Chapter 3

Natsume Chikage pushed open the door to his home.

What greeted him was the stuffy air unique to a small three-mat space, mixed with dust and the scent of old wood.

When the windows weren't open for ventilation, staying in this cramped room always gave one a suffocating feeling that tightened the chest.

The interior furnishings were old, and at a glance, they were full of the traces of time.

The walls were mottled with patches of varying shades.

The tatami mat surface was dotted with several light-brown handmade patches.

Even for such a three-mat hovel, the monthly rent was 60,000 yen!

However, this price was already one of the relatively cheaper ones Chikage could find in Shibuya.

He knew that there was only 40,000 yen left in his wallet.

If he didn't work hard, he was afraid he wouldn't even have the rent for next month.

"I'm home."

"I'm home."

The voices of the siblings rang out almost simultaneously, echoing in the empty room that had no third response, as had become their habit.

Ruri bent down to take off her small black leather shoes, and her delicate feet, wrapped in pure white cotton socks, stepped onto the cold tatami.

She efficiently took the items out of the shopping bag one by one.

Discounted vegetables, limited-time special bentos, buy-one-get-one-free boxed milk... and the brand-new bracelet her brother had given her.

She first carefully organized the ingredients and put them one by one into the mini-fridge.

Then she put the discounted bento into the microwave, twisted the timer with a click, and set it for five minutes.

After doing all this, she opened the package of the brand-new bracelet with unconcealable excitement.

"Wait!"

At this critical moment, Natsume Chikage stepped forward to stop her, his voice filled with shock.

"It's so late now, what are you doing?"

Natsume Chikage had originally thought that since school didn't start until the day after tomorrow, he could find time tomorrow to go out and buy an identical bracelet, so he could pull a switcheroo and swap out this special "equipment" in his sister's hands!

He hadn't expected her to want to put it on as soon as she got home?

This really caught him off guard.

Natsume Ruri's long eyelashes fluttered. "Putting on the bracelet."

"...I'm asking you, it's so late now, why are you putting on a bracelet for no reason?" Natsume Chikage coughed.

"You always have to try on a newly bought bracelet." Ruri's tone was light and carried a bit of a young girl's little calculation, "If it doesn't fit, I can go exchange it or something."

"...That's true."

The logic was sound and airtight.

Natsume Chikage was immediately choked up, his internal alarm bells ringing, but he had no excuse to stop her.

He thought that it seemed there was no way to collect this special equipment for the time being.

But fortunately, this bracelet was with his own sister.

Where there's a will, there's a way; as long as he had patience, he would be able to get his hands on it soon!

"Brother, how is it? Does it look good?"

Ruri shook her fair hand, the crystals on the bracelet sparkling with a brilliant glow, her voice filled with a hint of excitement and anticipation.

"It looks good!" Natsume Chikage nodded helplessly with a smile.

Natsume Ruri was full of joy and couldn't help but slowly recall the past.

In her eyes, her brother used to be quite gloomy, often staying in his room playing games, and his grades were very poor.

Even though their father had signed him up for many training classes in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he hadn't shown any talent.

It could be said that he was good at nothing and first in asking for money.

It was also from that time on that their father had basically given up on her brother, only thinking of him as a good-for-nothing.

He basically just sent money every month, letting her brother drift through school, thinking of finding him a position in the company later.

But what Ruri didn't expect was...

Ever since the family went bankrupt and their father passed away, her brother suddenly seemed to have become mature and much more handsome.

Now he was even taking the initiative to go out and work to support the family.

In the past, Ruri wouldn't have even dared to imagine this.

Ding—

The microwave timer went off.

Natsume Ruri came back to her senses, put on oven mitts, carefully took out the two heated bentos from the microwave, and placed them on the table.

"Brother, the bento is heated, you eat first. If it's not enough, you can have my portion too, I'll just cook some instant noodles for myself."

"No need, one bento is enough for me."

Natsume Chikage took the bento and started eating, and while eating, his left hand was flipping through the special equipment he had obtained earlier, 'The Boy's Sorrowful Diary'.

He took a simple look at the first page and was surprised to find that this novel was actually handwritten; calling it a diary was no exaggeration.

He just didn't know why it had appeared in a second-hand bookstore.

The content of the book wasn't much, and Natsume Chikage sat quietly in his seat, finishing it in an hour or two.

The diary recorded a high school student who encountered many troubles in a small town and longed to escape the shackles to go to Tokyo to pursue his dreams.

However, the tangled interpersonal relationships and continuous setbacks kept him tightly trapped in place.

His cowardly and indecisive personality eventually wore down his will, making him unable to break free from the shackles of fate, and he could only accept the status quo with despair, becoming a part of the small town and also becoming the kind of person he hated the most...

This content made Natsume Chikage feel extremely uncomfortable.

No wonder it was called 'The Boy's Sorrowful Diary'.

But thinking of this, Natsume Chikage was a bit confused.

He really didn't understand why 'The Boy's Sorrowful Diary' and 'One-in-a-Thousand Bracelet' were special equipment.

And why other things weren't?

Was there some kind of pattern to this?

Natsume Chikage couldn't figure it out for the time being, so he didn't delve into it, thinking that there was still plenty of time and he might have a chance to clarify it in the future.

[The Boy's Sorrowful Diary]

[Effect: After use, you can precisely recall certain painful memories and never forget them again. (Two uses remaining)]

[Synthesis Condition: Requires at least three items of the same type]

[Introduction: That small town was the boy's abyss and the root of his pain.]

Chikage pondered that although 'The Boy's Sorrowful Diary' could only be used to recall pain, with a little flexibility, it could become a key to precisely retrieve memories from his past life.

One had to know that the entertainment aspects of this world, such as novels, movies, anime, and music, were vastly different from his past life.

He might be able to use this equipment to "replicate" those unforgettable entertainment works from his past life.

And in his memory, he happened to have many classic works with heart-wrenching plots and strong emotions.

"The Devotion of Suspect X" — this phenomenal bestseller that once caused a sensation was one of them!

At that time, he tried to use the diary's ability and was pleasantly surprised to find that all the details of the entire novel flooded into his mind clearly, and it was as if they were welded into his brain, never to be forgotten again.

At that moment, he was extremely excited!

One had to know that novels that could break a million copies in sales in Japan were few and far between.

Not to mention the already niche suspense and mystery genre, which was even harder!

And Keigo Higashino's "The Devotion of Suspect X" was exactly the one that broke through the siege under such circumstances and became one of the pillars of the Japanese mystery novel world!

Once this novel was released, it quickly ignited the market with its interlocking and fascinating plot, and its sales were a long-lasting success.

Soon, it was brought to the screen and made into a popular TV series and movie!

Even its copyright was scrambled for by overseas buyers, resulting in multiple adapted film and television works in different versions.

Even across cultural backgrounds, the core of the story of "The Devotion of Suspect X" did not lose its impact at all, and the adapted film and television works achieved huge success in different countries.

Even today, this novel is still not outdated, and its profound meaning and complex, tangled plot still make one's heart tighten and sigh with regret when reading it.

Its enduring charm is enough to show the extraordinary nature of its content.

The original author, Keigo Higashino, relied on this novel to win two major awards: the 'Honkaku Mystery Award' and the 'Naoki Prize'!

Winning these two awards meant receiving full affirmation from professional readers and critics!

And in the Japanese mystery world, these two were already the most top-tier awards!

Even today, not many novels have won both awards at the same time, which shows how popular this novel is!

Natsume Chikage looked around the simple and cramped three-mat room.

If he were living alone, he could still endure it, but now he wasn't alone; his sister and he were dependent on each other.

Living in such a small room, they were truly living in extreme discomfort.

He wanted to give his sister a better life, wanted to redeem their old house, and wanted to buy back their bankrupt company!

And to achieve these things, he couldn't do without money!

If he published this "The Devotion of Suspect X", he estimated that one book would allow him to achieve financial freedom during his high school years!

Although he wasn't sure if he could buy back the company, he could definitely redeem their old house, which was worth over 100 million yen!