With the Tofori incident completely settled, the days leading up to the police academy's sports festival arrived in the blink of an eye. Compared to traditional sports meets, the sports festival focused more on entertainment and unity, so the competition events were mostly conducted on a class or team basis.
On that day, the sun shone brightly on the field, and cheers rose and fell one after another.
As the class with the strongest overall strength in the school, the Onizuka class performed brilliantly in almost all competition events. Aside from Gojo Satoru, who won easily with crushing strength in the grappling match, and Date Wataru, who used his height to completely dominate the other students in the tug-of-war, the remaining four were equally not to be underestimated. Morofushi Hiromitsu gave a stunning performance in the sniper competition, making even the instructor clap for him. Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei worked together perfectly in the three-legged race, while Furuya Rei played so well in the tennis match that his opponents doubted life, winning the men's championship without any suspense in the end.
When the six of them went up to the stage with the class flag to accept their awards, Onizuka Hachizo stood under the stage with his arms crossed, trying hard to tighten his facial muscles to maintain a serious expression, but the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxed uncontrollably.
"Onizuka, these students of yours are simply incredible."
Hearing his colleagues' praise, although Instructor Onizuka was very proud of his students, he waved his hand with feigned humility. "Those boys still have a long way to go to improve, don't let them get too conceited."
Even though he said that, his gaze kept following the six high-spirited young men on the stage. However, when he saw a certain careless black-haired youth deliberately waving his gold medal in front of Matsuda's face, making the other snap, Onizuka's mouth twitched, and he almost broke character.
As soon as he looked at Kuno, he couldn't help but think of what happened in the "scavenger hunt" event, and a wave of ghost pain came from his scalp. ...Forget it, considering that this sports festival can be counted as a complete victory, it's not impossible to let it slide. Instructor Onizuka sighed, feeling that his temper was getting better and better under the training of these boys.
The six of them stood shoulder to shoulder. Morofushi held down Kuno and Matsuda, who were bickering with each other. Furuya and Date held the cherry blossom class flag on the left and right, while Hagiwara smiled and made a peace sign toward the crowd under the stage, drawing screams from many girls. Perhaps, this was what youth looked like.
The end of the competitions did not mean the end of the sports festival. After receiving the medals, it was free activity time for all teachers and students. As systematically trained police academy students, many young people were still full of energy even though they had just finished participating in the matches. Some people threw balloons filled with water at each other, some ran around holding dodgeballs, and others simply formed a circle to play truth or dare.
Furuya didn't plan to join the fun, just standing in front of a vending machine hesitating for three seconds, finally choosing a canned soda, taking a big gulp with a loud swallow.
The sunlight passed at an angle through the gaps in the cherry blossom trees, shining generously on everyone. Furuya strolled along the edge of the running track, the soda can in his hand still bearing a few drops of cold water. As he walked, he suddenly discovered a familiar figure on the grass not far away.
Gojo Satoru had his eyes closed, his eyelashes casting two shallow shadows on his eyelids. The ends of his hair still tilted up stubbornly, his hands resting behind his head without any defense, and a lollipop hung casually in his mouth, just like what Furuya had seen on the first day of school on the roof of the gym.
The handsome youth with light brown hair slowed his steps, and before he could decide whether to surprise the other with the cold soda can, he suddenly heard a sentence: "Zero, peeking at someone sleeping is not a good habit."
"Who's peeking! And isn't your nickname getting more and more excessive?" Furuya complained, walking over to sit beside him. "Why are you sleeping here?"
"Well... I just felt the sunlight is very nice, perfect for a nap." And to browse the forum to kill time by the way. Gojo closed the page in his mind, feeling quite happy as he thought about the popularity value that had already broken through the fifty-million mark.
"Are Hagiwara and the others still watching the cheerleaders dance over there?"
"Yeah." Furuya shrugged. "It seems there are many girls over there who have a very good relationship with Hagiwara, so going to support them is a matter of course."
After stepping down from the award stage, Hagiwara was dragged away by the girls, taking the confused Matsuda and Morofushi along with him by the way.
"What about Date-san?"
"The class rep was drafted by Instructor Onizuka to help move equipment... It's really hard work."
Gojo opened his eyes, revealing a teasing smile. "I thought you would go help, turns out the number one serious honor student in the whole school can slack off too?"
"Aren't you doing the same?" Furuya already had immunity to this kind of teasing, just raising his eyebrows to counter, "A certain someone lying here sunbathing has no right to talk about me."
"How can this be called slacking off? It's clearly a reasonable allocation of physical strength~ The grappling match just now was very tiring for me, okay?"
"Where was it tiring, hey! You won the match in three seconds!" If surrender wasn't banned in this competition, this guy probably wouldn't even have to lift a finger to enter the finals directly.
"Speaking of which, the scavenger hunt earlier really gave me a surprise." Furuya thought of the scene at that time, unable to help laughing. "Drawing the item 'The Most Precious Thing,' you could actually think of Instructor Onizuka's hair, and even dared to go up and pluck a few strands..."
The scavenger hunt could also be called a special relay race, where participants needed to obtain designated items based on a lucky draw and hand the items to the next team member. Regarding the designated items, the concept was quite broad. For example, for "Favorite Book," one could casually choose a textbook to make up the number.
Gojo spoke with exaggeration, "That is something that would make the instructor cry every time a single strand falls out, how can you say it's not precious!"
"He wouldn't cry no matter what!" Furuya shook his head. "Luckily, such abstract words can give people a chance to exploit loopholes. As long as you insist that this thing is 'the most precious,' even the instructor can't say you broke the rules."
"Can't be helped." Gojo yawned. "After all, I couldn't find any target in a short time."
Hearing this, Furuya glanced at the lollipop in his mouth. "I thought you would choose sweets."
"Eh... I feel looked down upon." Gojo blinked. "In Zero's eyes, is my most precious thing sweets?"
Hearing such a counter-question, Furuya didn't know how to answer for a moment. After a short while, he saw Gojo opening his palm toward the sky, as if catching some transparent existence.
"If I really have to choose, it's probably something invisible. Just like ice cream, it will melt with time, but there will always be traces of it having existed... It's the kind of thing that makes you smile even if you can't remember the specific details."
What Gojo didn't say out loud was the name of that thing. He called it memories. His memories of growing up wildly when he was Satoru, the memories of getting along with his students and friends in the jujutsu world, and the memories of sharing daily life with everyone in this world...
[Ding! Impression value from plot character Furuya Rei increased by 500 points!]
Furuya also guessed something, lying down quietly beside him, sighing, "In that case... it really can't be turned into a physical object."
"Then, we can only say sorry to Instructor Onizuka's hair." Gojo said sorry with his mouth, but he looked like he had no intention of repenting at all.
The two lay on the grass, listening to the sounds of their classmates laughing and playing, watching a cloud like a marshmallow float across the sky, falling into a comfortable silence.
After a while, Furuya spoke to break the silence, "By the way, have you noticed... Hiromitsu became much more cheerful after that incident ended?"
"That incident" naturally referred to Tofori being arrested and the Morofushi family murder case being solved.
"He does seem to smile more." Gojo looked toward the cheerleader stage in the center of the playground, teasing, "Maybe he's already starting to think about finding a girlfriend?"
"Then that's going to be difficult, I don't want everyone saying they have to spend time on the phone when I organize group activities." Furuya smiled, turning his head to look at the side of the black-haired youth's face. "Right, there are some words I didn't have a chance to tell you alone before... but I really should say them out loud."
Gojo let out a "Wow." "Is this the rhythm of a confession to me?"
Furuya glared at him helplessly, "Can you just listen to someone finish their words properly?"
Gojo looked innocent, "Where am I not being proper?"
"...I wanted to say, luckily you saved Tofori back then." Furuya's voice became a bit softer. "If you had let him die in the fire, Hiromitsu's mental block might never have been resolved."
Gojo looked at the clouds in the sky, muttering, "Well... after all, guys who are too gentle always like to overthink things."
Furuya paused, suddenly adding a sentence that made his eyes widen. "Also, actually, I hated you at first."
Gojo covered his chest with a look of heartbreak, "Suddenly saying something so hurtful so casually! Zero is too cruel!"
"When we first met, I thought you were superficial and arrogant, smiling all day long, and always deliberately making people angry." Furuya rested his hands behind his head, saying frankly, "But it's different now. You are much more gentle and reliable than I imagined."
"..." Gojo processed his words for a bit, then asked, "So now it means you don't hate me?"
"Of course."
"If you don't hate me, that means you like me, right?"
"Of course... Hey! It's not that kind of strange liking!"
Seeing Furuya's face turn red quickly as he sat up straight, Gojo laughed out loud with joy.
"Don't be anxious, I was just teasing you."
"You guy... really are still so annoying."
"But seriously." Gojo's eyes curved into a smile. "To get Zero's approval, I'm very happy."
Furuya froze, and before he could organize words to respond, Hagiwara and the others' shouts came from afar, "What are you two doing lying over there? The instructor is calling for assembly!"
"...Understood, coming right away!"
His movement of standing up was surprisingly quick, and his action of patting his uniform was three times harder than usual, grass clippings falling down in clusters, seemingly to cover up the embarrassment caused by the overly straightforward conversation.
Probably because the sunlight was too hot, Furuya's actions were faster than his thoughts—he extended his hand toward the youth lying on the grass, his hand with clear joints hovering in mid-air.
"Let's go back together, Nozomu."
Seriously, I wanted to stay lazy for a bit longer... Gojo let out a light laugh, raising his hand to catch Furuya's palm.
"Understood~ Commander Furuya."
"Why do I feel like my nicknames are getting more and more..." Furuya complained, but still firmly gripped Gojo's hand, pulling him up in one go.