Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

The setting sun dyed the asphalt road in Shinjuku an ambiguous orange-red, lengthening the shadows of the three people walking.

Yui walked ahead, one hand gently held by Saori, the other gesturing in the air, as excited as a sparrow returning to its nest.

"Sister Hui! Do you remember that fireworks festival? My brother refused to buy candied apples to save money, and ended up stealing and eating half of mine!"

"Of course I remember."

Saori tilted her head slightly, the afterglow of the setting sun gilding her delicate profile with a layer of gold.

"Back then, Tetsu-kun even tried to argue that he was helping Yui-chan test for poison."

hum.

As the two talked, ripples stirred once again in the depths of Kamiki Tetsu's mind.

It was the sweltering air of a midsummer night, the cloying smell of syrup, and my face flushed red as I tried to hide my embarrassment.

That sensation and the feeling of shame were perfectly filled in the blank space of my mind in that instant.

"And another thing! That time I stayed at Sister Hui's house, my brother forgot his keys and ended up feeding mosquitoes at the door all night!"

"Hehe, Chejun got bitten twenty-three times on his leg that day, and he was shaking the next day."

hum.

The itching, the chill of the night, and the miserable memory of spending the night squatting outside his house because he couldn't afford an internet cafe—all these memories were once again seamlessly woven into the life trajectory of Toru Kamiki.

Kamiki Tetsu followed behind the two, listening silently.

Whenever Yui brings up a topic, Saori Megumi smiles and adds a comment, and the "two years" that were originally empty in his mind quickly become vivid and full, like a black and white painting that has been colored.

Before I knew it, the surrounding noise gradually faded away.

The stone torii gate, seemingly out of place nestled between office buildings and a love hotel, now stands quietly before me.

"arrive."

"Sister Hui, look! This is our new home!"

Yui, like a tour guide, excitedly pointed to the somewhat old stone torii gate, completely oblivious to anything wrong with staying at a shrine.

Saori raised her head, her gaze sweeping over the thick pillar wrapped with shimenawa rope. There was no surprise on her face, nor did she ask why they lived in such a place.

She nodded calmly and tidied her hair, which had been ruffled by the evening breeze.

"Yes, it's a very quiet and nice place."

Then, she released Yui's hand, took a step back, and her dark eyes appeared exceptionally deep in the setting sun.

"You guys go inside quickly. My driver will be picking me up at the intersection soon, so I won't bother you any longer."

Looking at her matter-of-fact manner, a sense of guilt mixed with unease welled up in Kamiki Tetsu's heart once again.

For two whole years, I had completely forgotten about such an understanding friend, and even needed the other person to take the initiative to accommodate me.

"Um... Saori-san."

Kamiki Tetsu pursed his lips, and finally lowered his head, his voice somewhat muffled:

"I'm sorry. As for what happened in the past... I'll try my best to remember."

Saori paused for a moment, then a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"It's alright, Che-kun," she said softly. "Anyway, we'll have plenty of time later."

Kamiki Toru sighed and said no more.

He took Yui's hand again, who was still waving goodbye reluctantly, turned around and walked through the torii gate, along the moss-covered approach, into this tranquil sacred realm that would soon be shrouded in night.

As you walk down the long stone steps, the "rustling" sound of bamboo brooms scraping the ground can be clearly heard in the quiet air.

In the courtyard, Kujo Hisana, dressed in her red and white shrine maiden outfit, was intently battling a few stubborn fallen leaves with a broom in hand.

As she straightened up to greet the two figures, a small black shadow, carrying the aroma of food, rushed over.

"Hina-neechan! Here you go!"

Yui broke free from Toru Kamiki's grasp and rushed to Kujo like she was presenting a treasure, holding up the paper bag she had been protecting all the way. Inside was a still-warm meat bun:

"This is the best one! It has so much meat filling! I saved it especially for you!"

Kujo Hisana was stunned for a moment, looking at the rosy smiling face in front of her. Her face, which had been a little tense from working, instantly showed a look of surprise.

She put down the broom, took the slightly deformed meat bun with both hands, and her eyes curved into a beautiful smile:

"Oh, did you bring this especially for me? Thank you, Yui-chan. I was a little hungry after cleaning up."

"Eat quickly! It won't taste good when it gets cold!"

Watching the shrine maiden laughing and joking with her younger sister over a meat bun in the courtyard, Toru Kamiki stood at the edge of the steps. His mind, which had been somewhat chaotic from the series of "strange reunions," finally calmed down a little in this heartwarming scene.

Dinner was quickly served in the shrine's tea room.

Although it wasn't as luxurious as the A5 Wagyu beef served at the celebration that night, Kujo Hisana still managed to magically create a table of steaming hot home-style dishes using the leftover scraps and the food in the refrigerator.

The miso soup bubbled and steamed, and the aroma of grilled fish mingled with the sweet fragrance of rice, completely shutting out the eeriness and exhaustion of the day from the paper door.

"I'm starting!"

The three people clasped their hands together, and their prayers overlapped in unison.

Under the warm, orange light, Toru Kamiki picked up a piece of grilled fish with his chopsticks and asked seemingly casually:

"How's the new environment? First day at your new school, didn't you run into any annoying guys causing trouble?"

"Not at all—"

Yui Kamiki stuffed a slice of meat soaked in sauce into her mouth, squinted her eyes happily, and mumbled:

"Although I was a little nervous at first, I was very grateful to that bald uncle for helping me with the procedures."

She swallowed her food, waved her chopsticks around, and her expression was somewhat complicated:

"That uncle... he was really strange. He was wearing a suit, but it was covered in dust, like he hadn't showered for days. In the dean's office, he almost knelt down to help me apply for a lunch subsidy for students from impoverished families and a reduction in school uniform fees..."

Yui scratched her head, seemingly recalling some embarrassing scene:

"He kept grabbing the director's hand and crying, saying that the children in our department were not even getting enough to eat, and that he wanted to get the receipt for the school uniforms reimbursed as some kind of bulletproof vest... In the end, it seemed that the director wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible, so he stamped my receipt at lightning speed."

"..."

Both Toru Kamiki and Hisana Kujo froze, their hands holding the rice bowls stiffening simultaneously.

The image of the bald section chief sitting in the basement of the public toilet, who would cling to someone's leg and cry for a few hundred yen in funding, instantly flashed into their minds.

As expected of Tianhai Yi.

They actually went to such lengths to save on this "family resettlement fee".

"Thanks to him..." Yui sighed, "My classmates looked at me with pity, probably thinking I had just escaped from some refugee camp. Everyone shared their snacks with me."

Kamiki Tetsu silently shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth.

Although the process was embarrassing, the result... was surprisingly good?

"Oh, right!"

Suddenly remembering something, Yui Kamiki put down her chopsticks, her expression turning serious:

"Before that bald uncle left, he specifically asked me to tell you something—"

She cleared her throat and lowered her voice to imitate Tenkai's neurotic and anxious tone:

"Things haven't been peaceful around here lately, there's been trouble everywhere. Tell Kamiki and Kujo to be careful! If we don't meet our KPIs this time and the branch gets shut down... I'll take a rope and hang myself from your shrine's torii gate!!"

Upon hearing this, Toru Kamiki and Hina Kujo exchanged another glance, both reading the same message in each other's eyes.

Spiritual disturbances have been reported in schools in Shinjuku Ward.

However, unaware of the truth, Yui Kamiki was still biting the tip of her chopsticks, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper, as if it were some kind of unsolvable and terrifying mystery.

A few seconds later, she suddenly shivered, shrank back in fear, her small face filled with terror and disillusionment about the future:

"Um...brother."

She glanced at the two of them cautiously, her voice trembling slightly:

"Is the adult world... such a terrifying place?"

"Just because you didn't meet that thing called KPI... you're going to be driven to the point of hanging yourself in front of a shrine?"

The girl stared at the slices of meat in her bowl, muttering to herself, as if a corner of her worldview had crumbled:

"This is too heavy a burden... Is your so-called 'going to work' actually some kind of high-risk profession where you could lose your life at any moment?"

"Haha...it's not that exaggerated."

Kamiki Tetsu chuckled twice, then gently tapped his younger sister's head with his chopsticks, interrupting her increasingly dark fantasy about the workplace:

"That balding old man is just going through menopause; he likes to use exaggerated rhetoric to gain sympathy. Think about it, what respectable civil servant is that miserable?"

"Yeah yeah."

Kujo Hisana quickly picked up the conversation, her face displaying a flawless, gentle smile to conceal her momentary stiffness:

"The so-called hanging oneself on the torii gate is probably like when we say 'I'm exhausted,' it's just a way of venting emotions. Yui-chan, don't take adults' jokes seriously."

"Ugh... Is that so?"

Yui Kamiki rubbed her forehead, which had been tapped, and although there was still some doubt in her eyes, she eventually picked up her chopsticks again after being coaxed by the two of them.

"That scared me to death... I thought my brother would grow up to be one of those middle-aged men who would threaten to hang himself at the drop of a hat."

"Don't worry, my hairline is still pretty strong."

Kamiki Tetsu casually cracked a joke, lightly brushing aside this heavy topic, and the tea room returned to the cheerful clatter of bowls and chopsticks.

however.

From an angle that Yui couldn't see, Toru Kamiki and Hina Kujo's gazes met in the air, then silently drifted away.

The girl's unintentional remark was like a knife, precisely dissecting the reality shrouded in lies.

For Toru Kamiki and Hisana Kujo, this was indeed a...

This is a high-risk profession where you could lose your life at any moment if you take the wrong step.

"Stop lamenting how cruel the adult world is, eat the green peppers in your bowl first."

Kamiki Tetsu gently tapped the rim of his sister's bowl with the handle of his chopsticks, pulling her back from that inexplicable dejection.

Then, seemingly casually, he added a sentence, but his tone was more composed than before:

"Anyway, since that bald guy specifically gave the order, be a little more vigilant at school these next few days. If you sense anything is wrong, or see anything strange, don't go near it out of curiosity; call me immediately."

He paused here, then added an extra layer of assurance:

"Don't wander around after school, I'll come pick you up."

"Huh? Really? My brother came to pick me up in person?"

Yui Kamiki's eyes lit up, and her fear of the "corporate slave hell" was instantly forgotten.

She nodded obediently, then gripped the edge of the rice bowl with both hands, leaned forward, and blinked her big eyes, taking advantage of the situation:

"Well... since you've come all this way to pick me up, it's not too much to ask that you buy me the new 'Get Rich Quick' chocolate crepes from that shop at the station on the way, right?"

She swallowed hard, then added with a hopeful look:

"I heard it has three whole layers of butter and Oreo crumbs inside! And it's only 500 yen!"

"……turn down."

Kamiki Tetsu, expressionless, picked up a piece of green pepper and stuffed it into her mouth, coldly shattering this unrealistic fantasy:

"I'm going there to be a bodyguard, not a walking wallet. If you want to eat those high-calorie bombs, use your own pocket money to buy them."

After calming down his sister who had taken the opportunity to extort money, Kamiki Toru raised his head, his gaze passing over the rising steam above the low table and landing on Kujo Hisana sitting opposite him.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, both of them understood the subtext behind the bald section chief's warning.

Lately, something seems off about the high schools in Shinjuku.

Although the bald section chief was usually extremely unreliable, he had a keen sense of this "dangerous atmosphere," like an old dog.

As a place with extremely high population density and filled with the restless emotions of adolescence, schools are the most likely breeding ground for "ghost stories" and "obsessions".

If something goes wrong... the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Kujo."

Kamiki Tetsu put down his teacup and lowered his voice.

"Since the school was specifically mentioned, then this isn't a matter of probability."

He raised his head, his gaze fixed on Kujou Hisana sitting opposite him:

"Starting tomorrow, keep an eye on St. Margaret's Academy. Observe the students' condition and those usually deserted corners... In short, check your respective schools."

Kujo Hisana's gentle smile faded slightly.

She nodded slightly and responded in a deep voice:

"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking."