Hey guys, Striker777 here with the next Arc of Loki's Renard. This will cover the past events of Volume 9 of the Sword Oratoria Light Novel, or for the poor shmucks too poor to afford the Light Novel like I am, the Recollection of the Wind event from Danmemo, as well as a bunch of other stories and lessons for Akihide to learn.

This Arc will heavily focus on the interaction between Ais and Akihide, as they learn to accept and cherish one another as siblings (despite incredibly rocky starts and several events that leave the two calling for blood), as well as Akihide's new life as a level 2. Anyway, be sure to vote and comment, but for now, onto the story!


Akihide, level 2 adventurer of the Loki Familia, looked at the doorway as Riveria and Gareth ushered in a small, blonde girl into the Twilight Manor. The level 4 and 5 members of the Familia were returning after a small Expedition to Floor 37, to one of the rings of the White Palace to take on Udaeus, the Monster Rex. Not only had they managed to come back without suffering a single casualty, they were bringing the small blonde girls along with them as well, each and every member looking at the girl as if they didn't understand her or what she was.

Akihide walked up to Riveria, grabbing onto her leg and held on, getting the attention of the High Elf. She looked down to see the smiling face of the young boy, gleaming at his mother. "Welcome home, mama!" he cried out, hugging her leg even tighter. Riveria smiled at the boy as she pat his head in an affectionate greeting, before turning her attention back to the blonde haired girl. Akihide followed her gaze to the girl before turning back to Riveria. "Who's she, mama?" he asked the green haired elf with curious eyes.

Riveria knelt down to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Akihide, this is Ais. She'll be staying with us from now on." said the Vice Captain of the Loki Familia, also bringing the girl closer by her shoulder. "Ais, this is Akihide. He's a member of our Familia, so you can think of him like... an older brother." said the woman, allowing the two to meet.

2 sets of golden eyes met, as the two carefully observed each other. Ais was a short girl, reaching only to Akihide's mouth in height, but her hair reached down to the middle of her back. It flowed magically, as if it never saw dirt in it's life, shiny and smooth. The two children looked at each other, before Ais huffed and turned away from Akihide.

In that moment, Akihide smiled, but not in the usual happy smile everyone was used to, but in an annoyed, ready to yell at someone smile, much like Riveria usually had on when she was dealing with Loki. The members of the Loki Familia could see his eyebrow begin to twitch and his face scrunch up in annoyance at the young girl.

Gareth was quick to take Akihide's shoulder. "I think it's about time we pay Tsubaki a visit!" he exclaimed, distracting Akihide enough with excitement to forget about Ais, at the thought of his new weapons to replace the two ones Freya gave him that broke fighting the Lightning Hellhound. With his two Dragon Claws as well as the Hellhound Fangs he got from the monsters, he was sure that his new weapons would turn out very nice, especially seeing as the one forging them worked for Gareth, and was capable of making weapons for the level 5 adventurer. "I, for one, can't wait to see how they turn out!" shouted Gareth, getting a flurry of nods from the excited Akihide. The Dwarf quickly picked up the young Renard and ran out of the house, quickly ensuring that there would be no situation between their newest member and their newest level 2.

Riveria sighed. "I'll get Loki to give Ais a falna, and then I'll take her to the Guild to get some equipment." she told Finn before turning to the young girl. "Ais, show Akihide some respect. He's a level 2, so you'll learn a lot from him about how to start your journey." she told the girl, who simply turned to look at the young fox boy being taken away by Gareth to this Tsubaki person. From the look on her face, everyone knew she doubted she could learn anything from Akihide. But it would soon become apparent that she still had much to learn.

Riveria was going to make sure that lesson was engraved in her mind.


Gareth sighed and he held onto Akihide's hand, guiding him down the streets of Orario towards the blacksmiths of the Hephaestus Familia. Akihide, in the one year he was an adventurer, hadn't actually been to the blacksmiths, having Gareth teach him how to maintain his weapons and not going through them like some of the other level 1 adventurers do. As such, it was also his first time meeting Tsubaki Collbrande, but he had heard amazing things about her from Gareth. She was a blacksmith, but she was a level 4 and capable of crafting some of the best weapons in Orario, such as Gareth's axe and shield, Noir's sword and Bara's knives.

To have someone like that working on his weapons made it feel like a dream. And with the drops from the White Hellhound and the Infant Dragon Variant, Gareth relayed from the blacksmith herself how excited she was to be working with the items for a new level 2. Akihide had been filled with so much excitement over the last 3 weeks. He knew from his home that forging a katana could take months upon months while solely focussing on a single sword, but for a level 4 with the Blacksmith Development Ability, it was a much easier and less time consuming process. That, and Dragon Claw was a much easier material to work with as opposed to tamahagane. The quality of the blade was essentially the same, but the time taken was so drastically reduced it wasn't even funny.

Eventually, Akihide was brought out of his little fantasy when Gareth pat him on the shoulder. "We're here." said the Dwarf, as Akihide laid his eyes on the forge. It didn't look like much from the outside, but he could see the smoke rising from the chimney and hear the grunts of effort being put into the craft of forging weapons for the Famila. Akihide's excitement returned in full as he ran towards the door, pushing it open with a smile of a child on Christmas. All eyes stopped whatever work the blacksmith was previously focused on and turned to Akihide, some curious eyes and some glares, probably from a kid interrupting their work.

However, one chair amongst them all scratched the floor as someone stood up in a hurry. "Well lookie here! Looks like my contract has finally arrived!" cried out a female voice, before she began making her way over to the door. Akihide got a glimpse at her and blushed, seeing her wearing nothing but a sarashi chest binding and a red hamaka. It was reminiscent of his old home, his mother wearing hamakas every time there was a ceremony or ritual in the village. It was nice to see his culture in someone else other than Kaguya every once in a while, but he couldn't help but feel like there were limits.

Other than that, Akihide noticed how she had a blindfold covering her left eye slightly hidden behind a bang of hair, but not really, like she wasn't ashamed of her eye at all but liked her hair styled that way. She was also much taller than Akihide thought she would be, thinking she'd be smaller, like Gareth was a bit taller than the average dwarf, but Tsubaki towered over them all. Maybe it was because she was half human. She had a red eye, black hair and tanned skin.

Gareth entered the forge behind him and sighed. "Akihide, meet Tsubaki Collbrande. Tsubaki, this is Akihide, our new level 2. Don't do anything too cra-" he began, before being shut up as Tsubaki swept the kid of his feet and held him into her chest.

"Aw! You're so much cuter than the stories say you are!" she cooed at the boy, as she began doing small moves around the forge, still hugging the young boy. "So cute~" she exclaimed. She failed to notice the struggling Akihide, who was by no means comfortable with the blacksmith touching him.

"Alright, alright! Enough!" ordered Gareth, prying Tsubaki away from Akihide. "Geez, can't you see you're scaring the damn kid? He's terrified." pointed out Gareth, to a slightly shaking Akihide who was stepping back from her in concern. "The kid doesn't like being touched by people he doesn't know. You're just freaking him out."

"Oh come on Gareth, lighten up!" exclaimed the Half Dwarf, before reaching for a barrel. "Here, give the kid some of this. That'll put some hair on his chest." she said, sliding it over to the two.

"He's eight!" responded Gareth, pushing Akihide away from the barrel. "I didn't start drinking until I was 11!"

"Woah! So old for a dwarf! Even I was drinking at that age with a human mother!" responded Tsubaki with a smirk, before she turned back to Akihide. "What do you reckon kid? Wanna give it a try?" she asked the small boy, who only shook his head and shuffled back in response. "Oh well, more for me!" cheered Tsubaki as she filled her own cup with beer and drank. Akihide looked at Gareth for guidance, but all the older man could offer was a shrug of the shoulders, this was just how Tsubaki was. "Now then, onto the good part!" she yelled out as she reached for a bit of fabric on the shelf next to her and slammed it down onto the table, revealing her work.

Beautiful. That was Akihide's first impression of the blades, which were crafted to be shiny and sharp, the young boy noticing a small cut on the fabric that had touched the blade. The katana had a red and black woven handle, with a golden guard and a blade that shinned a bright colour between the regular silver of a katana blade and the blue from the Dragon Claw drop item. The same was true for the wakizashi, which rested right next to the katana. Their sheaths were right next to them, sturdy, made of the magnolia wood commonly found in the Far East, and painted black with golden smoke decorative elements at the end.

Next to the two of them were four small knives, kunai, that had the white blade of the Lightning Hellhound that seemed to glow, connected to a standard steel handle with a ring at the end, like the many kunai he had seen in his father's bedroom before the monster destroyed his village.

"I have to say, I'm super impressed with myself for how these turned out!" smiled Tsubaki, picking up the katana and wakizashi. "I call these two, 'Breath of Hachiman', pretty cool, huh?" she said, looking at the child expectantly, only for him to tilt his head in confusion. "Oh well, they're made from a combination of hihiirokane that I was able to pick up, as well as the main ingredient of the Variant Dragon Claws, which give's them their colour. They're highly sturdy, able to handle all of what Floors 13 down all the way to 27 can throw at them, and then some! They should last you at least until you hit level 4, maybe beyond that if you're lucky!"

"Now these are something else..." whispered Tsubaki, handing a kunai carefully to Akihide. "Those are magic swords, capable of shooting out that powerful lightning magic that the Hellhound sent your way. Each of these four have around 10 uses to them if my math is right, so use them sparingly." she warned him, to which he nodded. "I went ahead and gave you a couple of other regular kunai I made from steel as a practice. Should at least help you aim them, since they weigh the same as the magic ones. Practice with them a lot before using them in the Dungeon."

"Oh, and also, I have the clothes as well from Hathor." said Tsubaki, pulling out another package. After saving her two remaining children, Hathor herself made the equipment for Akihide from the fur of the monster that slaughtered her children, free of charge for him avenging them. Akihide opened the package to see that the fur had been made into a hakamashita kimono, with a black set of hamaka. "The armour is still being made by some of my juniors who need experience making armour, but I'm making sure it's top quality! Not to mention they have a lot to gain from doing well, since you might be a repeat customer, and your reputation is growing. Be sure the armour will be the best!" she exclaimed, getting an excited nod and smile from Akihide.

"Gah! So cute! Let me hug you again!" cried out the blacksmith, picking Akihide up again as he tried to struggle against her feebly. Gareth sighed as he went to save the poor boy from Tsubaki's hug.


Gareth and Akihide made their way further into the Dungeon. Riveria would be keeping Ais on the first floor of the Dungeon, which also happened to be a great place for Akihide to practice throwing his new Kunai. Floor 1 monsters meant nothing to a level 2 adventurer, so Akihide was free to train with his new kunai on the Kobolds and Goblins as he saw fit. Gareth was simply there to help check on Ais and see how she was handling herself in the Dungeon, not even bringing his weapon in with him as he knew he could destroy any monster with his bare hands.

Soon enough they heard the yelling of a young girl around them, and made their way over, seeing Ais make her way through a group of monsters, destroying them with one swing of her blade. Gareth looked on in shock at a girl who just received her status being able to do something like that, but Akihide looked at her and scoffed. Floor 1 monsters weren't all that impressive. He beat three of them and Riveria let him go all the way down to Floor 3 on his first Dungeon crawl. To him, what Ais was doing wasn't all that special, it was a bit lacklustre in all honesty.

The two made their way over to Riveria, who was watching from a closer point. She reached down and pat the young boy on the head affectionately. Akihide giggled at his mother's touch, drawing Ais's attention for a brief moment to see who the intruder was, which was enough time for a Kobold to jump at her from behind. Ais sensed it coming, and turned around to try to slash it before it got her, but her vision was soon clouded by a blotch of white and black, as Akihide teleported over to her, grabbed the Kobold's throat, and spun around, throwing the monster into the Dungeon wall, causing blood and entrails to go everywhere.

One might have thought Ais would be grateful that her new 'older brother' had come to her rescue and taken care of the monster for her, because he could have left her to get hurt. He could have let the Kobold swing it's weapon and possibly hurt her really badly, but of the kindness of his heart, as well as protective instincts, he took care of the monster for her before she could get hurt. Some people, such as Riveria and Gareth would expect Ais to appreciate the help.

Those people were very disappointed.

"That was mine!" yelled Ais, glaring at the boy who had just helped her. "I was gonna fight that one!"

"What?!" yelled the boy right back. "More like you would've been really hurt by that! You weren't paying attention to it at all! Always pay attention to your surroundings, in the Dungeon and in the city!" scolded the boy, imparting one of the first lessons Riveria taught him after Kiddy Party had formed. "Such an ungrateful girl... she isn't a cute little sister at all..." he muttered, wishing Ais could've been more like Kuzunoha, his actual younger sister, who was a kind and gentle soul who loved to play around in the sakura petals with her older brother. Ais, however, was selfish, quick to anger, and hard headed, and Akihide had been around her for 5 minutes at best.

Ais continued to be ungrateful to the slightly older boy, huffing and turning away from him, gritting her teeth in frustration. The boy was infuriating, butting in when he wasn't wanted, stealing her kills in the Dungeon and just getting in the way of of path to become stronger. All in all, the boy was doing an immaculate job of pissing her off. She didn't need him, neither did she need Riveria, Gareth, Finn or anyone else in the Loki Familia. The only reason she was with them was because they were the strongest, and as such her fastest way to becoming her own hero and killing the Black Dragon who took her mother and father from her. She only really needed Loki, but then any of the gods would do, and the higher levelled members of the Familia were convenient in terms of training and going further into the Dungeon.

This Akihide boy? She didn't need him. He was just some kid like her, so there was nothing he could do that could further her goal and get her closer to defeating the One Eyed Black Dragon. He was just proving to be one giant annoyance she shouldn't have to be dealing with, he was someone she didn't need in her life.

Gareth and Riveria sighed and turned to the children. "That'll be all for today. We're going back." said Riveria, getting the attention of the two bickering children.

"I can still keep going!" rebutted Ais, grasping her sword hilt tighter in her hand. Akihide snickered at that, and the young girl sent him a glare, one which he was not afraid of. Riveria's glares were much harsher and he had grown somewhat used to them. He still hated them and they put him on edge, but no one else could glare live Riveria, and Akihide was immune to them all now.

Ais flipped her head back and something hit the floor of the Dungeon. Akihide turned to the sound, as did everyone else, as Riveria knelt down to pick it up. "Did something fall out of your mouth just now?" she asked Ais, as she picked up the object and had a look at it. "This is... a baby tooth?" she asked, looking at the small white object in her hands.

Akihide couldn't hold it, as he burst out laughing. He had never lost a tooth in the Dungeon, he had lost 2 teeth since he joined the Loki Familia, one when he bit into an apple and it got stuck in the fruit, and another time when he simply found one on his pillow one night. The second one had been wobbling in his mouth for days before it finally came out, but he never lost one inside the Dungeon before. That was embarrassing, and he was gonna make sure the little ungrateful shit was as embarrassed as she could be. Ais did not appreciate this at all and glared at Akihide, which only enticed his laughter even more.


"I mean seriously! One second looking at me and she thinks I'm yesterday's garbage or something! What the hell is wrong with this girl!" complained the young boy as he sat at one of the tables of a new tavern that had just opened up earlier that month, the Hostess of Fertility. Kiddy Party had decided to come down once Akihide's new weapons were finished as a means to celebrate and get their Dungeon schedule back on track since some of them had new commitments now. Their time in the Dungeon together was unfortunately going to go down a fair bit, since they now had several commitments that couldn't be put off all that much.

Airmid had quickly discovered that Mystery helped her potions a lot more than the Mixing development ability she originally wanted, and her potions were actually of a much higher calibre than that of even her Captain. She was busy making potions 3 days a week now and was manning the storefront a lot more often now too, usually for a few hours on the days she was making potions. Dian Cecht was also considering getting her some nursing training in the School District, which would take a few months at a minimum.

Ryuu and Ardee were also now expected to go on more patrols due to their level ups. With a new pair of level 2 adventurers, they were to play a much more important role in patrolling Orario, maybe even becoming supporters for the main group lead by Shakti that patrolled the main streets of Orario. It was a huge honour as well as a huge responsibility, and would take up a bit more of their time, since Orario was still under constant threat by Evilus, and everyone knew that they weren't going away any time soon.

Akihide had volunteered to do some more patrols with them too, but he had a commitment to his Familia now. Finn had informed him that Akihide would be accompanying the rest of the Loki Familia down on their expeditions, as his support magic could help them prevent casualties in the Dungeon and help them reach lower than they ever did before, especially since his magic went under it's own level up. He recently discovered that he could now call upon two gates, and they did a much better job than before. With some testing with Gareth, they came to the conclusion that Akihide could boost their status by 200 when he was a level 1, but could boost them to 400 now. If that followed the pattern, he could essentially give everyone a temporary Rank Up by the time he hit level 5.

As such, Kiddy Party was now running on a much shorter schedule, but they did still plan to enter the Dungeon with each other twice a week, or once over a two day period. If Akihide wasn't in the Dungeon on an expedition, like he would be around 10 times a year, they would still go down with each other. That was the plan.

But they had finished discussing this long ago, and now the three older girls had listened to Akihide complain about Ais for the last 25 minutes, after only having known her for one day.

Ardee sighed. "Well, she is a little kid. She's only a year younger than you actually. Why don't you give her a chance? Maybe she'll come around." she said. She, as a younger sister herself, had to stick up for all the little sisters out there. They weren't all bad, no matter how bad of a light their older siblings painted them in. Shakti had been younger once, and as a teenager, and even into her early twenties, she would shit talk Ardee like it was nothing, constantly complaining about her being whiny, noisy or just plain annoying. She wasn't that bad, but Shakti had made her out to be the complete devil. They were close, and Shakti still insisted she was just an annoying brat.

Akihide seemed to share the sentiment of her older sister. "No way, not that girl." he said, shrugging his hands around like it's impossible. "I mean, it's impossible for her to feel anything but anger. Seriously, little ankle biter is annoying as hell."

Ardee sighed, officially out of ideas. Ryuu and Airmid were no better off than her, being only children themselves. They didn't have a clue about siblings, and both were the youngest in their Familia, so it wasn't like there was anyone they could see as an annoying younger sibling.

Ryuu only had several annoying 'older sisters', namely Kaguya, Alice and Lyra...

The group turned the conversation away from Ais, as the trio spent the rest of the night chatting away and enjoying the amazing food that was given to them by Mama Mia.


Hey guys, hope you enjoyed. This will begin the story nicely as we move into a few chapters mainly focused on training and Kiddy Party exploring the Cave Labyrinth. But anyway, I've included a fun little omake about Ais and Akihide in their older years down below. Now remember, this is not a ship, there is no Ais x Akihide ship. There is only siblings who love one another very much platonically.

I MEAN IT!


Omake: The Sibling Chronicles

"Really?!" asked Tiona Hiryute, sitting in the girls tent along with her sister, Tione, Lefiya, Elfy and Alicia, listening to Anakitty tell her tale.

"Yeah, Akihide and Ais used to get on like oil and water. You wouldn't guess it with how close they are now, but the two of them couldn't be in the same room as each other." said the more experienced adventurer. The level 5 looked over at her friends as she spoke. "One time, Akihide had gotten this really rare necklace from his homeland with a crystal from his homeland, and Ais took it to sell for a sword!" she exclaimed, remembering the event well.

The necklace pendant had been a gift from Kaguya, who had gone to Melen with her adventurer friends 8 years prior for a quest, and it had been special to him for a month. He took it with him into the Dungeon on an expedition, much like the one they were on now, and Ais' sword had broken. She didn't have the funds for a new one, but she wanted to keep fighting, so she stole the necklace from him and sold it in Rivira for a fairly large sum of money, which she used to buy a sword for the expedition.

When Akihide found out, he went on an absolute rampage, and it took Gareth and Finn holding him back to stop him tearing Ais limb from limb for the transgression. He cried his eyes out all the way to the surface and to the Astraea Familia home, where he cried to his sensei about it, and she had taken Ais for a day for some training.

Now that Anakitty thought about it, she noticed Ais was a lot quieter and more polite for about 3 months after that.

The rest of the girls, however, were having a hard time picturing Ais and Akihide fighting. They looked just outside the tent, watching as Ais chuckled at one of Akihide's jokes. She placed an arm behind his back before flicking his ear, causing the two to start play fighting and flicking each other. The girls who hadn't been there 8 years prior smiled and cooed at the memory.

All that flashed through Anakitty's mind were the flashbacks of the first flicking war. Raul had been on the verge of death that day, having been caught in the middle of those two going toe to toe. She wasn't sure on multiple occasion that day if she was going to survive.

Anakitty turned to the others and sighed. Let them live in their blissful ignorance. There was no need for her to corrupt their innocent minds about the past fights and battles between the two fiercest children Loki had ever taken in.


And that's it. Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you all next time. For now, this is Striker777, over and out.