Sparring partners

[toobigtohandle]

WHO: Kenta, Kurogane and Fai
WHERE: Kurogane's dojo
WHEN: 03/09 for first thread, and then later in the month
WHAT: Kenta finally finds a place where he can practice Kendo with like-minded people... and possibly ends up setting up to people without meaning to.
WARNINGS: It will probably be awkwardly cute for having such big guys with wooden swords.


That was the place.

Kenta had been directed there by several people when he'd talked about needing a new place to train. Ever since he'd stopped competitions, he hadn't had much time for it. Occasionally, he'd gone to see his former teammates or the people he'd originally been scouted alongside with for the national team - before he'd told them he had a foreign passport and did not wish to change that. That allowed him a bit of training with people at his level but he couldn't impose on their practice all the time.

He'd brought his gear to this place, and knocked before pushing the door.

"Hello?"

Comments

I am so late and so so sorry!

[shutupmage]

Kurogane heard the door open. It would have been hard not to, since he was the only one here at the moment, going through kata with his bokken as he normally did when he wanted to kill time before his next class. Today that meant he had about two hours to himself.

But he'd been meaning to make some kind of advertisement for new business anyway, so it wasn't as if the guy walking in was any sort of bother. Kurogane glanced at him without any great interest before shrugging as he came back to his ready stance.

"You've got gear so I'm assuming you know what you're doing. Come here and let's see what you know."

[toobigtohandle]

Kenta stepped inside cautiosuly.

"Excuse me, are you Kurogane-san? I was given your name and..."

Then what had been sent to him seemed to hit and he blinked.

"... Now?"

Just like that? The man hadn't even talked about registering or payment, or anything!

[shutupmage]

"Yeah."

It was all he said before he shrugged at the question.

"Might as well. I'm just doing kata. Unless you wanna change or whatever, I don't mind that much."

Sorry, Kenta, this is how he is with everyone.

[toobigtohandle]

"... I'd rather change, if that's alright."

If push came to shove, Kenta could fight wearing the clothes he was wearing now. He could even fight pretty dirty, but he'd come here to practice Kendo and he had brought most of his gear, except the armor.

He spotted a door that looked like a locker room and slipped inside to change into his kimono and hakama. He fixed his ponytail and then grabbed his bokken rather than the shinai. He didn't think Kurogane-san was one who would hold back.

[shutupmage]

Nope, he definitely wouldn't be holding back. It'd be insulting to him as well as to Kenta, who if he had any skill would hate it if Kurogane took it easy on him.

He just waited while the guy went to change, doing slow forms as he kept his eye on the locker room door.

[toobigtohandle]

Kenta came out and bowed to the tatami before stepping on it.

Once there, he went to stand in front of Kurogane and bowed to him as well before taking a stance.

As it turned out, he had more than just 'skill'. He had a been regional champion before, after all, and good enough to be considered for the national team both here and back in Japan. His problem had mainly been finding opponents with his same, tall build to practise with.

[shutupmage]

Kurogane may not have had exactly the same build, but it was close enough to count. He could sense the guy's seriousness and smiled a little before launching an attack. Not a terribly difficult one to evade, but not exactly easy either.

[toobigtohandle]

Kenta... didn't avoid it. Instead he parried. Given how tall and strong he was, this was often the best tactic for him, because people expected evasion whereas he just went on the attack with his longer legs and arms allowing him a bigger range.

So he pushed back and the went for an upwards thrust of his own. He could feel the weight of that first attack. This was an opponent that he wouldn't be able to push around the way he did most of the smaller people who tried to have a match with him.

[shutupmage]

Yeah, pushing Kuro around woudn't be the best idea. He was no champion, but he'd been training from the time he could hold a shinai. He was really happy that this guy seemed to be good, and smirked when Kenta tried that upwards thrust. Kurogane blocked it easily and stepped a bit to the side to get enough momentum to swing his own blade around and downward.

This was going to be fun.

[toobigtohandle]

This was more like the sessions Kenta could occasionally sneak in with his former partners who had gone on to the national teams, and much more satisfying than any other times he'd tried a dojo only to find that there was no one near his skill level or build that could give him a challenge.

Soon enough, he was sweating and finding that he had to really focus to be able to evade, parry, take advantage of small openings. He'd forgotten all about their surrounding, his mind directing only towards finding the things that could give him an upper edge. His fingers were almost hurting from how hard he was holding the bokken to parry those heavy blows and try to slip through Kurogane's guard.

He wasn't really out of practice - he'd kept up with his kata and strength training, but it had still been a while since he'd had a worthy opponent, and he could feel himself tiring more quickly than he'd expected.