Tokyo Detective Chronicles

Twenty minutes after the school bell rang, the already quiet back gate of Ching Cheng Tai Private Academy was now almost deserted, with only a few students left.

The setting sun bathed the streets in a warm orange hue, and the air was filled with the faint aroma of oden from nearby shops.

Several boys dressed in matching uniforms and striking outfits gathered around an old Toyota with peeling paint, some leaning against it and others standing.

There were seven or eight people in total, and their ages ranged from seventeen or eighteen to their early twenties.

Someone was dangling an unlit cigarette and tapping intermittently on the car door with the lighter cap.

He crossed his arms, tapped his toes on the ground and shook his legs, his eyes lazily sweeping over the occasional students coming out of the school gate.

With a cryptic smile playing on his lips, he could easily send students fleeing in terror with a single whistle.

They didn't make a loud noise, nor did they deliberately strike a menacing pose, but just standing there gave people an invisible sense of oppression, and no one dared to provoke these guys.

They didn't even dare to look at them.

The students passing by lowered their heads, unconsciously quickened their pace, and made way for them.

Just like a stream encountering rocks, it naturally branches out and avoids them.

On the hood of the car sat a young man with dyed, flamboyant blond hair, the roots of which were already turning black.

He was wearing a wrinkled shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a not-so-refined anchor tattoo on his forearm.

He was looking down at his phone screen, his brows furrowed, his fingers swiping unconsciously.

"Hey, Akiyama, aren't you exaggerating a bit?"

A guy with a buzz cut nudged him with his elbow and chuckled in a low voice, "You called everyone here just for your sister's little school squabbles? You could have easily beaten up a second-year nerd by yourself, couldn't you?"

"Yeah, you really are a disgusting, siscon."

Several undisguised bursts of laughter rang out from the surrounding area.

The blond youth called Akiyama looked up, his expression not very good.

He ignored his companion's teasing and turned his gaze back to his phone screen.

The screen displayed a photo of her younger sister, Aiko, as the chat background, along with a message she had sent a few hours earlier, and her sobbing voice could be heard through the headphones.

"Brother... I got bullied by a bastard named Fushimi... He insulted me in front of a lot of people, calling me a yellow-haired monkey!"

He also said he'd wait for me at the back gate of the school after school. Bro, I'm so scared... Will he hit me? The way he looks at me is terrifying...

Brother, you have to help me... I didn't do anything wrong...

Aiko's tearful voice played back in my headphones.

Tatsuya Akiyama gripped his phone tightly.

If someone else were to listen to it, they would be able to detect the deliberate and artificial nature of the crying. With a little judgment, they would be able to clearly perceive that the performance was the majority of the act.

But unfortunately, he's an incurable, die-hard siscon...

His younger sister, Aiko Akiyama, is such a lovely and kind girl.

Although she can be a little temperamental at times, she has always known to leave food for him when he comes home late, save her allowance to buy him birthday presents, and hide behind him and act cute when her mother scolds her...

Even if he accidentally kills the family cat, the cat will cry and beg him to bury it for them.

This well-behaved little sister was bullied by that gloomy and withdrawn bookworm at school until she cried like this.

Just imagining Aiko with red, helpless, and frightened eyes made Akiyama Tatsu feel a tightness in his chest and a surge of anger rising to his head. He wished he could rush into the school right now and tear this scumbag named Fushimi to pieces.

Are you tired of living if you mess with my cute little sister?

He clenched his fists, veins bulging... his eyes twitched uncontrollably.

He even dared to threaten to meet me after school... What is he trying to do?

Just thinking about what might happen made Akiyama Tatsu so angry that he couldn't control his expression and slammed his fist on the car hood.

He took a deep breath. In short, he would break two of the guy's ribs first.

If he refuses to admit his mistake, then break all his fingers.

"They're here."

One of the companions, who was leaning against the car keeping watch, whistled jokingly.

Tatsuya Akiyama looked up.

At the school gate, a tall, thin boy wearing the Qingchengtai school uniform walked out.

He wasn't carrying a schoolbag, just a lunch bag, and his pace was neither hurried nor slow.

His bangs were a bit long, covering part of his eyebrows and eyes, making it difficult to see his specific expression, but comparing them with the photos and descriptions sent by Akiyama Aiko before... without a doubt, it was him.

Fushimi Iori stopped at the school gate, glanced at the group of people next to the Toyota, and then looked around.

Several students who originally planned to go home through the back gate had tacitly changed their route and quickly slipped away along the base of the wall.

Further away, an older woman riding a bicycle glanced at it curiously, then immediately sped up and rode away.

He took out his phone, looked down and tapped a few times, seemingly sending a message.

Tatsuya Akiyama stood up, stretched his neck, and made a slight "click" sound.

The others also straightened up, focusing their gazes on Fushimi, most of them with smiles on their faces.

Seven or eight people, intentionally or unintentionally forming a semi-encirclement, walked towards the school gate.

The sounds of leather shoes and sneakers on the asphalt, the scraping of metal baseball bats on the ground, and the defiant whistles all seemed somewhat jarring in the suddenly quiet street.

Even the shop owner next to him pulled the door down halfway.

A young man wearing ripped jeans and with a scar on his lip walked in front of Fu Jian. He stopped two steps away, tilted his head, looked Fu Jian up and down, grinned, and revealed his uneven, yellowed teeth.

"Hey kid."

His voice was not loud, and his breath smelled strongly of cigarette smoke.

"Is it you who made our Qiushan-ge's sister cry?"

After pressing the send button, Fushimi put his phone back in his pocket and looked up.

His gaze swept over the person who asked the question, then swept over them all before finally landing on the face of Tatsuya Akiyama, who was walking up behind him. To be honest, the two siblings did look quite alike.

"it's me."

He glanced around, seemingly casually, and asked, "How about we find a quieter, less crowded place?"

The young man who asked the question was considerably shorter than Fushimi, requiring him to look up slightly, which made him even more annoyed.

But upon hearing Fushimi's words, he was taken aback and exchanged a glance with his companion.

This kid, isn't he scared?

They even proactively requested to move to a less crowded area?

Tatsuya Akiyama approached, his blond hair almost blinding in the setting sun, and he stared intently at Fushimi.

"Okay."

He twitched the corner of his mouth and pointed to the narrow alley between two old apartment buildings not far away:

"Let's go, it's quiet over there."

Fushimi nodded, said nothing, and took the lead into the alley.

Akiyama Tatsuya and his group exchanged glances, some surprise in their eyes, but they didn't think much of it and followed Fushimi at a leisurely pace.

With so many people, are you afraid he'll run away?

The alley was not deep, with several dilapidated corrugated cardboard boxes piled up, and the walls were covered with mottled graffiti and rain stains.

The setting sun was blocked by the buildings, and the light suddenly dimmed. The air was filled with a faint musty smell and the pungent odor of fermenting garbage.

Fushimi stopped in the middle of the alley and turned around.

Akiyama Tatsuya and the others had already followed them in, and the seven or eight of them completely blocked the narrow alleyway.

Most of the people who occasionally pass by on the street only dare to glance at them briefly and do not dare to stop.

The other end of the alley is a dead end, piled with abandoned furniture.

"Tell me about it."

Tatsuya Akiyama, hands in his pockets, kicked a soda can in front of Fushimi and raised his chin:

"You seem to be having a lot of fun cursing, kid."

Instead of answering the question, Fushimi asked:

"Do you know how Akiyama Aiko treats her classmates at school?"

Tatsuya Akiyama frowned.

What does this mean?

"Who are you to judge my sister?"

"Hey, kneeling down now might make things a little easier!"

Another voice came through.

Then came a burst of laughter.

If an average student were faced with this scene, they would probably be so weak in the knees that they would kneel down.

Fushimi shook his head. As expected, there was no way to communicate with these brainless idiots. He put the bento box in his hand in a relatively clean place.

Amidst the incomprehensible gazes of the delinquents... he began to roll up his sleeves.

……

Outside the alley, passersby who witnessed this scene all looked at it with pity.

Among them happened to be someone Fushimi had just met yesterday.

Takeru Sato.

After what happened yesterday, he was too ashamed to stay in the archery club for training, so he decided to leave alone through the back door early this morning. He felt he needed to adjust his mindset a little.

But then, by sheer coincidence, I ran into Fushimi here...

Since Sato Takeru woke up in the infirmary yesterday and looked at his broken bow, he no longer felt much anger.

He returned to the temple alone and sat there until late at night.

Holding the bow, he stood in front of the target and carefully examined it again and again, constantly replaying in his mind Fushimi's movements and posture when he drew the bow...

No matter how he thought about it, he only felt a sense of absurdity.

How did he... manage to do that?

Even now, he still feels a little scared, and the thought of the bet that he would have to kowtow and bark like a dog if he lost makes him furious.

"What bad luck, I keep running into them everywhere I go..."

Just as he was about to put on the hoodie jacket and sneak away.

I saw Fushimi being taken away by that group of guys who were clearly not to be trifled with.

Are they delinquents from outside of school?

A flicker of schadenfreude crossed Sato Takeru's mind at first:

"Serves you right for being so arrogant yesterday..."

But then he thought of those menacing expressions... It didn't seem like a situation that could be resolved with a simple warning or threat.

This guy named Fushimi was probably going to get a really bad beating, so he immediately stopped in his tracks...

Then wouldn't I be able to...?

A darker, more alluring thought began to take root in Takeru Satoh's mind.

"Tsk."

He scratched his head and hesitated for a moment.

He made up his mind and followed them furtively.