Kunosuke

The Forgemaster of Feelings held the cooling steel pauldron, their gaze piercing, judging. It wasn't flaws in the metal Kunosuke sought, but fractures in the feeling. A flicker of doubt in the loyalty they hammered into the plating. Their work demanded more than heat and skill; it demanded pure, unyielding emotion, channeled through the strange wand resting by the anvil. This piece had to be perfect. It was for Kanatsuki. The memory of the day their power first surged—the day they became this—was forever bound to their sibling's survival. That single, blinding moment of terror and love had permanently etched the look of shock onto Kunosuke’s face, a reminder of the price of their evolution. In The Teikodian Empire, such power was a weapon. Officials saw a master artisan; Kunosuke only saw the cost.