27-Chapter 2-0 Dream

My name is Houtenma.

I live with my grandparents.

I don't have a father and mother, they died in a car accident when I was three years old.

But I don't remember that, I only vaguely remember being with a boy and a girl when I was little.

It seems that it was my dad's dad who took me in.

The place where my grandfather lives is overpopulated and there are no children my age. The grandchildren of the villagers occasionally come to visit, but only for a few days a year.

The people who live near my grandfather's house are all his friends. They are all grandpa's friends, and they love me very much. In particular, the grandfathers who live across the street and next door take good care of me.

My grandfather's name is Hou Houhou Tourei, and he used to carry a gun in the mountains. He often goes into the mountains carrying a gun.

The grandpa who lives next door to me on the right is named Kennosuke, and I call him Ken-grandpa. He is a bit of a stern old man, often wielding a sword in the garden.

The house next door on the left is home to my grandpa, Shotaro, and my grandmother, Tamao. I call them Grandpa Akira and Grandma Tamao. Grandpa Akira often punches boards and pulls trees in the yard with a belt. Grandma Tama makes delicious food and sweets for us.

Across the street is an old man named Genzo who lives in the house, and we call him Grandpa Gen. People call him a little bit of a badass old man.

They sometimes fight with each other, but they are very close to each other and they all watch out for me.

They teach me many things in their free time.

My grandpa is a judo player.

Grandpa Ken Kendo.

Grandpa Shook hands with karate.

Grandpa Minamoto watches them study and teaches them to play.　

But all four of us are often scolded by Grandma Tama for "overdoing it".

I didn't have any friends my own age in the village, but when I entered elementary school, I made a friend named Takashi. But it's almost an hour's drive to school, so I have to go on holidays to have a lot of fun.

I didn't have many friends at school, but we played together to our hearts' content during recess, and I practiced hard at home with my grandfathers.

As soon as I entered junior high school, I started to get into trouble.

To me, it was just a fight. There were about ten of us fighting, one against one.

The reason for this is that one of the guys from the new class got violent with Takashi, so I beat him up.

When I did that, his brother and his friends got in trouble with me, so I sunk them all, but I didn't take it easy and wounded them.

Apparently, their parents came into the school and caused a commotion, because they were not in school that day and were being lectured by their grandfather.

The parents didn't seem to know that their children had tried to lynch a new student and got beaten up by him or her, so they came to apologize to him or her at home, but the problem for them was that I, who was their disciple, had taken it easy on them.

I heard at the time that my grandpa was quite famous in the area.

Grandpa was taught by such experts in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu and Aikido, Grandpa Kendo and Kenjutsu and Pole Art, and Grandpa Akira was taught by Karate and Boxing.

The three of us were rivals, and I heard that I became stronger because I didn't want to lose to the other two.

When I heard that, I thought what kind of manga world is this?

By the way, it seems that Gen-grandpa didn't have any talent for martial arts, and he laughed and said he trained his head instead.

So from then on, mental training was added to my practice.

It included a waterfall walk, Zen meditation, sutra, and on consecutive holidays, he was once thrown out into the mountains and told to "go out alive. (Later, Grandma Jade found out and made the four old men sit on the ground.)

He spent his junior high school years as such. And before I knew it, I was treated like a gang leader. Of course, I couldn't have a girlfriend.

After entering high school, I was busy helping out in club activities, working part-time jobs, socializing with friends, studying and training to become more and more extreme.

It was not hard for me to study because I learned from my grandfather, but my grandfathers were so eager to train me that sometimes I would perform "Hyakunin Kumite" (100 times Kumite) when I was on a long vacation.

My grandfathers called on their acquaintances, and they made us do the 100-man Kumite in Judo, Kendo and Karate.

Well, I thought it would be better to go with 'a hundred consecutive time-limited instruction' as they would change opponents in a minute, or just teaching some opponents, or not even a hundred people to begin with.　

Such were the days of my youth, but I still couldn't get her. When I talked to Takashi (this guy had a girlfriend before I knew it), he said, "My face isn't bad, my grades are good, I'm athletic and I can cook, so why am I not popular? Hahaha," he laughed. I was a bit pissed off so I poked my head with the corner of my textbook.

Takashi was useless, so I asked Takashi's girlfriend, 'Miki', about it and found out the unexpected cause. The cause was my grandpa and his acquaintances.

I often see his acquaintances near the school, and I often say hello to them, but when the students saw that, they thought I was talking to the yakuza in a friendly way and that was the reason.

On top of that, some of the people who were mistaken for yakuza were low profile, and some of them bowed to me and used respectful language, which led to rumors that I was the grandson of the gang leader or the son of a high ranking member of the clan, not to mention a rumor that I had sprouted wings.

Furthermore, the fact that the other grandfathers, except for Genji, had a rather tough-looking face also seemed to add to the rumor.

He managed to get into the university with a recommendation.

In college, I got the girlfriend of my dreams and had a relationship with a man and a woman, but we broke up after a year or so.

I was depressed, quite depressed, and if I hadn't been comforted by Takashi and the others, I would have gone on a spur-of-the-moment heartbreak trip. Around the Sea of Trees in Aokigahara........as a tourist.

I've heard that Aokigahara's Sea of Trees has a boardwalk and a campground for sightseeing.

Thanks to the efficient completion of my credits, I had more time to play, and I had a reasonably productive university life.

After graduation, I got a job at the village office. The job wasn't so difficult and I knew everyone around me, so it was easy for me to work.

However, three years after I started working there, a tragedy happened on my way home from work on a day when I went to the city hall.

While I was out having lunch and crossing the traffic light, I saw a car ramming into the street at high speed.

I noticed it and stopped, but the elementary school girl next to me didn't notice and jumped out of the way.

The sound of car horns and screams around me, my body unconsciously pushed the girl into the opposite lane, resulting in my consciousness being cut off there for a time.

Next thing I know, I'm floating on a hearse during my own funeral.

People dressed in mourning clothes were gathering around, crying. Takashi and Miki were there too, they were engaged and were crying while hugging each other's shoulders. Other school friends and senior colleagues were also crying.

I looked for Grandpa and his friends and found a middle-aged couple in front of him, bowing their heads incessantly. The girl was there too. The couple kept repeating their apologies to Grandpa, but he was stifling them.

It's not the girl's fault, he said, it's just that I did the natural thing and had no luck.

The couple and the girl burned incense and left. The girl was thanking me for burning incense.

I was more shocked to see them sad than to know that I was dead, and I was wondering what was going on.

''Mr. Fengtian Horse, I've come to scout you.

I was approached from behind.

I had a faint feeling that this was a dream, and I realized that I was dreaming about my previous life.

When I'm convinced of this, the area goes white.

And then I hear a man's voice in the voice of a woman who's fondling me.

I hear a woman's voice from nearby, and a man's voice a little further away.

It's Mother Shelia holding me and calling out to me, and Father Ricardo peeking in a bit more reservedly and calling out to me.

Oh, I'm happy.

That's how I feel, but gradually their faces fade away.

Then I feel my consciousness surfacing. It's time to wake up from the dream.

No matter how happy or sad I feel in this place, it's a dream and not reality.

I know that, but if I could, I'd like to be held by my mother and watched by my father for a little while longer, but my consciousness is waking up.