After returning to the apartment building, Sora first went into the kitchen and put the groceries he had bought into the refrigerator.
He also boiled a kettle of water.
Then he entered the bedroom and opened the wardrobe.
The closet was filled with clothes provided by the Identity Card.
They weren’t designer brands, but they were all brand new and clean.
Sora wasn’t picky about such things.
He casually took out a set of pajamas and headed into the bathroom.
Old as the apartment building was, the hot water came surprisingly quickly.
After enjoying a comfortable hot shower, Sora walked into the kitchen while drying his hair with a towel.
The water in the kettle had already boiled, and white steam was rising from the spout.
Sora took two cups.
He poured half a cup of hot water into one of them and stored it in his inventory.
Then he poured instant coffee into the other cup.
Carrying the coffee back to his bedroom, he sat down at the desk and took out his phone to search for nearby jewelry stores.
There were quite a few results.
Among them, a place called “Miss Mira’s Jewelry Store” had overwhelmingly positive reviews.
“This one will do.” Sora noted down the store’s phone number and planned to call tomorrow during business hours to ask whether they could custom-make commemorative coins.
He wanted to test whether the system would accept imitation currency.
The chances were high that such a loophole wouldn’t work, but it was still worth trying.
Sora took a sip of coffee and began browsing current news on his phone.
The more information he gathered, the better he could understand this unfamiliar world.
“As expected, Totsuki Academy exists…” “Shokugeki competitions…” “Tennis leagues…
Seigaku…” “And even mahjong tournaments…
Kiyosumi High School…” Among the trending news, Sora spotted traces of many anime characters.
There were probably also series he had never watched.
Putting down his phone, he felt that although this world’s composition was complicated, its overall theme still seemed centered around youthful romance and slice-of-life stories.
“There doesn’t seem to be any supernatural power…” Then he paused.
“No, wait.
The mermaids of the Seto family count as supernatural beings, don’t they?” Sora searched for information about Seto Seafood.
The first thing that appeared was a photograph of a rugged-looking man with a prominent cross-shaped scar on the side of his face.
Underneath was his name: Gōzaburō Seto.
“The name and appearance both match.
That should be the famous Gozaburo of the Rock.” “So this world definitely contains non-human creatures.” Staring at the man on the screen, Sora lowered his head in thought.
“If mermaids exist, then maybe there are werewolves, vampires, and other monsters too.” “If I could kill them, the coins they drop should be worth more than a snake’s, right?” “Though with my current strength, accomplishing that would be extremely difficult.” “I should start by practicing with ordinary chickens, ducks, and fish.” Shaking off those unrealistic fantasies, Sora took another sip of coffee.
It had already become somewhat cold.
He set the cup down and retrieved the cup of hot water he had stored in his inventory earlier.
Steam was still rising from it.
Both the coffee and the water had been poured from the kettle at exactly the same time.
Under normal circumstances, they should have cooled at the same rate.
But the water hadn’t.
This was probably because of the inventory.
It seemed capable of “locking” an item’s condition.
When an object was taken out, it remained exactly as it had been when stored.
To further verify his theory, Sora put the hot water back into the inventory and decided to check it again the next morning.
He continued browsing the news until midnight, when the stimulating effects of the coffee finally faded.
Feeling sleepy, he washed the coffee cup in the kitchen and returned to bed.
The next morning, the alarm on his phone rang right on time.
Sora got up, washed up, changed into Toyogasaki Academy’s uniform, grabbed the bread and milk he had bought the night before from the refrigerator, and headed out for school.
On his way downstairs, he encountered a neighbor.
She was a silver-haired woman with delicate features and an indifferent expression.
She appeared to have just finished a night shift.
Her steps were slightly weary as she climbed the stairs.
In her hand was a plastic shopping bag containing several cans of beer and a few cups of instant noodles.
The memories provided by the system didn’t contain much information about her.
He only knew her name.
Mifuyu Yukino.
“Good morning, Miss Yukino.” Mifuyu glanced at him and gave a slight nod.
“Morning.” The exchange was brief and her tone remained cold.
The two passed each other on the staircase.
Sora suddenly felt a chill run through his body, as if he had just brushed past a giant block of ice.
He turned around and looked at her.
From below and behind, the mature woman’s figure was exceptionally attractive, like a perfectly ripened fruit.
However, Sora’s attention wasn’t on her body.
It was on the bag she was carrying.
The beer cans were covered with a faint white layer.
Frost.
In weather like this, beer bought from a convenience store shouldn’t remain that cold for so long.
After one glance, Sora calmly withdrew his gaze and continued downstairs, leaving the apartment building.
Up above, Mifuyu stood by the corridor railing and watched his departing figure expressionlessly.
Then she turned around and returned to her own room.
——— Subway platform.
Sora was still thinking about what he had just witnessed.
Mifuyu didn’t seem to be an ordinary person.
But considering that he lived in the exceptionally “talented” land of Beika Town, he didn’t dare investigate too deeply.
If he accidentally offended her, that beautiful neighbor might end up knocking on his door in the middle of the night.
It was also possible that she was a character from some anime he had never seen.
The train arrived.
Together with a huge crowd of office workers and students, Sora squeezed inside.
The carriage was packed like a can of sardines.
Despite the air conditioning, the atmosphere still felt stuffy and stale.
Sora wasn’t surprised.
After all, Tokyo’s subway system was one of the busiest urban rail networks in the world.
In his previous life, he had experienced equally crowded buses and subway trains.
After finally getting off at his station, Sora straightened his wrinkled uniform and decided he should probably buy a bicycle.
Leaving the station, he walked along the final stretch toward school.
Many boys and girls wearing the same uniform could be seen along the road.
They chatted and laughed in small groups.
Cherry blossoms drifted through the air on both sides of the street.
Sora suddenly froze.
Only at this moment did he truly feel that he had become ten years younger.
Back when he was working, he had occasionally imagined what life would be like if he could return to high school and try harder.
But after indulging in such thoughts, reality always awaited him.
Now he had genuinely returned to high school once again.
Even if it was in another world and another country, it didn’t matter.
“This is nice.” Sora lowered his head and noticed an ant crawling near his foot.
Out searching for food so early in the morning.
Life sure was hard.
Sora raised his foot and mercilessly sent it to paradise.
No money dropped.
“That’s disappointing.”