The son of the Clan Leader, Suzuki Kagetsuna watched on as his sister, Kira, and their cousin, Yamanaka, walked up to the weapon rack in the clan’s large Training Hall. After scrutinising the different blunt-edged training weapons, Kira chose one that Kagetsuna knew was of a lighter weight and slightly longer length which allowed for more fluid manoeuvres while Yamanaka selected one with average length but a much heavier weight, allowing for more forceful strikes and greater momentum once the blade was in motion.

Naturally, as the Clan Leader’s daughter and a known training-fanatic, Kira had brought along her personal training sword but, in the spirit of fairness, she decided to use one of the clan’s communal blades.

‘There’s no reason to help this guy turn people against me. No matter the outcome, I haven’t forgotten my promise to protect them all.’

Since its founding, the Suzuki Clan encouraged competition between its members, while, at the same time, wanting their members to begin to grasp the seriousness of not being strong or skilled enough to survive in the outside world.

Hence, the ancestors who founded the clan didn’t believe in the use of wooden weapons when training. They were too light compared to real ones and wouldn’t leave anything more than a few bruises. These blunt-edged training swords struck a balance between having the weight of a real sword and, despite being blunt, were still thin enough to leave shallow cuts on your skin as a reminder of your mistakes.

After bowing to each other, Kira going down to the respectful angle while Yamanaka only slightly inclined his head, Kira and Yamanaka took up their stances about one-and-a-half metres away from each other, just far enough away that their blades’ tips touched.

Yamanaka used his left hand to throw his sheath off to one side. Suzuki-style swordsmanship didn’t use the sheath as anything other than storage for the sword when not in use. Kira, however, left hers tied to her haramaki[1] which slightly surprised Yamanaka but he didn’t pay too much attention to it. He was too busy imagining the scene of his victory.

‘When she tries to kowtow I’ll give her face and try to stop her. Like that, she’ll always be in my debt and won’t be able to ignore me anymore. Hehe.’

By now, in addition to the crowd who had formed earlier to witness Yamanaka’s initial provocations, the rest of the nearby clan members who were busy training noticed the commotion and, realising that there was going to be a duel between those of the younger generation, eagerly ran over to watch.

After a certain amount of time passed, seemingly as if by mutual agreement, both duellists began to move.

Lowering the tip of her sword to knee-level, Kira leaned slightly forward. Seeing this motion of Kira, Yamanaka immediately stabbed forward for her chest. As he did so, Kira stepped forward and to his right side, bringing her blade up to cover herself if the stab turned into a slash before rapidly raising it above her head and swinging down towards his neck. However, Yamanaka knew that this was initially a bait and was prepared for her movement.

Quickly stepping back to avoid the attack, as his weight was still on his back foot, he brought his sword down to his hip before slashing forward horizontally. As he did so, a light wind rose up from around him.

“Stomach Rending Strike!”

He let out a low growl as Kira, despite raising her sword to block, was pushed back two steps when the two blades connected and an unseen force had swept past her blade before striking her.

“Did you see that? He used a Weapon Skill!”

“It might’ve been a Weapon Skill but at most it looked like a middle-level Basic Skill.”

“Strong or not it still pushed back that mysterious Clan Leader’s daughter.”

“Those who don’t know anything shouldn’t speak. You’re just going to make people get the wrong idea.”

Everyone who heard that last voice turned around to find the source of it, only to find a youth of barely twelve years with dark spiky hair and smug smile standing behind them, hands resting casually behind his head.

“If any of you have practised that Skill at all, you’d know that that ‘Stomach Rending Strike’ is one of the few high-level Basic Skills our clan has. Although that cousin of mine can only display, at most, fifty percent of its power, that sharp cutting energy it can emit isn’t easy to stop. Kira actually completely dulled it into a weak impact force that could only push her, who is five years younger than him, back by a mere two steps.”

Their faces registered a bit of shock at the words of this boy, who was much younger than them, telling them off on how their analysis was flawed. Upon closer inspection they realised that it was, in fact, that battle-loving son of the Clan Leader, Suzuki Kagetsuna, Kira’s older brother.

Shame rose on their faces. If anyone knew the clan’s Weapon Skills down to the minutest detail, it would be him.

“If it’s as you said…that girl really hides her strength well.”

“Incredible.”

What further shocked them as they muttered was that, according to his explanation, Kira was actually much stronger than any of them gave her credit for.

‘You have no idea. This display isn’t even scratching the surface of what she is capable of.’

Kagetsuna thought to himself as the battle continued. Living in the same household as Kira, he naturally had the most insight into Kira’s strength as her had personally secretly witnessed her training by herself in a secluded grove away from their home.

Some of the katas[2] he had seen her practice were definitely not those of the Suzuki Clan. They were far more elegant and, to his fighting enthusiast’s eye, meant to aim for weak points that he had never known existed. He had wondered about where she could have possibly learned them from, but no logical explanation came to mind. Hence, he let the matter rest, for now at least.

Kira’s breathing became slightly heavier after blocking the ‘Stomach Rending Strike’ and a few beads of sweat began to form on her brow. It really wasn’t easy to match this gap in age using skill alone while holding back her hand. It seemed that she would have reveal a card or two. Taking a deep breath to stabilise her breathing, Kira swept her sword down to her side before launching herself forward.

Kira’s mental strength leapt into action, controlling both that vigorous Life Energy and tranquil Soul Energy as she drew them out within her body. With both energies in her grasp, she pulled out strand after strand and wove them through each other, creating a compact red-and-blue sphere that fought against its forced form, the conflicting attributes of her Twin Energies achieving a kind of unstable harmony. Under the pressure of her mental strength, the sphere got smaller and smaller while the colours spilled into each other, blurring into a golden sheen that emitted a dull glow. Taking hold of that golden sphere which pulsated with energy, Kira brought it through an indiscernible path in her body. With every centimetre the sphere travelled, its golden glow intensified until it came to rest in the tip of Kira’s index finger where it shone with a dazzling radiance.

Yamanaka was breathing even more heavily than Kira due to the large amount of his energy he had just expended on that single ‘Stomach Rending Strike’. Despite this, Kira stumbling backwards had given him great confidence in winning the fight.

‘Heh, a rising cut. She must really think I’m stupid not to be able to avoid something this simple. If it’s a bait, then I’ll just block it.’

This train of thought of Yamanaka’s was suddenly derailed as Kira rotated her body 360 degrees before following through and cutting viciously upwards.

As she attacked, that radiant sphere that was only visible to her illuminated her blade as it shot to the tip of her sword, drawing an elegant golden arc as she spun, before firing off the blade’s tip into the air where it split into a thousand sparks of golden light that fused into the air surrounding Yamanaka as it rose.

Yamanaka was surprised as Kira’s attack completely missed him as he was attempting to block, passing by in front of him by about thirty centimetres. Kira’s body’s rotation having hid the sudden rise of air in the room, a fleeting flash of golden light could be seen reflected in her pupils as she released her Weapon Skill.

“Rising Wind Current.”

A violent gust rose up from directly below Yamanaka as Kira whispered in a low voice. Caught off-guard he felt his two-handed grip on his sword break apart as the strong wind forcefully spread his arms wide open and his one foot lost contact with the ground, breaking his balance. It was at this moment that Yamanaka realised his error. Not wasting a single fraction of a second, Kira stepped forward, bringing her blade to his throat.

“It appears that I am the victor…And if you weren’t family I would’ve cut your head off here and now for what you said about me.”

This last part was whispered in a cold voice that only Yamanaka could hear and his face paled slightly as the violent wind died down and the onlookers stared at Kira with a mixture of fear and awe. This merely seven year-old girl had defeated someone who was five years her senior, and, in their eyes, five years behind in training, in such spectacular fashion, using but a single Weapon Skill. From now on some of those clan members who had only heard of or briefly seen this reclusive Clan Leader’s daughter realised something in their hearts.

‘This girl is unexpectedly also a genius…’

‘Can one set of parents really be this lucky…’

Although there was still some jealousy within them, most of the clan members present agreed on one thing: under these two genius children, they may one day become a first-rate clan that was well-known in this Moonsilver Empire.

“No! I refuse to accept this!”

The defeated Yamanaka whose originally pale face that was rapidly turning red angrily shouted towards Kira.

“What appears to be the issue? I have defeated Older Cousin and now, according to our agreement, you will honour your end of the bargain.”

“That Weapon Skill, it isn’t one of the high-level Basic Skills of our clan!”

Having lost so badly, Yamanaka was naturally looking for an excuse. Despite having a silver tongue, his actual intelligence was quite low and the best excuse he could find was accusing Kira of cheating.

But naturally, this brutish older cousin of hers would only look for the strongest Weapon Skills from that archive of scrolls to learn while disregarding anything else as trash. This alone meant that the scope of his knowledge was quite lacking.

“That is indeed true to some extent older cousin Yamanaka. This Weapon Skill, ‘Rising Wind Current’, is but a humble middle-level Basic Weapon Skill. However, when comparing Weapon Skills, these lower-levelled Skills are the easiest to raise to a point where they are truly useful in a fight.

If I were to compare my about 80% mastered middle-level ‘Rising Wind Current’ with your not even 50% mastered high-level ‘Stomach Rending Strike’, which cannot even produce a true cutting force, in a direct confrontation, my Skill would undoubtedly always come out on top.

More importantly, the energy toll for the higher-levelled Skills remains the same whether at 10% mastery or 80% mastery. These things are what cost you here today.”

Yamanaka gnashed his teeth in frustration at Kira’s words. To have been beaten by someone five years his junior and with a Weapon Skill inferior to his own, wasn’t this just too much? Just as he was about to open his mouth, a familiar voice sounded out, causing him to lose his imposing manner entirely.

“Cousin Yamanaka, I suggest you just let it go. You can still lose with honour if you’re not a sore loser about it. Kira won against you fairly but, if you continue to try and bully her further, as her older brother, I can’t just ignore it. Besides, let everyone know just how many times you managed to defeat me.”

Having seen his sister emerge victorious, Kagetsuna was naturally pleased, but when he saw that Yamanaka refused to back down, he could only take action. Kira was his sister after all.

The way that Yamanaka’s face made a heaven and earth revolving change when Kagetsuna spoke out was priceless. Kagetsuna strolled leisurely down the empty aisle that the surrounding clan members made for him.

Compared to Kira, who was very rarely seen, this figure was very well-known and respected within the clan and was most famous within the vicinity of the Training Hall. Even some of the fairly talented older clan members didn’t dare to offend him, not out of fear of the Clan Leader’s retaliation, but because this genius, Kagetsuna, himself would pay them back ten-fold.

“Fine, I will let this matter be but-”

“No ‘buts’. If I find you within five metres of my sister or saying a single bad word about her, you’ll wish that your parents had never thought of you.”

With a yelp, Yamanaka ran out of the Training Hall under the laughing gazes of the spectating clan members before they dispersed and went back to what they were doing. Kagetsuna walked across the hall to collect Kira’s sheathed sword as well as the sword and sheath that Yamanaka had carelessly thrown to the ground.

“He may not respect us, but at the very least he can respect what our ancestors left for us.”

Kagetsuna mumbled angrily before putting Yamanaka’s now-sheathed sword on the weapon rack.

“My thanks to you, Older Brother. Although, I believe I had that situation under control.”

“You may be a skilled fighter, sis, but when it comes to understanding people’s character, you spend way too much time at home. Yamanaka isn’t the type to give up after getting a beating once. You’ve gotta be like a demon and scare him away so that he doesn’t dare come back. Besides, I knew that you could crush him a million times over, but then how would you ever have time to get any training done? Hahaha!”

“I tried to warn him off but it appears that I wasn’t stern enough.”

“Heh. At least you know how to handle someone with his personality. No need to thank me though, we’re siblings. You would’ve done the same for me. Coming home?”

“Not yet. I still haven’t started my training for today.”

“This dedication of yours…I’ll never understand it. If I were you, I would’ve taken teaching Yamanaka a lesson as my training, but anyway…see ya later.”

“Safe journey home.”

“It’s just around the corner but will do, Captain.”

He gave her a mock salute before sauntering off towards their home, hands once more resting behind his head like a pillow.

Although her brother may be a bit battle-crazy, he was someone whom she could always rely on in a pinch. Kira allowed herself a small smile that would’ve caused the hearts of anyone still watching her to flutter, not because she was beautiful, not yet anyway, but because, in that moment, she truly looked just like an innocent seven year-old girl.

[1] Japanese Belly Sash

[2] Kata – specific sets of movements meant to train multiple foundational movements at once