I’m in Akagami no Shirayuki!?

*Thwack* *Swoosh* *Thwack2x*

The sound of wood hitting wood can be heard reverberating within the spacious hall of a building. In the middle of the hall, two figures can be found fighting with a wooden sword each in their hands. Even though it seemed to be an intense session based on the sound of the swords' impact against each other, onside seemed to be acting pretty leisurely, while the other was giving it his all trying to hit his opponent.

"Come now prince, you can do better than that!" After parrying the previous strike, the figure backed a bit and mocked his opponent's attempts to try and hit him with a smile on his face. This figure, or should we say young adult, has long, smooth black hair tied into a loose ponytail reaching until his elbows; with two strands on either side of his head attempting to cover his sharp, deep silver eyes, and a gentle, handsome countenance that can easily swoon any single female that can land their gazes upon it.

*Pant2x* Clearly out of breath, the opponent of the black haired teenager grew a tick mark on the side of his temple after hearing the snide remark. "Shaddap, Sora! This time for sure, I'm gonna land a smack on that head of yours!" Taking a few moments to calm his breathing, the prince, as called by the young adult we now know as Sora, held his training sword with both of his hands in an overhead stance, clearly indicating that he will give his all in his next strike. "Ohh? Then come, Zen."

Prince Zen is a 19 year old young man with medium length, silvery-white hair with fringes long enough to pass by his eyebrows; average height, and crystal-blue eyes that can be called "pretty" by anyone that stares into them for some time.

"Hehe. Better give it your all Zen, or you're not getting out of this castle for the remainder of the week." Amused at the serious figure that his master, Prince Zen, is currently showing him, Sora also decided to be a bit serious and got into a stance himself, only, his stance is similar to those who are doing Iaido (art of sword drawing).

A few moments pass in silence, both Sora and Zen keep their respective stances, neither making any kind of movements except their steady breathing. A calm breeze passed through the hall they were currently in, bringing with it some dry leaves that swayed gently with the direction of the wind. A sole dry leaf was left behind after the breeze passed by, falling right in the middle between the two young adults. Then, as soon as the leaf touched the floor, Zen's figure launched explosively, dashing towards Sora and reaching him in a few seconds.

"Got you, Sora!" Slashing downwards, Zen's wooden sword was only a few inches away from hitting Sora's head. "Too naïve, Zen." Instead of trying to parry Zen's overhead strike, Sora drew his sword and slashed diagonally downwards.

Some may think that Sora was trying to end the fight by exchanging blow-by-blow with Zen, but it was just a matter of perception. The overhead strike of Zen that seemed to contain all his strength was pulled in, and was replaced by an upwards slash. Since this transition of strikes was already done with all the dexterity that Zen could muster, he could only watch with his eyes wide open, seeing his feint was seen through and Sora's wooden sword was already heading for the part of his wooden sword just above the hilt.

*Thwack!*

What happened next can already be predicted. By using the unstoppable momentum of Zen's upward slash, Sora effectively disarmed Zen and sent his wooden sword flying towards the side of the hall. Due to the momentum, Zen's hands were still heading upwards, even though he isn't holding on to his wooden sword anymore.

"Yoh! Sora, Zen. How's morning practice goi-" Unable to continue his words, the newcomer who is a man in his 20's felt the wooden sword flying past the left side of his head. His face grew a few shades paler, since if he was hit by that wooden sword, a broken nose would be the least of his worries.

"Yoh, Mitsuhide. We've just finished a round and as usual, I won. Kekeke." Slashing it to the side and sheathing his wooden sword that actually looked like a katana minus the hilt, which made it look just like a stick, into his right hand, Sora looked towards the man's-Mitsuhide's direction and cackled a bit to show disdain towards Zen, who was now lying on the floor facing upwards, out of breath due to executing his previous move.

*Pant2x* "Shut up…Sora…One of these days…I'll definitely…definitely land a hit on…on your smug-ass face…" Although he was out of breath, Zen still managed to retort to Sora's mockery. Both him and Sora are only one year apart in age, with Zen being 19 years old and Sora being 20, yet their differences in strength and technique were far apart.

"Hehe, I'll be waiting for that time to come, Prince Zen. In the meantime, should we add more weight to your current training regime? It seems like you've been slacking a bit more lately…" Turning to the left and adopting a thinking posture, Sora wanted to tease Zen more, which actually had an immediate effect.

Afraid that the man in front of him might just double the intensity of his training, Zen immediately shot up and intensely shook his head left and right. "No, no, no. Please don't, I'll work harder, so please don't add more intensity to my training, I beg you!" bowing his head and praying to Sora, Zen would be willing to do anything, just to not experience Sora's hellish training regime again.

"Hmm…Fine. You've actually improved a lot compared to last year. Alright, I'll allow you a few days of rest." Looking at Zen, Sora gave in and gave him a few days of rest. For the past year, he was training Zen with his personally created regime, so as to further enhance the prince's overall strength and teach him ways to protect himself if on the off-chance that none of them are around near him.

*Sigh* "Thank you very much, master!" Seeing as he was left off the hook, Zen bowed his head again towards Sora, but not before trying to annoy him again.

*Snort* "Don't push your luck, Zen. Anyways, Mitsuhide, you've been quiet for a while now. Is everything alright?" Snorting at Zen's attempt to try and annoy him, Sora turned around and remembered that Mitsuhide was there with them and asked why he was quiet for a long time now, but was only met with a pale-faced Mitsuhide with dead eyes.

"Mitsuhide? Are you alright? Feeling unwell perhaps?" Sora approached Mitsuhide and waved his hand in front of his face, but still received no response for a bit. Zen also approached Mitsuhide and got into a thinking posture, thinking of ways to mess with the statue in front of him.

"I…I just saw my entire life flash right in front of my eyes. Am I…dead?" Mechanically turning his head to face Sora, Mitsuhide still had the dead eyes and tears were starting to form on the corners of his eyes.

*Sob2x* "Unfortunately, yes Mitsuhide. Now, only your soul is speaking to us right now, and if you turn around, you can see your body behind you on the floor lying there, with a peaceful look on your face." Butting in at the opportune moment, hearing Zen's words and seeing him sob and rubbing his eyes to get rid of tears, Mitsuhide's face grew paler and he immediately spun around to see his supposedly dead body.

Much to Mitsuhide's relief, there was no body behind him lying on the floor and he soon figured out that he was played by his Master. "ZEN!!! This time you went too far! I was scared to death because of what you said!" With a comically angry face, Mitsuhide turned towards Zen's position, only to see him already exciting the hall in a mad dash while laughing out loud.

"Get back here Zen! I'm not done with you yet!" Hearing Zen's laughter just pissed Mitsuhide off more, so he chased after Zen, leaving Sora alone who had a wry smile on his face and shaking his head slowly. This was the kind of life that he could get used to, and he would do everything in his power to either keep it, or improve it further. And with that, he has to grow stronger, so as to protect those precious to him.

"Hmm? I thought I heard Mitsuhide in here. Did you see him, Sora?" Hearing a slightly deep voice, but sure that it belonged to a woman; a warm smile appeared on Sora's face as he turned around to see the person who the voice belonged to, although Sora already knew who it was. "Kiki, you're here."

"Mmm. Is morning training already done?" With a similar warm smile appearing on her face, the woman-Kiki, approached Sora and…hugged him.

Kiki Seiran is also a retainer of Zen's. She met with the three of them 5 years ago, also being the sole heir of the Seiran family, one of the oldest and most powerful noble families in the kingdom. Having met Zen first, then with Mitsuhide and Sora at a ball where the three of them were avoiding the rest of the guests in an alcove. She didn't give them her name at first, with only Sora being able to recognize her the next time they saw her again while Mitsuhide, this guy actually mistook her for a young man since during that time, she was wearing a dress; a completely different look due to her wearing clothes similar to what a young man would wear and the main cause of the misunderstanding, was the sword that could be found on her waist.

With a very stoic personality, at first she couldn't relate and join with the trio since they were pretty light-headed, but opened up more as time passed. The one that she was the most comfortable with though was with Sora. With her kind of personality, even if she was finally able to make jokes and smile with the others, she can only show the current warm look and smile that she has to the man she is hugging at the moment.

Well, since they were lovers and engaged to each other after all.

*Chuckles* "How was your morning? I trust that it was good?" Responding to the hug by holding her waist with his right arm and then with his left hand, took hold of her chin and raised it to make her look at him, he got closer and then, kissed her forehead and asked how her morning was.

*Nods* "Mmhmm. Everything was fine. We actually even finished more of the papers that Zen needed to review, so we should be free for today to relax." Closing her eyes in happiness at feeling her lover's lips on her forehead, Kiki let go of Sora and answered his question his question while placing her right hand on her hips.

"Ohh? That's rare. Looks like Zen is already pretty cooped up here in the castle. Maybe we should go out and have fun. What say you, miss?"

"Fufufu. It would be my pleasure good sir. Where are those two anyways?" Covering her mouth to supress her giggle, Kiki then remembered that they were missing two people, and asked Sora where they went.

"Well, me and Zen just finished a spar with me winning. I sent Zen's sword flying, to which it actually flew to where Mitsuhide abruptly popped out from, barely missing his head. He had this dead look on his face and asked us if he was already dead, hehehe. And with that, Zen played a prank on him and now they're playing a game of tag." Taking hold of Kiki's right hand with his left, the couple walked out of the hall with Sora leading the way to where he thinks the pair of Zen and Mitsuhide are still playing around.

They didn't have to walk too long as they can hear the faint sound of someone screaming while another was laughing very loudly. *Sigh* "Did they seriously continue their game within the main palace halls? What a pair of kids we have to watch over." Sora said in an exasperated tone.

"Yeah, two very big kids." Adopting a smile, Kiki commented her own piece as they enter the wide halls of the castle. The Clarines Kingdom's castle is one of the huge varities, the whole compound being able to house a number of buildings, gardens, and finally, the grandiose main castle. And right now, the halls of this magnificent piece of architecture are being used as a playground by two people.

Spotting the two about to pass by them, Sora shook his head and decided to threaten them a bit. "You two. Do you want Prince Izana to hear that you treated the main castle as your playground?" And upon hearing what Sora said, both Zen and Mitsuhide stopped at the same time as if on cue.

""No. please don't mention any of this to his highness/my older brother."" With only the end part of the sentence different, the two troublemakers instantly stood side by side and bowed their head towards Sora. *Nods* "Humu. Now then, how about we get out of the castle and have some fun, Zen?" After admonishing them for their rather childish acts, Sora then faced Zen and mentioned what could be his most favorite activity to do.

Surprised at what his retainer/friend/brother said to him, Zen immediately straightened his body and beamed a very bright smile at him. "Really!? Let's go! Right now!" Very excited at the prospect of being able to go out of the castle, Zen got ready to dash out when his arm was held by Sora.

"Now hold up. Before we leave, go with Kiki and Mitsuhide back to your office first and make sure everything is in order. I will meet up with you at the castle gates." Reminding Zen of his duties, Sora then nods at the three and proceeds to go to his room, which was located on the left wing of the building on the left side of the main castle.

*Sigh* "Now then, Ai-chan, are you there?"

*Poof!* "Yes, yes! I've been exploring the castle's medicinal gardens. Is there something you need from me Sora?" From nowhere, a small humanoid appeared in front of Sora. The small humanoid had green hair, tied up into two buns that look awfully close to cabbages, and a strand forming like a crescent moon of the front part of her head, with a few other strands covering her eyebrows and the side of her head as well. She's wearing a one-piece sleeveless dress that seems like a combination between a sailor uniform with a cute dark-green ribbon on the chest part and a dress that ends up with frilly edges on the bottom part. She's also wearing reddish-orange arm warmers that are actually the same color with her eyes. To those that have played the game Honkai Impact 3rd, who wouldn't know and remember the game's famous AI mascot, Ai-chan?

"Alright, first up…"