A new series which follows Kenshin and Y/n's daily lives as a family with their three children. What shenanigans will their children pull?. Future entries will posted in a separate book which is already available
-- Kohana is the 6-year-old daughter of Kenshin and Y/n. She is very smart and enjoys reading. She looks very similar to her mother apart from her most standout features of blonde hair and heterochromia eyes just like her father. Her adoration of Shingen is immense and they have a great relationship. Just like her mother she is also strong-minded and won't stand for anyone telling her what she can and cannot do --
Waking up before her parents, she climbed slowly off her bed and got herself ready for the day, even tying her own obi. After that was done, she padded over to her shelf of scroll books. Selecting the one she was half-way through, which was a study on amphibians. She sat down up her desk and engrossed herself into the scroll.
A short time later and her mother was walking through the door. Planning to wake Kohana up and was stunned to see her already awake although she had woken up early every day of the week so far. Little Kohana, hair already brushed turned to her mother at the door.
"Good morning, mother. Did you sleep well?" she questioned as she got up to greet her mother in a traditional and proper fashion. She bowed low, looking adorable the entire time.
"Good morning to you too Kohana, I did sleep well" her mother answered and gestured to the book that laid open on her daughter's desk. "What are you reading today, baby?"
"A rather interesting scroll book that Uncle Sasuke picked up for me on his last mission. It goes into detail about frogs and newts and other cold-blooded vertebrates" she explained and her extraordinary brown and blue eyes lit up to be speaking of her passions.
"That's nice sweetie. I'm going to go and wake up your brothers now so I'll see you at breakfast" she left the room and Kohana walked back to her desk and subsequently placed her scroll back onto the shelf before leaving the room herself.
In the hallway outside her room, she bumped into her father. Being his only daughter and the one child who looked the most like him they had always had a special bond. Despite knowing how independent she was, he couldn't help but treat her like glass.
"Good morning, my princess" Kenshin smiled at his daughter, one of the two most precious women to him in the world. Kohana bowed down to her father as she had done to her mother earlier. They kept telling her she didn't have to be formal with them as they were her parents but she insisted that she has to do this, that she has to uphold the Uesugi name. Kenshin's smile had a hint of humour to it as he laid a fatherly hand on the top of her head and stroked her hair gently.
"Good morning. I hope that you have a pleasant and productive day at work" she stated to him and together they walked to the main hall to meet up with her mother and brothers for breakfast.
When they got there, Kensuro her older brother was running around with her younger brother called Chisai. Her mother was trying to get them to calm down and eat breakfast. Already seated were Shingen and Yukimura who were residing in Kasugayama for a short while on a visit. As soon as she saw Shingen, she broke her stiff and polished demeanour and smiled widely, much to Kenshin's dismay.
She walked over and sat next to Shingen and her stiff well-mannered wall was now back up. Kenshin sat to the other side of Kohana and watched Shingen like a hawk. Next to Kenshin was his wife Y/n and next to her were their sons. During breakfast, they all partook in conversation of trivial and non-trivial matters.
Shingen and Kohana spent their time eating stew and rice while Shingen explained what he had been doing lately and how things were going in Kai while Kohana hung on his every word but didn't forget decorum.
Sasuke walked in late and Kensuro pulled him over to sit next to him. Yukimura's face twisted with mild jealousy. The head of the Nokizaru told him of new ninja tricks that he had learned and Sasuke promised to teach them to the young lord in the future. Meanwhile, Y/n looked mildly annoyed knowing she would have to deal with even more of her son's tricks.
After breakfast, everyone went off to work or to learn for the day.
A while later and Kohana had reached a good stopping point in her studies and decided to go for a walk around the castle. She heard her brother's laughter coming from the training hall and went to see what was going on. Inside Kenshin happened to also be taking a break and her mother was there too and, in the middle, Kensuro was training with Kenshin. Recently Kensuro had hit a stage in his childhood where he wanted to grow up fast and become a samurai and he had taken to sparring with his father and learning the art of the sword.
Her mother noticed her when she entered the room and called her over to her side. Kohana went over and looked to the middle of the room, watching as her brother became increasingly more exhausted while her father never broke a sweat.
"Don't you think your brother is improving, Kohana?" her mother asked and looked down at her daughter. The love for her child's successes was clear in her eyes.
Kohana did not have much knowledge but she nodded anyways and looked back to the match. It hit her then as she watched her father. She always knew everything about all different things but sword fighting was not one of them. Just the idea of being ill-informed about a subject or topic was something she could just not stand. She was more of an etiquette and studying girl but surely, she could study the sword and how to wield one and end up being good at it.
Kohana left the room shortly after, almost running down the hallway and breaking her code of being perfect at all times. She was impatient to get back to her books. Remembering that she did not have books on swords in her room or anything that requires a physical action, she took a detour to the archives and selected a few books that seemed to have decent knowledge of swords of the organised shelves.
Pouring over the books for the rest day she didn't even realize how late it had gotten when her mother came in to tuck her into bed. She hadn't even realized that she had skipped dinner and read right through it. She hid the book quickly and said goodnight to her mother and then her father who came in afterwards. As soon as they were gone, she hopped out of bed to fetch the book from its hiding place and took it back to bed with her. She stayed up all night reading the books and by the time morning came she was determined to start her training as well.
As soon as the new day was underway and everyone was off doing their duties. She made sure to catch her father on one of his breaks. She led him to the training hall which was already occupied yet again by her brother and her mother watching over him. Kenshin was unclear over what purpose she could possibly have to take him to this room. They stopped in the middle of the polished but scuffed floor.
"I want to learn how to wield a sword and I want you to teach me father" as soon as the words left her mouth the whole room became silent and everyone listened in with curiosity and worry. She watched in confusion as her father's face twisted and multiple emotions were displayed on it before settling on just one.
"No" the answer that her father gave her was firm and final and she started to become annoyed. Her mother watched in trepidation and her brother stood silently.
"Why can't I?, you are teaching Kensuro so why can't you teach me as well?" she asked befuddled. Y/n being her mother meant that the young girl got to do whatever she wanted even if it went against the norms for girls in this era, well that is until now.
"Because you are my daughter and should any harm find its way to you, I will cut it down before it can touch you. There is no need for you to ever hold a sword" her father spoke back resolutely and even though she felt it was unfair, she could not answer back to her father and simply bid fare well to her him and turned around and did the same to the others in the room. Her mother looked as if she had something to say, similar memories of the past perhaps, swirling in her eyes.
That evening when Y/n and Kenshin were getting ready for bed, Y/n asked to talk to him and broached the subject that was mentioned earlier in the day.
"You know how strong willed she is, even though you've told her no, she will still find a way to do it" Y/n stated as they were setting up the covers on the futon.
Kenshin sighed. "That reminds me of someone" he flashed her a nostalgic smirk and her heart skipped a beat but she quickly shook her head to clear away the improper thoughts.
"If you treat her too differently, she might come to dislike you, she's already extremely different from you in terms of personality" she told him, she hated to admit it but it was true. Their daughter might lose more of the bond she had with her father if he did not treat her the same way that he treats her brothers, especially if he curbs her individuality and independency.
"I know" the expressions on Kenshin's face were so torn and conflicted. Y/n walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist. This is what they did, they were very supportive of each other. Kenshin's eyes widened slightly as he looked down at her.
"Remember, you taught me for a time?" she looked up at him, eyes shining with the fond memories of those days. Her wish for her daughter was that, she could do anything she dreamed of. "You two had such a deep bond, but now she's become something of a maverick and you don't share any interests anymore" she had such a sad look in her eyes. Kenshin was weak for it and it hit him then that if he didn't do something soon, they might become estranged from each other.
"I don't want her to feel that weight, to bare that responsibility. If anything, I want to keep her as safe as possible so she never has to worry about the side of the word that is cast in shadows" he bared his heart to his lover and she nodded along but by the time they were ready to sleep, Kenshin had sided with the part of him that didn't want to lose his daughters love.
The next day, in the early hours of the morning, Kohana was up and had tip toed to the training hall to swipe a wooden practice sword and she now proceeded to swing it around at the back of the garden, hidden away from everyone.
She would not take her father's 'no' as an answer. Her parents had kept her protected from all evil parts of society and so she had always done whatever she wanted, with no worries for the danger it harboured or for her safety.
Unbeknownst to Kohana, her father Kenshin had also woken up early that day and had headed to her room only to find her room empty. A maid told him that the young lady had gone out to the gardens, now he searched for her and it wasn't long before he heard the faint and quiet worn-out groans and grunts of his daughter coming from the far corner of the beautifully decorated garden.
He was stunned to see that his wife was right as he moved to stand behind a bush and silently watched his young daughter try to raise her sword and bring it down in an arc.
Tiny sweat droplets dripped down her cherub cheeks and frustration was plain on her face. She was starting to realize that just reading a couple books on the topic, does not make you equipped to actually perform the task.
Kenshin watched her a little longer until Kohana somehow hit herself upside the head with the wooden sword and a little 'ouch' slipped past her lips. He walked out, making his presence clear. Little Kohana's eyes widened knowing she had been caught and she attempted to hide the sword behind her small body.
A soft smile emerged onto Kenshin's face as he approached his daughter and laid his hand on where she had hurt herself. Kohana fidgeted under the pressure of her father's hand, thinking she was in trouble and going to get shouted at for going behind his back to do something he specifically told her not to do.
He knelt down on the grass, not caring about the dewy state it was in due to it being morning. When he was on her level, he wrapped his arms around her and gently hugged her before releasing her and looking seriously into her mismatched eyes.
"If you want to learn, I will teach you. It's not going to be easy and I don't expect you to ever have to use the skills I instil in you. Are you still willing to try?" Kenshin's gaze was resolved and firm when he told her this. Despite her only being 6 years old, he knew he could talk to her like an adult and treat her as such.
She met her father's gaze with a committed and genuine one of her own and nodded her head. "I'm prepared father, I want to give it a go so please teach me" she bowed down to him but this time as a student to her master.
Kenshin kept his promise and later that day many people in the castle came to the training hall to watch their first lesson, including Y/n who had a bright and wide simper plastered on her face and her brothers were there and so were Shingen, Yukimura and Sasuke and many of her fathers' vassals.
He instructed her as strict as he did when training with her older brother but not once, did he forget that this was his precious daughter he was lifting a weapon up to.
AUTHORS NOTE
This is a new series I am starting. I created the children a while back and have wanted to do something like this for ages and now I finally am. I'm going to post this in a new book as well as here but others that come after it, will be posted in said book. I hope you enjoy this new series as much as I do. Thanks for reading and stay safe!