Brush Up Life (ブラッシュアップライフ)

The story so far..

Her name is Kondo Asami.

A 33-year old working for the local city hall.

She was leading an ordinary life meeting her childhood friends, Nacchi and Miipon,

for dinner after work, and going to karaoke, but...

Eh? Did I die?

The next life she was informed about there...

- Giant anteater. - Does that mean I won't be a human?

It's highly possible that you were acking the required good deeds...

Isn't there something we can do about that?

It would be possible for you to redo the same life once again as Kondo Asami-sama.

Thus started the second round of Asami's life.

By using pokeberu (pager), she brilliantly blocked

Rena-chan's dad and Yoko Sensei's affair which she hadn't noticed in the first round,

and acquired points for good deeds.

And so, at this place like an information desk,

I'm told what I'm going to be reincarnated as.

In my next life, I'm going to be a giant anteater in Southeastern Guatemala.

- Giant anteater? - Why giant anteater?

I don't know, but maybe it's because I didn't conduct myself well in my previous life?

Did you do something bad, Ah-chin?

- I didn't commit any crime or anything. - Right?

- Wait. If Ah-chin didn't do well, aren't we in trouble too? - We are.

- All kinds of things come to mind. - I know, right?

I used to cheat on exams and stuff in middle school.

- That's a big minus for you. - Wah.

I ordered a large serving of rice at a diner

- but left the large portion amount many times. - What? That's terrible.

- Why did you do that? - I don't know.

When I ordered a large serving at a restaurant I went for the first time,

the regular serving was like a large, and the large was like a super large.

- Oh, that pattern, huh? - I wish they'd unify the standard for large portions.

- All three of us are destined to be giant anteaters. - Eh~.

But wouldn't it be fun if all three of us became giant anteaters together?

- No way. We're talking about giant anteaters, you know. - Why not?

We could have talks like...I found a place that have delicious ants. Let's go eat together.

A popular ant spot, huh?

- Wouldn't it be super crowded? - But the ants are super delicious.

They're the kind that melts instantly in your mouth.

- Yeah. They're fluffy. - Are there ants like that?

- Sorry, Fuku-chan. We're heavy, aren't we? - No problem. It's okay.

- We'll lose weight by next time. - Okay!

- Will there be a next time? - What's that?

- Huh? - Over there.

Oh no, it's the police!

- What? You're kidding. - What shall we do? - What are we doing?

- Okay, let's hurry. - Please hurry!

What will happen if we get caught?

- We're getting turned into giant anteaters. - Seriously? - There's no way.

- On, no. Here they come! - What? You're kidding!

- Ah~ they're coming! - Go, go!

Although I still have dreams that are jumbled up with the first round,

I've gotten used to my life in the second round and...

Zoom in!!

Zoom in!! Morning! - daily morning news show (1979-2001)

- Until which period do you have today? - Um, fourth period.

Fourth period?

As planned, I entered elementary school.

And Haruka turned 2 years old...

Ittekima~su!

My family moved into a house.

To be honest, I had imagined my life to be more dramatically different in the second round, but

for the most part, it's been the same so far.

Needless to say, I've been racking up good deed points diligently.

Brush Up Life 2

- Good morning. - Good morning.

I'm not looking forward to today's PE class.

Ah-chin, your tamagotchi turned into mametchi.

Really? Thanks!

- Oh, it did. How cute. - Isn't it?

In my first round, tamagotchi was sold out everywhere,

so I had a knockoff, but

this time around, I bought the rarest white one before the craze began.

Say, Shi-chan, how long will this live?

Since it's mametchi, if you raise it carefully, I think it'll live to be about 20.

Really? That's amazing.

By the way, Shi-chan is an expert at raising tamagotchi, so

I left my tamagotchi in her care to raise it for me.

- Then please keep up the good work. - Okay~!

The stance of a horse owner.

Speaking of what changed in the second round ...

- Good morning! - Good morning!

SPEED is the guest on Hey! Hey! Hey! tonight, right?

The fact that Rena-chan, who had moved away in the first round,

enrolled in the same elementary school.

The other big difference is my academic ability.

For me with the brainpower of an adult,

elementary school classes were such a breeze that it was almost laughable.

5 times 5 is 25.

Come on, Fuku-chan. Do the forward roll on the bar.

Incidentally, they're Fuku-chan and Shi-chan who will get married and divorced in the future.

I'm not very good at this.

I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you at this point.

There you are, Ah-chin.

- Let's go home together. - Yeah, let's.

Also as planned, I got to be good friends with Nacchi and Miipon.

Mari-chan, bye bye.

- Bye bye. - Bye bye.

- Shall we do drama club today? - Yeah, good idea.

- Let's do it, let's do it. - Then,

- after we get home, let's meet at Komatsu Shoten. - Okay!

- "Beach Boys" was good, wasn't it? - Sorimachi's so cool.

"Beach Boys" starring Sorimachi Takashi, Takenouchi Yutaka (1997)

Drama Club refers to a club where we get together after school

and talk about the current dramas we're watching.

That being said, it isn't an official club activity.

The three of us were just calling it that on our own.

But don't you think "Nurse no Oshigoto" is the best this season?

"Nurse no Oshigoto" starring Mizuki Alisa (Season 2 1997)

- Well, I'd say so. - It's a head above the rest, isn't it?

I like the dialogue between the two of them.

But honestly speaking, I liked Season 1 better.

- Really? I like the current one too. - I do too, but

- if I were to choose one or the other, I'd say 1. - I agree.

- Season 1 provides more catharsis, right? - Yes!

Most was secondhand opinion from TV magazines, but

it was fun acting like a critic and talking like this.

- You wanna go to Yamato? - Okay.

- What are you looking for, Nacchi? - I wanna look for stickers.

- I want to too. - Me too.

- I wonder if they got new ones in. - I hope so.

In our early years of elementary school, putting stickers on sticker books

and trading them was the popular thing to do.

- That's cute. - It's glittery.

For us, trading stickers was a negotiating table.

Although not everything and anything can be traded.

The worth of its value is different for each sticker.

- Miipon, that sticker of yours is cute. - It sure is.

That hamster tile sticker is super cute.

- This is cute, isn't it? - Yeah.

- I bought it when I went to JUSCO the other day. - I'm jealous.

Tile stickers were especially popular, and

were considered to be the most valuable.

They're thick and it's nice how they make the sticker book expand.

- Miipon, let me trade it for something. - Me too.

Sure. What do you want to trade it for?

Negotiations have begun.

It goes without saying that in order trade for a rare sticker,

rare sticker of similar value has to be offered.

Among these, the one that seems to be of equal value

to Miipon's tile sticker is

this glittery sticker or felt sticker.

However, I personally like felt stickers aside from their value,

and I don't have too many of them, so

if possible, I don't want to let go of it.

In which case it comes down to the glitters...

Or else, the one with a popular character.

No, that's too weak...

Then how about we trade for this pudding and donut and hamburger?

Yes, you can also use a negotiation technique where you offer

three ordinary stickers in exchange for one rare one.

- All right. - Yay~. Thanks!

Even stickers that aren't very valuable by itself

can be useful at times like this if you have a lot of them.

Well, as for me...

Miipon, can we trade it for this and this?

Add in an ordinary sticker to a glittery sticker.

This shouldn't be a bad deal.

In that case...

I want your felt sticker!

You mean this?

Oh shoot. She's going for the felt.

Frankly, it's a tough call.

But making a smooth transaction here

should facilitate making deals in the future...

- Okay, it's a deal. - Thanks! All right!

This is how we developed our negotiation skills.

When we got to the upper grades of elementary school,

this thing called profile binder started gaining popularity among the girls.

- First place is "Titanic," right? - That's a given.

- Second place is "Matrix," right? - I haven't seen "Matrix."

- Ah-chin, Ah-chin! I wrote the profile.

- I wrote it too. - Thanks, Misagon, Kanappe.

In the first round, I threw them away rather quickly, but

this time around, I'm going to save them.

As a side note, if a boy you like wrote "It's a secret" in the column for

the "Type You Like", it was said that there's a good chance the feeling was mutual.

I don't know if that's actually true or not.

- Nacchi, what do you think? - I'm sure the feeling's mutual.

- I'm sure. - The feeling's definitely mutual, right?

Yeah.

You're probably wrong.

- The world didn't end after all, huh? - Of course it didn't.

Nacchi, did you believe in Nostradamus?

In this manner, 6 years just flew by and...

- What do you think was the best drama this year? - What about "Good Luck!!"?

"Good Luck!!" starring Kimura Takuya and Shibasaki Kou (2003)

I entered middle school as planned.

From around this time, I started feeling irritated whenever I saw my father.

It isn't as salty as the last time. It's good.

This is undoubtedly an adolescent's typical aversion towards one's father.

I thought it might not happen in the second round, and

perhaps it's just a physical reaction, but it definitely happened like in the first round.

Incidentally, I treated him pretty badly in the first round, and

I remember my father looking sad.

The trick to making no gap even when 3 people are sleeping side by side.

Now that I think about it, I feel sorry for treating him so badly, so

I'd like to somehow hold it back in the second round.

Asami, get me the remote.

Okay.