A couple of weeks later, rainy November began.
The weather outside was terrible, but that didn’t stop Yarimato from continuing his training.
Yarimato trained in the dojo and also practiced his wave strike technique, and after so much time, he began to get the hang of it.
Although Yarimato had great difficulty performing it, he was beginning to feel the subtleties of this technique, and as he continued to practice, he was getting closer and closer to his goal.
But on this rainy, dark day, a familiar person to Yarimato climbed the mountain.
Since the teacher and Yarimato were in the dojo, they did not see anyone come up to them, and Takahashi, sitting in the main hall, heard a knock on the shoji, a sliding door made of a wooden frame covered with paper.
Takahashi opened the shoji, and behind it stood a man wearing a straw raincoat and a large hat.
Takahashi: Can I help you?
Stranger: Yes, does Yarimato Kato live here?
Takahashi was surprised that this man knew about Yarimato, but he replied, “I don’t know anyone named Yarimato Kato.”
The stranger smiled and grabbed sword sheath with his left hand.
Takahashi noticed this and jumped back to dodge the stranger’s sword strike.
Yarimato heard the conversation between the two adults, but apart from the teacher and three maids, there was no other man in the dojo.
Entering the main hall, Yarimato saw Yoshi from his father’s clan.
Yoshi took off his cloak and hat and smiled when he saw Yarimato.
Yarimato: You?
How did you find me?
Yoshi: Yarimato Kato, we thought you burned to death in the house that night, but surprise, surprise, I was chasing that maniac, and when I lost sight of him, I was already thinking of returning to Tokyo when suddenly I heard the sounds of sword fighting.
When I came closer, I saw that maniac fighting a young man who looked like Ito’s son.
After you defeated him and left, I cut off his head and was about to return, but I was interested in you as a talented guy, so I wanted to take you with me and teach you techniques, not knowing that you were Yarimato Kato.
When I found you, I remembered your face and was certain that you were the son of my best friend, the late Ito Kato.
Yarimato was surprised and couldn’t say anything.
Yoshi: Yarimato, listen to me.
Your father and I created the dojo and founded our clan, but after your father’s death, I became the last owner of the dojo and the head of the clan.
We searched for you for three whole years, but when everyone else gave up, I still believed that you were alive, and now here you are, standing right in front of me.
Yarimato: What do you want?
Yoshi: Please, Yarimato, come with me.
I will teach you your father’s techniques, and then you will become the head of the clan, and our dojo will regain its true heir.
Yoshi reached out his hand to Yarimato, but Yarimato did not want to return.
Yarimato: You are mistaken, I am no longer Yarimato Kato.
He died that night, so I am Yarimato Takahashi, a student of Takahashi-sama, and I will not return to Tokyo.
Yoshi was disappointed to hear these words, as all he wanted was to restore the Kato clan’s name, and since Yarimato was the only heir, Yoshi would bring him back at any cost.
Yoshi: Okay, I understand.
Then I have a proposal for your master.
Takahashi: I will listen to your proposal.
Yoshi: I propose a battle to the death, and if I win, Yarimato will go with me and I will become his teacher, but if you win, Yarimato will stay here.
This will prove which of us is stronger and who will be the teacher.
Takahashi, hearing Yoshi’s words, said: I accept your proposal, and I will fight you, but I can only strike one blow in your direction.
Yoshi: Okay, that’s your business.
Let’s see whose side fate will be on!
Yoshi and Takahashi went out into the street and stood facing each other in the heavy rain.
Yarimato stood under the roof and watched the battle.
Yoshi was serious and, drawing his sword from its sheath, he grabbed the hilt with both hands and stood in a fighting stance, ready for battle.
Takahashi, holding his shikimizue in his left hand, did not draw his sword from its sheath and simply stood on both feet without even taking a stance, and Yoshi, without waiting, attacked Takahashi.
Yoshi, holding the sword tightly in his hands, delivered quick and powerful blows toward Takahashi, but Takahashi himself was in no hurry and, dodging the blows, analyzed his opponent.
After a couple of minutes, Yoshi, tired of swinging his sword, stood in a stance and began to wait.
Yoshi: Come on, fight me!
Yoshi shouted indignantly.
Takahashi took off his glasses, put them in his kimono, and took up a stance, preparing for battle.
Yoshi attacked Takahashi again and swung from above.
Takahashi, holding his sword in its sheath, placed it under the hilt of Yoshi’s sword and, deflecting his blow to the side, struck Yoshi in the stomach with the hilt of his sword, but Yoshi immediately swung and struck horizontally, but Takahashi deftly dodged and struck his opponent’s right leg with the scabbard.
Bending his leg from Yoshi’s blow, he loses his balance and footing, but still swings for a blow from his right shoulder.
However, he was holding the sword only in his right hand, so Takahashi sharply strikes Yoshi’s right hand with the scabbard and, parrying his blow, Yoshi is completely exposed to Takahashi.
Having lost his footing and seeing his arm, Takahashi only needed to deliver a lightning-fast strike, but Takahashi again strikes Yoshi’s torso with the hilt of his sword.
Bending from the blow, Takahashi grabs Yoshi’s back with his sword sheath and, pulling him toward himself, strikes him in the torso with his knee.
Yoshi puts his left hand in front of his torso and, turning the sword in his right hand, Yoshi grabs the sword with a reverse grip and swings it to pierce Takahashi’s back.
Takahashi realizes that he has trapped himself and, holding the sword in its sheath in his left hand behind Yoshi’s back, his hand was on his shoulder, so Takahashi released his sword, slipped his hand under Yoshi’s right arm, and grabbed his shikimizue with a reverse grip, turning it over Yoshi’s right arm and squeezing his hand as if in a clamp.
Grasping it with his forearm and scabbard, Takahashi lunged to the left and passing directly under his arm, he placed his left foot in front of Yoshi’s right foot, and then, putting all his strength into it, Takahashi threw his opponent over himself and lifted him off the ground.
Yoshi fell on his back, and Takahashi remained unharmed.
From the side, it happened too quickly for Yarimato, but even so, Yarimato understood everything that had happened, and Yoshi, getting up from the ground, grabbed his sword again with both hands.
Yoshi: What was that?
How could a skinny old man like you lift me off the ground?
Takahashi: It’s because of my style, which is based on the flow of water.
Yoshi: What kind of nonsense are you talking about?
How did the flow of water help you lift a big guy like me?
Takahashi: That’s why I’m Yarimato’s teacher, and as my student, he will be able to do the same as me, or even better.
Yoshi lunges at Takahashi and, holding his sword in both hands in front of him, makes a stabbing strike at Takahashi, but Takahashi raises his right leg and presses it against the tip of the sword blade, pushing Yoshi’s attack straight into the ground.
Stabbing his sword into the ground, Yoshi couldn’t believe it, because he had never seen anything like it before.
Pulling himself together, Yoshi quickly pulls the sword out from under Takahashi’s foot and swings from his left shoulder to strike, but Takahashi pulls the sword slightly out of its sheath, thereby taking the blow on his blade.
Takahashi held the hilt of the sword in his right hand, but with a reverse grip, and the sheath with his lefthand, also with a reverse grip.
Yoshi raises his sword, pulling Takahashi’s sword with it, and after pulling it out of its sheath, Yoshi swings from above to strike, but Takahashi puts his sword above himself and, blocking the blow, strikes Yoshi’s torso with a stabbing blow from the sheath.
Pushing him away, they find themselves at a distance from each other again.