The strange barbershop owner

After watching the people run off into the distance, Shinnosuke rolled up his sleeve and checked his arm. It was bruised, but not badly.

"My body's still a little weak... The original owner did it twice a day, so of course he'd be weak... I need to work out..."

"U-um... are you all right...?"

"Th-thank you for saving me... My name is Kinoshita Hideyoshi..."

A slightly trembling voice interrupted his thoughts. Shinnosuke turned to see brown hair and light blue eyes. Hideyoshi's face was still a little pale from the fright...

"Huh? A woman? Your voice doesn't sound quite right... It's a little rough."

"N-no... I'm a man..."

"No, no, no, that can't be right. You're definitely a woman."

"N-no... I really am a man..."

Kinoshita Hideyoshi's face turned bright red with anxiety, the paleness from the fright vanishing in an instant. He was on the verge of tears, but no matter what he said, the guy in front of him just wouldn't believe him.

"All right, that's not important. Anyway, I have things to do, so I'll be going."

"Wait..."

Before Kinoshita Hideyoshi could finish, the guy walked away without looking back. He couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. He thought to himself:

He looks like he lives around here, so we'll definitely have another chance to meet! I'll thank him properly then!!

After wandering around for over an hour, Shinnosuke finally found a barbershop nearby. He had also taken in the local scenery along the way. After all, it was the first time either he or the original owner had ever been to Tokyo.

There wasn't much to see. The environment was nowhere near as good as Huaxia's: cigarette butts and trash were scattered everywhere, and there wasn't a sanitation worker in sight to clean them up.

He entered the barbershop, where a Chopper-style Type Zero motorcycle stood by the entrance. Motorcycles had been his only hobby in his previous life, but they weren't cheap, and a corporate drone didn't have much spare cash to spend on one.

Shinnosuke crouched by the entrance and spent a long time looking at it. Then the owner appeared from the back and spoke.

"Oh~ You like motorcycles too?"

Shinnosuke said enviously,

"Yes. My dream is to have a motorcycle of my own and customize it however I want! I'd ride it out every day!"

"Is that so... That's nice... I go riding with my friends once in a while too..."

"All right, back to business, kid. Are you here for a haircut? If you are, sit down here."

The owner pointed at the chair in front of the mirror.

Shinnosuke looked up at the owner. He appeared to be about the same age as Hiroshi Nohara, with a slicked-back hairstyle gleaming with wax, sparse facial hair around his lips and chin, and faint crow's-feet beside his dead-fish eyes. He wore a white short-sleeved work uniform. What a sight.

"All right, sir, what kind of haircut do you want?"

"I want something lively. Perm my hair, preferably so it stands up, then dye it blond. Like a Saiyan's, you know what I mean?"

"Huh? You're still a high school student, right...? High school students can't have weird hairstyles."

"No, I'm a transfer student, so it's fine..."

"Making your transfer-student debut, huh...?"

"No... It's not a debut or anything..."

"But... don't get into fights, okay? Don't go looking for the delinquent leader who's like the king of beasts and deliberately provoke him just because you want to be the school boss."

"Because doing that really causes a lot of trouble for other people."

"Huh? Mister, what weird stuff are you talking about...?"

"What the hell are you saying? I'm only twenty-seven..."

"Huh?!"

An hour later, Shinnosuke came out with a buzz cut and a miserable look on his face... Don't ask. If you do, his hair was just bad, and it had nothing to do with the owner...

When Shinnosuke got home, he gave Misae a fright. For a moment, she thought the fierce-looking kid wasn't her son... When Misae took the remaining change from Shinnosuke, she immediately threw him over her shoulder, sending him flying from the entryway to the front of the bathroom...

"Bang! Crash!" Veins bulged on Misae's forehead as she looked at Shinnosuke, whose head was covered in bumps, and said through gritted teeth,

"Shin-chan... explain this to me. Why did a buzz cut... cost 4,000?!!!"

Kneeling in the corner with his hands on his head, Shinnosuke mumbled indistinctly,

"I... I bought shome shtuff on the way... and ate it..."

Shinnosuke Nohara had virtually zero resistance to the temptation of snacks. That trait seemed to have been passed on to Qi Xiaoxin as well.

The furious Misae deprived Shinnosuke of dinner. In the end, Hiroshi Nohara came home from work and saved his son...

August 29. My brother has been a little different lately. He feels a little unfamiliar to me. Thankfully, he's changed for the better. He doesn't seem as unreliable as he used to be, and he doesn't keep staring at pretty women anymore. I guess this is what they call maturity~~~

But I shouldn't be worrying about that. After all, I'm only twelve. Mom seems to have bought another expensive pearl necklace on installments without telling Dad. I'm not sleepy at all now. I'm going to keep a firm grip on this!

I'll be going to a new school soon. I wonder if the boys will write me love letters and give me chocolates every day. I can't help being naturally beautiful. Oh my~ Just thinking about it makes me so embarrassed~ How should I turn them down? Wouldn't being too direct hurt their feelings too much?~~~

Sorry, but none of you are my type. I like more mature men. My heart will always belong to Takuya Kimura ( づ ωど).

"Hima-chan~~ Come down for dinner!"

"Okay~"

Hearing her mother's voice from downstairs, Himawari Nohara stopped writing, closed her diary, and locked it in a drawer. Then she went thundering downstairs for dinner.