According to the plan they had agreed on in advance, Kobayashi moved into Yomikawa Aiho's apartment, temporarily becoming part of the same "household."
Yomikawa Aiho's apartment was spotlessly clean and neatly organized. She had a habit: whenever the pressure built up too much, she would relieve stress by tidying up her living space.
Earlier, a chain of incidents triggered by Kobayashi's fall from a building had placed a heavy burden on her shoulders. That accumulated stress had ultimately manifested in the apartment's current immaculate state.
"Your room is ready," Yomikawa Aiho said. "I also set aside a study room for you, so you'll have a place to study for the entrance exam next month—do your best!"
"Thanks, but the exam shouldn't be a problem," Kobayashi replied calmly.
Yomikawa Aiho had no reason to doubt him. As Kobayashi's current legal guardian—and a teacher herself, even if she was a P.E. instructor—she naturally paid attention to his academic performance.
Just as Kobayashi had claimed, passing the entrance exam for the second year of middle school posed no difficulty whatsoever. In fact, Yomikawa Aiho had already noticed that middle-school-level coursework—unless it was at the level of Tokiwadai Middle School—offered him no challenge at all.
If age weren't an issue, skipping grades and going straight to high school would have been entirely feasible.
But considering that Kobayashi was a Level 3 esper, this level of academic ability was hardly surprising.
Academy City's esper system fundamentally revolved around brain computation. Here, smart people weren't necessarily high-level espers—but high-level espers were never stupid.
Take the girls at Tokiwadai Middle School, for instance. Though they were still just middle schoolers, the material they studied was already comparable in difficulty to university-level courses.
One of Tokiwadai's admission requirements was being at least a Level 3 esper. Kobayashi happened to meet that threshold, so by that logic, he should have been able to handle college-level material right away.
Still, Yomikawa Aiho was ultimately just a P.E. teacher. She didn't have the same obsession with grades as other teachers, so she didn't oppose Kobayashi's decision to "take it easy."
Besides, his injuries hadn't fully healed yet. Keeping his schoolwork light was probably for the best.
As for Kobayashi himself, he was more than satisfied with his guardian.
From his perspective, a guardian like Yomikawa Aiho—who didn't interfere with his laid-back lifestyle—was practically ideal.
Setting aside the whole reincarnation business, returning to his youth meant one thing above all else: he'd suddenly gained a huge stretch of time to squander as he pleased.
In his "previous life," Kobayashi had been like most ordinary people—grinding relentlessly from the moment he entered school, all the way through university and into the corporate workforce. He was always pushing himself, never having the time or mental space to truly enjoy life. Looking back, regret was inevitable.
But now, things were different. Now, he finally had the chance to make up for the childhood he'd once missed
Novels, anime, game consoles—now that he had both money and time, he could repay every ounce of that long-overdue childhood debt in one go!
What's more, the social atmosphere here didn't frown upon such hobbies at all.
Yomikawa Aiho herself had bought a huge collection of manga and game consoles. Ironically, she was the one carrying a 'childhood debt.' Between her busy life and living alone, the manga remained unread, and the consoles were left untouched, slowly gathering dust in an empty room.
Once she learned about Kobayoshi's wish, Yomikawa Aiho immediately contributed her entire collection, letting him play to his heart's content.
Kobayoshi's arms still hadn't fully recovered, but he could operate controllers using his telekinetic ability. Thanks to that, he completely avoided the risk of being "bad with his hands." No matter the game, as long as he understood the controls and his reaction speed kept up, he could clear it.
As a result, Kobayoshi played games with incredible ease and satisfaction. If his injuries were fully healed and he had to play "by hand," he probably wouldn't perform nearly as well!
The same applied beyond gaming. In everyday life, there was no longer any such thing as "my brain gets it, but my hands don't" for Kobayoshi.
His telekinetic ability truly lived up to its reputation as an "all-purpose power." As long as his mind understood the steps, he could reproduce the action perfectly.
Because of that, Kobayoshi ended up taking over all the household chores.
Yomikawa Aiho didn't stop him. She could tell that housework wasn't taxing for him at all—he was efficient, too, and it even served as training for his ability. For someone as busy as she was, having help with daily life was honestly a relief. The only downside was that when stress piled up, she could no longer decompress by tidying the apartment.
But she could vent her stress by playing games instead!
Not only did Yomikawa Aiho not stop him from immersing himself in games—she enthusiastically joined in herself. She even found playing together with him incredibly fun.
In the past, she had bought consoles and plenty of games, but had never once turned them on to actually play. Between her busy work schedule and living alone, she simply couldn't muster the interest. She bought every new release out of habit—buying it was basically the same as playing it, right?
Now that Kobayashi was in the house, Yomikawa Aiho officially entered the world of video games under the excuse of "keeping him company." Coupled with his high skill level and his knack for making games fun for others, she quickly became hooked—so much so that she was starting to skip meals and sleep.
As a result, Kobayashi ended up being the one taking care of her. Beyond daily chores, he even handled all three meals. With telekinetic assistance, cooking was no longer limited by his hands—he could perfectly recreate any dish from a recipe.
Yomikawa Aiho wasn't bad at cooking herself, but her specialty was a rather unconventional "rice-cooker style." With just a few rice cookers, she could conquer almost any dish, and the taste was surprisingly good.
Still, Kobayashi felt something was missing if he couldn't have proper stir-fried dishes, so he simply took over the kitchen entirely.
Now, all Yomikawa Aiho needed to do was go grocery shopping and buy whatever cookware and seasonings Kobayashi needed.
At first, she felt a little guilty about it. But she quickly realized just how convenient—and powerful—Kobayashi and his ability were, and promptly "gave in."
As for Kobayashi, he was living in Yomikawa Aiho's home rent-free. He wasn't shameless enough to take all of this for granted, so doing the housework on his own initiative felt like a fair exchange.
(End of Chapter)