September 1st.
At 5:59 AM, Kuroha Akira opened his eyes and turned off the alarm clock just before it rang at six o'clock.
Although he wanted to go back to sleep, his mind was already clear, and all drowsiness was gone.
This young body brought Kuroha Akira more abundant energy, but it was a bit too vigorous.
Having no choice, Kuroha Akira had to get up.
High Schools in Neon only start classes at 8:30 AM and have only six classes a day, so getting up at six leaves a lot of free time in the morning.
Previously, Kuroha Akira used his morning time to memorize words, which was also a habit from his High School days in his previous life, but it wasn't just him; during morning reading, everyone was basically memorizing foreign language words.
And starting today, he finally doesn't have to painstakingly bury himself in those alien Chinese characters anymore.
Those characters were arguably the biggest hurdle for Kuroha Akira to raise his Japanese proficiency to Lv1.
When he first started learning, he quickly memorized hiragana and katakana, and learning grammar wasn't too difficult, but when it came to memorizing words, he found it incredibly challenging.
Logically, Kuroha Akira, who knew the original Chinese characters, should have been able to remember those alien characters and words faster, but in reality, his experience became the biggest obstacle.
Like "stamp" (qie shou), if you just look at this word, you would never guess it actually means "postage stamp".
And many characters are also like that; not only do they express different meanings, but they are also particularly easy to write incorrectly.
This is like how most people who speak Chinese recognize traditional characters, but if you ask them to actually write a few traditional characters, they might not be able to.
Recognizing ≠ Being able to write.
This is the profoundness of pictographic characters... and also their most frustrating aspect.
No wonder they say Japanese is easy to learn but difficult to master; after seriously studying it, Kuroha Akira found that this was indeed the case.
But Kuroha Akira wasn't painstakingly practicing the language to become a translator; now that he had reached a level where he could blend in without being discovered, that was already enough.
No longer needing to memorize words, his morning time became free, and Kuroha Akira seemed a bit idle; he would have to arrange something else for himself to do later.
But putting aside what he would do in the mornings later, Kuroha Akira already had a plan for what to do this morning.
He quietly got out of bed, looked up, and could hear even breathing; his "sibling" on the top bunk was still in a sweet dream.
However, the wicked Kuroha Akira was preparing to disturb her sweet dream. He stepped onto the lower bunk's bed board, holding onto the pole, and poked his head out from the top bunk.
She's sleeping soundly... she's even drooling.
Even a beautiful girl will still drool when she's sleeping soundly.
Isn't this quite down-to-earth? If she posts a sleeping photo after becoming famous, she'll definitely gain a lot of fans.
Kuroha Akira extended his index finger and poked Shinomiyia's cheek.
Her small face was not only delicate but also felt very good, soft and tender; this must be what they call baby-like skin?
After an ordinary person wakes up after a night's sleep, their cheeks will be oily, and Shionomiya Shion had a little too, but it didn't look greasy at all; instead, it added a sheen to her bare skin, and the feel was also a bit slippery, which actually enhanced her appearance.
To have this level of skin with little to no maintenance, she truly lives up to being a divinely chosen beautiful girl.
However, Shinomiyia was not the type to sleep very deeply, so after feeling the foreign object on her cheek, she frowned slightly and slowly opened her groggy eyes.
"Hiss…"
Then she subconsciously slurped up some drool.
Kuroha Akira greeted her.
"Good morning, Makka Pakka."
"…? Good morning... Huh?"
Shinomiyia's consciousness hadn't fully awakened yet. She was a bit bewildered. Why was she here? Who was the person in front of her...?
In an instant, the memories of last night flooded into her mind, causing Shinomiyia to instantly widen her eyes and sit upright, throwing off the covers.
"Ah! Is it morning already!"
Kuroha Akira withdrew his hand, jumped from the bed onto the tatami, put his hands on his hips, and looked up at Shinomiyia, saying,
"Yes, it's morning, my dear Miss Shion. Although I don't want to disturb your sleep, our professional Voice actor training plan is about to begin."
"Ugh, I'll get up now."
"Wipe your mouth first."
"Ah…"
Shinomiyia, blushing, wiped away the traces of drool with the back of her hand.
How embarrassing! She had never drooled in her sleep before, not even during kindergarten naps.