Chapter 170: Meet Again?
Shishio then accepted his reward, which was "Business Mastery," and the moment he accepted it, he couldn't help but stop his movement for a while, trying to proceed with all the knowledge that he had received.
Shishio took a deep breath and had to admit that it was a good ability. This ability allowed him to successfully run businesses and companies and intuitive comprehension of banking, entrepreneurship, investing, and finances. Using this ability, he could become wealthy very quickly and easily and perform feats such as always developing ideas to generate profits, making the right choice when it comes to advancing said business, and predicting sources of monetary crises.
Shishio thought that this ability was quite good. After all, even though he was also a businessman in his previous life, his business was only related to food, services, mining, publishing, garments, and property. As for other businesses, he needed to learn. Still, with this ability, he knew all the knowledge and optimized the performance of the various businesses, even the most unique ones.
Shishio thought about all the businesses and assets that he owned from the system and felt that he could develop them better. As for entering the stock market, future exchange, real estate, etc., he needed more data, but he could get them easily by using his "Programming Mastery" since this ability gave him the ability to hack various things. However, in conclusion, he had become a God of Wealth now.
Shishio thought for a while and had to admit that it was simply troublesome to manage a business, so he thought he should create a cryptocurrency, so there was no need for him to work. Joke aside, he really had an idea to create a cryptocurrency.
Shishio knew that in 2009, in his original world, presumably pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto created the first decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin. In 2009, it didn't have that much worth, and it was used as a game by many people, but in 2021, it had become a cryptocurrency with the biggest value in the world.
With his "Programming Mastery," Shishio thought to create this cryptocurrency by himself since it was pretty easy. He thought for a while and made up a plan on his head for a while, creating various notes inside his brain. He didn't think that he would forget this matter since he had an "Enhanced Memory." It wasn't that he didn't want to write down his plan on his laptop, but he was afraid that there was a small chance his plan was stolen or something, and the safest place to keep a secret was inside his head, after all. Unless someone could hypnosis him, which was pretty much impossible, considering he had a "Hypnosis Mastery," then there was no way his plan would be leaked out.
Shishio wrote down his plan for a while before he stopped since he remembered that he needed to write his novel as soon as possible. He wanted to write his novel, but before that, he thought to call Futaba first so she could adopt Sorata's cat, especially Sorata's last cat.
Shishio had planned to make Sorata leave Sakurasou, so he needed someone to adopt Hikari (Sorata's cat). He knew that Hikari had a lot of meaning to Sorata, and he also had a feeling that someone wanted to adopt Hikari before. However, Sorata rejected this person or pretended that there was no cat anymore, which was why Hikari was still in Sakurasou.
Hikari was the reason why Sorata moved to Sakurasou. If it wasn't because of this cat, he might not know how insignificant he was in this world and might not know the existence of genius in this world, but this cat is also the one who made him meet Shiina.
Still, even though Shiina and Sorata met each other, their relationship wasn't even a friend, or rather they were only a tenant from the same dorm, who had only talked to each other by few words, even so, this cat, had a lot of meaning to Sorata. Unlike his other cars, he also treated this cat differently from other cats.
Shishio then took his phone and called Futaba directly. He pressed her number then waited for a while before it connected.
"Hello, is this Futaba-san?"
---
As usual, after school ended, Futaba went back to her home. Like usual, everything inside her house felt so dim, but she had gotten used to it, so she never said anything.
"I'm back."
Futaba went back, but no one greeted her back. Her house was so quiet, and only her voice was heard echoing through the corridor, but such a situation was a norm for her, so she didn't react much. Taking off her shoes, she went to the living room, sitting on the sofa for a while before she took out her phone from her pocket. She quickly looked at Shishio's number saved on her phone and couldn't help but blush.
Futaba had never expected that both of them would exchange contact with each other so easily, and she had to admit that someone with a very high interpersonal skill was really different. Here, she struggled to talk and blended with everyone in her class, but Shishio could easily ask for her phone number, and she also happily gave him her phone number.
'But a cat, huh?'
Futaba thought about her reason to talk with him and knew that she might need to adopt a cat. Looking at her quiet house, where only her voice could be heard, she felt that a cat might not be bad.
Someone might have realized it by now, but Futaba received some kind of neglect from her parents since they had been abroad because of work. She also had quite a lonely childhood, making her choose to be alone since it was her comfort zone.
Her talk with Shishio before might have been outside her comfort zone, but Futaba wasn't sure why. It was just comfortable just standing by his side.
Futaba looked at his phone number again and wondered if she should call him first or send him a text. Such a thought kept circling for a long time which made her hesitant since she was afraid of being thought of as a weirdo and forgot the fact that he was living in Sakurasou, which was known as "Den of Weirdo."
However, no one could blame her. After all, when Futaba saw both Ritsu and Shiina, she felt like Sakurasou was a place for gathering a model or something since the one who lived there was either beautiful and handsome. However, she might change her mind if she knew that Sorata also lived in that dorm.
Futaba was still hesitant and didn't realize that it had been a few hours since she had been staring at the screen of her phone, but suddenly...
"!!!"
Futaba was stunned when she saw that Shishio had called her phone and she became very nervous, but when she thought it might not be good to make him wait, even though she wasn't sure what to say, she still accepted his call.
"Hello, is this Futaba-san?"
Futaba could solve various mathematics, physics, chemistry, and various science-related knowledge easily and explained them to the monkey so it could understand. Still, she had zero knowledge about love, so she didn't know what to do, nor did she have someone to talk with.
"Ah, um..."
Those were the only words that came out from Futaba which made him feel regret at this moment.
"I see, then I'm glad that I didn't call the wrong person, and just to remind you, I'm Shishio Oga. We have talked near the bread food truck before."
"Um, Oga-kun, I remember." Futaba, of course, remembered him, or rather she dreamed of him, but there was no way for her to tell all of that, and at the same time, she hoped that she could express her feeling better. She was also wondering whether her tone and words were too cold that it made him think that she hated him.
'Ugh...!'
Futaba was wondering why talking to someone was so hard!
"I'm glad that you remember me, so I want to you whether you still want to adopt a cat?" Shishio asked.
"Um." Futaba nodded and said, "I want to adopt a cat."
"I see, but have you ever taken care of a cat before?" Shishio asked.
"....." Futaba.
"From this silence, I can tell that you don't have an experience yet," Shishio said with a deadpan tone.
Futaba blushed and felt embarrassed. "I - I have an experience!" She felt that she was being teased, which made her not want to lose!
'But why did my words feel pretty weird?' Futaba felt confused suddenly.
"Um, Futaba-san, you don't need to force yourself. You should know that a cat is different from a lesson at school. It is a living being, and if you're not careful, then it might hurt, in a worse case, it might be dying," Shishio said, telling the cruel fact since even though he wanted someone to adopt Hikari, he didn't want someone irresponsible to do it. Even though he knew that Futaba might not be such a person, he still wanted to be careful, right?
"....." Futaba was wondering whether her decision to adopt a cat was too willful, but when she thought about it calmly, that was true, since the reason why she wanted to adopt a cat was so she could talk with Shishio.
"How about this? Are you free this week?" Shishio suddenly asked.
"Huh?" Futaba was confused.
"Do you want to visit the Sakurasou so you can see the cat yourself? I can also teach you and tell you what you need to watch out for to care for the cat later there," Shishio said.
"....." Futaba had never expected that their progress would be so fast, and she didn't expect that Shishio would invite him to come to Sakurasou, but... "The - Then, how about this Friday?" She wanted to use her time to learn how to care for a cat first before she went to visit Sakurasou.
"Alright, I'll see you on Friday later, Futaba-san."
"Um." Futaba somehow also anticipated her visit to Sakurasou.
Then both of them said goodbye and ended the call.
Futaba somehow dropped her phone on her soft and huge breasts and felt her body was quite giddy for some reason. She wanted to share this information with someone, but she wasn't sure who she could talk with.
"Ugh..."
Futaba's feelings were mixed at this moment, she was both excited and nervous at the same time, but one thing for sure, she needed to prepare herself so she wouldn't mess up there!
Futaba then turned on the light on her house, and it might have been her imagination. Somehow her house was more vibrant than before.
---
Shishio put down his phone and didn't know what Futaba was thinking now, but he didn't think too much since there was something he needed to do now. He stared at his laptop and was getting ready to write.
Shishio had decided to write a novel to say goodbye to his past. If possible, he wanted to write it as soon as possible, but he might create an excuse like he didn't have time, or he might try to avoid it, but now, he couldn't do it. He had confessed his feelings to Saki and knew that he couldn't delay it any longer, but the moment his fingers touched the keyboard on his laptop...
"..."
Shishio frowned and felt that his head was blank at this moment. In the past, he had gotten "Nursery, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school knowledge mastery," and of course, he also had literature knowledge. So it should be easy for him to write a novel. Of course, he could also write everything from his previous world and make it even better, but this time, his fingers just couldn't move.
'Why is it so hard?'
Shishio closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. He sat there for a few minutes, and suddenly a thought crossed his mind.
'Convenience store?'
Shishio thought about a girl that he had taken advantage of on his first day arriving in Tokyo. When he thought about what he had done to this girl, it made his chest ache since he might try to forget this girl, but he knew that he couldn't escape from his mistake and he needed to fix this up or else, he would just walk in spiral unable to move on.
Shishio stood up from his seat and knew that he couldn't stay like this any longer. So he took his hoodie and wore it before he came out of his room, hoping that he could see her again there so he could confirm something from her.