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Minato had been working on his target panic for a long while now. Longer than he thought was necessary. However he knew it wasn’t something he could rush, and he’d notably gotten more consistent since that competition.
It wasn’t his ability that was in question, but his mental fortitude to things surrounding kyuudo.
And despite his inconsistencies, he still entered into tournaments. His friendships and rivalries were something to focus on so his body could go back to its relaxed state and shoot true.
After years of slow recovery, and many hours spent alone, firing arrows into the night, it was nearly time to Minato and his classmates to graduate high school.
“Do you wanna come to the spring festival?” Seiya asked as they headed out of their school for their last time, besides graduation.
“I have plans,” Minato answered. “You could invite Ryohei.”
While Seiya was surprised by this, he didn’t say anything. Even after years of being around Minato, he knew there was no way of getting information out of him that he didn’t want to give.
“Well, if I wanted whiplash I would,” Seiya chuckled.
“I’ll be away for the next week, if you were planning on dropping by. We can take Kuma to the beach when I’m back,” Minato suggested to Seiya. It was something they’d done since they were allowed to walk the huge dog.
“Sounds good. I’ll see you after a week then. Make sure to remember to come to graduation too,” Seiya told him, waving as they parted ways to their respective houses across the street from each other.
To address where Minato was going for a week was a little more complicated, but also somewhat simple. After he’d started recovering from his target panic, he got in contact with Shuu again. There was something to be said for getting his life back together which helped him focus on kyuudo. And there was no denying that Shuu was part of that life.
A huge part in fact.
With the two of them effectively learning the basics of kyuudo together, he wasn’t sure his subconscious was ready to let go of that. Hence it was important to him to get that friendship back.
So, to address his excursion, he and Shuu were going to stay at a shrine in the mountains for a week. It had effectively been a no-brainer. Both of them enjoyed kyuudo, both of them preferred the mountains over the sea, and Shuu wanted somewhere that his dog would be able to run around when they weren’t on the firing range.
Shuu: I’ll be there in 5 minutes.
Thankfully, Minato had the foresight to pack the night before, and took his bag downstairs, leaving a message for his dad to remind him he would be away for a week.
“That wasn’t five minutes,” Minato said as he opened the door to Shuu.
“It was a figure of speech. And you’re ready so it’s not that important,” Shuu replied, the corner of his mouth quirking up slightly.
“Nice to see you too. Let’s go then,” Minato said in return. For some reason, it was a lot easier to get on with Shuu than he remembered it being.
He adored Seiya as a friend, as well as Ryohei and the two others on his team. But maybe it was the way Shuu was on the same wavelength as him, the same level of realism and simplicity. Words weren’t minced and there was no dancing around each other to try and get what they wanted across to the other.
Or maybe it was the exact opposite. There was a small part of Minato that remembered being reckless. Climbing trees, jumping in rivers. He knew exactly where he stood with his teammates, but there was something still unknown in his friendship with Shuu.
The journey to the mountain shrine only took a few hours, but it was an entirely different world. There were no houses, very few cars, and even fewer people. It was peaceful.
“I suggest that we get settled for the rest of today, then tomorrow we can do morning training?” Shuu asked.
“Sounds good to me. I’d be interested in exploring the area tonight,” Minato agreed.
And that’s exactly what they did, after setting all their things in the room they were sharing, and laying out their futons.
“Have you been here before?” Minato asked.
“Once or twice. My parents know the caretaker here. I only come here when I need to think,” Shuu explained. “One of those times was when I’d heard you’d quit.”
They weren’t wandering so far away from the shrine, but enough to get a vague sense of wilderness. And of course, they had Shuu’s dog to take care of.
“It does seem like a good place to think,” Minato agreed, before looking over at him. “You knew about that?” he asked.
“Of course. I checked for your name on any of the local teams, including the school. I’d heard about what happened to your mom too, so I guessed you needed time to recover. Never did I imagine you’d get target panic on top of that,” Shuu told him.
“It still surprises me sometimes,” Minato admitted. “Some days I wake up expecting everything to be like they were, only for it all to be in fragments. My mom, kyuudo, you, my dad, everything.”
“I know we stopped talking, but that seems a little extreme,” Shuu pointed out. “How is your target panic going at the moment? You looked a lot better at the last tournament.”
“My consistency has gone up from 57% to about 78% from when I bounced back that time,” Minato told him, which somehow caused Shuu to laugh.
“You’re always so serious. Do you really calculate how consistent you are?” Shuu asked.
“It’s a way to track my recovery. It helps with the positive outlook on everything,” Minato tried to explain himself. “If you see you’ve gotten better you know to carry on doing the same things and it gives you that extra bit of confidence in yourself.”
“You don’t need to explain yourself to me. I just didn’t expect it. It makes sense though,” Shuu chuckled. “We can head back now. I think she’s run about enough to sleep.”
“Okay.”
Just like that, the longest conversation they’d had in person in a long time came to an end and they walked back to the shrine in silence.
Day 1 at the shrine started in silence as both of them woke up way too early. Neither of them were talkative when they were awake, so an unspoken rule between them formed. Speaking to each other first thing in the morning was a big no.
It was only when Shuu had a cup of coffee and Minato had made some breakfast that they actually started to talk somewhat.
“I just finished school and I’m still getting up at the butt crack of dawn,” Shuu grumbled.
“Agreed,” Minato yawned. “I think we should just sleep in tomorrow.” He could probably go back to sleep now, but he knew he’d just wake up more tired.
“Sounds good.”
Once they were awake enough to start setting everything up without taking one of their eyes out, Shuu went first. Their plan had been for one to watch the other to one, see what they themselves could improve on, and two, to give advice to the other.
“Looking perfect as always,” Minato commented after his first shot.
“That praise is unwarranted. Without 100% accuracy there is no perfection,” Shuu told Minato, looking over his shoulder at him as he moved to watch from a different angle.
“Don’t fault me for saying what I see. One shot may be perfect, while the next could fail, Shuu,” Minato told him, effectively shutting him up as he prepared for his next shot.
“Your wrist and shoulder are too tense,” Minato commented, before nodding when Shuu adjusted them. He was almost jealous that he could so easily perfect everything as someone told him.
“Alright, your turn,” Shuu told him, heading down the range to grab the arrows.
This was where Minato started to get a little nervous, but he didn’t voice his concerns. He got into position and waited for Shuu to observe him.
“You haven’t even moved yet and you’re way too tense,” Shuu told him. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just different, doing this when you know one person is watching every move you make,” Minato explained.
“Well I can’t look away and give you advice,” Shuu told him, sighing slightly. “It might help you to have someone watch you. Then it’ll be easier in tournaments too.”
“Maybe.” Minato forced his body to relax as much as possible. It took a good minute, and he had to assure himself that Shuu would have no reason to laugh at him or tell anyone else how bad he was, even if that wasn’t the case.
When he finally started moving, he’d expected Shuu to immediately give him things to adjust, but he was silent. That in itself gave him more confidence. However when he released the arrow, it planted itself in the sand just to the side of the target.
“There’s nothing wrong with your set-up,” Shuu told him. “A little more relaxing, and holding onto the arrow a little longer will give you time to take that breath. Another.”
Minato knew all that. Which was what made it more infuriating that he couldn’t hit the target. Once again, he set up, and followed all the steps. But when he was about to release the arrow this time,
“Hold it,” Shuu said, and Minato kept his position for as long as he could before releasing the arrow. This time, the arrow flew true and hit the bullseye.
“Huh…”
“You’re rushing. I probably don’t need to tell you that. But you seem to still be trying to get rid of the arrow too fast,” Shuu told him. “You’re older and stronger now. You should be holding it for as long as you can before you loose it.”
Minato knew that, but it was still hard sometimes. He trained his body so it would do everything on autopilot, and now he was regretting that. He had to do each thing precisely and consciously.
“I really hate all of this,” Minato admitted. Shuu sighed and walked over to him.
“But hasn’t your consistency gone up from 57% to 78%?” he asked, putting a hand on Minato’s shoulder. “That’s impressive in itself. I’m only giving you constructive criticism.”
“I know.”
It was silent between them for a moment before Minato spoke again.
“Should we call it a morning? We can do 100 shots each in the afternoon for strength training,” he suggested quietly.
“Okay,” Shuu agreed, removing his hand and going to pack his things up so they weren’t exposed to the elements for too long.
Instead of doing more training, they figured while it was still light, exploring the forest a little would be a good idea.
“It should be fine. We can just head uphill and we’ll reach the road,” Shuu told Minato as they headed out.
It really was a beautiful place. It was somewhere that Minato would have probably appreciated even more before he got target panic. But he could still appreciate it now. Just with a slight wistful feeling that gnawed at his stomach.
They must have wandered a good mile away from the shrine, because they ended up at a small stream at the bottom of the valley.
“You know, it’s kind of weird not seeing you in all my competitions anymore,” Shuu stated, when they came to a stop.
“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that target panic takes a long time to recover from properly. It’s been a few years already and I’m still not back to where I was,” Minato replied, disturbing the surface of the water with his foot and watching the water ripple outwards and across the stream.
“Of course I know that. It just doesn’t feel the same to be competing,” Shuu explained. “You’re going to continue kyuudo in college, yes?”
“Yeah. Speaking of college, I think Seiya mentioned that you weren’t going to college in Japan?” Minato asked.
“I’m not sure how he got that information, but he’s right… My relatives in the UK have secured me a spot in one of their universities. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep in contact with you.”
Another silence fell over the conversation as they both thought about what Shuu moving to the UK would do to their friendship.
“You better had keep in contact. I sort of need you to help with my target panic. You’re part of that life,” Minato told him.
“Hm? How does that help?” Shuu asked.
“Putting everything together outside of kyuudo makes everything seem a little more whole and put together. I suppose it’s a way of distracting me into helping recovery,” Minato shrugged. “Should we head back?”
“Minato, we can still continue working together on training and helping you. Not talking to you for the past few years has been… odd.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
Minato was no sure of something. No one understood him like Shuu did. They both loved kyuudo, and had similar enough personalities to understand what the other needed.
And the years he’s spent without this friendship had been difficult. It wasn’t a replacement for what he’d lost, but it was a start, and another pillar of support. He hoped Shuu felt the same. There was nothing like a friendship and rivalry that helped heal the mind and body.
Walking back to the shrine, Minato’s mind had a clarity he hadn’t felt in a long while. This trip had undoubtedly been the best idea they’d ever had, besides learning kyuudo.