Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu Volume 1 Chapter 3 Part1

In this chapter: The kyudo club gets a new coach (guess who it is), we learn more about Nanao and Kaito, and get a first mention of the rival school.

Glossary is

Full list of translations

Translation Notes

1. Umanori hakama (lit. horse-riding hakama) is a type of hakama with divided legs like trousers. Kaku obi is the traditional obi that many j.a.panese martial artists wear.

2. Rankings in kyudo are tested for in examinations called s.h.i.+nsa. Ma.s.san holds the fifth dan rank, out of a total of ten. Think of it as similar to testing for a higher colored belt in karate. Read more about it on wikipedia

3. The sanjuu juumonji refer to the three crosses of the “three crosses of the spine and shoulders, the spine and waist, and the spine and the line of the feet on the ground“ ()

4. The original saying here is “ 一射絶命” (issha zetsumei), which literally means “one shot and expire”.

5. Kaichuu means. .h.i.tting the target every time.

6. Ryouhei kneels in the kiza position, which looks like .

7. The yazurindou is a wrapping above the bow grip that protects the wearing of the bow from the arrow

Could it be called a command of the G.o.ds?

Something occurred which might have been devised by someone else.

“Minato, Seiya, let’s go!”

“Okay.”

Ryouhei came for them after school, and Minato headed for the kyudojo.

From the hallway windows, they saw a paddy field reflecting the sky that was beginning to clear up. The treetops of the forest turned into new leaves and the wind grazed his cheeks, so he took in a deep breath to not let them get away. Both the faces of his friends by his side, and the profile of the archer seen in Yata no Mori, still seemed like dreams.

He was happy, but felt pained at same time.

By the time they were about to approach the new month, the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club had been left with five boys and three girls, a total of eight members. The club president and captain of the boys’ team was Seiya, and the captain of the girls’ team was Seo. Some people had already quit as they were not able to draw the bow very much, but for Minato, who mainly retrieved arrows and shouted out “Alright!” as his club activities during his first year in middle school, and was only able to draw a bow in front of the targets in his second year, he thought that the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club was blessed.

They used the waiting room to change clothes. The hakama used for kyudo was umanori hakama and the obi was kaku obi. (1) For kyudo girls, there was the impression that they wore “muneate” (breastplate) to protect their chests, but boys also used it when they were beginners and didn’t wear kyudogi. Personal accessories like wrist.w.a.tches, ribbons and piercings were prohibited for safety purposes.

Ryouhei wasn’t used to hakama yet, so the string was sticking out from his side. As Minato was helping him get his clothes straightened out, Nanao and the three girls came.

“Merha! Thanks for setting the targets up, Minato!”

“You’re welcome.”

“You’re so formal. Isn’t it good to be more cheerful and use words that only you use? ‘Pazhalooysta’ is how you say 'you’re welcome’ in Russian, so what do you think of saying 'Pazarinko’?”

“…Pah-what?”

When he was unable to respond to the meaningless words spoken by Nanao, Hanazawa and s.h.i.+ragiku spoke in his place.

“Narumiykun, it’s okay if you don’t talk to Kisaragi-kun,” Hanazawa said.

“There sure are a lot of tsundere kyudo girls. That’s still cute, though,” Nanao replied.

“That is absolutely wrong.”

“There is no one in this world greater than Seo,” s.h.i.+ragiku said.

“That’s right, Seo is cooler than any boy. The reason why there are only three girls left was because the people from the Nanao Fan Club were saying that we were getting a head start and barging in, so we had to stop that because we can’t have that. The boys were acting like boys and they seemed to have gotten spooked by Onogi-kun. Ah geez, even though Tomi-sensei was teaching so carefully and politely, it really is too pitiful!”

“Kacchan’s thing is having an appearance overflowing with intensity, so it can’t be helped, right? I am kind of a sinful man, after all!”

“Shut up, you meha pazarinko boy! Get burned in the fires of h.e.l.l!”

When Nanao talked, it became a little uncertain if this was a kyudo club or a chatting club, but everyone got along well even though it was a small number of people. It was probably also great that Seo from the girls’ team and Seiya from the boys’ team got the trust of each member. Minato was mostly greeted with a welcome mood, but there was one person who displayed their disapproval openly.

Kaito stopped near Minato, at a place where their shoulders were just barely touching.

“You’re just nonchalantly joining the club around this time…I don’t know what the h.e.l.l hayake is, but we don’t need guys with no motivation.”

“I feel regretful about joining the club so late. But, I do have motivation.”

“How much motivation would a guy who was invited by Seiya and Ryouhei and reluctantly joined the club have? And, you’re gonna do a tournament as soon as you joined? Are you guys messing with us? If you’re playing at being friends then do it with something else.”

“I don’t care what you say about me, but don’t talk bad about Seiya and Ryouhei.”

“…I don’t like that kind of thing… Listen, you used the excuse of hayake to run away from kyudo. I’m saying that I won’t acknowledge a guy like that as my comrade.”

“I’m not going to run away anymore. I don’t know when my hayake will start up again, but even so I’m ready to hold it together. How can I get you to acknowledge me as a comrade?”

“Hah, you, my comrade? Don’t make me laugh. That day will never come.”

“As a member of the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club, I want to take things on as the five of us.”

“Prattle on as much as you want.”

Kaito walked away with a sharp glint in his eyes.

When Seiya signalled them to gather, Tomi-sensei had a daring smile on his face.

“Golden Week is approaching, so the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club will be doing some secret training.”

“Secret training!? Awesome!”

Since Ryouhei was innocently excited about it, Tomi-sensei, looking satisfied, continued on.

“It would be good if I could demonstrate for you all, but unfortunately I cannot draw a bow due to back pain. On the other hand, if you just go to workshops and the like and be told this and that, you will not understand the priority of improvement, and it might become a situation where everything ends up half-done. So, I decided to invite our school’s specialist coach.”

When he saw where Tomi-sensei was looking, Minato’s mouth hung half-open.

“——Ma.s.san!?”

Someone else’s voice overlapped his.

When he looked for the owner of the voice, his eyes met Kaito’s. Why does Kaito know Ma.s.san? The other person was having the same thoughts as he looked at Minato.

“Oh, do you two know him? This is the priest of Yata Shrine, Takigawa Masaki-san of the fifth dan. (2) He is really amazing. He’s been holding a bow since he was three and has a kyudo experience of twenty years at this young age, and furthermore, his. .h.i.tting rate is ninety-six percent. Because of that, you can absolutely expect to get better.”

“You are somewhat raising the bar for me. I’m Takigawa, nice to meet you all.”

Ma.s.san had shorter hair than when he had saw him at the Yata no Mori Kyudojo. As Minato stared at him wondering if this was a dream, their eyes met and he grinned. That made his cheeks relax, and he restrained his confused mouth.

When the introductions were over, Kaito was the first to run up to Ma.s.san.

“You being our sensei is really unexpected, Ma.s.san. You told me that you were going to take a break from the bow for a while.”

“Oh, Kaito. You really did join the kyudo club in high school.”

“Of course. This time I’ll definitely win first place in individuals.”

“Is this Nanao?”

Nanao bowed his head slightly.

“Hey, nice to meet you. I heard about you from Kacchan, Ma.s.san.”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me Kacchan?”

“Ehh, but isn’t Kacchan Kacchan? Ma.s.san, don’t you think so as well?”

Ma.s.san smiled meaningfully after seeing Kaito.

“That’s right, shall I’ll call you Kacchan from now on too?”

“Stop, Ma.s.san! I’ll kick you flying!”

“Heh, are you going to try it?”

Kaito recoiled.

Seeing Kaito of all people acting so obedient and familiar with Ma.s.san made Minato feel mixed feelings. And then, Seiya went to Ma.s.san with an excessively polite greeting.

“Pleased to meet you, I am the club president, Takehaya Seiya. Thank you very much for agreeing to be our coach at this time. I am sorry for this sudden rude question, but are you keeping a pet bird, Takigawsensei?”

What is he asking? Minato turned pale in his mind. Was it unwise to hide Ma.s.san from Seiya?

Ma.s.san answered him in his usual easygoing manner.

“No? I don’t have one. And, if possible I would like to keep things simple when addressing me. You can call me anything other than 'sensei’ like Taki-san or Ma.s.san.”

“Then, may I call you Ma.s.san like Minato?”

“Oh, that’s fine, Seiya.”

Although the two of them were smiling, Minato felt like running away and quickly left that situation.

Ma.s.san watched everyone’s shooting briefly, then went to stand by Ryouhei’s side. Ma.s.san was even taller than Ryouhei, so when they stood in a line it created an illusion that one had shrunk.

Ryouhei had the best physique among the club members, and his bow and arrows made longer and more dynamic shots than anyone else’s. If he hit he would break into a sequence of hits, but on days he didn’t hit he would never get one. He often hit the curtain. At the beginning he drew his arrows with enough force to cause the shafts to bend, and the arrows he shot into the makiwara broke. No one was ever heard to have broken as much makiwara arrows as Ryouhei had.

Ma.s.san gently pushed Ryouhei’s elbow as he was in the midst of drawing, moving it around to a back position.

“You’re breaking the vertical line because your right hand is too strong. Stretch your knees and try to make your center of gravity stand a little closer to the front. Also, where do you think the root of your arms are?”

“Um, the shoulders?”

“Actually, it’s more behind, at the shoulder blades. That’s why it’s said that the bow is drawn with the back. Try thinking that the arms are growing from the shoulder blades and drawing.”

“Okay, thank you very much!”

Ryouhei’s eyes were teary. He felt like he understood it with his body.

Nanao himself requested guidance.

Nanao’s shots were very light. They were shots that seemed to appeal, “Look at me, look!”, the direct opposite of fighting spirit and being awe-inspiring. Because his arrows flew without much momentum, the duration of his shots felt much longer than other people’s.

“I guess it’s because I don’t have a bow as strong as a thirteen-kilogram one, that my arrows easily go downwards. But on the other hand, s.h.i.+ragiku-san’s bow is ten-kilograms, and she can hit properly.”

“That’s right, everyone should come and watch as well. Ryouhei, who has a large body and powerful shots, and Nanao, who shoots more gently compared to him. In fact, these two have a common point that they should fix. Nanao, try and do 'douzukuri.’”

Asked to do it, Nanao placed the lower part of his bow on his left knee and placed his right hand around his right hip. And then, he was completely pushed from behind. He stumbled forwards a little.

“He wasn’t following the vertical line. Ryouhei’s body was tilting to the right, and Nanao’s center of gravity was on his heels. Then, how do you place the center of gravity of your whole body into the center of your back? Your popliteal s.p.a.ce—the back of your knee joints, which you stretch and stabilize your two feet, making the 'sanjuu juumonji.’” (3)

“The sanjuu juumonji is where the soles and back and shoulders are overlapping on top of each other when seen from above, right?”

“Correct. Nanao, you’re really studying hard, aren’t you?”

“Heh heh, just leave it to me.”

“The sanjuu juumonji is a vertical axis required to configure the shape of the tateyoko juumonji. Stretch your spine and nape straight and while exhaling, lower your shoulder blades and gather your mentality to the 'dantian’ in the center of your belly, below your navel. Try that.”

Once again, he was pushed on his back area from behind, but this time he didn’t wobble. Nanao had a completely triumphant look on his face.

After that, everyone including Ma.s.san did about thirty shots. There were voices of admiration for Ma.s.san’s shooting. At the end, Tomi-sensei spoke.

“I said I wanted you all to do yakazu, but it is by far better to shoot thirty carefully than to do fifty crudely. Even when you are in good condition and hit ninety-nine of one hundred shots, it is likely that that one missed shot could occur in an important scene. I want you all to treat every single shot with great care and draw with the mental att.i.tude of 'shoot every arrow as if it were your last.’” (5)

“Yes sir, thank you very much.”

Everyone was exhausted after throwing themselves into practice, but they all felt satisfied.

On the way home, while fiddling with his gla.s.ses frames, Seiya spoke.

“Ma.s.san was really amazing. But when I looked him up, I couldn’t find any record of him winning a tournament or something anywhere. Even if he simply has a principle of not doing compet.i.tions, I don’t know why someone with that level of skill would be hiding.”

It appeared that he was filled with the desire to investigate. After Minato actually knew Ma.s.san’s name, he did not feel like trying to research him online at all.

Because he had only been thinking about one thing—that he could draw a bow if he was in Yata no Mori.

Even though they had just parted from each other when practice ended not long ago, Nanao was going to Kaito’s house.

Nanao and Kaito were cousins.

Their mothers, who were sisters, had a custom of gathering at Kaito’s house once a month for dinner, along with their third sister. The fathers did not partic.i.p.ate in this gathering. When they put two folding tables in the living room and arranged on them their own prized home cooking that they had brought with them as well as nine plates, it became a proper home party. However, as four out of the six children were girls, when either Nanao or Kaito was absent, it would be the other boy thrown into a group of girls, so getting a head start on each other—in other words, escaping—was forbidden between the two of them.

After dinner, Nanao and Kaito stood side-by-side in the kitchen. It was a rule of this family that the women prepared the food and the men tidied up. The two of them were used to it, and they chose roles such as Kaito being the one to wash and Nanao being to one to wipe, and then quickly cleaning the dirty dishes. After finis.h.i.+ng their jobs, Kaito opened up the fridge and looked inside. Nanao wondered if he still wanted to eat more.

They went upstairs to Kaito’s room.

Far from caring nothing about the girls who surrounded him, Nanao got more energetic and high-spirited when he was able to show off without sparing any of his own charm, but for Kaito, who was the youngest of three with two older sisters, it only seemed like a punishment. Furthermore, it was Nanao’s existence that spurred him on.

From a young age, Nanao had been a free-wheeling, pompous prince. With his good looks and charms he was the most popular with girls, but his trouble with them arose around the time of kindergarten. Due to frequent occurrences of girls fighting for Nanao amongst themselves and others aiming their anger at him due to the girls they liked being obsessed about him, the three mothers thought up a secret plan called the “Kaito Barricade.”

Kaito, who from a young age had a fierce look and an unapproachable aura, was perfect for intimidating anyone who went near Nanao. He was asked by the three mothers to “look out for Nanao so he won’t get into any mischief,” and in elementary school that was a given, but even when they went to different middle schools they still enrolled in extracurriculars and cram school as a set. Because they were in the same school again for high school, Kaito was still unable to end his role.

Nanao hijacked Kaito’s bed as though he was completely familiar with his room and took out his phone. Currently he was hooked on a garden-type strategy game. The frog alarm clock placed at the head of the bed was a replacement Nanao compensated him for, after he was scolded by his mother for accidentally breaking the old one in elementary school when he was jumping on the bed and playing. The frog shape happened to be the cheapest one.

At the feet of Kaito who was sitting at his desk was his cat Lucy, frolicking around. He usually absorbed himself into a game on his phone, but today his behavior was different.

He turned his chair to his bed, and teared open a bag in his hand.

“Nanao, lift your left arm up.”

“Huh—, but I’m playing a game right now.”

“Didn’t your left arm get hit by the bowstring? So won’t it turn purple? Here, a wet compress. My parents have a habit of putting them in the fridge, so it’s really cold.”

“Oh, I saw it when we were was.h.i.+ng the dishes. I failed a bit when I was drawing, since it’s been a while since I’ve done it.”

“You have whiter skin than me, so it’ll stand out. The girls will get scared if they see it, so heal it quickly.”

“…Yeah, that’s right.”

After Kaito finished applying the compress, he got out his phone and roughly leaned back against his chair.

“That guy is really irritating, ain’t he?”

“You mean Minato? Since he joined there won’t be any reason to drop any regulars, so we can do individuals and team compet.i.tions.”

“I don’t wanna do team compet.i.tions with half-hearted feelings. Didn’t it seem like he’d been practicing secretly? And I can’t understand the fact that he knows Ma.s.san. Since when they knew each other?”

“Aren’t you Ma.s.san’s favorite among his acquaintances? Minato’s a genuine bow geek, so I think he’ll unexpectedly be on the same wavelength as you, Kacchan.”

“We’re definitely not the same! And anyways, I don’t like that guy. There’s nothing decent about guys with nice faces, including you.”

“Heh heh.”

Nanao responded indifferently.

Kaito rarely talked this badly about other people, so that was probably how interested he was. It was just like Kaito to get fired up when it came to things relating to the bow.

“Oh, I ran out of time even though I had one more left.”

“Kacchan, you’re really bad at endgames.”

“Shut up. I got what I needed so it’s fine.”

“If you finished that, make me a cup of black tea. I’m thirsty since there was so much food with strong flavors.”

“Can’t be helped, then.”

Kaito put his phone down on his bed and went downstairs. When he was gone, Lucy disappeared as well, and Nanao put his phone away.

Kaito was quite a nice person. He couldn’t ignore it when he saw someone weak, and he even went along with Nanao’s selfishness. There were those who looked nice on the surface, but Kaito was probably someone who looked bad on the outside. Because he was always judged by appearance, so he came to act exactly that way, and so perhaps he became established in that role before he knew it. Nanao thought he was the disadvantaged type. That applied to himself as well.    

Does Kaito not know?

That Nanao didn’t join the kyudo club only because he longed to wear hakama.

——There’s absolutely no reason I can’t do what that weakling manservant Kacchan can, right?

Nanao gently struck his palm on the compress atop his left arm. It was still cold.

He had almost never caught anything like a cold, but if he got a fever like Seiya had at that time, would Kaito be worried? He felt like he would keep on scolding him like, since you push me around everyday, this is your divine punishment. What a pain, he thought, laughing at his delusions. In the first place, if he had to be nursed, a cute girl would be better. When he sensed the signs of Kaito coming upstairs, he took his phone into his hand just as the door opened.

“Okay, here’s the tea.”

“Did you add milk and sugar?”

“I didn’t add those things.”

“Huh, but I felt like drinking something sweet. You aren’t thoughtful at all, Kacchan.”

“If you want that then go add them yourself.”

“Well, I’ll forgive you this time. Hmm, it’s so-so.”

“What a spoiled little prince.”

“By the way, Tomi-sensei told us that since we’re doing strengthening practice during Golden Week, we should leave our schedules open. If we win at prefecturals, I’ll become cooler and cooler.”

“Say whatever you want. Oh, I don’t wanna go out to team compet.i.tions with this lineup.”

“Then you should have gone to a school where kyudo is popular.”

“Isn’t a situation where the weak school defeats the champion-holding school great though? I wonder if somehow we can just do individuals.”

“No way.”

Sorry, but I’m supporting Minato.

I want to go to prefecturals together.

Nanao poked the head of the frog next to him.

The next day, Tomi-sensei unveiled the schedule for the holiday week.

“I was thinking that we should try doing a training camp. We will stay at Yata Shrine and practice at the Yata no Mori Kyudojo for three days and two nights. As Ma.s.san is the chief priest there, I will have everyone help out with tasks around the shrine. After that we will do extrhard special training.”

“Eh!? Really?”

As usual, Ryouhei had a huge reaction, but Minato had the same feelings without showing them on his face.

Ma.s.san took over for Tomi-sensei.

“Close to forty schools will be partic.i.p.ating in the team compet.i.tion at the prefectural tournament, and the top-ranked teams with the highest total hits in the first two rounds will advance to the finals. In other words, five people will shoot four shots in two rounds, competing with a total of forty shots. When I look at the past results, the champions.h.i.+p victories are between thirty to thirty-five hits, so the matter is whether or not we can just barely pa.s.s through with twenty hits.”

“I heard that the champion school is a regular, though.”

“Ah, you’re talking about Kirisaki High School? They seem to be a powerhouse school with multiple kaichuu (4) archers. Let’s aim for 'hawake’ first. Hawake means a fifty percent hitting rate, and if we hit half, then pa.s.sing the preliminaries will be in sight for us.”

“Let’s defeat 'Kirisaki!’”

“Let’s!”

Contrasting Ryouhei and Nanao who cannot help but be excited, Minato and Seiya fell silent. It was reasonable that Ryouhei wouldn’t know since he joined kyudo club in high school, but it was a well-known fact among the kyudo club members who lived in this district that it would not be easy to defeat Kirisaki High School.

Practice was doing yakazu, so they were mostly standing while shooting up, but the first hitote was done in sitting form. Ryouhei knelt (6) at the shooting line and began doing the yatsugae (nocking) movements.

He stood his bow at the center of his body and quickly returned his bowstring to its original position. Arrow nocking was joining together the borderline between the grip of the bow and the yazuridou (7) with the line beneath the arrow, and then from that position one wedged the nock at the place that touched the drawn line approximately at a right angle facing the bowstring. After nocking the first arrow, one drove the feathers of the second arrow in between the fingers of one’s left hand that was facing the target, so that one would be holding the two arrows in parallel. After finis.h.i.+ng yugamae he lifted his bow up, but there was a rattling sound as he did that.

“Oh no, I dropped the arrow.”

“That’s 'hazukobore.’ If you’re not experienced at it, you might drop your nocked arrow. You have to make a proper nakajikake, and lightly hold down the arrow with your right index finger so it won’t fall.”

“Yes, thank you very much!”

When shooting was finished, Seiya and Kaito went to collect the arrows.

After making sure that there was no one raising their bow, they put out a red flag, declared aloud, “I am entering,” and then entered the azuchi. After pulling the arrows out, they returned to the target viewing area and pulled down the red flag. While they were removing the dirt from the arrows with a towel, the next group’s shooting began.

Kaito returned the towels back to their original place after they finished wiping the arrows.

“Seiya, aren’t you making too much of Narumiya? Look, didn’t he only get one hit out of four shots?”

“He still hasn’t sprung back yet, but Minato’s shooting is really beautiful.”

“Your att.i.tude towards him is straight-out different compared to towards the others. Like, you come off like an overprotective dad.”

“Is that so? This is the first time that I am told such a thing. Besides, I don’t remember having a child at the age of zero.”

“Uhh… I don’t even know where to start, but oh well.”

Kaito scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t planned on getting brushed off here and having the talk interrupted. 

“Your good point where you kindly take care of everyone–it seems like it’s because you’re following the rules. Like, you’re going at the green light and stopping at the red light because you were taught to do that. However, you’re different towards Narumiya. You’re doing what you really want to do. But I’m not saying that you’re black-hearted. Your good quality is fairness because you have enough brains and ability to take action to properly make use of what you’ve learned. There are a lot of people relying on you. It’s due to you, the club president, getting so engrossed into one person that it misled your guiding principles. I mean, you shouldn’t have forced everyone to go out for team compet.i.tions for this time.”

“…Heh, you’re amazing, Kaito. You’re really good at observing people.”

Seiya grasped his right hand tightly, and the aluminum arrow made a cold rattling sound.

“If you have the time to observe me, then you better practice more. The 'Young Lord’ is at Kirisaki after all.”

“Are you exaggerating stuff again? Somehow, a lot of the things you say sound fishy.”

“Kaito, I just want Minato to draw the bow——. That’s all.”

After saying that, Seiya quickly returned on the arrow-collecting path (yatorimichi).

A certain suspicion arose in Kaito.

Judging by that sudden change in topic, Seiya might not have been saying his true motive.

——What happened with those two besides their defeat at the prefecturals in middle school?

In Kaito’s hand, Seiya’s long-used arrow remained.