Clink*
*Clink*
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"Damn, does this get repetitive," I muttered to myself.
*Clink*
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*Clink*
Two days after meeting Hayato Shirakawa's Grandfather, who was also named Hayato - the younger man was apparently named after him - I found myself sitting in my apartment with an electric screw driver, a few pliers, a wooden rod, a bolt cutter and a whole lot of non-galvanized 16 gauge tie wire. With them I was following several how-to's I'd found online on how to make riveted chainmail armor.
I'd been inspired to start working on this after my visit to the Shirakawa house that Sunday afternoon. Hayato senior was a man in his sixties, but was aging much more gracefully than some I've seen. While his face was wrinkled and his hair had gone steel gray, his hairline hadn't moved an inch. His frame was completely unbent and he had a bunch of wiry muscle to it. Like a compressed coil ready to spring at any moment.
He surprised me when, after I'd bowed in greeting, he had offered his right hand to shake in the Western style. He had a grip like a vice and I had to exert myself to match his strength. I must have passed muster, because he grunted in satisfaction before a smile spread across his face and he clapped me on the shoulder and asked me to sit on the porch and have a drink with him.
Surprised at his sudden welcoming demeanor, I followed the old man to the back of the house where he slid open a door, revealing a small but well kept yard with a large shed in the back, which I assumed was the family smithy. He asked me to sit down and told me to wait, then he headed back into the house for a moment. When he came back out he had a couple of shot-sized glasses and a bottle of sake in his hands. I'd never had sake and despite a couple of visits to a bar with Shizuka I wasn't one for drinking, but out of politeness I had accepted the offered glass and sipped it a couple of times before setting it aside.
Old man Hayato, for his part, had thrown the thing back with surprising speed before filling it up again. This time he nursed the thing as he looked to the back porch. "Brody-san, I'm not sure how to say this, but whatever you've been doing for my grandson, keep doing it. I've never seen him so full of life before. Normally whenever he was home, he'd just head up to his room and never leave. He had no interests, it seemed like, and no friends, he always had this beaten down look to him. Now when he's around, he's got a confidence about him that a real man should have and he's told us how he's been competing against the others in your group."
"Oh c'mon, Shirakawa-san, all I did is show him how to pump iron. He did the rest, the kid's got more to him than anyone really expected, he just needed the kick in the pants to get moving." I told him, not sure how to respond to the gratitude the old man was showing me.
"Well, whatever you did, thank you, my family owes you one and never let it be said a Shirakawa didn't repay his debts. If there's anything I can do for you, just name it." He said.
I was stunned for a moment, unsure of what to say to the man, when a thought came to me. "Actually, there is something you could do. Your grandson had invited me over because he wanted to show you the axe I have. I've got it here." Pulling out the backpack I'd carried the the battle axe in, I quickly pulled the thing out and handed it over to him handle first.
He took it from me and looked it over. "Interesting shape. Francisca-style axe, correct? Hmm... good curve to the head and handle, not many get that right." He then hefted the thing and hurled it towards a pile of wood next to the shed. The blade bit hard into the wood.
"Good balance. You take good care of it and whoever made it knew what he was doing. You want me to make another?"
I coughed for a moment then said: "You will? I mean would? Erm, I'm not sure what to say to that, wouldn't that be a bit expensive?"
He shrugged. "Old roommate of mine back in college is in the recycling service, he specializes in steel, he could get me enough quality metal to arm an entire army, no trouble. And if you're worried about my time, don't, it'd be a pleasure. I retired a few years ago and I've been all twitchy with nothing to do and I've been wanting a project."
"Well in that case I've been bouncing around an idea for the guys who've been in my unofficial club…"
Two days later found me making the links Shirakawa senior would be heating, and treating the rings I'd been making non-stop with the wire he'd given me along with some spare metalworking tools he had. Shirakawa himself was busy with the axes and spear-heads, and when I'd asked him about the shafts and handles, Shirakawa had laughed and said that he knew a few guys who were also retired and bored out of their minds.
Leaving it at that, I'd simply gotten on with the ring making.
*Clink*
*Clink*
*Clink*
"GOD IS THIS MONOTONOUS!"
**********
"What club did you want to help start up?"
"The Western Martial Reenactment Club." I replied.
"...Explain..." Yamada said after a moment.
"Well, the boys in my club know I practice with Western style weapons, and I've shown them how I use them occasionally. In a perfectly safe environment, of course." I then proceeded to explain how one of the young men in the club mentioned how his grandfather was a trained blacksmith and was willing to kit us out.
When I'd finished explaining that tidbit he continued to stare me directly in the eyes, saying nothing but obviously expecting something else from me.
Swallowing, I continued. "Mr. Yamada, I realize that this is unconventional in the extreme, but I've seen how these young men have gone from being walking punching bags with nothing to live for to actually having friends, confidence, their health if nothing else, and that was just with my impromptu weight lifting group. I feel that a club like this would give them a bond between each other and something they'd be able to remember and take strength from for the rest of their lives. Not to mention it'd allow them to stand out for any college application, if nothing else. That's my reasoning, take it as you will, sir."
Yamada was silent for a moment, then he smiled. "I've seen the excellent work you've done with these young men and frankly I'd like to see that continue. You have my official approval, and my personal blessing." He chuckled and continued; "I took two years of English Literature in college, one of the best tales I ever studied was Beowulf. I'd like to see what you can do with these boys, Mr. Brody."
I blinked in surprise and bowed again in thanks to Yamada before leaving. I had so much work to do to get these boys ready. Hey, more hands for clipping rings! WHOO HOO!
**********
"Shields UP AND CLOSE! Keep them UP AND CLOSE! The damn thing's useless if you let it hang like a limp noodle. You've got muscles, USE THEM!" A month later and I was bellowing at the top of my lungs at the now twenty-five strong members of my little crew, or maybe not so little crew as the case may be.
As I sweated with the rest of them, I took note of how well they were taking to the basic drills I'd put together working with my axe and spear. It wasn't fancy and against a trained fighter it might not work all that well but against a horde of zeds or poorly armed and trained thugs? It'd be a killer. Excellent.
There was Kohta, hammering away at a wooden post I'd managed to scrounge up from a pile of scrap from a torn down building before the stuff was taken away, maybe he was just inclined to it but a good way to describe his build was if his chest and stomach had swapped places from when he'd started. I'd seen stumps that weren't that stout… anime physics, gotta love em' sometimes.
I then turned my focus to Hayato, the official president of the club, unofficially our band's Atheling. It turned out the kid had a knack for being a leader and could get the others to work harder than they would have otherwise. He also seemed to have taken to the armed fighting better than any of the others; often going toe to toe with me in our spars with shields and wooden axes and spears.
"Hey Sensei! How about you and Hayato have a spar now. We haven't had one for a couple of days now!" One of the others shouted.
The call was picked up by the others including Kohta. His confidence had gone through roof compared to what it had been before we had met. A grin spread to my face as I recalled a certain incident involving one of the members of the track and field club, a bigger guy whose event was the shot put.
The bastard had tried to start a mess with Kohta, who'd promptly told the taller guy to shove it. When the guy had grabbed him, Kohta had promptly gut-punched him hard enough to floor him with just that single blow. Unfortunately, some of Shot Put guy's buddies saw this and immediately jumped in to avenge their friend. At the same time,some of the muscle nerds happened to find Kohta trying to defend himself against three others and dove in to defend their friend.
The end result was four bruised but grinning Reenactment Club members standing victorious over an equal number of their former tormentors.
Inevitably, news of this spread through the school like wildfire and people realized once and for all what had happened to the school's resident otakus. Shido was, of course,OUTRAGED at what had happened to his students he was the advisor to. He'd immediately taken the mess to the principal, him haranguing Yamada to do something about this travesty, how I was turning the students into violent thugs. I promptly explained that Kohta had been accosted by the Track and Field member and had then been promptly been attacked by other members of the Track and Field club. It was then that several members of Reenactment Club had seen a fellow member and friend being attacked and outnumbered and had jumped in to help. What were they supposed to do? Just sit there and let it all happen?
I ended my argument with a comment on how the Track Club had a history of bullying the members of the Reenactment club before it had been founded. It might have been a good lesson that randomly harassing or outright attacking people wasn't conductive for their long-term health.
Shido did not take well to that final observation and it might have devolved into an actual fight right then and there. Sadly, THAT particular fight was delayed when Yamada brought in Sayako, of all people, as a witness to what had happened, she'd apparently seen the entire encounter and had sided with me and my boys' story completely.
Yamada had nodded and thanked her for her help before dismissing her. As she turned to go I could have sworn she'd purposefully caught my eye before leaving… nah...couldn't have been.
Shido and the Track and Field had been collectively reprimanded for their actions but Yamada had not gone further as he felt the Track and Field Members had been punished more than enough.
I was shaken from my reminiscing when Hayato crashed his axe into the front of his shield, painted with the Dai Gurren Brigade's mark on the face in bright red paint. I'd promptly returned the favor, mine having the Four Star Dragonball painted on mine. The guys really had gotten silly with the painting of the practice shields, and I still wondered at the wisdom of doing so, but in the end, did it really matter that much? Let them have their fun.
"Ready, Hayato?" I said, slight grin on my face.
"Been ready." He replied.
With that the two of us immediately went to the attack. Spears darted, shields clashed and axes hammered, bruises formed and teeth were nearly busted. Shizuka was somewhat in a tizzy over my battered face but I couldn't shake off the grin. Hayato was most certainly ready for what lay ahead.
**********
Five months, five more months until the world as most knew it would end. After my adventures in armor making and putting together the core of an army… wow, never thought I'd say that, I'd been compiling something of a great shopping list of everything me and a surviving group could possibly use.
As I was comparing prices for a water filtration device, my cell-phone suddenly started ringing. Checking the screen, I grinned when I saw that it was Shizuka calling, probably had called in to check whether or not I was ready for our date that evening. Taking a hint from every relationship ever, I'd been ready to go for half an hour andwas just waiting for her. It was forty-five minutes until our rendezvous time before I headed over to her and Rika's place. Hitting the answer button I brought it to my ear and spoke. "Hello?"
"Tom! Hello! I was just calling to make sure you remembered when to come and pick me up."
"6:30, I remember, don't worry honey, I'll be there." Honey...that was a term of endearment I'd only recently been using for her and never at the school. It still felt funny to say it, but I was most certainly not complaining. The two of us had been dating for several months now. I'd never said a word about us being an item at the school, somewhat unsure what the rules about fraternizing with co-workers were, and neither had Shizuka, but either no one had noticed any small signs of us being a couple or they hadn't cared.
For the most part, the two of us had been pretty low-key, we'd each lunch together most days in her office, shooting the breeze at the same time. We'd communicate via text otherwise as we'd normally be pre-occupied with other things for the rest of the day. On the few occasions we had a shorter day at the school, the two of us would normally just laze about, either at my place or hers for a few hours. Boring as hell, I know, but honestly, neither of us were teenagers with hormones howling at us and to be frank, I rather liked it. It was soothing just having someone by your side. That she was a knockout that could put Ms. Monroe to shame certainly didn't hurt either.
To be honest, she was something like a calming element in my life. I was normally a pretty laid-back individual, but when I got agitated over something I could freak out with the best of them. Shizuka, if anything, was an even more relaxed person than me. She might have seemed a bit scatterbrained from time to time but her chipper attitude and the relaxed smile she always had was one of the few things that kept me from howling in terror at the threats coming down the pipe.
She was also one hell of a motivator to make DAMN sure that I got as ready as I could for whatever lay ahead.
A timer went off right then. "Oh, 45 minutes, better get going then." I quickly checked that I had my wallet, my keys and my cellphone, then I locked the door behind meand headed out to pick Shizuka up and head to downtown, Karaoke tonight, under my breath I half-sung, half muttered an old sea-shanty tune I was fond of. "Ten long years, I've courted Sally, Way Hey Bully in the Alley, but all she did was dilly and dally. Bully down in Shin bone al…"
**********
"Well that was fun." I said as we left the Karaoke place. Shizuka had her arm around mine and giggled to herself.
"Yeah it was, why did you never tell me you could sing, Tom?" There was a slight pout on her face.
"Well I guess it never really came up." To be honest it hadn't, which was rather odd. One of the things I was more proud of than anything in my previous life was that I had a natural talent for singing. It was something I'd always had for as long a I could remember. I'd even been professionally taught for years. I'd never done it for money but I might have been able to do so. A combination of stage fright and general lack of confidence had always held me back from really pursuing it.
I'd also had the habit for years of singing when I was by myself, when I was driving in a car, taking a shower, hell, even mowing the lawn, it helped pass the time and when you're good it was a source of pride.
"Well, I'm going to have to bring some of my friends next time, they have to hear you. They'd never believe if I just told them."
That and possibly show me off, my mother used to do that as well. It'd be aggravating from time to time, but when I looked at the oddly conspiratorial look on Shizuka's face I found the idea rather fun. Besides, it'd been a while since I could simply sing my lungs out and I'd been missing that.
"Well, time for home then, unless you've something else in mind." I said with a grin.
To my surprise Shizuka paused for a moment, a blush on her face. "Actually, I do."
Before I could respond she reached up with her left hand and turned my head, then, to my slight surprise, she kissed me... hard. My brain promptly short-circuited and I didn't recognize where she was leading me until we'd already walked through a door of some building I didn't recognize in my dazed state.
It wasn't until I was sitting on a bed I didn't recognize that I realized where I was. "Erm...Shizuka….how did we get in a lov…" My brain short-circuited yet again from something else entirely.
**********
"Just as a warning, I have no clue what to do here."
"That's alright, just let Shizuka-Sensei show you."
**********
It took about three days before the people of my apartment to get sick of being serenaded by On the Street Where You Live over and over again every evening.