Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 8, Section 08: The Test of Courage
He stayed at the archery club until nearly 5 p.m. before leaving the school, taking the subway back to Komagome Station, and then buying some fresh ingredients at a nearby supermarket before returning to his tower apartment.

"Shin, do you need any help from your older sister?" Natsuki Otsuka, who was in the butler's office, asked as she leaned out of the window with her hands behind her back.

"Thank you, Otsuka-neechan. I can carry it up myself."

Dongshan Shen politely declined.

"Shin-chan is such a good older brother, I'm so envious," Natsuki Otsuka exclaimed sincerely, her smile as warm as ever.

Higashiyama Shin didn't reply. Cooking was a hobby he carried over from his previous life, and he didn't see it as a burden.

To ensure his younger brother became a responsible brother, the older brother, having learned some martial arts, resorted to force to win over his younger brother, who hadn't even reached puberty yet, nipping the seed of rebellion in the bud.

After all, there is a big difference between being educated by parents and being educated by an older brother who is two years older than you.

The former will become more rebellious the more they are beaten, while the latter will use both soft and hard tactics, setting an example so that the latter has no choice but to obey.

This is why that adoptive father was so comfortable entrusting the family to him.

Back home, he started cooking. He made tomato and egg soup, hamburger patties, and braised chicken wings. He didn't like miso soup and had hardly ever made it before. He preferred seaweed and egg drop soup to miso soup.

"I'm back!"

Dongshan returned around 5 or 6 o'clock. He joined the badminton club and the soccer club, but his talent in soccer was not very good, unlike the national team in his previous life. Anyway, the soccer ball he bought was brand new, and he didn't play it at all when he took it out last night, just to cover it up.

On the contrary, he really enjoys badminton and occasionally goes to the badminton room in his apartment to play a few rounds.

"Hooray for hamburger patties!"

Dongshan hurriedly washed his hands, packed his food, and brought it to the table.

Once Dongshan Shen sat down, he couldn't wait to start eating, shouting "Let's dig in!"

"Brother, do you know that the 'Seven People Club' at school is planning to sneak into the old teaching building at night and have the new recruits find what they hid there during the day, using it as a way to select new members?" Dongshan Du swallowed a mouthful of rice with difficulty, sharing what he considered to be exclusive news.

The Seven People Club is not a legitimate club; it's just a delinquent gang that only recruits high school students. It holds no appeal for respectable people, who would rather avoid it than join.

But for those delinquents who have gone from high school to university, it's a holy land!
Even though Komagome Academy has a fairly good school spirit, it can't avoid all sorts of people, and some with bad grades actually have pretty good grades—can you believe it?

"The old teaching building?" Dongshan asked again, and then everything made sense.

He glanced at his younger brother. Speaking of which, Higashiyama Doku had once hung out with a group of delinquents. Later, Higashiyama Shin taught those who had led his brother astray a lesson, which made Higashiyama Doku realize his mistakes.

Hanging out with this bunch of weaklings is not as good as learning boxing from my brother!
However, many people still think that Higashiyama Doku is a delinquent.

Dongshan was eager to sever ties with his past self, and later helped many people who were bullied by delinquents, fighting in several matches and often sustaining injuries. However, this only reinforced his image as a delinquent.

As the fighting went on, several people were beaten into submission by him, acknowledged him as their leader, and reformed their ways.

So he could be considered a fake delinquent, and incidentally, he was also quite well-informed about the real delinquents.

"None of your friends are going, are they?" Shin Higashiyama asked.

"No, they only accept high school students. My friends are all high school students, and they said they won't accept little kids." Dongshan scoffed twice. "Once I get into high school, I'll overthrow the Seven Families! I'll turn them into the Daily Good Deeds Gang!"

"Hmm, do you know what time they start?"

"Around eight o'clock, their leader, Inoue Tomoka, will bring a few people to act as 'referees,' and then give those who want to join a map, asking them to use the map to find items hidden in the old school building. I heard they are some props discarded from haunted houses, like severed hands and such. They've also set up a lot of scary traps. Haha, I heard that too," Higashiyama said enthusiastically.

"So they might have turned the old teaching building into something like a haunted house?" Higashiyama Shin lamented, feeling sorry for those people's recklessness.

If things were done this way, even if the formation didn't exist, even if it was just an ordinary abandoned school building, it wouldn't be surprising if some kind of life-threatening accident happened. Not to mention that he was certain that the old school building was not ordinary and seemed to be hiding some secret.

He suspected that the ominous sign he had witnessed was not the only one.

Hopefully, his school won't steal the headlines tomorrow.

"Hurry up, stop dawdling!"

Earlier.

Inside the old teaching building of Komagome Academy, a group of four high school students carrying black plastic bags walked through the corridor, leaving a series of messy footprints.

"Boss, why is it so cold in here? Look, whew—you can even see the warm breath coming out."

Sato shuddered, feeling as if countless pairs of eyes were watching him from the shadows in the quiet surroundings.

"It's just psychological. I don't feel cold at all; I'm almost sweating from the heat."

Matsuo deliberately rolled up his sleeves and fanned his face with his hand, pretending to be very hot, but if you looked closely, you would find that his arms were covered with goosebumps.

"Don't let the newcomers see you like this, it's too embarrassing for us," Hosokawa said disdainfully to Sato.

Sato blushed and wanted to retort, but Inoue interrupted him before he could finish speaking.

"Alright, let's finish this quickly. Let's start here. According to our original plan, hide the items according to the map's locations. They need to match the map's markings, but not be too easy for them to find. Okay, Matsuo and Sato, you two are a team. Sato is in charge of hiding the items, and Matsuo is in charge of setting up the scary props. Hosokawa and I are a team."

Inoue, as the leader of the Seven People's Club, was the one who planned this newcomer selection event.

The purpose was to let the newcomers know that joining the Seven Families was not easy, and that they needed fearless courage and determination to get in! It was also a way of intimidating them and warning them to be sensible.

The group readily agreed, and then, armed with various tools, they searched for the burial site according to the map.

"Hey, Matsuo, do you know the history of this school building?"

Sato and Matsuo chatted as they worked, and their conversation drifted to the past of the school building.

"Not interested. It's just rebuilding after a fire, right? Bullshit, students died in the fire. Classes would have been suspended long ago." Matsuo showed his disdain for the rumors.

Sato curled his lip, speaking in a sarcastic tone like a eunuch: "Oh dear, Matsuo, you're not afraid to listen, are you? Afraid to go to the toilet at night?"

"Heh, go ahead and say it. I'd even crawl in to see Sadako's bra size if she came. I'm just afraid you'll piss yourself from being scared."

A hint of unease flashed across Matsuo's face, but his words remained disdainful. He was the kind of guy who, even if thrown into a fire, would only have a mouth left to say "it's not hot."

"Haha, then I'll tell you. I heard it happened decades ago."

"No, to be precise, it was in 1949 (Showa 39). There was a senior student who was the librarian here. At that time, the library was on the first floor of this teaching building, and the student dormitories were still on campus, providing accommodation for a small number of students in need."

(End of this chapter)