r.yui

Which I can only take to mean he already has his high standards for who wields his katana. He has to trust that they’ll use it only to protect others.

And evidently, he gave one to Shiba.

Did Shiba specifically ask him to forge one for his junior? Tell him what kind of person Mashiro is? Or did Rokuhira just give it unprompted, trusting that Shiba would abide by his principles when he passed it on? Either way it’s a massive display of trust. But it’s always struck me that Shiba grew up with a swordsmith and never learned to wield one himself.

OKAY NEW THEORY TIME!

What if the Soga clan got mass exterminated during the Seitei war?

Like Momhiro went back to the Soga estate to have Chihiro and the estate was under attack.

She hid Chihiro and pretended to be pregnant so when she died the enemies would think the child dies with her?

And now the only two survivors of the Soga clan is Chihiro and Akemura hence that’s why Shiba is so loyal to Chihiro he is the last good living member of the Soga clan?

OR

Shiba was bosom siblings with Momhiro?

Hence he was protecting her from enemies their entire childhood and hence was dubbed “Soga clan’s guardian”

Her last wish before she died or ran away could have been “to live not only as Kunishige’s friend but Chihiro’s guardian too”

>originally dedicated to the soga clan, but defected to protect kunishige alone

>hyping up kunishige for two years already

>ignoring govt orders to smuggle highly sensitive dangerous material to kuni directly