/
Chapter 103 – The Battle Begins
Arina’s PoV
I thought that my hatred would linger until the day I grew old and decrepit.
Until the grim reaper visited me on my deathbed, until my consciousness dispersed, I always thought that I would never forgive the man called Setoyama Akira. The fact that my memory returned should strengthen this hatred, yet

Why did I decide to visit his grave?
By the time I had arrived at the cemetery located near his parents’ house, it was already late in the afternoon.
There were more people visiting the place than I expected, was it because today was a holiday? There were a lot of elderly here and I felt out of place here since I came here alone.
Mom never talked to me about visiting his grave and I doubted that she had even the tiniest intention to do so. But, there was a chance that she was probably being considerate toward my mental health, that was why I decided not to tell her about my decision and came here by myself.
I quickly found the Setoyama family’s grave, but since this was the first time I was here, I couldn’t help but wonder.
‘Is he really buried here?’
He was dead, I’ve seen his body with my own eyes but, every day, the feelings that he might just show up on our doorstep again haunted me. I knew that it was impossible for it to happen, but no matter how many times I tried to convince myself of that, my anxiety always managed to win over my rationality.
That was why I came here. Probably if I were to stand here and yell at him for running away from his responsibilities by dying, I would feel better, but strangely enough, I didn’t even have the will to do so after seeing his grave.
Probably, deep in my heart, I had forgiven him already. Though to be honest, I had no intention of doing so.
“As if I’ll forgive you
”
I muttered in front of his grave.
“Even if you regretted your acts, the wounds you inflicted will still linger
”
Such useless words came out from my mouth.
No matter how much I fussed, there was no way that he would answer my words. It wasn’t like he would turn into a ghost and stay away by my side to atone for his sins.
Then why did I come here in the first place?
I kept mulling over that question until I finally found an answer. Sui. My father’s death was the cause of me forgetting about him. Maybe, just maybe, if I were to visit my father’s grave and try to remember about his death, my memory of Sui would come back.
About Sui, I had a rough idea of what kind of person he was.
But, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t remember anything about him. Not even a deja vu appeared whenever I tried to think about him. There was no sense of nostalgia whenever I talked to him. There was nothing.
Sometimes, I even felt like it was okay for me to not remember him.
After all, just losing my memory of a single man wouldn’t affect my daily life. I was happy with the life I was currently living.
Logically speaking, it should be the correct action to take too, both him and I knew this.
But, whenever we talked, he would occasionally show me a pained expression. Of course, he would immediately cover it with his usual playful expression, but I knew that it was merely his facade. My words hurted him without me being aware of it. That was the reason why I couldn’t just let everything go.
And there was another thing.
In my note, I wrote that I gave him my Valentine’s chocolate. I didn’t remember ever doing that, but I knew that I did.
But, he never gave me anything for White Day.
I knew that beneath that weirdo persona he was an earnest person, there was no way that he missed something like this. Maybe he thought that there was no point in doing it anymore or he just didn’t want to bother doing it because it was unnecessary. Maybe even both.
*   *   *
{Yes, this is Sakaki.}
After the graveyard visit, I called him to erase any lingering feelings I had after the visit, but when I heard his voice, everything that I wanted to say to him flew out of the window. His calm voice made me hesitate and at the same time embarrassed to talk about my visit seriously. Besides, I knew that he had more pressing matters to be concerned about.
Knowing him, he would put everything else aside and prioritize me, but I didn’t want that.
{Hello? Sakaki here. Can you hear me, Hiwa Arina-san?}
Besides, if we were to talk about my visit now, the topic of me being unable to remember anything about him would definitely come up and I didn’t think that it would do us any good to talk about that.
“Sorry. I can hear you.”
{So, what’s up?}
“Uh
 I forgot what I was about to say
”
{Huh??}
“Anyway, let’s do our best for the sports festival.”
{Y-Yeah, sure. Let’s win the whole thing, shall we?}
“Yes! Well then, see you tomorrow.”
*   *   *
Sui’s PoV
What was it? What was it that she forgot about?
It would be fine if it was nothing, but from the look of it, there seemed to be something.
“What is this talk about winning?”
Asked Ugin after that brief phone call.
“Our school will be holding an interclub relay.”
“Aren’t you clubless, Brother?”
“Ahh I’m sick of hearing those words
 Well, whatever. Our team is the best, we can destroy the world five times over if we want to.”
“Wow. Amazing.”
What an insincere reply. Her eyes were glued to her phone instead to the person she was talking to.
The next day, Arina looked completely normal. Like usual, she chatted with Tsuru and Kaya without mentioning last night’s phone call at all. She talked to me a little about the sports festival tomorrow and that was it.
So, I went about my day as usual. Went to class, had some lunch, talked with Makoto, went to class and left the school. It was a peaceful day, a perfect calm before the storm.
Should I ask about it after all? Some things were hard to bring up, so I probably should approach her to make it easier for her to talk.
*   *   *
And so came the day of the sports festival.
We were sitting on a blue sheet under the cloudless blue sky. After the opening ceremony was over, we proceeded to gather and try to raise our morale for the first battle.
The wind blew on the dry ground, making the sand rise and brush against my skin.
It was time. The relay would start in the afternoon, so we could play around in the morning. To begin with, the sports festival was a place for those students with decent athletic prowess to flex on their abilities to girls. This place would be filled with squealing soon as their rivalry was about to begin.
“Sui-kun
 Do you think we can win this?”
Asked Berserker Masao while sitting upright on the hard ground.
“Don’t worry too much. Yes, winning is important, but something that you gain from this is more important than that. No matter the outcome, you’ll always gain something from it after all.”
“Right
 I’ll try to stay positive.”
“You do that. Anyway, save your energy, the morning events aren’t important.”
As we were nonchalantly chatting like this, the announcement for the tug-of-war came around.
[Team three and five please gather at the entrance.]
The rules for the tug-of-war remained the same as normal, but the teams consisted of students from various grades. There were five teams and everyone was fighting to be the best team.
Honestly, I didn’t care much about this event since the real deal would be the relay. In any case, I went to find Intelligent Takazo since he is in team three.
It took me a while to find him, but I managed to do so before everyone else arrived at the entrance.
“Yo, Takazo, how are you feeling?”
“No problem. My heart rate is stable and I’m feeling well.”
“Great. Hear me out then, don’t get hurt okay? We don’t have any reserve members, so be careful.”
“Don’t worry. The nature of tug-of-war is that the more you exert yourself the more likely you get hurt. In other words, if I only touch the rope without actually pulling, I won’t be getting hurt. Besides, even if I use my full power, I’ll barely contribute 0.001% of the power necessary for us to win, so it’s pointless.”
“What are you? A fish?”
“In any case, don’t worry about me, I won’t be a hindrance to our team. Thank you for the reminder though, I appreciate it.”
He bowed before walking over to the rope. If Rion was there, she would have thrown a snarky remark like, ‘Even if you try to look cool, the girls still won’t be all over you, Skinny Takazo!’
I prayed for his well being before going back to the blue sheet.
From the place where I sat down, I saw everyone from team three and five lined up.
An elderly man who looked like a tug-of-war pro was adjusting the position of the rope while holding a whistle in his mouth. This old man was here last year too, who the hell was he anyway?
Then, he blew the whistle.
With that as a cue, both teams grabbed their ropes tightly and started to pull.
Both teams lowered their hips in rhythm and pulled their body backward. They put all their weight on the rope to make it harder for the other team to win. From here I could hear the sound of the crunching sand and see the cloud of dust drifting by their feet.
I looked for Takazo with the binocular I brought and immediately found him. Even though his team was behind, the dude was holding the rope while wearing a relaxed expression.
The concern I had was meaningless. His other teammates were fiercely fighting like hawks contesting for prey, but he acted like a complete bystander.
My dude, this was disrespectful toward your teammates, what were you doing? I tried to convey that message via eye to eye contact with my binocular but his eyes were shut. What was he doing? Meditating?
In the end, team three lost the match.
“Are you okay?”
After that I approached him.
“No injuries. I’m in perfect shape.”
“Of course you are. You attained enlightenment just now, didn’t you?”
“What enlightenment are you talking about?”
“Dude, you looked like you were meditating. You stuck out like a sore thumb. What were you thinking back then, anyway?”
“Breakfast. I shoulda added some green onions to my natto.”
“What?”