[ oh, lili...... that's so shoujo........ but those are words that sound a bit familiar, give or take the phrasing of them; most of the swords have heard this, in some form or another — but, that isn't to say that all of them accepted it perfectly. (for some of them, they need it repeated a few times, and even then... they only barely manage to wrap their heads around it, like tsurumaru.) ]

Because, it's not like asking people, do you love that person?. Instead, it's about asking people, do you love that object? Can it protect you? Is it beautiful to look at? If it's not beautiful to look at, or if it doesn't work properly in battle, can it be fixed?

[ he knows that if families have enough power, they're capable of terrifying things — redoing everything but the blade, or shortening the blade altogether, and while tsurumaru doesn't know what the latter is like, he hears that it's kind of painful??? ]

I think that's something we hear often — that we're free to determine our own actions and be who we want, as people, but it's difficult. When you've been a sword for longer than, say, nine hundred years, being told that you suddenly get to do anything that your heart desires is a bit...

[ he trails off, stuck between complicated or unusual, or both; but there's a part of him that's already realized, too bitterly, how little that swords can truly do without human action, because at the end of the day, they're just objects; and even this place — if they ever leave this place, they'll return to being objects.

still, maybe he can start learning now, on how to live a bit more freely. ]

My name is Tsurumaru. [ he beams at her, and for the first time today, he sounds more like his usual self (not that she'd know what his usual self is like, though). ]

I hope this isn't too big of a request for someone that I've just met, but... from now on, will you help me understand what that means? That anyone is deserving of love, and what it's like, to be your own person?