Tokyo Psychic

Page 249

As Akira approached, she discovered that the telephone pole where the crowd was gathered actually had contact information for some daring and open erotic venues posted on it.

Yuki Mishima was urging Ryuji Sakamoto to dial the number above, and Ryuji Sakamoto blushed and stammered as he fiddled with his phone.

The boys watching nearby immediately burst into laughter and jeers.

Ryuji Sakamoto began to input numbers stiffly, one by one, as embarrassment and a vague sense of anticipation gradually built up.

Suddenly, a loud shout of "Make way!" came from outside the crowd, and then a girl with short, shoulder-length hair stormed in angrily, wearing an armband that read "Student Council Disciplinary Committee Member" on her right arm.

With a cold expression, Niijima Makoto pushed aside Ryuji Sakamoto and then reached out to tear down all the advertisements on the telephone pole one by one. "Students should act like students."

She left with the torn-up flyers.

Ryuji Sakamoto silently pressed the delete button repeatedly on his phone screen, while Yuki Mishima nudged his arm with her elbow. "Thank goodness I didn't make a call."

Ryuji Sakamoto nodded with lingering fear, "That was close, I almost had to write a self-criticism."

"Do you think... Niijima-senpai might bring the flyers to the office and secretly make phone calls herself?"

"Isn't she a girl...?"

"I heard there's an investigator working at the Metropolitan Police Department, she might be setting up a sting operation."

"..."

Akira Kurusu listened for a while and then asked, "So you guys are going to participate in the competition soon?"

These two are from the track and field team and the volleyball team, respectively. It's already June, which is the time for the preliminary rounds. The national competition will officially begin in the fall. Why are they still here researching the phone number of erotic clubs?

Ryuji Sakamoto and Yuki Mishima exchanged glances, then put their arms around Akira Kurusu's shoulders. "Oh dear, that's just how you are..."

"Oh, so it's just teenage turmoil." Akira Kurusu decisively interrupted their combo before they could even begin to explain their ultimate fantasy of love.

"I have nothing to say to someone as 'normie' as you." Yuki Mishima walked away dejectedly.

"Explode, Amamiya." Ryuji Sakamoto gave Akira Kurusu the middle finger.

Then the two left arm in arm, looking somewhat forlorn—their classmates were already dating countless people, while the two brothers were still single. There was nothing they could do about it; every day after school they would spend all their time training in the club, sometimes until late at night.

He hasn't even had time to confess his feelings, let alone date a girl.

Summer vacation was the preliminary round, and after mid-May, the two of them barely sat in the classroom at all.

Although they did think things like, "I'm so tired, I should just give up," the national competition was just around the corner, and they carried the expectations of their teachers and the reputation of their school. All the members of the club were practicing hard, and they couldn't betray the trust they had in each other...

Thinking about it this way, with the champion's stage, the praise from others, and the expectation of success, romance doesn't seem so important anymore.

But in their spare time, Ryuji Sakamoto and Yuki Mishima would occasionally go out for meals together.

Sitting in a corner of the family restaurant, they looked at the dishes laid out in front of them, occasionally lost in thought and confusion.

It wasn't about romance, nor was it about competitive ambitions.

But... I always feel like something is missing from my life.

The daily life on campus is peaceful and harmonious, and everyone is taking steady steps on the bright road of life.

It seems that if we continue down this path, we can achieve a very happy and fulfilling life.

But there's a strange sense of emptiness, as if a whole jigsaw puzzle is missing just one piece...

It's as if they weren't supposed to live this kind of life. Although it's far from happy, that kind of life, drifting along with the tide, would give them a more special sense of accomplishment and belonging.

They walked into the campus side by side.

Ryuji Sakamoto and Yuki Mishima met the new school nurse, Takuto Maruki, who was also in charge of psychological counseling, in the corridor.

"Good morning, Mr. Maruki!" This gentle, easy-going, and good-tempered young teacher is quite popular among students.

Maruki Takuto greeted them with a smile, "Mishima, Sakamoto, keep up the good work with your studies today. Although the competition results are important, you can't completely neglect your academic subjects."

As I walked down the corridor, I saw the famous young lady from the Okumura family, who was in the third grade, walking up the stairs.

This young lady looks as delicate as a marshmallow, but for some reason there are always rumors that "Okumura can bend iron pipes with his bare hands and carry two sacks of soil up five floors by himself"...

The title of the top of the five campus legends has been relinquished as a result—"Third-year student Okumura Haru has the physique of Beowulf and always mysteriously disappears into the deepest part of the club building after school, carrying a lot of heavy objects."

The second place in this school legend is held by the legendary transfer student, Akira Kurusu. "Once a cute and beautiful girl steps into the club activity room of the Mental Health Education Department, there is no chance of her ever coming back."

The other campus legends received far less discussion on the forum than the two mentioned above, since rumors are always debunked eventually. And no one has ever dared to investigate the truth of the first and second ones.

Actually, some curious people have tried it... Once, a curious boy followed Okumura Haru to the club building after school, but he disappeared from school the next day and never came to school again. Even asking the teachers and instructors, he could not get any answers.

There was once a very well-behaved and pretty girl with green hair who visited the club activity room of the Mental Health Education Department, but she never appeared at Xiujin again after that.

......

"We're going to be late." Akira Kurishi reached out and blocked the turnstile, letting Inoko Rennai, who was carrying a schoolbag, pass through.

Jing Qinren glanced back at him secretly, then quickly lowered her head, ran away without saying a word, her face flushed.

As the skirt fluttered in the breeze, two slender, white legs could be seen beneath the shorts underneath, dazzlingly white in the sunlight.

Ever since he dragged Iori Ren out on a date on Children's Day, and went through a series of "proofs of friendship," the girl has been too afraid to talk to Kurusu Akira anymore.

She wouldn't even dare to make eye contact; upon hearing Akira Kurusu's voice, she would blush, her eyes would dart away, and she would try to run away.

If you forcibly pull it back, it's like forcibly dragging a kitten hiding under the bed out of its shell. It puffs up its fur, hisses, flattens its ears, arches its back, shakes from side to side, wags its tail, hisses again, and then runs away.

If you try to catch it at this point, you will be bitten.

Don't ask Akira Kurusu how she knows—

He had tried it on the tram just over ten minutes ago, and now there were two neat rows of faint teeth marks on his palm.

Lai Xixiao sighed, then carried her schoolbag in one hand and walked towards the teaching building.

By this time, shouldn't the school be advertising for those tutoring centers? The phantom thief thought.

He walked into the teaching building, changed his shoes in the porch, and just as he went upstairs, he was stopped by An and Subaru, who were trying to act cute in the corridor next door.

He could only kiss her on the corner of her mouth to appease his girlfriend, who was always about to drag him to skip school again.

After wandering around for a while, they finally found the classroom for Class 2-D. When they pushed open the door, Akira Kurusu was immediately shocked by the person on the podium.

He had seen this "outstanding graduate" promoted as a role model by cram schools on an advertising screen in Chiyoda.

I also had a brief contact with the other party based on information provided by Ms. Woyan from DB Bunko.

The university students on the podium were clearly surprised by Akira Kurusu's appearance.

Upon their first meeting, they both felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if they were another version of themselves.

Then, a warm smile appeared on that seemingly indifferent face, and the girls in the classroom immediately started screaming like swooning fans.

He quickly approached and then extended his right hand to Akira Kurusu as a way of introducing himself.

"Yu Narukami, a second-year law student at the University of Tokyo, it's nice to meet you."

Akira hesitated for a moment, but still smiled and took his right hand.

"Ren Amamiya, a second-year student at Shujin Higher Academy, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Narukami Yu shook Akira's hand forcefully, "After school, would you be willing to take some time to talk to me?"

"I can't ask for it."

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(I actually took leave on May 1st, after all, I wrote 110,000 words in five days, and I almost broke my hand while writing.)

(Chapter 211 is extremely long, containing a whopping 4100 words of prohibited content. It's still not fully revised, and posting it in a regular group would likely get reported by an insider. But since most readers who have read this far have probably already subscribed to the entire series, I'm posting it directly to the subscription group.)

(Instructions for joining the full subscription group are detailed in a separate chapter of this volume.)

213. Shiomi Kotone doesn't want to go to work.

"Ryuji, are you planning to go to that cram school?"

After math class, Yuki Mishima asked Ryuji Sakamoto questions with great interest.

It was clearly the speech given by Narukami-senpai, whom he had once bumped into in Yasui Inaba City, that had piqued his interest.

Although Ryuji Sakamoto admired Yu Narukami, whom he had only met once, they weren't volleyball players together, so he remained somewhat rational. "If you just want to become popular, going to a cram school won't help. Those places will only give you calluses on your fingers and make your eyesight so bad that you can't even see the volleyball."

Mishima Yuki hesitated for a moment, "But why do I feel like having good grades means being more popular? Forget Naruto-senpai, look at Ren..."

“An illusion,” Ryuji Sakamoto said with an expression of detachment from life and death, or rather, acceptance of the unevenness of reality. “They are popular simply because they are handsome.”

It was during recess, and the faint sound of loud whistles could be heard from the playground outside the window.

The "academic elites" who used to chat or boast with their friends during breaks are now making the most of their time to flip through textbooks or scribble on test booklets with pens.

Since the school principal was changed from a middle-aged man to Shin Tsurumaki, a member of an active girl band and a wealthy heiress, this development, which resembles a light novel plot, seems to have given some self-proclaimed academically gifted boys unwarranted fantasies—after all, such a cute, beautiful, and amazingly talented school principal is almost impossible to appear in outside of light novels or manga.

But this completely unrealistic development actually happened in reality.

Think carefully about why we study. To get into a good university and find a good job.

Now that an opportunity to achieve instant success is presented to them, it is truly a difficult task to expect a group of restless teenage boys to resist the urge to even think about it.

However, they probably really have no chance at all.

Although the principal has indeed changed, this principal is not interested in academic performance or college entrance rates at all. Even if someone suddenly has a breakthrough performance and achieves a perfect score in all subjects in a major exam, Xianjuanxin probably wouldn't bother to invite them.

To put it bluntly, even outstanding graduates from the University of Tokyo are only qualified to interview for the Tsurumaki Foundation.

Ever since she was tricked and coaxed by the old men in her family into buying the position of the school's chairman, Xuan Juanxin has never cared about the college entrance examination pass rate or the enrollment rate. She just looks forward to seeing Xi Xiao's smile, which is why she occasionally takes the time to go to Xiu and try her best to show her face.

After all, she herself is still just a high school student.

While having breakfast in the newly renovated chairman's office, Xuan Juanxin casually flipped through the messy work documents.

The secretary that the Tsurumaki family had arranged for her was diligently tidying up the folders that Tsurumaki had messed up.

Suddenly, the phone on the table vibrated a few times, and then the familiar contact name "Shiomi Kotone" appeared on the screen.

The eyes of Kokoro Tsurumaki, who had been bored and planning to go and check out Class D of the second year, suddenly brightened.

She picked up her phone and answered the call.

"Qinyin! Good morning!" is a warm and enthusiastic greeting.

"Good morning, Kokoro..." Kotone Shiomi sounded a little unwell on the other end of the phone.

Kotone asked her psychic friend with concern, "Kotone, your voice sounds very tired."

On the other end of the phone, Shiomi Kotone was standing at the entrance of the convenience store, wearing an employee uniform, staring blankly at the bustling street. "I'm just so tired. Part-time jobs are such a hassle."

Throwing a girl who passed away in 2010 directly into this society twelve years later, while she might not be completely helpless, she would certainly encounter obstacles at every turn.

During her time in Tokyo after leaving the artificial island, Shiomi Kotone stayed at Yukari Takeha's apartment.

She simply couldn't bear to be supported by her former friend so openly—even though Yukari seemed to enjoy it and was always busy taking care of Shiomi Kotone's quality of life.

But tide Jianqin couldn't get over the hurdle in her heart.

The girl who lost her parents at a young age learned to be independent very early.

Especially during his time as the leader of "SEES", this independence further evolved into "standing alone".

To expect this proud girl, who is unwilling to tell anyone about her difficulties and setbacks, to live a life of dependence on others with a clear conscience... that would be quite unfair.

So after Shiomi Kotone managed to get her ID, the first thing she did was start doing part-time jobs to try to pay for her expenses at Yukari Takeuchi's house.

Initially, it was two part-time jobs per day, later it became four...

From convenience stores at 5 a.m. to fast food restaurants at 10 p.m.

Only now has she realized that rent in this run-down place, Tokyo, is actually so expensive.

After all, due to the nature of her work, Yukari Yueyu lives in a relatively upscale residential area in Chiyoda. Even if Kotone Shiomi shares the rent with her, it is still an amount that is difficult to afford by working part-time.

Even the savior of yesteryear will soon have his spirit worn down by the daily grind of work.

Now, Kotone Shiomi has begun to miss her school days.

She remembered that she was still seventeen, physically young enough to have just graduated from second grade, and so, during this exhausting breakfast, she finally couldn't bear it any longer and dialed the number of Xuan Juanxin—

Kotone Shiomi is preparing to give up the grand stage of being a corporate slave and instead compete with high school students on a more authoritative stage—the higher education school.

Of course, the more important reason is actually...

She remembered Ravenda's suggestion in the velvet room.

If you want to extend the lifespan of this body from a short "one year" to the level of a normal human or even a higher level.