Chapter 3.2 Clan training

I was reminded again of anime in which werefoxes or kitsune are often mentioned or become the main characters. It turns out that foxes have had a rather impressive influence on Japan — cunning rogues, fond of jokes and pranks, sometimes quite cruel. In second place after them are tanuki, werewolf raccoons.

Also jokers, rogues, thieves, but more straightforward, and love noisy parties. And in general, Japan, China and Korea turned out to be very busy places, on whose lands otherworldly life not only exists, no, it BOILS! In these countries live many physical, semi-spiritual and spiritual beings of varying levels of intelligence and strength.

They even revealed to me that there are several cities throughout Japan where communities of werewolves live: foxes, tanuki, wolves, cranes, neko, nezumi (rats), and even frogs and bears. In other words, these creatures are completely intelligent and live side by side with humans, obeying the common laws and norms. Amazing, right? I really liked the cat Himari in the anime, and after hearing this, I had a strong desire to see the Neko.

Okay, go on, I got distracted. I didn't even notice when the history lesson was supplemented with patriotic pumping (or was that intended?). But he didn't brush it off, and for good reason, as it turned out. In general, to put it in a nutshell (although I was harassed about it for a long time), there was an agreement between humans and creatures, like in the movie "Day Watch": some things are not allowed, some things are allowed, and some things only if the other side has allowed them.

Those who break the law can be judged or immediately destroyed, depending on their actions. A pretty viable option for coexistence, without harsh pitchforks on both sides, only lunatics and crazies are immediately destroyed — no one needs war.

 So, in the conditions of life before the treaty, mages and monks-exorcists-exorcists fought for the people, studied, developed, grew into clans, strengthened, created connections with allies. Individual mages without strong support cannot gain the knowledge and power that clan members gain. A clan name can save where a lone wolf would lay down his life.

And on and on. In general, life in a clan is much better than life without a clan, although there are many disadvantages. But the fact that a clan mage develops his power from childhood and a loner only from the last year of Mahoutokoro, a secondary school of magic, already creates a gap in power that grows over the years. In short, I decided to control my temper and study while getting to know this world.

However, this did not stop me, in the second month of my studies with the witch, from arranging my first revenge on her: during the day, she could not leave the house, since there were many places on the estate for collecting birds, and each of them considered it their duty to show their respect to the elder of the Miyazaki clan.

It was fun, the only pity is that it was impossible to express my feelings, and so they suspected me, but it turned out well, and the elder changed three kimonos before she realized what was happening.

Go on. Kendo is the way of the sword, kyudo is the way of the bow, sojutsu is the art of the yari spear, naginatajutsu is the art of the naginata, and all this is united in kobudo — the ancient martial arts. Well, it should be said that it was long and difficult, I am glad that the main emphasis was only on Kendo and Sojutsu, the rest was on the level of understanding what and how.

But this is only so simple in words, but in reality it was unrealistically difficult and tedious, because there was ceremony in everything. You couldn't take the bow the way it was most convenient for you, break your anatomy, walk exactly like that, bow to who knows who, and so on and so forth. For some reason, the most ceremony was in kyudo, and, oh, what a coincidence, it was kyudo that I hated to the core.

But the hatred only spurred me on to get rid of this filth as quickly as possible — in two and a half years. I took the whole philosophical shell apart, thought about it, and threw it in a garbage dump. The Mongols shot much better and faster, from any position, without any "just stand up like this, only with your feet...", so hit the fire! Naginata also has something like that, philosophically, but much less.

One and a half to two meters shaft, thirty to forty centimeters blade curved to the end. Well, it's mediocre, yes: when I was young, it was okay, but as I grew up and gained strength, I realized that the weapon was not for men, in the sense that it was for someone light and agile. Female, or for a light, small man, teenager. Not mine, in general. And the design of the blade is more for cutting than chopping (it quickly fails, breaks, crumbles under heavy chopping blows).

Sojutsu was difficult because the yari spear is a rather heavy weapon, with nuances, so seeing that it was too early for me to work with it, we settled on short and long naginata. Kendo. At first I decided that this wasn't for me either — too straightforward, too predictable. I admit, I jumped to conclusions, because the first thing I saw was sport kendo, modern, more for entertainment, fighter's endurance and tactics.