JSWGAS Chapter 51

“Little Nine, be careful when you go home lately.”

Yahonmogi suddenly said.

“Huh?”

Kokonoe Taka was slightly stunned, “What’s wrong?”

Yahonmogi got up from the ground, carefully patted the dust and sand off his body, and said hesitantly, “Well… it’s hard to say.”

“You must have discovered something, right?” Kokonoe Taka leaned back slightly, “After all, Yahonmogi, you’ve always been very meticulous.”

“I feel like I’m calling you by a nickname, but you’re calling me by my last name, so cold…” Yahonmogi muttered softly, and quickly surrendered under Kokonoe Taka’s gaze, “It’s just a guess. Do you still remember Shiraiwa?”

“That senior from the second string?”

“Don’t call him so respectfully, that guy always has a smiling face no matter what he does, don’t you think it’s scary?” Nijimura Shuzo interjected.

Yahonmogi nodded in agreement and continued, “Maki and Shiraiwa used to cause trouble for me and Nijimura. For example, deliberately delaying my time to participate in club activities, or hiding my things.”

Nijimura Shuzo shook his head slovenly, looking a little proud: “As for me – it’s actually nothing, I’ve been troubled by delinquents from other schools a few times… but I beat them all away.”

“After all, Nijimura is a simple-minded, well-developed guy.”

“Agreed.”

Kokonoe Taka raised his eyebrows, “They’re causing you trouble again?”

Yahonmogi shook his head, “I basically won’t be hindered by them…” He said euphemistically, “They… um, are the same type of idiots as Nijimura.”

Nijimura: “Hey, hey, hey, I’m right next to you!” he shouted.

His dear teammate turned a blind eye and continued: “Recently, when I was practicing with a third-string senior, the other party said that Shiraiwa has rarely come to participate in club activities during this period, and was even caught by the captain and lectured for an afternoon.” Yahonmogi analyzed, “Shiraiwa used to be a very ‘hardworking’ person in front of the coach, and rarely skipped training frequently. This time, not only the captain, but also the coach is very angry.”

His face gradually became serious: “Also – Maki and Shiraiwa are said to have had a previous conviction for extorting underclassmen. And recently, there have been many wandering students from other schools at the school gate, who don’t look like good people. Nijimura, you said you were blocked before?”

“You want me to see if those two are playing tricks?” Nijimura Shuzo asked thoughtfully, perking up.

Yahonmogi nodded, “I’m lucky, I haven’t been blocked, and I don’t know if it’s them. But I always feel like they’re trying to do something big quietly… We’re going to the first string tomorrow, right? Little Nine will probably be able to get in after the next test…”

Nijimura Shuzo: “Since you’re begging me so much, then I’ll just—”

Kokonoe Taka interrupted helplessly, “Don’t get carried away, you two.”

The two of them turned their heads together, looking at him innocently, and said in unison: “No way?”

Yahonmogi suddenly seemed to remember something, and said with a drawn-out “Oh,” “Could it be that Little Nine, you’re worried about us?”

He suddenly became radiant, and pretended to cry in a sticky tone that was moved: “I didn’t expect Little Nine to care about me so much… Even though his eyes when I made a passing error last time looked like he wanted to throw me into the non-recyclable trash can.”

Nijimura Shuzo cooperated with him, and a big boy of over 1.7 meters leaned next to Kokonoe Taka, looking coy: “Wuwu, Kokonoe-kun is usually so fierce, I didn’t expect him to be cold on the outside and warm on the inside?!”

Kokonoe Taka raised his hand and punched each of them with lightning speed: “One, the pass wasn’t your fault, it was my fault for not being able to catch it, it was my mistake; two, I’m not fierce at all.”

He reread the last sentence, emphasizing that he usually just doesn’t have much emotional fluctuation.

“Eh, but Little Nine, you always don’t have much of an expression.” Yahonmogi grinned, rubbing the place where he was punched, “Although looking cold is also handsome, it’s not as good as smiling.”

Nijimura Shuzo continued, “So why don’t you smile more?” He stretched out his hand and drew a smiling face in the air, “Like when you won the game, didn’t you smile very happily then.”

As he spoke, he began to run off topic again. Kokonoe Taka painstakingly pulled the topic back: “I said, are you guys really okay?” He waved Nijimura Shuzo’s hand away, as the latter was trying to squeeze a smiling face out of his facial muscles with his fingers.

Yahonmogi pointed at him with great seriousness: “Look, he’s frowning again!”

Kokonoe Taka: “…Are you looking for a beating?”

Yahonmogi: “How is that possible, be gentle, be gen———tle——”

Kokonoe Taka glared at him angrily.

Only then did he shrug and continue, “But, don’t worry about us. Nijimura used to be a well-known delinquent, and he also knows karate—”

Nijimura looked proud, “That is to say – I’ll be able to get a black belt next year. And Yahonmogi isn’t some weakling either. Although he’s a little weaker than me, he’s still a little stronger than you. He’s good at dirty tricks.”

“Dirty tricks?! Talk properly! And I’m not weaker than you!”

“That’s a fact!”

The two bickered for a few words, and Nijimura Shuzo turned to Kokonoe Taka again, looking worried: “After all, Little Nine, you look like a good student, you probably haven’t fought much, right?”

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

How thick is the filter these two people have for him…

He sighed, but Yahonmogi thought he was uneasy and comforted him kindly: “It’s okay, just be careful when you go home. If it’s really Maki and Shiraiwa, they should come to block me and Nijimura… You haven’t had too much to do with them, so it’s likely that they won’t come to you!”

“Just in case.” He scratched his head, “I also really want to solve this matter completely… After all, I’ll get angry if I’m always being targeted.”

“It’s definitely not because we’re not bringing you to play!” Yahonmogi emphasized nervously at the end.

Now that things have been said to this point, Kokonoe Taka pressed his brow bone with a headache: “Okay, I get it. But -” he put down his hand and said seriously, “If something really happens, be sure to call me, or send a message if it’s inconvenient.”

“Eh?” Yahonmogi was stunned.

Nijimura, on the other hand, shouted, “Little Nine, you’re really soft-hearted. But we won’t crash, it’s useless for you to come—”

“I can help you call a car.”

“…A car?”

“If you lose, let’s go to the hospital hand in hand and be roommates.” He paused slightly and said with a fake smile, “I’ll remember to burn incense for you.”

“…Are you so unconfident in us?! And why did you jump from hospitalization to burning incense all of a sudden?! Are we staying in the morgue?! There’s got to be a limit to how poisonous your mouth is!”

“…Nijimura, putting aside everything else, you’ve become a qualified tsukkomi…”

……

…………

Today is a rest day for club activities, and the teacher called him to the office after school again. Recently, there’s a math competition, and the school wants to send the top five students in the grade to participate. She was just here to ask Kokonoe if he was interested in this.

“With your level, there’s definitely no problem.” The teacher said with a smile, “It’s not far from the school, and there will be a car to send you there.”

She also mentioned the time, which unfortunately coincided with the time of the practice match. Kokonoe Taka could only decline euphemistically. The teacher didn’t force him, and after caring about his studies and club activities, she generously let him leave.

When Kokonoe Taka came out of the teacher’s office, the sun was already setting, and half of the afterglow slipped into the teaching building through the windows of the corridor, leaving a floor of warm orange sunset. He stepped lightly on the shadows of the window lattices and moved forward, but was stopped by a light cough after a few steps.

It was Hayakawa. He was standing in the shadows not far away, clutching the straps of his backpack a little helplessly, his eyes a little evasive.

He should have left the school like other students.

Kokonoe Taka thought.

They haven’t had any communication for a while, and every day it’s just a dry greeting. Hayakawa and Aida are still struggling at the bottom of the second string, but Kokonoe Taka has already jumped to become a good seedling in the eyes of the coach, and not long ago they were teammates who trained together – this sense of gap made the two of them start to avoid meeting Kokonoe Taka.

Being stopped like this is really the first time.

Kokonoe Taka kept his expression unchanged, “Is there anything wrong?”

Hearing his slightly low and hoarse voice, Hayakawa plucked up his courage and looked up at him. The black-haired boy looked back calmly, the gray eyes were surrounded by the afterglow of the setting sun with a warm and bright color, making his face also appear soft.

“That…” Hayakawa said, “There seem to be strangers looking for someone at the school gate, and Aida thinks the person they’re looking for might be you.” He calmed his mind and continued, “He overheard it, and the original words were ‘a tall, black-haired, gray-eyed first-year brat, with a face that looks like he’s asking for a beating’.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

Hayakawa didn’t notice his silence and continued a little urgently, “And besides you, they’re also targeting Yahonmogi and them… Aida is afraid that coming back will make them notice, so he asked me to tell you.”

Kokonoe Taka’s expression suddenly clouded over when he heard this. His eyes turned cold, and the warm eyes that had been warm just now were now as sharp as a blade.

Hayakawa lowered his head and suggested softly, “Why don’t you go through the back door?”

“Thank you.” Kokonoe Taka was silent for a moment before thanking him, then neatly took out his phone from his bag, dialed Yahonmogi’s number, and strode forward, while asking Hayakawa, “Is Aida still at the gate?”

Hayakawa took out his phone, “He’s still there, he hasn’t left.” He subconsciously followed Kokonoe Taka’s footsteps.

“Help me ask him if the people he saw successfully blocked Yahonmogi.”

His words were powerful and unquestionable, making Hayakawa send a message to Aida confusedly, “They didn’t say that.” He raised his head and replied.

At this time, the two had quickly descended the last step of the teaching building, and the campus was quieter than usual, making their footsteps even more hurried. Kokonoe Taka’s brows had already been heavily pressed down, and the phone next to his ear turned to voicemail after being unable to dial: “The number you dialed is temporarily unavailable, please leave a message after the ‘beep’ sound…”

He turned to dial Nijimura Shuzo’s phone, but this time the voicemail didn’t even have a chance to appear, “The number you dialed is turned off…”

He stopped abruptly, turned off the phone screen, and his expression was uncertain.

Hayakawa, who was following behind him, braked suddenly and looked at him blankly. Kokonoe Taka took a deep breath and turned back to him, “Thank you this time, I owe you and Aida one. You two should leave quickly.”

Hayakawa reacted, “You’re not going through the back door?”

“I’m not going.” Kokonoe Taka shook his head calmly, “This matter has nothing to do with you, don’t get involved… Leave quickly.”

He turned his head and ran away without hesitation, quickly and eagerly, and disappeared from Hayakawa’s sight in the blink of an eye!