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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Nekorune
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What did he say? Had she heard correctly?
“A wish…?”
“Yes, a wish. Scoring a point against the captain means I did well.”
Matsuda himself had asked for the spar, and now he was setting conditions. Was he truly reflecting on his actions? It was absurd. And what was with that shy expression…?
“Are you serious?”
“If you don’t want to, then just forget about it. Shall we start right away?”
“Ha…”
An immature boy who didn’t seem serious about kendo. But a wild horse with immense potential, whose talent to become a master was clearly visible. That’s how Matsuda appeared now.
Has there ever been a member with such a strong personality? She had never seen one, not in the academy, nor in middle or high school. It made her feel strangely competitive.
“I’m trying my best to approach you, Captain, but you’re still looking at me with prejudice.”
At Matsuda’s sudden words, Renka frowned.
“Prejudice…? Your actions can’t be considered good, even if I put it nicely.”
“Is it because I mentioned the wish-granting thing?”
“That too, but the violence you showed towards Miura earlier…! That’s the biggest issue. Are you asking because you don’t know?”
“I’m reflecting on it.”
“It doesn’t look like it to me.”
“That’s because you’re the captain.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I can see that you dislike me, and you act like you’re dissatisfied with everything I do. Anyone would become defiant if treated like that.”
Matsuda’s tone was getting sharper. He seemed to be about to unleash his pent-up frustrations. She decided to observe him a bit longer and crossed her arms, and Matsuda continued,
“We definitely didn’t get off to a good start, did we? We were a bit off track at the very beginning, but when we were cleaning the school gate to fill our volunteer hours and bowing, you encouraged us to do just that in the future. Do you remember?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“I also remember the day we ran into each other at the figure store. You laughed at my joke then.”
“Right. And I’m also grateful that you drove me home that day.”
“But everything went wrong after that, right? The exact timing was probably… after that sparring match with that classmate.”
Now that he mentioned it… things had definitely started to go wrong after that. Like gears grinding against each other. Of course, it had been precarious before, but the conflict had intensified after the friendly match. Hitting the side of your classmate’s men was disrespectful.
Kendo is a martial art that Renka loves very much. She had been angry at Matsuda for disrespecting it and scolded him sternly after the match. And Matsuda had responded with a disrespectful, indifferent attitude.
‘Is it… because of pride?’
Matsuda’s ego was strong, like a skilled athlete with their own standards. And she was the same. Matsuda probably didn’t want to back down against her constant coldness, and she didn’t want to speak kindly to the cocky Matsuda. This continued, and her feelings built up as she saw Matsuda acting out, finally exploding this time.
“I haven’t caused any trouble and have been behaving since I joined the kendo club, but you’ve always disliked me. Because I have this delinquent image stuck to me.”
“That’s true, but things would have been different if you had shown even a little respect for your opponent in that match. If you had apologized right then and there, things wouldn’t have turned out like this. And do you remember what you said back then?”
“What did I say?”
“When your classmate got hit on the side of his men, the coach said it wasn’t a valid target area. You said you knew. And when I asked you why you hit the side of his men, what did you say? You said it wasn’t a foul, that it was free sparring, right? Doesn’t that mean you knew that strike was unsportsmanlike?”
“I didn’t know it was an unspoken rule.”
“So you’re saying it was a misunderstanding?”
“Yes.”
Renka’s voice rose slightly.
“Then you should have said so… If you had said you didn’t know the etiquette, I would have just told you and let it go.”
“Should have said so? If we’re talking about ‘should have,’ shouldn’t you have asked if I knew in the first place?”
Putting aside the context and who was right or wrong, they were just going back and forth like this, clinging to their pride and stubbornness, with no sign of reconciliation. In situations like this, one of them had to give in or back down.
But neither Matsuda nor she had any intention of doing so. After the friendly match, when Matsuda was scolded by Chinami, she briefly wondered if her approach was wrong, seeing his subdued reaction. It was true that he was improving under Chinami’s guidance, and it was also true that she had judged him with a biased perspective.
At this point, she thought that the best thing she could do as the kendo club captain would be to take a step back, but if she did that to someone with a strong ego like Matsuda, he might become even more unruly. Honestly, as a person, she didn’t want to lose this battle of pride.
She didn’t care if others thought it was childish. She really wanted to tame that wild horse. So, what should she do?
Renka, her head throbbing, suddenly had an idea and her eyes lit up.
‘A wish…’
Perhaps she could use Matsuda’s proposal to resolve this broken relationship. For example, she could also set a condition, and if it was met, he would have to obey her unconditionally… Like spending two hours a day learning about kendo… or something like that.
Considering Matsuda’s personality, which didn’t make excuses, he would obey without complaint if he lost. So, couldn’t she guide him with this method? It was coercive, but that was the nature of wishes. Matsuda would eventually adjust over time.
Her only concern was that she didn’t know what kind of wish Matsuda would make. It made her uneasy. He had brought up the wish out of the blue. Of course, it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t lose, and she was confident that she would win, but… considering Matsuda’s sharp instincts during their previous spar and his improved skills through training, it wouldn’t be bad to have a safety net.
“Let’s stop talking about this and get to the main point. What kind of wish do you want?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Why don’t you know? It doesn’t seem like you said it out of impulse, you must have something in mind. You’re not thinking of suggesting something… strange… are you?”
“Strange?”
“…”
As Renka hesitated, unable to speak, Matsuda let out an “Ah…” and asked,
“You’re not thinking about something sexual, are you?”
At the blunt question, Renka’s face flushed red. Seeing her face, Matsuda shook his head in disbelief. Feeling a pang of guilt, Renka quickly replied,
“I… I wasn’t thinking about anything sexual…! Don’t jump to conclusions…!”
“Then that’s good. Anyway, it’s not that kind of wish.”
The serious atmosphere was strangely dissipating. Why? They had only exchanged a few words. It was baffling.
Renka closed and opened her eyes, controlling her emotions, and said,
“I’ll set a condition too.”
“A condition? A wish?”
“Yes. We’ll bet on wishes. Considering the difference in our skills, you need one point, and I need ten points to have our wishes granted. A total of 30 rounds. I’ll just ignore the units digit of the points I score at the end of the match. How about it?”
“Ten points?”
“Yes. Don’t you think that’s fair?”
“…Who will be our referee, then? Nanase-senpai?”
“I’ll do it. I’m confident I can judge accurately since I’m your opponent.”
“Huh…? You’re going to referee…?”
Matsuda’s jaw dropped slightly. Renka chuckled wryly, as if understanding his feelings.
“I said it was a practice match, but honestly, I see this as a battle of pride. Aren’t you embarrassed to tell anyone about this?”
“…Well, you’re not wrong.”
“I’ll judge fairly. If you have any doubts about the judgment, we can get a new referee.”
“No, I have no complaints. Let’s do it.”
“Good. How about 10 PM tonight?”
“Sounds good.”
The conversation had progressed rapidly, almost impulsively. But well, it was what they both wanted…
By the way, why did Matsuda go so hard on Miura? Weren’t they close friends? She knew Matsuda had even driven him home, and she thought the three of them, including Hanazawa, were close… Did they have a fight yesterday or something? She hadn’t observed them much, but come to think of it, Miura had never called Matsuda his “friend.” And they always addressed each other by their last names… Their relationship seemed a bit ambiguous.
Anyway, that wasn’t important. Preparing for the night’s spar was the priority. Clearing her mind, Renka opened the training hall door.
“Shall we go back in and finish training? I was originally planning to push you hard, but it wouldn’t be good if you were tired for the spar, so let’s take it easy.”
“Yes.”
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I had anticipated that Renka would propose a wager the moment I mentioned a wish. But I didn’t expect it to be like this. I thought she would at least try to compromise. Like best of five or best of seven.
But to match my bet… She must be very confident in her skills. Wasn’t she worried about me? That was so like Renka.
And 30 rounds? Considering that a regular match was best of three, it would take a very long time. It was an extremely long match, requiring immense concentration.
For now, although things had gone slightly differently, it had worked out as I wanted. I had to score somehow.
Checking the time, I stood up and put on my jacket. Glancing at Tetsuya, I saw him fiddling with his phone. He had become noticeably quieter since the spar, which was nice. Out of consideration for your despair, I’ll forgive you for snoring tonight.
I tucked my uniform inside my jacket and said to him as I passed by,
“I’m going for a walk.”
“Again? Have a good time.”
“Yeah.”
—After that awkward exchange, I went outside and headed towards the training hall, which was a bit away from the lodge. The lights were on, so Renka must have arrived first.
After confirming that no one was around, I opened the door and, as expected, Renka, in her uniform, was stretching. She finished stretching her long limbs and approached me when she saw me.
“Change your clothes and stretch.”
“Okay.”
“Wait… before that, I have a question. What are the limits of your wishes?”
Why was she being so meticulous? Her eyes were, unexpectedly, sparkling brightly.
“Anything except sexual things.”
Renka flinched at the reminder of how that had been brought up earlier, and cleared her throat.
“…Fine.”
“No canceling wishes with wishes.”
“I agree to that too.”
“Okay. That’s all.”
Renka stopped talking and focused on stretching. I chuckled quietly, making sure she didn’t see, and went into the makeshift changing room and started undressing.
It was time to clear up the misunderstandings through some intense physical contact. No, it was time to germinate the seeds of conspiracy I had sown. I had to give it my all.
I wanted to score at least five points, but since my opponent was Renka, who was known to be a genius kendoka, I’ll try to max out at around 3 points.
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Thanks Neko!! Love uuu