Chapter 6
"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Unlike my life at Shieikan Hall, Souji's life at Shieikan was a difficult one. No, it wasn't just difficult. It was downright horrible. Even though he lived at the dojo as a live-in-student, he was treated more like a servant. He did get favored over the other students by Shuusai-sensei, but was always stuck spending most of his time doing all the chores. Now that there was somebody who official job was to do all the chores, I technically didn't have to continue doing my daily self-assigned chores. However, I thought it was rather unfair to drop all the work on our newcomer, so I continued my self-assigned chores and worked alongside Souji daily to complete the chores. While I did have good intentions and I was friendly towards him, Souji was less than pleased by my constant presence near him. He didn't voice it vocally, but whenever I started working "too close" to him then he would scoot as far away from me as possible and continue working.
Other than being treated like a servant, Souji was bullied daily by the other older students who attended the dojo and when I say bullied, I don't mean he was just teased verbally. Souji would be extremely lucky if there was a day he didn't get physically beaten by the older students. His situation was very different from mine. While the older students barely acknowledged that I existed, it was like someone painted a bright red target on Souji. He never smiled and was always downtrodden, which was understandable. After his sister left him, he was constantly mistreated by the other students and looked down on by the many adults that attended the dojo. How could he not be morose with his conditions? But, while the older students bullied and the other adults constantly voiced their pity for him, not everyone treated him terribly. Chichi-ue was constantly trying to cheer him up, although there wasn't much success in that.
Me, on the other hand, Souji made it very clear that he didn't want me hovering around him. In his mind, he probably came to his own conclusion that I would come to pity him too if I stayed around him long enough. Young kids did tend to copy others. I tried to give him some space, but in the end that didn't work to well. I would still go looking for him every chance I got, but then he would always try to chase me off whenever I came looking for him. I always found myself worrying too much about him to keep away. What the other students always did to him was beyond disgusting and I always wanted to make sure he was alright. How was it that some people can just be so terribly mean? I didn't understand how they could just bully Souji without feeling any guilt. Just what was it in human nature that allowed some people to behave like this?
However, despite how initially disgusted I was with the older students' behavior, I didn't interfere with what was going on between him and the older students. He didn't want me to and I respected his choice. But, this was starting to get too hard to watch. If I had to watch Souji get attacked by the older students one more time then I was seriously going to step in.
I was currently quietly shuffling through the dojo and peering into each empty room to look for Souji while carrying a rather large bundle of dango[1] that a friend of Chichi-ue, named Inoue-san, gave to me. I had witnessed the older students beating Souji, to the point where he threw up everything in his stomach, a bit earlier. He had to be hungry now. Peering into a few more empty rooms, I finally found Souji in the last room of the hallway licking his wounds from the previous encounter with the students. As soon as he saw me entering the room he glared at me in an attempt to scare me away, but I had long since grown immune to his constant glares.
"You missed a spot." I said as I pointed to a small smear of blood on his chin before I sat down next to him.
Souji quickly scooted as far as he could from me before wiped the blood away with the sleeve of his kimono and continued glaring at me. "What do you want?" he asked with great hostility and mistrust.
I said nothing and held out the bundle of dango in front of me to offer some to him. He continued glaring at me, as if he believed that he could cause me to vaporize.
"I don't want any." he spat at me before his stomach growled. He blushed a bit after his stomach complained but didn't let his glare let up.
Okay, I understood why he was behaving like this, but it was starting to get on my nerves. I stood up from where I was sitting, stomped over to where Souji was, untied the bundle of dango, and forced a stick of dango into his mouth before I sat down next to him again. There was no way he could scoot any further away from me anymore. Earlier when he was scooting away from me, he had moved himself into a corner and I was now trapping him in.
"Sit there and eat that." I demanded before I took out my own stick of dango and started snacking on it. "And don't you dare spit that out or say you aren't hungry. I know you have nothing in your stomach right now. I saw you throw up."
Souji stared at me, stunned by my sudden forceful action, before he slowly took the stick of dango out of his mouth. He examined the sweet treat for a few seconds before he hesitantly took a bite. After that, the rest of the dango on his stick disappeared down his throat in a matter of seconds. He must have been starving.
As soon as he finished his stick of dango, I shoved the rest of the large bundle of dango into his face. "You can have the rest. I'm full." I stated.
He snatched the bundle from my hands without any hesitation and began inhaling the sweets at a phenomenal rate. While he was distracted by the food, I took the time to clean up his cuts and dress his injuries and when I was done, I just sat next to him and watched him devour the rest of the food.
When he was done eating the several servings of dango, Souji peered at me through the corner of his eye. He seemed like he wanted to ask me something but was reluctant to, so I took the matter out of his hands and spoke first.
"Yes?"
"Why?" he asked as he turned to face me for the first time. "Why are you always trying to help me?"
"Is there a reason that I shouldn't be trying to help you?" I countered back.
"It would be easier for you to ignore me or treat me like everyone else does." Souji said while his hands tightened into small fists on his lap. "So why would you go out of your way to help me, especially when I don't want it?"
I offered him a small smile before I reached out and gently took his hands into mine in a maternal like gesture. "I refuse to live in the kind of world where people don't look out for each other. Not just the people that I am close to, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit."
He growled, "I don't need your help." at my response while wearing an expression that looked like one that people made after smelling something disgusting before snatching his hand back. He was probably thinking that what I said was stupid.
"I know you don't want my help." I answered as I began gathering the leftover trash from the bundle of food I brought in. When I gathered all the trash into one pile, I picked it up and got ready to leave. "I'm just choosing to ignore that fact."
"Are you sure you want to?" Souji warned right as I was about to step outside the room. "This type of attitude will piss some people off. Some will attack you without caring that you're a little girl. You won't be able to fight back. You're too small compared to everyone else."
A ghost of a smile flickered across my face at his warning. I stopped walking and turned my head back towards him slightly. "Let them try. There's always a way to fight back."
I left the room, leaving him completely stunned and speechless at my answer. I didn't act like a little seven year old girl would and I was sure he noticed that now. If anything, I was a mystery that no one truly understood.
"Neh, Shizu-chan?" Chichi-ue asked one night as he was putting me to bed. He possessed a trouble expression mixed with one of extreme concern "Did you know that the other students were beating Souji?"
It looks like Chichi-ue just found out about the bullying. He wasn't the most perceptive person in the world, but he wasn't bad at noticing things either. Chichi-ue was just usually a bit slow on realizing things sometimes. Either that, or he realized things, but didn't get the whole picture.
I nodded slowly as I allowed Chichi-ue to tuck me in. Chichi-ue frowned at me as he pulled the blanket up to my chin. I could already tell that he was disappointed in me for not telling him about what was going on. While I still really didn't consider Chichi-ue as my father, I flinched at his disappointment. I really despised it when I disappointed someone. It always made me feel like garbage.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Chichi-ue questioned me, his tone laced with his disappointment. "Don't tell me that you would allow bullying? I thought I raised you better than that."
I pulled the blanket over my head in shame even though I didn't believe that I did anything wrong. It felt really difficult to face Chichi-ue now and I felt like if I looked at him in the face then I wouldn't be able to speak, so I used the blanket as a wall so that my voice wouldn't lock up.
"He didn't want me to help him or tell any of the adults that he was being bullied." I explained with my meek, muffled voice behind the blanket. "It's not like I didn't want to put a stop to the bullying. I just wanted to respect his choice."
There was no response from Chichi-ue for a short few seconds, then he let out a sad sounding breath before he pulled the covers I had pulled over my head back down so he could see my face. "There's no need to hide yourself from me, I'm not mad at you." he said as he ran his hands through my short shoulder length hair. "I'm just frustrated at the situation. I warned the students not to bully Souji again."
"Are you sure that's going to work?" I asked Chichi-ue as I looked up at him with big eyes. "Usually when you tell teenagers not to do something they'll take it as the message, 'Go do it.' Plus they might beat Souji some more because for revenge because they'll believe that he tattled on them."
"No, I'm sure they'll listen." Chichi-ue voiced optimistically. "I'm sure they'll listen to me because I properly sat them down and spoke to them about it."
Chichi-ue was overly optimistic. That course of action usually doesn't work well on teenagers. I looked at Chichi-ue doubtfully to let him know that I didn't believe that his method would work. He merely chuckled at my unbelieving look and tapped me lightly on the nose before he pressed a light kiss onto my forehead.
"Don't worry so much. I'm sure my method will work." he said as he tried to ease my doubts. "Now it's time to go to sleep. Growing children need plenty of rest to grow into healthy, strong adults."
And with that, Chichi-ue blew out the lantern and left the room. The Hour of the Dog[2] my bedtime, not Chichi-ue's.
The following night when Chichi-ue was putting me to bed again for the night, he looked even more troubled than the night before. While Chichi-ue was usually fairly talkative when he was putting me to bed for the night, tonight he was dead silent.
"Chichi-ue?" I spoke to capture his attention.
"Hmm?"
"Why are you so quiet tonight? You usually talk a lot before you put me to bed. Did something happen?"
Chichi-ue let out a supremely stressed sounding sigh as his hands paused while he was pulling up the blanket. When he didn't move, I sat back up at looked at him questioningly.
"While the sun was setting earlier today, I saw Souji standing right outside the front gates of the dojo. He was staring off in the direction of his home." Chichi-ue explained before he told me what happened.
I saw him standing outside the dojo where he bid farewell to his onee-san. He was looking at the direction of his home again. Although he tried to act mature, he is still a child after all. He must have doubtlessly missed his onee-san.
Seeing his small lonely silhouette, I called, "…Souji." But he didn't look back. I didn't see anything wrong with being attached to one's family. I placed my hand on his small shoulder as a gesture to let him know that he wasn't alone. "What are you doing here? Are you feeling lonely because you miss your onee-san?"
Souji didn't reply to my inquiry. All he continued to do was gaze at the sky with indifferent eyes, so I continued speaking.
"Perhaps Mitsu-san can't come by since she's busy with her daily life. If you write her a letter and tell her how much you miss her then she'd surely show up during the Bon Festival and the New Year. Better keep practicing your kenjutsu so you don't make her worry…"
Souji continued gazing at the sky with lifeless eyes. Then he softly said, "Ane-ue abandoned me."
His voice was pessimistic and hopeless. It was painful to hear such a small child speak this way, so I pressed my hand on his shoulder a bit more firmly and said, "Souji, Mitsu-san didn't abandon you. How could anyone abandon her lovely otouto-san? She has her own life to live and she can't leave you in the old house by yourself. It must have been a difficult decision for her to leave you here."
Souji didn't respond to any of my words. It was like I couldn't reach him no matter what, but still, I continued.
"Although it's lonely to live so far away from your onee-san, everything in life must happen for a reason. For you to be left in our care, there must be meaning in this as well. So don't curse your fate. Instead, think about what you can do with what your fate offers you. Isn't that what being a human is all about?"
Souji listened to me in silence. After some time passed, he finally looked up and whispered, "Kondou-san, you warned the older pupils not to beat me, right?"
"Huh? Yes I did." I replied.
"Would you do me a favor by not doing that again?" Souji said with a colder than normal voice. I looked at Souji, his voice earlier was enough to make a chill run down my spine.
"Don't do that? What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
In response to my question, Souji pulled down his collar in silence. There were countless bruises and scratches on his chest. The amount of injures he had on his body had increased by a plainly obvious amount.
"The day after Kondou-san warned them, I was called to the dojo and beaten with wooden swords. 'How dare you tell on us!' they said. Although I told them I didn't, no one listened. Because of Kondou-san's needless actions, I was beaten more severely than before." Souji said after he had shown me his injures.
I was speechless as cold sweat ran down my spine. I caused this? With lifeless eyes, Souji move his gaze so he could stare at my face, and without blinking, he continued.
"I don't recall asking for your help. It's annoying. Please leave me alone."
Souji then turned his back on me and walked back into the dojo.
Silence filled the bedroom after Chichi-ue finished telling me what had happened earlier that evening. He seemed to be at a complete loss at what to do.
"Well, at least his onee-san didn't leave him to die like the person who gave birth to this body." I said nonchalantly as I tried to break the uncomfortable silence. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. I really should have had more sense than to say that. Chichi-ue didn't even have the talk with me to tell me that I was adopted yet.
"Shizuka! Don't say that!" Chichi-ue immediately scolded me. He had completely missed my "this body" slip up. "I'm sure that your okaa-san didn't leave you to die!"
"Nope, I'm pretty sure that woman did." I said before I took the edge of the blanket out of Chichi-ue's hand and pulled it up to my chin as I laid back down. "Let me try talking to Souji. He might connect better with someone closer to his age."
Chichi-ue let out another stressed sigh. He had two broken children living with him under the same roof and was running out of ideas of what to do. Chichi-ue stared at me silently for a few minute before he decide to blow out the lantern. However, after he blew out the lanterns, he didn't leave the room like he usually did.
"Shizu-chan, scoot over so I can get in."
"Isn't it a bit too early for you to be going to bed? Besides, don't you have your own futon over there?" I asked in confusion as I pointed to his empty futon next to mine.
"I just want to sleep with my daughter tonight." Chichi-ue said with an unidentifiable emotion as he pulled me into a warm embrace under the blankets. What I said early about being left to die must have really bothered him.
A few days later, I sweeping the floor of the main hall. Someone or some people tracked in some dirt on the floor I just polished and I was none too pleased about that. I was really anal about having shinny floors. As soon as I was done with the floors, I was then going to have to snip off a large splinter that had formed on the broom handle. I didn't want to accidently stab myself with it in the future. Souji, on the other hand, was sitting towards the back of the room and was eating a late lunch. Ever since that talk I had with Chichi-ue, I had been spending more time sticking close by to Souji in hopes of preventing another beating session. So far, I had been successful. Even though Souji had made it clear that he didn't like it when I was around, when he couldn't chase me off, he carefully began to avoid contact with the older students more so I wouldn't get caught up in the crossfire. He didn't like my constant presence, but he still looked out for me like I was his baby chick.
As I was finishing up my sweeping, a large, rambunctious group of three older students walked into the room while talking about the latest gossip. As they entered the main hall, they tracked in dust and dirt from outside. So this was where all the dirt was coming in. You'd think they would have more respect and at least try to be clean when they were on someone else's property, but apparently not. When the students spotted Souji eating his late lunch neared the back of the room, they grinned maliciously before they approached him.
"Oops. I slipped." the tallest student with black hair tied up in a ponytail said mockingly as he "accidently" kick over Souji's tray of food on to my clean, shiny floor I had just finished polishing.
"Ah…" Souji said as he watched his meal spill over the floor. He had only just started eating and only got to eat a few bites before this.
"Excuse me for knocking you meal over." the black haired student said with a cruel smile as he looked down at Souji with enjoyment. "Well, it's actually your bad for being so slow anyways."
"Too bad there's none left, 'cause we ate all the food." the second brown haired student joined in to mock Souji. "We have nothing more to waste on a useless freeloader, why don't you eat the soiled food off the floor? Aren't you hungry?"
Souji said nothing as he reached down to scoop up the spilled food with his hands before he brought it to his mouth to eat. It was obvious Souji didn't want to do what the students said, but hunger was a problem that couldn't be solved without making some sacrifice.
"Hey, hey! Don't really eat the soiled food off the floor!" the third, fat looking, student squealed in faux disgust. "What a gluttonous kid!
"This is what you get because of your impudent attitude." The brown haired student said as he kicked Souji's side. "Be aware of your position."
"But what a poor thing." the tall black haired student added with sarcasm. "His parents died and his onee-san deserted him. Not to mention he has to spend all day doing chores in a dojo like this. How pitiful."
"What an unlikable child. You never know what he's thinking." said the brown haired one.
"Come to the dojo after you're done eating." the third student then said. "We need to straighten you up."
I had enough of this behavior. First of all, Souji wasn't the one that needed to be straightened out. He did nothing wrong. Second, did that brat just purposely kick food all over my nice, clean floor? That bastard. Then that brown haired kid said that "we have nothing more to waste on a useless freeloader". That statement was hypocritical all the way around. Those students were the ones wasting precious food by kicking it to the floor, and that "we" in that statement did not belong there. They weren't the ones providing the food. It was Chichi-ue and Shuusai-sensei preparing and providing the food. And "useless freeloader"? They were the ones tracking in dirt everywhere and creating the mess that Souji had to clean up. Souji was in no way a useless freeloader. I placed the broom I was using against the wall and stepped forward. I was going to do something about their immature behavior.
"Hey you!" I suddenly barked loudly. "The little cowardly boys with the pack mentality!"
"What?!" the tall black haired one, who was probably the leader, exclaimed in shock as he swung around to look for the source of the voice. They never noticed that I was in the room.
"What? Not only are you deaf, but you're blind and dumb too?" I mocked them to draw their attention off of Souji.
After looking around the room confused for a few seconds, one of the older students, the fat one, noticed me and pointed to me.
"There's a little girl here. Why is there a little girl here?" the fat one asked stupidly as he pointed at me. Clearly he wasn't the brightest one in the bunch.
"Oh! That must be that young instructor's daughter. You know, the one that people say that doesn't exist." said the brown haired one said as a lightbulb went off in his head.
The leader smacked his forehead at his companions' comments. "Of course she exists, you idiots! She's standing in front of us right now." He then turned to me and said in a dumbed down voice one would use to speak with little kids, "Go run along and play outside. Us big boys have to teach that naughty boy a lesson."
"I'm sorry, I didn't get that. I don't speak idiot." I replied bluntly. The leader seemed to be taken back by my attitude. "You guys are just like weak little dogs that are terrified of everything that moves and only have the courage to attack your own shadows when you're in a pack. That's really pathetic."
"What did you say you stupid brat!" the leader finally snarled back after the initial shock faded. He was furious at my insult.
"Oh, so you really are deaf. At first I thought your hearing just sucked, but it turns out that it's actually nonexistent." I said dryly as I watched the leader begin to lose his temper. He seemed like the type of person that was easily angered and easily angered people usually made stupid mistakes. They were easy to manipulate.
"You're going to pay for that!" the leader snapped after that last insult and began to stalk towards me with furious intent.
"H-Hey! W-Wait!" the fat one said to the leader. "Isn't she that instructor's daughter? She'll tell on us if we do anything to her and we'll get into big trouble."
"Well that's why we need to shut her up so that she won't tell on us." the leader said as he continued to advance on me. I moved back slowly, making sure to position the spilt food was between us.
"Leave her alone!" Souji cried in panic as he saw the older student advance on me with the intent to do harm. I was just a little girl in his eyes. There was no way I could survive a beating, or so Souji believed and he was determined that I got out of this encounter unharmed. "I'm the one that you want, so leave her alone!"
"Shut up, you useless freeloader!" the brown haired student growled as he kick Souji in the side again.
"Aww, what's the matter?" I goaded the leader as soon as the spilt food was between me and the tall leader. "Too afraid to come and hit me? I thought you were going to teach me a lesson? Coward."
That was all I needed to the tall leader to charge at me. He stupidly ran forward with the intent of shutting me up but as soon as he charged forwards, he slipped on the spilt food and started falling forward. At this moment, I pulled my right arm back before I aimed at his face with my palm. A broken nose would teach him a lesson. With the momentum from his fall, I didn't have to do much to break his nose[3].
When the bone of his nose collapsed under my hand, I stepped to the side to allow the black haired student to continue to fall until he hit the wooden floor. He groaned in pain as he held his noise with his hands while curling up in fetal position on the floor. The two other students watched in shock, not expecting anything like this to have happened. As soon as they shook off their shock, they ran to their leader to inspect the damage.
"Dude, are you okay?" the brown haired one asked the leader while reaching out to check the damage.
"Ahhh! Don't touch it!" the leader cried as he continued to roll on the floor in pain.
At this time I went back to retrieve my broom from against the wall. Then as loudly as I could manage, I cried, "You ruined my clean floor! You jerks!" while lightly whacking the remaining two unharmed students. With a sensitive ear tuned to his daughter, it took less than half a second for Chichi-ue showed up. Chichi-ue was completely stunned with what he saw as soon as he entered the room and didn't seem to know what to say.
When Chichi-ue finally regained his senses he quickly walked up to me to grab the broom so I couldn't whack the two students any longer and gently asked, "What happened here, Shizu-chan?"
This was when I broke out into fake tears. "T-They were being stupid and not watching where they were going, so they kicked over Souji's food." I said with a believable sob before pointing to Mr. Broken Nose, "Then he slipped on the spilt food and landed on his face. Now Souji has no lunch and my clean floor is r-ruined."
Chichi-ue exhaled slowly after my explanation and released his hold on my broom. "First, you don't hit people like that, even if you're upset, Shizu-chan." Chichi-ue lightly reprimanded me. "Since these three were the cause of this mess, I'll have those two clean up the mess while I check on the broken nose. Shizu-chan, go take Souji to the kitchen so he can get some more food. There are some extra rice balls sitting on the counter."
I nodded okay at Chichi-ue as he sat the older student with the broken nose up so the older student's nose could be evaluated. I then ran to where Souji was and grabbed his hand so I could pull him with me. He seemed too surprise at everything that had happened to really even react. As I began pulling Souji towards the door, I stopped next to the two unharmed students that were tasked with cleaning up the mess and handed the brown haired student the broom. I made sure that when the brown haired one took the broom from my hands that he would stab himself with the large splinter on the handle. I was going to remove that splinter from the broom handle but I might not remove it after all. The splinter was surprisingly useful.
Just as the student flinched at splinter induced wound, I leaned in a bit closer and whispered a warning to the two students in a low and chilling voice, "Your type pisses me off so I would watch myself if I were you. If you continue to piss me off then I will make you and your friends' lives a living hell. By the time I'm done, you'll swear that the sky is green. Do NOT cross me again."
Those two shivered at the intensity of my threat and fearfully watched me pull Souji out of the room with me.
"I thought I told you that I didn't need your help." Souji groaned in pain as soon as we were far enough away from the room for anyone to over hear us. I was going to have to take a look at his sides a bit later.
"And I thought I told you that I was going to ignore your 'I don't need your help' statement." I retorted.
"Just what type of girl are you? Ignoring an injured persons wishes…" Souji said bitterly.
"Whether you like it or not, since you have been here, we have worked on almost every chore and task together. We have taken most of our meals together and we live in the same building. You're my partner in this dojo and my friend outside of the dojo. I will have to be dead first before I stop helping my partner and friend." I answered firmly before I stopped dragging him behind me and turned to face him.
"I... Such words from tiny girl… Thank you..." he muttered under his breath as he looked away from me.
"There is no need to say 'thank you' to me. I care what happens to you and I am only expressing it."
Souji quietly nodded at my response before he gained a mischievous expression on his face for the first time since he arrived at the dojo. He took his hand out of mine and said, "I'm going to ignore what you said earlier. Thank you." Souji then turned and began walking towards the kitchen by himself.
"Hey! You aren't allowed to use my own words against me." I pouted. I quickly dashed after him so I could catch up to him.
Since that incident, Souji stopped trying to run me off whenever I approached him. He also started coming to me every time after the older students beat him. He didn't need to speak to me or tell what happened and I didn't need to ask. He would just sit in front of me quietly as he allowed me to tend to his wounds in silence. I didn't step into his fight with the older students again. Souji had confronted me and told me that he didn't want to have collateral damage and said that would eventually get hurt if I pulled the same stunt I did with those three students from before. I respected Souji's choice and never interfered again. I believed that Souji would beat the bullies one day.
Several weeks after the broken nose incident, Shuusai-sensei decided to hold practice in the form of a tournament match with Souji facing an older student. The student that Souji was facing in this practice match was the same student that had his nose broken by me in that incident. Souji had a displeased but determined look on his face when he was told about this practice match. He was probably thinking that this was just chance for crooked-nosed student beat him more with a bokken[4], but only this time there was a chance to fight back. And yes, I did say crooked-nosed student. After I broke his nose, it never healed straight and now he had a constant twang in voice whenever he spoke, but that's not the main point.
I sat beside Chichi-ue during this match. Chichi-ue wanted Souji to be able to see me during the match because of the quiet mutual trust that had formed between up in the past couple of weeks. He wanted Souji to see that I would be his support during his match.
The match began and it was immediately very clear that Souji was at a disadvantage. The difference in physique was huge. Souji was much smaller than the older student. Souji lunged first, but his larger opponent easily blocked the attack and pushed Souji off before he started his merciless assault. Souji blocked the first few attacks with great difficulty and stumbled backward with the last block. It was obvious that each attack was heavy and that since he was smaller than his opponent, Souji could easily be overpowered. Quickly pulling himself together, Souji launched his next attack, but his opponent was ready for him. The older student tapped on Souji's wooden sword to make his attack go wide. Using that missed attack, the larger opponent got under Souji's guard and landed a strike onto Souji's forehead, resulting Souji tumbling back a few feet with a bleeding injury. The injury on his forehead was superficial, but it bleed profusely and the blood was more than likely going to block his sight.
"Call off the match! Someone go get some ointment that stops bleeding!" Chichi-ue yelled frantically as moved to stand up. The injury on Souji's forehead looked extremely serious to him. I quickly grabbed Chichi-ue's hand to stop him from interfering with the match. There was no way Souji would just allow the match to end like this. He was determined to get in at least one hit.
"I'm fine! I can still fight!" Souji yelled back to Chichi-ue.
"But you're..."
"It's just a small cut. Nothing serious." Souji interrupted Chichi-ue as he wiped the blood off his forehead with the back of his hand as he pleaded, "So please! Let me finish!"
As Chichi-ue was about to reject that notion, I tugged on his hand to gain his attention, "Chichi-ue, this match is important to Souji, so please let him finish. While the cut is bleeding a lot, the cut is superficial. It's nothing serious."
Chichi-ue stared at me for a few seconds, weighing his decisions in his mind before returning his gaze to Souji and replying, "I see. But if there is further danger, I'll call off the match."
"Thank you very much." Souji said before glancing at me and giving me a small nod of gratitude.
The match restarted with a beat from a nearby drum. Souji charged at his opponent first again, but the results were different. Thinking that Souji would react the same as before, the larger opponent used the same attack but Souji had already read that attack and dodged it instead of trying to parry it this time. As soon as Souji dodged his opponent's attack, he aimed his own attack under the older student's guard. The attack failed to connect, but it was enough to throw the older student off balance. Souji then took this chance to knock his opponent's wooden sword out of his opponent's grasp. When his opponent made a movement to pick up his bokken again, Souji aimed at the older student's solar plexus[5]. The older student then collapsed on to the floor with a pained groan, but Souji didn't stop. Caught up in the moment, he continued to hit the older student with his bokken until Chichi-ue stepped in
"Stop it." Chichi-ue said as he grabbed Souji's bokken. "You've already won. So please, stop it."
"I... I won?" asked in an unbelieving surprise. He was still in shock over his win.
Chichi-ue let go of Souji's bokken when Souji regained his senses and quickly knelt down to Souji's height to hug him tightly with a smile. "You've done well. You're really... really great." Chichi-ue said. His voice was shaky and his eyes held unshed tears as he spoke to Souji.
"Kondou-san, your kimono will get blood-stained." said Souji, still unable to let go of his surprise.
"It doesn't matter. With the small body of yours, you've worked so hard."
There was a small moment of silence before Souji responded, "Kondou-san had never called me a 'poor thing'."
"Eh?" Chichi-ue said, not quite understanding.
"Even if my parents died, and even if I can't see Ane-ue again, there must be a meaning to it. That's what Kondou-san said. I think now I get it." Souji explained, "I'm here to become stronger, for Kondou-san's sake."
While this moment was sweet and all, I approached the hugging people and interrupted with the voice of reason. "Chichi-ue, Souji's cut is still bleeding. Let me take him to another room to treat his injury."
"Ah!" Chichi-ue yelped, "I forgot about that! We need to hurry and treat his injury! Shizu-chan you're in charge of taking care of his injury while I check on the other student!" And with that, Chichi-ue leaped into action.
I grabbed Souji's hand and led him to the room right next to the dojo's main practice hall as soon as Chichi-ue disappeared into the crowd that was forming around the defeated student. I quickly sat Souji on floor as soon as we entered the other room before I went to go get my first aid kit. When I returned, I knelt in front of him and began to disinfect the cut.
"You were really amazing." I complemented him softly as I broke the silence, "Not many people can overpower a larger opponent."
"I only beat him because you and Kondou-san gave me the chance to do so… Thank you." Souji replied as he allowed me to dress the cut. "Besides, weren't you the one that broke his nose in the first place? You're smaller than anyone here and you beat him too."
I snorted at his show of gratitude. "I told you once before that you don't have to say 'thank you' to me."
"And I already told you that I'm ignoring what you said."
"You can't use my own words against me. That's really unfair." I said with a small pouty frown.
"Nobody said I couldn't. Besides I already said it and a person can't take back their words." Souji replied as he poked my puffy cheeks playfully.
We continued in playful banter as I fixed his wound before I noticed Souji had begun smiling sometime during our conversation. It wasn't a fake smile people would give to others to prevent them worrying, but a true genuine smile of happiness.
"You're finally smiling." I said quietly with a small smile of my own in response to the big bright smile on his face.
"Oh! I am!" he said in sudden realization. He had not realized he had begun to smile at me.
I giggled at his reaction before saying, "You should smile more often. I like it when you're happy."
At my words, Souji faintly turned red with a faint blush. "Well if Shizuka says so then I'll smile more for Shizuka." he said while looking slightly embarrassed.
I giggled at his response. Souji was really adorable when he was like this.
[1] A Japanese dumpling and sweet made from mochiko and is related to mochi. Often served with green tea, it is eaten year-round, but the different varieties are traditionally eaten in given seasons. Three to four dangoare often served on a skewer.
[2] A two hour period that is roughly around starts around 7:00 p.m. and ends at 9:00 p.m.
[3] It usually only takes roughly about nine pounds of force to break someone's nose, given that the hit is accurate.
[4] A Japanese wooden sword used for training. It is usually the size and shape of a katana, but is sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the wakizashi and tantō. Bokken should not be confused with shinai, practice swords made of flexible bamboo.
[5] A complex network of nerves located in the abdomen, where the celiac trunk, superior mesenteric artery, and renal arteries branch from the abdominal aorta are located. It is behind the stomach and the omental bursa, and in front of the crura of the diaphragm, on the level of the first lumbar vertebra.