JSWGAS Chapter 45

“Ah, Kokonoe.” Yamanouchi, who was leaning against the desk and chatting with a classmate, hurriedly ended the conversation when he saw Kokonoe approaching, and waved his hand. “Senior Komura from the tennis club just came looking for you again, asking me why you weren’t here and what you were doing.”

“Looking for me? Is it to invite me to join the tennis club again?”

Kokonoe Taka pulled out a chair and sat down, his mood seemingly quite good.

Yamanouchi Ryohei grinned and leaned in, “Yeah, saying that they’re just one person away from marching into the nationals, and that action speaks louder than words.”

“But the powerhouse of our school isn’t the tennis club, is it?”

“That’s true.” Yamanouchi said, “Although the tennis club is also very strong, if we’re talking about the powerhouse of our school, it can only be the basketball club, which took second place in the nationals last year. But the tennis club is also very good. Senior Komura said that as long as you go, you’ll be a regular player—are you really not going?”

“Not going.” Kokonoe Taka twirled a pen. “I just submitted my club application form.”

“Eh?!”

Yamanouchi asked in surprise, “Which club did you fill out?”

“The powerhouse.”

His nimble fingers paused, the casing of the pen warmed by his body temperature. Kokonoe Taka leaned back, resting against the back of the chair, watching with interest as Yamanouchi’s expression changed from agreement to confusion, and then to blankness: “Basketball?!”

He shouted out, his voice echoing in his ears. Besides that, it was silent, and Kokonoe Taka in front of him revealed a slightly mischievous smile. Yamanouchi hadn’t recovered from the shock when he heard the teacher’s gentle and kind voice from the door: “Yamanouchi, do you have any dissatisfaction with this class being my class, rather than a PE class?”

Yamanouchi Ryohei shuddered, his body trembling like a sieve, and cautiously turned his head, seeing the English teacher’s spring-like smile, so radiant that it seemed as if layers of Buddhist light enveloped her. He said with a fluke, “N-no, I really like Shimizu-sensei’s class…”

The crisp sound of Shimizu-sensei’s high heels was powerful and resonant. She stepped onto the platform, and the lesson plan in her hand was placed on the desk with a “bang!”

Yamanouchi flinched and stood up straight subconsciously.

Her sweet voice suddenly lowered sharply, her tone cold, but her smile remained just as gentle: “Then why aren’t you sitting down?”

Yamanouchi Ryohei: “Eek!! I’m sorry, Teacher!!”

He sat down abruptly, hearing giggles coming from all over the classroom, and quickly reached out to cover his flushed face.

The loudest laughter came from beside him.

Yamanouchi Ryohei was utterly ashamed and indignant: Kokonoe, why are you still laughing so loudly aaaaah!

It wasn’t until after class that Yamanouchi had time to grab Kokonoe Taka.

“Why did you go to the basketball club? You could have come to our soccer club.” He couldn’t bother to settle accounts. “Although the basketball club is a powerhouse, the number of members is over a hundred! Only the regular players of the first team go to competitions, the competition is very fierce, and the rest are in the second and third teams, with many just loafing around.”

Kokonoe Taka mercilessly swatted his paw away. “Is that so? But it sounds interesting.” He narrowed his eyes. “Just consider it a test of what I can do.”

He glanced at Yamanouchi. “Are you dumb? Why haven’t you said anything for so long?”

Yamanouchi showed a conflicted expression. He touched his chin, pondering deeply: “Kokonoe, I’ve been hesitating all along, whether—or not—to tell you.”

“?”

“Kokonoe, you…” Yamanouchi maintained a serious expression, “are sometimes arrogant to the point of being annoying.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

Kokonoe Taka: “Oh, is that so? I remember someone skipping club activities to secretly watch my match, right? That person seemed to be from the soccer club? And seems to be my classmate—his president is still in the dark, isn’t he?”

Yamanouchi swiftly zipped his mouth shut, indicating that he was silent: “Please forget what I just said.”

The basketball club of Teiko Middle School had already conducted tests on the new members who joined at the beginning of the semester, dividing them into the second and third teams. Although Kokonoe Taka submitted his club application form, because he missed the test, he could only sit on the bench in the third team for now.

Almost all of the members in the third team were students in the same grade as Kokonoe Taka. Although they were somewhat surprised that he had only joined the club now, they all welcomed him.

“We third-stringers usually don’t have any proper matches. Sometimes we play 3v3, or play a couple of practice matches with the second string.” Hayakawa from the next class said, “More often, we just train, clean the gym… Ah, you’re new here, so you don’t know. We have to go clean the gym for the first and second strings, and we also have to do odd jobs when we follow them to competitions.”

“Clean the gym? Shouldn’t whoever uses the gym be the one to clean it?”

Hayakawa shrugged. “Well—haven’t you experienced it, Kokonoe? Things like the absolute dominance of seniors over juniors in clubs. We’re first-years, and we’re in the third string, so we’re not people who can contribute to the basketball club… The first string is fine, they don’t really participate in these things; but the seniors in the second string are very dictatorial, and sometimes they deliberately sabotage things.”

Kokonoe Taka frowned: “Doesn’t anyone care?”

Hayakawa said helplessly: “Who would care? Although there are coaches for the first, second, and third strings, the coaches usually don’t care about these things, they only focus on the matches, or they advise you that you’re not suitable for the basketball club; the captain is a third-year, and he’s run into them a few times, but often after scolding those people, they only get worse—the captain can’t keep an eye on them all the time, can he?”

Another relatively short member of the third team—Aida—continued the conversation: “We’re actually doing okay. There was a large-scale withdrawal from the third string a month ago, and the people who are left now all like basketball, and our school’s basketball club is really super strong—maybe we can win the national championship this year. We can use this title to freeload a little in high school later on—”

Hayakawa shrugged and said again, “Don’t worry too much.” He noticed Kokonoe’s straightened lip line and comforted him: “The second-string seniors haven’t been bothering us for a week now. I guess they don’t have the free time right now.”

Aida oh-ed as if remembering something: “Oh yeah, there’s also that…”

Both of their expressions became vaguely guilty, and they had a sense of shared misfortune, but they tacitly closed their mouths.

Although most of the third-stringers were first-year students, there were also some older seniors who were just loafing around. Kokonoe Taka keenly noticed that there were other secrets here. He looked at the expressions of the two, glanced at the few seniors in the distance who were vaguely watching them while drinking water, lowered his eyes, and did not immediately ask further.

The group silently joined the training. After school, Kokonoe Taka took the opportunity to treat the two to cold drinks, and then unobtrusively asked about the matter. This time, Hayakawa hesitated for a moment, and then told the truth.

“There are two first-year freshmen in the second string who are said to be very favored by the captain, and they’ll probably be promoted to the first string after playing in a couple more matches.”

These two first-years are Nijimura Shuzo and Yatsumoto Kajiki, in the positions of power forward and point guard, respectively.

Most of the third-year seniors retired to focus on their studies after winning second place in the national competition last year, and the first string lacked manpower, so the captain had to select a few new blood from the second string to supplement the team. It is said that Nijimura Shuzo and Yatsumoto Kajiki, who had just been promoted to the second string not long ago, were the ones selected.

But this move aroused opposition from some of the second-string seniors. They felt that the two new first-years had only just enrolled, and they had neither the ability nor the qualifications, so it was not their turn to represent the basketball club in the competition.

As a result, several people led by the second string had a conflict with the captain. Finally, the coach, who was alerted, stopped them, and the troublemakers were educated separately. Although they did not start conflicts in the open again, the second-stringers began to frequently find trouble with Nijimura and Yatsumoto after that.

“It is said that Maki and Shiraiwa of the second string have connections with people in society. My friend said that they had seen them hanging around at the school gate, collecting protection money.” Hayakawa cautiously looked around, lowered his voice, “Those two are the biggest troublemakers. Senior Maki was the one who had the conflict with the captain at the time.”

“Senior Maki’s position is small forward, and Senior Shiraiwa’s position is the same as the captain’s, center.”

Kokonoe Taka chewed on his popsicle stick, put his hand in his pocket, tilted his head, and asked, “How did they make trouble for Nijimura and Yatsumoto?”

This time, Aida spoke: “It’s very simple. When they’re training, they deliberately misremember the training they’ve completed; during training matches, if they’re on the same team, they don’t pass the ball, or they block their movement; if they’re not on the same team, they blatantly turn it into physical conflict…”

Hayakawa hesitated for a moment: “And there’s also isolation, right? It is said that when they voluntarily form teams for 3v3, no one wants to be their teammates.”

“But these things don’t have much to do with us—the second-string gym isn’t with us, and we usually don’t go over there either. As long as we pretend not to know, we won’t be involved in these things.”

Aida paused, threw the trash into the trash can, and gave a straightforward warning without looking back: “Kokonoe, don’t try to get involved in these things. Not only are Maki and Shiraiwa not easy to mess with, but Nijimura, the one being targeted, isn’t an easy person either.”

Kokonoe Taka gave a somewhat absentminded ‘mm’ sound.

He’s not a party involved, so getting involved wouldn’t be of much use, right?

The following life was filled with basketball training. Kokonoe Taka almost worked day and night studying basketball match videos and related books. His club activities gradually became more and more like the real thing, from the stumbling at the beginning.

The basketball was heavier than the tennis and volleyball he had tried before, so of course he was very unaccustomed at first. The subconscious hand shape when shooting was also the setter’s hand shape that Oikawa had taught him. After he realized this, he consciously corrected it.

The shooting accuracy gradually changed from being lucky to make one out of ten shots at the beginning to being able to make at least five. Dribbling also changed from constantly losing the ball to being skilled. After being able to dribble skillfully with his right hand, he began to try dribbling with his left hand. But he often tripped over his right foot with his left foot during the movement because he was too focused.

“It’s so annoying.” He complained to his grandmother, who saw him fall embarrassingly, patted his hands, and stood up from the ground. “It feels like this thing has its own ideas. I tell it to go left and it goes to the right, I tell it to go forward and it goes backward.”

Kokonoe Yu covered her mouth and laughed happily. She was sitting in front of the corridor tending to the flowers, and next to her were flowers that still had dew and had not yet been trimmed: “Isn’t that a good thing? The more difficult something is to do, the more challenging it is, the more you want to do it.”

Kokonoe Taka spun the ball—he thought spinning the ball was cool, so he quickly learned the trick—and walked towards his grandmother. “Are these today’s orders?”

The flower shop that Kokonoe Yu runs is deeply loved by ladies, and her works can even be praised by noble ladies from prestigious families. The curly-haired lady wearing a shawl glared at her grandson. “Don’t step on my flowers! And don’t spin the ball! What if you smash them?”

Kokonoe Taka sheepishly tucked the basketball between his arm and side waist, and rubbed his cheek.

Only then did the lady slowly answer his question: “It’s for a lady who is hospitalized.” She stroked the white petals of the lilies, and Kokonoe Taka then noticed that the overall tone of the bouquet was elegant.

“Is she a friend of Grandma’s?”

“She’s a customer who often came to the store before.” Kokonoe Yu sighed. “She has a serious illness and doesn’t have much time left.”

Kokonoe Yu carefully trimmed the stray leaves and tied the ribbon. Kokonoe Taka watched his grandmother’s movements and asked, “Are you going to visit her?”

“I still have to go to the store later, there are some things I need to take care of.” Kokonoe Yu stared at the bouquet and added a few daisies. She suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked at Kokonoe Taka. “It’s the weekend today, and you seem to be very free.”

Without waiting for Kokonoe Taka to answer, Kokonoe Yu said with a smile, “Then why not help me go to the hospital and deliver the flowers to that lady?”

Kokonoe Taka: “I…”

Kokonoe Yu: “Don’t refuse.”

Kokonoe Taka shrugged helplessly: “I was going to say, I’ll go change my clothes.” He pointed to his short-sleeved shirt and sports shorts covered in dirt. “I can’t go like this, can I?”

Kokonoe Yu disgustedly stared at the gray marks on the white T-shirt and waved her hand, not wanting to see it and be bothered, telling him to quickly go clean up.

As a result, when Kokonoe Taka came down after changing his clothes, Kokonoe Yu disliked that his expression and hoodie were too fierce, and commanded him: “Don’t frown! Don’t look so cold, be gentle!”

Kokonoe Taka gave her a businesslike fake smile: “Like this?”

Kokonoe Yu: “…Never mind, don’t smile. If you smile like that, you’ll be kicked out before you even get in.”

Kokonoe Taka spread his hands innocently: “You’re the one who told me to smile, Grandma.”

“Smart mouth!”

She scolded him lightly, a faint smile on the corner of her lips. But seeing the bouquet on the table, she frowned slightly again.

“That lady is the wife of a Yu Caosi [son of a wealthy family],” Kokonoe Yu told him. “Manners are important. Grandma doesn’t ask you to smile, but don’t keep a straight face, it’s easy to scare people. When you get there, if anyone asks, just say that you are Kokonoe from the Jitanjali Flower Shop sent you, and that you hope the lady will recover soon.”

“Okay. What’s the address?”

“University of Tokyo Hospital.”

Kokonoe Yu hugged the bouquet, looked at the boy sitting at the door of the entrance hall putting on his shoes, and sighed almost imperceptibly.

Kokonoe Taka paused while tying his shoelaces, and asked anyway: “…Is there anything else I need to bring?”

Kokonoe Yu shook her head. She looked at the flowers in her arms gently. “The last time the lady came to the store, she said she wanted to wrap a bouquet for herself. She likes lilies and bellflowers, and asked me to save some for her when she comes over.”

She didn’t continue, and carefully handed the flowers to Kokonoe Taka: “I’m counting on you.”

Kokonoe Taka solemnly said: “Please rest assured, Ms. Yu. ——What is that lady’s name?”

Kokonoe Yu couldn’t help but laugh at the knight-like serious action when her grandson took the bouquet, but she pursed her lips.

“Saori, Akashi Saori.”