Chapter 242: It Was Because Senpai Taught Me Well

In the end, Ikioi Ito did not manage to incite the people in the group chat to continue betting.

As the audience expected, Kimura Kazuki won the championship in the individual competition again.

Kimura Kazuki was not really interested in the following competition ever since Harunaka won the championship in the women’s category, hHe felt dull and bored. After all, he had kind of fulfilled the first part of Furuhashi Sakurakyu’s wish and now, only the wishes of the other three daughters were left to be fulfilled. Hence, when Kimura Kazuki was up for the match against Mizuki Sugawara, he even tipped his opponent the wink and dropped him a hint that they could fake the game. He was even willing to let the opponent win as long as the money was good enough.

Unfortunately, unlike Ikioi Ito, Mizuki Sugawara was not familiar with Kimura Kazuki. He did not get Kimura Kazuki’s hint and got defeated bitterly in the end.

He was thinking in his mind that since Sakura Kyu High School had already won in both the men’s and women’s category, it was impossible for them to give away the chance of winning the championship in the individual match. So long as Sakura Kyu High School won the individual match, they would become the biggest winner of the competition!

Perhaps this national competition of Jade Dragon Flag would become a new chapter in history.

Well… Even though all the past competitions were written into the annals of history as well and those records could easily be found online, it was different this time. There was never a school that won in all the categories in the entire history of the Jade Dragon Flag Competition.

When Kimura Kazuki had once again won the championship in the individual match, all the reporters were pressing forward to get into contact with the members of Kyushu Kendo Alliance as they wanted to interview Kimura Kazuki.

It went without saying that the online media had already reported about the competition even before the interviews were done.

The news was all over the Internet as there were more than 20,000 people watching the game. It even upstaged the news of top current affairs in an instant, even those people who rarely watched the match could not help but start to wonder about it.

Meanwhile, a few sophisticated newspapers went straight to Sakura Kyu High School and interviewed the principal.

The members from Kyushu Kendo Alliance had ever expected Sakura Kyu High School to be the biggest winner of this competition as well. As a matter of fact, they had mentally prepared themselves since Furuhashi Harunaka won first place in the women’s category. It was not only them, most of the audience were probably thinking the same thing too.

Kimura Kazuki is participating in the individual match after all, is there anyone good enough to defeat him? We’ll see if they can even hold him for a second. Not a single soul left the Fukuoka Budo Gym during halftime, all of them wanted to witness the historic moment!

Shu Nakajima, who was the chairman of the Kyushu Kendo Alliance, showed up in his formal attire, holding a mic in his hand and smiling as he approached the podium. He was puzzled when he suddenly saw Iwai Hokuto standing on the top of the podium. He asked subconsciously, “Who are you?”

Pfft! The entire Fukuoka Budo Gym burst into laughter in an instant. Although they had seen a lot of amusing incidents happening at formal events before, they did not expect to see it today. Of course, they did not mean to make fun of them, but it was nevertheless a hilarious scene.

Shu Nakajima regretted as soon as he finished his words. However, he reacted quickly by apologizing, “I’m sorry, Hokuto-san.” Then, he explained with a smile, “We have a marvelous and unprecedented competition this year. However, the individual skill is so outstanding that it actually goes against the spirit of team competition. As you can see, I was also charmed by Kimura-san, resulting in me almost forgetting about Hokuto-san, who is the Fukushou of Sakura Kyu.”

Most of the audience nodded their heads in agreement. They only had six contestant names from this competition in their minds: Kimura Kazuki, Tomoya Saito, Mizuki Sugawara, Katsuki Sugawara, Yayoi Momoi, and Furuhashi Harunaka.

As for the rest, they were too weak in comparison and therefore they were ignored by everyone..

Contrary to what one might expect, Iwai Hotuko was not upset at all. Besides, he was flattered that Shu Nakajima apologized to him. He could not help it, all the members of the Sakura Kyu Kendo Association had gotten used to being ignored by the others ever since the Tokyo District Qualifiers. He was still better than the others, at least they were jealous of him. Apparently the Head of Department Kimura was not keen to get the award, thus as the Head of the Kendo Association, he got to enjoy the glorious moment of receiving the trophy on stage and having the Jade Dragon flag draped over him.

Iwai Hotuko did not gain any actual knowledge from his trip to the Jade Dragon Flag Competition other than growing a thick skin. After all, the entire department had always been despised by the netizens, saying that they were always a drag on the Head of Department, Kimura. They were upset by those comments at first, but they stopped caring as time went by. There was nothing they could do as they would never win over those keyboard warriors. Right now, he was standing on the top of the podium, facing over 20,000 audiences, his old-self would have peed his pants out of nervousness. He could maintain a calm expression now, and even managed to wave at the audience occasionally, how pretentious. As for his Kendo practice, he was hoping to learn something out of this trip, unfortunately there was nothing for him to harvest.

For those who entered the stage, they either defeated their opponents within seconds or were defeated in a second, there was nothing for him to learn at all. Although the members had been observing Head of Department Kimura’s sword style since the district qualifiers, still they learned nothing from him.

They had been delving into the videos uploaded by Yagyu Kendo Gym on twitter, where Kimura Kazuki explained the three basic sword styles which were Rainstorm Style, Drizzle Style and Vibrative Style. But how were they to learn if they could not even understand it?

Thus, they gave up eventually, but of course they had to make strenuous efforts when they battled on the stage. They were the representatives of the Sakura Kyu High School after all. As a member of Kendo Association, they participated in the competition because of their passion for Kendo. What was the point of joining the competition if they did not have the will to run after the grand prize?

Iwai Hotuko stood in first place, while Mizuki Sugawara stood in second place, and Tomoya Saito in third.

Mizuki and Tomoya were dumbfounded by what they saw. They did not mind losing, but they never expected that Kimura Kazuki did not even bother to show up for the prize. Perhaps he really does not care about the Jade Dragon Flag Competition. But then again, they are from the Ancient Kendo Community, what are they going to do with the award from Jade Dragon Flag Competition? We are the only ones who care about the award ceremony.

After handing out prizes to the three of them and answering a few questions from Shu Nakajima, it was time for the award session for the women’s category.

Everyone was relieved when they saw Furuhashi Harunaka going up the podium to receive the award. It seemed like she had really recovered.

Furuhashi Harunaka’s popularity skyrocketed within a mere few hours. Above all, she had always been playing by the rules. It was shocking enough for her to beat Yayoi Momoi, they never expected that she could actually take down Katsuki Sugawara as well.

She’s indeed an unexpected winner!

Besides, the Youbi Sword Drawing Skill that Harunaka used during the match was stunning. The audience was unable to see it clearly, but for it to play out like a scene in a movie was more than enough to astound the audience.

Since she was able to put out such an impressive sword skill, naturally she would be able to conquer all the audience as well. Thus, when Harunaka was smiling sincerely while holding the trophy in her hands, with a Jade Dragon Flag draping over her and a medal hanging on her chest, Shu Nakajima asked with a smile on his face as well, “Furuhashi-san, I guess everyone is just as curious as I am, so can you tell us a little about the last sword drawing skill that you used?”

Furuhashi Harunaka was a little bit shy upon hearing the question. She replied, “Actually, senpai is the one who taught me all my sword drawing skills.” Seeing the puzzled look on Shu Nakajima’s face, she quickly added, “The senpai that I mentioned just now is Kimura-senpai… The sword drawing skill that I used during the match against Katsuki is called the Youbi Sword Drawing Skill, and it was specially designed by senpai for me.”

Furuhashi Harunaka took a quick glance around her as she spoke. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Chiba Shiori at the rest area.

She wanted Chiba Shiori to hear what she said.

Chiba Shiori was her rival in love after all, so she had to make the first move.