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The naginata felt firm in his hands as he practiced his forms. Sweat rolled down his back, and his pants came out faster and faster. Was it a good idea to practice naginatawork right after practicing swordform? Probably not. But when yet another visit from his father resulted in his sword being flung across the training hall, he needed to do something. Anything.
Another visit of disappointment. Swing. Another visit with stern disapproval. Swing. Swing. Swing. Sweat pooled on his forehead, and he shook his long hair out of his face. The naginata slipped from his grip, clattering against the ground. He stepped back from the training dummy, heaving.
He heard someone faintly calling for his name. He stared at the dummy, looking at the nicks and scratches that he left on it. He leaned down towards his naginata, barely grisping it in his hands again when one of his usual tutors bursts into the room, sleeves fluttering.
"Prince Shinonome!" She gasped. "You were supposed to be resting!"
He looked away from her. "'m fine. I can keep going."
"You're drenched in sweat!" She shouted, reaching down for his arm. He let her drag him over to the training room bench, sweating a little bit herself as she glanced around for a cup. "Don't let me come back to this room with that naginata in your hands! You know why we're teaching you swords!"
Shinonome clenched his fists in his lap. When she stopped looking around for a cup, she turns to give him a look, and he does not look at her face. She huffed, and runs out of the room. Another tutor, another face that could've easily been his father instead.
Being the King was such busy work, sure, but couldn't he come down and at least tell him what he was doing right?
He heard laughter. "C'mon, sis!" Faintly, beyond the walls of the training hall.
Shinonome glanced to the open door of the training hall, the one the assistant had gone through. She had only said that she couldn't come back to him with the naginata in his hands... He slipped off of the chair and crawled closer to the wall he had heard the laughter coming from.
"We're goi'g to get in trouble!" Another voice said, but the laughter after it revealed the giddyness about the trouble.
"Hey, the King's got some peace talks, right?" The first voice said, and Shinonome froze, hands on the walls. "Our dad works for him, it'll be fiiine."
... Peace talks?
Never give them the time of day, Shinonome. Ryoma's words repeated in his ears. They will not hesitate to strike at where you are weak. And you are weak.
The girls kept giggling outside of the training hall. Shinonome is supposed to tell when people are here. But... He thought about what they sounded like. Girls. Small girls. And he thinks about his father. About his tutors.
Peace talks.
He... he had thought they were going to be at war soon. How long had they just been lying to get him to inherit that sword that always hung on his dad's hip?
He walked out the door, watching the backs of two girls with bright pink hair running down the hall.
"H-Hey!" He shouted, and the girls freeze in place.
They both turned to face him, fear on their faces. One of them stutters, "P-Prince Shinonome?"
He was supposed to tell when people were here. Nobody was supposed to know how these halls worked except those who worked for his father. That's what they drilled into him. Among all those other drills that were mixing together in his head uselessly. Perhaps even for nothing.
"Um..." He tightened his fists by his sides. "...Is... is it really peaceful out there?"
The taller of the two girls seems to untense when he says that. "...Yeah?" She laughed. "I thought you were going to get us in trouble! Our dad keeps talking about how you're so scary when you're focused..." She tapped the smaller of the two on the shoulder. "But, aha, yeah! There's like, nothing official, but dad keeps telling us, oh, we're getting more good things, oh, the king is doing such good work, talking to the Nohrians..."
"The 'ohrians offered." The smaller said, smiling. "You didn't know, Shiro... Shiro..." Her face screwed up.
"Shinonome." The older corrected.
Shinonome stared. Shinonome considered.
It was going well? Those peace talks? Then why was his dad so concerned with how his battle form was going? Why was everyone concerned with how he fought? How to concern himself when battles came? How to keep people calm when the situation was chaotic?
"Prince Shinonome!" His assistant from earlier calls from the training hall, and everyone snapped in that direction.
Shinonome made his decision in that moment.
"Go!" He waved his hands forward, towards the two girls. "You can't be caught! I mean it!"
The taller of the two girls nodded, grabbed the smaller one, and dragged her off. They just peeled out of view when his assistant finally opens the door close to him, a cup of water in one hand. Shinonome held his arms behind his head, staring up at her.
"Shinonome, I told you..."
"You told me that you didn't want me to be holding the naginata when you came back." Shinonome interrupted, smiling. Okay. If they were lying about everything to him, he wouldn't feel too bad about his restlessness anymore. "I just needed to walk."
She huffed. "This isn't about... okay. Come sit down, Prince Shinonome. Come drink your water, we need to get you to your lessons."
Lessons that mean nothing, Shinonome thought. He kept it to himself, and let himself be led back to his seat.
That morning, he argued with his father.
It was an argument about what he heard several months ago. Once again, his father was not there at all until he showed up. Maybe it was understandable if he was off doing those peace talks that were supposedly happening, or something like that, but why couldn't he just say something, anything, through a letter? He heard his dad sent those to his mother all the time!
And yet, nothing for him.
When he started off his rare month with Ryoma by asking his father why he never talked about the peace his nation was supposedly walking toward, his father freezes up, and asks who told him. Not an apology, not a justification that there's something off about the peace, not even a refutation that it wasn't true, just a, "who told you."
So it was true.
"Why not tell me?" Shinonome asked, not even caring that his tone came off rude and tense. Ryoma glares at him. "You're spending all of this time having people teach me how to fight, how to manage combat, how to speak as a prince, and nothing about how to handle peace at all!"
Ryoma narrowed his eyes, hands resting on the hilt of his sword. "I don't remember raising you to be like this." He said, not even addressing anything he said.
Shinonome grit his teeth, hand tight on a naginata. "Uh, Dad? Don't know if you know this, but you didn't raise me at all."
He knew it was the wrong thing to say to his face. But it felt right in the moment. Even as his father bristled, red armor shining in the light, Shinonome didn't regret saying it.
"I do what I have to."
"Well, maybe you can consider doing more!" Shinonome shouts, pressing one foot forward into the dirt. His grip on the naginata tightens. "It's not like you're ever around, anyway!"
Nothing productive was done that day. It was a lot of shouting. Right when Ryoma left, he sternly told Shinonome to meet him first thing tomorrow, as well.
That night, he cut his hair.
His mother gave him the scissors.
It's too long. It reminded him of his father in how unmanagable it is. He stared into the reflection and hacked at it. Snip, snip, snip. Blonde hair fell to the floor, spreading around as he kept adjusting his positioning in front of the mirror. Snip, snip.
Finally, he decided it was enough. He put the scissors down and stepped back, looking into the reflection. His hair only reaches to around the middle of his neck. His mother, standing behind him, looks proud. She was wearing some armor, hastily placed on top of her queen robes. Her hair was about the same length as his.
He smiled at his reflection, then turned back to face her.
"Uh, sorry, mom. Mother. I didn't mean to..."
"No, it's..." She paused, shuffling the robe in her arms. "I should've said something sooner, kiddo. I've been... out myself."
He blinked. "Uh... weren'tcha out with dad with all those peace talks?"
She grimaced. "... Sometimes. Not a lot." She glanced out the window, looking at the moon shimmering in the sky. Her wyvern, red scales glistening, rested peacefully in the courtyard. "...A lot of the time, I was back home."
His eyes stung with tears. "...Couldn't you take me?"
"...I couldn't find a way to convince your Pops to let me visit you more often." She laughed. "I would've taught you lancework, that's for sure! So I did other things." She sighed. "I used to be better than this, you know. Got too used to being queen, I guess."
"No, I..." Shinonome looked away from his mother's face. He wished he got her freckles. "... I should've asked for you."
"We both know how that would've gone." His mother grinned again. "But, hey. You could've snuck out, and Vaida would've informed me about you doing so!" She rose an eyebrow. "Weren't you supposed to be making a daring escape though, kiddo?"
He grit his teeth. "...I want to visit you. Make up for lost time, y'know?"
His mom blinked her eyes. In the moonlight, it almost looked like tears were forming. "Heh. I'd like that. Tell ya what. If you can swing by the Nohrian border, you could probably visit the nation of Cheve. That's where I've been visiting." She closed her eyes in order to beam. "And you could even leave letters for me to say if you visited!"
Shinonome darted forwards and wrapped his mother in a hug. She let out a gasp of air, pulling her hands out to lift the cloak in the air. She stared down at her son, before chuckling and rubbing his hair. "Your hair's a mess, kiddo." Her voice wobbled. "Just like when I first cut mine."
"Heh." Shinonome pulled away, pushing his mom's hand off of his head. "Somehow, that makes me happier than my old hair ever did." He reached for the cloak, pulling it from her arms.
He pulled it over his shoulders. After he finished doing so, his mom placed a hand on one of his shoulders.
"Make me proud, kiddo. Cause some trouble."
He didn't dread the thought like he did with his dad.
"Heh, like I'd let you down."
She laughed, then turned to the window again. This time, she whistled. Vaida lifted her head up from where she rested, and she flew up to the window.
Shiro finished pulling the robe on over his new spear fighter armor, and he hopped up onto the ledge. He glanced over to his mom, who had a hand on her chest.
"Make sure to prepare rations."
Shiro snorted, but he made a mental note to do that as he slipped onto his mother's wyvern. And then he was off.
The things he learned while wandering around initially were fascinating. It was mostly peaceful. In fact, the most dangerous things around were the monsters, or perhaps even King Ryoma! He tries not to flinch whenever his father's name gets mentioned.
But everything everyone seems to be saying, when they do talk about the situation with other countries, is that it's peaceful. Tense, maybe, sometimes, and a bit territorial at times, but other than that one time Hinoka disappeared for a few months, nothing major has occurred around the borders for a while.
Other than the monsters, which is why sometimes things were tense with Nohr. But it seems the monsters knew how to breed.
Shinonome continued to travel. He forgot food for a few days, and he simply was not going to tell his mother he did so.
It was so... peaceful outside of the castle. Sure, it was still loud, and he could slip into crowds easily, but it was so different. He stole a dumpling before running off once, and it was the most exciting thing he's ever done.
But the kingdom of Hoshido was not the only place he wanted to visit. Where did his mom say she visited? Cheve? He heard about it, and saw it on a map, but... He was a little awful at directions. He didn't know what the map meant in relation to the real world. That would've been real great to have been taught, maybe.
But off he wandered, cloak billowing behind him, into the wilderness beyond Hoshido. His mother's warnings to bring rations came in handy as he camped. It was a few cold nights, until a kind stranger from a nearby village taught him how to make a campfire. Taught him how to cook food.
He really, really wished he was taught this.
So, hey, maybe he could swing by the village. Hang out with a roof, because he really wanted to have a roof over his head again and not just be sitting under hangings and beneath trees. With that goal set, he headed off in the direction the stranger had came from.
Which was good, because the village was under attack.
A few monsters rushed the village, fists with loud chains crashing through fences and breaking walls. They had masks over their faces, purple fog oozing through the holes on the top.
Shinonome only considered what to do for just a moment. If there was anything he was thankful to his lessons for, it was helping him assess situations quickly in a situation where there was danger present.
He launched himself forward, pulling his naginata off from his back. He stabbed the closest monster to him, plunging in a little bit before pulling out the weapon. The ooze came from the spot he stabbed, and it turned around to face him. He ducked beneath the attack, only to get slapped by the chains. Ow! What the hell?!
He stumbled back, only gaining enough of his senses to dodge the next attack. He used his naginata as a way to dodge around another monster's attack, then swung it around him to get a glancing blow. The two monster let out a cry, and the other monsters glanced up from where they were about to punch a house.
Shinonome used this moment to cut both of them down. With a swing of his naginata, the monsters were cut open enough to fall backwards and not move anymore. He panted, but he turned to the approaching monsters.
He got hit a few more times. But it wasn't enough to put him down for long! He managed to finish off the last monster, leaning on his naginata for support after he confirmed it would no longer move.
One person cheered, and then more did. Shinonome almost started from the suddenness of the noise, but he remembered to hold onto the naginata.
"Sir, thank you so much!!" One person said, finally saying words to him that he could respond to.
As the mutterings from everyone else increased, he decided to focus on the village person in front of him. "Uh, yeah. 's no problem. I did what needed to be done?" Would people not have done that?
The villager seems to not gather his confusion, because they simply reached out. "We have to know the name of the boy who saved us!" He was not that young, was he...? "We'll help you heal up, we can have someone send for a healer. Please, tell us your name...?"
He opened his mouth. Shut it. He would be found out immediately if he told his real name, wouldn't he? And that was such a formal name. Shinonome. He hummed, still leaning on his naginata. What... was a good name? He wasn't amazing at names either, maybe...
He remembers a small girl, struggling to say his name.
"Hey, just call me Shiro." Shiro leaned on his naginata a little more. "Now, uh, could you guide me to a bed? I haven't slept on something soft in days."
It's been months since that village. Shiro took to his new name easily enough, and he even got himself a headband to keep his bangs from growing into his face. One downside of cutting his hair the way he did was that his bangs were not especially touched.
He was so happy about it, he went around for a bit with his hood down. Nobody even recognized him! Turns out, when the prince on those missing posters had long hair and no hair accessory, by the time people did a double take at him, he could be gone. He didn't often visit Hoshido.
He probably shouldn't go into the city unless he needed to.
So off he went again. Months. He kept himself at inns, realized that he did not have a lot of money, started taking odd jobs, sold some items he swiped from the castle before he left... heh, not like the castle needed it anyway. What was the point of keeping a fancy haircomb if he was going to keep his hair short?
But this odd job was particularly odd. In a village near the Wind Tribe, there was a part of it that most people steered clear of. And he did, too, but only because the forest seemed creepy. But there was a job, and it said to... convince the forest dweller to come back to civilization and interrupt her project?
That was a little rude, but hey. It gave him money. Maybe he should've looked into why it had a gold reward for something as simple as 'convince someone to come out to civilization', but hey. Maybe the creepy forest wouldn't be so bad if somebody was living there?
The trees grew darker and more twisted as he wandered further in. When he made it to the house deep within, he almost ran into it from how much it blended in with the darkened trees. He pushed himself away from the walls, looking around. At the bottom of various trees were mud pits that seemed to have... charms stuck on them? It looked weird.
"Did they send someone else here?" A voice said, and Shiro almost jumped out of his skin.
Wh-
Rhajat?!
It was only some sense he barely had that he stopped himself from saying it out loud, and he turned towards where the voice came from, looking down.
... He looked a little more up. When did she get that tall? Wasn't she still, like, 11?
"Heard there was some recluse that needed to come reach civilization?"
His cousin sighed, leaning on the doorframe. "... if you wanna leave a good impression, I wouldn't recommend doing it like that."
"Ack- uh." Shiro sighed. "Listen, people out there care about you, y'know?" He waved his hand around. Rhajat made a noise that implied she was not interested in what he wanted to say. He never really talked to her at the family gatherings, shoot, shoot. How could he get her to come out of her house and to the town? "What's your project? Is there any way that I could help... speed it up?"
At that, Rhajat's eyes shone a little. "... Not going to force me to stop?"
"Uh... That'd be... bad, wouldn't it? Leaving a half-finished project behind for a month." He shrugged. When it was against his dad's projects he was glad, but it was his cousin. She didn't deserve that, he thought. "Even if this place looks creepy."
"... Huh." Rhajat only hummed. "Well, I suppose I could find a place where I can leave it for a while... if you wanna help, I can get it to that point by tonight."
"And go back to town?"
Rhajat rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and go back to town. Two birds, or whatever the phrase is." She pushed away from the doorframe. "I'll get ingredients."
As Rhajat went back inside, Shiro only stared after her. Why was she in this place alone? That seemed... a little bad, wasn't it? He kinda thought Aunt Sakura wouldn't let her daughter do that, would she? Though Aunt Sakura was notoriously easy to scare, so maybe this was where Rhajat loved to be. Maybe she was the one who put up the job in the first place?
Was everyone in his family like Ryoma...?
"Hey, blonde boy." Shiro jumped at Rhajat's voice. She grinned. "I've got the ingredients. I'm missing a few things. Grab these for me."
... Reminded him of Orochi. He picked the paper from his cousin's hands, reading the few items on the list. They seemed... normal. Huh. "Sure thing, cuz!" He saluted, turning around and going out.
When he returned, the sun was starting to set. And when Rhajat swiped the items out of his hands and laughed giddily while going inside, he stared up at the sunlight fading away. It made the forest feel colder. Maybe he will go inside for the night anyway.
He closed the door behind him, and Rhajat simply stated, "Keep it open."
... He opened the door back up. "Okay, yeesh, you like it cold, I guess."
"Wouldn't guess I'm royalty, would you?" Rhajat giggled. "Okay, you go place your ingredients over there..."
After Shiro 'helped' with a spell that seemed very dubious in nature, but didn't seem to do anything, Rhajat held up a tag in the air and nodded. She hung it up above where she had drawn something on the ground. "... There we go."
"Did I, uh, do anything...?"
"Yes. It was helpful, don't worry." Rhajat smiled. "It's left at a point where it can take in the energy it needs. I prepared the tag before this. It's safe. I hope. Hehehe..."
"...Okay." Shiro laughed, waving an arm. "Well, let's get you back to town. I'm sure someone's gotta be worried you're here..."
"Maybe."
Right as he reached the door, Rhajat cleared her throat, and Shiro stopped, turning his head to look at her. The pink-haired mage stared at him for a few seconds, biting her nail. She walked forward, squinting up at him.
"... You know, how are people not realizing you're Shinonome?"
Ah. Did she know the whole time? He looked away. "Shiro, Rhaj."
"So you did know me." Rhajat grinned. "No wonder you were so willing." Her smile fell. "...Why are you here, then?"
"Don't... worry about it." Shiro waved a hand. "Seeing the country with my own eyes."
"... Right. I won't tell anyone you've been seen by me, then." A smile. "I recommend grabbing your reward then running. I gave Mom a charm for this, and I don't think she's as good a liar as I am."
"Noted."
It's in a similar area, a few years later, where he saves them.
His naginata skills have gotten better, he has a lance now, his cloak has all sorts of things chained together and linking off of it, thanks to his mom, and he's made a bit of a reputation for himself as the cloaked warrior.
The cloaked savior. Heh, almost better than the title he would've gotten as Crown Prince.
Rhajat's projects got messier and messier, but she usually had a good control of them. It just looked very evil. So as long as he helped prevent the monsters from getting into town, he had something steady to return back to. This time, when he came back, a horde of them had melded together and managed to get away from her workshop, but at this point, he can tell her creative marks.
Even as it was horrifying to most, including the small kid who didn't seem to be looking until it was close.
He swooped in, jumped off of his naginata, and used his lance to poke a hole so large into it that it had no choice but to fall apart into useless hunks of meat. The smaller kid gasped up at him as he landed on the ground, spinning his lance around like it was nothing. He strapped it back onto his back, turning around to walk to where he had launched off of his naginata.
"Whoaaaa," The kid said, gray hair tied up in a messy bun. "How did you do that?"
"Years of practice, kid," Shiro bragged, pulling his naginata out of the ground and keeping it at his side. He shifted his gaze to glance at the group, noting the lack of arrows in the quiver of the apothecary girl, the messy haired look of the tallest boy, the fact that both pegasus siblings were not on their pegasi, Hisame's messed up hair, Rhajat— he gave a wave, looks like they got her out of the house again— and—
Blue hair. Wide smile, despite the mess his hair and clothes looked like. An extremely earnest, "That's so cool! Could you teach me?!"
Shiro stared. He thought himself lucky that his hood wasn't down from the motion he went through. Sure, most people wouldn't know him, but his cousin? When he heard Ryoma had heard that he cut his hair and adjusted posters to match?
He liked to face his problems, ignoring the time where he ran away to become a wanderer. But here, and now, looking at the smiling face of his cousin...
He turned around and fled, ignoring the cries of the group behind him as he did so.
The next times he meets them, it's under circumstances that are, to put it lightly, not ideal.
He happened to be in Nohr after visiting his mom, and spotted two people being hounded by a group of Iago's Men. When he swooped in to help to drive them off, the distraction caused a spell to go awry and hit into the tall, messy-haired boy.
It hurt, judging by the way he let out a strangled noise, followed by coughing. He held up his staff, gem at the top flickering as he tried to concentrate. But that wasn't important compared to the immense energy surrounding the kid, enveloping them. Inside of the energy, he could see a shifting shape. One that looked... draconic.
When one mage lifted up his hand to interfere, Shiro bodied him to the ground, slashing his wrist with a knife he had on hand to stop him from casting the spell. When the roar echoed through the air from his behind, he heard someone scream.
He looked up, and saw Kiragi running towards them. He was followed by a few more people. The same as last time, plus Mitama and a wolfskin girl.
Shiro was about to debate his options when he heard loud, thundering footsteps behind him. Shiro turned to see a giant dragon, water bubbles hissing an escape from its mouth. The man beneath him whimpered.
The messy-haired boy jumped in front of Shiro. "Kana! Kana, it's me. Don't you know me...?"
Shiro glanced behind him. Kiragi drew closer.
Shiro got up from his victim and ran, listening as the messy-haired boy continued to speak to the dragon that stayed still.
He didn't see them again until he drew close to those damn woods. This place was always where some of the monsters came from, and at one point it was so infested Shiro couldn't even draw close without having to fight something from there. So his instinct was to brace himself when he got close, and he was proved correct, as a rock soared past him. Those stoneborn never knew when to go down.
His eyes trailed, and he noticed someone frozen there, nursing a wound. Ah. The stoneborn got someone.
When the stoneborn turned back to their latest victim, Shiro lunged forward, taking attention by swiping his naginata across the bottom of it. The rock went off to the side, and the frozen person was finally able to move, stumbling a few steps back. Shiro nodded, jumped onto his naginata, and leaped up to the stoneborn's face. He had his lance in hand in a moment, stabbing into the monster's face. It cracked, and the stoneborn let out a wailing cry.
He landed back on the ground, stabilizing himself for a moment, then landing the final blow to the chest of the stoneborn with his lance. It wailed, then retreated back into the ground. He turned back around to his naginata, then recognized the person that had been struck.
The messy-haired boy. The one that had been there when Kiragi was there both times.
Shiro had learned the signs by now. He needed to go.
He pulled his naginata from the ground, turning to run.
Magic pulsed through his system, and he suddenly couldn't move his feet anymore. Ah. Oh no. That was...
The boy approached, horse by his side. He had a Freeze staff in his hands, gem glowing brightly. "You have a lot of nerve," he muttered, placing the butt of the staff on the ground. In the distance, Shiro could hear footsteps. "Saving us and then not introducing yourself. Do you have any manners...?"
"W-Well, sometimes-times." Shiro hated speaking through Freeze. He grit his teeth. The footsteps grew louder. "Hey-hey, dude, let me go."
"Not until Prince Kiragi is able to see your face." The boy frowned. "My name is Dwyer, by the way... Since I'm getting on you about introducing yourself. It's only polite." He walked forward, staff still glowing. "Hold still... I need to unhood you."
"No!" Shiro shouted. Dwyer paused. "L-Listen, man. I can join-n your party, alri-right? If you need-need me to get thanked by Kiragi so b-bad. I need my hood." Shiro waved his hands, tightening the hood a little. "Is that accep-acceptable?"
Dwyer stared at Shiro for a moment. "Hmm..."
Shiro glanced up past him, to the group of people that were rushing his direction. There were even more this time...? Shiro glanced back down to Dwyer. "Isn't it punish-punishment enough that I have to b-be in a big group?"
"Having to be thanked in a big group is punishment...?" Dwyer chuckled. "Alright, you've convinced me... Just introduce yourself."
"It's Shiro!"
The gem faded, and Shiro could finally move his feet again. He almost collapsed onto his knees, but he had his naginata to lean on.
Like he promised, he did not run, simply turned fully to face the group that Kiragi and Dwyer had amassed. Was that... the princes of Nohr? Something about the hair color of the younger looked super familiar, now that he was able to look at it up close...
The small kid tackle-hugged Dwyer, babbling something about being worried. Kiragi and Rhajat walked up to Shiro. Kiragi was smiling, and Rhajat had her thumbnail in her mouth again.
Rhajat grinned. "Heh... I knew buying that Freeze staff would come in handy. We have a new ally."
He had been betrayed by Rhajat?!
Kiragi beamed at him. "You're really cool, mister! Really wish I could see your face, but Rhajat said you'd dislike that! Don't worry though!" Kiragi pointed to himself. "We'll protect your identity! Thanks for saving Kana those times!"
Shiro glanced over to where Kana was now pulling herself up to sit on Dwyer's horse. That was the kid's name, huh?
"Heh. I, uh, guess it was no problem. Just what a guy like me does." He lifted his hand to rub his neck, realized it would probably slip and reveal his hair, and settled for twirling one of the accessories on his cloak. "Not used to a big group... Where we headed next?"