Chapter 6

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 the scent of dust and 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 varying shades.

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

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

Yet, 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 have the rent for next month.

"I'm home."

"I'm home."

The brother and sister's voices rang out almost simultaneously, echoing in the empty room that had no third response; it had become a habit.

Ruri bent down to take off her small black leather shoes, and her delicate little 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 bento boxes, buy-one-get-one-free boxed milk… and that 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, clicked the timer, and set it for five minutes.

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

"Wait!"

Just at this critical moment, Natsume Chikage stepped forward to stop her, his voice filled with astonishment.

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

Natsume Chikage had originally planned to wait until the day after tomorrow when school started, find a time tomorrow to go out and buy an identical bracelet, and then pull a switcheroo to swap out this special "equipment" in his sister's hand!

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 and said.

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

"…That's true."

This reason was logically sound and watertight.

Natsume Chikage was instantly choked up; alarm bells were ringing in his heart, but he had no excuse to stop her.

He thought to himself 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.

There were always more solutions than problems; as long as he had patience, he would be able to get it soon!

"Big brother, how is it, does it look good?"

Ruri shook her fair hand, the crystals on the bracelet shimmering with brilliant light, her voice carrying a hint of excitement and anticipation.

"It looks good!" Natsume Chikage nodded and smiled helplessly.

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

In her eyes, her brother in the past was actually quite gloomy; he often stayed in his room playing games, and his grades were very poor.

Even though their father had signed him up for quite a few training classes for piano, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he hadn't shown any talent.

It could be said that he couldn't do anything, but was number one at 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 useless person.

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

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.

"Big 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; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a diary.

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

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