JSWGAS Chapter 34

The weather in Hyōgo Prefecture wasn’t too cold compared to Miyagi, but shortly after Kokonoe Taka went out with a snow shovel, it started to snow again in scattered flurries. He didn’t bring a scarf, and the cold wind blew, and the coolness burrowed into his clothes along the neckline, causing him to shrink his neck involuntarily.

Besides the snow, what hindered cars from entering the street was mostly the frozen black ice. The thickened layer of ice was stuck to the ground, and he could only laboriously break it with a shovel before throwing it into the corner of the wall where it wouldn’t block the road.

After only three to five minutes of this repetitive motion, his arms felt heavy, but Kokonoe Taka just kept his head down and worked hard, and soon cleared a lane that was barely usable. But as his physical strength drained, the feeling of emptiness in his stomach also arrived. He drooped his eyebrows and eyes, using the shovel as a crutch while taking out the snacks that his mother and grandmother had stuffed into his pocket before he left.

Luckily, he didn’t refuse them back then.

After unwrapping the packaging paper with his somewhat stiff fingers, he couldn’t wait to throw the adorable bear-shaped biscuit into his mouth. The biscuit wasn’t too sweet, not quite to his liking. It felt more like a food for simply filling his stomach than for savoring, so he could only lick his lips and think in a bitter, self-amusing way that at least it was cute enough.

He looked up and swallowed the food.

The sky in front of him was gradually darkening, and lights lit up in the windows of the surrounding houses. The sounds of play from the street were distant and far away. Details that he hadn’t noticed when the sky was bright were now captured by his eyes.

An unfamiliar place.

He thought.

The sudden sense of bewilderment was like the snow that had never stopped falling on his shoulders, and under a faint veil of darkness, it made him seem to be standing on a deserted island. What were the names of the people living around? He didn’t know. Even the desire to explore the characters on the doorplates was frozen.

But Miyagi was different.

It wasn’t regret or sadness, but a sudden realization, a deeper recognition of the fact: ‘Ah, I’m no longer in Miyagi.’

But if he were to express his feelings…

Well, it feels colder over there at this time.

He thought, then shifted his weight to the other foot and touched his stomach again.

Was it because he was used to the snacks over there, so he couldn’t get used to the taste here?

He took out the packaging paper of the bear-shaped biscuit he had just eaten, flattened it in his palm, and squinted to identify the flavor noted on it in the dimming sky, deciding to put this type of flavor on the blacklist.

“What the heck is this…” he muttered with a frown.

This action ended halfway. He thought that he could only see what was written on the colorful packaging with a magnifying glass. Being able to see the biggest exaggerated advertisement ‘Exquisite and delicious polar bear!’ was the limit… Speaking of which, although he couldn’t see it clearly just now, the biscuit looked more like a brown bear than a polar bear.

“False advertising? …Tell Grandma not to buy this kind of biscuit next time.”

Looking up at the street in front of him, his progress was good. The cleared area should allow Grandpa to drive the car in. Kokonoe Taka threw the trash back into his pocket, rubbed his hands, breathed a few breaths of hot air on them, and then planned to turn around and leave.

Just as he took a few steps forward, the phone in his pocket suddenly began to buzz. It was as if someone was bombarding him with messages non-stop, giving him the impression that if he didn’t respond, it would vibrate until the end of time.

Only one person could send him messages so frequently. Ever since Kokonoe Taka boarded the train leaving Miyagi Prefecture, he had been holding his breath and waiting for the other person. Whether he faced the other’s bombardment, scolding, or coquetry, he had thought of an answer. But all the way, the phone he carried with him behaved like a decoration, as if it was out of battery. He had even been reminded several times by Tsurumi Sumiko for touching his phone too often.

Was it reacting now? He hadn’t seen the other person’s reaction arc this long usually.

Kokonoe Taka really didn’t want to stand in the snow to check the messages. Plus, he had to carry the shovel, so he planned to go back to the Tsurumi house and reply. As a result, just as he took two steps forward, the phone stopped vibrating and instead began to sing loudly. Because it was muffled in his pocket, the ringtone was somewhat distorted.

His eyebrows twitched. He didn’t pay attention to the ground and stepped into a snow pit, tilting his body. Fortunately, he was agile and supported himself with the shovel so he didn’t fall.

The phone’s ringtone was still ringing happily.

Kokonoe Taka silently lowered his head and looked at his left foot that was stuck in the snow, trying to pull it out of the snow pile. Because no one answered for a long time, the phone automatically hung up, and the surroundings returned to silence. Now it should be quiet, right? He breathed a sigh of relief. But the caller apparently didn’t hear his prayer and continued to call after a brief silence—the ringtone continued to play in a loop, enough to show the urgency of the person on the other end of the phone.

If Kokonoe Taka was anxious to reply to the message at the beginning, now he had a bit of mischief bubbling up again.

“I’ve been waiting for a message for a whole day?” He simply squatted down at the door and slowly took out his phone. “Now you’re in a hurry to find me?”

Unexpectedly, the call wasn’t from Oikawa Tōru, but from another friend.

“Iwaizumi?” The mischief was instantly drained away, and he honestly answered the phone.

The other side of the receiver was mixed with slight static. No one spoke immediately, but there were a few distant scoldings and the sound of running back and forth—

“It hurts!”

“Trash River!!!”

The angry roar, filled with emotion, gave him the illusion of being close by. He could imagine how the expressions of the two parties involved changed when he closed his eyes. Kokonoe Taka couldn’t help but chuckle. Snow fell on his lips and melted quickly, bringing a chill.

When someone finally spoke: “Taka.” It was Iwaizumi Hajime, but his tone was strangely self-deprecating and helpless, “Have you arrived?” A dry inquiry.

“Yeah… I arrived at four in the afternoon.” He replied, looking at the time on the screen, “It’s six o’clock now… Iwaizumi, your concern is too late, isn’t it?”

Iwaizumi Hajime was silent: “…”

“Hello?” He hadn’t spoken for too long, so Kokonoe Taka had to call out a few times, repeating his name until it almost became a tongue twister. Before he changed the address from ‘Iwaizumi’ to the deliberately disgusting ‘Koiwa,’ Iwaizumi interrupted him in time, “It’s not me.”

He said through gritted teeth, “It’s Trash River who insisted on calling you—” His voice was slightly weaker, probably because Iwaizumi Hajime took the phone away, “Don’t you have your own phone! Why do you have to snatch mine!”

“What kind of faces are you making, you blockhead!” Iwaizumi Hajime’s anger was almost uncontrollable. His roar shook the sky, making Kokonoe Taka, who was thousands of miles away, worry that Oikawa would really bleed on the spot today. “You made a call and didn’t say anything! Why did you throw the phone back to me!”

The smile that had been hanging on the corner of his mouth, which even he hadn’t noticed, slowly fell.

Damn it, had he been sitting outside for too long? Why did his hand holding the phone feel so frozen that he wanted to retract it?

He changed his posture and said a little helplessly: “Hello? Is Oikawa there?” This kind of honorific address was usually used by Oikawa Tōru when he was boasting, and Kokonoe Taka rarely called him that. The receiver was silent, but Kokonoe Taka wasn’t in a hurry. He simply took advantage of this time to draw a few simple little people on the snow with his finger.

He didn’t have much artistic talent. He was at a level that his art teacher couldn’t help no matter how hard he tried. The faces he drew were also crooked, with drooping eyebrows, pouting mouths, and unhappy expressions, but they were inexplicably vivid and funny. Add a small dialogue box next to it—

“…Pfft.”

Oikawa Tōru swayed, and very unwillingly, under the threat of Iwaizumi Hajime, took the phone. As soon as he raised the phone, he heard a particularly clear suppressed laugh from a certain bastard who had left without saying goodbye.

Oikawa Tōru: “…”

His tense face couldn’t be controlled, and he was furious: “What are you laughing at!!”

Kokonoe Taka couldn’t help it: “Eh? I thought only Iwaizumi was there.” His voice was deliberately pretentious, “Who are you?”

“You obviously heard what Koiwa said!” Oikawa Tōru shouted, “Or has Koiwa’s expressive ability degenerated to the level of a gorilla, just like his brain———It hurts! Koiwa, why are you hitting me!?”

“I’d be happy to turn you into junk that’s even worse than a gorilla.” Another voice threatened sinisterly.

In the end, the two of them simply started arguing again, one sentence after another, like a stand-up comedy show, accompanied by various crackling fighting sounds, which just sounded lively.

Kokonoe Taka couldn’t control himself anymore, and laughed out loud, laughing until tears came out of his eyes, and even his abdomen was faintly aching.

Iwaizumi Hajime snatched the phone from Oikawa Tōru, his tone very dangerous, “Are you having fun watching the show?”

Kokonoe Taka said intermittently: “This isn’t called ‘watching’ the show, Iwaizumi… it’s at most called listening to the show.” He became serious, “Thanks for the treat.”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “…”

He didn’t know what to say for a moment, and immediately Oikawa Tōru’s complaint came from next to him: “Look, isn’t he too much, Koiwa!”

“You shut up too!” If he couldn’t hit him from afar, couldn’t he hit him from nearby!

“Uwa! Why are you hitting me again??!”

The sky grew darker.

But light lit up from afar.

From far to near, in a regular rhythm, it gradually lit up like a galaxy. But as long as you looked closely, you would find that these were just streetlights that were lit up by the unfamiliar street for lighting.

In just a few seconds, the light from the streetlights sprinkled on Kokonoe Taka’s shoulders, replacing the thin snow and pushing him from the darkness into the light.

It just so happened that the two people arguing over there finally stopped, and the person holding the phone changed from Iwaizumi Hajime to Oikawa Tōru.

“I heard it,” he said suddenly.

Kokonoe Taka raised his eyebrows in surprise: “Heard… Oh, is that so.”

He didn’t intend to pursue it, and Oikawa Tōru didn’t have any intention of explaining.

“You make people angry, you bastard, wait for me,” he said through gritted teeth, his words firm, “Stay in Tokyo obediently for me———I will definitely stand on that court! When that time comes, there will definitely be so many people cheering that you’ll have to stand on your tiptoes to not see Oikawa-sama——”

“Can’t see even if I stand on my tiptoes?” Kokonoe Taka looked at the ugly little man on the snow and couldn’t help but curl the corners of his mouth again, “You’re saying something too sad, Tōru?”

“Hmph!”

“…Hmph what hmph, are you a pig?” Iwaizumi Hajime took over the phone, seemingly giving Oikawa Tōru another hit. Then, amid Oikawa Tōru’s complaints, his voice sank slightly, “You can understand it without me explaining, right?”

Kokonoe Taka sighed: “You’re really reliable…” Then he replied, “Yeah, I understand.” He lowered his head and added another hedgehog-headed portrait next to the ugly little man.

He smiled: “Tokyo—” see you.

Before he could finish speaking, suddenly, a cold thing hit him on the head without any courtesy!

Kokonoe Taka’s head was hit to the side, and he was instantly stunned. He only felt a cold patch on his cheek, followed by a faint numb pain. Snow that could arouse a chill in people’s hearts covered his head, and his line of sight fell, leaving only half of a good snowball rolling on the ground, making a clattering sound and messing up the masterpiece he had drawn for Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

He stared at the remaining half of the snowball in disbelief. For a moment, he even wondered if Iwaizumi Hajime, who was far away in Miyagi, was so angry that he used his mind to throw a snowball over.

In short, the damage wasn’t great, but the insult was extremely strong.

His long pause made Iwaizumi Hajime on the other end of the phone call out twice, “Taka? Taka? What’s wrong?”

Kokonoe Taka held the phone and didn’t answer immediately, but looked around—”Someone just hit me with a snowball,” he said in a gloomy voice, and immediately heard Oikawa’s arrogant laughter.

Soon, his gaze solidified, and Kokonoe Taka said into the microphone, “Found them, talk to you later.” Then he ignored the sound of Oikawa Tōru, who was still laughing even after being physically sanctioned by Iwaizumi Hajime, and walked straight towards the street corner.

His footsteps were always quiet, and he cleared a clean place on the street. There was no snow, so there would be no creaking sound of stepping on the snow. So his figure was like a raptor that had discovered its prey, silently circled around, and came behind the murderer who didn’t know that disaster was imminent.

At the street corner, two heads were huddled together in panic.

“What do we do, Osamu!”

“How would I know! It was Atsumu who threw the snowball!”

“Isn’t that because you dodged so fast! And how would I know there would be someone there?!”

“You’re making excuses for not being able to hit me, you’re really bad.”

“You’re so long-winded!”

“In short, let’s apologize first, right? If the other party doesn’t agree, then just let him dispose of you as he pleases.”

“Go if you want to, Osamu! Anyway, you and I look exactly the same, right!”

“What kind of rogue behavior are you doing?!”

The two people spoke with a Kansai dialect accent. One liked to raise his voice high, while the other deliberately lowered his tone. As they spoke, they suddenly started fighting among themselves, glaring at each other, one sentence after another, almost pressing each other’s heads into the snow to sober up.

Moreover, the way these two people addressed each other sounded a bit familiar.

This strange sense of familiarity prevented Kokonoe Taka from appearing in front of them to make trouble right away. But before he could do anything, the one called ‘Atsumu’ fearfully poked his head towards the place where he was originally sitting: “…Huh?! Where’s the person!”

The other one heard the sound and came over: “Huh?! They’re gone!” He quickly looked at Atsumu suspiciously, “You didn’t find someone to deliberately mess with me, did you?”

Atsumu shouted angrily: “How could I do such a boring thing!”

Osamu’s tone was straight, not concealing his distrust at all: “Have you done similar things a few times?” He added a sneer at the end.

Atsumu was originally frowning and about to get angry, but suddenly shivered from the cold air, and his tone became erratic: “Speaking of which, Osamu, do you know that person?”

“Huh? What kind of pig language are you speaking? I didn’t even see his face clearly.” Osamu thought for a moment, “Is it Ōno and Makihara?”

Atsumu: “Their homes aren’t nearby, how could they be out so late and still sitting in front of someone else’s house!” He pointed over there, “And that’s Grandpa Tsurumi’s house, right? I remember their family doesn’t have anyone about our age…”

“…Person.”

Osamu completed the last word.

Turning their heads to look, there was no one. A faint gust of wind blew, and the two looked at each other, both shivering.

Atsumu said in a dry voice: “…No way.”

Osamu also answered in a dry voice: “…Maybe.”

Some time ago, they had secretly flipped through Mr. Miya’s videotapes and watched horror movies for an afternoon behind closed curtains. Mr. Miya’s collection covered both horror and ghost genres.

When the two watched the former, Miya Atsumu commented that the blood was a bit like ketchup, and Miya Osamu said that his description was disgusting, but there was no expression of fear.

But when it came to the later ghost movies, the two people changed from a calm appearance at the beginning to being startled at every turn. At one point, Miya Atsumu said that the curtains seemed to be moving without wind, and at another point, Miya Osamu felt that someone was knocking on the door———In the end, in order not to lose face, the two of them watched the entire ghost movie with their necks stiff.

That night, the two people slept in the same bed.

Now, both of them felt the same apprehension as back then, but neither was willing to show their fear in front of the other. Miya Atsumu said that there was absolutely no such thing as a supernatural phenomenon in this world, and Miya Osamu argued with him, “According to you, Harry Potter, Godzilla, and Agumon are all fake?”

Miya Osamu always had the upper hand over Miya Atsumu in reasoning, and he was at a loss for words. Miya Osamu came to a conclusion. But this was of no help to the current situation. In the end, they had to support each other, trembling and cautiously walking towards that side, trying to find out what was going on.

The ghost they were arguing about was following behind them with a blank expression, and wasn’t discovered by them for a moment.

Kokonoe Taka had already guessed who these two people were. He had just arrived in Hyōgo today, and he didn’t have any friends who spoke with a Kansai dialect before. He quickly locked his target on the two people he happened to see fighting on the sidewalk when he came to the Tsurumi residence by car.

The names matched, and the injuries on their faces matched… Weren’t these the two wild dogs fighting over food?

He wondered who won in the end.

He thought with regret.

——Unlike how they were fighting to the death back then, the two people supporting each other looked more like two frightened little animals.

Miya Atsumu suddenly felt a jolt: “Goosebumps… Osamu, did you secretly curse me?”

Miya Osamu: “Are you sick!”

Miya Atsumu was skeptical: “But I feel like someone is saying bad things about me.”

Miya Osamu: “…Maybe it’s not a person.”

Miya Atsumu: “Aaaah, Osamu, don’t say that!”

But in these short few minutes, the two had already walked to the door of the Tsurumi residence. They didn’t see a figure, but they saw a shovel leaning next to the door and half a snowball rolling on the ground. Miya Atsumu breathed a sigh of relief, releasing his fingers that were tightly clutching Osamu’s clothes, “What, it was a person after all.”

He relaxed, and his tone began to rise again. Osamu couldn’t stand his smug and arrogant appearance, and deliberately poured cold water on him: “Then why didn’t he take his things?” He pointed to the snow shovel, “And normally, people who get hit would come to make trouble, right? Why is the thing that you hit… gone.”

Miya Atsumu: “…Let’s just go home like I said and forget about this, okay!” He pouted, “And I’m so hungry, I really want to eat Mom’s food…”

Miya Osamu: “…Me too.” He touched his stomach.

Miya Atsumu immediately said: “Then let’s go—” home.

An unfamiliar voice sounded faintly: “Are you leaving… so soon…”

The two brothers stopped abruptly.

In the silence, the voice became clearer and closer, and a gust of cold wind blew behind their ears as if someone had breathed on them. It was as if something was whispering behind them.

“I haven’t… thanked you… for the… gift… you gave me… Hee hee…”

The string representing reason snapped instantly.

Miya Atsumu: “Ghost!!!??”

Miya Osamu: “He sent it! Not me!! If you want revenge, go find Dog Atsumu!!!”

Miya Atsumu: “Osamu’s meat tastes better!! He’s fatter!!”

Miya Osamu: “You stole my mackerel simmered in miso this afternoon!! You’re the one who’s fatter!!”

The two screamed and wanted to run away while rolling and crawling, but were tripped over by the fallen snow shovel. Miya Atsumu, who was running in front, fell first, biting a mouthful of snow. Then, a panicked Miya Osamu tripped over him and pushed Miya Atsumu, who was trying to climb up to continue running, to the ground.

“Don’t push me, Pig Osamu!” “Don’t pull me, aaaaah!”——All kinds of wailing could almost shake the snow off the railing.

At this moment, a familiar voice interrupted them, “…Atsumu and Osamu?” Grandpa from the Tsurumi family walked over from the street, squinting hesitantly, “…What are you doing here?”

Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu suddenly got up from the ground and rushed over like they had found a backbone. Before they could grab the adult and cry about the ghost, they saw the other person look behind them, stunned, “…Taka?”

He hesitated and looked over the strange combination, “Are you playing… some game?”

Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu trembled as they looked back.

Kokonoe Taka showed a regretful expression and threw away the packaging paper of the bear-shaped biscuit indifferently———He had just used this to fan the wind next to the two of them, and it seemed to be working well.

He nonchalantly ignored the brothers’ unbelievable gazes and innocently said to his grandfather, “Um… I just saw some stray dogs,” he glossed over this word, “so I came to say hello.”

Mr. Tsurumi instinctively felt that something was wrong, but he didn’t want to ask his grandson, so he hesitantly asked Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu, “Is that so?”

Miya Atsumu: “…”

Miya Osamu: “…”!