Kazuma's first reaction was that the fingers were too slim, so it was unlikely that the person was a kendo practitioner. And there were calluses on the fingers, so the person probably played a musical instrument.
Maybe it was a wind instrument.
Kazuma raised his head. As his line of sight rose, a bulging school uniform top came into view.
Such strong chest muscles, comparable to Schwarzenegger's.
Then, he saw a thick braid hanging on her chest from the left side of her neck, a mole on her chin, a straight and high nose bridge, and a pair of thick-framed glasses.
Kazuma recalled that this girl was probably the class representative—in Japan, class representatives were called presidents. But the word "president" gave Kazuma a feeling that she would give strange orders such as asking the students on duty to move the blackboard eraser to the side by another five centimeters or something.
So Kazuma decided to address her as "class representative." "What's wrong, class rep?"
"Today's the deadline for submitting your college decisions to the school. Only Kiryuu-kun has yet to submit it in our class."
"Oh, I've filled up the form. I forgot to pass it to you." Kazuma quickly rummaged through his schoolbag and took out the completed college decisions form.
In Japan, most people only had high school qualification. After graduating from high school, many people would choose to start working, even if it was in 1980 when there was an increased emphasis on grades and education.
There were also a number of people who chose to enter various "short-term universities." Although they were also called universities, they were technically vocational schools.
The Japanese education system believed that high schools were obligated to provide assurance for students' future plans.
Therefore, Japanese high schools would survey their students about their college decisions. Some schools would even do it once a year from the first year of high school. Based on the survey results, the teachers would provide targeted guidance to groups of students.
In some rural areas where personal connections were the key to success, teachers even had the job of introducing career opportunities to students who did not want to go on to tertiary education.
Of course, in a big city like Tokyo, there was no such benefit. School teachers were only responsible for teaching, and they would not care anymore after their students had graduated.
Kazuma was in the last year of his high school, so he naturally had to submit the college decisions forms and receive guidance.
The class rep took his form. She pushed her glasses and glanced at the form…
Then she looked at Kazuma in confusion.
"Are you serious?"
"Of course." Kazuma nodded solemnly.
"Please fill it seriously. When I hand in your form, the teacher-in-charge will scold me for being irresponsible. I can't submit something that's so casually done."
Kazuma snatched his form back and smiled. "How about this? You hand in the rest first, then I'll pretend that we couldn't find each other so I'll submit mine on my own."
The class rep stared at Kazuma for a few seconds and sighed. "Since you are serious, I will hand yours in. Then, I will try my best to convince the teacher that you are really serious."
As soon as she finished speaking, Kazuma's classmate, Yamada Yoichi, snatched the form from behind.
Right after that, Yamada started shouting, "Wow! Kiryuu wants to apply to Tokyo University! Tokyo University! The loser is applying to Tokyo University!"
The other students turned to look at Yamada and joined in the jeering.
Kazuma did not expect this.
If it was after 1990, members of the sports club would be at the top of the pyramid in Japanese school cliques. Even if Yamada Yoichi's grades were among the best, he would not dare to mock Kiryuu Kazuma, a member of the school kendo team.
However, it was 1980, an era where the top scorers were the most popular students in school. The sports club members were only at the second level of the pyramid.
Besides, Yamada dared to mock Kazuma probably because the communication technologies were not yet developed. No one in the class knew that Kazuma had defeated a yakuza family chief.
Otherwise, he would not have dared to act so rashly.
However, his classmates did not know any of those. That was why Kiryuu Kazuma, who had defeated Nishikiyama Heita, was ridiculed by his classmates just because of his poor grades and ambitious goals.
Kazuma was furious. He thought to himself. 'Just you wait. I haven't gotten any exams since I transmigrated. I don't even have a quiz yet to prove myself.'
'When the exam comes, we'll see who's smarter.'
Just as he was about to snatch back his college decisions form, he suddenly heard the class rep take a deep breath.
This breath was very long. As a practitioner of martial arts, Kazuma quickly looked at the top of the rep's head when he heard this breath. He had only been paying attention to her strong chest muscles and pigtail just now and had not looked up.
However, the class rep did not know any martial arts.
At this moment, the class rep shouted, "Yamada! Give me back the fooooooorrmmm!"
This roar reminded Kazuma of Zhang
Even Kazuma was shocked.
The entire class fell silent. Some people from the next class poked their heads out to watch what happened.
Yamada was petrified and did not dare to move.
The class rep snatched the form back.
"Sorry, I made a mistake," she said to Kazuma.
Kazuma replied, "What a great lion's roar… I mean, shout."
The class rep smiled and said, "I play the tuba at a symphony band. I guess it's no surprise that I have huge lung capacity."
With that, the class rep quickly left the classroom with the entire class' college decisions form.
Then, the bell rang, signaling the start of the first lesson.
***
While Kazuma was in school, at a small remote kabuki bar…
Bars would not open for business before sunset. But there was no such restriction for some "regular customers."
Therefore, even though there was a CLOSED sign outside the bar, Nishikiyama Heita still sat in front of the bar counter and poured himself a glass of whiskey before taking small sips.
There was no one behind the bar counter. The bartender should be in the kitchen doing the last preparation work before opening the bar at night.
At the top of the counter, there was a small TV live-streaming a concert of the most popular songs.
The first wave of Japanese idols happened to emerge in 1980. However, this generation of idols were all aiming for perfection, so they all had sweet smiles, a penetrating voice, and the typical looks of a beautiful Japanese lady.
It was said that Shōwa idols were omnipotent. If their house door fell off, they even knew how to repair it with a power drill.
Right now, the most popular Shōwa idols were singing youthful songs on the TV.
Nishikiyama did not even look at the idols on the screen. He continued to drink by himself.
At this moment, someone pushed open the door. The bell installed on the inner side of the door made a crisp sound.
Nishikiyama did not look in the direction of the sound either.
Usually, those careless men who'd barge in without noticing the CLOSED sign outside would immediately turn around and leave when they saw Nishikiyama Heita sitting in front of the bar counter.
Normal people would not want to sit in a bar and drink with a yakuza.
If the person did not leave after seeing him, it meant that he was a regular customer of this bar just like Nishikiyama.
The person who pushed open the door went straight to Nishikiyama's side. After making himself comfortable in the seat, he picked up Nishikiyama's whiskey bottle, casually turned a cup on the bar counter, and poured himself some alcohol.
"Does the Metropolitan Police Department allow its officers to drink during office hours now?" Nishikiyama looked at the person who came.
Investigator Shiratori smiled and said, "Alcohol is also a part of my investigation. The higher-ups won't understand."
He gulped down the whiskey he had just poured and picked up the bottle again. As he poured more whiskey into his cup, he asked, "I heard that you were defeated by Kiryuu Kazuma. Is that true?"
"Hmph, you are surely very well-informed, old
"The little brothers of the Tsuda Family are spreading the word everywhere today. They are trying to find out more about Kiryuu Kazuma, so it's obvious what happened at the dojo that day. Did you… go easy on them?"
Nishikiyama shook his head. "You might not believe it, but the youngsters in my family are all convinced that I went easy on them. However, I really didn't. I used all the knives I brought, and in the end, I had the intention to kill."
"But you couldn't win even like that?" Although Investigator Shiratori sounded surprised, his expression was actually very calm. "In other words, I suppose another strong fighter is about to emerge in the future battle of the Kanto Alliance?"
Nishikiyama shook his head. "No. I did want to recruit him, but he gave me a clear answer. He said that even yakuza leaders are at the bottom of society. He wants to enter Tokyo University and join the Metropolitan Police Department."
This time, Investigator Shiratori couldn't hide his surprise. "Tokyo University? Putting aside whether he can pass the exam or not, he doesn't have enough money to pay the tuition fees, right? Given the financial conditions of the Kiryuu siblings, I don't think they can even afford to go to a national university."
"Unless he sells the dojo for a good price," Nishikiyama replied.
Investigator Shiratori sighed.
"That boy probably doesn't know that it is ten thousand times more difficult to walk the right path than the wrong path. People like me with a police academy background spend years at crime scenes, but in the end, we can only stay as Inspectors. I'll have to wait for someone to step down before I can be promoted to Chief Inspector, or else I can wait for the one-year bonus promotion right before I retire…"
Nishikiyama asked, "Isn't there a special promotion route? You'll be promoted to Superintendent directly."
"Spare me. I still have my parents and kids to take care of."
Simply put, the special promotion route was for those who had died in the course of performing their duties. They would be promoted two ranks after their death.
After that, the two of them chatted about something else. Suddenly Nishikiyama said, "You didn't bring your partner here even though it's still during your working hours. I don't think you came to chitchat with me, did you?"
"Of course not. I heard that Tsuda Masaaki was going to take over the dojo matter officially, so I came to confirm it."
"Then I can tell you with certainty, yes."
"I see. Then the Kiryuu siblings won't be able to keep the dojo any longer, nor can it be sold for a good price, right?"
Nishikiyama did not reply. He sipped on his whiskey in silence.
That's how the world was. Some things didn't need to be said openly because this world had always been like this.