Most Muscular! 7 "The Intruder" [#CreativeAward2025 #RomanceNovelCategory]

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“What’s with that loaded way of speaking?”
　Just as I was about to press Hide-chan for an answer, that happened.

　A sound like a sudden gust of wind slammed against the door.
　At the same time everyone there turned their gaze toward the sound, the door opened.

　Standing there as the double doors swung wide open was a young man in a uniform with yellow letters on a black background. The words “SLEIPNIR” were written across his chest. His closely cropped—no, completely shaved—head and the extraordinary aura radiating from his entire body changed the atmosphere of the training room in an instant.

“Open it quietly!”

　Akira-kun, who was in front of me, barked toward the entrance.

“What, this song again? I’m telling you, I can’t get pumped up with this.”

　The intruder who had been barked at headed toward the sound system with quick steps, as if he hadn’t heard Akira-kun’s voice at all. Just as he stopped the song playing from the stereo and took out the CD, he opened a nearby window with force and, without any hesitation, threw it away toward a vacant lot in the distance as if it were a frisbee.

“Ahhh, my CD!!”

　Akira-kun shouted, his pale skin turning slightly red.

“Oh, Akira’s? Throw that kind of stuff away.”
“You bastard, I’ll kill you—I mean, I’ll beat you to death!”

　He must have had his favorite songs packed onto it; the young man in the blue T-shirt rushed out of the training room in a panic.

　The guy in black didn’t stop there.
“Found it, found it,” he said, inserting the CD and pressing the play button, and the speakers suddenly screamed “YEAHHHHHHHH!!” Along with the sound of ultra-fast drums, a song by a foreign hardcore punk band began to run wild in the training room.

　Oh, what is this. It’s a volume close to the excitement of the outdoor summer festival I went to last year. It was so similar to a situation where a guitar is being shredded at full blast and the audience is going wild that my eardrums vibrated painfully, and I felt dizzy enough that my vision wavered slightly.

“Too loud!! Hey, how can you even train with this on!?”

　Akira-kun’s voice, having returned with his CD, could be heard through the gaps in the music.

“Takashi!! You’re going to get scolded again!!”

　Hide-chan, as if thinking that was bad, ran toward the stereo and turned down the volume.
　The guy called Takashi headed toward the pull-up bar while shaking his head to the music and shouting the lyrics. It seemed he wasn’t listening to anyone else at all.

　—What is this. Or rather, WHO ARE YOU.

　I thought it was a storm. No, it is a storm. In progress.
　
　Hide-chan approached that “storm” and called out to him.

“Did the rugby club just finish?”
“No-no, I’m not in the rugby club, I’m in the bodybuilding club, aren’t I?”

　The young man replied while hanging limply from the pull-up bar without doing a single pull-up.

“Did you finally lose your mind?”
“Wasn’t I like this from the start?”

As Akira-kun stood next to Hide-chan and spoke with genuine exasperation, the guy in the black uniform let go of the horizontal bar, landed on the mat, and immediately performed what looked like a wrestling move right in front of them.

“Shut up, you baldies, want me to finish you off with one move?”
“You’re the one who’s bald, look in a mirror! You skinhead!!”
“A skinhead isn’t bald, you know?”
“Shut up already!!”

Perhaps still quite furious about the CD frisbee from earlier, Akira-kun raised his voice. Was the guy in black imagining himself putting someone in a headlock? He started keeping rhythm with his elbows now. It seemed Akira-kun’s voice wasn’t reaching his ears at all.

Having finally noticed me in his field of vision, the guy in black made eye contact. We were about five meters apart. I froze, and the elbows that had been keeping rhythm stopped.

“Eh.”
“Ah.”

It was awkward. For the first time, I felt uncomfortable in this training room.
A moment ago, I was a frog stared down by a snake, but now I was a salmon targeted by a bear. I was definitely going to be caught. I wanted to run away from here right now.

—After a brief silence, it was the guy in the black uniform who spoke up.

“Who is that lady?”
“That character of yours, even as a joke, it’s getting annoying.”

Without even glancing at the visibly irritated Akira-kun, he kept his eyes locked on mine and said, “Oh, wait a minute!!” as if he had just remembered something, then walked toward me as if cutting through the wind.

Oh, what should I do? I panicked, thinking, I really need to run away, don't I?
He stood right in front of me, stared intently at my face, and then asked Hide-chan.

“Ando, you, did it happen!! With Ayaha-chan!!”
“Don’t go calling her by her first name so casually, you bald-headed idiot!!”

Hide-chan’s voice sounded a bit angry.

“Yes... it’s Ayaha.”

How many times have I introduced myself today... I’ve never said my own name this many times in my entire life.

“I am a gentleman. I am a member of the bodybuilding club.”

When the guy in black said that, he bowed respectfully.

“Who’s a gentleman? And how many times do I have to tell you that you’re in the rugby club?”

Was it just my imagination, or was Akira-kun’s face looking even paler?
I can’t keep up with this, I thought, my forced smile threatening to twitch, when—

“Ah, I’m heading out now...”

Kawano-kun, who had been keeping his presence suppressed right next to me, timidly headed toward the exit.

“Kono, don’t run away! Want to spar with me?”

Determined not to let him escape, the guy in black’s long arm immediately grabbed Kawano-kun’s right arm.

"No way!! Sumitani-san, you're not holding back at all!!"
"I'm gonna nail it today too!"

Saying that, he forcibly grabbed Kawano-kun's shoulder from behind and pushed him out the door.

"Ah, man, he got dragged off."
"How is that guy so energetic... even after practice is over?"

Hide-chan grumbled, and Akira-kun looked exasperated.
Before long,

──Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!!

Kawano-kun's screams and the sound of laughing could be heard from outside.

"Sorry about that, he's a bit of a weirdo."
"A bit? He's totally insane."

The two young men explained to me without even trying to leave the training room.

"What is he..."
"Captain of the rugby team. He's in the same year as us."

At Hide-chan's words, Akira-kun turned toward the voice coming from outside.

"It's the end of the world if he's the captain."
"It's only been twenty-five years since it started, the twenty-first century."
"Then it's already over, the twenty-second century won't come."

──The way male students act is amazing.
I have no idea where the jokes end and the seriousness begins. But I suddenly remembered that the male employees back when I was an office worker were probably like this too. Especially at drinking parties where groups of athletic types gathered.

"Sorry, I know I was loud too."
"N-no, it's fine. It's fine."

Even though Hide-chan apologized to me suddenly, in a situation like this, I can only answer that I don't mind. This isn't my place; it's their place.

"But, it feels more like a tournament when the training room is lively."
"True."

Listening to the two of them talk, I suddenly wonder.

──What is a bodybuilding tournament like, I wonder?

That question, too, vanished quickly, perhaps because the storm of the intruder from earlier had taken a toll on my body.

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