When I entered the Kendo club room, I saw multiple people already sparring. Particularly, one match stood out to me, in it the people sparing were equally good. They kept matching each other's blades and both of their stances were spot on. With neither of them gave any opening, they continued pressing attacks against each other. However, as one of the them notice me, I felt a change in their fighting spirit. All of a sudden, the person on the right was being overwhelmed by the person on the left and thus, the match was decided. Walking over to my locker, I started putting on my gear and then I heard a familiar voice.

"Shouta Ishkimoijin, I challenge you right here and now!" the voice belonged to Ryo, an upper classmen and winner of the previous sparring match I observed. "I'm going to take back the top rank you stole from me when you first joined," claimed Ryo.

(Sigh)

"There's no point in challenging me because you already know I'll win," I responded with confidence.

"Come and prove it then," retorted Ryo.

Heading towards the area in which he stood, I knew that if I didn't accept his challenge, he probably wouldn't have stopped pestering me.

"Bamboo or wooden sword?" I asked.

"Wood, obviously," replied Ryo.

Standing on the opposite side of the area, I prepared my stance: both hands in front gripping onto the sword's handle, my right foot just a little further out than my left. Controlling my breathing and concentrating my focus, I was ready. Observing Ryo, his stance was in the form of a quick draw, his right foot leaned forward while his left foot was in the back, both his hands were to the left of his body; one holding the sword like a sheath and the other gripping onto the sword's handle.

"Okay gentlemen, first strike wins," the coach stated at the center of the arena. "We begin when the coin hits the ground, understood?" the coach asked.

"Understood!" Ryo and I both said in sync.

Ting, the sound of the coin went, flipping constantly, it fell.…

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath one last time.

Clack!

When the coin touched the ground, I opened my eyes instantaneously. Then we both jump charged at each other. Ryo took the first offensive, his slash was horizontal and swinging from the right. Thus, I decided to swing my sword to the right as well, parrying the blades.

Clank!

The two swords clashed, but Ryo must have expected this, judging by his smile. Quickly regaining his stance from the parry, he slashed his sword upward into an uppercut. Realizing this, I jumped back and the slash from Ryo's blade took a couple of my black hair strands. Able to predict what my move was again, Ryo swung his sword down with all his force. I responded by putting my sword up to guard against his attack, using both hands to support my blade.

Thwack!

The two swords resonated. Due to the amount of force, one of my knees contacted the ground in order to strengthen my blade even more. Using all my strength, I forced Ryo off. Standing up and regaining my stance, I finally decided to take the offensive. Quickly, I swung my sword right, and Ryo matched my blade. Using the parry force from the clash, I quickly twirled around and swung my blade from the left. Matching me once more, I moved my sword to align up with my right shoulder. Then I swung my blade face up forming an uppercut (since the wooden swords only had one edge and not two). Ryo, struggling to keep up with my quick attacks, barely dodged it. Taking this opportunity, instead of swinging down and using the force of my body as Ryo had done, I decided to swing left once more to finish my combo. Ryo on the other hand, concluded that I would end my attack from above. So he moved to block, like I did previously. Upon seeing me, I swung from the left, and he was caught off guard. I eased up on my swing in order to prevent a serious injury to Ryo.

Clank.

My wooden blade touched his gear and the match was decided.

"The winner is Shouta," the coach proclaimed.

Ryo, sighing, stated, "I'll win next time that's for sure."

Nodding, I turned away from Ryo and the coach and walked back to where my belongings were. Taking off my gear and putting it back into my locker, I grabbed the extra bag of clothes from this morning and then I went to go take a shower. I kept this to myself, but Ryo has improved since our last match. But no matter what, the score was still 25 to 0, me with 25 and him with 0. As I finally got out of the shower, the club was finished for the day. Looking at my watch I noticed it was 18:30, so I decided to head home.


Next Time: Chapter 4; FateFul Meeting