He doesn't believe in the existence of God, but he has always known since he was a child that he was a chosen one. He is not only blessed with good looks, but also has confidence that he is one of the best kendo players in Japan.

He started kendo when he was in the third grade of elementary school. He was influenced by a close friend at the time. One day, he invited his friend to hang out, but he declined, saying, "I have kendo practice that day, so I can't come." He was intrigued by the unfamiliar word kendo, and with the friend's invitation, he started kendo. His father was an employee of a newspaper company, and his mother was a full-time housewife. Neither of them had experience in kendo, but he gave in to their earnest desire to take lessons, and he decided to send them to a dojo.

At first, his parents thought he would be lucky if he lasted a year. But a year later, he was already leading the team matches at the dojo, beating out the older students. Of the 30 or so elementary school students attending the dojo, no one could match him. Even in practice matches against a nearby kendo school, he never lost.

As a fifth-grader, he won the individual division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Tournament. He also advanced to the national tournament. Although his victories were seemingly instantaneous, his mother said that every match was filled with tension. When he lost in the semi-finals, she was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

There are only a handful of elementary school students across the country who can compete on an equal footing with Kota Fujinami, who has only been practicing kendo for two years. He has even been called a "kendo genius" and a "once-in-a-decade child prodigy."

The following year, she also won the prefectural tournament. Since it was her second tournament, my mother was more comfortable than the previous year because she was already used to it. However, her tension grew as she won, reaching a peak in the final. And when she lost again, this time, instead of a sigh of relief, she let out a cry of "Ahhh, not again!" I could hear my mother's voice from across the court. "I'm sorry, Mom. I couldn't win again."

At the awards ceremony, with the silver medal around my neck, I searched for my mother in the stands. She was nowhere to be found. In fact, she was just standing in the restroom, but at the time I thought she had disappeared in disappointment. Even after the closing ceremony was over, I continued to look for her.

Actually, losing the final match wasn't such a disappointing experience for me. That's because I didn't particularly like kendo. Whether I won or lost, I didn't feel anything special. However, if I won, my parents would be happy. I just wanted to see that look on their faces. My mother, in particular, always came to my matches. When I won, she would smile and say, "Good job!"

At the time, rather than being good at kendo, I was more concerned with wondering, "Why can't everyone else do something so simple?" The essence of kendo is simply to swing the shinai down on your opponent's open men or kote. There are certainly techniques to swinging the shinai and stepping in, but even those aren't difficult. I couldn't help but wonder why other people couldn't do something so simple. There was no need for rigorous training, it was just about hitting your opponent's men or kote in a match. For me, kendo wasn't something I had to risk my life for.

Yuki, who is one year younger than him, also started kendo in the third grade of elementary school. In contrast to his cool-headed older brother, the younger brother was full of ambition. He attended practice without missing a beat and often practiced independently.

However, Yuki was not blessed with much talent for kendo. Even by the time he was in fifth grade, he had not been able to win a prize at the city tournament, let alone the national tournament.

When Yuki was in his first year of junior high school, he asked me for advice. He hadn't shown much improvement even after entering junior high school, and I was getting anxious. I felt sorry for Yuki, but I didn't know how to give him advice. After thinking hard about it, I told him, "Hit the open spot."

After he said "I'm going to make fun of you," he never talked about kendo again. In the end, Yuki quit kendo in his first year of junior high school.

His success continued in junior high school. Although it was a public school, it was one of the most prestigious schools in the prefecture. From his first year, he participated in matches as captain and made a name for himself in Kyushu as a fearsome freshman. Kyushu is a region where kendo is popular nationwide, but he is proud to say that he was a cut above the rest as a junior high school student.

In his third year of junior high school, he was naturally chosen as captain. In his second year, he only managed to come second in the Fukuoka individual qualifying tournament, but in his third year he won. In the team competition, he only managed to come second, falling just short of advancing to the national tournament, but his coach and classmates encouraged him to "win the national championship individually."

At that national tournament, he showed overwhelming strength all the way to the finals. After the tournament, he was praised in the kendo world as "if you hit, the flag goes up, if you jump, it's an ippon." However, he ended up coming in second place. It was around this time that he began to be given the dreaded nickname "The Uncrowned Emperor."

Coach Hirasawa had been enthusiastically recruiting him since he was in his first year of junior high school. Right after he received the silver medal again around his neck at the award ceremony, Coach Hirasawa told him the killer line, "Let's taste victory together," and that's what made him decide to go to Joyo High School. He had heard similar words before, but when they came from Coach Hirasawa, a current 7th-dan Renshi and leader of one of the strongest teams in the country, the word "victory" felt like a guaranteed future.

After entering high school, he began living in a dormitory. When he moved in, his first and foremost goal was to become a regular player in the first year.

Dormitory life for the Joyo High School Kendo Club is strict. They wake up at 5:30 in the morning and have an hour of morning practice from 6:00. They have breakfast between 7:00 and 8:00 and attend morning classes at the school building, which is a three-minute walk away. They practice in the afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00. After that, more than half of the club members practice on their own, train, and take care of their equipment until around 6:00. Curfew is 7:00. Dinner is between 5:00 and 8:00. They can also have a late-night snack if they wish. Lights out at 10:00 p.m.

At the Fukuoka Inter-High School preliminaries in June, he was unable to achieve the goal he had set when he moved into the dormitory. He was selected as an alternate, but was unable to play in the match, and Joyo High School finished third in the prefecture. It sounds good to say they placed highly, but they were unable to advance to the nationals. For Coach Hirasawa, everything except winning was a defeat. The tournament, where he only cheered on the team as an alternate, was extremely boring.

The training menu became more and more grueling. At the training camp held in Shimonoseki, it was common for members to go and vomit after practice. Not only did they vomit, but they also urinated blood every day while enduring pain. For the four nights and five days, I kept asking myself why I had to go through such hardship.

During the Obon holiday, I was given a short vacation to go home. It was only about an hour by train from the dormitory to my parents' house, but I didn't go back every weekend like the other members. I was afraid that if I went back home frequently, I would become homesick.

My parents and sister, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, treated me graciously. For dinner, we were served sukiyaki, sushi and other delicacies, more than we could eat. When I told them about the magazine interview, my sister was visibly surprised. I had already told my parents, but not my sister. "Why didn't you tell me?" my sister exclaimed angrily, and my parents tried to calm her down with a laugh. It was a meal that could be described as a family get-together. However, my younger brother was nowhere to be seen at the table.

"What about Yuki?"

When I asked, the three of them lowered their heads awkwardly. After a brief silence, my sister answered with a pained look on her face.

"He just walked out this morning and never came back."

"He's not coming back? Aren't you worried?"

"It's the usual thing."

My mother said this with a hint of resignation. My father hadn't seemed to have any intention of saying anything about Yuki from the start, and just sipped his shochu in silence.

"Kota, you got a girlfriend?"

My sister asked, trying to mediate the situation.

"That's not a big deal. I practice kendo every day."

"Is there a girl in your class that you like?"

"There are only boys in my class."

All the kendo club members at Joyo High School belong to the physical education department. The only students they usually attend classes with are those who entered the school on sports recommendations, and all of them belong to some kind of club activity. On the other hand, most of the students in the general education department do not belong to any club activities and attend cram schools. Half of the students in the general education department are girls, but there are no girls in the physical education department. Being in the physical education department is like going to an all-boys school.

Yuki got home around 11 o'clock. He was watching TV alone in the living room. My parents were already in bed, and my sister had retired to her room. Yuki came into the living room without saying a word, and as soon as he saw me lying on the sofa, he gave me a faint smile.

"There's an unusual person here."

He was dressed in a completely unfamiliar outfit. He was wearing a black, baggy T-shirt and jeans that were clearly too wide. The bottom of the jeans were worn out from dragging on the floor. The T-shirt had a cute bird design on the chest, but between the legs was a giant mushroom. It was a tasteless design.

"What are you doing up until this time?"

"Nightlife. You say the same thing as your family."

"You?"

"You're not old enough to be called a big brother anymore."

Yuki smirked as he sat down on the carpeted floor.

"Hey, is kendo fun?"

Yuki lay his skinny body on the floor. His face resembled his own. He inherited his mother's distinct double eyelids, a thin nose, and thin lips, and he was sure to be the object of admiration from the girls at school. I understand this well, since that's what I was like.

"If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it."

"You're lying. You only do kendo out of a sense of duty."

There was no point in dealing with him any further. Deciding that, I turned to leave the living room. Just as I was about to stand up from the sofa, Yuki called out to me again.

"Where do you think I went today?"

"I don't know."

"At a girl's house. We did it all the time. From noon to night."

That comment piqued my interest, and I couldn't help but squat down and get up from the sofa.

"Do you think your mother or sister know?"

"There's no way I'd tell anyone. No one would be stupid enough to report that they had sex with a female college student three times today without a condom."

I was shaken by the frank words that came out of Yuki's mouth one after the other. In a husky voice, as if he had just gone through puberty, Yuki began to talk in detail about the affair.

"She's a pervert. She's only dating younger guys, around middle or high school age. She approached me at the middle school cultural festival. The next time we met, she invited me to her house, and we did it straight away. Today, we went to a hotel and had sex first, then took a shower, had dinner, and then had another. It's tough."

For someone like me who was starved for feminine charm, this was too stimulating. I swallowed my saliva and listened intently to Yuki's story. Yuki remained close enough to me and continued to talk about his sex life. After talking for a while, Yuki looked at me provocatively.

"If you're already sixteen, you must have had this much experience?"

He couldn't say anything. He had never even held hands with a member of the opposite sex, let alone dated. His entire sex life consisted of pornographic books he borrowed from his dorm seniors and classmates. And it was all for the sake of kendo.

"That was a mean question. Well then."

With a triumphant look on his face, Yuki left the living room.

I sat on the sofa, trying to contain my excitement. My groin was burning. I had a plan in mind. I'd try it once school started again after the summer holidays.

It's okay, I'm the chosen one.