CHAPTER 21: THE UNSTOPPABLE SENSAI
It was around half-past eight in the morning. The streets around Hoshigawa High were usually quite peaceful at this hour.
A cool breeze was blowing, leaves were gently rustling in the trees, and the distant chirping of birds made the pleasant weather feel even more serene.
But this silence was not meant to last long.
Suddenly, this tranquility was shattered by the incredibly loud, ear-piercing *KRRRRRR-KHAT-KHAT-KRRRRRR* sound of a bicycle chain.
It sounded as if an old scrap metal factory was sprinting down the road.
This was none other than Hoshigawa High's 28-year-old Physical Education teacher, Mr. Takeshi Sakuraba.
He was pedaling his heavy commuter bicycle down the middle of the road at a terrifying speed.
Visually, Takeshi Sir looked like an action movie hero.
His body was 6 feet (183 cm) tall and 88 kg, possessing a perfectly athletic, lean-muscular build (only 14% body fat).
He was wearing his signature dark blue school tracksuit with white stripes on the sleeves and pants, and sturdy white sports sneakers on his feet.
A silver whistle hung over his broad chest, swinging wildly in the air due to the bicycle's high speed.
However, his massive and muscular physique on that small, normal bicycle looked so absurd and comical that anyone watching would struggle to hold back their laughter.
His muscular legs were pumping up and down rapidly like engine pistons, and he was pedaling the cycle as if the Grim Reaper himself were chasing him.
" Damn it !
Damn it !
Damn it ! "
Takeshi muttered loudly to himself in a panic.
His large brown eyes were completely wide with tension and fear right now, and thick anime-style tears were streaming down his face like a waterfall, flying backward in the wind.
"Darn it!
I am late again !
I don't know why the morning time passes by so quickly, man?!"
In reality, Takeshi had woken up perfectly on time.
But the biggest reason for his current condition was his hairstyle.
His thick black hair was set in a classic, high, and thick 'Pompadour' style.
He had spent a full two hours in the morning giving this retro and stylish pompadour the perfect shape, because he believed that a true man's identity is his discipline—and the discipline of his hair.
"If I reach school late today, the reputation I've built in front of the students will be dragged through the mud!"
Takeshi thought, crying as he pierced through the wind.
"But an even worse thing will be... my lovely, beautiful Miss Ryouko won't even look at me with anger !
If I am late today, my love story will face 'The End' before it even begins!
No... Takeshi, you cannot give up! You have to reach on time, you can't give up this easily!"
Even though his bicycle's speed was rivaling 100 kilometers per hour, Takeshi had only one hand on the handle and the other hand planted firmly on his head.
He was protecting his perfectly set Pompadour from the strong wind.
It was fine if the cycle slipped, it was fine if the tracksuit got dirty, but the hair shouldn't move even a single millimeter from its place.
The pedestrians on the road panicked seeing this sudden blue tracksuit-wearing tornado approaching.
He was swerving the cycle left and right like a madman.
Ahead, a Salaryman (office worker) wearing a black suit, holding a briefcase in one hand, was crossing the road in a hurry.
He had earphones plugged in and had no idea about this terrifying disaster approaching from behind.
Takeshi had absolutely no time to hit the brakes.
He pulled the handle of his cycle towards himself with all his might.
His heavy cycle launched into the air and jumped right over the oblivious Salaryman.
A shadow passed over the Salaryman's head, and the gust of wind caused his coffee to spill slightly.
He looked up in sheer terror.
Takeshi, flying in the air with one hand still on his hair, yelled.
The Salaryman's jaw dropped.
"Hey, you lunatic !
Just let me get my hands on you once, you bastard, then I'll beat that cycling out of you, you scoundrel !"
"Hey you idiot, go take care of yourself first! Acting like you can teach me how to cycle.
The person who can teach Takeshi hasn't been born yet!"
Takeshi shouted back in the air without turning around, planting his white sneakers back onto the pedals as he landed safely on the ground and sped off.
A little further down the road, an old man, Mr. Yasuo Saionji, was slowly crossing the road with the help of his walking stick.
He was going to open his shop.
Due to the rain last night, a large, muddy puddle had formed on the road.
Mr. Yasuo stopped right next to that puddle to normalize his breathing first.
Seeing Mr. Yasuo directly in his path and near the puddle, Takeshi's eyes widened in fear.
The cycle's speed was so high that if he took a sudden turn, his heavy athletic body would scrape violently against the ground.
He screamed with all his might,
"Mr. Saionji !
Step aside !
Move away from the puddle,
I won't be able to turn the cycle!"
But the old man's hearing had weakened with age.
Mr. Yasuo stayed right there, placed a hand over his ear, and began to carefully observe the rapidly approaching blue blur.
"Huh?
Who is shouting this early in the morning?"
"MOOOVE OUT OF THE WAAAY ! "
Takeshi screamed at the top of his lungs, sweat glistening on his forehead.
He thought to himself,
*'Looks like this old man is going to die by my hands today !'*
Takeshi yelled loudly,
"Get out of the way, old man, don't you value your life, huh ?!"
But it was too late by now. Sprinting at a terrifying speed, both tires of the cycle plunged straight into the center of the muddy puddle.
SPLASH !
It felt as if a water bomb had exploded.
A massive splash of dirty water and mud erupted from the puddle, completely drenching poor Mr. Yasuo from head to toe.
The old man froze like a statue for a second.
His crisp white shirt and pants had now turned completely dark brown.
Mud was dripping down his glasses.
The very next second, his face turned tomato-red with anger.
His fury was piercing the sky.
Waving his walking stick violently in the air at the rapidly disappearing teacher,
Mr. Yasuo, furious, opened his box of curses:
"You wretched menace,
I pray to God you get into an accident!
May you crash into a garbage bin!
May you go bald, you scoundrel!
You ruined all my clothes, you good-for-nothing!"
"Is this my fault?!
When I was screaming from a distance,
You couldn't hear it, old man!"
Takeshi's voice echoed from afar.
Up ahead, the large iron gates of Hoshigawa High began to come into view.
The security guard was checking his watch.
It was exactly 9:15 AM.
Taking a deep breath, he started pulling the heavy iron gates shut.
The gap was barely a foot or two wide.
"Hey, hey! Stop!
The gate is closing, sir!"
the guard yelled, seeing the speeding cycle approaching like a storm.
"Hit the brakes, sir!
Or else you'll crash!"
"Move! I'm not stopping now!
There's no time to hit the brakes!"
Takeshi roared.
Instead of stopping, he executed a move that was nothing short of an action movie stunt.
He lightly pressed the front brake and slid the cycle on the ground at a 45-degree angle.
Sparks began flying as the metal pedals scraped against the concrete.
With absolutely perfect athletic reflexes, he slid smoothly right under that tiny gap of the closing gate, without a single scratch.
"Safe!"
Takeshi exhaled a long breath with pride as he came inside and re-balanced his heavy frame.
He adjusted the collar of his tracksuit and smiled.
"That's the spirit,
Takeshi! Now I just have to park it."
He had made it inside the campus, but the long path ahead had a slight slope that led straight towards the main sports ground and the gym.
Takeshi squeezed both brake levers to come to a comfortable halt.
SNAP! TWANG!
A sharp noise rang out. Both worn-out brake cables had completely snapped in half due to the extreme pressure of the sliding stunt outside.
The levers were now completely free, dangling in his hands.
A deathly silence suddenly descended upon Takeshi's 'confident' face. He squeezed the levers again and again.
Click-click
Nothing happened.
Because of the slope, the cycle's speed was getting faster with every passing second.
In a panic, Takeshi tried to stop the cycle by reverse pedaling.
But Mr. Yasuo's curse proved true.
There was a loud KRRR-CLANG sound, and the cycle's chain slipped off the sprocket, got horribly tangled in the wheel, and broke.
"Hey, what just happened?!
My Chain... my chain broke, aaaaa?!"
Takeshi's eyes bulged. His jaw dropped wide open out of fear.
The brakes had failed, and now the chain had broken too.
The cycle had now become an out-of-control, living metal missile hurtling straight toward the main ground and the gym building.
[SCENE SHIFT]
On the other hand, on the deserted, paved path leading to the school gym and outdoor playground, Yoshiro Kurosawa was strutting forward with his broad chest puffed out, swaggering like a mafia don.
After bullying the chubby Renjiro in class, his self-proclaimed "Boss" ego was skyrocketing.
He felt as though there was no one bigger or more dangerous than him in the entirety of Hoshigawa High.
Right behind him, his two lackeys, Daiki and Taiki, were walking along, building bridges of praise for him out of habit.
Taiki, who considered himself the brain of this group, looked at his leader flashing his usual fake-smart smile.
"Boss... tell me one thing.
You threatened that fat guy for the protection fee, but what if he rejects your offer?
I mean, did you see his size?
He looks like a sack of potatoes."
Yoshiro rolled his brown eyes and gave a highly arrogant, irritated expression.
"Size and all that doesn't matter, idiot!
Anyway, he's just a fat guy, he will have to listen to us.
If he even mistakenly dares to say 'No' to me,
I will slap him hard twice and he will put his lunch box at my feet crying.
The courage to refuse Yoshiro Kurosawa hasn't been born in anyone in this school yet."
Yoshiro started laughing like a maniac.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Daiki, who had less brains and more enthusiasm, immediately hyped him up, throwing a forceful punch into the air.
"You said it perfectly, Boss!
Everything pales in comparison to your dominance !
But Boss, why would you dirty your hands on that fat guy?
What am I here for?
I'll lift him up and deliver a kick so hard that he'll fly straight off this path and land in the garbage bin outside the ground!"
"Hahaha !
You're right!"
Yoshiro laughed loudly.
Suddenly, Taiki's sharp ears picked up a strange noise coming from the path behind them.
A frantically screaming voice that was getting closer by the second. He slowed his steps as he walked, a frown appearing on his forehead. "Uh, Boss... did you hear something?"
Walking in his own swagger without stopping, Yoshiro said,
"What nonsense are you talking about?
Whose voice would be here besides mine?"
"Boss, I'm not joking... someone is genuinely screaming from behind.
It sounds like someone is telling us to move,"
Taiki warned seriously, stopping and looking slightly over his shoulder.
Yoshiro got irritated.
"Are you both cowards?
First-class wimps!
Whoever is behind will change their own path once they realize that Yoshiro Kurosawa is walking ahead.
Walk quietly and don't ruin my mood,"
Yoshiro scolded.
But that screaming voice didn't sound distant anymore. It was now right behind them and incredibly loud:
"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! STEP ASIDE!
MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE !
MOVE, YOU IDIOTS!"
Taiki and Daiki felt goosebumps.
This time, Taiki panicked and tugged hard at his boss's black school uniform.
"Boss! Seriously, just look behind you once!"
"Ugh, what kind of trouble have I invited by keeping you two donkeys with me—"
Yoshiro finally stopped in annoyance and turned around angrily.
All three of them stopped and looked back.
Their breaths caught in their throats.
Barreling down the slope towards them at a terrifying speed was their sports teacher,
Mr. Takeshi Sakuraba—flying through the air!
Takeshi's eyes were wide with fear, and both of his feet in white sneakers were off the pedals with the broken chain, dangling in the air.
He was crying and screaming with all his might on a brakeless bicycle.
But the most bizarre part in all of this was that, even coming at such an out-of-control speed, Takeshi had one hand firmly glued to his black Pompadour hair to ensure the wind didn't ruin it!
Without wasting a single second, Yoshiro, Daiki, and Taiki screamed loudly in fear across the entire path.
All their thuggery and swagger evaporated into thin air in an instant.
The three of them sprinted forward toward the gym, running for their lives.
Yoshiro, with drops of cold sweat appearing on his forehead, was trying to outrun them as he fled.
He yelled furiously at his lackeys as he ran,
"Are you blind, you bastards ?!
Why couldn't you tell me earlier that Takeshi Sir was flying in from behind like Death itself?!"
"Boss, we told you but you didn't listen to us !
You were the one showing off that you wouldn't look back,
Boss !
We told you five times!"
Daiki and Taiki yelled back, panting heavily as they ran.
"By not listening to us, you shot yourself in the foot!"
With a crying expression, Yoshiro said,
"Now save your Boss, you idiots, think of some idea to escape this disaster!"
Both brothers, Daiki and Taiki, screamed,
"Boss, we can't see any way out!"
Yoshiro looked back over his shoulder.
The bicycle was barely ten meters away now, and its speed was double their running speed.
Terrified of getting crushed, Yoshiro waved his hands at the crying teacher and screamed,
"Hey SIR! PRESS THE BRAKES!
Please,
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
Tell me, why do you want to KILL me?!"
"Hey you idiots,
I'm not doing this for fun,
I'm terrified myself right now!
My cycle's BRAKES ARE BROKEN AND THE CHAIN IS BROKEN TOO,
YOU IDIOTS! GET OUT OF THE WAY OR YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO TURN INTO PASTE!"
Takeshi cried back, piercing through the wind, his silver whistle whipping wildly around his neck in the strong wind.
Glancing back, Taiki and Daiki realized that a crash was now completely unavoidable on the straight path their boss was running down.
The iron cycle was heading straight for them.
In that exact second, Daiki and Taiki's high survival instincts immediately kicked in.
Devoid of any loyalty or friendship, both brothers suddenly dove in entirely opposite directions off the path.
One jumped left, and the other right. Both made a safe landing on the soft grass bordering the path, rolling to a halt.
After falling to the ground, when they lifted their heads and saw their leader (Yoshiro) running all alone in the center of the path with the cycle trailing right behind him, they looked at each other and shouted loudly,
"ALL THE BEST, BOSS! Take care of yourself, Boss!"
Yoshiro, who was now left entirely alone right in the cycle's target line, turned his head back with an incredibly tragic and tearful expression.
Seeing his lackeys safe on the grass burned his soul.
"You... you bastards left me alone to die, and on top of that, you're saying all the best to me?!"
Yoshiro screamed loudly,
"I'll deal with you guys later!"
But he had no time to stop or complain.
Horrifying, he put everything he had into increasing his running speed even more. Right behind him, the cycle's front tire was chasing him down the path like a predator, and Yoshiro's breaths were so heavy it felt like his heart would tear through his chest.
Thinking to himself,
*"What's going to happen to me now?
It seems Sir won't rest until he takes my life!
I need to run toward the main ground as quickly as possible, run fast!"*
Yoshiro keeps sprinting toward the main playground.
Yoshiro tells himself,
*"Run, Yoshiro, run.
If you want to save your life, then run fast!"*
[CHAPTER 21 ENDS]