To the Other Side

Life Path

Rays from the sun penetrate through the small cracks of the curtain, giving the room a light glow. The 10-year-old girl sits up and stretches. Her wavy raven colored hair tousled and her red tips poking out in all directions. She looks around the room, estimating it to be early morning, as her father did not come to get her for training. Yui stands up and starts folding her futon. She puts them in her closet and grabs her training uniform. When training, the Tsugikunis wear their preferred color gi with a black hakama. For her, she wore a maroon colored gi along with the black hakama. After changing, she does some light stretches. Before leaving, she brushes her hair, taming the sprayed ends.

Yui walks out of her room, sliding the door shut. She navigates through the hallways leading to the kitchen. A savory smell waffs around her nose as she nears the source. She peeks into the kitchen to see her mother cooking. The child walks towards her mother, wanting to take a closer look at today's breakfast. It is routine to eat breakfast after training in the Tsugukini household. That's why whoever is doing early morning training has to wake up very early.

"Good morning, okaasan." Yui greets, slightly startling the snow haired woman. She turns to her daughter and gives her a bright smile.

"Why hello there! Good morning, my sweetie!" Yuki gushes, bending down and pulling the young child into an embrace. The raven haired girl returns her mother's hug.

"I'm off to training with otou-san, but I wanted to know what you were cooking." She replies, looking at what's in the pot. In one pot, there was miso soup with wakame seaweed and tofu, while in the other, white rice. On the pan were small portions of salmon.

The woman giggles at the twinkle in her daughter's eyes as she stares at the food.

"Well? Is the food delicious enough to motivate you during training?" She teases. Yui straightens up and turns to her mother.

"Any food is enough to motivate me!" She beams with vigor, her eyes sparkling. Yuki laughs at her child's love for food. She had always been the easiest to feed out of all her kids.

"Yui. Let's go." A deep voice announces, interrupting the mother-daughter moment.

The raven haired girl nods her head and follows her father outside. They stopped at a wide area, clearly made for training with all the weapon equipment. Yui looks at the direction of the sun, halfway peeking out the mountains.

"Let's start with warm-ups." The man orders, tossing a wooden sword to the girl. She catches it and sets her body in position. Gen'ichirou stands next to his daughter.

"200 swings each!"

Both start swinging in all possible planes, concentrating on their form and technique. The father-daughter pair move in unison as if they were one. He corrects the young girl once in a while, but recently, it has decreased. He looks at the raven haired girl through his peripheral vision, acknowledging the concentrated look on her face. A smile wanted to crawl on his lips, but he resisted.

Once done with the swings, both sat on the engawa, preparing to practice Total Concentration Breathing. Yui relaxed her upper body and engaged her core. She inhales as big and long as she could, expanding her lungs. Her blood circulation and heart starts to increase causing her muscles to grow. Her first attempt at the technique caused a lot of pain. The girl thought her lungs and heart were going to explode. It was excruciating to her small body, but she knew pushing forward would lessen the pain.

In order to gain maximum control, their father created an exercise where they would have to slow down and speed up their breathing based on his instructions. The goal was to do it for 30 minutes consistently. If one disrupts their flow, they have to start over. Gen'ichirou only teaches this technique when their swordsmanship has been honed and is consistent. He would never teach this to someone who does not have the eligible body strength.