Chapter 138: Date A Live

PS: Because I caught the flu and have been coughing, there is only one update today, please forgive me~ I've added this update to 4500 characters, which, rounded up, is about the same as two updates!

Time flies; it is the second year since Uesugi Muneyuki awakened his Inner World abilities, in Gunma Prefecture.

Winter in Gunma Prefecture is a Zen-like scroll woven from snow and hot springs. When the ridge of Akagi Mountain is outlined with a soft silver edge by the first snow, the Yubatake of Kusatsu Onsen street is steaming with milky white mist. The "Yumomi Stage" built from century-old cedar is covered in crystal clusters, and snowflakes falling into the churning jade-colored hot spring water vanish into wisps of blue smoke in an instant. After nightfall, the paper lanterns of Echigoya Inn cast warm yellow halos onto the snowy corridor, reflecting the fan-shaped patterns carved into the accumulated snow by the wooden clogs of the waitresses. Icefalls at the source of the Tone River hang like a thousand crystal curtains, snow monkeys shake the frost from pine branches before leaping into the open-air baths, and the intermittent, trembling notes of a shamisen drift from the sweet sake shop on the old hot spring street—in this century-long winter feast, even time has frozen into the rime on the treetops.

This day is the third day of the New Year holiday. Following his promise to Senior Mai, Uesugi Muneyuki arrived in Gunma Prefecture.

Uesugi Muneyuki felt quite surprised by Senior Mai's sudden invitation.

Why would this goddess senior of his suddenly invite him?

Since the Fuji TV Case, Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai had not met again; the two had only chatted on Line. Senior Mai's work was quite busy, and Uesugi Muneyuki himself was also very busy. After handling the Chiba Prefecture Serial Murder Case and the Night Duty Assault Case he had experienced, Uesugi Muneyuki had focused all his energy on his own affairs.

If Senior Mai hadn't taken the initiative to invite him, Uesugi Muneyuki would have forgotten that such a promise existed between them.

But Uesugi Muneyuki also felt apprehensive about Shirakawa Mai's invitation.

The entertainment industry is so dirty; it is normal for people to act out scenes and go along with things willingly. Both parties can be extremely intimate in their attitude on a program, but in private, they are complete strangers, or even strangers with mutual hostility.

Uesugi Muneyuki had encountered this before. He once had a boy sitting in front of him at his high school in Tokyo who was very polite, diligent in his work, enthusiastic in his attitude, and had a sunny smile. At that time, Uesugi Muneyuki had not yet awakened the memories of his past life, so because his grades were poor, he often asked the boy in front for help, and the boy would answer very enthusiastically and earnestly. At Uesugi Muneyuki's request, they even added each other on Line.

At first glance, this was a good classmate, a good person sitting in front, right?

However, after only a few days, the class monitor suddenly found Uesugi Muneyuki and stated that the person sitting in front of him had told them, "Don't bother him like this anymore; you are infringing on his free time and personal privacy. He hates you and doesn't want to talk to you anymore."

Uesugi Muneyuki was shocked and hurriedly apologized to the boy in front. Yet, in front of others, this guy could still smile at Uesugi Muneyuki and say he didn't mind, acting intimate, but in private, he had already deleted him from his Line friends.

This is the Japanese people. In this respect, the Japanese are very similar to the Germans. Germans are also the type who can be very serious at work and cooperate very earnestly, and after work, they can go for a drink together, but in private, they are like strangers to each other. Uesugi Muneyuki remembers that the "Three Musketeers" of Inter Milan in the 90s—Matthäus, Brehme, and Klinsmann—went from a honeymoon period to a friendship-ended period very quickly, and their relationship was terrible, but this did not affect their tacit cooperation on the field at all.

Verbal promises in the entertainment industry or between seniors and juniors are not worth taking seriously.

But Senior Mai had still earnestly taken the initiative to invite him. Uesugi Muneyuki thought for a long time and felt that he should meet with Senior Mai.

So he came; he came to Gunma Prefecture.

Gunma Prefecture is located in the northwest of the Kanto Plain and is a part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, one of Japan's three major metropolitan areas. It belongs to the Kanto region of Japan, about 100 kilometers northwest of Tokyo. It borders Tochigi Prefecture to the east, Nagano Prefecture to the west, Saitama Prefecture to the south, and Fukushima Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture to the north. Its land area ranks 21st in Japan.

In ancient Japan, this area was known as "Kozuke Province" according to the system of provinces. It was the starting point from which his ancestor, Uesugi Kenshin, repeatedly marched into Kanto. One conquest of Kanto after another began here. For the revival of the Kanto Kanrei, Kenshin began to march from Kozuke Province repeatedly starting in 1561, wanting to restore the former glory of the Uesugi Clan, but it was ultimately in vain. In the end, due to numerous difficulties, Uesugi Kenshin was even forced to form an alliance with the Later Hojo Clan of Odawara, historically known as the "Sokei Alliance," completely losing his moral justification.

Kanto lords such as the Satake Clan and the Satomi Clan despised the Uesugi Clan from then on, which also made Uesugi Kenshin's title of "Kanto Kanrei" a joke. One must know that both the Yamanouchi Uesugi Clan and the Ogigayatsu Uesugi Clan were destroyed by the Later Hojo Clan; that Uesugi Kenshin, who inherited the Yamanouchi Uesugi Clan, actually chose to form an alliance with the Later Hojo Clan could be called double-dealing and disreputable.

As for Uesugi Kenshin's "God of War" title, actually, as a descendant of the Uesugi Clan, Uesugi Muneyuki can safely say that the vast majority of it has elements of "exaggeration by historical fiction." For example, the so-called "Invincible God of War" claims that Kenshin had 49 wins and 2 draws in 51 battles in his life, but in reality, the defeats Uesugi Kenshin himself admitted during the Kanto conquests exceeded ten times, not to mention his battles with Takeda Shingen and the Hokuriku Road campaign in his later years. Although Uesugi Kenshin had no fatal defeats, every strategic direction had more or less small losses.

Kenshin was indeed skilled at fighting, but he was not as exaggerated as a "God of War," and his political ability was very average. The Yanagita Group within his territory rebelled and surrendered, surrendered and rebelled all day long, and Kenshin could do nothing about them. He was also unable to evolve himself from a guardian Daimyo into a Sengoku Daimyo. Except for the Hokuriku campaign in his later years which achieved some results, Uesugi Kenshin fought his whole life but actually had no major gains.

Thinking about it, it was getting colder and colder. Uesugi Muneyuki hummed a song, looking forward to this meeting.

"If you come in the three winters, I will trade you a city of snow-white, longing blooms in the wind~"

"Gently swaying, the splendor at the edge of the sky, turns into tears and wakes up crying~"

"If you come in the three winters, ice-sealing the love of a lifetime, looking back after midnight in a dream, you are not there~"

"Whenever the fallen leaves pass, waving goodbye, unable to swallow the chicken cutlet, touching the scene and feeling the emotion has been so since ancient times~"

Sure enough, as he sang, Uesugi Muneyuki felt warm all over his body, as if the sun were shining on him; he was no longer cold.

The meeting place agreed upon by Senior Mai was at the school gate of Tokiwa Middle School in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture. After all, the two were once alumni and both had an impression of that shop.

When Uesugi Muneyuki arrived, he found the school gate very desolate; he could hardly see a pedestrian on the road. During the New Year holiday, both the school and the shopping street were in a state of silence. Only the streets covered by snow and the faint sounds made by the distant forest in the snowy wind remained. In the absolute silence, the silver-clad world appeared quite eerie.

The ground paved with bluestone was extremely smooth, and Uesugi Muneyuki walked slowly alone toward the location in his memory.

The shop of Grandpa Konno and Grandma Konno was indeed still open. Although the shop door only left a small entrance, it didn't look like it was operating normally from the outside. However, Uesugi Muneyuki braved the cold wind and gently lifted the warm curtain. Sure enough, the familiar scene was still there, impacting Uesugi Muneyuki's somewhat confused memory. The two elderly people with white hair and white eyebrows had clearly been waiting for a long time: "You must be young Master Uesugi, right? We saw you on TV; a celebrity, a celebrity! Welcome!"

When the wooden door was pushed open, the copper bell at the eaves rang softly. The thirty-mat hall was shrouded in dim yellow paper lanterns, and the bamboo-strip lamp shades hanging from the rafters filtered out fine, fragmented light spots. The edges of the reed mats were worn into frayed ends by the years, and tea stains from years of accumulation seeped into the gaps, yet they still stubbornly exuded the fresh scent of dried grass.

Twelve cypress pillars supported the high-ceilinged space, and amber resin seeped out from under the cracked lacquer on the pillars. The paper screens used as partitions were painted with faded pines and cranes, and when lifted by the draft, they revealed the dry landscape garden hidden in the darkness behind—a half-maple leaf lay in the raked sand patterns, the stone lantern was mottled with moss, and moss marks climbed into the room along the wooden lattice windows.

A warm curtain with vigorous ink calligraphy hung from the old cedar lintel. When lifted, the aroma of fried Tempura and grilled eel surged out, mixed with the heavy, damp scent unique to old wood. Between the opening and closing of the sliding doors, one could glimpse an old sword rack on the wall of a certain Japanese-style room; the scabbard was dusty but still glowed with a dull Kanazawa, and a black pottery jar with a single camellia branch was placed on the low table below.

When Uesugi Muneyuki stepped into the shop, the whole building seemed to come alive; the beams and pillars let out a long sigh, and the sound of a Panasonic television from the last century turning the dial came from a corner.

"Welcome!" Grandpa Konno and Grandma Konno were still as kind and benevolent as ever. Seeing this, Uesugi Muneyuki also showed a smile. He bowed deeply: "Sorry to bother you, I am very sorry to disturb your New Year holiday!"

"Hehehe, it's okay. We are actually quite lonely during the New Year, so it's just right that you could come."

These two elderly people had been running the shop here for many years. Many teachers at Tokiwa High School said that when they first joined the school, these two elderly people were already running the shop. It was just that in Uesugi Muneyuki's memory, the two elderly people still had a lot of black hair on their heads at that time. At this moment, Grandpa Konno's hair was almost completely white, and Grandma Konno's hair was also graying all over.

Spring flowers fall into mud, in the blink of an eye another year, ask you where the flowers bloom, is it on flat ground or in the sky?

I wonder how Sister Mikoto is doing.

Uesugi Muneyuki felt a thousand emotions in his heart. He sat down, and Grandpa Konno and Grandma Konno served a cup of hot Barley Tea, signaling that he had arrived early and asking him to wait a moment.

Grandpa's back was not as straight as before, and Grandma's movements were not as nimble as before, but they were still struggling at their posts.

And this situation is very common in Japan. Japan began to show signs of aging in 1970 and began to show deep aging after 1990. Today, elderly people over 65 in Japan account for more than 25% of the total population, which already belongs to a super-aging society, and the social problems caused by this have already attracted national attention.

Japan's pension is roughly divided into three categories: National Pension, Welfare Pension, and corporate pension. Among them, the National Pension is mandatory, the Welfare Pension is mandatory for Regular Employees of enterprises, and the corporate pension is a guarantee given to employees within the enterprise, given in a lump sum upon retirement.

However, unless one is a Public Servant or a Regular Employee of a large enterprise who retires, the pension is mostly not enough. Elderly people in Japan still have to go out to work, among which there is a "753" law, which is that more than 70% of elderly people aged 60-65 are still working, 50% of elderly people aged 65-70 are still working, and nearly 30% of elderly people aged 70-75 are still working.

Even so, Japan's pension is still in deficit and in an emergency every year. The Japanese government even encourages elderly people who retire at 65 to start receiving pensions at 70 or even 75 (they can receive 40-80% more). Elderly people have to go out to work for their livelihood, and Japan's pension insurance system adopts a pay-as-you-go system of "the next generation supporting the previous generation." With the deepening of aging and the decline in the birth rate, the working-age population decreases and the number of elderly people receiving pensions increases, so the pension pressure is naturally very high.

Of course, these are Japan's national conditions and have nothing to do with other countries.

After waiting for a while, there was a sound from the entrance.

Everyone in the shop turned their eyes to the entrance in unison.

"Click, click, click"

The High-heeled Shoe made a crisp sound against the bluestone floor. Immediately after, a stunningly beautiful and bright woman appeared in the sight of everyone in the shop. Her pure black, supple hair fell along her shoulders, and a strand of slightly curled side bangs flowed onto her flawless face. Her delicate skin was transparent and fair, smooth and bright like jade. The woman's pair of brilliant eyes looked straight ahead, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on her high nose bridge, and her full red lips shone with crystal luster. Her pretty face, lightly powdered, was full of bright colors. This woman was truly beautiful, but her expression looked a bit cold, and her first impression was that she didn't seem so easy to approach.

She was wearing a French-style left-side fluorescent ginger jasmine winter cashmere long dress, paired with a light cyan winter cashmere coat on the outside. The coat was the kind without buttons, making the woman look heroic and very capable as she walked.

The long dress inside had a small V-neck design, revealing a small section of beautiful collarbone. A delicate and gorgeous pendant hung on her slender jade neck, flashing with dazzling brilliance, and a pair of proud, towering snow-jade breasts stood in the middle, stretching the neckline tight.

Following the woman's slender waist downward, the jasmine-colored heavy long dress fabric looked very soft and skin-friendly. Under the matte finish, it blended with the outside world. Her fair and tender jade feet were stepping on a pair of black and white fine-patterned high-heeled short boots. The heels were slender and should be about 7 centimeters high, revealing the woman's perfect leg shape as she walked.

The bright beauty was already accustomed to suddenly becoming the focus of the whole room. She didn't stop her steps, walking elegantly in her high-heeled boots to Uesugi Muneyuki's side. Her pretty, bright, and dazzling eyes looked at Uesugi Muneyuki who had already arrived, and a sense of joy appeared between her brows: "Junior, you've already arrived?"

Seeing the woman sit down beside Uesugi Muneyuki in a generous manner, Uesugi Muneyuki nodded and sat down slowly, then turned his gaze once again to the mature and beautiful woman sitting in the main seat. This woman was the top star of the Soul Agency, the current national actress, and Uesugi Muneyuki's senior at Tokiwa Middle School, Shirakawa Mai.

"Hello, Senior Mai." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

Just like last time, the other party's appearance made his heart beat faster, his emotions almost uncontrollable, and the blood in his whole body was circulating rapidly. And listening to the other party's voice and seeing the friendly attitude she expressed toward him, Uesugi Muneyuki felt his heart sway again, and his head felt a little dizzy.

At this very moment, he finally confirmed one thing: the intense feelings he had for Senior Mai were not brought about by some secret crush at all, but by the legendary suspension bridge effect!

The reason his head spun and his heart swayed uncontrollably whenever she appeared was not because of an intense infatuation; on the contrary, it was his Golden Body Dharma Image reacting, and the Courage within his body beginning to activate.

His excitement and agitation might not necessarily be because he had a crush on her; it was also possible that he had instinctively entered combat mode.

And judging by her performance, this woman was strong, very strong!

"Hehe, the fact that you, Junior, would appear here shows that you already know something, am I right?" Senior Mai smiled brilliantly; she sat down slowly, clasped her hands together, and said softly: "Otherwise, you wouldn't have come, am I right?"

Senior Mai signaled to the Konno couple: she wanted to talk to Uesugi Muneyuki in private, and they could go prepare today's feast.

Closing the paper door and taking off their shoes, Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai sat opposite each other across the table; the small room was lit by a heater, and as the two looked at each other, both familiar and strange, they both felt a strong desire for one another and a faint sense of vigilance.

But Senior Mai was clearly the more composed one; the fact that Uesugi Muneyuki appeared here showed that he was more eager than her and had a stronger need.

Sure enough, after the two stared at each other in silence for a long time, Uesugi Muneyuki finally spoke.

"That night, that Arrow was shot by you, right?"

(End of this chapter)