Chapter 8: Routine and the first snow

The morning began as usual for Yuta Okkotsu. He woke up to the sound of the alarm clock that stood on his nightstand, stretched and sat up in bed with a sigh. The room was neat but minimalist: a closet, a table, a bed and a couple of shelves with books and records. He was already 15 years old, and he knew that in a year a new stage awaited him - entering a magic technical school.

Yuta left the room, sleepily rubbing his eyes. His mother was waiting for him in the kitchen with hot pancakes. Yui was already sitting there, deliciously gobbling up pancakes.

"Good morning, Yuta," she said, smiling.

"Good morning," he answered briefly, sitting down at the table.

Yuta was not particularly talkative, but the family had long since gotten used to his silence. He loved quiet morning meals, which reminded him that life could still be simple.

After finishing breakfast, Yuta quickly got ready, got dressed and headed to school.

---

School had long ceased to be a place where he wanted to linger. He did not make friends, did not participate in common activities, and his classmates had long since gotten used to the fact that Yuta preferred solitude.

During classes, he looked out the window, taking notes from time to time. Regular math, literature, biology... These subjects seemed boring to him, because he already knew that his life would go a different way.

During recess, he went up to the roof of the school. There, at the very edge, by the fence, he had his favorite place. Yuta sat down, took out his headphones and turned on the music. It was his outlet in this world - Alternative R&B and fresh alternative rock mixed in his playlist, creating a melancholic mood.

The wind ruffled his hair, but he sat motionless, looking at the city below.

"How calm..." - he thought.

----

After the bell rang, Yuta left the school, still in a good mood. The wind became stronger, and the cold forced him to wrap himself in a scarf.

"I should probably buy myself something warmer," he muttered, looking at his modest wardrobe.

He decided to take a walk around the city. He had money - his job as a first-rank mage provided him with a decent amount of money, which came to his card every month.

Today he decided to update his wardrobe for the winter. His current clothes looked a little shabby, and he wanted something new.

The first stop was a store he had noticed a couple of days ago. The sign above the door read: "Urban Style". This place seemed modern to him, but not too pretentious, like the expensive boutiques he had previously visited out of curiosity.

Yuta pushed the glass door and was greeted by warmth mixed with the smell of new textiles. The shelves and hangers were lined with jackets, sweaters, scarves and boots. He walked along the row with winter coats, examining the labels.

"How am I worse than a normal person?" "I want to dress nicely and comfortably," he muttered under his breath, holding a long black coat in his hands.

He tried it on in front of a large mirror. The coat looked stylish, emphasizing his slender figure, but Yuta felt that it was too formal.

"No, it's not my thing," he said, hanging the coat back up.

Then his gaze was drawn to a long dark blue down jacket with a hood.

"Now that's closer."

He took it off the hanger and went to the fitting room. Putting on the down jacket, Yuta looked at himself in the mirror. The thing fit perfectly: not too baggy, but not restricting his movements.

"Warm and practical. Good for long walks," he thought and decided to take it.

The next goal was sweaters and cardigans. Yuta went to the row with knitwear, a soft dark gray turtleneck caught his eye.

— Gray? Well, as they say, beauty is in simplicity, and gray is my favorite color.

Smiling at his reflection, he decided to add it to his purchase.

Next came the scarves. Here the choice was more difficult: Yuta stood in front of a rack filled with dozens of scarves of different colors, textures and sizes. Finally, he settled on a black scarf with a small check.

— I thought about it for so long and chose the most common one — he thought.

Having finished his shopping, Yuta headed to the shoe department. His gaze immediately fell on the black winter boots with thick soles and fur lining. They looked sturdy, perfect for snow and ice.

When he left the store, the bags of new clothes weighed pleasantly on his hands. Now Yuta felt ready for winter.

"It seems that winter will become a little more comfortable with this wardrobe," he thought, walking home.

-----

Walking around the shopping district, he thought about his life. Sometimes, strange thoughts came to him.

"I live the life of Yuta Okkotsu, but until now, I did not think about the fate of the original Yuta and did not feel guilty for taking his place."

He did not feel guilty about it. Maybe he really did merge with the original Yuta. Or maybe he just got used to this life so much that he stopped thinking about it.

It all seemed unimportant to him. He had a family, stability, and he no longer felt like a stranger in this world.

But he sometimes thought about something else: about ethics. For example, he had the idea of "taking" from his past life works that had not yet been published - books, music, scripts.

"That would be wrong. Real authors exist here too."

Yuta sighed. He had enough money, but plagiarism still seemed low.

"My salary as a first-rank mage is certainly impressive," he thought. "I earn more than most ordinary people. It's even a little strange, considering that the tasks I carry out may be dangerous for others, but not for me. For one successful fight with a cursed spirit, I get paid as much as a person in the office earns in a month."

He remembered his colleagues on assignments, those who were of a lower rank.

"Second-tier mages are paid much less, and yet the dangers they face are almost the same. The only difference is the level of threat they face. But what is the price of their lives?" he muttered.

Yuta knew that the lower ranks often did the dirty work: cleansing areas, removing weak curses. Their work was important, but they were clearly underpaid.

"Basically, second- and third-tier shamans provide a basic level of security for society. And we, first-tier mages, only step in when the situation gets out of hand. Then why is our salary so different? Perhaps it is because of the risks we take, or because there are so many of us."

Yuta thought about the clans that dominated the magical world.

"Clans... They live by their own laws. Their wealth and influence are built not on battles with curses, but on politics, traditions and monopoly on rare techniques. They have resources, lands, even their own economies within the clans. But why then do independent shamans like me earn more than many members of these clans? Or is it just an illusion?"

He remembered Gojo's words:

"Clans care about their own interests first and foremost. They don't pay their members, they provide for them. Home, food, training - all this is provided, but in exchange you lose your freedom.

"That is, in essence, clan members do not receive a salary as such. They are provided for, but deprived of what I have - choice."

Yuta looked at the beautiful view from the top floor of the shopping center.

"The economy of the shaman society is strangely structured. We, in fact, do the work that no one else can do. Curses are not affected by normal forces, and therefore our work will always be in demand.

But he also understood that the money he earned came from customers - governments, large corporations, sometimes individuals.

"Basically, we are something like contractors. We are paid for security. The stronger we are, the more they pay. And if someone is weak, they are easy to replace."

He sighed, looking at the night sky.

"This world seems complicated, but everything in it comes down to strength. The shaman economy is an economy of risk. The higher your rank, the more power you have, the more you are worth. But once you lose this power, you will be forgotten."

This thought made him think about the future.

"You need to be strong. Not only for the money, but also to remain significant in this world.

----

In the evening, he decided to go to the cinema. On the poster was a Zack Snyder film that he had long wanted to see. Yuta bought a ticket, popcorn, and settled in. Yuta walked down the street after the movie, his mind still on the movie he had just watched. The screen was filled with an epic showdown between two legendary heroes, Batman and Superman. Zack Snyder had created an impressive spectacle, filled with drama, effects, and majestic music.

"The movie was... okay," Yuta thought.

But the more he thought about it, the more clearly he remembered his past life.

In that life, Batman v Superman had caused a wave of criticism. It was called a failure due to its weak plot, excessive darkness, and strange decisions in the script. The scene with "Martha" became a meme, and fans were divided into two camps: those who defended Snyder's vision and those who considered the film a disaster.

"But here, in this world, everything is different," Yuta mused.

The movie seemed to be more popular. Perhaps because people here were not yet accustomed to this kind of dark, adult superhero story. Or maybe Zack Snyder was able to make a better movie here than in his past life?

"Maybe the audience's expectations are just different? Because if it weren't for my past, I would have perceived it exactly like that - as a normal, even good film. But I remember how it was blown to smithereens in the place where I used to live."

Yuta began to analyze the details.

- Visually, the film was great. The battle scenes, the dark aesthetics, the production design - it all looked powerful. And Hans Zimmer's music was impressive, as always.

But the plot...

- The plot still doesn't seem fully thought out, - he muttered, remembering.

The motivations of the characters seemed strange at times. Why did Batman stop hating Superman so quickly? The scene with "Martha" still seemed forced.

"Although, maybe I'm too hard on the film," he thought.

Yuta remembered other films he had seen in his past life. Some of them were cult there, but here no one had even heard of them. It made him think about how art is perceived.

"Sometimes what fails in one world can be a masterpiece in another, simply because the context is different."

He stopped at a traffic light and looked at the city lights reflected in a fresh layer of snow.

"People here seem less critical of art. Or maybe their expectations are simpler," he whispered, still thinking.

Thinking again of Batman v Superman, Yuta chuckled.

"It's not a bad movie. I just think it's hard for me to look at it as a normal viewer anymore."

He continued walking, lost in his thoughts.

----

Yuta looked up at the sky. The first snowflakes were beginning to swirl between the lights of the street lamps. He stood motionless, watching them.

"Winter has come," he muttered with a small smile.

The snow fell harder and harder, covering the city in a white blanket.

Yuta stood in the middle of the street, mesmerized by this magical sight. At such moments, he felt a calm that even the loneliness on the school roof could not give.

-----

Back home, Yuta put his purchases in the closet, changed his clothes and lay down on the bed.

He remembered today: school, the store, the movie, the first snow. Everything was so ordinary, but it was this ordinariness that gave him a sense of stability.

"Sometimes a simple life is all you need," he thought before falling asleep.