The tanuki handed the swordt over, and Lord Isshin inspected every inch of the blade. “Did you know I had a student once, who wanted to learn the sword?”

Hanako cocked her head. Where had that come form? The tanuki meanwhile just shook his head.

“He was a young man. A human, actually, of all things. He had a purity I’d never seen before or since; he was devoted to the sword, but he used it only to protect what was important to him. He had no love for the shedding of blood.” He looked first at Hanako, and then the tanuki. “His name was Kojima.”

Hanako’s eyes widened, and the tanuki’s face turned white as a sheet. With the barest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, Lord Isshin asked, “Do you still wish to claim this sword belongs to your family?”