YUKAN EVENTUALLY BEGAN TO ADJUST TO LIVE WITH A PROSTHETIC HAND. Certain tasks felt awkward to him since he couldn’t feel anything that he grabbed with his right hand. Despite the fact that he wasn’t able to feel the pencil in his hand as he wrote, he nevertheless was able to complete Lundvaar during this period of recovery. Due to the ongoing war, however, there was no chance of him submitting the piece for performance and, as such, it was tucked away in a desk in his room.

  At first, he tried to jump right back into combat during this period of adjustment. Kadaina and Zenpan both rejected his request to rejoin the war, due in part to him not having gotten used to combat with a new limb.

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  The battle that immediately followed pitted the 154th regiment under Zenpan and Kadaina against General Toyo. After about two hours of fighting, Akuni was pushed back a considerable distance, even going as far as costing Akuni their position near Fort Yaoseyun. The 154th, however, were a luckier regiment compared to some of the others Akuni had found themselves confronted with.

  Shirei Akui was focused on fending off General Mahando’s fleet, which had been bolstered from the POWs he had rescued from Fulon. Frustrated by this, Kunshu issued a decree to all of his generals to hold no quarter. Akuni did not learn of this until a fleet led by General Clemont had been massacred during a battle about four hundred miles southeast of Murasakino by an Aotoshi army led by General Fowler.

  The report eventually reached Acophis from one of the few soldiers that were able to flee the battlefield in the ensuing massacre. Although he was nearly imprisoned as a deserter, upon hearing about the massacre, King Yokina pardoned the soldier and announced the declaration made by Emperor Mujihina. To combat this, Yokina implemented a no surrender policy for all soldiers in the Akuni military and began making negotiations with the emperor of Medikai, Karlheinz Yohan.

  Zenpan understood the gravity of the situation very well and began to have Yukan conditioned for combat once again, working with Kadaina. At first, Yukan had expected the sort of training that Kadaina had gotten him used to and braced himself for Kadaina to simply sit back and throw objects at him. Instead, Kadaina grabbed his own sword upon seeing Yukan enter the training grounds.

  “Alright,” the mage began. “I figure you’re tired of having fruit thrown at you, so how about we do a little sparring.”

  “Sparring?” the last Kenshi replied quizzically. “I thought you were trying to get me ready for the battlefield. With all due respect, sparring you would be a bit of a cakewalk.”

  “You only say that because you haven’t sparred with me before,” Kadaina continued. “So how about it?”

  Yukan shrugged.

  “Alright,” he said as he brandished his sword, “but don’t complain when I don’t go easy on you.”

  The two men squared off and after Kadaina gave a count of three, the two men charged toward each other. Within the first minute, Kadaina had proven himself correct by holding his own decently well. Not too long after that, however, Yukan managed to get the upper hand with a well-timed leg sweep, pointing the Omega Blade over Kadaina’s shoulder to claim the victory. After a few seconds, Yukan helped his friend onto his feet.

  “Well, I suppose you were right,” Kadaina sighed pensively. “It was a cakewalk for you.”

  Yukan could tell that something was wrong rather quickly.

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  “Don’t put yourself down, Kadaina,” he said. “You were actually a lot better than I had thought.”

  “I suppose,” the mage continued. “We did have the same teacher, after all.”

  “Mr. Masuta taught you how to fight?”

  “Of course he did. If I were to find myself in a situation where I ran out of energy for magic, I would want to still be able to fend for myself in some way.”

  “I see. Why did you get upset about losing the spar?”

  Kadaina sat for a moment before bowing his head over in silence.

  “You know, Yukan,” he began, “I haven’t always been the most serious about getting better in combat. Before Kashikoi died, I was certain that I wouldn’t need to do so much as throw a punch in my life. But even after he was gone, I didn’t realize how much I needed that training. That was, until quite recently.

  “See, while you were being held hostage in Fort Yaoseyun, our army was trying to lay siege to the fort. During the initial skirmish to take control of the fort, I met with Shirei on the battlefield. He had me beat by a long shot and could’ve killed me out there. But he said something before he attempted the final blow that would’ve taken my life had Ite not stepped in. He said ‘Without the brawn to back it up, all of those brains would be just as useful splattered on the ground.’

  “He made me realize just how weak I truly was. He showed me in no uncertain terms that if I were to fight him again, I would be doomed to die. And I don’t want that to happen. I can’t let that happen. I can’t leave Oba and Ani and Shisuta and you and Ite and-”

  Yukan stopped Kadaina by placing an army on his shoulder before grabbing him in a tight side hug.

  “It’s alright, Kadaina,” the swordsman assured the mage. “We won’t let that happen. I’ll always have your back. We both have something we can improve on then. How about you help me learn to strategize in the same way that you do and I can help you get better with fighting?”

  Kadaina did not fight Yukan’s efforts to comfort him, instead choosing to nod in acceptance of their new deal. Yukan gave him a pat on the back before the two of them called it a day.

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  After a week of training, Yukan had gained a great deal of strategic knowledge and Kadaina had improved with combat substantially. Along with this, Yukan had well and truly adjusted to combat with a prosthetic limb. Despite this, Zenpan protested against letting Yukan back on the battlefield until he was beyond his previous strongest. Zenpan knew that Kunshu would still be able to outclass Yukan if they were to fight in that moment and suggested that Yukan train with Ite to improve his accuracy and reaction time.

  Ite and Yukan honed this skill by having the former fire an arrow at Yukan and he would have to block it with a shield. Problems arose with this format, however, especially when keeping in mind that he would need to hold an unwieldy weapon like the Omega Blade in a single hand. Despite this and a few protestations from Ite about potentially harming Yukan, training eventually benefitted both participants, as Ite was able to practice aiming at a moving target and Yukan was able to improve his accuracy and was much better aware of how close an arrow can get to him without hurting him.

  On the battlefield, matters continued to appear bleak for Akuni. Aotoshi had begun to adapt to their circumstances. The war returned to roughly where it had begun, with the Aotoshi military reclaiming various strategic positions from Akuni, with the losses of Fort Yaoseyun and the city of Suijidan especially affecting Akuni. Kadaina and Zenpan were worried about these results. If they didn’t start gaining back ground soon, Aotoshi might be able to start gaining Akuni territory, and maybe even push all the way to Acophis.

  Several times during this period, both men wondered if it would be better to cut their losses and sue for peace. However, they knew that this would only leave them worse off since the terms of the war ending would undoubtedly lead to the fall of Akuni. Not to mention, they knew Kunshu would only accept an unconditional surrender from Akuni, but even that was no longer acceptable due to Kunshu’s declaration of no quarter. Their hands were tied. Kadaina and Zenpan had no choice but to see this war to the end, and it looked more and more likely that it would end in disaster the longer it went on.

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  Yukan’s final round of training was to work with Zenpan to improve his hand-to-hand combat. This was by far Yukan’s weakest skill, as he would often walk out of these training sessions feeling unsuccessful and donning a black eye or other similar injury, although Zenpan was always careful to never injure anything major. After about a week, Yukan started to make meaningful progress and was able to withstand a greater deal of Zenpan’s offense. Finally, after three weeks, Yukan was able to stand victorious over Zenpan.