Ume is seen again in chapter 37, during a meeting with grade captains and their vice.

    He’s happy to know who’ll lead Bofurin from now on and what’s important for him is to show them his successful work with seedlings. He even adds that they’ll make a good barbecue for that summer.

    Hiragi is not pleased about this, but Ume only wants to put a face to the name of the new grade captains and their vice. Despite this, he wants to say something, so he bows to them and thanks everyone, saying he’s counting on them.

    This leaves everyone speechless, but it’s important for Ume because he can’t handle everything alone. He asks them for their support and to help their friends in need. After this, everyone gathers with their respective teams to get to know each other. Umemiya then goes to greet Sakura, the grade captain of Tamon’s first year's team. He tells him, Suo and Nirei that he counts on them and that, if there’s something wrong, they can ask their senpai who are like their older brothers. He tells Kaji and his team that he’ll need their help too, and to teach their kohai what they learnt in their first year.

    We see Ume again after the fight against Keel. He’s at Eatery Shibata because he helped unload cargo and stayed there merrymaking with some middle-aged men and a not-well-convinced Hiragi.

    Sasaki and Nagato tell them the truth about what happened and Ume congratulates them, leaving them speechless. Umemiya says that since Nagato is Sasaki’s friend, it's normal for Furin to help him. The same goes for the involvement of his senpai because they need to watch over their kohai. Nagato says he’s sorry, but Ume tells him to eat and enjoy what he’s eating because there can be a moment when he doesn’t have time to taste his food. And when that time comes, he’ll remember how the food tasted that day as proof that he’s not alone.

"We can't change what happened. No matter what people think… you can only shoulder the responsability and live on."

    Umemiya then realises that Haruka looks down and asks him what happened. Nirei explains that he feels guilty for what happened to everyone during the fight. It leads Haruka to say he talked big but couldn’t move like he wanted. Umemiya and Hiragi look at each other and the first one says that probably the reason why he couldn’t move freely was that his friends were beaten up. Ume supposes it happened because he likes them. This embarrasses Haruka, who shouts and hits the table with one of his feet.

    When everyone but Ume and Hiragi comes back home, the first asks the latter what he thinks about what Haruka told them. Hiragi replies that he’s just like Ume, who smiles and says that Haruka’ll become strong.

    Not completely related to himself in person, Kotoha tells a sick Haruka that Ume told her about what happened with Keel. It’s related especially to the fact that Sakura was shocked about what he was told, in other words, that he likes his friends and loves them, which was why he couldn’t move freely.

    After Sakura is fine again, he returns to Furin and talks with Kaji about himself, looking for answers. Kaji takes him to the rooftop and tells him bluntly what he thinks about Haruka’s situation, even making some examples with a bottle of coffee: it can’t become a bottle of tea if you write “tea” on the outside. Haruka is shocked because what he learns above everything else, is that everyone knows he’s scared to lay on others. Kaji talks like a good senpai to him and tries to let him understand that everyone won’t leave him if he doesn’t meet their expectations, if anything, he needs to believe what he can see with his own eyes. At some point, they hear some clapping and it is Umemiya who’s fond of Kaji’s speech, which leads the latter to punch him right in the face and go away.

    Umemiya cleans his nose from the blood and asks Haruka his thoughts. Even if he is about to reply, Ume starts his talk. He says he does many things that make him look pathetic, but he’s fine with that because that’s how he is and everyone accepts him no matter what he does. He continues by saying that he depends on the others, so it’s normal for the others to do the same with him; they forgive each other and that’s why they’re all together. That’s why it’s fine to trust Kaji and his friends.

    After Haruka goes away, Umemiya tells Hiragi he can't believe Kaji managed to give some advice to a kohai. Hiragi is proud of him because that was what he did with Kaji in the past.

    Haruka decides to talk about his feelings to his classmates and, after being scolded by everyone, they decide to go to Cafè Pothos to get to know each other better. In a second moment, Umemiya sees them inside and is curious about what they’re discussing but, Hiragi stops him and tells him he won’t let him do the same thing he did that morning with Kaji and Haruka. So, he doesn’t let him in but Tsubaki-chan manages to wave his hand to greet Haruka, who was watching the whole thing.

    Later on, Ume gathers everyone who isn’t busy with their rounds on the roof, regardless of grade. It’s just a get-together because Umemiya wants to talk to everyone and wants them to do the same to make some connections. Not to mention, he wants to show everyone his beautiful plants. He prepared some pork soup for everyone as well and when Tsubaki-chan tells him that it’s delicious and he should open up a restaurant, he replies that that’s not possible, but in case, he’d call it “Bofurin”. After complimenting Ume a lot, Tsubaki-chan tells him he makes him fall for him repeatedly, which makes Haruka blush. Ume is happy to see that Tsubaki-chan is seen as he is, without prejudice.

    When talking about the Roppo Ichiza, Nirei says it’s similar to Furin, but Kanji replies it’s different. It’s because what they do is like trying to repair a rainy leak repeatedly, but Furin has Umemiya. He’s the one who stops the leak rebuilding the whole house. He adds that he’s nastier than him, but Nirei is unsure that “nasty” is an appropriate word for him. When Kanji starts fighting to protect that street, Haruka feels the same aura he sensed the first time Choji went to Furin and Umemiya talked to him outside.

    The same goes when Kanji proclaims it doesn’t matter who wins or loses in the fight as long as Shizuka and the street are safe. Haruka understands that who’s at the top fights to protect what’s important to them. Umemiya is the one who comes to Haruka's mind when Tsubaki-chan is fighting against Suzuri because he tries to know him better with his punches. After the fight ends, Tsubaki-chan tells Ume what happened with Endo to which he replies that the day after, he wanted to see the four kings and their right-hand men plus Haruka, Suo and Nirei to talk about Furin.

    As usual, Ume is late, but that’s because he brought Kotoha’s special sandwiches and coffee, so they could eat and drink while chatting. He thanks Sugishita, who helped him carry everything, and now is giving cups to everyone but Haruka. After this, he gives one of them to him too, but it’s a destroyed one. After being scolded by Umemiya, Sugishita tries to fix it, which leads Ume to compliment him.

(HE'S SO CUTE ♥)

    Hiragi thanks Ume for the food but urges him to start with the meeting. Nirei asks if they’re there because of what happened the day before and Ume says it’s not because Tsubaki-chan and Kanji already told him about that. Umemiya then goes on and asks Haruka how it feels to meet Endo. He replies that he was just an asshole, and while laughing Umemiya states that Tsubaki-chan told him Endo said he was interested in Haruka. That’s why he wanted him to know more about Endo. To do that, he has to narrate the story from when Bofurin was first established, underlining that he wants to talk about those who remained in the shadows. Umemiya asks Nirei what he knows about Bofurin and he makes a summary of his information. Our leader says that’s roughly how it went which leads to Hiragi yelling it was more difficult than that, but Ume it’s like it didn’t happen (maybe he can't recall what happens once he goes berserk? IDK).

    Ume goes on and asks Nirei how much he knows about Endo. When he ends his speech, Umemiya says there are two mistakes: the first is that Endo and his group weren’t motivated by grudges; the second is that they didn’t reject Furin but abandoned it just before its unification. This leads to the fact that they’ve never won against them. Umemiya supposes that Endo and his team want Furin to turn back in time so that chaos and destruction can be brought back. He adds that they fought repeatedly one team against the other, but, despite their desperate struggle, they never had a clear winner or loser.

    Meanwhile, Ume’s team continued to fight against other factions, gaining more allies and that was how Furin changed and found order. This fact led Endo’s team to leave Furin, bearing the violence of its past, which makes them the shadows. So Ume thinks that maybe everything they’re doing is because they want to restore the past Furin. Haruka says that if Endo’s going for that it’s fine because they’ll fight back to protect what means the most to them. Umemiya remembers that Kotoha when she knew Haruka for the first time, told him that he came to town because he heard about the old Furin and that it suited him perfectly, even if she didn’t believe the same. Umemiya replied that he hoped they could have been friends. That leads him to burst into a big laugh and tell him he’s happy he came to their town.

    Ume continues trusting Endo to Haruka. The latter laughs and tries to mock Ume telling him that he doesn’t want to be blamed for stealing his prey, but Ume replies that Endo isn’t interested in him. Not even in the past Furin. However, there was someone else, even stronger than him that’s considered a legend together with Endo. Someone against whom Ume never won, and his name is Takiishi Chika, the strongest man in Furin’s history. The day after, Umemiya summons all the grade captains and their vice on the roof because they’ve received a declaration of war from Endo, which said that, in two weeks, they would be back in town to destroy Bofurin.

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