Tokyo Psychic

But all kinds of expenses have become tight...

It would be truly disgraceful if the great "Psychic Thief" could not survive in this city as "Amamiya Ren".

"Watch out Amamiya Ren, I'll only demonstrate this once."

"It's just a mere ten million in debt. Watch me pay it all off before I graduate from high school!"

Full of confidence, Kurusu Akatsuki enthusiastically began strength training consisting mainly of push-ups and plank exercises.

The night is getting darker.

The boy's heavy breathing echoed in LeBron's room.

Grass.

A sudden curse.

Accompanied by a plop sound.

Completely exhausted, Kurusu Akatsuki fell to the ground and couldn't get up again.

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(Thanks to anonymous friend Xiaochen for supporting the gold treasure chest.)

008. "A mere million in debt"

The sky at four o'clock in the morning in Shigenjaya was a desolate scene.

The never-extinguished neon lights are too far away from here. Thick clouds flow in front of the dim stars and moon. The streets are silent, and the few sparse street lights emit a hazy, dim glow in the darkness.

Kurusu Akatsuki drew aside the curtains and sat back on the bed covered with white quilt.

He was woken up by his cell phone ringing.

The same number has been calling me non-stop since five minutes ago.

Kurusu Akatsuki opened the schoolbag at the foot of the bed and took out a notebook.

He looked at the eleven "missed" call numbers on his phone screen and began to compare them with the IOUs in his notebook.

"2020, October. Toyokawa's house in Tokyo, two million yen. This is the largest single debt in the diary."

"The phone number is..."

Kurusu Akatsuki unlocked the phone on the bed and confirmed that the person calling her was the big creditor.

Cold sweat suddenly broke out from my back.

Coincidentally, at this moment, the phone screen froze for a moment, and then re-entered the "call waiting" interface.

Kurusu Xiao couldn't think of any other possibility except debt collection due to such frequent calls at four in the morning.

If I can't pay back the money, will the gangsters block my door and beat me up?

He looked at his phone, which was bouncing up and down beside his pillow, and regretted that he didn't have a Persona Summoner...

"It's just a mere ten million in debt. Watch me pay it all off before I graduate from high school!"

The ambition he had set before going to bed hit him like a boomerang, passing through time and space.

Kurusu Akatsuki felt that if Igor didn't come to him with the "employment contract" from the Velvet Room, they would most likely lose a perfect worker with six years of work experience who was ready to start work at any time.

Want to find a way to save yourself?

He clenched his fists, feeling the power hidden deep within his body ready to burst out.

As a battle-hardened Persona user, Kurusu Akatsuki naturally possesses the skill to forcibly summon a Persona to the real world even at the cost of enormous effort when all else is at its limit.

But now there is one crucial thing that needs to be explained.

That is, the personality mask he brought from the parallel world has not been registered in the Velvet Room, so if he wants to forcibly summon the personality mask to reality, he can only use the traces of the soul of "Amamiya Ren" left in the body to reproduce a power that is completely unknown to Kurusu Akatsuki.

He didn't know what abilities the personality mask he called out had, nor what kind of damage it would cause.

A desperate call might cause a personality mask that is not carefully controlled to explode in power in an instant, causing the situation to completely spiral out of control and resulting in all kinds of tragedies.

This would completely go against the ideas of the Velvet Room and the series of thief codes he set for the identity of "Thief of the Mind".

In other words, answering this call now is the best option.

Get the real information as soon as possible, and then use as much time as possible to think about a plan to avoid danger.

Kurusu Akatsuki picked up the phone and pressed the answer button.

The receiver suddenly erupted with the sound of a glass bottle smashing on the ground. The men were arguing, and in the background there was faintly the intense music played by the "Pachinko" machine, which was excessively lively.

Soon, a drunken voice was heard.

"Oh, I finally got through."

"Hello, this is the Amamiya family."

It wasn't the "Amamiya family." The household registration book only had the name "Amamiya Ren" left, and his personal phone number was the home number.

"Whoever you... uh, who you are," the man yelled in a flustered voice on the other end of the phone, followed by an obvious burp, "give me my money back!"

After confirming that the creditor's mental state was not normal at the moment, Kurusu Akatsuki's emotions quickly calmed down.

He turned on the call recording and said to the phone, "Yes, the Amamiya family owes you a total of 2 million yen. According to the inheritance law, I should repay you the entire debt of 2 million yen."

"That's good to know!...Money! Hurry up! I need money now!" The voice in the receiver suddenly became anxious and excited.

“How many do you need?”

"One million! Two million! Bring as many as you can!"

"I'm sorry, but it's four in the morning. I'm afraid I can't meet your request."

"Who cares what you idiot do? I want you to pay me back now! ... Don't make me call the police!"

The voice on the phone became louder, and it seemed as if one could smell the foul smell of alcohol through the receiver. The ugly appearance of a drunk person with saliva splashing instantly broke into Kurusu Akatsuki's imagination.

He carefully listened to the noisy background noise on the phone and raised his question after a few seconds of silence.

"You're at the casino, aren't you?"

"What do you care where I am? You poor, incompetent bastards, if you dare not pay me back, I will take you to court immediately!..."

Kurusu Akatsuki deliberately answered with some interjections expressing "agreement" and "apology", but did not make any explanation or refute the matter of "repaying the debt".

Such a humble and cowardly attitude actually encourages the drunkard's desire and impulse to boast about himself.

As expected, the only content coming out of the phone soon became seemingly endless vicious curses.

As a psychic thief whose goal is to steal the "evil" in the hearts of criminals, Kurusu Akatsuki is very good at provoking the emotions of criminals.

After confirming that the content of the recording could be used as evidence and clearly expressed the fact that "the creditor's mental state was abnormal and might be committing illegal acts", Kurusu Akatsuki began to wrap up.

"I'm sorry, but your current state is not suitable for communication. Please contact the Amamiya family again on a weekday after you have calmed down."

Then he hung up the phone.

Block message notifications and numbers, all in one go.

Some hot cell phones were thrown under the pillow.

Kurusu Akatsuki lay down on the bed and couldn't help but raise his middle finger towards the ceiling.

The burden of the strength training he had just done a few hours ago, coupled with lack of sleep and physical weakness, made him begin to feel obvious soreness in his arms and waist and abdomen.

Hopefully, the next time I wake up at 4 a.m., it's to be on the basketball court diligently practicing Kobe Bryant's "Mamba Mentality."

Instead of being scolded by the debt collector.

It's now 4:03 in the morning, and in two hours I have to go downstairs to clean.

Kurusu Akatsuki buried her face in the pillow in great pain...

Well, I won’t sleep anymore.

He got out of bed and started changing his clothes.

Now that you're awake, go to the campus forum of Xiujin High School to research how to get a scholarship as quickly as possible.

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PS:

(Various data during the new book period are very important! Please recommend! Please monthly ticket! Please blade! Please reward! All kinds of requests!)

009. Discrepancy Insomnia and Adaptive Coffee

"How was Tokyo? Did you sleep well?"

Line showed the message my mother sent six hours ago, but it simply changed from "unread" to "read" and did not receive any reply.

Perhaps silence is also an answer.

Jing Serina lost count of how many times her fingers had briefly paused on the numeric keypad before exiting the chat box. She mindlessly and frequently refreshed her message list, opening one chat group after another, browsing interesting news from all over Japan, intensively searching discussion forums for her favorite bands, and arguing with strangers online over various disagreements...

The night was inadvertently torn into pieces by the sunlight, and by the time she noticed the time stamp on her mobile phone screen, it was almost six o'clock in the morning.

Oops, I accidentally pulled an all-nighter.

After realizing that I hadn't slept all night, a strong sense of sleepiness instantly came over me.

Jing Qinrencai immediately felt her eyes dry and astringent, her whole body began to feel cold, and she couldn't help yawning.

She felt a little weak and wanted to sleep immediately with her pillow in her arms.

But I promised Mr. Sakura that I would get up early today and follow him to the new school...

Jing Qinrencai got out of bed with difficulty, rummaged through the suitcase on the floor to find a pair of cotton socks, and put them on against her cold feet.

I'm so tired...I should go to bed early.

She muttered quietly, then found a black hoodie and shorts from her suitcase and put them on.

Suddenly, through the door, I could hear the sound of water splashing in the bathroom outside. Soon the sound of water stopped, and the sound of slippers stepping on the ground made a crackling sound.

Sakura Sojiro's voice was unclear through the corridor and the entrance.

"I am leaving."

The door is closed.

After a few minutes, the door of the guest room where Jing Qinrencai lived was opened. She poked her head out from the crack in the door and looked around cautiously.

Sakura's house was not what she had imagined. There was a cold and lonely atmosphere everywhere.

Since moving in yesterday afternoon, Jing Serina has not seen the figure of "Sakura Futaba" until now.

Sakura Futaba is the daughter of Sakura Sojiro.

Her room is at the end of the corridor on the second floor, but she never leaves her bedroom most of the time.

Even dinner had to be prepared by Sakura Sojiro and placed outside the door, and then after a while, he would go upstairs to take down the empty plates and bowls.

It was as if there was an invisible ghost living there, quietly cleaning up all the food that was delivered... oh, it was the offerings.

It's just like "Hanako in the Toilet"...

Thinking of this, many well-known horror stories immediately popped up in Jing Qinrencai's mind, and she shuddered.

Is there any conflict between that gentle and reliable uncle and his daughter?

Jing Qinrencai tiptoed out of the guest room carrying her schoolbag.

She stared warily at Sakura Futaba's room, then slowly backed away.

He backed up to the living room and the entrance, then grasped the door handle and turned it carefully.

The door opened, and Jing Qinrencai quickly leaned halfway toward the door, as if on guard against any supernatural event that might erupt at any moment.

But until the door of Sakura's house was closed, she didn't notice anything unusual.

The sky was just beginning to brighten, its thin sunlight hazy across the streets and alleys of the Four-Room Teahouse. Sparrows, waking up early to forage, chirped from the low walls. The neighbor's brown-furred Siamese cat stretched lazily on the slate-gray eaves, then lay down again, its lake-blue eyes listlessly cast toward the street below.

In the middle of the street, Jing Qinrencai, who was also listless, yawned as she walked, the blue sky and white clouds reflected in her lake-blue pupils.

The milk delivery man who was delivering milk door to door pedaled his bicycle hard as he passed by her on the cement road, and the chain made a continuous rattling sound.

Just by listening to it, one can imagine the carefree and elegant feeling of pedaling and riding a bicycle at full speed.