Tokyo Psychic

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(The "too many revisions, please re-post in one hour" warning delayed my scheduled chapter release by another hour.)

077. Once in Hell (Two in One)

The long, languid, and weary ring of the school bell echoed across the campus. The teacher at the podium, uncharacteristically, reminded the students to pay attention to their personal safety both on and off campus...

Her eyes fell on the girl in the front row of the classroom, who seemed to be making some important decision, with a hint of worry and hidden concern.

The girl looked at the trees outside the window, her face full of stubbornness and unwillingness to admit defeat.

When the teacher left, the classroom suddenly became noisy. Those who had passed notes in class could finally speak loudly. Students who were rushing to participate in club activities stood up and walked out of the classroom calling their friends. The classroom became deserted at a very fast speed. Then the top students who had signed up for cram school stood up with their backpacks full of exercise books. Finally, the students who had no club activities and were ready to go home and find a place to play games or read comics came.

The lively atmosphere around them gradually dwindled, and students left in groups.

Everyone has left, and the only one left in the classroom is today's "student on duty".

The girl on duty wiped the blackboard clean and hesitantly approached Jing Qinna, who was slowly packing her textbooks and stationery at her seat.

"Nina...um...could you please listen to me for a moment?"

She looked into Jing Qinrencai's eyes nervously.

Jing Qin Rencai was stunned for a moment, then happily revealed an innocent and childish smile, "Are you planning to go to the coffee shop after school to do homework together? Sure!"

The student on duty looked at her smile that seemed to show no concern for the pain, but his mood instantly sank to the bottom. In the deep valley, he was born the determination to protect her.

"Nina, listen to me."

"What's wrong?" Jing Qinrencai, with her schoolbag on her back, stood where she was and looked back at her most trusted friend with some confusion.

"It's not about coffee or homework... I want to say..." The girl took a deep breath and stared at Jing Qinrencai with a sharp gaze, "Don't get involved in those things anymore."

The smile on Jing Qinren's face suddenly disappeared. "Those things refer to...?"

The girl didn't say anything, just looked at her seriously.

Until Jing Qinrencai felt an almost suffocating disbelief in the silence.

She only helped out a classmate who was being bullied at school, and for this, her ideas of standing up for her classmate were ridiculed by many others.

But even so, she firmly believed that she was on the side of justice and was doing the right thing.

Jing Qinrencai looked at the girl in front of her, and it seemed as if a thick fog was spreading in her heart.

"Don't you realize it yet?" The other party suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Jing Qinrencai's hands, almost pleadingly. "Their behavior is getting lower and lower, and they are about to make an irreversible mistake at any time! If you intervene now, you will only get deeper into it and suffer even worse treatment!"

In an instant, a group of tyrannical and hideous faces filled with twisted desires seemed to sneer contemptuously at Jing Qin Rencai in the darkness.

The delicate face of the girl in front of him seemed to blend in with those hateful faces.

Jing Qinrencai shook off her hand as if she had been electrocuted, took two steps back, and bumped into the desk.

The table legs scraped against the floor, making a harsh sound.

Jing Qin Rencai looked at her with an incomprehensible look, "Because of this reason...so I have to stand by and watch?"

Jing Qinrencai didn't get an answer.

In other words, silence is the best answer.

It turns out that the misunderstanding or even betrayal from close friends is like sand in rice or bones left in boneless fish fillets, which becomes an unexpected pain.

They broke off their relationship after that.

......

Above the city buildings floated thin and brilliant clouds like flames, and the nearby glass walls vaguely reflected the figures of passersby along the way.

On the way back to STARRY.

After listening to Jing Qinrenai finish talking about the past that she had once kept tightly hidden in her heart, Kurusu Akatsuki suddenly patted her on the head.

"I won't go back."

Jing Qin Rencai covered her head and looked up at Kurusu Xiao with some confusion.

The Phantom Thief said calmly, "When you were bullied, you didn't resist, right?"

Jing Qinrencai shrank her neck and said, "...No."

The thing she regretted most in her entire school experience was probably that she failed to muster up the courage to resist when she was bullied by those guys. She wanted to resist at first, but when their actions seemed to be pulled by some invisible force and gradually transcended the identity of "student", the 16-year-old Jing Qinna felt terrified.

But after leaving school, she vaguely felt some regret from the fear, and at the same time, a little bit of relief and frustration...

Kurusu Akatsuki noticed the complex emotions Isenai was feeling at the moment, so he grabbed her wrist and walked towards the station, "Let's go back to LeBron."

Jing Qinrencai stood still, refusing to follow him. She looked up at him angrily, "Why?"

"Because you probably need a hot cup of latte right now, and then finish your homework for today."

Jing Qinren's eyes suddenly widened, and then she stopped talking and followed Kurusu Xiao to the station obediently.

There was just a slight dissatisfaction, like the fine ice cracks on the glaze, which inadvertently spread all over the body.

Half an hour later, hot steam with the aroma of coffee hit her face like clouds and then dissipated, melting away her sorrow and confusion.

"What about the band?"

At the dining table in the corner of LeBron, Jing Qinrencai stared at the coffee in the cup and asked Kurusu Xiao who was sitting opposite her in a low voice.

Kurusu Akatsuki opened her schoolbag, took out her exercise book and draft notebook, and placed them on the table. "Rehearsal ended a long time ago."

"So your part-time job..."

"It doesn't matter." The thief seemed calm when he answered.

This made Jing Qinrencai bury her face even lower.

After a while, she stared blankly at the light brown liquid in the cup, with a look of frustration and shame on her face. "Sorry."

"Why do you want to apologize?" Kurusu Akatsuki asked back, imitating her previous tone.

Jing Qinrencai clenched her fists and pounded her knees hard, "Anyway, I'm sorry!"

As she spoke, she turned her face away, not daring to look at Qi Xiao, and whispered even more quietly, "Because...that...I made you worried."

Kurusu Akatsuki unscrewed a glass jar on the table, scooped up a sugar cube with a small spoon, and put it into the coffee cup in front of her. "It's a bit strange that Rencai is shy."

Being called by her name, Jing Qinrencai blushed immediately, "Why did you suddenly become... so direct..."

"I thought we were close friends." Kurusu Akatsuki found her reaction quite amusing and couldn't help but tease her further, "Even though everyone in the band calls you 'Nina-chan'."

"Wow! That's different!" Jing Qinren quickly waved her hands, then, suppressing her shyness, she strained her neck to look at Kurusu Akatsuki, "I'm very grateful and sincerely apologizing to you!"

In the warm and cozy light of LeBron, the girl's face, which had not yet lost its childishness, was filled with a sense of satisfaction as if some regret had been made up for. She seemed a little afraid, but then bravely stretched out her hand along the table towards Kurusu Akatsuki's palm which was placed nearby.

The next moment, a pen was stuffed into Jing Qinrencai's palm.

The cool and hard touch of the round pen made her chaotic thoughts clear in an instant.

Kurusu Akatsuki is as reliable and convincing as ever. "It is the captain's duty to take care of every member of the Phantom Thieves."

He turned the exercise book around and placed it in front of Jing Qin Rencai. "Okay, Jing Qin, let's start our make-up class for today."

Jing Qinrencai held the pen and faced the blank space in the exercise book, as if she was worried and couldn't write anything.

After a long while, she carefully raised her face and looked at Kurusu Akatsuki.

"...Call me 'Nina'."

The Phantom Thief narrowed his eyes, not rejecting the girl's simple and obvious thoughts, "Okay, Rencai."

Jing Qinrencai smiled happily for a moment, but then immediately pursed her lips, trying hard to appear less happy.

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at the same time.

Shimokitazawa STARRY.

Momoka Kawahara looked at the "Diamond Dust" coming towards her, her expression changing for a while, but in the end she said nothing and leaned against the wall to make way for departure.

The girls of "Diamond Dust" also looked at the former lead singer, stared at each other for a while, and also did not take the initiative to talk to her. Instead, they walked to the counter and sincerely thanked Ijichi Hoshige.

Shoko Toyokawa, who was working behind the cash register, secretly looked at them many times. She left her post only after "Diamond Dust" left the Livehouse and handed a pre-made milkshake to Momoka Kawahara.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Kawahara Momoka sighed imperceptibly, "It's really hard to face."

Toyokawa Shoko nodded in agreement, "I don't know why, but I feel an inexplicable sense of guilt and indebtedness."

Kawahara Momoka smiled brightly and put her arm around her shoulders. "Xiaoxiang and I are actually different, right? A band formed in junior high school should be full of pure ideals and sincere emotions, not the practical and materialistic ones that adults are."

"So, even if I leave my old band, I can certainly go back and get along with my old friends as always."

Toyokawa Shoko was speechless for a moment and tried to change the subject, "Of course...that's the case, right?"

"But speaking of which," Kawahara Ki Momoka looked at the counter behind Toyokawa Shoko, "where's Amemiya?"

"He went to look for Rencai."

Kawahara Momoka returned her gaze to Toyokawa Shoko's face, as if trying to find some clues, but in the end, she found nothing. "Well, I'll go home first... See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Shoko Toyokawa said goodbye to Momoka Kawahara, and only after watching her walk away did she breathe a sigh of relief and return to her job.

At this time, a high school girl dressed in youthful and beautiful clothes came to the counter and tried to look inside. When she didn't see Kurusu Akatsuki, she looked away in disappointment.

"Two ice cream cones, please!"

"Ok."

Shoko Toyokawa picked up two ice cream cones and skillfully operated the ice cream machine.

The old band... She watched the white solid slowly fill the space in the ice cream cone. Her pupils seemed to daze for a moment, but soon refocused.

Toyokawa Shoko is indeed different from Kawahara Momoka.

She lives in the present and has no extra energy or thoughts to reminisce about her junior high school days.

After mastering the power of the Persona, witnessing the truth of that world, and experiencing firsthand the brutal battles of the Persona, all the unpleasant things that had happened in the Moon Forest due to various accidents seemed less significant in comparison.

We must work hard to cultivate the power of our personality mask, only in this way can we better protect the things we cherish.

Shoko Toyokawa entertained guests actively and enthusiastically, and seemed to be full of all kinds of beautiful expectations for her life.

Since her father completely repented, he found several part-time jobs near home. Then in the evening, he would rush back to the apartment in time to clean the kitchen and living room and prepare dinner for Shoko Toyokawa who had finished her part-time job.

Although their living conditions can be considered poor, it can be seen that the man is trying hard to fulfill his duties as a father and doing his best to make his daughter happy.

After dinner, he would go to the 24-hour convenience store near his apartment building to continue working until 1 a.m. when he returned home to prepare for bed.

Not to mention asking Toyokawa Shoko for money to buy some wine.

Almost every morning he would ask whether Toyokawa Shoko had enough living expenses, and then give her most of his part-time income, as if to make up for the grievances and setbacks his daughter had suffered during this period. This man clumsily and wholeheartedly put all his patience and tenderness into every moment of life.

Many times, Shoko Toyokawa inadvertently felt that time seemed to have returned to the days long ago, when her happy family lived a fulfilling and warm life every day in the Toyokawa family's yard.

But the woman who would tie her hair and organize her schoolbag would never come back.

Toyokawa Shoko handed the finished ice cream cone to the customer in front of her, "Your ice cream."

She recounted her admiration and gratitude for the Mind Thief in her heart, and then tried hard to cherish the hard-earned "present".

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(We are all old acquaintances:)

(Thanks to Lingchenlei for the 10000 blades.)

(Thanks for watching my 10000-speed surrender and rewarding me with blades.)

(I'm sure there will be tough battles waiting for me in the next few months.)

078. Dispatching troops to Hulao Pass (two in one)

The sky gradually darkened.

At this time, most of the customers in LeBron are elderly people. They gather at the same table, looking at the TV in the store, watching today's current affairs news and commenting on it.