Chapter 6: Performances and Pals

Saturday afternoon Takashi walked down a little street to the Maruyama dojo. It was a pleasant stroll, and he quite enjoyed it, but he found his thoughts drifting to Ikeda. He hadn't been able to see her yesterday, and it had snowed for the first time that winter. It wasn't the heavy, wet drifts of late December, but it had gotten colder overnight. He hoped that she would be warm enough in the loose kyudo uniform.

The Maruyama dojo was a medium sized building flanked by apartment buildings. A group of giggling girls was standing by the entrance, staring at any male that passed them. Takashi ignored them and stepped inside, took off his shoes in the entrance hallway, and walked into a large, airy room with ceder floorboards and an unusually high ceiling.

"Morinozuka-san!" a voice exclaimed, and he found himself being hugged by a terribly excited Ikeda, who was, he noted, wearing the hakama pants and keiko-gi of the kyudo uniform and was apparently quite warm. Her obi, he saw with amusement, had little white arrows embroidered on the dark cloth.

"I so glad you could come! I was worried that something might have come up yesterday and you couldn't tell me that you couldn't come, but here you are!" She took a deep breath after this speech and exaled loudly. "Come! Meet my friends!"

With that, she took Takashi by the arm and towed him to where a group of three people stood talking. "Friends!" Ikeda announced, "This is the boy I was telling you about!" The three turned to look at him, and he was able to see their faces.

One was a small, delicate girl, who's small size and short brown hair reminded him an awful lot of Haruhi Fujioka. Her skeptical expression really reminded him of Fujioka.

Next to her was a male with shocking blue hair and a ten-watt smile. He grinned at Takashi and held out his hand. "Hi!" he said with a strong Osaka-ben accent, "Pleased to meetcha!" When Takashi took his outstreached hand, the blue-haired boy crushed it in his grip. The boy was strong! But the small girl stopped him before the blood circulation in Takashi's hand was cut off.

"Enough, Arata. Leave the poor boy alone," she said. She gestured around the small group. "I'm Mika Sanu. The guy who tried to break your hand is Arata Yoshida, and this girl," she pointed to the last member of the group, a dark-haired girl who seemed to melt into the backround, "is Yoko Ageda." She smiled wryly at Takashi. "We already know who you are. You're all Sumiko-san talks about."

"Alas! My poor Miko-chan! To be ensnared by this brute!" the blue-haired boy, Yoshida shouted, throwing his arms around Ikeda.

"Ha ha. Please stop calling me that, Yoshida-san," Ikeda said, trying to extract herself from Yoshida's grasp, "You know I hate it."

There was a shout from a man wearing a long rove, and suddenly Takashi was hustled to a row of narrow benches where he watched the contestants line up facing a row of straw targets. Ikeda was the last one on the right.

An elderly man hurried along the line of archers, giving each of them the seve-foot bow used in kyudo.

"Ready!" the robed man shouted, and all of the archers bowed before standing stock-still, their faces towards the targets.

"Takahashi!" the robed man roared, and the boy farthest from the right went into a stance. Quite honestly, Takashi couldn't tell if it was the right stance, but he gathered from the various people in the audience nodding and muttering 'good' under their breaths that the boy's position was, in fact, correct. The boy lifted the enormous bow and carefully nocked the arrow, his leather archery glove making little whispery noises against the bow in the sudden silence that filled the dojo. Then he drew a deep breath, then slowly raised the bow high, so that it was almost perfectly straight, the arrow parallel to the floor. With the same slow, calm movements, he pulled the nocked arrow back until it reach his cheek.

There was a moment of complete stillness in the room. No one so much as breathed.

And then the boy released the arrow, and it plunged into the target where it stuck, whirring slightly. He held his stance for a few moments more, before relaxing. The audience exploded into thunderous applause.

"Oono!"

The performance continued, with each contestant being named before they positioned themselves, drew, stood, and eventually fired. Takashi could only make very loose judgements about each archer, but he generally able to tell which ones would be considered skilled. He was not surprised to see that most of them were not, as a matter of fact, very good. Several of them could hit the target, but most arrows fell short. Ikeda's friend Yoshido-san was one of the few really skilled archers, and while her two female friends weren't as good as their blue-haired comrade, they were definitely above average in their shooting.

At last, it was Ikeda's turn. The tall girl received her bow and arrow, just as everyone had, before she turned her feet and slid into a stance.

Takashi drew in his breath. Ikeda's stance was different from what all the others had done. It was wider, with the left foot forward and pointed straight ahead, whereas the right foot was far back, with the toes pointing right.

The arrow was notched, and Ikeda stood for a full two minutes before she drew the string back. And here too, Ikeda's technique was different from the other archers, She drew the string farther back, until the end of the arrow nearly touched her ear. Takashi heard the man sitting next to him gasp quietly, "What fascinating technique!"

There was a small swishing sound, and then Ikeda's arrow was protruding from the center of the target, quivering.

Several members of the audience actually stood and cheered. Takashi clapped as hard as he could.

"End of preliminaries!" the instructor said, and all the archers began to mill about, going to their friends and families for congratulations and whacks on the back.

Ikeda came bouncing over with a gigantic grin on her face. "Did you see me?" she asked, sounding like a child in its first performance of a play, "Did you watch?"

"Of course," he said, before Ikeda's companions walked over to congratulate each other.

"You were great, Miko-chan!" Yoshido exclaimed, tears of joy running down his cheeks, "Such elegance! Such style!"

"You really were very good," Sanu said, striding to stand next to her blue-haired comrade. "It's always fascinating to watch you shoot."

"Mm," Takashi agreed, and was suddenly stared at by three pairs of astonished eyes.

"Why, that's the first sound I've heard you make," Sanu said, and turned to the quiet girl, Ageda. "Don't you agree, Yoko-chan?"

"Yes. I had in fact begun to surmise that he was a mute." Ageda's speech was very formal, and had a lilting quality to it that was very pleasant to listen to.

"Will you come for the matches, tomorrow?" Sanu asked.

"If Ikeda wants me to," the tall freshman replied.

"Ooh yes! I did much better with you here!" Ikeda turned to her companions. "Didn't I do better?"

Her question was met by three sagely nods from her friends. "Yes indeed, you could not have performed better had the Emporer himself been here," Ageda commented.

"I must go," Takashi said. "Or I'll be late for dinner." He turned to Ikeda. "Are you going back as well?"

"No, I'll catch dinner with these folks."

"Mm." With that, Takashi began to walk out the door. He heard Yoshido shout, "We'll see you tomorrow, you uncultured brute!" before he was out on the street, heading back towards the university.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Some Things of Note:

The Kyudo uniform: Hakama pants are large, loose pants, tied at the waist with a sort of drawstring/belt thing. Keiko-gi are the loose white shirts worn by most martial arts practitioners. An obi is the wide belt usually tied around kimonos, but in Kyudo women tie one around their hakama.

Yoshida's Nickname for Ikeda: 'Sumiko' ends in 'miko' which is the Japanese word for 'shrine maiden', a Shinto priestess. 'Miko-chan' would mean 'little priestess', referencing the female kyudo uniform, which is extremely similar to the clothing of a Shinto priestess.

The Kyudo Performance: Since I don't think I can really explain all the different positions in Kyudo, I'll let a professional do it. Go to .org and read the 'Technique' page in the Meishin Kyudojo part. It's fascinating.

Thanks to all my readers! Remember, I'll update on Sunday morning, and then there's no updates for three weeks. I really wish I could, but unfortunately, my relatives have no wireless access. And yes, I know that the chapter name is terrible, but I really couldn't think of anything else. Suggestions would be welcome.