“Oh, I get it. You’re so happy to become friends with poop that you’re crying, right? Huh, isn’t that right, Machiko-san?”
An obvious abnormal state.
Yet, the young girls remained oblivious to Lily’s distress and continued to taunt her.
(It’s painful, painful, painful, painful, painful, painful, painful, painful. Someone, please, help me.)
Lily silently pleaded for help within herself, enduring the insults, but no one came to her rescue. No convenient turn of events occurred.
She couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
Enduring the insults from the girls, she eventually realized they were gone. The park was left with Lily alone.
(For now… let’s go back. I can’t let Saito see me like this.)
Taking about five minutes to regain control of her breathing and restore rational thoughts, the first thing that came to Lily’s mind was that.
She didn’t want to show this pathetic side to her childhood friend.
“Lily! What’s with that appearance!?”
“W-well…”
However, those thoughts were in vain as Saito appeared in the park.
Despite her white dress being stained and dirty, Saito approached without a care, causing tears to flow from Lily’s eyes once again.
“No, don’t look! This is not right!”
Lily didn’t want him to be disappointed.
Solely for Saito, for him not to distance himself like the other male classmates,
Lily rejected and pleaded for him not to look.
“What’s different? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. Anyway, let’s go to your house.”
“It’s not poop!”
“I know! What’s with that? Just be quiet and follow me.”
However, Saito didn’t stop approaching.
No matter how dirty Lily was, he touched her without hesitation and led her home.
By doing so, Saito discovered that Lily had been bullied.
“What the hell is that!? I’ll crush those pigs for you.”
“Stop! Saito. Please stop… I’m already satisfied with just having you.”
Saito, upon hearing the story, was furious.
He wanted to teach those bullies a lesson, but if he did that, even Lily, his childhood friend, would see him as a bad guy.
That’s not what Lily wanted.
Just having him genuinely angry for her sake, staying with her, was enough for Lily.
That understanding was all she needed.
“Is that enough for you!? Lily! Aren’t you angry!? Don’t you want revenge!? Aren’t you mad at all!? Are you really thinking that seriously!? Answer me!”
“I… I…”
However, Saito saw through that as a lie.
No, even though everyone understood, he crossed the line that no one had dared to step into.
As a result, Lily’s heart wavered.
It was impossible not to feel angry.
It was impossible not to want revenge.
However, what would change if she acted on those emotions?
The mature thoughts that came from experiencing a time leap whispered that it would be meaningless.
“Impossible… [Not true!] …!?”
Just as she tried to voice that it was impossible, those words were forcefully overwritten.
“You can do it! I know you can! So don’t give up!”
Saito, without any basis, said that Lily could do it and urged her not to give up.
“What-!? What does Saito understand about me!? To you, who only sees me once a month, what does Saito understand about me!? Don’t act like you know everything! Don’t speak like you know it all! Just go away!”
That touched a nerve in Lily.
His words felt like a denial of her entire first life.
It was unbearable.
So, that day, Lily forcibly drove Saito out of her house.
Since then, Lily struggled with self-loathing and became a recluse.
Even though Saito had said those things, she denied them.
She didn’t want to be separated from him, yet she pushed him away herself.
Above all, she despised herself for not feeling the desire for revenge and for lying that she didn’t want it.
She didn’t know how long she had been like this.
But when she realized it, the July calendar had turned to August.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the window. The air felt stagnant, perhaps because she had closed the curtains and left the air conditioner running.
To dispel it, she opened the window, and suddenly, her arm was grabbed.
“Finally showed your face, you shut-in. Today, I’m going to beat that rotten spirit out of you!”
“Lily!”
“Huh? Eeeeh!?”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
In front of her was her childhood friend in a judo gi, and she was forcibly dragged outside. Her mother, Lucy, handed her a judo gi.
As her eyes widened in confusion, she found herself being taken away by her childhood friend, and before she knew it, they arrived at a deserted dojo.
“Yamada gramps, I brought her here!”
“Oh, Saito-kun, did you really bring a new disciple? Grandpa is thrilled!”
As Saito knocked on the door, an elderly man with a cane appeared.
“Ouch, there, old man, shave that beard properly every day.”
“Oh, sorry, sorry. I was busy with various things this morning.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Seeing the two enthusiastically hugging each other immediately after meeting, Lily couldn’t help but express her confusion about what was happening.
Her childhood friend proudly answered her.
“From today, you’ll also attend this dojo. For now, the goal is to become strong enough to beat those who bullied you. Do your best!”
“…I don’t understand anymore.”
Confused by the sudden turn of events, Lily mumbled softly and slumped down.
She then calmly inquired about how things had come to this point.
First, after being rejected by Lily, Saito apparently pondered on how to avoid being bullied that day.
And what the IQ 30 Saito came up with was that he needed to become strong to avoid bullying.
Certainly, in elementary school, merely learning judo or karate could make others hesitate to pick a fight.
Moreover, if one demonstrated a certain level of strength, it could intimidate others into thinking they couldn’t win.
So, Saito decided that Lily needed to learn Judo.
Lily thought it was stupid.
If this could really change things, bullying would have been long gone.
Because thinking it was meaningless, Lily tried to leave.
“I used my precious New Year’s gift money for this. You better do it! If you run away, I won’t forgive you.”
However, she couldn’t escape the threat of wasting the one-month tuition fee for this dojo, which came from the New Year’s gift money Saito had saved.
As a result, from that day on, Lily reluctantly started attending the judo dojo.
Initially practicing breakfalls for a few days, perhaps due to unexpectedly good adaptability and the fact that it was during the summer vacation, she was taught a single special technique.
The name was O-soto-gari.
A beginner-friendly move where you hook your leg around your opponent’s leg, bringing them down.
Having been taught this by a teacher in middle school PE in her previous life, it was easy to remember. With practice, she smoothly became able to execute the move. Three days before the end of summer vacation, she managed to score an ippon, albeit just once, against boy of her age.
“I wondered if there was really any point in doing this.”
Lily muttered to herself on the way home from the dojo.
She felt that she was getting stronger steadily.
However, she still harbored doubts about whether this strength would actually help solve real problems.
“It’s definitely meaningful. Trust me, it’ll work out.”
“Eh~? I wonder about that.”
Encouraging Lily, who wore an anxious expression, Saito tried to reassure her, but the unease remained.
“Oh, look, it’s Machigane-san. She’s on a date with a boy~. She’s so cheeky~.”
“Wow, really. That boy must also smell like crap for choosing such a shitty girl.”
At that moment, they encountered the two girls who had dirtied Lily’s clothes on the day she met Saito.
“Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.”
Grinning maliciously, the two girls verbally abused Lily and shook her body, causing her to tremble, her breathing becoming erratic.
Her vision wavered and distorted, and Lily inadvertently looked down.
“Look ahead. Is it really okay for you to be insulted like this? Is it okay not to do anything? What’s it going to be?”
Saito grabbed Lily’s head and forcibly lifted it, questioning her.
“Are you really okay with this??”
“How can you not feel anything after being told that? Are you just squatting there as usual?”
“I… I… hate it. I’m fine with being ridiculed. But I can’t stand those girls who mocked my childhood friend, who worked so hard for me!”
That day, Lily regretted lying.
The truth is, she hates it, and she wants to retaliate.
But back then, revenge seemed meaningless.
However, things are different now.
Not only was she hurt, but her precious childhood friend was also ridiculed.
That was something she absolutely couldn’t forgive.
On this day, for the first time in her life, Lily expressed her honest feelings of anger.
A girl who had never shown anger no matter how much she was hurt, now expressed intense rage because her cherished childhood friend was ridiculed.
“Good! Well said. You can do it. So, go ahead and give them a piece of your mind.”
Encouraged by Lily’s sincere emotions, Saito wore a satisfied expression and gave her a push.
“Yeah!”
With a lively response, Lily approached the girl who had mocked Saito.
“Hey, I don’t know what’s got you angry, but don’t get carried away. Trash like you──You were abused by us anyway!”
However, from the girl’s perspective, Lily was just a weak girl who couldn’t do anything.
Perhaps mocking her for being unable to do anything, the girl easily tripped by Lily.
“…What’s going on?”
“What are you doing!? Let go of Yumi.”
“No. I’ll let go if she apologizes.”
“Don’t be insolent! Trash like you──aah!?”
Unable to comprehend the situation, the girl’s friend ordered Lily to let go, but Lily resisted.
She had a strong determination to not let go until her childhood friend received an apology.
The other girl, who didn’t like this, tried to intervene but moved too slowly. Lily effortlessly executed the O-soto-gari, and both of them ended up rolling on the ground together.
Looking down at the two lying on the ground, Lily boldly declared,
“Apologize! Apologize for calling Saito smelly!”
She poured out all her pent-up emotions.
“I’m sorry.”
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