This was the norm for us. Such scenes were daily occurrences since I’d come to live in Kadono. I’d asked Motoharu to train me in the sword. I never wanted to be as powerless as I was that rainy night. I wanted to become a man who could protect Suzune and Shirayuki if I needed to. I knew it was childish of me, but Motoharu didn’t say anything of the sort. He trained me every morning.
“C’mon! Get him!” cheered Shirayuki. Suzune was still asleep this early in the day, but Shirayuki always showed up to cheer me on.
I didn’t want to look pathetic, even if this was just training. I put all my willpower into my blows. Yet Motoharu still ran circles around me. My slash from the side was met with a block. My thrust, met with a dodge. My strike from above, met with a half-step retreat.
“Not bad. You’re getting pretty nimble, kid,” Motoharu said.
I stepped forward and swung with all my weight, yet he easily repelled me with his wooden sword. “But your swings are still wide.”
“Agh!” His return blow struck my head. He’d held back, but it still stung. I dropped my wooden sword and put my hand to my head, feeling a firm welt developing there.
The result was the same no matter how hard I tried. I’d yet to beat Motoharu in our training sessions.
“Ha ha, well, you tried your best,” Shirayuki said. As she approached, smiling, I quickly picked up my wooden sword and turned away. I had wanted to look cool with a bold swing but ended up even more embarrassed after being countered so easily.
“Quit it,” I said with a pout, as she patted my head with her small hand.
“There, there.” She smiled, fully aware I was just putting on a brave face. My thoughts were an open book to her. “Don’t worry, your big sister will cheer you up.”
“Huh? But I’m older than you.”
“Sure, but I’m more dependable than you. That means I’m your big sister!” she insisted, with absolute confidence.
I didn’t know what I could even say to that. I sighed and allowed her to keep patting me. It was embarrassing, but I couldn’t deny that a part of me enjoyed it.
“Ha ha, you still got a ways to go before beating me, kid!” Motoharu said.
“It’s not fair. You’re way too strong, Motoharu!”
“Well, duh. I’ve been training longer than you.” He watched Shirayuki comfort me with a tender smile. I glared at him with teary eyes, but he just laughed, tapping his wooden sword against his shoulder. Considering the way he usually acted, it was hard to believe that he was supposedly the greatest swordsman in the village. Appearances could be deceiving, I guess. “Don’t be so down, though. Keep at it and you’ll get better in time.”
“I know…but I feel like I haven’t improved at all since I began.” Instead of becoming stronger, I felt like I hadn’t changed one bit since I started training. I was nowhere near good enough to protect anyone. Sometimes I wondered whether what I was doing was pointless.
Perhaps sensing my worry, Motoharu chided me with a gentleness he rarely showed. “Listen up, Jinta. Nothing that exists is changeless. That includes you too. You might not feel it yourself, but you’re improving, bit by bit. So, chin up. You will get stronger. I guarantee it.”
“…Thanks.” Just hearing it didn’t change anything, but it eased my mind somewhat.
“Oh, I’d best be off to work soon. Let’s leave it at this for today,” Motoharu said, turning around with wooden sword still in his hand. The deal was that our daily training sessions would last until he had to go to work.
“Right. Thank you for today, Motoharu-san,” I said.
“Don’t worry ’bout it. I’m just doing what I want.”
“Bye-bye, Dad!” Shirayuki said.
“Later. You be good now, you hear?”
He left without looking back. There wasn’t a single bead of sweat on him. At my skill level, I wasn’t able to tire him at all.
Unconsciously, I gripped my wooden sword tightly with my left hand. I understood that I couldn’t do anything about the gap between our skills, but it still frustrated me. “…Hey, Shirayuki?”
“Yes?”
“What does Motoharu-san do?” I asked. Despite living in Kadono, an iron-manufacturing village, I’d never seen him working the iron kiln bellows with the other men. Just what was his work?
“Dad’s the shrine maiden guardian of Itsukihime,” she answered.
I recalled that Motoharu had said something along those lines when we first met, but what did that mean?
Shirayuki continued, “And my mom’s Itsukihime.”
“Huh? Your mom’s name is Yokaze…right?”
“Yeah. She’s the shrine maiden of Mahiru-sama.”
I’d met Yokaze once, although a bamboo screen had separated us. I was summoned to meet her after having spent some time in Kadono, and I talked to her for a bit. She was kind, and I could tell she was regarded with high esteem in the village. She’d said she was the shrine maiden of Mahiru-sama and taught me what that meant, but it was all a bit too difficult for me to make sense of back then.
Shirayuki looked absently off into the distance. She gazed to the north of the village, where a shrine stood on a small hill.
“Your mom’s always at the shrine, right?” I asked.
“…Yeah. The only ones allowed to see her in person are the village chief and the shrine maiden guardian. Nobody else can meet with her because ‘worldly people will taint the purity of Itsukihime,’ whatever that means. Dad’s the shrine maiden guardian, so he sees her every day, but I haven’t seen her in years.”