The next afternoon, I was caught by surprise when, instead of the five that Kohta had said might have shown up, a full dozen young men had shown up. Most were first-years, though there were a couple of second years among them as well. I also noticed that most of them were that classic string-bean build of those who'd never lifted anything heavier than a bookbag. "Got my work cut out for me." I muttered under my breath.
"Alright boys, first question, do any of you have any pre-existing conditions that I might need to know about? Asthma, diabetes, chronic low blood-sugar or the like?" I asked in a clear voice, shaking most the guys out of their conversations or reading materials. When noone said anything I continued. "Alright 'gents, I feel like I need to warn you so listen up. This will not be a picnic, as Kohta over there can tell you this is going to be tough. I won't demand what you can't provide nor am I looking to push you to the point of breaking, but neither am I going to accept anything short of your best.
"Judging from your physiques, not a single one of you have ever lifted weights. Am I correct?"
I got nods from all of them.
"Right, first thing we're going to do is see where you boys stand. After that we'll start you on the same regimen Kohta's doing, at a lower weight, of course. Don't get discouraged if you can't do the same weights one of your classmates can do. They don't matter, all that matters is giving it your all. We clear?"
More nods, good. I think I got the point across.
"Right let's go over a few rules then we'll get your maxes down…"
I then explained the rules of the weight room to them, making sure they understood clearly not to get in the way of people, to always pay attention to their surroundings, tobe careful around weights and bars.
Then we went through their maxes so we could have something to work from… it was rather embarrassing to watch and I remembered how badly Kohta had done when he started. Glancing over to Kohta, I noticed with satisfaction that he was doing at least three times the weight of the next best in the entire group. He and the others noticed as well, and like I'd hoped it had a good effect on my first trainee. Thankfully, the others seemed to take heart from Kohta's effort instead of being discouraged. Good, if they saw Kohta as someone to match then they'd work all the harder.
About an hour later they'd gone through their one-repetition maxes and seemed to already be a bit fatigued. "Right, all written down, I'll be sure to get a chart and put everyone's maxes on there. Now, before you complain, that isn't to embarrass you guys, it's so you can look at your max and figure out the weights you'll need to do at a glance when we do the real thing."
"Now as trying to do an actual workout now would be counter-productive, we aren't pumping iron today. Follow me, we going to do some stairs." Oh those innocent faces, they have no idea what is about to happen to them.
**********
"...and the entire staircase now smells of puke! It's unsanitary!" Two days later I was standing in the principal's office with one Kyoko Hayashi, a history teacher and the advisor for the Ping Pong club. The latter wasn't really pertinent to the situation, though.
What was, was her complaints about the consequences of that first day of stair runs, I'd been lucky with Kohta in that he seemed to have the same cast-iron stomach I had and wasn't inclined to puking from exertion, six of the new guys, on the other hand, most certainly were. When that had happened I'd called an end to the stair runs early and had the guys who were doing alright help me clean up the mess that had resulted.
Apparently we hadn't done a good enough job as I'd been hauled into the principal's office to get a tongue lashing from the resident disciplinarian. To be fair, she pulled off 'strict librarian' amazingly well. Long, auburn hair, the classic glasses and a full figure. Also only a few years older than me, how she wasn't already married I never understood though the vehemence with which she was going on about my 'illicit activities' where I'd been 'abusing' the students like a 'meat headed thug' was a bit on the harsh side.
Mister Yamada had waited until she was winding down before cutting in. "Miss Hayashi, Mister Brody here has already talked with me several times and I've already given my permission for him to work with anyone who wants to join his group. He already warned me that this might happen, though I doubt he expected half of them to do so all at the same time." That got a nervous chuckle out of me and a basilisk glare from the older woman. "I also told him that as long as no one got hurt I had no problem with what he did, and Brody-san already said that he'd helped the ones who didn't get ill clean everything up and he even warned the Janitor the next morning who said that the... splashed… area was as clean as feasible and the only thing else to do is wait for the smell to fade."
Miss Hayshi was stymied for a moment at how calm and accepting Yamada was at what she felt was justifiable outrage over obvious student abuse and clear misuse of a teacher's place of authority.
Seeing that she wasn't going to answer immediately Yamada continued; "Hayashi-san, do you know which students decided to join up with Brody-san's weight-training group?"
When she shook her head he continued. "I do and I also know that each and every one of them has had at least one unpleasant interaction with the Track and Field club. If this can help them at all then I'm certainly all for it."
Yamada didn't continue and to be honest, he didn't have to. Miss Hayashi understood immediately why these young men had returned even after puking their guts out. Shidou was the advisor to the track and field club - one of the worst in the Nagoya metropolitan area, I might add - and his club seemed to attract the more unpleasant members of the student body. Shidou's presence certainly didn't help either, if anything the man made things worse.
When Ms. Hayashi heard this her entire demeanor changed. She turned to me and said; "I see that I was misinformed about the nature of your group, Brody-san. My apologies." She then bowed to me, not a deep one but enough to show that she was honest in her apology.
"It's nothing, Hayashi-san. I understand completely that you saw, or rather smelled, something terrible happening to the students under your care and you moved to do something about it. It's really quite commendable, actually." I said, a bit embarrassed at the sudden turn around. Damn, Shidou really wasn't liked here was he?
"Thank you, Brody-san. I wish you and the students with you luck." She bowed to the both of us and turned to leave, but right before she left, she turned back, "Actually, let me make it up to you, Brody-san, some of us teachers go out once a month as a group. Usually to one of the local bars. I think you've been here long enough to be invited. We're planning our next get-together a week from now, if you're interested."
"Sounds like a great idea, would it be alright if I brought Shizuka-san with me?" I hadn't been sure what the two of us were going to do this coming weekend and this seemed like a perfect idea.
Something rippled over Hayashi's face for an instant but I wasn't able to translate it before she said that would be fine and closed the door. Huh, wonder what that was. Turning back to Yamada I said; "Well, she certainly changed her tune when she learned I was helping the victims of Shidou-san's goon squad. Remind me again what's the worst that could happen if we fired him?"
"Our jobs would most likely be called into question, Brody-san. And don't worry about Kyoko-san, she's a bit stern and serious about her work, but her heart's in the right place and she does care about the students here." Yamada said, that same serene grin he always kept on his face as strong as ever.
"Well, that's good to know, unless you have anything else I need to know I probably should get back to my class before Kurokawa-san's taken hostage by the students." I said.
Chuckling at my poor joke both of us said our good-byes and I left his office. The little secretary was glaring at me... again, but honestly I couldn't have cared less.
**********
"Sensei, what kind of axe is that you practice with over at the Kendo dojo? I've never seen that style before"
The question came from from one of the lankier members of my trainees. A guy by the name of Hayato Shirakawa, he'd been one of the six to lose his lunch that first day but had worked harder than anyone as far I could tell and had been making amazing progress since he started a month ago. He was a member of the manga club and had aspirations of making a historical manga, though he still wasn't sure what the time period he wanted to use.
Considering the fact that we were already done for the day I decided to humor the kid. "Oh that? Well, it's called a Francisca Battle-axe, it's a type of weapon used by an old Germanic tribe called the Franks. It's actually a brilliant bit of design with that shape."
"Really? How's that?" One of the others who'd listened in said.
"Well, that's because there's a nasty little trick the Francisca does when you throw it. See how the Franks fought either against the Romans or other tribes, though when they were around that wasn't too much of a distinction... anyway. What they did was they usually carried several of those axes and when they got within range they'd all throw one of their axes. If they hit then they'd likely ruin anything they struck but if they hit the ground the shape of the ax and handle would actually make the thing bounce, and I mean bounce hard enough that it could go clean over a man's head or even hit people in the back. That'd ruin someone's day, that's for damn sure."
"It bounces? Yeah, right." Another student called out. "Prove it, Sensei."
"You know what? Alright, I'll show you how that thing can bounce. Anyone else want to watch?"
I got affirmatives from all thirteen of them.
"Right then, follow me."
We reached the dojo quickly enough. "Just wait outside here, guys and find me a clear spot will you?"
I quickly slid the door open and, finding my axe, I grabbed the thing and dashed back out with it.
"Alright guys, you find a spot?"
They had, it was in a corner of the track, empty at this time of day. It was an open space that had been too odd a shape or too small to be used for anything and so had been left alone. The tall stone wall that separated the school from the rest of the world stood more than high enough to act as a back wall.
"Right then... hmm... see those old chairs over there? Stack 'em up about man height then stand WAY clear and just watch."
Once that was done, I hefted the axe a few times and gave it a few twirls in my hand, it spun fast enough to actually humm for a moment, anime physics can be awesome sometimes…
It seemed to do the job of impressing all the young idiots with me. "Right then, here I go."
I reached back and hurled the thing, intentionally striking the ground in front of the stack of chairs. There was a sharp 'thunk' as the ax struck the ground and, true to itsword, it really did bounce and flew a good head's length over the chairs. It didn't stop there though, it actually hit the wall and bounced yet again, this time hitting the back of the top chair and making it fall off the stack with a crash.
There was silence for a moment then the entire group began cheering like I'd done some amazing feat.
"Do it again!" was the general response.
After stacking the chairs again I hurled the thing again, and again the thing bounced though this time it hit the middle chair, sending both it and the top chair flying backwards... damn, anime physics are fun.
"Alright, that's enough guys. I'd rather not have someone get hurt, okay?" Despite a few grumblings they acquiesced. Hayato then surprised me when he picked up the axeand examined it for a moment. "You know, Sensei, my family used to be blacksmiths and my grandpa still has the old family forge in his backyard and is pretty good at it. He could probably learn how to make these pretty quickly."
I was about to ask why he would want to do that when that same thought came to my mind... hmmm... we might be on to something here. "If you want to, Hayato, I could lend you the axe so you could should show it to your grandfather next chance you get. It'd be nice to have a blacksmith take a look at it and tell me what he thinks."
"Thanks, Sensei, my family lives half an hour from the school, actually, I could show it to him Sunday."
"Right... you know it might be better if I came with you, just in case something happens, rather not have you in trouble if you were walking around with it."
"Good point, I'll be sure to tell my folks you'll be coming."
As the rest of us started heading back a plan really did begin to form in my mind. Now, could I teach a bunch of physically rehabilitated nerds how to be a warband? Well, it wouldn't hurt to find out now would it? I also had all that pay I wasn't really using, no real point in saving for retirement when the undead are coming in less than a year, is there? Now how to get the iron blanks…