The greenery in front of Fujiishima Sentai Gakuen seemed to flank the picturesque scenery of the prestigious academy during a summer afternoon. Two fields of grass were just right behind the fences that protected the school grounds. For those who have designed the landmark's architecture, strategically placing the well maintained open areas to make the structure behind it like a castle, told of their precise attention to detail. However, during the afternoon after the last of the preliminaries, students of different levels crowded the grounds for training.
"Seijurou, what are you doing here?..", surprised, Chizuru asked, as Seijurou approached to watch her train. "I'll be done in a couple more hours. You can stay somewhere inside first. It's hot out here."
Seijurou just shook his head. "I was actually hoping I can join your training."
"Eh?..", reacted Chizuru in confusion, as she could not comprehend what Seijurou told her. "What training? This is marksmanship training under Nagaoka-sensei."
"Precisely, Chizuru."
It really was a drag for Seijurou to start training again, but after proudly proclaiming that he would after visiting Satsuki, he just could not back down on his word. Such a simple reason would have been lame for anyone. However, thinking about that experience with Satsuki on the Octagon was still the predominant factor of his motives. And while watching Chizuru fight in the preliminaries the other day, another spark lit up inside of him.
"Conjuring thermal vision through wards..", muttered Seijurou, as a "Magical Imagery Screen" replayed Jax and Kasumi's fall out of bounds in the middle of the Octagon. "Just how far have you gone, Chizuru?"
"It seems you haven't moved on from Taneda-san's new jutsu (technique)..", Hayama said to Seijurou while watching the slow motion replay. "Save that for later. They're figuring out who won the match now."
Jax was lying on the grass semi-conscious with a nosebleed, while the imagery played. The referee was not sure though if his current condition was due to running out of stamina or because of holding Kasumi's body. Although the Priestess in training continuously bowed shyly and apologetically to Jax, it did not change the fact that being knocked out was not the determinant to win the duel. Since both of them landed out of bounds, the referee carefully determined who touched the ground first.
At first glance, it seemed that Jax landed first, since he protected Kasumi from a painful landing. But meticulously looking at the slow motion replay, that was not the case.
Jax slowly stood up, while his teammates went to him. They watched together the imagery, as it slowly played.
"I will protect you from harm when I can..", said Jax to Kasumi, while the imagery revealed the conclusion of the match. "But unfortunately, I have to take this duel away from you. I'm very sorry, Kasumi-chan."
"Oh, no, no, no! It's okay, really!..", said Kasumi, as they both bowed repetitively to each other. "It's a fight after all."
"You want to grab tea aft-..", Jax was cut by Chizuru's whack on the head, rendering him unconscious again.
"While Satsu-chan's in the healing ward, you go find a way to get another girl?!..", exclaimed Chizuru before taking a long and satisfied sigh. "Seriously, baka-hentai."
Thinking that Kasumi would be crushed by his weight when they fell, Jax planted his axe to reverse their positions, just a split second after her fingers came into contact with the ground. The results became clear as day when they paused that moment on the holographic magical screen.
The audience erupted with a loud roar, as Chizuru, Jax, and Kazuma were proclaimed winners. The spectators were in a state of euphoria once more. With so many twists and turns, the duel of the best of the first years was concluded. However, contrary to the surrounding atmosphere, there was nothing but silence in Seijurou's world.
Being deep in thought, Seijurou reflected on where he was currently. Sure, he was able to comply with the demands of the school he went to, but thinking back, it was barely. Watching his classmates deliver such an amazing show, he suddenly felt so small.
"Such a gentleman until the end that Xi Jaejin..", said Hayama while clapping his hands in appreciation. "Taneda-san may have miscalculated a little, but the plan somehow worked."
"I've got ways to go, sensei..", Seijurou broke his silence while catching his teacher's attention. "I've been left behind."
"Finally feeling competitive, Erida-san?..", said Hayama, as he put a hand on Seijurou's shoulder. "Don't worry, boy. You're not so far behind."
But Seijurou was still skeptical about himself. "Still.. I have to be better than what I am now."
Hayama smiled at the thought of his student's response. "Speaking of which, based on your preliminary result, you will likely get a quest with Kinjou-san, which means we have to decide on your 'Build' already."
The sound of an arrow hitting a chunk of wood brought Seijurou back to the present. Looking a little lost, he stared at his surroundings while trying to remember what he was going say again. And then, his gaze fixed on Chizuru, who was just standing in front of him.
Chizuru blushed and laughed before shaking her head. "It's so funny when you zone out like that, Seijurou."
"What was I saying again?..", asked Seijurou while scratching his head.
"Training..", replied Chizuru, as she still tried to stifle her giggles. "What about it, Baka-jurou?"
"Yes, archery..", answered Seijurou, as he looked at the wooden blocks in the middle of the baseball field. "Let's do some target practice."
While Seijurou went with Chizuru to ask Nagaoka-sensei to join their practice, someone from the other side of the school's front yard watched him closely. Sitting at the bleachers on the sidelines of the football field, Jax took a short break from training, as he kept a close eye on Seijurou. At the same time, he was deep in thought of what happened during the preliminaries.
"That wasn't exactly what I wanted to show him..", Jax thought while crushing his drinking cup in frustration with his hand. "I even kept overshooting my attacks."
After taking another moment to take a deep breath and regain focus, Jax stood up and grabbed his axe. He, then, went towards centerfield and called for his two loyal thugs, Mizunoto and Igaraki, who were also training. All three clasped their hands like being in prayer signifying the start of a sparring session.
Igaraki Keigo proceeded in drawing his two-handed gripped "Warhammer", while Mizunoto Gin drew his axes with one on each hand. Right at the moment Jax drew his "Battleaxe", the two immediately charged at him with relentless fury. But just like his duel with Fukuoka Kanae the other day, he efficiently blocked every strike.
"Yes, this is it..", said Jax, while the sound of metal clashed on metal with his blocks. "Who would've thought that Kanae-chan is equal to you two combined?"
"Don't belittle us, Jax-sama..", chuckled and replied Mizunoto, as he went for a chop which was blocked immediately. "She ate the 'shroom' when she gave you a hard time."
"Oi, Gin! Keep your concentration..", reminded Igaraki, who was readying a full swing with his hammer. "Jax-sama only allows top tier training."
The speed and succession of attacks were indeed at par with Kanae's, and Jax was very sure that he was pulling off the same feat in defending. However, it was also likewise when he tried to look for an opening in counterattacking. There was none.
"Or am I hesitating?..", asked Jax to himself, as he used the handle of his axe to block a strike from the blind side. "Was it because I kept on overshooting that I'm now reluctant to strike?"
An unusually large blonde man in his fifties suddenly entered the field to end the sparring. "That's enough, you three! Back to individual training."
Jax stopped to turn towards the old man and sneered. "Eh? We were having so much fun, jiji."
"J-.. Jiji?! Have you no respect, you arrogant kid!..", shot back their teacher, which caused Mizunoto and Igaraki to laugh silently. "One day I'll have your head, Xi! Now, back to individuals!"
"Fine, fine, I'll go over there to practice my swings, Vignar-sensei..", said Jax reluctantly while walking past his teacher to go to the wooden dummies.
"Hold up..", said Vignar, as he stopped Jax with his gigantic arm. "Something bothering you, kid?"
"I thought you wanted my head..", Jax growled, as he stood not looking at his sensei. "Why bother?"
"Even with that nasty attitude of yours, I can tell if you're frustrated about something..", replied Vignar while impaling his gargantuan warhammer to the ground to lean on. "Which doesn't make sense since you did a pretty good job in your duel the other day and in training today."
"Enlighten me, sensei..", said Jax, as he finally gave Vignar his full attention. "As far as I know, I couldn't even land a hit."
"Boy, with that giant axe of yours, keep swinging it, it'll hit something eventually..", said Vignar while examining Jax's ebony axe. "But take one hit, you're done, especially with our Build that doesn't require a lot of armor."
Jax pretended to ignore his teacher's words, as he proceeded to go to the training dummies. It was because he had heard those teachings before already. Although he seemingly projected the image of him being apathetic, he still had hoped that he could learn something new when Vignar talked to him.
"The way you move since the preliminaries..", added Vignar while looking at Jax walk away. "I like it. You look like you're light on your feet."
And with that, Jax had come to a realization. "That's it! I'm going to have a word with that otaku again."
The wind picked its pace up, as soon as the sky turned into a tinge of orange. Looking towards the western horizon, the sun was inching closer towards the sea. After about an hour, the training session of the "Ranged" class builds was close to wrapping up. Darkness and wind speed were slowly becoming factors in obstructing efficient practice with shooting arrows.
However, it was not the case for Sejurou because he was terrible with the bow and arrow to begin with.
"Erida-san! You're close to hitting the wooden dummy..", said Ayuzawa Musashiro, Seijurou's classmate and designated training partner that day. "Keep at it."
It was very evident that Musashiro, an Archer in training, is a very positive and outgoing boy. The training dummy that they were trying to hit has a "bullseye" in the middle of its body, and it comes natural for every archer to hit that in practice. But in Seijurou's case, hitting the actual wooden dummy first was the goal, and Musashiro kept encouraging him more, nevertheless.
"Oi, Baka-jurou! You're doing it all wrong..", exclaimed Chizuru while appearing out of nowhere. Without any moment's delay, she stood behind Sejurou and held his elbow up. After that, he guided his arm and body to get in line with the bow. "Now, pull the knock. Take a deep breath. And release."
After a grueling hour of trying to hit the target, Seijurou finally hit the dummy. For him, who had terrible aim since childhood, it was actually quite a feat even if he only hit the foot of the wooden doll.
"Yes! Erida-san, you finally hit it!..", Musashiro cheered, as Seijurou awkwardly smiled and scratched his head. "Great job, partner!"
Chizuru sighed while looking at Musashiro skeptically. "It's all well and good to encourage your partner, Ayuzawa-kun, but don't you think you should've taught him the basics first?"
"Taneda-san, sometimes, the best teacher is encouragement."
"And where the hell did you learn that from?"
Musashiro took a deep while slowly raising a thumbs up with a bright smile. "Ero-manga Senpai."
"Okay..", replied Chizuru blankly, as she turned her attention to Seijurou. "Let's wrap up, Seijurou.. training's almost over."
Seijurou gave Chizuru a serious look while handing the bow and quiver to Musashiro. "No. Let's move on to the next."
"Eh? Why? You probably won't gain anything if we continue..", said Chizuru reluctantly, as her shoulders slumped. "Besides, I don't get why you're suddenly into marksmanship. All you really cared about is to be at the receiving end before."
"Exactly..", said Seijurou while picking a wooden shield up. "Next up is actually a two way training for us. Try to hit me. I'll be a mobile target, but please use blunts."
It left Chizuru and Musashiro baffled afterwards. Next, they looked at each other in confusion, as Seijurou began to walk towards a distance. And then, a look of worry took over Chizuru's face.
"Are you sure?..", asked Chizuru with concern while preparing to replace her quiver with blunt ammunition. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"Yeah, Erida-san..", Musashiro added, as he too prepared his stock of arrows. "There must be another way. We do have mobile wooden dummies."
"Seijurou smirked while raising his shield confidently. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Chizuru sighed before she and Musashiro reluctantly aimed at Seijurou. "Well, here goes nothing."
"No!..", yelled Seijurou, which caused the two archers to halt. "Shoot with the intent to kill!"
Chizuru frowned, as her patience may have reached its limits. "Baka! You know I can't do that to you!"
But Ayuzawa Musashiro let his arrow loose, while Chizuru was still talking. Good thing was that Seijurou was able to catch the arrow with his bare hand.
"To call this training, I'm going to need you to do a little bit more than that, Ayuzawa..", Seijurou taunted while throwing the arrow back at Musashiro, which he pathetically missed. "Now, come at me with all you've got if you call yourselves rangers."
It got Chizuru to smile and blush while shaking her head. For some reason, she got fired up the way Ayuzawa was too. All she thought about was concern for her stupid little childhood friend at first. But it suddenly looked like something big was about to change.
"Fine! Have it your way, Seijurou..", said Chizuru, as she let loose consecutive shots as well. "I won't hold back."
After his provoking remark, Seijurou was now under a rain of arrows. The two really did not hold back anymore, as it was evident with their inhumanly speedy knocking and releasing. It may have seemed that he had no place to escape, but it was actually the scenario he was looking for.
Right at the moment Seijurou went face to face with the first arrow, his dance to defend himself against the flurry of threats began. Most of his movements were evasive maneuvers. However, it was virtually impossible to dodge all of it. So, he used the wooden shield to block those that were unavoidable. The direction of all the projectiles were coming from the front, so as a result, he was beginning to get the rhythm of the intervals between dodging and blocking.
"Erida-san is amazing!..", said Musashiro in awe while aiming and shooting relentlessly. "He purposely learned how to shoot an arrow with a bow just to perfect on how to defend against it. He's really incredible!"
"Of course! He always was..", Chizuru agreed proudly, as she too did not stop releasing her arrows. "He just needs to get his motivation back."
Chizuru was spot on as revealed by Seijurou's thoughts. He always had it in his mind since his mother died that he lost all the will to move forward. However, when the preliminaries drew to a close, he found a way to overcome his reluctance to make himself better than his current self.
"Sure, I didn't learn everything my mother needed to teach me..", Seijurou thought while weaving himself through the shower of arrows. "But what she was able to leave me with.. I'll make sure to be the best at it."
Through evasion and using the shield, Seijurou worked his way to approach the archers at point blank range. As Chizuru fired her last arrow, Seijurou deflected it out of the way, and he was right in front of her.
Darkness engulfed the land by the time the trainees packed things up. Since Seijurou, Chizuru, and Musashiro were just first years, they were the ones designated to stay behind to clean up. Seijurou, then, realized that it was one of the reasons why Chizuru always came to him late before going home everyday. But it was not that idea that got stuck in his mind.
"Hey, Seijurou..", called Chizuru, while they walked home. Shortly after, she grinned with a smug look on her face. "Why did you suddenly train with us today? Was it because I was amazing in the preliminaries?"
"Because oyaji was busy making gear in the forge..", replied Seijurou blankly, making Chizuru almost flip backwards. Then, he looked up towards the starry sky, as if he was searching for an answer from the heavens. "But yeah, mostly because you really were amazing."
Chizuru blushed first at Seijurou's remark, but squinted at him with skepticism right after. Next, she put her palm on Seijurou's forehead as if checking for a fever.
"Eh? What are you doing, Chizuru?..", a little surprised, Seijurou asked while being a little wide eyed.
"Nothing. I'm just checking if you're sick or something..", replied Chizuru while still frowning at Seijurou. "You usually don't give compliments. I was expecting you'd criticize me again."
Seijurou ignored the jest and moved forward eventually. "You and that technique of yours.."
"Serpent's Sense!..", Chizuru reminded with her chin proudly up.
"Right.. it sort of made me realize how far behind I am..", continued Seijurou, while he suddenly looked down. "But at the same time, it made me want to work hard to get better in what I do.. like what you did to develop and perfect 'Serpent's Sense'.. it simply reminded me not just to be better but to spend some time and effort at grinding on it."
A kind of a sweet smile formed on Chizuru's face, as she looked at Seijurou while walking. "Seijurou, don't look down."
Seijurou gave Chizuru a confused look after. "Eh?"
"When you say things like those, keep your head up..", said Chizuru rather cheerfully, as she kept smiling. "That's the first step."
"That's right..", said Seijurou, while he too, smiled at his best friend. "Just like how Kinjou proudly waved to the crowd as if declaring, 'I am here'.. I have to start taking pride in what I want to do."
For some reason, the mention of Satsuki's name, coming out of Seijurou's mouth, stung a little for Chizuru. It was confusing for her at first, but she still managed to keep an awkward smile on her face. "Speaking of Satsu-chan, she's being discharged over the weekend. You want to visit tomorrow?"
Seijurou glanced at Chizuru while they turned the last corner before reaching their homes. "Nah. I help oyaji work the forge on weekends."
"Is it because Jax will be there?..", asked Chizuru with a somewhat innocent expression.
Seijurou scowled. "Partly the reason. Yes, but I just really have to work on the forge. It's still training, you know."
However, deep down, Chizuru had already known the real reason why Seijurou avoided Satsuki since they visited her earlier that week. Seijurou was just making excuses, save for the part that he really did not want to see Jax with Satsuki. As he mentioned earlier about Satsuki waving to the crowd, Chizuru knew that he wanted to keep that image of Satsuki's and not the sick version.
"Speak of the devil..", said Chizuru out of nowhere, as Jax appeared in front of them. "Seijurou hasn't been with Satsuki for a while, why're you here?"
"Taneda-chan, let the man speak for himself for once..", Jax responded while keeping his gaze towards Seijurou.
"You kept a good distance from my house this time, and you're alone..", said Seijurou stoically, as he proceeded to walk forward anyway. "I didn't know you had that much bravery in you."
Jax laughed out loud after while letting Seijurou and Chizuru past him. "You're humor really amuses me, otaku-san, but I didn't come here to talk with any part of my body that hurts humans."
Seijurou stopped and slightly turned towards Jax. "Surprising, but alright. You have my attention. What do you want?"
Chizuru pulled on Seijurou's sleeve as if telling him to ignore Jax. However, he did not budge, instead, he looked Jax straight in the eye and waited for an answer.
"My axe..", growled Jax, as his face crumpled back to a frown. "What did you do with it?"
Translation Notes:
Magical Imagery Screen - a tool used to project a moving image recording of a previous event like a critical part of a duel.
Knock - the rear end of an arrow where the archer pulls before releasing.
Honorifics Guide:
jiji - sort of a mocking but can be a playful way to call an old man.
Monogatari Concepts:
Beginning from the previous chapter, I have decided to give at least one concept from the folklore narratives of Jihon to give readers a deeper understanding about the mythical side of the story.
The Almighty - the highest ranked member of all the gods. He is the eldest of the Elder Four and the father of the Revered Seven (and quite possibly more). He was the one who led his siblings to defeat their predecessors to create the world that everyone knows of. He is simply known as the father of all and the patron of infinite possibilities, including eternal life. He is also known as the god of the sky and the king of the heavens. His sigil is the symbol of infinity in the middle of a sphere.
Character Description:
From this chapter, I have also decided to describe at least one character per chapter, so that the readers may get an idea of how I was able to conceptualize these fictional but wonderful people.
Erida Seijurou
- what better way to start by talking about the protagonist, right? It wasn't that really difficult to view this guy in my imagination because he and I share a special bond. I can safely say he is my younger alter ego in a fantastical universe. A lot of his experiences are very similar to mine, so his story is practically at the back of my head already.
He stands around 172.5cm and weighs about 62kg. He supposedly has a bowl cut hairstyle but just can't pull it off with its scruffiness. He has bad eyesight and wears thick black rimmed glasses over his small face to aid his vision. Officially a geek and mister know it all, I tried to make him look at least lanky to match his stereotype, but I just remembered that he works with his dad in a forge, so there should be some muscles somewhere. Hey, it's good to be out of the norm sometimes.
A total introvert, he spends most of his time alone reading light novels and manga. Being socially awkward, he's usually very blunt with his words, which can be considered as tactless, but he's actually very kindhearted and has a strong sense to protect the weak and most especially those close to him.
...End of "Preliminaries Arc".