
by Tokage Noshipo
Trash is a Kusoge-hunter; a freelancer who dives through the dozens of used electronics shops in the Japanese geek capitol of Akihabara, looking for rare items to flip. Kusoge, or shitty-games, can fetch a good price, especially over internet auctions, and Trash knows all the secret shops. He has reluctantly agreed to meet in person with one of his best customers, an American otaku entrepreneur. He needs Trash to help negotiate a new kind of deal, something he has never done before. Meetings IRL are not something Trash is comfortable with, but the payday could really help him out of a jam. A twist in the deal will drag Trash into an adventure far outside of his comfort zone and very much against his will, but it might give him a chance at a reward far beyond his expectations. You are invited to join Trash on on a journey from the used game shops of Akihabara to the fashion trendmakers of Shibuya. More real than travel books and YouTube videos; an immersive dive into the real streets of a Tokyo most people never knew existed. A new chapter every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. [Winner in the April 2024 Royal Road Writathon challenge] Original book cover includes composited works under CC Attribution licenseAttribution to Sarah (ditch oh echo), (Flickr)Attribution to Guilhem Vellut, (Flickr) All rights reserved.
#17
7/3/2026
Peak #14
16d
#16
6/16/2026
Peak #15
17d
#15
4/14/2026
Peak #50
0d
#14
4/10/2026
Peak #48
3d
#13
4/10/2026
Peak #50
0d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 21 Oct 2026, 15:48 UTC
Entry forecast updated 21 Oct 2026, 15:48 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Previously appeared on Rising Stars, but no supported current projection is available.
beats 70% of similar stories
beats 95% of similar stories
needs about a week of observations
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.