chapter 4 - You don't know what 3,000 yen is worth.

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You don’t know what 3,000 yen is worth.

(Oh,…..that was the classroom back then…..)

When I stepped into my class, It was so nostalgic that I stopped moving for a moment.

Desks, chairs and this buzzing atmosphere. …… Yes, yes, this is a classroom, isn’t it?

“Later, Nihama-kun. Let’s do our best again after school.”

“Eh,….?Ah, yeah. Okay, okay.”

Shijoin-san said this as we parted at the entrance of the classroom, and although I replied anyway, I couldn’t immediately remember what it was.

After school ……? What the hell …… is after school?!

Well, it’s the job of the library committee!

(That’s right. The only reason I had any contact with her was because we worked together on the library committee.)

It’s been a long time ago, so it takes time for me to remember.

To be honest, I didn’t know where my seat was either, but fortunately I was able to find it because of the familiar gym uniform bag hanging down there.

”Hey…Nihama”

“Eh…. are you …… maybe, Ginji ……?

The boy who spoke to me was my only friend in high school, Ginji Yamahira.

This was the only guy I had drank with several times after graduation.

“What? What do you mean, Maybe? More importantly….What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What do you mean,….?”

“Don’t play dumb! It’s Shijoin-san, Shijoin-san! Why are you talking and going to school together!?”

“No that’s,….I met her on the way to school in the morning, and she was carrying a lot of books that she borrowed from the library, so I brought them to the classroom for her.”

“Haha…hahaha! You’re the one who’s too shy to talk properly to pretty girls with a muffled voice! When did you start doing something like a good looking guy on shoujo manga!?”

It’s not that I did it consciously, it was just a habit from my days as a company slave….It would certainly be unbelievable behavior from me in high school.

“I mean, isn’t you different from usual? Your voice is crisp and the gloomy aura around you is gone…Maybe you were reincarnated into another world and came back to earth yesterday after a long and painful journey?”

Unfortunately, it’s not an alternate world reincarnation, it’s a time leap.

“Ah, it’s a big hit, Ginji. I was actually in a different world until yesterday. I was captured by a horrible slave labor organization and forced to work from early morning until late at night while being subjected to personality denying abuse, and endured it for 12 years.”

“Haha, that’s awful! It’s a dark alternate world!”

Unfortunately, it’s the harsh reality.

I know it’s a funny story to you who are still pure, but this is not a fantasy, it’s a demonic abyss that exists even in this day and age, Ginji.

Yeah, but ……, it’s been a while since I’ve had a stupid conversation with this guy.

I feel more like I’m back at that time.

“Well, Shijoin-san is kind, So It’s natural that she’s open to people like us,.Don’t talk to her too openly though, Both delinquent and top caste guys are aiming for her. You’ll be strangled.”

Wow, I didn’t know that the word “riajuu” already existed in this age.

[TLN:  riajuu – person who is satisfied with their real (offline) life, normie.It’s typically used by otaku]

“Watch out for the guys on the top caste, because otakus like us have the lowest status in school. If you stand out a little, the top caste guys  won’t stay silent”

(School caste…,So this concept existed too.)

When I think about it now, I feel that it was a ridiculous unwritten rule for a group of kids to fight over top.

Well, even when you grow up, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to disappear from the power struggle regarding which university you graduated from or how much money you make.

“Well, I’ll be careful. Thanks for the advice, Ginji.”

Nevertheless I’m going to cling on to this second chance, Regardless on whose attention I attracted.

The result of doing nothing because I kept worrying about what people would think of me and being afraid of being bullied was my high school days where I couldn’t even confess, and my corporate life where I couldn’t quit being a slave.

<b>I’m going to do what I want this time,</b>

<b>This time I won’t have any lingering regrets</b>

…… The day I made up my mind to do so, he showed up.

“Hey, you fucking otaku, Nihama. Turn around.”

It was lunchtime. I was standing in front of the vending machine, taking out my wallet, when he called out to me.

(This guy is….Hino?!)

I remember this man well, dressed loosely in his uniform with pierced ears.

As you can see from his appearance and behavior, he is a typical delinquent, and he was the symbol of fear in my school.

This guy used to take money from weak-willed boys and beat them up for fun, and I became his target and was beaten up and robbed a lot during my school years.

I remember the blood-curdling sensation I felt when I met this guy in school.

I shuddered in fear every day, wondering if he would hit me today again.

And now that I’ve met such a man again, what’s going through my mind?

(I’m not scared at all………….)

For some reason, I don’t feel any fear toward the delinquent in front of me, which makes me want to say, “What was the fear I felt back then?”

On the contrary, the rebellious spirit of a high school student who wanted to get a piercing made me feel childish and even smile.

“What do you want from me?”

“Oh, you looked like you were going for lunch, so I came to give you a hard time.”

” Huh? What’s that?”

As far as I can remember, there were only two patterns this guy could have acted: “Come hang out with me for a bit (a gloomy beating)” and “Give me some money (a mugging)”.

I remember experiencing such things.

“You were on your way to school with Shijoin this morning. Conceited fools like you are annoying to see. I’ll teach you a lesson called discipline.”

(Huh..? What’s with this one-sided logic?)

“Oh, I see! You really liked Shijoin-san, didn’t you!”

“Hah……!”

“So this morning you saw me and Shijo-in-san going to school together, and you were inexplicably pissed off! I see. I didn’t know you were like that.”

“Shut up……! I don’t care about Shijoin! I’m just annoyed that a lowlife like you thinks he can get along with a girl that has a nice face!”

A frustrated Hino rambled on.

Oh, He’s like my boss who suspected me of making a mistake at work, people talk too much and too fast when they want to cover up something.

“Anyways, lend me your fucking face!”

“What? I’m not going to follow a guy who’s ready to beat me up in a deserted place. If you want to beat me up, do it here where there are lots of people.”

“Shut the fuck up! I’ll kill you if you keep talking like that!”

“I told you I don’t want to. You need to learn to communicate.”

“Hey ……, you ……!”

Hino threatens me with his loud voice, but I’m not stupid enough to accept such threats.

In my former life as a corporate slave, my bosses had threatened me in various ways.

‘You have to do this job. Otherwise, You know what happens in your work evaluation ……, right?

“Follow me. Starting tomorrow, your job will be sorting through decades of never-ending supplies in an underground warehouse.”

“Tell them there was no such thing as power harassment! Actually, I can even get the others to testify that you were the main culprit!”

There were many ugly cases to remember, but the power of those in power who dominated the small world of the company was enormous, and I often drank myself to tears.

(Compared to that, he’s just a kid with no power to penalize me. No matter how loudly he rants, it doesn’t scare me at all.)

“Look, what’s the matter? You can’t hit someone just because there are a bunch of people around? Don’t tell me delinquents are scared of suspension or expulsion?”

“You fucking otaku! Don’t fuck with me!”

Hino reaches out for me.

It would have been convenient for me if he had punched me on provocation, but he was aiming for my wallet, which I had in my hand because I was just about to buy some juice.

He took my wallet with 3,000 yen in it that my mother had given me.

“Ha! I’ll take your wallet today for being so fucking cheecky! Well,  what’s in the wallet is …..! It’s only 3000 yen!”

Only 3000 yen.

Hahaha, only 3000 yen.

How dare you spout such childish bullshit in front of me. ……!

“But don’t think this is over! I’m going to beat you up again. ……?”

Hino’s words stopped midway.

I reached out with my arms and grabbed him by the chest.

“What the fuck are you doing ……?”

“ <b>SHUT UP</b> , you little shit.”

My voice was filled with anger and contempt, and it sounded more cold-hearted than I had ever heard it.

“Hey, you think you’re getting off lightly for doing this. ……”

You were going to take the money, weren’t you?

A cold voice slipped out, surprising even myself.

I’m asking, “You said it was only 3,000 yen, and then you tried to take it away from me.”

“Ha! So what?”

“You want to get killed, you little shit! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

When I shouted loudly, Hino and the students around me froze in disbelief.

“What’s 3,000 yen only, you idiot? Do you have any idea how much work it takes to make that much money, Aaah!”

I was completely pissed.

No doubt, Hino had never earned any money on his own.

He doesn’t understand the weight and value of money at all.

I was incredibly angry that such a brat tried to steal my mother’s hard-earned money.

“Tapping away at the keyboard until my arms get carpal tunnel! Sometimes I have to bow down to crazy customers while they yell at me. If I make even one mistake, I’m accused of being stupid, dumb, or dead!” [TLN: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000433.htm#:~:text=Studies%20have%20not%20proved%20that,tunnel%20and%20lead%20to%20symptoms. Like me YAY!]

A kid who doesn’t know how hard it is, to casually steal other people’s money is a crime that should be punishable by execution. It can’t be forgiven even if he’s is purged with a guillotine right now.

“No matter how much you play delinquent, you’re still an insignificant child whose parents feed and shelter! Next time you try to steal my parents’ money! I’ll seriously kill you, ……! Do you understand me?”

“Ah,,Uh”

“I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

“ah,AH….”

Hino replied with a sense of confusion, perhaps because of my anger at the idiot who was lightly looking at the money.

I removed my hand from the chest of the idiot who had fallen flat on his ass, retrieved my wallet and left, aware of the tremendous amount of attention I was receiving from the people around me.