Chapter 119: The Little Daruma Doll (Long Chapter)
"Why is that?" Kondo Soichi asked, once again failing to understand. Wasn't borrowing money the same as borrowing an object? If you borrowed something, you had to return it.
He and his friends always acted that way. If someone borrowed something and didn't return it, that person would be hated by everyone else.
Even though he knew their relatives had slowly stopped contacting them after their family fell into poverty, he hadn't thought that far ahead—all he knew was that they didn't care about them because they were poor.
Those were his grandmother's words, and he had heard his mother and older sister say the same, yet he was unable to grasp the underlying web of interests beneath the surface.
He simply vowed to become a successful person when he grew up and strike it rich. Toward that goal, he had already begun putting in the effort.
Ranking first in his entire grade was the best proof of that.
"Get in the car first. I'll explain it to you once we're inside. This is very basic financial knowledge. There's a saying that fundamental principles are simple, yet they can be applied anywhere." Akishin patted Soichi's head. "Aside from the people who truly care about you and the people you care about, everything else can be calculated based on interests."
Two vans appeared before them, parked a short distance from each other—one brown and one white. The white van belonged to Kaiko's parents.
The husband and wife seemed to have just arrived. They had only just turned off the engine and stepped out. Seeing the group, the couple immediately came over to greet them.
The man among them was a bit stout, his expression somewhat serious, eyes half-lidded, and his hair was a mix of black and white.
Meanwhile, the woman beside him had a gentle expression and wore a white-sleeved dress, reflecting the image of a traditional Japanese woman from the Showa era.
"Uncle Sakurai, Auntie Sakurai, hello."
Without waiting for his mother to speak, Soichi took the initiative to step forward and offer a greeting. His attitude was far better than when he was facing Akishin.
"Hello, Soichi-kun."
The Sakurai couple returned the greeting with a smile, then simultaneously looked toward Akishin. Kaiko took this opportunity to step forward. "Mom, Dad, this is Chishima-sensei. He's been taking great care of me and Yuika in Chiba City. We work part-time at Chishima-sensei's Izakaya."
The stout man observed Akishin first, his gaze hiding a trace of wariness and suspicion, before finally giving a formal greeting. "Chishima-sensei, I've heard your name for a long time now. Thank you for going out of your way to look after Kaiko."
The furrow lines on both sides of his nose made the man look quite stern. He didn't look like an Izakaya owner; he looked more like someone from the civil service.
"No, it's not like that at all. On the contrary, Kaiko has helped me quite a bit. Without Kaiko and Kondo, my Izakaya business wouldn't be doing nearly as well."
Akishin returned the greeting. His words were half-true and half-false. Kaiko and Yuika did indeed make business better.
Combined with the outfits designed by Mrs. Mitsuryou, they had become a beautiful sight within the modest Chishimaya.
Next, Akishin exchanged a few more words with the man, introducing himself and getting to know the woman beside him.
The man's name was Sakurai Seiji, and the woman's name was Sakurai Kana. Both gave Akishin the impression of honest Izakaya owners, yet Sakurai Seiji felt a bit different.
After asking later, it turned out Seiji had once worked in the local municipal government department. That explained it.
After getting to know Akishin, the Sakurai couple went to meet Hiratsuka Shizuka—now *there* was someone who actually looked like a teacher!
As soon as the introductions were over, Shizuka and Yuika supported Keiko as they boarded the white van belonging to the Sakurais, taking their seats inside.
However, Soichi hadn't boarded yet.
Yuika looked at her younger brother standing between the two vehicles, feeling confused. She called out, "Soichi, what are you doing? Hurry up and get in, we're leaving."
Soichi stared at the brown van. He saw Akishin and Kaiko waving at him from inside. Remembering the question from earlier, he pointed at the brown van and said, "Onee-chan, I want to ride in Chishima-sensei's car."
With that, he hopped into the brown van. As for Kaiko? She had targeted the brown van from the very beginning—why sit in the same car as her parents and be forced to act like a coward? That would be stupid!
Kondo Yuika looked into the brown car. She saw Chishima-sensei and Kaiko talking to Soichi, and they looked quite happy.
What happened? In just a few minutes, Soichi had already switched sides?
No way, right?
Still, one shouldn't make a child give up on a choice they've already made!
Yuika told Soichi not to trouble Chishima-sensei, then nodded apologetically to Akishin, who returned the gesture in kind. She felt a sense of relief.
She was a little afraid Soichi wouldn't get along with Chishima-sensei. She knew her younger brother very well, after all. Soichi never bowed to anyone. Although he wasn't a bad kid, he had been involved in plenty of fights.
Last semester, because a friend was being bullied by delinquents from outside the school, he saw it and told the friend next to him to go call for help while he stayed behind to hold off three thugs aged fifteen or sixteen.
How the process went was unknown, but when his friends returned and saw Soichi, he was gripping one of the thugs by the neck and slamming him hard into the ground. The thug's face was covered in blood.
The thug had nearly lost his life.
The other two weren't injured at all, but facing that situation, their eyes held nothing but pure terror.
Afterward, the police and school officials arrived together. Initially, they criticized Soichi—they said hitting people was wrong, especially hitting someone until they were seriously injured was even worse, asking why he was being so rebellious...
Later, when asked about the chronology of events, Soichi explained it once more. He insisted he was only saving his schoolmate.
Combined with the testimony of the other friends and the fact that Soichi was fundamentally a top student, the police didn't want to look for trouble and didn't make things difficult for him, so he was released soon after.
It was a different story for the three thugs who had bad records. Not only did they fail to see their enemy punished, but they themselves were penalized and blacklisted in that small town.
They could be walking down the street and get beaten up by someone appearing out of nowhere. Truly a miserable existence.
After that incident, Kondo Soichi became the leader of the children within a ten-mile radius; even high school students didn't want to mess with him.
Telling this story wasn't actually to explain how great Soichi was—to Yuika, no matter how great her brother was, she could suppress him with a single look—it was just to show that her brother wasn't an ordinary little kid.
...
The white van led the way in front, and the brown van followed behind, heading out of town.
Kaiko sat in the front passenger seat, opening the window and closing her eyes to let the warm wind hit her face.
Soichi sat in the back seat. He smelled a faint scent inside the car and didn't feel nauseous like he usually did when riding in vehicles.
He looked back at Akishin in the front and finally asked, "Chishima-sensei, can you continue discussing the previous question?"
Akishin glanced at him through the rearview mirror and smiled. "You really like listening to things like this?"
"Yes, I want to know."
He wanted to know why those relatives stayed away from them, why they weren't willing to lend them money.
He could return that money!
He just needed to wait until he was a bit older and could work a part-time job, then he would pay it all back.
So why weren't they willing to lend it to them? His family clearly valued honesty above all else. His grandmother had taught him from a young age not to lie and to treat others with sincerity.
"Since you want to know, then Chishima-sensei will tell you about this most basic yet most profound financial knowledge."
Akishin drove with concentration, occasionally glancing at the mirror to observe Soichi's reaction, then shifted into teaching mode:
"We'll stick to the simplest method of explanation. Let's take an example. Soichi, what do you value most?"
"Of course Onee-chan, Mom, and Grandma."
"...Ahem! Sensei's way of putting it was a bit inaccurate. What I mean is the thing you value most, or the object most important to you, like candy or a toy."
Hearing the more accurate description, Soichi thought for a moment. He didn't seem to have an object he was particularly obsessed with.
Candy? While he still liked it, it didn't seem to fit the words 'valued' or 'important'!
Toys? Heh, he hadn't bought a new toy in at least two years. Usually, his underlings would give him their toys to play with for a bit... no, speaking of toys, he did have one very precious item that he always kept carefully hidden, to the point where he sometimes forgot its existence.
"There is," Soichi raised his small hand and said, "If you mean a precious item like Sensei said, I think I have one."
"Oh! What is it?"
Seeing Soichi's serious expression, Akishin became interested—the kid was finally showing a side appropriate for his age.
Soichi blinked and said, "A little Daruma doll. A Daruma doll only about the size of my palm. It's a toy my Dad made for me while he was still around. I've always kept it, and I even gave it a name: Little Chiu, because its head looks like a bird."
"Oh~"
Akishin stared at the white van ahead. In his heart, he felt a slight pang of regret. He seemed to have asked a question he shouldn't have.
A child this small... for children forced to grow up before their time, the things they value most usually aren't toys or snacks in the superficial sense.
Kaiko in the front passenger seat wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, turned around slowly, and said with a gentle smile, "It's okay, Soichi, everything is in the past now. You still have us, and you have Chishima-sensei. Don't go misunderstanding Chishima-sensei..."
"Are you stupid?"
Soichi cut Sakurai Kaiko off. On his small face was a trace of mockery, three parts laughter, and the remaining seven parts of a hard-to-understand emotion.
"I obviously know that everything is in the past, and I'm going to work hard for the future. If I didn't, Sakurai-nee would just be looking at a crying kid right now..."
Akishin was stunned for a moment hearing these words, then burst out laughing. "Hahaha, interesting, interesting, way too interesting. Soichi, you... hahaha..."
"Chishima-sensei too. Just now, you must have felt sorry for me. I don't need pity. My Dad once told me that drowning in the sadness of the past is useless, and crying is even more useless..."
Kaiko's expression shifted several times. She turned her head, grit her teeth, holding it back and holding it back, until finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She bonked Soichi on the head with her fist and said crossly, "Annoying Soichi, how dare you talk like that to your elder. I was being caring, and you called me stupid. Stupid, I think *you're* the stupid one..."
Then her little fists continued to rain down on Soichi's head.
"What elder, you're only a few years older than me..." Soichi hugged his head to deflect Kaiko's 'Hundred Crack Fist.' "I'm telling you, I'm only going easy on you right now. If I actually attacked, just one move would crush you... ah, you're still hitting, I'm really getting mad... damn... I was wrong, Sakurai-nee, don't hit me anymore, if you keep hitting me I'll really turn stupid..."
Instantly, the car was filled with a pleasant atmosphere.
However, no one saw that in the shadow of Soichi's arm, a single tear fell...
A dozen seconds later, Kaiko stopped her hands, taking several deep breaths. Her face was flushed, and a thin layer of sweat had appeared on her forehead.
She gave a final warning with her small fist to Soichi. "Soichi, if you ever dare call me stupid again, the next lesson won't be this light..."
"Ugh~, I get it, Sakurai-nee. Next time I'll still dare... no no no, I mean next time I won't dare anymore, I'll never dare again..."
"Hmph, that's better."
Kaiko gave a soft huff, turned back to the front, and hummed an indistinguishable tune, her pink hair fluttering in the wind. She continued enjoying the breeze while looking at the scenery along the road.
Akishin glanced at Kaiko, who looked like a hamster that had won a fight, then glanced at Soichi, who looked like a sly cat. A black line appeared on his forehead—so this was the kind of elementary school student you were, Soichi?
He shifted the topic back to the previous question. "Soichi, let's suppose. Suppose someone wanted to borrow your Daruma doll—Little Chiu—and they promised to return it in three days, and guaranteed not to damage it. Would you lend it?"
Soichi answered very firmly, "No."
"Then we... wait, what did you just say?"
"I said no. Did Chishima-sensei mishear me?"
"Ahem, of course not. Don't worry about the details... why not?"
"No means no. Why do there have to be so many reasons! Aside from Onee-chan, Mom, and Grandma, I won't give Little Chiu to anyone, not even to my best friend. To them, Little Chiu is just a Daruma doll..."
"..."
Akishin and Kaiko fell silent for two seconds. This kid had truly learned to use a smile to hide his sorrow.
He asked again, "Then Soichi, do you have anything else you like?"
"I do, I also like collecting stamps, though I don't even have two pages yet!" Soichi said with a disappointed look.
Akishin: →_→
"Fine, same topic. Swap Little Chiu for stamps. Would you be willing?"
"I'd be willing, as long as that person is a good friend."
"And if it isn't a good friend? Just an acquaintance?"
"Still willing, because Sensei said 'return in three days' and 'definitely not damaged'." Soichi caught the key points.
"Very good. Then let's move to the third stage." Akishin nodded with a smile, then pressed the gas pedal to catch up to the white van ahead that had suddenly sped up. "If the condition of returning it in three days is removed, and replaced with returning it several years later, would you still lend it?"
This time Soichi hesitated. "...I might lend it, because it'll be returned in a few years anyway."
"Then remove the definition of returning it in a few years. Meaning, he promises to return it in a few years, but there's a high chance he won't be able to return it in a few years. Would you still lend it?"
"..."
This time Soichi was silent for more than ten seconds before shaking his head. "I don't know, Chishima-sensei. I've never actually faced a situation like that. I don't know, but if I did, I think... in many situations, I probably wouldn't lend it."
Kaiko in the passenger seat listened to the exchange and felt captivated. It was clearly common knowledge that seemed so simple, yet Chishima-sensei could explain it so clearly and deeply that it provoked real thought!
Striking while the iron was hot, Akishin asked again, "So we remove one more point. Remove the 'definitely not damaged' part. The final problem becomes:
Someone with a slight connection to you wants to borrow your stamps. He promises you he'll return them several years later, but there is a high probability he won't be able to return them several years later.
Furthermore, he can't guarantee the safety of the stamps. There's a chance that when you go looking for him years later, he's already sold some of the stamps to buy sake, accidentally burned some, and lost the rest. Would you... still lend them?"
After saying the last word, Akishin observed Soichi through the mirror with a meaningful expression—it felt pretty good being a motivational mentor.
"Not lending!" Soichi gave the accurate answer. "Can't guarantee a return in a few years, and can't guarantee the safety of the stamps. Why should I lend the stamps to him?"
"Exactly! So Soichi, why should anyone have to lend money to you?"
"This..."
Soichi went silent. He understood the point Akishin was making, but his mouth remained stubborn. "If I could already make money, I would definitely pay all that money back, I promise."
"Is that so~, but that person also said he would definitely return the stamps. Unfortunately, no one in this world can predict the future. Your promise has no value at all."
"..."
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