Kouka's Crowned Prince | oc insert

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"Up, up, up," I was woken up by my Uncles voice and sat up to see him stood in the doorway of the room I'd been given during my stay at his villa. Huh—I never noticed until now but getting up this early has started becoming easy to do...

Smiling, I stood and watched as he turned and left the room again upon seeing me get up and my mutter of 'I'm up'. I grabbed my training clothes and changed. When I left my room, I found Uncle Yu-Hon stood waiting for me just outside. He nodded his head to the side and started to walk off in a direction. I followed after him and eventually we reached what appeared to be a well-maintained training grounds.

"Wait here a moment," he told me before disappearing into a shed off to the side of the area. While he was gone, I decided to stretched. Once I'd finished, I straightened up to see him stood waiting for me with two sheathed katanas in his hands.

"Alright, Aric," he passed me the blades, "these are now yours."

"What?" I asked, looking down at them confused, "seriously?"

"Seriously," he nodded as I took them cautiously. This feels like a test—

"Heavy," I muttered as he let go and I dropped forward slightly from the sudden weight.

"You need to get used to the weight so from now on you'll be training with your blades while I'll stick to the wooden sword," he told me, "of course you'll keep them sheathed so we don't lose any fingers accidentally, though I doubt you'll be able to even hit me let alone take a finger of mine. Eventually, I'll be able to pick up my sword as well and we'll be able to spar properly, but for now, we'll stick to this."

I observed him for a moment, waiting for him to burst out in a laugh and tell me he was joking but his face was stone serious. Ok then. This is real. Awesome.

"Alright," I nodded, trying my best to contain the happiness I was feeling right now.

My first weapons.

My first real weapons.

"Then let's begin," he nodded to me before pulling out a sword, "I'll shout out your moves and you'll do them. How you do them, it's up to you, but you need to figure out your style of fighting, Aric."

"OK," I nodded, getting into an attack ready stance—or, well tried to. The weight of these damn things is insane.

°🪔°

"Block," Yu-Hon called out, I threw both sheathed blades up as best I could, wobbling back slightly at the sudden swing of weight from them, an obvious opening. He kicked me in the stomach and sent me tumbling to my feet, giving the weight of my katana that extra effort to send me to the ground, "you weren't blocking yourself properly."

"I tried though... I'm tired, Uncle," I complained, "we've been at this longer than we usually do."

Not to mention, these things are heavy...

"Stop complaining, Aric," he sighed and pulled me to my feet again, "just remember what you did with Mundok, you need to apply everything you learn into one and use that as your weapon. These blades—"

He grabbed the ends of my sheathed katana, looking at me seriously as he did.

"—they're an extension of a warriors body. They are the extension of your arms and your lifeline on the battlefield," he told me with a serious face, "Don't forget that these are your extensions, they're yours. You need to look after them and they will look after you. You are no longer a helpless little rich boy, Aric, so you need to put all the work into keep yourself strong so you can protect what is closest to your heart."