The next day, the Jade Dragon Flag National Competition opening ceremony was held at Fukuoka Budo Gym. As a landmark of District Fukuoka, Fukuoka Budo Gym was the district’s biggest budo gym, capable of holding 23,000 people. Each year, all sorts of events and activities would be organized here.

Today, visitors from every corner of the nation and also many foreign travelers gathered in little Fukuoka.

The locals were relatively calmer than the foreigners. Once the foreigners knew that the annual Jade Dragon Flag National Competition was starting, they were way more excited than the locals. As foreign visitors, being able to watch a national competition like that caused an emotional high for them.

That was why today’s seating area at Fukuoka Budo Gym was packed to the brim. Apart from the swarms of reporters, the sound of cameras clicking away sounded endlessly. Everyone was discussing exuberantly.

“Ladies and gentlemen, being able to have all of you here at the Jade Dragon Flag National Competition is a great honour for the committee of the Jade Dragon Flag. I humbly represent the Kyushu Kendo Alliance in welcoming you all.” The chairman of the Kyushu Kendo Alliance, Shu Nakajima, was currently clad in a suit, his hair silvery white. Nonetheless, he looked completely energized, and with a genial smile, he said, “According to statistics, apart from the schools who were forced to suddenly withdraw from the competition, this year, our nation saw 145 high schools that have advanced to the Jade Dragon Flag National Competition, while 470 individual contestants have advanced to the Individual Category. Let us give them a round of applause.”

Although Shu Nakajima spoke steadily, his voice suddenly rang out loud and clear at the end, inducing the audience into an involuntary flurry of applause.

Shu Nakajima was content at the scene. The Jade Dragon Flag National Competition in previous years had a few hundred participating schools, the contestant numbers far exceeding the current statistics. However, ever since the reformation, the reputation of Jade Dragon Flag had risen. It was because the schools that could advance through the district qualifiers were all seeded players of each district. The Kendo Association members of these schools had undergone the shaping of a thousand hammers before they toil fully advanced. The championship of the National Competition incited an extraordinary sense of desire and obsessiveness in them.

Every year, joyous and tearful contestants could be seen. Seeing the two in a frame was an intense and emotional scene. Two years ago, the Jade Dragon Flag did not organize any district qualifiers. All schools were eligible to participate as long as they were categorized as high schools, so the abilities of the participants varied over a large range.

Compared to one-sided duels, the audience longed to watch matches that were tit-for-tat. Only those types of matches would boil the blood of people with excitement so that they would cheer for the opponents! That was why ever since the reformation, the popularity of the Jade Dragon Flag National Competition was not the same as before. Its quality improved a lot.

“As the competition schedule is tight, I will not drag this speech.” The audience quieted down when Shu Nakajima held the microphone to speak, paying their respect to him. After Shu Nakajima read out the rules and regulations of the Jade Dragon Flag National Competition, everyone realized that this year’s Group Competition was still a deathmatch, whereas the Individual Competition was based on three wins or losses. The rules did not differ from that of the district qualifiers.

“Apart from this, based on online votes and the voting of the internal department of the Kyushu Kendo Alliance, with reference to the rules of the Jade Dragon National Competition, these 12 schools will form seed groups and automatically advance to the top 64.” Shu Nakajima finished speaking and felt happy seeing that the audience had no objections. He took out a piece of paper, looked at the list of schools, and smiled slightly before saying, “The following is the name list of the 12 seed groups in the men’s category. I will announce them according to the districts, in no particular order.”

The audience held their breaths, especially the schools in different areas whose abilities were close to one another. All of them hoped that they would be able to automatically enter the top 64. Not only did that mean that they would be able to observe the abilities of other schools, it was also a symbol of honor.

“Firstly, Tokyo City, Sakura Kyu Private High School Men’s Group!”

As soon as the sentence was said, a wave of enthusiasm swept across the audience. Those seated in the East Wing got to their feet, waving their arms wildly, faces filled with excitement as they began shouting.

“Japan’s strongest, Club President Kimura!”

“Japan’s strongest, Club President Kimura!”

After shouting several times, they ended with a loud resounding, “Oh!”, stunning the rest of the audience.

It would probably be very awkward if there were only a few people shouting, but the East Wing had around a couple thousand people. These roars in unison brought by an earth-shaking feel and was enough to leave people awestruck.

Those who were experienced knew that there were unspoken rules in distributing the audience seats. The audience seated in the East Wing were all from Tokyo. It was a seating arrangement the officials did on purpose, so that a sense of pride regarding one’s district could be incited. Of course, when people from different districts sat together, there might be conflicts in opinions which led to fights, a very common situation in the past. It was alleviated only after the seats were arranged.

The only thing was, the chant of this year’s audience in the East Wing was a bit puzzling. Usually, they would cheer for the school… The chant this year was more like cheering for a specific person: Sakura Kyu. Nonetheless, as they listened to the shouts of “Club President Kimura”, the rest of the audience felt that Sakura Kyu High School’s Kendo Association’s Club President must be very skilled!

The production director was also very understanding, focusing the scene on Iwai Hokuto.

Iwai Hokuto caught sight of himself on the screen and could not help but cover his face. He was never going to live that down. He swore in his heart. What a silly production director!

Seeing Iwai Hokuto, the people of the East Wing began to shush the director. Everyone was confused, but soon the camera swung around to focus on Kimura Kazuki.

Kimura Kazuki was currently seated at the contestant area, and the rest area was allocated to Sakura Kyu High School. When Kimura Kazuki was shown on the screen, what the audience saw was a high-schooler, his eyes reflecting helplessness.

Apparently, Kimura Kazuki was not used to the shouting and chants of the audience seated in the East Wing. The moment the camera finally showed footage of him, the audience in the East Wing began cheering once again. The change in the flow of emotions was very realistic.

Those who were not from Tokyo naturally had no idea of the brilliant performance of Kimura Kazuki during the Tokyo District Qualifiers. Kimura Kazuki had won them over with his skills and ability.

After waiting for one whole minute for the atmosphere to calm down, only then did Chairman Shu Nakajima continue with the second seed group.

Every time he announced a school, Shu Nakajima paused momentarily, a tradition of the opening ceremony of the Jade Dragon Flag. The seed groups represented true skills and power, and capable groups always garnered massive support from the locals. Therefore, the supporters were huge in number. Nonetheless, the seed group that stirred the most overwhelming response was Hiroshima Prefecture’s Akira High School!

Upon hearing Shu Nakajima announcing Akira High School, countless numbers of people from the audience clad in white hakama, rose to their feet and waved their school flag. They did not chant or cheer. They merely silently waved their flags, yet it still awed the rest of the audience.

Seated in the rest area, Mizuki Sugawara nodded with satisfaction. To attract the attention of others, one must definitely stand out.

Anyhow, he still turned his gaze toward Kimura Kazuki. He had seen the video of Kimura Kazuki’s performance in the competition, and he would not underestimate him. Even though he was studying in Hiroshima Prefecture, he was actually from Tokyo. He naturally wished to defeat Kimura Kazuki in front of the Tokyo audience. That would be most satisfying.

After announcing the seed groups for the men’s category, Chairman Shu Nakajima began to read out the seed groups in the women’s category.

Sakura Kyu High School was once again included.