43. Minako part 1

Clang!

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Clang!

The sound of swords clashing rang out as Watanabe Minako practiced against a man two heads taller and at least a hundred pounds heavier than her.

Even still, she not only was holding her own, but pushing him back.

If she could use her katana, he'd have already lost, but for this training session she had to use a Westerner type sword.

In the the beginning she was given a weighted trainer sword that weighed ten times as much as her katana.

A full fourteen kilograms!

For the first month she was told to just swing that sword, for nineteen hours a day and seven days a week, until it became light as air to her.

Then, came the footwork and stance training.

Broiled down, it was four main stances she was made to repeat until she would instinctively fall back into them; the plow, ox, fool, and roof.

Each would allow her to guard the middle, horizontal, low, and high parts of her body, and let her counterattack flawlessly.

That being said, Minako was not trading up her already learned fighting style with her katana for this one, she was just adding to her repertoire.

Kenjutsu is about attack, it is about putting your enemy down so aggressively and quick that they don't have time to even think about defence.

This masterful technique was forged through a thousand battles over hundreds of years, but her one sided battle with Alaric taught her at least one thing.

There are monsters in this world leagues beyond her current power, meaning a drawn-out fight is inevitable.

So, she bit her pride, and excepted his training.

Most Western fighting styles are about attrition, wearing your opponent down until you can give the final blow.

This style came from constant war, and fighting opponents you have no business fighting.

"Aaargh!"

The lout yelled, breaking her from her reverie.

Minako's opponent swung his sword down at her, letting their swords collide.

He started to push downwards, trying to overpower her.

She just tilted her sword, making his sword slide down, and making him tumble past her.

After he passed by, she swiped at his back with her sword, tearing the leather jerkin and leaving a long red welp up along his back.

The swords' edges were dull on all training swords, which allowed painful learning, but without any fatalities.

"Eeek! That fucking bitch!"

The boy with a wounded back, and ego, exclaimed.

He glared at her, and she smugly looked right back at him.

Incensed, he lifted his arm, ready to throw his sword at her face.

"Watch it Aaron! It was your own fault, I told you not to do that already. It makes it easy to strike your unguarded back."

Alaric stated.

Aaron's cheeks burned bright red, the same color his back, but this time due to embarrassment.

He lowered his weapon, and got back into the starting form.

She followed suit, ready for him.

This cunt had embarrassed him enough for two lifetimes!

He thought angrily.

Coming here out of nowhere, and displacing him as number one!

He knew what he had to do, and he knew it would work on her.

He took a more lazy stance.

"Come at me! And after you lose why don't you quit, and do the one thing women are actually good at - making babies!"

Snickering could be heard all around them.

"Shut up!"

"Ah, don't be like that. Your ass may not be too big, but it's still commendable. And those tits belong on a whore!"

More stifled laughter broke out, and her uptight bitch of a friend started to stalk towards him.

But a glare from Minako stopped her in her tracks.

"Just shut up, and fight me."

He smiled, knowing he was close.

"If you're real nice about it, and get on your knees to beg like only a woman can, I might take you on as my wife. I heard you southerners are freaks in the sack, you'll just lay there and take whatever your master... sorry... I meant husband does to you."

Instead of just snickering, full blown laugher burst out around them.

Feeding off the crowd, he made a lewd gesture at her.

Her face also turned red, but not in embarrassment like him, no it was in pure rage.

"I. Said. Shut. The. Fuck. Uuuup!"

She charged at him, all pretence and form gone.

Once she got close enough he spit in her face, and when she wiped it off with her hand, he slugged her with his gauntlet encased fist.

Blood erupted from her face as she fell onto her ass.

He gloated by walking around, arms in the air, accepting the applause coming his way.

Andrea tried to charge forward to kick Aaron's ass, but Alaric held her back.

"Did you just see what he did?!"

She screamed into his face.

"Yeah, I did, and so what? Do you think her future enemies will go easy on her? He doesn't owe her a damn thing, least of all to go easy on her just because she's a girl."

"You fucki..."

"Andrea, he's right."

Minako cut her friend off.

"Good, I'm glad you see it that way. Now, get up, you aren't done yet."

He kicked a stone at her.

Andrea glared at him.

If Minako-san hadn't forbade her, she'd have tried to kill this asshole!

"Hey, bitch, you gonna make me wait all da... Aaaah!"

She had flung the stone Alaric had kicked into his nose, then she got up and tackled him to the ground.

Then, she pummeled him constantly on the face until he tapped out.

"This fight is over! The winner is Minako!"

Alaric said, waiving her off him.

Once Alaric helped him up, he tried to cover his embarrassment of giving in to a short girl.

"Der! Ded yuh zii wut ze ded?! Zii ood bi dizcalifid!*"

*Sir! Did you see what she did?! She should be disqualified!

Alaric looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Do you intend to fight in the sky?"

"Ehh? Ngu.*"

* Uh? No.

"Then, I expect you to encounter a lot of rocks in the future, try to duck instead of gloating before the battle is over next time.

And don't be upset just because you lost to someone who is only good at making babies, though I do wonder what that says about you."

Alaric smiled.

"Go get some rest, and put some salve on... that!"

He motioned to his face, which looked like it got tenderized by a mallet.

It kind of made Alaric hungry for steak.

"Iz, der.*"

*Yes, sir.

Downcast, he headed for the barracks.

"That's all for today, the rest of you get some rest. Minako I'd like to speak to you in my office."

They all cleared out, even Andrea after Minako nodded and she gave a final glare at Alaric.

Minako headed for the guardhouse, only to be stopped by Alaric.

"Where are you going?"

She pointed at the guardhouse.

"You said you wanted to talk in your office."

He shook his head.

"Don't be ridiculous, that stuffy room ain't my office! Follow me."

He took her into the main grounds of the baron's land, past his mansion, into the orchard, and to a clearing with a small pond.

He went to the pond, grabbed a rock that had a rope attached to it and pulled a bucket filled with bottles of alcohol up.

He opened two, and gave her one.

"I'm underage."

"You look like you're fourteen."

"Nineteen actually."

"Then underage how?"

"Never mind."

She took a sip, noticed it tasted good, and took another.

"Thanks, for... you know... earlier."

She hated showing gratitude, but gave it her best shot anyway.

He also took a swig before answering her.

"What do you mean?"

"Giving me that rock."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Tsk. Fine. What did you want to talk about?"

He sat in the shade of a big tree.

"You're good."

She joined him.

"Of course, is that all you wanted to say?"

"No, you're too good. You accomplished more in three months than a regular recruit would in a year. So, I guess what I wanted to ask you is if you know of a place called China?"

The shock on her face was all the answer he needed.

"I see that you do."

"How do you even know of China?!"

"When I was younger I travelled with a man who said he was from there, he also grew strong exceptionally fast.

He called his method cultivation, he'd eat and drink weird shit and sit in a weird position all day and get stronger.

Do you also cultivate?"

"No, my power comes from another source. Where is this man now?"

He shrugged, excepting her answer.

"Down south, I told him about the Jadianese, a people that look just like both of you."

She took this to mean Asian, which she had already guessed he was.

"Did your friend say anything else about where we come from?"

"Yeah, he said that China was the greatest nation, and the rest were all bumbling idiots that could never hold a candle to it."

"Did he now?"

She deadpanned.

"Yup, among other things.

Like, did you know his country invented something called karaoke and ninjas, but their stupid neighboring country tries to steal the credit for it?"

"Huh, did he tell you the proper way to say his country's name?"

"What do you mean?"

"They are such a noble country that they have two names. One that the commoners use, and the noble one. Now, because they are so great you put a the in front of the name, but in their language the is pronounced Va. And China is pronounced gina."

"So, it would be pronounced Va gina? Like a woman's..."

"Oh, yeah, and they are very strict about it. Also, when you meet one of them it is very respectful to greet them by saying swine fucker."

"I think you're making shit up."

"No, I swear on their utmost god Godzilla."

"They have a god, with god in its name? What is it a god of?"

"It's a Shinto."

"Mm?"

"A god of destruction.

He also has lesser fields of influence.

Like he'll destroy your fragile city one day, and the next protect you from the devil called King Ghidorah who drains kids' life energy."

"Wow, that's... a lot."

"That's just the tip of the iceberg, there's a whole pantheon. Like Mothra who's the god of..."

"That's enough for now."

"Okay, but if you ever see him again.."

"Call him swine fucker?"

"Yup, he'll respect you more for it."

He took a big gulp, thinking whether or not what she told him was complete bullshit.

"Can I ask you something now?"

She asked.

"Let me guess, your wondering why I decided to train you even after you attacked me?"

She shook her head no.

"No, you deserved that, and I assumed you agreed to show me some pointers because I'm just that great and you want your name written down in history next to mine."

He thought about his friend who also was just as vain and arrogant when he met him, maybe everyone from where they're from are like that.

"Okay, then, what did you want to ask?"

"When I first met you, and when I started training with you, you were a sexist pig who kept asking me out, why did you stop?"

She started to drink some more.

"For two main reasons.

The first reason I did it before was because I realized it made you angry and showed me the best way to teach you, but after I knew what method to use to teach you, there was no reason to continue.

And also because you're gay.

It's not like I'm going to go after a woman that doesn't like dick, I'm not dumb enough to think I can 'cure' her with a quick fuck."

She did a spit take as he said the word gay.

"Gay! Wh... what do you mean?!"

"I thought that was self explanatory. It's when a girl likes to fuck other girls, but doesn't like to fuck men."

"I know what gay means! I meant I'm not gay!"

He gave her a side glance.

"Uh-huh, and the sky ain't blue."

She lowered her head in defeat, he knew and there was no changing that fact.

"How... how did you know?"

"I'm the head of the guard, you don't get to where I am without being observant. Also, when I saw you and Andrea fucking it gave me a pretty big clue."

"Wait! You saw...?!"

"Yeah, y'all do it every third day in the woods. Lovely show by the way."

"YOU WATCHED?!"

"Yup, multiple times, y'all really need to have a few different rendezvous spots."

"That's... that's..."

"What? Unnatural? Evil? Wrong? Or any of the many things people say about those who fuck the same sex? Fuck whoever you want, I don't care, just try not to be such a hypocrite."

He took another gulp.

"That's different!"

"Is it?

Sex is just for making babies, so everytime someone does it just for fun, in the wrong hole, the wrong species, just to look at someone else do it, or the wrong sex it is being done wrong.

We are all broken up in the noggin, at least, that's what I think."

He said shrugging.

"So, we should all get out of each other's way, and stop judging each other's fucked up kinks."

"So, you think we are all just broken inside?"

"Pretty much. Why? You got a better theory?"

"Yeah, that homosexuality is the way we're meant to be, but somewhere down the line someone made a mistake and did it with the opposite sex.

I don't want to come off like a man-hater, but it was most definitely a guy who screwed everything up!"

He held up two fingers.

"Two things.

One, you definitely came off as a man-hater.

And two, what about babies? Same sex might be as good as, or better than regular sex, but you can't really make babies with it."

The booze was starting to get to her, loosening her lips.

She took another chug.

"Exactly! Do you think that those higher beings, or whatever made us, was like 'look down there, those guys have found yet another way to ruin the world they rely on. We need more of that!'?"

She gave him the tried and true drunken stare, the one that conveys that you are absolutely certain in your perceived correctness.

Like when your friends tell you that being drunk does not make you immortal it just numbs your pain, and you definitely should not jump from that two story high billboard.

But you give them that stare, and they know... you truly are immortal... up until you get admitted to the E.R with two broken legs, but a heart filled with victory!

"Point taken."

"Also, I don't care what you say, looking at other people is weird!"

"I think you meant looking at them fucking."

Her cheeks burned bright red, this time in embarrassment.

"You know what I meant!"

"Hahaha! Yeah, I did, and I have to tell you that you can't diss it until you tried it.

Also, before I forget, you have got to work on your oral technique!

Andrea loves you so she fakes orgasms, but if you want this to last long term, you have to do better.

Like if you curl your tongue like this, and bend your finger like that, you'll find out what a real orgasm feels like on your tongue."

"Ree ree doesn't fake orgasms!"

"You call her Ree ree? That's adorable. Let me guess, this is your first girlfriend, isn't it?"

"Nooo!"

He took another gulp.

"I'll take that as a yes. Wait! Does that mean she's your other first too?"

Her face turned redder than should be possible for a human being.

"You don't ask a girl that!"

She punched his arm, took a huge swallow, and tried to drown her shame.

"I think you mean a full grown woman, and why the fuck not?

I ask men and women it all the time, and they get just as squirrelly as you! It's fucking hilarious! Well, except for Dag, she just punched me when I asked, hey, just like you!"

She gasped in a drunken realization.

"Wait, are you two a thing?!"

"No, just friends, but I did offer her the choice to be coworkers with benefits."

"You're a me too asshole!"

"A what!"

"From where I'm from it's a man who uses his power to make women sleep with him!"

"I'd never do that! To the men or women under me!"

"What if they complain?"

"I remove myself from commanding them, if that was the problem, or numerous other things depending on the situation!"

"So you don't re... reta... get back at them!"

"No! A happy guard is the best guard. If they don't feel safe and satisfied, how can they ensure the safety of the town!"

"And what if a woman comes forward and says someone assaulted her?!"

"I personally investigate! If someone broke the trust between those who're supposed to watch each other's backs, they deserve and will be punished! And I hope the gods have mercy on the offender, I certainly won't!"

"So, you don't make women sleep with you?"

"No! I just let them know that, if they want to, I'm open to party."

"So you're not a me too asshole, you're just a man-whore!"

"No, I'd never charge for sex, I'm a slut."

"Hahahahahaha! I think I'm drunk!"

"I know! This stuff is amazing!"

They both chugged some more.

_____________

"There you are! And, of course, you're balls drunk again!"

Dag came into view with a scowl on her face, and a potion - that looked like something died in it - in her left hand.

"Hey! It's Dag! I was just telling her of the time you..."

Dag went forward and slugged him in the face.

"Yeah, that!"

"You're supposed to be working!"

"If this is about that paperwork, that's why I have a vice captain - whatever his name is."

She looked at the empty and full bottles of booze.

"How do you still have caches! I thought I destroyed all of them!"

"I was in four wars, I know how to hide beer, you'll never find them all!"

Instead of answering, she stuffed the potion bottle in his open mouth, pinched his nose, and tilted his head up forcing him to drink.

Half a bottle later he was sober, and regretting every second of it.

"Oh, gods! Oh, dear gods! If you have any mercy, kill me now! The dirt! The dirt will cleanse my tongue!"

He started lapping the ground to get rid of the taste assaulting his taste-buds in vain.

Dag turned her attention to Minako, who blanched when in her drunken state realized she was next.

"Wait! No..."

Too late.

Dag upended the bottle over her head.

Immediately she became crystal clear.

"I'm sober! And without a hangover! That stuff is amazing!"

"It should be, it costs me sixty gold per bottle."

Dag helped her to her feet, totally ignoring Alaric suffering in the background.

"But wait, why did you pour it on me, and not him?"

"It works just fine through skin absorption, he just needs to be taught a lesson! These aren't cheap!"

Alaric was reaching for another beer, when Dag's sword flashed and smashed all of the bottles.

"No! There's a special place in hell for people who waste good beer!"

"Whatever, get up. You got work to do."

"What is it this time?"

"Some asshole is stirring up the populace! Dozens of 'rebellions' have popped up all across the kingdom. We even think they set fire to the woods south of here."

"The goblin woods?"

"Yeah, but that's not where you're headed. Some idiot kid of an influential merchant got kidnapped. Our Lady has graciously offered your help in retrieving him."

"Where is it?"

"Break hollow cavern, at least around the area."

"That's a week's flight on griffin back!"

"But not for you."

"Yeah, but that means I'll have to go alone."

"So?"

"You know you'll never find a husband, if you keep being as heartless as you are."

"I hope Lulu drops you."

"She won't, because she's way nicer than you!"

"Who's Lulu?"

Minako asked.

"The longest relationship he's had."

"And she's fine with you sleeping around?!"

"Yeah, she's the best! Want to meet her?"

"Yeah!"

"It's decided then, she's coming with me."

"Wait, what?!"

__________

After suiting up in a leather corset with pauldrons, a hood, steel plated tassets, her katana strapped to her left hip under the tasset, and a bastard sword in a sheath on her back she walked into the aviary.

The aviary is the holding pen for the flying beasts, it is situated right above the stables.

The aviary truly is a work of art, large and sturdy pillars uphold a roof that can retract via a pulley system, each stall is spacious and always stocked with fresh food and water, there is never less than fifteen guards stationed here at any given time, and the animal caregiver is forced to live here.

In comparison the regular stables are just a raggedy shed which happens to be the base of the aviary.

But that is to be expected, any great house could have stables for mere land beasts, only the truly affluent could host those of the flying variety.

So, anyone that is anyone invests in flying mounts for their men at arms.

Griffins are great, but sadly average. There are many exotic beasts worth buying.

Like the lyaperida, a butterfly-like monster that is completely invisible at all times, giving the rider the illusion of floating in midair.

Not that the baron had one of those, the seller only had a few, and he did not like baron enough to sell to him instead of other people higher in the peerage.

Minako spotted Alaric, he was just wearing a plain jerkin and pants, with his sword on his hip.

She went up to him and Dag who was standing beside him.

"I thought you said we were going to a fight?"

"Yeah, I did."

"You're not ready!"

He reached over to check if his sword was on his hip.

"Yeah, I am. My sword is right here."

Dag decided to answer her look of disbelief.

"He never wears armor, unless he's going to war. You'll get used to it."

She decided to just ignore his weirdness.

Ever since she woke up in a bed after he had defeated her and he convinced her to train under him, she's seen him do weirder things.

The only reason she accepted his offer is because he so utterly beat her, and rumor has it ever since he got here he has yet to go all out.

"Where's Lulu? Does she work here?"

They started to laugh.

"What?! You said I'd meet his girlfriend, and made me meet y'all here!"

"You think Lulu is his girlfriend?! Hahaha!"

"You said it was the longest relationship he's had!"

"Yeah, but he doesn't do girlfriends, boyfriends, or anything in between."

She looked around the aviary, what Lulu was dawning on her.

"Your longest relationship is with a fucking griffin?!"

"Now, that's just an insult to Lulu! She's way better than some flying cat, she's saved my ass more times than I could count!"

"Then, what is she?!"

He motioned for her to follow him as he walked to one of the extra large hexagonally shaped stalls.

Inside was a dragonfly-type monster that had scorpion tail that had a pincer instead of a stinger.

When Alaric entered it started buzzing its wings.

As if it was happy to see him, which is easy enough with those huge eyes.

"Ah Lulu, did you miss me!"

Alaric ran up to feed his mount a piece of bloody meat.

The monster gobbled it up, and wiggled its antennae on his face as thanks.

"Talk about a face only a mother could love!"

He looked at her like she said something outrageous.

"What are talking about?! Anyone who sees this face, and doesn't see it as cute, is an idiot! Heck, if a dragon came to eat Lulu, I'd throw Dag out to be eaten to save her."

Dag shook her head.

"The worst part is that he isn't even joking."

"I'd never joke about Lulu's safety! Now come on, we got to head out."

In the next ten minutes Lulu was saddled up and ready to go.

They stepped onto the saddle from behind her wings, then strapped in their legs and across their bellies.

"Is all of this necessary?"

Minako asked as she pointed to the straps holding both their legs.

"You'll see."

He answered as Dag spun the winch to open the roof.

"You should probably grab my stomach."

"I'm not a little girl who's so afraid she needs to hold someone. Just go."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty su..."

"I said go!"

Before she finished saying go, with a boom they were up out of the aviary, and dozens of meters away, flying at blistering speeds.

"Aaaaaaah!"

After a minute, and about twenty-one kilometers away from where they started, he signaled Lulu to slow down to a reasonable speed.

He looked back at Minako.

Her hair was blown back, her eyes watery, and she had air burn.

"Here."

He passed her a health potion, which she took.

Her peeled skin repaired itself, and her sore throat was soothed.

"I think I pissed myself, but the air dried it."

He laughed.

"Don't worry about it. You actually did better than others who travelled on Lulu. Most of the men fainted, and Dag puked up for days afterwards!"

"I want to puke, but I don't think I can."

"Hahaha! Don't worry, just another hour or two and we are there."

"Oh, God, I'm going to be sick!"

"That's normally the start of a good story! Ya!"

___________

They landed in heavy bush.

As soon as she had her straps off, Minako ran to the nearest tree to empty the contents of her stomach out.

"Oooph, you are not a pretty puker."

She righted herself and used her arm to wipe off the excess vomit from her mouth.

"Why the hell would you put anyone through that?!"

"Are you kidding me, it's the fastest way to train your mana barrier ability!"

As she looked at him, she did notice he was still pristine.

"The constant gusts of air and some kind of force pushing against you makes your mana barrier work harder, makes it easier to withstand being on her back!"

"G-force."

"What?!"

"The force pushing against you, it's called G-force."

"That sounds awesome! So where you come from they have beasts that fly as fast as Lulu?"

"Faster."

"Faster?!"

"Yeah, they're so fast they can travel even further than we did in a fraction of the time."

"Whoa, then why aren't you used to it?"

"I never flew in one! I just read about them."

"You're loss, if I were there, I'd have at least tried it once. You only live once, and you got to make the most of it."

A bemused smirk appeared on her face.

"Or not."

She whispered.

"What's that?"

"Nothing, let's hurry up, we have someone to save, don't we?"

"Yeah, just give me a second."

He pulled out of the saddlebag - which is also a capacity bag - a rod about two meters tall.

After pushing it into the ground, he infused mana into it.

Carvings on the sides of it lit up, a shimmer of energy passed all around Lulu.

"What's that?"

"An artifact I found, if any danger befalls those marked in its range, it teleports them to the twin rod I placed at the baron's house."

"That's awesome! So we're safe no matter what!"

"Yeah, no. We'll be well out of its range when we attack the rebels."

"Then, shouldn't you place it closer to where we'll be?!"

"No, I planted it here for a reason. There's a limit to the mass it can teleport, ten humans, or just one of the size of Lulu.

It's why I landed so far away from where we have to go, it's so nothing can happen to her."

"But what if something attacks her, and she teleports away? We'd be stranded here!"

"No, we won't. We'll just have to walk."

"It took something as fast as her hours to get here, it'd take us weeks to walk back!"

He started walking away towards their goal.

"Try months, and only because you'd slow us down. Now, didn't you say we have to hurry?"

She started following him.

"We should talk about this!"

"The longer we dally here, the more likely something will happen and leave us walking."

She picked up her pace.

"This is yet another example of why women are better than men! We actually plan ahead, instead of just jumping right in!"

He laughed.

"You worry too much. If you're that worried, don't be, I'll protect you."

Her pace quickened, and she came up ahead of him.

Keeping her pace faster than him, she would ensure she'd encounter any danger first.

"I don't need protecting!"

"Okay, but I'd slow down if I were you, it's a long walk, and you don't want to be tired out when you get there."

Instead of answering, she just kept up her brisk pace.

He smiled inwardly, she reminded him of himself years ago.

Always out to prove himself, all the while just making more work for himself for no reason.

Heck, where has all the years gone?!

It seemed just like yesterday he was playing with Baraka on the docks, but he was long gone, as were those carefree days.

After this he thought he should visit Baraka's family, it had been too long.

The youngest should be just old enough to hold her first spear to go on the sea hunt by now.

The sound of crunching leaves and dead twigs brought him back from the past.

He shook his head.

The next thing he'd teach her is to move more slightly even when there's no one around, you never know when you're being stalked.