[HARUKI]
Haruki didn't go back to the battlefield. He couldn't even if he wanted to. The ghost of his past was still there, but that wasn't why Haruki was not going. He wasn't ready to face that truth yet.
He didn't want to have hope.
Not after what had happened.
So instead, he chose to keep training. Like a man who had just realized the war he was fighting was bigger than any of the battlefields he had cleared before.
"The king will ask questions," Tadashi spoke as they fought.
They had never sparred. Not after the day that Tadashi had challenged Haruki. Of course, over the years, it had become more like a routine for them whenever Haruki didn't have a battlefield to prepare for.
Wake up. Martial cultivation sessions. Isolation for days.
War strategy lessons. Fight. Rest. Repeat.
"Do you know what you will say to him?" Tadashi questioned flatly.
"None of that matters," Haruki said as he blasted Tadashi with a ball of his energy.
He missed.
Tadashi, in return, summoned both their swords and aimed them at Haruki, who was almost pissed that even after all these years, he had never managed to land a proper blow on the old man. But even so, he was not giving up.
The swords scraped Haruki on both arms, making Haruki grit his teeth at his inability to ever be ready for them. But he knew. No matter how good he was, the twin sword strategy that Tadashi always used was never going to be an easy one.
Tadashi was fast. He always had been.
He was stronger, like a man seasoned in war. Granted, he never talked about his past with Haruki, but the way he was always doing things told Haruki a tale that the man didn't even need to hear words to see for himself.
Tadashi was a master of war.
"Still slow," Tadashi stated, unamused.
"You surprised me… And… And I just got back from being stabbed for the first time in my life!" Haruki complained as he stared at the swords now lodged in the tree behind him.
They had gone through and through, and clearly, the tree was a few seconds away from splitting in half from the impact of the energy it had been hit with.
"I healed you. You can lick your imaginary wounds when you flatten Craenia. Now get the swords and stay focused. Another complaint from you and you will stay practicing wind cultivation for three days," Tadashi said as a matter of fact.
Haruki didn't need to be told twice. He had been through that hell once, especially the part that needed him to stay still and focused to the point that his body ached, and even then, he never got to get relief until Tadashi willed it.
Oh, he would be damned if he let himself go through that again.
Wordlessly, he used his energy to pull the swords from the tree and into his hands. Then he handed Tadashi his. But then, when he looked at the sword he had remained with, Haruki stilled.
It had a tassel.
This was not the sword he was used to fighting with.
"Tadashi… This?" Haruki asked, confused.
"I put the other in its original sheath. It didn't seal itself when I tried to pull it out," Tadashi stated, and Haruki staggered backwards.
"What?" Haruki breathed.
It didn't seal itself.
It didn't seal itself.
Haruki knew what that implied.
The owner of the sword wasn't dead. The ghost he had seen on the battlefield was no ghost. He had been real. The stabs… They had not just been… Haruki couldn't think straight. He didn't know what to do, truly.
He had carried the weight of loss and channeled it to keep him going. Hell, he had crafted himself into this general around that loss. But then it raised even more questions that hurt more than Haruki had been ready for.
If Daikiro had been alive all this time, what had all that been for? Yet again, it also scared him, because if Daikiro was alive… if his brother was alive, then it simply meant that Haruki had left him behind.
That Haruki had abandoned him.
"Impossible," Haruki said, clearly not buying it.
He sat on the dewy ground, trying to contemplate what had just been said. He had heard the man. And he knew Tadashi had no reason to lie to him. But still, that didn't make him feel any better about this. There was just no way it was true.
For his sanity, it couldn't be real.
"Get up. We need to continue," Tadashi said coldly, like he didn't care what the general was thinking right now. Like all that was of no consequence.
"I need to see for myself," Haruki said.
Tadashi's expression didn't change.
"You abandoned a battle for emotional reasons. You left your men to fight the masked Craenia warrior on their own. You let yourself get stabbed. And you don't have the decency to go back to the battlefield and finish what you triggered either.
"Draw your sword, Kira, or I will run you through with mine," Tadashi said coldly, his tone filled with disappointment. His words reminded Haruki of how terrible a decision he had made.
Tadashi wasn't here to make Haruki feel better.
They had established that long before this. But to hear him speak like that, Haruki wondered if the man was even capable of feeling anything. Who even talked about sensitive issues like that?
Then again, Haruki shouldn't have expected Tadashi to go soft on him with his sob story now, did he?
"I'll find him," Haruki said as he straightened up.
"No, you won't," Tadashi stated with a tone of finality, as he swung hard at Haruki.
"Okay," Haruki said, knowing it was not the time to insist on that with Tadashi. Maybe he would ask again later when they were not sparring or fighting each other to the death… More like Haruki's ass being handed to him for the millionth time by Tadashi.
Their swords clashed, one last time for the day. And it was a good session, despite the way that thing had turned out.
Later, when he was cleaning his sword, the familiarity of how the day had ended all threw Haruki into the past, into the years before the tragedy that had ruined his life.
****
"You're still slow, Haru. Maybe we should just give up the idea of raiding that man's supplies and starve to death, brother," a familiar blond-haired boy in his early twenties said to a younger Haruki.
They had been sparring even harder these days, because their survival depended on how good they were. Having been thrust into the streets by different familial backgrounds, they had turned the streets into their home.
Held together by a vow to live and die together.
They had become sworn brothers even before anyone could pay attention to them. They laughed together. They cried together. Survived together. And lived together.
"Oh, you wish… I'm getting better, Kira. Who knows, someday I might just be as good as you, and then we can go to the palace and earn money as Red Helmets too," Haruki said as he fixed his stance and swung at his brother.
He was learning fast, though.
He had been on these sides of the streets for two years now, walking through life with his brother, the boy who had saved him from other street kids who had once wanted to maul him for fun.
"Well, how about a simpler one? Do three hundred pushups and I'll buy you the crimson tassel you've been eyeing at the market for weeks now," Kira said, and Haruki stopped, his eyes bright with hope and happiness, before they shifted to sadness.
"We don't have the money for it. Besides, if you buy me that, we won't be able to eat good food for weeks," Haruki suddenly said, like the reality of the life they were living never left in the first place.
"I'm your big brother, Haru. Don't worry about the expenses. Besides, it's your name day. You deserve something special for your special day.
"Now… Can you do it, or are you using our financials to get out of this?" Kira teased, and Haruki showed him his tongue, before he set aside his sword and went to the ground.
He would do it.
He could do it.
If not for himself and his dreams, then for the tassel that was so expensive, but one that his brother was still willing to buy for him.
"I'll show you just how worthy I am to be your brother," Haruki smirked as he started his pushups. They were excruciating, but he had to keep going. For himself. For his brother. For what they had survived. He had to be better.
"Three hundred and ninety-nine. Four hundred!" KIra counted proudly.
When Haruki had reached the three hundred count and kept going, Kira didn't stop him. He knew his brother wanted to be better, and so he let him.
"Did I… I did that!!!" Haruki let out tiredly but happily as he plopped on the ground. He turned to look at his brother, and as expected, Kira was staring at him with so much pride. He was always proud of Haruki for the tiniest of things.
Even if Haruki had failed the pushups, they both knew that Kira would still buy him the tassel. That was why Haruki was more motivated to succeed because he wanted to earn his big brother's pride.
"Get up, kid. We have to go before the market closes," Kira said proudly as he helped a worn-out Haruki up.
"I did it, Kira," Haruki said excitedly, ignoring the ache in his body.
"I never doubted you one bit, kid. And you don't need to do anything to be worthy of being my brother. You'll always be my brother, even if you go bald," Kira said as he raked his hands through Haruki's dirty hair, before pulling him into a hug.
"Eww… I'm sweaty!" Haruki whined when Kira kissed his hair like he always did whenever Haruki did something exceptional.
"Race you to the tassel stands!"
"You bet!" Haruki said, unaware of the eyes following them.
And Haruki would learn later on that there had been eyes on them the whole time, along with his brother's full name.
Daikiro Konno.