Tokyo Psychic

Kurusu Akatsuki looked past Ito Sanshui and looked at a copy of The Selfish Gene on the bookshelf in the office. "I want to talk to the principal more about scholarships and club funding."

Ito Sanshui's breathing became heavy. "Are you dissatisfied with these conditions?"

"Not really. Mr. Ito, you know my family situation isn't great, so this time I wanted to thank Principal Shinma in person."

Ito Sanshui breathed a sigh of relief. "Then you'll have to wait until after school. The principal is in the conference room discussing the situation with the teachers of Second Grade Class A. He also has to accompany Ishihara's parents to the Metropolitan Police Department this afternoon."

It seems that such a vicious incident as "student disappearance" happened right after taking office, which is really worrying.

But...isn't all this really self-directed and self-acted?

After all, the arts academy involved in the recent disappearance case in Kawasaki was an asset under the name of Xin Ma Xiaolian.

Kurusu Akatsuki thanked Ito Sansui and left the office.

He also had to go back to the club's activity room to have lunch today.

*

The midday sun fills the skywalk connecting the teaching building and the community building.

The shadow of the guardrail cuts off a narrow area on the white floor tiles, as if a clump of sedge was magnified with a lens.

Jing Qinrencai, carrying a bag of fried noodles and a bottle of milk, trotted towards the music classroom with a sign that read "Department of Mental Health Education".

Her shadow shrank in the sunlight that enveloped her from all directions, and she leaped across the grass as nimbly as a cat.

If I remember correctly, it was this classroom.

Jing Qinrencai, the only member of the Mental Health Education Department, calmly opened the door of the classroom.

A gentle breeze blew into the classroom through the pale golden curtains, bringing a quiet and warm atmosphere.

Kurusu Akatsuki, who was playing "MasterDuel", looked at his opponent with a distorted expression as he commanded the big penguin from the Windbird family to deal a fatal blow to him, emptying his LP, which was like a candle in the wind.

It was as if the omnipotent power of Pearly Tears was thwarted for the first time.

The tragedy of all this started from the moment the "Big Astronaut" effect was passed.

He put down his phone dejectedly.

Then immediately a girl as bright and beautiful as a rose bloomed beside him.

The famous gymnastics student "Fang Ze" opened a box of lunch with a rich side dish and smiled and flattered the owner of this classroom.

At least that's what Jing Qinrencai sees.

"Senior! Come and try this tempura!"

"Senior! This is the sakura sauce I specially made!"

"Senior, this pork cutlet is specially made for me..."

A sweet voice, a bright and lovely face, and undisguised admiration and adoration in her eyes.

It was obvious that if conditions permitted, she would be very happy to feed Laiqi Xiao's food as gently and considerately as a lover would.

The strong "live-life" aura suddenly overwhelmed Jing Qinrencai in the corner of the music classroom like a tsunami, making her a little breathless.

That's too much, too bold!

Jing Qinrencai stared intently at the two people who seemed to be becoming more and more intimate, but in fact she wanted to replace them——

Seventeen-year-old Jing Qinrencai has zero experience in love. She has never held a boy's hand, never chatted with a good-looking boy, let alone engaged in such intimate behavior as sharing food during lunch break.

Seeing the younger generation easily achieve things that she had only dreamed of before, and thinking back to her own bleak and monotonous high school life that would come to an end in two years, Jing Qin couldn't help but shed tears.

But soon, the atmosphere in the club room changed subtly.

Yoshizawa Kasumi was whispering something beside Kurusu Akatsuki, and it was obvious that she looked a little nervous.

Lai Qixiao casually answered Fang Zexia's questions while eating, and then the first-year gymnastics student immediately became lost.

Seeing this scene, Jing Qinrencai inexplicably felt a sense of gloating in her heart.

Even before the depressed Yoshizawa Kasumi left the classroom, she still maintained a polite and gentle smile, and then greeted Ichi Serina with a half-bow very seriously. One could clearly feel her unquestionable sincerity.

"Good afternoon, Senior Jing Qin."

This kid... is so cute.

Jing Qinrencai took three steps back and leaned against the wall, feeling unprecedentedly shaken.

She had never seen such a well-behaved high school or junior high school student.

He was clearly the center of attention at school, yet even facing someone like me, who had average grades, wasn't good at socializing, and didn't have any special skills, he could actually greet me so sincerely...

Now Jing Qinrencai suddenly feels a little envious of her own president.

After Yoshizawa Kasumi left, Kurusu Akatsuki continued to finish the lunch box in front of him.

Jing Qinrencai moved closer curiously, "What did you just talk about?"

“Curiosity kills the cat.”

"Hmm~huh?"

Jing Qinrencai looked confused.

Then, Kurusu Akatsuki picked up a slice of fried pork cutlet, dipped it in salad dressing, and stuffed it into his mouth with rice, mumbling, "This isn't something a child should know."

"Who is the child?!" Jing Qinrencai was very dissatisfied with his behavior of deliberately telling riddles and confusing himself.

Kurusu Akatsuki swept a sympathetic and sad gaze across Jingqin Rencai's flat chest, then looked her up from the bottom, and finally landed on the milk carton in her hand. "Work hard, Jingqin-san."

Incidentally, Yoshizawa Kasumi, who had just left the music classroom, was fifteen years old and 162cm tall; while Jing Qin Renna, who was currently standing in the music classroom, was seventeen years old and 152cm tall...

Jing Qin Renna caught his gaze sharply and became furious, "Amamiya Ren!"

Kurusu Akatsuki calmly finished the rice in his lunch box and said, "Please call me President."

"I want to quit the club!"

"Then, unfortunately, you probably won't be able to quit this club."

"!!!" While Jing Qinren's eyes widened in shock, Kurusu Akatsuki stood up and closed the lunch box after eating everything.

He stretched, his school shirt rising a little, revealing his gradually defined abdominal muscles. "Due to various special reasons, the school won't allow this club to disband due to lack of members. If you don't believe me, you can ask the Student Union or the Academic Affairs Office."

Jing Qin Rencai didn't care whether she could quit the company or not. She just stared at the scene exposed under Kurusu Akatsuki's shirt for a while, and then she realized it belatedly and covered her eyes with her hands.

The upbringing she received since childhood made it difficult for her to adapt to such situations.

Kurusu Akatsuki was amused by her somewhat funny appearance, "That's why I said you're still a child."

Jing Serina blushed and yelled at him. "You rascal! You idiot! You human trafficker! You have a Chunibyo (secondary syndrome)!"

"Yes, you're right," Kurusu Akatsuki, who boasted that his heart was as broad as the Seto Inland Sea, smiled kindly.

The 1.5-meter-tall Warring States general, who had been so arrogant, was knocked down by Lord Lu Bu's casual blow.

*

After returning the clean lunch box to Yoshizawa Kasumi, Kurusu Akatsuki, who was feeling sleepy, slowly returned to the classroom.

Jing Qinrencai, who had been defeated repeatedly, followed him angrily.

The gentle light passed through the window and dimly reflected on the white wall on one side. A slightly warm breeze lingered nearby, and one could faintly hear the Koshien cheering song "Baofang General Theme Song" carried by the wind.

In the distant corridor between buildings, someone was reciting English words; on the playground, the track and field team occupied the track, while the soccer team fiercely competed for the ball on the field; the metallic sound of baseballs hitting each other echoed through the late spring sky, tinged with rosy blue...

After returning to the classroom, Kurusu Akatsuki sat at the desk and wanted to play mobile games for a while, but every time his fingers hovered over the application icons of those game software, his eyes would unconsciously fall on the "Another World Navigation" in the corner, and then he couldn't help but think of the missing girl in Class A next door.

During lunch break, he inquired about many students in Class 2A from the sidelines, and from those fragments of information, he pieced together a complete image of "Ishihara Reimi":

Beautiful and with a curvaceous figure, she excels at piano and tennis, and has excellent grades. Since entering second grade, she's enrolled in numerous cram schools, becoming a popular figure in Class 2-A and a well-known figure in surrounding schools. It's said that she recently received offers from several idol agencies, but she declined all of them, citing her desire to focus on further studies.

He studied hard, reviewed diligently, and took the entrance exam. However, he didn't live to see the results announced. Maybe Ishihara would be so resentful that he would become the school's earthbound ghost.

Because the list of grades will only be announced once, if she fails to fulfill her wish, she may have to wait in front of the bulletin board for generations, waiting for the non-existent high school shrine maiden or the god of death in the Soul Society to help her become a Buddha.

So, why not skip school and go investigate the situation in the Metropolitan Police Department's memory space? ...

Damn it, the blue bar is almost overdrawn and into negative, why am I running to the Metropolitan Police Department’s impression space? Are I going to die?

Unable to squeeze out even a bit of "MP", he now didn't even dare to jump into the hole at the bottom of Xiu Jin's impression space.

Kurusu Akatsuki sighed, turned off his phone, and fell asleep directly on the table - the most effective way to restore mental strength is sleep.

Dear ghost of Ishihara, please rest assured. I will wait until school is over and then immediately investigate the cause of your death.

Regardless of whether they are dead or alive, the goal is to catch the real culprit behind this and make them all repent.

The school bell rang.

Kurusu Akatsuki fell asleep peacefully on the desk.

But Kurusu Akatsuki did not faint directly when he fell asleep. Instead, his consciousness sneaked into the Velvet Room... Every time I have to marvel at the magic of the Velvet Room. This world that exists in the gap between the two levels of "consciousness" and "matter" can accommodate the entry and exit of simple consciousness, and also allow the flow of matter.

As a contractor, Kurusu Akatsuki could once freely travel back and forth to the Velvet Room through dreams after falling asleep, but after crossing into a parallel world, she seemed to have lost this ability.

"It's not lost."

"It's just that the road to here through dreams is blocked by the Velvet Room of this world."

Lavenda, wearing a thin nightgown, sat behind the huge TV screen, holding a handle and hitting it back and forth. The picture on the screen showed a human figure in armor fighting a group of ugly-looking frogs with big red dead eyes on their heads in a cesspool.

It comes from a game that was quite famous in Kurusu Akatsuki's previous life, "Dark Souls III".

Compared to the 75-inch LCD screen, Lavenda looks too small.

Her long platinum hair fell from her back to the ground like a waterfall, flowing with a mysterious and noble color in the sunlight outside the porthole.

A pair of bright golden eyes stared nervously at the scene on the screen, and then he sluggishly controlled the character to dodge the attacks of the monsters called "Cursed Frogs".

It seemed that she was unable to contact the "Sea of ​​Heart" at all times. At the same time, she also confirmed that the executives and bosses living there would no longer issue any missions or responsibilities. Lavenda simply changed out of her blue dress and started dressing according to Kurusu Akatsuki's preferences.

Anyway, she is the velvet assistant that belongs only to Kurusu Akatsuki, and she only needs to take care of her master's mood.

The thief looked down at his school uniform, then walked over to the TV and sat down next to Lavenda. "How did you do that?"

Lavenda used a power beyond the program to forcibly pause the game, then pointed to the corner of the Velvet Room.

In the corner stood a human-shaped cardboard figure, attached to a guitar-shaped computer case filled with a bunch of hard drives.

Kurusu Akatsuki recognized the cardboard—it was the personality mask that awakened with his own time travel, "Dioscuri".

"This Persona is very special. It constantly extracts everything its owner sees and hears, and then uploads it here for backup. I copied the part about video games from it, and after processing it, I made this game console."

As she spoke, the cute little secretary pointed to the TV screen in front of her and said, "It records all the games the master played in the previous world."

Kurusu Akatsuki's hand unknowingly reached into Lavenda's arms... and snatched the game controller away.

The roar of the plane cutting through the atmosphere was intermittent.

Lavenda's expression gradually became a little complaining, "Master."

"Let me play for a while." Kurusu Akatsuki hasn't played console games for almost a month.

Seeing "Soul Five" on the TV screen at this moment, his homesickness was bursting out like never before.

"Lavenda worked very hard to help the master reopen the passage to the dream world, but after the master came in, he not only praised Lavenda, but also snatched Lavenda's game controller..." The little secretary, like a tired white dove, pressed her thin but soft and warm body into Kurusu Akatsuki's arms, her voice filled with undisguised grievance and loneliness.

Kurusu Akatsuki's blood pressure immediately soared - it meant on many levels that he really couldn't withstand this move, so he quickly stuffed the handle back into Lavenda's hand.

"I was wrong." The thief admitted his mistake honestly.

Lavenda gave a smug smile and returned the controller to Kurusu Akatsuki. She then knelt on his lap and hugged his shoulders affectionately. "I was just joking."

She gently stroked Kurusu Akatsuki's cheek, "Master, you've worked hard. Just take a good rest here. You must do your best for the activities after school."

On the TV screen, the game of "Dark Souls 3" ended its "pause" state, and the cursed frogs that were originally fixed in the sewage suddenly rushed forward. The white, miserable cursed fog spread out, drowning the Ash Man who was wearing helmets and armor and was in an overweight state.

Lavenda's suppressed laughter could be heard from Kurusu Akatsuki's arms.

*

The school bell rings outside the window, and the sunset is at six in the evening.

When Kurusu Akatsuki opened her eyes, the only person left in the classroom was Ichi Serina, who was sitting behind her desk, writing furiously, finishing her homework.

Didn't Xiujin finish school before four? The bell rang now, so it should be six in the afternoon, and the club activities should be over. Why is this kid still here doing homework?

Oh, I’m the president.

It looks like I'm going to miss the band's rehearsal today.

Kurusu Akatsuki, who had just had a long and beautiful dream, stood up and stretched facing the dusk scene outside the window.