Sword Instructor

"One..Two..Three..Lauunch!"

With clear excitement on their faces Akemi and Ruka threw themselves up into the air perfectly representing the meaning of tough love.

They both landed on Akira's sleeping body with extra pillows below them for more impact which resulted in a well placed hit to the stomach.

"Aaaaargh" the moment he was hit Akira was forced to wake up with a pained expression. The hit from Akemi and Ruka was more painful than one would expect.

For the past two years Akemi and Ruka how come up with the idea to always wake up their older brother using this method especially when they couldn't wake him up the first time they try.

And for the past two years, Akira has fallen for it every single time.

The cause of his pain was all decided just 2 hours ago...

They all somehow managed to sneak into Akira's room without him noticing.

"Its a bad idea!!"

"Yeah, you know older brother always gets angry when you do that"

Natsume and Reiji were trying to eagerly persuade the two tricksters to stop their 'evil' plans.

"Aaah come on, it'll be fun"

"Yeah fun, do you even know what fun is?" Akemi and Ruka both mocked the two.

"Sigh..Fine do what you want, just don't complain to me after" Natsume replied.

"Yaaaawn...I'm going back to sleep..Why did you wake me up anyway?" He silently complained to himself. "Hey, Reiji are you coming?"

"Naah, I want to see what happens" Reiji responded with a glint in his eyes.

Natsume went back to his room and fell back to sleep.

And so, the two little monsters named Akemi and Ruka hurried their plan. After all, now that they had audience they must do their best to entertain them.

Fortunately, for them their plan succeeded considering Akira was on the floor rolling in pain and rubbing his stomach to get rid of the pain.

"Damm you two tricksters, I've been letting you slide for the past year but I've had enough!" With anger in his voice Akira stood up and dusted off the mess on his clothes.

"Yeah, Beat Them! Beat Them! Beat Them!!" Reiji was on the side having the day of his life.

Just as he was about to make sure that Akemi and Ruka never sat down in chairs ever again, Grandma Mei came in to the room.

"What's all the commotion for? Don't you know Suzuna is still sleeping!"

Suzuna was still young, its not a surprise she's still sleeping even though the whole orphanage is awake.

Realizing his mistake Akira calmed down, after all he didnt want to wake up his little sister.

"Wash your face and dress yourself, after get down to breakfast or else you'll go without any food for the whole day!" Grandma Mei warned the four.

All of them including Akira quickly did as they were told, they changed their clothes from night robes to their normal clothes, washed their faces and teeth and finally decended the stairs down to the dining room for breakfast.

The reason they did so was because all of them knew Grandma Mei's warning were always serious and would only be called a 'warning' for a short time.

However, before they went down the stairs they remembered to wake up Natsume who due to several reasons didnt have enough time to fully dress or wash himself.

They only let Suzuna sleep a little more, after all she was still growing.

The five sat down at the table and waited for breakfast, luckily for them they didnt wait long as Grandma Mei came in with the food and laid it all out on the table

"Yaay!" Both Akemi and Ruka exclaimed in joy

Grandma Mei prepared steamed rice, miso soup, grilled fish and bonito flakes.

"Dig in, before it gets cold" Grandma Mei advised, right after the sound of chopsticks hitting the plate rang out one after another.

It wasnt long until most of them finished their meals.

"Sigh..I think I'm full"

"Me too, If I ate even one more I might explode"

Both Akemi and Ruka finished at the same time, followed after was Reiji, Akira and finally Natsume.

"What happened to you? Didn't I tell you to swap clothes and wash your face?" Grandma Mei momentarily noticed Natsume's scruffy look and tired eyes.

Looking at him, you couldnt help but laugh.

"I..I'm s-so.." He was cut of as his face fell into his own plate, as he was forced to wake up early by Reiji.

What followed after was a short moment of silence.

However, this didn't last long as everyone at the table burst out laughing.

Reiji was on the floor rolling in laughter, Akemi and Ruka both nearly fell off their chairs and Akira couldnt help but let a few tears pass.

Even Grandma Mei couldn't hold it in for long and released a short laugh.

"Hahahaha! Enough! Enough! I can't anymore" Akemi's voice sounded out.

After some time, everyone finally calmed down although Natsume felt like he was just used as a punching bag.

Natsume then explained why he was so tired and Grandma Mei gave both Akemi and Ruka a look before turning to Reiji.

"Sight..Please dont do that ever again"

Akemi, Ruka along with Reiji felt quite guilty so they promised to never force Natsume to wake up that early.

What Grandma Mei didnt know was that they never promised to stop waking up Akira everyday in such a 'gentle' way.

Seeing that all of them finished their breakfast, Grandma Mei collected all the plates.

Before long, Akira knew that he had to go visit his future sword instructor.

"Bye all of you, I'll come back a bit later"

He said his farewells to everyone before leaving.

However, just as he was about to leave Grandma Mei stopped him.

"Wait, where do you think your going? Wait here for a bit"

Akira didnt know why but he still waited.

Not a short time after, Grandma Mei went to one of the shelves and took out a simple stone and a steel plate.

She stepped a bit closer to Akira, and started striking the stone against the steel plate creating small multiple sparks to fall down.

Looking at this, Akira stepped back a bit in shock and accidentally fell down on his back.

'What the hell is this? Is she..Is she cursing me or something?'

Multiple thoughts span in Akira's mind, one of them actually included the possibility of Grandma Mei being a witch.

If Grandma Mei could read thoughts, Akira would have long since being thrown out the village forced to fight for survival but only right after receiving a good beating.

Seeing that Akira fell down, Grandma Mei helped him up onto his feet.

"Whats wrong with you boy? Are you sick?" Her worry in her voice was obvious.

"Eeeh..No, I'm fine don't worry" He replied back.

Making sure that he hasnt hit his head, Grandma Mei calmed down. She fixed his hair slightly along with his clothes and put on a proud face.

"Well good luck" She knew that it was a important day for Akira.

"Eeehm..Thanks Grandma Mei, I have to ask though why did you make those sparks?"

Looking down at her hands, which held the steel plate and the stone she answered him.

"This? The sparks are supposed to keep you safe and sound, away from harm. Its an old tradition" She explained to him.

Akira listened carefully, he wasnt very interested in old traditions. But since it was in his favour.

"Thanks Grandma Mei, I'm going then bye" Akira made sure to give Grandma Mei one last hug.

Akira then slowly dissapeared from Grandma Mei's sight as he went farther and farther away from the orphanage.

"He's slowly growing up...Good" She said to herself.

She went back into the orphanage as she was standing right outside the entrance.

The moment she went back in, her heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, come on. You had it last time!"

"No I didnt, you did!"

"No you did. You Did! You Did!"

Akemi and Ruka were fighting over Natsume' uneaten breakfast that he left behind.

During this fight, they accidentally broke one of the plates though they didnt notice.

All of this caused Grandma Mei more worry and sweat as she knew there was just more trouble coming from these two.

"However, when will these two grow up?" She asked herself, expecting an answer from someone.

Heading outside the Bei Village, Akira entered the dense forests of mountain. The reason for this was simple, Saki lived separately from others.

To be specific, his residence was deep inside the forests surrounded by countless bamboo trees.

Going deeper and deeper into the forests, Akira finally came along a bamboo trail. The bamboo trail stood out very easily as the bright green colour would catch everyone's attention.

Stepping foot on the trail, Akira quickly understood why Saki lived here...It was beautiful, especially the atmosphere.

It was calming and soothing to the mind, not to mention the radiant sunlight that would shine through the small gaps among the trees and create a truly magnificent sight to see.

The bamboo was also decorated with multiple flowers, the colour of many.

After some time, Akira finally came upon Saki's small residence.

The residence had brown painted sliding doors, boarded floor running along the outside of the house as a veranda and several rain chains were hung on the roofs as decoration.

The residence was in good condition, even the garden right outside the entrance was clean and tidy. It was obvious the owner took good care of the land.

After resting his eyes on the residence for a while, Akira finally decided to go closer and knock on the doors.

As he was going closer...