Tokyo Trickster

what is this?

He saw a familiar name.

Madarame Ikryusai. Amamiya Ren immediately became curious, feeling that there was big news.

Is this old painter's reputation going to be ruined? Someone claiming to be his disciple is reporting him for usurping other people's works as his own.

The Phantom Thief stroked his chin as he looked at the description on the commission board. In one paragraph, he wrote with strong personal emotions:

【Madarame is definitely not a "genius of Japanese painting who can master any style". He is just a despicable person who plagiarizes his students' artistic achievements. From "Autumn Lake" in 16 to "Susano and Mt. Fuji" this year, they are from Yu Quangui in Yokohama, Matsumoto Kawakawa in Katsushika District, Takanashi Kimura in Nakano District... He has always adopted children with artistic talents as apprentices, but in fact he just wants them to work hard to paint without any teaching. But the TV has never talked about his true face under the glamorous appearance. 】

[The Phantom Thieves of the Heart. If you really exist, and are an organization of superpowers that can correct the hearts of criminals... please help me.]

Although the authenticity is not clear.

Amamiya Ren found it very entertaining.

If the information is true, exposing Madarame Ichiryusai's crimes and making him repent would be a great opportunity to increase the support and popularity of the Phantom Thieves.

Contact this guy and check it out.

Amamiya Ren looked at Lavenda, and the girl understood what he meant.

She responded in the background according to the other party's words:

"Anonymous message leaver, your experience has been known to the Phantom Thieves, please..." Lavenda looked at Amamiya Ren.

"Tonight at nine o'clock." Amamiya Ren turned over and over the map of Yokenjaya and studied it again and again. "Go to Suzuran-dori in Yokenjaya, Setagaya District, and dial this number in the only phone booth. Please look for the answer to your doubts on the black cat near the phone booth."

He took out a small piece of paper, wrote a string of numbers on it and threw it to Morgana, "When it's almost nine o'clock, go and wait near the phone booth."

After listening to Amamiya Ren's description, Lavenda continued writing.

ten minutes later.

The man who was drinking in the alley near the Ginza tram station suddenly lowered his head.

He looked at his phone.

On the screen was a piece of letter paper with red words on a black background.

"A reply from the Phantom Thieves of the Heart."

(There will be a third chapter later. By the way, I will also read a friend's book.)

My Friends Are Pirates

The weather is dry: 054. "It was obviously me who came here first"

PM.2:00. Shibuya. Sawamura Baseball Practice Field.

On the wall outside the stadium is a billboard for the Big Bang Burger Shop. "Big Bang Burger uses the energy of the Big Bang to replenish the energy consumed after strenuous exercise, allowing you to swing the bat stronger and more powerfully!"

Ryuji Sakamoto stood against the wall and looked at Amamiya Ren who was walking towards him with a shoulder bag with some surprise.

The clear sunlight flows down from the prism-like surfaces of the high-rise buildings, like the Danube gently enveloping the pedestrians in the streets and alleys, coming from the steel forest and rushing to the rising sun. White flowers bloom in the blue sea.

The sunny days in autumn do not feel hot, but a warmth that is between cold and hot, like touching pajamas that have just been ironed to smooth out the wrinkles.

Today, Amamiya Ren was wearing black trousers with a white woolen shirt. The buttons were exquisite dark gold ellipsoids. She wore a dark red Casio Baby-G watch on her left hand and a pair of large square-framed glasses tied with a thin rope and hung around her neck.

Under the frequent gazes of passers-by, this young man is like a flash in the pan that blooms on the street. Everyone knows that its life is short and fragile, but its gorgeous and sad beauty is like the fireworks that bloom in the sky at the night of the summer festival every year. People subconsciously approach it, wanting to retain this fleeting beauty.

Many loves died in the unspeakable pick-up. Maybe there was a chance of success, but they gave up the pursuit because of inferiority and shyness. After the girls left, they suddenly realized that the strong regret was like a sword that wanted to dig out their hearts.

But it doesn't matter.

Some people are already taking action.

It was a thin, powerful hand, with long, distinct joints, pale and covered with calluses. Only the sweat that flowed over it countless times; the experience of paint, eraser and charcoal; countless recurrences of inflammation; only the holding of the paintbrush for years could leave such marks.

His palm was pressed on the car door, five fingers clasped the handle, and his pair of deep blue pupils were fixed on Amamiya Ren who was walking slowly outside the car window.

Finally, the owner of the eyes called out, "Mr. Madarame, please stop the car."

"Is there something urgent?"

"Yes. Please hurry up." This was a sense of urgency that Madarame had never heard from him before, as if there were flames burning in all directions, and if he was a little slower, it would turn into pale ashes and drift away.

"I understand." Madarame told the driver to stop the car on the side of the road. The car door was opened and closed, and with the sound of hurried footsteps, the skinny-looking boy ran wildly on the street.

Amamiya Ren walked towards Sakamoto Ryuji outside the baseball field, "Is this the place? Let's go in."

"Hey, you're dressed so handsomely today, don't you have a date with a girl tonight? That's really awesome," Sakamoto Ryuji looked Amamiya Ren up and down, revealing an envious expression.

"That's true..."

Just as Amamiya Ren was about to say a few words, her expression tensed.

"Wait a minute!" A voice filled with fanaticism and urgency.

A very young guy, probably the same age as me. Amamiya Ren relaxed, and if possible, he didn't want to cause trouble in public.

"Excuse me, is there anything I can help you with?" The thief turned around and met a pair of surprised and ecstatic eyes.

He was a tall and thin high school student with short dark blue hair and eyes. After staring at Amamiya Ren for a second, he swallowed awkwardly, then bowed deeply and politely, "My name is Kitagawa, Kitagawa Vsuke. Sorry to bother you."

He took a deep breath, his tone full of enthusiasm, "You must be me, the one I have been dreaming of and looking for all along... In short, please be mine..."

When Kitagawa Vsuke thought about the boy he was going to paint, he immediately felt a tingling sensation like an electric current spreading from the inside out, climbing up his spine and rushing straight to his brain. His muscles were cramping, his vision was shaking, and his heart was speeding up. It was an indescribable expectation, as if he had stepped on the steps to knock on the door of the temple of art. Every step forward and upward was a breakthrough to abandon all the staleness and dullness.

The strong throbbing made him a little incoherent, and finally turned into a dance. The 1.8-meter-tall art student posed on the street in a posture similar to the appearance of the Ginyu Force in "Dragon Ball".

"Become your painting model?" Amamiya Ren's eyes trembled.

"That's right!" Kitagawa Vsuke took a step forward, his eyes seemed to be burning with fire, "I haven't painted a work that satisfies me so far... but from you, I feel the passion that others don't have. No, it's perfection!"

He was like trying to understand a perfect work of art, a miracle that a master craftsman had painstakingly carved.

"Hey! What are you talking about? Model?!" Sakamoto Ryuji yelled in dissatisfaction, "I finally got this guy together. Today is baseball time! Baseball time!"

(Third update. I played too many games today and got too lazy. Damn it. I must update early tomorrow.)

Dry weather: 055. Little things and old things

"This is a public place, please be quiet." Amamiya Ren spoke.

"...I'm extremely sorry." The two boys who disliked each other bowed their heads and admitted their mistakes honestly.

"You weird guy, you suddenly come up here to ruin other people's weekend leisure?!" After admitting his mistake, Ryuji Sakamoto immediately glared, trying to kill Kitagawa Vsuke in front of him with his eyes.

"From your appearance, it seems that you are very dissatisfied with society," Kitagawa Vsuke folded his arms across his chest as if he was superior to others, and sneered back, "It's obvious that you are just an ordinary person who has no understanding of art at all."

Since the reform of education system, in today's information age, most art students and sports students do not like each other: the former hang out in galleries and theaters, and are laughed at as lazy people who take shortcuts; the latter hang out on courts and running tracks, and are ridiculed as stubborn people who are not good at academics... This statement was born from a group of fake sports students and art students. It is quite one-sided, even unreasonable and absurd, but it does exist in the conversations of some small groups of students. In fact, the real hard-working sports students and art students are "high castes" respected by most people in school. Because whether studying art or sports, you have to spend money.

Of course, Kitagawa Vsuke and Sakamoto Ryuji would never believe such a ridiculous statement. The reason why they are now confronting each other is purely because of their bad first impression and they don't like each other.

Sakamoto Ryuji looked at Amamiya Ren in astonishment, "Amamiya, do you understand what he said?"

Before the Phantom Thief could speak, Kitagawa Vsuke immediately added, "This..."

"Amamiya Ren."

“Mr. Amemiya!” he said. “Mr. Amemiya standing here is art.”

"Hey! That's a bit disgusting!" Sakamoto Ryuji understood what he said, but it seemed that he didn't understand it. He seemed to have seen something dirty and took a step back subconsciously.

Kitagawa Vsuke didn't care about Sakamoto Ryuji's opinion at all. He bowed deeply to Amamiya Ren respectfully and said, "Please, be my painting model!"

"Why should I agree to you?" Amamiya Ren was a little disgusted by this man's sudden request.

"That..." Kitagawa Vsuke stood there in a daze. He was thinking quickly about how to persuade Amamiya Ren to help him. For a moment, he didn't know what kind of reward he should give. His brain CPU quickly overloaded, and finally, he ran the code closest to the cursor amid the sound of car horns coming from far away.

"I am a student of Madarame Ichiryusai who is studying Japanese painting at his home. Tomorrow, Madarame Ichiryusai will hold an exhibition at the mall in front of Shibuya Station... I beg you to come... Although you are definitely not interested in painting, these tickets will serve as compensation for my impertinence just now."

Madarame Ikryusai?

Amamiya Ren became interested. He took the ticket from Kitagawa and said, "I will go to the exhibition tomorrow."

Kitagawa was overjoyed, and just as he was about to say something, he was met with Sakamoto Ryuji's face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot. "Get lost." The thug's lips moved up and down, silently expressing his annoyance with Kitagawa.

Kitagawa Vsuke, who was originally thinking about how to apologize to him, suddenly got angry.

The war between art students and sports students seems to be on the verge of breaking out.

A black luxury car stopped by the roadside. The window of the back seat slowly rolled down. A kind-looking, energetic old man smiled and called out, "V."

The art student who was about to start a fight with Sakamoto Ryuji kept silent, his expression changing from gloomy to bright before he turned around and said, "Sorry, teacher, I'll be back right away!"

Kitagawa Vsuke fled without a fight.

With the help of God, Ryuji Sakamoto won without fighting.

Amamiya Ren met the old man's eyes.

Is this guy Madarame Ikryusai? Amamiya Ren was a little suspicious. He didn't look like the kind of despicable person who would plagiarize his disciples' works.

What a handsome young man, Madarame thought, and gave him a kind smile.

Amamiya Ren waved goodbye to him.

The midterm exam is coming soon. Some people are reviewing, some are dating, and some are playing baseball in the stadium.

The two "bad guys" who kept swinging their bats sat in the dugout after the pitching machine was empty, watching the staff picking up balls from the floor to refill the machine.

"Come to think of it," Sakamoto Ryuji finally thought of the imminent exam, and asked Amamiya Ren with a smile, "You probably didn't read any books for the midterm exam, right?"

Amamiya Ren calmly took a sip of the Dr. Pepper she had just bought and said, "Of course I didn't read the book. Who would review before the exam?"

He told the truth.

The book I'm reading recently is not the course for this grade, but the course materials for the second year of high school.

Ryuji Sakamoto would only try to study his textbooks on the spot when a big exam was approaching, but even though he knew every word, when they were put together, they were an obscure curse that was difficult to understand.

Everyone else was reviewing, but he was the only one previewing.

Humans can do a lot of things when they are extremely angry. In addition to mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, English...

I can't do anything. Sakamoto Ryuji finally realized this after thinking hard at his desk last night.

If you can’t do it, just start!

"Haha, reading before the exam is basically preparation." Sakamoto Ryuji looked at Amamiya Ren with a like-minded expression.

"Indeed," Amamiya Ren nodded, "So I don't want to review it anymore."

"Sure enough! We really get along well!"

Amamiya Ren was silent for a few seconds.

It seems that what they mean by "pre-study" is a little different.

After this period of communication, Amamiya Ren came to understand that Sakamoto Ryuji was a stubborn guy who often spoke without thinking, acted rashly, and lived his own life happily all day long.

Ryuji Sakamoto seems to be a person with many flaws, but he has a rare shining point. He lives very realistically and has clear goals. He always treats his dreams with great enthusiasm and spends every day as meaningfully as possible.

If he wasn't so dumb and often offended people, he might have become one of the top social circles in school.

Amamiya Ren threw the empty can in her hand into the storage box.

Let's see his results after the midterm exam. If they're too bad, well, I'll arrange a free study session for him every week to help him with his homework.

Why did I want to help him? Amamiya Ren reflected on herself.

This question doesn't really make sense, I just did it because I wanted to lend a helping hand.

If Amamiya Ren were to go back to the night a month ago that changed his life, no matter how many times he hesitated, he would ultimately choose to punch that bastard congressman who harassed women.

Just like how Sakamoto Ryuji tried to get close to Amamiya Ren countless times during this period, trying to become his friend. Perhaps it was to repay a favor, or perhaps he thought that Amamiya Ren was not as bad as the rumors said, so he wanted to use this method to help him.

There is a lot of goodwill and justice that does not need a reason to exist.

(I stayed up all night yesterday, and slept until the afternoon, but was picked up again to serve as a soldier, and I just returned to the dormitory not long ago.)

(There's another chapter coming up.)

Dry weather: 056. Evil thieves act as accomplices

Evening rush hour.

A terrible noun.

Every evening, the streets and alleys of the entire city are blocked by traffic. The window glass reflects the afterglow of the setting sun like flames bursting out of a furnace. Tired men and women are stuck in the city’s tired transportation hub, wasting time meaninglessly.

The opposite of this is the morning rush hour.

The difference is that the latter means "don't even think about getting to work/school on time", while the former means "don't even think about getting home comfortably."