Chapter Three: Matches

The 20th Generation woke up fairly early and decided to cook the breakfast with the kuroko. Even if they weren`t really comfortable around their "ancestors" they knew that they had to thank them for their hospitality.

Mako had to admit that she was slightly jealous of their cooking skills, though she had taken some cooking courses she was still deficient in that area but still she complimented the other samurai.

"Where you learnt to cook this well?" She asked.

"Atsushi is a chef –in-training and one of Mimi`s stepfathers was a chef" Ryuuzo mentioned with pride as if he was the one he was talking about.

"Stepfathers?" Tanba asked scandalized "Divorce is a disgrace for the sam…"

Kaoru threw her fan to her caretaker with annoyance and said "Silence" Though if she was honest with herself she was kind of uncomfortable with the thought of the samurai divorcing and remarrying as commoners.

"Well…taking in account the fact that most of us have divorced, separated or unknown parents, the samurai are not so honourable in the future" Kasumi muttered behind her tea but everyone heard it.

"Say that to yourself" Mitsuki said sharply and looked to her nails.

That created an awkward silence. Mako questioned herself what could have gone wrong with their marriages and family, Chiaki was questioning himself if he had gone down the path everyone had thought he would, Kotoha questioned herself if someone would marry her in the future.

"Maybe we could train together" Takuto said to no-one in specific and it seemed to be a good way to dissipate the tension.

"That would be great" Kotoha said with a smile that was returned by the young man.

By the time they had gotten to the training yard, some of the uneasiness dissipated since they were paying more attention to their swordplay than to the others, also it was a way to know each other without having an awkward conversation.

They were set up in pairs and for spacing reasons, they waited for their turns.

The first pairs were: Takeru and Kasumi, Kotoha and Mitsuki. Both of the pairs were on a tie.

"Kasumi-chan is really good" Mako commented with a smile "Is not every day that you see that someone match Takeru`s skill"

"She usually slacks off in everything" Takuto commented with an affectionate smile "But when it comes to samurai training she takes it seriously as she was trained by one of the best swordsman in Japan, though that is mostly because of her brother…" Then he stopped talking and shook his head realizing that he was entering on an uncomfortable topic.

"Brother?" Ryuunosuke asked while looking at Kasumi. He thought about his generation, the only one with a sibling was Kotoha and that was because of Mitsuba`s sickness, usually their families had one child to focus solely on their training, although in times of need or if the oldest was sick or too untalented they would try to have more children.

"Yeah, her…twin brother" Takuto explained with an uncomfortable tone while he looked away "Since they are twins they had to compete against each other to take the place as a vassal of the Shiba Clan and as you may see…Kasumi was the one who won"

Ryuuzo snorted and said "And her brother was not happy about that, he was so angry at her that he cut off most of her hair during the night and then was punished by their father in a horrible way…they have not talked to each other since then"

"It must have been frustrating for him to lose against a girl…his younger sister and all" Takuto muttered to himself thinking about his own sister back home.

Mako wondered how their families could have ended so broken in the future, her dream had always been to become a mother. She watched Mimi who was looking her nail distractedly as if she wanted to keep some distance with the others, she seemed the calmest one in her group as she hadn't talked much since their arrival and tried to be in the background listening to what the others had to say.

"Are you saying that girls can't fight as good as boys do?" Mimi asked with a coy smile and with a teasing glint in her eyes.

"I`m not saying that" Takuto defended himself "Just that he must have felt that way"

"Sure" The black haired girl said rolling her eyes.

"She is good" Ryuunosuke commented as Kasumi and Takeru circled each other.

"Very good indeed" Mako muttered and then looked at Mitsuki and Kotoha.

Mitsuki wasn`t putting all her effort on to the match, she seemed to be entertaining herself more than training while Kotoha was giving all herself on to it. Still at the end Mitsuki decided to take the training seriously and turn the thing on something interesting.

"Mitsuki never put all her effort on to something" Atsushi commented with a small smile "She plays her opponents before going all the way with it"

"It is not good for a samurai to do that, everything has to be taken seriously when someone`s life is in danger" Ryuunosuke said scolding Atsushi and on extension Mitsuki even if she wasn`t hearing him.

"She wasn`t asked if she wanted to take over the honourable path of the samurai and save lifes" Atsushi responded "She was just thrown onto this"

Finally, Mitsuki and Kotoha ended on a tie as neither of them had more energy to continue and Kasumi won her match with Takeru to everyone`s surprise.

The 19th Head of the Shiba Clan was slightly shocked by his defeat but couldn`t deny that Kasumi had put all her effort on the match but it semeed as if she was trying to impress someone.

The auburn haired girl just drank some water and sat in the floor cross-legged and sighed looking at the sky "It was a good fight"

"It was a good fight" Takeru admitted with a smile, it had been a long time before someone could make him truly test his abilities in a training match and put a real effort on that.

Before the other matches could began, the Sukima Sensor alerted them about a Gedousshu attack.


Well, sorry for not updating this story but I couldn`t find time to write.

And now I have decided to continue this story.

Please comment and tell me what you think about this story.

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