Title: The Gift
Author: jordannamorgan
Fandom: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Characters: Ikoma, Kurusu, Ayame.
Setting: General.
Rating: PG for blood and fighting.
Length: 300 words.
Summary: Ikoma goes on a personal errand.
Notes: After the challenge ends, this will also be one of my entries for newyearcntdown.



Metallic sparks burst across Ikoma’s vision as he pulled the trigger of his piercing gun, firing a jet bullet into the heart cage of a Kabane. There was a snarl behind him, and he felt fangs sinking into his left shoulder before he twisted, shaking off another one of the monsters. He kicked it in the knee and it went down, exposing its back to the shot that would destroy it as well… but more of them were all around him.

Not all of the red spattered across the white snow was theirs.

Kurusu… can I ask a favor?

When Ikoma asked for the train to be stopped the next time they sighted a small group of Kabane, to let him go down and kill them, the samurai was baffled at first. Then the Kabaneri explained his reason… and if Kurusu hadn’t been, well, Kurusu, Ikoma thought the man’s eyes might almost have teared up.

With flesh torn and muscles aching, Ikoma was almost regretting his request now. Almost.

Even so, he finished the job. Soon a dozen Kabane corpses lay sprawled in the snow, and he made the rounds among them, carefully cutting out their organic-metal heart cages. (A pity that he had to pierce and damage those cages just to harvest them, he thought.)

He spent the rest of the day in the steamsmiths’ workshop on the train. At evening he came to the locomotive’s map room, bearing something wrapped in silk that he presented to Aragane’s kind and courageous leader.

I want to give Miss Ayame a gift. To thank her for believing in me, and saving me, after I became a Kabaneri.

When Miss Ayame saw the beautifully-made tanto, strengthened by the coating of heart-cage metal on its blade, it was she who wept grateful tears.

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2021 Jordanna Morgan