Love's Not Void

Chapter 16:

It was dusk. She and Rai were outside, for reasons unknown to her. He just told her to follow him; simple as that.

"Rai, what are we doing out here? It's freezing."

Turning to her, he outstretched a hand. In it, he held his long sword.

He was...giving it to her? What for?

"Take it."

She complied, the weight of the blade making her arm nearly drop. She quickly balanced herself, and sighed.

"Now what?"

Rai drew his shorter sword, and got into a stance.

"Now we begin."

Then, he attacked.

Sidestepping immediately, she gave a girly squeak. She turned to return the attack, now knowing that her training had begun.

Huh, she almost forgot that she said she'd be his Sanga. In the show, Rai had to train Konoe as well. Though, it wasn't quite like this.

In a practiced motion, Rai spun around and knocked her weapon out of her hand with ease. It sored through the air so fast that, when it stopped, it was sticking out of a tree.

With a gawking expression, she slowly turned back to a pompous-looking Rai.

"Although a Sanga's job is to sing, there will be times where you will have to fight. I have taken it upon myself to teach you."

She placed her hands on her hips, giving a small pout.

"I can fight..."

"You can dodge well, you certainly know how to sing, but I've seen children with better fighting skills."

That's nice of you to say, Rai. Tell her all she's good for is singing and dodging.

"Let me see your weapon." He held out his hand, palm facing up.

With a reluctant sigh, she pulled Firi's knife out of her boot. Upon seeing it, Rai's eye narrowed. Despite this, he never asked anything obtaining to where she got the dagger from.

"It's barely sharpened," he commented, "Its light, and made of stainless steel. For you, it will do."

He gave it back to her, and retrieved his long sword. Once again handing it to her, he got into his same-old stance.

"Again."

~

What can she say? She had her ass handed to her many times, by Rai no less. He should have at least paired her with Konoe, and chaperoned the matches.

To add to this eventful night, this room painfully reminded her of an old Foster Home. It was a bad memory to say the least.

She was forced to share a room with the family's birth daughter. She was a spoiled brat, even if she was 9 years old. Someone needed to teach her a lesson in manners.

Her brother wasn't much better. He was around her age at the time, which was approximately 14 years old. All he did was sit in his room all day and play videogames. When he did take notice of Kimberly's presents, it meant he wanted something from her. Normally, that's homework or food related.

The adults were a very busy, extremely stern, couple. They had rules on top of rules, on top of rules. When it was bedtime, you better be in bed or else. You had to have perfect manners at the dinner table, or they forced you to eat off the floor, with no silverware and no napkin. If you bugged them during work, they'd have a bitch-fit and give you an hour long lecture on 'what it meant if they said they were busy'. She couldn't watch TV for more than a half hour, but their kids could use it all day long if they so pleased. And worse of all; they destroyed her phone because they got a call from the school, saying she was text-messaging a friend during class.