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“I’m normal.”
“Ahaha, interesting joke.”
The not ordinary girl in front of my eyes, Hanamura Nanami-chan, had a displeased expression. Somehow, she thinks of herself as normal.
Nanami-chan is said to be, “The number one genius child actor in the last 100 years.” She’s again and again in movies and dramas, there isn’t a day that she isn’t seen on TV, she’s the most famous elementary schooler in all of Japan, “Hanasaki Nana.”
It was about 5 years ago when I first met Nana-chan in a class teaching the sword to elementary schoolers. Among elementary-aged boys, it was conspicuous that shindou sensei’s assistant was a preschool-aged girl.
Shindou-style martial arts is for practicality. Shindou sensei learned many martial arts, and he fused them into what’s now the Shindou-style. I asked someone that I know, and there’s a stagefight school for actors, and, learning from there, shindou sensei could teach a showy fighting style. The basis for the showy style was also based on an unexpected injury. So, when sparring with a girl, do it softly so she won’t get hurt.
Nana-chan was in the middle of this, yet she still practiced silently. Because she’s such a hard worker, sensei was happy with it, and, one day, she said, “I want to be taught ninjutsu.” It seems that Nana-chan was selected to play as a ninja in a movie, and the co-star was so good at the action, and Nana-chan could only follow in his footsteps.
“Hmmm, I don’t know ninjutsu, but I’ll teach you something that looks like that.”
After sensei said that, he ran up a wall and stood upside down on the ceiling. Looking at it carefully, it seems that he’s using his toes to grip the ceiling to not fall. He’s not human.
“Amazing! That, please teach me!”
Then, I learned that sensei had a short attention span.  Nana-chan went to the dojo in the morning and was exhausted in the evenings, and I could see her sleeping in the corner at night.
And then, after a week, one day I saw an air battle behind the dojo.
Nana-chan and sensei jumped from tree to tree with a ninja sword and fought.
Nana took advantage of the spring of a tree branch and slashed at sensei with a sword from the sky, sensei block it with his sword, held her arms, and smashed her on a tree. The fight ended, and sensei descended to the ground with Nana-chan’s neck held in his grasp.
“Well, didn’t we look like ninja back then?”
“Th-thank you very much.”
“But, what I taught is just for show. Don’t misunderstand… Oh yeah, I had to teach the sword to some kids. Forgot.”
With laughter, sensei went back to the dojo still holding Nana-chan. After he dropped Nana-chan at the porch, (1) it seemed that Nana-chan was tired because she fainted and breathed like she was asleep.
“Hmm, for now, this is the last intensive training for today… Anyways, I’m too late to teach the sword to the kids.”
“Is she going to go back at night?”
“Hmmm, it’s going to be difficult at this time. How about doing it later, when there’s nobody else here?”
Does it matter if there’s nobody else here? Does sensei heed to constantly supervise them? The martial artists from other places that ask for teaching can sometimes be unruly, but it’s rare for that to happen.
“She’s talented and has will. It’d be good if she wasn’t born as a girl. Though, it’s injuries that make you learn.”
“Eh?”
I looked at Nana-chan, and I saw that she was worn-out. Her practice clothes were frayed and dirty because she fell on the ground many times. Well, she knows how to make the impact of a fall lessen, and there are only light scratches on her limbs… Her face is unharmed.
When it’s a boy, it’s not that bad, but, it’s not okay on a girl.
But, in any case, it’s not good to work an elementary schooler too hard.
And, as I remembered the days long past, Nana-chan didn’t drink the water but took a leaf and put it in the water.
“What are you doing?”
“Since I can do something absolute, I thought, maybe I shouldn’t leave.”
Abso? Lute? I don’t get what she’s saying; it’s probably in a manga or something. I don’t read manga that much.
Nana-chan sometimes asks the teacher to teach her manga skills. To ask if you can use “Ki” to make a bullet or a ray is pretty stupid, but most teachers can do something weird.
“Well, nothing weird happened, and the taste of the water is the same… As I thought, it’s impossible.”
(TN note: A reference to the Hunter x Hunter nen type test)
“It’s dirty if you drink water with leaves on it.”
(TN note: Tell that to every nen user in Hunter X Hunter…)
“Did Yamashiro-san learn nen from sensei?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but no.”
Nana-chan sometimes says something childish ever so often, unlike how she normally talks. “Does this world have superpowers or magic,” and, “Do aliens or extraterrestrials exist?” and other things like that.
When I reply, “I don’t think so,” she disappointedly drops her shoulders.
One time, when I felt sorry for her, I replied, “I guess there may be.”
She said back, “Seriously!? Well, I thought so!”
Because she actually believed me, I, in a hurry, replied, “It’s a joke.”
Nana-chan had a face of despair, “I thought that only Yamashiro-san wouldn’t joke.”
Her eyes were in pain; she seemed to have been joked to by another person(Shinosaki-san).
“Sometimes, you ask such things, why?”
“Well, when I saw shindou sensei, I thought that it might be possible…”
“That can’t be refuted.”
To be honest, there are times when I think that too.
“Ohhh! Nana-chan came!”
“Good morning, shindou sensei worked me hard.”
“Yet again, why don’t I ask him to stop?”
“Please!” (2)
When I took a break on the porch, the disciples came in since their work was finished.
If there’s five, six people, it’s considered a small amount. If there’s ten, then that’s considered a lot. Today, there’s seven people, and one of them called Nana-chan for a practice. Even though she was breathing hard a little while ago, she already recovered and is sparring with a fellow disciple.
Apparently, she used that and the person that was fighting her went flying. Yep, that child isn’t worse than sensei. I knew beforehand, so I could deal with it, but, if it was used suddenly, I would have my belt taken.
However, that was only for the first time, she tried to do it again, but she was stopped and went flying.
Anyways, before night, she got taught by sensei, and, even when the lesson ended, she continued practicing.
Since you train and learn at the same time, we often spar with each other. Shindou sensei also created the Shindou-style by sparring with other schools, and many people that come here at night are from other schools. They also walk on that road.
While fighting many such people, Nana-chan herself demonstrated a wide variety of martial arts.
To I who was watching Nana-chan from the porch, shindou sensei said, “Yamashiro, are you alright?”
“Yeah, I was just watching Nana-chan.”
“She has talent, but she’s too obidient. I can’t tell if it’s false or true, but, to this day, it’s nothing but truth.”
“Haha, but she’s an elementary schooler. I believe Nana-chan completely.”
“You cried.”
“Ehh, at the beginning I hated this and wanted to quit.”
I remember the old days before I first met Nana-chan.
When I was an elementary student, I was aiming to be a child actor.
My mother was a bit of a miihaa (3), and want to make me a child actor.
(1)Probably is irrelevant, but this can be translated as: “After he cut off the meat at the bottom of Nana-chan’s fin.”
(2)「押忍、お願いします！」(“osu, onegaishimasu!”) is the actual text. 押忍(osu) is a greeting used my close male friends, so she’s probably implying that she’ll be his close friend.
(3)ミーハー(miihaa); a follower of each new fad. Wikipedia article.