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The Misuzaki Karuta Club room was flooded with the cheerful light of spring sunshine, but Oe Kanade arranged the karuta cards on the tatami mat in front of her with sadness and unease. The club just wasn't the same since Mashima quit.
She glanced down the row of players to see Chiyaha at the same task. She looked distracted and upset, while her opponent Midori hummed smugly as she placed her side. Sumire hovered over one of the beginners who had started just last week, while Komano and Nishida laid out their own game with grim determination. Kanade smiled slightly - she was glad that Tsutomo - no, Komano-san, she corrected herself - was facing the formidable Nishida today. She herself was playing Hara, one of the newcomers, so she could concentrate on improving her card arrangement while not stressing about her speed. Perhaps it would be better to factor in the style of each poem? Certainly season and family relations were not sufficient!
Suddenly Tsutomo lifted his inscrutable eyeglass gaze and said, "Hanano! I know we are still busy training newcomers, but would it be ok to bring a classmate of mine to the club tomorrow? She can't play karuta, but she is very interested in the Hundred Poets and I thought she might be interested in what we do. Also, Kana-chan might enjoy talking poetry with her."
"As long as she doesn't interrupt anything, I don't care. We need to concentrate on our new members," replied Sumire with an impatient toss of her head.
Kanade was interested. Someone with appreciation of the classics! If only she could join the club!
*****
The next day a practice round had already started when Kanade noticed that Komano had come in and was taking notes on the matches. Seated at a distance was a tall girl, quite thin, with long black hair tied in a simple ponytail. She wore the school uniform, although it appeared to hang on her thin frame. She wore dark glasses - like Master Suo! - and was sitting quietly.
At the end of the round Komano snapped his notebook shut and stepped to Kanade's side. "Uh, Oe-san... this is Yamazato Akiko from my homeroom class. She is a transfer student."
Kanade folded her hands and bowed politely. "I am so pleased to meet you. My name is Oe Kanade. You are fortunate in your name - you have a special karuta card."
Yamazato smiled. "Yes, the poem is 'Yamazato wa fuyu zo sabishisa masarikeru, hitome mo kusa mo karenu omoeba' (A mountain village grows lonesome every winter when people and grasses grow scarce.)" I was very ill for some time, and I felt that poem intensely. But I cannot take it as a karuta card, because..."
"Because you are blind," interrupted Nishida. "I see your cane now." Kanade blushed a little; now that Nishida had pointed it out, the folded cane and dark glasses told an all-too-obvious story. And she had talked of karuta!
"Boy, that sucks! I'm Nishida, by the way." He grabbed her arm. "Man, you could use some feeding up! We gotta work on that."
Yamazato's other arm struck out with impressive speed and poked Nishida's ample stomach. "That's not a problem you have," she replied.
"Hey, a man's gotta eat!" Nishida replied, as the others laughed.
For the next round, Kanade read the cards. Yamazato sat quietly, listening to the readings with obvious enjoyment. At the end of the round, club members stretched and brought out snacks. Yamazato stood and reached for her cane.
"Nah, don't go, we've got to feed you, Yamazato," said Nishida enthusiastically. "What would you like? We've got chocolates, rice balls..."
"We could get something from the vending machine for you," added Komano. Kanade looked at him with approval. He was always so helpful!
"I'm afraid I'm not very hungry," said Yamazato with a wan smile. "Things don't often seem appealing. And I'm supposed to be gaining weight."
"I could even give you a pork bun," said Nishida hesitantly.
Yamazato's eyes brightened. "Nishimon-kun! I love those!" A general round of laughter followed.
"That's Nishi... oh, whatever," said Nishida, handing over a pork bun to Yamazato, who waved it triumpantly over her head before thanking him politely.
Just as the members were discussing whether to do another round, Kanade noticed Miyauchi-sensei standing in the doorway. "No more karuta!" she ordered sternly. "It's time to go home. And you, uh, Yamazato-san, is it? What are you even doing here? You need to find a club to belong to. This is not a suitable club for you." She frowned, turned on her heel, and marched off.
Outside the clubhouse, Kanade was about to take her farewells with Yamazato when Nishida once more came up. "Yamazato! Don't listen to the Empress! Come by tomorrow! I'll bring extra pork buns! And... well... we'll see." And he hustled off after Komano, calling, "Desk-tomo! Wait up!"
Kanade gazed after Komano a little wistfully. "Will you come, or should I go? Caught in hesitation, my door of cedar boards unbarred, do I fall asleep." she murmurred.
"From Kokinshu," said Yamazato quietly. "Ah, it is like that."
"Yes," said Kanade with a sigh, "It is."
****
After school, Yamazato entered the clubroom to find the members not practicing, but instead engaged in what sounds like cutting paper. "What are you doing today," she asked.
"Here, take this," called Nishida, thrusting a rectangle into her hand. "What do you think?"
"It's... it's.. It's 'yamazato wa'!" she said with delight. "In braille!"
"Yeah. We're doing a whole deck. Desktomo came up with the idea," Nishida said with a grin.
"The school had a braille printer," said Komano. "We had to beg Miyauchi-sensei a lot, but she allowed us to use it."
"And we stuck 'em to a worn-out karuta deck, put a little sticky tape on the back so they won't move when you touch 'em, and... bingo!" Nishida concluded triumpantly.
"Well, how does this work anyways? I... I'll give it a try," Yamazato said. Kanade thought she sounded a little... emotional?
As the rest of the club began to set up for a match, Komano and Nishida guided Yamazato to a position next to the others and showed her how to set up the cards in front of her. There were some discussions about how to adapt the rules; obviously touching the cards was allowed, but to take a card, it was decided one needed to pick it up. Otherwise, rules could be much the same as regular karuta.
"You can practice solo for now," said Nishida. "Next round, I'll be your opponent."
"How would that work?" asked Yamazato. "You know braille?"
"No," said Nishida with a grin, "But we also printed the poems on the cards. I'll memorize the positions and play blindfold. I hear Mashima, our president... well, our former president... did that once, and I want to try that."
"Oh, yeah?" she replied. "I'll win, you know."
"Like heck you will!" he replied hotly, and Yamazato grinned.
Yamazato spent the memorization period running her long fingers over the cards. At first it took her some time to find the correct card, although it was obvious she knew the poems by heart. Soon, however, her hands were moving quickly to the correct cards. At the end of the round she pumped her fist as she took the last card. "Yeah!"
For the next round, Nishida became Yamazato's opponent. During the memorization period she ran her fingers over the cards as Nishida stared intently at them. Towards the end of the time period Nishida also ran his fingers over the cards as well, much more clumsily. Kanade wondered whether he was really trying to memorize the patterns of raised dots? That would be impressive when he didn't know the system.
"Hey, paws off my cards!" said Yamazato with a grin as their fingers collided.
"Your cards? They're all mine!" replied Nishida.
Kanade announced the end of memorization period and one of the new members who was sitting out used a bandana to blindfold Nishida.
Kanade began to read. "Naniwa Bay, now the flower blooms..." The room was quiet as she held up the first card of the match. "Kasanagi no..." Nishida's hand flashed out to take a card on his side, accompanied by the thumps of other players taking theirs. Yamazato reached out with her left hand to find only empty space.
"Gotta be faster than that," commented Nishida.
"Next card's mine." said Yamazato.
.
Despite Yamazato's words, Nishida continued to take cards steadily from both sides. He sent several cards over to her side, which she placed carefully down. Yamazato then guided his hand to the new location of each card.
Finally Nishida made an error. And then another. "Not so easy, eh, Nishimon-kun?," said Yamazato with a wicked grin. Kanade noted Nishida was sweating and looked rather red as he guided Yamazato's hand to the location of the sent card.
Nishida started running his fingers over the remaining cards with a look of great concentration. Despite this, Yamazato took most of the remaining cards, moving slowly but surely considering she was a beginner. The game finished with five cards left in front of Nishida. "Now, about those pork buns..."
"It was harder than I thought," admitted Nishida.
"Wow!," said Yamazato. "That was... that was... that was about the most fun I've had in years. Thank you."
"Well, I enjoyed it too," replied Nishida. "I was trying to memorize those braille things, but it was hard. I'll have to learn 'em."
"Study hard, or I'll beat you every time," said Yamazato. "I'll get faster too."
The club members brought out snacks. Nishida gave Yamazato two pork buns, and offered one to Komano for his help.
As the members left Kanade tidied the room; Nishida helped clean up the remainder of the paper scraps. "Nishida-san, it was very good of you to try to make Yamazato-san feel at home here in the club," she said casually.
Nishida turned away and wiped his forehead. "Well, Kana-chan... She feels like you do about the poems. So why shouldn't she play karuta? And she's a transfer, and she's been sick, so... It's worth doing a little extra, you know?"
"Yes," said Kanade approvingly, "And it is good to see it done. I do hope she stays!"
****
The next day a heavy rain brought down some of the new leaves under a dark sky. The club members left their dripping umbrellas by the door. Yamazato arrived struggling with a heavy school bag, an umbrella, and her cane and left them all by the door. Kanade was pleased to see a bit more of a healthy tone to her skin, although perhaps it was just the exertion. She was approached immediately by Hara Miku. "I am Hara Miku. May I be your opponent today, Yamazato-san? I am just learning karuta, but I do know some braille, my mother is blind and I... was trying to learn it, for a while."
Sumire frowned. "Hara-san, we are trying to improve your regular karuta as fast as possible. I'm not sure..."
Nishida interrupted. "Sumire-chan, let her play Yamazato. It'll be good practice for her memorization. I'll play second round."
Sumire sniffed. "Hmmpf. Well, I suppose so. I'll have to swap the matches around."
During the first round Kanade was playing against Komano and could spare only a few glances at the other matches. Yamazato was a little faster and dominated Miku, who was deficient in both memorization and braille. Chihaya-chan was playing Nishida; she seemed slightly more focused, but was still struggling. Midori-san was beating Tsukuba with ease and clearly enjoying it.
In the second round Kanade was the reader. She was concentrating on keeping the correct rhythm and intonation, enjoying the beauty of the poetry, and was surprised at the end of the match to see Miyauchi-sensei standing next to her.
"Aaagh, I don't have the braille down yet," said Nishida disgustedly. "It'll take time."
"And I'm only getting faster," said Yamazato contentedly. "By the time you learn braille, I'll be faster still."
Chihaya snapped out of her post-match daze. "Perhaps I could play you next time, Yamazato-san? Perhaps learning the braille patterns of the cards would help me? There are so many different ways to play..."
"Naw, Chihaya-chan! There won't be any bumps on the cards in the next Queen's match. Stick with your goal!" Nishida said. "You're always looking for something new - concentrate on the basics for once!"
Miyauchi-sensei cleared her throat loudly. "A good practice, all. I commend your industry. But, Yamazato-san - do you really want to join this club? While these braille cards seem to be a success, you cannot participate in tournament play, which is a major focus of this club. Will you be satisfied with that?"
"We have the files to print out the cards," Tsutomo said, "We could offer them to other clubs."
Kanade had an idea. "Fukusaku-sensei is in contact with other literature teachers! I'm sure some of them might have blind
students who were interested!"
"And I'm on mailing lists for the blind. I can ask if anyone wants to learn," said Yamazato eagerly. "I can play other club members, and it may be that we can recruit blind players from other schools to play as well. Miyauchi-sensei, I want to join."
"Come on, Miyauchi-sensei! Give the girl a chance!" said Nishida.
"Well. Alright," Miyauchi-sensei replied. "For now, we'll see how it goes. Now, don't stay too long, the school is closing soon."
There was a general chorus of thanks, and snacks were brought out as Miyauchi-sensei left. Nishida gave Yamazato two pork buns,but was incensed when Yamazato stealthily felt the table in front of him and stole a third. "Ha, one from your own board!" she said gleefully, taking a bite.
"Thief!," called Nishida. "That's the last..."
Suddenly Yamazato was wiping away a tear. "It's... so nice to have people to just... joke around with. Ever since I got sick I've had to be so... polite. Nurses, doctors - they help, but they're not friends."
"To ease my heart while sleeping on my travels ‘tween the fields I have no friend at all, so/How much more the capital does
seem dear to me now!" quoted Kana.
"Yes," said Yamazato. "This seems like home."
On this serious note, some of the club members started to leave. Chihaya seemed to have returned to her daze and pushed suddenly past Nishida on her way out the door, knocking him into the pile of belongings by the door. There was a snap. "Hey, watch it!" said Nishida.
"That wasn't my cane, was it?" said Yamazato.
"Ah... yeah. Looks like it," replied Nishida with embarassment. "You see, Chihaya pushed me..."
"Well, Nishida-kun," Kanade said smoothly. "I think you must assist Yamazato-san home. Don't you think so, Hanano-san?"
Sumire had a slightly surprised look, but then smiled slightly. "It's the gentlemanly thing to do. I say it's a must."
Yamazato was shaking her head. "No, really, the path has raised stones in it for guidance, it really isn't that hard... well... Actually, I would appreciate it!"
"I... I... Yeah, I guess so. I could." stammered Nishida. And soon the two set off, with red-faced Nishida gingerly holding Yamazato's arm.
As they walked off, Yamazato sang out, "Kana-chan - 'Moss-covered stones washed with rain...'"
Kanade called after her, "'Slippery and difficult to climb, across the river, threading through the forest...'"
Having lingered to pack up his notes carefully in his water-proof bag, Tsutomo was now at her side. "It is quite slippery," Tsutomo said somewhat stiffly. "Would you like a hand?"
"Why, yes," she replied with a small blush. "How kind of you to ask!"
And the two of them set off up the path hand in hand.