Chapter 53
“The tare ties should be tightened like this. By the way, it's such a relief that the coach said it was okay.”
Chinami was helping me put on my tare.
I looked at her and spoke in a serious tone.
“I suppose so. But, Master...”
“Yes?”
“You were even more impressive, Master.”
A smile curved across Chinami's eyes at my words.
“I didn't manage to score a point. Renka really is an outstanding kendoka.”
“You seemed even more impressive to me, Master.”
“You're flattering me. Did you learn anything?”
I had.
When Renka fought some other nobody, the match ended too quickly for me to learn anything,
but during Renka and Chinami's match, perhaps thanks to a protagonist buff, I could somewhat follow the flow of their attacks and defenses, as well as their movements.
I hadn't seen everything, but I thought I might be able to land one point-scoring hit on Renka.
“Of course. But what is zanshin? I heard the seniors say earlier that zanshin was important.”
“Ah... Well, that's...”
While helping me put on the bogu, Chinami began teaching me how to score points in kendo.
She said that valid strikes, zanshin, and the unity of spirit, sword, and body all had to come together to earn an ippon,
and although I understood it in theory, it was honestly complicated.
There was no way I could learn all that while putting on the bogu.
Chinami must have thought the same, because she explained it in very simple terms.
“If you think of it in terms of a real sword, it's an ippon if you can neutralize your opponent with one precise attack. There's more to explain, but for now, it's enough to remember it that way.”
“Understood.”
“Give it a try. Renka is really strong, so scoring a point will be difficult. Just try everything you want to do.”
You don't think it's difficult—you think it's impossible, don't you.
Even so, I was grateful to Chinami for softening her words out of consideration for my feelings.
Looking down at her, I grinned and said,
“I'll avenge your defeat, Master.”
“Pfft!”
She burst out laughing as she wrapped a towel around my head.
She wasn't laughing at me, but she didn't seem to have the slightest expectation of me, either.
After fitting my men and tying its cords, she patted me on the back.
“All done. Once Miura-kun's match is over, put on your kote and go see the coach. Do whatever you want. No one will say anything.”
“Yes.”
After hearing Chinami's encouragement, I stood up and looked in the mirror.
Aside from my waist looking a little bulkier, the armor suited me surprisingly well.
When I looked toward the middle of the clubroom,
“Hyaaah!”
Tetsuya was charging at Renka while shouting a phony kiai.
Renka was calmly receiving Tetsuya's attacks, which were all bluster and no substance.
Things were progressing just as I remembered, but...
I was going to steal this event and turn it into a new scene.
I had to play my trump card early.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have any chance of scoring a point.
With fighting spirit burning inside me, I picked up my shinai.
“Oh...! Matsuda! It suits you!”
I walked over to the seniors quietly chatting in the corner of the clubroom and bent deeply at the waist.
Then, after sneaking a glance at Goro, who was focused on the match, I put on a little performance in a voice just quiet enough for Renka to hear.
“Thunder Breathing...”
@@
“Thunder Breathing...”
Renka flinched.
Renka, who had been receiving Miura's attacks, was startled when she heard the small voice coming from some distance away.
It was the name of a technique used by her favorite character in an anime she'd recently been enjoying.
‘Who is that...?’
Smack-!
After knocking aside Miura's clumsy attack, Renka glanced toward where the voice had come from while he caught his breath.
She saw someone with his left foot stretched forward and one hand resting on the shinai at his hip.
She couldn't tell for sure because he was wearing a men, but it was probably Matsuda Ken.
She hadn't expected him to know something like that, since he didn't seem interested in anime... How unexpected.
It also made her a little angry.
Novices who had only just started learning kendo weren't allowed to spar.
Even so, the coach had recognized Miura and Matsuda's enthusiasm and made an exception by letting them wear bogu.
And yet, rather than waiting with due reverence, Matsuda was playing ridiculous little pranks like that.
He seemed to think of kendo as a game, so she couldn't look favorably on him.
Still, he was only a novice who hadn't yet learned proper etiquette, so she would let it go.
“What is Thunder Breathing?”
Innocent Chinami approached Matsuda and asked him a question.
And Matsuda...
“It is one of the breathing techniques that stimulates blood circulation and heartbeat, raises body temperature and recovery ability, and strengthens physical capabilities. It makes you strong, as if you had become a demon.”
He recited the explanation from the anime word for word.
“Wow...! But there was a breathing technique like that?”
“There is.”
“Thunder Breathing... What a cool name. I'd like to learn it too.”
“I'll teach you. I'll explain it in detail later.”
Don't fall for it, Chinami!
You're being toyed with right now!
Renka calmed the heat rising in her chest and looked at Goro, who was watching her and Miura closely, then nodded.
It was a signal to end her match with Miura.
After confirming the signal, Goro raised the flags in both hands and declared the match over.
“That's enough. Both of you, return to your positions.”
In the center, Renka smiled brightly at Miura, who performed an awkward sonkyo facing her.
Unlike Matsuda, Miura was serious, and she liked that about him.
“Good work.”
“Good work.”
After exchanging greetings with Miura, Renka
“May I ask how my last attack was?”
smiled gently when he approached her with his question.
“When the coach is present, giving advice between trainees is against etiquette. I'll tell you later.”
“Ah, yes...! Thank you!”
“Mm. Good work.”
Soon afterward, Goro called Matsuda over, and he sauntered up to stand opposite her.
He bowed and said,
“I look forward to our match.”
There was at least some politeness in his tone.
Just as the rumors at the academy said, his attitude was definitely improving.
“Sonkyo.”
At Goro's stern voice, Matsuda slowly crouched down.
His sonkyo posture was fairly decent too. A little better than Miura Tetsuya's.
That must have been thanks to Chinami's one-on-one tutoring.
After they faced each other in sonkyo and rose, Renka's eyes lit up when Matsuda raised his shinai.
When she'd seen him not long ago, his shinai had wobbled like a reed, but now it was steady.
Even taking into account that he was standing motionless, his stance was quite good.
If he could just get rid of that insolent attitude, he might actually be useful...
‘Good.’
A guy like that would keep quiet for several days if she crushed him properly once.
So she would toy with him just enough to prick his pride, then tell Chinami to handle him a little more strictly.
“Begin!”
Upon hearing Goro's voice, Renka was about to raise her shinai when
“Huh?”
she accidentally let out a questioning exclamation aloud.
Matsuda had raised his arms high and taken an awkward jōdan stance.
Someone who hadn't even properly learned chūdan was using jōdan?
Had Chinami told him to use jōdan in the match?
When she glanced at Chinami, Chinami looked nearly aghast rather than merely surprised.
So Chinami hadn't instructed him to do it.
‘This...!’
Renka's gaze hardened as she quietly ground her teeth.
She had intended to toy with him a little, but now she would humiliate him openly.
She would show him how pathetic a jōdan stance without the basics was and make him take kendo seriously.
Renka took her stance while considering how to deal with Matsuda, then
‘Huh...?’
was quite surprised when Matsuda's body, held in jōdan, looked enormous.
She couldn't call him a mountain, but his presence was extremely fierce.
Fierce enough that the jōdan stance seemed perfectly suited to him.
The eyes visible between the bars of his men were also incredibly serious.
He was even meeting the sharp pressure she was exuding head-on.
His fighting spirit was extraordinary. It was like looking at a tiger.
Renka nearly forgot to breathe for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure.
He was showing unexpectedly good form, but that was all.
His stance was clumsy and full of openings, and his own wrist even blocked his field of vision.
‘Good.’
She would take the ippon without mercy.
She would deny him even a chance to attack and give him a taste of frustration.
Renka gripped the hilt tightly and thrust her shinai forward with force as Matsuda began to stomp forward.
Whoosh-!
A throat thrust, one of the signature weaknesses of the jōdan stance.
Even Chinami, whose experience and skill were outstanding, had let this thrust score on her countless times, so there was no way Matsuda, who hadn't even mastered the basics of chūdan or footwork, could evade or stop it.
‘It'll hurt a little.’
After confirming that the tip of her shinai was shooting toward the striking point on his throat, Renka had no doubt that Matsuda would let out an ugly scream.
However,
Snap-!
“Huh...?”
she exclaimed, eyes widening, when her shinai grazed past Matsuda's men.
‘He dodged it...?’
Had he anticipated it? Had he known a throat thrust was coming?
No, that wasn't it.
Looking at Matsuda's current posture, his legs were spread extraordinarily wide to either side, farther than one would ever see in an ordinary kendo match.
That meant he hadn't anticipated and dodged the attack; he had moved on animal instinct.
“Hup!”
Whoosh-!
Matsuda's arms swung dynamically after he let out a short, light kiai, producing a sound like air being torn apart.
Ping-!
Renka gulped when Matsuda's sharply gleaming eyes, visible between the bars of his men, turned toward her waist.
‘My waist...!’
Renka snapped back to reality and tried to move desperately, but Matsuda's shinai had already struck her right waist.
Thwack-!
A heavy impact rang out clearly.
The atmosphere in the clubroom, which had relaxed after several matches, grew heavy again.
“.....”
“.....”
Only silence lingered throughout the clubroom.
The club members, Chinami, Renka, and even Goro all stared blankly back and forth between Renka and Matsuda.
The first to break the silence was Matsuda.
“Did I do it? Did I score that point?”
He had casually withdrawn his shinai and stepped back, his voice filled with doubt.
The third-year student serving as referee was the second to recover; his head creaked around toward Goro.
“I-Ippon...?”