Episode 3

## Just as They Met

**Just as They Met** (出会いの矢先, *Deai no Yasaki*?) is the third episode of the Tsurune anime.

## **Synopsis**

Minato joins the Kazemai kyudo club (down to only the eight veterans), with everyone warmly welcoming him except for Kaito, who will not acknowledge him because of his target panic. Ryouhei, distressed at the discord in the club, decides to help Minato overcome his target panic by researching it himself.

While at the library, he encounters another archer (later revealed to be Hiroki Motomura of Kirisaki High School), who points him in the direction of Nakazaki Archery Supplies, where the store owner gives him the copy of the diary of a friend of his who had suffered from target panic. Nanao also decides to help him have Minato and Kaito get along with each other. They attempt to get Kaito to see Minato practice in the morning so that he would be impressed by his devotion, but it is Ryouhei himself who gets Kaito to acknowledge Minato for the time being by firmly believing in his friend.

Later, Tomio announces that they will be in the prefectural tournament, and introduces the club's new coach, Masaki.

## **Plot**

After speaking with Masaki, Minato decides to join the kyudo club the next day despite not having cured his *hayake*. There, he is warmly welcomed by all the members except for Kaito, who refuses to acknowledge him due to being unskilled in his eyes.

After school, Ryouhei runs to Minato's and Seiya's classes to walk with them to the club, much to Minato's annoyance. In the changing room, Ryouhei apologizes to Minato for making him feel uncomfortable, but Minato says he expected hostility. Seiya helps Ryouhei put on his hakama for the first time and tells him not to worry.

In the kyudojo, Minato sets up the targets in place of Nanao, who arrives late. Nanao thanks and greets him with "merha", and explains to a confused Minato that it came from the Turkish word for hello, merhaba. Yuuna tells him not to humor Nanao, and when Nanao says that he likes tsundere girls, Noa and Yuuna both retort that he cannot compare to Rika. They also lay some of the blame for all of the beginners leaving the club, as some of them find his fans annoying, but most others complained about Kaito intimidating them as well as not liking the slow pace of practice. With Minato's joining, the club now has eight people. Rika tells the two girls not to blame Nanao and Kaito, as those students were just using them as excuses and would have quit before long. Nanao is pleased that they now have five boys for the group tournament, but Kaito refuses to acknowledge Minato as his teammate because he is indecisive. Minato is unphased. As the boys fight, Tomio appears and decides not to interfere, as he wants to see them work it out on their own. He does not know why Minato had a sudden change of heart, but believes in him as he seems determined to see it through.

After the club, Minato leaves early to buy groceries while Seiya and Ryouhei go to the bus stop. Ryouhei asks Seiya about curing *hayake*, but Seiya does not want to bother Minato in his current state, due to not understanding how *hayake* worked when he was in middle school and thinking he would bounce back right away, but that was not the case. Seiya does not want to drive him away by dragging Minato into anything against his will and plans to support him from behind. He tells Ryouhei to do what he thinks is best for Minato. Meanwhile, he wonders why Minato changed his mind so quickly.

Ryouhei thinks about what Seiya said and goes to the library to learn more about *hayake*. None of the books explain how to cure it, but he meets another kyudo veteran who gives him the address of a kyudo equipment shop that can help him out. Ryouhei goes to Nakazaki Archery Supplies, where the owner gives him a photocopied diary of a friend of his who suffered from *hayake*, in exchange for promising to buy all his equipment from his shop until he graduates high school. Ryouhei happily agrees. At home, he reads the diary and learns more about *hayake*. He is determined that Minato will get better, too, like the diary writer.

The next day, Ryouhei goes to Minato's house, but his father tells him that he has left early. Minato gets to the kyudojo early to clean and set it up, then picks up the diary, the original one, Masaki gave him before he joined the club, containing entries on his struggles with *hayake*. He tells him that they will meet again as long as he keeps doing kyudo. Ryouhei secretly watches him do the non-firing technique described in the diary in front of the *makiwara*, and thinks about how amazing he is.

On the train to school, Kaito asks Nanao if it was really his fault that most of the club members left. Nanao knows he would be self-conscious about that, and that he hates people who don't take kyudo seriously like he does, which is why he does not like Minato. He asks why he doesn't acknowledge Minato, since he seems to take it seriously, but Kaito refuses to. Nanao then asks why didn't he go to a school with a good kyudo program, to which Kaito replies that he wants to be part of the underdog school, beating the great one. Nanao takes this to mean that he does want to join the group tournament, but Kaito stubbornly denies it.

At practice, Minato asks Seiya to help him time his *kai*. Kaito gets distracted by them and misses, much to his anger. Nanao notices Ryouhei's distress at watching them and goes to talk to him. Ryouhei does not what to do about Kaito and Minato, and he feels guilty for dragging Minato in the first place, as he always thought of him as a hero. He also enjoys being in the club and doesn't want to see anyone fighting. Despite saying he is being annoyed and Ryouhei saying he wishes he was more like him and Seiya, Nanao also admires his earnestness and believes a little annoyance is needed to help friends out, so he decides to help. Seiya watches them as they come up with a plan.

Early the next morning, Nanao and Ryouhei go over their plan of having Kaito see Minato practicing in the morning and subsequently acknowledging his commitment to kyudo. However, when they get to school, they also see Seiya arriving early. The girls also come early to see who is cleaning the kyudojo early in the morning. Kaito then arrives, but before they can do anything, they hear Seiya talking to Minato in the dojo. He had noticed the dojo getting cleaned early as well and came to see who it was. Seiya asks him why he returned to kyudo. Minato says that when he got *hayake*, the *tsurune* he longed for became a curse, and he wanted to run away from kyudo until he heard an even more amazing *tsurune.* He realized that he loved kyudo too much to leave it and cast away his pride. Seiya notes that if he had said that to Kaito, they wouldn't be fighting, then welcomes him back.

Meanwhile, the other club members had overheard the whole conversation. Kaito leaves, and Ryouhei and Nanao go after him. Kaito is unimpressed by their plan, which didn't quite work out the way they wanted it to, but Ryouhei stops him by saying he believes that Minato will conquer his *hayake* one day. Respecting his belief in his friend, Kaito acknowledges Minato for the time being. He later tells Minato that if he sees any half-hearted kyudo, he will kick him out of the club. Minato tells him that he never will. Tomio remarks to Seiya that he thought that he would not interfere, and Seiya says that in the end, he could not stop himself. They both agree that it is a good first step. Ryouhei is happy that they can go for the group tournament and learns from Kaito that the strongest school is Kirisaki, and is eager to defeat them, but Seiya and Minato share a nervous glance.

Ryouhei goes back to Nakazaki to return the diary. He bumps into the man who helped him before and thanks him. The man then recognizes his uniform as the Kazemai school uniform. It is revealed that he is a member of the Kirisaki kyudo club. When he tells the other Kirisaki members about Kazemai's new kyudo club sometime later, they are not worried about Kazemai, as they are the strongest school and have Shuu Fujiwara.

Tomio announces that the club is now in the prefectural tournament. He also announces that they will get their own coach as he cannot draw a bow due to back problems. Minato and Kaito are both surprised that said coach is Masaki, and even more surprised that both know him.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Minato Narumiya
* Seiya Takehaya
* Rika Seo
* Ryouhei Yamanouchi
* Kaito Onogi
* Nanao Kisaragi
* Noa Shiragiku
* Yuuna Hanazawa
* Tomio Morioka
* Hiroki Motomura
* Nakazaki
* Minato's father
* Daigo Sase
* Kabashima
* Shuu Fujiwara
* Senichi Sugawara
* Manji Sugawara
* Masaki Takigawa