Four Unexpected Fates

En garde

"I always say exactly what I'm feeling, and if they don't like me, it's fine. It doesn't change the fact that I was close to their hearts!" – Yuuki Kunno of the Sleeping Knights (Sword Art Online)

I started fencing when I was around 13 since I had no idea what to do. My cousin had been in the sport for five years by then so she recommended me to do so. "Fencing?" I thought, the first thing coming to my mind was the fencing ringing an area, as she laughed, "No, as in sword fighting." I had always been a fan of Star Wars and when I did some reading and found out that fencing was used to inspire the lightsaber moves in the movies, I immediately jumped into it.

At first, we just started learning how to move forwards and backwards. In fencing, you fence on a long, narrow mat and are only allowed to move forwards and backwards. We were taught some words in French for it but just to make it easier I'll just say them in English unless absolutely necessary. So the main moves were forwards, backwards, lunge, meaning we had to basically put one leg out and make it into an L shape while the back leg stretches out, although if you cannot handle stretching too far you didn't have to go for a far lunge (like this). Then there's 'ballistrae', where you have to hop and then lunge and since it was a move I didn't really manage to remember after so long and had no use for, I didn't really use it.

Once we got the hang of these, we were taught the sword types. There are three types of swords in fencing; epee, foil and sabre. Epee is the heaviest of them all but most people use it because it's the easiest to use and doesn't require as much speed as the others. Your target area is basically the whole body, including the face but of course, if possible, don't try to hit unnecessary places since it would hurt like hell. Foil is a thinner and more flexible sword than epee, which had a heavy guard (the part that separates the grip and the blade). For the foil, the target area is your entire torso, excluding your arms and head.

Finally there was the sabre, the hardest of the swords to master. You had to be both fast and accurate to hit the target, which was from the waist up but since I didn't ever get to use it, I won't explain it since the rules are pretty complicated. In the beginning, I don't know why but I was allowed to use any weapon I wished and like the moron I was, I decided to just pick the foil and swing it around without thinking that I had to pair up with a foil fencer and what not so I looked like an utter moron. After a while, we were taught how to strike but those are pretty complicated so I'll explain when we get to the fencing tournaments.

Things started off reasonably at first. I was in an all girls school at that time and we had some of the best fencers in the state. My cousin was captain of the club but I wasn't really close with her so it wasn't like it helped or anything. Several of my classmates had joined the club as well but like Keisa and Kira, I didn't know how to mingle with them without blowing their fuse. I had a habit of running my mouth without thinking, which wasn't a bad thing since I was always honest but that just meant I let out the truth in the most direct and painful way possible.

"Well, don't bother about them. It's not like it would hurt you to actually be honest than to lie all the time," Tris, a girl from the year below me said as we sat down, watching the others fence. By that time, even though I was taught the moves more or less by the coach, who was an old man who looked ready to hit the grave, I still had problems trying to score points during the tournament. I didn't even know when I had scored any points because we didn't use the normal scoring system where we had to use a body cord and attach one end to the grip and the other to a machine so that when someone scores, the pressure of the tip of the blade would be sensed and sent to the scoreboard. Back then, we mostly used the manual version so if you had cozied up to the seniors, you got your points basically.

"Man I really wish I can learn the sabre," I muttered as I watched one of the fifth year students fence. She was fast as she struck her opponent, the blade slashing across the fabric of the silver jacket. "At this rate, we'll take forever to get there," Tris muttered since most of the time, the coach left us to practice on our own and only focused on those heading for tournaments. The rest of us just spent our time fumbling around with the swords and trying to see how cool we looked. "I don't get the point of it all if he doesn't coach us. Sure, training is the main thing that makes us better but if we continue to make the same mistakes, it wouldn't be of any use."