But now and then, Mirai would make me join him as well, even though I never even held a sword before. That's why I was right now dressed in ink-black armor, holding a bamboo sword while someone charged at me with a ferocious attack. I raised the sword to defend myself, but the end result was I got hit. Fun fact: I've never once landed a hit in all the times I was made to help out the Kendo club.
That's right, I was extremely terrible at it. Well, what did you expect from a guy who spends most of his time watching TV and surfing the Internet on his phone? The only thing I ever got right was the form when I slashed at the air. I had no idea why Mirai would keep making me come help out with this.
With the match ended on my loss, me and the other swordsman bowed and then separated to different sides of the gym. Yuna, Mirai and Omoyo were gathered at the entrance, so I headed over there and sat down on the floor. I pulled my helmet off and shed the rest of my armor off before I leaned my back against the wall and grabbed the water bottle that Yuna handed to me.
She sat down patiently next to me as I drank, and when I put the bottle down, she tapped my shoulder and pointed towards a huge poster hanging on the wall. The poster was an old photo of a girl in Kendo robes proudly holding up a trophy.
"Who is she?" Yuna asked through her phone.
"Huh?" I went, glancing sideways at the poster. "Oh, that's Hanako Yamamoto. They call her the legendary Sword Princess. She's pretty famous over here as the first one from our town to make it to a national tournament."
"She's not from our school, though," Yuna pointed out. The white banners hanging behind Hanako Yamamoto had the name of a different school. "So why do we have a picture of her hanging on our wall?"
"It's to remind ourselves." The Kendo club president approached us with his helmet tucked beneath his armpit and drenched in sweat. He must have just finished his own match now.
"Remind ourselves of what?" Yuna asked.
"To remind ourselves of the bitter feeling losing to her has given us," was the Kendo club president's dark reply.
Yuna didn't seem to get it, and neither did I. Mirai must have sensed that because he joined in as well and explained, "You see, Team Oota," he said, "our school's Kendo team used to be called the best in town. But all that changed when Hanako Yamamoto appeared."
"That's right!" the Kendo club president shouted. It really startled us. I almost jumped out of my skin, and Yuna had a look like a deer frozen by headlights. "She appeared out of nowhere and took the local town championship from us! Her school used to be the lowest of the low in the world of high school Kendo too, so our loss thanks to her was an utterly humiliating one! We've never made it to the top again after that. And to add insult to injury, she led her team to the nationals, a dream generations of our club have strived for but never succeeded! Oooh! Just talking about her makes my blood boil!"
"Then shouldn't you get rid of that poster?" I said. "High blood pressure's not good you know."
But the Kendo club president shook his head.
"No can do," he said. "As the president of the Kendo club, I must keep this resentment, this regret alive for future generations!"
"They've had this grudge for decades," Omoyo chimed in. "It's not going to go away anytime soon."
"That's right!" the Kendo club president shouted. "Only when we have avenged ourselves and reach the nationals will we finally put the past behind us! That's why, Mirai! Won't you and Omoyo join the Kendo club?"
"Sorry, but I have my hands full with my own club," Mirai said. "And I need Omoyo with me to keep everything running smoothly. Instead, why not take Hisao under your wing?"
"Huh?" I went. "You're gonna pawn me off just like that!?"
I knew he was just joking around, but the Kendo club president looked at me and, with a very serious look, said, "No thanks. He's so terrible at Kendo that even my kid brother in Kindergarten can beat him. Why do you even bring him here? He's no help at all to get us ready for the tournaments."
I know that everything he said was true, but did he really have to say it like that? So harsh!
Mirai, however, chuckled and replied to the Kendo club pres' inquiry with, "Just a precaution. I thought that I should have my club members learn how to fight. We go all over town for our activities, and even in a town like this, there's no telling what sort of dangers could be waiting for us. I mean, did you see the news?"
"Ah, right." The Kendo club pres seemed to calm down a little. "You're talking about the Piper."
The Piper. I don't watch the news a lot, but even I've heard of him. In the big city, there's a guy going around attacking people with a pipe, hence the name "The Piper". Old or young, man or woman, it didn't matter. A lot of his victims died, which made him a serial killer.
"But he's all the way in Tokyo," I said. "And that's really far away from here."
"I'm just using him as an example," Mirai said. "All I'm saying that it's better to be careful than not."
"That's true," the Kendo club pres said, nodding. "In that case, I'm more than happy to help tutor your clubmates in sword fighting. But that means you owe me. Since you won't join us, at least help us get ready for the next match by training with us."
"Sure thing," Mirai said. "I'll take you on right now."
The Kendo club president grinned, pleased with Mirai's answer. "Then let's get started!" he said. "Omoyo, you should take part too!" And then he pulled his helmet over his head and made his way to a free floor mat.
Mirai started to follow him there, but then he stopped and turned to me.
"You might want to turn on your Psy-Armor now," he said. And then he left.
Yuna turned to me with a puzzled look and then typed into her phone, "What's Psy-Armor?"
"It's that armor thing you saw me use a few days ago," I explained to her. "We're calling it Psy-Armor, short for Psychic, or Psychokinetic, Armor. See?"
I held up my hand for her to see. The space around it was all blurry, kind of like how the air above a concrete road looks in the middle of a hot, hot day, all ripple-y and stuff. That's what psychic energy looks like for psychokinetics like myself.
As I was showing her my power, not too far away, a newbie member was having a match with a senior. With a yell, he raised his bamboo sword over his head and swung it down. But the senior swiped upward and struck the sword out of the newbie's hands. It flew high in the air and (wouldn't you know it?) it fell right on top of my head. The tip of the sword struck right between my temples, bounced off and hit the floor in a loud clatter.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the newbie cried out. "Are you okay?"
I tried to play it off with, "Yeah, I'm okay. As you can see, the thing barely even touched me."
"Okay? Okay, nothing!" the senior cried out. "I saw that sword go straight to your forehead! There's no way you're okay! We need to get you to the nurse's office pronto!"
"I'm fine!" I cried out. "Really!"
I was really, truly okay. Even though that sword hit me in the head, it didn't hurt me one bit thanks to my Psy-Armor. But it wasn't like I could just tell them that. It was unnatural enough that I was unscathed after an impact like that.
Things got messy as I tried to play it off as nothing, but then Omoyo cut in and said, "I'll take him to the nurse's office."
"Huh?" I went. "But Omoyo!"
She cut me off and said, "No buts!" In a lower voice, she hissed, "Things will only get worse if you stick around. Let's just head to the nurse's office, make something up to the teacher and then be on our way!"
"Fine," I whispered back. "Let's go then."
We were just about to depart, but then a girl suddenly appeared at the door and said, "I heard a commotion. What happened?"
I wasn't sure what to say so I glanced at Omoyo. But Omoyo said nothing. She was oddly tensed as she glared at the girl.
I knew that it would fall on me to say something, but then the newbie and senior involved in my accident came and explained to the girl what had happened. The girl put her hand to her mouth and went, "Oh my! Let me take you to the nurse's office, then!"
"Huh? No, wait!" Omoyo cried out. "I was just about to -!"
But the girl cut her off. "It's fine, Homura. I'll do it. You stay here and help Toshiro calm everyone down. There's no telling what might happen if we leave them alone. Some unfavorable rumors might get spread out. And we both don't want that to happen, do we?"
There was a sharp glint in her gaze and you could practically see the pressure on Omoyo's face. She just couldn't talk back to this girl. She couldn't even keep her eyes locked onto the girl's and looked away, glancing back at Mirai who was trying to get the crowd under control with the Kendo club president. A lot of people were gathering, wondering what the commotion was about.
"Fine," Omoyo said, finally caving in. "But Yuna go with him. She could probably use an extra hand."
Yuna nodded.
Before we set off for the nurse's office, Omoyo whispered into my ear, "Be careful what you say to her."
"Huh?" I said. Before I could ask her what she meant by that, Omoyo hurried off to help Mirai.
"Come on," the girl called out. "Let's go!"
While confused and unable to understand what was going on, I followed the girl out of the gym and back to the main building. Yuna followed close behind me.
As we walked down the hallway, I decided to break silence and said, "Thanks for coming with me, but I can go my own way, You don't have to go to all this trouble."
"Oh, it's no trouble at all," said the girl. "We need to help each other out in times like these, no?"
"I . . . guess," I said.
"But I must say," said the girl, "that was really careless of you, what happened back there."
"Yeah, I know," I said sheepishly. "I'll be careful of flying objects from now on."
"There is that, but that's not what I was talking about," said the girl. "I was talking about using your powers in public like that. You really need to be more careful about that."
Both Yuna and I stopped and gaped at the girl. My blood ran cold.
"Y-you know about powers!?" I cried out. "How?"
The girl frowned at us.
"You don't recognize me?" she said.
Yuna and I exchanged looks and then we shook our heads.
"Unbelievable," the girl muttered. "I spoke at the Welcome Ceremony! Doesn't that ring any bells?"
"Nope," I said bluntly. "I never paid attention to it."
She looked at me in disbelief, but then recovered and went, "Ahem!"
"Then let me introduce myself," she said. "My name is Naoko Soushu, a second year. I am this school's current Student Council President. And like you, I also hold a special power."
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