Shido Swordplay Ramps Up Training a Week Before Opening — Minase: 'A Strike They Can't Read'

According to the Hinokuni Sword Bearers' Association, the full-squad training that began on the 21st, as previously reported, stepped up from three sessions a week to five starting on the 28th. Shido Swordplay's Autumn Five-Match Tournament is a best-of-three, school-versus-school contest decided by three judges' "readings." With opening a week away, this stretch of training is about "getting the body used to match speed," the association said, from donning armor to gauging distance.

Gen Minase, 22, of the Minase school, will make his inter-city debut this season. While he is not new to the license, having passed relatively recently, as previously reported, this will be his first time on the inter-city stage itself. "The biggest difference between practice matches and the real thing is that there are three judges reading you," he said. "Even if I think I've landed a strike, if two of the three judges don't see it that way, it doesn't count. I want to be able to land a strike that shows, not just one that feels right to me." His instructor assessed, "His distancing isn't bad. What's left is how he holds up against the one moment of doubt that only comes in a real match."

Chitose Kaname, 41, head of the Kaname school, appears increasingly likely to compete again this season, continuing the thread touched on in her previously reported column, "The Sword That Stays Sheathed." On this day she spent more time coaching younger members through observation drills than training herself, at one point telling Minase, "Reading the strike is the judges' job. Finding ways to make it visible to them is yours." Asked about it, she laughed ruefully: "Saying I won't compete and then competing anyway — that's a bad habit I haven't shaken since last year. Most of what this sword does is stay sheathed, but this tournament is the one place I keep sharpening the skill of drawing it."

According to the student federation, advance ticket sales for Shido Swordplay are moving at one of the fastest paces in recent years, buoyed by the previously reported excitement around school wall racing. The venue remains the standing inter-city site, as usual, with young Sword Bearers' Association members assigned to security. The criteria behind the judges' "readings" remain undisclosed, as in past years, and this paper will continue not to explain them.

In an adjacent facility at the same practice hall, training for the Patrol Guild's November "Long Night Cup" is proceeding in parallel. Iori Kiryu, 29, previously reported, said only, "I'm defending my title at the Long Night Cup, but it starts with walking quietly," before leaving the hall, as always, without a sound.

As previously reported, the Sword Bearers' Association and the Patrol Guild are spoken of together as "day's sword bearers, night's patrol officers," and their joint training is limited to twice a year, with the next session planned just after November's Long Night Cup; even when the two share a practice hall, as they do now, their disciplines typically proceed separately. A Sword Bearers' Association spokesperson laughed, "I'd be lying if I said there's no rivalry, but out in the field during exclusion operations, we trust each other's work completely. Sharing a hall is really just a matter of the building."

Riding the enthusiasm around the student federation, Shido Swordplay's organizers announced on the 28th that they are introducing a discounted student ticket (half the regular price) for the first time this season. "The aim is to draw in the young crowd who already comes out for wall racing," an official said, a move that suggests a deliberate bid to capitalize on the previously reported popularity of school wall racing.