The Story of A Beautiful Girl I Rescued From An Attacker Who Became My Seatmate. - Chapter 39

This is a story from when I was in the third year of middle school.

At that time, I didn’t have the same gloomy feeling as I do now, and I had friends, and we often went out to play together.

I was also a member of the kendo club. By the way, I had been practicing kendo since elementary school. I think the reason I started was because I saw a superhero anime and thought, “That’s cool!” It’s just a childhood memory, so I don’t remember it vividly.

And then, during the summer of my third year, when I was preparing for entrance exams, an incident occurred.

The catalyst for it was when I noticed that something was off with my younger sister, Kaede, who was a first-year student at the same middle school. Even when she came home, I couldn’t see the cheerful appearance she had when she was in elementary school. On top of that, she started locking herself in her room more often. At first, I casually thought it was just adolescence, but gradually, I couldn’t believe that was the only reason.

As an older brother, I had a sense of responsibility, so I decided to go all the way to the first-year student floor to see Kaede’s condition and find out what was happening to her.

At the same time, I tried to talk to Kaede at home. However, Kaede just kept spewing words of rejection like “I don’t know” or “It’s none of your business, brother.”

Then, one day, as a member of the middle school kendo club, I was about to participate in the final tournament. We had about eight members in our kendo club, but only six of us could participate in the team and individual matches combined.

I’m not bragging, but my kendo skills were reasonably advanced, so I hoped to participate in the individual matches, and I was able to secure my spot.

Since this summer kendo tournament would mark the end of kendo in middle school, I devoted myself to intense training in preparation for the tournament.

And then, after school, just before the tournament, I realized I had forgotten something in the classroom. I went to the staff room to pick up the key to the classroom and made my way up the deserted school building.

On my way back, as I was descending the stairs in the hallway, I heard someone’s “voice.” It was already past the time for students to go home, so there shouldn’t be anyone in this building.

In order to investigate the source of the “voice,” I headed towards where I heard it. It could have been just my imagination, or perhaps it was something fateful.

As I approached the direction of the “voice,” I heard a familiar “voice.” The “voice” filled me with anxiety and curiosity.

Since the hallway happened to turn a corner, I hid myself and listened attentively.

“What do you think you’re doing this time?”

A trembling girl retorted, surrounded by five other girls.

“Huh? What do you think I’m doing? It should be obvious without even asking us, right?”

One of the girls among the five replied mockingly, as if ridiculing the frightened girl, and the other four had similar expressions on their faces.

“That’s why I’ve been saying it over and over again. I’m not trying to please the boys, and I have no reason to do so.”

“Oh really? Can you speak that way?”

The girls placed their bags by the side of the corridor.

“Just disappear already, will you? Frankly speaking, you’re just a nuisance.”

“…”

“Say something, come on.”

Saying that, one of the girls kicked the girl. Without offering any resistance to the kick, the girl was sent flying into the wall.

Witnessing that moment, my anger finally reached its peak. Taking out a shinai from its bag, I let my anger take over and headed towards the girl.

Looking back, if my thinking had been a little calmer at that time, the outcome might have been different. However, I wasn’t yet mature enough to control my emotions effectively back then.