Chapter 25: THE ILLUSION OF MASS (part 2)
An entire year passed.
Renjiro was now seventeen.
He had crossed the six-foot mark, and his weight had reached a terrifying one hundred and fifty kilograms.
One night, at two in the morning, having just finished his squat session, Renjiro stood drenched in sweat.
He racked the barbell, turned around, and stood before his full-length mirror.
He looked at the photo of his grandfather on the desk.
In the picture, his grandfather stood in the center of the ring.
He had a thick, imposing sumo-belly, but above that belly, every cut and muscle fiber on his chest, massive shoulders, and legs was clearly defined.
He truly looked like a god of war, a sight that would dry the throats of his enemies.
Then, Renjiro looked at his own reflection.
There was no mountain.
There was only skin marred by angry stretch marks and hanging, stubborn fat.
His chest, which had become as hard as rock from lifting, looked bizarre and weak from the outside due to the fatty deposits.
His massive thighs chafed together so badly that even walking normally was a painful chore.
"What have I become...?"
Renjiro's lips trembled.
The sound didn't belong to a seventeen-year-old boy; it was a whimper of total psychological defeat.
For the past year, he had sacrificed his sleep every single night.
Yet, he couldn't see a single inch of that iron-like muscle in the mirror.
All he saw was his obesity.
He remembered Raizen's words. He remembered the voices of the school bullies calling him a pig.
"Is it possible...
that Grandpa's strength just isn't meant for me?
I'm not becoming a monster...
I really am just a weak, ugly, fat pile of trash."
In a violent storm of anger, depression, and absolute self-loathing, Renjiro drove his massive, clenched fist straight into the wall next to the mirror with every ounce of his power.
THUD
The punch carried such terrifying force that a chunk of plaster exploded off the wall, and blood began to stream down his knuckles.
But he didn't feel the physical pain.
The one-hundred-and-fifty-kilo giant dropped to his knees in front of the mirror and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
His spirit was completely shattered.
That night...
exactly one month ago, Renjiro Hoshino gave up.
After that night, he permanently stopped lifting the iron.
The barbell sat in the dark corner of his room, quietly gathering dust.
But his body was so deeply addicted to the junk food that even after stopping the workouts, he couldn't stop eating the garbage.
The lifting stopped, but he kept eating through his depression.
Another month passed.
It was daytime. The dining table was littered with empty food wrappers. Without pausing, devoid of any emotion, Renjiro was shoving a third heavy beef burger into his mouth.
His white school shirt stretched taut across his heavy stomach, looking as if the buttons would pop at any second.
His mother, Yui, stood by the kitchen counter. Tears welled in her eyes, her hands trembling.
She rushed to the table and desperately tried to snatch the burger from Renjiro's hands.
"Renjiro... stop it, honey.
Please, I'm begging you,"
Yui cried out, her voice laced with agony.
"What are you doing to yourself?
Do you know what the doctor said?
Your cholesterol and blood pressure are like a sick old man's!
You're going to kill yourself!"
Renjiro gave his mother a dead, hollow stare.
He casually picked up a second slice of pizza and kept eating.
Just then, his father, Katsuya, stormed into the hall, his face flushed with anger.
He walked straight to the table, grabbed the can of black cola, and hurled it at the floor.
The dark, sugary liquid splattered everywhere.
"Stop eating this garbage!"
Katsuya roared.
There was less anger in his voice and more of a father's crushing helplessness.
"What are you turning into, Renjiro?!
Your mother cries day and night, and you don't even care?
You can't even climb a flight of stairs properly, your knees are giving out!"
Renjiro stopped chewing.
He slowly raised his heavy head.
"I... want to be strong, Dad,"
Renjiro said, his voice carrying a strange, chilling flatness.
"Strong?!"
Katsuya grabbed his own hair in sheer frustration.
"This is your strength?!
You're dragging your grandfather's name through the mud! Kenji Hoshino was a sumo wrestler,he had god-level strength inside him.
He became a mountain through hard work and discipline.
And you?
You're just becoming a sick boy taking out the frustration of his failures on fast food!
You're not getting strong eating this trash, you're just getting lazy and weak!"
"You... wouldn't understand,"
Renjiro muttered, his voice quiet and trembling.
Beneath the table, his fists clenched tightly.
He pushed his chair back, struggling to stand.
Dragging his heavy feet, he walked to his room and locked the door behind him.
His parents never knew that for an entire year, their son had been breaking his bones lifting heavy iron in the dark confines of that room.
They assumed he had been lazy and weak from the start.
And now...
now he had truly stopped lifting that iron for good.
Behind the locked door, he simply sat in the dark, entirely broken.
A few more days passed.
It was evening.
Renjiro lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
The whole house was as quiet as a morgue.
Suddenly, the sharp ring of the landline echoed through the hall.
Katsuya was sitting in the living room, reading the newspaper. He casually picked up the receiver.
"Hello, Hoshino residence."
For a few seconds, there was dead silence on the line. Abruptly, Katsuya's spine straightened.
His facial expressions shifted second by second—from confusion, to sheer shock, and finally, to deep-seated dread.
Katsuya slowly placed the receiver back onto the cradle.
His hands were shaking violently, as if he had just conversed with a demon.
He stood rooted to the spot, his mind completely numb.
Yui walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands. Seeing her husband's pale, drained face, she stopped in her tracks.
"Who was on the phone, honey?
Why did your face just go completely white?"
Katsuya took a deep, shuddering breath.
His voice caught in his throat.
"It was a call from Hoshigawa,
Yui...
Hoshigawa High School."
The towel slipped from Yui's hands and hit the floor.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Hoshigawa?!
But... why would they call us?
We don't have any connections or standing there."
"I don't know either, Yui,"
Katsuya said, gripping his head with both hands.
"They said their Principal directly approved Renjiro's admission.
He specifically requested Renjiro to come in tomorrow morning."
Yui panicked entirely.
She knew her son's fragile state.
"No! Katsuya, we can't send our son there to die!
You know what kind of school Hoshigawa is, right?
The brutal discipline, the elite kids...
they'll eat our Renjiro alive!
Normal kids at Hakuho beat him half to death,the ones at Hoshigawa will break his very soul!"
Katsuya's voice suddenly rose, thick with pain.
"Then what should we do, Yui?!
What is he gaining by staying locked in this room?!
After what happened at Hakuho, he's basically become a living corpse anyway.
Maybe he needs this final, strict push.
Maybe a new environment, completely new people, and Hoshigawa's ruthless atmosphere will break through this depression once and for all.
As a father,I can't watch my son rot away right in front of my eyes every single day.
I'm sending him to Hoshigawa.
Tomorrow."
Standing right behind his locked door, Renjiro had listened to every single word intently.
His mother was fearing for his life, while his father saw this brutal school as a last, desperate hope to fix him.
But nobody knew why an elite institution like Hoshigawa had specifically selected Renjiro's name.
It was a question no one had the answer to—not Katsuya, and certainly not Renjiro.
Renjiro looked down at his massive, heavy fist.
He had tried being afraid at Hakuho.
He had tried hiding in his house.
But until now, whenever it was time to show real strength, he had always backed down.
Hoshigawa High.
He knew the students there would be a thousand times more dangerous and arrogant.
He was going to be a prime target the second he walked through the doors.
But today, this time... instead of fear,there was a strange,numbing coldness settling in his chest.
The next day,
Renjiro packed his heavy bag and set out toward his new destination.
The most terrifying crucible of his life was about to begin.
And the towering, gleaming iron gates of Hoshigawa High School were still completely unaware that this morning, a one-hundred-and-fifty-kilogram broken mountain was about to take his first step into their spotless, disciplined corridors.
A mountain that, deep inside, still harbored iron.
Chapter End