9-Moving ②



 
 After leaving his parents' house, Masato's belongings were clothes, the bare minimum of daily necessities, and a futon.
 Yuto carried a large furoshiki, two large sports bags from each shoulder, and a student bag with textbooks and notebooks in one hand, and to the untrained eye, he looked like a bit of a night runner.
 The destination from his parents' house was assumed to be about an hour's distance from his parents' house on adult legs, but Yuto decided to walk.

 It's not a bad idea to have a good time, but it's not a good idea to have a good time.
 It's a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for in a new home. Since Yuto had checked the map beforehand, he didn't have to get lost.

(What kind of house is it?)

 Although introduced by an acquaintance of Kazura, I did not have high expectations from the start when it came to the cheap rent.
 It's not a good idea to be introduced by an acquaintance of Kaza Zao. It's a good thing that I'm not the only one.

(Well, it's the usual. Besides, any rundown apartment would be fine...)

 Yuto was confident in his ability to adapt to his environment.
 The same was true of his parents' house, but the new house was located in a residential area a little far from the center of town, and the greenery was increasing somewhat. It seemed to be a quiet and comfortable place to live, Yuto thought to himself.
 If you think about it, it's unlikely that you will be able to avoid a very poor life, but Masato was beginning to think positively that living alone was not a bad experience.

''Let's see. It's around here........ Oh! There is an entrance to the Shrine of the Four Gods. So that means.........

 There was a small mountain in the middle of a residential area, with a not-so-large torii gate between the dense trees. At the end of a small staircase leading from the torii to the top of the mountain was the Shrine of the Four Gods.
 The map should have been next to the entrance to this shrine of the four gods, so his new home should be around here.
 Yuto would mindlessly walk faster.

 And then he arrived at the destination on the map.

''Huh? ...here?

 Yuto's eyes widened, his mouth opened without effort, and the map he held in one hand was trembling.
 Yuto checks the map again, but there is no doubt that this is the place.
 There was a one-story wooden house with a sense of history that wasn't what Yuto had expected.
 Moreover, this was surprisingly large.

 The garden was also large, and according to an estimate from the outside, the land alone must have been about 3.5 square meters. The garden was covered with plants and trees, and the wooden wall surrounding the site gave a sense of time. The gate is very big with a solid structure, but it is very old and shabby.
 The houses in the neighborhood may have undergone a generational change, but there were rows of brand-new, modern single-family houses in the neighborhood.

 In the middle of them, I wondered how many years old the house was. Or is it more than that? The architecture of the building was clearly out of step with its surroundings.
 Its large gate had a rusty external post, suitably nailed and poorly attached to it.

'Considering the cheap rent I was imagining an on-ramped apartment. Ugh! It says "Du Du" on the post. Is it the landlord? You want me to write it in magic? Usually.....

 The red paint was peeling off and seventy percent of the whole thing was rusty, but it was definitely written in oil-based pen as 'Dou Dou Dou'.
 Yuto faintly expected a mistake, but this apparently confirmed that the house was Yuto's new home.
 Yuto opened the gate and looked at the new house with his mind. And sure enough, he saw the battered house and the garden that was overgrown with weeds.
 Although he couldn't deny that the whole place looked much more tired, Yuto wondered if he would be able to see it to some extent if he took care of it.

 No, I tried to think about it........

 Yuto walks through the gate, crosses the large yard and puts his hand on the front door of the house. He tries to insert the key given to him by Kazura beforehand into the keyhole........

''Huh? It's open ... or rather, the key is broken!

 The entrance to the front door was made of wooden grates and old glass, and it wasn't made sturdy to begin with. Maybe it had been left there too long and broken, Yuto thought.
 The inside of the doorway was quite large, as expected, and he placed his belongings in the ample space he had for the time being.
 I had imagined the inside of the house to be dustier, but it wasn't, and the air felt clearer. Masato felt a sense of relief at the fact that the house seemed to be surprisingly solidly built.

''Hm? Here too? That feels awesome.

 That's what Yuto felt at Jilin High School. You can feel a strong divine energy. Maybe it's because there's a shrine on top of the mountain behind them.

''This could be good!''

 It's a very good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for when you're ready to buy.
 
 He knew it was in shambles even from the outside, but the inside was even more desolate than that.

 There are many rooms, but the sliding doors that divide the rooms are useless. All of the rooms were made of tatami mats, but they were all rotten.
 The kitchen is covered with cobwebs and there is a rusty faucet that I don't know if the water really comes out.
 The bathroom is especially bad. There's a hole in the bottom.

 I don't even know where to start. Yuto is stunned.
 For Yuto, it was rather more manageable for a small house. However, this place is so large that even if you fix it, it seems like there's no end to what you can do to fix it.
 It's not much different from an outdoor camp.

"This, this is indeed........uninhabitable!

 The heart of Masato, who was confident in his ability to adapt to the environment, was fragile and soon.......broken.
 To be honest, a little annoyed with himself, he ran out of his new home, and while heading towards the station, he searched for a public telephone and hurriedly called his parents' home, Kazura.

 There is no answer.

 He's getting increasingly annoyed, but finally he hears an unwilling voice.

"Ah, hello. I'm at the Dou Dou Dou Kenjutsu Dojo. I'm busy right now, so I'll be quick about my business......."

 This is why my students don't come to me! But that's not what's important now.

'Grandpa! It's me!

"Hmm? Oh, it's a popular scam nowadays. You've been trying to fool me, the "gambler of detachment," for some 183 years now..."

'No! It's Yuto!

"What is it, Yuto? What do you want? I am busy right now, though. I'm sure you're already ho-hum, aren't you?"

 Yuto speaks with effort in his voice.

''No! Hey, Grandpa! What is that house?!

"What do you mean?"

Don't play dumb with me! The whole place is rotten, instead of being wasteful and spacious, the kitchen is unusable, and the bathroom has holes in it. There are hardly any functioning sliding doors. That's indeed impossible!

"Ah, well, calm down. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying...."

'Da-ka-ra. I said the house was too old and looked like a haunted house!

"Oh, that's good. It's quite tasteful, isn't it?"

 Yuto's voice is getting louder and louder as he interacts with Sumazo, who isn't engaging with him at all.

''That's not what I'm talking about! I'm telling you I can't live in that place!

".........Yuto. Well, let's check out the current situation first."

What's the status quo? It's like I just said!

"Yuto you know that our family is unlucky enough to not be able to afford to support you right now."

'It is! My grandfather....

"And! You also said that you really, really want to be in high school, no matter what it takes."

Uh-huh.

 I don't agree with some of the phrasing, but I reluctantly listen to what Sumazo has to say.

"So I approached the principal of Kibayashi High School and managed to get myself into a situation where I could enter the school."

..........

"Also, one of those conditions was that you would earn a living on your own. Not that you were willing to accept that either. And, moreover, I've also confirmed that you don't have two words for a man."

..........

 "But as expected, I took pity on the kind-hearted me, and asked my acquaintance to provide me with a cheap place to stay. He even said that since you're a man, you could manage your own life. And if possible, you would even be able to send money home!"

 Did Yuto say that earlier? I think.

"So it's like what you're going to do is a given. You're going to live in that house and live the high school life you've always wanted. And you will do everything you can to make that happen. A man can only become a man when he can do what he says he's going to do well!"

 Sumazo speaks passionately, like a speech.

"Do you understand? You have only one thing to do. Restore that house and live in it."

You can't do that! How much do you think it's going to cost? Besides, isn't that your landlord's job?

"It's cheap, so we can't complain about it from here. Besides, are you giving up now? Alas, what's the use of youth........ What are the people of the Dou Dou family saying?"

"Because!

"Yuto. Your situation has already been decided. You will live there. You will attend school from there. That's what I'm talking about. I'm going to hang up now. Uh, don't come back here. Oh, and don't come back here, I changed the locks. I'm going to show you that you can pull through on your own, my unworthy grandson. Oh, here's the catch phone. This number is .........Yuto! I am busy! I'm hanging up! Oh, Sunflower.

 Gotcha.

'Hey! Wait! They really did cut it off! You old bastard!

 Yuto made a fist with the receiver in one hand and swore as hard as he could.



 In the end, Masato........decided to buy a tent.