The usual introduction is given with Sachie explaining her living situation and the oddness of Igarashi who is smiling like a prince while offering his hand. Sachie is in a lovely-dovey mood brought on my the dream of her first love love she had that morning. Her classmates are annoyed by her happiness and ask if she's in love. Sachie explains about her first love and how they went out once when she was 5-years old. Her friends are unimpressed and ask her about her current love life since she seems so close to Igarashi. Sachie, still lost in her dream comes to with Igarashi standing there very close to her. She is startled and Igarashi, not understanding her reaction, asks if she has changed yet. She thinks that Igarashi is not a bad person and then makes some excuse to leave (she just received a text message on her cell phone) because she has suddenly become very aware of Igarashi. Her heart is pounding and her face is red, but she's thinking to herself that her friend Kayo-chan doesn't have to worry because she's not in love with Igarashi.
Igarashi follows Sachie as she looks at her message. Sachie explains that she is going with her friends to the kendo tournament. Igarashi is happily wide-eyed and surprised and asks if she is really going. This time Sachie is surprised by Igarashi's reaction. She doesn't have the heart to tell him that she's going because her friends pressured her into going. Rather she tells Igarashi that she going to cheer the school on so he should do his best. Igarashi then asks for Sachie to do him the favor of making him a lunch. He's leaning in face-to-face with her as he asks and smiling sweetly. "A lunch?" Sachie thinks ... she is a little surprised but doesn't seem that enthusiastic about the request, nor does she seem to consciously comprehend the meaning behind that request.
The morning of the competition, Sachie wakes up early to make the lunch (my guess is subconsciously she understands the lunch request). She is very unhappy with her lunch making skills (although the lunch looks fine to me). Her grandfather comes down and sees her making the lunch. He says he's up early to go meet an important customer/associate and that instead of them staying in a hotel, he has invited them to stay at the house for a few days. He will be returning home with the guests in the late afternoon. Sachie has written "Do your Best" on the rice in the lunch with seaweed flakes. Her grandfather notices and then asks whether this is the weekend of Igarashi's kendo tournament. He then remarks how Igarashi never tells anybody about things like this. Sachie, then realizes that he hadn't told her either. She wonders whether he wanted it that way. Then she remembers his enthusiastic face when she said he was coming and realizes that he was just too humble to invite anybody to see him. Her grandfather then asks Sachi to help prepare for the visitors.
Off to the tournament Igarashi and Sachie go. Their journey is delayed a few times as Igarashi stops to help an old lady, a lost child, and a man who has lots his contact. Next they spot what looks like a pack of thugs trying to shake down a kid for money. Self righteous Sachie jumps into the middle of the situation and tells the punks to get a job. Igarashi with a menacing grin completes the punk vanquishing. The kid is surprised and when the punks are gone, Sachie hugs the little boy like a mother, calming him saying that it must have been scary for a little boy all alone. The boy, deadpan, says that he could have handled punks like that himself and that Sachie had gone overboard. Sachie questions whether she is hearing things (she can't believe the boy is not thanking her), and then counters the boy saying it was a one time rescue so there was no need for him to thank her. Then they do some weird pose thing (a photo perhaps???). While Sachie is bent down posing the little boy flips the back for her skirt up which pisses off both Sachie and Igarashi (he's livid) who now are smiling with pissed off squinty eyes. And then it's back off to the kendo tournament.
They arrive a the tournament a little bit late. Sachie is tired from all the action that happened just getting to the tournament. On the other hand, Igarashi doesn't seem tired at all and is kicking some ass in the tournament. Sachie is a amazed and Igarashi looks like a glowing prince as he takes off his head gear. She then notices that there are a bunch of girls cheering for Igarashi. It is now lunch time and Sachie goes to get the lunch she's prepared for Igarashi only find that it's been messed up because it was jostled in her bag. Still tries to give the lunch to Igarashi and in the process, is trampled by a mob of enthusiastic girls who are all trying to give lunches to Igarashi too. One girl goes so far as to insult Sachie, which doesn't go over well. Igarashi instead stops Sachie from leaving the scene. He comes from up behind her, places on hand on her should and with the other wraps around and takes the lunch from her lunch saying, "excuse me, but this lunch is for me." Sachie blushes and Igarashi smiles very warmly.
They sit to eat and Sachie is worried about the taste of the food even though she tried hard to prepare it. She tells Igarashi that everyone else's lunch may taste better. Igarashi tells her that it would be bad for him not to eat before the continuation of tournament in the afternoon. Sachie, then hands over the lunch with much enthusiasm. Igarashi asks if what she's cooked came from watching TV to which Sachie explains that it's her homestyle of cooking. Igarashi then explains that he has been in the care of the house since he was 5, and, in all that time no one has ever prepared a lunch for him, making this his first. Sachie counters that girls offered him lunches just now. Igarashi says that to accept them would have been troublesome. He tells Sachie not to worry because her worry because the first lunch that was made for him will taste good. Igarashi then eats while Sachie nervous sits beside him. They are outside on the lawn under a tree. She thinks back to what her grandfather said about Igarashi not telling people about things like the tournament and then thinks about all the things that Igarashi has suffered through in his childhood. Sachie notices that it's late and tells Igarashi to hurry back to the tournament. As she goes into motion, Igarashi grabs her hand and asks if she will go with him to see the upcoming fireworks presentation because he wants to thank her for the lunch. Sachie says there's no need to thank her, but Igarashi points out that she went through the trouble of waking up early to prepare the lunch. Sachie says that she will let him thank her if he wins the tournament to which Igarashi tells her to watch him. Igarashi fights well and Sachie admires his fighting form while still trying to convince herself that she's not in love.
They return home to find the lower yakuza scrambling to get ready for the guest. The guest arrives and it's the little boy Igarashi and Sachie saved from the thugs earlier in the day.
End of Chapter
Sneaking a peek ahead, it looks like it's Igarashi vs. the kid, with Igarashi getting extremely jealous. His jealousy causes him to have a couple of melt downs resulting in some behavior that is "lost in translation" -- as in it seems that over possessiveness is meant to be romantic in the manga, but in the US, Igarashi's behavior would be considered physically abusive. For us his behavior and level of jealousy is indicative of a guy who should be avoided because he will become more abusive as time goes on. I wonder how Viz will handle this. The easiest thing would be to PS the sign of abuse or to simply remove the offending image and fill in the blank space with something else. Hmmm ...
Sneaking a peek ahead, it looks like it's Igarashi vs. the kid, with Igarashi getting extremely jealous. His jealousy causes him to have a couple of melt downs resulting in some behavior that is "lost in translation" -- as in it seems that over possessiveness is meant to be romantic in the manga, but in the US, Igarashi's behavior would be considered physically abusive. For us his behavior and level of jealousy is indicative of a guy who should be avoided because he will become more abusive as time goes on. I wonder how Viz will handle this. The easiest thing would be to PS the sign of abuse or to simply remove the offending image and fill in the blank space with something else. Hmmm ...
