Time came to the afternoon.
After changing back into his outdoor shoes at the lockers, Kitahara Sousuke walked out of the school.
His timing was perfect. Both the basketball club manager and the judo club captain, who were always quick to react, missed their chance to catch him.
Not that it mattered. Sousuke did not have that kind of American time to waste.
Going through high school again was already a waste of time for someone who had completed university.
He had no regrets to make up for. This was not his old high school, so there was nothing to revisit.
And as for aiming to get into Todai again...
It was true that in Japan, a single exam could determine almost everything.
The difference between graduating from Todai and graduating from other schools, or not attending a good university at all, was immense. The gap was often hard to overcome.
However, if he wanted to go into business in the future, then why should he, now an adult, still revolve around Japan's notoriously closed circles?
Compared to a nation stuck in the lost decades following the Plaza Accord, the rest of the world offered far greater opportunities.
A good degree did matter. It shaped where you started, where you could go, your chances of promotion, and most importantly, the people you would meet.
Sousuke, with his memories from a previous life, understood this clearly.
But now, he had something far more valuable.
He did not have a cheat system that fully preserved his past life's knowledge. He could not just plagiarize a novel or invent some world-changing product.
Still, he did not have memory loss either.
Even the random news articles he read in passing during his previous life were priceless now.
Take Bitcoin, for example.
It was basically a game of musical chairs, but that did not mean it could not make money.
As long as he was careful, did not get greedy, and avoided attracting the wrong kind of attention, he could make easy profits. Even if he lost, it would not ruin him.
Then there was that agricultural company people laughed at.
At this moment in time, most saw AMD's recovery as a joke. But once the Ryzen processors launched, the company would surge back and challenge Intel.
And of course, that guy who speculated wildly on memory chip prices after his phones exploded...
Bitcoin. AMD. Samsung. All of these existed in this world too.
Those were just a few small examples. There were also real estate investments, luxury goods like Moutai. The choices were endless.
Even if he had no interest in making money or could not remember the exact dates of these events, he only had to read the news a little to get an idea of what was coming.
His family was upper middle class in Japan. He was their only child.
In countries influenced by Confucian values, the most important thing for parents was giving their children a better future.
If he could just prove that he was right about a few things and earn their trust, the rest would fall into place.
So the point of all this was simple,
Even if he had a soccer team's worth of children someday, he would be more than capable of raising them.
Since he did not have to worry about survival, he was free to pursue what he loved.
To push past his limits.
To become stronger than those monsters out there.
Kitahara Sousuke tried to reflect on his current goals. Right now, the only reason he was attending school each day was to win over his future wives.
It was kind of sad. Kind of funny. But it was the truth.
---
Thank you for your patronage. Please come again.
The voice of a young woman in tight sportswear and a high ponytail rang out from the store. Her tone was sweet and inviting.
Sousuke looked down, avoiding her gaze as he felt the added weight on his legs.
Carrying his school uniform and shoes in his bag, he left the sporting goods store dressed in a fresh new outfit.
The weights strapped to his legs had also been upgraded. Unlike the previous ones he could not even feel, these had real weight and would actually train his leg muscles.
Next... I guess I'll just go home.
He looked at the gym membership card in his hand. He hesitated for a moment, then put it away. Decision made.
That had been his plan, until something on the street caught his eye.
Wait. That girl... she sits in front of me in class, right?
Through the supermarket window ahead, he saw a vaguely familiar face. He frowned.
Her name was... Yoshida Saki, right? That plain-looking girl?
Her uniform helped him recognize her. Even though Sousuke did not really pay much attention to his classmates, she was at least somewhat familiar.
She was not one of the wives he remembered clearly, so he had no intention of walking up to her.
But she was a pretty girl with long black hair, and that made her stand out just a little more than others.
Still, the scene in front of him felt off. So he walked inside the supermarket and pretended to browse while keeping an eye on what was happening.
Miss, your taste is amazing. Are you a model? You're more beautiful than the girls in those magazines.
A sleazy-looking young man complimented her with a charming voice.
To normal people, he looked like a typical scumbag.
But to someone lacking social awareness, he might appear stylish and cool.
Just like how Yoshida Saki saw him now.
A model? N-no, I'm not.
She denied it quickly, but her expression lit up.
The compliment hit home. For a girl who had spent her whole life ignored, these few sweet words felt like a decade's worth of validation.
Good thing I asked Mom to help me with my makeover.
Listening to the guy continue with his praise, Saki silently rejoiced.
Sousuke, nearby, was pretending to flip through a magazine while casually eavesdropping.
Is this just a normal pickup?
He asked himself, trying to judge the situation.
But deep down, something felt wrong. So he kept his back turned and continued pretending to read.
Human memory was not perfect.
Even with his knowledge of both worlds, people usually only remembered the main characters.
Otaku might remember the names of their waifus, but they rarely recalled side characters from obscure doujinshi.
In fact, if it had not been for a certain fan comic where a character introduced herself during a JoJo crossover, he might not have remembered her name at all.
Her ending was brutal. Way too dark for your typical doujin.
And then it clicked.
The vague memory.
The familiar girl.
The scumbag stranger.
A flood of information rushed in and pieced itself together.
Sousuke suddenly remembered what he absolutely did not want to remember.
That cursed masterpiece of drug abuse and despair.
Hen...shin.
With that loud and dramatic cry echoing inside his head, his mind made the connection.
Yoshida Saki.
Transformation.
---