Transcendence Volume 2: Awakening

Chapter 38: An Old Wound

[September 1, 2023, Monday]

[First Day of the Tsukiyama-Aomori Sports Festival]

Today is the Day.

Something that both sides had looked forward to, a way for them to settle their rivalry without any violence. And so without a doubt, many were excited to see how it all plays out.

Following the tradition, an exhibition match between the two schools would be held as a show of their best members of a certain club. And on this year it would be the Kendo Club.

Haruka had a scowl as soon a he got into the main hall where the opening match was being held. From the distance, he can see the Aomori Kendo Club gathering and was visibly taunting the Tsukiyama Kendo Club, who in turn was taunting the other side as well.

But long-standing school grudges aside, that was not the reason why he had that look, his glare was focused on a single individual on the opposite end who was quiet the whole time.

Despite the cheers from both sides, the room felt quiet for him and the other person. Even more so as nearly all of the students were present and were shouting their support on their respective teams.

His gaze then turned to the screen above showing the matchups on who will fight who on the match. And they were currently displaying the one pair of names for the opening match.

Fuyumori Haruka vs Harumura Natsuki.

He felt his blood boil as he wondered if they intentionally kept him in the dark on who will he face or was it all a coincidence.

"Did you know about this?" Haruka turned to Tetsuya who paled as soon as the names were flashed on the screen as he and Hanako did their turns in keeping an eye on the others.

"Did you know about this?" He repeated, this time in a more threatening manner. He couldn't answer, from the side, Hanako wanted to speak up also but chose not to.

"All participants for the Opening Match please enter the arena."

"I'm leaving once this match is over," Haruka said taking off his protective gear as soon as his name was called. "Consider this my letter of resignation in it of itself."

"You look like you're about to throw up," Shinji told him with a worried look as Natsuki heard his name being called.

"I'll be fine," Natsuki said shaking his head. "I'm just nervous."

"If you had told me a while back I'd have arranged it to be someone else," Shinji told him with an apologetic look. "I heard from Natsuyama that you have a history with the representative of the Tsukiyama."

"That's a gross oversimplification but yeah." He said as he reached for his protective gear but he saw Haruka taking the steps to the stage for their match but lacked the protective gear for it.

Here goes. Natsuki thought as he walked up towards the stage where they were offered a pair of training swords.

"Are you sure you don't want to put on defensive gear?" One of the three referees asked.

"No," Haruka said without hesitation.

"..I don't need one," Natsuki said similarly.

"Alright here are the rules," One of them said as they both took the Training swords. "First to land a blow in five minutes wins. You are free to use any form of sword style but remember that you have one blow."

The two took several steps away from one another as the referee raised the flag. As he did so everything went dead silent.

"Get ready!"