Working From Home

Ashitaka felt an odd happiness as he set about preparing his task. While he had imitated some basic weapon designs in past projects undertaken in his free time at school, this would be the first thing that was truly of his own making. It being both experimental and the highest quality he felt he could manage, he set aside days for the craft.

He decided that he was going to create this new weapon from the inside out, then from hilt to tip. With that in mind, the first thing he grabbed was the three lengths of steel wire that would go to make its core. He looped them back and braided them until he made a single cable about 5 feet long. Then, he sectioned out six inches from either end of this cable and repeated the process until he made a tight wad of steel about an inch thick out of them, leaving some loops a bit loose on the outside so he could fit the wooden slats into the ends of the cable.

This process alone took hours. Steel was very uncooperative when it came to braiding. Although it didn't fray like copper or other soft metals, it mercilessly tore up his work gloves and damaged his tools. And it got exponentially more difficult as more strands were added or folded back into the braid. Of course, a normal shinai didn't have this core, since it was supposed to be a safe practice tool instead of a legitimate weapon as he intended to use it. But those were also prone to splintering on impact with any considerable force, which is the exact opposite of what he wanted since that meant at best having to make a new one.

Worse, he couldn't use a proper steel or even wooden shaft for his intended purpose since that would prevent the weapon from flexing and defeating his goals. Although that would still make a perfectly serviceable war pick, that wasn't what he was going for. He needed to make something that was both light enough for his frail body and creative enough to circumvent the defenses of enemy ninja.

At last, after days of work, it was finally complete. Ashitaka wondered for a minute if he should dial back on his training to conserve more energy for his crafting. But he was sure that his sensei wouldn't appreciate that and he'd never hear the end of it. So it was that he spent most hours out of any given day doing one or the other and slept like a log whenever he decided to give up a task for the night. For now though, he could finally look at his handiwork an know that it was good. And it was going to be even better when he imbued it with his chakra. This weapon would make anyone regret thinking that his frail body meant that engaging him in melee during combat was the pragmatic thing to do.