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The escort led Khan to the general dining room where the Yukimura family ate their dinner regularly. It was very a modest room with simple Japanese decorations, a large family portrait, and the Yukimura Clan symbol. He was seated at an oak table that was large enough to fit 12 people.

Khan was in the room by himself with an occasional guard or maid walking by. The room was lit up by the natural lighting from the sunlight coming through the windows. The view from the window was the beautiful garden with a pond that had ancient cherry blossom tree on the side that had reached its peak bloom. It was a beautiful sight that everyone had to see at least once in their lifetime.

Under the tree slept a cute young girl with short white hair. She was asleep there since Khan arrived to the dining hall. Khan knew that girl was Shiro Yukimura because of her unique white hair that only the girls with her bloodline have. He decided to not disturb her as the escort didn’t give any directions, but wait at the table for him to come back. Two hours passed before the escort finally came back.

“Sorry for the wait, I couldn’t find the young princess.” The escort said.

“Isn’t that her over there sleeping under the cherry blossom tree?” Khan said as he pointed to Shiro who was still sleeping under the tree.

The escort gave a small laugh in embarrassment

“I spent two hours looking for her, but she was right next to you the entire time.”

“Yes. She was sleeping the entire time under the tree”

“I’m very sorry. We’ve told her to stop napping under the tree a month ago, but it seems like she picked up that bad habit again” The escort apologized as he bowed respectfully to Khan.

“It’s ok”

“When we approach Shiro I’ll have you wake her up. You want to make sure to leave a first good impression as you’re not only going to be her bodyguard, but also her friend. This is important because if you start off on bad terms, then it will be hard for her to open up to you making your job difficult for you.”

“I understand. Would you be able to tell me a bit about Shiro? I know some background history of her family, but I don’t know anything about her.”

“Yes I’ll tell you everything you need to know. She is a sheltered girl who is homeschool by her mother. She hasn’t had any contact with kids around her age or with anyone outside in the clan because her parents are overprotective. The reason is because of her unique bloodline and family background, which led to multiple assassinate attempts on her. I was told that you were chosen directly by the first lady to protect her and become her first friend so she can get used to interacting with people.”

“Thank you I understand I’ll be careful.”

“Excellent.” The escort said with a smile

Khan followed the escort to the entrance to the garden.

“The young princess is a good girl, please take good care of her and get rid of her loneliness that her family can’t satisfy.” The escort pleaded as he gestured for Khan to proceed without him.

“Thank you.” Khan replied as he continued through the door.

When Khan entered the garden he felt the gentle breeze blowing through the area. He now understood why Shiro was able to easily sleep outside. The gentle breeze mixed with the warm temperature was the perfect balance that made him feel extremely relaxed.

Shiro didn’t wake up when he approached her. Her sleeping face reminded Khan of Yuna’s face whenever they slept together. She had a smile on her face with drool flowing down her cheeks.

He didn’t really feel like waking her up if she was having a good dream. Yuna usually threw a fit when Khan woke her up during a good dream. Khan didn’t know if she was the same as Yuna so he didn’t want to take any risk.

Khan looked back to the escort who was watching through the window from the dining hall. The escort nodded to Khan. He didn’t understand what the escort was nodding about.

He decided to just join Shiro. Khan was extremely tired waking up so early in the morning because of his nervousness. It was still about 1pm so the temperature was still at its peak allowing Khan to sleep comfortably for about 2 to 3 hours.

Khan lay down next to Shiro facing the direction the escort was at. The escort gave Khan the “What the hell are you doing” face, but didn’t take any action in case this was part of Khan’s plan. It wasn’t really his plan as he was just really tired and didn’t feel like waking Shiro up.

He felt comfortable as he lies next to Shiro. He felt drowsiness slowly overcome him as he closed his eyes.

When Khan woke up he felt someone poking at his cheeks. In front of Khan he could only see beautiful blue eyes watching him. Their face was close enough to feel each other breath.

Khan quickly got up and respectfully bowed to Shiro.

“I’m sorry I didn’t want to wake you up so I decided to join you in taking a nap as the weather is perfect.” Khan said.

“I don’t mind, but may I ask who you are?” Shiro replied with a giggle.

“I was appointed to be your bodyguard today by your mother, my name is Hiro Naru.”

Shiro got up from the ground, brushing off the cherry blossom petals off her white one piece dress that was stained green by the grass. Then she slightly bent forward with her hands behind her back looking upward to Khan with her wide blue eyes.

“Nice to meet you Hiro, My name is Shiro Yukimura, but you can just call me Shiro. If you want to be my bodyguard then you have to follow only one rule.”

“What’s the rule?”

“I don’t want you to think of yourself as my bodyguard, but as friends instead. Ok?” Shiro said with a lovely smile.

“Sure.” Khan replied.

“Hehe yay! We’re going to have lots of fun!”

Khan couldn’t deny it, but he felt happy from gaining his second friend that day. For Shiro it was her first friend so it left an even bigger impact on her.

For the next few months their bond just kept growing from the days they spent together.

In the day time Khan would do everything with Shiro. He joined her on all her training and studying, they enjoyed every meal together, spent her free time playing games or watching movies, napped under the cherry blossom tree, and anything else that the Yukimura house had to offer for entertainment.

It was a blissful time for them, but Khan wished that Yuna was here to join them. This was the first time he spent a summer without Yuna since they’ve met.

At night Khan would shadow the different members of the Yukimura Clan to understand what motivates them, expectation of the leadership, and any other relevant information he thought he might needed. He was able to understand the conflict created within from the transition over to a legitimate business clan, but there were still some information that he couldn’t get without having to sneak around for such as the monthly leadership meeting within the clan.

Khan secretly listened in the monthly leadership meetings within the clan by either hiding within the ceiling or vents to listen to the arguments between the leaders on why certain decisions should or shouldn’t be made. This mainly helped Khan understand the difference between a great leader and a bad leader. He was able to differentiate the leaders by comparing the reaction between the leaders and using the information he gained from the lower ranking members.

The biggest problem for Khan was that Shiro parents weren’t there. They were the ones who made the final decision and their opinions held the most weight within the clan. Khan wanted to personally see their leading style so he could compare it to his parents.

Shiro parents haven’t been back since Khan came to the Yukimura Clan. Goryuki told them that Shiro parents went on a vacation, which is why they got the bodyguard for Shiro. Every time they were supposed to come back Goryuki would say that they decided to extend their vacation.

Khan noticed over the course of 3 months the atmosphere within the Yukimura Clan was rapidly deteriorating. Tension was running high within the members. Some people who were friendly to Khan in the beginning became hostile.

Khan tried to figure out why this was the case, but there were a lot of things he still didn’t understand. This was a major problem for Khan because he was losing out on the experience and knowledge of things that would benefit him later, but he had no one to ask to clear things up for him as he couldn’t contact his parents.

The only other person Khan could’ve asked was Goryuki who was second in command of the clan because he was the younger brother of the clan leader. After their first meeting he didn’t harass Khan much when he was with Shiro, but he was drunk every time they met so they didn’t really have any meaningful interaction with each other. It was frustrating for Khan, but he couldn’t do much about it.

Shiro didn’t notice anything different at all within the clan as she is too young to understand what’s going on. She was raised differently from Khan because she doesn’t want to and isn’t expected to take over the Yukimura Clan while Khan is exactly the opposite.

Half way into the 4th month since Khan has been at the clan, Shiro grabbed hold of Khans hand begging him to sleep with her that night. Khan couldn’t say no because she was crying. She said that she felt that something extremely bad had happened, but she didn’t know what it was.

That night Shiro embraced him as she cried her eyes out. He wasn’t sure on how to comfort her so he held her head to his chest. That was what his mother did for Khan throughout his childhood when he was depressed about not being able to make friends at school. It comforted him when he felt the warmth of his mother.

After being held by Khan, Shiro looked up to him with her beautiful blue eyes that were still red from crying. Khan wiped the tears off her cheeks with his fingers. He couldn’t help, but be captivated when the moonlight shined down through a nearby window within her room that highlighted her beauty.

“Since you been here, I’ve never been happier in my life. It doesn’t mean I hated my life or I was unhappy, I have people who love and care for me like my mother and father. It’s just I’ve never had any friends before and desperately wanted to meet other children around my age, but you’re more than that to me.”

Before Khan could say anything she pressed her lips against his. The kiss only lasted 10 seconds, but Khan could still feel the warmth of her lips. Shiro face burnt up.

They lay there in silence after the kiss. She looked at Khan one more time as she continue to embrace his warmth before falling into a deep slumber.

Khan woke up early in the morning. He climbed out of bed without waking up Shiro. She had a huge smile on her face with drool flowing down her cheeks.

He smiled at the sight and continued on to look for some members to shadow before Shiro woke up. When he entered the hall he noticed that there were no guards patrolling the hall. He decided to go to the main hall to see if there was an event going on.

There was no one in the building as he headed towards the main hall. Khan felt uneasy as if someone was watching him. When he got to the entrance to the main hall, Khan decided it would be best to head back to Shiro, but when he turned around to head back. He caught one of the clansmen sneaking up from behind to attack him. Khan barely blocked the powerful punch by bringing up his arms into a cross guard, but was sent flying through the door the main hall.

He was able to land on his two feet, but he felt pain from his arms from the attack. The attacker was advance Ki class that was a rank below the expert Ki class that Khan was currently in.

In the middle of the main hall sat Goryuki who was actually sober for once. He was wearing a white robe with the Yukimura Clan sign on the back. In his hand was a black 2-handed sword.

Yukimura Clan was known for their Yukimura Sword Art that only the main family members are allowed to practice. It’s based around on one simple concept, which is mastering Ki infusion with the sword. Instead of adding more power to the sword with the Ki the Yukimura Clan train to use the smallest amount of Ki while the user continually refines the Ki on the edge of the sword to increase the sharpness to cut through anything.

Infusing Ki with weapons is an extremely difficult feat to achieve. It requires high Ki manipulation to add Ki to your weapon as you have to maintain the cost of Ki over time and maintain a certain level of concentration. Of course there are many clans that can also do that, but they haven’t been able to master expelling Ki from the sword, which makes the Yukimura Sword Art famous.

The skill is known as [Sword Wave] where the Ki expel from sword in a crescent wave cutting anything within its path. If your Ki defense is low then [Sword Wave] will cut through you like butter. What makes this skill even more fearsome is that you can’t see the [Sword Wave] with the naked eye unless you can sense Ki, which is very rare. Many have fallen victim to this skill before they even know what hit them.

This is something Khan can’t master yet because he lacks the ability to manipulate Ki efficiently. He was blessed with a large amount of Ki, but his skills drain more Ki than the average master.

“Kid what are you doing here? You should be with Shiro.” Goryuki said calmly.

He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he did understand that Goryuki is completely different when he sober, but this wasn’t the time to be amazed about that newfound fact.

Khan wanted to head back to Shiro, but the entrance blocked off from hostile clan members.

“Kid don’t worry about Shiro I have someone to protect her from the shadow. You should worry about yourself and don’t worry about using your power here I already know who you are, Khan La.” Goryuki said as he gave him a fierce glare.

The hostile clan members poured into the room by the hundreds. They slowly advance toward Khan and Goryuki. The members all wore black suits, but each had different weapons according to what their style was. There were 15 advance Ki class with the rest being lower rank Ki users that could barely touch Khan in a one vs. one duel.

Khan breath became heavy as his heart started pounding heavily from the suspense. He slowly turned his head gazing at all the members who had their fists clenched or weapons ready.

“Good luck kid and have fun.” Goryuki said with a smile.

He gave a thunderous roar as he charged head first into the crowd. Every time he swung his sword the clansmen would drop like flies. His face was in ecstasy as he continued to end the life of his own clansmen.

Khan was confused at this turned of events. He thought that Goryuki might’ve been the one he would have to fight.

He decided not to think about it anymore. The air pressure around Khan became heavy as small burst of static lightning formed around his body.

Hundreds of enemies came charging at Khan at full speed.

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