A strong sense of crisis loomed over Kiryuu Kazuma due to the lesson he had learned in his previous life.
Moreover, he was different from his sister, Kiryuu Chiyoko. He would not ignore the yakuza's threat just because of the belief that "Japan was the safest country in the world."
Therefore, after finishing the Mapo Tofu and the miso soup, Kazuma went straight to the dojo.
To be frank, he did not want to drink the soup. In his past life, he was from Guangdong, and people from Guangdong had very strict requirements for soup.
The flavor in Japanese miso soup mainly came from a sauce called "miso," which actually tasted like MSG.
Therefore, the taste of miso soup was very similar to MSG.
When people from Guangdong made soup, the biggest taboo was to add MSG because it would mask the original freshness of the food.
Therefore, Kazuma naturally did not like miso soup. In his past life, he had never ordered the soup again after drinking it at a Japanese restaurant. After that, he would not order it no matter how expensive the Japanese restaurant was.
If he had a choice, Kazuma would not drink this soup. This was how stubborn a person from Guangdong could be.
However, Chiyoko would be unhappy if he did not drink the soup.
Chiyoko was just like the middle-aged canteen stewardess from Nintama Rantarō. She was particularly repulsed by the act of wasting food. Kazuma had to finish all the food placed in front of him or risk getting nagged at by Chiyoko all night.
Therefore, the Guangdong-born Kazuma had to finish the MSG-flavored miso soup every time. He also had to force himself to finish the kelp and tofu in the soup.
He had thrown away his Guangdong stubbornness just like that.
It couldn't be helped. After all, Chiyoko was a cute little sister.
Kazuma entered the dojo and sat down to meditate.
This habit came from his kendo teacher in his previous life, Hasegawa Masato of the Shinto Style. Hasegawa emphasized that "you have to meditate before every practice and match."
Back then, Kazuma had asked, "What's the point of meditating?"
Hasegawa replied, "I don't know either. It's just that if I don't meditate properly, my master will be very angry, and I'll have to practice twice as many swings. So if you don't meditate properly, I'll get angry too."
Hence, Kazuma had developed the habit of meditating before practicing.
But this time, he was more serious than usual because of the sense of crisis.
He had to recall the training he had received.
Not long into his meditation, Kazuma suddenly saw words appearing in his pitch-black vision.
He was shocked. When he opened his eyes, the words were gone. He did not even have time to see what was written.
When he closed his eyes again, the words did not appear.
After repeating the process of opening and closing his eyes several times, Kazuma speculated that the text would only appear while he was meditating.
Hence, he took a deep breath and began to meditate again. He recalled the training he had received in the past and calmed his emotions.
The text appeared again.
Tennen Rishin Style 3, Shinto Style 6
The Tennen Rishin Style was what the Kiryuu family had been practicing, and the Shinto Style was the one that Kazuma had been trained in before his transmigration.
As for the numbers attached, Kazuma initially thought that they signified his ranking. However, he soon remembered that he had only obtained Shinto Style Rank 3 before he transmigrated. Moreover, it was almost certain that his true ability was below Rank 3. After all, the kendo in China was still in the early stages of development, and the ranking assessments were not that strict.
However, even though these numbers might not correspond to his rank, they should still be related to his proficiency in those two schools of swordsmanship.
From the looks of it, the swordsmanship of the original owner of this body, Kiryuu Kazuma, was just average. It could not even be compared to the current Kazuma's amateurish achievements in the Shinto Style.
No wonder there were no students at this dojo.
Kazuma continued to focus his attention on these two lines. Then, he realized that as long as he concentrated on one of the two lines, he would open something that looked like a drop-down list.
The list would show something that looked like sword skills.
If he focused his attention on the corresponding skill, he would be able to see the instructions. As long as he followed those steps to adopt a stance and strike in a certain direction, he would be able to use the sword skill naturally.
The higher the proficiency in the school of swordsmanship, the greater the speed and power of the sword technique.
At least, that seemed to be the case.
Right now, the only Tennen Rishin Style technique that Kazuma had mastered was the first part of the Dual Combination Slash, while for the Shinto Style, he had mastered the Kasaya Slash and
To be honest, he had never heard of those techniques when he was practicing with the Shinto Style master. Sometimes, Hasegawa would mention the Kasaya Slash, but it was just a general term for diagonal slashes. The angle of those slashes was close to the angle of a monk's Kasaya, thus the name.
Kazuma decided to try these three moves, so he carefully memorized the preparation moves and direction of the strikes.
He ended his meditation, picked up the bamboo sword beside him, and stood up to get into position.
'Let's try Tsuki first since it sounds the coolest.'
It seemed to be a sudden thrust move.
When it came to cold weapons, the most unfavorable situation was when the opponent kept their distance.
Kazuma got into position, took a deep breath, and struck forward as instructed.
The next moment, all the muscles in his body started to move in unison. He stepped forward fiercely and launched a thrust at the same time…
The whole action was done in one go, and Kazuma's brain almost couldn't keep up with his body's rhythm.
Kazuma looked back at the cushion he had sat on to meditate and estimated the distance of this sudden burst.
He had closed the distance of about three meters in an instant. Not bad. Considering the length of the sword, this move could attack an enemy four meters away. It was a pretty effective burst skill.
Kazuma was very satisfied. To be able to achieve this level of swordsmanship was already very impressive.
He wanted to try the other two skills, but he suddenly found his sister Chiyoko standing at the entrance of the dojo.
After their eyes met, Chiyoko exclaimed, "When did you become so powerful, Brother?!"
Kazuma replied, "I've always been stronger than you, haven't I?"
"No, no! Of course I know that you are stronger than me. What I mean is, if you knew this move, you would not have lost to Mori Sojiro from the No.1 High School at last year's prefectural tournament! You would have hit his mask with just one thrust!"
In kendo competitions, hitting the opponent's mask was worth the most points.
Kazuma scratched his head. "I didn't know this move at that time."
This was the truth.
After all, he had not yet transmigrated back then.
He thought that Chiyoko would ask more questions, but to his surprise, Chiyoko did not really care when Kazuma had "learned" this trick.
"Brother, teach me!" Chiyoko ran excitedly to get her protective gear and bamboo sword. As she ran, she shouted, "You have to teach me! I will be attending the prefectural tournament next year! I want to go to the national competition too!"
As the daughter of a kendo family, Chiyoko was unsurprisingly a member of the Kendo Club at her school.
It appeared that Koshikawa Girls' School had offered her direct admission in recognition of her talents in kendo.
Private schools in Japan were extremely expensive, and this was not something the Kiryuu family could afford. Chiyoko was able to attend the school all thanks to the kendo scholarship and the special admissions system.
However, Chiyoko had not been able to perform well in kendo ever since she had joined. Koshikawa Girls' Kendo Club had also failed to enter the national competition for two consecutive years due to their poor performance in the prefectural tournament.
Chiyoko, who had been the "captain" since the second year of junior high school, would not give up that easily.
In her last year at the school, she would definitely want to lead her juniors to the nationals.
Therefore, Kazuma did not mind teaching Chiyoko, but he was not confident about whether Chiyoko could master it.
After all, he had not learned it through practice. He only had to adopt the right position and swing his sword in a certain way, and his body would move as if programmed beforehand.
If he wanted to teach Chiyoko, he would have to do the action analysis in his mind first to figure out how his body could perform the moves so smoothly.
While Chiyoko went to get her equipment, Kazuma performed a few more Tsuki moves.
Fortunately, this sword technique was not complicated. The key was to move quickly while thrusting forward.
After a few rounds of practice, Kazuma roughly grasped the steps. At this time, Chiyoko came back with the equipment.
"Come, Brother!" Facing Kazuma, Chiyoko assumed a stance with a bamboo sword in her hands.
Kazuma was about to start teaching when he suddenly thought of something and reprimanded sternly, "Warm up first! Otherwise, if you sprain your joints, you can forget about going to the prefectural tournament!"
"Oh, right." Chiyoko stuck out her tongue, put down her bamboo sword, and began to warm up.
***
The next morning, Kazuma was woken up by the alarm clock and headed to the dining room while rubbing his eyes.
Chiyoko had already put on her school uniform. She was busy cooking in front of the stove with an apron around her.
"Why are you up so early?"
"It's you who woke up too late!" Chiyoko shouted angrily at Kazuma. She looked as energetic as usual, even though there were obvious dark circles around her eyes.
Yesterday, Chiyoko had practiced until late at night to fully grasp the essentials of Tsuki. It seemed like a simple move, but it was not easy to achieve the same level of smoothness as Kazuma.
Kazuma saw the power of his cheat by comparing himself to Chiyoko.
'It seems like as long as I learn the corresponding styles, I will be able to use the techniques of those styles. I wonder if I can learn the Yagyu Shinkage Style and master the legendary Muto Dori.'
Muto Dori was an unbeatable skill developed by Yagyu Munetoshi, the founding master of the Yagyu Shinkage Style. A more literal translation would be Taking A Blade With Empty Hands.
However, Kazuma preferred to call it Muto Dori because it would sound more impressive.
Chiyoko put a plate of fried eggs on the table. "There's no more miso soup this morning. Just make do with this."
Kazuma nodded in acknowledgment.
He never liked drinking miso soup.
He could not understand the Japanese obsession with it.
Besides that, Kazuma found it puzzling why the Japanese liked to eat rice early in the morning.
As someone from Guangdong, Kazuma considered dishes like rice noodle roll, pork noodle soup, fried dough sticks, and rice dumplings as breakfast fare. Occasionally, there would be some shumai.
At the very least, it should be porridge, not dry rice.
As Chiyoko filled his bowl with rice, Kazuma felt a little helpless.
That's what culture shock meant. He could only try his best to adapt.
Kazuma was about to pick up his chopsticks when Chiyoko said excitedly, "Today, I will teach the moves that you have taught me to the juniors in my club! As long as the
Kazuma replied casually, "Yet you didn't make it to the national tournament last year."
Chiyoko, who was initially in high spirits, lost all her excitement at once.
Seeing Chiyoko burying her nose in the bowl of rice, Kazuma suddenly felt sorry for her. Sigh, he shouldn't have exposed her.
So Kazuma said, "I'll teach you another move when you come back today."
"Really?" Chiyoko was in high spirits again. Her eyes brightened up as she looked at Kazuma.
Kazuma nodded. "Of course, so don't come back too late today."
"Okay!" Chiyoko replied energetically. She was even eating much faster now.
Kazuma still had two more skills. He had no problem teaching his sister one of them to cheer her up.
Moreover, given the current situation, she would be able to protect herself better if she came to master more moves.
After all, those yakuza gangsters had said yesterday that they would come back to disturb them.
'Indeed, selling the dojo is the best choice.'
'I can still invest the money. After 1980, the bubble economy in Japan will take off. If I were to wait for another year, the investment threshold would be much higher.'
Kazuma mulled it over as he forced the rice down his throat. As soon as he put down his bowl and chopsticks, Chiyoko came over and swept away the bowl like a whirlwind.
After dumping all the bowls into the sink, Chiyoko took off her apron and ran to the entryway.
"Brother, I've brought your sword and bag to the door. Let's go!" Chiyoko shouted.
Kazuma stood up and walked toward the door.
Chiyoko was very capable. There was no way he could not like such a sister. This also made him unable to ignore his sister's opinion on selling the dojo.
Beside the door, Chiyoko had already put on her shoes and was waiting for Kazuma. Kazuma suddenly asked, "Don't you need to cover those dark circles with foundation or something?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Once I practice and sweat, my foundation will be messed up! Alright, quickly put on your shoes. I'm running late for the club's morning exercises!"
Japanese schools started later in the day than Chinese schools. Even though it was the 1980s, an era in which Japan advocated for exam-oriented education, classes still began much later than their Chinese counterparts. Usually, when the Japanese students started their first lesson of the day, the Chinese students would have already finished half of their morning lessons and begun to rest their eyes.
In Japan, most of the students who came to school before eight o'clock would be doing club activities and morning exercises.
It was now 7:15 am. If he were in China, Kazuma would definitely be late. However, in Japan, this was still early. There was enough time for him to slowly stroll to school and flirt with a girl or two.
Kazuma unhurriedly put on his shoes and stood up. At this time, Chiyoko, being impatient, immediately opened the door.
A gust of wind rushed into the house, bringing with it the smell of blood.
Then, he heard Chiyoko's scream.
Outside the door, a dead rooster was hung by a rope from the roof tiles. The chicken's stomach had been slit open, causing its internal organs to dangle outside. At that time, blood was still trickling down.
Even Kazuma was shocked by the sight. Those who were not as brave would think that they had run into a ghost.
Chiyoko was so frightened that she took a step back. However, her left foot stepped on her right heel, making her fall backward.
Fortunately, Kazuma managed to catch her in time.
Chiyoko turned around and grabbed Kazuma's uniform tightly, burying her face into Kazuma's chest.
Chiyoko was almost 15 now and was at the start of her puberty. At this moment, Kazuma could clearly feel the touch of youth.
However, he had no time to care about this. The dead chicken hanging at the door made his sense of crisis explode.
'The yakuza's game has started!'
"Yo!" Kazuma heard an ill-meaning voice.
Kazuma turned to see the bald fat yakuza man whom he had met yesterday. The man turned around the corner from across the street and walked toward the siblings with two suited minions behind.
"This sunny doll is so unique." The bald man looked at the dead chicken hanging at the door proudly. "However, the stench will disturb the neighbors. I hope Kiryuu-san can be more considerate toward your neighbors, like us."