The seven year-old Kira, with her serious demeanour and long dark hair that streamed past her shoulders, walked up to the entrance of the grand Clan Hall. This hall was the largest building in the entire clan and could comfortably hold two hundred people at once.

Right now, though, Kira stood in front of the large wooden doors guarded by two clansmen.

After acknowledging her they knocked thrice before pushing open the doors.

“Young Miss Suzuki Kira has arrived!”

One of the guards declared. Inside, there were two rows of people seated facing each other with a single person seated at the head of these two rows. On Kira’s left-hand side, dressed in simple sky-blue robes, sat the four elders of her clan while on the right were a few somewhat familiar figures. However, Kira couldn’t quite recall exactly who they were. Naturally, the person sitting at the head of this ensemble, in a resplendent ocean-blue robe with gold embroidery, was none other than her own father, the Suzuki Clan’s Clan Leader, Suzuki Koto.

“The young me greets my honourable father, Elders and honoured guests.”

Kira cupped her hands and bowed slightly before she greeted and entered the large hall. She walked across to the figures as their gazes landed on her. Even those Elders of the clan did not often see this reclusive Clan Leader’s daughter. She walked slowly but deliberately towards the open seat next to her father’s right side and sat down.

“Little one, I’m glad you could join us this quickly. You may not know these guests of ours so allow me to introduce them. This is the Clan Leader of the one of Edge’s top-tier clans, Oda Takaharu, his father, Elder Shino, and his son, Oda Yamato.”

Koto rubbed his daughter’s head jovially with one hand before he motioned to each of his guests in turn as he introduced them. Kira had seen this Oda Clan Leader several times before. When the underlying enmity between the Oda Clan and Toyotomi Clan had built to a peak, both he and the Toyotomi Clan Leader would make appointments with her father to have tea and attempt to bring him over to their point of view and to give them his support. However, the Elder Shino and Oda Yamato were new faces to her as someone did not go out very much.

“Ah, the esteemed members of the Oda Clan. This little one is honoured to be in your presence.”

Kira nodded as she spoke. However, she still didn’t understand why it was necessary for her to be here to greet such guests. From the almost imperceptible tremble in her father’s hand as he rubbed her head, despite his outwardly jovial and welcoming manner, she also understood that this wasn’t just a meeting to exchange pleasantries.

“Respected Clan Leader Suzuki, if I may, now that your beautiful young daughter has arrived, may we return to the matter at hand?”

“Of course we may. Please, continue.”

Hearing permission being granted by her father, Kira watched as the middle-aged Clan Leader turned to face her directly, his dark eyes on his sharp face attempting to see through her whose face was devoid of expression.

“This young miss, every time I met with your father he would be overflowing with praises of his talented children, one who was a natural genius and the other who had some talent but put in unceasing effort. To me, the one who put in the effort will grow to become someone truly powerful on this continent. Now that I finally get to meet the young miss in person, I must say that, just from observing your manner, surely you are this person, someone who will shake the continent with both her strength and beauty.”

Kira sat silently as she listened. So far, this man appeared to be trying to rain down compliments on her in order to prepare her for some great request. Although she knew in her heart that she was likely to refuse anyway, she would let him finish what he had to say.

“I wish to take this opportunity to request for your hand in marriage to my son.”

“What?”

Kira’s usually iron-clad self-control cracked open at this moment to the shock of everyone present. From the tightening that had occurred in Kira’s heart, it was only natural that even she could not completely control herself at that moment as she clutched at her chest, her eyes tightly shut.

Scenes of burning buildings, dead bodies and a black-robed masked man involuntarily rose up in her mind. Her perfectly controlled breathing fell apart into gasps and splutters. It felt as if she had a premonition of the future…or was it the past? The possible outcome of her refusing this offer as she did once before brought up the darkest memories in her heart.

Her father, who had known her the longest, had a concerned look on his face as he saw this state of Kira’s. Never before had he seen her like this. She was always perfectly poised, always in control.

“Honourable guests, I request that we postpone this matter to another, more opportune, time. I need to care for my daughter.”

“We understand, Clan Leader Suzuki. Whether it is positive or negative, we require a response within three days.”

The Oda Clan members got up, cupped their hands and left, leaving Suzuki Koto to tend to his child. As soon as the great doors slammed shut, Kira’s father leapt off of his seat and embraced his daughter while whispering reassurances in her ear.

“Shhh, it’s okay. They’re gone now. You still have three whole days to make up your mind. It’s okay…”

Slowly the twisting in Kira’s heart gradually ceased and her pale expression once again returned to normal as she regained control over herself. A single tear escaped from her eye.

“Forgive me Father. I’ve caused our clan to lose a lot of face just now. I will take any punishment you deem appropriate.”

“Don’t hold back. If you’re that opposed to getting married to him, you can just tell me.”

“It is more than that, father. I fear what will become of our clan if I were to reject him. I do not wish to marry him but I fear that the resentment he will hold in his heart will be our destruction and I am not strong enough to avert this disaster. Father, what should we do?”

Although her father could not understand on what basis Kira could make these assumptions, he had long ago accepted that his daughter was not an ordinary person so he took her words to heart. However, he could not help but chuckle slightly before he spoke.

“Haha. You can leave it all to me, my little one. Although, I must say, if every man would harbour that kind of ill intent when rejected by a beautiful and talented woman, there would be no clans left in this Bladeworks Continent.”

“Hahaha…”

Kira couldn’t help herself and laughed as her father said this. He often knew just exactly what to say and was the only person who could make her laugh. Feeling that she could continue her training without being too worried about this matter brought her peace.

That night, after Kira went to her room to cultivate, Suzuki Koto couldn’t help but have a great headache. Due to their clan’s unique position as the decisive factor between the two major clans, something like having her daughter marry the son of one clan would undoubtedly completely upset Edge’s balance of power to an irreparable state.

On top of this, their offence today wouldn’t go unanswered unless Kira agreed to marry their Clan Leader’s son, something which he didn’t want to force his child into.

It was as he pondered this dilemma that his wife, and Kira’s mother, Suzuki Naomi, came inside, having finished her sword training for the evening.

Seeing the dark look on her husband’s face as she wiped the sweat off her face with a cloth while a fine steam was rising from her body, she couldn’t help but be a little startled.

“Darling, what’s wrong? You haven’t made a face like that since Kira mistook your favourite sake[1] for water.”

Hearing his wife trying to be funny always brought a smile to Koto’s face and could banish his dark moods instantly. He explained the situation to her without omitting any detail. After sitting deep in thought for a few minutes, Naomi finally raised her head.

“I see, so Kira believes that by rejecting this proposal, it may be the end of the clan. Regardless, through her reaction, it will still bring a problem to us if she refuses, although on a smaller scale. But, through accepting the proposal, there is the possibility that we may actually have a clan war on our hands. I can’t tell if this move of the Odas is a ploy to take control of Edge. They haven’t had the balls to be so arrogant before.”

“I agree completely. Throwing Edge into chaos is definitely not an option but what can we do?”

“Well, it seems that the answer is simple. This is the perfect opportunity for our children to test themselves with the Oda Clan as their examiners.”

“What are you saying? You want us to purposefully put our children into a life-or-death situation? The Oda Clan doesn’t mess around when it comes to repaying an insult.”

“Listen to me. As long as you arrange it that when Kira refuses that she will take full responsibility, then the Oda Clan will only arrange measures to personally punish her as anything that happens to her can be considered as retribution on us as well. Anything that is beyond her ability at that time, we can get Kagetsuna to deal with.”

“My darling, you never cease to amaze me. And they say I just married you for your beauty.”

Naomi gave a sly smile as she heard this. She alone knew that this kind-hearted, humorous man actually also had more depth to him than what others saw. It was because of this quality that she accepted his marriage proposal all those years ago.

“With extraordinary children, we need to take extraordinary measures for their growth. Don’t you agree?”

“There is still one thing that troubles me. Once our children fend off this attack, how can we be certain that the Oda won’t cause more trouble afterwards?”

“Darling, which clan would still dare to show themselves if it became known that they sent strong people to bully the weak, let alone children. We’ll have this card to play against them should they try anything later.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much I love you, Naomi?”

“Not nearly enough but I’ll take it.”

Following her training program which she had long since set up for herself, on the first day after the Oda Clan’s visit, Kira was heading towards a secluded grove where she conducted her sword training. It was a place that was away from the watchful eyes of her parents and the rest of her clan and where she could continue to keep the edge of her skills from her previous life. At the same time, it was just as useful for practicing the new Weapon Skills she had learned.

On the way, she had to pass the clan’s great Training Hall, the only building with a size to rival the Clan Hall. It consisted of a large open-air training room with a roof supported by multiple thick wooden columns that would require three Kiras with arms outstretched to completely wrap around them. Solid wooden mannequins with well-oiled steel joints were set up at various points under this roofed area for practising techniques against in the one half, while the other emptier half was used for group classes and drills. Along one of the only two walls, specially-designed to be sheltered from the rain, were shelves of scrolls stored in waterproof oilskin containers. These scrolls detailed the clan’s many Weapon Skills, body training methods and other fighting-related knowledge gathered over the generations that were accessible to anyone from the clan.

In the centre of the roofed hall was a pedestal on which was fixed an immovable sphere of deep blue jade. This was one of the many ancient relics left behind by the Suzuki Clan’s ancestors, the Boundless Soul Orb. This relic was special in that it could accurately determine one’s Soul Energy rank and level and was used by all the clan members to keep track of their Soul Energy cultivation progress.

Next to this sheltered area was a large sparring area that could handle several pairs of clansmen or 4 medium-sized groups engaging in team training at once. Kira paused for a moment as there was a youth about twelve years old with short spiky hair and a wild glint in his eyes engaging with three opponents at once, training sword in hand. He fought with a vigour and wide smile that showed his enthusiasm and passion for battle.

“That brother of mine, still a battle freak as always. He needs to learn that there’s more to life than just fighting strong opponents.”

Kira sighed inwardly as she saw this scene and watched for a while before turning her attention back onto the path she was walking. As the Training Hall faded from her peripheral vision, a young, rough voice called out from behind her.

“Little sister[2] with the green robe, this brother[3] wants a few words with you.”

Kira turned around to see a young boy about twelve years old with his arms crossed and a haughty manner standing near the Training Hall. From his slightly squashed-looking face and arrogant demeanour, this must be her older cousin Suzuki Yamanaka that her brother had told her about. Apparently the squashed appearance of his face was due to his many losses against Kagetsuna.

“Older cousin Yamanaka, this little one greets you. What appears to be the problem?”

“The way you speak really is weird. Where are you going? Your house is other way and the Training Hall is over here. I know from cousin Kagetsuna that you’re a training freak, so where are you going?”

“I believe that is none of your concern. Now, if older cousin would excuse me, I will leave first.”

“You think you’re better than the rest of us, don’t you? You won’t even train with your clanmates in the same Training Hall! Just because you’re the Clan Leader’s daughter you think you can look down on us with those empty eyes!”

Kira could tell that Yamanaka was really getting into this attempt to discredit her. Even some of the surrounding clan members had stopped what they were doing to take a look. In their hearts they began to empathise with Yamanaka. While their feelings towards Kira were mostly neutral, Yamanaka’s passionate words had tilted them into the negative bounds of indignation.

It was true that every week at this time, they would see Kira walk casually past the Training Hall without a second glance. She only went there to obtain a new Weapon Skill scroll to learn or check her Soul Energy cultivation level. None of them understood this reclusive nature of hers although none of them had ever tried to as she always seemed aloof and unapproachable.

“Older cousin, are you purposefully attempting to throw dirt on my face? If so, I’m afraid that this is something that even I cannot tolerate.”

“Oh, you believe that I’m the one at fault here? If you wish to continue being so self-righteous, then by all means, challenge me to a duel. Prove to everyone here that you’re not just some spoiled brat.”

Kira sighed inwardly as she heard his words.

‘This guy…he’s actually not just a brute but one with a silver tongue. No matter what I choose, he’s going to benefit from it…Or so he thinks.’

Kira knew that, if she were to challenge him and she lost, it wouldn’t be considered the strong bullying the weak. However, if she didn’t defeat him now, he was free to continue this slander of her.

It must be said that while Kagetsuna, who was also the Clan Leader’s child, was frequently seen participating at the Training Hall, Kira was only ever seen appearing to ignore it. This had sparked a jealousy within Yamanaka’s haughty heart and, as someone who couldn’t stand this kind of treatment of being ignored, he had come up with this scheme to get back at Kira.

“Very well then, I challenge older cousin Yamanaka to a duel. If I win, you shall take back everything that you have said against me today and swear on your life never to harass me again.”

“But if I win, I will keep speaking the truth and you will kowtow[4] to me three times.”

“Deal.”

“Hehe, then let’s not keep everyone waiting.”

From the open sparring area Kira’s brother, Kagetsuna, who had easily finished defeating his three opponents within the span of a few breaths, was watching the events unfolding around his sister intently, a smug smile plastered across his face while he muttered to himself.

“Foolish cousin. You should know to cover yourself with repellent before you kick a hornet’s nest.”

[1] Sake (sAH-keh) – Japanese rice wine, has a mostly transparent, water-like appearance

[2] Not his actual sister. Just referring to a female clanmate of the same age group.

[3] Again, not actual brother.

[4] Full bow. As in, forehead on the ground kind of bow of full submission.