Chapter 70: Italy, here I come!

Can you guys give me some anime where knowledge literally means power? Like the more knowledge you have, the more powerful you become? I might need it for my spirits in DxD fanfic for later on.

*****************

And so, the rest of the school term continued as usual. There were no conflicts, problems, or anything stupid that can force the plot to move forward.

I never know why people like having troublesome plots. I mean, isn't it good enough to live in peace without trouble?

Since I left, Shouko has been busy making friends around us, often hanging out with Onodera and Ruri and sometimes with other girls as well.

As for me? I'm already finishing up with my main quest, though I don't plan to finish the additional side quests. I did, however, befriend some seniors, though not all of them. We had six classes of 25 students each in my year, and I befriended around 5 classes worth of students already.

One of the first few people I had befriended was Najimi, also known as the person who was "everyone's childhood friend". In fact, he only needed to befriend a few people as he already knew most of them from their days in elementary school.

As for how he did that? Apparently, he told me that his father had a job that required him to move frequently, so Najimi never stayed in one place for more than a month. A month was enough for Najimi to befriend basically everyone in his school, and that was how this situation came about.

It was very easy to befriend Najimi, effortless, even. We didn't need any trigger, and a new friendship was born.

Even before my month-long break from school, I have already befriended most of the students in my year with Najimi's help.

As for his gender, I would like to think of him as a male, but he was wearing a skirt...but as they say, friendship transcends gender and race.

Who said it? Some wise man.

Anyway, the rest of my term ended well, for me, at least. Some people were too busy enjoying the new junior high school life that they forgot that this was still a school, needing them to study.

It's pretty amusing seeing everyone just lying down on their desk in sadness as they received their results back from the teacher. They didn't fail, but they didn't do as well as they hoped they did.

Perhaps they couldn't concentrate on studying due to the new environment?

Ha! Who am I kidding?

"I can't believe Uesugi got the highest in the level despite missing for a month..."

"I know, right?! I'm so envious..."

"But on the bright side..."

"Summer holidays..."

"Are here!!"

Yep, now that the exams were over, we can finally enjoy the summer holidays! Though I would have to leave some time in the middle, it wouldn't stop me from enjoying my youth!

Our cute teacher, who didn't seem to have improved her "teacher aura" very much, did the standard speech before we all left for summer vacation. The talk about not loitering about in the dead of night, not doing illegal stuff, remembering to do our homework and having fun, and more of the usual stuff. After we all waved her goodbye like a fellow classmate, we (the entire student body) fled the school to immediately start their long-awaited holiday.

Ring~! Ring~!

"Moshi Moshi? (Hello?)" Picking up my ringing phone, I replied.

"Good afternoon, Uesugi-kun. I'm Suzuki."

"Suzuki-san? Is there anything I could do for you?"

"Actually, I just wanted to remind you that I'll be picking you up two weeks from now, just slightly after the start of August."

"Eh?"

"Yes, I'm picking you up for the international. It's required for all participants to reach there five days before the actual date, and I'll be your chaperone for the trip."

It seems that I need to check my emails more often. I didn't even know the date set for the internationals until Suzuki called me.

"I see. Then I'll be seeing you in two weeks?"

"Yes. I'll see you then. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Hanging up my phone, both Kaori and Shouko looked at me curiously, wondering what I was talking about.

"Who is Suzuki?" Kaori asked, but Shouko remembered him.

"Suzuki-san...the judge?"

"Yep. My internationals in two weeks, and I'll be flying to Italy."

I could feel both my hands being gripped tighter by both girls, and their sadness could be clearly conveyed as well.

"You'll be leaving again?"

"I already know that, but it's still lonely without you here..."

Hearing both girls complain half-heartedly made my heart warm. Despite wanting me to stay beside them, they didn't really push or force me to do so. They know that this piano competition could change my life, making our life all much better.

"Me too. But I have to go."

The two girls didn't say anything as we walked back, so just before Kaori split with us, I told her, "Why don't we go on a date before I leave?"

Kaori's face bloomed into a smile as she gave me a sudden hug before skipping away.

"Kaori-chan is so cute." Shouko smiled as she looked at Kaori skipping away.

"Yep."

Shouko didn't say anything more, and we left for our home.

*****************

The start of my summer vacation passed by pretty quickly between juggling my homework, spending time with my family, and going on a date with Kaori. Since I don't know when I'll be back after my competition, I decided to finish everything I needed and wanted to do before I leave for Italy.

[A/N: I'll write about a date with Kaori at a later time. For now, I want to start and finish the competition within 5-10 chapters so that the plot can progress.]

My youngest twin sisters grew up healthily with lots of love surrounding them from everyone, especially Raiha and Yuzuru, who seemed to love being older sisters. Perhaps they got bored of just being pampered as younger sisters, and now that there were two girls younger than them...well...

Anyway, my daily life passed ever so peacefully, before the day for departure came again.

I'm a bit reluctant to part with my family again, but I really want to do this. More than just fame or money, I really want to experience things I did not experience in my past life. Well, actually, money was part of the reason as well. It's a lot harder to make money than you would think. Not every sis-con could randomly predict the future stock market with knowledge of their previous world and become rich just like that with a cheat system that gives him everything he needs without working hard.

Hell, Mcdonald's doesn't exist in this world! Only McRonalds.

Need fighting skills? Mastery of Bajiquan. Need to style hair? Just in time comes a reward for hairdressing. At a world-class level. Just from meeting a damn girl. And here I am praying with all my luck from gacha rolls whose tokens don't even come often.

Tch.

I may be lucky with Gacha rolls, but in the end, Gacha would just be Gacha. Not to mention I still have to actively try and improve myself.

Not to mention if I wanted to start my life by becoming a mangaka, I'll think I'll just become another shut-in trying to complete all my work by harsh deadlines. Who said that drawing an entire volume of manga just takes 1 month by himself?

Sigh, I'm lucky to be reborn with a complete and loving family, but some protagonists are just on a whole new level from me.

Well, I may complain a lot, but if given a chance to swap places, I would never take it. Nothing is worth exchanging for this familial warmth. Nothing can ever replace my cute Shouko and little sisters.

I'm not gonna give you details of my teary departure, so let's head straight to Italy.

"Remember to keep your emotions in check. Don't become too angry, alright?"

Those were the words my father said to me just before I left, but I have no idea what he meant by that. I had never become too emotional, have I?

∞

After meeting with Suzuki, I thought we would fetch Maruno once more before going to Italy together. He may be a stripper at the beach, but he was sure reliable when things become serious.

Apparently, I was wrong. Maruno was going to head towards Italy by himself; he was old enough to do so anyway. If not for me needing a guardian and my parents not being free to leave the house for two weeks or so, Suzuki wouldn't even have had the chance to attend the international as an audience.

The trip to Italy was much, much longer than the trip to Tokyo. It took us 14 and a half hours to reach there. We left Japan at 7 am, and after we landed in Rome, Italy, it was still in the middle of the day, at 2 pm.

To my surprise, I didn't feel any jet lag at all, but I think I would have it when the time for me to sleep comes. Rome is 7 hours behind Matsuyama, so it's currently 9pm in Japan.

I'm not too sleepy yet, though the adult "responsible" for me was.

"Yawn~." Suzuki opened his mouth wide and yawned until I elbowed him and reminded him that we were still in public space.

"My bad..." Suzuki apologized for his lack of manners. It might be normal for people to yawn openly in foreign countries, but manners and respect were heavily emphasized in Japan.

"Are you sleepy?" Suzuki asked me as we waited for a taxi to arrive.

"Not really."

"What a strange child. But it isn't really unexpected."

Oi! What is the hidden meaning behind your words? I'm a perfectly normal 13-year-old kid, alright?

"Well, shall we get some food first? As much as I want to sleep, I would like some late-night snack."

"You mean lunch?"

"No. Snack."

"It's lunch now, but I don't mind. Let's have pasta. When we travel to Italy, pasta is the obvious choice."

At my words, Suzuki stared at me speechlessly.

"Yes?"

"It's called a 'snack', not a 'meal'. Let's find a cafe to get some snacks."

And so, we boarded the taxi and alighted in the middle of the city. Afterwhich, against my wishes, Suzuki immediately searched for a cafe to have his "late-night snack".

After the snack, we checked in at our hotel where we would be staying for the next two weeks, and the moment Suzuki hit the bed, he immediately fell asleep.

Jeez, now what am I supposed to do while waiting for you to wake up? Sigh...coming to a new country - fresh and unexplored, rich with various cultures and places to tour about - and all we do on the first day is sleep?

How sad is this...

[Scanning...host has arrived in a different country for the international stage. Reward from Quest: Attain First place in the piano competition (Part 2) is being handed out...Advanced Language Proficiency (0/500). Continue doing your best~. host.]

Oh yeah, I have almost forgotten about this. So the system judges completing the first part of the quest to be 'go to a different country', huh?

Luckily, the translating app on my phone worked just now; otherwise, we wouldn't even be able to order our food. Well, Suzuki's English and Italian language speaking skills are even lower than mine, so...

As usual, the new proficiency that the system had given me slowly trickled into my brain. And like the last time, while it took slightly longer than the first few times, it was less painful. After about ten minutes, my head was filled with knowledge on all the languages and how to speak them. Though, it only included how to speak them, not write or read.

What a scam.

Trying out the newly-gained proficiency, I realized it was pretty useful, even though I couldn't read or write the language down.

Now, how can I give an excuse of me being able to proficiently speaking Italian and English fluently but not able to write or read?

Well, I guess it's time to study the new languages to pass the time...

*****************

A/N: One of you got almost half correct about the lineage. You have the correct general idea, but the specifics were wrong. No one managed to guess the second part yet~.

And to Pill_God, the answer to your question is nope. It's pretty obvious if I give out the name of the anime. But I can tell you that one clue would be hidden so deeply within Alternate timeline chapter 3, which would be premiering some time later.

Don't worry, this will last all the way until the chapter where the lineage would be revealed, so keep it up~!

P.S. Did no one notice the extra auxiliary page?