Isekai Tensei no Boukensha Volume 2 Chapter 0

Chapter 2 – 0

Dream

[Author’s Note]

This is something like the prologue to chapter 2.

My name is Tenma Ootori. I’m living with grandpa.

I don’t have a mother or father, they passed away in a traffic accident when I was three years old. I don’t have any memory of it. I only very faintly remember staying with a man and woman together when I was very small. It seems the father of my father, grandpa, was the one who looked after me.

Where grandpa lived, something called depopulation was going on and there were no other kids my age around. Occasionally grandkids of the other villagers would come around and play, but it was only a few days a year.

All the old guys who lived near grandpa’s house were friends of his. They all loved me very much. Among them, the old guys living across and on either side often took care of me.

My grandpa’s name was Kotetsu Ootori. He would often head into the mountains with his gun.

The old guy in the house on the right was named Kennosuke, but I called him ‘Grandpa Ken’. He was a somewhat strict old man who often practiced his sword swing in the garden.

In the house to the left lived both the old man Shotaro and old lady Tamao. I called them ‘Grandpa Sho’ and ‘Granny Tama’. Grandpa Sho would often do things like striking planks, or wrapping the trees in his garden. Granny Tama would make delicious food and sweets.

The old man living across from us was named Genzo, and I called him ‘Grandpa Gen’. Everyone said he was a little wild-looking, but fashionable.

We would occasionally squabble, but otherwise everyone got along well, and all of them would look after me.

In their spare time, they taught me many things.

From my grandpa I learned Judo,

from grandpa Ken I learned Kendo, Kendo: a traditional Japanese martial art focusing on bamboo swords'>1

from grandpa Sho I learned Karate,

and grandpa Gen oversaw my studies and taught me how to play.

Granny Tama would often get upset with the four of them saying “you’re doing too much”.

There were no kids the same age as me in the village but when I started attending elementary school, I was able to make a friend, Takashi-kun. It took almost an hour to get to school by driving though, so I couldn’t see him much on holidays.

I only had a few friends at school but during recess we were free to play as much as we wanted. When I came home, I would train hard with all of the grandpas. I spent all my elementary school years this way.

After that, when I entered middle school I immediately ran into a problem.

Well you could call it a problem, but for me it was just a normal fight. It was just me alone, against 10 other people.

The reason for the fight was someone from a new class was really violent toward Takashi so I struck back at them. They called in some older kids to help. I managed to take all of them down, but didn’t read the situation properly and ended up hurting them unintentionally.

After that it seemed like their parents got involved with the school and started a ruckus, since they weren’t at school the next day. My grandpas got an earful from them as well.

The parents didn’t seem to know that their own kids had made a large group and surrounded a new student in order to bully him, but had had the tables turned on them. They came to the house for an apology, but instead of finding the grandpas, they found me, the disciple, and I explained to them the error in my judgment.

I had heard it before but it seemed the grandpas were quite well known for their talents. My grandpa used a combination of judo, jujitsu and akido martial arts style techniques. Grandpa Ken combined weapon techniques from kendo, fencing and bojutsu. 2 Grandpa Sho used blunt force techniques from karate and boxing. Since I was receiving instruction from all of them, even though I was only at a middle school level, it was only natural that I won.

It seemed that those three were rivals and trained wholeheartedly to not be beaten by the other two. It sounded like something straight out of a manga. Incidentally, Grandpa Gen had no talent for the martial arts, so instead he built up his intellect and laughed.

Because of that incident, spiritual discipline was added to my training from then on. It included things like waterfall meditation, zen meditation, transcribing Buddhist sutras by hand etc. When we had longer holidays they would kick me out of the mountain and tell me “Go out and overcome it all. Survive.” (When Granny Tama found out about that one afterwards, she made the four of them sit in seiza) Seiza is sitting directly on your legs, and can be quite painful if you'>3

I spent my middle school days that way. Before I realized it, I was treated as the leader of a gang. Of course, I didn’t have a girlfriend.

After entering high school, I was a helper for my school club and had a temporary part time job, along with keeping up with my friends, studying and keeping up with a more and more extreme training regiment, I was a little busy.

I was taught by grandpa Gen so at least my studies weren’t much trouble. The other three seemed to go all out with, and maybe even a little too far with their training, as on longer holidays they would sometimes hold a “100-man Kumite (100-man sparring tournament)”. 100-man Kumite: An extreme test of physical and mental endurance in karate, which features 100 rounds of kumite (sparring) for 1 to 2 minutes.'>4 Different opponents may call it different things, whether it be randori5 or jigeiko6, but kumite seemed the easiest to say.

The grandpas called out to their acquaintances in their respective fields, judo, kendo, and karate, and with them held a 100-man kumite.

In the span of just one minute you can spar, swap opponents, and then try to give them some focused advice. Slowly chipping away at the 100 people, I thought you should take the『100 times consecutive time-limited guidance』event seriously.

I spent all the days of my youth like that, so of course I still couldn’t find a girlfriend. When I discussed this with Takashi (who had gotten a girlfriend himself at some point) he replied: “Your looks aren’t terrible, your grades are good, your reflexes are good and you can cook, but for some reason you’re not popular, huh? Ahaha.” He said with a chuckle. I got a little heated and poked him in the head with a corner of my textbook.

Since Takashi was no help, I asked his girlfriend Miki-chan, and I wouldn’t have otherwise guessed the reason she gave. It was the grandpas and their acquaintances. I often met and greeted said acquaintances (many who had strict or strong looking expressions) near the school. The other students seeing this started saying I must be close to the yakuza7, and mistakenly assumed that was the reason.

On top of that, among the people who were mistaken for yakuza were some who were short, some who spoke to me respectfully and lowered their heads to me. It soon became exaggerated that I was the boss’ grandson, or the son of one of the higher ups, then the rumors really took wing and flew out of control. Additionally, aside from grandpa Gen, the other grandpas all had aggressive looking faces, encouraging the rumors even further.

I somehow managed to get recommended to a university and slipped in. Takashi and Miki-chan were still together, but they both had to sit for the normal entrance examinations, so they were jealous… I started to think it served them right, those normies, just a little.

In university it was my heart’s desire to find a girlfriend, and I finally held a relationship with a girl, but after a year we separated.

Naturally I was depressed, deeply depressed. When Takashi and his girlfriend tried to console me, they unexpectedly suggested I take a trip to relieve my heartbreak. But they suggested I go to the sea of trees in Aokigahara… to sightsee. Aokigahara, also known as the Suicide Forest, is a forest on the northwestern flank of Japan’s Mount Fuji.'>8 It seemed to have a walkway for sightseeing and a campsite for some reason.

Because I had planned my credits efficiently I had plenty of free time to spare, and I was able to enjoy university life to the fullest.

After graduation, I took a job in a government office for the village. The work wasn’t difficult, and I already knew everyone there, so it was a very comfortable job for me.

3 years after I started that job, a tragedy occurred at work on the day I returned to the municipal office.

When I went outside for lunch, just as the traffic signal changed over, I saw a car approaching at super high speed.

I noticed it and immediately stopped but the elementary school girl next to me didn’t, and rushed out.

I could hear the wailing of the car’s horn, the screams of those around me, and at that moment my body unconsciously pushed the little girl out of the way. The result was that I temporarily lost consciousness.

The next thing I knew, I was floating up above, overlooking the coffin at my own funeral.

People gathered together, crying, dressed in black. Takashi and Miki-chan were there too, they had gotten engaged and held each other as they wept. My other friends from university and senior co-workers were there crying too.

I looked around for the grandpas, and when I found them, a middle aged couple were repeatedly bowing before them. Beside them, that little girl was also there. The couple repeatedly apologized, but grandpa asked them to stop.

My grandpa said, it was not the girl’s fault at all, and that I had just done the reasonable thing but my luck had run out.

The couple and little girl burnt some incense and went home. While the girl was burning the incense, she thanked me.

Even more than my own death, I was shocked at seeing the depth of the grandpas’ sadness. I was wondering what to do, when,

“Tenma Ootori-kun、I have come to scout you.”

A voice called out to me from behind.

I have the vague feeling that this is all a dream, but a dream in which I can see the previous world.

As I was convinced of this, the surroundings became white, and then I heard the voice of the woman who was cuddled next to me and a man’s voice.

The voice of the one hugging me close is Celia, my mother. The slightly reserved voice from the one peeking down at me, is Ricardo, my father.

Ah, pure happiness. I basked in it for a while but gradually, their faces faded away.

Then I felt my consciousness slowly rising up. The time has come to wake up from this dream. No matter how much happiness you feel in this place, no matter how much sadness you experience, this is a dream and not reality.

I understood that well, but if I was able to for just a little longer, I really wanted to continue being in mother’s embrace and to watch my father peacefully, but I started to gain consciousness and woke up.

[Author’s Note]

I somehow wanted to add in an explanation of Tenma’s previous world, so I wrote this prologue.