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Things had been falling into place nicely. Tsukasa’s newest role involved an archer who, due to stress and expectations as he’d become better at the sport, had begun to falter and crumble under the weight of those expectations. The climax of the show involved him remembering why he had taken up archery in the first place and regaining his impressive shooting ability.
All well and good, except that the script never addressed his initial reason and Tsukasa had never taken a single archery lesson. The former was something his time spent with Bakuno Reki had taught him how to handle, he just needed the time to formulate the backstory. The archery…
Saki had been his particular savior there, reminding him that Shizuku was a member of the archery club at her school. A few desperate texts earned him a reply (strewn with typos and an apology for the typos) that Shizuku could set aside a few hours to work with him on the basics, at least enough for his posture and blocking to be believable.
Things had been falling into place…
… Until the morning he was supposed to meet up with Shizuku, who called him instead to profusely apologize, but a last-minute booking had come up for her idol group and she wouldn’t be able to make it. But she had, she reassured him, as Tsukasa fought for a polite response that didn’t sound mildly devastated, reached out to another club member who had agreed to take her place and meet him at the designated spot.
Admittedly, when he reached the range (after the walk, after the bus ride, after the train from Kanazawa station in which he’d double-checked to make sure he’d brought the proper attire with him), he was stunned to see Asahina Mafuyu waiting for him. He hadn’t thought to ask Shizuku if her fellow member was someone he knew, and truthfully, it didn’t matter all that much, but Tsukasa still let out a yelp when he spotted her.
“A-Asahina-san?!”
Mafuyu, clothed in a crisp white uwagi and equally neat black hakama, dipped her head politely with a smile. “Judging from your surprise, Hinomori-san must not have mentioned who would be replacing her.”
“She really didn’t! Not that it isn’t good to see you, of course!” The last thing Tsukasa wanted was for Mafuyu to feel as though she’d wasted her time coming in to help someone wildly ungrateful. “It’s been a while!”
“We haven’t had much opportunity to run into each other, after all. Otori-san mentioned you’ve all been very involved in various training sessions…” Mafuyu tilted her head, resting a gloved hand against her cheek. “I hope you’re taking time to rest, Tenma-san.”
Tsukasa laughed, breezily. “As a world future star, of course I take the time necessary to hit the stage with full glory and vigor, never you worry!!”
Mafuyu gave him a gentle smile, though he couldn’t tell if she was amused or simply being polite. “I’m pleased to hear it. Now, Hinomori-san did ask me to help, but I’m afraid I neglected to ask her for further details. Are you wanting to learn the process, or how to shoot the target, or…?”
“Everything!”
It was only when she blinked that Tsukasa remembered that she likely hadn’t agreed to dedicate the entire day to helping him. Probably an hour or so, at best.
“That is,” he rushed to correct himself, in a way that was still wholly confident and not at all mildly embarrassed. “As much as you’re willing to teach me in the brief time we have together, Asahina-san! The character I’m playing is…”
He didn’t mean to give her more or less the whole rundown of the synopsis and his character’s arc, but Mafuyu was listening so quietly and patiently that the words flowed right out of him.
“... And whatever reason he has for loving archery, he finally remembers it again when he aims at the target,” Tsukasa finished. “So I would, if feasible, like to try to handle the bow and see if I can understand his motivation.”
Mafuyu lowered her hand, where it had remained cradling her cheek while she listened. “I see… then, I think it might be best to have you warm up first and then we can ease you into it. The goal with this kind of archery… isn’t solely to hit the target, after all.”
“It… it’s not?” He hadn’t expected that, but from the solemn way she stated it, she didn’t appear to be joking.
She offered him a smile, then gestured to him. “Let’s have you get changed and then we’ll begin with planks.”
Tsukasa clenched one hand into a shaking fist. “Understood!! To move successfully is to incorporate and make use of every muscle in your body!! I won’t fail you, Asahina-san!!”
Mafuyu’s smile turned puzzled, but she merely nodded without questioning his blazing passion and they got to work.
At this point in his life, Tsukasa had been trained by a variety of instructors and experts, some more professional than others. Mafuyu proved to be surprisingly firm in her guidance, but fair, walking him through the exercises, where his feet should be placed, the amount of force required for the practice bow, and his general posture. With an apology for closeness, she adjusted his hands and legs with careful nudges, at one point standing behind him and maneuvering his elbows into place. And, of course, she explained the eight stages of kyudo very carefully.
It was all very precise and Tsukasa had a brief thought lasting exactly four seconds that she had a pleasant voice and that he hadn’t really thought about it until now, before his thoughts went where they always went—his character and what about this precision was so important to him and his sense of happiness.
It did help him feel closer to his character, going through the motions, giving every step of this the respect it deserved, but as he lifted his bow, arm aching a little from just how much strength it took to pull the string back multiple times, Tsukasa couldn’t help but sigh.
“So it’s calming, isn’t it? But why is it calming? He’s got so much happening in his life, with those expectations on him, and you would think it would make it harder to focus, so why is it this time that he remembers what he loved about archery?”
Mafuyu who, up until now, hadn’t done much with a bow herself in the process of teaching him how to hold it, walked over to pick hers up before returning to the center of the wooden floor. She gazed out at the targets, but to Tsukasa’s eye, she didn’t look as though she was looking directly at them.
“Tenma-san, have you ever felt incredibly overwhelmed? Perhaps too much has been happening that you’re struggling to stay on top of. Perhaps you’re trying to prove that you can do everything others expect of you, even if you have to work harder than people think. Or perhaps your thoughts have been trapped inside and you don’t think they should be released, because you might be disappointing others. Maybe you’re seeking perfection.”
Every word felt like a ripple of a memory. His struggle to get even one step closer to the actors who took increasingly wider strides ahead of him. How unsatisfied he felt when his grasp on a character fell short and he committed to doing everything he possibly could to remedy that. His attempts for his body to achieve what his mind could so easily envision. When Saki had been hospitalized and she and his parents had spent more time in a medical facility than at home and it had just been him and so much space and so much silence, but of course he would never fault them for circumstances that no one had ever wanted. He’d needed to welcome them back with a smile.
And in those moments…
“I…”
“You don’t need to explain anything,” Mafuyu said quietly. Her eyes hadn’t left one of the targets. “But if you’ve had those experiences, sometimes… it’s incredibly important to be able to focus on something else. It might seem inconsequential to others, but it’s still an outlet. A way to temporarily forget everything else weighing on you. Nothing else matters.”
As she spoke, she brought an arrow to the string, drawing it back in a single movement without so much as a tremble or a quiver of a muscle. Her breathing was soft and steady, just as unwavering as her stance.
It was hard to describe the change in her, the sudden stillness that fell over her. Every movement was deliberate but graceful and quiet, soundless. Like falling snow, muffling everything in its wake.
She was… beautiful. Like not a soul or troubled thought could dare to touch her in that exact moment.
The silence was interrupted by the sound of the arrow releasing, the thin whistle as it flew through the air, and the thwack as it embedded itself solidly in the middle of the target.
It was only when Mafuyu exhaled and turned to him that Tsukasa even realized he’d been holding his breath.
“I can’t hope to speak for your character,” she said, a rueful smile tugging lightly at her lips. “But I do think that if you’re able to let go of every single thought of yours, Tenma-san, to focus only on the shot, you might be able to understand. There’s a kind of comfort in having a space where you truly don’t have to think about anything else, even if just for a little while.”
Tsukasa gazed at her for a long moment, then looked out across the range. So that was it. It wasn’t something like muscle memory or nostalgia from winning a tournament or a pleasant experience he’d had making friends in his club, his character had just been able to achieve true peace while doing archery. It was a reprieve.
A very simple answer, but maybe simplicity was what both Tsukasa and his character had needed this whole time. In a way, his time with the piano had been similar.
“Asahina-san…” For some reason, Tsukasa had to actively push back against the urge to sound hushed in the environment she’d created through her demonstration. “Thank you, truly! I’ll need to practice vigorously to reach that state of mind, which I’ll doubtless succeed at gloriously, but you’ve unlocked my understanding with your insightful words and beautiful performance! Again, you have my thanks for your tutelage over these past…”
Wait.
He checked the clock. He’d only asked Shizuku for two hours of her time, and surely Shizuku had passed that along to her clubmate, and yet…
They were nearing the fifth hour.
“A-Asahina-san?!” Tsukasa pointed a shaking finger at the clock. “Have I really—kept you much later than you agreed to?!”
Mafuyu followed his finger—and then laughed, softly. “Please don’t look so appalled, Tenma-san. I was the one who chose to stay later. You were just such an eager student, I’m afraid my usual habits must have kicked in from my time working with the first and second-years. I think I can manage one more hour before I need to head back, if you’d like to try shooting some more?”
The responsible part of him reminded him that he was keeping this wonderfully kind girl even later than she’d agreed to and this offer of hers was surely just one of politeness and he should call it here.
The SHOW part of him had already hip-checked that part of him out of the way so before he even properly processed it, his treacherous mouth was blurting out a very eager “Thank you for your guidance, Asahina-san!!”
He’d make it up to her, Tsukasa told himself fiercely, as Mafuyu guided him back into position again and he nocked his arrow. For all of her time and effort and kindness, he would give her a perfectly grand reward, absolutely worthy of her and his own magnanimous nature.
She’d given him the means to ensure an incredible show, after all.
(“So, taking her out for a meal, just the two of you…” Nene straightened from her stretch, then hissed a little as Emu pressed down on her back again. “Doesn’t that sound like—”
“A splendid declaration of gratitude, of course! Asahina-san truly dedicated so much of her time to assisting me!”
The look she gave Tsukasa was exasperated. “It sounds like a date.”
“It—what?” Tsukasa floundered, eyes wide as he turned to both Emu and Rui for reassurance and back-up. “It doesn’t! Surely not!!”
“A date, a date!” Emu sing-songed, vastly unhelpful.
Rui’s smile was deeply amused, for some unfathomable reason. “Make sure to treat Asahina-san well, please. We owe her quite a bit.”
Tsukasa’s squawk startled a flock of birds into frantic flight.
“IT’S NOT A DAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!!!”)