Tokyo Rebirth: Start From Picking Up Sayu

Pitter patter, rustle, pitter patter.

After noon on Monday, it started to rain quietly.

Even though it was March soon, the gloomy sky was as heavy as a typhoon landing, surrounding the campus heavily.

The continuous raindrops set off layers of ripples on the classroom windows, covering the deserted playground with a soft, translucent veil.

Compared to the dark scenery outside, which seemed like night had arrived early, the inside of the classroom, illuminated by fluorescent lights, was extremely bright, as if this place was the only place other than the world.

The history teacher lectured monotonously on the podium, with a tone that made people sleepy.

Shinjoka looked away from the window, secretly took out the pocket mirror from her bag, and looked behind her.

The scene in the back row of the classroom then appeared on the mirror.

Takei is sleeping soundly on the table, Yamaguchi is opening his mouth and yawning, Kako is not sure what he is doing, and Megumi is carefully taking notes on the blackboard.

——That scene is an ordinary campus daily life.

She adjusted the angle slightly, tilted the mirror to the left, and finally saw the person in the corner.

At this moment, Kato Yusuke was looking out the window in ecstasy. His handsome side face looked very calm, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

Shinjoka half-closed his eyes, a faint trance flashed across his eyes, and he felt that everything that happened yesterday was like an illusion.

Ever since Kato Yusuke left those words to her yesterday, there has been no further news.

Although Serizawa Yu asked Shiu and the others about the situation, all they got was an ambiguous answer like "Let's talk about it later."

They knew nothing specifically about Kato Yusuke's condition and what happened after that.

Shinjoka just looked at the shadow in the mirror silently, and didn't put it away until the class was over.

Urika and Chiyo, who had packed their schoolbags early, ran over and complained about the heavy rain.

"Wow, it seems like it's raining a lot, right?"

"It's too bad, I didn't bring an umbrella."

"It's probably just a temporary heavy rain, right?"

"Who knows, but it'd better be that way!"

"By the way, didn't yesterday's weather forecast say it would rain today? Xiaoqian, why didn't you bring an umbrella?"

"Well... I was chatting on the phone with my boyfriend until very late last night, and I accidentally forgot about it."

"Wow~ Show your affection and other likes and dislikes even if you don't agree with me!"

"That's too much!?"

Shinjoka listened to their conversation, took out her folding umbrella from her schoolbag, and handed it over.

"Xiao Qian, you can use this first."

"Huh? But, that would be too embarrassing. Besides, Xiaoxiang, how are you going to go back?"

Faced with Chiyo's surprised and embarrassed expression, Shinjoka smiled slightly.

"You're welcome. I'm not going home yet anyway. The president said he wants to see me if he has something to do, so I have to go to the student union first."

"If that's the case... then thank you? I'll return the umbrella to you tomorrow, Xiaoxiang." Chiyo happily took the umbrella with a grateful look on his face.

"Hey~~~?"

With an ambiguous expression on her face, Li Xiang joked:

"I see~ As long as you don't bring an umbrella, you can naturally hold the same umbrella with President Kato, right? Xiaoxiang, you are so deceitful~~!"

"Eh? Is what Xiaolixiang said true!? Xiaoxiang."

"Xiao Qian, if you don't want to borrow the umbrella, you can return it to me."

"Ah, I want to borrow it, I want to borrow it, I'm sorry~"

Chiyo stuck out her tongue playfully, as if she was worried that she would regret it, and dragged Li Xiang away quickly.

Shinjoka looked back and found that all the members of Kato's team were no longer in the classroom. So she also picked up her schoolbag and walked to the activity building alone.

Walk through the elevated corridor on the second floor and arrive at the activity building.

In this weather that prevented outdoor activities, students from cultural clubs became the protagonists. Many people were discussing the sudden rainstorm in the corridor.

While greeting people, Shinjoka walked up the stairs to the third floor and arrived at the door of the student union room.

She took out her pocket mirror again, made expressions of tears and pitiful expressions respectively, carefully confirmed the results of her many exercises last night, and then put away the mirror with satisfaction.

‘Be nice later~ don’t talk back to the president, just admit your mistake. ’

She took a deep breath, raised her hand and knocked on the door twice, and opened the door after receiving a "come in" response.

There were no lights on in the room, making it appear dark and deserted.

The cold and humid air filtered in through the window with a finger crack, mixed with the smell of asphalt and dust, easily reminiscent of a summer field road.

There was a wordless silence in the room, and the only sound was the rain falling outside the window.

Kato Yusuke was sitting alone on the sofa, holding a book of poetry in his hand. On the unfolded title page was "Daydream" by Kitajima.

He lowered his head, and his silver hair drooped naturally in front of his forehead, half covering his dark and narrow eyes. His eyelashes were slightly longer, and the ends of his eyes were raised slightly, giving him a cold and passionate eye shape.

"President..."

Shinjoka called softly in a cute voice, walked timidly to the other party, and stopped.

As if he didn't hear her words, Kato Yusuke stared at the poetry collection in his hand, looking a little quiet.

Shinjoka took a sneak peek and saw such a paragraph.

“So we fall in love with the abyss, an anniversary, drinking in the storms of the past, sinking with us.

The wind takes shape in the keyhole, it is the memory of the dead, the knowledge of the night. "

Without waiting for her to look further, the boy closed the poetry book and slowly raised his head.

"——Why betray me?"

He asked softly and lowly, with a certain depression in his cold voice.

Shinjoka's heart skipped a beat, and she knelt down with a plop. She placed her hands on her knees, lowered her head, and said in a soft voice:

"...I'm sorry, President, I did something wrong, no matter how the President wants to punish me, I can."

She didn't raise her head, but she could feel the gaze falling on her head.

Kato Yusuke paused for a moment, "...you already knew that she was the one who came to volunteer."

Shinjoka's eyelids trembled, and she hunched her shoulders and answered, "...Yes."

——Creak, chirp.

In the field of vision directly ahead, the book of poems was suddenly crumpled into a twisted shape. The other party's pale fingers made a crunching sound when pinched, and his breath suddenly became thicker.

"You... took such a big detour with me that day just to pave the way for this matter?"

Shinjoka lowered her head and hesitated for several seconds before she forced out a syllable.

"…………yes."

What followed was an indescribable depression, and the air was so thick it was suffocating.

A few moments.

"What was our original contract?" Kato Yusuke opened his lips word by word, his voice cold.

Shinjoka's chest tightened, her hands clenched the sleeves that covered half of her hands, and she recited it in memory.

"...I will not betray the president. I will be more obedient than Kasumigaoka-san, Kato-san, and Sawamura-san. As long as it is the president's request, I can do anything."

"I will not cause trouble to the president. I am willing to be used by the president and become the object of his boredom and relief."

"The president is my little wallet, and I am the president's exclusive item. With this...the contract is established——"

When she finished speaking, her voice shook uncontrollably. Kato Yusuke sneered.

"I remember it quite clearly."

"President...I..."

"Since you know, why did you recruit her?"

"This is……"

"Since you know, why do you hide it from me?"

"That is……"

"Now that you know, why - do you dare to contact her behind my back?"

"——!"

Kato Yusuke asked questions faster and faster each time, his words were not fierce, and he showed a calmness after careful consideration.

——But this makes people more frightened!

Shinjoka would rather he get angry, beat, scold, and punish herself, but she just doesn't want to see him calm.

After all, human beings are a collection of emotions. As long as they are properly vented, their anger will always dissipate. The most fearful thing is to choose to keep it in your heart...

After a long silence, the young man in a high position whispered something.

"Keep your head up."

"President...?"

Shinjou Kazan raised his head tremblingly, completely losing his usual tact and intelligence, and just looked at the other party anxiously.

"--Well!"

It was something she had never seen before, a calm and angry posture, like the calm before the storm, with a heart-stopping feeling.

The deep eyes that looked directly at each other were full of coldness and indifference, as if they were suddenly transported back to the past, as if they were telling each other about their future relationship.

"Will... grow...?"

Shinjoka murmured and opened her lips, squeezing out two words from her throat. She couldn't help but want to reach out and catch something, but was dodged by the other party.

"--You did very well."

Kato Yusuke looked at her deeply, nodded his head twice, and then stood up and left the room without saying a word.

Click, click.

The sound of the door opening and closing sounded behind him.

It wasn't until much later that Shinjoka regained consciousness.

She trembled and took back her hand, looking around blankly. The room was finally no longer heavy, but it was so silent that it drove people crazy.

She stood up holding on to the sofa, picked up the seemingly abandoned "North Island Poetry Collection" and held it against her chest, then locked the door and left the activity building, all the way to the shoe cabinet in the school building.

Mechanically I took out uniform shoes from the shoe cabinet and put them on, put indoor shoes back and disposed of some confession letters.

Walking outside under the eaves, the cool air came along with the noisy rain.

The rain was like old glass marbles.

Shinjoka looked up at the sky with heavy rain and stood in a daze.

The dark sky was heavy, oppressing the whole city.

"Wow, it's raining so hard. Will you get wet if you hold an umbrella like this?"

"It doesn't matter, I'll just give you my coat."

The flirtatious conversations and laughter of the student couple could be heard in my ears, making it extremely noisy.

"The president's book...can't get dirty..."

Shinjoka murmured to herself, carefully putting the poetry book into the bottom layer of her schoolbag, and then carrying the schoolbag in front of her.

Ah, if I had known better, I wouldn’t have lent Xiao Qian an umbrella.

She thought indifferently as she took steps forward.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

A heavy rain suddenly hit the body, causing pain on the cheeks, and the hair and clothes were soaked in an instant.

"Eh? That girl...isn't she——!?"

There seemed to be an exclamation from a student behind her, but she was too lazy to pay attention to it. She just hugged her schoolbag and walked away with her head lowered.

It only takes about ten minutes to run from here to Toyosaki Station. After that, you can take the train home smoothly, take a comfortable hot bath, and handle the daily work for the president...

Shinjoka hesitated when she thought of this, biting her lips, and then sped up again.

In the dim vision, she smelled the smell of rain and earth.

The streetlights on both sides of the street emitted a faint light. Plastic bags and empty cans on the road were blown everywhere by the wind, and the rain formed trap-like puddles on the ground.

She stepped on it with a slap, causing splashes of water to fly and wet her shoes, socks and dress.

In the dark and misty scenery, it seemed that only the distant headlights and the sound of splashing water connected her to the world.

She ran and ran and ran. When she raised her head, she realized that she had run too far without knowing it and had already passed the station.

Shinjoka looked around blankly and complained in a low voice: "...What are you doing? It's really troublesome."

The heavy rain hit her mercilessly and penetrated down her neck. The sailor uniform he wore underneath was soaked and completely transparent. Fortunately, due to the weather, no one was passing by around him.

As if he couldn't feel the cold, Shinjoka squinted his eyes to identify the direction and started to turn back towards the station.

The wind direction here was against the wind, blowing her thin body to the point of collapse.

She wiped the rain off her face and suddenly felt the corners of her eyes burning. He raised his hand to rub his dry eyes, and the stimulated tear glands instinctively oozed tears.

Looking up at the sky where night has fallen early, the stars are dim and there is no light at all.

"Haha... it's already... finished... now, everything... is gone... I'm such an idiot..."

Shinjoka laughed dryly, biting her lips until they turned white, and then lowered her head.

The roaring strong wind drowned out all the sounds around her. Her soaked clothes robbed her of her body temperature. The moisture made her body heavy. What she saw before her eyes was blurry.

In the pouring rain, she held her shoulders and staggered forward step by step.

In the whole world, she was the only one left in this storm.

◇

"Xiaoxiang!? Why are you so wet-!?"

When she finally returned to the apartment, Serizawa Yu couldn't help but screamed after witnessing her miserable appearance, and then immediately rushed her into the bathroom.

"Anyway, take off your clothes quickly and take a bath! I've already put the hot water, and I'll help you prepare the clothes you need to change!"

Shinjoka stood in front of the sink, looking at herself in the mirror, as if she were seeing a drowned water ghost.

Her hair stuck to her face, her soaked uniform stuck to her skin, and every part of her body was dripping with water.

The originally cute face was now very pale, and the light makeup she applied before going out was also clumps of flowers, like watercolor paint melting with the water.

"...It's so ugly."

She lifted her hair from her forehead and laughed at herself: "The president doesn't like such ugly girls~"

Serizawa Yu hurriedly ran in with her pajamas in her arms. When she saw her standing there, she started urging her again.

"Ah, Xiaoxiang, why don't you take off your clothes? You will definitely get sick if you look like this! Act quickly!"

Shinjoka didn't hold back on this, and consciously took off all her soaked clothes and underwear, and put herself into the bathtub.

Hot water of just the right temperature comes from all around, bringing with it a comfortable warmth that dispels the chill in the body.

"Well……"

Her brows relaxed and she unconsciously uttered: "...It's so warm~"

"Xiaoxiang, should I put your uniform directly into the washing machine? I left the pajamas you need to change on the lid of the washing machine. Dinner is almost ready. You should be able to eat it after washing."

"Okay~~Thank you."

"You're welcome~ I'll go out first then, Xiaoxiang, you wash slowly."

After saying this, Serizawa Yu left the bathroom, with a smile on her face like a good wife and mother.

Shinjo took a handful of water and slapped it on his face, then buried his head under the water, blew bubbles with his nose, and slowly exhaled the air in his lungs.

In this way, it was as if some of the emotions accumulated in his chest had escaped.

However--

The thing that sank to the bottom was still stuck there, as motionless as a lead mass.

…

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