Tokyo Psychic

"As for me, I used to study at a middle school in a small town in the Kansai area."

"Sometimes, seeing other people's youth so dazzling makes me feel sorry for my own sixteen or seventeen-year-old self. I hate the internet for letting me see international high school graduation ceremonies, beautiful young women in gorgeous gowns, talking and laughing, confidently and generously welcoming their eighteenth birthday.

Sitting in the old classroom, all I can think of about my youthful campus are almost dark details: seats against the wall, ugly school uniform sleeves covering the curses on the wall, the background sound of morning reading at six or seven o'clock, and the texts, English words and math formulas swallowed whole.

I have imagined more than once that I would be blurry-faced, dejected, and in a daze until I turned eighteen.

Jing Qinrencai followed Kurusu Akatsuki's shadow and walked down the overpass step by step.

On the road nearby, an old-fashioned van was passing by. There seemed to be some heavy objects in the car, which collided with each other and made a loud noise.

Kurusu Akatsuki held his phone, glanced at the route map on the navigation, then took a few steps back and stood next to Jing Qinrencai.

"You may feel that your opening exam results are not satisfactory, but that is only the beginning of the school year. No one's life will stagnate because of a failed exam."

"So, given this rare opportunity to live a glamorous life in Tokyo, a city that seems so glamorous, if we don't challenge ourselves to have more options... then why did we come to Tokyo in the first place?"

"Just to 'escape'?"

"But if one day, even Tokyo has no place to stay, where can we escape to?"

Kurusu Akatsuki turned sideways and stood in front of Jing Serina. Every question he uttered was like the devil's whispered temptation, evoking the girl's yearning and desire hidden in the deepest part of her heart.

Jing Qinrencai lowered her head, not daring to look at Kurusu Akatsuki.

She opened her mouth and let out a hoarse sound that was almost like a whimper.

"Ah... I didn't expect someone as dazzling as Amamiya-san to have such a dark past."

As Jing Qinrencai said this, she recalled the series of school bullying incidents she had suffered in her hometown and the entire year of studying and living hidden in the dark corners of the classroom. Immediately, complex emotions flowed in her heart, and then, it seemed as if tears were about to fall.

After passing by a department store that was having a sale, Kurusu Akatsuki turned around and looked at Isen Rinna.

"Are you going to cry?"

Jing Qinrencai sniffed and turned her face away, refusing to let him see her expression.

After a while, she asked Kurusu Akatsuki in a nasal voice, "Have you also been treated like that?"

"Yeah. The desks were graffitied, the drawers were stuffed with trash, there were razor blades hidden in the shoe cabinets, and when I went to the bathroom alone, the door was blocked. I tried to scream hysterically, but all I got in response was punches and kicks."

Kurusu Akatsuki said nonchalantly, "Even after leaving school, I'd be beaten up by gangsters and have my meager pocket money taken away. I'd end up walking alone in the evening after school, and only when I returned to the empty rental house did I have time to carefully count the scars on my body."

"Then how did you become...what you are now?"

"Do you long to be like me?"

Jing Qinrencai nodded vigorously.

Kurusu Akatsuki couldn't help but laugh, "But have you ever really understood me?"

Jing Qinrencai stopped where she was and looked at his back at a loss.

Kurusu Akatsuki turned around and waved at her, "We've arrived at our destination. The livehouse called 'STARRY' is right in front."

He patted the guitar case behind him and said, "If you want to know more about who Amamiya Ren is, then follow me to that store."

The "STARRY" store is hidden in the stairs leading down the alley.

It is a completely "underground livehouse".

Jing Qin Rencai followed Kurusu Akatsuki deeper into the stairs with some trepidation, and darkness gradually swallowed up the road behind them.

"Don't take the long speech I just made to heart."

Kurusu Akatsuki's voice echoed in the narrow and dim stairwell.

"Why? It's so contagious, and..."

"I made it up."

"Eh?!" Jing Qinren's wailing murmur came to an abrupt end.

"I haven't experienced this kind of light novel-like development."

Kurusu Akatsuki said this.

In the pitch-black environment, his smile could be vaguely seen, and in Jing Qinrencai's eyes, it looked as hideous and terrifying as a devil.

He said it nonchalantly.

"To make words more compelling, one must certainly apply a certain degree of artistic processing to reality. So, to be precise, those words should be considered as my fabrications."

Jing Qinrencai's heart seemed to have fallen into an ice cellar in an instant. The biting coldness invaded her whole body, and every finger seemed to be frozen.

She opened her mouth, her pupils trembling, but she couldn't utter a word.

Kurusu Akatsuki grabbed Ii Serina's forearm and dragged her into "STARRY" with an irrefutable force.

029. Three Captures of Jing Qin (Two in One)

(Weekend updates: 7/8, 8/8)

*

*

The moment you step into STARRY, the oppressive darkness is immediately dispelled by a few lights.

The wall on one side of the stairs is densely covered with colorful concert posters or album covers. At the bottom of the stairs, there is a small empty space on the side used as a storage room. On the right side is a locker for wine and beverages. On top of the locker is a bookshelf piled with several comics or magazines. The rest of the space is filled with large and small cardboard boxes.

The lobby adopts a decoration style that is close to deconstructivism, with black grid walls and orange-red geometric frames converging in the center towards a large wall clock wrapped in orange-red iron bars.

Opposite the wall clock is a stage with spotlights and a series of radio equipment. On the stage is a drum set and a large number of effect pedals stored in cardboard boxes.

Kurusu Akatsuki looked at the livehouse with great interest.

When you walk into the hall, you can immediately feel the extraordinary atmosphere.

"Let go." At this time, a faint voice came from behind him.

Kurusu Akatsuki felt someone tug at his sleeve.

Then the voice got louder, "Please let me go."

He remained unmoved. "Since we're already here, there's no reason to flee without a fight."

"Amamiya-san, that's really too much."

A palm suddenly slapped Kurusu Akatsuki's arm with such force that the force was beyond the level of "joke". Jing Serina was trying to use this method to make Kurusu Akatsuki let her go.

Kurusu Akatsuki's eyes, hidden behind his plain glasses, immediately focused on him. "What? Are you ready to give up on yourself?"

Jing Qin Rencai said nothing, but clenched her fists and angrily hit Kurusu Akatsuki on the back.

The Phantom Thief casually turned sideways and raised his left arm to block the punch. "Are you angry?"

After being freed from her restraints, Jing Qinrencai immediately pounced on him with her fangs bared and her claws bared.

Then Kurusu Akatsuki began to deal with the girl's disorganized "turtle punch" as if strolling in the garden, perfectly blocking all her attacks.

"You are a liar who deceives girls' feelings!" Jing Qinrencai randomly punched Kurusu Akatsuki, but her eyes inexplicably began to blur, and then a wet and warm feeling began to appear on her cheeks.

Finally she stopped and tried to run outside crying.

Why did she start crying while beating herself?

Kurusu Akatsuki finally understood why those old friends who had started families early in their previous lives always said that raising children was troublesome.

It's really troublesome. Children always have too many reasons to cry.

But ah, in the adult world, tears have always been one of the cheapest things.

When stimulated internally or externally, the lacrimal glands secrete a liquid that moistens the cornea and conjunctiva and has a certain disinfecting and sterilizing ability... These are tears, and they are worthless.

If a person wants to, she can let her tears flow endlessly and express her "heartbroken" sorrow.

Crying never solves problems, it only delays the best time to solve them.

In this world, there are only two types of people who will be moved by children's tears.

A hero, or a parent—though there isn't much difference between the two.

Just like how Ultraman, after the lights go out, would burn with anger at the crying children, only to stand up again and again to continue fighting; Kamen Rider would endure all kinds of conspiracies and poisons to save the children kidnapped by monsters, even if he was bruised and exhausted, he would still stand in front of the children and utter the word "henshin" unwaveringly...

Kurusu Akatsuki considers himself a hero.

Although he has never said a line like "henshin" that is full of middle school second-year atmosphere, he has already said the seemingly plausible "persona" thousands of times.

So he chased after her without hesitation, grabbed Jing Qinrencai's arm in the stairwell, and pulled her back forcefully.

"I don't know which of my words you are allergic to, but I won't allow you to escape like this."

"Leave me alone!" The girl cried at Kurusu Akatsuki, blindly venting her inner anger and sadness, and trying to infect the other person with these emotions.

She didn't want to listen to those big truths, she just wanted to have a big fight with Kurusu Akatsuki.

But Kurusu Akatsuki is no longer a child.

The layers of difficulties, misunderstandings, confusions, and pains that Jing Qinrencai had experienced before and was experiencing now... Kurusu Xiao had already tasted them all in his past.

Kurusu Akatsuki grabbed Jing Serina's shoulders and pushed her down on the chair without saying anything. "You really haven't grown up at all."

It’s so tiring to take care of children.

He thought sincerely.

Kurusu Akatsuki glanced down the hall and continued, "You must have run away many times, right? Every time you regained your composure, you'd hide in your bedroom or some corner where no one could find you and cry your eyes out."

"The body is always faster than thinking. I always make choices that I regret, and then I keep running away and keep regretting——"

"But, Jing Qin, you're a hard-earned member of my club. I can't allow you to mess around like this again. No matter how many times you try to escape, I will catch you and bring you back to school. Do you understand?"

Kurusu Akatsuki pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

"Chuunibyou! Human trafficker! Kidnapper!..." Isenai Renai kept wiping away her tears and insulting Kurusu Akatsuki with the only words she could think of, but she no longer vented her emotions indiscriminately.

Kurusu Akatsuki didn't care what these words meant. He looked at his little follower's red eyes and said, "You look really suitable for rock music now."

"Rock music is all about expressing all kinds of emotions through music."

He patted Jing Qinrencai's shoulder, then walked quietly and quickly towards the room on the right side of the hall.

*

"So rock, so youthful..." The girl with short blue hair covering her eyes and carrying a bass on her back sighed while hiding behind the crack of the door.

"Liang...Are we really not going out to stop them? They should be here to sign up for the band, right?" The girl with a yellow side ponytail huddled beside her and asked cautiously.

"Huh? Why stop them? That dark-skinned handsome guy was right, that's what rock 'n' roll is all about. Arguing, fighting, then releasing all that pent-up emotion through performances, and finally making up."

The bass girl gave a thumbs up.

The next moment, the half-closed door was pulled open from the outside!

Two very beautiful girls fell to the ground with a thud.

"Eavesdropping on other people's conversations is very uncivilized." Kurusu Akatsuki looked down at the two of them, then pointed at Jing Qinna who was trying to escape again in the stairwell.

......

"We're so sorry." The girls bowed deeply to the blushing Jing Qin Rencai.

Kurusu Aki, who achieved the achievement of "capturing Jing Qin three times" today, sat down on the high stool next to the counter. He would rather kill everyone in the memory space than take care of a grumpy child in reality.

It's really too much trouble.

Kurusu Akatsuki lamented in his heart, he was only 23 or 24 years old in his previous life, why did he have to experience the vicissitudes and melancholy of his old father so early?

At this moment, the cool-looking girl with the bass on her back came closer and looked at Kurusu Akatsuki curiously. "You must be really good at playing guitar."

"How did you determine that?" Kurusu Akatsuki adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Because you seem very reliable. Generally speaking, the 'reliable' character in a rock band is always the top vocalist and leader."

"That's an interesting thing to say, but I'm wrong. I'm actually not very good at playing the guitar." Kurusu Akatsuki extended her hand. "I'm a sophomore at Shujin High School, Ren Amamiya. Nice to meet you."

"Well, I'm Yamada Ryo, a sophomore at Shimokitazawa High School... Oh, nice to meet you too."

Yamada Ryo shook his hand with him openly. "But I'm different from you in one respect. I'm actually very good at playing the bass."

"Hello, hello! I'm Ichichi Nikka, a sophomore at Shimokitazawa High School!"

The girl, dressed to look very cute and with a golden side ponytail, quickly approached, took Kurusu Akatsuki's hands in hers and shook them, then smiled as softly and brilliantly as the sun. "I'm the band's drummer! Please give me your guidance in the future!"

Kurusu Akatsuki raised his head and found that Jingqin Renna, who was sitting opposite him, had stopped crying.

The tears have completely stopped. When did this happen?!