Notes:
This is a companion fic to 'Retribution', in which the boy Kyuzo was trained in an all-female dojo. The people Kyuuzou refers to as his sisters are not his biological sisters. They are his Sensei's older students. Kyuuzou is 11 in this chapter. He had been studying with his Sensei for about a year. Ayame is 14, Mizuho is 18.
Summary: A young boy raised among female fighters is destined to be the perpetual outsider.
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Awkward and silent, the young boy stood stonily in the courtyard, watching his dojo sisters welcome their friends. The visitors were two girls from a martial arts school in the next town. Kyuuzou did not quite know what to do around strangers, other than to observe them. But he was given something else to do soon enough.
"Ototo-chan! Bring some tea for the guests, will you?!!" Ayame and Mizuho called out to him and then promptly turned their attention back to their friends.
Dutifully, Kyuuzou brought the tea, receiving a cursory round of thanks from the four older fighters. No one thought to ask him to join the tea party. Young Kyuuzou sighed inaudibly. Was he doomed to hang out with girls for the rest of his life?
The girls of the dojo got along well each other but they weren't always very warm to him, or so Kyuuzou thought. Right now, his dojo sisters were completely ignoring him, engrossed as they were in their own little world. Ayame could be attentive to him at times, but only if there was no other more interesting company around, such as other girls. Kyuuzou perceived, rightly or not, that Third Sister only made the effort to be nice to him in order to make up for her past bullying. Second Sister Mizuho had always been kind, but then, she was courteous and warm to everyone. 'Little Sister' Kyuuzou was presently only an afterthought to his esteeme senpai.
He was not one of the girls, even if he wanted to be. On the other hand, Kyuuzou didn't really want to keep company with boys either - those he encountered his earlier life were mean to him, each unworthy of his respect. After all, it had been boys who had mocked his family. It had been boys who shoved him and hit him. But in turn, he had made them suffer for it.
He stayed a while and listened to their chatter as the visitors showed off the gains of their latest shopping trip.
"Look what I brought back from our Northland vacation!"
"Aahh....you bought that?"
"Waah... I like the pommel. Pretty!"
"Check out the blade."
"Oooooh... sharp!"
"Straight blade, double-edged ... I can hardly wait to practice more with this! Cuts both ways! Think 'maximum damage'!"
"They don't make too many of these locally nowadays."
"But they did in the ancient past. Back then, swords were straight-bladed, double-edged..."
"So they were. You can cosplay an ancient warrior queen then! Haha!"
"We were practicing with a couple of maidens in the Northlands. One of them was also a double sword fighter. But she used swords like this - straight-bladed, double-edged. Dang! She was cool to watch! Almost got me a couple of times."
Teenage maidens and their shopping, socializing and weapons obsession! Kyuuzou silently rolled his eyes and retreated out of the living room. Nobody acknowledged his departure. Was he destined to be the perpetual outsider? Always looking in on this strange world of closely-knit fighters but never truly part of it?
