—The walk back home is as standard as one's walk back home can be. The Aron residence is located in the residential district of Shukufuku, in the northern wing.
A western-designed house passed down by my great-grandparents, its life span easily exceeds most of the city's buildings. It's similar in appearance to the dozens of other houses in the neighborhood, but the main distinguishing factor is its color.
My great-grandfather, being a part-time architect and engineer, apparently couldn't stand its basic design, so he ended up redesigning most core functions of the house.
Instead of the usual brick walls and wooden layering used by the rest of the district, the Aaron residence is a combination of both modern and traditional architecture.
There are two bathrooms in the house, with one using a traditional welling system, and the other using the more common "bath-tub". My great-grandfather destroyed the original second bathtub design and replaced it with the traditional one.
He intended to do the same with the unaltered bathroom, but was advised against by my great-grandmother. Or rather, as most people call it, "nagged" to death.
Additionally, the garage of the household was renovated into a traditional dojo. It's quite a large area, even so that one could use it as an elementary gymnasium.
And "used" it so dramatically was.
You see, the interesting thing about the Aaron family is that the Aaron family fosters special inherited skills passed down from generation to generation. Similar to most native families, our family is exceptional at specific things, and so most of our offspring go into fields concerning that.
For example, the Makoto family six houses east of ours are known for their exceptional memory, so most of the family are composed of doctors or surgeons or the sorts. They all excelled in standardized tests, being one of the few families to always score perfectly on medical exams.
In other words, families in Shukufuku are known for their unique genetically given talents.
So, it is widely known that the Aaron family is a family of swordsmen.
Being that both my father and brother are famous Kendo and Fencing champions, we are locally renowned in Shukufuku.
And, as blood passes down genes to more blood, I was given the task to succeed both my father and brother when they retired.
More specifically, I was expected to become a master in Kendo and Fencing before the age of 15, and win some junior divisions.
However, as one may come to know, the body of Sustrous Aron is not one of immense skill.
I was aware I would not be able to learn the skills of my family, nor have the athletic capacity to be as strong as either my father or brother, but I still did train.
Of course, I did not learn or achieve much, other than the scar strewn across my left wrist from slicing the carpal in an attempted Jogiburi.
However, I did not stop going to the garage dojo, even after the departure of both my brother and father.
In fact, after effectively destroying the use of my wrist for four months, I came back every day after that to repeat the same movement slowly, without the sword.
Holding nothingness as if it were a blade, I swung.
I swung with intent to end one's life.
However, because there was effectively no feeling in the wrist, I did not find it realistic, only stopping once the pain had pulsed for a brief moment.
It was an unpleasant pain, and I could feel the dislodging of my carpals rubbing against each other like the scraping of two juvenile rocks. However, the pain made the movement realistic, and therefore it was needed.
In battle, pain is to be expected, so one must idolize such a thing to become accustomed to it.
—I stopped this stupid thing a month later, after the bone had completely broken.
And yet, it eventually became a part of my routine.
My own personal addition.
In a way, it is an honorable thing to do, considering the Aaron family is a family of talented swordsmen.
That is of course, disregarding my life completely.
But even though the mere act of training to become a successor did not give me happiness or fulfillment, I was still drawn to input an effort.