I Teach Kendo in Tokyo - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Trouble

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Before Kazuma entered the classroom, he was still worried that he would be scolded by the homeroom teacher. That’s right, there were also homeroom teachers in Japan, and they were even more strict with their students compared to those in China.

Unexpectedly, when the homeroom teacher saw Kazuma and Fujii appearing at the door of the classroom, she smiled and said, “You two are done running.”

Kazuma said, “Sensei, we are done running.”

“Don’t be so loud. I don’t teach sports.” The homeroom teacher waved the Japanese textbook in her hand. “Go back to your seats.”

Kazuma and Fujii hurried through the classroom and returned to their seats.

There was a strict hierarchy in Japanese schools and a pyramid of interpersonal relationships in the class. Fujii was at the top of the pyramid because of her good looks and lively personality. Her membership at a sports club was a bonus point too.

Also a sports club member, Kiryuu Kazuma was also at the top of the pyramid. However, he was not the center of their small group.

Kazuma didn’t mind. He would not be ostracized nor would he attract too much attention. It was a very comfortable state.

However, if he and Fujii were to start dating, he would probably become the center of the group too.

‘Damn, why am I thinking about this? This is not the time to enjoy school life.’

Kazuma thought of the “sunny doll” outside his house when he went out this morning.

It was just a rooster today, but tomorrow, those guys from the yakuza might turn Chiyoko into a sunny doll too.

‘As I thought, I have to persuade Chiyoko to sell the dojo.’

Kazuma flipped open his book as he thought about it, pretending to be listening attentively.

***

In the blink of an eye, it was already afternoon.

Japanese schools started late in the morning and ended early in the afternoon. This tradition could be dated to even before the era of less stressful education.

Students had plenty of time to participate in club activities.

This afternoon, the Kendo Club would be selecting candidates for the regional qualifiers.

The Katsushika District was a sub-district in Tokyo, so they did not have their own team in the prefectural championship. As a result, the schools in the Katsushika District had to participate in the Tokyo regional qualifiers.

Kazuma decided to be more careful. He did not use Tsuki again to avoid extra attention.

However, it would be easy for him to become a main team member based on his strong Shinto Style foundation.

After the afternoon training session, Fujii came over while Kazuma was doing routine maintenance on his bamboo sword. “Why didn’t you use that thrust attack just now?” she asked.

“I suddenly lost my memory and forgot that trick.”

Kazuma thought to himself, ‘I’ve already made a mistake in the morning to woo you. I didn’t want to attract more attention in the afternoon.’

He saw that Fujii looked like she had something to say, so he quickly changed the topic. “Aren’t you going to maintain your bamboo sword?”

A bamboo sword was not just any other piece of bamboo. If it was not maintained frequently, some problems might occur. It was precisely because of this that many kendo dojos in later generations switched to using sponge swords because there was no need to maintain them. Besides, it’s much safer to use sponge swords than bamboo ones during sparring as they reduced the requirement for strong protective gear.

“I’ve already done it at noon.” Fujii patted her bamboo sword that was already in her bag. “I’m going to change. Don’t go yet, wait for me.”

With that, she skipped away.

Kazuma found it strange that this girl actually gave up on nagging at him to teach her Tsuki.

He put the cleaned and polished bamboo pieces together and assembled the blade, the striking zone, and the leather cap. Then, he put on the string used to straighten the bamboo sword.

Kazuma put the sword back in his bag. He then stood up and bowed to Daimon. “Thank you for your hard work, Sensei. Goodbye.”

“Okay, don’t wander around. Go home straight!” Daimon instructed.

“Yes, Sensei.”

Kazuma picked up his bamboo sword and went back to the club room to change his clothes. As soon as he reached the school gate, he was caught up with by Fujii, who was jogging over.

“Let’s go and have some snacks!” Fujii said as she stretched. A certain area of her winter sailor top was pushed up.

It seemed to be the daily routine of Fujii Mikako and Kiryuu Kazuma to chat over snacks at a store nearby after school.

Kazuma was puzzled. Fujii seemed to be rather close with the original Kazuma, but she had not realized that it was now a different soul under his skin.

Could it be that he had a similar personality as the original Kazuma?

To be honest, if it were not for the fact that his savings were almost depleted and the yakuza was threatening his family, he really would have wanted to enjoy his youth.

He had a younger sister at home and both of their parents had passed away. In addition, he had a rather large house—although most of the area was used for kendo practice.

In school, there was Fujii Mikako, a girl who was perfect as a friend or a girlfriend.

Of course, there were also a number of male good friends. Kazuma had subconsciously ignored them.

Wasn’t this the perfect setting for a love comedy?

Actually, there was still some hope of continuing the love comedy. As long as he could persuade Chiyoko to sell the dojo, he could use his knowledge of the future to invest in some soon-to-succeed industries. Then, he could lead a carefree life and enjoy his school life like a protagonist in a love comedy.

As Kazuma was thinking about how to persuade Chiyoko, Fujii slapped his shoulder. “Say something!”

“Huh? What?” Kazuma was caught by surprise. Fujii had been chattering non-stop, but he had not been listening at all.

“I was talking about your thrust attack! I thought about it after I went back to class. So the one foot should be at the back like this, and then…”

Still dressed in a sailor suit, Fujii actually squared up on the side of the road and demonstrated the deconstruction of the movement she had thought of.

Kazuma replied, “Looks about right. All that’s left is practice so that you can be as proficient as possible.”

“It sounds like you’ve been practicing a lot.” Fujii looked at Kazuma with an unconvinced expression. “You’ve always been a slacker in the club.”

“Yes, but my family runs a dojo. I can practice at home.”

Just when Fujii was about to say something, Kazuma heard a shrill scream in front, “No! Stop!”

Both of them turned toward that direction and realized that the voice came from the snack shop they were heading to.

The owner of the snack shop, a middle-aged lady, was kneeling on the ground and hugging the thigh of a young man dressed up like a yakuza. She was crying loudly.

“Go away!” The young man wanted to kick her away, but she didn’t let go. So he raised the wooden stick in his hand in exasperation.

The lady released her grip and covered her forehead in pain.

At the same time, the other two fierce-looking young men used baseball bats to smash the glass jars at the entrance of the snack shop which were used to contain snacks.

The sound of glass breaking mixed with the cries of the owner of the dessert store.

“You old bastard, just take the money and move away. Nothing will happen!” the young man who hit her said in a lecturing tone. “You made us come out and work because you didn’t want to move! We should be playing pachinko1 right now!”

Kazuma understood that this was another case of forced relocation.

The 1980s was a decade featuring Tokyo’s rapid development. As it was the largest and oldest city in Japan, Tokyo had a lot of old districts that posed huge resistance to demolition and redevelopment.

This gave the yakuza a chance to thrive.

The Katsushika District was one of the oldest streets in the 23 Districts of Tokyo. It was filled with one- or two-story wooden houses.

This naturally became a major disaster area for real estate development.

The snack shop was probably also in the redevelopment zone, but Kazuma did not know if Sumitomo Construction was behind this too.

The lady cried, “This is my mother’s shop. It is very precious to me…”

“Who cares about you!” The young hooligan stepped on her face and kicked her to the ground.

At this moment, Kazuma noticed the emblem on the gangsters’ collars. It was not the same group as the one who’d hung the dead rooster at his door this morning.

While he was observing the situation, Fujii walked over with her bamboo sword.

“Hey! Is this how you treat the elderly?”

Kazuma cursed under his breath. ‘Crap!’

The hooligans turned. When they saw Fujii, their expressions changed immediately.

The gangster leader stepped on the lady’s face and whistled. “Wow, look who we have here! I thought it was some trashy Chōnaikai!”

Chōnaikai was an autonomous neighborhood association organized by citizens in Japan. It existed in most of the districts. In this era, they were either defeated by the yakuza and lost their power or they had been integrated into the yakuza themselves.

Another hooligan sized up Fujii with a lewd look and said, “Miss, have you watched too much of Lupin the Third and want to be a heroine like that Mine Fujiko or something?”

The gangster leader hit the man’s head with a baseball bat. “Idiot! How dare you watch cartoons?! You’ve disgraced us!”

Then, he turned to Fujii again and put on an earnest expression. “Miss, this is her fault. We are doing serious business. To our surprise, this snack shop was not satisfied with the high price offered by Sumitomo Construction. The owner greedily raised the price…”

The woman shouted, “I didn’t! I just don’t want to sell…”

“Shut up!”

The gangster leader waved the wooden stick in his hand and smashed it at her head.

“Hand!” Fujii shouted. At the same instant, she quickly drew her sword. The bamboo sword accurately hit the gangster leader’s hand, causing his baseball bat to fly out of it.

The gangster leader let out a blood-curdling scream like a pig being slaughtered. He glared fiercely at Fujii. “F*ck! This woman is crazy! Go! Sell her to the kabuki1 and teach her how cruel this society is!”

The other hooligans shouted and rushed forward excitedly at once.

Kazuma sighed.

He had wanted to sell the dojo, so he did not want to stand in the way of the yakuza.

However, these gangsters’ emblem was different from what the ones in the morning had. It should be a different group. Therefore, it was probably fine to beat them up.

Probably.

Kazuma pulled out his bamboo sword and got into position. He aimed at the gangster who was charging at him and used his strength.

In the next instant, the leather cap at the tip of the bamboo sword hit the hooligan’s eye socket.

One of the main purposes of having the leather cap on was to reduce the damage caused by the sword when it was thrust forward. After all, the bamboo sword was used only for practice.

However, Kazuma’s thrust attack had mobilized all the muscles in his body to combine into a strong force.

Even with the leather cap, the force was so strong that the bamboo sword smashed hard at the hooligan’s eye socket like a leather-wrapped hammer.

The hooligan screamed as he fell backward, his eye socket turning black.

This made him unable to fight for a while.

At the same time, Fujii had hit a gangster’s head with an upper slash. She looked at Kazuma and shouted, “Nice!”

Kazuma shouted, “Fujii, behind you!”

But he was too late. The gangster had hit the back of Fujii’s head with his bat and had knocked her out.

Kazuma performed Tsuki again. He gave the hooligan who’d knocked Fujii unconscious a black eye and caught Fujii’s body when she was about to fall to the ground.

Fujii’s eyes were lifeless. She did not look like she was going to wake up soon.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” The gangster leader picked up the bat that had just been knocked off by Fujii and looked at Kazuma with ill intentions. “What’s going on today? So many little brats with bamboo swords. It’s not like we’re filming an action show.”

The other two hooligans, who could still stand up, flanked him from both sides. The person on the left had a thick mark on his face left behind by Fujii’s bamboo sword.

There were a total of five hooligans, and two of them had collapsed to the ground, unable to pick themselves back up. Both of them had been defeated by Kazuma.

Fujii should have been able to defeat one of them too, but she had probably held back.

Now, Kazuma had to fight off three people alone with Fujii lying in his arms, unconscious.

‘Tsk. This doesn’t look good.’

Cold sweat trickled down Kazuma’s face.