Thank you so much for the reviews anonymous0624, 4n9l3 A, and Lau! As promised, the next chapter. I will try my best to avoid slow-paced plots, so there will be a lot of time skipped in this chapter. I need her to be as prepared as possible for the future, so I won't bore you with the details of her time adjusting to the castle.
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Chapter 2: The Way of the Sword
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Kiki gritted her teeth and hurriedly raised the sword to deflect a blow aimed for her head. The loud clang! brought by the clashing steel reverberated inside her skull, making her wince involuntarily.
On the other hand, Mitsuhide was looking uncharacteristically serious. He didn't pull his sword back. Instead, he proceeded to push against their crossed weapons, slowly putting his whole weight into it.
Knowing she couldn't win against sheer strength, she hurriedly jumped back and put some distance between them, giving herself time to recover. Mitsuhide relented, much to her relief, staring at her across the room silently with an unreadable expression on his face.
Meanwhile, watching intently from the sidelines is Prince Zen. His bright blue eyes narrowed at her form in concentration, making her feel slightly self-conscious.
Deciding she had rested enough, she quickly charged towards Mitsuhide and went for the offensive, delivering fast but hard blows to her opponent. Her tired arms shook from the effort, but she swiftly ignored it.
Unfortunately for her, Mitsuhide blocked them all as if it were nothing but bothersome flies, looking not even winded in the slightest. Tired, she began slowing down, something which Mitsuhide caught and took advantage of. He suddenly lunged forward and thrust his blade towards her stomach, which she quickly parried.
She was mainly on the defensive, and it stung that all those years practicing Kendo and she can't even lay a single scratch on the blue-haired man. She thought she could at least tire him out (she wasn't deluded into thinking she could defeat him. Mitsuhide is one of the best swordsmen in this kingdom after all.) Instead, he looked exactly like he did before the fight even started: Fresh and still full of energy.
To her extreme disappointment, her tired arms just couldn't take another second of his heavy attacks anymore and her grip on the sword became slack. Seeing this, Mitsuhide quickly took the chance and finally disarmed her.
Chest heaving and arms heavy with exhaustion, Kiki almost collapsed on her backside before deciding to retain what was left of her pride. Her unsteady legs protested very strongly though.
Seeing her – frankly – pathetic state, Mitsuhide frowned deeply and glanced at Zen, who was staring at her gravely. "It seems even your skills changed as well." He began almost hesitantly, "Needless to say, you really need a lot of training to return back to your original level of skill."
She knew he was just trying to soften the blow, but hearing his critique about her skill levels hurt. At best, her abilities with a sword could probably beat a novice swordsman or the random bandit, but not a fully-fledged knight. She had been training since she was a child, so how could she be this bad?
She already knew the answer; Kendo is only a sport. It can never beat a real swordfight. Her fight today with Mitsuhide already proved that. She can tell he was only going easy on her, and that knowledge didn't help soothe her wounded pride at all.
She turned abruptly and took her time to return the sword to its sheath. The looks of pity they were sending her only succeeded in making her feel frustrated and even more humiliated.
"Kiki…" Mitsuhide called, and she turned back to gaze at him with a carefully blank expression to hide her frustration. It didn't look like she did a good job though, since it had made the Prince wince.
However, Mitsuhide didn't give any indication that he saw. He just gazed at her with determined eyes, hands tightly gripping the hilt of his sword. She was about to turn back around after he remained silent for too long, but was abruptly cut off by his stern voice. "We will start training here beginning early tomorrow morning. Be ready."
Her eyes widened, and even the Prince stared at his close aide like he had grown an extra head. Mitsuhide brushed off their stares though, only continuing to gaze unwaveringly at her. She hasn't moved an inch, too surprised by his offer to continue teaching her even after he had seen how her skills have apparently 'diminished' to being borderline pitiful.
However… it didn't look like he was mocking her. He only looked determined to help.
The knowledge instantly filled her with gratitude.
"Thank you."
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Mitsuhide's promise proved true the next morning. Not that she isn't grateful, but the blue-haired man was a total beast when it comes to training. It always left her whole body sore and aching afterwards, with a couple more bruises appearing later in the day.
And that became their routine.
Sometimes, the Prince watched. Sometimes, he even joins them. Those days were always the hardest, because it was where she found out that the Prince is just as skilled and ruthless as Mitsuhide. There's no denying that Mitsuhide is the most skilled among the two, but the Prince is just an endless bound of energy because of his youth. It required extreme concentration in order to keep up with him.
At the beginning, it completely confused her as to why they were practically beating 'Kiki' up every time they trained. Surely, they must still think they were fighting the 'real Kiki'. But what if they knew what really happened and was just trying to get revenge on her in the guise of training? The sheer possibilities that thought brought scared her and caused quite a lot of sleepless nights the first few weeks.
An unexpected incident involving her accidentally overhearing a conversation between them got rid of that theory though. Because she realized it was actually because they just wanted to help her 'get back to normal' as soon as possible. Not because they were afraid that people will get suspicious by her strange behavior; it was because they missed the old Kiki.
Hearing that nearly broke her heart. She knew it wasn't really her fault that this happened, but it still left her feeling extremely guilty. They missed the old Kiki, and while they thought she would come back once they helped her relearn everything, 'Kiki' knew deep down that will never happen. Not unless the real Kiki does come back and she finally returns to her own world.
Thinking about that made her wonder what happened to the real Kiki. Did they switch places? Or is she – god forbid – dead?
Was she truly inhabiting a dead woman's body the whole time?
The mere thought nearly made her sick. To think she has been living this life as if everything is happy and normal, while the real owner of this body was most probably dead, forcibly ejected from her own body only for an impostor to take her place.
Zen and Mitsuhide might never know that the real Kiki is already long dead and they have been talking to a fake all this time, and it hurts because she knows they don't deserve all of that grief and suffering, especially since she is the primary cause of it.
They are both too kind to be treated this poorly by whoever sent her here. They have been nothing if not helpful to her the whole time. They taught her everything she knew, and she'll do everything to repay that kindness.
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Six months later…
The sound of endless clashing swords echoed inside the training chamber, every clash sending dim sparks in the air and causing Kiki to grin with delight and excitement.
In response, her opponent's eyes narrowed in concentration, before abruptly slashing his sword in a sideways motion in an attempt to distract her. She was not deterred, however, and hurriedly jumped back to avoid the wickedly sharp blade. He then followed with a powerful thrust towards her abdomen, which she dodged without a pause, causing him to stumble forward.
Not giving him a chance to recover from his blunder, she charged forward, months of harsh training enabling her to move past his defenses and, in a quick flash of motion, finally disarmed her opponent.
Three stunned eyes watched as the wooden sword was yanked away from his grip and began spinning uncontrollably in the air from the force before finally clattering to the ground.
Both men were staring at her now, while Kiki just stared back in astonishment. She could almost ignore her exhaustion and her breathlessness; the duel had lasted approximately fifteen minutes, a new record.
To add to her shock, the Prince suddenly burst into laughter, his hands still trembling from the abrupt wrenching of the sword from his hands. Hearing the lighthearted sound, Kiki's eyes softened and she let out a long sigh of relief.
It was the first time she ever won in a duel against one of her teachers, and the realization nearly made her laugh with delight. Her six months full of strict training has finally paid off. She knew she still had a long way to go, but this is a sign that she was doing very well.
She turned to look at her other trainer expectantly, and was quickly filled with joy at the huge smile blossoming on his face. "Congratulations Kiki!" Mitsuhide said sincerely, "A few more months and you'll be back to normal in no time."
"Have to say though," The Prince picked up the sword and turned it to reveal the slight cracks decorating its surface. "You've certainly got your strength back." He smiled warmly, "Good job Kiki."
She smiled and bowed, "Thank you for your patience. Mitsuhide. Zen."
They bowed to her as well, small smiles decorating all of their faces, before straightening up. The past several months has been a hard trial for 'Kiki'. Immediately after finding out about her supposed 'amnesia', Mitsuhide quickly took it upon himself to teach her the ways of the sword, and had been training with her every morning for three hours straight until she could barely hold her whole body upright.
He was a strict and harsh teacher, but she can't deny that his teachings are very effective. She could definitely feel her skills and strength improving, something which Kendo had never done for her. She was certain if she could go back to her own world right now, she would beat every single opponent in a match and still have energy to spare.
However, in addition to training her with the sword, he also agreed to teach her horseback riding.
She could tell he had been a bit suspicious when she told him that she had forgotten how, since they all know it had been taught since a young age and she had claimed to only lose her memories before she worked in the castle, but he still acquiesced. The lessons took up almost her whole afternoons, and always left her legs and back sore.
She knew it would pay off though. She couldn't count how many times the characters rode on a horse in the anime. It's better to learn now than revealing later on that she 'forgot' how.
However, her trainings are not only over sword fighting and horseback riding, since Zen also took it upon himself to teach her the ways of the court, every nook and cranny of the castle, all the names of the most important people, and pretty much everything else after learning that she truly 'forgot' everything. To cut a long story short, in the past several months, her only schedule involved exhausting herself in training in the mornings, horseback riding lessons in the afternoons, and reading herself to sleep about everything the Prince thought she needed to know in the evenings. The cycle would then repeat all over again the next day.
As expected, not everything is all sunshine and daisies. She had a few bad moments too, most notably some strange mannerisms and attitudes that started showing itself despite her best efforts to stay in character.
However, to cut her some slack, acting all day long was terribly exhausting. She was certain she'll finally get a hang of it in a year or two, but right now she can't help the slight slip-ups. It wasn't her fault that she sometimes accidentally uses slang words instead of their formal forms whenever she's feeling particularly tired to keep the facade up. Or whenever she shows too much emotion than what was appropriate.
During the most difficult days, she sometimes ended up wishing she was reincarnated as Mitsuhide instead. That way, she can show emotions more freely, as he was prone to do. However, the mere thought that the real Kiki would be there, and probably guess what really happened just by looking at her, made her quickly think otherwise.
Thankfully, Zen and Mitsuhide only associated her strange behavior with her sudden amnesia and never questioned her too much on it, though they had been understandably confused and suspicious. She knew it would only be a matter of time before they found out the truth, (after all, she can't always use her 'amnesia' as an excuse for everything) but that doesn't mean they have to find out now.
If they ever find out the truth, well… she'll cross that bridge when she gets there.
Outside of training and constant acting though, she always makes sure she finds the time to accustom herself to life inside the castle, interacting with the people in it and even exploring by herself to test what she learned in Zen's lessons. It was then she found out that almost every guard has a crush on 'Kiki,' presumably due to her coolness and skill. She almost laughed when she found out… if only they knew.
It was also during these explorations that she found herself going to the pharmacy one day, extremely curious about the fate of the other main character. The last time she visited here, she found no trace of a girl with unusual red hair, so she was understandably bewildered and curious.
Arriving there under the guise of getting medicine for a headache, Kiki asked an assistant if the child court herbalist, Ryuu, has ever had an assistant for himself. To her disappointment, the assistant informed her that he never had one as far as he knew. And she didn't doubt that, as she was fairly sure he'll remember a girl with very rare and vibrant red hair as an assistant court herbalist. After all, no one could just forget someone like Shirayuki.
While that is all well and good, this information only revealed that she had arrived before the main events of the series took place. Zen has yet to meet Shirayuki, and she hasn't cut her hair yet. The real question is, when exactly in the timeline did she arrive in?
A quick question to Mitsuhide answered that question; she is twenty years old now. Mitsuhide is twenty-three, and the Prince is nineteen. All their ages lined up with their confirmed ages in the start of the series, so that must mean a few months from now, they will visit an abandoned house and 'unexpectedly' meet with a certain eighteen-year-old red-haired girl, and the plot will finally begin.
With how busy she is, she never really had the time to think about why and how she ended up here, as well as the possible consequences. It frankly relieved her, because she doesn't want to dwell on it. She knew ignoring it is bad, but she simply doesn't have the time even if she wanted to. Training and studying took up all of her time.
Though at the rate they were going, as well as Kiki's desire to learn everything as soon as possible, resulted in her finally memorizing everything in Zen's teachings and even managing to beat the Prince in a duel. She was quite proud of her accomplishments, and it seems they are too, since they finally declared that it's time she accompanied them for a simple inspection outside the castle and the capital.
"Where?" She had asked when they brought it up.
"Fort Laxdo."
She had only just managed to contain her expression before it displayed her shock for all to see. The mere mention of the place instantly made her think of the 'epidemic' that happened in the Fort, as well as the bandit fight.
It also brought her back to the time she had been studying the map of Clarines (and Tanbarun) by herself. They had obviously expected her to already know the whole kingdom of Clarines since she was born there, so she never asked them to teach her and studied it herself.
One of the first places she checked while studying the map is the Fort. Fort Laxdo is located in the northeast of Clarines, but not so far up north as Lyrias. Zen also told her about the lands under his jurisdiction and Fort Laxdo was one of them. To think that she'll go to one of the main plot's locations so soon…
She just knew those horseback riding lessons would eventually pay off.
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Please review! Any questions, feel free to ask. I hope you enjoyed!