Chapter 1: A New Year

Crown Academy is, for good reason, traditionally considered the crown of Tortallan private education. Formally founded in 1796, the history of the school dates back much farther to the traditional knight-training of the middle ages. Unlike in our neighbouring countries, knight training throughout the middle ages was centralized through a school located at the Palace in Corus, teaching a combination of academics and the martial arts – fencing, archery and hand-to-hand combat. In 1796, with the relinquishment of the monarchy's absolute power, the school moved to its present location close to Blue Harbour.

While the monarchy's effort to preserve itself in a diminished form proved ultimately futile, Crown Academy continues to educate the children of the country's most powerful families. Although the martial arts program is no longer required and genuinely includes less than a third of the Academy's students, the school continues to pride itself on its unique combination of academic and martial arts. And for good reason – in the last forty years, the Tortallan National Fencing Team has been entirely composed of Crown Academy graduates! Today, aside from the three traditional martial arts, the school also has a kendo team.

Academically, Crown Academy accepts 120 students per year, 20 of whom are on scholarship. Although graduates nearly always have their choice of post-secondary institutes, the school has a deceptively low post-secondary rate of only 95% as many students go directly into professional athletics. Crown Academy graduates can be found at the highest echelons of the Tortallan business, medical and legal worlds.

A Guide to Tortallan Secondary Schools, 2014 Edition

Kel sat in the hallway, her fingers grasped on her cue cards, her eyes skimming over them over and over again. She had spent most of her first week at Crown Academy in the library, looking into old yearbooks, getting her facts straight. She had managed to convince of the teachers to let her into the martial arts teams' equipment rooms, hoping against hope that some old team equipment would still be there. She had asked the school administration, her teachers, and the team senseis about the proper procedure for founding (or rather, re-founding?) a club. And, as weird as it was, student council was it. This meeting was it.

She had never heard of a school that let its student council handle all the funding for extracurricular activities. Then again, it must work – Crown Academy had, consistently, the best martial arts teams. Her brother Anders had placed second on the national level in fencing in his senior year, playing epee. Her brother Inness, fencing sabre, had made the Tortallan National Team. Her brother Conal, ever the rebel, did mixed martial arts instead, and was now making some serious money doing it – something about his arrogant yet charming personality combined with his skills won him a series of product endorsements. Her sisters had chosen to stay in Corus for high school, but Kel – Kel had dreamed of Crown Academy from as early as she could remember.

She had never thought the naginata club might have gone defunct since Conal's graduation, but the facts were that it had. She couldn't argue with that, so here she was, doing something about it. Having practiced naginata in Japan for six years, she had made shodan at the last national competition and, although it was somewhat frowned upon, received the Tortallan Naginata Federation's permission to start a club – but only if she called it a study group, and only if she continued regular practice under Nariko-sensei in Corus over the holidays.

She leaned over just slightly towards the door, hearing murmurs from within, and hoped she would be called soon.

Within the room, Alanna looked over the teams' representatives for this year's regular funding grudge-match. Fencing could use some extra funding this year – even though most of her senior fencers had their own equipment, many of her first and second years didn't. She supposed she could make do with what they had, but another sabre, two new foils and a new epee would be good.

The mixed martial arts team had sent George, their top finalist at last year's national intervarsity. He was tall, almost too tall for the room, but lean rather than muscular. Although his face was relaxed and carefree, his hazel eyes were sharp. Combined with his beaky nose, too large for good looks, he resembled a hawk eyeing his prey. He had clearly tanned over the holidays, but Alanna guessed that it was from working in the sun rather than relaxing on the beach. In contravention of the dress code, he had left his shirt loose over his trousers and his school tie and blazer were nowhere to be seen. Catching her stare, he winked.

"Like what you see?" he inquired, smirking.

"Hardly," Alanna replied, rolling her eyes. Even if he was a clear foot taller than her, she had never found him intimidating. "How was your summer?"

"Made some money working for a landscaper." He shrugged expansively. "How was lazing about on the beaches of France or whatever it is the daughter of Trebond Enterprises does?"

Alanna snorted. She couldn't help her birth any more than George could, and she went out of her way to avoid doing the very things for which he was mocking her. "I fenced, when Father wasn't paying attention. As he rarely pays attention to anything other than the company, I fenced a lot."

Sitting to George's right was Raoul, the new captain of the kendo team. Tall and muscular, with generous sloe-black eyes and curly black hair, he was almost distractingly handsome. Alanna was fairly certain that, despite the tension between the two clubs, three or four of her fencers had crushes on him – strangely, she'd never fallen in that camp. Unlike George, he didn't seem at all pleased to be there. He wore a look of grim resignation.

To George's left sat Daine, the archery team captain for the second year running. She had curled up in her wooden chair as if it were an armchair and, red-faced, was wrapping her unruly brown curls into a bun for the third time since they entered the room. She pulled a pen off the table and stabbed it through the mass on top of her head. "Hair tie broke during gym today," she said, her blue-gray eyes catching Alanna's gaze. "Been a hassle ever since." The mass bobbed on the top of her head, wispy tendrils already escaping.

To Alanna's right sat Gary, the student council president, a stack of funding applications in front of him. He had wavy brown hair which was usually tousled – Alanna had never figured out if he arranged his hair like that every morning or if it was actually the look he woke up with. He paged through the funding applications, looking for something in particular. His girlfriend, student council secretary Cythera, sat to his right with a blank pad of paper in front of her and two pens at the ready.

Jon lounged at the head of the table. Even though he wasn't technically a member of Student Council, and he wasn't any particular team's captain, he informally ran the school. It didn't have anything to do with any particular status he (didn't) have, or any connections – although he and Gary were cousins, it was just Jon. Alanna used to suspect it had to do with his striking good looks – black hair and startling blue eyes – but she had long since come to the conclusion that it was more than that. People just followed Jon. He had good ideas and knew when to use them. "Should we get started?" he asked.

"Yes," Gary replied, clearing his throat. "We do have a preliminary matter we need to address, and I think it's important we do it before going on to the funding discussions as it will impact the amount of funding available for everyone. We have an application here from Keladry Mindelan, one of the first-years, wanting to restart the naginata club. She's outside waiting."

"And if she gets permission, we'd get less funding, I suppose?" Raoul asked, frowning. "I mean … I don't have anything against naginata on principle, but … we also need some more shinai and at least a couple more sets of club bogu. We don't have enough sets for the club as is, and I hate having to split up practice when everyone is at a level where keiko is best."

"I don't really see a problem with it," Alanna cut in. She liked Raoul, but he was clearly discomfited by his new role as team captain. He was usually very laid back."Kendo and naginata share a lot of equipment. If your upper-years don't take club sets home, I don't see why she can't share with your equipment. Most of our clubs are male-dominated – hell, our whole school is male-dominated. Restarting the naginata club would be a good indication for the public that our school isn't just for boys, that we support gender equality."

"Archery is pretty equal in terms of gender equality," Daine commented. "But we need new targets. We shot through ours again. A few times."

"Did you put another hole in the wall?" Alanna's lips twitched. Prior to being moved to the gym last year, archery had practiced late at night in the main second floor hallway. Daine had successfully argued for using gym space last year partly because she had shot through a target as a first-year and put a hole in the wall. The hole was still there for anyone who wanted to see it.

Daine shot her an urchin grin. "Only if you can find it. The point is – I'm going to need new targets. And not refrigerator boxes stuffed with old newspaper and styrofoam. But the carbon arrows we purchased with our funding last year have held up well, and more than half of my team have their own equipment. It will depend some on the new recruits, but I think we will have enough bows for the first years, as long as they don't care what division they'll shoot in. And as usual, anyone who wants to shoot freestyle will have to get their own equipment."

"You know I won't have much of an opinion, Jon," George added. "Our team has never asked for much, and we haven't asked for much this year. We'll make do with what we have but you know we don't ask for much and I don't see why we shouldn't get what we've asked for in any case. As we've said over and over, more than sixty percent of our team are scholarship students, and reducing our funding would absolutely have a negative impact on our performance."

"We should hear this Keladry out before we decide any further," Jon decided. "We don't even know how much she's asking for in terms of funding – for all you know, she'll just be asking for space. And if it's just space, we can move around some practices and give her a couple hours somewhere."

Gary nodded, and Cythera, closest to the door, stood to open it.

Keladry Mindelan was tall for a first year, already of a height with most of the fifth year girls. She had chestnut brown hair, cropped to her earlobes, hazel eyes with a dreamer's cast and a delicate, pointed nose. She had chosen to wear the skirt combination of their school uniform, something Alanna herself rarely wore, showing muscular legs. She hesitated, clearly unsure of where she was supposed to go.

"How about using the seat at the end?" Jon said kindly, motioning towards the seat beside Cythera. "I understand you want to restart the naginata club at Crown Academy?"

"Yes," Keladry squeaked, then cleared her throat. She moved to the empty seat and sat down, setting her cue cards in front of her. "Yes," she repeated. "How do you want me to start?"

"We should introduce ourselves first, and then you can start however you like," Jon replied, flashing one of his famous smiles at her. Alanna eyed the new girl closely – although Jon was, in her entirely objective opinion, very handsome, the new girl seemed unfazed. "My name is Jon De Conte. I'm a fifth-year, and I'm on the fencing team. I use a foil."

"Cythera Elden," Cythera said, tucking her ash-blond hair, worn loose, over an ear. "I'm the student council secretary, and in my fourth year at this school. I'm not part of any of the martial arts teams, but I play clarinet in the orchestra."

"Gary Naxen", Gary said beside her, paging through Keladry's funding application, which he had extracted from his pile. "You're quite well-prepared, I see. The application was very well done." He looked up at the new girl. "I'm the student council president, and am on the fencing team. I'm an epeeist."

A fact which, unfortunately, did not get Alanna's team any additional funding. She had already tried that approach last year. Alanna, his response had been, you know as well as I do that almost everyone in fencing can afford their own equipment and there's absolutely no need for us to have more club equipment. You know that everyone will buy their own outfits by Christmas, and everyone will have their own weapons before third year. The MMA and archery teams need it more.

"Alanna Trebond," she said, facing the new girl. Keladry was larger than she was, albeit clearly three years younger. "I'm the captain of the fencing team and prefer sabre."

"Raoul Dulacdor," Raoul said, eyeing the new girl with an odd mixture of suspicion and interest. "You would be good on the kendo team, you know? You're big, and already know how to wear bogu. We need at least one more girl this year to make a team if any tournaments decide to use a separate women's division – we only have four girls right now." Catching Jon's stern eye, he added, "I'm the captain of our kendo team. I played fukusho at the national intervarsity last year."

"George Cooper. I represent the MMA team, we don't do this captaincy and ranking bullshit." He gave Keladry a shark's grin. "I'll support you, so long as you don't take any funding from my boys. We're mostly scholarship students, so we need the funding to get ourselves to competitions, see? I'm a fifth-year too, and I'm hoping to break into the commercial circuit. Or win a college scholarship."

"George, don't be mean to her," Daine scolded. The new girl hadn't even blinked, her face resting in an expression of total calm. Alanna was impressed – although George was generally good-natured, he had, like most of the MMA team, rough edges to him. His beaky nose had clearly been broken and improperly healed at least twice.

"Well, we're not all locks for the Olympic team, Daine," George retorted, leaning back in his chair. "MMA isn't even an Olympic sport."

"You could try the judo or tae kwan do circuits," Daine replied. "Just restrict yourself to those moves and you'll have two cracks at the barrel." She turned and smiled cheerfully at the new girl. "As you can see, it's a little tense in here. My name is Daine Sarasdottir. I'm the captain of the archery team and shoot recurve bare bow. And contrary to popular belief, I am not a lock for the Olympic team."

"Yeah? When was the last time you scored less than 275 points in a tournament?"

Daine sniffed, pursing her lips. "First year. You have no idea if I would shoot any better at freestyle though, and Olympic level doesn't even have a bare bow category. I've never used a sight, or any stabilizers."

"It's called a sight, Daine, because it helps you aim. If you tried one you'd probably score a perfect 300 every tournament," George said, rolling his eyes. "You're a lock. They just need to find you, and you've only been on the open and regional circuits a year."

Daine opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by Jon clearing his throat. "Keladry?" he asked.

"Hai!" the new girl replied, startled. "I mean, yes. My name is Keladry Mindelan. I'm a first year. I'm requesting to re-found the naginata club." She looked down and shuffled her cue cards.

"The naginata club here was disbanded six years ago after the death of the regional sensei, Tanaka-sensei. At the time, there were no qualified dan-level instructors in the immediate vicinity, and no dan-level instructor outside the area offered to come instruct at regular intervals. The club itself, which was always small, was unsure how to proceed after Tanaka-sensei's death and lost certification from the national federation, with remaining interested members transitioning to the kendo team. It should be noted that the Blue Harbour club, which was also instructed by Tanaka-sensei, was also disbanded at this time for the same reasons. However, prior to this period, Crown Academy produced a number of national-level naginataka, including Sabine Macayhill and Rebekah Cooper. Both Sabine and Rebekah are staples on the Tortallan national team."

"And how do you propose to solve the problems you've identified?" Jon asked, leaning forward to rest his chin on steepled fingers. His clear blue eyes were piercing. "So far, you've talked about a lack of qualified instructors and noted that the club doesn't have certification from the national federation. That's not exactly making your case."

"Yes," Keladry nodded, conceding the point. "But as you can see from my funding application, I studied naginata in Japan for the last six years as my parents are Tortallan ambassadors. Since I returned three months ago, I've been practicing at the Corus dojo. I received my shodan rank at our national competition, and attached as Exhibit A of my funding application is permission from the Tortallan Naginata Federation to found a club here and to instruct it, so long as I keep in regular contact with Nariko-sensei in Corus. You'll also note Exhibit B of my application lists the old club equipment I've managed to find in our equipment rooms – we have eight naginata, two ebus without habu, and three pairs of suneate. In my funding request, I've asked for enough for six habu and a trip the regional competition in Corus in April, and for space to practice in, which I understand is a very reasonable amount compared the size of your budget."

"What about when you graduate in five years?" Gary asked. He was thumbing through her application with interest. "Once you graduate, the club will again lack a qualified instructor."

"I contacted Sabine Macayhill – my brother was in her year – and while she and Rebekah both live in Corus four hours' drive away, both are willing to come and instruct from time to time. I believe that, depending on where I attend college, I would also be willing and able to come and instruct. And as I have five years here, I would hope that I would be able to train, over four years, people who are able to run regular practice, correct themselves with respect to common problems and who would be able to continue with the club with external support. I intend on making the external requirements, such as our relationships with senseis and the requirement for certification from the national federation, transparent so that club members will each know what is required."

"What about equipment?" Raoul asked. "You've asked for a lot less funding than I expected – what about bogu sets? If you're thinking to share with ours, I'm going to come right out and say that we don't have enough as is and it's not happening."

"Raoul," Jon cut in sternly. "It's club equipment, owned by the school, not by whoever is using it at that time. If your team isn't practicing at that exact moment, I don't see what the issue is with sharing."

"No," Keladry interrupted before Raoul could respond. "We won't be needing bogu this year. Naginata is significantly more technical than kendo, so I anticipate that this year we will be focusing on non-bogu technique and form. At any rate, naginata bogu does differ from kendo bogu, so we would not be able to share to any great extent anyway. My plan is hopefully to get team members prepared for the engi kyogi, the form competition, for the tournament in April. Should the trip be funded, it would also be good experience for new members to watch the shiai kyogi and to learn how to run a tournament."

"What about space?" Gary asked. "You didn't specify what room you were thinking of for practicing, though you did request space for a regular six to nine hours per week. Is there a room you are specifically thinking about?"

"Not in particular. We would need high ceilings and a reasonably-sized room, but I understand the clubs at Mount Sarryn and Royal University hold practices in a regular gymnasium, and the Port Caynn club uses a dance studio. The Crown Academy team practices used to be held in the kendo dojo, but given a preference, I would prefer a dance studio with high ceilings, for the mirrors."

"Gary, Jon, since it sounds like you've already decided," Raoul cut in, eyes narrowed, arms crossed over his chest. "I just want to point out that as of this moment, there is no club. Recruitment hasn't happened, so for the moment we have Keladry and no one else. I'm opposed to sharing space with a club that, at the moment, consists of one person. We should set a minimum number of recruits for her to meet before the club is founded. Since it sounds like she won't be fielding much of a shiai team before next year, there should be enough people that there will, actually, be a shiai team next year after the usual drop-outs. That means more than four recruits – more like at least ten, if naginata dropout rates are like kendo. We do have a reputation to maintain."

"A reasonable point." Gary looked over to Jon, who nodded. Alanna sucked in a breath, and decided it was high time that she interfered.

"Um," the new girl interrupted. "Um, naginata doesn't have five spots on a team. It has three. Sempo, chuken and taisho. And isn't it too early to just decide that half my team will quit?"

"We all have high quit ratios," Alanna told her kindly. "It's a side effect of doing what we do well. Jon, I made this point before and I'll make it again – re-founding the naginata club here is a good public indicator that women are welcome in the martial arts. It's one of the only martial arts traditionally been practiced by women, a fact which, in a clear example of unintended and latent sexism, has made it difficult for it to leave Japan. I would think, as a school that promotes the martial arts and a school that I would hope promotes gender equality, we have a moral obligation to assist this club in being restarted."

There was a long pause.

"Very well," Jon said. "Both of you have made your point. Keladry, as long as you can get two members before the end of club recruitment next week, you'll have your space. In terms of funding – where can we cut? You said a lot of words I don't understand on that point, so you'll have to explain."

"Um, yes." Keladry looked down at her cue cards. "Naginata are our full weapon. They're composed of the ebu, which are the oak hafts, and the habu, which are the bamboo slats making up the blade. Like kendo shinai, the bamboo slats need to be replaced for safety every so often, and they can break in a match. We have eight full naginata right now, and getting two more habu would make that ten. Suneate are our shin-guards – unlike kendo, shin strikes are still acceptable in naginata."

"So why don't we make that two habu, then, and funding for travel to one tournament in April, conditional on you finding at least two new recruits over the club recruitment period. Like the others, you can make a presentation to the student body at the clubs fair next week." Jon looked over to Gary. "And for space, you can work something out with Raoul for use of the kendo dojo. Our dance studio has a full schedule, and both archery and fencing use the gym, so that's out. Raoul, old man, you can share. Next topic?"

"Umm," the new girl hesitated, clearly unsure of what she should do now that the decision had been made. Feeling a touch of sympathy, Alanna leaned over to her.

"You may as well stay. Since you founded the club, you're de-facto captain for the year, and the rest of the negotiations might be important for you to hear."

The rest of the yearly funding negotiations ended with no surprises. George got everything he asked for – new hand held padded targets and tournament funding. Daine got her new targets, and Alanna got one extra fencing outfit – the club outfits she had did smell, and she was hopeful for extra recruits this year. She supposed they would make do with the existing weaponry. In a move clearly intended to appease, Raoul got enough for two new bogu sets and another five shinai.

ED: Thank you so much for reading to the end of Chapter 1! I have a lot of really fun things planned for this universe, so I do hope you will stick around to read more of it.

About Me: You are probably wondering what my credentials are for writing this fic. I am a lifelong martial artist, starting with kenpo when I was 10 (which I did for 6 years). I was on my high school varsity archery team for four years. In college, I did Shorin-Ryu karate for one year and tried fencing for six weeks (I didn't take to either), then moved to kendo for 2 years. Currently, I am in my 5th year of practicing naginata - for all you naginataka out there, I'm so excited to meet you and practice with you at the World Naginata Championship in June!