24 Legacies
"Sato Sakura, Sergeant." When the last soldier from the Japanese finished introducing the two commanders took both a step forward. "Now you all know the names of each other we can start with the first day of the exchange." Commander Carter says.
"The first thing that we are to do is to let you all get to know each other. The best way to get to know somebody is to fight with each other. This will be the first activity. A duel." Commander Takashi says.
Jane is feeling a bit uneasy. Only General Drake knows about her true strength. That is because she doesn't want to become to integrated into the military. When the barrier is gone, she wants to go out and search for her brother.
But she can't do this when she is shackled to the military. She will have more responsibilities if she is promoted all the time. General Drake understands this because a family member is also missing. Jane trusts General Drake because he told her this when he took her under his wing.
She came under his wing because one time when she was practicing her fire control in the middle of the night, general Drake walked in on her. He was shocked at what he saw. He saw a woman sitting in the lotus position fully on fire. Her fire was pulsating to her heartbeat.
Jane felt him coming inside the hall and initially wanted to attack. When she saw who walked in, she saw the badge of a general on his clothing. She held back and just stared at him. "Why?" The general asked. Jane didn't know what he meant with the question.
"Why, what?" "Why hide your strength?" The general asked. He was feeling admiration for some reason and a weird closeness with this girl in front of him.
"I am hiding my strength to not be promoted in the military. I want to search for my brother when the barrier will disappear. I am certain he was sucked in a space rift the news told us some time ago." Jane was flabbergasted. Why did she told him her secret? She felt like she couldn't keep secrets in front of this man. But as fast as she slipped, she railed her unsettled feelings back in.
"Your brother is missing? I know how you feel. My little siter also had gone missing." Lamented General Drake. Inside he was feeling the same as Jane. He just confessed something that he hold back for a long time. He shrugged it off as having found someone that can sympathize with him.
General Drake continued with saying to keep each other's secrets and that he would help her with keeping her from promoting. He also warned her that it would not always work. The ever-evolving world system could not keep her in the low ranks for a long time.
While reminiscing the time she first met General Drake with an indescribable feeling in her heart. The fights were already commencing. The Commanders instructed that the fight would be held on rank. So, the lowest ranked from the Americans would go against the lowest ranked of the Japanese.
The first fight just ended with the Japanese soldier winning. He had a high earth affinity and looking at his appearance. His entity is an earth affinity armadillo. Interesting Jane thought. An earth affinity armadillo. Rainforests, grasslands and semi-deserts is their natural habitat.
In Japan there are no semi-deserts, only a small part of rainforests and little patches of grasslands. The probability of a Japanese person getting an armadillo is very low. I expected more water attributed powers or wood.
Maybe even darkness and light attributed powers. Their culture should be heavily impacted the entities attracted to their people. Balance of darkness and light, the Japanese people are very disciplined.
Jane, a curious girl. She likes to read a lot and know things. Always in pursuit of the truth and facts. This made her stand out from other children at a young age. And with the mentality of then before all this. Standing out is either supported or utterly crushed. Unfortunately, what happened to Jane was the latter. She was continuously laughed at and bullied for being a 'nerd'. A girl who didn't acted like a girl her age would.
The only one that supported her were her parents and older brother. She hasn't forgotten that it was her older bother that took most of the brunt. He would always protect her. Starting the fight with the bullies always getting in trouble for protecting his little sister. Right now, she wants to return the favor. She wants to search and bring her brother home.
Her personality changed because of this. She is always quiet and observes her surroundings. He has gotten quite good at reading people and sensing the mood. When in school geography, history and biology were her favorite subjects. She loved learning other cultures and she loved animals.
Jane being fully immersed in her thoughts and wasn't paying attention to the fights. When eventually she was called to fight, she didn't react at first. "Corporal Gabriel!" Commander Carter commands. The sudden outburst of commander Carter takes Jane out of her thoughts.
Jane straightens out her posture and says. "Yes, sir!" "You're up." Jane looks around and sees that everyone that has gone before her all had superficial wounds and bruises. 'Did we lose every encounter?' Jane looked over to the side of Japan. There she saw the same sight. 'Never mind.'
Jane walked forward to the middle of the arena. A woman from the Japanese also came forward. The two stood 8 meters from each other when the woman bowed and took a fighting posture. She touched her ring on her hand briefly and a katana appeared in her hand. Jane who saw this smiled lightly.
Jane bowed back and also took a fighting posture. But contrary to the woman Jane didn't have to touch her ring to take out her weapon. Jane willed her one-handed double-bladed axe from her ring. The Japanese woman smiled back. Jane was the first of the American soldiers to bow back and accept and return the respect given.
The woman took the katana in the scabbard to her hip. The leg that was opposite of the hip were the katana was inched forward. Jane lowered her center of gravity by deepening her stance. Suddenly two auras engulfed the whole stadium. One was sharp and the other was overbearing. The two auras clashed.
The two adults and two teenagers that were standing behind the window were looking intently to the happenings down in the stadium. "Who do you think will win?" The first adult asked the two teenagers.
"The king and warrior. One dignified and sharp, the other overbearing and strong willed. Both have access to the intent of their weapon. I see the axe intent and sword intent all over the stadium. Only I can't gouge the strength again of the intent of that American girl, Jane. She will definitely win." The girl says.
Jane's smile started to widen and become brighter. She started to feel excited. Since being under the wings of General Drake she had many chances to gain access to legacies. The legacy that interested her the most was that of a martial sect. A lot of techniques and manuals were found on all sorts of weapons and even firsts. Also, a lot of insights and general information was stored in this legacy world.
Sometimes General Drake would let her read through them and train with them. Not anyone had access to the legacies. Only the generals and high positioned people. When everything from the legacy world was copied and stored would it become a regular commodity. But because Jane could train and read them beforehand, she had a head start in the close combat path.