The Silent Guardian (Akagami no Shirayukihime)

The Way of the Sword

Kiki gritted her teeth and hurriedly raised the sword to deflect a blow aimed for her head. The loud clang! brought by the clashing steel reverberated inside her skull, making her wince involuntarily.

On the other hand, Mitsuhide was looking uncharacteristically serious. He didn't pull his sword back. Instead, he proceeded to push against their crossed weapons, slowly putting his whole weight into it.

Knowing she couldn't win against sheer strength, she hurriedly jumped back and put some distance between them, giving herself time to recover. Mitsuhide relented, much to her relief, staring at her across the room silently with an unreadable expression on his face.

Meanwhile, watching intently from the sidelines is Prince Zen. His bright blue eyes narrowed at her form in concentration, making her feel slightly self-conscious.

Deciding she had rested enough, she quickly charged towards Mitsuhide and went for the offensive, delivering fast but hard blows to her opponent. Her tired arms shook from the effort, but she swiftly ignored it.

Unfortunately for her, Mitsuhide blocked them all as if it were nothing but bothersome flies, looking not even winded in the slightest. Tired, she began slowing down, something which Mitsuhide caught and took advantage of. He suddenly lunged forward and thrust his blade towards her stomach, which she quickly parried.

She was mainly on the defensive, and it stung that all those years practicing Kendo and she can't even lay a single scratch on the blue-haired man. She thought she could at least tire him out (she wasn't deluded into thinking she could defeat him. Mitsuhide is one of the best swordsmen in this kingdom after all.) Instead, he looked exactly like he did before the fight even started: Fresh and still full of energy.

To her extreme disappointment, her tired arms just couldn't take another second of his heavy attacks anymore and her grip on the sword became slack. Seeing this, Mitsuhide quickly took the chance and finally disarmed her.

Chest heaving and arms heavy with exhaustion, Kiki almost collapsed on her backside before deciding to retain what was left of her pride. Her unsteady legs protested very strongly though.

Seeing her – frankly – pathetic state, Mitsuhide frowned deeply and glanced at Zen, who was staring at her gravely. "It seems even your skills changed as well." He began almost hesitantly, "Needless to say, you really need a lot of training to return back to your original level of skill."

She knew he was just trying to soften the blow, but hearing his critique about her skill levels hurt. At best, her abilities with a sword could probably beat a novice swordsman or the random bandit, but not a fully-fledged knight. She had been training since she was a child, so how could she be this bad?

She already knew the answer; Kendo is only a sport. It can never beat a real swordfight. Her fight today with Mitsuhide already proved that. She can tell he was only going easy on her, and that knowledge didn't help soothe her wounded pride at all.

She turned abruptly and took her time to return the sword to its sheath. The looks of pity they were sending her only succeeded in making her feel frustrated and even more humiliated.

"Kiki..." Mitsuhide called, and she turned back to gaze at him with a carefully blank expression to hide her frustration. It didn't look like she did a good job though, since it had made the Prince wince.

However, Mitsuhide didn't give any indication that he saw. He just gazed at her with determined eyes, hands tightly gripping the hilt of his sword. She was about to turn back around after he remained silent for too long, but was abruptly cut off by his stern voice. "We will start training here beginning early tomorrow morning. Be ready."