Ruka's Past

WARNING: Chapters 9-14 detail Ruka's past, which includes several forms of abuse, the deaths of guardians/parents, and other potentially upsetting topics. READER DISCRETION IS HEAVILY ADVISED FOR THESE CHAPTERS.

June 21, 2017

An eight-year-old Ruka was getting her golden hair brushed gently by her mother, who shared her hair color. She quietly hummed as she did her daughter’s hair in a very formal way. As Ruka looked into the mirror, she asked her mother, “Are we really going away for the whole weekend, Mommy?”

“Yes, Ruka,” she replied. “Now let me just do this one last little thing and…” She then sprayed Ruka’s hair down with hairspray and said to her, “Done. You look beautiful, Ruka.”

A young Ruka smiled while looking at herself in the mirror, telling her mother, “Thank you, Mommy.”

Her father then knocked on the door of the bathroom and asked, “Are you guys ready?”

“Yes, honey,” said her mother as the two of them stepped out of the bathroom. “We’re all set.”

“I have everything loaded in the car already. All we have to do now is drive.” As all three of them walked out of their home and then down to the family car, Ruka’s father, who shared her cream-colored eyes, told his daughter with a smile, “Are you excited for the family trip, Ruka?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ruka replied, conflicted between the impending trip and missing out on the whole weekend.

“I know you’ll be away from your friends at school,” her father told her. “But don’t worry. We’ll be back by Sunday evening. If we get back soon enough, you can see them.”

“Really?” Ruka’s eyes lit up with happiness. “Awww, thank you, Daddy!”

Within less than a minute after that promise had been made, all three hopped into the car and took off down the road the family lived on. After a few minutes of silently listening to the radio, they were all interrupted by the sound of her father’s phone going off, which took over the radio in the car and allowed Ruka’s father to answer it without picking it up. He saw that it was his father, Ruka’s paternal grandfather, and sighed. “Hang on, I gotta take this.” He then pushed the icon to accept the call on his car console and said, “Hello, Dad. What’s going on?”

“Masahiro,” said Ruka’s grandfather, named Ryota, calling her father by his name. “Are you guys coming up here yet?”

“Yes, we are, Dad. All of us.”

Ryota asked his son, “All of you?”

“Yes,” Masahiro replied, somewhat annoyed by the question.

“Okay, just making sure.” Ryota then told him, “The whole family will be here, so be sure to be on your best behavior.”

“I know, Dad.”

“How’s Ruka doing, by the way?”

“She’s right here in the car,” Masahiro replied to his father. He then told his daughter, “Say hi to your grandfather, Ruka.”

Ruka replied as she moved forward in her seat, “Hello, Grandpa. I can’t wait to see you.”

Ryota chuckled and replied, “I can’t wait to see you, either.”

Masahiro then said to her grandfather, “We’re about to get on the highway. We’ll call you later when we get off, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ryota replied. “Bye, Masahiro.”

“Bye.” After his father hung up, he told his wife, “He didn’t mention you at all, Miyako.”

“I’ve learned to expect that,” she replied. It was clear based on how they talked that there was tension between them and Ryota. “It doesn’t affect me like it used to, Masahiro. Don’t worry.”

“Mommy, Daddy,” Ruka then asked both of them. “What are you guys talking about?”

“It’s adult stuff,” Miyako told her daughter. “We’ll tell you when you’re older, Ruka.”

When their car turned onto a highway ramp, another car up ahead attempted to speed up past them. However, they were unable to do so properly since the ramp had only one lane. Even so, the other driver tried, prompting Masahiro to say out loud, “What the Hell?”

Miyako meanwhile yelled as the other car tried to ride past them despite having almost no clearance on the side, “What the fuck?! Hey!”

What followed next was the sickening crunch of metal before their car spun several times and ended up facing the wrong way on the highway. Ruka screamed in fear, and just as her father was about to put the car in drive and pull over, he looked in front of him and saw a small utility truck coming towards them. He yelled as loudly as he could, frozen in fear and unable to move the car, “NO!”

At that moment, everything went black following what sounded like a loud explosion. Ruka was instantly knocked out by the collision, which occurred at speeds of over one hundred kilometers per hour. What followed was emptiness, as if Ruka had passed on and was in the process of entering the afterlife. However, this was obviously not meant to be the case.

Three hours later, Ruka awoke to the sound of a monitor beeping and found herself in a hospital room. She had been dressed in a gown as opposed to the small red dress she had worn when she got into the car. Surrounding her were several doctors and nurses, and as she looked around, one of the female nurses said to her, “You’re awake, Kishio Ruka.”

Ruka looked down and saw that her legs were in temporary casts. She was able to move one of her arms, as the other was also in a temporary cast. She used her free left arm to rub her eyes and look around. “Ugh… What happened?”

“You’ve been in a car accident,” said one of the doctors.

“I was?” She looked around, still wondering what exactly had happened.

“Yeah, you were,” said another nurse, who this time was a man. “You’ve been asleep for about three hours.”

Ruka’s eyes widened immediately upon hearing those words. She reached out to the doctor on the left side of her bed and grabbed onto his coat as tight as she could. “My parents! What happened to my parents?!” Her tone of voice indicated she needed an answer right then and there.

The doctor replied to her, “Kishio-san…” He was clearly unsure of how to answer the little girl. “Well, you see…”

Another doctor in the room looked at him and told him, “You can tell her.” A woman who was clearly not a doctor or a nurse who had joined them also nodded, giving him the go-ahead to tell her the news about her parents.

“Ruka,” the first doctor then said as he knelt down to look into her eyes. “I’m really sorry I have to tell you this, but both of your parents have died.”

Ruka’s eyes widened with shock upon hearing those words. “They… Died?”

“Yes,” the doctor nodded. “Again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

Tears fell down Ruka’s face almost immediately upon the realization in her head that the doctor had to be telling the truth. “No… Mommy, Daddy, no… Why…” What followed next was Ruka bursting into tears as she cried in her hospital bed. Many of the adults in the room with her were also saddened by what had transpired, their hearts breaking over the reaction of the young girl.

Indeed, the death of her parents had been the start of her loss of innocence. However, as Ruka had said, it would not be the end of it.

…

August 30, 2019

Ruka, who was now ten years old and lived with her grandfather, was completing some homework following a long day at school. She was writing down the answer to a math equation when her grandfather walked into the room she was in and asked her, “Ruka, when you’re done with that, meet me in the basement for fencing practice.”

“Got it,” she replied. “I’ll be done in a few minutes, Grandpa.” She then turned back around to complete her work. She thought to herself as she wrote down the solution to the problem presented to her, “This is my sixth fencing session. Hopefully, I can show him I’m improving.” Ever since early July, Ruka had been practicing fencing with her grandfather, largely on his insistence since her own father had given up on it long ago and he apparently did not want her to do the same.

A few minutes later, Ruka walked down to the basement, which contained a variety of things her grandfather owned as well as several fencing swords hung up on the wall, and found her grandfather waiting for her. Ryota told her, “Pick up your sword.”

Ruka looked at the wall behind her and picked up a sabre. “I’ll go with this today.” She then set it down and began to put on a fencing outfit that was on the floor waiting for her.

“You’re not gonna use an épée again? I told you you need to use the épée more so you get used to heavier swords, you know.”

“I like the sabre better.”

“Don’t talk back to me,” Ryota warned. “Now, pick up the damn épée.”

Ruka silently nodded and put the sabre back, taking a heavier épée instead. She then turned back around and told her grandfather as she put her helmet on, “I’m ready.”

“Good. En garde.” The two of them got into fencing poses as Ruka patiently waited for the signal to begin. Then, Ryota said, “Allez.” The two battled each other. Ruka was not quite used to the heavier épée, as evidenced by her somewhat slow moves. The battle was rather brief, and ended with Ryota striking a blow on Ruka’s chest. “Arrête.”

Both of them stood back as Ruka told her grandfather, “Zero to one.”

“One to zero from my point of view. En garde.” The two then got back into their poses. “Allez.” The second battle lasted a little while longer than the first, and Ruka was able to deflect two blows, but even so, she still lost when Ryota landed a blow on her abdomen and then one of her arms. “We’re gonna keep practicing tonight, so don’t think you can quit just yet.”

“I know,” Ruka replied as the two of them stepped away from each other.

“En garde… Allez.”

As the two of them battled each other for a third time, a somewhat younger Daisuke was walking down the stairs holding his son, who at the time was only seven months old, in his arms. He noticed Ruka and Ryota fencing and got somewhat annoyed with how his father was fighting the young girl. As Ryota won again, Daisuke told his father, “Let up on her a little bit. She’s just a child, after all.”

“She’s fine,” Ryota told his youngest son. “She needs to learn how to handle herself properly.”

“I know that, but still…”

“But nothing,” he told him before he turned back around to see Ruka. “We’ll spar two more times and then we’ll take a break. How about that?”

“Sure,” Ruka said as she was about to take her helmet off briefly to catch her breath.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Ryota said as he stopped her. “No taking the helmet off just yet. We’re gonna wait to do that until we’re done. Got it?”

“Yes, Grandpa,” Ruka replied, moving her hands away from the helmet and picking up her épée once again. “Let’s go.”

“En garde.” The two once again got into position. “Allez.”

As the two of them battled, Ruka thought of nothing else but the sword, even though she was losing the bout with her grandfather. It provided a nice distraction from everything else in her short life, even if she was not winning by any means. Little did she know that the sword would become a major source of comfort in her future.

…

September 4, 2019

Daisuke walked out of a portal that had opened up on the side of a building wearing a gray suit of light armor and carrying a crossbow while several bloodstained daggers were attached to his belt. He had just wrapped up a battle with a magical beast, and as he checked his phone with his other hand, he said to himself, “It won’t be much longer before I don’t do this shit anymore. Just a few more weeks.” Indeed, Daisuke had put in a notice that he would no longer be serving as a magical huntsman effective October 4th of 2019 about a week prior. He would still work for the Protection and Research Agency, but in a support capacity.

He then de-transformed out of his armor, which also led to his weapons disappearing. As he did, he looked to his right and saw Ruka running towards him. “Uncle Daisuke! Uncle Daisuke!”

Daisuke smiled and gave Ruka a hug when she ran up to him. “Hey there, Ruka.”

Ruka asked him as the two of them split from their hug, “Did you just get done with a hunt, Uncle Daisuke?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “You know, I won’t be doing this much longer, since I’ll be retiring next month.”

“Retiring? But you’re not an old man.”

“I won’t quit working,” he assured her as he patted her head. “I just won’t be hunting magical beasts anymore. I’ll still be in the Agency like before, Ruka. It’ll be safer for me.”

“Don’t you love what you do?”

Daisuke chuckled. “Of course I do. Even so, I can’t do it forever, especially not with your baby cousin.”

Ruka then asked him out of curiosity, “What if I became a magical huntress, Uncle Daisuke?”

That question caused him to freeze up and the smile from his face to falter. He was afraid that one day, a question like this would come up. “Ruka…”

“What about that?”

“Ruka, look… It’s very dangerous.” He sighed as he put a hand on her shoulder and told her, “People lose their lives doing this kind of work. It’s not easy at all, especially when you sign up at the age I did. It’s not like the magical girl anime you see or the manga you read.”

Ruka, knowing her uncle would disapprove of her becoming a magical huntress, looked down and said, “Okay…”

“Hey, it’s fine,” he assured her. “You’re curious. That’s okay. I just don’t want you to go into that line of work. The last thing I want is to see you get hurt.”

“I know,” Ruka replied. “What about you? I don’t want to see you get hurt, Uncle Daisuke.”

“Well, there’s always a chance, but I have experience and training that helps me. The odds of me getting hurt are lower because of that.” The two of them then began to walk back to Daisuke’s home together. “Now, let’s go back to my house before your grandpa gets there, Ruka.”

“Okay, Uncle Daisuke.” As they walked together, Ruka asked her uncle, “Has Grandpa always…”

“Has he always what?”

“I don’t want to say it…”

Daisuke assured her, “You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone, Ruka.”

“Has Grandpa always been grumpy like when he’s training me in fencing?”

Daisuke stopped on the sidewalk as he tried to find an answer. Truthfully, there were multiple causes for the way her grandfather acted towards her, ranging from the social class of her mother to other more personal things. He decided to tell her a half-truth and give a partial reason why. “Well, I wouldn’t say he’s grumpy, but your grandfather hasn’t been the same since your grandmother died four years ago, and especially not after your father and your mother died. He tries not to show it around you, but he took it pretty hard.”

“Oh, that’s why?” In her head, Ruka began to see why her grandfather acted the way he did, even without being told the other reason why. “I know my father cried a lot after grandma died.”

“We all did,” Daisuke told her with a deep breath. “She was a really wonderful woman, Ruka, even with her faults.”

“Faults?”

“Well, nobody is perfect. Not even your parents were perfect. I’m not perfect. You aren’t perfect. Even so, that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Your grandmother had her faults, but she could recognize them and would try to improve herself.”

Ruka understood what he was trying to say. “Ah, okay.” She then hugged her uncle, telling him, “I love you, Uncle Daisuke.”

Daisuke said as he returned the hug, “I love you too, Ruka.”

…

October 3, 2019

Ruka was once again fencing with her grandfather in the basement. As with before, she was ordered to use an épée instead of the saber she preferred. This time, however, as she battled him, she was showing signs of improvement, and was holding him off far longer than she did at the end of August. However, she still was unable to beat him, and he landed a blow on her shoulder and then her mask. Ryota told her, “You need to improve.”

“But I am improving,” she said as the two of them took their masks off. “I held you off longer than ever before.”

“Holding people off doesn’t make you win,” Ryota dismissed her with. “I need you to actually land a good blow on me. Now, get ready again.”

“Alright,” Ruka replied as the two of them put their masks on again. “I’m ready.”

“En garde,” Ryota said before taking a pause. Then, he commenced the next battle with, “Allez!” This time, Ruka gave it her all, and blocked four attacks by her grandfather in quick succession. She then moved in to strike her grandfather, but she was blocked twice. In response, she blocked three more of his attacks before she managed to strike him in the left arm. “Damn it!”

Ruka told him, “Now you can’t use that!” Ryota obliged and stopped using his left arm as he tried to attack Ruka again. She barely dodged a swing at her right arm before she managed to strike him in the chest with her épée. “Hah! I won!”

“Damn it,” Ryota said in frustration. “I can’t believe you managed to get me that time.”

Ruka asked her grandfather, “Are we gonna go for one more round?”

“No. No more today.”

“Aw, come on.”

“I said that’s enough,” he sternly told her, clearly frustrated by his loss. “Besides, we have the gala going on tomorrow, and I want you to be well-rested and on your best behavior, got it?”

“But can we-“

“Enough!” Ryota slapped her across the face to get her to stop talking. “You have to get ready for tomorrow!” He then began to put away his things. “We’re done for the evening, Ruka.”

“Alright,” Ruka dejectedly replied as she began to take off her fencing gear and put it away, her face still stinging from the slap. It was clear from her demeanor that this was not the first time she had been hit by him. As she went upstairs with him, she asked her, “When do you want to practice again?”

“The fifth,” he replied. “And you better be able to do better than what you did today. One lucky victory isn’t everything, Ruka.”

…

Later at night, Ruka snuck down into the basement of the house and quietly pulled the sabre off of the wall. She had snuck out of bed to practice on her own, and as she began to swing the sabre, she thought to herself, “I’ll show him! I’ll be sure to show him when we practice next! Then he’ll have to say I’m improving!”

As she practiced in her pajamas, she thought about what her grandfather had said to her while they practiced. His words filled her with anger and caused her moves to be less elegant and controlled. They were more brutal and unrestrained, almost as if she was a brute on a medieval battlefield. Eventually, she let out her pent-up feelings by letting out a brief roar while she swung down with the sabre, hitting the floor as hard as she could.

Once she hit the ground with her sabre, she took several deep breaths as she looked down at the floor, hoping she did not make any marks from her hit. She then looked at a mirror nearby and set her sabre down. She studied the outline of her body and said to herself, “Sometimes, I feel like I’m growing up too fast.” Ruka had, in the past year, begun to undergo the process of puberty, and the effects of it were already somewhat physically noticeable. She then picked up her sabre again and began to swing it, counting to herself, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…”