Kazuki lived on Echizen Road of the Jinwen District.
Compared to other areas, Echizen Road was relatively more impoverished, and so it became a hot spot for delinquents to roam.
However, after living here for over a year, the delinquents here would go out of their way to avoid him. The status he had obtained in Sakura Kyu Academy was the real deal and was built up by himself.
Carrying his bag, he walked through the narrow and dark alley. After another five minute walk, he climbed up the stairs to the second floor and finally arrived home.
As soon as he stepped foot through the door, the room of twenty square meters was entirely displayed before his eyes.
The room simply consisted of a bed and a study table, that was all. There was no kitchen or dining table. Of course, even if there was a kitchen, it was not likely that Kazuki would cook.
Fortunately, the room came with a small attached bathroom, removing his need to go to a public restroom.
After entering his room, Kazuki set down the Sun and Moon Sword and his bag onto the table and quickly put on a kettle of water to boil.
He had bought ten full tubs of cup noodles, hoping they would fill his empty stomach for the night.
Half an hour later, after he had downed all ten tubs of cup noodles, he rubbed his belly and sighed, "This is not good… If this persists, I'll have to start making money as soon as possible."
Ten tubs of cup noodles later, he was only half full. This was not something he would have imagined earlier.
However, he knew that this was the cost of practicing.
Following the activation of the sword's spirit, he had embarked on the journey of practice once again, absorbing reiki for his own use with the help of the Sun and Moon Sword. While training his body, he also had to ensure that the physicality of his body could keep up.
Optimally, he is to consume a large amount of meat so that his body will be able to cope with the intense reiki washing through his body.
Otherwise, his strength and potential would remain the same or, worse, it could drop.
However, the original owner of the body before he time-traveled had already been in poverty. After a hit-and-run took both his parents' lives, the original owner had lost all hope in life and committed suicide by slitting his wrists at home.
It was at that time when Kazuki took over his life as well as his state of poverty.
This was also the reason he agreed to the special intake invitation sent by Sakura Kyu.
In addition to the full tuition fee waiver and scholarship, Sakura Kyu was the high school with the most significant number of delinquents in the Jinwen District.
As such, he was granted the chance to openly teach these delinquents a lesson and collect money shamelessly without anyone to stop him. Those were the times when he would eat meat every day and still had money to spare.
Following the change of atmosphere at Sakura Kyu, his financial state deteriorated day by day to the point of having to plan out his meals carefully.
Apart from meals, he still had to pay rent. Although it was considered a small amount, it was still money he was using.
However, Kazuki had never been in a hurry because he was waiting for the recuperation of reiki.
The ten days in the past life where the Sun and Moon rose at the same time, the world was launched into chaos. All sorts of cults, doomsday theories, and visions had emerged. According to official statistics, the world population had dropped by over ten million in just those ten days.
Kazuki had initially planned to wait for the recuperation of reiki to occur, to take advantage of the chaotic situation at hand.
Unfortunately, the recuperation of reiki had not occurred, spoiling his entire plan.
Different situations call for different methods of living. In the current society, where the recuperation of reiki has yet to come, there were specific rules for survival.
However, these were only minor details.
There were many ways to earn money…
The most worrying and confusing matter for Kazuki was the possibility of the recuperation of reiki not occurring at all. If that came true, how was he to improve his strength?
This was the most severe and concerning problem.
The limited amount of reiki in the atmosphere had placed considerable limitations on his development. To improve strength, he was required to absorb large amounts of reiki.
With such a scarce supply of reiki, Kazuki's growth was progressing exceptionally slowly.
It was to the point where he felt that he could not even enter the State of Mortal Shedding within three years. That state of being stuck would quite possibly be the death of him.
"I have to think of a plan," Kazuki silently noted to himself.
In deep thought, he subconsciously pulled open the drawer of his table to see his thread-bound copy of 'The Art of Kendo.' He could not help but let a sigh escape his lips.
Today was probably the day he sighed the most.
He had spent 100,000 yen at the Senshin store on the antique street to purchase the book, or rather, secret book.
When the recuperation of reiki had occurred in a past life, there were not only visions that appeared amongst plants, animals, and humans, there were even visions in books.
Some ancient books had developed their own spirits.
These spirits had no consciousness, but once absorbed, anyone would be able to completely and utterly understand the core content of the book and put it to use.
'The Art of Kendo' was a book of this sort. The owner of the Senshin store, Fumihaku Senshin, absorbed the spirit of 'The Art of Kendo' in a past life and mastered the many Kendo techniques described in the book.
After the successful integration, he rose to the top of Japan's world of practice and become Japan's top Sword Master in a great leap.
Moreover, after the spirit of every book was absorbed, it would just disappear. This was also the main reason the former Fumihaku Senshin was so open about his powers when interviewed.
Kazuki initially thought he had the upper hand and had managed to snatch Fumihaku Senshin's opportunity from his hands.
However...
Picking up 'The Art of Kendo' and gently flipping open the book, a bitter smile lingered on his lips.
He did not read the contents in detail. After a minute or two of flipping, nothing happened. Kazuki dropped the thought, finally giving up.
He did not throw the book away since he had spent 100,000 yen to get it after all… In the future, if he urgently needed money, he could still sell it off at the old street.
Without a spirit, 'The Art of Kendo' was no more than a book with little historical value.
Suddenly, a thought crossed Kazuki's mind.
Spirit!
In the split second that the thought appeared in his mind, his breathing halted in surprise.
At this very moment, his heart rate soared.
In the past, before the recuperation of reiki, Kazuki had thought many things through. If, by chance, the recuperation of reiki does not occur at all, how would he practice?
The thin amounts of reiki in the air were insufficient to meet his daily training needs…
However, there was an exception when it came to ghosts.
In the past life, during the era of the recuperation of reiki, the news had spread like an epidemic. Governments across the globe could do nothing to hide the truth, so their only choice was to provide guidance.
When ghosts first appeared, it had caused a state of confusion and chaos for some time. Hence, information on ghosts was disclosed.
Even before the recuperation of reiki, ghosts had been around.
Kazuki understood that ghosts were formed due to an intense fixation at the moment of death, inadvertently attracting Worldly Reiki to trap one's consciousness, creating a ghost.
In other words, every single ghost was a large mass of reiki.
As his train of thought arrived here, Kazuki could hardly contain his excitement.
Basically, during the era of the recuperation of reiki, souls did not quickly dissipate after death, and a large proportion of people had the opportunity to become ghosts.
However, before the recuperation of reiki, reiki in the air was scarce, and souls would simply dissipate. The chance of becoming a ghost was minimal.
Plus, they would only become ordinary ghosts. Even if they were evil ghosts, their battling abilities were not very high.
After all, no being that wanted to train could escape the need for reiki.
Reiki was the foundation of everything.
Due to societal problems, Japan always had a larger population of ghosts as compared to other countries as according to statistics.
As his eyes flashed, Kazuki knew that whether or not his strength could improve swiftly was not dependent on the number of ghosts in Japan.
The only problem that lay before him now was how to find a ghost.