Side Story: Meeting the Princess 1.1

After nearly an hour of walking, they arrived at the vicinities of the main gate of the Imperial Palace. Sakamo thought it was weird if she lived there, but probably her parents worked there.

To his surprise, a group of four men ran to them as soon as they recognised the Princess, and one of them shouted to Sakamo, “Let her go! Why are you holding her hand like that? Why did you kidnap her?”

Sakamo felt Hiko trembling as she hid behind him, and he whispered, “What do these guys want? Are they friends of those guys this morning?”

“I… am not sure…”

Sakamo gently squeezed her hand that was on his left shoulder and whispered, “Better if you close your eyes. This won’t be pretty to watch if they try to take you.”

Sakamo then made a defensive pose by taking one step forward and lowering his body, with one fist near his waist and an open palm pointed at the group of approaching strangers. Sakamo shouted, “I don’t know who you think you are, but if you make a wrong move, you will wake up tomorrow morning in the Hospital!”

One of the men spoke into his sleeve, probably calling for backup, while the other three were still running towards Sakamo. Hiko had her eyes shut as Sakamo instructed her, but she quickly opened them at the first scream, only to see one of the security guards on the floor grabbing his broken knee and another one kneeling with both arms broken at the elbow. The third man got a kick in his stomach, followed by a swipe at his legs and a downward kick to the head that broke his nose against the concrete. As a pool of blood was spreading on the floor, Sakamo jumped towards the other security guard and knee-kicked him straight in the face, knocking him out completely.
Another group emerged from the open gate, and Sakamo continued fighting, making certain that none of them approached the dumbfounded Hiko, who stood four metres behind, watching all the fighting in awe. Suddenly, one of the security guards pulled his gun, and Hiko shouted to Sakamo to watch out, only to see him grabbing the gun, twisting the security guard’s hand and hitting him with the gun a few times, making a mess of his face. Sakamo jumped back with the gun and put a knee on the ground, standing between another group of approaching guards and Hiko, pointing the gun at them.

Sakamo shouted, and they all froze in their tracks, “The next one that approaches Hiko-chan will meet the creator! I don’t know who you are and I don’t give a damn, but you are scaring her! She only wants to go to her parents!”

A powerful voice shouted from behind the security guards, “Everyone, stop fighting! What is the meaning of this? Who are you, boy?”

Sakamo looked at the man when the security guards made room for him to pass. Sakamo immediately recognised him from the pictures he saw in the Shrine and on the television. He put the gun on the ground and made a deep bow, still kneeling. “My Emperor, I am sorry for all this, but these men were trying to grab my friend Hiko-chan, and they were scaring her.”

“They were scaring her? Hiko, do you have any idea of how scared your mother and I were and all the trouble you caused all day? All the security guards and the entire police force were looking for you everywhere! Where did you go?”

Sakamo blinked a few times and looked back, only to see Hiko looking down, avoiding his look. “Hiko-chan… what…”

“I… am sorry, Ryu-kun… I just… wanted to be a normal girl, even if it was only for one day… Those men this morning were escorting me to School, but I didn’t want to go to School today. I wanted to go to the amusement park, and have a walk in the City…”

Sakamo remained silent, and Hiko looked up. She saw the disappointed look on Sakamo’s face and cried. “I… am sorry… Ryu-kun... Don’t… look at me like that… Please, say something… Please…”

Sakamo remained silent, and he slowly got up and made a slight bow to the Emperor who made a signal for the security guards to let him go, and Sakamo took a step towards Hiko, and as he was passing by, she hugged him from behind and shouted, “I am sorry! Don’t leave me like this! I am sorry! Say you are still my friend! I don’t want you to be angry at me! I am sorry!”

Sakamo slowly but strongly took her arms from him. He looked at her and said, in a harsh voice full of anger, “You are nothing but a spoiled brat. You have parents that love you and care about you, and you lead me to think that they didn’t want to be with you. Your heart is rotten and you are not better than dog shit. Leave me alone. I don’t want to look at you anymore.”

Sakamo turned away, and when Hiko grabbed his right arm and pulled him, he shook his arm hard to get rid of the grab and shouted, “I said leave me alone, you spoiled brat! Go learn how to treat people! I honestly thought you were in danger this morning, and I only spent the day with you because you looked so nervous and sad! You are a lying, crazy brat, and I don’t want you to touch me!”

The Emperor shouted, with his face all red, “Hey, what are you…”

Sakamo looked at him with a cold shine in his eyes and pointed at the security guards that were hurt on the ground. “You should be ashamed as well. This is the parenting you are doing? Look at what your daughter caused! Because I thought they were trying to attack her, I hurt them! I could have killed some of them because of her! I swore to my father that I would never use my Martial Arts to harm an innocent person, and I have hurt all of them because of your spoiled daughter! You may be a good Emperor, but you are a disgrace as a father because you only raised a rotten child!”

The security guard that was nearest to the Emperor shouted, “That is no way to address the Emperor!”

Sakamo looked at the guard and pointed at the surprised father and next, at the crying daughter, and said, “Are you being serious? Are you worried about the way I am addressing the Emperor after all that happened here? There we have a father ashamed for having a young boy like me telling him the truth about his parenting skills, and here we have a spoiled brat that only now realised all the harm she caused!”

The Emperor placed one hand on the left arm of the security guard to stop him, and said, “Perhaps it would be better if we talked inside if you don’t mind accompanying me. I still want to know what you two did all day, and I think all this mess was just a sad misunderstanding.”

Sakamo made a slight bow and answered, “I am not worthy of such consideration, my Emperor, but I won’t apologise for anything I said, because I didn’t lie. She was the only one that lied to me all day long.”

Hiko tried to apologize, “Ryu-kun… I am really sorry…”

Sakamo looked at her with sadness in his eyes, and that made her cry again. “Despite anything that happens to me after today, if you ever pull another stunt like this, I will grab you, put you on my lap, and I will slap your butt so hard that you won’t be able to seat properly for a week!”

Hiko vigorously nodded. “Yes, believe me, I will be a good girl from now on! I will go to School every day and I will study really hard! You will be proud of me! But please, say that you forgive me!”

“I can’t… You broke my trust and I can’t easily forgive you for that…”

The Emperor signalled the guards to let Sakamo pass, and asked as he walked alongside him towards the main building, “Tell me, how were you able to defeat all those security guards so easily? They are all highly trained, and you took care of them as if they were nothing! I saw some of your fights as I was approaching, and I also know a bit about Taekwondo and Judo, but you fought as if you could predict their movements! Where did you learn how to fight like that?”

“I grew up in a Shrine in Nakanojo, and Martial Arts were part of my training. I learned many styles and different Arts, but I am also gifted with the ability to analyse everything around me, and I can virtually predict my opponent’s attacks just by observing their body language and shape of the body.”

“Amazing… Does that ability to analyse your surroundings only concerns Martial Arts?”

Sakamo slowly shook his head. “Not only that, but I am also very good with Mathematics and data analysis. My father used to say that I have a mechanical brain, but perhaps I only think differently from most people.”

“Really? Interesting… Perhaps you can help me with a matter that is making many people go crazy over these past few months while trying to find a solution. It’s more or less related to predicting people’s reactions to different situations and analysing a bunch of data.”

“If I could be of some help, it would honour me to do so. Or at least, to apologise for the rude way I addressed you out there. Usually, I am not like that, but I was disappointed and angry. Hiko-chan broke my heart, and I wasn’t expecting it from such a cute little girl.”

Hiko remained in silence, looking down, feeling ashamed. The Emperor saw she was still crying and said, “Perhaps most of what happened today was my fault. I failed to realise how our lives and obligations to our people and country could make her feel miserable. Perhaps you could grant her another opportunity. She could use a good friend like you, one that didn’t have a problem saying what was on his mind, or scold her if needed.”

Sakamo spoke in a calm tone, and Hiko’s face brightened up with a big smile, “I think I can do that. My Emperor probably should have slapped her butt a few times while she was growing up, instead of spoiling her so much.”

“Maybe, but I never dared to do that. She is my only daughter. But I have sent her to her room a few times every time she made a blunder!”

Sakamo asked, making the Emperor muffle his laughter, “An Emperor can’t order a little girl to be locked in prison? Or to get a few lashes in public, like in the ancient days?”

“Pfft!…That would be difficult to explain to the people and the World, why I resorted to such methods! But now that you mention it, perhaps on her next blunder!”

They both looked at the surprised Princess with a weird smile. With this, a genuine friendship between Sakamo Ryu and the Imperial Family began, even with a few more mistakes and misunderstandings along the way.