Chapter 3 | After School, at Gold's Gym

"……Why don't you try bodybuilding?"

I still haven't forgotten those words.

Around the end of my first year of high school.
To me, who was just single-mindedly focused on the training right in front of me,
those were the "life-changing words" suddenly spoken to me.

That was the momentI had the sprout of a "possibility" I hadn't even noticed myself discovered.

Being recognized by someone.
Believing in myself.

This is the story of the beginning, leading up to me becoming the "best in Japan in high school."

⸻

April. High school life began.

While everyone was rushing around trying to get used to the new environment—
as for me,I was busy getting used to the gym.

I was just so happy every day to be able to train at the Gold's Gym I had dreamed of.

I was actually using the machines I had only ever seen in magazines and videos to train.
That alone wasmoving.

And above all,
I was confident that there probably wasn't anyone else training this seriously as a high school student.

I wasn't competing with anyone.
But that confidence naturally made my existence stand out within the high school as well.

⸻

At the time, Gold's Gym Sendai wasfranchised by a drugstore called Daruma Pharmacy.

The staff and the members were all very welcoming, and since I went every day in my school uniform, I quickly became
a familiar face.

Going there in my uniform was definitely quitenoticeable (lol)

⸻

By the time half a year of high school life had passed,
I had gotten used to it little by little, made friends, and was having a good time.

My "muscle character" had also become completely established.

It was my daily routine to drink protein during the second-period break. When I was sleeping, my friends would wake me up saying, "Kunii! It's protein time!" (laughs)

The high school I attended was a school strong in sports in Miyagi Prefecture.
My friends around me were also aiming for the Inter-High or national tournaments in their respective sports, and I was getting good stimulation from them.

But I was different.

I was just training for my own self-satisfaction.
I just had more muscle than the average high school student.

I wasn't showing any "results" to the world.

That's why I felt a sense of dissatisfaction somewhere.

⸻

It was one such day.

When I went to the gym after school as usual, a staff member called out to me at the reception.

"Kunii-kun, you definitely have talent. ...Why don't you try bodybuilding?"

That was my first meeting with my mentor—
Shizuka Nakamura.

⸻

I think it was around the end of my first year of high school when Nakamura-san spoke to me.

Until then, we only exchanged greetings as we passed each other, but she was
always smiling, had a great figure—and gave the impression of being "the quintessential trainer."

But in reality, she was
a genuine top athlete who had won the All Japan Miss Fitness title three times in a row, and was someone even called the "Queen of Fitness."

⸻

"...Why don't you try bodybuilding?"

When she said that, honestly, I was bewildered.

I knew that the sport of bodybuilding existed, and I was taking my training seriously in my own way at the time, but

I had doubts about whether I could stand on that stage.

It wasn't so much anxiety as it was just a realistic feeling, I think.

But—

"Kunii-kun, you definitely have talent."

Those words from Nakamura-san pierced straight into the depths of my heart.

Because,
that was the first time in my life someone had told me I had 'potential'.

—

That is precisely why I wanted to believe.
If there was something waiting for me beyond that belief—

I felt like I could go much, much further.

—

"Yes! I want to try it!"

This is where it starts.
The road to becoming the best in high school began here.