In the back corner of the classroom sat a boy whose body was entirely different from the rest. He didn't look like them. His body looked exactly like a balloon filled to its absolute limit—flesh stretched so tight it felt as though a single press would cause him to burst wide open. He had green eyes and an oval-shaped face. He sat alone at the very last desk.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The evening school bell rang.
Renjiro's exhausted eyes snapped wide open, reacting the way someone does when they see a ghost in a nightmare. He looked around in a daze. All around him, students were rising from their desks, making their way in droves toward the classroom doors. Renjiro hoisted his heavy legs. Grabbing his bag from the desk with his left hand, he slung it over his shoulder and began moving toward the door at the agonizing pace of a tortoise. Just as he reached the exit, about to step his heavy foot outside—
His eyes locked onto a group of girls walking toward him. A strange, instinctual fear surfaced in his gaze. Beads of sweat instantly carved out their place on his cheeks. He wanted to hide away inside himself. Seeing them, he lowered his head and tried to quietly pass by. Shadows completely swallowed his eyes, the look of a boy who had already lost his inner willpower.
The girls approaching him carried an aura of immense wealth, as if they belonged to rich, elite families. Pure arrogance was visible on their faces. When their gaze landed on Renjiro, their expressions twisted—exactly like someone staring at rotting garbage.
"Look how funny he looks," one girl said to his friend in a deeply arrogant tone. A mocking, teasing laugh escaped him. "He doesn't even know how to walk properly. I have no idea how a guy like this manages to move at all. I feel disgusted by boys like him."
Her friend walking beside him immediately chimed in. "Yeah, you're right. People like this are nothing but a burden on the world. I don't know why God even creates people like him." Laughing and openly mocking Renjiro, the two of them walked right past him.
Renjiro heard every single word without them realizing it, but he couldn't bring himself to speak.
He swallowed the humiliation and kept moving forward, his head still bowed low as he walked. Then, another boy approached. He was fit and looked incredibly arrogant. He deliberately swerved, walking dangerously close to Renjiro.
Thud!
The boy had intentionally rammed into him, barking in anger. "Are you blind?! Can't you see, idiot?!" His voice was loud enough to pierce the eardrums. Looking at his face, it was obvious he just wanted to assert his dominance. A sadistic, teasing smile emerged on his face as he stared down at Renjiro. Spitting out bitter words, the boy walked away.
Tears were clearly visible in Renjiro's eyes. His hands were trembling, and so were his legs. He clenched both his hands into tight fists and forced his steps forward.
Sunlight cutting through the corridor windows fell onto his face. The light made his hair shine, and that same brightness fully exposed the tears running down his cheeks.
He looked completely shattered from the inside. But he didn't stop walking; he just kept pushing his feet forward.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The corridor buzzed with the whispers of students. Among those getting ready to head home, several had their gazes pinned solely on Renjiro. They were all staring at him with slanted, judgmental eyes, as if looking at something that deeply disturbed them.
Renjiro thought it best to simply avoid their eyes. A strange, burning sensation welled up in his chest, as if someone were setting him on fire from the inside. The fading light on his face only highlighted his bleak reality. He decided it was better to keep his head bowed as always, heading straight toward his home.
Then, the heavy echo of footsteps rang out.
Dump!!! Dump!!! Dump!!!
Just as the chatter of the students in the corridor began to slowly die down, three boys strutted from the hallway where Renjiro had just come from. Walking with an arrogant, swaggering gait, they headed toward the main entrance.
The crowd of students who had been standing around Renjiro, preparing to go home, suddenly shoved each other aside to clear a path. Those standing near the lockers by the main entrance flattened themselves against the metal, carving out a wide open space in the middle.
Renjiro was incredibly close to the main exit door. All around him, students secretly began pulling out their phones, sensing that something special was about to happen.
The sound of those approaching footsteps became even clearer.
Everyone's eyes fell on them one by one. It was now painfully clear who was coming.
Dump! Dump! Dump!
There eyes first landed on Yuto Sakurai. His wild nature was visible just in his walking style. Every button on his uniform shirt was left completely open. His eyes glowed in a piercing yellow color, and his hair was mustard yellow—styled in a messy, aggressive spike. A crazy, unhinged smile was plastered on his face, looking exactly like a stray dog staring at its prey to instill terror. He was a guy of average height.
On his right, cracking his fists, was his friend Daichi Watanabe. His body looked like an athlete's, his shoulders incredibly broad. His brown hair was tied up in a rough top-knot, but a few strands fell carelessly across his face.
His jaw was completely rigid, tight as brass knuckles, yet he had the look of a model mixed with an MMA fighter. A deep irritation warped his features, as if every person standing before him was nothing but an obstacle. He was exceptionally tall. Daichi Watanabe's height was so massive that the average students around him only reached his chest. He stood out entirely from the crowd.
And stepping out from between those two beasts... was a boy who was beautiful. Incredibly beautiful. And that was the most dangerous thing of all. He was none other than Hiroto Kageyama. He walked forward with absolute, overwhelming authority, as if he were the reigning king of the school. He kept his head held high with pride, both hands shoved deep into his pockets.
His dark red eyes were filled with deep anger, clearly reflecting his ruthless nature. His dark blue hair was completely flawless. The hair on the sides of his head was cut extremely short and sharp—perfect like a razor blade, displaying a severe level of discipline.
But on top... there was a different story. The hair on top was scattered, free, and wild. A carelessness that didn't belong to a normal human, but rather to a predator who knows without a doubt that no one in this room can challenge him. His height placed him right between the other two.
"Where are you going in such slow motion, fatty? Aren't you going to meet your friends before you leave?" Yuto opened his mouth, laughing a terrifying, wild laugh.
Renjiro's eyes snapped wide open in terror, as if someone had just stabbed a needle into his back. His feet could no longer hold the ground, feeling as though a massive burden had just been dropped onto his head.
Whoosh!
Without looking back, Renjiro desperately tried to push his feet slightly forward.
But then—
Krrrch!
A hand grabbed him from behind. Pulling him back, the other hand violently clamped down on his shirt collar, dragging him and smashing him directly into the wall lockers—Smash!!!
The surrounding students eagerly pointed their phones toward them, capturing the sight for their own amusement, showing not a single ounce of empathy.
Renjiro's body violently shuddered from the inside. A pain erupted in his brain, feeling exactly like a nerve bursting. For five seconds, his eyes went completely dead, as if Death itself had touched him.
Renjiro's blurry vision landed faintly on a face. It was none other than Daichi Watanabe. He was stepping forward to punch Renjiro, cracking his knuckles in that very moment, growling, "You've done enough walking for today, fatty."
Just as his fist was about to strike—
Hiroto Kageyama stopped him, placing a light hand on Daichi from behind. He then took a few light steps forward.
"Oh, fatty. How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from my Miya?" Anger and dead seriousness radiated from his face. His eyes remained locked solely on the fallen Renjiro. "Do you not understand anything, or do you just not want to understand what I'm saying?"
A memory flashed before his eyes of that very morning—the moment where he had simply picked up Miyu's dropped pen and handed it back to her. The memory returned slowly, fragmenting in stuttering cuts.
Renjiro's eyes fluttered, trembling as they opened. He placed his right hand onto his knee, desperately trying to force himself to stand up. Sweat dripped from his face like running water. He ground his teeth together. His eyes were wide open in sheer agony. His face pointed toward the floor as he slowly, agonizingly pushed himself upward from the ground. His bag lay discarded by his side.
He was still in a half-dead condition. His breathing was rapid. His entire body felt burning hot. A blood-like redness took over his face, the evening sunlight hitting his eyes. He gripped his shoulder tightly with his other hand.
Hiroto walked straight up to him, bringing his face dangerously close. "Are you getting angry, fatty? Do you want to hit me?" A slanted gaze fell onto Renjiro's trembling, clenched fist. "Do you want to break my face with your punch?"
Before he could finish, Yuto cut in. "Boss, this pig always ends up in the wrong place where Miya-san is already present." A distinct, unhinged joy was visible on his face as he spoke. "Maybe we should fit a GPS on him so he never has to come near Miya-san ever again."
Daichi narrowed his eyes to slits. "This fat pig looked at Miyu-san with his filthy eyes. Boss, if you give me the order, I will beat him until he remembers his place, so he thinks seven times before ever looking at Miyu-san again."
"Will you two stay quiet for a bit?" Hiroto said, glancing back at them. "Can't you see I am talking right now?" Then, raising his voice, he barked, "How dare you interrupt me!" The redness of pure rage began to shine in his eyes.
The atmosphere in the corridor turned as cold as death. Every student nearby began to tremble in fear for a second.
Yuto, who had been laughing hysterically just moments before, had his face drop entirely in nervousness. He tried to speak, "Boss, bu—" but Daichi stopped him with a sharp look, silently warning him not to open his mouth before the boss. Yuto lowered his face. A faint drop of sweat sat on his cheek, his hair trembling along with his face. He ground his teeth tight.
Hiroto leaned his head forward and said to Renjiro, "Oh, so we—"
Renjiro interrupted, his voice laced with heavy pain. "How ruthless are you people? Why do you always torment me? What have I ever done to all of you? I only gave Miyu back her dropped pen. Why don't you guys just leave me alone?" The words carried the innocent desperation of a child. A long stream of tears flowed down his cheeks. "Why don't you just let me live?"
A deeply strange look crossed Hiroto's face. He wasn't angry, nor was he calm. It was a look that would make anyone who saw it want to kill themselves.
"What did you say?"
Without wasting even a single second, he drove a straight knee kick right into Renjiro, completely destroying his balance. Immediately after, he delivered a devastating right straight punch to his stomach. A fountain of saliva sprayed from Renjiro's mouth. Hiroto then grabbed him tightly by the hair, leaped up, and smashed a knee into his face. Following that, he unleashed a relentless barrage of rapid-fire punches to his face, showing absolutely zero empathy.
At that moment, all the people standing around kept recording videos. Some even started taking photos of the spectacle.
Beating Renjiro mercilessly, Hiroto spat out in anger over and over, "Why make me angry? How dare you stop me? Your status isn't even equal to a dog in front of me!"
He then delivered a brutal right hook straight to Renjiro's face. His face swelled horribly from the punch. Deep red and blue bruises erupted beneath his skin. Blood poured continuously from his nose due to the impact.
He collapsed straight down from that punch, crashing onto the lockers. He lay there, using the locker for support.
Renjiro was in a half-dead state. Only his head turned to look at Hiroto.
Standing before him, Hiroto Kageyama glared down with slanted red eyes and said, "If you think you can make Miya yours, you are living in a delusion. Your status is not even equal to the dust on her feet. Next time, do not even wander near Miyu-san by mistake, or I will beat you far worse than this." He placed his black leather shoe heavily onto Renjiro's right shoulder. For the first time, he gave a faint smile. Like a devil laughing.
At that moment, all Renjiro could see was Hiroto's faint, terrifying smile. Yuto's wild, jungle-like laugh. Daichi's calm stance, arms crossed, wearing a bitter and quiet expression. And the other students, their mocking laughter and their shining mobile phones...
Click! Click! Click!
Flashlights flickered, capturing his broken condition for fun, devoid of any pity. It felt as though they only wanted to witness this exact ruined state of Renjiro that was now playing out before their faces.
Renjiro's vision suddenly blurred. He lay there on the freezing floor.
Night had fallen over the sky inside the school. At that hour, no one was left in the building—except for one person. He was an older-looking man with tired eyes. He held a long metallic torch in one hand, shining its beam directly onto Renjiro's beaten face and eyes.
Renjiro's eyes began to clear slightly. One eye was completely swollen shut. His face was entirely ruined. On his ribs, on his face, on his shoulder—he felt an endless, agonizing pain everywhere.
"Are you alright, boy?" Shining the torch in his eyes, the man placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Get up quickly, it's time to close the school."
"Aaaaaaaaaa!" Renjiro suddenly screamed, flailing in panic.
"Hey, calm down, calm down, boy." A look of genuine worry crossed the old man's face. "Come on, I'll drop you outside the school."
He shoved Renjiro's school bag into a locker and then tried to lift him up with his right hands. "Ah man, this boy is huge. He looks to be at least a hundred and fifty kilos." Lifting him was proving to be a massive struggle, but even then, he braced himself—thud!
"Nnnngh... just... a little more... ahhh!" Putting immense pressure on his legs, he finally hoisted him up.
Slowly, they reached the school's main gate. The janitor supported him against the side pillar of the gate.
"Kid, take support from this wall right here. I'll go lock the main school door and come back. Don't wander off anywhere on your own, I'll drop you home." Saying this, he walked back inside the school.
Out on the road, the yellow light of the pillar lamp spread, making the entire street shine. Some of the pillar lights were flickering, as if turning the night into a night drowning in sheer pain.
Renjiro leaned against the side pillar of the gate, completely finished. Because his legs were violently trembling, his body was slowly sliding down the wall, as if someone were dragging him down from below. Drop by drop, blood dripped from one of his nostrils. Scratch marks marred his arms. When his own blood fell onto his hand, he stared at it.
"What is this? Is this my blood?" His voice sounded as though he had completely lost himself from the inside. "Why am I always getting beaten? Why does everyone mock me? Will I only ever keep getting beaten? Why is it so easy for them to torment others?" He asked himself these questions. His hands began to turn freezing cold. "I need to go home. I have to go home today." He tried to get up slowly, but as he moved, a sudden, agonizing pain hit him, and he—
Thud!
He couldn't bear the pain. His breathing became incredibly rapid. The beating pain flared up intensely in his ribs. "Why can't I get up at all?" His face was pointed downward. His eyes closed for two minutes. In his mind, Hiroto's words began to echo.
"Your status is not even equal to a dog in front of me..."
Another gust of cold voice hit his ears...
"You are not even equal to the dust on her feet..."
And following that, the terrifying, devilish laugh of that smile—Heh.
Renjiro clenched both his fists tight against the cold street. His breath hitched.
"Am I really just garbage?" he asked himself, crying. "Do I have no place?"
But then...
Cutting through Hiroto's cold voice and the suffocating fear, another voice entered his mind. A voice that wasn't cold like death, but heavy and deeply comforting, like a massive mountain.
The smell of dirt. Dry clay. And that training ground in Osaka... Where a giant of a man stood, his body exactly like a massive mountain. The size of his hands was so immense that he could crush a ripe coconut just by squeezing his fist. His physique was unique—neither overly fat nor overly muscular. His body possessed a perfect balance of both. The color of his eyes was bright and calming, like an emerald. His eyebrows were incredibly thick. The texture of his skin closely matched the clay of the earth. He was none other than Renjiro Hoshino's grandfather, Kenji Hoshino.
Thud!
He stomped his bare foot forcefully onto the ground, taking a Shiko stance exactly like a God of Sumo.
At that moment, the ground of the ring genuinely felt as if it were shaking, as though a massive earthquake had just struck.
"Renjiro, my son, always remember one thing. It's not always about strength." He looked back slightly at the fallen Renjiro, smiling warmly. "It's about balance. If the ground beneath your feet is yours, then nobody can drop you down."
The entire background of the arena slowly began fading into a bright, shining light. Along with it, Kenji Hoshino's body also began vanishing into that same light.
"No, Grandpa, don't leave me again. I won't let you go," Renjiro cried intensely. He extended his open hand toward Kenji, as if trying desperately to stop his grandfather. "Please, Grandpa, I need you. Don't leave me."
Renjiro's eyes snapped open. He was pulled from that world back to the exact place where he had fallen on the floor beneath the gate pillar.
He found a sliver of courage within himself. The cold night air suddenly rushed into his lungs, pouring life back into him. He pushed both his hands down against the ground, trying to force himself up. Ignoring the sharp pain rising in his stomach, he managed to get onto his knees.
Both of his knees were still resting on the freezing road. The pain in his stomach and ribs stabbed at him like a dagger, but he tightly ground his teeth together. The cold night air created a burning fire in his lungs, but he absolutely refused to stop breathing.
"You are telling the truth, Grandpa..." a heavy whisper escaped from his trembling lips. "This ground is mine. I won't let it slip from my feet."
He pressed his right hand even harder against the ground. His fingers gripped the floor tightly, exactly as if it were the clay of the Osaka ring. Then, slowly, he moved one heavy leg forward, planting the sole of his cheap school shoe firmly onto the ground.
Thud!
His leg was trembling horribly. When his massive weight shifted onto that single leg, a scream nearly tore from his throat, but he swallowed that scream down into his blood-filled throat. He closed his eyes. In his mind, there were no terrifying red eyes of Hiroto, nor Yuto's laugh. There was only one image—Grandpa Kenji's immovable, mountain-like stance.
He used every last ounce of strength he had left and planted his second foot onto the floor. Now, he was standing on both feet, but not straight. His knees were bent, his back tilted slightly forward. A proper, deep Sumo Shiko Stance.
He said to himself with absolute, burning passion, "Next time, this ground will remain at my feet."
The light from the pillar lamp, which had been flickering over Renjiro earlier, suddenly stopped. It began shining steadily, casting directly onto his face. His face completely transformed into a perfect contrast of shadow and light.