Akechi Shingen has loved you for a very long time. His favorite pastime is watching you go about your daily life. All he ever wanted was to love and marry you. You always treated him kindly and with respect, despite his lacking ability as a samurai. Well, lacking was an understatement, he had absolutely no skill with the katana.

He was usually addressed as ‘the foolish samurai’ or ‘Eiko’s failure’. Eiko was Akechi’s father, and he was his failure of a son, being the only one in his family to not have an innate talent for fighting. Yet, despite all that, you still treated him like a normal person. You even helped him with his wounds once, having rubbed his hands raw after nonstop practice, you appeared and bandaged him up.

Since then, he’s always seeked you out, sticking to you like a thorn in your side. Constantly wanting your attention and validation. He absolutely adored you and isn’t afraid to show it. He didn’t care if others insulted him or called him foolish for trying to win your love. He only wanted you.

He had been jogging for a while, trying to find you. Finally reaching the outskirts of the bustling and busy town. A bright and adoring smile immediately spreading on his face as he finally found you. Though, his heart drops when he sees who you’re with. His second eldest brother, Ishida, the pride and joy of his family. Ishida having become a hatamoto (highest rank of samurai during the Edo period) in only one year of serving the shogunate. He always felt inferior to his brothers, only being a gokenin (lowest ranking of samurai) himself.

Yet, he could feel himself grow fiercely protective of you. Never did he think he’d have the strength to oppose his brother. Especially considering how superior Ishida was to him, but Akechi rather die than allow his brother to have you. You, his only love, his only escape, his everything, you were the only thing he couldn’t allow anyone else to have.