FURIN HIGH SCHOOL
Oww...
Who drinks orange juice with cuts in their mouth?
Shut up. Vitamin C's good for wounds.
Don't you mean dry skin?
It's protein for wounds.
This one's mine!
SHWOOP
Hey! Damn you, that was the last one!
- I'll rub a lemon all over your wounds! - Everyone's so full of energy again.
Yup.
I'm glad Anzai-san is cheerful again.
Oh, right, Nirei!
You hear from Sakura?
No. Actually, he hasn't even read my messages.
I wonder what's wrong with Sakura-kun today.
Maybe he overslept?
This late? We're almost done with lunch, you know?
He seemed pretty depressed after the fight, too.
I'm kinda worried.
Then let's call him.
Oh, hello? Sakura-san? Are you okay to chat now?
Huh? Wait, Sakura-san? Sa—
He hung up on me.
Come on, what's with him?
If I had to guess...
I think Sakura-san caught a cold.
He sounded pretty sick.
Perhaps we bought a little too much?
Everyone is worried about Sakura-kun.
I mean, they were on the verge of visiting him together.
Right.
But in any case, I didn't realize Sakura-san's home was this close.
He said he came from out of town, so I thought he'd live a bit further.
I guess him entering school and his family moving coincided?
Well, we'll know when we get there.
Oh, it should be here.
FOR RENT
Wow, a haunted house!
Hey, Suo-san!
Huh? This place looks like it's built for single residents.
Y-You're right. I wonder what that's about.
It's broken.
The door's unlocked.
H-Hold on, barging in without permission...
Sakura-kun's shoes.
Sakura-kun! Hello?
Uh, h-he really does live here, right?
Excuse us.
G-Going inside without permission has to be—
Nire-kun.
Looking at the situation here, Sakura-kun is alone right now.
And he can't move around too much because of a cold.
What will you do if something bad had happened to him?
S-Something bad?
D-Dying all alone!
KYAAAA
Shut up!
Why are you barging into someone's house and making so much noise?
You guys...
S-Sakura-san!
Why the hell are you...
W-We're here to visit you.
Looks like you have it pretty rough.
Sorry to wake you.
Now, let's go back to that futon.
- Hey, stop it. Don't push me. - Nire-kun, can you carry the goods?
O-Okay.
Sakura-kun, are you living all alone?
What if I am?
Do you have cold medicine? Want me to get you some?
No need.
Then is there anything you want to eat?
I don't wanna eat.
Sakura-kun, who's always hungry, has no appetite.
And he's not even talking back to me.
In any case...
To be living alone in a place like this...
Who in the world is Sakura-san...
Nire-kun.
That's for Sakura-kun.
Oh, right. That's right.
This is from all the guys.
Everyone was super worried and wanted you to get better soon.
I don't know the details, but all the more if you're living alone.
Please rely on us more.
Wait, that's all I've been talking about since yesterday.
It's nothing.
I've always dealt with crap like this on my own.
I'll get better once I sleep it off.
It's not a big deal.
Th-That's—
Nire-kun, we were able to hand him all the stuff, and it's not good to stay too long.
Shall we head back?
Huh? Oh, but...
Let's go home for today.
O-Okay.
Okay, Sakura-kun, please take care.
If there's anything, please drop us a line!
S-Suo-san.
H-Hold up. Why are we going home?
Aren't you worried?
Well...
I don't know what happened,
but looking at that room and Sakura-kun's behavior,
he really has been all alone this whole time.
Then that's all the more reason.
Nire-kun, let's say you're lost and you were granted one thing to help you.
What would you want?
Huh?
I-I'll take a smartphone.
I can look up my current location and the roads.
Right.
But that's only because you know how to use a smartphone.
O-Okay.
When you're in trouble and someone hands you something you don't know how to use,
that only troubles you even more, right?
Besides, for Sakura-kun, it wasn't just about how to use it.
I don't think he even knew about the existence of smartphones.
JUNPEI KURITA HEY! SAKURA! HOW YA FEELIN'?
And by that, I mean his buddies.
YURI KAKIUCHI - SENT A STICKER YOU OKAY?
MASAKI ANZAI MAKE SURE TO REST UP, OKAY?
So for now, I feel acting normally would let him save his strength, physically and mentally.
If he still isn't at school tomorrow, then let's come back to check on him again, okay?
I understand what you're saying, Suo-san.
But still, I...
I want him to know that it's there.
By relying on buddies, by trusting them, he can really resolve things that trouble him.
I said that I would guide the way until Sakura-san took the top spot.
Sakura-san is always forging his own path.
So, at the least, when he's in trouble, I want to help him out.
I want to help even if it's just a little bit.
Huh? If it isn't Nire and Suo.
HYDRATION IS IMPORTANT! -TAKANASHI GET WELL SOON! -KIRYU VITAMIN C FOR COLDS! -ANZAI THIS IS YUMMY -KAKIUCHI
HYDRATION IS IMPORTANT! -TAKANASHI PLEASE TAKE CARE! -KURITA
I've always done crap by myself.
Somehow, I've always been fine.
And that was to be expected, but...
Your body stopped moving after you saw your friends get beaten up, right?
It's because you like them.
Gimme a break.
Crap about liking or hating someone making my body unable to move? No way.
What is it?
What the hell is it?
Huh? What? Wait...
What the...
Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?
Here. Have some.
Egg congee. Eat what you can.
Hey, eat slowly.
More like, you lived on your own, huh?
Though, this doesn't even look like a room anyone would live in.
Why don't you at least put up some curtains?
In any case, you don't have much of anything.
Are you what they call a minimalist?
Sh-Shut the hell up.
Well, it's reassuring that at least you have an appetite.
I saw Nire and Suo right outside earlier.
And Nire was pretty much panicking.
Damn it, they did something they shouldn't have...
SLAP
What they shouldn't have done? Everyone's worried about you!
And I heard you got into another fight yesterday?
You really go at it, huh?
No wonder why you have a fever.
It's not like this is because of the fight.
Worried about the, "I like my buddies now so my body freezes up" issue?
Have some water!
H-H-How do you know?
You're so easy to read.
Ume keeps telling me.
I just don't buy it.
I don't want my body to change how it moves because of something so abstract like that.
But in reality, your body didn't move, right?
No matter what the reason, you can't help it once it happens.
So why don't you think of a way to get around it?
A way to get around it?
Like delegating the people around you who can act on your behalf.
You've gotta be kidding. I can do it on my own.
This is a personal issue.
HMPH
Hey, I'm still eating!
Can you make this?
Well, it's just dumping in the ingredients and putting it over a fire.
But you don't have a stove, a pot, or the ingredients.
What are you talking...
While you were asleep, Nire and Suo brought these.
I made this for you.
Because someone acted on your behalf,
you were able to sleep and when you woke up, you had a meal and water.
I-I can buy food on my own.
That's not what I'm talking about.
Even if it's something you can do,
because someone else did it for you, you were able to do something else.
There are only so many things one human can do in a limited amount of time.
There aren't many things I can do.
Well, even then...
Relying on others, or asking favors from them,
may be a bit scary at first.
Okay.
Hey, Kaji. You got a visitor.
Oh, it's you.
I wanna talk with you a bit.
Talk? About what?
About the fight the other day...
What? The visitor is a first-year?
To think our Kaji...
He's acting like a proper upperclassman.
Shut it, punks.
Wait, that hair...
So you're Sakura? You seem to be making quite—
That first-year who won against Shishitoren?
That's awesome!
And Kaji tamed a kid like that?
- Shut up! - Tamed.
TAMED...
We're leaving!
Kusumi! Enomoto!
Whatcha want?
Don't let them follow us! At any cost!
Surrrre thing.
Let's go.
Hey, punks!
Sit down in yerrrr seats!
So, what do you want?
Back when we fought KEEL,
I thought I could manage everything on my own.
But that wasn't the case at all.
On top of everything, we needed you guys to wipe our asses.
I couldn't even do that much.
So I get a vague idea that I have to rely on and trust others.
But...
But what?
You rely on your vice captains for everything.
That bit just now, and when we were fighting, and at the patrols...
How can you rely on them so much?
Why... How can I be like that?
- Say something! - Shut up for a sec.
H-Hey!
Hey, what's going on?
Th-The roof?
I heard when you talk about things like this, it's better to do it in high, open places like here.
So, how I can rely on others, was it?
Naturally, that's 'cause I can't do things by myself.
S-Saying something like that is basically admitting that you're weak.
I can't do something like that.
GLANCE GLANCE
Wh-What?
GREEN TEA
What's this?
Cof... Green tea?
That's right.
Though it's coffee inside.
SMUG
What the hell are you talk—
No matter how much I say that this is green tea, it's coffee inside.
The label changing doesn't mean that the contents change.
Of course it doesn't.
Then not saying you can't do things when you can't...
GREEN TEA
is the same as saying, "This is green tea," when it's coffee, yeah?
You "know you can't do much of anything" and "realize that you have to rely on others."
But you can't.
You're scared of being rejected by others.
That shouldn't be the case.
I thought I had given up.
Rejection, refusal, denial. I don't care what others think of me.
I don't care.
I thought I didn't care anymore.
They saw what I could do.
They saw I could fight, and decided I'd be the grade captain.
Nirei, Suo, Tsugeura, Kiryu. All of them.
But I couldn’t live up to their expectations.
If I admitted that in front of them...
and relied on them on top of that...
I don't know how you think other people see you.
But I think they're already aware that you're scared.
Why would I... How do they know that I'm s-s-...
Anyone can figure it out.
When you suddenly snap like that.
Oh, I know, I know.
You know how cats and dogs intimidate us when they're scared?
MROOOWR
It's like that.
Cats and dogs.
They say there are ghosts on this rooftop.
Someone who snuck in at night said so.
There was a woman in a dress standing there.
But when they went to confirm the next day,
it was just a plastic bag and a shovel.
So he just imagined up a ghost and was scared for no reason.
Right.
"Imagined" that you were rejected, and scared "for no reason."
There's no way you can figure out what other people think.
Even then, your buddies... Even if they see your "weak" self as you see it,
or if they see you throwin' a tantrum because you're scared,
not one of them rejected you.
Isn't that because they're looking at who you are, and not what you can do?
But you're getting scared for no reason, thinking they might reject you.
From my point of view, it just seems like you're not giving a proper look at all of 'em.
I don't know what happened to make you be like that.
But I can understand how that feels.
That's why I'm going to tell you.
Sakura-san.
Sakura-kun.
Sakura-kun!
Sakura-chan.
They're exactly like what you've seen. Believe in them.
I talked too much.
Well said, Kaji!
Hey, knock it off.
Both of you have grown so much!
Sorry, we didn't mean to eavesdrop.
ARGH
In any case, Kaji, you're starting to sound like Hiragi.
JOLT
By the way, you were tal—
tal—
You had that one coming, Umemiya.
Well...
Kaji really has grown a lot. That was a great punch.
He shoulda kicked you, too.
Hey, Sakura.
What'd you think about what Kaji said?
Wh-What did I think...
There are tons of things I can't do, too.
I do a ton of lame stuff that's not cool.
But I'm not scared.
BOFURIN
That's because I can rest assured all the guys here will accept me even if I'm like that.
So I think I can do the things that other people can't do.
And even if they're lame and uncool, I love 'em.
Everyone is like that.
Rely on, being relied on. Forgive, being forgiven. That's how you stay together.
So it's all right.
Believe in Kaji. Believe in your buddies.
And jump right out there with everything you've got!
And you don't even bother to look up?
Look who's talking.
So why don't you look this way as well?
But still, to think Kaji is giving advice to underclassmen...
Aren't you happy as an upperclassman?
I guess so.
Come on. Have a seat.
Why are we on the rooftop?
Why?
Because when you talk about things like this, it's better to do it in high, open places like here.
THE SENPAI'S TEACHINGS
Man, they showed me something really good today!
It woulda been better if you didn't stick your butt in.
All right! Today is an anniversary! Let's gather everyone and have a party!
If that's settled, I'll make a school-wide announcement.
Stop it! What if what happened today spreads to the entire school?
Huh? But I wanna tell everyone about Kaji and Sakura's growth!
You do that, and Kaji's candy consumption is gonna go through the roof.
What? There's nothing to be embarrassed about.
Man, I'm just so happy!