Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

Upon hearing those words, Kamiki Tetsu felt a chill run down his spine and up to the top of his head, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

It's not because the statement is ambiguous, but because it's impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Chejun?

Such affectionate terms of address are usually only found between childhood sweethearts or old friends who have known each other for many years.

But Kamiki Tetsu was absolutely certain that he had never seen this face before.

Three years ago, he fell completely to the streets of Tokyo, still in that body and those clothes.

Every second of this body's memory belongs to him.

In order to survive in this cold and indifferent foreign land, he forced himself to remember everyone who had been kind to him, everyone who owed him money, and even every regular customer in the convenience store who had only ever bought a pack of chewing gum.

His memory is not only a gift, but also an instinct for survival.

If such a stunningly beautiful girl had truly appeared in his life over the past three years, he could never have forgotten her completely.

I don't know you.

Kamiki Tetsu shook his head, his voice cold and hard.

"Why……"

A sigh echoed in my ears.

Saori withdrew the hand that had been supporting her chin and gently placed it on the beautiful curves of her chest.

Even though she adopted this pitiful, sickly-looking literary girl posture, her delicate face remained completely expressionless, not even her eyebrows twitched.

However, in stark contrast to this cold exterior was her voice.

She spoke softly, her delicate voice trembling slightly:

"So, Che-kun really forgot about me..."

"I'm really... so sad."

Kamiki Tetsu's brows instantly furrowed into a tight knot.

Just as he was about to reprimand her, the girl preemptively dropped a bombshell:

"Yui-chan... how have you been lately?"

Kamiki Tetsu's fingers, which had been resting on the corner of the table, suddenly tightened.

If knowing his name could be explained by having looked at the roll call, then being able to accurately call out the name of his sister, who is not related to him by blood and whom he has protected so well…

This cannot be explained by "mistaking someone for someone else" or "hitting someone up".

Who exactly is this guy?

"you……"

Kamiki Tetsu lowered his voice.

"How do you know her? Who are you?"

However, he was met with silence.

The fragile atmosphere that seemed like it could shatter at any moment vanished without a trace in an instant.

Saori turned around nonchalantly, as if she hadn't heard his question, and turned her gaze to the blackboard in front of her.

She reached out her slender, fair hand and took a mechanical pencil from her pencil case.

"Click, click."

Two crisp pressing sounds rang out.

She opened her brand-new notebook, lowered her head, and began to carefully copy down the dry and boring trigonometric function formulas on the blackboard.

The pen tip scratched across the paper, and the handwriting was neat and beautiful.

As for Kamiki Tetsu next to him?

At this moment, it was as if I had completely turned into air.

Looking at the profile of the person beside him who had suddenly switched to "good student mode," Toru Kamiki's brain began to work at lightning speed.

That form of address, that tone of voice... and that eerie sense of déjà vu.

In a flash, he suddenly remembered the instructions the system had given him before and after synthesizing the set yesterday.

When these senses come together again, the puzzle is complete. Look, this pieced-together face... doesn't it look familiar?

When these vile organs come together, they transform into a discarded "true face." Take a closer look...doesn't this face look familiar?

Kamiki Toru took a deep breath, forcefully pressing down on his wildly beating heart to calm himself down.

Under the cover of adjusting his posture, his gaze swept over Saori's exquisite profile again, and then he quickly retrieved all the details in his mind about that "forgotten true face" for comparison.

however.

It doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like it at all.

The mask had a high, straight nose like a mountain ridge and thin lips. Although the features were handsome, it exuded a distinctly sharp and menacing aura.

The girl in front of me had soft and delicate features, long eyelashes, and even a hint of baby fat on her cheeks. She had the perfect "cute" look, like an expensive Kisaragi doll.

These two are not similar at all; they are completely different and have nothing in common.

"Since we can't see anything with the naked eye, we can only look beyond the surface to see the essence."

Kamiki Tetsu lowered his eyes without making a sound, held his breath, and focused his attention on his eyes.

As a faint glint of light flashed deep within his pupils, [Spiritual Vision] quietly activated.

In that faded, gray vision, he turned his head to look at Saori Megumi beside him.

If it's a vengeful spirit disguised as a human, it will have nowhere to hide at this distance.

However, what came into view was a warm, milky-white halo.

Those are characteristics unique to living, breathing human beings.

"Humans?"

The alarm bells in Kamiki Tetsu's mind did not stop; instead, they rang even louder.

How could an ordinary human being who has never met him accurately call out his nickname, and even know about Yui's recent situation?

This is even more illogical than her being a vengeful spirit.

"It seems that simply 'looking' is not enough."

Using his textbook as cover, Kamiki Tetsu quietly folded his hands under the table.

With fingers interlaced and the tips of the thumb and middle finger touching, the "fox window" is created in that extremely brief moment.

Through that non-existent gap, he locked his gaze on the girl beside him.

Through that narrow, diamond-shaped field of vision constructed by fingers, the world sheds its disguise and reveals its true nature.

however--

There was nothing there.

Saori Megumi in my field of vision was still that beautiful girl who was obediently taking notes, and the faint soft light on her body was so clean that there wasn't a single impurity.

"How is that possible..."

Just as Kamiki Tetsu was beginning to doubt himself because of this completely illogical result, a slightly stern voice rang out.

"Kamiki-kun, what are you doing, twisting your hands under the table like that?"

The bald math teacher pushed up his glasses, and the reflection in the lenses flashed, instantly turning the eyes of all thirty-odd pairs of students into his gaze like spotlights.

Kamiki Tetsu froze.

His fingers were still in that extremely cringeworthy and bizarre hand seal pose, looking completely out of place under the desk.

Being caught at this point is tantamount to public execution; the countdown to social death has already begun.

Just as his brain was racing, trying to figure out whether to use a lame excuse like "finger cramp" or "doing some kind of finger yoga" to get away with it—

"teacher."

A cool, clear voice came from beside me.

Saori had bent down at some point and "picked up" a brand new eraser from the gap between the two seats.

She straightened up and placed the eraser on the corner of the table:

"My eraser fell into a corner."

She tilted her head slightly and glanced at Kamiki Tetsu:

"Kamiki-kun was just helping me confirm my location."

A perfect assist.

"Oh...I see."

Upon seeing the well-behaved and pretty new student, the math teacher's stern expression softened instantly, clearly showing no resistance to the transfer student's excellent appearance.

"Helping each other is a good thing, but be less disruptive next time. Okay, take your hands out and sit down to continue the lesson."

Having narrowly escaped disaster, Toru Kamiki silently withdrew his awkward hands. Although full of doubts, he ultimately chose to remain still for the time being, seeing the girl beside him who had already returned to studying.

The long and tedious morning classes passed in an eerie silence.

Until the lunch break bell, announcing liberation, finally rang throughout the campus.

"Ding-dong."

The previously dull classroom instantly became lively, with the air quickly filled with the aroma of bento boxes and the noise of desks and chairs being pushed and pulled.

"Um... Saori-san!"

A boy who considered himself fairly handsome mustered all his courage, blushed, and approached the "VIP seat," clutching two fried bread rolls tightly in his hand.

"If you don't mind...would you like to have lunch together? I can recommend some dishes from the school cafeteria..."

However, he was met with absolute zero.

Saori didn't even spare him a glance, as if he were just a wisp of air.

She slowly closed her textbook, then turned to the side. When her dark eyes fell on Kamiki Tetsu, although her expression remained unchanged, the aura that kept people at a distance instantly melted away.

"Che Jun".

Ignoring the petrified boy beside her, she extended an invitation to Toru Kamiki:

"Want to eat together?"

The next second, the air in Class 2-B, which had been quite noisy, was instantly ignited by countless jealous gazes that seemed to want to tear Kamiki Tetsu to pieces.

Faced with the almost materialized killing intent surrounding him, Toru Kamiki nodded.

That suits me perfectly.

Since the other party took the initiative to come to him, it saved him the trouble of finding an excuse to invite them out.

"Let's go."

He picked up the lunchbox and stood up first amidst a chorus of heartbreak and grinding teeth.

The two walked one after the other through the noisy corridor, avoiding the crowded courtyard, and finally arrived at the shady spot behind the old school building where few people went.

The only sounds here are the rustling of the wind through the leaves and the faint whistles coming from the distant playground.

The dappled shadows of the trees cast on the bench, fragmenting the world into pieces.

Saori sat down with her legs together, and opened the exquisite red bento box on her lap.

She ate slowly and deliberately, picking up a piece of apple cut into the shape of a rabbit's ear and putting it in her mouth, chewing with small, elegant movements.

Kamiki Tetsu sat at the other end of the bench, stuffing rice balls he bought from the convenience store into his mouth, but his gaze never left the girl beside him.

In this forgotten corner of the hustle and bustle, there was only the rustling of leaves in the wind and the eerie, suffocating silence between the two.

As the last piece of tamagoyaki disappeared between her lips and teeth, Saori put down her chopsticks and gently clasped her fair hands together in front of her chest.

"Smack."

A clapping sound broke the silence.

"I'm stuffed."

His voice remained flat, revealing neither satisfaction nor disdain.

Kamiki Tetsu swallowed the last mouthful of cold, hard rice and casually crumpled the wrapper.

"Isn't it about time to say it?"

His gaze was intense, and his tone was low:

"Who exactly are you?"

Saori calmly took out a handkerchief and dabbed it at the corner of her mouth.

Then, she straightened her skirt, turned to the side, and her clear black and white eyes quietly locked onto Kamiki Tetsu.

"Three years ago, in Nerima Ward."

Saori's voice was clear and calm.

"On a Tuesday morning in April, at a garbage collection point."

She tilted her head slightly, looked at Shimaki Tetsu, and continued:

"Because I can't distinguish between combustible and recyclable waste, I was about to throw the plastic bottle with the label still on into the bag."

"You came over, pointed to the classification chart on the wall, and explained the local garbage classification regulations to me. In the end, because you thought I was too clumsy, you even helped me remove the bottle caps and labels."

Kamiki Toru opened his mouth, about to retort with a cold laugh.

Garbage sorting? Even if he were sleepwalking, he couldn't possibly do that—

However, just as the word "impossible" was about to burst out of his mouth, a sharp pain flashed through his mind.

Immediately afterwards, the image that he had so confidently declared "absolutely non-existent" appeared in his mind.

The dim morning light, with a chilly mist.

A distribution point piled high with blue, semi-transparent bags.

And that black-haired girl standing blankly in front of the garbage net, holding a plastic bottle in her hand.

In order to integrate into this rule-bound country, he was indeed in a neurotic state of extreme sensitivity to "classification rules" at the time.

The figure from my memory slowly turned around.

That youthful yet still expressionless face gradually overlapped with the girl sitting under the shade of a tree, elegantly wiping the corner of her mouth.

Those were... memories that truly belonged to him, Toru Kamiki.

But he had completely forgotten about it until the other person brought it up, at which point he passively "remembered" it.

"wrong!"

Kamiki Toru jerked his head away, as if trying to shake off the foreign object that had suddenly popped into his head.

A chill ran down my spine, and cold sweat trickled down my temples.

"That's absolutely impossible..."

Kamiki Tetsu pressed hard on his throbbing temples.

However, Saori gave him no chance to catch his breath, and continued to speak in that cold voice.

"Because of that opportunity, I met you a few more times later, and that's how I got to know Yui-chan."

She lowered her eyes slightly, her tone even carrying a hint of nostalgia, and said softly:

"And my grandma... she loved me very much. When I came home from school, she would often call me at the door and invite me in for tea, and she would always give me freshly baked rice crackers."

boom.

With that word "senbei," memories surged forth.

The room was filled with the aroma of hot tea, Grandma's kind, wrinkled face was beaming with smiles, and Yui was excitedly showing off her artwork with her paintbrush...

The girl sitting at the low table, holding a rough ceramic teacup in both hands, quietly listening to her grandmother's nagging, was none other than Saori Megumi in front of me.

Not only that.

Those fragments she hadn't had a chance to say began to fill in the gaps in her mind automatically.

Passing each other by the riverbank at sunset.

There was no nodding or exchanging of greetings at the entrance of the convenience store.

Even the figure who passed by and quietly said "Good morning" to him when he was watering the potted plants at the door.

She has always been there.