[Legend of the Five Knights 1] Rise of a Guardian Angel

"So bored, " I say, putting my head down on our wooden table. I stare as water drips down from my short black hair.

"It won't stop pouring, " my younger sister adds, copying me. She ruffles her curly light brown hair, trying to get the water out.

"Let's see if we can fix that, " Mom says, wiping her slim hands against her apron.

I bolt up. "Tell us the story of the Five Knights!"

Father, who is seated across from me, chuckles. "Aren't you too old for such stories."

I pout. "I'm nine! That's not too old..." I look down at the table. "Is it?"

He reaches over the table, ruffling my short black hair. "Aww, don't worry about it kiddo." He smiles. "Maybe listening to it will help you avoid the mistakes that befell the Knight of the Shield."

"Mistakes?"

The floor shrieks as he pushes his chair back to stand up. "Tell the kid the full story."

Mother bites her lip. "Alright. I'll do so, if that's what you want."

Father walks over and kisses her on the lips, causing my sister and me to hide our faces in embarrassment. "You shouldn't be too obedient, that's your mistake."

Mother's face flushes. "Yes. Wait, no. Uh..."

He laughs and stretches his muscular arms into the air. "Meanwhile you tell the kiddos the full story, I'm going to go take a nap."

The full story... just what is it? What have I not learned about the man who shielded this world with his life?

I turn to look at mom as she clears her throat. "Alright, let's begin. This tale is a recent one... It all began when...

I lean in, my ears ready for new info to the legend of the Knight of the Holy Shield. Though, perhaps my mind and heart aren't ready...

**Solar Note: Thanks for taking a look at this book! Hope that you will continue to enjoy and find out the 'true story' of Tetsuya Kuroriku :3.**

*Tetsuya*

I finished packing my stuff into boxes as a gentle breeze cooled down the room. I snuck a glance at the golden letter on top of the nightstand and quickly picked it up.

"Are you done yet?" my cousin and roommate, Serrano asked. Serrano was as tall as me-six-feet-seven-inches. He had long blue hair that ran down to his shoulders and the face of a 'pretty boy'. Nearly anyone would confuse him for a noble, rather than a guy who was born and raised on a farm for half of his life.

I nodded, taking another glance at the letter I had received a week ago. I hadn't told him or the rest of my family about it yet. The clan chief, King Osamu, wanted to meet me. But nowhere did it state the reason. I didn't understand what he could possibly want from some kid from 'the middle of nowhere'. If it weren't for my mother's sacrifices and the hundreds of scholarships that I managed to apply and receive, then I likely wouldn't have made it through high school, let alone college.

"Yeah, " I said, slipping the letter back into the pockets of my washed out blue jeans. "Let's get going."

Serrano's eyes were focused on my hidden hand. Did he notice? He picked up his stuff and headed toward the door as if seeing me hold a golden letter was something he saw every day. "Hey. What are you going to do now? Find a school to teach at?" he asked.

"I'm going to get a job as a substitute and earn money for grad school. I want to get my master's degree, " I responded, lifting up my hefty box. "How about you?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm going to be returning to the capital. There's something that I must do there."

"Does it involve your engagement?" My cousin was engaged to some girl whom I had yet to meet. He didn't talk much about her, almost as if he wasn't too fond of the idea of marrying for reasons other than love. I didn't blame him, though. Marrying for interest was never my thing either.

His face flushed a little as he opened the door. "K... kind of. But not really."

I raised an eyebrow and snickered. "What kind of answer is that? Heavens, you're awful at deflecting."

Serrano remained silent, walking out of the room.

"Hey!" I yelled. He was hiding something, but what?

The two of us left our small apartment room behind, descending to the first floor where several others littered the area. Some decided to abandon furniture outside, while others had movers take it out to take it to wherever they were going. Serrano and I couldn't afford such luxuries. We instead had rented all of our furniture directly from a school organization which was to pick the stuff up once we vacated the apartment.

"Serrano! Tetsuya!" yelled a green-haired girl as she jogged toward us. "You two returning home?"

"Yeah, " Serrano answered, grinning. There was a hint of blush behind his smile. "This city is nice, but home is where the heart is."

"True, " she said, crossing her arms. "Hey, I just wanted to..." Several hands pushed her away.

Several girls had gathered around us-like usual.

"Tetsuya, give me your phone number!" one asked, well, more like demanded. She stared at me with eyes sparkling.

"I... I don't have one, " I responded, backing away. It wasn't a lie, we actually didn't have one back at my place. And owning a cell phone was out of the question with mom's small salary and my lack of a job.

"Come on now! Don't be that way, " she continued, jumping up and down.

"How about you give it to me instead?" another asked.

"Girls, please let us pass, " Serrano pleaded, smiling nervously.

"Where are you two going?" another girl asked, completely ignoring what was just said.

"Hey!" our friend yelled, pushing the girls away. "They asked you to move aside!"

"Thanks, " Serrano said, rushing out.

"Bye, Ximena!" I called out as I followed my cousin.

"Take care you two!" she yelled as she kept the wild girls at bay with a fence made out of vines. The plants originated from the silver rapier on her left hand.

Having an angel tool like her rapier sure was useful, if only I had one. I clenched the rosary under the collar of my torn up shirt. It belonged to my father, and to his mother before him. However, the last person who could use it was my great-grandfather. Neither Father nor I could use it, for we weren't the chosen ones.

"Phew! We finally made it out, " Serrano said as we left campus to where the shuttle bus out of town awaited.

I laughed. "Yeah... I never thought that they would let us out without making up some phone number."

"We owe her one, " he said as we boarded the bus which was mostly empty. Most kids who attended the small college in Angeles City were from town.

I chuckled. "You should visit her. It's obvious that she likes you!"

His face flushed. "You... you know that I have a fiancée."

Sighing, I sat down in the closest seat, taking the window. "Why don't you break it up?"

He shook his head as his eyes drifted to the black linoleum floor. "You wouldn't say that if you knew who her family was."

Leaning back, I looked out at the verdant summer leaves on the young oak trees dotting the edge of campus. It really was small, having only five buildings where teaching actually took place and a single stadium for all the various sports. Not to mention that it only had one dorm building; with rooms so small that having guests in would make one feel like a sardine in a can.

My cousin leaned over my shoulder, noticing the letter I now held in my hand. "The king's letter?" he said, eyes wide. He moved away as I turned to look at him.

"You know anything about this? Did you get one too?"

He reached into his coat pocket and took out a silver letter. "Yes. The king wants to meet me."

"Do you know why?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Doesn't your letter say the reason?"

I shook my head. "No. So, why are you going?"

He straightened his back. "Seems that he wants me to join some group. A group being led by my fiancée."

"Who is she?" I asked.

Serrano snickered. "You'll find out when we arrive at the capital. Wait, do you still plan to return home?"

I nodded. "Yeah. The meeting isn't taking place yet. I'll like to see mom, Takuya, and Teresa. I would like to let them know that I'm fine and where I'm going."

"You're a good son, " he said, nodding. "I guess that I'll accompany you back home, even if there's no one waiting there for me."

"Right. Well, we're your family! I'm sure that mom and the others would be happy to see you."

"Yeah. And maybe aunty will make us her famous grape pie." Both our stomachs grumbled just thinking about it.

***

"Tetsuya, wake up, " Serrano said, nudging me. "We're here."

I opened my eyes and noticed that I was drooling against his shoulder. I sat up straight. "Sorry!" My face flushed with embarrassment.

Serrano wiped his shoulder with a handkerchief. "It's fine, " he said, beaming a smile. "You used to do this when we were kids too."

I wanted to kick him for reminding me! It was bad enough that I drooled over my pillow, worse was doing so on a person's shoulder. Though my siblings and mom found it 'cute'.

He gave me a slightly sadistic smile. "Look, I even took a picture of you!" He said, shoving a blue phone in my face.

"You have a phone? Since when?"

"Since high school. My fiancée bought it for me."

I narrowed my eyes. "You didn't steal it, did you?"

He scoffed. "I'm not some thief." He put away his phone. "I'll be showing this to aunty and the others!"

I reached for his pocket, but he jumped out of the way, causing me to fall face first on the dirty floor of the bus.

"Silly Tetsu. You should know better than to challenge me!"

Pushing myself up, I reached once more for the phone. "Give that over!"

"Are you two kids?" a familiar voice called. We turned to see Teresa waiting by the steps. She looked no different than she did last year, maintaining her raven black hair short. Her fashion still remained as revealing as before with her wearing a black tank top corset.

"No!" I shouted.

Serrano ran over to show her the pic. "Look, Tetsu still has the same habit as before!"

My hands curled into fists. "Don't call me that!" I swung for a punch but he ducked, so my fist landed on my sister's face.

"Tetsu, " she said, flashing me a furious grin.

Slowly I backed away. "Sorry..."

She turned around and sighed. "I'll let you out of the hook for now. Come, Takuya and Mom are waiting for you. We've prepared you a feast."

"Will there be enough for four?" I asked.

She nodded. "We made enough for five. Mother even made your favorite pie."

"Yes!" Serrano and I yelled.

"Well then, I'm off to show this to mom!" She paused as soon as she jumped off of the bus. "Wait, where did you get this?"

"His fiancée gave it to him, " I responded.

Her eyes darted toward what is considered the latest model phone in the small towns around ours. "She must be loaded. This kind of phone barely came out. Is she the daughter of some phone company executive or something?"

"Huh?" I said, tilting my head.

"This phone has barely come out in the big cities, even the capital barely got it, " she responded, raising it up to my eyes as I got off. "It's a Universe X10!"

I didn't know much about tech, but Teresa sure did. She was always into the latest trends in the big cities. Tech and fashion being among her favorites.

"Alright, so maybe you didn't steal it, " I whispered to my cousin's ear.

Serrano snatched his phone back from Teresa and shoved it back into his the pocket of his thin blue cotton coat. "I told you that I didn't steal anything."

"When will you tell us who she is?" sister asked, nudging him. "She's the one who helped you get into that school, right?"

Cousin scoffed. "No. I did that all on my own. I wouldn't use her name for my own benefit."

She ruffled his hair. "Such a good young man you grew up to be! Glad to see that living in the capital for your teen years didn't corrupt you."

He slapped her hand away as his face reddened. "Stop that. I'm not some child."

I ran over and did the same. "Aww, look! Little Serra is getting flustered."

He elbowed me in the gut. "Don't call me that!" he screamed, face redder than the ripest tomatoes I'd ever seen. "Sounds like a girl's name. At least Tetsu is clearly a guy's name."

Chuckling, I rubbed my stomach. It was a good thing that I had a nice six pack to protect me from most of the pain. Though, Serrano did hit pretty hard for such a lanky guy.

I wrapped an arm around his neck. "Let's go and stuff our faces! We deserve it after all those years of tests!"

**Character Section**

(The following Images are meant to give a rough idea of how I imagine my characters to look. The following images don't belong to me and all credit goes to their creators)

Tetsuya Kuroriku- Age: 21 Birthday: August 28th

Serrano Kuroriku- Age: 21 Birthday: June 25th

Ximena Kasai no Ki- Age: 22 Birthday: May 7th

Teresa Kuroriku- Age: 23 Birthday: September 1st

*Tetsuya*

"Takuya!" Teresa yelled as we made our way to the small black house built on a tiny hilltop in the middle of a sleepy flower filled valley.

A tall, black haired young man turned over to look at us and dropped the axe he was using to chop wood. "Brother and cousin too! You're back earlier than expected."

"Luckily there wasn't much traffic, " Serrano said, grinning as he put his hands behind his head. "How have you been, Taku?"

Takuya ran down to meet us. "I wish that we could've seen your graduation. Sadly, we couldn't afford the trip." His brown eyes darted toward his bare feet. "Sorry."

"Brother, " I said, staring at his dirty feet. His clothes were old, and barely kept alive thanks to our sister's knitting. Most of the money Teresa, mother, and he made went to helping me further my studies. Once I asked why he didn't use it to buy himself shoes. He only responded by telling me how he enjoyed being barefoot and how I deserved them more.

"You shouldn't feel sorry, " Teresa said, shaking her head at him.

"Don't worry, " I said with a grin as I patted my brother on the shoulder. "I'll get us out of poverty. You'll see."

"I'll help as much as I can too, " Serrano added as he lowered his arms and crossed them together.

Takuya grinned. "You two are the hope of this family. No matter what happens, don't give up."

I nodded. It was a lot of pressure to live up to such high expectations, but I wasn't going to give up without a fight. In fact, such hopes were what drove me this far. "Are you going to be leaving soon?" I asked.

"Yeah, " Brother responded. "I have a job to do."

Brother's was a demon hunter. They didn't earn much, but it was enough to put some food on the table. Unlike Serrano, and me, my siblings never went beyond middle school. Though Takuya never really seemed to mind, saying that he was better at using his hands than at studying. Though the guy did enjoy to read in his spare time. He would read on end. Sadly we didn't have much books.

Truth be told, he was the one who inspired me to take literature. I hoped to one day write plenty of books for him and others to read while having teaching as my day job. If I ever made it big, I planned to use that money for them as well as others facing similar situations as the one we faced growing up.

"Where are you going this time?" Serrano asked.

"To the northern regions. There's something odd goin' on there. It seems to be attractin' several other hunters. The bounty for it ain't bad either, " Takuya answered.

Serrano closed his eyes as if contemplating something. "So you'll be going to Kuroyuki no San's lands?"

"Yeah."

Kuroyuki no San, a branch of our clan and the governors of the far north. They were known for being self reliant and out of all five making up the Kuroriku, they were the most powerful second only to the first branch which bore the name 'Kuroriku'. My branch bore the name name too, but we weren't really all that well regarded, despite being the most numerous. If the Kuroyuki no San needed to call upon demon hunters for help, then whatever was there, it had to be dangerous.

"You better take care, " I said, frowning.

"Don't I always?" he asked, ruffling my hair. His face flushed as he realized that his hand was covered in dirt. "Ah, sorry."

Laughing, I dusted it off. "It's fine. "I'm going to take a shower anyway."

"Good thin' that I chopped enough wood, " he said, pointing at the four-foot tall stack where the axe stood.

"Well, enough talking. Let's go inside and prepare. Tetsuya, can you let Takuya take a shower first?" Teresa asked.

I nodded. "Sure. He needs it more than me."

"Do I smell that bad?" Takuya asked, glancing down at his sweat covered shirt.

"Nah. But a shower will cool you down!"

Brother's lips curled into a smile. "Thanks, but I'd prefer takin' a shower in the river."

"You sure are in tune with nature, " Serrano said, eyeing the forest to the north of our house. "I have gotten so used to showering in doors, that bathing in the river seems alien."

Takuya laughed as he turned his back to us. "You shouldn't lose touch with it. Sadly, I feel that our clan largely has..."

Serrano nodded. "Yes, it certainly seems that way."

"Well, see ya!" Brother said, rushing off toward the forest.

***

Once I finished showering, I put on a freshly washed white shirt and black jeans. Then I descended the stairs, only to be met with the most mouthwatering aroma I had ever smelled.

Rushing to the kitchen, I found Mother, Teresa, and Serrano cooking. Serrano waved as he sat down a freshly baked turkey on the table.

"You're just in time, " mother said as she and Teresa removed their aprons. "Teresa, go and call Takuya."

"On it!" my sister yelled, rushing out of the room.

Meanwhile we waited for her to return with Takuya, I grabbed several food items on the table. Especially a large piece of grape pie!

"You're drooling and you aren't even asleep, " Serrano teased as he removed his apron.

If the pies weren't so tasty then I would've grabbed one from the table and slammed it against his pretty face.

"Shut it, " I said, looking away. Hey, have you ever cooked for your girlfriend?"

He took a seat next to me. "No. Why do you ask?"

"I bet that if you did then she would fall head over heels for you, " I said, raising a fork in the air.

His face flushed as red as the nice glace on the turkey. "What do you know about a girl's heart?"

A cynical smile brushed across my face. "I might not have a girlfriend, but I know a thing or two about a girl's heart."

"You should find someone, " Teresa said, returning with Takuya. "Focusing on your career is good, but finding love is also important."

I narrowed my eyes. "That coming from you? You're twenty three and haven't had a boyfriend yet."

She grabbed me in a choke hold. "I'm waiting for the perfect guy, alright?"

"Too tight, " I cried.

She slowly let go of me, sighing. "Sadly the only guys who fit my type are my relatives."

I glanced at Serrano and Takuya. The two were what one would call 'princely'. Well at least in terms of personality. Though, Serrano's appearance and public persona fit that. I would say that his private persona was rather sadistic, if one asked me.

"I'm sure that you'll find someone, " Takuya said, taking a seat.

Teresa narrowed her eyes at him. "How about you? You have had girls ask you out but you haven't accepted."

Takuya's smile faded. "You know why I can't accept. Being in a relationship takes money. Until I have a stable income, I won't be able to take a girl out on any dates. Marriage is even more distant."

I nodded. "Same here. A relationship has a different pressure on guys than it does on girls."

Teresa scoffed. "You guys are just using excuses. Admit it, you are afraid of commitment."

"Financial support is part of commitment, " Serrano responded. "Having one partner pay everything isn't a good idea."

Was that why he didn't like talking about his apparently rich girlfriend? He was embarrassed?

Teresa bit her lip. "I guess that's true. I wouldn't want to rely too much on my husband when I marry." I glanced at mother whom seemed to wince when she said that.

"Let's change the subject, " I said.

"Good idea, " Mother said, pushing her long, black hair out of her eyes. Mother had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen, purple like fine wine in a champagne glass. Or how I assumed wine would look, I'd never actually seen the stuff outside of commercials.

"What are you two going to do now?" Teresa asked.

"I'm returning to the capital, " Serrano responded. "Takuya is coming with me. There's something that we both need to do there. Once we're done, then we will return and spend what's left of the summer here. I mean, if that's fine with you."

Mother reached over the table, placing a hand over his. "We would love to have you visit us. You know that you're like a son to me."

Serrano's face flushed a little. "Thanks, for caring me as family even if no blood binds us." Mom was only his aunt by marriage, being the biological nephew of my late father.

"Bonds formed by trust and emotions are stronger than familial ties."

Cousin chuckled cynically. "Right... I wish that I had been born as your son... instead of..."

Mother let go of his hand, her eyes filled with regret for bringing up the subject. "So, what are you doing at the capital?" she continued.

"We aren't sure, " I responded. "All we know is that we've been summoned by King Osamu."

Mother's eyes grew to the size of golf balls. "You... you were? Why would that man summon you? I mean, I know that Serrano is one of the Seven-Hill Knights. But why Tetsuya?"

"That's what I'd like to know too, " Serrano responded, glancing at me. He patted my back. "Don't worry. I'll continue to take care of him."

"Hey!" I yelled with food in my mouth.

He snickered. "Eat before talking."

***

We spent the rest of the day getting caught up with the affairs of the village and saying hello to our neighbors and friends. It had been so long since we had seen them, sadly we had to say bye so quickly.

Early the following morning, we marched off for the capital...

**Solar Note: What do you think awaits our heroes in the Kuroriku capital? If you enjoyed this chapter then remember to click on that star :D!**