Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

That said, she and Asakusa Toru were not childhood friends who had reunited after a long time apart.

The first time she met Asakusa Toru was one year ago.

To be precise, it was the summer when she finished her second year of middle school.

Ichinose Honami came from a single-parent household, living with her mother and a younger sister two years her junior.

Although their family was quite poor, her mother still did her best to satisfy their needs whenever possible.

Both she and her sister were very obedient and sensible, doing their best to suppress the desires in their hearts for various things, lowering their material cravings, and controlling their longings. They would not pursue anything extra; whether it was new clothes or going out for fun, as long as it cost money, they would refuse.

Things will get better.

But constant suppression is not the answer, and burying everything deep in one's heart is not the way to go.

It was precisely because she understood this that her mother chose to ask for her sister's wish around the time of her upcoming birthday.

Even if it were only for this one day, her birthday, her mother wanted them to be able to be happy.

And so, the wish her sister made was for a hair clip.

It wasn't particularly pretty—in fact, judging by her own aesthetic, it was even a bit ugly—but it was a hair clip identical to the one worn by Hoshino Ai, the idol her sister loved most at the time.

Because it was an idol's merchandise, the markup was quite high.

However, because it wasn't actually that attractive, considering the price, very few people chose to buy it even if they really liked it, so it wasn't so popular that it was impossible to find.

Thus, once the goal was set, her mother began to push herself to the limit.

The price of that hair clip was over ten thousand yen, a number that was neither large nor small.

But for Ichinose Honami's family, it was a sum that would take a long time to save up.

Her mother could only find a way to get that money by overexerting herself.

And so, her mother collapsed.

Lying on the hospital bed, she apologized to her sister over and over again.

Even though she was the one who should have been cared for, even though she was the patient, it was her mother who was apologizing.

Even though she was the one who should have been understanding, even though she was the daughter, it was her sister who rejected the apology.

The feelings suppressed to the limit could no longer be endured, and the unfulfilled promise left her expectant sister completely disappointed.

And so, she lashed out, revealing an ugliness she had never shown before.

But this was certainly no one's fault.

It wasn't the fault of her hardworking mother, nor was it the fault of her disappointed sister.

If there was any fault to be found, perhaps it was simply that they had no money.

...Ah, if only we had money.

That was what she had thought back then.

If they had money, her mother wouldn't have had to push herself so hard; if they had money, her sister would have received the gift she wanted; if they had money, such things wouldn't have happened.

"If only we had money." As if reading her inner thoughts, the boy standing beside her outside the hospital sighed softly.

...This was her first meeting with Asakusa Toru.

"Whether I remember or not, that's a strange question." Facing Ichinose Honami's sudden question, Asakusa Toru sighed: "If you want to confirm whether I still remember the name 'Ichinose Honami', then I can tell you, yes, I remember."

"But if you are still hoping to do something else... then I can only repeat myself."

"What happened last year was just my own 'self-satisfaction'; you don't need to keep it on your mind, nor do you need to feel burdened by it."

He felt he had already made himself very clear before.

But thinking about it carefully, perhaps this was just who Ichinose Honami was.

"Even if you say that..." Ichinose Honami wanted to say something more, but just then, the bell for class rang, and the teacher walked in from outside the door.

She had no choice but to return to her seat.

"...Troublesome." Glancing at Ichinose Honami as she returned to her seat, Asakusa Toru shook his head.

As mentioned before, he wasn't actually surprised that he would be enrolling in Advanced Nurturing.

It wasn't just because advertisements for Advanced Nurturing were everywhere; the bigger reason was that he had been in contact with first-year students who would be enrolling this year.

Ichinose Honami was one of them.

If he remembered correctly, it was something from last year.

In his memory, it seemed he had met Ichinose Honami outside a hospital.

At the time, he was actually feeling a bit anxious.

Despite having grasped the trends of the era and knowing roughly how the future would develop, he had consistently struggled to convert that advantage into wealth and status.

Although he had achieved a certain degree of financial freedom through light novels and didn't need to worry too much about life's necessities, compared to the resumes of other transmigrators, it was truly nothing to look at.

Let alone "sleeping on the knees of beauties and waking up to wield power over the world," he even had to be cautious and hesitant when doing things for his own self-satisfaction.

He met Ichinose Honami outside the hospital.

The reason he was there at the time was not because he was sick.

He had gone to the hospital to pay the bills.

He went to cover the medical expenses for a group of car accident victims who had miraculously survived.

He went to the hospital to do something for his own self-satisfaction.

"..."

If asked what his goal in life was, before transmigrating, Asakusa Toru would likely have said "financial freedom" without a moment's hesitation.

Money is very important; without money, one can do nothing, and with money, one can do anything.

Even after transmigrating, he hadn't actually changed that way of thinking.

But once he realized that this world was not the one he had lived in before, but rather a chaotic mashup of various anime, his perspective suddenly shifted.

Financial freedom alone was just too boring.

Since he had transmigrated, he should do things he couldn't do in the past.

For example, trying to save the girls he could never touch through the screen, trying to ruthlessly criticize the scumbags he could never beat up through the screen, or trying to salvage things that seemed irreparable in the stories.

He would just call it self-satisfaction.

For this, he needed money—a lot, a whole lot of money.

Without special powers or special talents, the only ability he, as an ordinary person, could acquire was the "money power."

If a hundred thousand isn't enough, then a million; if a million isn't enough, then ten million.

There will always be a number that can sway others.

Of course, that is not to say that money is required for everything.

Things like saving a silver-haired girl who slipped and fell off a cliff during the summer don't require much money; all that is missing is a perfectly suitable moment.

Chapter 21: Cheap Labor at 416 Yen per Hour

Only by arriving at the right place at the right time can one prevent an accident that is bound to happen.

Honestly, this is actually more difficult than just spending money.

But after all, such situations are rare and very hard to encounter by coincidence.

Most of the time, Asakusa Toru can only spend money.

Like when he accidentally goes too far while beating up some human scum and needs to pay damages, or like when he spends money to widely publicize the rotten deeds of certain rotten people.

However, as expected, the place that needs money the most is still the hospital.

When it comes to suffering, the space occupied by the word "illness" is definitely the largest.

Congenital diseases, acquired conditions, psychological knots, and incurable terminal illnesses.

There are so many patients, so many that it is impossible for Asakusa Toru alone to save them all.

Therefore, he never once thought about helping every single patient.

He would only choose to help people he knew and happened to encounter.

For example, a girl who developed aphasia due to a cerebral infarction and could only spend the rest of her life in a hospital bed, a girl who was paralyzed from the neck down due to an accident and could only lie in bed, or a good person who was injured in a tunnel collapse but fell into a coma as their injuries flared up just as the rescue team arrived.

Actually, there are both men and women, but since anime seems to prefer bestowing suffering upon beautiful girls, the proportion of girls among them is unexpectedly high.

Just as Asakusa Toru himself said, this is ultimately nothing more than self-satisfaction.

Saving others is not much different from beating others; the essential purpose of pursuing money is to satisfy himself.

And it was precisely because of this that the moment he obtained the Diary, he completely cast his money-making plans aside and cleanly and decisively chose to accept three years of closed-off instruction.

"Money power" certainly cannot compare to "superpowers." Not to mention that the money he could earn was far from being called a superpower, even if it were, it wouldn't be worth a hair compared to a cheat code.

Setting aside the matters of money power and superpowers, let's return to the main topic.

Last year, he was agonizing over money.

"If only I had money." That was the phrase that blurted out back then.

If he had money, he wouldn't have to be stingy with his funding; if he had money, he could grandly wave his hand at the hospital and say, "Use the best of everything for me, money is no object."

If only I had money.

Even though there was a figure of over a million yen sitting in his bank account, for Asakusa Toru, that was his most genuine inner thought at the time.

Light novels were still too slow to make money.

He had to realize this clearly once again.

If he could play the stock market, if he could trade crypto, if he could fully grasp the financial markets, then he probably wouldn't feel so anxious about money.

He could even say that if he dared to go all-in on the key nodes in his memory and sit back waiting for the wind to blow him up, perhaps that would have been better.

But the reality was that in this mixed-up world, everything from the past could not be used as a reference, and past knowledge would always have discrepancies.

The several major conglomerates that stand above the nation of Japan are not merely background dressing in a story.

Trying to use an information advantage to snatch a bite of meat, or even just a sip of soup, would only result in being coldly swept out of the arena.

The son-in-law of the Toyokawa Group is the best example of someone who was hung out to dry.

The result of his delusional attempt to go all-in for overnight wealth, only to be swept away like a stray dog, was something he could not accept.

...Too much irrelevant talk.

In any case, with this mindset, the person Asakusa Toru saw outside the hospital was Ichinose Honami.

Almost at a glance, he could tell what kind of state the girl was in at this moment.

Therefore, he spoke.

"You need money." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

"Eh?"

"Not a huge amount, but a figure you cannot easily obtain." Ichinose Honami was stunned, but Asakusa Toru had no intention of waiting for her to process it, continuing on his own: "However, as luck would have it, I happen to really want to spend some money."

"So, let's make a deal."

"Sell me one day of your time," he said.

Only then was Ichinose Honami able to grasp the meaning of his words, and just as she subconsciously wanted to refuse.

A stack of Fukuzawa Yukichi, radiating the heavy scent of wealth, blocked her path.

"..." She couldn't breathe.

Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... a single Fukuzawa Yukichi is ten thousand yen, so this stack is in total...

No, no, how much money he has is his own business; it has nothing to do with her.