Knives

Hiyori waited for the night to come. Hiyori and Akihiko always get goodnight stories by their maids before they go to sleep at around 9:30. The stories are always simple and childish, perfect for kid's their age. 

"And they lived happily ever after."

The maid closes the book and puts it to the side on the desk.

"Good night Hiyori."

"Good night ma'am. Thanks for the story!"

The maid chuckled a bit and looked at Hiyori with a small grin on her face.

"It's my pleasure."

The maid stands up, leaves the room and closes the door behind her. Hiyori lays in the bed for a while, waiting for silence to come. After the storytelling some maids continue to do some final cleaning around the mansion. Ten minutes pass by...then twenty...then thirty...Finally Hiyori hears the maids leaving the brooms and the rest of the cleaning equipment and going to their separate rooms.

Hiyori slowly removes her pink blanket. Her skin immediately starts to shiver from the cold. Her body not being used to such low temperatures, but she goes with it. She puts on her shoes and goes to her wardrobe slowly, in order to make a sound. When opening the wardrobe she scrolls through her clothes and picks the fluffiest one so that it gives her warmth. The bad part about it is that it makes it hard to move between tight spaces but she didn't find that being a problem.

With that, Hiyori slowly opens the door and looks around the empty corridor. She suspects that Akihiko would get out by this time too since he doesn't want to get caught by the maids or even worse, his family. Hiyori takes the first step from her room into the corridor. The first thing she thinks of doing is to check Akihiko's room for any traces or he has even left the room. Luckily for her, Akihiko's room is next to hers so it wasn't a long walk. With a few steps Hiyori reaches her brother's room and slowly open the door. When opening it she doesn't see him, what she does spot is the open window with curtains waving due to the cold wind. She quickly forgets about everything and runs towards the window, thinking that Akihiko might've jumped from it. And to her surprise he did. She spots the blue haired boy sliding and jumping from floor to floor in order to reach the ground.

"Akihiko!"

Hiyori shouts out his name but he doesn't hear her, he is too far away from her and he wind was too loud from where she was shouting. 

"Augh..."

Annoyed, Hiyori leaves his room and goes down using the stairs. The mansion wasn't that big in terms of floors but it was a fairly tiring. 

When reaching the first floor she rushes to the front door and leaves the mansion. She looks around, trying to spot him. The moment her head turned to the right she saw him running towards the training ground. What could he be doing there?

"Akihiko, wait!"

Hiyori started chasing him. Her feet getting exhausted from all the running. Her face started to sweat a little. When reaching the training ground where knights usually train she sees no one except her brother, Akihiko. He was holding a couple of knives and aimed at an archery target. She looked at him from afar, trying to see what he is going to do. At that moment Akihiko takes a deep breath and starts throwing the knives at the target. Half of the knives hit the target while the other half miss it. None of the knives manage to hit the center though. 

"Dang it..."

Akihiko walks to the circular target and picks up the knives. After that he picks up the ones from the rough dirt ground. Akihiko tries again and again. Hiyori couldn't understand one thing out of all of this. Why? Why is he doing this? After the fourth attempt, Hiyori came in closer and screamed his name.

"Akihiko!"

Akihiko quickly turns around. His face shocked from seeing his sister here at a time like this. He quickly comes next to her and shuts her mouth with his hand. 

"Stay quiet."

"Mph!"

Hiyori starts flapping hands left and right trying to escape and talk normally.

"Promise me that you will stay quiet and I will let you go."

When hearing that, Hiyori calms down. Akihiko slowly removes his hand off her mouth.

"Okay, why are you here sister?"

"I am asking the questions. Why are YOU here?"

"...I'm training."

Hiyori looks at her brother confused.

"Training? For what?"

"To become strong I suppose."

"Is that all?"

"Ugh...yeah."

Akihiko turns his head to the left and starts sweating a little.

"You're lying! Liar liar pants on fire!"

Hiyori screams.

"Okay okay calm down. I will tell you why."

Akihiko points at a tree trunk.

"Sit there."

Hiyori obeys and sits on the trunk.

"The reason I train almost every night is because I wanna prove myself. I always see my family praising our big brother for being an amazing knight and I just feel jealous and unappreciated. Yes, I know that he is way older than us but...I just...I just want to be a hero...like him. I tried doing what he does. I tried wielding a sword but It didn't work. I failed...miserably. After that I picked up a few knives and out of anger I threw them at the target. Some hit it and I managed to impress the knights. They told me that I have a talent and that I should try more. Ever since I have been training. Almost every night is spent of throwing these knives. I do it at night because I do not want anyone else to see me. I prefer solo. That's all of it. I want to prove myself, to make dad proud. I want him to see how his son achieved something by himself and maybe in the future I can become a knight like my brother. Someone who protects their loved ones. Yes...a hero. I want to be a hero, a person that can save lives, a person that can save the lives of the people he cares about. I want that."

Tears dropping from his eyes. Akihiko looks at Hiyori with a smile and crying eyes. He reaches out and hugs her tightly. Hiyori stays in shock, not knowing how to respond to what he just said.

"Promise me that you won't tell anyone. I want this to stay between us. I will show you that your big brother isn't the only person who can achieve great things."

Hiyori smiles and responds to Akihiko's hug. Her head resting in his chest. 

"I promise. I believe you will achieve great things, brother."

Tears were shed that night.