Chapter 41

“A den-den-daiko is played like this.” She rubbed the stick between her hands and the beads flew out to beat on the drum. “We have made a human den-den-daiko for your viewing pleasure.”

Oh my God! I wasn’t sure what my expression said.

Isamu laid down with his feet around the box at the bottom to keep it in place and laid back to stay out of the way. Daisuke handed Yuriko two ropes he had bound to the side poles closer to the base.

Joō-sama yanked one end of the rope and the triangle turned, forcing one of the balls to hit me in the stomach, the other in my back. She yanked the other rope and the triangle turned to the other side, causing the opposite beating. She did it again and again, back and forth. The audience was on its feet cheering and clapping. I wasn’t sure how many times she did that. It could have been fifteen or twenty times on each side.