ch361-ch380 · 376-ch376
Chapter 376: The Spear and the Shrine
"First, we start here."
The first place I get taken is the storehouse attached to the shrine.
I figured apprenticeship began with the time-honored rite of cleaning the storehouse, but no—it begins with finding armor that fits me.
Then he teaches me how to put on Japanese armor.
Putting it on isn't all that hard, but......
(Heavy......)
Black armor, practice gear with not a single ornament on it—and the weight is a whopping 20 kilos (by feel).
Practice or not, apparently there are steel plates in everything from the gauntlets down to the shin guards, so it has both weight and defensive power.
"This is called the haidate, the thigh guard......"
"A shield?"
So it's a shield for the thighs.
They say samurai didn't carry shields, but look—it's right there on the armor.
The kusazuri hangs off the front of the waist, the wakitate off the sides, and here's another shield......
"Right. The shin guards are called sune-tate—'shin shields'—and this ō-sode is a shield for the shoulder, too."
(It's a full-body shield!)
Meaning I can charge not just 【Charge・Armor】 but 【Charge・Shield】 as well.
The 【Samurai】 at HQ all wore kit like this too, so Japanese armor might actually be viable.
And 【Samurai】 makes up a big share of Triple-Rank adventurers.
More people have apparently been choosing 【Sword Master】 over 【Samurai】 lately, but the Triples of today are 【Samurai】, no question.
Which means the Triple-Rank skeletons that show up from around Floor 47 should mostly be wearing Japanese armor.
There's good armor just lying around, isn't there?
"Back in the day, we'd do the water-drawing and the firewood-chopping in full armor. These days even our place has gone all-electric, though......"
Thanks to magic-stone power conversion, hardly anyone has used kerosene or gas at home these last few years.
Most cars, too, have gone over to swappable batteries charged in dungeons.
Less demand means prices climb so the sellers recoup their costs.
Kerosene and gas are now priced beyond what ordinary folks could manage even if they wanted them.
Instead, everyone runs appliances on the cheap electricity.
Though on the generation side, half the country's output is deliberately kept non-magic-stone.
Dungeons could vanish any day, and apparently this is for emergencies.
The old Hiramatsu main house at the back of the shrine has solar panels too—nobody's depending on magic stones alone.
Which, long story short, means there's none of that manga stuff where the master works you to the bone over unreasonable chores that turn out to be secret conditioning.
"Then what DO we practice?"
"Stairs, up and down. And practice swings."
So the once-practical, two-birds-one-stone training that doubled as daily life has just become...... regular practice, huh.
The well is apparently at the bottom of the stairs, hence the climbing.
So THIS is the Mountain Kata training Hiramatsu-san hates.
︙ ︙
"Ahhh! You're practicing without me! Papa, you said no yesterday! Haruki is MY student!"
Around noon, Mimiko comes home from wherever she'd been.
"Be that as it may, Haruki-kun says he wants to learn the Mountain Kata. You haven't learned it yet yourself, so you couldn't teach it, could you?"
If Mimiko were doing this training, THAT would be abuse.
Eh? The Hiramatsu brothers did it?
Signs of the times, I suppose......
"Then Mimiko will do it too!"
"No, Mimiko, it's too early for you. There's no armor you could wear, either. When you're bigger, all right?"
This much, I suppose, is non-negotiable.
"Nooooo. Haruki is Mimiko's disciple, so he's not allowed to learn from anyone except Mimikooo—"
Such an iron law exists......
According to Shiraishi-san, if one 【Healer】 heals another 【Healer】's patient without permission, from then on it's a fight to the death.
Mimiko may be small, but she was born the heir of a martial house......
The world of martial arts must have laws even harsher than that.
Harsh enough to cry over, surely.
"Mimiko-shishou! Please teach me the Fire Kata! That's why I've been waiting—I didn't learn it from anyone else!"
I cut in between the two of them before the heirloom trump card—"I hate Papa"—comes out.
The Mountain Kata's foundation—moving your body in armor—is all in my head from listening yesterday.
From here it's self-practice, then sneaking back for advice, or asking Hiramatsu-san (the younger).
And for me, if Mimiko teaches me the Fire Kata too, I'll have all four katas.
"Really? You won't learn from anyone but Mimiko?"
Ugh. Well, about that......
"(The Fire Kata) I won't learn from anyone else!"
Is this really OK?
The path of Hiramatsu-ryu is a hard one......
︙ ︙
"【Heal】, please."
"Hey, you're wobbling again today!"
"Divine retribution again today, ssu!"
Surely the same trick can't catch Hiramatsu-san twice, right?
......It won't work, right?
Lunch marks the end of today's training—Mimiko's mother comes to call everyone in.
I'm invited to lunch but decline and head to the branch.
I've been training in full armor since morning, so just as Shiraishi-san said, I'm swaying on my feet.
The stairs hit hardest—another step and I'd have been the adventurer who took the stairs on his knees.
(Get a 【Heal】 on the knees and rest a little.)
I've got plans with Kasumi-san this afternoon, so recovering before then would be nice.
Today is Kasumi-san's first day off this year, so I let her take the morning easy.
Study was the plan for the afternoon, but yesterday something else came up suddenly, so we'll knock that out together.
And when Mia-san gets back—the surprise.
If Soushi's here, we set them both off at once......
︙ ︙
"We're really doing this?"
I've met up with Kasumi-san after lunch, and we're at Mia-san's shop.
"Yes, of course. It's fine—I have Miko-san's permission."
Well—she apparently said "leave it to you," but there's no way she pictured THIS.
"Understood. Then let's have Aikawa draw Mama-san away."
Since I'm using 【Gate】, after everyone's gone home would be better, though.
Kasumi-san's having too much fun to stop, though.
Once I've confirmed no customers in the shop, I signal Aikawa, and she calls Mama-san up to the shop's second floor.
"(【Gate】.) (【Scouting】.) ......No one on the other side, either."
"Haruki-san, the pedestal, please."
Light as a feather, Kasumi-san hoists the 'Giant's Spear' and steps into the 'Gate.'
I follow with the pedestal.
On the other side: a torii gate, a modest shrine building, and a charm shop.
Miko-san's shrine, in the Chiba dungeon.
I set the pedestal right in front of the shrine, and the 'Giant's Spear' is laid upon it.
Offering complete.
"With Miko-san away, I'd like someone stationed over here for a while, too."
"Maybe I'll just study over here from tomorrow, then......"
Should I ask Aikawa too?
Quieter than Mia-san's shop, might be, and the studying might actually stick.
Studying inside the shrine proper would be poor form, so the charm shop, I suppose?
"We should sell 'Lilliputian Spears' here as well. Making them a touch smaller and selling them as charms might work nicely!"
Please, in moderation.
︙ ︙
"There is a LIMIT to how sacrilegious you can get!"
Fresh from the new dungeon, Mia-san tears into us immediately.
"It IS a sacred object! Pray to it for 'enhancement,' and your wish comes true!"
Kasumi-san explains its effects.
"Like HELL it does!"
"Hm—no luck. Mia-san, please swap the tip for a kitchen knife!"
Soushi came too, and it's good to see him up and about.
"Don't YOU start believing either! Oi, clean this mess up already!"
Clean it up, he says.
Apparently the net promotion already went up.
It's on the branch homepage too, and I got Mama-san's permission to put up a notice with the shrine's location at the spot where it used to be.
Mama-san did wonder how on earth we got it out of the shop, I'll say.
"Mia-saaan! I can't get into the shop, so make me a spare keeey!"
Aikawa shouts from the charm shop.
And so the shrine takeover marches steadily along......
By the way, Aikawa's dance weapon enhancement won't activate unless she's dancing with the weapon in hand.
But at her current stats, a full buff should let her lift it—so if she really tries, maybe her wish will come true.