Jay had gone to the swordsmanship classes by himself as Sasori was still recovering and wasn't allowed to attend any of the classes. Despite this Jay still wanted to learn the way of the sword, so he attended the classes daily and didn't tell Sasori about them as he didn't want to upset his friend, as he was having so much fun.
When the group arrived at the training grounds, Professor Nara split them in half immediately and the two smaller groups did separate exercises but rotated them. Jay was in Group 1, and they started with a wooden sword which they had to swing 100 times without stopping and being as accurate as possible. There was a wooden pole in front of each person, and they had to stop the blade just above the pole.
Jay thought it would be easy until he lifted the sword and the weight of it pulled his hands to the ground. This happened to all the students, who then started complaining to the professor. "Don't start whining at me now." He said to them, "They only weigh 20 kilograms, that's barely anything." There was an uproar among the students in Group 1, as they were still young and hadn't done any physical training to prepare themselves for it.
Professor Nara left them and there whining alone, while he explained the exercise to the other students. They had to do the same thing, but 200 times instead of 100. The second group lifted their wooden swords with ease and began to perform the activity. What the Professor didn't tell either group of students was that the swords had different weights.
He had specifically done that to encourage the first group to perform better. They would see the other group doing it so easily and doubt themselves. This would lead to them putting in more effort and increasing the rate of their growth as they would become stronger mentally and physically whereas the other group could possibly become a little cocky as they would think it is too easy, until they would switch later on.
Once the second group had completed all of their swings the professor stopped the exercise and told both groups to switch places. Once everyone had switched he told them to do the exact same thing. So, Group 1 lifted their swords with ease and quickly completed their swings. By having them switch the weights, the first group got a confidence boost as it had become easier.
On the other hand, the second group struggled to get going with the change in weight, but with their earlier success in mind they were able to push through but were unable to complete the task like the previous attempt. "Now that everyone has done the warmup we will be starting actual training now." There was some whining from both sides as majority of them were tired and their arms were sore.
The professor didn't give much or any sympathy towards them and carried on with his lesson. "Alright everyone get into pairs within your groups and take one of those kendo sticks in the basket over there." The students did as instructed, and Jay paired up with a young boy from his class that had also come to the class. He would have gone with Sasori if he was there but decided to go with this boy as no one wanted to pair up with him.
The boy was short and skinny, with curly brown hair and freckles across his face. He wore a pair of glasses with black frames. He was a very smart boy but had never been physically strong, and so he decided to join the swordsmanship class as it seemed to be the easiest form of physical combat. The two of them walked over to the basket and grabbed a kendo stick each and then surrounded the professor.
Professor Nara then explained to them that they would be sparring with each other so he could see the number of experienced swordsmen and swordswomen among the group of students. They had 2 minutes to spar and then rest until he said they could go again. This way they could go full out from the get-go as there wasn't a lot of time to spar.
Once everyone understood the instructions they went to the nearest circle they could find and readied themselves for the battle. "Don't worry about how you fight, I'll take it if your strong and calm down a little if you are weak." Jay said to the other boy. Jay always followed the words of his father, 'Never judge a book by it's cover, especially when you know nothing about, or it is a life or death situation.'
Jay lived by these words and that is why he was prepared to go all out against the boy in front of him, as he didn't want to take any risks and get hurt. The professor floated above all the circles and waited for everyone to be ready before starting the fights. Once everyone was ready, he said they could begin, and Jay leaped off his line at his opponent.
He held the kendo stick on his right side with two hands and swung at his opponent's feet. The boy jumped up to dodge the kendo stick and lifted his own above his head before yanking it down with all the force he could. Jay was able to twist onto his back thanks to his momentum and he landed on his back before parrying his opponent's swing.
The two kendo sticks connected with a crack that drew the professor attention and the rest of the class. 'That boy has a lot of practice under his belt, but it's seems the other has the upper hand.' Professor Nara was referring to the other boy having the upper hand as he quickly flipped and landed on his two feet just to turn around and hit Jay on the head with his kendo stick.
Jay was so surprised to have lost but then he saw the look in the eye of his opponent that only came from an experienced fighter. Jay smiled and they took there break until they fought again and again. Jay kept losing but was getting better with every fight. Professor Nara even extended the time for the fights so that the two boys could continue their fights.
This continued on for the week with the 100 and 200 swings at the beginning of the lesson and then the fights afterwards for the rest of the lesson. Jay had yet to win but he was having so much fun fighting that he didn't care about his win-loss record. At the end of the week Professor Nara asked those two to demonstrate for the class, to show their progress.
The crowd was blown away by the skill they used and how well they fought. There were however some negative comments from some of the children from the noble households. They were upset that they weren't picked over D-class pupils. Professor Nara didn't listen to a word they said as he choice the best in his eyes.
Jay had fun and so did his opponent. They ended the week on a high note and returned to the dorms. Jay found Sasori staring at the ceiling, while talking to Mrs Ferg, but he had no idea what they were doing, so he just went to his room to relax and recover from the hard days work.