Chapter 2

The past few days have gone by rather quickly, although nothing quite eventful has happened that would be considered noteworthy. Aside from him continuing to work on his manga, as well as working his body out, nothing significant has really happened.

Ryoken had gotten himself a membership for the gym nearby though, and had been going there for two hours every day. While it may sound a bit arrogant, he was preparing his body for when he completed the quest and got that reward for Bang's martial arts style.

Program had already informed him that while he would be given the knowledge and everything regarding the style and how to utilise it to the absolute best refinement, he obviously needed a body strong enough that it would actually be useful.

Just because he would have all the necessary knowledge for the martial arts, his body wouldn't be strong nor capable enough that it could be used properly. It was somewhat the same as how everyone knew how to throw a punch, but not everyone can produce the same power.

Of course, Ryoken knew very well that he'd definitely not reach the same level as Bang in regards to pure physical strength, the humans in that old man's world were just built different.

Anyway, over the past few days, Ryoken had managed to finish finalising the remaining pages for his first volume and had already begun drawing the first chapter of the second volume. School was also going to be starting up for him tomorrow as well.

At the present time, Ryoken was now seated at the dining table with the others as they were all having a nice and peaceful breakfast together.

"By the way, there's something I'm curious about." Ryoken suddenly voiced as the other three at the table gave him curious and confused looks. Ryoken frowned a bit and glanced around. "Why isn't Fuura-senpai eating with us? Isn't she hungry?"

If there was something that Ryoken took notice of during every breakfast and dinner over these past few days, one specific person hadn't ever eaten with them. The person was the other resident here at the dorm, and also the senior manga artist for all of them.

He had met her once before when he woke up early to brush his teeth before getting to work on his drawing, she had tried to scare him by appearing suddenly behind him while he was looking into the mirror. Key word in that sentence being 'Tried'.

When she realised that all of her attempted to scare him even beyond that were unsuccessful, she seemed rather disappointed since every single one of his reactions was simply to stare back with a neutral gaze. Despite that though, they did get along relatively well.

"Ah~, it's not that she's doesn't get hungry. She just always comes down to get food to eat in her room." Ruki was the one that responded to the question as they all gazed up towards where said room was. "She goes to school rarely as well, but most of the time she's in her room."

"In fact, we haven't even seen her at school before." Tsubasa chimed in as well as Ryoken just blinked before nodding. He did notice how pale Fuura was, though he never asked about it since it obviously wasn't an unhealthy pale. She literally just barely ever went out into the sun.

"I saw her packing at one point though, is she going somewhere?"

"She's going home for a while, though she said she'll be back at some point."

"I see."

"Speaking of school though, Ryo-kun. You're starting school next week are you not?" The one that asked this question was the dorm matron as the other two girls also became curious about the question. "What school are you transferring into?"

"From what my parents told me, it's a school relatively close to both Tsubasa-san and Ruki-san's school." Ryoken responded as he took out his phone before showing them a picture from online. "This is the school. It's called Honan Academy."

"Oh yeah, we do see a few of their students walking past our school when going home." Ruki voiced with a tone of realisation upon hearing the name. "If I'm not mistaken, it should be around a ten minute walk or so from our school."

"That's probably why my parents chose it, it's within walking distance."

『You're actually going to school?』

'You've asked me that over ten times already...today.' Ryoken sighed inwardly. Since he had others around him right now, Ryoken had to resort to speaking in his head to Program. It was weird, but he'd get used to it eventually. 'And yes, I am.'

『Lame!』

"Your appointment to meet with an editor is the day after you transfer, right?" Tsubasa suddenly asked with some visible enthusiasm. Ryoken simply looked at her before nodding in response. "Alright, then it's only a matter of time before the first chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen gets published into its first magazine!"

"Tsu-chan..." Ruki could only sweatdrop as the girl in question was fist bumping with a star-filled gaze. Ryoken could only chuckle, he did recall numerous instances where he noticed Tsubasa literally holding herself back from sneaking into his room to look at his folders. "I wish you luck with that, though I'll be surprised if you don't get accepted."

"We'll just have to see."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

After eating breakfast, Ryoken decided to go for a run today before he headed off to the gym for his morning gym session. He wasn't just going to focus on building his physical strength, he obviously needed to train his legs and overall stamina as well.

Both Ruki and Tsubasa decided to stay in their rooms so they could work on their manuscripts, and since they didn't have school for a good while, they were probably going to work entirely on their manga until they go back. Their first semester had ended, so that's why they were on break.

Right now, Ryoken's morning jog now found him running through what looked to be a food court of sorts. The place wasn't too busy, but there were definitely a good few people that were walking through and/or hanging around the place.

"Jeez, I'm already hungry again..."

『Fat ass!』

'Shut up! I've literally been running non-stop for the past hour or two!' Ryoken felt his eyebrow twitch aggressively upon hearing Program's insult. Looking around, Ryoken searched for something he could munch on. This was a food court, so he obviously had quite a few options. "Is that a takoyaki stand? Hell yeah!"

While it was true that takoyaki wasn't exactly the healthiest of foods out there, he'll just burn off the calories when he went to the gym, no harm done! Without hesitation, Ryoken quickly dashed his way over towards the takoyaki stand, well, it looked to be a takoyaki truck.

"Excuse me, one box of takoyaki, please."

"Okay, it won't take long!" The person standing inside of the truck responded in a cheerful and energetic tone, and from their voice alone, the person was obviously a female. "Eh? Wait...do I know you? You look pretty familiar...Ryo-kun?!"

"Huh?"

Ryoken blinked in confusion upon hearing the person's words, the turn of events causing him to focus more on the person he was speaking with. The female had dark pink eyes and looked to be the same age as himself, along with having long white hair that was tied into high-side buns.

"Wait...Chisato-chan?"

"Mm! Heyo!" The girl nodded her head multiple times upon hearing her name being called. The girl in front of him was none other than Arashi Chisato, a friend he made back when he was a kid, in this life-time obviously. He hadn't seen her in years though... "Also, don't you mean Chi-chan?"

Chisato gave him a half-lidded smile, though her smile definitely didn't travel to her eyes.

"R-Right... Chi-chan." Ryoken chuckled a bit as the girl nodded with a satisfied look on her face. It felt kind of weird speaking to her so casually, mainly since they haven't seen each other in a long damn time. "So, what have you been doing these past few years?"

"I've been focusing on my dancing, and if I am to be so bold, I think I've gotten a whole lot better!" Chisato nodded with a bit of a smug smile on her face. However, she soon slammed both her hands onto the desk and gave a small glare towards him. "What about you though?! Why didn't you contact Kanon-chan or I?!"

"Um...I didn't exactly have your contact information."

"We tried to contact you a whole lot of times though!"

"Huh? When did you do that?"

"Don't think either of us haven't noticed that the new viral singer that popped up last year was you! Your voice may have gotten deeper, but we'd recognise your singing anywhere!" Chisato exclaimed as she pointed a finger right into Ryoken's face. "We tried to contact you through your messages and everything!"

"Oh, yeah I disabled all of those notifications..." Ryoken sweatdropped. Ever since he began publishing songs from his old world that he decided to recreate onto the internet through one of the video publishing platforms, he had become a very popular online singer. Due to his massive spike of popularity, people would attempt to message him, a lot of people...

So, he had no choice but to turn off notifications completely, as well as just private messaging overall. That was the trouble that many famous people had, and he was no different, neither in this life nor his previous life.

"Sorry for not staying in contact, I've been a bit busy." Ryoken sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. Chisato just pouted at him though, earning a small sweatdrop. He wasn't lying though... "So, how's Kanon-chan been doing? Has she gotten over her... you know."

"About that..." Chisato seemed to release a big sigh as a rather saddened look appeared on her face. "Kanon-chan has loved singing as much as always, but when it came to her trying to get into the music curriculum in our school, she told me she panicked..."

"That's not good..." Ryoken frowned a bit when he heard that. He wasn't sure what school Chisato was referring to, but hearing that it had a music curriculum, it must be one that highly valued musical talent. "So she failed an exam of sorts to be sorted into this curriculum?"

"Pretty much..."

"Damn, that's rough..." Ryoken did recall how that girl would always freak out when it came to even attempting to sing in front of a crowd. She was fine singing when she was alone or when around both himself or Chisato, but would pretty much go into a nervous breakdown when in front of an audience. He knew exactly how she felt, he used to be really nervous as well. "What about you? Did you get into the program?"

"Eh? Oh, yep! I sure did!" Chisato blinked before smiling as she placed both her hands on the sides of her waist. "They told me I had an incredible talent for dancing, so they let me into the music curriculum! It would have been better with Kanon-chan there though... wait, Ryo-kun! Maybe you can help her!"

"Huh? You mean with her stage fright?"

"Exactly!" Chisato nodded her head with a big smile. "You were the reason she loves singing so much in the first place, and you also sing for a huge audience! There's sure to be something you can do to help Kanon-chan overcome that nervousness of hers! You even always sang for people whenever we went to play in the park all those years ago!"

"First off, that huge audience is online on the web." Ryoken sweatdropped as he crossed his arms. "Secondly, I guess I wouldn't at all mind. Not entirely sure how much I can help, but I can at least try to help. But how come you sound as if she doesn't have much time left to spend trying to overcome her fears?"

"That's because she's decided to become a school idol!"

"...Excuse me?"

"It's just as I said, Kanon-chan decided to become a school idol!" Chisato crossed her arms and voiced with a firm nod of her head. "She and Keke-chan, a friend she made not too long ago, are trying to create a school idol club! But, they have a serious condition if they want to succeed!"

"Which is...?"

"The headmistress of our school gave them the condition that they have to get first at the Yoyogi School Idol Fes, a festival where the local school idols compete." Chisato explained as Ryoken listened with a curious look. "They need to get first place, then their club will be accepted!"

"Winning first place at a school idol festival? That's quite the tall order..." Ryoken frowned as he held his chin in thought. "It won't be easy, not only because they need first place, but also that they'd probably be going up against already experienced groups as well... Alright, I'll help them the best that I can."

"Perfect, do you have time this afternoon then?"

"Yeah, I should be free."

"That's great! Give me your contact details, I'll message you the time and place!"