GBLINC! Volume 2 Chapter 8

Bullying is something I’m sure that everyone has experienced in some manner before.
Maybe even as an unknowing participant.
Some time in middle school, a girl in our grade was always bullied by everyone else.
Hiding her chair before the lesson — something that might not cause physical harm, but definitely a bother.
As for the reason behind the bullying, no one really knew.
「If I don’t participate, maybe I’ll also be bullied like her」 Everyone probably had that kind of thought.
This idea suddenly stopped in the summer of the third year.
It wasn’t because everyone had an epiphany, but rather because the girl had already–
Obviously the main reason wasn’t the students of the school, but rather family reasons — the teacher told us that.
But with that kind of pressure from both family and school, it was a bit of a stretch to say there was no connection.
I’ve always had a feeling, that I with my own hands had…
As such, I’ve gained a hatred of such schoolyard bullying.
Or perhaps it’s a hatred towards the me of then.
Reminiscing about all this, I lay there on the dorm bed.
Forced by the situation and the stares of my classmates, I returned.
After calming down, perhaps I was a bit hysterical — I had this kind of thought.
I don’t think I would’ve reacted like this before.
I put my hands on my chest, feeling a patch of softness as well as my heartbeat.
「Don, Don」
Feeling it was rhythmic, I let out a deep sigh.
Everything that has changed, I’ve now felt deeply.
I walked towards the nightstand and looked at myself in front of the mirror.
I pinched my cheeks, and the me in the mirror did the same.
Recalling how Nakamura Rin looked at me just now, maybe it actually wasn’t her.
I’ve just left the classroom, so returning right now is a bit inappropriate.
I took out the datapad from my pocket and searched up the Nakamura Rin’s email.
I deliberated a bit before finally deciding to send an apology.
I’ll ask her to once again meet me at the café outside… OK, send.
And I told Yuu once again, I will have plans during lunch and won’t be able, to, eat, together… send.
I threw the datapad aside and flopped on the bed.
I guess I can nap for a bit.

Nakamura Rin on the other hand was not at all pleased.
It was the break after the first lesson, yet there was not a single sound in the classroom.
「Ring… Ring」
(Again?)
She took it as another threatening message.
Receiving such threats was a common occurance for Nakamura Rin.
In order for an enterprise to expand and grow, it will inevetably have to crush its surrounding enterprises.
Furthermore, the way that the Nakamura Family acquires its wealth isn’t exactly honorable. Loansharking, Organized Crime… those that would look for revenge are inumerable.
That’s why Nakamura Rin set the inbox to only receive messages from school residents.
For the last few days however, someone had managed to get their hands on a school account. Rin’s inbox was thus once again swarmed with such threat spam.
This gave the young girl even more frustrations.
She took out the datapad but realized that the sender was instead the girl who had left an hour ago, Nagase.
After reading the message, the young girl’s heart warmed considerably.
But why meet in the cafe outside the school? She had such a thought.
This school was already in a rather remote place, its surroundings could be said to be thinly populated.
Those willing to leave the school grounds were few, and female students even fewer.
If you were to ask to meet up, you would usually ask to meet up at the cafe inside the school.
No use thinking too much. Let’s meet up outside the school’s entrance. And that’s how Rin replied.

— Afterschool —

And so I spent an entire day like this.
I secretly ate my lunch in a corner, hoping to avoid the rush of students leaving classes.
What am I doing… I questioned myself.
Since it’s a meeting outside the school, perhaps I should change out of my school uniform.
With this thought, I opened up my wardrobe.
But other than my school uniform, I don’t have that many clothes.
Going out by myself to buy underwear, skirts etc… it was a bit hard to accept in all areas.
Nevermind, I’ll go to the school mall on the weekend to see if there’s any normal pants…
I took out a white one piece from the wardrobe and strengthened my resolve.
I grabbed my purse and rushed towards the school main gates.
Nakamura Rin had yet to arrive.
She had to pass by the dorms after all, let’s wait a bit.
And so after staring at the gate guard-san for a bit too long, to the point of awkwardness, Rin came running.

「Sorry, the teacher called me, it took a while」

「Ah, it’s ok, I also just arrived.」

Rin had changed into a red white striped one piece with a belt. The hairstyle was unchanged with huge white butterfly ribbons and twintails.
From appearances alone, she could belong in a fantasy.
And so I walked with her down the long hill from the school.
Recalling the incident this morning, I felt a bit awkward.
They probably felt the same, and so we kept the silence.
「That um… sorry about this morning, randomly suspecting you…」 I decided to apologize first.

「It’s alright… I was also a bit aggressive with my manner of speech.」

And we returned to silence again.
There was only us two on the hill.

「Nakamura-san, why are you so… that is, severe towards me?」 I asked.

「Eh?」

「What do you mean eh… are you saying— watch out behind you!」 We had reached the bottom of the hill, and there was still no one around. In the middle of speaking, I suddenly saw a bunch of black clothed men rush from a small alleyway. That was why I had called out.

I hurriedly grasped Rin’s hand and ran back towards the school.
Yet it was only a few seconds before they caught up.

「The target is in hand, along with a kid. How to deal with her?」
「Understood.」

I was grabbed and tied up, a piece of cloth shoved into my mouth. Rin shared the same.
And it was like this that we were taken to a car that had been waiting on the side of the street.
Looking around, it seemed that the nearest shop was still a good 100 meters or so away.
Curses, why was this place so isolated.
I was so scared just then that I couldn’t make a sound, and now I could only make some small puffing noises.
My eyes had a black blindfold on so I could only sense the car continuing to drive.
Not too long after, I felt the car stop. Someone carried me and threw me into a room.
Rin was probably in the same room.
The gag in my mouth was then removed.
There was a clunk. It was probably the door to the room being shut and locked.
「Nakamura-san?」 I called out softly.

「Is it Nagase?」 Rin’s voice was wavering a bit.

Well she was just a middle schooler after all.
The kidnappers were too fast, there wasn’t even time to call out for help.
The only options now were to wait for Yuu to realize during dinner that we were missing, or for one of Rin’s friends to realize.

「Yes it’s me. Who did this? Does Nakamura-san have any clues?」

「They were probably after me… these last few days I’ve received no end of threatening messages. Though they were coming before as well… I never really took notice…」 Rin spoke out in bits and pieces, probably frightened dearly.

「No need to be scared, someone will find us. Something like kidnapping, they wouldn’t just–」 kill us. In order to not scare her more, I swallowed these words.

I shifted a bit trying to loosen the ropes, but they ended up becoming tighter. Feeling around, it seemed that they took whatever was in our pockets.
These people were professionals, better to not take risks.
Maybe I’ll try to distract Rin.

「Let’s return to what we were talking about before. Nakamura-san, why do you seem to have something against me…?」

The sudden change in topics seemed to have given her pause. She took a while before replying.

「Obviously—」

「Hmm?」

「Obviously being with Onii-san was always my position!」

「AH! I heard you so please keep your voice down!」 What kind of dumb reason was this.
I thought about it a bit more, then continued. 「I say, Nakamura-san, are you saying that you like Yuu — That is, your Onii-san?」

Even though my eyes were covered, I could imagine the blush breaking out on Rin’s face.

「S-so what? I won’t lose to you!」

「Lose what…? I’m not even competing with you?」

「Eh? Aren’t you Yuu’s girlfriend?」

「No way!!」

「Q-Quiet!」

I calmed down. 「Actually I could help you out with Yuu…」

「Really?!」

「But in exchange, please talk to me normally in school!」

We were in such a tense situation, yet the topic was something like this.
It felt a bit silly.

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Translator notes:

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) and thank you for reading.

I’m having a bit of difficulty pinning down how characters should be speaking. If you feel something is off, please make a note in the comments with suggestions. Reminder that Kanade is a male college student turned little girl, so manners of speech should reflect that (excluding periods of character merging/growth/etc). Rin is a somewhat spoiled haughty ojou-sama and Yuu is a normal middle schooler.

I’m trying to match the author’s word choices as best as I can, but some things can’t translate directly.

TN2: I’ve retroactively changed names. Please check chapter 5 for details on why.