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Chihaya Furu - Volume 1 - Chapter Prologue

Published at 17th of January 2016 06:41:57 PM


Chapter Prologue

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prologue – after spring

-

– The city of Fuchuu, situated by the Tama River in Tokyo.

The wind, so serious it could wake someone wake up, had been blowing since morning. In Higashi-Oosato Middle School’s schoolyard, surrounded by sakura trees in full bloom, the blizzard of pedals, mixed with sand, was burying the grounds in white.

This year, spring had come a bit late. A few days after the start of August, the flowers had started to scatter their petals.

It was the day after entrance ceremony in the classroom for class 1-3, before morning homeroom began. The students were lively, perhaps relieved because they had arrived safely at their classroom after braving the strong wind.

At the desk determined by class number which was two seats from the front of the classroom on the window side, Ayase Chihaya was repeating the words that were playing through her headphones from her portable music player.


<hisakata no
hikari no dokeki
haru no hi ni
shizu gokoro naku
hana no chiruran>

(In these spring days
with the tranquil light encompassing
the four directions,
why should the blossoms scatter
with uneasy hearts?)

What a lovely voice, thought Chihaya, enthralled. Strong and carefree, steady with clear pronunciation, and clear personality in each consonant –

‘Ayase-san, right? What’re you listening to?’

Suddenly, somebody hit her sailor-uniformed shoulder. Her new sailor uniform was starchy and stiff.

'Eh?’

Two of her new female classmates, whom Chihaya still didn’t remember the names or faces of, were peering at her with curiosity.

'Let me listen too! I’ll listen to anything if it’s by an idol.’

One of the girls snatched the headphones without Chihaya’s permission.

<kimi ga tame
haru no no ni idete
wakana tsumu
waga koromede ni
yuki wa furitsutsu>

(For my lord’s sake,
I went out into the fields of spring
to pick young greens
while on my robe-sleeves
the snow kept falling and falling.)

The girl who put the headphones on her ears made an obvious grimace.

'Wha… What is this!?’

'The Hyakunin Isshu by certified reader Igarashi. A great voice, right?’

'Ah…’

Chihaya had taken these poems from a CD that she begged her parents to get her as congratulations for entering middle school. It was a recitation of the Hyakunin Isshu by a pro reader, though even a 'pro’ probably didn’t make that much money.

Chihaya’s parents had been worried that a CD read by an expert on the Hyakunin Isshu would be expensive, but once they found out it was much cheaper than even a best album of J-Pop, they bought Chihaya one CD by a male reader and one CD by a female reader. This CD was Chihaya’s favourite, so she didn’t want to let go of it even for a moment.

'Hey, want to play karuta together? Competitive karuta. You know the Hyakunin Isshu, right?’ said Chihaya excitedly.

The two girls looked at each other blankly, but then they burst out laughing. Their expressions turned cold. The girl with the headphones thrust them back at Chihaya.

'Why karuta? Like I’d do that.’

'It’s old and I don’t get it. I just forced myself to remember them in elementary 'cause it was for school.’

'What’s so good about it? I don’t get it at all.’

'Ayase-san, you’re strange.’

They said all they wanted and then left.

Eh…? Why? Chihaya was the one who wanted to ask.

(Even though karuta’s really interesting and so much fun. By thinking up strategies with friends and seriously competing to become stronger, you can compete with adults and even win. Men, women, age – it doesn’t matter.)

Giving it her all and focussing on only one thing – that was the only method chihaya knew.

The one who had taught her that was a boy who had been by her side for only four months. It had been already twenty days since they parted.

A boy she had a promise with – that they could meet one day if they continued karuta – Wataya Arata. Though she felt like the day they parted was as fresh as yesterday, as days passed without their meeting, it felt like it had been months or years ago…

-

“I think Ayase-san has a talent for karuta.”

Arata’s calm eyes, seen through his glasses, and his words in the accent of his hometown, Fukui, were so recent, but it felt so nostalgic.

“Arata, Taichi, let’s play karuta together forever.”

“Tha… thank you for playing karuta together with me… Chihaya, Taichi. We probably won’t meet again.”

“Why not? Can’t we meet again as long as we have karuta? If we continue karuta, we’ll see each other again. Definitely.”

It was the first time Chihaya had promised something from the bottom of her heart. A promise more important to her than anything –

The bell for homeroom rang and the female homeroom teacher came in. The students noisily sat in their seats. The headphones were pulled off of Chihaya’s dazed head.

'Ayase-san! This is against the school rules. The school rules are clear about not bringing things that aren’t related to class. I’ll take this, so come to the staffroom after school.’

'B-but – ’

'Listen. You’re a middle school student now? You’re not an elementary school student any more – recognise that. Look at your student handbook again. Do you understand?’

Chihaya was in a panic when her music player was about to be taken from her, and she accidentally pushed the volume button. Sound blasted out of her headphones.


<… wa
utsuri ni keri na
itazura ni>

(…wers
has faded indeed
in vain)

'A prank.’

'A prank? Is Ayase making fun of the teacher?’

The boys’ voices stirred up the classroom.

'N-no, I’m not! That’s not what I – ’

However, when Chihaya hesitantly looked at her homeroom teacher’s eyes, her teacher wasn’t smiling at all.

-

After school, Chihaya was scolded at length by her homeroom teacher, who said, 'This is middle school. It’s different from elementary.’ On top of being forced to read the school rules in her student handbook aloud, she was forced to write a three-page reflection letter on how she would never bring her music player to school again and would live her middle school life seriously.

Relieved that she received her music player upon handing over her reflection letter, Chihaya jogged to the municipal cultural centre near the closest station. Though it was a hand-me-down from her older sister, her music player was important to her.

(Thank goodness. I didn’t know there were so many school rules. Some of them feel kind of strange. What era was it when they wrote the rule 'Don’t enter the rice paddies when commuting to school’?)

There was practice for a karuta group here. There were a number of karuta soceities within the city, but Chihaya belonged to the Shiranami Society, which had the chairman. From evening to night on Monday and Thursday and the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday when there weren’t competitions, they had practice matches in the large Japanese-style room.

Chihaya was still E-kyuu, a beginner. During the elementary school karuta team competition about one month again, she had participated in a team with Arata and her childhood friend Mashima Taichi, but they had lost.

At the beginner individual competition during summer vacation as well, Chihaya had only one twice and had lost the third match. She hoped for best eight but didn’t reach best four, so she couldn’t hope to go up a level. On the other hand, Taichi had won and had swiftly advanced to D-kyuu.

Chihaya’s current goal was to reach D-kyuu during the competition before Golden Week. It would be impossible to leave E-kyuu unless she perfectly memorised all the kimariji for the hundred cards. Competitive karuta started from perfect memorisation.

(Taichi said his classes started today. It takes him an hour and a half to get to school so he’ll be late for practice. Seems like he’s adding more cram classes too… I wonder if I’ll be able to see him.)

Though Chihaya had been prepared for this… her curfew was seven at night. As expected, Taichi didn’t show up for practice.

'Chihaya-chan, don’t you have to go soon?’ asked Harada-sensei, the chairman of Shiranami Society. Chihaya had the cards flipped over in rows on the tatami and was taking them alone to test her memory. There were three left.

'Mm… After I get them all…’

To move to the next song, the remainder of the poem on the taken card was read out. The two of them were silent.

The members gathered here were in pairs for matches, so the first part of the read poems was followed by the echoing claps of cards being taken. The sound made when the dry tatami was hit was pleasant.

'I want to practice a bit more, but…’

Maybe Sensei would call home for her… He could say she would be late because they had special practice today.

'Are you waiting for Matsuge-kun?’

'Eh…? Yeah…’

With long eyelashes and a pretty face, if one had to say, Taichi had been nicknamed 'Matsuge-kun’ by Harada-sensei. Sensei was a man past fifty who had a strong body and always wore a shirt in the style of a short kimono with matching pants – a monk’s working clothes – when playing karuta. When it came to karuta, he saw nothing else, and he taught Chihaya with fervour. He was very good at looking out for Chihaya.

Chihaya liked Harada-sensei much more than her teacher from elementary school. Harada-sensei always looked straight at Chihaya’s eyes and gave advice with love form his whole person. There was no other teacher like him.

Harada-sensei’s glasses had a glint in them.

'Chihaya-chan, did something happen at school?’

'Er… n-no.’

Chihaya shook her head.

'There’s no karuta club… so I don’t plan on joining a club. Can I come here a lot instead?’

'Oh, sounds good! We’ll welcome you with open arms.’

She’d definitely find friends who would play karuta with her on days that the Shiranami Society didn’t have practice. She hadn’t asked everyone in her class yet, and there were other classes too. That was what Chihaya thought.

(I just managed to run into some people with no interest. It was just a coincidence. Not everyone’s like that. There’re definitely people like Taichi who’ll play karuta with me.)

-

However.


utsuri ni keri na
itazura ni –

(has faded indeed
in vain – )
 

Spring fleeted by with the time. Chihaya didn’t make regular friends, elt alone ones who enjoyed karuta.

She spoke up to anyone when given a chance – 'Let’s play karuta! It’s really interesting.’ – and spread the cards on her desk, but this made everyone put her at a distance. By the time she’d noticed, two months had passed and she was already completely left out of the group.

There were already groups of friends, but when they had to change clothes, Chihaya had no group to go to.

The only enjoyment Chihaya had was the practice days at the Shiranami Society. Getting to D-kyuu one month after Taichi really was fun. When she heard the kimariji, her hands moved instinctively – she couldn’t believe it would be so thrilling.

-

It was the rainy season.

When class ended, Chihaya ran up the gentle slope to the cultural centre and went to the reception, panting.

'Hi, are Hyoro-kun and the others already here?’

Hyoro-kun was a boy the same age as Chihaya. His real name was Kinashi Hiro. Since he had already been coming to the Shiranami Society for years, he acted like a senpai to Chihaya and Taichi, but recently, he had been coming to practice late, like Taichi.

'Ah, Hyoro-kun said he can’t come for the next little while. The elementary school kids said they’d stop too since they have middle school entrance exams,’ said the woman at reception.

'Eh?’

'Hyoro-kun’s middle school has a karuta club, so he’s probably focusing on that.’

'I see… He went to Hokuou Academy, right?’

'A combined private middle and high school… Their high school is one of the contenders to win the national high school karuta competition – but Chihaya-chan, you already know that, don’t you?’

'Ah, yes, I’ve heard.’

The woman took out the key to the Japanese-style room, but she played with it in her fingers.

'The adults start at six, and nobody’s here yet. It’ll just be you there right now, but will you use the room?’

Though Chihaya nodded and took the key, when she opened the sliding doors, the large room was empty. On this cloudy afternoon in the rainy season, the light through the folding screens was dim, and the humid air was a ibt dusty. It was the smell of damp tatami.

'Just me…’

Chihaya felt the room was larger than usual as she opened the box that had 'kakitsubata’ written on it in permanent marker to differentiate the set of cards… After lining them up neatly, she suddenly felt empty. It was really quiet. Nobody was coming.

She bit her lips and gathered the cards, moving to a corner in the back. The warning sound from the crossroads outside the window sounded very loud.

'Even Hyoro-kun isn’t coming. Ah…’

Today, Chihaya would only have adults to play with. She would have to wait until later for them to arrive too. Even if Taichi came, he would be even later than the adults.

'Taichi… I wonder if I won’t see him today either… I want to see him. Why can’t we meet even though we live so close… Taichi.’

Right now, Taichi felt as far as Arata, who lived in the prefecture of Fukui.

As Chihaya flipped the cards which just had the latter half of the poems written on them, she did two-minute practices, saying the kimariji for the beginning of the poems. Then, she replayed the reading in her head as she acted it out, taking phantom cards… That was the sort of practice she could do alone. She could do this at home – anywhere. Unable to focus concentrate on image training alone, Chihaya shut the folding screen and gazed at the cloudy sky.

'Taichi could just skip cram school today. He could say, “I think it’s going to rain and I don’t have an umbrella.”’

Chihaya knew herself that it was an impossible wish.

'Even though karuta is definitely way more fun than cram school. I mean, Taichi looked so tired.’

Though it had just been a few days since Chihaya saw that tired face, she couldn’t remember it.

'Taichi…’





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