Through the Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Breaking away from the Nest

She was tired of it all: the heat, the poverty, her brother and his ambitions, and the fact that Ignis just kind of sucked in general. Her family was condemned to be impoverished peasants by the unruly social hierarchy that dominated society, So they only had enough money to keep their parts covered and their stomachs from collapsing in on themselves. To make things even worse, there were six mouths to feed in her family, each a number of years apart from the others.

Her father Sadafusa hardly came home, always off at the Ignese mines to risk his life amongst the explosions and fumes to provide for his family. Hana, her mother, thus took over the housework and watched over the younger ones, refining various ores from the mines for some extra cash. Then there was Miu and Hiroki, the two youngest in her family, who were oblivious to the cruel reality of their lives and spent each day at play, smiles wide and bright, as they should be.

Finally, there was herself and her older brother, Takatora. To put it simply, they had a record for causing ‘mischief’, a record Natsuki was beginning to tire of. Just a few years back, she wouldn’t have hesitated to tag along with her brother to the middle districts, where they would openly challenge noblemen and lesser lords to various competitions.

The terms were simple: if the two of them won via brains or speed, the nobles would have to fork over a generous amount of cash. But if they lost... the victor would be able to have whatever they pleased. In most cases, it was a subjugation under that lord as a servant, but luckily for the Tōdō siblings, their loses out of hundreds of ‘duels’ resulted in two.

The first was towards the beginning of their secret career, in which the family was forced to move across the state and be ruled under their fifth lord. Though their parents had been furious with them, the lord decided to compensate for their losses by allowing Takatora to operate as a scholar upon his estate. This had calmed down her brother’s growing hatred for the upper classes for a year or two, and it was a time when things were beginning to look as if hope still existed for the poor. That is, until a strange man entered her brother’s life and ultimately changed him forever. But that was another rant for another day.

The second time they lost left her brother in an even more bitter state than he already was in. Word had spread around the higher ups that a pair of peasant siblings, a boy with an incredible mind and a girl whose skill with a horse could rival Aeros’s cavalrymen, were going around humiliating the nobility. Thus, when a mysterious boy challenged her brother to a game of chess, Natsuki hunkered back to watch the fool get creamed.

Takatora didn’t stand a chance. It was almost as if the boy could predict every single one of her brother’s moves before he even made them, sacrificing minor pieces ever so often as decoys for his final strike. Later, Natsuki would discover that it was no boy that defeated her brother, but the renowned Tactician, Takenaka Hanbei. Not only that, but after the battle was lost, Hanbei so dared to thank her brother for his time and depart without taking anything, leaving her brother’s pride shattered about his head like a glass bottle.

From that day on, Takatora had become less daring, but his strong dislike for the nobles reached its climax. It was during this time that Natsuki had finally decided that enough was enough, and one day came to the conclusion that she was fed up. It was amazing how blocked he could be, that brother of hers.

“I’m tired of fighting like this, Taka! I’d much rather dress as a boy and work endless hours in the Mines than fight more Nobles! What if something goes wrong again? Can we afford to move, or lose more than what we have? I can’t risk losing you over some stupid deal! Please, brother, it’s been enough!” she pleaded one morning prior to his departure, grasping her brother’s gentle hand in hers and gazing sadly into his warm eyes. But her response was a shake of his head, and the slow pulling away of his hands and the gradual turning of his back to her as if this were the end.