5

                                    

                                          
"Stop whining and get to it."
"But 1000? I'd die before I got to 100!"
Kyo just laughed at me and started his own swings. Sensei rolled his eyes and insisted I get to it again. All morning he'd been teaching me how to hold the bokken properly, and the proper form for horizontal and vertical swings. Now it was time to practise them, he said. 
It took hours, and Kyo finished way before me, but by the late afternoon I'd finished 1000 vertical swings.
"Great. Now 1000 horizontal swings. No dinner until you're finished."
"EEEEEEHHHHHH?" Sensei just shook his head and sighed, but I knew he was serious. He wasn't the kind of man to joke around during things like training. My hands were blistered, my arms and shoulders felt like they would fall from my body at any second. My lungs screamed at me to stop, but I continued on. It's like sensei said before, if I wanted to catch up to Kyo I needed to put in 100% effort all of the time. I couldn't afford to fall behind.
It was well past sundown by the time I finished, and sensei called me inside for dinner. I found two meals set out, it looked like the rest of the family had already eaten and set off to bed. But wait... two meals? I saw Kyo, sitting there patiently, not having touched his food yet. It must've been at least a few hours that he'd been waiting for me.
"Kyo, why haven't you eaten? Your food will be cold."
"Nobody should eat alone. Come eat before your food gets even colder."
I hurried to the table and quickly sat down, not wanting to keep him waiting any longer. I scarfed down the food, hungry from the day's exercise. Kyo had kept consistent with his habit of yelling UMAI after every bite. It didn't bother me. I kind of liked seeing him express himself like this. We soon finished eating, and I insisted I do the dishes and that he should head to bed. He started walking out of the room before I stopped him.
"Thank you, for waiting for me. You don't have to."
"I know. But I will. I don't like not seeing you eat with me and the rest of the family. It feels... unnatural. So I'll wait. Make sure you try hard at your training, ok?" He smiled softly. It was different than his usual big smiles, it felt so much more genuine. I hadn't seen him smile at anyone else like that.
"I will. I'll get better so I won't keep you waiting as long." A blush spread across my cheeks. Wait, blush? Since when did I say sappy stuff like this. I focus my eyes down on the dishes, not seeing Kyo's reaction to my words.
After doing the dishes and washing myself, I headed to my room. Regardless of how late it was, I wrote a letter to Kanae. I told her of how I was settling in here, and the family's kindness. I told her I was getting along well with Kyo, and that Senjuro was the cutest little baby I'd ever seen. I mentioned that today was my first day of training, and how exhausting it was.
Shinjuro's crow rested on my window sill. He'd said as long as he wasn't using his crow I could use him to send letters to Kanae.
"Thanks, Ren. Have a safe flight." Ren gave a gentle crow back at me, before he took off in flight.
The next four weeks were the same, training, heading in late for dinner and eating cold food with Kyo, receiving and sending letters to Kanae. Training was exhausting, but every time I noticed the slightest of progress it filled me with pride in myself. Knowing that I was handling training, and even getting better physically because of it, was so rewarding. Every night I had been making progress too, in how early I made it back. It was a mere few minutes, but it was the world to me.
Today marked the first day of the fifth week of training. Sensei had moved on from practising swinging the blade to endurance training. Running, balancing, stretching. It was exhausting, and I missed the simplicity of my previous training. I still put my all into it, though. Whenever I caught myself slacking I felt so disappointed in myself, I felt like I was wasting the time of the people who had housed and took care of me this past month. I especially needed to focus because I didn't ever want to feel or have to act as reckless as I did the day I met Amane. Everyone keeps telling me it was the only option, that we would've all died if I hadn't of stayed back. I agree to a degree. I know I needed to stay back, Amane is so much more important than me. But could there have been another way? I tried and tried to think of one, but I couldn't. Using that logic, I tried to tell myself I did all that I could, and that I was brave. But there was always this nagging voice in my head telling me I should've been stronger and fought back more. That's why I need to get stronger now. Maybe that stupid voice would go away if I did.
Sensei called the end of my training for the day, and as usual I rushed inside not wanting to keep Kyo waiting. We said the usual greetings and dug in. Both Kyo and I froze after the first bite, and turned to look each other in the eye.
The food was still warm.
A sudden cheer erupted out of both of us and we threw our arms up in victory. Without even thinking I reached over and hugged Kyo, and without a second thought he hugged me back.
From around the corner:
"Aw, sweetheart, look at them. So happy." Ruka peeked around the entryway to the dining room, admiring the tweens.
"Indeed. She's progressed a lot more than she thinks. I'm glad that they get along so well" Ruka nodded in agreement. He'd been observing Eika intensely. He had seen how dedicated she was. There had been a few times he had gone to scold her for not putting in all her effort, but she had recognised it and changed it before he got the chance. She was very self aware, and it seemed that knowing that someone was waiting for her had motivated her even more.





 - Sorry that this is short, Im really sickkkkk. I'm working on new longer chapters though, so stay tuned <3.