So You're Doing Academic Work Without Me, Huh? / Sharing a Bottle of Water with Sakiko

The two stared at each other. Nagasaki Sose's face instantly flushed red, even her ears turning scarlet.

"Of course not!!"

"But I saw you give him a present. You didn't even give him the one I prepared."

Nagasaki Sose's face stiffened. The present she'd just given Riki to hurry him home had made her mother misunderstand!

That bastard—it was all his fault!

Just you wait!

******

Got tickets? If not, I'll ask again later.

Chapter 20: So You're Doing Academic Work Without Me, Huh?

Riki walked out of the luxury apartment building with the gift bag. When he opened it, he found a box of unopened chocolates. They were beautifully packaged and surprisingly heavy, so they looked expensive.

Riki frowned.

Sose, do you think your big brother can't buy his own chocolate?

You sure know me well. I'll gladly accept these.

Riki pulled out his phone and sent a message: [Thanks for nature's generous gift.]

Nagasaki Sose didn't reply. After a while, she sent a cat-face sticker that said, "I don't want to talk to you."

Riki smiled and kept walking. Sakiko was going to cook tonight. Should he buy something too? But traveling between the two worlds was a little troublesome. No matter how long he stayed in one, only three hours passed in the other. Sometimes he'd get a full night's sleep in the Real World, then come back here to find it was still dark.

Riki had been sleeping a little too much.

You're already thinking about getting enough sleep. I can't even imagine what you'll want later.

As Riki rambled to himself, he spotted a familiar figure at the traffic light up ahead. It was Shiina Riki.

If a black hole's gravity came from its immense mass, then Shiina Riki had to be responsible for some of the immense pressure that collapsed matter into one.

She was the kind of woman who could pressure someone into their rebellious phase even if they weren't going through one!

Shiina Riki turned around, noticed Riki, and nodded in greeting. "Hello."

"Good afternoon. Are you heading home?" Riki greeted him in return. After two rehearsals, he'd gotten to know Shiina Riki a little better. Everyone said he was a pressure monster, but Riki thought he was just an impatient high school girl.

—Riki wasn't saying that just because he'd once driven a drummer at a university rehearsal to the point of grabbing his sticks and challenging him to a fight to the death.

I only tried making the drummer's part a little denser. Couldn't you just grow four arms? Was there really any need to get so angry?

Riki had always felt that the bassist and drummer had gotten along better after that. They also often watched him from behind with murderous looks in their eyes.

"Yeah. The performance is next month, so I want to finish writing the song," Shiina Riki said seriously. He paused. "If you have time, could you look over the score for me? I remember you're a top student at a university in mainland China."

"Sure, I can do that."

By the way, when did you finish writing the score?

You're doing academic work without me, huh?

"Should we go to your place?" Riki asked.

"Yeah." Shiina Riki led him home. Unlike Nagasaki Sose's luxury apartment, Shiina Riki's home was an ordinary two-story detached house. Buildings like this, which would be considered small villas in China, were ordinary homes in Japan.

"Do you live with your older sister?" Riki asked, looking at the different-sized shoes in the shoe cabinet.

Proper porridge etiquette.

"My older sister's at university. She only comes home on weekends." Shiina Riki seemed reluctant to say much about his sister. "Come upstairs. My room's on the second floor."

Shiina Riki's room wasn't very big, only about twenty square meters, but it had a sunny window with a lovely view. Every morning, he could wake up in the sunlight, and his computer sat beside his bed.

And it even had the legendary elixir that could make people young again—an APTX4090.

By the way, had all the saintesses from Goblin's Cave been sold yet?

"Sit down," Shiina Riki said.

Unlike the others in Mygo, Shiina Riki was straightforward, which was also why he tended to get into conflicts with them.

"This is the score I wrote. What do you think?" Shiina Riki opened his music composition software and asked Riki, a little nervously.

When it came to professional matters, Riki got serious. After looking over the song carefully, he pointed to a section. "The transition here is too abrupt. Let's adjust it a little."

"Huh? But I think I've handled this part really well." Shiina Riki frowned.

Trying to pressure me, huh?

Want me to show you what it looks like when I get mad?

"That's because you focused on this part and didn't consider how it would fit with the rest of the song," Riki explained patiently.

"I see." Shiina Riki's brow relaxed at once, and he smiled.

He was still a young girl, after all. He was straightforward, and quick to reflect on himself.

"But that's not the only thing. There are plenty of other things to watch out for. I'll go through them one by one," Riki said. He spent two hours explaining the points Shiina Riki needed to keep in mind. Shiina Riki listened intently, though she also felt a little pressured.

He looks kind of intimidating when he gets serious... Shiina Riki thought, watching Riki's profile.

And he's really good. I thought he was just an ordinary music student, but now he seems almost as skilled as the teachers at my sister's university.

Are all Chinese university students monsters?

He's two years younger than my sister, but he's even better than she is.

"That's enough for now," Riki said with a sigh.

He'd gone two whole hours without acting like a weirdo. He was about to burst.

"Thank you. I wouldn't have figured out how to improve it so quickly without your help," Shiina Riki said hastily. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Riki thought for a moment. "Do you know what comes after 'When people don't learn' in the Three Character Classic?"

Shiina Riki stared at him, confused. "No."

If you don't know, then...

Shiina Riki thought about it for a long time. It wasn't until she saw the teasing look on Riki's face that she caught on. She was a little embarrassed and annoyed.

What kind of lame joke was that?

"I don't need anything in return. Just make sure the performance goes well," Riki said with a smile.

Shiina Riki suddenly said, "You're helping us so much because of Sakiko, right? I can tell from Sose's reaction, too. You know Sakiko, don't you?"

"Forget it. I don't want to know. Right now, I just want to help Akari do what she wants."

Shiina Riki rested her cheek on her hand. Her smooth black hair fell through her fingers, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye gave her a touch of allure.

Go ahead and devote yourself to her.

"Riki, who do you think is better at music, me or Sakiko?" Shiina Riki asked. Her eyes held a trace of nervousness, as if she already knew the answer but didn't want to hear it outright.

But just as he put pressure on everyone else, he held himself to the same standard.

Shiina Riki had always admired Sakiko and her older sister, while harboring a faint sense of inferiority toward them.

Riki looked at her anxious eyes and thought for a moment. "I don't know. We're all ordinary people who were born in an era with me in it. There's no need to rank us. I'm a god."

"Huh?"

Shiina Riki felt that all her nervous anticipation had gone to waste. She stared at him in disbelief.

Then she couldn't help laughing.

To Riki, they were all the same, so there really was no need to rank them.

She couldn't tell whether that was a compliment or an insult.

Still, Shiina Riki did feel happier.

"But if you make a move on Akari, I won't let you off!"

Hanasakigawa Academy.

"You seem to be in a good mood today?"

The voice came from beside Shiina Riki, and something was placed on her head.

Shiina Riki took off her headphones and looked at the cool beauty standing next to her, Hachiman Mairin. "I'm all right."

"You don't look all right. I heard you joined a band?"

"Yeah."

"...I see."

"You sound disappointed."

"I'm not." Hachiman Mairin smiled.

Shiina Riki watched Hachiman Mairin walk over to the back row and start chatting with Mikumura Shioka. When had those two gotten so close?

"This is a photo my manager sent me. She said she'd found a hidden gem among the new generation." Mikumura Shioka showed the photo to Hachiman Mairin.

The photo showed a boy holding a guitar in the rain. His handsome features were visible through the blurry curtain of rain, and a pink-haired girl stood beside him.

"I wonder what kind of person he is," Mikumura Shioka said with a curious smile.

Chapter 21: Sharing a Bottle of Water with Sakiko

Tokyo was bright and sunny. Sunlight streamed in through the window, making the dust in the room sparkle thanks to the Darwin effect.

Wasn't it the da Vinci effect?

Riki took a photo of the cherry blossoms outside the window. He'd finally made it to Tokyo, and even if it was Tokyo in another world, he had to take some nice pictures to bring back. Can you lovely ladies teach me how to edit photos? I'm waiting.

It was the weekend, so Toyokawa Sakiko didn't have to go to school. And the place where she worked didn't let her take shifts because she was still a student. Japan might have once taken pride in the "buy the whole of America" era, but after the Americans broke its back with the Plaza Accord, it had spent decades standing still. These days, people still worked plenty of overtime, but employers were careful not to overwork minors.

Since they had the precious day off, Riki planned to go cherry blossom viewing with Toyokawa Sakiko.

The Cherry Blossom Front was the line formed as the weather gradually warmed from south to north and the cherry blossoms bloomed in sequence. On a map, it looked like a line stretching from south to north, so it was called the Cherry Blossom Front. That line had reached Tokyo now.

Tokyo was so beautiful.

Isn't that Tokyo Tower?

Let's look at Mount Fuji in the distance instead, guys.

"Riki, are you ready?" Toyokawa Sakiko called from the doorway.

"Almost."

Riki faced the mirror and used some hair gel to touch up his hairstyle. He'd already been handsome, and now he was even more so.

The old ways must never change.

Riki walked out of his room and saw that Toyokawa Sakiko had changed into a little skirt too. A hair ribbon held her blue hair neatly to one side, while the rest fell smoothly over her shoulder. Her cheeks were fair, and her eyes were bright.

"You look very handsome today," Toyokawa Sakiko complimented him.

"Wasn't I always handsome?"

"Well, I wonder," Toyokawa Sakiko said with a hand over her mouth. She tilted her head and gave him a playful wink. "But you really do look very handsome."

"Has your father done anything since then?" Riki asked Toyokawa Sakiko.

Toyokawa Sakiko shook her head. "No. He doesn't even know I know you. He thought you were just some young thief passing by. Besides, the heavy rain washed away all the traces, so the police couldn't investigate any further."

Japan didn't install many cameras in public places because of people's right to privacy. If that had happened in China, the first thing any detective would do would be to check the surveillance footage.

"Let's go see the cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi Park today," Toyokawa Sakiko said with a smile.

Of course, Sakiko-bao. You're free to choose.

"Last time, you took me to have fun near your home. Now it's my turn to show you around Tokyo," Toyokawa Sakiko said softly.

She really did... I'm crying.