Starting a New Life in Tokyo by Inheriting a Shopping Street [30]

As they approached the school gates, Chiba Shuuichi quietly split off from Akiyama Tsuki to avoid unnecessary gossip.

He trailed several steps behind the sisters, watching from a distance as the disciplinary committee members—checking uniforms at the gate—greeted Tsuki with admiration.

“Any troublemakers today?” Tsuki paused to show concern for the committee’s work.

“No, everyone's cooperating nicely,” replied the disciplinary member, a rather cute girl with long hair. Her voice brightened curiously, “President, why did you change your hairstyle today?”

Tsuki subtly glanced back at Chiba before calmly replying, “Just felt like trying something different. Does it look strange?”

“No, no, it suits you perfectly!” The disciplinary member hastily waved her hands. “It makes you seem gentler, President.”

“Oh, right! Sis, you changed your hairstyle!” Akiyama An chimed in belatedly, looking adorably clueless.

Tsuki shot her a frustrated look. I changed it yesterday! How slow can you be to only notice now?

And now, they were at school, yet An was still exposing her airheaded nature.

Tsuki cleared her throat pointedly, shooting An a stern glance. An immediately straightened her back, recomposing herself into her usual cool persona.

After briefly discussing the day’s duties with the disciplinary committee, Tsuki and An headed into school.

Being both beautiful and academically outstanding, the sisters naturally drew attention wherever they went, quickly becoming the center of gossip.

Yet amidst all the admiring gazes, Tsuki’s mind was elsewhere.

Chiba-kun is still following behind me, isn’t he? Is this like a stalking play?

I really want to turn around to check, but he explicitly ordered me to behave like a proper student council president at school, only showing my true self in front of him alone…

Tsuki grew restless, desperately curious if Chiba was watching her right now, indulging in weird fantasies about every part of her body.

Finally reaching a corner, she casually turned her head, stealing a quick glance behind—and immediately felt disappointed.

Chiba wasn’t looking at her at all; he was chatting with Uchida Yae, whom he'd bumped into after entering the gate.

“Hey, Chiba, wanna see something amazing?” Uchida asked excitedly in a suspicious whisper.

“Nope,” Chiba replied without hesitation.

“Huh? Why? You won’t even hear what it is first?” Uchida looked dejected.

“No need—I already know it’ll definitely be something about lolis.”

Chiba wasn’t confident in his intuition so much as he was utterly certain of Uchida’s taste.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Uchida admitted sheepishly, before adding stubbornly, “But it’s super cute! You’ll regret not seeing it.”

“Reject juvenile tastes, starting with you and me,” Chiba patted his shoulder reassuringly. “More importantly, are your parents visiting school today?”

“…” Uchida immediately put on a bitter expression. “They’ll be here around noon… Hey, Chiba, didn’t the teacher visit your home on Friday? How’d it go?”

“Sensei acknowledged that her judgment was hasty and approved my career survey,” Chiba said honestly.

But Uchida clearly didn’t believe him, nodding sympathetically. “Must’ve been terrible, huh? But don’t worry—I won’t pry or laugh at you, since soon enough, I'll suffer the same fate.”

“I’m nothing like you; I’m not a lolicon,” Chiba retorted, losing interest in trying to prove himself.

“Dammit, even you’re saying it now? Don’t lolis deserve love, too? This is discrimination!” Uchida protested indignantly.

“You might want to speak louder. That way, your parents won’t even need to discuss your career form with Sensei; they can skip straight to withdrawing you from school.”

Chiba stepped aside slightly to avoid collateral damage.

“…” Uchida immediately shut up.

...

Their first class on Monday was English. The English teacher was a passionate, competent middle-aged man, but few students bothered paying attention.

Chiba figured if they swapped him out for a beautiful teacher in black stockings, even if her English was terrible, students would be infinitely more motivated.

After enduring English class, it was finally time for gym.

Sadly, it was already October. Summer—and the much-awaited swimming classes—had ended, and he’d have to wait another year to experience that.

After changing into their gym uniforms in class, students began making their way toward the gymnasium in small groups. Chiba took the opportunity to dash over to the campus convenience store, grabbing a lollipop.

Unfortunately, they only had flat pops rather than round ones. But it was still better than nothing.

Holding onto his lollipop, Chiba arrived at the gymnasium and easily spotted Tsuki among the crowd.

Their school’s gym uniform consisted of a plain white short-sleeved shirt and dark-blue shorts. Tsuki wore it perfectly, radiating youthful energy. Her long, slender, pale legs were especially eye-catching—though slightly slimmer compared to Ogawa Fumika’s curvier figure.

Tsuki clearly felt Chiba’s gaze on her. Keeping a calm, detached expression as she chatted with classmates, she discreetly traced a rhythmic pattern on her left thigh with her finger.

Chiba had excellent eyesight and saw the gesture clearly. She was unmistakably writing the strokes of the kanji 正 (correct)!

A little too exciting…

Who could resist a cold, dignified student council president secretly pulling off this kind of teasing?

“Chiba, whatcha staring at?” Uchida suddenly tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

“Legs,” Chiba answered honestly, feeling no shame—after all, even famous writers admired this sort of thing.

Uchida scoffed dismissively. “What’s so great about them? They’re just a bunch of old women.”

“Uchida.”

“What?”

Chiba turned, patting Uchida’s shoulder earnestly. “As long as you keep liking lolis, we’ll always be conflict-free brothers.”

“Huh?” Uchida looked utterly baffled.

“By the way, got a question for you,” Chiba rested his hand on Uchida’s shoulder casually. “Do you have any single, attractive older sisters at home? Or even an aunt?”

“What’re you planning?” Uchida eyed him suspiciously.

“I have a distant cousin who’s thirty and still single. He’s getting pressured to marry and asked me for help,” Chiba casually lied.

He wasn’t the type to passively wait around. Besides, excellent shopkeepers rarely just fell into his lap. Meeting two Ogawa sisters probably exhausted his lifetime’s luck.

To successfully run the shopping street and recruit more high-quality shopkeepers, he needed to proactively explore more channels.

Since he was currently at school, fellow students were his ideal channels—just like how Akiyama An had connected him with her family.

Uchida swallowed the story without suspicion. “I do have an older cousin-sister. Appearance-wise—”

“Don’t use your own tastes,” Chiba interrupted hastily. Judging by Uchida’s standards, his cousin would be in elementary school.

How could an elementary schooler manage a shop?

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This is a fan translation of 从继承商店街开始东京生活 by 净消尘土 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!