Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 114: Companionship and competition can both help people move forward
[Amano: Do you like being hated so much?]
[Inoue: Isn't it true that competing with others is more motivating than competing with yourself?]
When he walked out of the gate of Zaoshi High School, he subconsciously took out his cell phone to check the time.

Six twenty-four.

It was getting late, and only a little gray-gold tail was left of the dusk, which was about to curl up behind the jungle of high-rise buildings.

There are maple trees planted on the side of the street outside Zaoshi High School. The branches and leaves are lush and green. The shadows of the trees fall from one side of the school to the other, almost blurred to the point of being invisible.

In a few minutes, when the street lights come on, the horizontal path created by the tree shadows will completely disappear and shrink to both sides of the street.

He crossed the street on the path of tree shadows that overlapped with the sidewalk and reached the other side.

There is a convenience store not far away after crossing the sidewalk, and you can smell the aroma of oden as you pass by.

He received Amano's message and the aroma of oden almost at the same moment, so he went into the convenience store, bought a few skewers of oden, poured soup on them, took them to the rest area and sat down.

[Amano: In other words, you believe that it is not enough to be the only one being hated.]
[Amano: You're going to make the Hayami brass band hate the entire Kitakura.]
The first thing he pulled out of the paper cup of oden was a peeled egg that had been soaked in the oden soup for a long time and had changed color. He raised it to his mouth, saw the message displayed on the mobile phone screen, paused for a moment, and put it back into the cup.

The message sent by Amano was full of confidence and certainty, and the conclusion it reached seemed to hit the bull's eye.

[Amano: Do you want Kita-Sakura to lose to Hayami Takashi in the competition?]
[Inoue: It has nothing to do with winning or losing.]
He thought of Asuka, Suzuka and Tamura, and all the members of the Kitakura Wind Band.

The changes to the project songs, the selection of free songs, and all the debates within the Kitakura Wind Orchestra all had their reasons.

Despite their complaints and disagreements, they practiced just as hard and played the instrument with just as much dedication. Objectively speaking, no one did anything wrong.

He had no reason to frame such a group of people.

[Amano: After listening to the Hayami Wind Ensemble's performance, do you think that even if you practice hard, you won't be able to defeat Kitakura?]
[Inoue: Perhaps.]
He picked up the oden egg for the second time and took a bite. It was sweet, and the yolk was soaked with the broth.

[Amano: During the competition, I will also join the ensemble and be in charge of the 'present' part of the trumpet duet.]
[Inoue: I look forward to your performance.]
The melody that Amano had played still echoed in his mind.

The valley, the shouts, the scattering cherry blossoms, the rain falling from the umbrella...

After just one listen, he felt that this was the melody of the duet, perfect as it was, without the need for any changes.

His feeling should be right, and the fact should be like this - this melody was originally written by her, and even written for her current self.

[Amano: Do you still think Kitakura will never lose?]
[Inoue: Don't worry about winning or losing, as long as you participate in the ensemble.]
He swallowed the rest of the egg, picked up a bamboo wheel and took a bite.

As long as Amano participates in the competition, it will be fine.

Under the current circumstances, only Amano has enough reasons to participate in the competition and must be able to play the trumpet better than him.

This is "fair" - this is the only decisive change after the re-composition of "Tomorrow Spring".

This is the only change that was not made with the purpose of "preventing the orchestra from losing points when playing this piece". Regardless of whether you have heard wind music before or not, you can hear the obvious difference in the passage.

Tamura was responsible for the original solo part of the duet, but he "stole" the "present" part of the duet to ensure a "fair" competition.

What he hopes for is not which side wins or loses, but that the winner does not have to feel guilty and the loser can be convinced.

The very existence of this competition was unfair to the Kitakura Wind Band—they had already qualified for the Kanto Competition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition, but because their conductor's advisor disagreed on which free piece to change, they had to compete again against a school they had already defeated...

There will always be some resentment.

After the chikuwa, we finished with a skewer of konjac, made from konjac. It's flavorless on its own, but like white radish, it absorbs the oden broth perfectly, giving it a springy texture that's incredibly popular.

He took two sips of oden soup, left the paper cup on the table in the lounge area, and left the convenience store.

I got on the train back to the rental house and sent a message to Takeda, asking what he wanted for dinner and how long it would take him to be home.

Then I started watching videos and searching for strategy tutorials about the Zelda game on video websites to see the techniques for sneak attacks and backstabbing monsters.

The health of a Pokoblin in Master difficulty is six times that of a Pokoblin in Normal difficulty. Even the most ordinary Pokoblin needs to consume a lot of sticks and weapons to defeat it head-on.

But Ka can go around behind it and make a sneak attack, then quickly run in front of it, wait for it to turn behind him because of the hit on the back, and make a second sneak attack... By repeating this process, he can kill a piglet without any harm.

Regardless of whether it was practical or not, if Takeda saw him use this technique to defeat a monster, her eyes would definitely light up - this technique was simple enough that even she could easily learn it...

He also found that the weapons in the hands of the centaurs on the initial plateau had extremely high attack power. If he got them in the early stage, it would make things much easier. He could deal with the centaurs and give the weapons they dropped to Takeda so that she could play for a longer time...

[Takeda: I forgot to mention—I ate at the hospital cafeteria. You can just help yourself as usual.]
Takeda sent a reply, and he stopped searching for the video and switched to Line.

[Inoue: Okay.]
[Takeda: When I get home, it'll be around nine in the evening. Eh, will you miss me?]
[Inoue: I guess so.]
He completely exited the video software in the background of his phone and searched for restaurants near the old residential area on the map.

[Takeda: Leave out the last part! Just say 'yes'!]
[Inoue: Yes. ]
[Takeda: That’s right.]
There is a hidden ramen restaurant in a commercial street north of the old residential area, which has received rave reviews from diners who have eaten there on Google Maps.

He decided to have dinner there, and when he put away his phone, his arm touched the small box still on his back.

Before going to the ramen restaurant, he has to go home again...

Takeda didn't send any messages for a while. He didn't have a watch on his wrist, but time still passed silently, like a skinny cat walking quietly on the courtyard wall.

The tram passed another station and slowed down to stop.

The announcer's pre-recorded electronic female voice reminds passengers getting on and off the platform to watch their step and pay attention to the yellow line on the platform.

A crowd of men and women in suits coming in and out after get off work.

He didn't pay attention to the changes in the crowd. After passing a few stops, his cell phone rang with a message alert. When he came to his senses, he saw that the people around him were still middle-aged office workers in suits fiddling with their phones, as if nothing had changed.

He took out his cell phone again and found the message was from Takeda.

[Takeda: Mother just said you listen to me too much, and that's not good.]
[Inoue: It’s definitely not good.]
I looked at the time again and it was already six forty-nine.

[Takeda: Why don’t you ask why your mother says you listen to me too much?]
[Inoue: Why?]
[Takeda: When I was chatting with you just now, my mother was secretly watching!]
His fingers half hovered over the virtual input button, wondering what Takeda wanted him to say.

[Inoue: You shouldn't peek.]
[Takeda: I think so too! Even my mother...she once peeked at my diary.]
[Inoue: Diary?]
[Takeda: It happened in junior high school. It was an ordinary coiled notebook, without the combination lock that comes with the diary. It was kept in an iron box, usually on the second drawer of the wardrobe.]
Describe in detail...

[Takeda: I found it when my mother was sorting my underwear without my permission during the general cleaning.]
In junior high school, the second layer of Takeda's closet was used to store underwear...

Why should he need to know such useless information?
[Inoue: And then?]
[Takeda: That led to a quarrel.]
That makes sense. Before he could respond, Takeda changed the subject.

[Takeda: And then, over the weekend, he bought me the dress I wanted in my diary.]
[Inoue: Have you forgiven your mother?]
[Takeda: Ask her to return the skirt.]
[Inoue: Don’t like it?]
[Takeda: Buying a skirt for me and secretly reading my diary are two different things and should not be linked together.]
I see……

He asked about the current situation in the hospital, and Takeda's mother was cooperating with the doctor to do a lung examination.

She said that she was sitting in the corridor outside the ward at that time, it was very noisy, and her wireless headphones were out of battery. She claimed that wired headphones were still practical and criticized mobile phone manufacturers for canceling the headphone jack design in the past two years.

I missed my stop without realizing it.

When he walked out of the station, he saw completely unfamiliar streets. The first thing he thought of was to take a photo and send it to Takeda.

[Takeda: Is it my fault?]
Dede...

[Inoue: Blame me, blame me. ]
He took out another wireless headset that was fully charged in the charging case, put it on, and played the duet audio that Amano sent him.

It took a long time to return to the old residential area and put the trumpet back in my room. It also took a lot of time to go to the commercial street in the north to find the hidden ramen restaurant.

It was a one-person-wide alley on the side of the commercial street. After walking more than ten meters into the alley, you could see the unlit sign of the ramen restaurant.

By the time he finally had his ramen, it was already after eight o'clock.

The taste is good, not amazing, but definitely better than most ramen restaurants.

The soup is very unique, the noodles are slightly thicker, and there are only two hardness levels to choose from.

After finishing a bowl of ramen with softer noodles, he ordered another bowl of hard noodles and ate it with free garlic cloves.

"Do you think it's delicious?" There was no one in the store, so the boss had some free time and leaned over the bar to chat with him.

"I'm hungry." He found time to respond. "I took the tram three stops and walked quite a distance."

"Live nearby?"

"I came here just to eat ramen." He took a sip of the soup and said sincerely.

"Not bad..." The ramen shop owner was an older man with a thin build and sharp facial features. A smile revealed wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks. "The harder ones taste better?"

"Just right." He smiled back, and saw a desire for some kind of tacit understanding in the ramen shop owner's eyes.

In a while, the noodles in this ramen restaurant may be even more delicious than they are now...

As he walked out of the ramen restaurant, this idea popped into his mind and he wrote down the location of the ramen restaurant.

After returning to the rental house, he first turned on the water heater, then went back to the dining room, boiled a pot of hot water, and brewed some black tea from the refrigerator, which must have been brought back by Takeda from the grocery store one day.

I glanced at the time on my phone again. It was eight forty-six. I suddenly felt that I needed to buy a watch that could tell the time just by raising my hand.

At 8:50, he poured a cup of black tea and sat on the sofa, looking at his phone.

At 8:56, he turned on the TV and looked around, but there was no program he liked.

At nine o'clock, he stared at the time on his phone for a minute until the minute jumped to one. He thought about it and sent a message to Asakura.

[Inoue: How is the animation progressing?]
Asakura read the message quickly, but waited a while before sending a reply.

[Asakura: We're going to prioritize and solve the problems step by step. It's a lot of work.]
[Inoue: Is there no problem of standing still?]
[Asakura: Let's put that aside for now and slowly figure out a solution—that's all we can do.]
[Inoue: Is there anything I can help with?]
If possible, he still hopes that Asakura's light novel can be successfully animated.

Not only for points, but also for his own consideration.

If we take a closer look, "The Wrong Kind of Love" is the light novel for which he has the greatest potential to become a bestseller for the publishing house.

If the animation goes smoothly, it will definitely boost the sales of the light novel "The Wrong Love", and his position in the industry will also rise.

[Asakura: We're still looking for a male lead voice actor. If Inoue-san wants to help, would you be willing to do the voiceover?]
Asakura jokingly echoed his words.

Ding--

Before he had time to think, the doorbell rang at the entrance.

He put down his phone for the moment, left Asakura aside, and went to open the door.

"I missed my stop too." Takeda, who could have opened the door directly with his key, stood in front of the door with his hands behind his back, and looked at him as if he was accusing him.

"Is it my fault too?" He looked surprised and felt wronged.

"I won't blame you this time." Takeda was amused by his reaction, and stretched out his hands behind his back in front of him, letting him look at the bread in his hands.

The familiar words "Gongyuan" were printed on the bread bag.

"I went to buy the bread from the place we always eat, the one with butter." She handed the bag of bread to him and explained with a smile, "And some cranberry cookies."

"I just had two bowls of ramen for dinner." He said deliberately to spoil the fun.

"You don't have to eat them all. One of them is mine!" Takeda walked into the entrance and warned him while changing his slippers.

"It means I'm full at night."

"Then stuff it into your stomach that's full of desserts." Takeda walked into the dining room, poured himself a cup of tea, and suggested to him.

"That kind of thing is only for girls." He put the bread on the coffee table and vowed never to use his points to buy bread from this shop for breakfast again. "Boys are more used to eating until they are very full at one go."

"Is that so?"

"That's it."

(End of this chapter)