Japan, Kanagawa, Fujisawa Station.
A young man wearing the uniform of Prefectural Fukasawa High School squatted near the station’s exit.
Ignoring the strange looks from the passing crowd, he stared down at his phone, his two thumbs flying across the virtual keyboard.
[Let me ask you guys a question. If you woke up and found yourself transmigrated to a place covered in Japanese, what would you do?]
He quickly typed out the question.
The young man rapidly double-checked it, then tapped post.
After the prompt ‘Post successful, let more people see you~’ popped up, he copied the question and tossed it into a newly joined chat group.
Compared to forum posts, the advantage of instant messaging apps really showed at times like this.
After waiting for just a moment.
Replies started popping up in the group.
“Hey, isn’t that just Japan? Be more specific! I know this trope! Is it time for the face-slapping next? The usually inconspicuous guy suddenly acts like he’s been possessed, putting on an ‘I was just hiding my true strength!’ expression, and slaps faces all the way from his neighbors to demons and monsters. Sigh… spit it out, is this a novel plot?”
Seeing the reply pop up.
The young man pondered for a moment before replying, “I understand your thirst for tropes, but the original owner of this body doesn’t look weak… He seems like a real delinquent. There’s no need to slap the neighbors’ faces either; before I crossed over, the original owner had already beaten most of them up.”
“So it’s that kind of trope? A story about a societal scum fighting his way to the top. Interesting. Come on, tell us, which novel is it?”
“No, bro, you’re still too young. The most familiar transmigration trope is transmigrating as an orphan with a dead mom, just like our shitty admin.”
“Hahahaha.”
“That’s too far, I’m shaking and crying rn.”
[Fragrant Mouth King has been muted for 1 hour]
“The shitty admin is here!”
“Damn it, before I joined, you said all beings were equal and we’d post lewds together. After I joined, it’s a whole different story. What a dog.”
“…”
The topic was getting a bit derailed.
The young man squatting at the station hurriedly sent a message to pull the conversation back on track.
“Fuck you guys, why are you all so experienced when it comes to both parents being dead?”
“…”
“No way? Big bro, you’re just throwing your mom away like that? You’re that willing to part with her? We were just brainstorming.”
“Where were we? That shitty admin interrupted everything. Right, speaking of the story where a societal scum fights his way to the top, it’s that trope, right?”
“No.” The young man tapped on the virtual keyboard and replied, “The original owner is still a high school student. Reaching the top is highly unlikely.”
“What? You’re not slapping faces, you’re not reaching the top, and you just want to go pick up JKs!?”
“JK? What JK? Like this? [Picture]”
“Like this! [Picture]”
“[Picture]”
“[Picture]”
“…”
Seeing the flashing images.
The young man sighed.
Great, it was completely derailed.
He asked a question, and aside from getting a few tropes, all he got was a bunch of lewd pics.
He opened the forum post he had just made.
It was even worse.
It was full of “+1” spam or various shitpost memes.
Regardless, no one took the young man’s question seriously, and no one gave him any practical advice.
After watching for a while and saving dozens of pictures.
The young man grew a bit irritated.
He put his phone away, let out a melancholy sigh, leaned against the wall, and looked up at the sky.
“Yabai…”
Just as he finished sighing.
The young man realized something was wrong.
He frowned.
Calmly analyzed.
Thought for a moment.
Then, a flash of insight.
“Yabai my ass! It should be…”
“Fuck!”
…
Complaining about the heavens and blaming others couldn’t change the current situation.
After staring at the sky for a while, the young man slowly recovered.
He was actually quite confused right now, not even entirely sure who he was.
Just like earlier, when he discovered his situation, his first instinct was to use a VPN to download a domestic app for help, yet when he felt frustrated and depressed, what blurted out of his mouth was “yabai.”
His head didn’t hurt; it was just a bit messy.
Memories churned.
Utterly chaotic.
At this moment, the surrounding environment—so vastly different from back home—ironically became the ‘anchor’ for his memories.
The style of the streets, the conversations of the passersby around him.
Gradually, a name surfaced in his mind.
Kitahara Minakaze.
Actually, another name, or rather a nickname, had surfaced even earlier, but it was a bit embarrassing.
His nickname was Ah Yue, as in ‘leap’, which sounded exactly like Ah Yue, as in ‘moon’—a girl’s name…
That completely lacked any masculinity.
Because of this nickname, he was often mocked by his friends.
As for which friends had mocked him, Ah Yue couldn’t quite remember at the moment…
As for Kitahara Minakaze’s memories, there wasn’t that feeling of a missing piece.
After all, he was a young man; he hadn’t lived very long.
However.
“To have lived such a short life, yet have such a complicated life experience.”
Ah Yue sorted through Kitahara Minakaze’s—which was now his own—life experiences, mocked himself, and looked up at the sky once more.
During his childhood, he and his mother were victims of domestic violence by his scumbag father.
With great difficulty, he personally sent his biological father to prison.
Then, the shadow of the loan sharks left behind by his scumbag father loomed over them.
They went through untold hardships to overcome that crisis.
His mother found a single man with a similar experience and remarried.
Just as it seemed life was about to get better.
Half a year ago, there was a car accident…
Both his stepfather and biological mother passed away.
Unfair!
God is unfair to me!
These were the resentful words Kitahara Minakaze had spoken when he ran away from home, struck down for the third time upon hearing of his mother’s death.
It was also Kitahara Minakaze’s deepest memory.
“Unfair, huh…”
Ah Yue, or rather Kitahara Minakaze, subconsciously patted his pocket.
He actually felt a rectangular object.
He knew what it was and pulled it out with practiced ease.
Click.
A flame flickered.
“Phew.”
Kitahara Minakaze exhaled a puff of smoke, then, feeling somewhat melancholy, continued to gaze at the sky.
However, a young man in a high school uniform squatting at a station exit puffing away on a cigarette was simply too eye-catching.
“Hey, hey, that guy over there…”
“In a place like this… is he a delinquent…?”
“Definitely a delinquent… but he’s so handsome. What a waste of a pretty face.”
“If you think it’s a waste, go hit on him. A guy like that looks easy to hook up with.”
“Eh… do you have a death wish!?”
“Hehe…”
Three JKs (high school girls) came out of the station.
Seeing Kitahara Minakaze squatting at the exit blowing smoke, they were surprised and quietly chatted and joked among themselves.
Unfortunately, the incredibly handsome Kitahara Minakaze didn’t hear them.
He was still staring up at the sky in melancholy.
Until.
A figure blocked the sunlight, standing right in front of him.
A JK also wearing a high school uniform.
An oval face, peach blossom eyes, and very fair skin.
Especially the pair of jade-like legs beneath her short skirt, which gleamed with a captivating luster in the sunlight, so white they were almost blinding.
Also, probably because the date to switch seasonal uniforms hadn’t arrived yet, she was still wearing a long-sleeved uniform on such a hot day.
To stay cool, she had rolled up her sleeves, making her look very energetic.
“…?” Kitahara Minakaze lowered his gaze, slowly looking at the high school girl in front of him with a puzzled expression.
As for the high school girl, after getting a clear look at Kitahara Minakaze’s face, she took a deep breath and revealed an expression of profound relief.
She dropped her schoolbag, gathered her smooth, long, straight black hair, and wiped the sweat from her cheek.
“Go to school,” she said softly.
“Running away like this won’t change anything. Ms. Watanabe has already called several times asking about your whereabouts. She’s just an ordinary teacher, so her authority is definitely limited. If you don’t go back to school soon, you really will be expelled.”
Kitahara Minakaze: “?”
“Also, come home with me… I know you don’t feel any sense of belonging to a home you’ve only lived in for a few months, and you don’t have any fond feelings for me either. But Auntie already sold the old house, so you shouldn’t have anywhere to stay. I can’t let you wander the streets forever. After what happened, it’s been hard on all of us…”
The beautiful JK bit her lip.
After a pause, she continued, “But I hope you can move past this. Self-exile won’t solve the problem. If you really hate our family, you can move out once you graduate high school and get a stable job. I won’t have any objections then. But for now, during high school, please live at my house. At the very least… I can give you money.”
Kitahara Minakaze: “…?”
Seeing Kitahara Minakaze’s expression, the JK thought he was pretending not to know her.
She pursed her rosy lips, stayed silent for a moment, then somewhat stiffly extended her right hand, forcing a smile at him.
“Brother…”
“…”
Kitahara Minakaze blinked, looked at the hand in front of him, and then looked at the JK who had extended it.
He thought of the Tiger of the Major Crimes Unit.
Then.
Perhaps moved by her words, or perhaps because he remembered that the JK in front of him was his stepsister from a different father and mother.
Regardless, as if possessed, he reached out his hand.
“…”
Holding Kitahara Minakaze’s hand, the JK froze for a moment, seemingly finding it unbelievable that her rebellious and fierce stepbrother was suddenly being so obedient.
But soon, she reacted and smiled happily.
With a hint of shyness, two shallow dimples appeared with her smile…
She looked quite pretty.
Kitahara Minakaze remained squatting, tilting his head up slightly to look at the JK in front of him.
And the JK, with her head slightly lowered, was looking right back at him.
[Ah, if only our voices could just like this…]
The theme song of Your Name, “Dream Lantern,” began playing inside Kitahara Minakaze’s head…
He opened his mouth, just about to ask for her name.
But suddenly…
Just as the words reached the tip of Kitahara Minakaze’s tongue, the corner of his eye caught a fleeting flash of fire.
Next, the sound of an explosion rang in his ears.
A massive shockwave directly sent the squatting Kitahara Minakaze flying.
It also sent the JK standing in front of him flying away.