(50 Power Stone Bonus)
Chapter 100: Charisma Drops Again (Long Chapter)
"It's raining again today."
The next morning, Akishin woke up right on schedule. He pushed open the window, and the heavy roar of rainfall flooded his ears. A cool, gentle breeze swept in, extinguishing the lingering heat of summer.
The rain lent the world a blurred, hazy quality. Down on the streets, students carrying colorful umbrellas and office workers with transparent ones hurried along their way.
He stood by the window, letting the wind and rain spray against him for two minutes. By the time he snapped out of it, his face was slightly damp.
Chishima Akishin changed his clothes, ate breakfast, slung his backpack over his shoulder, grabbed his umbrella, and stepped out into the wind and rain. Raindrops hammered against the umbrella with a rhythmic thud. In an instant, beads of water formed on the surface of his leather shoes.
"Chishima-sensei, good morning."
"Chishima-san, good morning."
"Mrs. Miyako, Uncle Daiki, good morning..."
Chishima Akishin greeted his neighbors with a smile. This was his daily routine on the way to work.
Mrs. Miyako's daughter had recently been brought here to live. Apparently, she had been staying with her grandparents in the countryside before this. Now, for the sake of attending kindergarten, she had just moved to Chiba City to stay with her mother.
Akishin had just caught sight of her.
She was hiding shyly behind her mother—a very cute little girl, maybe five or six years old. Her mother gently pulled her out from behind her skirts, and she offered a polite, obedient greeting: "Uncle Chishima."
Uncle Daiki's son had also returned two days ago. He was wearing a handmade suit, driving a small sedan, and had a beautiful girlfriend in tow; he looked quite well-off. Word was that he was now a middle-manager at some company.
Their family had come to Chishimaya to eat recently. Both sides had chatted a bit, and they actually hit it off quite well.
Uncle Daiki's son wanted to pick him up so he could live in a better apartment, but Uncle Daiki refused. He didn't want to leave the old streets where he had lived for decades.
His son conceded one point, hoping he would at least close his pastry shop.
It seemed Uncle Daiki's health wasn't doing so well.
Uncle Daiki refused that, too. This was the only thing he could still do now. Without the pastry shop, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.
Every morning, the old neighbors would come to the shop for breakfast, chatting and boasting together. For him, that was the happiest time of the day...
Once he stepped out of Konishi Street, the people greeting one another vanished.
He was back to being alone.
He trudged forward, splashing through the rainwater. The cars on the road were all moving very slowly. Whenever they encountered a spot with pedestrians and puddles, they did their best to avoid splashing anyone.
Halfway through his walk, he instinctively glanced to the left. A blue-and-white bus rolled past. He looked at the bus windows, but there was no familiar figure to be seen.
Usually, when the weather was clear, he could always hear the crisp ring of a bicycle bell by the time he reached this spot, followed by greetings from Kondo Yuika and Sakurai Kaiko.
If it rained and a bus passed by, as long as he looked toward the window, he would always see those two smiling and waving at him...
In just over two months, it turned out he had slowly grown accustomed to it. It was quite strange. Walking past here again, it really felt a bit... off.
Chishima Akishin passed by the kennel that housed a large dog. The big brown dog curled itself into a ball, letting out a soft "whine, whine~." It didn't dare look at Akishin; its body was trembling.
In the eyes of that large dog, the Chishima Akishin of today was terrifying—even though it hadn't felt that way for a long time.
Chishima Akishin:
Strength: 23
Agility: 19
Charisma: 13 (Pending to be increased)
Constitution: 22
Skills: Kendo [Expert]—Grandmaster (Pending), Cooking (Master), Go—Master (Pending), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Expert), Firearms (Expert), Sword Meditation...
Skill Points: 0
...
Stepping into the faculty room, there weren't many teachers around. Someone raised a hand, intending to greet Chishima Akishin, but this normally simple gesture stalled mid-air with a hint of hesitation.
In that person's eyes, the man in front of them was still the same Chishima Akishin, but for some reason, he felt... dangerous.
"Ishii-kun, good morning."
Chishima Akishin took the initiative to greet him. He was aware of his own condition. Last night, he had been a bit too enthusiastic about the "killing," causing his aura to become unstable. It wasn't something he could adjust in a short amount of time—last night, he had fought Sanada Nobushige twenty more times; he was killed one-sidedly six times, died together with his opponent nine times, and managed to kill his opponent while being gravely injured five times.
"Ah! Good morning, Chishima-kun..."
Ishii-sensei panicked slightly, losing his usual composure. Once Chishima Akishin moved away, that feeling of dread vanished.
He breathed a sigh of relief, stealing a glance at Akishin's back. Remembering Akishin's identity as a Kendo champion, he simply went back to his own business.
Akishin placed the pastry in his hand onto Shizuka's desk. He found someone to ask about the location of the homeroom office for Kondo Yuika and Sakurai Kaiko, then headed toward the third floor of the teaching building.
After waiting for over ten minutes, Tsumugi-sensei arrived.
Chishima Akishin explained the situation at the Kondo household. On his own authority, he requested a week's leave for both Yuika and Kaiko, then called Kaiko so she could explain the timeline of events to Tsumugi-sensei.
Facing Chishima Akishin, Tsumugi-sensei agreed very smoothly, even telling Kaiko that she could ask the school for help if things got difficult.
Kaiko and Yuika were top-tier students—both of them were "seeds" capable of getting into the University of Tokyo—so they were eligible for extra support from the school.
After that, Tsumugi-sensei made a quick exit.
She didn't want to linger around Akishin for long.
Akishin then asked Kaiko about Kondo Yuika's condition.
Kaiko mentioned that Yuika had been busy until four in the morning and was currently still asleep. As for Yuika's mother, she was still unconscious. What were the symptoms? What was the treatment? None of it was known yet; they had to wait one more day.
It had happened too suddenly. Yuika's mother was in the middle of receiving a delivery of goods when she suddenly collapsed. By the time Kondo Yuika found out, her mother had already been rushed to the hospital...
After leaving a few more instructions, Akishin returned to the faculty room. Shizuka had arrived; she was five minutes early today.
She took a piece of red-dotted pastry from the box and popped it into her mouth, her eyes narrowing in bliss.
"Where were you? You didn't even sit here and read today..."
Shizuka looked at Akishin while speaking with a smile, but before she could finish her sentence, her expression shifted. She furrowed her brows, studying Akishin closely, and then asked seriously: "Chishima-kun, did you do something?"
"Why do you ask?"
Akishin sat back down in his chair, pulling out a book titled *Na Han* (Call to Arms) to read.
Shizuka said hesitantly: "It feels like your whole persona has changed... you're a bit scary... like how you were two months ago..."
Shizuka found herself remembering that rainy night.
Akishin didn't look at Shizuka. He just smiled. "I didn't do anything. It's just that I had a nightmare last night. Maybe I'm just not in top form..."
"Then how could..."
Akishin raised a finger, cutting Shizuka off. "Shizuka-chan, don't ask. Just trust me, I really didn't do anything. I had a nightmare, and that's all. This kind of state happens once in a while; it'll clear up in a couple of days. Don't worry about it."
During this entire exchange, Akishin kept his eyes away from Shizuka. If he were to make eye contact on purpose, the aura he couldn't quite suppress would exert its full influence.
"Aura," simply put, was the manifestation of mental strength. He couldn't suppress it because his mind was constantly replaying the combat scenes with Sanada Nobushige. If this state accumulated too much, a person could lose their grip on reality and become a madman who only knew how to kill.
"...Fine, then. If there's any problem at all, you have to tell me. I'll find a way to help you."
After hesitating for a few seconds while staring at Akishin's profile, Shizuka let out a long breath. She looked at the pastry on the desk and found she had lost her appetite. She closed the lid and carefully tucked it away in her drawer.
Akishin felt a bit of peace in his heart. He closed his book and smiled. "Of course. As long as I'm with Shizuka-chan, this kind of state will disappear in no time..."
The bell rang, and he headed off to Class 2-J to teach.
...
The week of periodic examinations began.
Sobu High entered the tense atmosphere of exam preparation and execution. Chishima Akishin served as a proctor for three classes. Under his watch, not a single student dared to even think about cheating.
At the same time, Akishin noticed that most of the second-year students were starting to prepare for university entrance exams. They were gathering data, picking schools, and after school, they congregated in places like libraries, bookstores, and cafes.
Hachiman was one of them... wait, scratch that. Hachiman had always been preparing for the entrance exams, moving toward the target Akishin had set for him—and the goal he had ultimately decided on for himself.
Primary Target: University of Tokyo.
Secondary Target: Waseda University.
Lower targets... those would be decided later based on his scores.
During this period, the school bulletin boards were covered in flyers for various cram schools. These schools had connections with Sobu High, and some of the cram school instructors were actually teachers from Sobu.
It was fundamentally unfair. For students who couldn't afford cram school, teachers like this might intentionally skip over key points during regular lessons just to save them for the paid sessions.
But that was the reality of society.
As a prestigious private high school, Sobu was a college-prep track school. More than half the students would go to college—and they actually *could* get in—so that kind of situation didn't really crop up much here.
Even if it did, they wouldn't dare do it blatantly. Other schools, however, were a different story.
Of course, for truly genius students, cram school was just an optional extra.
On Kondo Yuika's side, her mother's illness had finally been diagnosed: congenital heart disease. It wasn't necessarily a death sentence; as long as she received proper treatment, she could still live for decades.
In simple terms, she needed to undergo surgery for heart stents. After the surgery, she wouldn't be able to do any heavy physical labor—none at all. You could basically say she'd be partially disabled.
For the sake of her two children's education, Yuika's mother had been hiding her illness, pushing herself through high-intensity work every single day. She had endured it for half a year until she finally collapsed in front of the kitchen door.
Kaiko said that when she heard the news, Kondo Yuika felt lucky and devastated all at once. Lucky because her mother could still be saved, and devastated because her mother had been suffering like this all along...
They couldn't afford the cost of the stent surgery.
Akishin personally called Kondo Yuika to check in. Over the phone, Yuika held back her tears and insisted she was fine.
Akishin scolded her. After that, he transferred five hundred thousand yen to her. This covered the surgery and the medication costs.
Akishin told her to just write him a promissory note whenever she got back to Chiba. If it wasn't enough, he'd add more.
Beyond that, Akishin told her to explain her mother's health insurance situation. After learning that her mother was "self-employed" and had been paying into National Health Insurance, Akishin told her to remember to apply for medical assistance, or at least discuss it with her mother before applying.
In Japan, health insurance coverage is incredibly broad. The reimbursement power is hard for many other countries to match. Generally, patients only need to cover about 30%, while the rest is fully covered by insurance.
With health insurance, the Japanese medical system basically doesn't operate on a "pay-before-treatment" basis.
This meant hospitals didn't worry about whether a patient could pay expensive medical fees, and patients didn't have to worry about whether they had the immediate ability to pay.
Furthermore, Yuika's mother's condition should qualify as a "severe and chronic illness," meaning she could apply for the "High-Cost Medical Expense Benefit." This rule is a derivative of the Japanese Constitution, enshrined in law and protected by the government.
Want to know why Chishima Akishin knew all this?
Because he had used it before.
During his past life as a hitman, he had once failed a mission. Well, it wasn't exactly a failure—the target died—but he had been spotted.
Under the pursuit of dozens of elite bodyguards, Akishin managed to escape, but he had sustained serious injuries.
In the middle of his flight, Akishin happened upon a car accident—less than two hundred meters away from him.
He saw with his own eyes as two taxis collided. One of them immediately burst into flames and was destroyed on the spot; everyone inside was, naturally, killed.
It was two in the morning, the location was remote, there were no cameras, and no pedestrians.
Akishin had a sudden idea. He wrapped the knives on his body and his empty pistol in his torn clothes and hid them under the roots of a large tree. Then, he ran to the crash site and just... lay down.
That's right, he just lay there.
Akishin disguised himself as a victim of the car crash, acting unconscious to boot. Japan has very strict gun laws. He had a gun because the "Organization" was quite powerful, but those bodyguards didn't.
The bodyguards had used baton-like weapons. Akishin's injuries were basically blunt force trauma; most of his ribs were broken, and his arm had a fracture—remarkably similar to a car crash victim.
Less than ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived. Akishin was carefully moved to the ambulance and received timely treatment.
The specifics of these rules were explained to him by a kind, chubby man named Megure whom he met at the hospital back then. It helped him save a massive amount of money...
Even a hitman has to save money, right?
Just kidding. Actually, the main goal was to look like an ordinary person. If you didn't know, that was one thing, but since he knew, he obviously had to file a claim. That Megure-san was a police officer, after all.
Back to the point.
Since she had known she was sick for half a year, Yuika's mother had likely expected this day to come and had probably been preparing for a long time.
It was just that, for psychological reasons, she didn't want to spend too much money on treatment, so she kept putting it off. As long as she could still move, she kept delaying... and by delaying, the illness got worse, and the money spent might actually end up being more.
You could call her foolish, but you couldn't call her stupid. Humans are, after all, emotional creatures.
If she had spent the money on treatment half a year ago, her two children might not have been able to stay in school, and she wouldn't have been able to keep working. She would have become a burden to the family...
If she hadn't thought that far ahead, with Akishin's reminder, it still wasn't too late.
Two days later, Yuika's side transferred four hundred thousand yen back. She had followed Akishin's method and successfully applied for the "High-Cost Medical Expense Benefit."
The cost of medication plus follow-up treatment totaled twenty thousand yen (Note: likely meant 200,000 yen), and they covered the remaining hundred thousand yen themselves.
Yuika's family had absolutely no idea that medical costs could drop that low!
Akishin didn't transfer any more money. The girl had a very strong sense of pride. He simply told her one more time to contact him if anything happened.
Akishin wasn't just being a saint for no reason; it was because Kondo Yuika had a connection to him. He deeply "liked" this resilient kid; this was purely a small helping hand.
Akishin, not counting his house, had assets of nearly sixty million yen—mostly from those two Kendo matches—so he didn't view that money as a big deal.
If he wasn't afraid she wouldn't accept it, he could have easily given her several million yen.
...
The fourth day of periodic examinations.
After Chishima Akishin finished training Hachiman, the two of them sat on a park bench drinking MAX Coffee. The sea breeze blew past as they watched the students active on the field.
"What have you guys been busy with the last few days? Did you take on a new request?"
"Yeah, we did. A request from Kawasaki Taishi. By the way, Kawasaki Taishi is the younger brother of Kawasaki Saki."
"Kawasaki Saki?" Akishin was stunned for a moment in confusion, then remembered: "That classmate of yours who dresses like a delinquent girl (yankee)."
Hachiman sipped his coffee, his dead-fish eyes half-open as he watched Totsuka Saika on the field. He nodded. "Yeah, that's her. But we're not close."
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