Gonten woke up the next morning ready. He looked at the Iron band on the hilt of his sword. How short-lived you will be. He thought to himself, wishful thinking on his part. Gonten was twenty-six years old. Most people of his age had become Iron years ago and some had even gotten married. Just thinking about his romantic escapades made Gonten shake with embarrassment, and of course, he had become Iron just now. If all went well today, then Gonten would go from one of the oldest people to ever become an Iron, to one of the youngest people to become Silver, only outdone by Hassai himself.

Gonten was in his room, nervous. If there was one good thing that came out of only having one arm, it is that you learned to use your remaining limbs to their full extent. Gonten had learned things like holding his cup with his feet while he poured himself tea or wine, using two handed shears with one hand, and learning to write with his left hand.

He felt the phantom pains. Sometimes, usually after just waking up in the morning for Gonten, his right arm began hurting. The same right arm which wasn’t there. It was like Gonten’s body forgot that his right arm had been cut off, got confused about why he wasn’t able to move it, and just blasted where his right arm should’ve been with pain.

Gonten put down his cup of tea and began massaging the stump of his right arm, reminding himself that the right arm wasn’t there. The pain began receding, as Gonten focused on the fact that he didn’t have his right arm.

Of course there were times when Gonten missed having two arms. One of those times was when trying to pull up his pants. But Gonten was surprised by how quickly he had gotten used to being one-armed. The first few days had been spent in intense pain, but taking care of Inaki when he was in bed had been enough for Gonten to forget his own pain.

Now Gonten sat next to Inaki. Gonten was drinking his morning tea, while Inaki was drinking wine. He was silent, his sword in one hand and a bottle in the other. If there was one good thing about having only one arm, it’s that Gonten couldn’t do something as stupid as holding a sword while getting drunk.

Whenever Inaki held his sword in his hand, Gonten could see only the slightest tremble in his hand, but as his eyes traveled up his sword, the tremor became more and more pronounced.

“Just like the monks said brother,” Gonten said. “Your tremor will soon be gone.”

“Will my skill be back then,” Inaki said. He wasn’t drinking his wine from cups. He picked up the heavy bottle of wine in his shaking hands and touched it to his lips taking a swig as if he was breathing in for the first time after nearly drowning. He put the bottle down and burped loudly. This Inaki was almost unrecognizable from the Inaki that Gonten had known. Inaki had been a rock, a rock with a frown on his face, but nevertheless a stable rock for the most part. The only thing that had betrayed his emotions before were his actions, but now he looked pathetic. He looked like the heavy waters had turned him to sand.

“Even if my tremor stops, will my skill come back?” Inaki said again.

“I am sure it will brother,” Gonten said.

“When I fought the Wooden beginners in the temple, I realized something. I can’t see like I used to. My instincts are completely gone. I’m like a beginner. No, I’m worse than I was when I was a beginner,” Inaki slurred. “Even if my tremor gets better, it doesn’t change anything. I’m going to find Taral’s piece of shit son and bust his skull into a wall.”

“What happened the last time you tried to take revenge against Taral,” Gonten said, taking a sip of tea.

Inaki went silent once again, he took another deep swig. His face twisted into an expression of disgust.

“I should go train,” Inaki said, getting up from where he was sitting. “Best of luck on being one of the youngest Silvers.”

“And you, congratulations on being the youngest Diamond, even beating out our father,” Gonten said, walking out of their room.

Inaki took a few steps out of their inn and tripped and fell onto the ground. “Shit,” Gonten ran forward to where Inaki had fallen and picked him up.

“No,” Inaki said. “It’s fine, I can walk.”

Inaki struggled off Gonten’s shoulder—it was easy since he only had one hand—and began walking towards the inn room. When Inaki entered the room, Gonten closed it and locked it from outside so that he couldn’t go anywhere in his drunken stupor. Gonten could hear as the drunken Inaki banged on the door to be let out, but these were secure doors, and definitely wouldn’t budge—you didn’t want swordsmen getting assassinated when they came for exams because of flimsy doors.

Gonten left the inn to go to the exam center. Gonten had been truly sure that he would become Iron this time. But becoming Silver. Takehito had assured him, but he couldn’t believe it. Gonten had never given this exam before, so the details he knew were only vague retellings from other people who gave the exam. Gonten entered the main exam hall and found that it was less cramped than yesterday, but still extremely claustrophobic.

“Hello, my name is Kazuma, and I will be your examiner for today.”

What was strange about the Iron to Silver exam was the age range in the room. There were people Gonten’s age, there were people who were thirty years old, thirty-five, and a few who were even forty years old. Silver was where most swordsmen plateaued, but Iron to Silver was considered the first major difficulty increase in the ranking. In fact the coalition of Sages had considered adding more ranks in the middle of Iron and Silver because of this.

“The exam will be in Four Phases, the first phase will be the written exam, I’m sure you’ve all studied well for it. The second phase will be the kata phase, you will be asked to learn katas there itself, but unlike your Iron exam it won’t be kiddy shit. The third phase is the duels amongst yourselves. Those fourth phase will be another duels phase, where you will have to duel against an actual Silver, volunteers from the Livion clan. I am not going to repeat that again, you’re going to be led in batches into the different rooms for the exam, best of luck.”

Gonten put his hand on his sword to calm his nerves. He was ready to become Silver. He was led into the room of the written exam. He sat down and looked at the paper and was instantly petrified.

How are we supposed to know any of this? The exam seemed more geared towards blacksmiths than swordsmen, there were some history questions about the Province. Questions about how the steel to make blades were made, questions about forging techniques. Gonten didn’t know much of anything in the written exam. He looked around him and saw no one else was really writing anything. Except for a few people, and they were writing away.

Gonten had the urge to cheat, but he had only one hand, so using the reflection from his blade’s metal, his first idea was out of the question. He decided to give the test as honestly as possible. Gonten answered the questions he knew, wrote absolute ox-shit for the ones he didn’t know, and submitted his paper at the exact time it was meant to be submitted.

Gonten was then led by guards into the next room. He wasn’t given just one scroll, but three.

“The true test of a swordsman is his versatility, and ability to learn quickly. You were given a taste of this during your Iron exam, but we are taking it to the next step during your Silver exam.

“These are two person katas,” One man said. “How do we learn these?”

“Learn any one side you choose and a Livion volunteer will be the other person,” The examiner said.

Gonten stepped in front of the scroll. The katas were challenging for people with two hands, how was he supposed to do them with only one hand? Gonten began practicing them, but he kept tripping. The kata called for switching the sword from one hand to the other during it. While he could adapt it for himself, how could he make sure the other person adapted for him?

Gonten didn’t know how he was going to pass this round. He practiced the first, and second katas to his best ability, but he went through the third kata once and left the rest of it to luck. He practiced them in his mind, trying to remember the moves.

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“Times up,” The examiner said. “The Livion volunteers shall be coming in soon.”

They entered the room and took position. Gonten stepped forward to the volunteer who he had been assigned. He stood straight, Iron band on the hilt of his sword glinting in the lamp-light of the room.

“Ready,” The examiner screamed. “Begin.”

“I’ve taken this side,” Gonten showed the volunteer on the first kata.

“Okay,” The bald stone-faced volunteer said. He raised his sword, ready for the kata. Gonten raised his sword, and the two of them began the dance. The volunteer at first matched Gonten’s pace, but then began pushing him to go faster. Gonten tried to keep up, but it was too fast for him to be able to even remember what came next. Gonten made a few mistakes, but he didn’t slip too much. He tried to keep up as best as he could.

By the time the first kata was done, Gonten was extremely tired. He was about to revise the second kata, when the examiner screamed, “Begin, the third kata.” Bastards were doing it out of the order they had been given.

Gonten stepped forward, the kata he hadn’t practiced. He showed the volunteer on the scroll which side he had chosen, the man nodded, and they began the choreographed dance of swords. Once again the man went extremely fast. Gonten barely kept up, because he couldn’t remember the moves properly. Soon he fell apart, and just barely finished it.

Looking around him, he realized, that somehow the others were worse off than him. Well at least most of them. Gonten found that some of them were doing the kata as if they had practiced them since days before. But they were all the older ones. The men and women Gonten’s age were not doing well by any definition of the word. Unfortunately that included Gonten, who was doing better, but not good.

“Begin, second kata,” The examiner said, not even giving Gonten time to breathe. Gonten pointed out which side to the volunteer, and their dance began. This time the man went off script. Gonten didn’t know what was the wise move, stick to the kata or try to match what this man was doing. Gonten looked the examiner in the eye.

Versatility. Memorizing steps isn’t versatile.

The man transitioned into doing a completely different kata, Gonten kept up as best as he could, improvising moves that flowed into one another, trying to make it best look like a kata. It had become like a duel, but where the fight wasn’t about who won, but whether Gonten could make it look like it was choreographed instead of spontaneous. Gonten tried his best, but he didn’t think he succeeded.

“Now, you will get ten minutes of rest before we move on to the next round, your duels.”

Gonten found himself feeling extremely tired. He sat down and began guzzling down glasses of water. Gonten quickly got ready, and was led to the next room. A big room, where people were paired up. The rings were so small, that if Gonten swung his sword wrong at the edge of one ring, he might’ve accidentally cut someone in another duel’s head off.

Gonten’s opponent stepped into the ring.

“Hello, my name is Iruma,” The man said.

“My name is Gonten, and I am sorry,” Gonten said.

“Are you all ready,” Kazuma the examiner said. “Then stop wasting my time and begin, and for the love of Okan, end it quickly, we don’t have time.”

Once again, Gonten’s opponent seemed enraged at Gonten’s most sincere apology over what he was about to do.

Iruma rushed to Gonten in an unfamiliar stance—looked like a mix of Firestance and Lionstance. Gonten stood in Sagestance. Iruma slashed at Gonten, Gonten swatted Iruma’s sword away and kicked at him. He stepped away. Iruma began rushing at Gonten and he kept slashing. Gonten kept swatting his sword away effortlessly, and tried to counter attack, but Iruma kept slipping away. Iruma slashed down at Gonten, an overhead slash. Gonten raised his sword up and slashed it down, and stabbed at Iruma. He stepped back.

Gonten realized that his Sagestance was still lousy. He switched back to Tigerstance, a complete inversion of philosophies, so that he could end the fight.

Iruma slashed at Gonten, Gonten dodged to the side and slashed at Iruma. He blocked the strike, but stepped forward and kicked Iruma in the shin. He moved his leg back to lessen the impact, but he nearly lost his balance.

Iruma tried to take advantage of the fact that Gonten had only one arm and attacked at Gonten’s other side, but the Tigerstance made it so that Iruma couldn’t even hit Gonten, as he jumped around, dodging.

Gonten stepped forward and slashed up at Iruma, he blocked it, Gonten jumped and kicked forward at him. He hit him in the chest, he fell back. Gonten stepped forward and stabbed, expecting that he would dodge it, but he didn’t. Gonten’s sword went through his chest, a splash of blood flying on his face.

Gonten stepped back. He bent on one knee and said sorry to Iruma once again. He hadn’t intended to kill him. Gonten stood up and stepped away. Healers came over and carried the dying body of Iruma away.

Gonten’s duel had been one of the quickest. Looking around him, Gonten saw that most people were still locked in stalemates, one person slashed, the other person blocked, one person slashed, the other person blocked. Extremely boring duels.

Soon the other duels were done. Gonten sat down and had more sips of water. The Livion Silvers stepped into the room, and this time instead of fighting with their real swords, they were given wooden swords.

“You are being given these wooden swords, because we don’t want the Silvers to kill you accidentally,” Kazuma said. “Some of you took way too long for the last fight. You better finish this one faster, I’m way too sleepy to watch novices slash at each other for thirty minutes.”

The Silver stepped into the ring, “My name is Itora, what is your name?”

“Gonten.” This time Gonten did not apologize in advance.

“Begin,” Kazuma screamed.

Gonten stood in Tigerstance, the man in front of him stood in Lionstance. Gonten’s old stance, the Tomoka considered it a non-committal stance for those who couldn’t decide if they wanted a defensive stance or an offensive stance.

He slashed at Gonten. Gonten dodged the strike and stepped forward and slashed at him. The Silver blocked, instantly switching to the defensive half of the Lionstance. Gonten unleashed a barrage of strikes, the Tigerstance’s fast scratches.

The Silver blocked, dodged a strike, and switched to the offensive part of the Lionstance. The Silver kept slashing at Gonten. Gonten kept blocking, but the Tigerstance made it more difficult to block, easier to dodge, but Gonten didn’t have enough of an opening to dodge properly.

Gonten stepped forward and slashed his sword upwards. The Silver dodged backwards. Gonten took that opportunity and unleashed a barrage of strikes, but it wasn’t enough. Itora was fast enough to block and dodge all the strikes. Gonten needed to think, and he needed to think quickly, because Gonten realized he would tire out soon. The Silver in front of him looked like he was being worn down too. Gonten feinted a slash to the neck, then kicked the man in the shin. He hit the ground.

Gonten slashed at the man’s neck, he quickly rolled backwards, and jumped back onto his feet. Gonten felt tired. He felt like he was going to drop his sword, as his lungs burned up.

Gonten stepped back, and took a deep breath. The two of them were both tired and both gave each other a few seconds to catch a breath.

The two of them stepped forward at the same time, and began slashing at each other. Gonten had subconsciously switched to the Lionstance. They were nearly symmetrical in their slashes, only Gonten was slightly faster, but that tiny advantage was all he needed. Gonten wasn’t being non-commital with the Lionstance, with the Lionstance, he could switch between offense and defense as he wished, like the lion goes hunting, and the lion defends its cubs.

Gonten blocked a strike and stepped on Itora’s foot. He stumbled for a second, but that was enough, Gonten slashed at the man’s side, it hit him. He hit the ground, then Gonten kicked the man in the face, which made him drop his sword, and fall with his head outside the ring. Itora got back up and shook Gonten’s hand.

“That was an amazing duel,” Itora said. “I don’t think you’ll be a Silver for long.”

“Thank you,” Gonten said.

Gonten realized that he was one of the hundred people out of eight hundred people who won their duel against the Silver. Once all the duels got over, Gonten was led out to the main hall, where Kazuma began announcing the results.

“Okay,” Kazuma said. “There’s a lot of people who took way too long to flail over during their duels, so I’m frustrated. The other thing is that there are a lot of names for me to read out. So now I’m going to read out your name fast. If you've become a Silver, come up, take the Silver band on your sword and leave quickly. Let’s start with the youngest man to become Silver today, Gonten-son-Hassai Tomoka. But as expected, he has the least marks on the list of people who’ve become Silver.”

Gonten stepped up onto the stage and Kazuma took his sword. He took a band of heated silver and put it on Gonten’s sword. He beat it into shape and then put it under the cold water fountain. He then gave Gonten his sword who walked away.

Holding the Silver hilted sword in his hand Gonten felt a tear entering his eyes. He remembered all those exams over the years, when he had failed to become an Iron. He remembered each painful failure. He also remembered his brother, so much younger than him, but so much better. Gonten had spent nearly his entire life in the shadow of his younger brother, but now he felt free. He wasn’t in his brother’s shadow anymore.

But then he remembered his brother’s state. He walked back to their inn room and when he stepped in there he saw that his brother was unconscious, not just in a pool of wine, but also in a small pool of his own blood, his own sword with blood on its edge at his side.

Gonten stepped forward. What has he done to himself? Inaki checked if he had purposely cut himself. It looked like he had cut himself while training drunk.

Gonten picked up his brother on his one shoulder and began running towards the monastery.