I Teach Kendo in Tokyo

Chapter 3: Kendo Girl Fujii

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Kiryuu Kazuma looked at the bald man’s slappable face. Thinking of his frightened sister in his arms, he was furious.

People who were fond of cold weapons were definitely interested in fighting. Many of them were not afraid of trouble either.

And Kazuma was one of them.

Moreover, he thought that by showing his cheat-supported strength, it would be easier for him to persuade Chiyoko to sell the dojo. Besides, he could make Sumitomo Construction reevaluate the difficulty in their case and raise the price of the dojo.

That sounded good.

Therefore, driven by the urge to vent his anger and the possible profits, Kazuma put down his schoolbag and picked up his sword bag. He began to untie the rope at the top end of the bag.

“What? You want to hit me?” The bald man’s face was full of surprise. “You actually want to hit your unarmed neighbor? That’s so rude of you. For the safety of other neighbors, it seems like I have to teach you a lesson!”

“A rogue like you shouldn’t talk as if you were civilized. Just stick to those tongue-rolling tricks of yours,” Kazuma retaliated. He was good at talking back. After all, he used to be a player from the Zaun region1.

“What did you say?!”

Baldy took a step forward and glared at Kazuma. He reached out to grab Kazuma’s collar, but Kazuma stepped back and dodged his hand. When Kazuma was about to draw out his bamboo sword, Chiyoko stopped him. “Brother, don’t! Just call the police! The police will restore justice for us!”

“That’s right, that’s right!” The bald man actually echoed Chiyoko. “The police will definitely protect unarmed and weak citizens like us so that we won’t be threatened by delinquents with bamboo swords.”

“My brother is not a delinquent!” Chiyoko turned around and glared at the bald man.

“Yes, yes.” The bald man shrugged disapprovingly and turned to wave at his two lackeys.

Then, the three of them swaggered away.

Chiyoko kept a straight face and finally heaved a sigh of relief when the trio were far away.

Kazuma didn’t let the opportunity slip. “I think we should sell the dojo. Who knows what they will do in the future.”

Chiyoko looked at Kazuma in disbelief. “You were just about to hit them, and now you’re telling me that you’re selling the dojo?”

“Those are different matters. If we don’t sell the dojo, I can’t imagine what else will be hung in front of our door in the future.”

Chiyoko pulled a long face. “Then let them be! We can take this chicken. I’ll roast it with teriyaki sauce tonight.”

As she spoke, Chiyoko untied the chicken from the roof.

“Hmph, this chicken is not bad. It’s quite fat.”

Kazuma was shocked. ‘What?’

Chiyoko’s action reminded Kazuma of the movie “The Godfather.” There, the Godfather threatened the director by stuffing a horse head under his blanket. If the director were Chiyoko, he would have started laughing and said, “Nice. I wanted to eat donkey meat. Even though this is not a donkey, horse meat is fine too.”

Chiyoko brought the bloody chicken into the house and stuffed it into the refrigerator. Then, she carried a bucket of water to the door and washed away the chicken blood. After she was done, she clapped her hands with a smile. “Let’s go, Brother. We will really be late for the morning kendo practice!”

Kazuma was speechless.

‘Little sister, is it really okay for you to ignore the yakuza’s blatant threat?’

‘Aren’t you too trusting of the Japanese police?’

‘This is 1980. Just a few years ago, the anti-government radicals were still throwing combustion bombs on the streets. Japan is not as safe as you say. Are you crazy?’

“Come on, Brother!” Chiyoko dragged Kazuma out of the house and locked the door.

It seemed like Chiyoko had already gotten over the incident this morning.

Kazuma’s plan to sell the dojo had to wait.

‘I thought that the threat today was a good opportunity. Who’d have known…’

Kazuma shook his head and walked toward the school.

***

In Japan, each academic year consisted of three semesters. The first semester started in April, unlike the Chinese school years, which started in September.

Kazuma only learned about this when he was already in high school.

Before that, Kazuma would always wonder when he read Japanese school-themed comics, “Why are there cherry blossoms at the start of each new school year? Do cherry blossoms in Japan all bloom in autumn?”

Kazuma was a student at Northern Katsushika High School. Its name obviously suggested that it was a public school.

Kazuma couldn’t afford to go to a private school. Unlike Chiyoko, he wasn’t awarded a kendo special admissions scholarship.

The competition in women’s kendo was relatively less intense.

Kazuma could not make it into the national finals when he was in junior high. Naturally, he had no chance of getting a scholarship, so he had no choice but to go to a public high school.

In the 1980s, the Japanese education system was also strictly exam-oriented. The quality of education at most public schools was poor while that at private high schools was much better.

However, Northern Katsushika High School happened to have an academically rigorous curriculum, which was rare among public schools. As a result, the students there were all high scorers.

With Kiryuu Kazuma’s grades, there would be practically no chance of entering such a school if it weren’t for his specialties in kendo.

But the current Kazuma was a transmigrator from future China, where rote learning had been prevalent for 40 years.

Even the Japanese exams in the 1980s were not as hard as the Chinese National College Entrance Examination.

Taking mathematics as an example, the trigonometric function was considered to be a relatively difficult topic in Japanese high schools. As for analytic geometry, it was at the top of the difficulty pyramid, comparable to no other topics.

However, in the Chinese College Entrance Examination, trigonometric function questions would only be set as the first long question. It would never go past the third long question1.

As for analytic geometry taught at Japanese schools, the most difficult question ever tested there was only equivalent to the first part question of the sixth long question in the Chinese College Entrance Examination.

When Kazuma was in high school, the math teacher once commented on the first part question of the sixth long question in this way. “This is a giveaway question. Only from the second question onward does it start to require more thinking. Therefore, you must get all the points for the first question, and you should not spend more than five minutes. Next, we will do a small test. All the 20 questions on this paper are of the same difficulty as the first part question of the sixth long question. I’ll give you two hours. Start now!”

Another example was English. The English education in Japan was terrible.

And seeing as Kazuma had been working in a foreign trading company before he transmigrated, English was an essential working skill of his. From time to time, he would need to brag to his foreign clients about the company’s products. It was also common for him to go on business trips overseas.

Therefore, to Kazuma’s surprise, he had actually become a top student here. Back in his previous life, he was only slightly above average and could barely make it into the second exam hall1 during high school monthly assessments.

Of course, no one in the school knew that Kazuma had the brains to become the top student. After all, it was only the beginning of April.

In the first week since Kazuma’s transmigration, the students were still on their spring break. Winter break in Japan was very short, which only extended from Christmas to one week after the New Year’s Day. In comparison, spring break was relatively longer, and the high school spring break started at the end of February and ended on the first of April.

Fortunately, it was during spring break when Kazuma transmigrated, which gave him enough time to adapt to this new era. Therefore, he didn’t get into any trouble after the term started.

When he had just transmigrated, Kazuma had not managed to internalize the host’s memories. He could not recall the names of his classmates.

Back to the current time. Kazuma walked up the gentle slope in front of Northern Katsushika High School. There were not many tall buildings in the Katsushika District at this time. Looking out from his school gate, Kazuma could see Edo River in the far distance.

The Physical Education teacher, Daimon Goro, stood at the school gate like a gate guardian. Holding a bamboo sword in his hand, he stared at the school uniform of the students who entered the school.

In this era, short skirts were becoming popular, and many girls would secretly shorten their uniform skirts.

However, in 1981, after Yakushimaru Hiroko’s Sailor Suit and Machine Gun became a top hit, the girls would rush to lengthen their skirts again.

That’s what fashion is. A cycle.

The female lead of the movie, Izumi Hoshi, wore a long skirt to show that she was a well-behaved student. In the end, the scene where Izumi Hoshi in a long skirt and sailor suit fired a submachine gun became a famous one in Japanese film history. It was well-liked by the gangster girls. Hence, the rebel girls started to wear long skirts while the well-behaved students continued to wear medium-length skirts, about five centimeters above their knees.

While Kazuma was absorbed in his thoughts, Daimon suddenly looked at him and roared, “Kazuma! What time is it now? The morning practice is almost over!”

“Really? It’s not even eight o’clock yet,” Kazuma replied subconsciously, then immediately regretted it.

“Don’t talk back!” Daimon roared. “Run ten rounds around the field!”

Daimon Goro was not just a Physical Education teacher, but he was also a consultant at the Kendo Club. So he indeed had the right to punish Kazuma by making him run laps.

Kazuma, on the other hand, did not mind running ten rounds. He was still dealing with a heightened sense of crisis, worried that the yakuza would cause trouble again.

Running laps was exactly what Kazuma needed.

“Understood, I’ll run now, Goro-sensei!”

“You sound so reluctant. You are a sports talent. Show me what you’ve got! Your deviation value is terrible. If you don’t focus on kendo, there’s no point for you to stay in this school. Do you understand?!”

‘No, no, no, my deviation value is super high now.’

Japanese schools would use the normal distribution probability density function to calculate their students’ scores, and then measure the students’ academic ability through deviation values.

The higher the deviation value, the stronger the learning ability.

Although Kazuma was cursing in his heart, there was no test at the moment. No one would believe him if he said that his deviation value had suddenly increased drastically.

Hence, he gave up arguing and answered loudly, “Yes! Goro-sensei! I’m going to run laps now!”

“Go! Run now! Run to the club!”

Perhaps it was because there were not many students at the moment and Daimon had nothing to do, so he repeatedly urged Kazuma and watched him as he ran to the Kendo Club.

As soon as Kazuma had slowed down a little, he would immediately hear Daimon’s roar from behind.

When Kazuma arrived at the club, he put down his bag and carried his bamboo sword into the indoor practice field next to the club room.

The members of the Kendo Club had already started their morning practice, and the sound of bamboo blades hitting each other abound.

“What took you so long?” A girl with a ponytail and a kendo uniform came forward, wiping her sweat with a towel around her neck.

“Morning, Fujii. I was held up by something at home,” Kazuma replied as he stole a glance at Fujii’s chest.

Apparently, she had just finished practicing her swordplay. Her kendo uniform was drenched in sweat, causing the fabric to stick to her skin, highlighting her youthful curves…

“Eye strike!” Fujii shouted as she poked at Kazuma’s eyes.

Kazuma shook his head and dodged.

“Don’t dodge! I will dig out your sinful eyes today!”

“Stop fooling around.” Kazuma wrote his name on the attendance sheet and turned to leave.

“How many rounds were you punished to run again?” Fujii asked gloatingly.

Kazuma turned around and gave her the middle finger.

Fujii’s laughter came from behind, and Kazuma started to run.

‘If I didn’t have to think about the yakuza’s threat and the meager savings that we have, I would surely be enjoying a wonderful school life.’

Kazuma thought as he ran.

‘Fujii has a good personality and a pretty face. She’s the kind of girl who can be treated as a bro or a girlfriend.’

‘If there were no imminent survival crises, it would be nice to date Fuji.’

‘IF there were no survival crises.’

***

After running ten rounds, Kazuma returned to the kendo dojo. Everyone had left; only Fujii was still practicing her swordplay.

It was already half-past eight. The others had probably returned to the classroom to prepare for their lessons.

“Are you waiting for me?” Kazuma asked half-jokingly.

“Dream on!” Fujii made a face at Kazuma.

Kazuma shrugged. When he was about to pack his things and return to the classroom, he suddenly sensed that Fujii’s sword movement was a little uncoordinated.

He stopped and stared at Fujii for a few seconds.

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‘That’s right. I can estimate a person’s proficiency in kendo now.’

‘Fuji is currently at Rank 4 of the Muryu Style.’

Kazuma continued to watch Fujii. Then, he realized that not only could he see Fujii’s “style” and “rank,” but he could also see some red words.

He looked carefully and realized that there was a tiny note that read “Strained Ligaments in Left Arm.”

“Fujii, did you hurt your left arm?” Kazuma asked.