Darren's Perspective.
My eyes snapped open as the dim light of the pre-dawn sky filtered through the cracks in the stable walls and door. I pushed myself up from the musty bed of hay as the horse in the stable beside the one I had sneaked into to rest made a noise of discontent.
My muscles protested with a screaming blast of aches and stiffness.
Sneaking into the city and using my 'meagerly nonexistent savings' on a night's shelter was impossible due to their obvious lack.
So I spent a night in a stable of a nearby inn.
Because I had no money at all.
Spending a night without any food was never a new thing or a good thing.
But add a night where I had to sneak in to even sleep and push myself physically to even get to the place without being seen?
One that had left me with a gnawing emptiness in my stomach due to overwork?
Yes. This is the worst kind of new feeling.
The katana strapped to my hip that Kirin tossed at me offered a cold comfort when I was just about ready to starve and die of thirst.
It was a symbol of power and of potential, but it couldn't buy me a warm meal or a roof over my head unless I was willing to sell it.
Screw that!
I stood and a strange sensation coursed through my body.
Strength.
Despite my aches, my bode was stronger and I felt I could swing a sword with at least some skill.
My brow furrowed as I recalled the vivid dream that had haunted my sleep.
The ruined village and the relentless training under Kirin Edo's watchful eye- it had felt real and visceral.
Could it have been more than just a dream? It was a possibility that I couldn't dismiss. I would have to question Kirin Edo about it if it happened again.
I slipped out of the stables and kept my movements silent and swift.
It seems like the footwork lessons that the dream stayed too.
The city streets were still shrouded in the pre-dawn gloom.
That was to my benefit.
I made my way towards the enlistment office of this Shin Empire city that Kirin had decided would be my starting place.
After all, how hard could it be to join?
---
I eventually made my way there.
The recruiter was the same gruff and middle-aged man with a face like a weathered boot and hair that was gray from stress.
He barely glanced up from his paperwork as I approached.
"Name and age," he barked, his voice raspy and impatient.
"Darren, thirteen," I replied with my voice steady despite the tremor of nervousness that ran through me.
This body was thirteen again, and they have magic that tests the body for age.
They had used to filter out everyone below their majority from the village's enlistment in the timeline that I'm almost sure won't exist anymore.
The recruiter's eyes widened, and a sneer twisted his lips. "Thirteen? You think you're ready to fight for the Empire, you scrawny pup?!"
He slammed his fist on the desk, scattering papers across the floor. "Your age disqualifies you! Get out of here and come back when you've grown some hair on your chest. Or prove yourself elsewhere, if you think you're so tough. Shoo!"
I stood there for a moment as my fists clenched.
My jaw Tightened.
The recruiter's words stung and ignited a fire within me.
I would find a way to prove my worth.
But not this loop.
I need to see how badly a relatively weak samurai stacks himself above me in strength after five hundred days of fighting plus a bit of actual training.
I also need to not have met him so I can come back and lie about my age.
With a defiant glare, I pulled my sword from my sheath.
This loop was a bust but starting another loop was fine.
"If you will not have me as an ally then we will fight. I will die but my honor will not be besmirched by a petty bastard of a soldier with no future."
"Good," the recruiter sneered, his hand hovering over the hilt of his katana. "Then I'll show you the truth."
He stepped forward, his body shifting into the unmistakable stance of iaijutsu.
It was a blatant trap that who he was expecting to meet him would fall for.
I had learned a thing or two from Kirin Edo So his expectations were wrong.
Even in my brief time under his tutelage I knew how to counter something so blatant.
My muscles coiled like springs as I feigned a step forward and entered his range just long enough for him to pull.
I hid a smirk as the recruiter's eyes narrowed and his hand tightening on his sword hilt and it began to slide out.
He was ready to strike and he unleashed the deadly power of his blade.
But I was faster.
As his draw began to reach the midpoint of its exit, I sprang back with my body moving just out of the way.
His sword flashed the rest of the way out, a silver arc slicing through the air where I my neck had been a moment before.
Turns out this scumbag was actually trying to kill me.
Someone he viewed as a child.
But I was already gone.
My feet and legs moved across the cobblestones in a parody of competence as I circled him behind him.
His sword, now out of position, became my opportunity.
I moved my Daito forward as it snapping out to deflect his blade further outward, disrupting his balance and exposing his flank even further.
I redirected the Daito to attack-
Why did I reach for a second sword?
But then, a blinding pain exploded in my head and the rest of my body ceased being felt entirely.
My vision went dark, and my body in front of me crumpled to the ground a moment before my head did.
I had failed to account for his second, longer sword, concealed beneath his flowing robes.
"Huh," the piece of shit chuckled, laced with amusement and disdain. "Kid surprised me. That's too bad, he might have been somet-"
I had expected him to try to detain me and have to end myself, but killing kids is fine to him, clearly.