This was not the first time Ichinose Honami had met Asakusa Tōru.
That said, the two of them were hardly childhood friends reunited after years apart.
Their first meeting had been a year ago.
More precisely, it was in the summer after Honami finished her second year of middle school.
Ichinose Honami came from a single-parent household. She lived with her mother and her younger sister, who was two years younger than her.
Their family wasn't well-off—quite poor, in fact—but even so, her mother always tried her best to meet their needs.
And Honami, along with her sister, were both considerate and obedient children. They did everything they could to suppress their desires, to keep their material wants low, to restrain their longing for things. They never asked for unnecessary items—whether it was new clothes or going out to have fun. As long as it cost money, they would refuse it.
Things would get better someday.
But endlessly suppressing everything wasn't right. Burying all emotions deep inside wasn't right either.
It was precisely because her mother understood this that, when her younger sister's birthday was approaching, she asked her what she wanted.
Even if it was only on her birthday, their mother wanted them to be happy.
So her sister voiced her wish: a hair clip.
It wasn't particularly pretty—honestly, by Honami's standards, it was a bit ugly—but it was the same model used by her sister's favorite idol, Hoshino Ai.
Because it was an idol's "matching item," it was heavily overpriced.
At the same time, because it wasn't actually very attractive, once people considered the price, few would choose to buy it even if they liked it. So it wasn't popular to the point of being impossible to obtain.
Once the goal was set, their mother began forcing herself.
The hair clip cost a little over ten thousand yen—an amount that was neither huge nor trivial.
But for Ichinose Honami's family, it was a sum that took a very long time to save.
Her mother could only try to scrape it together by pushing herself beyond her limits.
And so… her mother collapsed.
Collapsed onto a hospital bed, apologizing to her younger sister over and over again.
The one who should have been taken care of—the patient—was the one apologizing.
And the one who should have understood—the daughter—was the one who rejected those apologies.
The emotions that had been suppressed to their breaking point finally exploded. The promise that couldn't be fulfilled shattered the expectations her sister had been holding onto.
So she lashed out, screaming and cursing, revealing an ugliness she had never shown before.
But this wasn't really anyone's fault.
It wasn't the fault of a mother who tried her best.
It wasn't the fault of a disappointed child.
If there was something wrong, then perhaps the only thing wrong was that… they had no money.
…Ah, if only we had money.
That was what Honami had thought back then.
If they had money, her mother wouldn't have had to overwork herself.
If they had money, her sister could have gotten what she wanted.
If they had money, none of this would have happened.
"If only we had money."
As if reading her thoughts aloud, a boy standing beside her outside the hospital sighed softly.
…That was how she first met Asakusa Tōru.
...
"Whether I remember or not, that's a strange thing to ask," Asakusa Tōru said with a sigh in response to Ichinose Honami's sudden question. "If you're asking whether I remember the name 'Ichinose Honami,' then yes, I do."
"But if you're hoping for something more…" He paused, then repeated himself.
"Last year's incident was nothing more than my own self-satisfaction."
"You don't need to keep it in your heart. And you don't need to feel burdened by it."
He thought he had already made that perfectly clear.
But when he thought about it more carefully… maybe this was exactly like Ichinose Honami.
"Even if you say that…" Honami tried to say something more—but just then, the bell signaling the start of class rang, and the teacher entered the room.
She had no choice but to return to her seat.
"…What a pain," Asakusa Tōru muttered, glancing at Ichinose Honami as she went back.
He had mentioned it before: the fact that he ended up enrolling at Advanced Nurturing High School hadn't really surprised him.
It wasn't just because the school's advertisements were everywhere. More importantly, it was because he had personally come into contact with students who would be enrolling this year.
Ichinose Honami was one of them.
If he remembered correctly, it had been last year.
In his memory, he had met Ichinose Honami outside a hospital.
At the time, he himself had been feeling anxious.
He clearly understood the trends of the era. He knew how things would likely develop in the future. And yet, he had always struggled to turn that advantage into wealth or status.
Even though he had achieved a certain level of financial freedom through light novels—enough to not worry about basic living expenses—compared to other reincarnators' resumes, it was honestly embarrassing.
Forget reclining with beauties or ruling the world upon waking—he couldn't even indulge in his own self-satisfaction without constantly second-guessing himself.
He had gone to the hospital not because he was sick.
He went there to pay.
To cover the medical expenses of a group of traffic accident victims who had miraculously survived.
To do something purely for his own self-satisfaction.
"..."
If someone asked him what his life goal had been before reincarnation, Asakusa Tōru would have answered without hesitation: financial freedom.
Money was important. Without money, nothing worked. As long as you had money, you could do almost anything.
Even after reincarnating, that mindset hadn't really changed.
But once he realized that this world wasn't the one he used to live in—that it was a mixed, crossover universe—his thinking shifted.
Just being financially free felt… boring.
If he had been reincarnated, then he should do things he couldn't do before.
For example, trying to save girls he could only watch helplessly through a screen.
For example, beating the shit out of idiots he could only curse at through a screen.
For example, trying to salvage things that seemed unsalvageable in the story.
All for the sake of self-satisfaction.
To do that, he needed money. A lot of money.
Without special powers or extraordinary talent, the only ability an ordinary person like him could rely on was money power.
If ten thousand wasn't enough, then a hundred thousand.
If a hundred thousand wasn't enough, then a million.
If a million wasn't enough, then ten million.
There would always be a number big enough to shake someone's resolve.
Of course, not everything required money.
For example, saving a silver-haired girl who slipped off a summer cliff didn't cost anything.
What it required… was simply the perfect timing.
...
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