Chapter 3: Entrance Ceremony Preparation(3)

Phew!!! I made it. Enjoy!!

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It was about 9 months ago.

It is the time when Yuto gets sick and takes a long vacation from school and returns to school.

“Ouch. Master ~ I’ve just returned to school and you’re so relentless. To get drunk………..”

Yuto is complaining to himself and trying to apply a wet patch to the bruises that have formed all over his body inside his room in a weird way.

“Yuto, I’m coming in. ………hmm?　What are you doing?”

The sliding doors open and an old man wearing a hakama and a beard walks in. He is short and his body looks quite thin. However, the face was full of vitality, and the light of the eye had both harshness and strength.

　He is Yuto’s grandfather, Domori Tenzo, and the master of this swordsmanship dojo.

“Just a moment, master. What? Grandpa. Ouch…. “

“Well…grandson sure is sweet.. Well, Yuto. Come to the dojo for a moment, I have something important to discuss with you.”

　Yuto had been forced by his grandfather Tenzo and his friend, Sun Byi, to do some rough work that even Mari didn’t know much about, when it came to training.

　It relates to another face of the Domori family. Therefore, almost every time Yuto was injured, he was never without a fresh wound after his training.

After finishing applying the poultice, Yujin headed to the dojo as Tenzo told him to do.

In the dojo, which is about thirty tatami mats in size, Tenzo sits on the top seat with a hard expression on his face and points to the cushions laid out in front of it.

“Sit there”

“What? Again. If it’s about my mother… I’m fine now.”

――Yuto smiled with a slightly lonely look and laughed and sat in the place where he was told.

Tenzo instantly raised his eyebrows, but returned to his original hard look.

“…It’s not that. Oh ok! Just to confirm, but you…are you going to high school?”

　Yuto responds to Tenzo’s impudent question without knowing what it means.

“Eh? No… I was planning on going there. Why?”

“…I see. So let me get straight to the point..”

Tenzo looks straight at Yuto eyes and says

“I don’t have the money to send you to high school … or rather to feed you.”

“What?”

What is he saying? Yuto makes that kind of face. The expression on Yuto’s face makes Tenzo raise his voice as if he was annoyed.

“Don’t make me say it again. That’s why I’m telling you that I don’t have…….money!”

“What do you mean!? I don’t understand what you mean by that! I’ve got reserves! What I manage properly! Dad and mom left me enough money in my account!”

It was so sudden that Yuto leaned forward to argue with what the tenzo was saying.

Then, as he looked back at the Tenzo to ask for an explanation, he noticed that the Tenzo didn’t even reply, his gaze swimming and sweat pouring from his forehead.

(N? Nnn? What? The suspicious behavior is… this person… no way!)

Yuto stood up vigorously and left Tenzo behind, running out of the dojo and into his room.

This is the money that has been carefully managed by Yuto as the living expenses of the Domori family for a long time. There’s no reason not to have it. He withdrew his living expenses once ten days ago.

(My mother and father left me a great deal of money in the form of…)

Due to the peculiarity of the Domori family, Yuto spends almost no time with his parents.

However, when Yuto was little, maybe in the early elementary school years…. There was a brief period of time when he was with his mother and father. A scene from that time appears in Yuto’s mind.

His father and mother bent over with gentle expressions so as to match his eyes, and yet they spoke to him in an apologetic manner.

“Yuto. Dad and mom have something to do for everyone.”

“For everyone?”

“Yes. First and foremost for Yuto, then for everyone, and it’s the Domori family’s duty. So there may be times when we can’t be together. Can you still put up with it, Yuto?”

　The young Yuto smiles after a little thought gesture.

“I can stand it! Yuto is strong, so it’s okay!”

Seeing that smile, the father raised little Yuto to the sky with both hands and looked at his son dazzling eyes.

“… Great! Yuto!”

Her mother tried to hide the moistness in her eyes and met the level of little Yuto’s gaze.

“Yuto… It may be a little early, but I’ll leave this to Yuto. Use it with care.”

Yuto was still very young, but he could at least tell that this was a passbook.

“And Yuto.. This is absolutely — Don’t do it.”

(Huh? Come to think of it, I think they were stopping something at that time… what was it?)

Later, when he saw the amount of money listed in the passbook, he was turned upside down by the size of the amount, even though he was in elementary school.

　In his mind as a child, he thought to himself that being one of the “ability people”………can be profitable.

Yuto went into his room and hurriedly put his hand on the top drawer of his study desk with a lock, where he kept his passbook.

(…Oh, it’s open)

――Yuto had a very unpleasant feeling, and confirmed the inside hurriedly.

“It’s not there! It’s gone. Gone!”

The culprit is obvious without having to think about it. There are only two people in this house.

　As soon as he returned to the dojo at breakneck speed, Yuto packed up with his grandfather Tenzo, who was still sitting quietly.

“Grandpa! Where did you do the passbook? Explain! It’s important…”

Tenzo had a very calm expression, and his eyes didn’t falter.

“Well, calm down…”

“Ah… (yeah, that’s right. There may be some reason. Calm down, me)”

Yuto managed to regain his composure with his calm attitude.

‥ No matter how old his grandfather was, he always brought countless troubles….. Yes, countless times, but no- there were countless times in fact, but this time, he will really reconsider.

When Yuto sat down on the cushion again, Tenzo exhaled heavily.

“Okay, let me explain”

Tenzo closed his eyes and made a long silence.

Then he opened his eyes sharply and said..

“I’ve used it”

The air flowing between the two freezes.

“What?”

“I don’t have any of it. Money.”

“…………!? Ah!?”

　Right in front of him, a person of good age says, “Tehe!” He cringes.

Yuto’s mind completely goes into a whiteout. And after a few seconds, I finally come back to consciousness.

“Ow, I don’t know what that means! Grandpa! No, I’m not. What are we going to do?　I mean, there’s no way you can spend all that money! What, what did you spend it on? Yeah, the passbook! Give me my passbook back!”

While keeping his eyes closed, Tenzo takes out the passbook from the pocket of his clothesi and hands it to Yuto with both hands, fearfully.

　Yuto roughly takes the passbook and examines the inside. There was no problem when he looked at it ten days ago.

　There was a lot of money in it, but this boy with serious principles has never wasted money and has been good at frugality combined with the small income of the dojo. Because of this, Yuto has also honed his abilities as a capable housewife.

Yuto hurries to confirm the amount of money listed on the last page of the passbook.

Yuto’s hand stops rolling up his passbook and finds the latest amount of money there, dated two days ago.

“……3……yen? 3……..three….disaster…how……”

Yuto’s focus is off.

He mumbles the last word like a spell.

“Yuto? Oh Yuto. Yu-to!…… are you okay?”

Yuto turned his head toward the approaching Tenzo.

“Okay, How is it okay…..”

Since his voice was still small, Tenzo turned to Yuto and approached him.

“It’s there————–!!”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

“I want my money back. No, I want my youth! Give me my future back! What, what did you spend it on! Spit it out! Spit it out!”

Grabbing the collar of his dojo and shaking it back and forth with all his might, Tenzo’s head bobbed up and down in a big way.

“Wait! Wait! Calm down, Yuto! Ah! Neck! My Neck!”

After a few minutes.

Yuto’s breath was still ragged, but he had managed to hear other people’s words.

Yuto and Tenzo are sitting in opposite places from where they were sitting earlier.

Tenzo is feeling restless and is sitting upright in front of Yuto, who is taking up the top seat. He was busily intertwining and untangling his fingers on his lap.

“Grandpa. You know that money was left by my dad and mom, and it’s important money, right?”

“………”

Tenzo looks down but does not reply. Yuto shakes his fist and hits his own lap.

“Moreover!　You know what I’m talking about! My father is still out there in the demon world… and doing his part, striving to be a part of the Domori family! If dad comes home and he hears of this devastation…”

“………”

Tenzo had still kept his head down, twisting his fingers uselessly and playing with them.

At the sight of him, Yuto exhaled heavily with a huff.

“So… can you tell me what you used it for now?”

Without breaking his seiza, Tenzo looked down and said a few words.

“…Horse racing”

“Horse racing?　That’s an amount of money you could spend on that alone!”

“Hee!”

A voice like a poor old man who gets abused rises.

On the other hand, Yuto managed to breathe once again. And he continues to interrogate with a calm voice as much as possible.

“Other than that?”

“Drinking money.”

Vascular veins lightly appear on Yuto’s forehead.

“……Other than that?”

“stock”

“Turn?”

“I have a little acquaintance with that guy. He had a good idea, so I thought I would make some money to cover the loss!”

“… so what happened?”

“That’s… unfortunately, the company went bankrupt soon after I invested in it…. Phew.”

Regrettable! With such a feeling, Komakura puts his fist on the floor.

The blood vessels on Yuto’s forehead were swollen enough to see the blood.

“……hohohoho, What else?”

Upon further interrogation, Tenzo’s cheeks blushed a bit and he’s fidgeting.

And then he looks up,

“…uh, well, you know, uh…heh…”

“What? What’s that sickening reaction? Speak up!”

“So, that… Himawari-chan?”

“Himawari? Who? That… Wait! What?!”

Suddenly, with tears pooling in her eyes, Tenzo jumped into Yuto’s lap and hugged him.

“She’s a poor child! She has two small children and she herself works late into the night…. She can barely afford to pay the rent…….but she lives a healthy, noble, unquestioning, upright life. That’s the kind of girl she is!” (TN: LOL! This old man!)

“Hey, hey! Grandpa.”

With an unimaginable strength from his slender arms, Tenzo hugged Yuto’s knees as he tried to get up in a hurry.

“How can you overlook a child like that? You can’t do that, can you? We’re men. You can do whatever you want. But what about her? What about the little ones? Huh?”

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re talking about!　Just………get away from me first!”

The story of Tenzo was quite incoherent, but he managed to put it all together. Apparently, this Himawari is a woman who works at a snack bar that Tenzo frequents.

　She has two small children, and after taking care of them and putting them to bed, she works from night to morning. It seems that Tenzo is very much into this woman, and has even become a friend of hers who goes to her for personal advice.

However, it’s hard to relate to a person who is not a relative to you when you suddenly hear such stories about them.

　However, this cunning grandfather understood well the character of this good-natured boy. From underneath the standing Yuto, he keeps a scheming eye on him to avoid showing his face.

Unaware of such a thing, Yuto was completely upset.

And Yuuto can’t help but imagine those little children. He didn’t have his parents at home much either. But even though he was like this, he still had his grandfather, Tenzo. He also had a good amount of money left by his parents.

If they didn’t exist…

He knows that there are plenty of stories of misfortune like that that can be thrown away.

But…

　The face of Yuto becomes complicated and cloudy. Tenzo feels the situation from below and distorts his mouth.

“However, Himawari-chan refused my offer of assistance. She said she couldn’t ask anyone to help her for no reason, no matter what she was going through. She doesn’t even know what tomorrow is going to bring. Living so far away, straining so hard…Huh.”

Karazo moves away from Yuto and acts like wiping tears, then he purposely gazes into the distance.

“You will find a lot of people who have been in the same boat for a long time. I didn’t tell them that I actually paid most of the rent of their apartment….”

“………”

“Then… the little kids hug me and say, “Thank you! Grandpa Domori. Whenever we grow up, we’ll give this back! “And they’re 11 and 7 year old girls!”(TN: [FBI: We just want to chat]) 

Turning his face away from Yuto with the feeling that he would not show any more tears, Tenzo continued to speak with a trembling voice.

His appearance is also very deliberate. Looking at it from the side, it looks like a charade?　However………

And as for Yuto…..

His eyes were completely hot.

While putting his hands to his eyes, he was unable to speak.

　From the looks of it, Tenzo realized that everything had gone according to plan.

“That was… Grandpa…”

“I don’t need you to understand! But I’ve been trying to find a place for them to live….”

　Tenzo’s body trembled slightly in front of Yuto. This too, how deliberate it was, but the inexperienced boy, who was turned on, couldn’t see it coming. (TN: If there is no naive protagonist tag in NU for this series. I am gonna add this right now!!)

　With tears in his eyes, a teary-eyed Yuto breaks his knees in front of Tenzo and gently takes his hands and stares into Tenzo’s eyes.

“Grandpa I get it. I’ll give up high school. If that will save those kids I’ll work and fulfill the role of the Domori family while working!”

　A serious face.

The boy’s determination and beautiful spirit seemed to be visible.

Suddenly, Tenzo shook up Yuto’s hand and stood up.

“Idiots ……”

“What!?”

Yuto is surprised and looks up at Tenzo.

“I don’t! I don’t remember raising a man who would give up high school that easily!”

　Before they knew it, they even switched positions to standing and Tenzo was in his original top seat.

“But money…”

“The money is what! If you don’t have the money, you’re giving up high and everything until then! You’re pathetic, Yuto!”

There is no argument about who has spent that money.

“A man is a man. A man never gives up in the face of adversity and achieves results. Always think ahead to the worst and think ahead accordingly. But you’re still a man of the Domori family!”

There is no argument there as to who was the reason behind this worst situation.

“I’m sure you are right, but the income of the dojo is not enough that it can cover the living expenses of the two people… Even if I save money from now on, I am a junior high school student and I will not be hired anywhere.”

Tenzo puts his arms together like a guy without specifications.

“There’s a way…..Actually, I have an acquaintance with a principal of a private high school. He told me that he could pay for everything, including school fees and teaching materials, uniforms, and school excursions. Did you know about Horaijin Kibayashi High School ?”

“Eh… Horaijin Kibayashi High School? It’s amazing! It’s a prestigious school. Speaking of Horaijin Kibayashi High School, it is a high school where you can’t enter even if you have a good grade. Can I enter such a place?”

Yuto is surprised that he can’t believe it, and this boy, who is unhappy by nature, thinks that this might be surprisingly lucky.

“Who said you can enroll?”

“Eh? You said that, he doesn’t mind paying for the ………”

“That’s only if you get in.”

“…What do you mean?”

“If you receive it with your ability, it means that you can pay for the tuition fees. Well, I didn’t know that it was such a difficult high school. Well, study hard from now on. Kakkakka!”

“Wait, I’m behind in my studies due to just being out of school for an extended period of time, and you’re going to do such a difficult high school on merit?”

“Are you whining already?　The only way for you to become a high school student is to go to that high school. If you want to be a high school student, you’ll just have to do your best.”

Currently, Tenzo is in full control of the initiative.

“And when you go into high school, you have to live alone.”

“Wait! Why?”

“I can’t afford to feed you. My income at the dojo is truly tight for myself.”

Tenzo casually emphasizes that all of the income from the dojo belongs to him and him alone.

(TN: I seriously want someone to beat the shit out this old man.)

“But where am I going to live!　Even if I got a part-time job, I wouldn’t be earning any money right away!”

Tenzo sighed heavily. As expected, Yuto was annoyed as well.

“I have a real estate agent as a friend of mine, so I’ll ask him to prepare a cheap place to live for you. You’ll be 15 years old this year, just in time for you to start your own business as a man from the Domori family.”

He was tempted to butt in and say you’re not standing on your own, but Yuto is stunned by the sudden turn of events.

　It’s a good thing that you’re not able to keep up with the development of the situation, but Tenzo, who has a strong attitude towards his grandson, says that there is no need for further discussion and wants him to leave the dojo.

Although not visible to Yuto, the look on his face is one of complete victory.

And when he put his hand on the sliding door of the dojo, Tenzo quickly stopped in his tracks.

“By the way, I heard the day before yesterday that Horajin Kibayashi High School is one of Mari’s schools that she wants to attend. You can ask her to take a look at your studies.”

　Yuto, who was stunned, listens to it and reacts quickly.

“Well, Mari-chan? No, it’s okay. I’ll do it myself.”

With that attitude, Tenzo makes a nasty face, as if he has something in mind.

“Hmm? Why did you get dumped by Mari-chan? At all… Well then, let’s tell. Mari-chan’s favorite is that I see is a guy who actually pulls himself. It’s easy for an experienced person to understand. Well, I’m the exact opposite of you on that matter.”

“It’s none of your business!”

“Well, if you don’t want to do it, I’ll tell you. Ho-ho-ho-ho!”

“I told you to stop!”

With a big smile on his face, Tenzo opened the sliding door and was about to leave.

Then suddenly, Masato was curious about what he had just said.

(Miss Himawari? What happened to her now? I wish she had improved her life a little better…)

“And, grandpa? Where is that Himawari now?”

“Oh, now in the mansion in front of the station…ah!”

“Eh? The mansion in front of the station? Didn’t you say that it was an apartment? Hmm? No, that newly built high-priced mansion…”

　With a thumb on his chin, Masato looks thoughtful. The imposing demeanor of earlier has been replaced by a change in the way that Tenzo stands on his toes and is about to leave the dojo without making a sound of footsteps.

However, a powerful hand grabbed the shoulder of Tenzo.

“Grandpa. Earlier….didn’t you say the rent for the apartment?”

It’s strange when you think about it. Tenzo has spent quite a large sum of money in less than a week. It’s not an amount that can be wiped out by horse racing or drinking money. Even stocks that go out of business within a week often go into liquidation, and it’s too poorly done for a gambler like Tenzo to be cheated.

The thoughts are sorted out in Yuto gradually.

(No way, this guy is… that high-priced mansion… It’s certainly expensive…)

“Hey! It’s… that’s it! It’s that mansion that was on sale!”

“Gyah! Yuto! Calm down! Calm down!”

“If I calm down with this! Then I will be distracted again! You damned old man!”

“Gee! Gefu!”

Yuto clearly remembered the words that her mother said sometime during such an exchange.

“Yuto….. Don’t ever show this bank book to Grandpa alone!”

　With tears in his eyes, Yuto cursed himself for forgetting this important thing.

(Hahaha! Die, Jijii and I! I’ll kill you!!,hahahahaaaa)

“There is something…”

Yuto omitted the story about being dumped by Mari and the problems specific to the Domori family, but he meditated and gave a smile that he couldn’t express with a “poof”.

“””…………………………………”””

Three different reactions. Ichigo was half-eyed, and Mari looked down with her brow plucked between her right thumb and forefinger. Shizuka had a hard smile on her face and sweat was pouring from her forehead.

(((No, I don’t know what to say…))))(TN: Same here)

　Ichigo had met Yuto’s grandfather before. Surely he was different, or was his first impression of a weirdo?　But he thought it was just a feeling. No, he wanted to think. Even though it looked like this, Ichigo, who had common sense, felt that it was rude to think badly of someone else’s family.

“Ah! It’s already time! Mari also has to go back to her classroom. We have to take a seat too.”

　The other students were seated one after another. The four also broke up and took seats in each class.

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