Junichiro let out a contented sigh and relaxed, "So many projects. So many ideas." He glanced at his makeshift forge and frowned, 'I'm going to need to get creative if I want better tools and materials to work with. Steel from this junkyard will work for a while, but I'll eventually need more expensive materials like gold, silver, and gemstones. Not to forget about the other shit I can make. Maybe I should hunt down a meth lab somewhere? They'd have all the chemistry crap I need for Alchemy to make some potions.'
Unfortunately, it wasn't like he could just walk down the street and find a meth lab. If a lab like that even existed in all of Japan, it was likely either in the hands of the Yakuza, or someone supernatural. Most likely the latter as many Yakuza families despised such drugs. Not all of them, of course, but a fair few. Say whatever you want about the murderous psychopaths, they had some form of honor.
He'd just improvise, like he had thus far.
The rebar was pulled from the coals and carefully hammered to fold it in half. He didn't have any flux powder to help with the forge welding, but that was alright. The layer of mana hammered into the metal would help it fuse with fewer issues. If he had more mana to pound into it he could make it fuse perfectly, but he had to be conservative with what mana he had. It was a risk, but if he focused more mana into the metal, he'd run out too quickly and it would take several days to finish the bracelet.
Junichiro continued the process of heating the metal, hammering mana into it, and folding it. During one of the breaks he was forced to take to wait for his mana to regenerate, he made his way into town to pick up some dinner and take a quick bathroom bath using the bathroom in the nearest park.
It wasn't until the sun was setting that he finished the bracelet. It was just a crude C shape covered in forge scale and hammer marks. Calling it 'jewelry' would be generous. But none of that mattered, it was finally finished and ready for him to inscribe runes into it. Sadly, he had to wait until tomorrow to begin that work. With the sun going down he was losing the light and he refused to use any other lighting. The risk of someone seeing light where it shouldn't be and calling the authorities on him was too great to take. Besides, he wouldn't even be able to use it until tomorrow anyway so he was in no rush to finish it right that second.
Juncihiro made sure to take care of everything and that all the safety measures he needed to take were dealt with. The last thing he needed is to somehow start a fire. He also needed to remember to check on the forge tomorrow when it was cool. Just to make sure it wasn't going to melt down on him too soon. The forge would fail sooner or later, regardless of the rune work. Best to keep a close eye on it so it didn't happen in the middle of his work. That would be bad.
It's glorious!"
Junichiro held his completed notice-me-not bracelet up in the air where the early morning sunlight shone on it. It was far too tarnished to reflect anything. He'd gotten straight to carving the runes into the bracelet after waking up that morning. Breaking his own rules and not immediately going for breakfast. But it was fine, with this bracelet he was officially invincible!
…
To mundane people... As long as he had mana... And didn't do anything to draw attention to himself...
Whatever, it was a good first step and with it he could make some more progress and get things taken care of. His biggest hurdle... funding. He'd have to spend some time thinking about how to deal with that. He could scrounge as much as he wanted but there was no way that he could afford high quality materials even if he scrounged up every last dropped yen.
Thoughts for later.
He slipped the bracelet onto his wrist and channeled a small amount of mana into it, enough to last a couple of hours easily. The notice-me-not didn't take a ton of power, as long as it wasn't stressed by his actions. He immediately noticed the effect when he walked down the street. He could see how peoples eyes just sort of slid over him. Their unconscious mind did register his presence, but the magic of the bracelet kept their conscious mind from paying any attention to him. It. Was. GLORIOUS!
He practically had a skip in his step as he made his way toward his favorite breakfast stand. Getting the same thing so often wasn't something he would normally do, but he wanted to celebrate! He quickly arrived at the stand and smiled brightly as he slipped off his bracelet.
"Oh! I didn't notice you there young man. Back so soon?"
Junichiro grinned and nodded, "Yes, sir. My mom has been having these weird cravings lately and making me and dad fetch things for her. I guess she just really wants your food in the mornings."
Junichiro shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do' manner while the vendor had a sly smile, "I see, so two orders again?"
Junichiro pulled out three thousand yen, "Mom said three, dad's eating with us this morning. I think mom is a bit mad at him for some reason."