Tokyo Psychic

Page 189

"I've heard that the Toyokawa family and the Tsurumaki family are rivals in some respects."

"Hmm? Pretty much, but I don't mind," Kokoro straightened up, gazing at Akira Kurusu with her eyes that seemed to glow like molten gold, a clean and radiant smile blooming on her face. "It's almost time for band practice, so... see you next time~"

She stood up and left the conference room without looking back.

A very strange person.

Akira Kurusu thought to herself.

As he sat down next to him, Wakaba Mutsu seemed to sense some great threat, nervously watching Kurusu Akira's profile as if he was afraid that he would get up and leave with the young lady of the Genmaki family.

......

The meeting has finally come to an end.

A large group of adults squeezed into the elevator, eagerly anticipating the "victory celebration" that evening.

Of course, before enjoying beer and barbecue, they still have to finish the rest of their work for the day.

Tokyo was already immersed in a decadent twilight.

Akira Kurusu carried the sleepy Mutsu Wakaba on his back as they walked down the street. The girl, half asleep, leaned on his shoulder and, even in this state, still remembered to remind Akira Kurusu, "Let's go to the Toyokawa house tonight."

"Xiao Mu has a really strong sense of crisis."

Akira Kurusu sensed Mutsuka Wakaba's high level of vigilance and intense worry about Shin Tsurumaki, and found it somewhat amusing.

Ruo Ye Mu lowered her eyes, unsure how to answer Lai Qi Xiao, and remained silent for a long time before cautiously saying, "I'm a little scared."

"I will not abandon Xiaomu."

"Mmm." Wakaba Mutsu hugged Kurusu Akira's neck tightly and obediently rubbed her burning cheek against Kurusu Akira's cheek.

The warmth spreading across his face made Akira Kurusu feel a little distracted as he looked at the slender, delicate, and soft girl behind him.

"Mu left his suitcase at LeBron before he left. Let's go get it now and then go find Xiangzi together."

Akira Kurusu was making arrangements for the girl's first night back in Tokyo.

"Okay." The reply was still brief.

Akira Kurusu carried Mutsu Wakaba across the streets of Tokyo during the evening rush hour, casually chatting about various uninteresting or mundane topics along the way.

As the warm evening breeze blew, the girl's responses grew increasingly hesitant.

They were almost at the train station. Wakaba Mutsu's breathing had become almost even, with even and weak breaths falling on Kurusu Akira's nape, making it a little itchy.

He had no choice but to leave the tram stop, sit on a bench in a nearby park, take out a business card from his wallet, and dial Maruki Takuto's number on his mobile phone.

"Hello, this is Maruki."

"I am Ren Amamiya".

"Oh, Amamiya-san, is there something you need?"

"Could you please drive the patient around?"

"Ah, so Amamiya-san is taking care of Wakaba-san?"

"We also need to prepare to take care of Xiangzi," Lai Xixiao said frankly.

The psychologist on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then said, "Do you need me to bring the young lady over?"

"Does Mr. Maruki wield so much power in the Toyokawa family?"

"No, just tell the young lady that 'your fiancé is waiting for you.'"

"She even called him 'fiancé'."

"I believe that when Amamiya visits the Toyokawa family again this time, she will definitely accept this identity."

"..."

The busy tone of the disconnected phone call lingered in the warm evening breeze.

Wakaba Mutsu leaned on Kurusu Akira's shoulder, taking a very peaceful nap.

After some time, I heard the sound of a vehicle braking to a stop in the distance.

The car door opened and closed, and the blue-haired young lady slowly approached the two people on the bench.

Seeing the complete trust and intimacy that Wakaba Mutsu showed to Kurusu Akira without any reservations, she couldn't help but sigh.

Toyokawa Shoko moved closer and sat down on the other side of Kurusu Akira.

“Mr. Maruki said you were looking for me.”

While she was speaking, it was hard to tell whether the blush on the girl's face was shyness at thinking about the meaning of the term "fiancé," or the rosy glow of the setting sun.

Akira Kurusu took Toyokawa Shoko's hand. "After I finish preparing for the celebration banquet tonight, shall we go back to the Toyokawa family again?"

Shoko Toyokawa saw Mutsuka Wakaba across from her and recalled the absurd night she had spent at the Toyokawa family home some time ago. After hesitating for a long time, she finally grasped Akira Kurusu's hand in return.

"it is good."

At this moment, she realized in a daze that she had gradually become accustomed to Akira Kurusu's various seemingly absurd requests without even realizing it.

......

On the treetop above the boy and girl's heads, three tired sparrows huddled together.

An ordinary evening may well be the prelude to a moment of bewilderment many years later.

-----------

(Luckily, Mitsuba Hatsuka wasn't mentioned at all, thus successfully escaping WSD's attacks. The intelligence was correct; before the matter of the God-like Mother Chicken Card is settled, it's indeed impossible for any more characters from the Chicken Group to join.)

(Actually, after watching episode 10, the most heartbreaking part was probably about "Wakaba Mutsumi." It felt like no one in the entire series, except for Soyo, cared whether she lived or died.)

(In short, this is a five-in-one chapter, please use your monthly votes!!)

(Finally, I'd like to recommend a book by one of our group members:)

157. Living under someone else's roof is no easy task (Part 2)

The glass curtain wall of Roppongi Hills swallowed the last rays of sunset, and twilight with a rusty smell seeped through the gaps in the metal forest.

Akira Kurusu stepped out of the izakaya, most of his face submerged in the shadows of the building. The triangular area between his eyes and nose was shrouded in the red light of the lanterns, and his pupils reflected the mottled neon lights of the city's vision, appearing murky and dirty. At first glance, one might mistake him for a terrifying cannibal that had escaped from the set of "Tokyo Ghoul".

But he had neither an invulnerable kagune nor a recipe so narrow as to contain only human flesh and coffee.

My stomach was stuffed with all sorts of seasonings and beef and fish that had been thoroughly grilled over charcoal, and I actually felt a bit nauseous when I walked quickly.

It wouldn't be so bad that he had to lie next to the toilet and force himself to vomit, but seeing Toyokawa Shoko and Wakaba Mutsumi waving silver spoons at their respective ice creams next to the open-air dessert shop, he suddenly had the urge to "eat people".

Expanding this brief description to "wanting to completely devour..." would be a more apt description.

Akira Kurishi walked into the deep, sweltering evening with her hands in her pockets. Behind her, she could faintly hear a middle-aged man complaining to someone on the phone about his editor.

With the help of Dioscuri's [Memory Reading], Akira Kurusu quickly confirmed the other party's identity from the day's experiences—it was a light novel author named "Kodai Kakimoto," whose first work seemed to have become popular due to a successful anime adaptation.

Hearing Kakimoto Koudai's nonchalant and furious rebuke, one can roughly deduce why he was severely scolded by his editor this afternoon... It seems that he adopted the suggestion of a director at the animation company who had already been kicked out of the production team, and thus decided to abandon the original readership of the novel in order to pursue gimmicks and sensationalism more suited to commercial adaptation...

Akira Kurusu heard the nickname "unicorn" amidst the insults directed at Kou Dai Kakimoto, and when he sat down next to Shoko Toyokawa, he curiously took out his phone and started searching for it.

Is this director with a bad track record of forcibly adding yuri elements to works that are supposed to be about friendship and career? ...Kurasu Akira's expression suddenly turned strange. He turned his head to look at "Kakimoto Koudai," who was still complaining in the same spot. The other party seemed to admire that "unicorn" very much and did not think there was anything wrong with the other party's creative ideas. On the contrary, he firmly believed that the company was blind.

...Why don't you guess why that supervisor was kicked out?

As Kurosaki watched Kakimoto Koudai's face gradually contort with anger and resentment during his phone call with "Unicorn," he guessed that the other party was probably determined to publish that novel that the editor had denigrated as garbage.

It seems that he found a production company that was willing to believe in the commercial potential of his work.

"You'd better pray you don't get your message posted on the Phantom Thief channel's comment wall by fans..."

Akira Kurusu picked up the bill that the waiter had hung on the table, got up, and went into the store to pay.

When they returned to the dining table, they found that both Wakaba Mutsu and Toyokawa Shoko were staring at "Kakimoto Koudai," who was sitting a little further away and seemed to be going crazy.

"Is that guy's desires becoming twisted?" Toyokawa Shoko asked Kurusu Akira in a very low voice.

"Wow, that's fast. I thought it would take a few more days," Akira Kurusu said, watching the shadow of "Kodai Kakimoto" being dragged behind him by the light, writhing like a python.

Perhaps it's because that guy really took the success of the animation as a symbol of his talent, so he started to feel resentful after experiencing the gap between reality and reality?

The phantom thief led the two girls away from their seats.

"It may take some more time before we can revisit the Toyokawa family."

"Can I please stop going to the toilet?" Toyokawa Shoko covered her face in distress.

Akira Kurusu recalled seeing Shin Tsurumaki during the day, and then looked at the young lady of the Toyokawa family beside her, and had a premonition. "Let's cherish this moment. This will probably be the last time we enter and exit the memory space together in the toilet."

"I don't want to cherish this opportunity!" Toyokawa Shoko thought about how she had finally become a superpowered person, but every time she had to hide in the bathroom with her friends, the embarrassment and shame were almost indescribable.

Or rather, among the Phantom Thieves, only Akira Kurusu can walk into the women's restroom without batting an eye, close the door, and enter the Memory Dimension—

"Muto?" As she entered the women's restroom, Toyokawa Shoko looked at "Wakaba Muto," who had suddenly bumped into Kurusu Akira's back.

He discovered that his "half-body" was filled with unease and shame.

It was Motis...

As Motis looked at the composed-looking boy in front of her in the women's restroom, she felt so guilty that she seemed ready to run away at any moment.

She couldn't even imagine what it would be like to suddenly encounter an unsuspecting passerby...

Akira Kurusu quickly opened the door to a cubicle and waved to the two girls.

Shoko Toyokawa sighed, turned around, and pulled Mortis into the adjacent cubicle.

The moment the door closed and locked, the layers of the world were suddenly shattered, and the three of them immediately fell into the space of impressions.

To onlookers, it was as if the boy and girl in the bathroom had vanished into thin air—and of course, there were no witnesses.

......

Mottis... or rather, Mutsuka Wakaba's Persona is very powerful.

This was something Akira Kurusu had anticipated.

Although the shadow of "Kakimoto Koudai's" twisted desires was only recently born, the fact that he could easily defeat it with a single move fully demonstrates the immeasurable potential of this persona.

Nearly half an hour has passed since I left the Impression Space and returned to reality.

The three members of the Phantom Thieves arrived at their pre-arranged secret base through the Space of Impression.

Akira Kurusu handed the prepared notice to Morgana, who was waiting by the window, and said, "Please deliver this to the first-floor office of DB Library Group C."

Morgana scratched at the notice with his paws, "Why are they starting to act first and ask questions later?"

"We can't afford to waste time and energy dealing with every low-level fry. In the future, if you encounter a task that you can handle on your own, you can try to start taking action immediately."

"What about the advance notice?"

"Of course, we'll ask Morgana."

"Hey! Are you treating us like messengers?!"

"Don't you always talk about being some kind of 'messenger of God'?" Akira Kurusu didn't forget to give the new member of the Phantom Thieves a promise. "Don't worry, we won't really treat you as a tool cat to deliver messages. This is just a necessary assessment for new recruits... you know, the so-called 'intern'."

Morgana, who was usually so arrogant, fell silent. After a few seconds of thought, it picked up the envelope without hesitation and disappeared into the darkness in an instant.

"Remember to tell that little girl outside to come back tomorrow."

A faint meow came from behind the curtain in the performance hall; this was Morgana's response.

"SPACE" has returned to its quiet atmosphere.

Having confirmed that the Phantom Thieves' final arrangements had been successfully completed, the rest of the evening belonged to these young high school students.

On the pitch-black street, the headlights of the taxi cut through the deep darkness of the twilight.

......

at the same time.

The door to the very upscale apartment was open, and Rupa and Ebizuka Tomo, who had been busy working all day, took off their shoes next to the shoe cabinet in the entryway.

"I'm back," the girls said in unison.

Welcome back.

They actually heard An and Subaru's voices coming from Fujiki-ju's kitchen.