[Editor's note: This chapter has been edited to remove content that breaks our content rules.]
Chapter 51: Please Don’t Tell Nodoka Haramura
After dusk faded, moonlight slipped through the gaps in the bamboo blinds, weaving a silver-white net across the room.
Yuki Kataoka was silent for a long while before asking in a trembling voice, “Could you…”
When Sora Kageyama heard her crying, he was taken aback. “What’s wrong?”
He softened his voice and tried to reassure her.
Yuki gently shook her head.
Sora breathed a sigh of relief, but he still couldn’t understand why she was crying.
Yuki raised her head slightly, her eyes bearing traces of tears.
After a long pause, she finally murmured, “I just think… maybe I was too impulsive…”
Sora lowered his voice. “Do you regret it?”
Another silence followed, lasting so long that Sora thought she wouldn’t answer.
“Maybe it was an impulse,” Yuki said quietly, “but I don’t regret it…”
Despite her words, Sora couldn’t shake the feeling that she was trying to reassure herself.
He felt he ought to do something to put her mind at ease.
“What do you plan to do now?” he asked gently. “Or rather, what do you need me to do?”
After another stretch of silence, Yuki asked hesitantly, “Can you keep it a secret…?”
“A secret?” Sora hadn’t expected that request.
“Mm. I don’t want you to tell Nodoka…”
“All right. I promise.”
Sora naturally agreed and even felt a little relieved. He had been worried that Yuki might speak without thinking.
Once she had his answer, Yuki stood up. “Then I’m going back to my room. It’ll be a problem if I wake up in yours tomorrow.”
She straightened her yukata, turned, and walked out. There was both stubbornness and vulnerability in her retreating figure.
After Yuki had gone, Sora grew restless.
Moonlight still spilled through the bamboo blinds, but all it left him now was a room in disarray and a heart full of melancholy.
What Sora didn’t know was that a girl who had come to speak with him had overheard enough to understand what was happening.
She hadn’t interrupted him, choosing instead to leave discreetly.
It was neither Saki Miyanaga nor Nodoka Haramura, but Hisa Takei, who had originally wanted to discuss the training camp with him.
Hisa was clever enough not to tell anyone. Instead, she wondered whether she might use this opportunity to gain something from Sora—though whether the plan would backfire remained to be seen.
Chapter 52: A New Day, Each with Their Own Worries
The morning light was like crumbled gold leaf, spilling through the gaps in the blinds onto Sora Kageyama’s bed.
After Yuki left, Sora fell into a deep sleep.
Now the shrill alarm on his phone cut through the quiet morning like a blade. Sora fumbled around until he finally silenced the irritating thing.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he trudged into the bathroom.
Only when he splashed cold water on his face did he fully wake up. The boy in the mirror gradually regained his alert gaze. He picked up his toothbrush and brushed his teeth mechanically.
After changing, Sora adjusted his collar, took a deep breath, and headed toward the dining room. A faint smell of disinfectant lingered in the air, and the corridor was so quiet that he could hear only his own footsteps.
He had reserved a private dining room exclusively for the Kiyosumi High School mahjong club’s training camp. Soft light fell across the tables, where an assortment of breakfasts gave off inviting aromas.
Nodoka Haramura, wearing a yukata with her hair in its usual style, was elegantly cutting into a fried egg. When she saw Sora enter, she gave him a small nod.
Meanwhile, Yuki Kataoka was doing her best to maintain a bright smile as she chatted cheerfully. To Sora, however, her smile looked more forced than usual. Clearly, the previous evening’s impulsiveness still weighed on her mind.
“Kageyama! Come on over! Today’s tacos are really good!” Yuki called enthusiastically, her voice sweet as honey.
There was something rather pitiable about how hard she was trying to act like her usual self.
Saki Miyanaga sat nearby, nibbling on bread. She looked as though she wanted to say something, her expressive eyes filled with uncertainty.
She opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing and lowered her head to continue eating.
She still hadn’t decided what to say to Nodoka or how to face Sora after the previous evening.
Sora sat down in an empty seat, feeling the beginnings of a headache.
Of the five girls before him, Nodoka was his girlfriend. His relationships with Yuki and Saki were far more tangled. And then there was…
Suddenly, he felt an amused gaze on him.
Sora instinctively turned and met Hisa Takei’s knowing eyes.
Hisa was leaning against the dining room doorway, turning a coffee cup in her hand. Her gaze seemed capable of seeing every secret hidden in his heart.
“You’re up early, Kageyama,” Hisa said as she approached with light steps, a meaningful smile on her lips. “Quite a few interesting things happened last night, didn’t they?”
Sora’s heart skipped a beat. As the mahjong club’s president, Hisa was shrewd and calculating. Her teasing stirred a subtle unease within him, as though he could already see himself falling into a carefully prepared trap and could do nothing to stop it.
After breakfast, during which Mako Someya alone remained entirely oblivious, the mahjong club began its training.
The training planned for Nodoka was quite inventive, as Sora had learned the day before.
In short, Hisa had noticed that Nodoka had a high win rate in online mahjong, but couldn’t carry that same state of mind into real-life games. In person, she was easily affected by outside influences.
Hisa therefore had Nodoka handle the tiles more, become familiar with their feel, and concentrate, hoping to make her approach to drawing tiles in person as steady as when she played online.
Saki’s training, however, was completely different.
As Hisa put it, “Unlike Haramura, who’s easily affected by real-world distractions, there are also players so strong that they can read information from the real world. Miyanaga is that type. She can see things ordinary people can’t…”
“Oh…” Saki looked thoughtful when Hisa mentioned her.
Sora naturally thought of Koromo Amae. Koromo was someone who could read that kind of information—and even control it.
He had once discussed Koromo’s ability with Touka. Touka had said that under certain conditions, Koromo could even cause a power outage.
Hearing that had made Sora feel, from the bottom of his heart, that his world wasn’t exactly scientific.
Meanwhile, Hisa continued her careful explanation.
“But that alone won’t be enough to beat professional players. So we’ll reverse Haramura’s training. Miyanaga, instead of playing with physical tiles, why not try online mahjong? We’ll use the software developed by Kageyama’s company. You’ll be playing against opponents you can’t sense anything about beyond the tiles themselves.”
“Online… Kageyama made it? That’s amazing…” It was the first Saki had heard of this, and her gaze held a little admiration as she looked at Sora.
Sora raised an eyebrow slightly and handed her his computer.
“That’s right. The nature of my company’s business is part of the reason I was able to sponsor the national tournament.”
And so the lively training camp got underway.
Hisa Takei, Mako Someya, and Sora Kageyama helped Nodoka Haramura practice in-person mahjong.
Yuki Kataoka, meanwhile, was miserably working through problems. Her woeful expression had none of her usual liveliness. Even the faint guilt toward Nodoka that she had struggled to conceal at breakfast had vanished.
Apparently, working through problems really did leave no room for stray thoughts.
Saki Miyanaga went off to play online mahjong on her own. Amusingly enough, this expert at in-person mahjong now found herself losing game after game online.