JSWGAS Chapter 40

40.

Before his eyes was a flickering, snow-filled scene like a celluloid film.

The sea and the cliffs, the waves rolled over the jagged rocks, the snowy foam kissed the reefs. He stood on the cliff, looking down at the abyss below, at the water, at the waves. He took a step forward, but felt no weightlessness of falling, nor the suffocating sensation of being enveloped by water after plunging into the waves. Instead, they gently embraced him, pushing him away from the deep sea.

He cautiously opened his eyes.

A patch of scorching crimson, his skin peeling from the heat. Lava splattered on his feet, but none of this could attract his attention. He stared ahead, at a deep black shadow, grotesque, bizarre, with four rolled-up, divergent tendrils extending from the huge, lumpy mass. It was like an alien monster growing in volcanic magma.

He took a step back in horror, watching the twisted monster slowly rotate, the chilling feeling of being watched assailing his heart with its movements.

Run, run!

Driven by this thought, he turned and ran wildly before the monster could fully notice him.

His feet stepped into the magma, stiffening from the heat. Eventually, even the pain disappeared, and he could only feel numbness. He scrambled on all fours, his hands scraped raw by the stones, a layer of skin torn away.

But why were his steps getting heavier and heavier? When he looked back, he could no longer see that shadow, but why hadn’t the feeling of being watched disappeared?

He gritted his teeth and continued forward, but his speed grew slower and slower. His vision blurred, and he didn’t know when he had run onto a wasteland.

The sky above the wasteland was a gloomy gray. The wind, sweeping over the distant mountain peaks, howled, transforming into shrill laughter. Giant trees stood tall, their branches intertwined, dancing wildly in the wind, while dark clouds continued to press down on his shoulders.

…No, those weren’t clouds.

For a moment, he felt no fear, only two violent thumps of his heart. He slowly turned his head and vaguely saw a dark shadow crawling on his shoulders. It had been following him, always carried on his back as he ran.

…On its twisted, black mud-like face, was vaguely a familiar face—

—”…Kokonoe! Kokonoe-kun!”

Kokonoe Taka opened his eyes.

His eyes were covered with a layer of watery film, quite blurry and hazy, and gentle giggles of goodwill came from around him. His shoulders were a little stiff and sore. No wonder, he had been slumped over his desk for so long, it would be strange if he wasn’t sore.

He straightened up.

“Kokonoe-kun, are you feeling unwell?” the teacher asked with concern from the podium. This treatment was quite rare from Mr. Mizuo, who was known for his strictness among the students.

“No, thank you for your concern, Teacher,” Kokonoe Taka replied. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s good. Come up and do this problem.”

He stood up from his chair, strode to the podium, took a few glances, and then picked up the chalk and neatly wrote out the solution process and answer.

“Well done, Kokonoe-kun. Next time, be careful not to sleep during class.”

“Yes.”

He walked back to his seat, no longer sleepy. Taking advantage of the teacher standing at the podium lecturing, the classmate next to him reached out and poked him: “What’s wrong, Kokonoe? Did you stay up late last night? I called you several times but you didn’t hear me.”

But Kokonoe Taka’s reaction was a beat slow. He had not yet recovered from the nightmare just now, his hands and feet were ice-cold, and it took him half a moment of hesitant turning his head to match the name and voice of the classmate who asked the question.

It was Yamanouchi Ryohei from the soccer club.

And his question… He did stay up late last night. To be specific, he had re-watched all the existing match footage of Echizen Nanjirō in the first half of the night. After watching it, he couldn’t fall asleep when he lay down on the bed, so he got up again and jogged slowly for an hour.

“Yeah, I had insomnia last night,” he replied softly.

“Are you okay? You look a bit pale, why don’t you go to the infirmary to rest for a while?”

Kokonoe Taka was a little helpless: “That would have to wait until this class is over, right?”

But as soon as class was over, Kokonoe Taka was called over by his homeroom teacher. The homeroom teacher first cared about his rather bad complexion, and then cut to the chase: “Kokonoe-kun, you don’t seem to have joined a club yet?”

Teiko Middle School has always had a rule that students must participate in club activities, and failure to complete club activities will affect graduation.

And among the first-year students of Teiko Middle School, only Kokonoe Taka had not yet joined a club.

“It’s already been two months since the start of the school year, are you still undecided which club to join?” the homeroom teacher asked kindly.

Kokonoe Taka hesitated for a moment and admitted in a muffled voice: “Yes.”

“I’ve heard that you’re very popular among the students, and many people have invited you?” the homeroom teacher said with a smile. “Is that what’s making it difficult?”

Explaining was too troublesome, so Kokonoe Taka simply acquiesced.

“If you’re having trouble, just choose one that you’re most interested in to join,” the homeroom teacher suggested. “If you still haven’t decided which club to join after a week, the school will forcibly assign you to a club.”

Kokonoe Taka walked out of the office with a blank look, holding the club application form. The teacher obviously valued him, this honor student who entered the school with excellent grades in the top five of the grade, and enthusiastically recommended many clubs, from literary to sports, and finally enthusiastically suggested that he could try to join the student council.

Of course, Kokonoe Taka was busy politely declining.

He returned to the classroom, and Yamanouchi next to him quickly came over: “Wow, a club application form? Are you finally going to join a club?”

“Yeah, the teacher said that whether or not you complete club activities will affect graduation.”

“Have you decided which club to join?” Yamanouchi raised his hand excitedly. “How about the soccer club!”

Several boys who heard their conversation gathered around: “For clubs, of course, our baseball club is better! Kokonoe, think about it?”

“Ohtani, how long has it been since your baseball club made it to the National Middle School Tournament? As expected, our swimming club is a little better!”

“Huh?! It’s definitely not your swimming club’s turn to say that! Our track and field club is the best!”

“What did you say?!”

“That’s not right, the strong club in our school is still the basketball club, right? Didn’t they get second place in the country last year?”

Kokonoe Taka: … It started again, the familiar (chǎonào) noise.

And this noise intensified, and even the girls on the other side of the aisle joined in.

“If you’re going to choose, choose our literature club!”

“The light music club is also very good!”

“No, no, Kokonoe-kun’s face looks more suitable for our drama club. And his figure is also very suitable… If you come, you will definitely be our male lead! Would you like to consider it?”

Kokonoe Taka stuffed the club application form into his bag with a headache: “No, the drama club is still (suàn le ba) forget it…” He shuddered, remembering the tall teenager who was firmly pressed in front of the makeup mirror trembling when he visited the drama club backstage – and the other party’s face painted ghastly white and jet-black teeth for the script requirements.

But near the end of school, he was unexpectedly approached.

That was when he had packed up his things and separated from Yamanouchi in front of the teaching building. He had just taken a few steps when several boys in sportswear darted out from the side of the school road. Kokonoe Taka wanted to (ràoguò) go around them and continue walking, but before he had gone far, they blocked his path again.

The leader had relatively long reddish-purple hair, narrow eyes, and an outstanding aura. He frowned and sized up the black-haired teenager carrying a bag, and asked with a somewhat arrogant attitude: “Kokonoe?”

The visitors were unkind.

Kokonoe Taka narrowed his eyes and said with a (jiǎxiào) fake smile: “No, I’m Tsurumi. You’ve got the wrong person.”

“Tsurumi?” The reddish-purple-haired boy frowned, actually believing Kokonoe Taka’s nonsense, and impatiently waved him to leave quickly.

Kokonoe Taka didn’t want to cause trouble, but trouble obviously wouldn’t let him go. As he passed behind the reddish-purple-haired boy, one of them (yí) uttered a sound of surprise and said loudly: “That’s not right! This guy is Kokonoe! I’ve seen his face!”

“What!”

Kokonoe Taka stared at the person who revealed his identity for a long time, vaguely remembering that this person seemed to have taken a few physical education classes with him. And at this time, the reddish-purple-haired boy also reacted and rushed over angrily, “You lied to me?!”

“It’s the idiot who can’t even tell a lie, right?” Seeing that he couldn’t avoid it, Kokonoe Taka simply sarcastically remarked.

“What?!”

The people behind the reddish-purple-haired boy hurriedly pulled him back, “Tono! Don’t forget our purpose!”

He looked like he was furious, and several people frantically pulled him and repeatedly comforted him before they stopped him. When he calmed down, he found that there was no one in front of him. “Where’d he go?!” He struggled free from his companions, “Where did he go!”

–How could Kokonoe Taka stay in place and wait for them to calm down? He had slipped away early taking advantage of this opportunity.

But this matter obviously wouldn’t pass so easily. The next day, at the same time and in the same place, he was stopped by the same group of people again.

“Why did you suddenly run away without saying a word yesterday, you bastard!”

“Because it was too troublesome,” Kokonoe Taka frowned. “Please let me through, I’m in a hurry.”

“You haven’t even joined a club! What are you in a hurry for!” The (shàonián) boy called Tono by his companions suppressed his anger and glared at him fiercely.

Seeing that there was no chance to sneak away, Kokonoe Taka simply stopped and asked,Reverse guest (fǎnkèwéizhǔ) reversing the roles of host and guest: “So, this classmate, what do you want with me?”

Tono glared at him, “You participated in the Junior Tennis Ranking Tournament, right? Why did you withdraw from the tournament?”

Kokonoe Taka had to laboriously think for a while before he remembered. The Japanese Junior Tennis Ranking Tournament, this was a competition that Kokonoe Hikohito had signed him up for before. After the accident, because the injury to his palm had not yet healed at that time. So he did not continue to participate, and the organizers defaulted to treating it as a withdrawal.

Now that he thought about it, it was already a very distant thing.

He simply replied: “My hand was injured, is there a problem?”

“Hand?” Tono widened his eyes in surprise. “Was it seriously injured? Why did it get injured? You play tennis, don’t you know you have to protect it?”

“That’s none of your business, right?” Kokonoe Taka paused slightly and (zé) made a clicking sound of impatience, “So this classmate, you still haven’t said who you are and what you want with me? Are you going to all this trouble to squat here for two days just to ask this question?”

“My name is Tono, Tono Atsukyo. If you hadn’t withdrawn from the tournament, you would have been my next opponent in the ranking tournament,” he raised his chin. “Many people said that I won without a fight, and even said that your original level definitely surpassed me–I looked for you for a long time but couldn’t find you, but I didn’t expect to find you among this year’s freshmen.”

Tono scrutinized him (tiāotì de) critically: “Since everyone says you’re good at playing tennis, how about we compete? …Hey! Where are you going! Listen to what others have to say!” Kokonoe Taka turned and left after Tono said the phrase ‘good at playing tennis,’ his mood instantly turning extremely bad.

He still couldn’t forget what Echizen Nanjirō had said that day. But what angered Kokonoe Taka the most was not Echizen Nanjirō’s (dòngxī) insight and (kànchuān) seeing through him, but his own ‘what should I do’ that sounded like an admission of defeat at the time.

And Echizen Nanjirō did not give him an answer at all. Saying something like ‘you should ask yourself’…

Plus (zài jiāshàng) In addition, he had been having all kinds of nightmares these past two days, so his mood was even worse.

Tono caught up with his people at a small run and blocked him again: “Show some respect to your seniors.” He looked at Kokonoe Taka’s ugly face, as if he hadn’t noticed the danger, and (tiǎoxìn) provoked him: “Are you scared? Is all that praise for you a lie?”

Kokonoe Taka, with a (yīn chénzhe) gloomy face, was forced to stop: “I said, Senior Tono.” He emphasized the words “senior” on purpose, “That was all two years ago, right? I don’t understand why you’re so (zhízhuó) persistent in looking for me.”

He (chě) tugged at the corner of his mouth: “And I don’t play tennis anymore.”

“We’ll have to play to find out.” Tono remembered being tricked by this person once yesterday, so he didn’t give him a single chance to take advantage of him at this time. “Don’t worry, if I find out you’re really weak after playing, I won’t let you lose face too much.”

“You’re really annoying.”

This was the first time Kokonoe Taka had shown such obvious (díyì) hostility and (èyì) malice since then. He stared at Tono and the others expressionlessly, his eyebrows pressed very low, his eyes (yīnzhì) sinister, and the people he looked at felt a chill down their backs (xià yìshí de) subconsciously.

Tono,Hold on (dǐngzhe) bearing this bone-chilling gaze, said,Brutal (yìng zhe tóupí) forcing himself: “In short, if you don’t compete, I won’t let you go.”

He attitude seemed (jiānjué) resolute, but in reality he was also nervous. Tono (miǎnqiáng)Reassuring my mind (dìng le xīnshén) barely steadied his mind and continued, “And I’ll continue to look for you in the next few days unless you agree to compete with me.”

So (fán) annoying.

Kokonoe Taka (yāzhe méitou) furrowed his brows and even thought a little childishly: Why is this guy so (zhízhuó) persistent about me? This guy didn’t even know what I looked like until yesterday.

Why is this guy forcing me to pick up this damned racket again when I’ve decided to think things through properly?

Can’t he understand human language? Am I not clear enough in rejecting him? Or is he a stubborn plaster?

So (fán) annoying.

He (yā) suppressed his (fánzào) annoyance and stared into Tono’s eyes. His eyes were very (jiāndìng) firm,Annoying (lìng rén tǎoyàn) which was detestable.

“As long as I compete with you, you won’t (jiūchán) bother me anymore in the future?” he confirmed in a (chénshēng) deep voice.

Tono nodded: “Yes.”