The Kokoro no Kage-ryu has five basic stances, most developed from normal kenjutsu stances. The stance a user of the style selects in a battle depends mostly on the personal experience level of the user, and the situation.
Beginner Stance, also called Defensive Stance: The user stands with legs shoulder width apart, strong foot slightly leading the weak foot. The blade is held out in front of the chest, with arms and blade near parallel to the ground.
Weak Offensive Stance: A variation on the Beginner Stance. The blade is no longer held horizontal. Rather, the user's arms are raised several degrees above parallel, and the blade held at a forty-five degree angle to the ground.
Strong Offensive Stance: An advanced stance for more advanced techniques in the style. The user stands perpendicular to the opponent, blade handle in back hand, with the sharpened edge facing the sky. Beginners tend to use both hands to hold the blade, while more advanced practitioners will use only a single hand to grip the handle, while using their thumb and forefinger to help balance the blade.
Reversed-grip Stance: An entire set of moves are dedicated to holding the blade "down" in comparison with a normal grip. For these, the Reversed-grip Stance is used. The blade is held in one hand, leaving the second hand free to use a dagger or perform other tasks, or even to assist the blade-wielding hand. The user faces the opponent with strong foot foward while using this stance.
Shadow Draw Stance: Often, light glinting from a blade in the dark is all it takes to give away a users presence to their intended targets. To compensate, and entire set of moves is dedicated to the drawing of the blade quickly to deal with a threat/target. The basic stance is the same of any Iai-jutsu practitioner, though at more advanced levels the actual stance tends to vary greatly.
Having no information to base their new style of combat upon, they had to learn by trial and error, adapting their normal warrior abilities and tactics to work from with small fields of battle. Over the next generations, the lessons learned by father and mother were passed to daughter and son, and again repeated. In a relatively short time, the clan was becoming quite successful in their duties. The Takayanagi castle became virually impervious to enter through the shadows. All the while, the "Kurogane" clan carried out lives hidden as peasants living on the outskirts of the village outside of the castle's gates. Only the head of the family lived within the castle at all times.
And so, from the time of Nobunaga, up to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Kurogane clan operated in their duties faithfully, remaining hidden even when Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered all "ninja" clans into his Kogi Onmitsu. It was during the intense fighting of the Meiji Revolution that the clan was thought destroyed, which wasn't far from the truth. Even as the Shogun's army cut down every peasant within the home village of the Kurogane family, the eldest member of the clan now known simly as "Kurogane-jiji" or simply "Ojiisan", escaped into the mountains with the two youngest children in the clan.
And so, roughly 100 years past the near destruction of the Kurogane, Ayame was born. It was at this time that the family chose to reappear and attempt to regain their former place protecting the Takayanagi clan. However, things are not as they once were, and many believed that the time of need for such protectors as themselves was long past. None-the-less, Ayame was trained in the arts of combat, including the family sword style, Kokoro no Kage-ryu. Several soothsayers whom had befriended the family visited the child when she was four years old. Most of them mentioned she had a strong spirit, and would do the family proud, leading them back to their former position as guardians. However, one more radical prediction was given. A teenage girl with the gift of foresight visited the village at about the same time, and when Ayame's parents discovered this, they immediately invited her to see their young daughter. Upon seeing the girl, she simply stated her apologies. Not to the parents, but to the Ayame herself. The smile she had while conversing with Ayame's parents never appeared while she looked at the young girl, only a look of sorrow. She walked immediately out of the room. When asked why she had just apologized, she stated while the dreams of the family would be met, the girl would never know true happiness. She would love a person so dearly that she would spend the rest of her life protecting them, but never have her feelings returned until after her death.
While her parents listened stunned, the young Ayame had taken a break from her sword practice and tugged on the young woman's sleeve. However, instead of the inquisitive questions one would expect a child to ask of a stranger, she said something else.
"It's okay, I'm happiest with that future." And walked back into the next room to resume her practice session. Whether she had simply heard the converstation, or actually seen the events herself, her parents never asked.
And so for the next ten years of her life, Ayame dedicated her life to training physically and mentally. However, her ideals in fighting were far from noble. "Neither putting on airs of righteousness nor covered in evil", winning the battle is all that matters. What happens to the opponent is of no concern. She even began dressing in baggy clothing that obscured her true gender, favoring a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled over her head. She even began referring to herself differently while dressed like this, using the Chinese name for the Buddhist deity of mercy, Kuan-yin. Hoping to correct this attitude, her parents enrolled her in Toudou Academy, a school established after the Meiji Revolution and dedicated to the fighting arts.