V1C4 Part2

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

2. BOYS’ NIGHTI’m back…for real this time

Translation Notes

1. Japanese rooms are often measured by tatami mat. A tatami mat is about 1.65 square meters.

2. Vabo-chan is a mascot character created by Fuji TV that shows up during volleyball game broadcasts. It’s basically a white ball with hands and feet and creepy looking eyes

3. The “itoko”/Itoko pun is back! Itoko is the Japanese word for cousin and also Kuroba’s cousin’s name

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Seiin High School was built on a slope at the foot of a mountain.

It took fifteen minutes to climb up the hill from the school building, and the

training camp was located in a place where you had to push through the woods of

the mountain behind the school. It was a one-story wooden house that was in all

probability haunted, rumored to have existed before the school was founded. The

mountain was also owned by the school, and at the end of the first semester,

all the first-year students were sent to collect firewood for the school

festival campfire. The memory of being eaten alive by mosquitoes was fresh in

his mind. Even though he wasn’t stung, just walking into the woods brought back

the itchiness he had felt all over his body.

From

July 26 to 30, this would be the lodging house for the boys’ volleyball team’s

summer training camp. Two days after training camp was over, the Fall

Tournament would be coming up from August 1 to 3. It was a one-off tournament

that wasn’t connected to Nationals, but it was a chance for them to check well

their team was doing as well as to gauge the strength of the other schools so

that they could make final adjustments for the Spring Tournament prefectural

preliminaries at the end of September.

The house was a minimalist structure, with a twenty-mat (1) Japanese-style room, kitchen, canteen, and communal washrooms for men and

women, and the facilities were also very simple. It of course didn’t have

luxury items like air conditioners installed, just an old-fashioned electric

fan in the canteen.

“I wish there’s a fan in this room too…”

After the study session in the canteen had finished, he was

lying on his stomach at the edge of the Japanese-style room to cool off when

Okuma stepped on his back and he let out a “Gueh” like a crushed frog. “Wait,

it’s coming out, the food I ate.”

“Hey, where did Haijima go?”

“Please don’t treat us as a set. Didn’t he get caught by

Aoki-senpai and is still in the canteen? Aoki-senpai doesn’t seem like he’d be

satisfied he can’t do something about his modern lit.”

When they got their

results back from their end-of-term tests for the first semester, the academic

abilities of the new recruits had become joke material for their seniors. Kuroba

was good at Japanese overall, but in most other subjects he just barely avoided

failing. Haijima, on the other hand, was…

After the seniors exclaimed “Whoa…” in astonishment at his

amazingly high marks in subjects that had to do with calculation and

memorization, the eye-avertingly awfulness of his writing subjects made them

fall down and say, “Never mind…”

“Haijima

seems uncomfortable with Aoki-senpai. He looks like he hates him.”

Futons were already laid out in the Japanese-style room. It

was four futons in two rows, with the pillow side facing each other. They had

laid them out themselves, so it was quite messy. Hokao and Uchimura, who had

already taken up positions on the middle two futons that formed a second-year

island and were fully ready to sleep, lifted their heads off their pillows and

said, “Oh, that—”

“Haijima got kicked by Aoki-senpai because he pissed him

off, right? In April.”

“Has Aoki-senpai ever gotten angry?”

“He’s scary when he’s angry. No, it’s more harsh rather than

scary.”

“Aoki-senpai gets

harsh when he’s angry, and it’s Kanno who’s scary when he’s angry.”

Hokao and Uchimura looked at each other and stifled

laughter. The various sounds of summer insects continually fell like a gentle

drizzle, constantly beating against the awning of the porch. When the storm

shutters were fully slid open, they felt a moderately comfortable breeze. However,

mosquitoes also flew in, so mosquito repelling incense stood in the four

corners of the room making thin plumes of smoke.

The mixture of incense smoke and the remaining scent of the

yakiniku was already thickly staining the T-shirts they had changed into after

practice. I might have eaten too much meat…my stomach hurts… Well, the

excess calories could be easily consumed in tomorrow’s practice, and in any

case, Kuroba didn’t have such a delicate body that a weight change of one

kilogram or around that could affect his jumping power. By the way, Okuma was

the only member of the team who was required to lose weight. He had too much

muscle mass.

“It’d be boring if Haijima wasn’t here.”

“Is

there something interesting?”

When he tried to get

up, Okuma sat astride his back. “Heavy…I really am too full…” And that’s why

you’re so irritating… Moreover, he chose the right person. It was

detestable that he thought he could get away with this kind of messing around

with Kuroba, but didn’t do it with Haijima.

Okuma thrust his cell phone into his face from behind. His

phone was the latest model with a big screen. The moment his eyes landed on the

screen, Kuroba stopped his complaints with an “Oh? …” and gulped. It was a

video of a woman with a lot of exposed skin, so to speak, squirming and moaning

on white sheets, with one thing or another being done to her. “Senpai, turn up

the volume a little bit. I can’t hear.” He attached himself to the screen in

spite of himself and strained his ears.

“Huh, you reacted normally. I thought you’d be more

embarrassed since you seem so innocent.”

“I have an older cousin, so he shows me a lot of this stuff.

Hey, the volume. How do you turn up the volume on this thing?’

“Idiot, the third-years will hear it. You got a voice fetish

or something? Boring, I knew I should wait for Haijima’s reaction.”

“Ah…so mean.”

He was about to grab his phone away, but Okuma snatched it

away from him.

“Oh, speak of the devil.”

Kanno

and Haijima appeared at the door of the room while talking about something. Judging

from Haijima’s gestures, it seemed that they were talking about the duo they

had been playing as all day. Or rather, that was the only thing Haijima could

talk about in such an assertive way.

“Hey, hey, come over here, you two.”

Okuma was beckoning them over with a scheming look on his

face, and the two looked at each other dubiously before coming over.

“What is it?” Kanno said politely, even though they were in

the same school year.

“The curry recipe. You two are in charge tomorrow.”

As soon as Kanno peered into the phone screen Okuma pushed

into their faces, he let out a “Wah” and turned his face away. While holding

the edge of the phone between his fingertips and passing it off to Haijima, he

pulled his hood down over his eyes. “I’m not too good with this kind of thing.”

“Oh. I see, I see. So you’re used to seeing it with

Suemori-san.”

“Haa!?”

He suddenly snapped. It was the first time they heard

Kanno’s angry voice, so Kuroba and Okuma unconsciously bent themselves back. Even

Hokao and Uchimura, who had known him for a long time, started on their futons.

“Aren’t you going out with Suemori-san?”

“Absolutely not, and if you ever try to bring that sort of

topic up with Ibara-cha…Suemori-san…”

His voice

went a tone lower, and there was even bloodlust rising up from his shoulders.

The aura of Kanno, who was usually quiet, and if anything, had practically no

presence, suddenly swelled, frightening Okuma, who was fifty percent wider.

Kuroba took that opportunity to crawl out from under Okuma’s buttocks. Hokao

and Uchimura looked at each other under their pillows, whispering to each

other, “We warned him that he’d be scary when he gets pissed off…” “Right?”

“S-sorry, sorry. I won’t say it again…” Ibara-chan,

Okuma mouthed, looking like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t seem to

have the courage to make fun of him to his face anymore.

“As long as you understand.”

Kanno said, then easily retracted his harsh look and reverted

to his usual low-key presence. He tucked his hands into the sleeves of his

hoodie, walked with sliding steps to the wall where his things were, looking

like a ghost floating a few centimeters off the floor.

“Haa… So which one of us has a girlfriend?”

Okuma sat crossed-legged on the porch, facing the room, and

ended up tossing out a blunt question without having learned anything at all.

Hokao, Uchimura, and Kuroba all looked away vaguely. If he had one, the most

exciting event during the summer vacation of his first year in high school

would not have been a boring thing like a team training camp.

“This is so sad. You’re young, so you should be hungrier.

The captain doesn’t look like he has a girl at all, and the only one who might

be popular is the vice-captain?”

Okuma played innocent and judged others with his own

arbitrary impressions.

“So, how about you, Haijima?”

When he finally brought up the subject to

Haijima, Kuroba secretly felt something like a sense of superiority, thinking, This

guy still has no idea at all.

Volleyball was his

lover. Or rather, if volleyball was one of the opposite sex, Haijima would no

doubt become her obstinate stalker. If he had a girlfriend, that would

definitely be a cataclysm. Haijima, who was watching the video with his fingers

pressing the earpieces of his glasses and looking like he was seriously trying

to decipher a curry recipe, answered bluntly, “I don’t, and I never had one.”

Just when he thought, There you go,

“Well, that’s what I thought. You seem to have completely

matured from kind of stuff.”

“I did have a girl I

liked.”

He doubted his ears because Haijima had reluctantly answered

back to Okuma.

“Se…seriously!?”

Without thinking, he got up from lying on his stomach and

crawled over to Haijima. “She’s an actual human being, right!? She’s got proper

arms and legs, right!? Ah, Vabo-chan (2) does has arms and legs, but they’re not

human, so wake up!” “What are you talking about…Why Vabo-chan?” Haijima screwed

his face up. Okuma was doubled over laughing on the porch.

“Vabo-chan! That’s hilarious, Kuroba!”

Hokao

and Uchimura had collapsed onto their futons, making strange laughing noises.

Even Kanno was crouching in front of his bag with his shoulders shaking

furtively. “…What does it mean?” Haijima was looking more and more reluctant.

“No, I didn’t say that to make you laugh, senpai. It’s a problem that seriously

needs to be examined.” “What do you mean?”

“What are you are getting noisy about? I’m turning off the

lights.”

It seemed that the clamor could be heard all the way in the

canteen, as Oda looked in from the door with a severe look on his face.

“Good grief, save your strength or you’ll regret it to the

point of vomiting tomorrow. And I mean that literally.”

From behind Oda, who lowered his voice and gave off a sense

of danger, Aoki also appeared, bowing his head to avoid scraping his head

against the lintel.

“You remember me saying that those who can’t sleep will do

dashes on the slope, right? Okuma, you seem to be the most energetic one here.”

“Not at all. I can fall asleep in a second.”

Okuma shoved his phone under the stomach of his T-shirt and

dived into his futon. Hokao and Uchimura were now pretending to be dead, and

Kanno, who was at the bags until just a while ago, was quickly tucking himself

into his futon before they knew it. Somehow, the beds were arranged by seniority,

with the two third-years on the innermost territory, the four second-years in the

middle territory, and the first-years Kuroba and Haijima in the territory near

the door.

As soon as the ceiling lights were turned off and darkness

fell, the room that had been full of clamor and noise suddenly became strangely

quiet. Immediately after, they began to hear someone snoring. Ten to one, that

deep and throaty snoring belonged to Okuma. He was jealous that he really could

sleep in a second.

Even

when he laid down and closed his eyes, Kuroba couldn’t go to sleep easily. It

was true that his body was exhausted from the first day of training camp, but

his head was strangely clear.

He opened up his futon, turned over, and then stared into

the darkness. A blue light, slightly brighter than the indoor lights, shined in

from the porch, and the jagged shadows of the trees pierced into the night sky.

Mosquitoes buzzed in his ears, and he waved them away in irritation.

…Mmm. Can’t sleep. I feel too excited for some reason.

He turned over again, and this time he was lying on his

stomach and hugging his pillow. “Hey,” he whispered, leaning forward. “You up?”

He saw the head moving slightly on the pillow that was lined

up face-to-face with his.

“Go to sleep.”

A curt voice responded to him in the darkness.

“I can’t, though.”

“Then go run outside.”

“Hey, when did you like that girl? It wasn’t when we were at

Monshiro Middle, was it?”

“I told you to go to sleep. You think this is a school trip

or something?”

“It’s definitely not Itoko, right?” (3)

There was the rustling of clothing, and the hair that had

been hanging down on the pillow rose up. Haijima also lied on his stomach and

stretched his neck towards him over his pillow. His brow was wrinkled and his

eyes were narrowed so much that he looked positively villainous.

“Why

are you talking about ‘itoko’?”

“Ah, did you just call her by her first name!?”

He was so shocked that his voice became louder. Haijima’s

expression became even more grim, and he abruptly swept his hand off to the

side of his pillow. When he was wondering what was going on, he grabbed his

glasses that were caught on his fingers in a careless but familiar manner, put

them on, and then thrusted his face at him again.

“Are you still seeing that cousin of yours?”

“Seeing…wh-what are you talking about, we’re not seeing each

other at all! We go to different schools, I don’t really have any feelings for

her, and she’s like a sister-in-law.”

As he was listing that off in a shrill and excited voice, …Hmm?

Something doesn’t seem to be meshing… When he really thought about it, he

didn’t remember Haijima and Itoko having any interaction with each other, and

since it was Haijima, he might not even recognize Itoko’s name.

“…By cousin, do you mean Yori-chan?”

Haijima frowned and tilted his head as though to say, What

are you talking about?

Yorimichi, his cousin who was three years older than him (but

third-rate) had left town in spring to go to university. Kuroba also had the

feeling that he was let go because his relatives found him unmanageable.

“I have nothing to do with Yori-chan anymore. We haven’t

even been in touch.”

“If that’s the case, then you wouldn’t be getting so worked

up.”

“I’m not getting worked up about this…”

The

light from the window that was shining in from the balcony was suddenly

blocked. He shut his mouth with a start and jerked his neck around, and saw a long

and skinny shadow crouched beside his futon, as though one of the creepy trees

he had seen outside had snuck in.

“Aoki-senpa…i…”

Two long arms reached out and grabbed the two’s heads

firmly. The two drew in their necks with an “Ugu” as their heads were lifted up

like in a crane game. “Idiots…” they heard one of the second-years mutter with

a mixture of exasperation and sympathy.

“Since you two seem so eager to go running, I’ll grant your

wish. Twenty hillside dashes.”

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