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Noya is twelve when he meets Ryuu for the first time. The tall boy with a buzzcut hairdo walks into their seventh grade classroom, looking nervous as hell because it’s his first day at Miyagi Junior High. Most other kids had been there for a term already and had made their own friends. Everyone sits in their groups and ignores the new boy’s presence. Noya, on the other hand, observes the way Ryuu smiles awkwardly to the only kid paying him any attention. It’s a toothy, warm grin that reaches his eyes.
“Boys and girls, this is Tanaka Ryuunosuke. He’s just transferred from Tokyo!” Shimizu Sensei introduces Ryuu, putting an affectionate arm around him. Noya notices that Ryuu is already half a head taller than Sensei, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She beams at Ryuu and scans the room for a seat. Her eyes fall on the space next to Noya’s chair.
“Why don’t you sit next to Nishinoya-kun today?” She looks at Noya, eyes soft and kind. Noya doesn’t even try to fight the blush that appears whenever she looks his way.
“Sure,” Noya says confidently, pulling out the chair next to him. So what if the whole class thought that this Ryuu kid was “just some shitty boy”, as Noya heard someone behind him whisper in disgust? He figures that he can make that judgement for himself.
As the weeks progress, Noya finds himself drawn to Ryuu in every way possible. The boy radiates light and laughter, and even the class begrudgingly accepts him, although some of the kids still keep a safe distance away from him.
“Yo, Noya-san! Are you free after school today?” Ryuu asks Noya on a cloudy Friday morning. Despite Noya asking Ryuu to call him by his first name, Ryuu insists on keeping the honorifics.
Noya nods in response.
“Good, because I’ve got somethin’ magical I wanna show ya,” is all Ryuu says with a twinkle in his eye before he runs off.
Noya keeps glancing at the clock throughout the day and pesters Ryuu at lunch about what he had planned for the afternoon, but his friend merely smiles and shrugs at him.
“C’mon, dude! Just tell me,” begs Noya, impatience getting the better of him. He has no idea what Ryuu has in mind, and it bugs him that Ryuu isn’t telling him.
“You’ll find out!” Ryuu responds, just as he had responded forty times throughout the day.
Finally, after what seems like a decade, the bell rings at three o’clock. The class scrambles out of the room, keen for the weekend.
“Bye, Shimizu Sensei!” Noya calls out and waves to their teacher as they run out, cheeks flushed.
Ryuu makes gross kissing noises as they clamber onto the bus together, but Noya just rolls his eyes. The two talk animatedly to each other on the short bus ride to their stop, and Noya knows better than to bring up this afternoon’s plans. When the bus finally comes to a halt at their bus stop, Ryuu sprints off the bus with Noya following closely behind him.
Ryuu drags Noya by the arm as he runs through the forest that surrounds their homes, takes a turn somewhere that he has not yet ventured through, and leads the way to the lake that Noya’s mother warned him not to go near.
Although the clouds still hang above them, Noya can appreciate the beauty before him; the towering trees come to life with the wind swaying their branches, waving at him. The lake shimmers in the afternoon light as the water flows down the stream, bits of leaves and twigs floating along the top. It’s very relaxing and peaceful.
An old, frayed rope hangs from one of the branches of the trees, waiting for them above the lake. Noya glances at Ryuu, but the other boy’s eyes say it all; he is ready and willing to swing across the rope to see what sort of adventures lie ahead in the deeper parts of the forest.
“You ready?” asks Ryuu, puffing out his chest and stretching his arms.
Noya eyes the rope, biting his lip.
“Don’t go near that lake, Yuu-chan! It’s dangerous, and you don’t know how to swim,” his mother’s voice rings in his head as he watches Ryuu take a few run-ups towards the rope in preparation.
“Uh …” Noya starts. “Look, that rope’s been there for god knows how long, Ryuu … I dunno, man,” Noya tells Ryuu honestly.
Ryuu cocks his head to the side, evidently confused. “But what if we find something awesome on the other side? I found this place yesterday, and I figured we’ve got to find out what’s out there! Imagine if it’s like …” Ryuu’s eyes go round and he starts speaking incredibly fast, and Noya has a hard time keeping up with him. He’s sure he hears the words “troll”, “battle”, and “magical kingdom”, though.
Looking at Ryuu now and listening to him speak excitedly about what could be on the other side of the lake forces Noya to stop thinking about his mother’s words and instead think of the adventure that lies ahead of him.
After Noya agrees to swing across the lake, Ryuu’s eyes light up immediately.
“You won’t regret it, Noya-san!” Ryuu yells as he starts sprinting down the bank and leaps into the air, hands outstretched towards the rope. For a split second, Noya thinks he’s failed. He closes his eyes and a vivid image of Ryuu slipping and falling down into the lake flashes in his head before he hears Ryuu whoop in delight.
As Ryuu swings across the lake, he makes absurd Tarzan-like noises, throwing his head back in laughter as he does so and Noya laughs along as he, too, takes a leap of faith and follows Ryuu.
“Come on, Noya-san!” Ryuu encourages him as Noya clings onto the rope for dear life, looking up at the sky above him. Some of the trees’ leaves filter the afternoon light, but the clouds are slowly clearing and Noya has never once felt so exhilarated in his life. He stumbles onto the grass perhaps a little less gracefully than he would have liked, but makes it safely onto the bank. Once he reaches the other side, there’s an unexplainable tension in the air that grips him tight and he instinctively reaches towards his friend.
“There are … unwelcome forces that disrupt our kingdom,” Ryuu says hoarsely, clutching onto Noya. He bites his lip to stop himself from laughing. “Shh!” Ryuu puts a finger to his lips, looking solemn. “Do you hear that?”
In spite of himself, Noya leans in closer. There’s a slight rustling (from the wind , his mind snaps) in the air, and if Noya strains his ears enough, he’s almost certain he can hear voices . Multiple voices, whispers and murmurs spreading through the forest like wildfire.
“And look! The gods have welcomed us back into the kingdom,” Ryuu gestures to the sky, and sure enough, more sunlight is making its way through the leaves (or are the trees moving out of the way?) towards them. “We must fight,” Ryuu says in a grave voice.
There is no doubt about it now: Noya is confident that there are enemies in this forest that he hasn’t faced in the school yard before. There are monsters in all different shapes and sizes, twisted and mutated by the trees surrounding them. Dark spirits lie deep within the forest grounds, and Noya knows that he and Ryuu must battle them.
“For the kingdom,” Noya says, pulling out an imaginary sword, except it isn’t imaginary. A shining, silvery sword glistens under the sunlight as Ryuu grabs a shield, which Noya suspects was a large tree bark before.
“For the kingdom,” Ryuu repeats, facing the approaching thirty-metre trolls with a fierce gaze. “Our kingdom, which is called …” he glances at Noya pointedly.
Noya has the name prepared. He’s had it ever since they first swung over the lake, perhaps even before then. He balances his sword carefully as he eyes the giants that loom towards them.
“Ryuushima. Dragon Island,” Noya tells his best friend with a grin, just as they charge at full-speed towards the monsters.