Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

"Is the school...not safe?"

Kamiki Tetsu subconsciously repeated those words, looking at the girl in front of him with a probing gaze.

Does she know something?

Faced with his question, Saori tilted her head slightly, her face showing confusion, as if she had heard something unbelievable.

"Che-kun, don't you know?"

She wiped away the liquid that had spilled from the edge of the cardboard box with her thumb, her tone flat.

"Recently, there have been a lot of delinquent teenagers from other schools loitering around the back gate. I heard they even use this as an excuse to extort money from students who are alone."

She paused here, her gaze sweeping again, almost imperceptibly, over the bespectacled girl still crouching on the ground, a hint of disgust in her voice:

"Those fly-like bits of trash... it'd be a real problem if you ran into them."

"So, it's very dangerous."

Kamiki Tetsu frowned.

Just because of delinquent teenagers?

While this explanation is reasonable, was the oppressive aura she exuded just now really directed at a few petty thugs?

Before he could figure it out, he suddenly felt a chill in his palm.

Saori placed the slightly deformed cardboard box, from which liquid was still leaking from the straw, into his hand.

"Remember to drink it."

She toned down her aggressive demeanor and reverted to her usual top-student persona.

"Then go back to bed and rest."

After leaving behind those words, which were neither clear whether they were out of concern nor command, she turned around, her skirt tracing a clean arc in the air.

"I'm going back to class now."

With that farewell devoid of any lingering sentiment, that slender figure quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor.

As the suffocating low pressure completely dissipated, fresh air seemed to flow back into the corridor.

Kamiki Tetsu turned his head away and looked away.

The girl with glasses finally collected all the pink envelopes scattered on the ground.

She struggled to hold the rickety "love letter tower" in her arms, and with some difficulty, she stood up while leaning against the wall.

"that……"

She gently pushed up her slightly slipped black-rimmed glasses, her voice timid yet unexpectedly pleasant:

"What that student said earlier is correct."

The girl, clutching the pile of pink envelopes that seemed out of place with her simple demeanor, nodded earnestly.

"Recently, a lot of strange delinquent teenagers have indeed appeared near the school."

The sound was very soft, but when it reached my ears, it felt like a feather gently brushing against my heart, leaving an indescribable tingling sensation.

Kamiki Tetsu was stunned.

My gaze involuntarily refocused on her face.

Thick bangs, outdated black-rimmed glasses, and a completely uninspired uniform outfit...

No matter how you look at it, this is a "background character" who would disappear immediately if thrown into a crowd.

but--

thump.

My heart pounded in my chest without warning.

Then came the second and the third strike.

That was a violent, irrational impulse.

Even though the person in front of him was just a stranger, Kamiki Tetsu felt as if a switch deep within his body had been forcibly pressed.

That clarity and allure emanating from her very being, so different from her ordinary appearance, was now acting as an irresistible force, drawing him in with its power.

"..."

Kamiki Tetsu instinctively pressed his hand to his chest, feeling his mouth dry and his mind even went blank for a moment.

This isn't right.

This feeling, as if my very soul is being stolen away...

What exactly happened?

"Um... classmate? Are you alright?"

Seeing the boy, who had been perfectly fine just moments before, suddenly clutching his chest and looking pained, the girl with glasses blinked, her eyes filled with confusion and worry.

However, the next second, she saw the strange boy in front of her do something incomprehensible.

With trembling hands, Kamiki Tetsu reached into his pocket and abruptly pulled out his wallet.

"Smack."

He instantly pulled out a 10,000 yen banknote, still smelling of fresh ink, and held it up to his eyes.

Under the solemn yet kind gaze of the great Enlightenment thinker, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Kamiki Toru's previously chaotic mind was instantly soothed, and the abnormal palpitations and heat were like evil fire extinguished by holy water, vanishing in an instant.

"ha……"

Kamiki Toru took a deep breath of the reassuring scent of the banknote, feeling the wonderful sensation on his fingertips, and a relieved smile appeared on his lips.

Knew it.

What allure, what love at first sight?

In this world, there is one thing that can make my heart race, make me lose my mind, and make me willing to give everything to follow...

"It really is just you, Yukichi-san."

I was almost swayed by this woman's eerie aura. Thank goodness, I almost betrayed my beloved.

Kamiki Tetsu put the "amulet" back into his wallet, and the infatuation on his face instantly disappeared.

"It's nothing, I just wanted to confirm whether my faith has wavered through some kind of monetary therapy."

He casually dusted off his clothes, his gaze settling on the girl's face:

"By the way, what's your name, classmate?"

The girl was clearly taken aback.

Holding the stack of rickety pink envelopes, she looked at Toru Kamiki with a hint of disbelief through her thick glasses.

"that……"

She hesitated for a moment before lowering her head slightly and whispering:

"I'm Hoshino from Class 2-C."

"Hoshino Ruri".

Upon hearing the name, Kamiki Tetsu scratched his head and quickly searched through his mental "who's who in the school".

Search results: zero.

I've never heard of it before.

That's not scientific.

She received so many love letters that they could cause a shoe cabinet to collapse. With that level of popularity, she should be a well-known figure in the whole school, like the student council president who is always surrounded by holy light and shines wherever he goes.

But this "Hoshino Ruri" in front of me...

Kamiki Tetsu looked at her mediocre appearance, as if she wanted to shrink into a corner.

No matter how you look at it, he's just an ordinary passerby, A.

"Um...sorry! I have to go to class!"

Seemingly startled by Kamiki Tetsu's bizarre actions, Hoshino Ruri hurriedly bowed.

Then, clutching the pink envelope mountain in her arms tightly, she hurried down the corridor as if fleeing.

Kamiki Tetsu stood still, not stopping her, and quietly watched her back.

However, even just a silhouette in a loose uniform, slightly hunched from carrying heavy loads—

That eerie "gravity" was still there.

With each sway of her skirt, Toru Kamiki felt as if his gaze was glued to her, unable to look away.

A completely illogical impulse surged within me, a urge to immediately chase after him, to grab his shoulder, to…

"...Tsk, that was dangerous."

Kamiki Tetsu bit his tongue hard, using the pain to forcefully cut off the dazed feeling that was about to steal his soul.

A nobody with no presence and whose name no one knows.

Yet it possesses a bewitching charm that can cause a shoe cabinet to collapse, and even I, a person with spiritual disabilities, almost fell for it without Yukichi's blessing.

This is no longer something that can be explained by the cute term "luck in love".

"The origin of our school..."

Kamiki Tetsu narrowed his eyes, watching the corner where the girl disappeared, his languid expression gradually turning sharp:

"Looks like we've found it."

Now that the singularity has been identified, the next step is naturally to investigate the individual's background.

The tricky part is that Kamiki Tetsu had absolutely no idea what the name meant.

Should we just rush into Class C and ask?

That's incredibly stupid; it's like walking into a trap.

Ask other guys?

Looking at the love letters scattered all over the ground, most boys these days are probably in a state of high excitement during their "courtship period".

Going over to inquire about Hoshino Ruri at this point would be tantamount to having the words "I'm here to steal your wife" plastered on your forehead.

Forget about getting any information out of them; they'd probably be targeted as "love rivals" in no time.

"We need to find someone who knows about the school..."

Kamiki Tetsu leaned against the wall, rubbing his temples with some distress.

Just then, a faint smell wafted out from the crack of the half-open door of the men's restroom not far away.

It smelled like cheap cigarettes, a mixture of mint and cheap tar.

Kamiki Toru raised an eyebrow, his nostrils twitched slightly, and then he walked over quietly.

Through the crack in the door, two boys with brown hair and loosely altered school uniform trousers were seen hiding in the corner of the urinal like two quails.

They kept a wary eye on the doorway while greedily spitting out the tiny sparks from their fingertips.

Yo.

Isn't this a ready-made "information broker"?

Kamiki Tetsu glanced around and his gaze settled on a cleaning cart in the corner of the corridor.

He smiled slightly and casually picked up the yellow plastic sign hanging there.

[Cleaning in progress].

His movements were fluid and effortless, without any unnecessary hesitation.

First, he hung the sign that could block out all unauthorized people on the outside of the toilet door handle, then he flashed into the smoke-filled space.

"Click".

The deadbolt knob was turned gently.

As the toilet door closed tightly behind him, the once spacious men's restroom instantly transformed into a secluded, isolated room.

The two delinquents, who had been puffing away on cigarettes, froze when they heard the door lock. Their fingers, holding cigarettes, trembled violently, and they almost burned their crotches with the cigarette butts.

The two turned around in alarm, thinking that the teacher in charge of discipline had barged in.

However, upon realizing that the person who arrived was not a teacher in charge of discipline, but a student wearing the same uniform, the two men's tense shoulders instantly relaxed.

Immediately afterwards, a sense of embarrassment and anger triggered by the "false alarm" quickly crept onto their faces.

The two exchanged a glance, confirming the ruthlessness in each other's eyes, and their previously timid and arrogant demeanor instantly reignited.

The taller one threw his cigarette butt on the ground, tilted his head to the side, cracked his knuckles, and pressed his tongue against his palate, making an exaggerated trilled "r" sound typical of delinquents.

"Feed—feed—feed—"

He took a step forward, chin held high, glaring at Kamiki Tetsu with his nostrils flared:

"You bastard... don't you have eyes?"

"Can't you see we're busy here?"

He crushed the remaining half of the cigarette butt under his foot, narrowed his eyes, and forced out a low growl filled with a heavy threat:

"Huh?! You want to die?!"

Before the harsh words could be finished, a crisp slap echoed in the narrow, tiled space.

"Smack."

The sound was short and sharp, like swatting a pesky mosquito.

The delinquent's head snapped to the side from the blow, and the rest of his words were abruptly swallowed back down his throat.

He covered his rapidly swelling left cheek, his once fierce little eyes now wide open, his face filled with disbelief, as if asking, "Who am I? Where am I? What just happened?"

In this school, they are always the ones who bully others. When did it become their turn to be slapped without a word?

"ha?!"

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the immense shame instantly transformed into rage.

His face contorted, and he managed to squeeze out a trembling "yoho" from his throat:

"You bastard—"

"Snapped!"

Another crisp sound.

This time it was a backhand, and the force was controlled with absolute precision, even more decisive and clean than the previous one.