"There's still about one million yen left—!"
Chihaya Anon blurted out a string of garbled sounds right after, her brain clearly failing to keep up with reality.
That was because Asai Yu had already taken the guitar to the counter and paid.
One million yen remaining.
As expected of a wealthy family that could afford to send their kid to study abroad in London.
Asai Yu swiped the card without the slightest pressure, then walked out of the instrument shop with the guitar in hand.
"You really bought a guitar? Are you going to practice?" Anon asked, eyes wide.
"Let me tell you a secret—my guitar skills are actually pretty amazing! I even played on stage back in middle school and got unanimous praise!"
She said it with full confidence.
So she'd already stopped caring about how much money was spent? If this were Togawa Sakiko, she'd probably be clutching her chest in pain by now.
"Really? Then teach me when we get back," Asai Yu replied without changing his expression.
A true god of the C-chord zone talking big, huh.
"Hehe, well, I wouldn't say I'm good enough to teach someone, but if you need it, I'll definitely try my best!" Anon said shyly.
Hearing Anon's unmistakably goofy laugh in real life for the first time, Asai Yu could only think: 'It's like hearing celestial music—suddenly everything feels brighter.'
Back at the rental, Asai Yu took out the guitar and started practicing. Truthfully, he'd never touched a guitar before and was basically clueless.
The moment Anon saw this, she immediately perked up. So he was a total beginner after all. She got excited and started instructing him enthusiastically.
Even though her explanations were messy and all over the place, thanks to the lv0 guitar bonus, Asai Yu could still barely grasp what she meant.
Combined with his prior knowledge of piano theory and composition, he gradually figured out how the guitar was supposed to be played.
Anon, meanwhile, had no idea that she'd already exposed her true skill level in front of him and kept explaining nonstop.
Asai Yu had already opened his laptop and started searching for free guitar lessons online.
"Am I… teaching badly?" Anon asked, confused, when she noticed.
"Yes," Asai Yu replied bluntly.
Anon paused, her confidence wavering for a moment, but she quickly recovered and muttered, "Well, yeah… I'm definitely not as good as those teachers online."
It had to be said—before getting hit with repeated reality checks, Anon's confidence was truly overflowing.
Asai Yu was speechless, but he had no intention of poking her further. He just focused on practicing his guitar.
Thanks to his piano background, he picked it up quickly—plus the 0.5× bonus.
After just one hour of practice, he'd completely mastered finger exercises and was already fairly proficient.
[Guitar Bonus lv0 (20/100)]
"Why aren't you practicing C chords?" Anon finally asked once he stopped.
"C chords are mostly for strumming and singing. That's not my style—I want to focus on lead playing," Asai Yu answered.
"But aren't guitarists usually aiming to be singing guitarists?" Anon argued.
"Everyone has their own interpretation."
That response left Anon with no way to continue the debate.
After setting the guitar aside, Asai Yu suddenly noticed Japanese middle school textbooks placed under the desk, and a wave of confusion rose in his mind.
Just then, Anon suddenly spoke up again. "Um, just a reminder—it's sleep time now. Go to bed quickly. Oh, and you're not allowed to take your clothes off—"
Sleep?
Was the jet lag still not fixed?
No… wait.
Asai Yu glanced out the window and suddenly realized something.
"It's around late February now, right? But if I remember correctly, Japanese middle schools graduate at the end of April. Why did you come to study abroad so early?"
Hearing his question, Anon explained calmly, "Actually, I coordinated with both schools. I took an early leave of absence from middle school and enrolled in Calford."
You can do that?
Asai Yu frowned slightly and continued, "Then what about your studies in Japan?"
He remembered that Japan's education laws were extremely strict—without credits, graduation was impossible.
"Of course I'll make them up online. For classes that can't be done online, I'll submit substitute documentation," Anon replied.
Asai Yu quickly calculated the time difference between the two curriculums in his head. There really wasn't any conflict, except…
"Doesn't that mean you'll have to attend Japanese classes online from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.?" he concluded.
"Uh… yeah, more or less…" Anon answered, her tone tinged with embarrassment.
Asai Yu didn't know how to react and could only ask, "Why not wait until after you graduate?"
"Honestly, coming at the end of February was already late. If I came in April, it'd be really hard to fit into the class… so I thought I should come earlier…"
Saying this, Anon felt painfully awkward.
That explained it. This was exactly the kind of thing a pink-haired girl would do.
Though… in the original story, things probably didn't go like this. It seemed Anon's worldline had diverged.
"Then you handle the middle school classes at night. I'll take over during the day," Asai Yu proposed.
"That actually sounds pretty good!" Anon said, having just thought of the same thing herself.
Sure enough, having someone suddenly possess her body turned out to be a good thing—and he even seemed like a nice, top-tier student!
"Your consciousness can sleep. If you're preparing for night classes, you should rest now," Asai Yu said.
Anon agreed, but still felt uneasy. "Then… you're not allowed to do anything weird while I'm asleep!"
Asai Yu didn't respond. He wasn't even tempted by someone as unfairly built as Togawa Sakiko—why would he care about a flat little board like this?
Once the pink-haired girl went quiet, Asai Yu took out the textbooks and began planning what came next.
English, math, science, Japanese, music…
These were all subjects he needed to study during this period.
Just then, the phone suddenly rang. Asai Yu glanced at it—it seemed to be a call from the Japanese school.
He answered, spoke with them for a bit, and then hung up.
"What? Middle school said there's going to be a surprise test tonight?" Anon suddenly said.
Asai Yu jumped. "You weren't asleep?"
"I just got woken up by the noise," Anon explained. In truth, she hadn't slept at all—she'd been pretending, wanting to see what Yu would do.
"According to London time, the test should be around 5 a.m. But they didn't say what subject it is."
Asai Yu calculated the time. "Are you ready?"
"They didn't even say what's being tested?!" Anon panicked instantly. Her grades were decent, but there were still subjects she struggled with.
"Um… uh… maybe?" she answered, completely unsure.