Volume 2 – Chapter 58 – A Club

04:00 p.m.

The day passed relatively quickly.

Most of the classes were very easy for me to pass through. My knowledge of my past life make it simple for me to not have any difficult over certain subjects, especially math, so most of the time I didn’t payed that much attention. But this isn’t Earth, just a world that have many similarities, so other subjects such as history and geography sometimes require my attention, but it wasn’t difficult for me concentrate in them when necessary, so all in all I had a relatively easy school life.

I was on my way to the gymnasium of the school, more specifically, to their dojo.

Certain clubs in school also function as martial arts classes. To my surprise their names are the same as the ones that exist on Earth, such as karate, judo and aikido.

I was on my way to the karate club.

Hiroki was bugging me to join their club before vacation but I never was much into the idea. I was to invested in develop my relationship with the woman in my family at the time.

But things were different now. Now that I have truly accepted that I might face netorare stories in the future, especially considering that it was practically guaranteed that I would help Yurika, I decided that it was time for me to properly learn how to defend myself.

I might have to use intelligence to solve some problems, but there was also the chance of having to use strength to deal with troublesome people.

It came down to be better safe them sorry.

Once I reached the dojo I immediately looked for Hiroki. It wouldn’t be difficult since there wasn’t that many people there at this moment.

Most of the people in the dojo right now were seniors responsible for the maintenance and preservation of equipment, making sure that there was nothing that might have might gotten broken, spoiled or in need of replacement.

Having spotted Hiroki I immediately went to his location.

“Hey Takashi, took you long enough” said Hiroki.

“Sorry about that. Just had to warn my sisters I wouldn’t go back home with them” I said.

“Nah, don’t sweat on it. Here, let me introduce you to our sensei” said Hiroki.

Hiroki lead me until we were both in front of a man wearing a white kimono. He was tall with a relatively solid build, not too bulky or too slim, with a sharp gaze as well. He had short black hair, perfectly combed so perfectly that it looked like it came from a life-size doll or something like that. He was wearing normal clothes, a shirt and pants, so one might not initially think he was the teacher of a martial arts club at first glance.

He wasn’t talking much, occasionally guiding the students around him. His eyes were constantly sweeping through the room, making sure that everybody around him was doing their job properly.

Once we arrived in front of him, his eyes stopped moving through the room and focussed on the two of us.

“...Hiroki, is this the new member you talked about?” said the man.

“Yes sensei!” said Hiroki.

He was about to bow in respect, when the man lifted one of his hands to stop him.

“There’s no need for it. Activities return only next week, so right now I’m just a supervisor, not your sensei” said the man.

“Yes sensei!” said Hiroki.

The man sighed in a resigned manner. It looks like they had this conversation before, and it didn’t changed much their situation.

The man then shifted his focus to me, as if he was measuring my worth.

“So, you want to join the karate club?” asked the man.

“Yes” I responded.

“What is you name?” he asked.

“Takashi. Takashi Komiya” I said.

“Okay Takashi, why do you want to joint this club?” he asked, his eyes narrowing a bit.

I could imagine why there was a change in his expression, but that didn’t really matter to me. It wouldn’t change my answer.

“Self defense. I don’t wish to engage in reckless fighting, but if someone wants to harm me then I want to be prepared, just in case” I said.

The expression of the man softened a bit, and he nodded in approval.

“That’s a good goal. Better than most people that come here” he said.

It wasn’t difficult to understand his point there. Joining a club was one of the prerequisites that students needed to join a goo college. It wasn’t mandatory, but it was a solid and good way make it more likely to be accepted by one of the best colleges of the country. Of course that, since it was a good way to get their attention, many people usually joined clubs to increase their value, so while it wasn’t mandatory on paper it was generally considered a prerequisite to be accepted in their college of choice.

This was also the reason of why the instructor could casually deny someone’s entry in the club. They weren’t exactly in danger of closing activities due to a lack of candidates, since there were people enough on it that wanted to actually practice martial arts, so he had the liberty to be a little pick in who was going to enter the club.

“It’s already better than what this meathead besides you said when he wanted to enter” said the man.

“Really? What he said?” I asked.

“Punch whoever tried to hit on his crush, Nao” said the man.

“Wha-!? I-I never said that sensei!” exclaimed Hiroki, red from embarrassment.

“Oh right, I think that what you said was ‘I want to be able to deal with a guy that might try to punch my girlfriend’, or something like that, right?” said the man.

“W-well yeah but-” said Hiroki.

“Yeah I know, Nao isn’t your girlfriend yet. You really should man up already or she might start dating someone else” said the man.

“C-can we please just deal with Takashi’s entrance already?!” asked Hiroki, red to his ears.

“Haaah, very well” said the man, sighing again in exasperation.

This didn’t looked like a conversation that came up just now, but a subject that came constantly from time to time. The man didn’t looked like he was just trying to mess with Hiroki, but like he was genuinely giving advice to him.

“Anyway, let’s just drop this for now. Come with me Takashi, let me explain how the club works and what we will expect from you” said the man.

“Yes sir” I said.

Hiroki sighed in relief and came with, probably to supplement in any doubts that I might have as a student.

He then explained to me how the club worked and interacted with the other martial arts clubs, what was expected of me as a recently joined member, what would be expected of me in the future in case I remained in the club for a sufficient amount of time, things related to tournaments and competitions and many other things as well.

Having finished explained to me everything that was initially necessary, I parted ways with Hiroki and the sensei of the club, which presented himself as Subaru.

I was about to leave school when something caught my attention.

There was a girl in front of school’s main gate looking to be lost. Even from where I was it was possible to see her head going from one direction to another, trying to understand how she end up where she was.

I approached her, already imagining why she was acting like that but not actually being able to believe it.

“Hey Yurika”