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1. GROWING YUNICHIKAAt long last, it’s the epilogue of Season 1! In the first epilogue, we return to Kuroba’s perspective and learn some surprising things about Yorimichi!

Fun fact: the subtitles for each chapter part is in English in the original novel, and the one for this one is “GROWING UNI-CHIKA.” So is it Uni instead of Yuni??? I guess it’s really supposed to be “YuniChika” instead of Yunichika since it’s a portmanteau of their names and not a word too?

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It had been fifteen years since he was born in this town—sixteen

years now since he was turning sixteen this month—and the scenery of the town

he had been surrounded by and raised in for so long might have started to look

a little smaller after yesterday. He was sure that if he told Haijima that, he

would dismiss it as just a subjective impression. In actuality, if you included

the surrounding mountains, Monshiro was ridiculously vast, and even the roads

were quite spacious.

…But, there’s also a world that I’ll never get to see if

I only stayed here, he thought.

While

feeling his enamel bag bounce on his hips, something he hadn’t felt in a long

time, every time he stepped on the pedals, Kuroba stood and pedalled his bike

to Itoko and Yorimichi’s house first. It was a neighborhood that was just a few

blocks away from the Kuroba main house. The main house ran on senior citizen

time, so it was natural for their mornings to be early, but it didn’t seem like

anyone in Itoko’s house was awake yet. He looked up from the gate to see Itoko’s

room on the second floor, but the curtains were shut.

“Mmm, am I too early…?”

I came by to thank Itoko and apologize for yesterday, but…

He was hesitant to press the doorbell at this hour, and as he was pacing at the

gate, he heard the front door open.

The person who appeared was Yorimichi completely in his

underwear of tank top and boxers. He looked so much like a middle-aged man that

Kuroba thought that he was his uncle for an instant.

“Yori-chan.”

Yorimichi looked a bit surprised when he noticed him, but

his expression quickly disappeared and he replied indifferently, “Oh, hey.” The

cigarette he was holding in his mouth moved up and down showily as he said, “I

can’t smoke in the house,” and then he leaned his hip against the frame of the

gate and took out a hundred-yen lighter.

“This is rare, you’re up so early.”

“I didn’t plan to. I was up all night working on a teaching

assignment.”

“Teaching!?”

He got glared at by Yorimichi for unintentionally raising

his voice in shock and hurriedly suppressed his voice. “You mean, getting

certified to become a teacher? Yori-chan, are you going to be a school teacher?”

“I’m

just taking it for now. It’s not like anyone who takes a teaching course has to

become a teacher, stupid.”

Even though he was told that with an insult, he was

surprised at the fact that Yorimichi was still in university.

“Wait, but it’s not good to smoke if you might become a

teacher, isn’t it?” “I’m gonna quit smoking when I become a teacher, so there’s

no problem,” he said, intentionally sounding tough, and his mouth twisted, but

he didn’t show any sign of lighting up, only playing with the lighter.

Kuroba and Yorimichi bump their hips against the gate from

the outside in alternate turns. The aluminum frame creaked feebly.

“Itoko told me all about it yesterday. Seems like there was

some kind of trouble.”

“Ah, yeah, a little…”

He mumbled and nodded as he rocked his body back and forth

and made the gate squeak.

“Why didn’t you tell them about me?”

“Because it had nothing to do with you, Yori-chan…I was

reaping what I sow…Even though I should have gone straight home, I was the one

who carefreely followed Itoko.”

He knew full well that he was the most thoughtless one to

begin with, going to karaoke when he was invited and thinking that it wouldn’t

hurt to sing one song as relaxation. At that time, I was feeling down

because of that Meisei schoolbag of Haijima’s…

Kuroba

had nothing to do with the brawl that had occurred at the bowling alley, but he

had realized Yorimichi’s involvement. On his way home from the game that

evening in the light pickup Yorimichi was driving, they stopped by Suzumu

Play-One to drop off Itoko, who was going to karaoke with friends. In the

parking lot, they had run into two guys from Monshiro by chance. It was the two

who couldn’t be called well-behaved by any standard, the two who he and Haijima

got involved in front of Karaoke Box Monshiro before the spring break of their

second year of middle school.

“Hey Bon, how much money do you have?”

They pestered him for money as soon as they saw Kuroba’s

face. Yorimichi was the one who shut them out.

“Sorry, but can you guys not make Yuni do that anymore?

He has a game tomorrow. If you want money, I’ll give it to you.”

The two roared with laughter at the word “game,” just as

before. Yorimichi didn’t laugh with them. He calmed the two who were still

trying to make fun of him and drove them towards the bowling alley.

That night, he received a text message from Yorimichi saying

that he was going to go out of the prefecture for a while and wondered if

something happened. So when he heard about the brush with the law the next day,

he immediately anticipated that the escaped group was those two and Yorimichi.

It was

true that he didn’t want Itoko to feel responsible, but if he put out her name,

then it would be known right after that Yorimichi was there as well, so he had

no choice but to keep quiet. Yorimichi had gone along with those two to protect

him. He couldn’t turn him in to the police.

He must have left his hometown for a month to let things

cool down. He heard that Yorimichi had took the night bus back to town just as

Kuroba and Haijima left Fukui Station yesterday morning. When Yorimichi arrived

home, he and Itoko talked about what had happened a month ago and shared

information about what happened on the bowling floor and the karaoke floor, and

it seemed that something must have clicked between brother and sister. He heard

from his own mother last night that Itoko had asked her if “there was anything

strange about Yuni.” When she heard about the situation the Seiin volleyball

team had been in for the past month, she and his mother rushed to Seiin.

She didn’t mention Yorimichi’s name when she told the school

what happened, but if her testimony alone wasn’t enough to clear up suspicions

about Kuroba, she would have turned in her brother herself.

“You’re a real idiot. If you had to weigh the options of

turning me in to the cops or the team being punished, you should have chosen

your team without even thinking about it.”

“Both are important to me…”

“You’re so naïve that it pisses me off. Don’t you get it, I’m

angry. If I had to be protected by you, then it’s all over for me. Don’t

embarrass me.”

His tone was low but quiet. He didn’t sound as angry as he

said was.

“Yeah…sorry.”

Kuroba said honestly.

Well then, Yorimichi said as he lightly stepped away

from the gate.

“I thought you came out here for a smoke.”

“I did. But I can’t smoke peacefully when you’re around.”

He was about to head back in the house while doing the

somewhat questionable action of shoving his hand into his boxers with bowed

legs and scratching himself. Feeling like he hadn’t talked to him enough,

Kuroba leaned over the gate.

“How long are you going to be here?”

“I guess two or three days. Uni will be starting soon.”

“That soon? When are you coming back next? You’re not coming

back until New Year’s?”

When he showered him with questions, Yorimichi turned his

head over his shoulder with an irritated look on his face.

“Yuni, stay away from me for a while. If I associate with

the sporty types, I’ll get all kinds of restrictions on me and it’ll be a pain

in the ass. I don’t want you to get tied up in something again and end up in

something stupid.”

“But it wasn’t your fault, Yori-chan…”

“Enough.

I’m not saying it’s goodbye forever, am I? We’re cousins, and no matter how

much we want to cut ties, we won’t be able to do so until we die. We can talk

to each other as much as we want when we’re both old men. But, Yuni——”

His voice that called out to him had a threatening quality,

and his eyes were sharp.

“High school will be over in a flash if you just sit around.

Just throw me aside now. You have something you want to do now. Do it so you

won’t have any regrets.”

He was shocked at the words that came out of Yorimichi’s

mouth. He had never heard of him thinking that way when he was in high school.”

“What are you guys doing, standing around talking at the

door this early in the morning?”

A sharp voice came from above. When they looked up at the

second floor window, Itoko, in her pajamas and her face puffy from waking up,

was peeking out, so Kuroba reflexively jerked his head back.

“…Good morning,” Itoko mumbled. It had been a month since

she had knocked him down at Suzumu Play-One. He came here because he had

something he had to say to her, but when the moment arrived, Kuroba’s face

stiffened and he couldn’t come up with the words. He could only answer with

“H-Hey…”

“Morning practice?”

“Y-Yeah, starting

today.”

“Oh, that’s good…If that’s the case, then don’t hang around

chatting with Yorimichi and go there. You’re finally able to practice now, so I

won’t forgive you if you’re late on the very first day.”

“I-I don’t know why I need to ask for your forgiveness. I’m

going without you needing to tell me.”

Shit,

what the hell did I come here for? He thought as he roughly mounted his bike. Before

he started pedaling, he looked up at the second floor and said something that

was like a parting threat.

“I think it’s better to have your hair hanging down all bushy

like that instead of in a bun like an onion!”

Itoko, whose eyes were squinting from drowsiness, widened

her eyes with an “Ah!” and grabbed her head. “Calling it bushy…that’s so insensitive!

Idiot! Stupid! Go away!” She shouted names at him in succession and drew her

head back into the window, and then the curtains flapped closed. She knocked

me down because I made fun of her onion hair, so I complimented her on her hair

being down, and yet… “What’s with her?” What do girls want me to do?

Looking

daunted, he stepped on his pedals and stood to increase his speed. It was a bit

of a detour, but he had one more stop to make.

“I’m so sorry about this. The young master came all this way

to pick him up, but…”

When he dropped by the Ooe house, Haijima’s grandmother told

him that he had already gone to school.

“No, it’s fine. It’s not like we promised to go to school

together.”

“If you will, please continue to spend time with Kimichika.

I’ve heard you’ve always been good to that child…”

She

was bowing so much that he ended up being the one to shrink back in fear, so he

quickly took his leave from the Ooe house and headed towards the station on his

bike.

“He’s being reckless again. Can’t he at least put some brakes

on…”

The only train that came before this one was the first train

of the day. What are we going to do there so early…? He pushed himself too

hard yesterday with a fever, and he still hasn’t completely recovered his

strength yet, but he’s too eager. That guy seems like he’s living too fast, as

ever…

Suddenly, Yorimichi’s voice came to mind.

“High school will be over in a flash.”

Now he felt as though he had been hit hard on the back by

those words. Strangely enough, Yorimichi really had pushed him from behind and

accelerated his bike.

In the past, when Kuroba was practicing to graduate from

training wheels, Yorimichi had pushed his bike from behind hard and let go.

Yorimichi had stood still and laughed, as the bike, now without a support,

accelerated. The young Kuroba had experienced a fear that was no laughing

matter. But, that thrill was also enjoyable, and he couldn’t forget his racing

heart for a while. His vision opened up wider than usual, and as the scenery

passed him by, he felt as though he had grown up a size.

“…Oops. I don’t want to get left behind.”

He

leaned forward and put strength into his feet on the pedals.

I enthusiastically

took on the task yesterday—I can’t be left behind. On the contrary, I have to

go ahead and catch it all. That reckless idiot is probably going to absorb more

things than he has now and jump into the air as the embodiment of that large

mass at an unhesitating speed.

From a

distance, he could see his farmer relatives beginning to work here and there.

His legs were light. He pedaled along the straight farm road in the September

morning, letting the acceleration carry him at a brisk pace.

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