Tokyoites don't have martial virtue

Then, she drew a second card, her expression turning worried: "This is... the reversed 'Love' card..."

"The Great Reversal?" Makoto Kyushu had never heard of this term before.

"You'll die." A terrifying word suddenly popped out of Ye You Tianyin's mouth: "[Love] will kill you."

"What do you mean? What do you mean by 'you'll die'?!" Kyushu Makoto also tensed up, staring at her anxiously.

"Explain yourself! If you believe your divination is true, then tell me what exactly 'love' means? This sounds like a matter of life and death!"

“I’m sorry, guest…” Night Wanderer Heavenly Sound shook her head in frustration: “I have no ability to discern its true identity. The divination results tell me that [Love] will face an unavoidable catastrophe, and her fate has reached its end.”

"Why do you fortune tellers always speak in such alarming ways without explaining things clearly?" Kyushu Makoto complained, annoyed by her. "You just want to instill fear in your customers so they can swindle money from you!"

“Those charlatan fortune tellers who swindle others are indeed like that…” Night Wanderer Heavenly Sound put away the tarot cards without saying a word, having no way to refute them.

Just then, Kyushu Makoto's phone rang, and the caller ID showed "Karasawa Sakifumi".

"What's wrong, Karasukawa-senpai?" Kyushu Makoto picked up his phone and asked curiously.

This was the first time she had called him since they exchanged contact information.

"I was just discussing my graduation plans with my teacher when I saw Mizuhashi walking towards the rooftop. Her expression was a little off." Karasukawa Sakifumi's tone was a bit nervous.

"Strange... Mizuhashi-kun has never participated in any clubs, shouldn't he have gone home by now?" Kyushu Makoto wondered.

Why is she still staying at school?

I saw her ten minutes ago, and I'm home now. But something felt off, so I thought I'd better contact you. I had this feeling... there was something about her about her wanting to die.

"An aura of wanting to die?"

[I guess it's because I witnessed many people die in front of me when I was a child, so this feeling is very familiar to me. I don't have her contact information, but could you please look after her a little?]

"I'll contact her right away." Kyushu Makoto said and then hung up the phone.

Immediately afterwards, he dialed the number of his junior, Mizuhashi, but found that he couldn't get through no matter what he tried.

"Strange...her phone is off?" Kyushu Makoto looked puzzled.

Ye You Tianyin, sitting next to her, was biting her fingernails, muttering to herself absentmindedly:

"[Love] is dead... Why did love die? How strange..."

For some reason, Makoto Kyushu suddenly became uneasy. It was as if a voice was telling him:

Hurry up and get to school!

"Damn it!" Kyushu Makoto slammed his fist on the table, stood up, and rushed out of the coffee shop as fast as he could.

54. Though the body may be in hell, the heart remains as pure as crystal.

"Excuse me! Could you move aside?"

At Shinjuku Station, Makoto Kyushu squeezed through the bustling crowd of commuters and forced his way onto a train bound for school.

Inside the train carriage, ignoring the disapproving looks from the other passengers, Kyushu Makoto made several phone calls to Delinquent Three:

"Hey, where are you guys now?...Playing at the baseball stadium near the school? Perfect, you guys hurry up and get to school!"

For some reason, Kyushu Makoto's heart was pounding. He felt he had to go to school immediately, or something tragic would happen.

Was it that fortune teller who made me so paranoid? ...Kyushu Makoto wondered.

He was particularly bothered by what Senior Karakawa had just said about "the aura of preparing to die." He didn't want anything to happen to that poor kid, Mizuhashi, no matter what.

He's the kind of man who does what he wants to do immediately. Even if it's just to dispel his inner concerns, he'll rush to the school right away, even if he gets scolded by the shop manager and has his wages docked afterward.

I arrived at school, panting, as dusk was approaching.

Several dark birds hovered beneath the fiery clouds, while ominous caws echoed from the sky.

"Hey! Something bad has happened, Kyushu-kun!" At this moment, Tang Zegui waddled over, his large body waddling, and said anxiously:

"Mizuhashi-kun...he's on the rooftop!"

Following the direction Tang Zegui pointed, Kyushu Makoto indeed saw a petite figure standing on the edge of the rooftop of the teaching building.

"How could this happen!" Kyushu Makoto's heart skipped a beat.

He even went to the lower grades' classrooms to check after school today, and it turns out that his junior, Mizuhashi, is doing very well!

"What about the other two?" Kyushu Makoto asked.

"They're confronting Mizuhashi on the rooftop!" Tang Zegui said anxiously.

"Suzuki is a smooth talker; he should be able to keep Mizuhashi in check."

"Go find the teacher on duty first and have them bring over everything that can be used as a buffer!" Kyushu Makoto ordered decisively. "I'll go up and take a look!"

After giving the instructions, Kyushu Makoto gritted his teeth and ran up to the teaching building as fast as he could.

......

On the rooftop, Suzuki Yujin and Takatsuki Genji were trying to persuade Mizuhashi Eiji—of course, it was basically Suzuki Yujin putting on a one-man show.

"Mizuhashi-kun, do you find the 'Real Man Training' too tough?"

"Well, let's get down from the dangerous place first!"

"Brother Jiuzhou said he fought desperately to beat the class referee to protect you. He'd be so heartbroken if you were gone!"

To persuade his junior, Mizuhashi, Suzuki Yuujin racked his brains, spouting both truth and lies in a dazzling display of sincerity.

Genji Takatsuki was not good with words, so he couldn't get a word in edgewise and could only stand to the side with a stern face.

However, he was carrying a large roll of hemp rope, which he had grabbed from a cleaning cart on his way to the rooftop. His intuition told him that this thing might come in handy.

Despite their best efforts to persuade him, Mizuhashi remained squatting on the edge of the rooftop, silent. He simply stood there, his face ashen, neither wanting to argue nor explain.

That's enough. A useless piece of trash like me doesn't deserve to stay in this world. I don't want to cause any more trouble for my seniors... Mizuhashi Eiji thought to himself as his body began to sway.

"Please! Come back first!" Suzuki Yuujin cried out anxiously from the bottom of his heart, "Brother Kyushu is coming soon. You know his temper. He will definitely help you if you are in trouble!"

“Kyushu-senpai…” Mizuhashi Eiji murmured softly.

For some reason, her heart, which was on the verge of stopping, seemed to come back to life.

Makoto Kyushu was the first ray of light in her life, and the first man who could make her feel at ease.

Therefore, she no longer wanted to cause trouble for Senior Kyushu... Only by completely disappearing could she repay her senior, a piece of trash like her.

"I'm sorry..." Mizuhashi Eiji's lips moved, then he seemed to make up his mind and let his body sink down.

Goodbye... Anyway, no one will be sad for a useless piece of trash like me... My seniors don't need to be threatened with dropping out because of me... My parents will be happy to be rid of this burden...

"Wait!" Just as Kyushu Makoto rushed onto the rooftop, he happened to see Mizuhashi Eiji about to fall.

A strong sense of crisis brought Kyushu Makoto into a state of intense concentration. In his vision, time seemed to stand still, and everyone's movements became incredibly slow.

Calm down... there's still a way! It'll take at least five seconds to run to the edge of the rooftop, three seconds to climb over the wire fence, then I'll jump down, grab Mizuhashi, and use my body to cushion the landing...

No, this is the fifth floor. If we're unlucky, we'll all die; we might not be able to save him, and we'll lose our own lives...

Or should I grab the rope in Takatsuki's hand, jump down to catch Mizuhashi, and then have the two of them pull me up from the other end of the rope, dangling me in mid-air?

But if I grab the rope with only one hand, can my arm withstand the impact? It would definitely dislocate or even break, wouldn't it?

The most pressing question now is... am I fast enough? Am I capable of saving him?

【...】

The lingering glow of the setting sun, like a dying ember, stung Kyushu Makoto's eyes, making him dizzy.

When his vision cleared again, he found himself in a martial arts training ground.

Standing before him was a thin, wiry old man. The old man held a steel rod in his right hand and hugged a small bear doll about half his height in his left, as if he were simulating a hostage situation.

"Master!" Kyushu Makoto exclaimed instinctively, tears of joy almost streaming down his face.

His master pointed a steel rod at him and asked sternly:

"Xiao Jiu, the situation is urgent, I'm going to test you! I'm an armed criminal who has taken hostages. If you rush in to save them, my stick will definitely hit your head and kill you on the spot! In this situation, should you rush in to save them?"

"A martial artist does not act recklessly." Kyushu Makoto stood motionless, answering firmly:

“In this situation, I can neither save the hostages nor save my own life. It would be better to turn around and run away to seek help, or simply let them fend for themselves and save my own life.”

"Good answer!" The master smiled with satisfaction, then brandished the stick again and asked, "This time, my stick will definitely hit your arm, possibly causing a comminuted fracture of your hand! But if you don't save me now, I'll kill you right now! In this situation, will you save me or not?!"

Upon hearing this, Kyushu Makoto immediately let out a strange, maniacal laugh and attacked his master without hesitation:

"An arm for a life, isn't that a huge win?!"

"Good!" Sure enough, his master lashed the iron rod across his left shoulder. A searing pain shot through his arm, almost making him lose all feeling.

"Master, I've saved him!" Kyushu Makoto shouted, enduring the pain, and thrust out a powerful "Top Yang Finger" with his right hand, piercing his master's philtrum.

Immediately afterwards, Kyushu Makoto used his Iron Mountain Lean to knock his master aside, snatched his large doll, and hugged it tightly to his chest.

【...】

"Why would you save someone like me...senpai..."

I heard Eiji Mizuhashi's pleading voice.

Kyushu Makoto suddenly woke up and found himself holding a rope with one hand and hugging Mizuhashi Eiji with the other, the two of them hanging in mid-air from the school building.