Tokyo Psychic

"Everyone's heard, right? This afternoon, there was a terrible traffic accident in Harajuku. A bus was driving the wrong way, resulting in forty casualties!"

"..."

"A bus was driving against the flow of traffic, carrying passengers. It's clearly a means of public transportation, yet something like this happened! How can the citizens live in peace?!"

The news show host said this in an exaggerated and lamenting tone.

The passengers' noisy discussions suddenly became louder.

"It's really scary."

"What's going on? Didn't a similar strange loss of control accident happen last year?"

"Yeah, but it stopped for a while a few months ago. But I didn't expect it to start happening again recently. Even that congressman was beaten in the street..."

"Hey, it's said that the detectives who investigated this kind of 'out-of-control incident' all became vegetables."

Kurusu Akatsuki listened to the passengers' discussion along the way, his brows furrowed.

He actually knows the truth about the so-called "out-of-control incident."

Because in the original world, Kurusu Akatsuki's primary goal as the Phantom Thief of the Mind is to find and resolve the source of this series of "out-of-control events."

But... "It has started happening again recently", what does this mean?

It seemed that many more things were going to be different from what he had expected.

But before he could think about it, the tram arrived at the station.

Kurusu Akatsuki had no choice but to follow the evening rush hour crowd and move out the door.

It was already evening.

The sunset seemed to have bloomed an orange-red flower in the sea of ​​clouds, which was very beautiful.

But flowers also have to wither, and as the cold spring night wind blew the petals off, they fluttered down on the streets of Setagaya Ward.

Kurusu Akatsuki walked out of the tram station, and everywhere he looked was a brilliant red fire.

The cell phone in his trouser pocket suddenly started vibrating.

【Sakura Sojiro requests that you answer the phone. 】

Kurusu Akatsuki answered the call without hesitation and put the receiver to his ear.

"Amamiya, Amamiya Ren?" The voice on the receiver became a little strange. "That's your real name, right?"

"Yes...I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have lied to you!"

Faced with the possibility of social death and losing his hard-earned part-time job, Kurusu Akatsuki was already sweating profusely.

If he said now that he only knew the name "Amamiya Ren" this morning, would Sakura Sojiro believe it?

But Sakura Sojiro didn't seem to want to dwell on this issue with him. "Your schoolbag and guitar were left on the high-speed train. My friend's daughter brought them back for you. Go to LeBron to get them."

The phone hangs up.

Kurusu Akatsuki stood in the center of the square in Setagaya Ward. The tall buildings reflected the afterglow of the setting sun like prisms, as if countless golden swords pierced him with holes in an instant.

The cold wind penetrated into the densely packed cave, making a whimpering sound.

*

(003.webp)

PS:

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006. Whose Life Should I Take Charge of (Two in One)

At dusk, Yokenjaya has a gentle yet sad beauty, with buildings resembling those from the Showa era floating in a magnificent display of light and shadow.

Kurusu Akatsuki, clutching an empty bottle of mineral water, passed by a video store and walked into this tired, old street. His figure was dimly reflected in the window panes, plastered with posters of Taiga dramas, and he could hear the ticking of a retro clock inside.

It was as if time began to flow backwards, and the breath of antiquity and vicissitudes seeped out through every inch of brick and stone cracks soaked by the setting sun, floating in front of him and merging with the sinking afterglow into a hazy light mist.

In a trance, he felt that he had entered a society filled with countless bubbles, endless carnival and endless depression.

Advertisements for various sex toys and special services are posted on the nearby walls. The exaggerated restricted-level photos, combined with simple and rough artistic fonts and phone numbers, create an overly greasy visual effect.

These flyers have been exposed to wind and rain, and have become blistered and faded. The faces of beautiful women are covered in blood-red mist, looking hideous and bloated, like corpses that have been soaked in water for a long time.

Kurusu Akatsuki looked around and suddenly shuddered, subconsciously slowing down his pace.

He walked on the narrow streets full of spring, but it felt like he was stepping into a lonely cemetery. The cherry blossoms in the evening were dotted on the edges of the houses in the distance, and the soft light pink color was dim in the grand light and shadow of dusk.

The streets are sparsely populated, and the occasional pedestrians walk with their heads down. Occasionally, they will stop for a few seconds at an intersection or a corner, as if paying tribute to an invisible tombstone.

Kurusu Akatsuki passed by them, holding the mineral water bottle in his hand as if he was holding a bunch of white lilies. He went deeper into the Shigenjaya, and the red and white awning of the "LeBron" coffee shop came into view in an instant.

He squeezed the mineral water bottle tightly, making a "crunching" sound.

At this moment, Kurusu Akatsuki understood where the "tombstone" he was going to visit was.

"Amamiya Ren." He whispered the name.

Then he approached the frosted glass door and grasped the cool metal doorknob.

When the shop door opened and closed, the middle-aged man who was wiping the table with a rag straightened his back and sighed imperceptibly.

Sakura Sojiro twirled the frame of his glasses by his ear and stared at Kurusu Akatsuki who was standing at the door.

"You're finally here."

Kurusu Akatsuki saw the piano case and school bag placed on the dining table closest to the store door. He put the plastic bottle in his hand on them and bowed deeply to Sakura Sojiro.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Sakura."

"The person you should really thank is actually right here."

Sakura Sojiro turned sideways and revealed Isenai Jinna, who was scratching her head at an exercise book on the dining table.

"She's my friend's daughter. She's coming to Tokyo from Kumamoto to study and will be staying at my house temporarily..." Sakura Sojiro turned to look at Ii Serina, "Ii Serina, come here and introduce yourself. This is Amamiya. You'll be classmates from now on."

"She's also transferring to Shujin?"

"Yes, the transfer procedures and the like will probably be completed in the next few days."

While they were talking, Isen Jinna had already left her seat and was standing behind Sakura Sojiro, looking a little uncomfortably.

Kurusu Akatsuki took off his glasses and bowed solemnly to her. "I am Amamiya Ren. Thank you very much for your help."

Jing Qin Rencai was at a loss for a moment, then she actually bowed deeply to Kurusu Akatsuki, "Um, my name is Jing Qin... Rencai..."

A country girl who hadn't seen much of the world had just arrived in Tokyo and encountered a gloomy and handsome man with a face comparable to the male lead in a morning drama. He thanked her solemnly.

Jing Qinrencai's brain has crashed.

She had never seen such a scene since she was a child. Those handsome and beautiful classmates had always been the focus of the class.

It is impossible and impossible for them to abandon their dignity and status as "real people" to express their gratitude to their peers in such a serious and solemn manner.

But when she came to her senses, Kurusu Akatsuki had already walked out of LeBron without saying a word.

Sojiro Sakura looked at Kurusu Akatsuki's back and the school uniform that he hadn't changed since yesterday... He couldn't help but want to smoke a cigarette.

So he told Jing Qinrencai, "Please help keep the store open. Call me if you have any customers."

"Mr. Sakura, are you going to look for Amamiya-san?"

"I just feel a little uncomfortable."

"As expected, you're worried about Amamiya-san!"

"Of course I'm worried. That kid seems to have been through a lot of bad things."

"Aren't you worried that he will make some irrational decisions?!" Jing Qinrencai's emotions suddenly became agitated.

It was because of various bad circumstances that she decided to leave school and family and go to Tokyo to study alone.

Sakura Sojiro walked to the door of the store while looking for cigarettes and a lighter.

"Jing Qin." He pressed the cigarette case in his hand, turned around to look at the girl who seemed to empathize with "Amamiya Ren", and said slowly, "Amamiya and you are actually different."

"When I first met him, he was penniless, his phone's address book was empty, and he was wearing only his school uniform. At 10:30 pm, hungry, he sat alone in the doorway of an abandoned internet cafe, talking to himself. But one look at him revealed that he had the resolve to take responsibility for his own life."

After saying that, Sakura Sojiro scratched his hair in distress and said, "I'm sorry for saying something incomprehensible to you."

Then he opened the shop door and left.

Through the door, I could faintly hear the trigger of the lighter being pressed with a "click".

The flames shot up, igniting the tobacco, and a wisp of gray mist rose into the light of the setting sun, then slowly dissipated.

*

Two men dressed like gangsters squatted beside a bench in the community park and smoked. The dense and fragmented shadows of the leaves poured down, as if a fishing net covered their faces.

Kurusu Akatsuki came into their sight carrying a school bag and a violin case.

In their eyes, this is a thin and weak boy with a depressed face and a bad temper who wants to run away from home.

Then the man with green hair waved at Kurusu Akatsuki.

"Hey, kid, stay away from here! If you have something on your mind, go home to your mom!"

Kurusu Akatsuki looked around for a while. A mother was playing with her child in the simple entertainment facilities, and an old man with a cane was chatting next to the spray paint... Only here was the quietest.

"Give me one too." Kurusu Akatsuki simply chose to join them.

The two people who were smoking looked at each other immediately, then cursed, put out the cigarette butts in their hands on the flower bed behind them, patted their butts and left.

"What an idiot! Why is this little brat imitating an adult to smoke? If you can study, study hard. Why smoke...you don't act like a student!"

In fact, they had already voluntarily given up the bench and walked out of the park with little interest.

"Thank you." Kurusu Akatsuki was a little surprised, then put his schoolbag and piano case on the bench.

Maybe because he put out the cigarette halfway through, or maybe because he really didn't want to see Kurusu Akatsuki again, the green-haired man raised his two middle fingers above his head and said, "You better never let me see you again!"

His friend next to him turned around and added, "Remember to go home and apologize to Mom and Dad after you stop crying, and then study hard! Otherwise, you'll end up like us in the future... Hey, hey! Matsusaka-san, why did you kick me?!"

Kurusu Akatsuki sat down on the bench with a puzzled look in his eyes.

Go home...

If only I could go back.

With mixed feelings, he took the bag and unzipped it.

Most of the space in the schoolbag was filled with spare clothes, followed by proof of residence, student ID, mobile phone charger... After a careful search, in addition to all those small items, there was also a thick notebook that looked like a photo album.

The notebook was very old, with a yellowed cover covered with dense scratches, and "Amemiya Family" was written on the cover.

Kurusu Akatsuki picked up his student ID card. The ID photo was taken strangely. The boy was quite handsome, but he had a gloomy face in front of the camera as if he was attending a funeral.

He looked at the camera with a pair of lifeless and empty eyes.

It was as if he had penetrated the photograph, penetrated the constraints of time and space, and met Kurusu Akatsuki's gaze.

"Life is boring, is that what you mean?"

Kurusu Akatsuki carefully read the words on the student ID card.

【Private Shujin Gakuen High School. 】

[Second grade, Class D, Amamiya Ren.]

"Amamiya Ren..." He repeated the name over and over again.

So, is this "me" in the parallel world dead?

Why didn’t I find any wounds on my body when I came here?

Is it because of the so-called supernatural events?

It's really annoying.

Kurusu Akatsuki put down his student ID and opened the notebook with the words "Amamiya family" written on it.

It was stuffed with dozens of plastic-wrapped photos and notes, many of which were covered with hiragana or katakana written in either sloppy or neat handwriting.

At the front is a photo of a family of three with happy smiles on their faces at the amusement park and aquarium.

Next are the graduation photos of "Amamiya Ren" from elementary school and junior high school.

The boy in the photo is smiling brightly.