Six Months into Accumulation, Our Current Position

Yuto, Hikappa, and the Garden's Present State

Picking up his smartphone, Yuto opened his investment account screen.

He had intended to just give it a casual check, as he always did.

And yet—

The realization suddenly hit him.

Six whole months had already flown by since he began his recurring investments.

He stared quietly at the figures displayed on the screen.

Rakuten Plus All Country Equity Index Fund: +5,058 yen.

Raku-Raku Investment (Solid Asset Building Course): +3,443 yen.

Total: +8,501 yen.

The words escaped his lips in a tiny whisper.

It hadn't grown by some astronomical amount.
But on the flip side, it wasn't shrinking either.

Suddenly, his eyes caught another number on the dashboard.

His current accumulated amount, measured against his ultimate goal of 2,000,000 yen.

The fact that he could view it this way proved how much his mindset had shifted from before.

Looking back, these past six months had been packed with events.

There were times when talk of trade tariffs sent a ripple of anxiety through the market.
Times when election results completely flipped the market sentiment.
Times when interest rate chatter caused the overall trend to waver.
And, of course, the recent headlines out of the Middle East that sent crude oil prices swinging.

To be perfectly honest, he still didn't comprehend every single detail.

Even so—

He had kept his eyes open, observing how the market breathed and moved.

Because of that, he felt as though the world he could perceive had expanded just a little bit.

Closing his smartphone, he looked out into the garden.

Hikappa was sitting there, looking exactly as it always did.

And yet—

When he looked closer, it was undeniably a tiny bit larger than it had been back then.

He murmured softly to the garden.

But that thought didn't just apply to Hikappa.

He cast his gaze back down to his smartphone.

It wasn't a monumental, overnight transformation.
But it was undoubtedly stacking up, layer by layer.

It doesn't shoot up to the sky in an instant.
But it never stops moving forward, either.

Hikappa pulsed with a warm, gentle light, its leaves brushing the air in a serene rustle.

That movement carried a deep, soothing calmness—

And Yuto felt the lingering tension slide right out of his shoulders.