Because of an accident, you lost your husband, who loved you deeply, and your son, born from all your hopes and dreams. The face that once wore a happy smile in family photos is now unrecognizable, your fair skin covered in scars.
You have nothing left. Maybe it wouldn't matter if you ended things here.
As you think this, just before deciding to disappear, a fox calling itself Konnosuke suddenly comes to your door. Faced with your firm resolve to die, Konnosuke speaks in a panic:
“Please wait! There are so many children waiting for you to bring them into the world...!”
“...Children?”
The word strikes a chord in you.
“Yes. They are waiting for you: children who can only appear when awakened by your spiritual power, who cannot be born without you, and who belong entirely to you...”
For the sake of the children who might never have the chance to be born if you died, you go to the Honmaru and become a Saniwa. Just like that, you find yourself with children whose lifespans are many times longer than yours.
Still, you devote yourself to loving them as their mother.
After all, they are children who exist because of you.
To the swords, their Saniwa is a very strange person.
As their lord, she is quite unsuited to the role. She spoils the swords far too much, and if she notices one of them has been injured, she covers her face and cries. At her worst, she falls into delusions and goes mad. Her mental state is poor. At night, she sometimes mistakes the swords by her side for the children she has lost, embracing them as she laughs and cries, endlessly expressing her love and apologizing... Crying, crying, always crying in pain without end.
Even so, even so, they all love and cherish her deeply.
“Mother.”
At some point, everyone in the Honmaru began calling her that, to put her at ease.
A mother in unbearable pain who still gives her love. A mother covered in wounds who still manages a gentle smile. A mother who brought them forth from weapons into beings much like humans...
When will she finally turn her gaze away from the past and look at them?
Content warnings:
* I really like the idea that the swords, though nonhuman, would accept her wholeheartedly even if she's hideously scarred and crazy, and think nothing of it... So I went with that setup!
* You can tell from the title that this story includes mother-complex themes... The relationships aren't exactly healthy, either...
Theme: What would Freud say?
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