Before the Battle

Family Name 1/17

I was watching Shira surrounded by six giggling women and had to do my best to control my anger and growing jealousy.

When I once mentioned to Maya that Shira was teaching me all sorts of defensive techniques in addition to sword fighting, she immediately asked him to teach her as well.

I didn't see anything wrong with that, until a few curious female colleagues joined her and a couple of weeks later my black-haired friend was giving improvised self-defence lessons.

They met in an abandoned barracks on the outskirts of the city, originally a great place for just the two of us to hang out. But now not only Maya knew of its existence, so did her friends.

You'd expect them to be bothered by the remoteness of the place, or the distance from the centre of Kashima, but they seemed willing to go to considerable lengths for Shira's lessons.

It took over an hour to get here by car in ideal conditions. And today the weather was far from ideal. The roads were covered in muddy snow and it was raining and snowing alternately.

It was the first time I had been to one of their lessons and I was already regretting it. I didn't expect to find them here. On the contrary. I had hoped to have the opportunity to spend some time alone with just Shira.

Instead, unnoticed by anyone, I stood in the doorway of the gym and watched, gritting my teeth, as all the girls there encircled their teacher, looking at him with fascination in their eyes and constantly asking for advice or help with a position or move. Which was surely just an excuse for them to touch him.

And the dreaded Imperial assassin smiled sweetly while showing them with charm and humor how to kick a man in the crotch and other interesting tricks.

"You can use practically anything as a weapon in case of a threat," he explained. "Keys, a pen, a hairpin..."

He reached over to the little blonde who was flirting with him the most and pulled a metal clip from her hair. The girl smiled brightly and batted her long eyelashes at him.

I couldn't watch it any longer. 

Without any of them paying attention to me, I approached the group and tried to catch the black-haired instructor off guard with a surprise attack. Of course, I knew I had no chance of really surprising Shira with his reflexes, but I wanted him to finally acknowledge my presence.

He dodged my punch at the last moment, caught my arm ready for another blow, twisted behind my back, and the sharp tip of the metal clasp pressed into the side of my neck right afterwards.

"Like this," Shira smiled at his appreciative audience, and when he saw my sour expression, he leaned down and planted a kiss on me.

"Thank you for your assistance," he said half-loudly, and I felt my cheeks flush as I noted the curious and also hostile looks from the other women. 

Maya was the only one who laughed genuinely, she always enjoyed my embarrassment.

"We're done for the day," he dismissed the class to the disappointed looks of his students, and I watched with relief as the girls reluctantly packed their things and waved goodbye to their teacher.

Maya, who was the last one left, walked over to me while I didn't take my eyes off Shira, who began to put back in place the mats and practice weapons strewn about.

"The girls love his classes," she remarked, her gaze curling to the black-haired warrior as well.

"Yeah, I noticed," I replied irritably.

Although I couldn't deny Shira was a great teacher, I suspected Maya's colleagues appreciated different qualities in their instructor.

"He could do it professionally," she meanwhile continued her musings, "a lot of people would let him teach them. I told him, but he refused. He didn't even want money for his lessons. Anyway, we should..."