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Chapter 43 Part 1

Let’s go out to the town (2) ~Solitary Runaway~

After leaving the hamburger joint, Yuu passed through an archway with 『Higashimatsusaka Station Shopping District』 painted on it and started strolling along the shopping arcade.

Given that it was located near a station, the place was full of people and overflowing with liveliness.

In Yuu’s memory from before his rebirth, there seemed to be many shopping districts that had turned into deserted shopping districts, but the scene in front of him seemed to be worlds apart from such a thing.

Having come this far, he could also see men here and there, albeit few in number.

Though, the only men walking alone were old men with a cane, while the others were always accompanied by women – the plain-clothed ones were probably their family members or lovers, while the ones in black suits were probably their security personnel.

The women accompanying young men, in particular, were on high alert, as if they were blocking the gazes of those around them.

As it was rare to see men outside of school, Yuu himself stopped on his tracks and looked at them, but the current Yuu seemed to be perceived as women, so he ended up being subjected to a stern look from the black-suited security personnel.

Even now, a number of women moved closer in an attempt to get a closer look at the man, who appeared to be in his twenties, but they ended up being immediately blocked.

Yuu was reminded once again that in this world, common sense dictated that it was unthinkable for young men to take a walk alone, even during the daytime.

As such, he walked along the edge of the road that ran through the shopping district, taking care not to get tangled up with people as much as possible.

Not only girls in the familiar purple sailor uniforms of Sairyou Academy, he also saw groups of two or three girls from other schools chatting with each other.

The ones he saw in front of a multi-tenant building containing a bookstore and cram school were dressed in a monotone uniform of a white blazer and black skirt. Yuu believed it was the uniform of Prefectural Matsusaka High School, aka Matsu High.

Boasting a high percentage of glasses and neat hair style, they gave off the impression of being earnest and naive, as was typical of students from a preparatory school.

On the other hand, the ones he saw fooling around in the coffee shops and game centers were students from Municipal Matsusaka High School, aka Ichimatsu, like the ones he saw earlier.

As expected, he passed by those places while avoiding getting involved with them.

Other than these, the girls in dark gray sailor uniforms were students from Prefectural Saiou Comprehensive High school; so Yuu believed as he scoured through his memory.

There were all sorts of girls in this school, from serious-looking to very normal, and even a bit delinquent-ish.

The ones in uniforms he had never seen before were probably students from a high school in another city.

A part of the reason was probably because it was weekend afternoon, the sight of them showing carefree smiles were no different from those of the high school girls in the world Yuu knew.

However, due to the reality of this world, only about 1/10th of these girls would have fates with men.

It was merely not visible on the surface, but in fact they had engaged in a fierce competition among themselves, and the winners were enrolled in Sairyou Academy.

Yuu keenly felt that he and the other boys – who were able to choose the girls of their choice from among these girls, which had been chosen after going through all that, and have a relationship with them – were blessed with great luck.

In search of a birthday present for Sayaka, Yuu walked around looking at the stores on both sides of the street.

He had thought of several candidates, but when he eventually passed by the stores in such a manner, he ended up being assailed with various worries.

「For western clothes… she must have her own preference, after all. As for toys… I mean, stuffed animals, as expected, I don’t think she needs any of those any more… Stationery is also a bit…. Oops.」

It seems that his soliloquy had ended leaking out of his mouth unknowingly.

He was wearing a mask, so those around him didn’t seem to notice that his voice was quite deep for a woman.

He might have been thought of as a suspicious person walking around mumbling to themselves, though.

Oh! That’s….

Halfway through the shopping district, Yuu spotted a jewelry store on the other side of the street.

The dark-toned sign with gold-work lettering gave the store a classy, adult-oriented impression.

The display facing the street was decorated with several jewelry items, glittering as the basked in the illumination.

I guess a necklace or a pendant would also be nice.

When it came to gifts for women, accessories and jewelry were the surefire options.

After looking around for a while, he could see young women who looked like students going in and out of the store, so he had a feeling that items in the store were not that absurdly expensive.

It would take a lot of courage for a man to go in alone, but for the current Yuu, it shouldn’t be unnatural even if he did so.

The only problem was that when he caught a glimpse of the inside of the store the moment a pair of girls, who seemed to be college students, entered earlier, he noticed that it was crowded with young women, which ended up making him lose his nerve.

Hmm~, what to do now…

While he was hesitating, this time he saw a man of about 30 years old about to enter, flanked by women in front, behind, and to the left and right.

Given that the ones in front and behind were tall women in black suits, and the ones on either side were office ladies-like women in suits and tight skirts, Yuu guessed that they were not his wives or girlfriends.

With the addition of those five, the crowdedness of the store seemed to have ended up increasing even further.

With his will to go in getting chipped away, Yuu shifted his gaze to the other stores.

As he did so, he spotted a Japanese-style storefront that looked like it might sell Japanese sweets or tea three stores ahead from the jewelry store.

He couldn’t read it due to its highly cursive style, but something Honpo seemed to be written on the camellia petals-decorated signboard.

Having his interest piqued somewhat, Yuu moved his legs toward the store.

◇ ◇ ◇

「Phew. Thank goodness I managed to find a good one.」

As he spent some time looking at the items at the store from earlier, he found something that caught his eye, so he took the plunge and bought it.

Although the date of the birthday party had not yet been decided, he was glad that he had been able to decide on the present.

It was not very big, so he was able to tuck it into his shoulder bag.

Walking all the way to the end of the shopping district, Yuu bought a cold can of coffee from a vending machine he happened to see in front of a liquor store.

By the way, it was 100 yen.

He remembered that in his formed world, a 3% consumption tax had already been introduced around 1990.

In this world, it had not been introduced yet, but it was being actively discussed on TV and in newspapers, so it seemed to be just a matter of time.

In the 10 years since they put the new law into effect, although they had managed to maintain the status quo, it was difficult to say that they were heading in the direction of resolving the population problem, so for future social security and falling birthrate measures, it was highly believed that it would be introduced within a few years.

As such, sooner or later, it would no longer be possible to buy something from a vending machine with just a single coin.

Picking up a canned coffee made by a manufacturer called OCC, which had an illustration of a woman’s face on it, Yuu pulled the tab to open it.

In Yuu’s memory, until he got into a university, canned beverages used a discardable-type pull tab, where you had to keep it stuck to your finger as you drank the content, but it seemed that they had already switched to a non-discardable type.

Perhaps it was because he had accomplished his mission today that he had ended becoming a little lax.

Without paying attention to his surroundings, Yuu took off his mask, put it in his pocket, lifted his chin, and began to take sips from his drink.

As a matter of fact, there was a smallish bar a few meters away from there, and Yuu did not notice that a woman who had happened to go outside to get ready to open the bar was staring at him fixedly.

「Say.」

「Huh?」

Not knowing when she had approached him, Yuu was surprised when he realized that he had been called out by a woman.

She was probably in her early thirties.

Sporting a red one-piece dress and long, brown-dyed sauvage hair, the woman gave off a sexy, or perhaps decadent impression.

Yuu was flustered.

He might be wearing a wig, but he had ended up exposing his true face.

Just as he was about to put on his mask in panic, the sauvage-haired woman suddenly moved closer to him, reached out with her hand and grabbed him between the legs.

「Au!」

「Fufufu. I knew it. You are a boy, aren’t you?」

A fairly strong perfume assailed his nose.

H, how did she find out?

Yuu was so surprised that no words came out of his mouth.

Showing a wide smile, she then opened her mouth, which was covered with bright red rouge.

「You see, no customers are coming yet, so… C’mon, come to my place. How about doing something nice with big sis?」

Her expression was like that of a predator with its prey in front of its eyes.

He might have disguised himself with a wig and mask, but in the off chance someone was to find out, he had assumed that it would be a girl from the same school who was familiar with his face.

If it was them, he could just ask them to keep quiet about it there, and then give them something in return later, so Yuu thought.