Natsume Chikei came out of the bathroom and glanced at the clock on the wall.
The hour hand had quietly crept toward eleven.
His gaze fell on the area beside the table—his sister Ruri was still hunched over the small desk, stubbornly trying to study.
But her lowered eyelids looked like they were being pulled by invisible threads, constantly trembling and fighting to stay open.
Her small head kept nodding lower and lower from drowsiness, as if she would collapse onto the open textbook at any second.
The household had always kept to a bedtime around ten-thirty.
Tonight Ruri had stayed up this late, and in the end, it was entirely Chikei’s fault.
He had been completely absorbed in the pages of the book and lost all track of time.
Ruri had been well-behaved the whole time, never disturbing him.
She had simply studied quietly on the side and waited.
But she had waited too long.
Exhaustion came crashing in like a tide, and she could no longer resist it.
Natsume Chikei spoke softly.
“Ruri, get up.
I’m going to lay out the bedding now.
We should sleep.”
“Mm.” Ruri rubbed her eyes and drowsily moved aside.
Chikei carried the small table from the center of the room and stood it upright against the wall.
Then he took two sets of bedding out of the closet and laid them on the floor.
“Go to sleep.
I’m turning off the lights.”
“Mm.”
Natsume Chikei walked over to the light switch.
Seeing that Ruri was already lying down and tucked under the covers, he turned off the room lights.
Click—
The once-bright three-tatami apartment instantly plunged into darkness.
Natsume Chikei lay on his bedding and could hear his sister’s steady, already-sleeping breaths beside him.
Even though Ruri had fallen asleep, he had no intention of sleeping so soon.
Curiously, he picked up The Boy’s Sorrowful Diary.
Suddenly, a message popped up.
[Would you like to store this in the panel?]
[Yes / No]
Natsume Chikei thought for a moment, then tapped Yes.
In an instant, the equipment vanished from his hand and appeared on the panel in his mind.
Natsume Chikei was stunned.
He hadn’t expected that he could directly store these special pieces of equipment inside the panel in his head.
He just didn’t know if he could take them out again.
He tried it and found that he really could.
Chikei also discovered that whether the equipment was stored in the panel or taken out physically, as long as it was with him, he could still use it.
He thought this was pretty convenient.
Even though it was already late at night, Natsume Chikei had no plans to rest.
He took out his phone, created a new document, and started typing.
He intended to finish writing The Devotion of Suspect X as quickly as possible over the next few days.
After the bankruptcy, the family’s financial situation was truly terrible.
Ruri was still young.
He was the only one in the household who could earn money.
And school was starting soon, which would definitely bring more expenses.
Not to mention daily necessities like food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
Basically everything cost money.
If he didn’t work hard, the two of them would starve and wouldn’t be able to survive in Tokyo.
Since he now had a chance to escape poverty, he had to get the money in hand as fast as possible, no matter what!
The next day.
Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains and into the room.
Natsume Chikei groggily opened his eyes.
He didn’t even know when he had woken up.
Since he was already awake, he planned to keep writing on his phone.
He got up quietly, not wanting to disturb his sister who was still sleeping soundly on the other bedding.
Natsume Ruri rubbed her eyes and mumbled drowsily, “Big brother, you’re already awake?
I’ll go make breakfast right now.”
“No rush.
My shift starts at ten today.
It’s only a little past seven.
You can sleep a bit longer, it’s fine.” Chikei hadn’t expected her to wake up so quickly and explained.
Ruri shook her head with a smile.
“It’s okay.
I slept really well last night.
I’m not sleepy anymore.”
With that, she got up and started preparing breakfast using the cheap ingredients from the fridge.
Seeing this, Natsume Chikei began tidying up the bedding in the room.
At the same time, he moved the small table back to the center and quietly typed on his phone.
But his eyes kept drifting to the bracelet on Ruri’s wrist.
He wondered how he could reasonably get it back…
While thinking this, he came up with an excuse.
“Ruri, that bracelet will get in the way while you’re cooking.
Let me hold on to it for you first.”
“Mm.” Ruri didn’t think much of it.
She simply took it off and handed it to him.
[You have not obtained ownership of this item.
Unable to store the equipment!]
After seeing this message, Chikei’s face went blank with shock.
So you actually needed to obtain ownership before you could store the equipment?
And he had clearly been the one who paid for it.
How did he not have ownership?
Could it be that when he said he was giving it to his sister as a gift, the ownership had already been transferred to her?
Chikei thought about it and felt that was very likely.
If that was the case, then getting the bracelet back from Ruri had just become a lot more difficult…
After all, taking back something you had already given away never looked good, no matter how you did it.
Still, it wasn’t a big problem.
He could take some time to buy an identical new bracelet and then find an excuse to swap them so she would willingly give it to him.
Before long, the delicious smell of breakfast filled the room.
After they finished eating, the two of them washed up.
A while later.
The TV in the room was playing a drama.
Natsume Ruri lay quietly on Chikei’s lap, watching.
But before long, a piece of shogi news popped up.
Ruri looked surprised.
“Big brother, the shogi world actually has a brand-new tournament now.
It’s open to players from all over Japan.
Even amateur players can participate!”
“But the number of entrants is limited to 2,048 people.
Once it’s full, registration closes.”
“It sounds like if you keep winning all the way to the end, you can even have a match against the current Dragon King.
And if you beat the Dragon King, they say you can directly replace him!”
“But just to participate, it costs 20,000 yen per person?
The first win gives you 10,000 yen, the second win 20,000 yen, the third win 40,000 yen?”
“It looks pretty good and very attractive, but how are amateur players supposed to beat professionals?
Isn’t this just a way to make other amateurs hand over their money?”
“Plus the Shogi Association gets income from broadcasting rights, TV coverage, sponsors, and everything else.
Aren’t they just creating a big gimmick to make a ton of money?”
Ruri’s mind was sharp.
She rattled off a whole string of analysis.
But when she didn’t hear a single response from her brother, her cheeks puffed up slightly.
Feeling a little sulky, she turned her head and muttered while looking up at him, “Big brother, you’re ignoring me!”
Natsume Chikei’s eyes were still fixed on his phone screen.
Without turning his head, he said, “I’m listening.
I’m just busy.”
“Then why have you been tapping on your phone the whole time?
Are you chatting with someone?”
“I’m writing a novel.”
Ruri blinked.
She had heard that people who stayed home for a long time and were unemployed often fantasized about being writers.
Even though her brother was going to work now, he had only been doing it for a few days.
In reality, it wasn’t much different from what she had just described.
She knew his academic performance had really been terrible…
In fact, if her brother took a Japanese language test at the same time as her, she might even score higher than him.
After all, she had basically been the top student in school for years.
Meanwhile, her brother, who was always near the bottom, was suddenly saying he wanted to write a novel?
Natsume Ruri felt deeply worried.
But she didn’t want to crush her brother’s confidence.
Instead, she was very supportive of him writing.
Compared to how he used to just play games at home all day, writing was definitely much better.
As for actually making money from submissions, Ruri didn’t even consider it.
She purely thought he was just writing a diary or something.
Still, she was curious about the content.
“Can I read it?”
“It’ll still be a while before it’s finished.
Let’s wait until it’s done, then I’ll show you.”
“Okay…”
Hearing that, Ruri continued lying on Chikei’s lap and kept watching TV, enjoying this moment of peace.