Tokyo Psychic

But that doesn't mean she can accept money from any source with a clear conscience.

Kurusu Akatsuki didn't go into great lengths to explain how he had achieved such excellent grades or how he had crushed all the other candidates. That would have sounded too boastful. He was already past the age where he couldn't wait to show off anything that was slightly different from the average person... Showing off at the wrong time would only make him look childish and embarrassing.

The Phantom Thief thought of the Manatee Gundam model he had carefully assembled and displayed on a shelf in the attic. "It was actually a limited edition Gundam from the Big Bang Burger collaboration. It unexpectedly became a hit among enthusiasts. They raised the price several times, and it finally reached 500,000 yen."

"It's so expensive..." Shoko Toyokawa was a little surprised.

"As a limited edition that will never be reprinted, this price is actually a little low."

As he spoke, he handed the banknotes in his hand to Toyokawa Shoko. "Here, take it. If you hadn't given me that free challenge ticket that night, I probably wouldn't have had the courage to sit down at the table."

This time, Shoko Toyokawa did not refuse. She took the money from Kurusu Akatsuki's hand very solemnly and bowed to him.

At this time, a senior girl who looked extraordinary and was wearing a beautiful high school uniform was riding a bicycle to go home. When she saw this scene, she suddenly braked beside them.

The chain made a clicking sound.

"You are students from different schools, right?" the girl with short black hair looked at Kurusu Akatsuki and Toyokawa Shoko and asked stutteringly. "Now what is..."

Remember the famous saying of a certain philosopher: Be careful! As soon as he ponders, he immediately prepares a lie.

Lai Qixiao looked at the shoulder badge of "Disciplinary Committee Member" on the girl's shoulder and was indeed lost in thought.

Oh no, this seems to be Xin Ma Xiaolian's running dog.

There is no other way. At this point, I can only find a way to distance myself from Shoko Toyokawa.

It is inevitable to sigh that things in the world are impermanent. Even the Phantom Thief of the Mind is forced to become a liar.

"It's like this, senpai," Kurusu Akatsuki explained, gesturing, "This classmate's family happens to sell musical instruments, and I've recently fallen in love with rock music, so I wanted to ask her for help in choosing a suitable electric guitar."

Shoko Toyokawa was a little confused as to why Kurusu Akatsuki suddenly wanted to lie, but when she saw his urging look, she cooperated and started "acting".

It's called acting, but in fact he just nodded coldly without saying a word.

After all, the "discipline committee member" in front of her didn't know her at all, so keeping silent would be the best help to Kurusu Akatsuki.

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(I laughed my ass off. At 5pm at night, I spent 648 yuan on px. The payment went through, and I have a purchase record, but all the paid items were gone. I complained to customer service on the official website, and after finally completing all the messy screenshots of the payment as requested, all they got was a bot's reply saying, "It'll be handled within three days.")

(I was a bit late in getting this appeal done, and I was typing all night, so the update has been delayed until now.)

064. Copper smelting is not advisable (two in one)

After finally getting rid of the senior named "Makoto Niijima", there were more people around, including the volleyball team who had finished their training.

The boys, who were sweating profusely after being trained by Kamoshida, stumbled out of the school gate. The excitement they had when they were selected for the school team was completely exhausted by training activities such as long-distance running, frog jumps, and shuttle runs.

As a physical education teacher, Kamoshida usually has an approachable and easy-going image, but once it comes to volleyball training or competition, he will immediately become full of energy. He will even take the initiative to call and ask for leave for all the team members one by one, and then take them to the gym to repeatedly train their weak bodies until they are exhausted and sweating profusely.

Toyokawa Shoko nervously folded the thick stack of 10,000 yen bills in her hand into the zippered inner pocket of her jacket. Then, she looked at Kurusu Akatsuki, who was walking beside her, with a hint of resentment, "Why did you lie?"

"A pretty high school girl from another school stood on the path outside the school gate, collecting money while bowing to the boys who paid. Anyone with a little common sense would misunderstand this as something not very serious..."

"Stop talking." Toyokawa Shoko said this hurriedly, quickened her pace, and quickly walked past Kurusu Akatsuki towards the station.

Kurusu Akatsuki turned around and said goodbye to Mishima Yuki who was walking out of the school gate, then quickly chased after the band's keyboardist who was fleeing in front.

Mishima Yuki stood on the steps, looking at the direction where Kurusu Akatsuki left with some confusion. After thinking for a few seconds, he finally showed an expression of sudden realization.

Then his face was filled with grief, anger and envy.

Damn Amamiya Ren, he actually found such a beautiful girlfriend without telling his brothers!

......

The afterglow of the setting sun gently hits the glass curtain wall of the tram station, and the figures of young boys and girls are walking one after another in the mirror-like glass wall.

"Anyway, I'd like you to help introduce me to the manager about my part-time job at the fast food restaurant today."

"If you fix your hair and take off your glasses, I'm sure you won't need an introduction."

"That's too ostentatious and goes against my life creed." In fact, the correct phrase here should be "Phantom Thief Creed."

Kurusu Akatsuki looked back at her reflection in the glass wall: her plain glasses, thick enough to reflect light, her long bangs covering her forehead and partially obscuring her lenses, her hair as messy as weeds, and her slightly hunched back... and finally, the dark uniform of Shujin High School, which didn't look "clean" or "fresh" at all.

Anyone who comes here, unless they look closely, will probably think he is a sloppy otaku who doesn't care about his appearance.

Toyokawa Shoko was already used to Kurusu Akatsuki's occasional, childish remarks. "At least comb your hair a little bit. You can't be a waitress if you look too sloppy... Or do you have extensive experience in fast food preparation?"

Complaining like this, she swiped her card and passed through the gate. The waiting hall was as crowded as ever during the evening rush hour. A disturbing noise brewed in the relatively closed space. At a slight distance, the two of them could not hear each other's conversation.

Kurusu Akatsuki took the initiative to walk in front to block the chaotic flow of people in the station for Toyokawa Shoko. When the train arrived at the station, he unscrupulously pushed aside the crowd in front and led her into the carriage.

Several white-collar workers who looked very respectable in their attire were infuriated by his overly eccentric behavior, but just as they were about to resist and speak out to stop him, they realized that the hand that Laiqi Xiao was pushing on them seemed to be made of copper or iron, making it unshakable. No matter how hard they tried, they could not push it away.

So all the unpleasant words were swallowed quietly, and then the anger was endured.

With the help of the personality mask "Dioscuri", Kurusu Akatsuki was able to achieve extraordinary results in his daily fitness. Although he couldn't completely recover his physical fitness to the peak of his previous life, for ordinary people who had never received corresponding training, he already had an almost overwhelming advantage.

Shoko Toyokawa nervously scanned the surrounding gazes, then quickly caught up with Akatsuki Kurusu, and the two found adjacent empty seats at the end of the carriage.

Feeling a little rude, Toyokawa Shoko stared at Kurusu Akatsuki for a while, "Are you being flamboyant enough now?"

The Phantom Thief remained calm and composed, "I have flexible criteria for my own 'life creed'."

Toyokawa Shoko sighed imperceptibly, then raised her hand to tidy up her slightly messy hair. "Actually, you don't have to do this kind of thing just to take care of me."

"It turns out Toyokawa-san is fully aware of her own beauty."

"Please don't say that. It makes people feel embarrassed."

"You can't even be praised for being a beautiful girl?"

"Sorry, I'm just not very good at handling your... compliments?"

"It's strange that you don't even want to hear the truth."

Toyokawa Shoko was stunned for a moment, and she actually apologized to Kurusu Akatsuki again solemnly.

"I've been attending an all-girls school and have had few opportunities to make friends with boys my age, so I'm not used to the way we're interacting right now... I'm sorry if you, Amamiya-san, who's been taking care of me until now, misunderstood me. I'll try to get used to these things in the future."

Now it was Laiqi Xiao's turn to be stunned.

What's going on with this girl? Can she please stop being so ambiguous when talking?

This time he finally understood what the other party's mood was when he was chatting privately with Kawahara Momoka.

Kurusu Akatsuki pinched his chin with a thoughtful expression, his dark grey eyes reflected in the car window. "Toyokawa-san, are you saying that I'm your only male friend?"

Toyokawa Shoko's expression became subtly conflicted. She felt that Kurusu Akatsuki's statement was a bit strange, but she couldn't find any reason why it didn't make sense. She could only answer dryly, "Yes."

"Have you ever talked to a handsome boy of my age before?"

"...No." Shoko Toyokawa suddenly felt very powerless.

Kurusu Akatsuki was a little smug, "Then you should cherish it. The opportunity to be friends with a handsome boy like me who is so stunningly handsome and unique is rare."

Toyokawa Shoko understood now. She wanted to fight back against Kurusu Akatsuki, but she couldn't find a suitable entry point.

Because Kurusu Akatsuki does know a lot of beautiful girls.

On the contrary, she herself, as a student in an all-girls school, actually had almost no experience in communicating with men, let alone a handsome guy like Kurusu Akatsuki who could appear on the cover of a fashion magazine with a little grooming.

She had no choice but to tentatively ask, following a recent trending online joke, "So, 'shocking' and 'unique' Amemiya-san, are you asking me to pay you a friend fee?"

"I would never dare ask Master Toyokawa to pay a 'friend fee'. That should be my tribute to you."

Seeing Kurusu Akatsuki's depressed expression, as if to say, "There's already a thick barrier between us."

At this time, Toyokawa Shoko was surprised to find that she could not naturally cooperate with him in joking about this topic, and she always subconsciously had to consider her personal image and daily etiquette.

"When I'm friends with boys, even the rhythm of the conversation seems to have changed."

"Really? When I first started playing with girls in elementary school, I was like you, always feeling a little hesitant to speak freely."

"Huh? Amemiya was actually very popular among girls when he was in elementary school." Toyokawa Shoko tried hard to simplify the habitual name "Amemiya-san" to just "Amemiya".

"To be precise, it's just that the girls in my class like playing with me more... If I have to say 'welcome', it's more like I'm receiving one-sided care from a senior who's like an older sister."

Kurusu Akatsuki recalled that when she was in sixth grade, she was taken to various places in the school by the senior from Gekkoukan Academy's high school department. Sometimes they were taken to the Student Union's office with magnificent decoration, sometimes they were taken to the rooftop of the teaching building where the Personality Mask users exchanged information with each other, and of course, more often she was secretly taken to a single room in the girls' dormitory to spend the night.

During his elementary years at Gekkoukan Private Academy, he lived off the money his parents added to his meal card each week. Because he wasn't old enough to work, he had virtually no pocket money. He often approached topics like "video games" with a layer of envy and anticipation.

It was not until later that he met a second-year high school girl named "Shiomi Kotone" who was six years older than him.

As a result, the option of "video games" gradually appeared in Kurusu Akatsuki's elementary school life.

The only time he had to play games in the week was probably every night when he lay on the bed of that senior Shiomi and fiddled with the Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3.

Looking back now, I really feel that as a comprehensive school located on an artificial island, the private Gekkoukan Academy’s arrangements for “physiology classes” and “health classes” were somewhat inappropriate.

His first "physiology class" started after he entered junior high school.

Thanks to this, he almost slept in the same bed with Shiomi Kotone for a long time without knowing it. Sometimes she even exchanged it for "an extra hour of game time" and asked him to fulfill various requests such as "must sit on her lap when doing homework" and "must let her hug him when reading", which seemed very strange at the time.

Until one day, the red-haired student union president suddenly rushed into Shiomi Kotone's bedroom in anger, pointed at her nose and scolded her for a full half hour. Only then did the frequency of him staying overnight in the girls' dormitory gradually decrease.

Kurusu Akatsuki spent many years of closed education at Gekkoukan Academy during his time studying in Tokyo. It was then that he realized that under normal circumstances, elementary school students would gradually be exposed to knowledge about "physiology and health care."

After so many years, Kurusu Akatsuki couldn't explain what kind of feelings Shiomi Kotone had for him at that time - he couldn't even imagine the feelings that were too weird, as that would destroy the image of Shiomi Kotone in his heart.

He just assumed that the girl who had once made a contract with the Velvet Room was just a little bit of a "brother complex" and preferred playing with children...

I really can't think or imagine anything more.

Otherwise, Kurusu Akatsuki felt that his childhood would have become a complete tragedy in some sense.

"Arrived."

The Phantom Thief stood up and patted his forehead, which felt a little stuffy.

That's the bad thing about the evening rush hour.

The carriage was packed with people, and they had to squeeze out the same way they squeezed in.

He was very gentlemanly in protecting Shoko Toyokawa from the passengers who were bumping into each other's shoulders and elbows, and then like migrating salmon, he was swept by the current and countless companions into the narrow river mouth and squeezed forward.

......

Shibuya Central Street.

The crowd is like shadows, countless busy shadows shuttle through the waterfall of neon lights.

Cosmic Tower Castle, I'm back.

Kurusu Akatsuki once again stopped at the door of the Big Bang Burger Shop, looking at the unchanging animated advertisement on the display screen. He recalled the Manatee Gundam in LeBron's attic, his awareness of living for death while wolfing down the food at the dining table, and the tragic ending of venting his pain like a storm in the toilet. He couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

But this time, he returned to this burger shop not as a "challenger" -

"You are the challenger!" Kurusu Akatsuki, who was wearing a uniform, looked at the man in front of him who called himself a "big eater", and then solemnly placed the tray containing the cheese devil and the hamburger meat devil on the dining table.

His expression gradually became ferocious, and then he picked up the timer from the tray.

"My dear guest, are you ready?"

The big eater looked at the huge monster in front of him, which was as thick as his forearm. The muscles on his face were trembling and tears of regret welled up in his eyes.

(041.webp)

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(It’s the end of the month, please support everyone with your monthly tickets that are about to be refreshed!!)

(It's the end of the month, so everyone should vote with whatever tickets or blades they have! These props will be refreshed at the end of each month.)

(By the way, I'd like to recommend a book by a group friend, a fan book about the band. If you're interested, feel free to pick it up.)

Just by opening the door of the apartment, Nozomi Saionji was wandering on the streets of Ikebukuro.

At the same time, Toyokawa Shoko, who had just quit Crychic and was lost and desperate, received new sympathy.

【Cloud Boyfriend Support System】

As long as you spend money on the designated Yunyang Boyfriend, you can get 10 times the cash back!

Toyokawa Shoko: Love? ○ No talk! I just want to make enough money!

Nagasaki Suyo: Xiaoxiang left the group... Is it because he fell in love?