The Kirigaya family home was an old Japanese house that lingered alongside the dated streets of southern Saitama. The entire extended family had been living here, as Suguha’s grandfather, who had passed away four years ago, was a very strict and old-fashioned person. He served in the police force for many years and was a famous kendo practitioner during his youth. He hoped that his only son, who was Suguha’s father, would continue in his footsteps on the path of kendo. Her father had grasped the shinai until high school, but then he readily gave it up to study abroad in America and eventually found employment at a foreign financial securities company. After being assigned to the Japanese branch, he met and married Suguha’s mother Midori, but continued a life of routine travelling across the Pacific ocean. By that time, Suguha’s grandfather had redirected his passion toward her and the one year older Kazuto. Suguha and her brother were made to join the neighborhood kendo dojo during elementary school. But because of her mother’s influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, her brother loved the keyboard far more than the shinai and left the dojo within two years. However, Suguha wasn’t like her brother. She had found an affinity with kendo and continued to grasp her shinai even after her grandfather died. Suguha was now fifteen years old. Last year, she had advanced far enough in the middle school competitions to rank as one of the best in the nation. By springtime, she had been recruited by one of the most famous high schools in the prefecture. But——