Mash-Up: Anything for Money

Standing beside Eriri, Sayuri sensed that something was wrong.

Her original intention in bringing Eriri out was to distract her, but now it seemed like she had only made things worse.

Sayuri Sawamura sighed deeply, pressing her hand against her forehead in resignation.

Meanwhile, Hakuto was riding a shared bicycle home.

"Finally home... finally home!"

He felt like his entire body was about to fall apart. He couldn't even be bothered to shower or eat dinner—he just wanted to collapse onto his bed and sleep.

"So exhausted... why am I so exhausted..."

Although he had worked overtime today, this wasn't the first time he had done so. It had never left him this drained before.

As soon as he opened the door to his room, Hakuto threw himself onto the bed. 

The moment his head hit the pillow, he drifted off into a deep sleep, without even bothering to take off his shoes or change his clothes.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but Hakuto eventually groggily climbed out of bed.

Looking at the dim gray light outside the window, he realized he had slept all the way until morning.

"Sundays really do feel the best to sleep in!"

From Monday to Friday, he had to attend school. Saturdays were reserved for Ginko's rental time. 

If Hakuto wanted to get a good rest, Sundays were his only option.

Since he had gone straight to bed last night without showering, he now felt sticky all over, in desperate need of a rinse.

"Shower, shower, shower!"

Humming a cheerful tune, Hakuto walked into the bathroom, already thinking about how he would spend his day off.

"I'll splurge a little today. I'll use the overtime pay from yesterday as my budget for the day."

A long while later, Hakuto emerged from the bathroom, dressed in pajamas. Having skipped dinner the night before, he was now feeling quite hungry.

Just as he stepped out of the bathroom and headed toward the kitchen to make himself something to eat, his phone, which had been resting on the table, suddenly rang.

Seeing this, Hakuto had no choice but to put down the ingredients in his hands and head to the living room to answer the call.

"Moshi moshi~ This is Hakuto speaking. How can I help you?"

Perhaps because it was his day off, he was feeling completely relaxed, and even his tone was cheerful.

However, the person on the other end of the call was clearly in a very different mood, speaking in an angry tone.

"Impressive, Hakuto. Skipping class as if it's the most natural thing in the world now, huh?"

"Oh, it's Miss Shizuka... Wait, skipping class? What do you mean?"

"Monday. Eight-thirty. Put those two things together—where do you think a student like you should be right now?"

Hakuto: ??!

Monday? Isn't today Sunday? Isn't this my precious day off?

Shocked by Shizuka Hiratsuka's words, Hakuto quickly checked the date on his phone. To his horror, she was right—it was indeed Monday.

"What the hell?! Who took my day off?!"

Hakuto couldn't help but shout in frustration. After all, he only got one day off per week, and now it had mysteriously vanished. How could he not be furious?

After a while, Hakuto managed to calm down. Hearing Shizuka's voice on the phone urging him to get to school, he simply replied, "I'll be there soon," before hanging up.

Sitting on his chair, Hakuto tried to recall what had happened.

But no matter how hard he thought, he had no memories of Sunday at all. 

He clearly remembered coming back from working overtime at Utaha's place, lying down on his bed, and then waking up on Monday morning.

"I couldn't have slept through the entire Sunday... could I?"

Scratching his long hair, Hakuto suddenly remembered something.

Most superpowers come with their own limitations and side effects...

"Shit, I completely forgot about that. No wonder I was so exhausted yesterday..."

Hakuto knew that his extraordinary ability had to come with a drawback, but he hadn't expected the side effect to kick in after using it just once.

"What's the side effect? Extreme drowsiness? Or maybe mental exhaustion?"

After all, sleep is just a way to restore energy and give the brain time to rest. If the side effect of his power was just drowsiness, that wouldn't be too bad—sleep is a desire that can be resisted.

But if it was the latter, things would be much trickier. Mental exhaustion was similar to staying up all night.

A few times wouldn't be a big deal—at worst, he'd lose some hair—but if it kept happening, he wouldn't be far from collapsing entirely.

Thinking about this, Hakuto sighed and activated his computational ability once again.

That transparent sensation coursed through his body, and everything around him fell silent.

"I need to at least figure out how to control this side effect..."

Unlike others, Hakuto's ability allowed him to calculate the answer to anything in the world. If he couldn't figure something out, it simply meant he hadn't had enough time to calculate it.

For example, he could theoretically determine the origin of the universe or even prove the existence of parallel worlds.

Of course, the scale of such calculations was so massive that he'd probably drop dead before he got an answer.

But figuring out how to limit the side effects of his power? That was definitely within his reach.

After a long time, Hakuto deactivated his ability. He had finally found his answer.

"So that transparent sensation wasn't just a byproduct of activating my ability..."

According to his calculations, that feeling of transparency throughout his body wasn't just a side effect of his power—it was actually his computational ability influencing his entire body's genetic structure.

That was why his body could keep up with his brain.

Now that he understood the cause, reducing the side effects of his ability was actually quite simple.

However, at the moment, Hakuto had no intention of activating his power again. He definitely didn't want to collapse onto his bed and pass out once more.

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Check out the other translations too: [Mash-Up: I'm Not A Substitute]

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