Haikyuu: Rise of Sengoku

Akira Asuka had no idea that, in just a few seconds, Akashi Kana had already begun doubting whether she was a complete failure.

After packing everything up, the next morning arrived.

The moving truck pulled up to the house. Together with the movers, Asuka loaded his belongings into the truck and then followed it to Kana's rented place.

Kana's rental wasn't an apartment, it was an old-style, detached Japanese house with a traditional courtyard.

The owner of the house was an elderly woman. Since her husband passed away, she rented out all the rooms except the one she lived in, both to make a living and to bring some life into the house. Most tenants were nearby students or office workers.

Besides Asuka and Kana, three other tenants currently live in the house.

Though there were several people, their daily lives rarely overlapped or disturbed one another.

That's because the old house was huge, laid out in a U-shaped rectangular pattern. On the east and west sides were the shorter edges, each with two rooms. The north side, the longer edge, housed a large living room and three spacious rooms.

Asuka and Kana stayed on the east side. Even the nearest tenant was separated from them by almost five or six meters in a straight line.

And more importantly...

The rent here was incredibly cheap.

Asuka's room was on the far east end. Although it was the smallest room in the house, it still measured over twenty square meters, not including common areas.

It used to be a storage room but had been renovated to include all sorts of appliances and even a bathroom.

Since it was on the corner, the room had large windows on both the east and south walls, providing excellent natural light.

In Miyagi Prefecture, renting a similar room elsewhere would usually cost between 80,000 to 100,000 yen per month.

But this room only cost 35,000 yen a month, less than half the market price.

If the elderly lady hadn't been so strict about tenant quality and hadn't avoided using an agent, there would be no way this room would still be available for Asuka.

The truck stopped at the yard entrance. The movers helped carry Asuka's things into his room.

Once settled, Asuka met the landlord and the other three tenants in the main living room.

The landlord was a plump elderly woman with black-and-white hair, always smiling warmly.

The tenant closest to Kana's room was a female university student named Tomoko Horiguchi.

She was fairly attractive, after some makeup, she could be considered quite pretty, and had a lively personality. When Kana returned, Tomoko immediately pulled her into a big, warm hug.

"Oh, Kana! So this is your brother? He's really handsome!"

"Horiguchi-nee, please loosen up a bit, I'm starting to feel breathless."

...

The other two tenants lived in the west-side rooms: Koichi Kudo and Mizuki Koyanagi.

Koichi, also a high school student like Asuka, was quiet and reserved. He hadn't said much since Asuka arrived.

Mizuki was a white-collar worker who just graduated this year. She worked for an advertising design company and had been renting here since college. Since her office was nearby, she hadn't changed her living arrangements.

When she saw Asuka, Mizuki greeted him briefly before diving back into her laptop, seemingly working overtime.

Overall...

The initial meeting with the other tenants wasn't overly warm, but not cold either.

After all, the landlord carefully screened all tenants. Setting personalities aside, their personal qualities and education levels were all above average.

To be precise, Asuka was technically still on probation with the landlord. If, within one to three months, he caused trouble for other tenants or the landlord, chances were he'd have to find a new place.

But that seemed unlikely.

Kana had already mentioned the landlord was fairly lenient with students, unless someone was truly problematic, passing the screening wasn't a big issue.

That's why most tenants here were students or people who had rented since their student days.

The purpose of gathering all tenants today was simply to introduce Asuka so everyone could get to know each other.

After they grew somewhat familiar,

Lunch time came.

There were two dining options here: cook for yourself or eat out, or pay the landlord an extra 30,000 yen per month for three meals a day.

Almost all tenants chose the latter.

That 30,000 yen was a real bargain, close to the cost price for food. Eating out every meal would definitely cost more than that monthly.

But paying for meals didn't mean tenants could slack off.

Everyone here knew the routine well: except for days when someone couldn't come home for lunch or woke up late, the landlord cooked dinner while others helped out after school or work. That way, dinner and the next day's lunchbox got taken care of at once.

Speaking of which,

Kana hadn't been able to cook before. The meal she prepared last summer was probably when she was helping out in the kitchen during this routine, picking up some basics.

After lunch, Asuka and the others washed the dishes together.

Then Asuka returned to his room, pulled out his laptop, and resumed his writing...

Writing novels.

It was Asuka's current idea for making money.

In his previous life, Asuka had written online novels for a while, but later realized it was a dead-end and returned his focus to work.

Because of this, he was realistic, if he wanted to publish novels based on his writing alone, he probably wouldn't succeed.

So if he wanted to get published, he needed to win with originality.

After much thought,

Asuka decided to borrow... or rather, adapt the concept of a novel that wouldn't be published for several years: "The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious".

He couldn't memorize the whole story, so he planned to use the general plot and ideas as a framework, then gradually fill it out with his own writing style.

Asuka didn't expect the novel to become a bestseller. If it could just earn a little extra money for food, that would be enough.

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