A week or so had gone by since Yomi had returned to the Dragon Castle. Slowly she had gotten very acquainted with her siblings again as well as her nephews and nieces. She had also gotten to meet her niece Stella at one point, thinking that she had some of her father's personality. Things seemed to go relatively normal again once Yomi had settled back in, and everyone went back to their own line of work.
It wasn't much of a surprise when Chisai saw Kiko, Mika, and Claudia coming into his shop to visit one day, but he couldn't guess for the life of him what they wanted to talk to him about.
"Hi girls, where's Yomi today?" Chisai asked wiping his hands off with a nearby cloth.
"Oh, she wanted to spend the day with mom," Kiko answered smiling at her brother and walking around with a little smirk on her face.
Chisai wiped his brow with the same cloth before sighing at the three of them.
"Alright, what's this about? I know you three don't come in here to just say hello to me. Frankly, I can't remember the last time you just came in to say hi." Chisai said shaking his head.
"Well....Claudia and I were talking with Kiko about how we met, and then Kiko talked about how she met Kenta, how Takeo and Aiyo met, and then the subject....kind of shifted.....to you and we were thinking that maybe...." Mika implied without finishing the sentence.
"Oh....no, no absolutely not. You three aren't going to convince me that I need to go out there and find a woman, and I don't want you to try and find someone either." Chisai said shaking his head as he tried to go back to doing some work.
"Chisai, come on, even Fukushu has two kids now and you didn't think he would ever have kids. So what's wrong with trying to go out there and find a nice girl to talk to?" Kiko suggested.
"Please, I don't think there's any woman out there for me, and it's not like the woman of my dreams is just going to wander into my shop." Chisai said rolling his eyes at them.
"HEY, UNCLE CHISAI!"
The group paused, hearing the excited proclamation. They could all tell from the cheerful call that the person calling for him was no doubt Haley.
"Haley, I've told you before not to shout so loudly when I'm working with....my tools." Chisai said before suddenly stopping as he turned to see a young beautiful vixen standing between his nieces, Kari and Haley.
"Sorry about that uncle, but we came by because our friend Lady Odayakana here wanted to ask you about her family sword." Kari apologized before explaining her friend's situation.
Kari and Haley didn't seem to notice it, but Mika, Claudia, and Kiko did. The trio smirked noticing how awestruck Chisai seemed to be with Odayakana and began forming a plan in their heads.
"Greetings to you Master Chisai, your nieces tell me you are a very formidable blacksmith." Lady Odayakana said politely bowing before the large kitsune.
"Oh, uh....yes, I am very skilled in the um craft." Chisai said clearing his throat.
"I am pleased to hear it, I wonder then if you could repair my family's sword, it was heavily damaged in the war. It has been in the Shimizu Clan for three generations now and I would like to restore it to it's proper form." Odayakana asked carefully handing over the sword to Chisai who looked it over and seemed impressed by the blade and hilt of it, even from the damage it sustained.
"The damage to the sword itself is too great, I can save the hilt, but I would have to replace the entire blade itself." Chisai explained as Odayakana nodded.
"I understand. How long would it take to restore the blade?" Odayakana asked.
"Oh, it should only take...." Chisai was about to say a few hours before he was cut off.
"Days, it will actually take him several days to repair your family's sword Lady Odayakana. He's currently backed up with other swords at the moment." Claudia interrupted.
"Wait, what? No, I.....OW!" Chisai tried to say before Kiko lightly stomped on his foot.
"Yes Lady Odayakana your family's sword is very special and it will most definitely take my brother several days to finish it to restore it to its proper glory." Kiko smiled towards Odayakana.
"But until then, you're welcome to come in and check on the process anytime you want to." Mika said smiling at the young girl.
"Oh, is that....is that okay with you master Chisai?" Odayakana asked.
Chisai wanted to explain to Odayakana that Claudia and his sisters were wrong on how long it would take him, but a small part of him did want to talk more with this beautiful kitsune.
"Y-Yes, that would be fine." Chisai replied with a kind smile.
"Arigatō Master Chisai." Lady Odayakana replied politely bowing as she turned around while Kari and Haley looked curiously at their mothers and aunt before leaving alongside Odayakana.
"What were you three on about?" Chisai asked when the girls were out of earshot.
"Oh come on Chisai, we all saw how your eyes went wide when you saw Odayakana." Claudia said crossing her arms and smirking.
"Come on now, she's just....she's just a very lovely kitsune, I've seen plenty of lovely looking women." Chisai said trying to argue.
Chisai now looked to see Mika and Kiko shaking their heads.
"Please brother, Mika and I have seen how you react to the women that come by through your shop," Kiko said.
"And we haven't seen our brother look at other women as you looked at Odayakana." Mika said with a smirk as Chisai's face now went a little red.
"Just think about it, when Odayakana comes back to check on the sword's progress, the two of you can start up a conversation and maybe, just maybe, it could lead into something more like a....first date? I mean, that's sort of how Mika and I met with her helping me out with my homework." Claudia recalled as Mika blushed also remembering the moment and the two women rubbed their noses lovingly together.
Chisai wanted to argue with them, he wanted to. But he had been alone for so long and there was this beautiful vixen that just happened to walk into his shop that he might have a chance with. Chisai finally yielded to the three and nodded his head.
"Alright, alright, I'll...I'll just try talking with her first to....to see if I like her. Or....if she likes me." Chisai sighed.
"Oh, of course she'll love you little brother!" Kiko said giving her brother a large hug.
"Well, you know, a small part of me is still a little unsure about this." Chisai admitted as the women were leaving. "I mean, what would we have in common? I'm twice her age. I'm sure we have nothing in common. Plus she probably has way better options than me."
"Remember Chisai, if it's not up to you, it'll be up to mother to arrange your marriage for you." Kiko said as she, Mika, and Claudia all giggled leaving the blacksmith shop.
Chisai definitely knew his sister was right about their mother. Still, he did very much want to talk to Odayakana again. He looked at her sword, he would need to take the repairs very slowly if he wanted to get a chance to know this vixen very well.
"Ugh fine," he grumbled. "Let's just hope this doesn't end in disaster."