Hi ^^ this is Januva, a new face here with a new translation project on this site. I recently got into translating stuff and joined the family! Some of my previous translations are (shameless advertising hehe :P). I’ve been causing trouble for the team especially Krrizis because I’m still unfamiliar with many things, sorry D: I’ll get into gear quickly and contribute more! With that said, I’ll be working on Mob and Ossan Idol. Hope you guys like this chapter ^^
Chapter 1 – Changing isn’t a very difficult matter
TL: Januva
Editors: MystEd3 & Puissansa
Osaki Miroku, 36, single, unemployed.
His height of 1.9 metres is something he can be proud of but with his excessive flab, his weight is well above 120 kg.
He is a net addict with rough skin, dirty, hair unkempt, hunchbacked and unshaven.
This is Osaki Miroku"s [current], most easily understood description.
A big part of the reason why Miroku became like this is due to the fact that he is [unemployed].
For the sole reason of obesity, he had to cope with bullying during his schooling days all the way up till when he entered university. Post graduation, he went job-hunting and despite entering a good company, he was sacked 3 years later when the company was restructuring to cope with economic downturn.
Moreover, the reason was [Because you"re fat].
He is fundamentally a [capable person]. He is smart, and he put in a painstaking amount of effort to study in university. He is also sociable and has a fairly good business record in the company he entered.
However, the sales department he worked in was commonly referred to as the place where [ikemen] who were both competent and good at flattering their superiors gathered.
And so he got dismissed on the grounds of [Because you"re fat]. Part of the reason might have been that his company mainly deals with health foods. However, if you were to look at it from another perspective, for him to have such good business results with this figure implies that he has impressive capabilities. For him to be surrounded by incompetent people who lack the eyes to notice that, it can only be said that his luck is terrible.
Miroku has a kind family.
They speak to him, who has become a complete hikikomori, tell him that it"s fine even if he doesn"t want to leave the house and that they would make arrangements for his meals.
They work towards speaking at least a word with him at a time, and with this he barely managed to maintain a connection with his family. This connection became his reason for living.
Someone in the family would definitely accompany him for his 3 meals each day.
That is the cooperative effort of his father, mother, and both his younger and elder sister, working together to accomplish this great task.
Even during meals, his family remains silent, only telling him to do as he wishes. That said, his only request was to have internet connection.
Like this, several months pa.s.sed before the situation took a turn.
A certain video site caught Miroku"s attention.
Videos of the [Let"s try dancing] category.
People who dance to popular anime songs and original songs.
(I want to try it out too)
With each pa.s.sing day, the desire grew stronger. Yet, with Miroku"s non-existent motor reflexes, he felt embarra.s.sed. So, he went to look up what amateurs can do.
What he found was a sports gym with various dance curriculum.
(With this, even though I am fat and unskilled, I will still be able to learn how to dance somehow or other.)
And so Miroku asked to join the sports gym.
His family naturally did not object and agreed that even if he ate out alone, it was still a good thing.
In high spirits, he partic.i.p.ated in the sports curriculum, only to be overwhelmed on the first day. With his excess fat, even the light dances were difficult for him and he was not able to keep going to the end. A [formerly 150kg] gym member came up to him. He was an obliging person and recommended weight training and combat dances.
If he can build up some muscles, he will be able to keep up with the dancing.
What"s essential here is that this is not a [diet] but [muscle gain].
This gym member gave Miroku the most appropriate words at the most appropriate time.
Furthermore, Miroku"s mother also secretly went to this gym to research the types of food that can aid muscle growth.
As a result, he became able to keep up with the dance curriculum.
(How fun. There are various types of dancing.)
The good thing about Miroku being unemployed is that he can go to the sports gym 5 times a week.
Additionally, having taken interest in combat dances, he secretly learned bare-handed martial arts from the video site.
(How fun. There are various schools.)
Spending each day productively, the emotional wounds inflicted by the retrenchment slowly healed.
One day, he entered the bath while humming.
Taking a bath when one is sweaty is an obvious action to ensure cleanliness. He left his unshaven beard and long hair as it is but hygiene is the minimum point he won"t neglect as a person.
「Miroku, I"ll leave the towel here」 Mihachi, his elder sister said.
It seems that in his jovial mood, he had carelessly forgotten to take a towel. He politely thanked his sister. Since the 5 Confucian virtues is something absolute to Miroku, needless to say, expressing grat.i.tude to one"s family is a must.
「Thanks, Mihachi nee-san」
「You"re welcome. Anyway, your humming is really good.」
「Eh? Really?」
「You got the pitch down right. Probably because you are properly using your abdominal muscles.」
「Is that so? Somehow I feel happy to hear that. Thanks.」
Mihachi nee-san has perfect pitch and learned the piano up till high school. Miroku learnt it too but quit when he was in junior high. While it may not be up to her standard, he takes pride in his musical sense. While feeling happy that he was praised by a family member, he got out of the bath and spent his usual net time on [Let"s try singing], a separate segment from [Let"s try dancing].
「Ohh, this is incredible.」
There were many videos of songs sung in Karaoke.
「I didn"t know that you can now upload videos of yourself singing in Karaoke.」
The videos he had been watching thus far were quite niche and so his worldview was narrow.
「Come to think of it, I should probably go to the Karaoke every now and then. Seems like there are Karaoke for people who go on their own, I should try it out.」
Miroku decided to take a break from the sports gym tomorrow and went to bed at a well regulated time of before 11.