seat with Eui, trying to understand what had just happened. The gloves hadn’t burned, even in a fire hot enough to soften metal. She had no illusions about it being because of the materials they were made of—the obsidian wolf hide was fire resistant, but not nearly to that degree. Had Murayoshi’s spirit protected them from the fire somehow? Perhaps that was why he could reach into the furnace without being harmed as well.

“An’ what the hell is this!?”

Jia was distracted from her thoughts by Murayoshi yelling at Guan Yi.

“A guandao, master. It is my family’s weapon of choice for—”

“I fuckin’ know what it is, boy! Why’re ye showing it to me!?”

“This is what I made for—”

Murayoshi interrupted Guan by slapping the weapon out of his hand. Guan didn’t react, continuing to give Murayoshi his full attention.

“Yer representation of yerself is a fuckin’ weapon!? No embellishment, no art, no personality of any kind! Kami preserve me what the fuck is wrong with that country? The weapon passes—you fail. If ye wanna continue on the path of makin’, ye best start improving yerself.”

Guan Yi nodded seriously.

“Yes, grandmaster. I will take this lesson to heart, thank you.”

Murayoshi shook his head and spat to the side.

“Whatever, boy. An’ stop callin’ me that! All o’ ya! I ent yer damn grandmaster. Next!”

The students looked around in confusion. Hadn’t he already judged everybody’s creations? There wasn’t anyone left except for—

All eyes fell on Yan Yue, who was continuing to sulk miserably at the edge of the makeshift seating area. She noticed the attention and looked up with a frown.

“I didn’t make anything.”

As Jia had expected. Yue had said from the beginning that she had no intention of actually participating in the class. Murayoshi let out a sharp bark of laughter and began walking between the two rows of stone benches towards Yan Yue.

“Hah! Ye Qin think yer such great liars, but I don’t see it. Whaddya think I’m fuckin’ blind!? If ye were plannin’ to hide it, you shouldn’t have worn it here!”

Murayoshi stopped right in front of Yan Yue as she looked away and scoffed.

“Tch, fine, but if you throw it in that furnace I’m burning down your smithy.”

Yue reached up and pulled a golden hairpin out of one of her twin buns. Jia hadn’t even noticed it there, hidden among all the other ornamentation she kept in her hair. Nonetheless, without the pin to keep it together, the hair on the left side of her head fell down around her shoulder. She held the pin out for Murayoshi to look at.

Murayoshi made no motion to take the tiny piece of jewelry from her, simply leaning forward to get a better look. As far as Jia could tell it was just a simple hairpin made of gold. There wasn’t anything special about it that she could discern, apart from the fact that it was unusually basic compared to Yue’s usual adornments. After a few seconds of examination, Murayoshi grunted.

“Hmph! Pass.”

Murayoshi said nothing else as he returned to the smithy, and Jia stared in shock as Yan Yue simply nodded and began tying her hair back up into a bun and pinning it into place. What in the ancestors’ names was that!? Jia had absolutely no idea what Murayoshi’s standards were, and she was beginning to suspect she never would. No wonder he was so infamous.

“Arright, so some o’ ye managed to make somethin’. S’all junk, but that ent the point. If ye did it right, the next bit’ll make sense—if not, ye best remember it while ye try again ‘till it does ‘cause I don’t repeat myself.

“Self is easy—the easiest. S’why I had ye do it. Now y’gotta make somethin’ else. Capture the essence of somethin’ else as well as ye did yerselves—better, even.”

Murayoshi turned away from the students and fetched an ingot from within the furnace—Jia hadn’t even realized there was one in there! After a moment of hesitation, he reached into the furnace and pulled out Dae’s book—unharmed just like the gloves, albeit the pages were a bit rumpled by the rough treatment. He threw it over his shoulder in Dae’s general direction.

“Ye still fail, boy. Ye’re lucky Forge is such a softie.”

Dae caught the book and sighed in relief, bowing in thanks towards Murayoshi, who ignored him entirely and started hammering away on his new project.

Taking that to mean that the lesson was over, the students rose to leave, but Jia decided to take her chances to see if the ornery teacher would be willing to tell her something about spirit familiars.

“Grand—uh, Murayoshi...sir? Could I ask you about—”

“No. Piss off!”

Murayoshi didn’t even look up as he interrupted her, but Jia pressed on, summoning Heian as she spoke.

“It’s not about the lesson—I know you won’t repeat yourself. You’re the only other person I know with a familiar and I was wondering if you had any advice on—”

“Huh!? Forge ain’t my fuckin’ familiar, girl—she’s a partner! I don’t enslave kami like mages an’ I don’t kowtow to ‘em like priests, unnerstand!? Forge says ye got a similar bond with yers—good! Keep it that way, an’ don’t feed it to yer fuckin’ oni girlfriend, and I won’ hafta kill ye. There’s yer damn advice, now piss off!”

Jia blanched at the threat and bowed her thanks hastily before rushing off to meet back up with her friends. Eui eyed her with amusement.

“I can’t believe you actually tried that. What did you think was going to happen?”

“I thought he’d ignore me or tell me to go away, not threaten to kill me! Anyway, don’t eat Heian, I guess.”

Eui gave her a look of mock offense.

“How dare you!? I wouldn’t dream of eating such a delic—I mean, such a cute kitten.”

Jia narrowed her eyes at Eui, but couldn’t keep a straight face for long before both girls burst into a fit of giggles. Well, she hadn't really learned anything helpful about raising a familiar, but at least they knew the next step to enchantment—sort of. They’d have to decipher what it was that Murayoshi actually wanted to do. Murayoshi’s methods were unorthodox, but she had a feeling that there was more to what he was teaching than just making artifacts.