I Teach Kendo in Tokyo - Chapter 37

Chapter 37: The Advisory Committee Decided That You’d Be the Taishou
 

As Tanaka-sensei was setting the questions, Kazuma went to the Kendo Club as usual.

As soon as he entered the dojo, a third-year student greeted him. “Hey, incoming Tokyo University freshman, are you here to quit the club?”

Kazuma stared at the person’s face and tried hard to recall his name. Then he realized that neither he nor the original host had any recollection of his name.

Since he did not even know his name, Kazuma decided to treat him as a normal stranger. Hence, Kazuma put on the same smile that he would when talking to his neighbors and replied, “No, I plan to participate in the National Competition, then quit the club by following the usual procedure afterward.”

The National Competition was held during the summer holidays. After it ended, the third-year students would retire from club activities.

In Japanese youth movies, there was a common element called “the last summer in the third year of high school,” and that’s how this phrase came about.

Kazuma did not know about this in his previous life. Therefore, when he watched animes and saw something along the lines of “the last summer in the third year of high school,” he would be puzzled. ‘Isn’t there a problem with such saying? I don’t even know if they are referring to the summer between the second and third year of high school or the one after the National College Entrance Examination!’

It was not until later that Kazuma found out that the summer break was in the middle of the entire school year for Japanese schools, so there was nothing wrong with that saying.

Having received Kazuma’s lukewarm response, the student did not realize at all that Kazuma did not want to talk nonsense with him. Instead, he leaned over and continued to ask, “Leaving only after the National Competition? Will there be enough time for you to study then? Given your current deviation value, there is no university that’ll be willing to take you if not for your kendo specialty, is there?”

Kazuma replied, “It seems like you are not well-informed enough. Just a moment ago, my fluent English had made my English teacher, Takanashi-sensei, run away in tears.”

“…What the hell?” The student was stunned.

Kazuma shrugged. “It happened only moments ago. So it’s understandable that you haven’t heard about it since you arrived at the dojo so early. You may think that I have not changed much on the surface, but I’m no longer the same loser in the past.”

Kazuma spoke the truth.

His soul had transmigrated, so the person inside this body was indeed no longer the same one as before.

The nameless member of the Kendo Club still wanted to say something, but Fujii Mikako had just entered the kendo dojo. As soon as she saw Kazuma, she bounced up and patted his shoulder. She smiled and said, “What happened to you today? You suddenly became the topic of discussion in the entire level.

“Even from my classroom in 3C, we could hear the sound of Takanashi-sensei running away in tears.”

Kazuma smiled. “I should have been famous long ago. This is my overdue high school debut.”

The so-called “high school debut” involved people who were unknown and invisible in junior high school. When they enter senior high school, they would suddenly transform into a beautiful swan from the ugly duckling they used to be.

“It’s surely overdue. Our high school days are almost over.” Fujii smiled and brought out her bamboo sword. “Come, help me warm up.”

“Alright.”

Kazuma and Fujii helped each other warm up every day. The entire Kendo Club was already used to this. There was not even a single person who made a fuss about it. Everyone else was helping club mates of the same gender to do warm-ups.

When the two of them were about to start doing warm-up, the nameless student earlier suddenly said, “Fujii, he wants to go to Tokyo University. His time is precious, so I’d suggest you not take up his time.”

Kazuma could not help but complain in his heart:

‘What’s going on? Why do these kinds of people keep coming at me today? Did I activate the protagonist’s treatment after defeating the yakuza?’

He frowned. When he was about to say something, Fujii spoke first. “Watanabe-san, even if Kazuma quits the club, you won’t be selected for the main team. Takahashi-san from the second year is much better than you. I’m sure Advisor Daimon will choose him over you.”

Watanabe’s face immediately turned pale. He could not even refute Fujii.

Kazuma could tell that Watanabe also knew that Takahashi from the second year was better than him.

It was no wonder that the real Kiryuu Kazuma did not remember this person’s name at all. After all, there was no need to remember someone who was not qualified to join the main team even in his third year.

‘And this fellow still dared to be mean to me? No, I have to be mean too.’

Kazuma patted Fujii’s shoulder and said in a reproachful tone, “Fujii, logistics support is also a very important task. After we enter high-intensity training, we will have to rely on them to wash our protective gear. Do you want to wash your own protective gear?”

After all, Kazuma had transmigrated from a period of meanies. In terms of being mean, how could the people of the Shōwa Era compare to him?

Apparently, Fujii liked Kazuma’s sarcasm. She immediately cooperated with him and put on an apologetic expression. “Ah, yes, my bad. I didn’t mean to mock you for not being on the main team, Watanabe-san. I’m sorry!”

Kazuma followed Fujii’s lead. “I’m sorry, Watanabe! I’ll leave my protective gear to you!”

Then, Kazuma looked at Watanabe with satisfaction. Watanabe was furious, but he could not do anything about Kazuma and Fujii.

Fujii poked Kazuma’s waist. “Alright, let’s not disturb Watanabe-san. He still has to contribute to the club. Let’s hurry up and warm up. Afterward, I still want you to teach me a few moves.”

“Do you want to learn the Rishin Style now?” Kazuma asked.

“That’s right. I’m not asking you to be my master, but maybe you can teach me a move or two.” As she spoke, Fujii suddenly stood on her toes and whispered into Kazuma’s ear, “Just like the moves you used to beat the yakuza men yesterday.”

“Well, it’s possible, but…” Kazuma hesitated and scratched his head. The moves he used yesterday all belonged to the Shinto Style, and it wouldn’t be nice to teach them to Fujii pretending that they were from the Rishin Style.

Moreover, the reason that he could win against Nishikiyama Heita yesterday was not his wonderful sword skills but the environmental advantage.

Of course, there was also the buff brought about by willpower and strong emotions. However, because of the terrible design of his cheat, Kazuma had no idea how much stronger he had become with the buff.

Besides, it seemed that Nishikiyama also had a buff caused by his will and faith.

After careful thinking, Kazuma concluded that he could win mainly because the fighting field was to his advantage.

Of course, Kazuma would not tell Fujii about this as it was not the right time to do it.

Members of the Kendo Club were entering the kendo dojo one after another. Kazuma did not want his classmates to know about what happened yesterday.

Fujii misunderstood Kazuma’s hesitation. She thought that Kazuma did not want to teach her, so she pleaded, “You can also just demonstrate a few moves for me. I also want to go to the Women’s Kendo National Competition this year.”

Kazuma replied, “I didn’t say that I’m not teaching you. I just said that it’s possible.”

“You said ‘it’s possible, but,’ so it’s obvious that you wanted to go back on your words!”

“There is no ‘but.’ It is possible.” Kazuma quickly corrected himself. “Let’s warm up. If we don’t hurry up, Daimon will be here in no time and we will have to start today’s practice.”

***

Daimon Goro arrived at the dojo about twenty minutes later than usual today.

Therefore, Kazuma had no choice but to show Fujii a few more moves from the Shinto Style.

‘That’s strange. I can remember the Shinto Style moves that Master Hasegawa had taught me in my previous life and I can do them too, but why didn’t my cheat turn them into sword skills?’

However, there were many strange things about his cheat, so Kazuma did not bother too much about this one.

While Kazuma was complaining about his cheat in his heart, Fujii was imitating Kazuma’s moves.

“First, this… then this? Am I doing it correctly?”

This “Am I doing it correctly?” almost made Kazuma think that TikTok had transmigrated to Japan with him.

“Uh, you’ve got the main idea. But when you did the Kasaya Slash, your hand was a little too high.” Kazuma stepped forward and corrected Fujii’s posture. “Like this, and a little bit slanted…”

“I don’t think this move is useful in competitive kendo, is it?” Daimon suddenly spoke behind Kazuma, giving him a shock.

He bounced away from Fujii like a spring and bowed to Daimon. “Hello, Sensei.”

“Good afternoon. What you taught Fujii just now is a kendo move that focuses on actual combat, right? It can only be used when you use a real sword to attack someone, am I correct?”

Kazuma nodded. “Yes, it’s not very useful when sparring with bamboo swords.”

“I remember correctly, the Rishin Style specializes in bamboo sword competitions. Many Rishin dojos don’t even have real swords nowadays. So how do you know such moves?”

‘Because I’m a Shinto Style practitioner.’

But Kazuma could not answer that way, so he made up an excuse and said, “Kendo practitioners, no matter what school they are trained in, will always be interested in the techniques intended for real swords, won’t they?”

Daimon nodded. “That makes sense.”

Then, he suddenly changed the topic. “Just a moment ago, an old classmate of mine whom I haven’t contacted for years suddenly called me and told me some interesting stories about you.”

Looking at Kazuma, Daimon continued:

“Why would an ordinary Police Sergeant from Mitaka suddenly talk about you? Kiryuu, would you like to guess?”

‘Is there a need to guess? The police must have spread the news,’ Kazuma thought.

So Daimon should also know that Kiryuu Kazuma had beaten up the leader of a yakuza family.

“Sensei, I didn’t have a choice either. It’s…” Kazuma wanted to say, “It’s the other side that was looking for trouble with me.” However, his words were interrupted by Daimon.

“Club president! Come here!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the president of the Kendo Club of the Northern Katsushika High School ran over. “Sensei, did you summon me?”

“Have we submitted the name list for the National Competition?”

“No. I have asked the neighborhood office. They said that they are still preparing for the district qualifiers, and the deadline for the name list submission is the first weekend after the short holiday.”

Daimon nodded. “I see. Then let’s have Takahashi to be our chuuken.”

Every kendo team match required five fighters on each side. The senpou, jihou, chuuken, fukushou, and taishou would take turns to compete against their counterparts.

As one of the main team members, Kazuma had been chosen to be the chuuken.

But Daimon had decided to replace him.

“Wait! Sensei, why?” Before Kazuma could speak, Fujii questioned first, “Kazuma is very strong!”

Kazuma wanted to ask the same question. From the corner of his eye, he could already see Watanabe’s beaming face. His smile made Kazuma very annoyed.

Daimon was completely unmoved. He stared at Kazuma and said, “You are done warming up, right? Then you will fight me next. If you can defeat me, I will put you as the taishou.”