It was around 8:30 a.m when Fukuyama Kana and Eiji Kisano got off a van that transported the whole Karate club members.
The coach of the students and also the captain of the club, Jirou Takumi were leading the pack of karate teens prepared to start a war.
Eiji, who walked beside Kana, was bewildered by the bloodlust that was oozing from them.
"U-Um, is it normal for them to be like this even though this is just a friendly competition?"
"Don't ask me. It's also my first year." The unconcerned Kana shrugged him off, as always.
This group consisted of the freshmen, sophomore and third years altogether. They all would be participating in their age and weight category.
Kana would enter the lightweight class for the girls and Eiji will also be in the lightweight division for the boys.
They were at a venue accustomed to hold competitions as such. Preferably, it is a small arena that is great for a regional event.
People near the Karate members would steer away from them as they approached the entry.
The grand entrance welcomed the hot-blooded Karate contestants as the other school's participants tried to gauge their strength.
In here, they are all ferocious animals, cautiously measuring their potential opponents for the tournament.
There are some veterans, in other words, some third years, who are extremely adept in analysing a person's physical capability.
They are the most fearful ones.
Anyway, with Captain Jirou and the club advisor leading the pack, they arrived at the main arena's entry.
As they entered the main area, they saw a dozen of matted squares for matches for each category of weights class.
Today is the qualifying match for all of the participants and as seen from the crowd of them, the goal for the day is to diminish as many as possible.
For that reason, there are multiple matches scheduled on each matted square. This way, the tournament would go much faster than expected.
Around the podiums are spectators that came to admired the sports or to enjoy the Karate match that the promising youngsters are bringing into this field.
"Woah..." Eiji was in awe about the huge establishment they were in.
He never walked into a place like this so it is obvious he was acting alien to this place.
Moreover, he was going to be in the middle of more than thousands of onlookers anticipating the event he was in.
Speaking of onlookers, there were still some empty seats due to the tournament not being on its semi-final or final phase. However, the number of people was still a lot.
"Oi Kisano! Don't stray away and come here!" This voice was not Jirou's, not the club advisor, but it was indeed Kana's voice.
"S-Sorry, I'm coming..."
Kana used Eiji's first name but the same could not be applied in Eiji's case. He feels like he is inferior to her in terms of strength so he thought it would be inappropriate to start calling her Kana.
As a result, she was the only one on the first name basis.
Anyway, they moved together in a spacious room where they would get ready for their participation.
Along with them were other schools busy with their preparation. And just like before, everyone was sizing up each other
Facing the look of others, Kisano was nervous. That's pretty common because the first years had mutual feelings about this whole atmosphere.
Nevertheless, they all endured it.
The whole members had to go through some processing such as measurement for weights to confirm their weight class.
Their names were also registered and sorted on the sheets for which their opponents were decided.
Kisano did it and knew who is he competing against.
It was a guy named Taketa Osamu.
The name did not have much significance to Eiji. It was the level of skills and strength that he wanted to know about his opponent.
Looking at his fellow clubmates and seniors, they were serious. This kind of mentality did not come up into Eiji nor it did not show with Kana.
But with the rest of the Karate club members, they were treating this competition as much as a national event.
This was a way of protecting the school's reputation.
If they were not taking the competition so seriously, then they would have been taken for granted and even be the centre of humiliation.
Nobody here wants that.
That is why the Club's advisor and the Captain, Jirou Takumi, wants to make a stand.
After all, they are not the only ones to be thinking like that.
Everyone is trying to avoid tarnishing their school's reputation.
With that in mind, they all waited for their first match to begin. Everyone was nervous but at the same time, excited to win it.
Now all of the students were on standby near several matted squares of 8 x 8 metres.
After some time, Eiji was the first one to be called out and was told to get prepared for his match.
He was anxious, obviously since he never joined any competition or Karate match before.
He looked at Kana before moving forward. She just uncaringly shoos him away and told him to get on with it.
'At least encourage me godammit!' Eiji was screaming internally.
He was led by one of the staff onto the selected matted square for the match. As he approached his designated podium, he noticed someone was already on there.
He was wearing the traditional white outfit, the gi, just like himself. Eiji assumed that he was the opponent that he would be facing off.
Taketa Osamu.
He gulped some saliva due to stress.
"It's here." The staff indicated at the matted square. Eiji took a long breath and exhaled to subside his nervousness. It negated his stiffness a little bit so he guessed it was alright for him.
As he marched towards the two-step stairs to face his opponent, he clipped his foot to the edge of the stairs and clumsily lost his balance.
His embarrassment level peaked. He tried to save his tumble by putting his feet in weird positions.
Fortunately, he was able to prevent himself from falling but the weird performance he just gave out was on another level.
His opponent, Taketa, was confused and even let out a giggle.
Kana let out a long sigh, not wanting to see the sight of Eiji anymore.
However, the seniors laughed at his small strange comedy show, especially Captain Jirou.
"Hahahaha!! He is a great guy, don't you think?"
He nudged the Club's advisor and shrank the heavy atmosphere amongst them.
"Is he going to be alright?" The advisor was worried about him.
Eiji's face was red and could not think about proceeding to the match.
But with enough resolve, he kept his shameful act at the back of his head and prepared to start the fight.
The referee watched the two participants getting ready for the match. Those two's faces were clad with seriousness.
He raised his right arm and brought it down at once. Then he declared the start of the Karate match.
"Shoubou Hajime!"
The second the referee blurted that one, Taketa dashed towards Eiji and threw a kick straight to his body.
"-Eh?" Eiji was startled.
Taketa's kick made contact with Eiji's stomach.
The referee noticed and signalled the judges by putting 2 fingers up and uttered, "Wazari!" This means two points were allocated to Taketa.
Before Taketa could launch another attack, Eiji hurriedly put up his hand and shouted.
"Timeout! Timeout!"
"....."
Taketa stopped attacking and stepped back from his opponent.
'Heh. What an easy match." Taketa was confident and then turned back to his position.
The referee gave the timeout while simultaneously, at the back of his mind, he was getting bored of Eiji and wished for this match to end.
The Club's advisor put a hand on his face, hiding his disappointed expression aimed at the freshman.
'Was it too soon to let him take part?' He lamented over Eiji.
Jirou worriedly stare at Eiji
The person in question waved at the group of his clubmates and drew their attention to him.
Everyone was wondering what was he doing. Then to confirm their doubts, he pointed at a specific person.
He was calling for someone. And that someone was Fukuyama Kana.
"....."
Eiji signalled her to come near the matted square.
'What does he want!' The annoyance that Kana felt was indescribable.
Nevertheless, she went near the podium and Eiji came close to the edge. He squatted.
Kana looked up to Eiji and inquired.
"What's the problem now." Irritated as she was, Eiji knew about her feelings but he couldn't help but ask for help.
"....I'm scared to even ask you now. Stop making that scary face!"
His fearful expression showed and Kana kind of retracted back her annoyed gaze to finish this small talk as quickly as possible.
The referee and Taketa were waiting for those two so time was running. And no one likes time wasters.
"You are getting scared of me or your opponent? Because to me, you were running away from him."
"...N-No, it's not like I was scared!"
"Then why did you request a timeout so early!?"
The more he talked, the more confused Kana was.
"I was startled by his movements."
"What? Was it too fast?"
".....No it was the...contrary..."
"...Hah!?"
"I just wanted to confirm if it was just me that detected this peculiarity."
Kana silently came up with a conclusion in his mind.
'Does he have some kinetic vision or was he too adapted to my speed?'
Kana did not sound arrogant when she basically stated that she was faster than Taketa, but it could be one possibility.
Maybe Eiji's body and mind had adapted to her great speed of attacks that for Taketa's, it seems slow in his perspective.
The only plausible cause she could deduce was the fact that he would always train with her, at least that was his only option due to Jirou's choice.
However, that would explain his improvement.
Or another reason that Eiji saw Taketa being 'slow' was that he already had kinetic vision.
But that would've not explained the bouts that he had with Kana. He would always get hit.
Maybe, his eyes could follow her movements but his body could not respond to that.
Both seem like a good explanation for Eiji's behaviour but now she hasn't got the time to be thinking about that.
"Slow or fast, are you going to abandon the match or what?"
"N-No..."
"Then get on with it and fight!"
"Okay okay, no need to get so heated up."
Eiji stood and nodded at the referee. Kana went back to the group and stood next to Jirou.
Jirou leaned over and whispered mischievously.
"What was that~? Forgot to give him a kiss for good luck before the match~"
*Crack!*
A vein popped.
Her arm swung fast and was directed towards Jirou's private part but he evaded it with a little bit of hip movement.
"Right on the mark, I see~"
It was no use in arguing any further so she stopped trying to make him suffer. They all focused on Eiji's match.
His official match was about to begin appropriately now.
The referee signalled the start and then, Taketa and Eiji commenced their fight.
...........
Sitting on one of the auditorium's red seats, Harue finished patching up one of the outfits that will be used in their next theatric act.
The reason why he completed it so quickly is that there weren't many intricate adjustments that needed to be added to the outfit.
That's why Harue started with the easy ones. Now he was heading on for other time-consuming outfits.
As he was about to, he detected a peculiarity in the club's president face.
Paro's expression seemed distraught and undetermined on something. Harue has seen Paro in that state but not that intense.
She watched all the club members practising their different roles on stage.
Harue thought that she was worried about some petty details in the stageplay or the casting choice. Nevertheless, Harue did not ignore her.
He grabbed the completed outfit and went to Paro. The excuse of checking if the outfit was great for its detail came to his mind.
Paro did not yet notice Harue when he was within range. He called out to her.
"Paro-san, is this outfit good?"
"Yes."
Without throwing a glance at it, she settled with it.
Harue now knew that something was troubling her mind. He proceeded to nudge her shoulder and bring her back from her rumination.
"...Uh? What happened, Harue-kun?"
"You did not even look at the attire and you stated that it was good. What happened to you, Paro-san?"
"It's.....nothing....." She veered her head away.
"Doesn't seem like nothing to me." Harue tried to expose her worries to him.
"I-....." Paro's words were stuck in her throat but when seeing Harue, she ensured herself that she could say the words she kept to herself and share them with him.
"Go on, I'm listening." Harue gently pushed Paro to lay out her worries.
"Harue-kun,.....Should I......Should I make Rina-san quit this club...?"