Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

Kamiki Tetsu pushed open the back door of Class 2-B.

His gaze immediately drifted to his seat by the window.

Before their view could even land, they were blocked by a wall of people surrounding the area.

Saori was sitting there.

Several boys, whether from her own class or another class, were gathered around her desk, their faces plastered with overly enthusiastic smiles, chattering incessantly, seemingly trying to curry favor with her.

In contrast, Saori, who was surrounded in the middle, seemed uninterested.

She rested her chin on her hand, her slender white fingers casually twirling the ends of her dark hair. She didn't even bother to lift her eyelids at the boys around her trying to flirt with her, completely ignoring their advances.

Kamiki Tetsu didn't stop. He walked straight through the aisle between the desks toward the circle of people.

Before he could get close, Saori, who had been ignoring the surrounding noise, suddenly stopped what she was doing with her fingers.

She stared at a point in the void, her cherry-colored lips parted slightly, and her voice was indifferent:

"Instead of wasting my breath here..."

She paused, her tone tinged with disdain:

"Hoshino Ruri from Class C next door is the talk of the school right now, she should be more valuable than me, right?"

Saori added emotionlessly, as if offering advice on garbage sorting:

"Go harass her."

"Compared to someone as boring as me, she would probably be quite happy to be surrounded by you all."

"How could that be, Saori-san!"

One of the boys immediately flashed a fawning smile, completely ignoring the veiled urgency in his words: "That guy who suddenly becomes strange is nothing compared to you."

"Exactly! That type gets boring quickly. For us, Saori-kun, you're much more appealing—"

"Excuse me, may I pass?"

Kamiki Tetsu didn't give the group of boys a chance to finish their nauseating flattery.

He pushed aside the chattering boy as if clearing away weeds, inserting his arm into the gap in the crowd and forcefully pushing him aside with a slight tug on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, I need to go back to my seat."

Upon hearing Toru Kamiki's voice, a faint smile suddenly appeared on Saori Megumi's face, which had been filled with boredom.

That smile was like a delicate doll suddenly infused with a soul, fleeting yet breathtakingly beautiful.

The boys standing nearby gasped, thinking this sudden "favor" belonged to them. They were instantly flushed with excitement, and some even stammered, trying to respond:

"Saori-san, actually I..."

However, the next second.

Saori ignored the nonsense that hadn't been finished.

Her deep eyes pierced through the crowd and landed precisely on Kamiki Tetsu, who had just squeezed in.

"Che Jun".

She called out softly, her tone familiar, instantly freezing the previously restless air around her.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Saori tilted her head slightly, her smiling eyes holding little warmth as she silently gazed at him.

"I clearly went to the office and took care of all the procedures for you to leave early this afternoon."

She paused, her voice soft as if she were concerned, but it sent a chill down Kamiki Toru's spine:

"Since you're going to the hospital for a checkup..."

"Why are you back so soon?"

"A physical exam? Ha, what's so great about that weak and frail guy?"

The palpable jealousy in the air finally gave the boys the courage to speak again.

One of them, in an attempt to display some ridiculous sense of superiority, deliberately puffed out his chest and even went so far as to pat his biceps:

"Saori-san, when choosing a man, shouldn't you consider his physical abilities? Unlike someone else, I'm on the track and field team—"

Saori slowly turned her head.

The faint, eerie smile that had been playing on the corner of his mouth when he faced Kamiki Tetsu just a second ago vanished completely the moment he turned his head.

She glanced at the boy casually.

"roll."

There is only one word.

The sound was not loud; it could even be described as gentle.

But the words that the boy was showing off his muscles seemed to be abruptly cut off by an invisible hand.

A fear stemming from biological instinct exploded up my spine without warning.

The surrounding air seemed to be drawn into a vacuum in that instant, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"...Yes, yes!"

The faces of the group turned deathly pale instantly, as if they had seen some kind of monster in human skin. They didn't dare to say a word, and with their heads down and tails between their legs, they slunk away like birds and beasts.

The annoying flies dispersed, and the corner returned to its deathly silence.

Before Kamiki Tetsu could pull out a chair and sit down, Saori suddenly leaned over.

The distance is too close.

Her delicate face was almost pressed against Kamiki Toru's chest.

"Sniff, sniff."

She twitched her nose slightly twice.

next second.

Saori frowned undisguisedly, as if she had smelled some long-rotten raw garbage.

She straightened up, raised her hand and fanned herself vigorously in front of her nose, as if even the air she inhaled was filthy.

"This awful taste..."

Saori narrowed her eyes, her gaze sweeping across Toru Kamiki's face like a sharp blade:

"Che-kun, the hospital now..."

"Did they replace the disinfectant with cheap aphrodisiac perfume?"

In that instant.

Kamiki Tetsu's heart skipped a beat without warning.

A strange sense of guilt instantly washed over me.

This feeling came out of nowhere.

She clearly remembered that she had just been fighting against paranormal phenomena in that moldy storage room and was busy rescuing her trapped classmates. She hadn't gone to any brothels or done anything indecent with anyone there.

Logically speaking, I should be a partner of justice and a hero who exorcises spirits.

But being stared at by those eyes, Toru Kamiki had a strange feeling—

It's as if he's a tacky cheating husband who's been out all night, comes home smelling of perfume, and gets caught red-handed in the doorway by his wife.

What exactly is this instinctive fear and guilt?

I clearly didn't do anything wrong.

Kamiki Tetsu forcefully suppressed the inexplicable guilt and tried his best to keep his facial muscles calm.

"I get annoyed just thinking about this."

He avoided Saori's gaze, which seemed to pierce through his soul, pulled out a chair, plopped down, and deliberately added a hint of impatience to his voice:

"The hospital lobby was so crowded it was like they were handing out free eggs. There was a long line in front of the registration machine, and I couldn't get a turn at all."

Kamiki Tetsu casually stuffed his schoolbag into the desk, the movement a little too forceful, as if venting his dissatisfaction with the hospital's overcrowding, or perhaps trying to cover something up.

He tugged at his collar and said in a complaining tone:

"As for the smell... I was walking too fast on the way back and accidentally bumped into a woman who had sprayed half a bottle of cheap perfume at the corner of the corridor."

He frowned, patting his sleeves with a look of utter displeasure: "What bad luck! I'm covered in this indelible smell, it's so pungent I feel like I'm coughing my lungs out."

Saori did not respond immediately.

She maintained that close posture, her eyes quietly reflecting Kamiki Toru's feigned composure.

Just as Kamiki Tetsu felt a cold sweat about to break out on his back—

"Pfft."

She suddenly covered her mouth and let out a soft laugh.

The laughter was soft, yet it instantly broke the suffocating atmosphere.

"Just kidding, why are you making such a scary face, Tetsu-kun?"

Saori's eyes crinkled into a smile, and she seemed to be in a much better mood: "Of course I know, Tetsu-kun would never lie to me... right?"

She reached out her finger and gently tapped Kamiki Toru's chest through his school uniform, her voice as soft as a feather brushing against the heart:

"After all, Che-kun promised me he would only go to the hospital..."

"I absolutely did not meet with those random people."

Before Kamiki Tetsu could answer.

The bald math teacher walked into the classroom carrying his lesson plans.

Saori withdrew her hand, and the vivid smile on her face vanished the moment she turned away, reverting to her delicate and indifferent doll-like appearance.

She calmly pulled her textbook from under the desk, turned the pages, as if the heart-stopping confrontation had never happened.

On the platform, the bald math teacher had turned around, the chalk tapping on the blackboard making a soporific "tap-tap" sound, and began writing those complex formulas that seemed to come from an alien civilization.

Kamiki Tetsu had no interest in listening to the lecture.

He took a deep breath without making a sound, adjusted his posture, and propped up the heavy "Mathematics II" book, creating a simple visual barrier on the desk.

Under the cover of this "defense," he quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket, skillfully turned the screen brightness to the lowest setting, and then tapped on the familiar contact's profile picture.

Fingers flew across the screen.

【Kujo-san, I have a problem with this.】

A vengeful spirit crawled out of the mirror, replaced a person, and now seals that person back inside the mirror.

The moment he pressed the send button, Kamiki Tetsu felt as if the mirror on his chest had cracked again, the slight vibration feeling like a death knell.

Almost the next second after the message was successfully sent.

The phone in my palm suddenly vibrated.

The reply was so fast it was as if she had been glued to the chat interface the whole time.

The screen flickered with a faint glow, and bubbles popped out one after another.

【! ! ! 】

This setting...it sounds exactly like Sadako! How terrifying! ((((；゜Д゜)))

Kamiki Tetsu's lips twitched slightly.

At this critical juncture, this guy still has the mood to send emoticons and write horror movie reviews.

But then, the next message brought him a sense of relief.

[But don't worry, Kamiki-kun! Do you remember the Kagura bell that my family has worshipped for generations, which you helped me find before?]

That magical artifact should be able to resolve this situation!

Since the situation is urgent, I'll ask for leave now and go there! Waiting until I get out of school will definitely be too late. I'll take the tram now; it should take about twenty minutes to get to your school!

twenty minutes.

Kamiki Tetsu's eyelids twitched, and he subconsciously pressed his hand to his chest.

Through the two layers of fabric, the mirror emitted an unsettling warmth, and where my fingertips touched, I could vaguely feel that the crack seemed to be a little longer than before.

Although it's a bit of a stretch, it should still be within the limit.

Moreover, people from other schools can't get into the school; they can only stay in that place.

He glanced warily at Saori Megumi beside him out of the corner of his eye.

She was resting her chin on her hand, seemingly focused on the blackboard, showing no sign of turning her head.

Safety confirmed.

Kamiki Toru's fingers flew across the keyboard as he issued the commands.

Don't use the main entrance; the security guard will stop you.

[Go around to the west side of the wall behind the old school building; there's a crooked cherry blossom tree there.]

I'll be waiting for you inside the wall.

After sending the message, he quickly locked the screen and stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

The problem now is...

How did they manage to slip out of the classroom under everyone's watchful eyes, especially right under Saori's nose?