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Chapter 8 – Yobisute 1

I felt like I got into the mood and told something amazing.
As I was awkwardly fiddling with the glass in my hand, Kishimoto, who was smiling alone, suddenly started talking first.
“Sure! Kim-kun! Let’s call each other by our names now!”
I couldn’t adapt to her characteristic over-changing mindset.
“So suddenly?”
“It’s best to do the Yobisute to get close quickly! Say my name!”
I couldn’t understand her mindset, but I did as I was told.
“Okay then
 Rika.”
Then Kishimoto smiled brightly and nodded.
“Okay, call me that from now on. Ryu-chan.”
“Ryu-chan2?”
I unconsciously hardened my expression at the surname that made my hands and feet cringe just by listening to it.
Then she explained with a nonchalant look.
“Since your name is Ryusei, with the first letter you become Ryu-chan.”
I asked with my hands shaking with internal shame.
“
can’t you just call me Yoo-sung in a normal way?”
“Huh? But I call all my friends by nicknames.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone!”
I looked at Kishimoto with stiff eyes, she seemed to have no intention of stopping being so stubborn, and eventually give up.
“Whoa, okay. Call me whatever you want.”
“Hehe, that’s what I was going to do from the beginning.”
Kishimoto put the finished glass on the desk and turned the chair around and moved her legs as she looked at the bookshelf.
“What’s your favorite shonen manga3 here?”
I answered, packing her finished glass on the tray.
“The Golden Samurai at the top of the bookshelf.”
“Oh! I really like that one too!”
She was surprised to hear my answer and clapped her hands in joy.
It seemed to be good because there was suddenly a consensus between us.
“When I think about it, these days I read it carefully from beginning to end.”
As I said so, I took out the first volume of the Golden Samurai that was stuck on the bookshelf and showed it to her.
“Wow! It’s the first edition! It was released 15 years ago, so it’s really hard to get!”
Maybe it reminded her of when she had read it in the past, but she was stamping her feet with joy.
The Golden Samurai is the second full-length manga of the author Kishimoto Musashi. It was the story of William, an Irish navigator who accidentally flowed into Japan.
The manga begins when a black slave who killed William’s friend in a ship-board rebellion escapes to the Far East Island country by boat.
William came in Japan after the black slave who ran away, to avenge his friend. In the process, he meets Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the war heroes of the Warring States Period and receives the name Miura Anjin and the status of a samurai.
William, a blonde foreigner, was called the “golden samurai”, and him, who became a samurai, slowly built up his skills under Ieyasu and to avenge his friend, he finds the black slave who ran away.
Then William realizes that Yasuke, the “Black Samurai”, one of Oda Nobunaga’s vassals, is the black slave who fled, and asks him for a duel.
The winner of the final duel ends up being William, he had already found out about his friend’s mistake in dealing with slaves during his pursuit of Yasuke. He said he would no longer hold him responsible, cut his topknot instead of his neck and returned to his hometown as a one-armed man.
It was completed in 28 volumes, so it was a long story rather than a short one, but I liked the dry ending that showed that the manga’s unique painting style and revenge, such as an oriental painting, were in vain.
This was because the psychological description and the double-track suggesting forgiveness were expressed everywhere until reaching the process.
After hearing the rave reviews about the Golden Samurai for about 10 minutes, Kishimoto trembled, blushing as if she had been praised.
“I love this manga too, but I’ve never seen anyone like it as much as Ryu-chan.”
“It’s not a big deal. I didn’t even buy anything related to the manga.”
“Huh? No, no. Papa will be so happy to hear what Ryu-chan just said.”
What?
I paused for a moment.
As soon as I asked her again because I thought I heard something wrong, Kishimoto smiled and told me the shocking truth.
“Actually, Kishimoto Musashi is papa’s pen name.”
***
The mangaka.
Kishimoto Musashi.
His real name.
Kishimoto Sojiro.
I didn’t notice it because Kishimoto is quite a common surname in Japan.
That Kishimoto Rika was his daughter.
Well, if you think about it, it was an obvious foreshadowing.
She lived in Seisho, one of the richest villages in Tokyo, and her father was a popular mangaka with blond hair.
Since the Golden Samurai itself was released shortly after the mangaka Kishimoto Musashi married his British wife, there was speculation on Wiki that he might have been influenced by his wife.
And writer Kishimoto’s Musashi hometown was Shizuoka.
It is a famous clichĂ© of love comedy that the parents of a classmate are famous, but why didn’t I notice?
I suddenly felt like a fool, an idiot, a stupid sea fish.
I gulped down my saliva and asked her.
“Can I get an autograph?”
Then Kishimoto smiled brightly and nodded.
“That’s no problem. If you visit my house sometime, I’ll introduce you to him!”
“!!!”
I had a momentary strain on my heart and grabbed my chest.
Was it the fulfilment of a fan or something?
It was an honor to be able to meet Kishimoto Musashi himself.
“W, well, tell me when you have time.”
“Yeah! I’ll tell him when he gets home.”
At this moment, I was so glad to be friends with her.
I didn’t care that it was the original story, and it didn’t matter!
I could meet the respected Mr. Kishimoto!
“Well, it’s late, so I’m going back now! It’s almost time for mama to come back!”
“Oh? Oh, okay.”
I saw Kishimoto off to the station.
“See you tomorrow! Ryu-chan!”

I enjoyed everything, but please she could bear with the name in public.
***
After an eventful day, the next day.
When I went to school in the morning, there was a desk next to mine that I had never seen before, and there was Kishimoto Rika sitting there.
“Hi! Ryu-chan!”
I asked, blinking in bewilderment.
“Rika, why are you here?”
Then Kishimoto Rika laughed and tapped her desk.
“I asked the teacher and moved this morning. There’s a lot of space around Ryu-chan anyway.”
“
that’s right.”
Seeing me and her talking normally, the classmates who came to school early started whispering.
“Transfer student, what’s the point of sitting there?”
“Did you get threatened by Kim-kun yesterday?”
“Hey, be my girl.”
“Hahahaha!”
I took out my textbooks and written notes from the drawer for the first class, with a throbbing brow from hearing their gossip.
Today’s first period was English.
In the past, I scored 900 TOEIC scores when I was in college, so I didn’t have to study much, but English education in Japan is notorious for its difficulty because of grammar.
Kishimoto, who was sitting next to me and staring at her cell phone, opened her own to see if she thought of last week’s English homework when she saw my notebook.
“Ryu-chan, show me your homework.”
“Okay.”
I felt like I had more a sister than a friend of the opposite sex.
***
As the second week of the new semester began, students were slowly getting used to school life.
The biorhythm, which had been slow during the spring break, slowly adjusted to a regular life.
And at this time, the school began a full-fledged scramble for new members.
“Soccer club!! How about the most popular soccer club among girls!!”
“Basketball club!! Unlike the soccer club, a pretty manager wipes off your sweat!!”
“Anyone can come to the light music club and burn up their youth!!”
“Newcomers! Come to the board game club! We have all kinds of board games from the East and the West! If you come, go!”
As the student council secretary, for the first time in a long time, I was looking down from the third floor with the president and vice president.
“This year has begun. With the managers’ desperate struggle to attract new members.”
“Oh, my! If you belong to the student council, you won’t have to do such a trivial thing!”
Listening to the two people next to me, I carefully brought it up.
“Excuse me
 Is there a reason why there is such an atmosphere?”
Then the president, who was gently opening a wide-open black fan, scolded me, saying I didn’t know anything.
“Originally, those who stand high are obligated to observe the lives of the lower class! Kim Yoo-sung is the top student in the grade and doesn’t even know that!”
“Right! Right!”
I looked away at the master-servant duo, who suddenly started fooling around, and then asked, putting my hands in my pants pocket.
“More than that, President, just tell me why you suddenly called me into the student council room.”
Then the vice president pointed his finger at me and said,
“Kim Yoosung! You don’t realize that you’re a member of the academy student council! My lady is sad because you don’t come much to the student council room!”
“
keep talking.”
“Today is the day for an arrogant brat like you, that the lady’s henchman, Shinjiro Akagi, knock you down!”
When the vice-president flashed his glasses and shouted like that, the president, who was listening to him next to us, blushed and denied.
“Oh my, when did I ever feel sad!”
I quietly raised my hand and asked in the middle of the chaotic situation in front of me.
“If you don’t mind, may I go back to the classroom?”
“”No way!””
‘It’s driving me crazy.’