Chapter Forty: Heart of the Forge
One of the newfound benefits of Restoring Legends was that for all intents and purposes, the inhuman crafting prowess of the Picori was his. All of the skill and chicanery that they were capable of, resting in his brain. The problem was that he lacked the tools to actually make use of any of that.
Making a backyard forge wasn’t the most ideal or elegant solution to the problem, but it was better than letting his talents lay fallow. Especially when he could and should dole out what were functionally Sacred Gears to all of his friends and allies in due time. So off he went to the shopkeepers and blacksmiths of the village to find somewhere he could purchase the equipment.
For the rather ravenous hungers of shinobi for things like kunai, shuriken, and other odds and ends, there was a not insignificant part of Konoha dedicated to properly fulfilling their requests. Or things that were more bespoke, like weapons specifically sized for wielders, and other odds and ends such as that.
Like most things in his life, he followed his senses to where he needed to go. To the source of metal ringing out as it was pounded in forges, the smell of charcoal, and the heat that almost seemed to draw him in. It was a quarter of the village that he hadn’t visited a great deal, yet that was bound to change now that he had a reason to do so.
Though, following his more preternatural senses, he walked into one of the myriad weapon stores that smelled as if there was a working forge in the back. While he'd have preferred brand-spanking-new tools, getting things secondhand wouldn't really be a detriment with his level of skill.
Manning the front counter was someone he hadn't expected to see in this little outing.
Tenten was not a person Tobio had much interaction with. Outside of being in the year ahead of them, she just wasn’t really all that connected to his given friend group. Not that it was a statement on her character, really. He just rarely had any reason to cross paths with the girl.
"Tobio?" She blinked, looking up from whatever she'd been filling out on the counter.
"Yo," he greeted, waving a hand her way. "I didn't know you worked here."
She shrugged. "Just filling in for my dad," Tenten explained. "You look, uh…"
The boy smirked. "A little different?"
"Just a little," she admitted, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "I'd heard your bloodline had developed a little, but I hadn't expected anything so drastic from the rumors."
He blinked. "There are rumors about me?"
"Oh yeah. A whole active rumor mill. Wanna know what they say about you?"
No.
"Yes," his traitorous mouth answered before he could restrain his instinct.
"Well, they're saying you're a rampaging beast in a fight," she smirked, arching a brow his way. "They've got you pegged on that."
"Hey."
Tenten continued on, undaunted. "That you come back from any danger or damage, even stronger than before. Specifically, it's caught on with a little name attached, but I think it's a little goofy."
"Please don't say it," he pleaded, already regretting having asked her for any rumors.
"What? You don't want to be known as the Comeback Kid?" She teased him.
He groaned on the spot, covering his face with his hands. "Please don't tell me this is actually catching on."
"It isn't really…" She shrugged, leaning against the counter. "But it was funny to tell you about. Call it the privilege of the failures of the exam to ensure the winners don't get a big head."
"Trust me, my friends do an immaculate job of keeping me humble," he assured her. Someone would think it was them who got promoted, the way Ami and Karin could boss him around.
If it was happening to someone else, Tobio would have laughed about it. Seeing as it was happening to him, his amusement couldn't quite be found.
Regardless, Tenten continued undaunted, smiling his way. "Anyway, what brings you here today? Looking for new equipment?"
With the conversation changing to safer ground, he was smiling once again. "Nope! I'm looking to craft some of my own, actually."
That was enough to make her blink, as she cocked her head to the side. "You know how to smith?"
"I'll have you know I'm a legendary blacksmith and craftsman," he grinned, saying it with a smug, self-satisfied expression. Being able to make people think he was talking shit, when he was telling the truth, was never going to get old. "It's why I'm looking for a spare forge or some other materials to make my own backyard workspace."
Not without reason, Tenten was giving him some genuinely doubtful looks the longer he spoke. As if his claims were a touch unreasonable with what she knew of the boy. After all, not even she had the time to pick up blacksmithing to any real extent. There were only so many hours in the day, and it was a bit unreasonable to think that he'd gotten that good when he was barely thirteen.
It wasn't his fault that other people didn't have an otherworldly system attached to their soul granting them things. They should just get good and try to figure it out.
Claiming to be a master when Tobio was probably a year or so younger than her would undoubtedly come across as arrogant. Until he proved precisely what he had going on, beyond the shadow of a doubt. By that point, though, he'd be hitting levels of smug that Konoha hadn't ever seen.
"… I mean, how good could you really be?"
At those words, his grin became a little wider. "Pretty goddamn good. We can even make a bet on it."
A hint of interest glinted in her grey eyes as Tenten stared over at him. "I'm listening."
"I'll make you a weapon of a type you've never seen before, out of little more than scraps, that works better than anything you've ever wielded before," Tobio explained, outlining the terms of his wager. "In exchange, gimme a discount on these materials for my own forge."
"I'd have to ask my dad," she clarified. "But… what do I get if I win?"
"Everything out of my own pocket, at cost," he assured her. "And I'll give my clan endorsement to this place, for whatever that's worth." Given that he was a very, very new clan, who knew if it was worth that much?
Tenten stared at him for a little while longer before reaching out and offering a hand. "Deal. I don't think you'll win, but I guess I can help your friends humble you a little bit more."
Taking her hand with a firm grip, Tobio let loose a low chuckle. "Don't be so hasty to count your chickens, Tenten. You haven't seen anything yet…"
"It began with the forging of the great Tropes…"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
"Gamer systems were given to Fanfiction.net, the most influential of all fanfiction sites."
The pounding of metal was the only thing that he could focus on as he delved into a state of pure concentration. Stripped down to his trousers and an apron, Tobio's eyes glowed the same color as the forge, chakra, and atum flowing out of his body in equal measure and into the sword that he was crafting. Metaphysical frameworks and elements that should never have been able to be worked together, hammered into shape by the infallible nature of his will and sheer Picori skill.
They were the creators of some of the most unreasonable, silly Legend of Zelda items, and he intended on squeezing out each drop of potential from the perk. He'd be doing his 'forebears' a disservice to do otherwise.
"Jumpchains to the forum triumvirate of QQ, SB, and SV, mediocre writers and mindless consumers of CYOA slop."
Sweat beaded across his body as he focused on nothing but the process in front of him. Imperfections that a lesser smith would have never noticed were totally smoothed out, pockets of air that they might have failed to remove. Even while the mystical energies inside of him were being channeled into this target to transform it entirely
"And templates were gifted to the NovelPhoenix authors, who above all else desired power."
With each hour of work, each session that Tobio dedicated to the process at hand, he felt the entire thing transform into something higher than a bastard sword. Something that would prove to be legendary in its own right, imbued with powers that even he didn't know what might come from it. The seed of a Balance Breaker, that'd be nourished by Tenten's own will and soul…
"For within these Tropes was bound the elements to draw in a crowd and govern the popular zeitgeist of each site…"
By the end of the first day of work, there wasn't much that was left of the matter. Just finishing touches that blew beyond the speeds and specificity that a master smith could normally reach, as he hammered through the materials of scrap weapons. He moved with the sort of skill that could have only come with a lifetime of smithing weapons, visible to anyone who saw him working.
And then he kept going even faster.
"But they were all of them deceived… for another Trope was made."
Tenten watched the entire affair with a growing sense of awe and trepidation. As the sword in question began to take shape beneath his ministrations, whatever doubts she had were dying slowly. In its place was a more quiet unease, as she was beginning to realize what separated a true prodigy from a monstrous talent.
A drive to master everything within reach, to levels that would take lifetimes for normal people to manage. For her part, all she could do was watch as a sword of a style that she'd never seen formed before her.
"In the land of Reddit, in the fires of r/CYOA, the dark redditors forged in secret a master Trope to encompass all others. And into this brand of Celestial slop, they poured their pedantic behavior, scope creep, and lack of narrative restraint. ONE TROPE TO RULE THEM ALL!"
It was a process that was going pretty well. Outside of his sword spirit just having some sort of moment, here, as she tried to run through a bastardized Lord of the Rings opening monologue. Why? He suspected that she was just bored, or something like that.
Please stop. I beg of you.
"Mmm… no."
The only real solace that Tobio took in this moment was the fact that other Shinigami had similar struggles with their sword spirits. In fact, they often had objectively worse relationships than just being annoyed by them. However, it was a companion throughout the process as he finished the sword in question.
Most weapons in the Elemental Nations were primarily inspired by Eastern variants of Earth weapons. The blade in front of him, though, was different. With a grip designed to fit one and a half hands, it could be used one-handed or two-handed and stretched to a little over three feet long. Not as heavy as a true longsword, and with someone wielding it with chakra-enhanced strength, it was probably even lighter to maneuver around.
To the Elemental Nations, it'd be the first real bastard sword they'd ever seen. A weapon that would, in time, likely become an heirloom of Tenten's family, a sword on par with the legendary blades of the Hidden Mist, made with mundane materials and a pinch of otherworldly power. With a vein of curious golden light that ran through the center, designed to be filled to the brim with whatever energies the wielder possessed.
"This is…" Tenten breathed out, looking positively shocked, as the finished product came out, and she lifted it up in her hands.
Something reverent glinted in her eyes. She might not have been able to recognize the design, but he could see her sliding into patterns with it, almost as if she'd had an instinctive understanding of how to use the weapon. Hell, maybe she did. Tobio himself wasn't sure precisely what he'd done to that sword.
This was his first real time using Restoring Legends, and he'd definitely gone a bit wild with it. Between the actual abilities of the blade and the capacity to Balance Break, she had a weapon that would probably see her far more capable than even either of them knew. Tobio was genuinely excited to see what she did with it.
"Good, right?' He grinned, sooty and dirty, but feeling deeply satisfied all the same.
It was even better when the System chose to reward him for his actions.
[HIDDEN QUEST COMPLETED: CRAFT A LOW-TIER SACRED GEAR EQUIVALENT WEAPON.]
[REWARD: 1x MINOR ARTIFICE PERK ROLL.]
As much as Tenten might not have wanted to admit it, she had patently, flatly, lost the bargain.
"You won," she sighed, having to readily give up defeat. "This is… too much, even for someone like me."
"Honestly, I did my best," Tobio grinned. "There's no need to look so glum when you're getting a free sword as good as this."
"True," Tenten conceded, giving it a flourish. "It even feels perfectly weighted!"
"I'm a man of many talents. Blacksmithing is just one of them."
He couldn't help but wear a smug expression on his face, though. "Now, about those forge parts…"
"Yeah, yeah, you'll get them. My dad just got a new one, but the old tools he was using should hold up just fine. Especially if you're this good."
"As long as you know."
There was more conversation to be had, as she asked him a few more questions about the nature of her new weapon. Tobio, however, danced around them to the best of his ability. Trying to tell her too much might actually influence the Balance Breaker she developed. Or so his preternatural instincts said to him.
Better for her to just figure things out by herself and let the ability of the sword be a surprise. It wasn't too long, though, before he made his excuses to get away and get back to his home. There was a perk burning a hole in his pocket and it needed to be dealt with.
Almost the second he was alone, he allowed the cosmic wheel to spin up once again. Presenting him with results that were hardly disappointing for a minor reward.
Path of the Lotus - Fate/Legends - Nirvana Yuga - The favor of the world as you journey on the path, showing in the flowers that bloom beneath you whenever you need to rest. A lotus is most common, but other kinds can appear to your tastes, supernaturally large and stable plants sprouting whenever you need a platform beneath you. It may be a traditional seat on which to meditate or act as a path across hazardous surfaces, continually sprouting flowers to separate you from the dirty ground. Should you use them for the intended purpose, you’ll find that sitting on the lotus allows you to far more easily get in touch with the spiritual side of the world, for use in understanding the truths of the world or becoming more aware of the magic that flows through it.
Device - Lyrical Nanoha - A Device could be seen as a high-tech magic wand. It aids with the complex math involved in manipulating Mana into spells. There are many different levels of power, intelligence, and complexity. This grants you a base Device which you can customize with other perks.
(Combines with Zanpakutō.)
Devil Sword Jumper - DMC 5 - What you have here is your very own Devil Sword. It is a powerful weapon of your own design, and must not necessarily be a Sword. The weapon also allows the wielder (to an extent) to bring out their true potential, and shares your will. You are capable of summoning it out of thin air at will, manifesting from a cluster of energy into the wielder's grip, as well as storing it away whenever you want. You may merge this with any other Devil Arm and weapon you have, granting you access to the power and abilities of those alongside the inherent ones of this. How this merge is done, is up to you, whether it causes a change in appearance and whatnot.
(Combines with Zanpakutō.)
The first, Path of the Lotus, might genuinely be useful for learning Senjutsu. Depending on where he used it, like the Bear's Graveyard for their elders, he could get in touch with the energy a lot easier, without much of the risk. That was something that immediately stood out to him as potentially useful, however…
Well, the other perks weren't bad either.
Lyrical Nanoha was a magical girl franchise with a stupidly complex amount of lore. Unreasonably so, given there were alternate realities, the magical girl devices were actually high-tech computers to make casting easier and more chicanery besides that. This was one of those objects, a Device, and incorporating it into his sword could prove potentially lucrative.
Could he preprogram jutsu without needing to use hand seals at all? It'd allow him to go fully hands-on with his sword, without ever needing to use it again. That was a guess, if an educated one, based off what he remembered about the franchise.
As for the last, well, Devil May Cry was filled with busted powerscaling. Having his sword fused with the potential of one from that universe was useful, along with the utility that just came from being able to store it away. The end result would be murkier from just the description alone. Probably.
Yet, only one could be taken…
In the end, the choice came down to a very simple calculus. Where the hell else was Tobio going to find a supercomputer that he could fuse with his sword on a short notice? Chances were, nowhere quick, fast, and in a hurry. With that in mind, the boy made his choice.
With his choice made, Tobio allowed the perk to flow into him. Or more accurately, into his zanpakutō. While nothing happened to him, admittedly, he felt the connection between himself and the sword spitter almost stutter, for lack of a better word.
"Ooooh. Oh shit," she hummed, sounding almost a little dazed.
Something the matter?
"What's the opposite of a headache? Feels like my brain just got a whole lot of bandwidth opened up at once. I'm like… actually stupidly smart now."
You were smart before.
"No, no, as in, I'm a supercomputer that knows everything you know. If you feed me chakra, I'm pretty sure I can cast any jutsu you know just flat-out faster. Or, well, do a lot of things automatically, because we're tied together."
Such as?
Without waiting for an answer, the spirit pushed chakra through her bond with him. In an instant and a flash of light, the casual clothing that he was wearing was replaced with what appeared to be a full combat uniform, vest and all. Much to his delight, too, it even seemed fairly tough.
What's this made of?
"Wait…" She spoke before the hilt of his blade vibrated. And then words, audible words, came through loud and clear. "Do you hear me now?"
"You talk now?" Tobio asked, blinking in surprise.
"I talk now!" The spirit grinned, looking pleased as punch. "Oh man, this is gonna be great! I can yell and insult your friends like I do you now."
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. "Uh, back on track, what the hell am I wearing?"
"It's called a Barrier Jacket. Like, I think it's the foundation for the goofy magical girl outfits, which are obviously just flat out inappropriate. But effectively it's some layered spells and stuff."
"Woah."
"I know, I'm pretty amazing," she shamelessly self-aggrandized. He couldn't even see her face but could practically hear the grin on her face. "… Wait. If I know all of your spells… hmm…"
His lips pursed together, eyebrows furrowing as she trailed off. "What? What is it?"
Grumbling, the Oni spirit murmured almost incoherently. "Maybe with this equation…? It's a permeable transformation shell, so technically there's nothing from keeping this from working… Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes, I quite like this…"
A sinking feeling was beginning to spread around his gut, because while he didn't know precisely what she had in mind, he suspected it was going to be troublesome. However, with a further expenditure of chakra that he barely noticed, the sword in his hands left his grip. It was obscured in an explosion of smoke as a coughing voice rang out.
"Goddamned henge, modifications still have so much smoke…" As it cleared, though, the cloud revealed an exceptionally familiar sight to him. One who really shouldn't be outside of her sword.
"BEHOLD, peasant! You look upon my majesty in the flesh, and not just in your soul," she grinned, exuding what should be a frankly criminal amount of smugness, as the spirit glanced around his apartment. "…So what's for dinner? I'm hungry."
The sigh that rolled out of him was bone-deep and weary, and the building pressure in his temples made him rub the base of his horns for relief. "I was thinking about yakitori…"
Hunger glinted in her eyes as she smacked her lips, rubbing her stomach greedily. "Excellent choice! This chakra construct should be capable of eating food, so get to work."
Maybe he should have regretted the selection of Device after all.
Finding ways to get stronger was simultaneously harder and easier than Tobio had imagined. In some respects, the upgrade to his sword had vastly improved the number of things that it could be used for. Hell, it'd also broadly increased the range of his options in a fight while giving him functionally unparalleled chakra control while it was in his hand.
However, there were still some facets of it that Tobio hadn't quite reached for yet. Aspects of the sword that would have been aspirational and fundamental for any real shinigami to grasp but weren't at all something that he had in mind. Not when his perks had allowed him other options first.
His Balance Breaker was one of the most potent tools in his arsenal, providing no small buff not just to himself, but to his allies. Hero With A Thousand Faces was a power that Tobio had barely touched, yet even now he knew that there were hidden depths and utilities to it that just needed to be unlocked with the right external pressures. When it came to the innate abilities of his zanpakutō, though, it wasn’t an innate part of the weapon.
It was something he’d grafted on from his own system-derived bullshit, instead of trying to dive deeper into what it was capable of. That was his bad, admittedly, because the circumstances up to this point had been dire enough that reaching for shikai just hadn’t been in the cards at the time. That was no longer the case.
In the dark of the night, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his living room. With closed eyes he sank into that familiar, meditative trance; the world began to fade away. Breath by breath, until he opened his gaze again, he was standing on a specific beach.
The movement of the waves sounded almost soothing, with the massive pale moon hanging in the sky. And standing there, as always, was his sword spirit. For this, she hadn't bothered coming out into the real world. The spirit knew what was coming and had chosen where she was the most comfortable, despite her happiness at pillaging his cabinets.
Looking off into the sea, up at that massive moon in the sky, the horned girl spoke. “It’s time, huh?”
“I guess,” he shrugged. “Depends if you think we’ve harmonized, or whatever.”
“Perhaps.” She offered a shrug back his way. “Ever since I came into existence, by the nature of your soul, I’ve been weirdly developed. More than one of my kind should be. You're a cheater that way, but I don't mind it.”
That wasn’t too surprising, the longer he thought about it. Having such potent inhuman ancestry should have reinforced his soul, along with having a fairly active Origin and whatever else was thrown into the mélange. If she wasn’t ready for Shikai after he’d acquired either High Elder or Demiurge by themselves, they'd have never achieved it.
Hell, he wouldn’t have been surprised if receiving a Key of Kings and the powerful enlightenment from it had pushed her over the edge to Bankai. But he wasn’t so greedy as to grasp for it… yet. Tobio could stay satisfied with just reaching for Shikai.
“I thought you’d withhold it if I didn’t reach a certain amount of spiritual enlightenment or let go of my past.”
“You have,” she freely admitted, walking over to him, leaving small footprints in the sand. “Bit by bit, day by day, the chains of the past that bound you were worn away. Your heart’s filled to the brim with your friends, your allies, and the world you now live in. There’s nothing holding you back from accepting yourself now.”
Was there a part of him that would always wonder who he used to be? Sure, Tobio thought that was natural to speculate and consider what could have been. But the man he’d been before died, or had fused so thoroughly with the original Tobio that the difference was null and void at this point.
He was him, and there was nothing more to be said about it. “I guess you’re right. Does that mean I get to know your name after all this time?”
She sent him a smirk, turning to face him properly. “Haven’t you already figured it out by now?”
Now that she said it, Tobio could realize that the name of his blade seemed relatively obvious in hindsight. It was a strange sort of thing that washed over him, because he knew that when this meditation session started, he didn’t know it. Yet suddenly now he did.
Gripping his blade, he looked down at the length of it before glancing back up at her. “I guess I do.”
“Then what are you waiting for, idiot?” Moving forward, there was nothing but mischief in that gaze of hers as the distance between them was closed. She leaned forward, throwing her around his shoulders, as goosebumps threatened to prickle along his skin. There was something manic and dangerous in her gaze as she leaned in close, a touch that felt intimate, if it wasn’t for the fact that she was also him. Or, well, he had a spirit that was colored by his own soul.
“Say my name.”
One moment he was there, in the Oni’s embrace. In the next, his eyes were opening again back in the real world, and his sword thrummed with power. There was something under his skin, in the back of his throat, a feeling of sharp anticipation as he breathed out, his heart beating faster with each passing second.
“Let your light shine over this world,” Tobio intoned, feeling the way the world just felt like it became charged, as if awaiting his words. “Tsukihime.”
And then, the sword that he’d gotten so used to changed before his very eyes. A radiant, pale light spilled forth, as it felt like the world was bending to not just his will but their own, as Tsukihime sought to show it what she was truly made of.
When the lightshow was finished, the weapon that he was looking at wasn't the same weapon that it'd started as. Superficially, there were some similarities. It was roughly the same size as the sword had been before, maybe an inch or two more or less. But those were fundamentally the only things that had remained the same concerning Tsukihime.
The blade looked long and chunkier too, more like a kitchen knife than the anti-cavalry blade it'd been before. Cool, silver steel that might as well have been light as a feather for Tobio to maneuver around, not that he would have expected otherwise with his strength. Running throughout the metal were veins of red and blue that almost seemed to pulse with power the more he looked at them.
"Oh yeah…" Tsukihime purred. "I'm diggin' the new look."
"Happy I didn't disappoint you," he snorted, rolling his eyes at her excitement. It was palpable through the bond that they shared. "How about we figure out what you can actually do now, though?"
"Shit, you're right! To the training grounds, my mighty steed!"
"I'm not a horse!"
"You're carrying me around, aren't you?"
The boy couldn't actually deny that allegation, so Tobio did the smart thing, which was just leaving his house and rapidly heading over to the most empty training ground that he could sense. There was a shikai to test out, and considering some of the most bullshit ones that existed in Bleach, it'd be interesting to see what end of the spectrum that he fell on.
He didn't lack for power to actually fuel it, either, so now it was just a matter of seeing what actually came out of this entire process. Did he have something to brag about, or was this going to be some kind of massive overkill of a weapon that he'd only ever be able to use in certain situations? Basically, the Kenpachi problem of being too deadly to use on every opponent, or he'd end up never actually learning anything.
Time to see what his spirit had cooked for him.
When he focused on the sword and let whatever its effect was go out, he'd been expecting some kind of bombastic thing. Maybe an explosion, or something else like that. What Tobio hadn't been thinking was going to happen was for the sword to begin to weep.
No, that wasn't quite right, was it?
Wafting off of the blade were drifting streams of dark, reddish smoke. Sniffing, Tobio amended his initial thought about the matter. It wasn't quite smoke, not when it was kind of moist at the same time. "… Mist?" He breathed in, smacking his lips as the taste of it hit him.
"… BOOZE MIST?!"
"FUCK YEAH!"
Almost instinctively, the boy began to pump more Atum into the blade, his crown forming as he reached for the unlimited, horrific fires of god. Why? So he could try to get drunk by breathing alone. This was fantastic!
Even stranger was the fact that he was actually feeling some other effect the more he breathed in the mist. It felt as if his muscles were growing, teeth were sharpening, and eyesight was growing keener with each breath. Apparently, this stuff was making him stronger, and the range at which it could spread out from the blade was not inconsiderable.
Anyone fighting around him was bound to get drunker, though if the buffing effect actually hit everyone else too, that'd be a problem. It seemed to be making him more Oni, to a degree, anyway. What would it do to someone who was a baseline human, though?
"I'm theorizing that there's an IFF system in the shikai, actually," Tsukihime guessed, between deep huffs of the air. Or whatever passed for it when she was in her sword state. "Basically, it should do something completely different to people whose souls aren't resonating with your own on a positive level."
"What? How the fuck does that even work?"
"It's a shikai, Tobio, I don't have to explain shit."
He could respect that answer so much if it meant that he could just keep chugging the air itself to give himself a buzz. Maybe this wasn't quite what he expected as far as shikai went, but he wasn't going to be complaining. Taking another huff, he sat down against a tree. "…I should test out how far this goes. For, uh, science."
"Totally," she agreed. "Don't let me stop you."
With shikai achieved, Tobio huffed alcoholic fumes in the middle of the forest until eventually he passed out drunk, and was found the following morning by some passing Genin.
A very auspicious start for the Onikuma clan's reputation in Konoha.
Author's Notes
It's good to be back, and goddamn, I'm posting a lot everywhere these days. As always, thank you for reading! We're coming toward the end of the training month in a chapter or two, with some climactic showdowns. Then we'll be going straight into Clash in the Land of the Snow.