'Ouch! Ouch! That damn geezer! My ass still hurts!', Reo complained in his mind as he rubbed his sore behind.
Just by feeling the soreness of his butt, Reo could feel the gloominess setting in as he was reminded of yesterday's punishment because....Yesterday was the worst!
That damn geezer of a father had actually pulled out every single punishment possible in the Asian Parent Dictionary.
He had been spanked with a slipper, faced the wall and wrote down that he will never abuse his body anymore 10000 times on countless pieces of paper. There were still many more but those memories were too scary to recall.
But that was not the worst thing!
The worst thing was that....His basketball had been confiscated!
His father had told him that he would only be returning it after one week as he felt that Reo would still continue practicing even though he had overexerted himself.
"You will not die if you don't practice for one week", these were the exact words said by his father as the ball left Reo's grasp.
Reo wanted to argue with his father on that but when he actually protested, his father only needed to pull out the slipper and Reo had shut up immediately after that. He didn't want to risk another spanking.
His butt was already redder than a tomato and the last thing he needed was his behind turning to the colour of an eggplant.
If that really happened, he wouldn't be able return to school even if he wore 3 layers of underpants because just sitting down normally would feel like he was rubbing against magma.
Speaking of school, his father had informed him that the principal had given Reo 2 days off on the account of recovering as well as to avoid the media.
Now, everyone knew of his school's location and the last thing he needed right now was publicity. He had enough of that from the newspaper yesterday.
Hopefully when he returned to school tomorrow, he would not be pestered by the media whatsoever.
He just wanted a peaceful elementary school life and when his middle school starts, he could start by taking the entirety of Japan by storm.
Of course, this was him thinking that the standards of middle school will be similar to that of Shibuya City. After all, he had no idea how good those outside of Shibuya City were.
But that was for later.
Currently, he was walking along the streets in the Jingūmae district while wearing a facemask.
He was considered quite 'popular' nowadays thanks to that newspaper article and the last thing he wanted right now was to be recognized on the streets.
As for why he was roaming the streets and not staying at home? It was all because of Mikasa!
Yesterday, she had promptly arrived at his place right when his punishment was at it's peak which saved him a whole lot of sorrow.
As for why she came there, it was because she wanted to bring him to a certain place.
But when he asked about what kind of place was it, she told him that it was a surprise.
Just thinking about, made Reo have a side-glance involuntarily.
This girl wanted to give him a surprise? Why did he suddenly have a bad feeling about all of this?
Still, he agreed nonetheless. Anything to make him escape his old man.
His father had somehow taken today off as well so Reo wanted to be anywhere but home at the moment.
If his father's eccentric behavior suddenly showed, Reo feared that his butt might not be able to handle it.
For heaven's sake, he was only a boy!
Why did he have to be born in a low-end area where discipline was at it's harshest!
Just thinking about this made Reo close to tears.
His was never hit hard by his parents in his previous life due to his weak body but he still suffered from verbal abuse on a constant basis.
In this life, there was no verbal abuse but the physical and mental discipline had gone up by a considerable degree!
'Haih! Why couldn't I have been born in a rich mansion where my parents would destroy an entire nation when someone laid their hands on me? After all, I'm such a fragile little boy', Reo couldn't help complaining in it's head.
Then, right on cue, the system came out to diss him.
[It's possible for all that to happen but there is one condition! Give up basketball!]
[If you are so fragile, you shouldn't be playing such a rough sport!]
[Come on, give up! Then, I can find a new host as well!]
Reo just ignored the system. He had gotten used to it's overly sarcastic remarks by now.
He also noticed one thing.
This system would act like a dictator and scold anyone in the harshest of manners but when it was game time, it would act like a mother hen that would support him unconditionally without fail.
At times, he honestly wondered if this system was a kind of tsundere.
Nevertheless, it didn't really concern him at the moment as he was too busy searching for Mikasa.
They had agreed to meet up near their school but so far, he was unable to find her.
Reo honestly wondered if it was a good idea letting that girl wait by herself. That girl is not exactly someone who will be left alone.
Last time, she got pestered by Mibuchi so who knows what will happen this time?
Honestly, being too pretty was a curse on it's own.
However, Reo seemed to be in luck this time because he soon found Mikasa in no time and the best part was that there were no random boys around her.
At least, he had one less headache to deal with.
With that, he started approaching the unsuspecting Mikasa who was still looking left and right in search of Reo.
Then, when she finally saw Reo closing in, she hurriedly waved over and shouted.
"Re-"
However, before she could even get a proper word out, Reo had quickly rushed over and covered her mouth with his hand.
Bringing his finger to his lips, he quickly whispered to her.
"Shhh! Are you crazy?! If anyone hears my name, I will be flocked with people!"
"People are already commenting on me in the forums and if they see me right now, they will....Oi, are you listening to me?!"
Reo wanted to warn Mikasa but soon, he found her to be in a dazed like state.
As for why Mikasa was in a daze....It was all because of Reo.
'R-R-Reo's hand is on my m-m-m....',Mikasa thoughts were in chaos as she felt Reo's hand covering her mouth.
Pssh!
Mikasa's face immediately became red as steam endlessly exited from the top of her head.
Seeing Mikasa's face get red, Reo immediately withdrew his hand.
He felt that he might have suffocated Mikasa for her face to become so red.
"Oi, Mikasa. Are you alright?", Reo asked.
It was only when Mikasa heard Reo's voice, did she finally come back to her senses.
Looking at Reo who wore an innocent expression, Mikasa felt that she had been taken advantage of as she shouted in a flustered manner.
"Y-You big idiot! You are a beast and a pervert! Even animals will run away from you!"
When Reo heard this, he felt his vision darkening as he was just moments from ascending to heaven.
This girl's mouth was just as toxic as he remembered it!
Seems like one whole day without experiencing it had made him forget how much this girl's mouth could torture his soul.
Thus, it took Reo a few moments to regain his bearings before shaking off Mikasa's curse.
"So....Why did you call me here? You know that I can't simply come outside now", Reo asked as soon as he recalled why Mikasa wanted him here.
Mikasa didn't hold anything back this time as she explained.
"Actually I wanted to visit my uncle's shop in the Udagawachō district but since it is so far, I wanted you to keep me company"
When Reo heard this, he nearly fell down.
'You called me out all this way just to go to Udagawachō just to accompany you to your uncle's shop?!'
'Why you little....! I'm supposed to be hiding from the media for the next 2 days until the hype dies down but here you are randomly asking me to accompany you to your uncle's shop', Reo complained in frustration.
Of course, it was all in his mind.
He wouldn't dare to raise his voice in public.
With Mikasa's looks, he was afraid that random boys might show up to give him a beatdown just because he scolded Mikasa.
Honestly, who could penetrate such terrifying defense?!
He wanted to leave but he still had a conscience. After all, he couldn't allow Mikasa to go to Udagawachō all by herself.
If her parents knew about this, not only would she get a scolding, even he would be scolded by them for letting Mikasa go on her own.
So, resigning to his fate, he began following Mikasa on their way to Udagawachō.
Then, along the way, Mikasa seemed to sense Reo's disinterest in following her. As such, she tried to rouse Reo's interest about her uncle's shop.
"Reo-kun, you would really like my uncle's shop! After all, we visited them last time when we were younger!"
"Also, you might not know this but they were also classmates of your father!"
Reo didn't really pay attention to Mikasa's words but he still caught ahold of a few things.
Her uncle was his father's classmate? That was a bit interesting but he was too distracted to care about that.
Since his basketball had been confiscated, there had been nothing left for him to do.
Studying was out of the question due to the low level knowledge of this world as well as it only being at the elementary level. As such, he was left with literally nothing to do but stare at the 4 walls.
He didn't have a laptop and the only electronical devices in the house was the desktop and his father's cell phone. The latter was of course off limits and as for the desktop, he had been banned from using it until his one week punishment was up.
With nothing left to do, there was only one thing left and that was....to sleep!
And that was exactly what he had been doing for the last few hours.
Even now, Reo was completely uninterested in Udagawachō. The only thing he wanted to do was go home and sleep.
Sleep and dream about basketball! That would soothe his heartache of losing his precious ball!
However, Reo could never know that this meeting would set in stone the biggest event that he would ever take part in during his elementary school days.