Chapter 9 – Kids Kendo Club
“Ah, Sensei1!”
When Makoto arrived at the town hall, a group of children that were wearing their dochaku2 gathered around her.
The town hall of Aiide city had many facilities. There was a multipurpose room that could be used for kendo, dance, and Kempo. There was also a room that can be used for judo and aikido, and there was a music room that can be used for choirs or musical instruments clubs. Since it was a public place, the cost of using the facilities was cheap, therefore many courses are opened in each room every day.
The kid’s kendo club rented the rooms every Sunday and Wednesday, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.The training was supposed to take two hours, but it was okay to send children who were in grade 3 and under to go home before training ended.
The number of the club’s participants was quite small, it only had around ten people. The parents of students who asked their children to join the kendo club were divided in half. Half wanted their children to take training seriously so that they could enter the tournament one day. Whereas the others did not prioritize on ability. Rather, they placed more priority on their children to have fun with friends and to have knowledge about Japanese traditional martial arts. Therefore, for those who wanted their children to seriously train in kendo, their instructor was a former sports teacher named Hashimoto, who was tasked to train them. Makoto trained the other group.
That was also the reason why Makoto rarely scolded the children. Of course, she must warn them if they were doing dangerous things. However, since there was no required pressure on her to train the children to reach black belt, she only taught them to the extent where they could have fun. She did not give them any undue pressure and hoped that the children were happy with that. Therefore, many children liked her. According to the children, Hashimoto was ‘Evil Sensei’, while Makoto was ‘Good Sensei’.
After she finished changing clothes and returning to the practice room, the children gathered around her again.
“Be quiet! Let’s start!” Hashimoto shouted and ordered all the children to sit in the formal sitting position. They saluted and then began training. Makoto held her bamboo sword horizontally with one hand and ordered the children to hit her sword. In the first ten minutes, the children showed such serious faces. But because they were children, after a while they became bored and their concentration was scattered. When it became like that, Makoto immediately told them to rest. It was because they would only get hurt if they continued to practice and Makoto did not want the children to hate kendo because of that.
“Ok, let’s rest for ten minutes! Don’t forget to drink your water. “
The children from Hashimoto’s group glanced enviously at Makoto’s group who were resting. Sometimes that matter made Hashimoto hate Makoto even more and scold her.
Even though Hashimoto was retired and stopped teaching sports fifteen years ago, the man still looked healthy and had a great enthusiasm for teaching. His hair had turned white and he often shouted angrily as he showed his teeth, which according to him were all of his original teeth. If there were mistakes, he could mercilessly swing his bamboo sword into the children’s buttocks. They continued to follow Hashimoto’s training program seriously even while they cried. Makoto turned her gaze to her own group. The children were leaning their backs against the wall and casually sipped their drinks. Makoto smiled at that sight. These kids aren’t bad either.
“Huh.” Makoto tilted her head while looking at the children. “Tetsuya didn’t come?” She belatedly realized that her group was lacking one person. Tetsuya was a 5th grader.
“Tetsuya? Yes, he said he won’t come today! ” Chinatsu, who was still in grade 1, answered. If Makoto was not mistaken, Tetsuya was in the same school as him.
“If I’m not mistaken, he had to help his mother.”
“Eh? Help?”
“Yes, there’s a murder case this morning, right? “
The conservation topic was something that made people worried, but it did not match the dojo’s atmosphere which was filled with the sounds of shouting from training. However, Chinatsu continued talking about it, as if he did not understand how serious the topic was.
“The boy, who was murdered, is the son of his mother’s friend. He said the boy’s family is having a hard time, so he went to help them.”
“I see, so the child who was the victim turned out to be Tetsuya’s acquaintance?” Makoto frowned while asking that.
“Yeah, that child also came to Tetsuya’s match. If I’m not mistaken, his name was Yukio.”
“Oh, so maybe we’ve met that child before.” Makoto looked at the other children. Two kindergarten children and two children below the 3rd grade. They played with their drinking bottles that had a cartoon picture on it. Surely they did not know the fear of being kidnapped and that there was a possibility of having kidnappers near them.
“You also have to be careful, ok?” said Makoto. Chinatsu then responded with reluctant “yes.”
“But, they said that the boy was very naughty,” Chinatsu continued his story.
“Huh?”
“The child who was killed. They said he often beats up girls.”
“If it’s like that, doesn’t Chinatsu also often do that too?” said Rikiya who sat next to him jokingly.
“But, they said there was a girl he pushed from the stairs, who had her bones broken, you know? Some were pushed into the pool until they almost died.”
“Really? In that case, it’s good that he died!”
“Stop it! You can’t talk like that. ” Makoto warned. “This also applies to you, Chinatsu. From now on it is forbidden to talk like that. Understood?”
“Yeah.”
Makoto glanced at the clock and then realized that ten minutes had passed and break was over.
“Come on, let’s practice again!” Makoto clapped her hands and the children were standing after that.
Makoto thought about the topic before as the children moved while holding their bamboo swords. Even though she had warned them like this, the children were completely unprotected. Their parents must have thought, my family would be fine, even though they were actually frightened by this incident. These children must be affected by their parents’ indifference.
When Makoto told the children to swing their swords in the empty air, she thought of the poor child named Yukio.