Aikasa lied awake staring at the ceiling of her room. Sighing, she got up and fixed the bed. She put on rather presentable clothes and fixed herself before going out of the room. While making her way into the kitchen, she saw her mother preparing for breakfast.

“Good morning mother!” enthusiastically greeting her.

“Good morning,” her mother greeted back with a soft smile grazing her thin lips.

“Where’s father?” Throwing a glance at the small table on their dining room across the kitchen.

“He’s outside with your brothers. Strict training as usual. Will you fetch them? The breakfast is almost ready.” while carefully pouring the hot water on each ceramic cup.

“Hai!” smiling, Aikasa made her way out of their kitchen.

The sun had risen. Aikasa closed her eyes while standing on the steps towards their dojo. She could feel the warm heat grazing her porcelain skin and the cold breeze of the wind toyed with her long raven hair. Inhaling the scent of forest woods and sweet flowers, a giggle made its way out of her lips.

She could hear the sound of katana clashing against each other, the shouts of her brothers, and the booming voice of her father. Genjiro, Aikasa’s father, has always been strict when it comes to training. He would stay calm and quiet when observing but Aikasa knew better. As a descendant of Hatamoto, her father always stood with dignity and possessed a strong resolve. He was a disciplined man, responsible, strict but loving, and a man of his words. Being true to one’s words was very important to him. ‘Never break promises.’ was one of the wisdom he had instilled in their minds since they were young. According to him, a man who breaks his promises is a coward.

Pushing the door of the dojo open, Aikasa entered. The scene in front of her made her stop on her tracks. There, in front of her, was Akihiro; her third eldest brother. Akihiro jumped while attacking to struck Aoki, the youngest among his male siblings, from atop. However, Aoki didn’t waste any time and obstructed the attack easily. They both continued to fight fiercely. Occasionally hearing the grunts of struggle. Both of them didn’t waste any movements.

They attacked whenever they saw a dent in their opponent’s defenses. The anxiousness from Aoki’s eyes gave way that he was struggling while Akihiro had this mischievous glint in his eyes. Afraid of what she was seeing, Aikasa hurriedly approached her father and informed him that the breakfast was all ready. She returned her vision towards her brothers who seemed to be eager on killing each other.

Akihiro was again leaping for another deadly struck but Aoki was unfortunately still hadn’t gotten up from the ground. Worry was starting to seep into Aikasa’s mind as Akihiro struck the final blow. She closed her eyes and waited for Aoki’s cry of pain but instead all they heard was the dismissive voice of their father. Slowly, she opened her eyes one after the other.

Aoki was still lying on the ground wearing a startled pale face while Akihiro was hovering above him. The sword was an inch away from Aoki’s face. Little delay and Aoki would definitely be dead by now.

“That’s enough for this morning. Both of you did great. However, I’ve told you many times that you must wait for your opponent to hold his ground before attacking because that’s what a fair fight should be.” With that, their father headed outside.

Aikasa let out a deep breath that she didn’t know she was holding back. Having four older brothers training like madmen was really maddening. It really scared the guts out of her. She had trust in them when it came to their precision and control, but when her brothers trained like this, she didn’t really know if they were seriously going to end each others’ lives.

Both of her brothers really took the training seriously this morning except for Ryonusuke, Aikasa’s second eldest brother. He was laughing like a madman in front of a pale-faced Aoki while helping him to get up. Aikasa approached her brothers and hit Akihiro on his arm.

“Ow! Why did you punch me?” Akihiro asked while soothing his arm.

“You scared the hell out of me, brother!” she exclaimed.

“I scared you?” Akihiro snorted. “Why? You’re not the one I got to strike my sword earlier, are you? It should be Aoki whose supposed to be terrified right now, not you.”

“I am still terrified, brother!” Aoki exclaimed while throwing his hands up. “You’re not really fighting fair. You didn’t even wait for me to get up and attack. I thought you were going to end my precious life earlier!”

“Ha! Well, I didn’t, did I?” Akihiro taunted.

“Obviously, you didn’t. Fortunately, Otou-sama called it off! If it wasn’t because of him, I would probably be a dead piece of meat on the ground right now,” Aoki retorted while snorting. Aikasa rolled her eyes at them.

“Okay! Okay! That’s enough my little brothers. Your older brother here is already starving so stop being such ladies and move! Father said breakfast is ready,” Ryonusuke, her second eldest brother, interrupted.

“Alright,” Akihiro replied and goes out of the door. Aikasa just shook her head in amusement.

On the way to their house, her three brothers were still bickering and taunting each other. She let out a deep loud sigh and shook her head. Stopping in their tracks, the three of them looked at her.

“Is something wrong?” Ryonusuke raised his right eyebrow.

“Nope! I was just thinking how lucky I was having awesome brothers!” Aikasa lied.

All three of them looked at her intently, searching for traces of dishonesty. She tried her best to look innocent and sincere in front of them but doing so was hard. Thankfully, they were convinced of what she had told them and plastered a wily grin. They slung their arms on each others’ shoulders while Akihiro messed with her hair.

“Hey! Stop that!” Aikasa whined while pouting but to no avail her two brothers joined Akihiro from messing with her hair too before they all ran towards the house, laughing.