Chapter Text
Sun filtered through the fluttering curtains, casting an array of dancing light across the room.
Princess Kohane slowly sat up as she awoke, rubbing her eyes.
Without warning, a knock rapped on her door.
“Oh- ahem- come in!” The princess called as she cleared her voice, it was always scratchy right after she woke up.
Seeing the door slowly open, she watched as her lady in waiting entered the royal bedchambers.
“Ah! Nene!” Kohane scrambled out of her bed, figuring she overslept upon noticing how Lady Kusanagi was fully dressed already.
“Kohane,” Nene and the princess were close, so they always addressed each other by first name, “I figured you would be up earlier, considering today.”
Kohane tried to reboot her mind, processing what the other had said.
“Today is…” The princess gasped, eyes widening. “Knight day!!”
Knight day was a day that happened once every four years. It was a day when knights from all kingdoms gathered to showcase their abilities in combat. Young princes and princesses who had come of age, would be allowed to sit in the front and choose a knight to be their bodyguard on this day. This year the Vivid Kingdom (Kohane’s kingdom) was hosting. But even more importantly, today was the day she would choose her knight!
“Oh my gosh I did not forget!” Kohane’s cheeks turned pink as she scurried around her room to get dressed.
Nene sighed and smiled at the princess, “I knew you wouldn’t forget, especially considering who will be at this year’s Knight day~.”
Kohane flushed even more, Nene had known of her (maybe not so small) crush on the Knight Shiraishi.
“Ahh!” The girl buried her face in the pile of dresses she had created on the floor, “Will you help me get dressed?”
------------------
After a few hours, Princess Kohane stood and looked at herself in the mirror.
She had a silky golden dress with white accents in embroidery adorning the sides of the bodice and long flowing skirt. It had a short, off-the-shoulder sleeve and ribbons laced through the fabric. Her hair was decorated with daffodils and gold jewelry, making the whole ensemble look very summery.
“Thank you for getting me ready.” She looked at Nene who stood behind her.
“You’re welcome, but we should get going, festivities are going to start soon.”
“You’re right!”
Both girls left the room, walking across the palace to the grand front doors.
The larger than life doors were opened by neatly uniformed castle staff, as a man standing near the door loudly announced, “Her Highness Princess Kohane Azusawa and her Lady in Waiting Nene Kunasagi!”
The crowd cheered as the pair stepped out, Kohane felt embarrassed under all the attention, but luckily it didn’t last long as the crowd quickly returned to what they were doing before.
The whole royal grounds were decorated with summer flowers and banners for Knight day. Vendors sold an endless array of food from their carts as people clamored.
“Let's get to the arrival point.” Kusanagi tugged at the princess’s arm.
“Good idea.”
The arrival point was bustling like the rest of the festival. People crowded around the roped off area where royalty from all over the continent stepped out of their carriages and were announced.
They saw some familiar faces, but they were waiting for one person in particular.
Suddenly, the announcer called out.
“Princess Minori Hanasato of the Clover Kingdom!”
The beyond elegant carriage opened its doors and a girl with brown hair and a shimmering soft, pale green dress stepped out.
Taking her first few steps in the bright sun, Minori’s eyes lit up when noticing the two.
She ran as fast as she could and nearly knocked Kohane over as she collided into a hug. “Kohane!” She exclaimed excitedly before switching over to hug the green haired girl as well. “Nene!”
The princess of the Clover Kingdom was always energetic and bubbly, but today her brightness was in full force. Kohane, Nene, and Minori had been best friends since they were two, they had been a trio for as long as they could remember.
Princess Hanasato linked arms with the two others and they all began walking together.
For a while, they walked the large event grounds, exploring the festivities and laughing with each other. They were about to check out a flower crown vendor when an almost deafening horn blared through the air.
“It’s going to start!” Kohane looked at the others in a moment where they all shared a glance.
Without a word, the three, in unison, dashed all the way to the stadium.
Arriving out of breath and giggling, they were allowed into the special seating due to their royal status. Even more, this was the year they got to sit up front as Minori and Kohane were going to choose a knight. Through swaying the guards, they also got Nene to be able to sit up front next to them as well.
As they got seated among the other young royals nobles, fanfare played, echoing across what was possibly the largest stadium they had ever seen in their lives.
The main event began and one by one, the many knights were announced and each took a turn in the arena to spar with members of the royal guard (who acted as opponents) to show off their skills. Every knight wore a blue flower on their helmet and every opponent wore a red one. The goal for the knights was to cut off every red flower on their opponents, while trying not to lose their own blue flower. The whole event was exciting and the crowd cheered loudly, especially for the more famous knights.
At the point in the event, a certain name was called.
“Knight Haruka Kiritani, of the Clover Kingdom!”
The crowd went absolutely wild, but the loudest among them was Minori.
Knight Haruka was arguably the most famous knight at the event. She was very popular for her style and had a considerable amount of devoted fans.
None of those devoted fans however, were a bigger fan than Princess Minori.
Kohane watched as the brunette screamed and cheered for the knight taking the arena.
Kiritani, with her blue bob and shining silver armor, had an air of elegance as her opponents crowded opposite to her. She had a much larger group of opponents than the other knights so far, and before any of the audience members could worry for her, she swiftly cut red flowers from guard after guard with her stylish maneuvers, earning another thunderous reply from the crowd. It wasn’t long before Kiritani was finished, in record time as a matter of fact, with her blue flower still displayed proudly on her helmet.
Since the trio was seated in their special box up front, they were very close to all of the action, causing Knight Kiritani to notice Minori’s exuberant cheering. Removing her helmet as the announcer declared her victory, the blue haired knight made eye contact with Princess Hanasato and winked at her, then blew a kiss before leaving the stage.
Minori went dead silent.
She then proceeded to turn so red in the face, she seemed as if she was going to pass out.
“Minori?!” Kohane grabbed the girl’s shoulders, supporting her as they sat her back down.
Burying her face in her hands, “Harkua winked- a-and she blew a kiss… at me.” Minori peeped.
Princess Azusawa smiled, she knew Minori would remember that forever.
The announcer’s voice boomed again, stating the next contestant.
“Knight An Shiraishi, of the Vivid Kingdom!”
Kohane froze.
It was her.
The woman casually, yet confidently, walked onto the field. Removing her knight helmet to reveal long, black and blue hair tied into a high ponytail.
Every time she saw that girl, Kohane felt her heart fall victim all over again.
Nene smiled at the blond princess, “That’s your knight.” She said teasingly.
Lady Kusanagi knew about Kohane’s crush, but she didn’t know everything.
Kohane was about ten or eleven years old at the time, but the memory was as clear as the starry night sky.
~~~
“Stop! Give it back!” Princess Kohane tried to yell, but it came out all too meek.
Two noble boys visiting her kingdom had stayed at the palace and caught her in the courtyard.
“We’re just having some fun!” One of them shouted, they had been tossing Kohane’s sketchbook back and forth over her head. Though the two boys were barely older than her, the princess was still too short to reach her book.
They laughed at Kohane’s worthless attempts to get her sketchbook back.
“Just calm down,” the other boy said, “it’s not like these drawings are very good anyway.”
Princess Azusawa was trying her best not to cry, she couldn’t.
“Hey!”
A fourth voice called out from behind them, causing the two boys to pause.
Not too far away at the edge of the courtyard, stood a girl who had long dark hair with blue accents and hair pins.
“Are they bothering you?” The girl approached Kohane, analyzing the situation.
One of the boys interjected, “We’re not doing anythi-”
“I wasn’t talking to you.” She quickly interjected, remaining her eye contact with the other girl, “Are they bothering you?”
Kohane should have felt too scared of the boys to tell the truth, but to be honest, she didn’t feel scared with this new stranger.
“Uh- They… took my sketchbook”
“Did they now?” turning to the two males, the girl eyed the book in their hands and fixed her menacing gaze on the two.
The one holding the sketchbook threw it to the ground, knowing he’d been caught.
“Sorry!” He said before they both ran off, not wanting to get in trouble.
Turning back to the book, the girl picked it up and dusted it off before handing it back to Kohane.
Azusawa took a moment before blurting out “Thank you!”
“It’s nothing, just doing my job.”
“Your… job?”
“Yeah! I’m gonna be a knight.” She stated proudly.
“Oh!” the princess looked to the ground, “well, you’re already a good knight for helping me.”
“Thank you! But my goal is to surpass Knight Ken Shiraishi.”
“Really? I bet you can do it!”
The girl looked genuinely surprised at Kohane’s encouragement.
“You actually think so?”
“Sure, it’s not like it’s impossible.”
The girl just smiled.
“I’ll do it! Just wait!” The girl ran off, leaving Kohane feeling different.
~~~
After that interaction, Kohane later found out that that girl was the daughter of the late Knight Ken Shiraishi, who had died a few years ago.
The princess was able to watch the Vivid Kingdom knights practice in their training yard from one of the castle windows, so she would occasionally watch the practices for a certain black and blue haired young knight. She began to admire An’s dedication and unyielding passion for what she did, she had grown a fondness for that knight in particular.
Despite her small crush on the girl, Kohane doubted that Shiraishi actually remembered when they met all those years ago.
Princess Azusawa cheered along with the stadium as Knight Shiraishi drew her sword. The battle was beginning and she had even more opponents than Knight Kiritani, yet she showed no hesitation in cutting their flowers with steadfast movements.
Kohane and her friends were sitting in the very front row, lowest to the battlefield, so they could feel the vibration of the powerful clang of the swords in their bones, it was like they were in the fight themselves.
Once all of the opponents were defeated, the crowd began to cheer but a hush fell over it again as another group of opponents clad in protective gear took the field again.
This time it was twice- no three times as big as the previous group, which was already incredibly large.
There was no way a single knight would be able to take on that many people at once.
Not giving the audience enough time to react, the two forces collided, this time even more aggressively.
The large amount of people all fighting one person made it hard to see the knight, not only that, but a cloud of dirt and dust began to pick up around the battle.
Kohane could have sworn she felt the bleachers shaking.
Finally, the noise ceased. The movement on the battlefield ceased. The cloud of dust blew away from the disturbed ground, revealing a single figure.
Flowerless guards stood defeated to the side of the arena. Knight An Shiraishi, stood alone among the piles of red flowers that littered the ground, the blue flower in her own helmet standing strong.
Silence.
Then,
The crowd was louder than Kohane had ever heard it before. People were going crazy over the display.
“We haven’t seen somebody like this since the Great Knight Ken Shiraishi.” Minori mentioned in shock.
“That’s his daughter, Knight An Shiraishi.” Nene said while also applauding.
The lone knight took off her helmet, surveying the land around her.
The skill shown was quite impressive, more than impressive. Kohane clapped too while turning her head back to the battlefield to see An, looking right at her.
It was weird, Shiraishi was facing the princess’s way, and getting closer, and…
She was walking right towards Kohane.
By the time Kohane realized this, An was already around a foot away from her, only the small bleacher railing separating the two.
“Huh?”
Before the princess could think, the knight gently took her hand.
“I hope to have piqued your interest for when you select your knight, my princess.”
Without a second thought, Shiraishi leaned over the railing and kissed the back of Kohane’s hand. Promptly letting go and stepping back with a smile, An made her way off the field to make way for the next knight.
By the time Shiraishi was gone and the next competitor was on the field, Kohane had only processed what had just happened.
Now, Princess Azusawa felt like Minori, beet red and like she could pass out at any moment.
Nene and Minori almost shrieked as they shook Kohane excitedly.
“She likes you!!” Lady Kusanagi giggled.
Kohane couldn’t pay attention for the rest of the tournaments, but that was okay, she already knew who she would choose as her knight anyway.