The Genius Everyone Envies

"Resentment... is it? Ever since I was born, I had never felt that emotion."

"Of course. I had never experienced any setbacks in this life. Whether in academics or sports, I could obtain everything without putting in any effort. I had already forgotten what resentment felt like.

I had never considered the feelings of losers, or how to win.

So these more than ten years of my new life had been this empty. Everything came too easily. What a life without any real sense of substance!

Soga, so you gou dou ga—both meant 'therefore.' Before I knew it, I was already twelve years old, but time had passed so quickly that I had felt nothing at all.

This emptiness was like I had experienced nothing over the past twelve years.

Being a genius was a kind of trouble too! No matter what I did, I felt nothing.

Empty, bland, lonely. No emotional fluctuations, no excitement, no thrill. Everything was simply taken for granted.

When you could do anything casually and have no opponents left, you quickly lost interest. Everything became dull and tasteless. That was the so-called genius everyone envied!!!"

"If talent was the most unreasonable thing in the world, then geniuses were the most unreasonable people.

But beneath that overwhelming strength, who could sense the loneliness within? The easier something was, the less interest it inspired!"

"Coach... huh? That sounded interesting! Then I'll do it!" After everyone left, Sendou stood alone beneath the moonlit sky, his thoughts racing.

"A text message!"

Just then, Sendou's phone lit up and chimed.

Sendou picked up his phone and looked at the message.

"I really still want to study science. I'm definitely going to study astronomy in university!"

After reading it, Sendou replied.

"Ah! How enviable!"

"╰_╯ Are you mocking me?"

The other side replied shortly afterward, apparently with a very dangerous smile. At least, that was how Sendou imagined that expression.

"What do you think?"

"You wouldn't be that bored. But what's wrong? Did something happen? You seem to be in a bad mood."

"You really are sharp. No wonder you're called... what was it again? Your nickname?"

"Please forget that nickname already!"

"I've already forgotten it."

"Who are you trying to fool? So what exactly put you in a bad mood? You shouldn't have run into any difficult problems, right?"

"Yeah... I just feel like life has no sense of reality. You wouldn't understand. Being called a genius was really exhausting!

But you're different. You love language arts, and you're called a genius in that field! And even if you studied the math you're terrible at, you wouldn't feel the way I do!"

"⊙_⊙!"

"Enough of that. What happened today?"

"Hey, hey, Akila, save me! I'm going to die (>﹏<)! Why can't I understand any of these math problems?!"

"..."

"Get on LINE!"

"Got it! ^ω^!"

Several words omitted here.

"Will this do?" After a series of explanations and screenshots, Sendou asked helplessly.

"Mm, (☆_☆), thank you so much, thank you so much!"

Japanese people, regardless of gender, loved using all kinds of emoticons.

"Then I'm going to sleep. Good night!"

"Good night!"

"Honestly, would it kill you to talk a little longer?" On the other end of the phone, someone muttered softly.

Since he was already on the chat app, he created a new group, pulled all his companions into it, and said one thing.

"You'd better brace yourselves this week for a hellish life!"

Then he logged off without paying any attention to the group.

The next day after school, Sendou took the train straight back to his Tokyo home and retrieved Coach Nakanishi's notes, which had been sealed away three years ago, along with a huge stack of books.

Sendou was the kind of person who, if he was going to do something, would do it properly. He was even a little bit of a perfectionist.

That evening, he turned on his computer and began watching videos.

"That guy was pretty obedient today! Oh, right." As he spoke, he picked up his phone.

"Hello, Coach. Sorry to bother you."

"Akila? That's rare. Do you need something?"

"Could I ask you to help me gather some game footage? Little League, Little Senior League, or professional baseball videos are all fine. It'd be even better if there are highlight reels. Please."

"Could it be, Sendou, that you want to play baseball again?" Coach Nakanishi instantly became excited.

Although he knew Sendou had continued doing all that training, he had never touched baseball again—not even casually going to a batting center.

Although Sendou had kept training and had not wasted his talent by missing his physical growth period, it was impossible not to feel regret.

"No. The guys here asked me to be their coach. And they're too terrible, so I want to see whether there are any tactics suitable as this team's future development goal. Then I'll shore up their fundamentals while conducting targeted intensive training. I hope we can get a good result in the final middle school tournament. After all, there are only two years left until the third-year tournament."

"So that's how it is! Leave it to me!" Coach Nakanishi was somewhat disappointed, but then he thought that understanding baseball tactics was also a form of growth. Skills were easy to cultivate, but tactical thinking was not. That made him feel much better.

"I'll participate too, but only in the games. Otherwise, with them alone, they probably won't win a single game throughout middle school." Of course Sendou understood the other man's disappointment, which was why he said that.

"Yoshi, leave it to me!" Sure enough, the other man's spirits immediately lifted.

"Do you need me to assess their traits and train their fundamentals?"

"You're busy there too, aren't you!? Besides, you have no idea how bad they are! I'm enough. And if you take over everything, Coach, I'm afraid I'll lose interest!"

"If you run into any problems, ask me anytime!"

"Yeah, I know! Well, I'll hang up first."

"Mm, all right. I'll contact you on LINE later."

"Okay, goodbye then!"

"Ah, good night!" With that, Coach Nakanishi hung up.

"That old man was really energetic!" Saying that, Sendou returned to his computer and continued watching videos at his limit.

"Tap, tap, tap!"

"Hai rei you—come in."

"Akila, dinner's ready!" Sendou's Grandfather entered and said to Sendou.

"Yeah~" With a pen clenched between his teeth, Sendou answered casually.

"What are you doing?"

"Game footage!"

"The matter of Eijun asking you to be his coach? I didn't expect you to take it this seriously!"

"It couldn't be helped. I already agreed!"

"What game is it?"

"A Koshien game from two years ago. Let's see... mm, Kiryu versus Yokohama."

"Soga! Good luck! It's rare for you to be interested in something."

"It's nothing. Those things before couldn't be helped either. I just got them too easily, then lost interest too quickly." After saying that, Sendou stood up and took the ballpoint pen from his mouth.

During dinner, Grandfather told Grandmother about Sendou's situation, and she was happy for him as well.

I felt pretty awful yesterday and only wrote a little. I felt a bit better this afternoon, so I typed up some more and roughly made up a chapter to post. Please don't mind it! If there are any detail issues, I'll fix them once I'm better. These past two days have been especially miserable at night. It looks like I won't recover in just a few days. Finally, I have no idea how to name chapters anymore, lol.

The line about talent being the most unreasonable thing in the world and geniuses being the most unreasonable people was something I came up with after seeing those geniuses before. I don't know whether anyone else has said it, but it definitely isn't plagiarism. This line will appear several more times later.