Spring has come

Right after our fishing trip ended, Kazuo divided the fish and said, “Say, should we eat at your place next time, Akio?”

“Sounds good to me. What about… in two weeks—golden week?”

Kazuo stopped putting fish from one cooler to the other and looked at the grey, cloudy sky. “I believe we’re visiting grumpy gramps for the week,” he sighed. “Say, why don’t you lot come spend a day with us?”

“Where does this grumpy gramps live? You’re not really selling the idea, you know,” dad laughed.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fun. He lives in Hamamatsu, about an hour by car.” He closed the coolers and handed dad one of them.

“What do you say, little skipper?”

I looked at dad without really processing his question, my head had been filled with the desire to sleep after such a hectic week of school paired with a bad night’s sleep.

“Sure, I suppose.”

“Alright, it’s settled then,” dad said as he loaded the cooler in the car. “I’ll be getting a call sometime with more details and all that from you, no?”

“Gotcha. Catch you later buddies!”

We got in our cars and drove homeward. We had yet to eat lunch and I was already set for another night’s sleep. Through the window from underneath my cap’s brim, I saw my vision narrowing as the weight of my eyelids was getting harder to push up. It didn’t take much longer before one of my prolonged blinks turned a slumber.

* * *

“Ryotarou! You’re doing it wrong—hit it like this!” Keito threw the volleyball up and slightly in front of him with his left hand, ran a step or two followed up by a jump.

“Like—” With an overhead swing, he whacked it over to me. “—this!” It bounced on my side of the court and rolled off until it hit the wall. I picked it up and gave his style of serving a go… though my attempt hit the net and bounced back to me.

“Try again, I’m going to run up and dig it.”

I tried again, managing to get it over the net this time, though it drifted to the right and went out of bounds.

“Good! Keep going!” He threw the ball over the net.

“Can’t you ask one of the volleyball guys to help you out?”

“No can do. I’m not good enough yet for the trials. I’ll ask them once I’ve got the hang of things.”

This sort of training went on for a couple of weeks.

I suddenly found myself at the summer tournament, two years later. Where Keito was lined up in the starting team instead of the injured captain—who was in the stands together with the bench players and a few supporters from our school.

“Come on boys! Kill them!”

We watched how the opponents scored one point after the other. Even though Keito and the others were giving it their all, it really was a game so one-sided that even the opponent’s entourage didn’t bother celebrating any points until the final one was scored, winning them the game.

Our school’s captain, who didn’t stop yelling encouraging words for the entire game, now forced a smile on his face that contradicted the teary look in his eyes. Before standing up, he put his cap, hanging on his knee, on his head, pushing it down by the brim—hiding his eyes.

When he stood up and applauded, his team looked at him, all equally confused. “Boys! Gather here!” His applause didn’t end, not until he was surrounded by the team he captained. “We faced one of the favourites in the very first round. Tough luck. But you guys fought until the bitter end. I couldn’t be more proud of you.” He took his cap off, revealing the tears he was hiding. “I can’t wait to fight against or along you boys in high school.” He stretched his arm out in front of him, to which his team quickly followed. “All for one and one for all, we will kill them all—with volleyball!”

“Now, one final thing. Let’s watch the other games as a team and learn, alright?”

All team members followed their captain’s last command and sat down in the stands to watch the next game, all except Keito, who walked in the direction of the dressing room. I went after him, predicting that he was blaming himself on the loss. He was the stand-in for the team’s best player after all.

The door of the dressing room slowly got closed right as I stood in front of it. I put my cap back on my head, pushing it down by the brim. Soon followed Keito’s deafening scream,

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!”

I don’t know what fell, but something fell with a thump so loud that it equalled Keito’s decibels. Then followed the sound of many punches against the lockers.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—” then the loudest punch of all, “—FUCK!”

I sat down against the wall to wait for him to come back out. I closed my eyes as my body started tilting forward, completely out of my control.

When I opened my eyes again, from underneath my brim I saw—and heard—the rain coming down on our windshield.

“Awake again, huh. This car’s perfect for naps, no?”

It took me a second to realise I was dreaming about my middle school days.

“Make sure that you don’t dose off, too, dad.”

He laughed, “No worries, your mother is fond of this car, too. She wouldn’t be too pleased if I risked damaging it.”

I laughed as well, “Is that the worst that could happen if a driver naps on the road?”

* * *

The following Monday morning, I overslept and sent Keito a text saying, “No need to wait on me, I overslept.”

Currently, I’m already en route to school, probably on time. As I was nearing the crosswalk near our school, I saw Keito in the distance—who seemed to be talking to someone. The closer I got, the more sure I got that the person he was talking to was Katsumata, though she didn’t seem to be talking a lot.

When Keito noticed me from afar, he said goodbye to Katsumata and ran over to me.

“Yo, Ryotarou! We’ll still make it in time,” he smiled.

“You didn’t have to wait on me.”

“I know, I know. But I saw Katsumata petting a cat as I was walking by, so I tried striking up a conversation or something while waiting on you. Though she really doesn’t say a word does she?”

“I—” I thought back to our conversation during lunchbreak and later during PE a couple of days ago, “—guess, so. I don’t know.”

We continued walking, until he stopped me by stopping himself. “No questions on what we were talking about?”

“Hm? No, not really.”

“You’re so boring,” he complained. “I’ll tell you… we played volleyball during PE on Friday. That got me thinking about middle school, you see. So I was telling her about how you helped me out big time back then. I’m a worldclass wingman, am I right?”

“Wingman for what exactly?” I asked him.

He let out a heavy sigh. “All my efforts in vain, or what… Anyway, that got me thinking about the football club! When are you free to do some goalkeeper training?”

“You really haven’t changed a bit over these years…” this time it was my turn to sigh. “Just ask someone from the club.”

“I haven’t joined yet. I need to practice first.”

Right as I was about to continue our arguing, the school bell rang and both are eyes widened in surprise.

“Run!!”

Our school is luckily right around the corner, but the gates were already being closed. I thought we were screwed, until I saw that it was Mister PE-Yamada who was closing it.

“Wait, Mister Yamada!” I yelled out.

He looked at us, getting in a posture ready to lecture us, but we ran past him as fast as we could. Getting inside the main building and making it to our classrooms just in time.

* * *

The trees were in full blossom. It truly was spring. A time of new beginnings as nature awakens from its hibernation, blossoming beautifully throughout the world, making scene after scene just that little bit more serene. The morning blooms, too, with the sound of chirping birds singing their own melodies. In the many lakes around, the water heats up, relieving the fish of the winter cold—stimulating them to expand their families. As the days grow longer and the weather gets warmer, you truly feel that spring has come.

Though I wonder why all that I’m doing after school during this wonderful time of the year, is sitting in a park on a swing, likely disturbing the fun of children that might want to stop by to play.

“Alright, Ryotarou, the bars of these swings will serve as my goal.” He threw the football in his hands to me. “Go shoot from over there, and I’ll try to catch it.”

I did as he said and stood about a dozen meters away, placed the ball down on the ground and took a couple extra steps back. My only experience with this comes from PE classes, so it’s fair to say that I’m no good at this.

“Want me to shoot?”

“Bring it on!” He slapped his thighs, then clapped his hands once, bringing them up to his goalkeeper pose from last week.

With a little run-up, I hit the ball with a medium level of strength with the tip of my foot, accidentally launching it in a rainbow-sort of angle instead of a proper kick.

“You gotta kick it with the inner-instep of your foot and aim for the middle of the ball. Also, keep your leg’s momentum going, don’t stop where the ball is placed, you want to kick beyond it for more power.”

“Hit the what with the what now?”

He walked over and showed me with his foot. “See this part?” He caressed the inner side of the top of his right shoe. “Try to hit the middle of the ball with as much power as you can.”

“I’m surprised you know all of this and aren’t in the football club yet…”

His back still facing me as he walked back into position, he said, “You ought to study before taking a test—” he turned over his shoulder, “—Right?”

I took a few steps back and followed his advice. But right when I thought I had it, my ball flew wide to the left.

“Ryotarou… Keep your eyes on the ball right when you’re about to shoot, okay?”

“…Shouldn’t I be looking at where I’m aiming?”

“No, you look at where you’re aiming before you shoot. The goal post won’t move. Your ball, when in motion, and especially your legs won’t be in the same place. Keep your eyes locked on the ball right before you shoot. That way you’ll hit it right where you want to hit!”

“Got it.”

Once again, I did as he said and actually managed to shoot the ball… well, somewhat near him. He took two steps to the side before making a diving save towards the ball—punching it out of bounds.

“Nice one! Keep ‘em coming!”

We played until the sun set, which felt awfully longer than last time the two of us did something until dusk. I guess spring really has come.

“So, want to join the club after all?” Keito asked whilst juggling the ball with his feet on our way home.

“Absolutely not.”

“It’s not like you to set foot outside your boundaries, I know that all too well…” He kicked the ball too far from his foot, forcing him to chase it so it wouldn’t end up on the road. “But it wouldn’t be the first time you did the unthinkable, right?”

I had a hunch to what he was getting at, but asked, “What do you mean?” anyway.

He stretched his arm out, palm down. “All for one and one for all, we’ll kill them all—”

I walked up to him and placed my hand on his with a sigh, “—with volleyball... What a stupid chant.”

“Ain’t that right, captain!”