A warrior's spirit lost stories
Saito: Hey demigod kun are we really doing this?
Me: Yep, cause the viewers want to know what happened during those moments
Louise: it's not going to have of those harem tropes do they?
Me: hold your horses Louise, your going to far ahead. This first chapter is going to be in you POV Saito.
Saito: Really?
Me: yeah, but don't get ahead of yourself. The main story isn't finished yet and I'm still working on future chapters for it.
Louise: well then hurry cause I want to know how it ends!
Me: hey stories take time to write… but any way let go to our first story called the "knights first day of training"
The knights first day of training:
POV: Saito
I gave guiche and his knights two days of rest before they can officially start the training. when I first met him he seems to give off the vibes of a playboy or something. You know guys make women fell in love with you quite easily and hop on to the next? Well as I have come to learn that he hated that part of himself, he couldn't help it. He lived under a strict father and became that way because he hated his strict life. I was taking a few practice swings with my boken on a practice dummy. Many of the other samurai are either doing the same thing, or they are sparing or practicing their katas with either a weapon or their hands. according to samurai tradition as a warrior you must master all kinds of weapons. Close quarters, range weapons and of course unconventional weapons as well as our minds. Although I'm good with the sword and fire arms but my greatest weapon was my mind. It's one of the reasons why I often volunteer for shinobi missions. I turned to see the 4 knights walked in as I heard the doors to the dojo slide open. They were wearing the training Gi we often used for training. Honestly Malincorne seems a bit too big in the middle but I decided not to mention it. I walked up to the boys as I decided to begin their instructions. I noticed that the four knights are nervouse which is common, especially if you have a few warriors staring at you. also the training we do here if meant for war.
"Alright boys welcome to the dojo." I welcomed them.
"Um saito." I turned to Malincorne who looked like he was about to piss his pants.
"Nani?" I asked.
"why is everyone looking at us?" I smiled at his question, I don't blame him, a bunch of scary looking guys looking right at you could scare anyone.
"they just want to see how good you are, and are probably placing bets on how long you will last." I answered.
"Such confidence eh?" Guiche said sheepishly. I smiled at that but times a wasting. We must get going.
"alright let's get started and begin our training, starting with what you already know." I walked up to a set of shinai that are on the side of the dojo. These straight practice plades are normally used for practice and sparing where bokens aren't used.
"Guiche you're up first." I called out bringing over the shinai. I let him choose his blade and he picked a single handed one. Interesting, most swords that we used are two handed and single handed swords are usually used as self-defense and indoors. Guiche and I turned to face each other and bowed in respect. His method of bowing is really different. He raised his blade in front of his face and then brings it down to his side and open up his arms while taking a step back as he bowed. Mine was simpler of just arching your back. As we took our stance I noticed the difference in style. He held his bod sideways compared to squaring up like how most swordsman do in my country. His blade pointing to the front for maximum reach while having the left hand further back as if to keep his balance. His stance seem solid but it seems like it's mostly meant for a judicial duel which nearly made me laugh. This guy is used to duels but it looks like hasn't had any experience himself.
It took like a good minute for us to start and Guiche leaped with an all-out thrust while I just dodge and thrust my blade to his neck. He was shocked to see that and he asked me to do it again. And so we continued. Our "duels as one may call it ended in my victories over and over, Guiche seems to be learning quick from his mistakes and started making cuts and parries as well. His last bound with me ending in my victory as I landed my sword twice on him. He went for an overhead cut but I countered by stepping forward and slashed his stomach and finishing off with a smack to his back making him fall to the ground on his face. The other samurai laughed at this seeing his failures one after another. It was comical to begin with but he started to get a little more serious and reckless at the last part.
"[Help him up]" I called up in my native language, and two samurai picked guiche up and brought him to the nearest resting corner where we often take a rest and play shogi while others are practicing. They made sure that he's alright but he looked defeated. I turned to the other three and called them out. Reynald and Gimili were no better than their commander but their stances are almost the same as mine but Reynald used the one handed blade while Gimili used the two handed blade. Malincorne however was the worst of the four and it was as obvious as black eye. His stance was horrible and his swings were clumsy and overly committed, not to mention that he uses to much energy in his movements. His balance was the worst and every time he swung he would trip or fall on his face. It was comicall at first but every time he tried it ended up in the same way which made it more serious and not funny anymore. As our practice came to an end I saw Guiches girlfriend, Montmorency or so if I recall. She looked worried and walked up to me.
"Will Guiche be alright?" Montmorency asked. I looked at her straight in the eyes and answered.
"He has a lot to learn. I will rectify his problems. I promise you that." I left her just so she could talk. That night I was thinking on how to train them properly, then I realized that I must start with their weaknesses.
The next morning I was talking to the boys over breakfast. Today's meal was grilled dry marcel with tamago and brown rice. I took a sip of my tea before addressing the boys.
"alright here is what we are going to do today." I started but the four knight looked defeated.
"Hey now you don't need to look down like that!" I said trying to comfort them.
"It's just that yesterday you showed us how bad we are compared to others in a one on one fight." Guiche said downcast.
"The battle with the bandits was bad enough but we were the worst." Malincorne added while crying. I couldn't help but sweat drop at this.
"Listen boys, yesterday was meant to evaluate your skills and we have learned a whole bunch about them. Now we can see how to make them better." I told them
"Really?" All four of them shout as their eyes gleamed in anticipation.
"Yes and today we are going to see how to rectify your styles and stances." Saito said smiling.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Gimli shouted.
"Hold up boys, let's eat up first. It's rude to leave anything left on your plates." Said told the boys, gimli looked down on his food which he had barely eaten and started wolfing down. The other boys looked at gimli with a surprised look in their eyes.
"And people say I eat a lot." Malincorne commented. After breakfast we went straight to the dojo to get the lessons going. After some stretching I started with Guiche since he takes the least amount of work.
"Alright Guich show me your stance." I told him.
"Alright!" guiche took his stance with the blade in hand. I took a careful look on him and realized what must be done and walked over to him.
"Your stance is made for dueling so it makes sense to make yourself less of a target. But in battle and self-defense that type of stance only hinders you movement for a little." I lectured, I went behind Guiche and squared his shoulders and solidify his stance, I even pulled his left hand to the front without extending it too far.
"If you're wearing armor then you should square up to your opponent in order to maximize its effectiveness. And keep your left hand to the front, it'll help you with defense. Got it?" I told Guiche
"I see! Thank you." Guiche thanked.
"Alright let's test it out." I told him as I took a stance to fight him. I knocked his blade away with an over commited downward cut to the head but Guiche went for an upwards diagonal cut to the right side of my torso after I knocked his blade upwards, his recovery was really quick and fast it was a great improvement even Guiche was surprised himself.
"Remember I went easy on you just so you can feel the difference. However you did well for your first time to counter on a simple parry like that." I praised.
"I see… and you're right I can feel the difference. This could work." Guiche said in amazement.
"Alright reynald you next." I called.
"Yes sir!" Reynald answered as he took his stance. His is more by the book and seems to have everything right but the problem was obvious as I walked up to him.
"You're too stiff, loosen up a little. If you're far too static in a fight then you don't have enough time to counter or avoid an attack by your opponent. So try and keep your mind calm. I suggest practice a few mind calming trick and hand gestures." I advised.
"I see… I understand." Reynald said calmly. He must have listened very carefully cause he was really focused.
"Keito over there will help you with that. He's a shinobi so he's an expert in keeping calm under pressure… I'll translate if you need help." I told him.
"Thank you." Reynald added. I went to gimli and he knew that he's next. He immediately went to his stance and I Inspected him. All seems normal but I wonder why he was not good, then it hit me on our sparring seccions so I decided to tell him to swing.
"Gimli try swinging." And he did, and now I see the problem after about 5 swings.
"Ok stop right there." I called, and gimli looked at me wondering why I asked him that.
"You're wasting to much energy on your swings. Try using less movement on your swings. Oda here will guide you with that." I said pointing to oda. Oda is one of the oldest samurai and a veteran in the castle; He taught me almost everything I know when it comes to a fight.
"yes sir!" Gimli said smiling.
"That leaves you Malincorne!" I called.
"Yes sir!" he called and took his stance. It was really obvious to see why he was failing in his balance and was easily knocked around. His stance was horrible, even an amateur tournament fighter could take him down easily.
"Malincorne your problem lies in your balance." I told him bluntly.
"Huh?" He asked. I walked up to him just to put a demonstration on him.
"Look at your legs." I told, and he did, his legs were bent inwards and they are an easy weakness to exploit.
"If your knees are bent like that then I don't need a weapon to take you down. And if you try and fight someone like that." I lectured, then without warning I quickly knocked his weapon away which flew out off his hands and I immediately grappled him to the ground using his legs as a lever to get him to the ground. As he hit the ground he had stunned look on his face. He quickly recovered but was still surprised that I took him down with ease.
"Then your own weight will literally become your downfall. And it doesn't matter if you are round or skinny. No offense." I told him.
"No taken saito , and thank you." He said thanking me.
"Also like Gimli you're over committing yourself. Learn to be more frugal in your movement." I lectured as I stood up while holding my hand up to him.
"I understand." Malincorne said taking my hand. I helped him up and biy was he heavy. He could easily become a sumo wrestler if he wishes. Wait sumo wrestler? I'll be sure to keep that in mind.
"If you have a much more solid stance like this." I said showing his a solid fighting stance
"Then not only are you much more of a threat but you won't be as easily taken down. We'll start with your stance first then we'll move on from there. In the meantime I'll search a good program for you to improve your stance." I added. With that we continued our training the tips and tricks ZI gave them certainly helped a great deal. In just a week their fighting style greatly improved. Malincorne still has some problems with his balance in his stances but he lasted much longer in his sparing sessions. Reynald was much calmer and loose compared to before. Gimli was using less energy and movement than what he used to, he still uses a bit too much but it was allot less than it used to be. And as for Guiche he improved greatly. He even had more of a chance winning against me, his fighting style became much more graceful than what it used to be. Will a little more tweaks I think that he would become more deadly.
"[Hey oda do we have some boshuriken and a tanto Lying around?]" I asked oda while we were on the sidelines.
"[I think we do, why]?" Oda ask after he answered.
"[I have a feeling that if we tweak Guiche's fighting style with these two weapons, he could become my equal.]" I told him. Oda looked at me in surprise but then he smiled knowing where I was going with. I have high hopes for these knights, and if everything goes right maybe they would become the strongest knight in there kindom. Only time will tell if they deserve such praise. That Night as I was walking to my chamber I saw monmorency standing in the hallway wearing he sleeping yukata.
"I want to say thank you for teaching Guiche saito." Montmorency thanked. I smiled at her for her honesty.
"You don't need to thank me. I was just doing him a favor." I answered humbly.
"you know I have never seen him take his training so seriously before in all the days I've dated him" She continued.
"I surprised that a guy like him would want to become a better swordsman, he seems like the type of guy who would make any girl fall in love with him and date all that do." I commented.
"He is that type of guy." Montmorency answered. I looked at her confused but she continued as she told me the entire story.
"he couldn't help himself, he's handsome, charming and he's quite the smooth talker, I was cold to him at first but then he fell in love with me." She said.
"Because of your attitude towards him?" I asked. She nodded at that.
"I fell for him along the way and we officially sarted our court ship two years ago. But he still has that bad habit. But he's still trying to change that for my sake." I couldn't help but smile at her. She has huge trouble with this one guy and is still going strong despite all that.
"You're a committed girl I'll give you that, but most girls would just dump guys like him and move on after a month or so. But you still love him?" I asked.
"I don't want any girl to have him but me." She answered.
"Guys like guiche are weak against strong women, it's ok to show your anger towards him, it makes them realize that women are not toys, but are human beings as well and they should be played around with." I answered
"Really?" Montmorency asked.
"Of course." I answered. With that we went our separate ways. As I walked into my room I realized how much of a ride Guiche is going to be in, I almost feel sorry for him. But then again he needs it big time. I know women can be scarry, I've had plenty of experience myself with both my family and some of my former classmates back in grade school. I just hope that things will work out for the best for them.
Me: And there we go.
Saito: So short!
Me: want me to make it longer?
Saito: maybe next time. And this seems to go great with the story plot line. Now that I realized, both lightnovels, anime and manga never mentioned my family, heck no one knows if have a sibling or something.
Me: ok I'll make it longer next time. And if you want I can give you my version of your family
Saito: sounds good.
Me: Next story will be about you and Louise.
Louise: you mean how we met?
Me: I have set up a back ground but we'll do a full story on that.
