Chapter 32 – Before the Clash
The sky was cloudy. Not quite gloomy, but enough to dull the edges of the morning.
Kotarō sat in class with his head slightly bowed, pen in hand, notebook open to a blank page that had been erased four times already. He wasn't even pretending to take proper notes anymore—just drawing debate flow diagrams and rewriting transitions he already knew.
His ears heard the chatter around him. Something about gym clothes, something about lunch. He tuned it all out. Every time he tried to focus on the blackboard, the image of Koganei East's name on the whiteboard flashed in his head like a warning.
_"Why do I feel like I'm waiting for a bell to ring?
And it's not for class."
He didn't even notice Haruka leaning over until she slid something under his hand. A strawberry milk with a sticky note. A small, neat sentence written in her sharp, round script:
"Don't overthink. Save it for the round."
He looked at it, folded it twice, and slipped it into his pocket. Then kept his hand there a little longer than he needed to.
They met during break. Haruka had dragged him up to the rooftop. The breeze there was cooler, sharper, and more honest.
She stood with a strawberry milk in hand, her hair pushed gently by the wind.
"Still nervous?" she asked without looking at him.
He hesitated, then said, "Yeah."
She nodded. "Good."
That made him glance at her.
Haruka smiled faintly. "I still get nervous too. Before matches. Even now. Every time."
She looked off at the clouds.
"Confidence isn't about being fearless. It's about functioning through the fear. Showing up anyway."
She took a sip, then added, "My first match, I completely blanked. Our third-year had to signal me from the back row just to start my second argument."
"It's the first time she's told me something like that.
And it doesn't make me braver.
It makes me feel like I'm not alone in faking it."
The English clubroom was quieter than usual after school. But not in a lazy way. Focused. Clean. Like everyone had sharpened themselves.
Mikako raised her phone like a stopwatch.
"Final prep session. All drills today. No notes, no scripts, no excuses."
What followed was chaos, in the most precise form.
One-minute rebuttals.Rapid-fire POIs.Flowchart relays.Spontaneous motion arguments.
Souta cracked under pressure and dropped a line about democracy being "the worst salad dressing."
Mikako nearly fell out of her chair. "What the hell does that even mean?"
Haruka laughed. "I think he meant layered."
Kotarō tried not to laugh, but it broke through.
"This is stress. But it's shared.
Like the pressure is being redistributed.
And I can carry it."
Near the end of the session, Mr. Takeda knocked on the door.
He stepped inside holding a white envelope.
"From Koganei East. They wanted to keep this formal. Motion envelope. Open it tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Not before."
Everyone went still.
Mikako received it with two hands. She didn't joke. She just placed it inside her binder and clipped it shut.
"Got it," she said.
"The topic is already chosen. But until we read it,
it's both real and unreal.
A storm in a box."
Cleanup was silent. Chairs tucked. Boards wiped. Markers capped.
Kotarō lingered near the whiteboard.
He saw faded markings from two weeks ago. Someone had drawn a flow tree next to Ayumu's infamous rebuttal pattern. He stared at it.
Haruka approached quietly.
"You've already done more than most who stood here before you," she said.
He didn't reply.
"And tomorrow, you'll prove it. Even if it's messy."
He picked up the eraser and gently wiped the faded ink away.
"Whatever happens tomorrow...
It won't be his story.
It'll be ours."
They walked home under the golden hour.
No conversation. Just footfalls and the occasional car humming by.
Outside a convenience store, Haruka bought him a bottled tea. Said nothing. Handed it over like it was routine.
They reached the split between their paths.
Haruka turned and smiled a little.
"After tomorrow, everything changes."
She didn't mean just win or lose.
He nodded.
"Tomorrow isn't just a spar match.
It's the first time we say:
we belong on the map."
Chapter End