Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

"No...it's still not right."

Kamiki Tetsu pressed hard on his throbbing temples, shook his dizzy head, and said in a hoarse voice:

"This is too sudden... I need to process this."

Just then, a slightly cool hand reached out.

A handkerchief with a faint lavender scent gently wiped away the fine beads of cold sweat from his forehead.

The movements were so natural, as if they had been done hundreds or thousands of times before.

"It's alright, Che-kun."

Saori's voice was gentle, like soothing a frightened cat:

"It's perfectly normal that you don't remember these things."

She withdrew her hand, her dark eyes fixed on him silently, and offered a suggestion he couldn't refuse:

"If you don't believe me... how about taking me to meet Yui-chan after school?"

Kamiki Toru took a deep breath, trying to let the oxygen filling his lungs carry away the last bit of dizziness from his mind.

He couldn't refute the proposal, nor could he find a reason to refuse it.

"……good."

He was silent for a moment, then finally nodded and stood up, supporting himself on his knees.

Just then, the bell signaling the end of lunch break pierced through the gentle breeze and echoed across the campus.

Without saying another word, the two walked out of the shade of the trees one after the other, through the dappled sunlight and shadows of the corridor, and amidst the gradually rising murmur of voices, returned together to the classroom of Class 2B.

In the afternoon class, Kamiki Tetsu rested his chin on his hand, his gaze fixed on the blackboard, but his focus had already become unfocused.

That's so true.

Those newly recovered memories, whether it be the touch, the smell, or the subtle feelings at the time, are all perfect and flawless, not at all like foreign objects that have been forcibly implanted.

If she is some kind of supreme vengeful spirit capable of arbitrarily altering perceptions...

Kamiki Tetsu subconsciously pressed the fabric of his clothes against his chest.

There was complete silence there, with no response whatsoever.

Since that absolutely defensive form of "intergenerational pampering" gave no warning, it means that no malicious mental interference occurred.

Could it be... that there's something wrong with my brain?

Just as his thoughts were about to become a knot, the school bell suddenly rang.

As the closing bell rang, the classroom suddenly became noisy.

Saori neatly packed her schoolbag, even aligning the corners of her textbooks perfectly.

"Um, Saori-san, if we're going the same way, would you like to ride together...?"

A boy who had been waiting for this opportunity mustered up his courage and approached with a fawning smile on his face.

"Sorry, I have an appointment."

The reply was polite but distant, instantly extinguishing the other person's enthusiasm.

After dealing with this brief interlude, she walked to Kamiki Toru's desk under the subtle gazes of the entire class.

They didn't rush me, nor did they say anything.

She stood quietly, clutching her schoolbag, as if she would wait like this indefinitely as long as Kamiki Tetsu didn't get up.

The surrounding gazes, a mixture of jealousy and curiosity, almost set the air ablaze.

Kamiki Toru sighed, grabbed his schoolbag, and stood up.

"Let's go."

The two walked out of the school gate side by side and blended into the bustling streets of Shinjuku.

No need to take the tram. After walking along Meiji-dori for a while and passing through several bustling streets, the school building called "Metropolitan Shinjuku High School" will come into view.

That was the school my younger sister, Yui, had just transferred to.

There's absolutely no need to search for it.

Next to the mobile crepe cart at the school gate, emitting a sweet and cloying aroma, was the figure wrestling desperately with a giant "double strawberry cream topping tower," which Kamiki Toru recognized at a glance.

This girl's stomach is like a black hole connected to another dimension.

Yui Kamiki was wearing an ill-fitting, loose uniform, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster hoarding food, and there was a smear of white cream on the corner of her mouth.

In her left hand, she was carrying a bag of meat buns that she had just bought from the convenience store.

The blissful look on their faces as they chewed with complete absorption made it seem as if the noisy crowd around them didn't exist, and their eyes were only on the food in their hands.

"Two years have passed, and Yui-chan's appetite is still so good."

Saori looked at the figure, a gentle smile appearing on her lips.

She stepped forward.

Sensing someone approaching, Yui Kamiki instinctively protected the meat bun in her hand, looked up, and her eyes were filled with doubt about the stranger.

Saori didn't seem to care, but simply bent down slightly and whispered something to her.

The next second, Yui's chewing motion suddenly stopped.

Her eyes, which had previously only held the food, suddenly widened, and her doubt was completely replaced by immense surprise.

"Sister Hui?!"

She nearly spat out the crepe in her mouth, and without caring about the cream still smeared on her lips, she excitedly shouted:

"Long time no see! What brings you to Tokyo!"

"Onii-chan! You're so unfair!"

Yui Kamiki grabbed Saori's arm and rushed to Toru Kamiki, shouting loudly with a face full of complaints:

"How could you not tell me that Sister Hui was coming to Tokyo? That's such a big deal!"

As she spoke, she made a gesture that made Kamiki Tetsu's eyelids twitch wildly.

She actually pulled a steaming hot meat bun from the paper bag in her arms, which was more important than her life, and stuffed it into Saori's hand without hesitation.

"Here you go, Sister Hui, this is super delicious!"

Kamiki Tetsu's brows furrowed instantly into a deep frown.

He was well aware of his younger sister's possessive nature regarding food.

Trying to snatch food from this girl's mouth is basically as difficult as taking on Godzilla bare-handed.

But now, she's actually offering tribute on her own initiative?

"Sister Hui! Do you remember that time you made steamed buns at home? The ones you made were like works of art, while the ones my brother and I made fell apart as soon as they went into the pot!"

Yui chewed on a crepe, her words slurred with excitement as she reminisced.

"That's because you were greedy and put in too much filling."

Saori reached out and wiped the crumbs from her mouth, her tone affectionate.

hum.

The air was filled with flour dust, the aroma of savory pork and chive filling, and the heartwarming scene of three people sitting around a low table, teasing each other about the white flour smeared on their faces.

It instantly filled Kamiki Tetsu's mind.

"And another thing! During that typhoon when the power went out, we played 'Hyakumonogatari' by candlelight!"

Yui got more and more excited as she talked, waving the spoon in her hand:

"It was my brother who suggested it, but in the end, he was the one who was too scared to go to the bathroom alone!"

"...That's for energy conservation and electricity saving."

Kamiki Tetsu subconsciously chimed in, then froze on the spot.

The dimly lit room with flickering candlelight, the howling wind and rain outside the window, and the clumsy excuse I forced myself to make up to cover up my fear.

Without needing to think, this rebuttal just came out naturally.

These memories were like flesh and blood that were originally part of his body, so real that he could no longer have even the slightest doubt.

Kamiki Tetsu rubbed his throbbing temples in pain. The more vivid the memory of that typhoon night was, the stronger the sense of incongruity with reality became.

Something's not right...something's really not right.

Looking at the girl in front of him, who should be familiar yet felt like a stranger, he finally asked the question that had been lingering in his mind:

"Since we used to be so close... why was Saori Megumi completely absent from my mind until we met today? It's as if... my memories of the past two years have been deliberately cut out."

Upon hearing this, Yui, who was about to put the last bite of her crepe into her mouth, stopped.

She looked at her brother as if he were a fool, and mumbled:

"Brother, have you gone crazy from working so hard? Sister Hui transferred to Kyoto school two years ago because of family issues."

"Kyoto?" Kamiki Toru was taken aback.

"Yes, Kyoto."

Saori nodded slightly, her calm eyes reflecting the dazzling neon lights of Shinjuku, her tone flat:

"Because of a family member's job transfer, I left in a hurry. At that time, not only did I change my place of residence, but my mobile phone number was also canceled for various reasons, and that's how I lost contact with everyone."

At this point, she changed the subject, her gaze falling on the slightly worn school badge on Kamiki Tetsu's backpack, a faint smile playing on her lips:

"However, this semester, due to family reasons, we moved back to Tokyo. And coincidentally, the school I transferred to is the same one that Tetsu-kun attends."

Wow! Really?!

Yui was so excited she almost jumped up. She hadn't even swallowed the meat bun in her mouth yet, and she waved her greasy arms, shouting:

"Then Hui-jie can walk home from school with brother every day! That's wonderful!"

Kamiki Tetsu opened his mouth, looking at the scene before him.

They moved back to Tokyo again, and coincidentally, they transferred to the same high school.

All of this was so coincidental that it seemed like a carefully crafted script.

But looking at his younger sister beside him, who was grinning foolishly with grease on her lips, he could only helplessly scratch his head and swallow back the words, "Is it really that much of a coincidence?"

"...Alright then."

Seeing that he had accepted the situation, Saori gave a slight wry smile, her tone carrying a hint of understanding:

"As for why Che-kun couldn't remember before... that's actually quite normal. A two-year gap, plus the fact that everyone was still using social media back then... For Kamiki-kun, who was busy making a living and paying for tuition every day, isn't it a normal physiological mechanism to gradually forget someone who disappeared and with whom he had no further contact, and throw them into the memory recycling bin?"

"...Is that how it is?"

Kamiki Tetsu's eyes glazed over for a moment.

With that murmur, a memory from the depths of my mind surfaced.

It was an afternoon when the cicadas' incessant chirping was incredibly annoying.

It's in that old park.

"Waaaaah—Mei-neechan, don't go!!"

Yui Kamiki, who usually only knows how to eat, cried like a broken pressure faucet that day.

She clung tightly to Saori's skirt, her face covered in snot and tears. Her heart-wrenching cries made it seem as if her entire stock of snacks had been stolen.

"Stop crying, you look awful."

In my memory, I was standing to the side, holding two bags of bean sprouts. Although I complained, I still helplessly pulled my younger sister, who was crying so hard she almost passed out, into my arms, letting her tears soak my freshly washed T-shirt.

And that was Saori Megumi at that time.

She stood in the shadows lengthened by the setting sun.

She didn't cry, but gently wiped away the tears on Yui's face, then looked up and took a deep look at herself.

hum.

The image overlaps with reality.

Kamiki Tetsu suddenly snapped out of his daze, looking at his younger sister who was sniffling with her head down, and the last trace of doubt in his heart finally vanished.

That's right.

That really happened.

That summer, with its deafening cicada chirps, and that farewell filled with sweat and tears, were real.

"Feel sorry."

Kamiki Toru let out a long breath, looking at the two familiar smiling faces before him, a wave of guilt mixed with self-mockery washed over him:

"In order to survive in Tokyo, I think I subconsciously threw away everything that I couldn't convert into cash, treating it as a burden."

Even precious memories are nothing more than useless data occupying the brain's memory in the face of poverty and destitution at that time.

"This ruthlessness in the face of any means necessary for survival... that's also one of Tetsu-kun's strengths."

Saori chuckled and picked up the conversation.

She stood on the bustling streets of Shinjuku, with the dazzling neon lights of Kabukicho behind her.

Those clear, black and white eyes stared silently at Kamiki Tetsu, and deep within them seemed to surge an emotion deeper than the night.

She leaned forward slightly, her voice soft, yet she gave a profound answer:

"But please rest assured, Tetsu-kun."

"In this world, some connections are made by fate..."

"Whether you move, forget about it, or try to cut ties to travel lighter... it will cling to you tightly, and it will never, ever break free."