The feeling you get when the gates open, when you slowly watch them rise and the shouting of the people in the stands becomes louder and louder.
The excitement, trying to prepare yourself for the pure rush of adrenaline you know you’re about to feel, it’s an addicting feeling, you have to make sure you don't lose yourself in it.
Slowly taking her longsword out of its sheath and letting the leather covering drop to the floor, Nene held the sword in front of her with both hands, looking the blade up and down. She could hear what felt like the whole world through the gates and beyond the doors, shouting, cheering, waiting for the event about to take place, they sat and waited and cheered and watched and sat in anticipation for this.
The Serpent Festival was an annual tradition that took place in the Kingdom every year, there would be celebrations in the streets filled with colors and stalls and small tents with things you’d never think you’d ever see in your life. During the day there would be people parading and dancing everywhere shopping and laughing, while during the night the sky would be filled with fireworks in many different colors, patterns, and shapes.
The main event, however, is what happened the day after the celebration.
The afternoon of the day after the festivities, people would gather at the large arena at the very center of the Kingdom for the battles of the challengers, where a certain amount of people would be able to enter the tournament and fight their way through the princess’ personal guard, and then finally, they would have a chance to duel the princess herself which would be held on the day after as a final event. If they were to win against the princess, they would be awarded a large sum of money and be titled as the strongest in the Kingdom. It’s also a way for the princess to find a potential new member for her guard, and some of the current members are a part of it because of the tournament.
The princess of this Kingdom also happens to go by the name Nene Kusanagi
The Kusanagi family has ruled over the Kingdom of Jade for as long as the history books date, it’s made up of many exceptional fighters and many of their names have incredible achievements attached to their name.
Nene wasn’t what you would call an ideal warrior, she found peace just staying in one place, no blades or intense movements required, but alas she had a rather bothersome childhood friend so they often found themselves sparring together.
The Kamishiro family might as well have been allies with the Kusanagi family since they first came in contact with each other, they’ve been known for having one of the longest running alliances between their respective kingdoms and are both well known for their connections. The Kusanagi family might have been made up of many great fighters, but so was the Kamishiro family, one of their many arrangements was simply that the youngest child from the Kamishiros would grow up with the youngest child from the Kusanagis and train as their bodyguard, and as they get older they would join the other’s personal guard and protect them until the end of their life. Some of the arrangements would result in the two marrying each other due to them becoming very close, and in that situation the families would work around it so that they still have an heir to continue the bloodline.
Nene met Rui Kamishiro when they were both around nine or ten, the same age as all the others when they had been set to meet. Rui would hang out closely with Nene and show her the things he had begun to learn when it came to sword fighting, which led to her becoming more interested in the subject, which then led to her training alongside him.
To her, sword fighting was similar to conducting an orchestra, it was mostly the movements, but that wasn’t all. You can choose the way your opponents move, it’s a simple thing really, all you have to do in predict what they’re about to do and change it, it may sound difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes as easy as closing your eyes.
She didn’t realize the point in time where people began to refer to her as “the sharpest warrior in the land”, it was obviously an exaggeration, but then people who had heard it outside the kingdom began to travel in order to see for themselves and challenge her. It was tiring to get so many challengers practically lined up at the castle, to take them down one after another over and over again, thus began the tradition of holding a large event every year. Everyone came to believe that the reason for the festival was that the princess didn’t want to waste her time on people who weren’t “worthy”, but it was just because Nene just didn’t want to use any more of her energy unless it came to those puzzle games Rui would bring back from when he traveled to different places depending on where different missions would send him. This way she only had to spend a bunch of energy on a single fight, and it’s not like she had to even do it every year since Rui had become practically unbeatable in the eyes of many of the challengers who dueled against him.
Nene believed that there wasn’t anyone left who would be able to beat Rui at this point, she knew how strong he was, so there shouldn’t have been anyone who would be able to take him down, she knew that and yet…
A girl, she was a little shorter than Nene from what she could see, with bright pink hair that stood out from the sand and dust in the arena. While most of the challengers came wielding large and heavyweight weapons, she came with in hand a longsword, Nene watched her from the highest seat as the girl danced around the members of her guard, knocking them off their feet and pushing her blade to their necks with ease. Her battle with Rui was… something, Nene couldn’t find the words to describe it, it was completely random, they had laughed and jumped, perfectly evading each other’s attacks until the girl finally managed to trip Rui up a bit, literally. It was something simple, but at the speed she went at Nene didn’t know if it could even be considered that. At one point the girl suddenly appeared behind Rui after one of his jabs and while he began backing up she stuck her foot out and tripped him, moving out of the way to let him fall then placed her sword to the very side of his neck.
It was exhilarating, the feeling she felt when she saw the girl fight, Nene couldn’t place her finger on it. She felt drawn into it, she became focused on every slight movement, focused so intensely that she didn’t notice herself grabbing onto the railing so tightly that her hands were red with imprints, she was almost… excited for tomorrow to come, to face this girl, she wanted to duel with her, she wanted to grab her own sword and run down there immediately. The idea of stepping into that arena again in what had been a long time, despite the loud noises, despite all the attention, it made her heart pound, louder than the fireworks the night of the festival, louder than all of the screams in the arena, so loudly she could’ve sworn everyone in the kingdom was able to hear.
What happened next however, was something that made her heart pound even louder
While the announcer had declared that Rui had in fact been defeated, the girl helped him up cheerfully, it was then that she looked over to the high stands where Nene was seated and smiled, cocking her head to the side and sticking her tongue out. It wasn’t a normal smile though, it was more like the cat-like smile that Rui wore whenever he teased or provoked someone.
It was something so small, surely not many people would have noticed the small gesture, but she did, it had been directed at her after all. Nene let go of the railing and clasped her hands together closely against her chest, as if trying to stop her heart from beating faster than it already was.
It was then she knew that the girl was as excited for this as she was
Nene quickly shook her head, trying to snap herself out of her thoughts as she let her arms fall to her side and threw her head back, breathing in and out in an attempt to gather herself.
She tugged at her gloves and checked everything to make sure everything was set, she didn’t care what they would be fighting in so when the outfit fitting people came in she didn’t think much of it. If she was being completely honest, she wouldn’t even mine if they were to both fight in nothing but thin layers of clothing, it's easy to move around in, but maybe wearing something like this wasn’t so bad, it was a special event after all.
The outfit itself wasn’t too complex, a long sleeved crop top with an undershirt paired with shorts made from what seemed like the same material as the top. She wore tights with a belt wrapped around her right leg, along with some other belts for the shorts and some other accessories, a short cape that covered her back and wrapped around one of her shoulders, and something similar to a skirt tail in the back. There were also accents of a seafoam color, and since they told her Emu, which was apparently the name of the girl, received a similar outfit she assumed the accents would be different for her. When they first arrived with her outfit there had also been a small crown to fit on the side of her head, but she left it on the side since it would fall off anyways.
Nene smoothed out everything once more just for good measure and walked up to the gates which should be opening up in a minute or two.
She began to feel her heart race again, it was here, it was finally here, despite it being less than 24 hours, it felt like she had waited her whole life for this moment. She could hear the muffled announcer talk on and on, she wanted them to just hurry up already, surely she could tell them to start making these speeches shorter, right?
Nene began to hold her breath as the gates began to rise and the doors began to open, light slowly filling the room, the shouting getting progressively louder. She stepped into the arena, immediately met with cheering that’s louder than all the other times she remembered doing something like this, could it be because she hadn’t done it in a while? Did they want to see her fight that badly? Well it’s not like she’s going to stop it, she’s wanted this too, and she’s sure that Emu wanted it as well.
Speaking of Emu—
Nene saw her walking towards the center of the arena, breaking her serious facade to wave frantically at a spot in the audience. If she remembered correctly, she read something about the Tenma family’s son having a new bodyguard or something, so if that's the case then - yeah, he was there.
She was wearing an outfit almost identical to hers, the same design and everything, it was just the color of the accents just like Nene had thought; though she had decided to wear the crown. When Emu directed her attention solely on Nene her eyes widened enough so that it was barely noticeable, but then went back to normal almost immediately. When they had both reached the center of the arena, it immediately felt like it was just the two of them while everything else just seemed to disappear, the crowds, the announcer, the world itself, it all just disappeared.
Nene slowly came back to her senses as the announcer prepared to signal the start of the duel, the two girls got into their stances and kept their eyes on each other as the countdown began.
When it reached zero, there was a moment where they both stool still, looking at each other for something, a small movement, an eye glance, anything that could indicate what they were about to do, no matter how random a person’s fighting style may be, there’s always a hint to what they may do in their body language whether it be the flick of a wrist or the direction in which their body faces. Emu sighed, bringing her sword up so that it was sitting on her shoulder and did what looked like a small curtsy, looking up at Nene, she huffed and smiled at her, not once looking away.
“No need to be so scared, so I’ll let you make the first move, princess”
What happened after that felt like a blur, Nene rushed to the side of the other and attempted to bring her sword to her back, Emu dodged quickly however and met Nene’s sword with her own, a sharp ring from the swords clashing rang throughout the arena, it was met by many more after that, metal meeting metal repeatedly. There was a moment where Emu’s sword had gotten too close for comfort, slashing the short seafoam cape instead of cutting Nene, who had just barely managed to dodge.
Nene felt herself getting more and more excited, This is it she thought, This is the feeling that I’ve been longing for!
It was really something she’s never felt before, not when she was sparring with Rui, not when she had stepped into this arena before, and as they continued to dance around each other, the feeling only grew larger. She didn’t want this to end, it was a strange thing, really, she’d never think she’d feel something like this in her life, but now it felt like she wouldn’t be able to live without it. “It’s an addicting feeling, you have to make sure you don’t lose yourself in it.” That’s what she thought earlier, she had to be careful, but maybe, just maybe, it was ok to get into it for a moment right?
Emu had gotten her sword awfully close to Nene’s neck, who was just barely able to block the attack with her own sword, the match would stop the moment one of them was put in a situation or position that could potentially threaten their life so she didn’t have to really worry about if the sword would actually cut her neck, but she was just so into it at this point that she gave her all.
Nene was however snapped out of her daze when Emu took her free hand and gently grabbed Nene’s, pulling it towards herself and interlocked their fingers, smiling softly which was followed by a whisper a second later.
“You really are beautiful”
It was a small phrase, a compliment, Nene had heard the words of praise many times, but something about it, the way their hands were locked together, the feeling of clashing swords and pure adrenaline that only they were experiencing beforehand, she felt the heat rushing to her face and quickly stepped back trying to compose herself.
“What are you trying to pull?” she glared at the girl in front of her as if it would make her face any less red. Emu laughed and brought her free hand up to the side of her face and leaned on it, returning Nene’s glare with the same teasing and amused smile she had at the beginning of the duel.
“You let your guard down so easily, how amusing~”
Nene scowled and rushed forwards, swinging and thrusting her sword in an attempt to get back into the feeling, it wasn’t really that the feeling went away, but it was overpowered by a softer feeling. She had felt it when she first watched Emu’s match with Rui, it was much smaller at the time, she probably didn’t even notice back then, but as her own match went on she noticed the feeling growing stronger and amplifying the feelings she had before.
It felt like the match had gone on forever, and she never wanted it to end but… it had to at some point, any longer and the exhaustion on her body would slowly catch up, Nene didn’t have much energy to begin with so it was personally surprising she had lasted this long. She could tell that Emu was starting to get tired too despite what seemed like her bottomless amount of energy, her attacks and responses began to get slower. Emu seemed to realize the same thing she did, her attacks became more straightforward with no more random movements that were more difficult to track, she tried going around to Nene’s back, most likely trying to pull the same trip move she did with Rui. However, her movements were much slower, Nene was quickly able to catch it and turned around, bringing her sword upwards and slicing down. Emu met the attack with her own sword, but she wasn’t focusing on her lower body, giving Nene the chance to instead trip her, leaning forward so that the other would lean away and fall easier onto the ground.
Emu had ended up on the ground on her back with both arms spread out, her sword a few feet away from reach and the small crown knocked off her head, leaving her hair more disheveled than it normally would be.
Nene on the other hand, had one foot planted between Emu’s legs and the other on her stomach, she brought the tip of her own sword which was placed at the side of the other’s neck and repositioned it so the very tip was underneath her chin, lifting it up slightly.
Both of their clothes had been tattered and cut in places, collars and ties much looser and gloves riding up their hands scrunched up and about to fall off. The two of them also had a variety of cuts in many places, small ones that you would barely notice, probably from quickly evaded attacks and such.
Silence filled the arena, Nene’s heartbeat ringing in her ears louder than ever now that there wasn’t anything to drown it out. They stayed in that position for a few seconds before the announcement that Nene had won broke the silence, followed by the people cheering and shouting with astonishment.
She gently stepped off of Emu and held her hand out for her, which the other happily took, Nene brushed herself off and looked up at her, seeing her wear the same soft smile she had worn earlier during the… intimate moment. Just thinking about it made her feel flustered, face turning a little red. She turned on her heel back to the room beyond the gates, just barely being able to hear Emu shout out at her with all the extra noise,
“I’ll be back!”
Nene stopped and turned around, clutching her chest with her free hand and trying to form words for girl in front of her, but instead she smiled, a smile that seemed to convey all the thoughts she needed to. Emu smiled back, a bright smile that could light up the whole world, and when Nene turned back around and began walking towards the gates, a single thought rang out loud in her mind,
“I’ll be waiting”