Avid gamer Furuhas.h.i.+ Akino didn"t manage to grow a third arm to play mobile games.
She carried her tray with both hands as she hurried to their usual seats without waiting for her sisters. Recently, with her keen observation, she had noticed a spot in the cafeteria that no one really sat at.
Even if the whole place was packed, the dining table in the middle would still remain unoccupied. Akino"s gamer brain had felt that it was weird, but she did not give much thought to it. If she had the time, she would much rather think about strategies to advance to the next level in her games. So, the day before yesterday, Akino had called dibs on that table.
Thanks to the golden location, Furuhas.h.i.+ Harunaka, and Furuhas.h.i.+ Natsui had also been dragged along to the cafeteria, a place they avoid. After that, they realized that the food in the cafeteria was not only tasty but affordable as well. Most importantly, the place was clean and well-ventilated.
Therefore, the four Furuhas.h.i.+ sisters found the cafeteria to be a perfect gathering location.
This was especially true for Furuhas.h.i.+ Fuyuno, who had a huge appet.i.te. Every morning in cla.s.s, she would already be wondering if there were any new set menus in the cafeteria and pondering on what to eat for lunch.
The moment Akino arrived at her table, even before she could take a seat, she saw that Kazuki was already hogging the place that she had been using for the past two days. "Sigh… Why are you here? This is my seat," she pouted.
"Your seat?" Kazuki found it funny, as that was his usual seat during recess for the past six months.
Even though he had never openly declared that the seat was his, because doing that was too unsophisticated for him, but previously when he sat there, there were no other students who dared to sit with him.
Sooner or later, that table became his designated table. Even when he was absent, n.o.body dared to sit at that spot. Also though there were new juniors this year who weren"t aware of that rule, nevertheless they would still be influenced or warned off by their friends or other seniors.
When the freshmen saw that even their seniors avoided that table, naturally they would not dare to be so presumptuous as well. Moreover, after the incident with the three delinquents that had taken place a few days ago, which had spread through the school like wildfire, everyone was even more disinclined to try their luck with that table.
"Ah… Senior, I"ll be leaving immediately with Akino here." Harunaka had seen the interaction from far away, which prompted her to hurry over as fast as she could. She smiled gently and said, "Since you were absent for the past two days, we had been borrowing this seat. Akino wasn"t aware, so please don"t blame her."
Akino was struck dumb. "Isn"t this seat ours? After we sat here, no one else had tried to claim it." Clearly, she was still unaware of the situation.
Harunaka ignored her and looked around, realizing that all of the other seats were taken. Even if there were empty seats, they were all scattered about randomly. There were no other four-person seats except for this table.
She was different from Akino. As the eldest sister, she was the most astute of them all. Therefore, upon watching that video, she started asking around their school and the people in her clubs about Kazuki and found out a lot about him.
Now that Kazuki is back, if he did not approve of them sharing his table, naturally they should not do so.
At that moment, Natsui, who was hiding behind Fuyuno, twitched slightly and whispered into Fuyuno"s ear.
Fuyuno"s expression contorted for a bit, but after Natsui urged her along, she had no choice but to open her mouth and say, "Senior, I"m really sorry, but as you can see, there are no other vacant seats left. The four of us would like to sit together, so is it alright if we share your table for this one time? We promise that we won"t bother you at all."
Kazuki looked at Fuyuno and felt that what she said seemed somewhat familiar. The first time they met, she had said something like that, just with a different sentence structure.
After pondering for a while, Kazuki said mildly, "No can do. I don"t like sharing tables with others when eating."
Upon hearing that obvious excuse, Fuyuno bit her lip and said imploringly, "We can pay you some money to rent these seats."
Kazuki was not the only person who was shocked. The Furuhas.h.i.+ sisters standing at the side, Harunaka and Akino, were taken aback as well.
Akino"s brain was scrambled. Her brain-to-mouth filter seemed damaged as she blurted out, "Fuyuno since you"re so rich, I volunteer myself to leave one cla.s.s before our next recess to reserve seats for everyone! However, you guys gotta pay me for that service- eek!"
Before she could even finish speaking, Harunaka chopped her on the head with the side of her palm. "Your grades are horrible enough! Don"t tell me that you"re still trying to skip cla.s.s?"
"Since I"m always on my phone in cla.s.s anyway, location doesn"t really make a difference," Akino muttered in her heart but wasn"t brave enough to voice it out.
"So, what do you think?" Fuyuno saw that Kazuki had fallen silent, so she placed her tray on the table as her hands were getting tired.
Her sisters followed suit after seeing her take that first step.
Seeing this, Kazuki was speechless.
But… Fuyuno"s suggestion really did tug at his heartstrings.
The reason being- poverty!
Previously he had even considered professional ghostbusting to make some money, but before the era of the recuperation of reiki, there weren"t many ghosts for him to bust. Ebif there were, they wouldn"t all be in Tokyo.
Furthermore, if he had actually followed through with that idea, his studies would definitely be affected. His dream was to be able to attend school, and his obsession was to get into a prestigious international university.
Even though he was a PhD student in his past life, but it was not for academics. Instead, it was a PhD offered by the Spiritual Academy. In the few years of the recuperation of reiki, the world was in chaos. He was still in middle school that year. When he woke up in the morning, the first thing he knew was that his school had exploded.
Additionally, at that time, the country had placed a lot of importance on the recuperation of reiki, to be one step ahead of the other countries. It was difficult to continue their education as they could only go for tuition cla.s.ses.
It was only after three entire years that the chaos gradually subsided, allowing the country to reinstate the education system.
As for him, since he had missed out on a few years of formal education, he could only enroll in the Spiritual Academy. After he turned 19, the only knowledge that he could learn about were those that came into existence after the recuperation of reiki. That was all he knew until he woke the sword"s spirit from its slumber, which led to his time travel.
"How much money are you offering?" Alas, Kazuki had no choice but to bow under the power of money.
"We will pay you 10,000 yen per person for a monthly rental!" Before Fuyuno could speak, Natsui, who was standing behind her, finally mustered her courage to face Kazuki.
Harunaka and Fuyuno stayed silent. Clearly, they did not have any other suggestions to make.
"Deal!" Kazuki promptly agreed, fearing that the girls would regret their decision.
"I… I disagree!" Akino was dumbfounded. Why did no one ask her about her opinion?
10,000 yen was enough to buy two of the most popular PS4 games, or even several 3A level games from Steam! All for a place to eat?
Seeing that her three sisters had already sat down happily while ignoring her objections, Akino had no choice but to follow their lead. Nevertheless, she had decided that she would not cough up a single yen for this.
Upon seeing them take their seats, Kazuki lifted his tray and stood up, planning to find another place to eat. Now, this table belonged to the Furuhas.h.i.+ sisters. He was not worried at all that they would not pay up, as even if they had the guts to do so, then he would naturally have his own ways to make them remember their promise.
"Hey… You"re not yet done with your meal, right? Why are you leaving?" Natsui asked when she saw that Kazuki was leaving.
"Don"t worry, this table belongs to all of you from now on. If anyone else dared to sit here, tell me. I will deal with them," said Kazuki sternly. This table was worth 40,000 yen a month! If anyone dared to take away his income by s.n.a.t.c.hing this table, then they must be removed.
From then onwards, this table shall belong to the Furuhas.h.i.+ sisters.
"No…" Natsui said softly. "I mean, you should eat here too, senior Kimura."
She saw that Kazuki wasn"t convinced, so she continued, "We just started school, and there are too many guys trying to flirt with us, it"s so annoying. If you would be willing to eat with us, then no one would dare bother us anymore."
Natsui was not affected, as the students at Sakura Kyu had a.s.sumed that she was Kazuki"s girlfriend.
However, Harunaka and the rest were being consistently pestered and hara.s.sed. Fortunately, it was nothing too extreme, just the harmless things high school guys would do to attract the attention of their crushes, as no one in Sakura Kyu would risk being expelled for breaking the school rules. Despite that, getting into a relations.h.i.+p was not against the rules.
"Do I look like an escort to you?" Kazuki"s expression darkened.
"So… senior, are you not willing to?"
"I"ll be charging extra for that."