InsomniaWL
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425 Akina Mountain
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 15:00:14 +0000 UTC♪ “In the season when snowflakes dance, the two of us keep missing each other~~”
♪ “Even though we’re both frozen to the bone”
♪ “Is it that I still don’t truly understand”
♪ “The real you?”
♪ “Even so, I found you among a hundred million people...” ♪
—
The heartbreak-fueled singing erupted like an explosion.
This was not the kind of sorrow you could fake without having gone through at least fifty breakups and downed ten liters of vodka.
Just let the world end already.
Why is it that after every breakup, people insist on going to karaoke?
Can’t they try something a little more original?
Didn’t I already take you on a spiritual journey to heal your heart?
Face it, love just isn’t for you, Hatake Gorou!
Kyousuke rang the tambourine with a stiff smile as he watched Gorou belt out the song, tears streaming down his face like a tragic waterfall.
♪ “If even our hearts were dyed pure white by the snow, maybe the snowflakes would wrap up our loneliness and return it to the sky—” ♪
No, no, no. It’s your loneliness alone, buddy.
Just as Hojou Kyousuke was about to retort.
He glanced over and saw Kuroda and Ryoma—equally heartbroken expressions on their faces wailing along as if they were the ones who just got dumped.
What’s this? Are your guilty consciences finally kicking in?
When the song finally ended, the group refrained from alcohol since they still had to ride back.
Instead, their table was covered with red-and-white hot spring buns.
Kuroda grabbed a handful and stuffed them into Gorou’s mouth, shouting with tragic fury, “Eat, Gorou! Eat as much as you can! A full stomach leaves no room for sadness!”
“That’s right! You need energy to keep crying! Eaaaat!” Ryoma yelled, stuffing more buns in as well.
Moved by his brothers’ heartfelt concern, Gorou cried even harder.
The warm buns, soaked in his tears, suddenly had... deeper flavor notes.
‘Sob sob sob—eat!’
Unable to speak, Gorou answered their love with action—dropping the mic and grabbing two handfuls of buns to shove into his buddies’ mouths.
Each bun was about the size of a thumb—delicious when eaten alone.
While there wasn’t anything particularly different about them compared to regular buns, the simple wheat aroma was comforting enough.
But eating them by the handful like this?
That was basically a Heimlich maneuver waiting to happen.
[TL Note – Heimlich maneuver is a first aid procedure used to treat choking]
Would it even work, or would someone have to slice open a throat?
As Kyousuke pondered that, he silently started popping buns into his mouth one by one.
He didn’t need those three idiots’ help—he could feed himself just fine.
“Seriously... if you don’t have the brain for romance, stop trying to force it,” Kisaki sighed, full of pity and frustration.
“Kisaki? Are you serious right now?” Kyousuke was stunned.
‘When did even Kisaki earn the right to look down on others when it came to love?’
“Hmph. You think I’m still that idiot who wanted to conquer the world to win a girl’s heart?” Kisaki scoffed.
His boss might’ve never shared the "secret techniques" with him, but trailing behind Kyousuke every day wasn’t just for show!
“Someone like Gorou doesn’t have a chance with girls—not in this lifetime!”
His voice was loud enough to catch the attention of the trio still searching for more heartbreak ballads.
They turned to face him.
“Then what are we supposed to do?! If you know the answer, spill it! If not, I don’t care if you’re the strategist—I’m taking you down!” Gorou shouted, still raw from his recent emotional performance.
“Of course I know! If I didn’t have this much wisdom, how could I support Boss’s world domination?” Kisaki declared proudly.
“Oh?! Then hurry up and tell us already! Or are you just enjoying watching Gorou suffer?” Kuroda yelled.
Oh please.
You sound all righteous, but you're the last person who should be talking, Kyousuke thought.
Ryoma narrowed his eyes at Kuroda, then chimed in with his own dramatic shout:
“Or is it that you just don’t want to see us find happiness?!”
You two bastards are totally enjoying this, aren’t you?
Still, Kyousuke was kind of curious.
What had Kisaki learned after three years of “training”?
“Follow my method, and I guarantee you’ll have girls falling for you 100% of the time.” Kisaki smiled smugly, a dangerous glint flashing across his glasses.
‘Gulp.’
The three boys swallowed nervously, completely focused.
“First…”
“First…” they echoed.
“Plastic surgery!”
“Plastic surgery!” they repeated again.
“YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD! Why is your first step already heading into fantasy land?!” Gorou exploded in rage.
“No choice! Without this step, the rest of my plan falls apart!” Kisaki shrugged, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
‘You’ve graduated, Kisaki. You’ve truly unlocked the secrets of love.’
“I don’t think I’m ugly to that extent!”
“And that’s your problem! You lack even the most basic self-awareness! After the surgery, you work hard to earn money, then use your handsome face and wads of cash to make women swoon!”
“Then why not just skip to the cash part?!” Ryoma snapped.
“Excellent! You’re finally starting to grasp how empty your insides are. Without money and looks, you’ve got nothing to offer!”
“Kisaki! Sounds like you’re getting a little too attached to Gunma... Planning to stay here forever, huh?”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Sleeping in the mountains, waking up to the roar of engines—it’s like living a dream. At this rate, I don’t even need girls anymore!”
“Haruna Mountain it is, then. Here lies Kisaki Tetta, forever resting in Haruna’s embrace. Has a nice ring to it. We’ll come visit every year and race a few laps in your memory.”
“Great idea!”
“Hey, hold on! Everything I said was based on actual strategy!” Kisaki yelled, watching their eyes grow more and more dangerous.
“If that’s all your brain can come up with, then you don’t deserve to live!” Gorou roared and lunged at him.
“Kuroda! Kuroda! Help me!” Kisaki shouted.
“Too bad! You’re on your own!” Kuroda grinned menacingly and lunged as well.
“Kuroda has a girlfriend! He’s the only one here who actually has a girlfriend! He’s the one who should be put to eternal rest!” Kisaki screamed.
Gorou’s hands froze mid-choke. That’s right.
Even if Kyousuke was still tangled in a web of women, out of all of them, Kuroda was the only one who actually had a girlfriend.
Killing Kisaki would just be eliminating another single guy—friendly fire.
A waste of vengeance.
No. Kuroda... he was the one who deserved capital punishment!
“Hey, Kuroda… I remember you looked really sad while singing with me earlier. That must mean you were heartbroken too, right? Right?
If you weren’t, there’s no way you’d be that emotional. If you faked it—if you pretended to be brokenhearted just to sing with a guy who actually got dumped… that’s unforgivable, right?”
“You’ve got to be kidding… Did that idiot Hatake Gorou actually say something that coherent?!”
Could it be… that this breakup didn’t fry his brain but actually helped him grow as a person?
Sweat beaded on Kuroda’s forehead under the piercing gaze of three red-eyed beasts.
“Uh…”
“You didn’t say anything, sure, but that’s probably ‘cause you didn’t want us to worry, right, Kuroda?” Ryoma asked, his smile stiff and cold as ice.
‘Oh ho, excellent’— Kyousuke cheered internally as he kept munching on hot spring buns.
The co-conspirators have turned on each other. This is getting good.
And just like that, the four of them were tangled in a full-blown brawl, choking each other and rolling on the floor.
“Now that I think about it… Kisaki, have you finally gotten over Tachibana Hinata?” Kyousuke suddenly dropped the name.
“Tachibana Hinata?” Hatake Gorou blinked in confusion.
“She’s the one Kisaki was crying out for while hugging a bottle last time he got drunk,” Kuroda explained.
“Ohhh! Just what I’d expect from our strategist!”
Silently, Kisaki let go of the chokehold he had on Kuroda, picked up the microphone, and began to sing.
♪ “I’ve tried to forget you a thousand times… but I just can’t.
I realize now, I’ve always been thinking of you.
Even now… I still love you. I want to see you again~~” ♪
Kisaki’s voice was even more heartbreaking than Gorou’s.
If Gorou sounded like he’d been dumped fifty times, Kisaki’s performance screamed of at least a hundred rejections.
Yep—one-sided love is brutal. And so, the night gained yet another heartbroken soul.
Watching his friends, united in shared misery, Kyousuke smiled warmly.
Love was such a pain.
He really wished his friends would never have to suffer this way again.
If only he could carry all of that pain for them.
Midnight came.
After a few hours of screaming into microphones, even Kyousuke felt refreshed. And Gorou, who had been a total wreck earlier, now looked noticeably better.
When they stepped outside, their breaths came out in white puffs.
Even though Tokyo that is barely 100 kilometers away—was still T-shirt weather, this deep in Gunma felt like winter hadn’t ended yet.
But Kyousuke was undeterred.
He looked up at the pitch-black mountains and shouted with excitement:
“Let’s go! You can’t come to Gunma and not hit the mountain roads!”
The screeching tires echoing from the dark, winding hairpins of Mount Haruna—it was calling to them.
If Gorou had really recovered from his heartbreak, it was time to follow in their senpai’s footsteps and start racing again.
At least his crush didn’t drive off in a Mercedes—she stuck around to ride with him.
In that way, he was already way ahead.
“Let’s gooo!!” Kisaki and the others roared, quickly strapping on their helmets and jumping on their bikes behind Kyousuke.
This world had Initial D, after all. And Gunma?
Gunma lived and breathed street racing.
Engines roared like wild beasts, carried on the back of the howling wind as it swept through the city.
Even in the dead of night, the roads were packed with heavily modified cars and motorcycles, each driving like they had a death wish.
Intersections weren’t places to slow down—they were battlegrounds.
In fact, after riding through several streets, Kyousuke hadn’t seen a single soul slow down at a red light.
That reckless vibe left the cautious riders stunned.
“This place is nuts—in a good way,” someone muttered.
“Yeah, I bet most tourists here are actually insurance claim investigators.”
“Not that you even need to investigate. Just hearing the word Gunma basically confirms it’s a legit car crash.”
“Fair point.”
They yelled over the wind, laughing as they rode toward the entrance to the Haruna Mountain pass.
Unlike other places, Gunma’s wind was relentless even at night—more than a breeze, it was an evil wind.
It tore through the trees, not with the gentle scent of forest air like Itomori’s, but more like a banshee wail.
The constant high-pitched screeches echoing from the mountaintop added an eerie atmosphere.
“What a place… Man, we should’ve brought Onizuka and the others too,” Gorou said, his mood clearly lightened—he was already back to making plans.
“Onizuka’s probably sleeping with his girlfriend right now,” Kisaki replied.
“Exactly! That’s why we should’ve dragged him out here!”
“Can’t argue with that.”
After another round of joking, they hopped back on their bikes, ready to conquer the sacred proving ground of their generation—the infamous Five Consecutive Hairpin Turns.
The curves were tight and steep, but at least it was nighttime—no need for honking.
As long as there was no light from oncoming traffic, it was safe to assume the road ahead was clear.
Soon enough, the guys who had been so hyped a moment ago started yelling through their open visors.
“Boss! Can you go any faster? Riding slow on this kind of road is even more dangerous!”
“Seriously! Locals are gonna die laughing if they see this!”
“Then shut up and lower your visors so they don’t recognize us, idiot!”
Only Gorou and the others were grumbling.
Kisaki, on the other hand, just shook his head.
He knew full well—Boss was never going to speed up.
He’d turn back before he stepped on the gas.
“We’re not racing to see who dies faster—we’re racing to see who lives the longest.”
With that line, Kyousuke glided smoothly into the first hairpin turn.
‘Whooosh—'
‘That was close!’ Kyousuke’s heart pounded, but he grinned.
If Takumi were as careful as him, that tofu wouldn’t spill at all! …Though he’d definitely be late.
That’s boss for you.
That cautious style? Totally the mark of a future legend.
Kisaki, completely at peace, smiled with admiration.
He wasn’t worried about Kyousuke being weak—he was only afraid he’d die too soon.
A dead genius was still just a corpse.
But a careful, cautious genius? That’s someone who could rule the world.
Despite Kyousuke’s gesture to signal them forward, no one moved.
Slow or not, cruising as a group was more fun anyway.
Wasn’t that the whole reason they founded the Angels of the Road?
To race through the night together?
Eventually, they reached the mountain summit, where the road finally began to level out.
The group coasted to a stop in an empty clearing off the side of the road.
“Man, that was intense…”
Kyousuke exhaled.
For someone with hypersensitive senses like him, nature-induced fear hit different.
While most people might just know that flying off a guardrail would mean death.
His mind painted a vivid picture—branches piercing limbs, bones snapping—he saw it all in high definition, sound effects included.
“Yeah… Honestly, it’s scarier than hitting 120 kilometers per hour,” Gorou muttered.
Going fast at least kept his focus glued to the road. But riding slow?
That gave his brain all the time in the world to imagine what would happen if they fell off the edge.
“You guys are slow. Is this your first time here?”
A voice—one they didn’t recognize suddenly called out from the shadows nearby.
