“Haaaaa!”
Oh, impressive, Hoshina thought as he parried the fearsome strike that Kikoru launched while stepping toward him.
Each and every one of her blows was swift and well aimed. Kikoru didn’t have the raw power that Aoi did, but her footwork was graceful as she closed to an appropriate distance. She was aggressive, but she also had technique.
Even so, she’s still just a diamond in the rough.
The two came apart, and this time Hoshina closed the distance. Kikoru didn’t fail to see it coming. She stepped forward to meet his sword with her own, then went after Hoshina’s protective glove. Against any ordinary opponent, she would have surely scored a hit.
Kikoru’s sword only sliced the air, however. Hoshina had stepped backward, dodging the attack on his glove while raising his shinai up over his head. With Kikoru wide open from her thrust at his glove, he brought his shinai down on the top of her mask.
A glove-pull, mask-tap combo—the point was his.
“Great work, as always,” Hoshina told Kikoru. “Still, your movements are a little too pronounced when you’re getting into position. It creates all kinds of openings.”
“Thank you very much!”
Though Kikoru lowered her head and said the proper words, her voice sounded sullen.
She really can’t stand to lose. She’ll get better and better going forward.
A coarse and loud voice resounded across the dojo. “Hey, what’s the matter, newbies? Come at me harder!”
It was Platoon Leader Ebina dueling with his new recruits. Ebina was now a veteran officer. Hoshina smiled at that ferocious expression and tone of voice. Ebina hadn’t changed a bit since he’d first met him.
When Hoshina looked at the clock on the wall, it was already after 9:00 p.m. He clapped his hands twice for attention and said, “We seem to have run a little over tonight. Let’s clean up and withdraw, shall we?”
Even so, I just remembered something that really took me back.
He’d traveled back to a time in the spring of his life, when he’d had yet to fully believe in his sword. Yet Ashiro had believed in his potential for growth, and she had needed him during the operation. And so Hoshina had chosen to transfer to the Third Division.
Well, a lot’s happened since then. It’s fair to say that was the point when things started to get really tough.
How Hoshina had come to join the Third Division was just one memory among many. There’d been other storms to weather before Hoshina and Ashiro had performed missions together and developed absolute trust in one another—but that is a tale for another time.
Suddenly, Hoshina noticed someone standing near the door to the dojo. He walked over to speak with her.
“Hey there, Captain! What brings you here?”
Ashiro, clad in her Defense Force suit, shook her head with an indifferent expression. “There’s something I’d like to talk with you about, but it can wait till tomorrow.”
“Not at all. It’s fine. We’d just finished up here.”
Without a word, Ashiro raised her arm and pointed at something behind Hoshina.
Hmn?
He turned around to find Kafka staring at him. Despite the humiliating defeat he’d just experienced, his eyes were blazing with fighting spirit.
“Pardon me, Vice-Captain Hoshina,” Kafka said. “I know we’re wrapping up, but may I ask for one more match?”
Standing behind him, Reno spoke up.
“I’d like one too!”
“Ah, the day’s already over!”—is what Hoshina felt like saying. But looking into the eyes of those two officers, his resistance faded away. He put his hands on his hips and sighed.
“Welp, I guess I have to, then. But just one more for both of you.”
“Thank you very much, sir!” Kafka said, then positioned his shinai.
Compared to Kikoru, it was plain to see Kafka was an amateur, with openings all over the place. He wasn’t even starting from the basics. They could probably fight dozens of rounds without him taking even one point off Hoshina.
What’s excellent is his fighting spirit and his—well, that’s about it.
I’m going to stand beside Mina Ashiro—Kafka clung to this foolhardy hope.
Reality, though, thought Hoshina, tends to be cruel. No matter how strong your will, no matter how many times you redoubled your efforts, it was no guarantee that your dream would be attained.
The odds of the oldest recruit and his 1 percent unleashed combat power ever measuring up to Ashiro were inarguably zero. It was not something that would somehow work out through will alone.
The world’s worn me down too much to look him in the eyes and say, “Never give up, and your wishes will come true.”
There was only one thing he could say for sure: “There’s no future for a guy who’s given up. As long as you keep going, you can get closer to your goal step-by-step, even if the odds of reaching it are zero. Even if your pace is like a snail’s crawl.” That was something Hoshina knew all about.
Hoshina poised his shinai, gave a wry smile, and said, “Now come and get me, little duckling.”
How these hatchlings would one day mature was something not even Hoshina yet knew.