Ashida Highschool

Ai walked into the kendo dojo. No one was there so she walked into the girls' changing room and changed out her school uniform into her kendo gear. Walking out she wondered how the other students will react today.

Flash Back
"Men!!"She scored a head strike on her opponent. "Match. Akira Kawazoe wins." The referee called out. Akira walked over and knelt on the ground. A few other students congratulated her. "All right that's enough. Todays practice is over. Go get changed now." Their sensei called out.

While everyone else was changing in the boys' changing room. Akira went into the girls' changing room and changed out of her kendo uniform and gear. Then left though the window. "I hope they don't get suspicious." She said as she left for home.

Present

Smiling, Ai started practice strikes till everyone else came.

Hiro walked at a casual pace towards the dojo, he let his mind wonder thinking about graduating from high school and going onto to college. Though such was a bit away it didn’t hurt to plan early. He stopped for a moment thinking about the kendo’s team new member, Akira. They was odd, maybe even more odd than Hiro was. He always seemed to be in such a hurry to leave once practice ended, maybe he was rushing room to do homework or something.

He bowed just as he entered the dojo and saw Akira already there practicing his strikes, this was a perfect opportunity to make mental notes of his skills and see what he could to better his kendo. Going into the boy’s locker room and getting into uniform he returned back to the training floor and sat down putting his bogu on. A few of the players began to come into the dojo and got dressed as well. Hiro did a few stretches before working on his fumikomi (foot stomp) and men (head strike).

"Taki-senpai Good Morning!" Ai said her monotone, it made it difficult to distinguish between a boy or girls voice. "Do you know where Hama-senpai is. I think he was upset about yesterday." She walked over to Hiro was. "He probably won't like it when I also tell him using the high stance is very difficult." Behind her mask, Ai's eyes had a rather serious look about them. "It is a good way to get a head strike though." She turned only to be knocked to the floor by a shinai thrown at her. One of the students, Ken-ichi, had thrown it at her. "Oi freshmen. Spar with me. I want to see if you really did beat our second best player!"

“Kawazoe-kohai, good morning,” Hiro replied, “I do not sorry.” Akira walked over to him and spoke looking directly in his eyes, “Well you were being objective, but sometimes we all take criticism a little too personal.”

Without warning Akira fell to the floor by a flying shinai!? The culprit was none other than ken-ichi. Despite the teams win, some of the member’s jealousy towards Akira would unravel the bond they all had. While skill was important, humility outweighs it. Some of the other players emerged from the locker in shock, but also curious to see how Akira would respond.

“. . . if you wanted to spar you could’ve just asked,” Hiro said calmly containing his anger. Then turned to Akira, “You don’t have to spar with him if you don’t want to. He might do something tricky if he’s willing to throw a shinai at you.”

Ai got up slowly, ignoring the pain flaring where the shinai hit her. Something about this shinai isn't right. She thought as she picked it up and returned it to Ken-ichi with a polite bow, who snatched it back. "I accept." A few students in the background gasped at her politeness. Ken-ichi grinned and went to get his gear on, Ai was already wearing it. A few minutes later they were in the center of the dojo kneeling across from each other. They both stood up when ready. "Begin!" One of Ken-ichi's cronies said.

Ken-ichi dashed forward, locking both of them in a deadlock. "Pretty strong for a squirt!" He said since Akira hadn't fallen to the ground at the attack. Without warning Ai broke the deadlock and took Ken-ichi's surprise as an opening. "Doh!" She scored a body strike. She turned around to walk back to her spot when Ken-ichi had dashed forward and knocked her to the ground again. Ai blocked quickly as he aimed for a body strike while she was down. Ken-ichi heard the students gasp and yell out things, but he didn't care. "This isn't a real match. I'm just testing the kid." He called out to them.

He was surprised Akira accepted the challenge and watched as the two of them took their respected positions before the match. The seconds the match started Ken-Ichi used his size to try to push Akira, but had no success. They were locked, fighting to influence their opponent’s movement to give them an opening. Akira was able to do so first and strike a Do, giving him a point.

That must’ve really bothered Ken-Ichi because he went on the offense attacking Akira when they weren’t ready. Then again one must always be ready to strike again and getting a point. Though kendo was a representation of the samurai battles of years past, one should place themselves in that time. Always ready to defend and attack, Hiro wondered if anyone else saw what he did. He was so deep in thought he had blanked out of what was happening around him. Some of the students were calling foul play on Ken-Ichi’s part, who rebutted it was “just a test.”

“Test or not, your actions not only affect you but all of us,” Hiro spoke looking through Ken-Ichi’s men into his eyes.

Just then Sensei and the assistant instructors walked in causing the whole dojo to fall silent. Hiro didn’t changed his demeanor he had nothing to hide yet the reaction everyone else gave off told them that a “disagreement” had happened.