Shinobu Sengoku: Idol Story 3

[verdantgrove]

Chapter 3

Location: Dojo

Season: Summer

Author: Yuumasu

Souma: Yah…! Hyah…!

Shinobu: Kanzaki-dono, Kanzaki-dono, are you over here~?

Souma: Gah, you knave…!

Shinobu: Eek?!

Souma: Huh? I had thought that you were someone else, but it’s you, Sengoku.

Shinobu: That’s right, it is I! A-a swing more, and you would have chopped my head clean off…!

Souma: I am so terribly sorry. Being approached from behind had made me think you were someone who carried ill intent, and thus I attacked. Please accept my humble apology.

Shinobu: No, no. It was my fault as well, Kanzaki-dono. You were focused, and yet I still called out to you abruptly...

...Well, I did not get your attention just to apologize. Kanzaki-dono. I would like for you to play this game with me.

Souma: Hm. Are these… Ogura Hyakunin Isshu karuta1?

Shinobu: That’s right! I belong to that circle known as “ASOBI club”.

The other day, when I was looking through our stock of games, I found these ♪

Souma: Haha, I see. ...Good gracious, how nostalgic. It has certainly been quite a while that I’ve gone without playing this, but...

When I was a child, my relatives and I often gathered together around New Year’s Day and the like to play karuta.

Shinobu: Just as I would expect! You are good at hanafuda2, after all. You being good at karuta as well is exactly what I had anticipated ♪

Although I have learned about Ogura Hyakunin Isshu in my Japanese class, there is a lot about the rules and such that I’ve forgotten, so I’d quite like to play the card game together~!

Souma: Wow, Sengoku, you have played Hyakunin Isshu as well, then?

Shinobu: Mhm! Incidentally, my favorite poem is: “Though I would hide it/In my face it still appears--/My fond, secret love./And now he questions me:/‘Is something bothering you?’’”

It makes me feel special because it has my name in it3, so it was the very first poem from the anthology that I memorized~♪

Souma: I see. What a nice experience to have.

As for a poem that contains my name… Hmm, nothing is coming to mind.

The first thing that I thought of was “a revolving lantern”4... Perhaps that?

In any case, Sengoku, I understand what you request of me. Let us play; who else shall be joining us?

Shinobu: Eh? But… I hadn’t asked anyone else besides you, Kanzaki-dono...

Souma: What? Sengoku, the two of us alone are too few to play karuta. If you and I were to go against one another, we would need to call upon the cooperation of another good soul to read the cards.

Shinobu: Ah, you needn’t worry about that! I shall read the cards, and you shall be the one playing the game!

Souma: In other words, I shall be playing karuta by myself? How peculiar...

But if that is what you wish for, Sengoku, I shall play along. Is it alright if we play right here on the tatami?

Shinobu: That’s perfectly alright, thank you~♪

I don’t know the rules in detail, so would you do me the favor of explaining them to me?

Souma: Understood. ...First, have a seat, and then bow. Let us begin.

Shinobu: Yes, let’s!

Souma: Hmm. Well...typically, after shuffling the deck, we each take twenty-five cards without looking at them and arrange them each in a line facing each other, but...

Given that upon this occasion, I have no opponent… It would be best for me to line them up in a manner that allows me to read them, be it proper or not.

Shinobu: Hmm? If we take twenty-five cards each, that is fifty altogether. Aren’t there one-hundred cards…?

Souma: We shan’t use the remaining fifty cards during the match. Go ahead and put them back in the box.

Shinobu: Understood~ ...Rustle, rustle… Kanzaki-dono, I’ve returned them to the box!

Souma: I appreciate your help. Before the match begins, there are usually fifteen minutes for memorization, but we should be able to skip that as well.

Let us allow this game to commence at last. We shall exchange bows, and...

Shinobu: I shall bow! And after that, is it alright for me to read out the poem that’s written on the card?

Souma: Nay, before we begin, there is a joka.

Shinobu: Joka… Like a joker?

Souma: No, no. I am not speaking of Western playing cards. It is customary that, before the match begins, the reader will read aloud a poem that is not from Ogura Hyakunin Isshu called a joka.

Shinobu: I-Is that so? However, I… I know very little Japanese poetry.

Souma: If you do not know any other poems, it is perfectly alright to compose your own. My family all perform their own individual poems as well, you see?

Shinobu: I can make one myself…? Hmm~

Alright. I may not feel confident in it, but I did it, more or less!

“Ryuseitai/Red, blue, green/Black, yellow/Allies of justice/Hip, hip, hurray”...☆

Souma: Wow. That is certainly very much like you, Sengoku. I liked it. Go on, you can read the card now.

Shinobu: Alright! Truly, this is where--5

Souma: Hyah!

Shinobu: Whoa~! Just as I would expect of you, Kanzaki-dono, how gallant! You figured out what it was so fast!

The movement you made when you were grabbing the card was so beautiful; it was almost like you were throwing a shuriken! I was super enchanted by it~!

I want to be as fast as you, Kanzaki-dono. Shusshu...☆

Souma: While it is certainly not bad to desire such a thing, in order to recognize the card by simply the first verse of the poem, you must memorize the entirety of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu before you can so much as lay a finger upon the card, you know?

Shinobu: Ah, memorization, right. I often struggle to remember just the first verse, but...

That’s just another way that I can discipline myself! I aim to handle cards just as well as you do, Kanzaki-dono, and so I shall try my best~!

TL Notes:

1: “Ogura Hyakunin Isshu” is an anthology of Japanese style poems called tanka or waka; it can be written in English as “Ogura Anthology of One Hundred Tanka by One Hundred Poets”. “Karuta” is a game in which a player has to identify a poem from Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by hearing the first half, using cards on which the second half is written. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogura_Hyakunin_Isshu

2: A style of Japanese playing cards used to play multiple types of card games. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafuda

3: The original Japanese of the poem is read as “Shinoburedo/Iro ni ide ni keri/Waga koi wa/Mono ya omou to/Hito no tou made”. Shinobu’s name appears in the part read as “shinoburedo”, which is translated as “though I would hide it”.

4: “Soumatou” in Japanese.

5: The first verse of Semimaru’s poem from Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The full poem is:

“Truly, this is where/Travelers who go or come/Over parting ways--/Friends or strangers--all must meet:/The gate of "Meeting Hill."

Proofread by 310mc and Gigi.