Chapter 40
After club activities ended, I carried the kendo-uniform collection bin around and collected the club members' uniforms.
Then I spotted Renka coming out of the shower room and made a beeline for her.
She was drinking water while drying her hair with a towel, but flinched when she saw me bearing down on her.
“W-what is it...?”
“Give me your uniform.”
“.... I put it in the women's changing-room collection bin. Chinami will bring it out later.”
That's too bad.
I nodded several times and said,
“I have something I'm curious about.”
“All of a sudden?”
“Yes.”
“Okay... Go ahead.”
I pointed to an older male club member in one corner of the dojo, practicing head strikes with both arms raised above his head.
“What is that senior doing right now? Is that also a stance?”
Renka looked over and let out an exclamation of realization.
“That's right. It's a stance called jōdan-gamae, also known as the fire stance. Few people use it.”
“Few people?”
“It's powerful offensively but weak defensively. It's harder to maintain than chūdan-gamae, which people generally learn as their basic stance, difficult to chain into successive strikes, highly vulnerable to thrusts and close combat, and slow to recover from movements.”
It seemed to have far too many drawbacks.
If few people used it, that meant it wasn't very efficient... I could understand why.
“Doesn't it have any advantages?”
“Its reach is really long. One-handed strikes are another advantage...”
By one-handed strikes, she meant swinging a shinai with one hand.
From the way Renka's voice trailed off, it seemed it didn't have many advantages compared to its drawbacks.
“Some people may not be like that, but most are drawn to the appeal of one exhilarating blow and make that stance their main one. When people with strong fighting spirit take jōdan-gamae, it's incredibly intimidating too... There are even a few competitors who've distinguished themselves using jōdan-gamae. Chinami uses it as her main stance too.”
“Huh...? Nanase-senpai does?”
“Yeah. You didn't know?”
“I had no idea.”
“Really...? Well... beginners need to focus only on chūdan-gamae, so there wouldn't have been any reason to tell you.”
Chinami, holding her shinai high with her tiny frame and hopping around as she struck her opponent's head...
Imagining it, I found it somehow cute.
“Are there any other stances?”
“There are. Gedan-gamae, wakigamae, hassō-gamae, and nitō.”
“Nitō (二刀)? You use two shinai?”
“Yeah. It's a perfectly viable stance, but nitō is banned in competitions between students. There aren't any coaches at the academy who teach it, either. And since gedan-gamae, wakigamae, and hassō-gamae are really inefficient in kendo, where the valid target areas are fixed, I've never seen anyone use them in an official competition. People use them for fun in friendly matches, at most?”
“Then jōdan-gamae and chūdan-gamae are the mainstream stances in modern kendo?”
“That's right. Though chūdan-gamae is by far the most common.”
To sum it up, jōdan-gamae was a niche stance.
It was an all-out offensive tactic, also known as the fire stance.
It felt exhilarating to land a hit with it, too.
‘Perfect.’
Then I'd use jōdan-gamae.
Nothing's more satisfying than beating the mainstream with an unconventional choice, right?
In soccer terms, it would be like some underdog from the third division taking down a first-division team.
And, most importantly, the protagonist had to be special—and my mentor Chinami used jōdan-gamae...
That was what I'd go with.
“Can I learn it too?”
At that, Renka gave a derisive chuckle.
“Jōdan without the basics isn't even half a stance. Don't get any pointless ideas and learn chūdan first.”
“Yes.”
At my halfhearted answer, Renka's beautiful forehead creased.
“You... aren't listening to me, are you?”
“I am listening.”
“You've got a filthy look on your face... If you're planning to sweet-talk Chinami, forget it. She'll think the same way I do, won't she? She'll never teach you until you've properly learned chūdan.”
“Understood.”
“I'm telling you again: the basics are chūdan.”
“The basics are chūdan... Yes.”
Pretending not to care at all about chūdan-gamae and giving Renka a perfunctory response, I got away from her before she could chew me out.
**
A café complex somewhere downtown.
I was lying there with my legs crossed, reading a manga,
Clunk.
When the door opened and Miyuki poked her head in, I welcomed her.
“You're here? What did you bring to eat?”
“Yeah... I ordered the couple set, so they'll bring it here shortly...”
Emphasizing the word ‘couple,’ Miyuki put her bag in the corner, slipped off her shoes, and sat down inside.
Her posture looked uncomfortable at a glance.
Being alone together in the cramped, enclosed space seemed to put her in a strange mood.
“You're an hour late. You know that, right?”
“Sorry... Because of the cultural festival meeting... Did Tetsuya-kun go home?”
“Yeah. I gave him a ride home as soon as club activities ended.”
“Good job...? Did the two of you talk about anything?”
“Badmouthing you.”
Perhaps that released her tension, because Miyuki pressed her back firmly against the wall.
She tucked her legs in and hugged them with her arms, then, after glancing at me lying there comfortably, examined the cover of the book I was reading.
“There's a little kid with a scar on his forehead holding a sword... What manga is that?”
“Action.”
“Is it fun?”
“It's okay.”
“What's it about?”
“The protagonist's family was massacred by demons. Except for his younger sibling. It's a manga about him setting off on a journey to turn his sibling back into a human. For now, at least.”
“M-massacred...? Isn't it a horror manga...?”
“It's not like that. I'll bring you volume one. Want to give it a try?”
Miyuki shook her head vigorously.
“I don't want to...”
Miyuki rummaged through her bag and took out a math textbook, notebook, and writing utensils.
Stunned for a moment by the sight, I sat up.
“You study even after coming all the way here...?”
“I couldn't review during today's break because of the cultural festival discussion. Matsuda-kun, is there anything you're curious about? You don't seem to be keeping up well in math class...”
“Shut up and close the book. I'm getting sick of this.”
“Why? Matsuda-kun, you're reading a manga.”
“Let's watch a movie or something together.”
“Okay.”
Miyuki promptly closed her math textbook.
She picked up the TV remote in the room, beamed, and pressed the power button.
She'd planned this from the beginning, hadn't she...?
Did I just get played?
I was confused. Very confused.
I tossed the manga aside and leaned my back against the wall.
Then Miyuki looked through the list of movies available at the café and asked,
“What do you want to watch?”
“You watch whatever you want.”
Soon, I wouldn't be able to pay the slightest attention to the movie anyway, so it didn't matter what we watched.
Miyuki picked a romance movie, then quietly edged over beside me and unfolded the blanket she'd brought.
Then she draped it over both our laps.
“I thought you might get cold because of the air conditioner...”
“Who said anything?”
“Okay...”
A moment ago she'd guided my actions like a fox, but now she answered in a voice quieter than a mosquito, puffing out her cheeks and then drawing them back in.
It was funny, but also absurd.
Knock. Knock.
Around the time the movie's opening began, we heard a knock at the door of our room.
Miyuki sprang up, opened the door, accepted the tray from the employee, and carefully set it down.
Normally, something like that would spill, soak her uniform shirt, and give us a fanservice scene. That's the standard trope.
Like someone who'd missed out, I smacked my lips and checked what food had arrived.
A strawberry yogurt smoothie, a matcha latte, and a generous serving of french fries.
This must have been the couple set.
“Looks like you get to choose the drinks?”
“Yeah. The matcha latte is yours, Matsuda-kun.”
“Why do I have to drink lawn clippings? If we get to choose, you could've asked me first...”
“L-lawn clippings...? I chose the matcha latte because Matsuda-kun talked about green tea at lunch... So I bought it for you...”
Miyuki's face fell.
She looked hurt that I hadn't understood her feelings.
I stopped teasing her and tried to comfort her.
“Hey... Why won't you let me make a joke...? You nag and tease me all the time...”
I quickly picked up the cup containing the latte, put my mouth to the straw, and took a long sip.
About a third of the matcha latte disappeared in an instant.
Miyuki looked aghast and scolded me when she saw it.
“Y-you can't drink that much all at once...!”
I swallowed the mouthful of latte in one gulp and shrugged.
“It all ends up in your stomach anyway. But it tastes good. I like that it's sweet.”
“You're such an idiot... You even talk like a total old man...”
An old man? That was a little shocking.
“Is ‘idiot’ the only insult you know?”
After making a playful retort to Miyuki, I casually draped an arm around her shoulder as she grumbled.
The moment my hand touched her, Miyuki's shoulder hunched sharply inward.
Her eyes darted around as she looked back and forth between me and my hand. Then, like a refined young lady, she brought the straw to her lips and took the tiniest sip of the smoothie.
Then she set down the cup and gnawed anxiously at her lips.
Nervousness. Excitement.
Those emotions were written all over her face.
As when I kissed her in Miyuki's room, I moved the arm around her shoulder with an utterly serious expression and placed my hand against the side of her head.
Applying a little pressure in that position, I slowly lowered her small head toward the area around my shoulder.
A moment later,
Tap.
Her head lightly touched my shoulder.
Angling my body slightly, I lowered Miyuki's head a little farther, between my trapezius and chest muscle.
Whoosh.
Miyuki's breath blew through my thin dress shirt.
Scratch. Rip.
Beneath the blanket, I heard something being torn.
Miyuki was expressing her overwhelming embarrassment by clawing at the sheet spread across the floor with her fingernails.
“Uncomfortable?”
When I asked in a gentle voice, Miyuki's head slowly lifted.
“C-comfortable...”
“You don't look comfortable at all.”
“I said I am...?”
“You really don't look it.”
“I am... I am comfortable... I told you I'm comfortable...”
Her eyes were so clear they looked on the verge of tears, and her lips were drawn into a sharp pout.
My face was reflected in Miyuki's eyes as she challenged me with an expression that completely contradicted itself.
The me you're looking at right now... is serious.
Rip. Scratch...!
The sound of the sheet being torn continued to reach my ears.
If I left her like this, I'd have to pay for the damage.
Just as I thought that and was about to stop Miyuki, she tightly grasped one of my fingers resting near her collarbone.
Gripping my middle finger with all her strength, she asked in a tiny voice,
“Hey... Would this weekend be okay too...?”
“What would?”
“Eating at my house... I know the gap between visits is pretty short... but I think we'll get really busy preparing for the cultural festival starting next week...”
I didn't mind going, but there was something to consider.
Namely, the level of physical contact.
I thought it would be better to go once we could show affection more intensely than we did now.
After the cultural festival was over, that should be fine.
“Wouldn't it be better to go after the cultural festival?”
“Ah... I suppose that would work too...”
“Then let's pick a date for after that.”
“Okay...”
Rip. Scratch.
Miyuki started tearing at the sheet again.
Even though the movie had started, she wasn't paying any attention to the TV, tearing only at the poor, innocent sheet.
Her head was still pressed against my chest.
I chuckled, grabbed Miyuki's leg, and set it on my thigh.
“Eek...!”
Miyuki then jerked as if she'd seen a ghost and bit down hard on her lower lip.
Her face had long since turned bright red all the way to her ears.
So whenever this kind of mortifying atmosphere arose, she turned into a proper lady.
It was hard to believe she was the same girl who had boldly argued with me and been disgusted by me until just recently.
I gave her a broad grin, picked up the strawberry smoothie, and took a sip through the straw,
then held the cup out toward Miyuki.
“.....”
Miyuki stared blankly at the straw sticking out of the smoothie,
and after a little hesitation, put the end of the straw that I had touched to my lips into her mouth.