Hello readers! This is Jun with your weekly chapter of Hiki-NEET!

 

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Vol 9 Idle talk 7

 A certain bulletin board resident’s story

The third

 

The man was an elite.

 

Graduating from a local public school with outstanding marks and going to a top private school in Nagoya.

For three years he commuted to school from his home, which was not in Toyota at the time, using a moped and the circular railway & Meitetsu.

He enrolled in the university named after Nagoya.

He graduated without repeating a year and found employment in a consulting firm in Tokyo.

Perhaps his character to ascertain things calmly and thinking while separating truth and emotion was fit for the job, he achieved results in the firm.

 

The man was an elite.

 

But.

His natural born serious nature was his ruin.

He did not cut corners in his work.

If one were to grasp some points, consultation work could produce results even with reasonable workload.

The man did not cut corners in his work.

He always proposed methods and milestones that was reaching his ideals.

The client’s trust in him was abundant, and his evaluation from his superiors was high.

Thereupon naturally the clients he would be responsible for increased.

He did not cut corners in his work.

Naturally, the man’s workload and working hours increased.

 

And then.

 

It was when he returned to his apartment for the first time after a long time and woke up in the morning.

He could not move.

There was nothing strange with his body.

He had no fever.

He just could not move.

Like a toy whose batteries had run dry.

 

Kamiya Chuji, age 25.

Started the elite highway to success in the Tokai region of Honshu and proceeded to the capital in order to find employment, but now in low spirits due to exhausting work.

He stopped living alone in Tokyo that was prepared by his parents, and returned to his home which was in the rural area of Toyota.

 

This was a trivial tale until the wounded man once again recovered himself.

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Unexpectedly, the man’s family and neighborhood residents warmly received him.

Mikawa people are kind to those they once recognized as their comrades.

 

Moreover.

Where the man lived was a small village among the mountains.

The man was targeted as a young farmer.

And then by the large merger, the man’s home was then Toyota.

He would have as many jobs as he liked if he did not choose.

He also had the strongest connections in the Nagoya – Toyota area, which was his former classmate.

It’s a good profession, but it’s a side business like I thought, Ah right, you and this lady weren’t divorced? Whaat, if it’s Chuji-kun then he should get better in another five years, Tokyo is scary, isn’t it? Such idle gossip rose for the first time in a long time. The elderly around him warmly watched over him without deeply interfering.  Well, the elderly may just not have wanted to release a revived young working force however. 

 

His home was surrounded by mountains and rivers, by cultivated lands and paddy fields.

A household which was also a part time farmer household would inevitably lead to a well-regulated life.

Continuing the fixed routine-like lifestyle for a year, the man’s wounds gradually healed.

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“Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I’ve started up the PC…”

 

The man’s undecorated and monotonically put together room. 

Along with soft murmurs, the man booted up his PC.

 

It was not that he had any particular goal.

Somehow he merely wanted to be connected to the world.

Such feelings being born and moving independently may mean signs that the man’s wounds were recovering.

 

“My brain’s gotten quite rusty. I guess that is natural…”

 

A regular livelihood, and a regular conversation with a person.

From a passive state with scarce new information, to an active state where he himself moved, collected information and thought.

That transition seems to have given the man the feeling that his head was not working well.

 

“Shall I do some idle talk on a bulletin board or something… Oh. A thought experiment may be nice I guess”

 

The thread the man discovered that day.

That was the thread called [Ridding myself of] I kind of got to another world when I went out of my home after 10 years [my Shut-in NEET status?]

 

“Another world… What is the reason for this judgment? If he had gone to another world, why is he connected to the internet? Either way, you can’t judge without images that would be the proof, I guess”

 

*tick tick* the man slowly typed in order to understand his hardened fingertips.

 

It was the moment of the birth of the fixed name Cool NEET.

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The thought experiment that made a story out of Yuuji, who insisted that he went to another world.

At the beginning that was all he intended it to be.

Perhaps the human called Yuuji also enjoys thought experiments like me, or he could be announcing a teaser of a drama or a movie like the board residents were saying, were the man’s thoughts.

 

However.

One year and then two years passed, and with verification based on the uploaded images and information, it gradually reached the point where the man began thinking, what if it is true?

 

The appearance of monsters, the guardianship over Alice, the discussions with the adventurers and the peddler.

 

He thought whenever information increased, and sent advice together with the bulletin board residents.

 

The well-regulated life and regular hospital treatment, the gentle humans around him without regard to expectations, and his practice in thinking.

Gradually the man’s wounds recovered, and the light slightly returned to his eyes.

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A little less than two years since the man had learned of Yuuji’s bulletin board.

March.

A thread was started that became a large turning point for the man.

 

‘ [Source thread] Yuuji Related Thread Community Offline Meeting Convention part 1 [verification thread community]’

 

It was the thread that Emi, a friend of Yuuji’s younger sister Sakura, started.

The location of the offline meeting was Utsunomiya.

It was quite a distance from Toyota where the man’s home was at.

However, there was a reasonable amount of his savings left that he obtained at the end of his exhausting work. He had a good salary.

 

“…I guess I’ll go then”

 

A well-regulated life, a warm surrounding and the hometown where he had gotten used to live in.

It was the first time in three years that he would leave it.

And in order to go to Utsunomiya, it was necessary to pass through Tokyo, where he once had driven himself into a corner.

 

After the man decided, he took one large breath with a puff.

It doesn’t have to be now.

It may be an act that could open the wound that had not yet finished recovering as of yet.

Even so.

The bulletin board cured him.

Though loose, but the residents felt like comrades.

His feelings of wanting to meet them had won. 

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“This feeling of exhaustion is because of my first trip in a long time, I guess. But… Yup, I feel satisfied”

 

His way back from the offline camp.

To Tokyo with JR Utsunomiya line, then to Nagoya with the bullet train.

To the terminus using the mysterious line which was a subway and yet connects overhead like this.

And then to his house that was in the back regions of the vast Toyota.

 

It was the first long trip since several years for the man.

Although he felt a sense of fatigue, he had sufficiently enjoyed himself it seems.

As evidence of that, he satisfied himself with that famous chain store’s mystery flavored ramen at an underground shopping center of a reputed train station that was in the process of changing into a dungeon. Incidentally, he seemed obstinate in saying that it was Japanese styled Tonkotsu. He could not appreciate it.

 

“I’m back”

“Ooh, welcome back Chuji. Was it terrible?”

“Ah, grandpa, you’re awake. It’s been a long time so it was a little terrible”

 

It was a mysterious conversation.

It was not terrible.

It was a dialect where ‘terrible’ means ‘ being tired.’ It was a casual conversation where they said “Are you tired? It’s been a long time so I’m a little tired.” It was not extraordinary.

 

Invited by his grandfather, the man began to drink beer in a japanese-style room.

In the end, he must have been worried about the man who was his grandson.

The grandfather delightfully listened to the story of the man going out on his own for the first time in a long while.

 

“Well, ye can take yer time resting. Chuji, I’m sure it’s just ‘cause ye haven’t found comrades and a lord to serve”

 

With a smile that warped his wrinkled face, the man’s grandfather spoke.

 

On a side note, it was the grandfather who said such a thing, but it did not mean that Kamiya household was a lineage of warriors. They were a farming household for generations after generations. 

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Did his grandfather’s words became the trigger?

The man read all the history books and documents on local history that he could get on his grandfather’s bookshelves and sometimes talked to his grandfather.

What comrades were for Mikawa men. What a lord was.

It was quite a wrong special education.

 

On the other hand, he stayed permanently on the bulletin board.

Permanent enough that those posts of his earned constant reliability and he was already regarded as the leader of the bulletin board, leaving Yuuji as is.

 

A well regulated living, regular hospital treatment, thought training where he thought of impossible matters and his father’s special education.

 

And then, he was relied on by the attorney Gunji even in real life and he gave advice on how to earn income with the Design & Pattern Submission and Download site, making the best use of his past experiences.

 

Gradually, the man’s wounds recovered.

His course of actions, especially his education as Mikawa men by pure Mikawa men, felt quite wrong in modern Japan however.

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And so.

The last half of the fifth year since being unable to move like a toy whose batteries had run dry. 

Finally, the man genuinely came alive.

 

The impetus was Gunji’s call.

Just when he arrived in Tokyo while wondering what it was about, it was a situation that exceeded the calm man’s expectations.

 

Yuuji’s story was going to be adapted into a movie. In Hollywood.

What to do about the management, what to do about the revenue, and if we were to make a company, what about employees, media countermeasures, and what about other businesses?

On the other hand, what to do with the aid for offline meetings that Yuuji wishes for.

 

It was a gut-wrenching story and a challenge.

 

But that challenge was also the man’s field of expertise.

 

In less than five years, the man’s wounds may have healed.

He may have thought to bring his past experiences to life.

It may have been because he discovered comrades with loose relationships called the bulletin board residence.

 

Or.

 

This Mikawa man may have found the lord he should serve.

The unreliable, unknowledgeable and slow-witted but virtuous, honest and positive lord who was worth supporting.

 

Since conversing with the two attorneys, the man’s eyes were surely lit with fire.

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Fixed name, Cool NEET

 

A man who was once an elite.

From a local prestigious high school to a prestigious university, found employment in a consultation firm, and broke down.

Returned to his home in the back water regions of Toyota, his home town, discovered the bulletin board and stayed there permanently.

Earned enough trust to be regarded as the leader of the bulletin board with his calm views and knowledge.

Participated in the first offline camp.

And since then, became the brain who was relied on even by Gunji the attorney.

Established a system to earn revenue by advertisement during the time he founded the Free Design/Pattern Paper Submission & Download Site, and directed its management and the offline meeting aid without accepting money himself.

And then, in response to Gunji’s story, began to move towards the establishment of a corporation and an NPO.

 

Inspired by the fact that Yuuji went to another world, the man gradually healed the wounds born in his heart.

And then, the Mikawa man may have discovered his comrades and the lord he should serve.

 

It was a trifling tale of a certain bulletin board resident.

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