That doesn’t sound right, but Higekiri’s the last person to doubt when he’s talking about his former masters. Still, a trace of hesitation leaks into Yagen’s voice and works its way into the fingers playing at the hem of his jacket.
The Minamoto he’d met had talked of motherhood and family. It’d sounded harmonious, but maybe that only lasted as long as she was alive. He’d read firsthand how the death of one leader led to power struggles between the rest. He doesn’t know the best way to say there’s been a few female versions of historical masters wandering around besides–
‘There’s been a few female versions of historical masters wandering around.’
‘I met Nobunaga-san, who had Hasebe. I met Minamoto no Yorimitsu too–she fought with Doujigiri Yasutsuna.’ Somehow it feels more credible if he mentions their swords.
‘She was proud, but…she loved her sons a lot. All of them.’
Despite the way in which Yagen’s words contradicted known history, Higekiri knows well what he is referring to. “You have met Lady Yorimitsu? I wonder if she’s the same one from before...” Words that sound weird to come out of one’s mouth, especially one who has seen and been next to the real Minamoto no Yorimitsu in life. He had certainly not been a woman, nothing akin to what the cloudy memory of Higekiri recalls, but even then the tachi hadn’t argued much about it.
He’s old, after all. A thousand years old. Some things he only accepts as it is, and questions very little.
“Mhm, it sounds just like her,” despite, again, the words he had just said. The Minamoto were hardly ones to boast about family or blood-ties. His sword has drank the blood of their enemies, and the blood of their relatives as well. He is their treasure, and sometimes, their demise. “Though I have never been wielded by Lord Yorimitsu, he gifted me to one of his closest retainers, Lord Tsuna. I have seen much of him, and especially of how he treated his Shitennou. Among the Genji, they were all very loyal to each other.” And though he cannot speak of Yorimitsu’s children, later then he was gifted to one of his nephews, at the very least.
He turns to Yagen, then, a soft, yet knowing smile on his face. “Are you unsure whether you are allowed to befriend this version of Lord Nobunaga? I have heard he was fond of you. Using a tantou in the battlefield is a bold act, after all.”
