This pressure—it was strong!
Amamiya Rin stood on the street as the night gradually swallowed it, and let out a silent sigh.
The promise he'd casually made back then to rouse the enthusiasm of this bunch of troublemakers had, in the end, come back to bite him.
(...Send me the time and the address.)
He pinched the bridge of his nose and replied within his consciousness, his tone carrying a note of resigned helplessness, yet decisive all the same.
(Yay!)
The very first Tomie immediately cheered, and the other Tomie sent over a wave of knowing emotional ripples.
(No need to trouble yourself—I'll come pick you up at the apartment at seven.)
Tomie answered breezily.
At seven in the evening, the apartment doorbell rang right on time.
Amamiya Rin opened the door; the Kawakami Tomie standing outside had clearly dressed up with great care.
A well-tailored little black dress set off her skin to an even paler fairness; her long hair fell softly over her shoulders, and tiny diamonds adorned her earlobes, glittering with every slight tilt of her head.
Her gaze slid past Amamiya Rin to land on another Tomie in the living room—the one in loungewear—and the corner of her mouth curved up into an arc tinged with triumph.
The Tomie in the living room snapped her magazine shut with a 'clap,' her face darkening in an instant, her eyes all but spitting fire as she glared fixedly at the counterfeit in the doorway.
"Well then, Rin-kun and I are off to the party."
Kawakami Tomie gave a light laugh and naturally hooked her arm through Amamiya Rin's.
"Have. Fun. Now."
The Tomie on the sofa forced the words out through gritted teeth, every syllable steeped in bitterness and fury.
"Hehe, thank you—we're going to be very happy together."
Kawakami Tomie, her smile blooming like a flower, walked out the door arm in arm with Amamiya Rin; even her retreating figure radiated smugness.
The instant the door closed—the very second Kawakami Tomie and Amamiya Rin vanished from the Tomie's sight—the side of the Tomie's face began to squirm, and, so violently agitated was she, a whole new face split out from her skin in a Division (Divisão Corporal Consciente).
"So infuriating! So infuriating!"
The Tomie's chest heaved violently. Even though she'd known all along that Amamiya Rin was going to a party with another counterfeit, even though she'd already given her tacit consent, watching with her own eyes as Amamiya Rin was led away by another counterfeit still made her furious beyond words.
The apartment elevator descended, its metal doors reflecting the two of them in blurry silhouette.
A flicker of mockery passed through Kawakami Tomie's eyes. She leaned a little closer to Amamiya Rin, her voice bright with excitement: "Well? Do I look all right in this?"
"Very pretty."
Amamiya Rin's answer was perfectly sincere.
Tomie's looks and outfit were genuinely flawless; by comparison, he'd merely bought an ordinary suit on short notice.
Poor as he truly was, he had no intention of dressing like some shabby pauper—only to be scorned and humiliated and then have to slap their faces for it later.
"That makes me happy."
At Amamiya Rin's praise, Kawakami Tomie's smile grew all the more enchanting, an uncanny allure radiating from her entire being.
The elevator soon reached the ground floor.
At the curb outside the apartment entrance was parked a black luxury sedan.
Beside the car stood a middle-aged man in an exquisitely tailored dark suit, the face of the watch on his wrist scattering tiny glints of light under the streetlamp.
He had been leaning against the car, but the moment he saw Tomie appear he straightened up at once, piled an ingratiating smile onto his face, and strode briskly forward to greet her.
"Miss Tomie, you look positively radiant tonight..."
Before he'd even finished speaking, his gaze landed on the arm Tomie had hooked through Amamiya Rin's, and his smile visibly stiffened.
Then, as if he'd only just noticed Amamiya Rin, he turned his eyes toward him, the curve of his lips growing somewhat forced.
"And this would be... Amamiya-kun? A pleasure. I'm Toshiyuki Eide. Miss Tomie insisted on bringing you along—you two are certainly... close."
Toshiyuki Eide extended his hand, struggling to keep up his manners.
Damn it! This pauper! If Miss Tomie hadn't been so adamant—refusing to come at all unless this pauper came too—I...
Toshiyuki Eide stared at the man before him, his teeth itching with hatred.
Never once had he imagined that he, born into the Toshiyuki family, could humble himself to such a degree over a single woman.
Amamiya Rin gave his hand a brief shake; the instant Toshiyuki's hand touched his, it pulled away, as though one more second of contact would be too filthy to bear.
Amamiya Rin could clearly feel the man's undisguised sizing-up, and the resentment and hostility buried deep beneath it.
But a gaze of that caliber didn't so much as tickle him.
"Sorry to put you out, Mr. Toshiyuki. Tomie's quite willful, isn't she?"
There was a trace of pity in the look Amamiya Rin gave Toshiyuki Eide; no one who fell in love with Tomie ever came to a good end.
No matter how tightly he reined Tomie in, he could only stop her from going out to bewitch others of her own accord—he couldn't stop others from hurling themselves at Tomie like moths to a flame.
"Not at all—any friend of Miss Tomie's is a friend of mine."
Toshiyuki Eide gave a couple of dry chuckles, mouthing the pleasantries while his eyes drifted back to Tomie's face, and attentively pulled open the rear door of the car.
"Miss Tomie, please. And Amamiya-kun, please."
Tomie got in first, and Amamiya Rin slid in beside her.
Toshiyuki shut the door, climbed into the front passenger seat, and instructed the driver, "To the villa in Shinjuku."
The car pulled onto the main road, the world beyond the windows a stream of glittering light.
After a brief silence, Toshiyuki Eide turned around from the passenger seat, a social smile hanging on his face, his gaze deliberately settling on Amamiya Rin.
"You look quite young, Amamiya-kun. Still in school?"
His tone was mild, like the small talk of an ordinary elder.
"Mm. I was, originally."
Amamiya Rin's answer was curt.
"Oh? Originally?"
Toshiyuki seized on the word, his smile deepening a little.
"So that means right now... you haven't enrolled yet? What university could be so blind as to pass over a talent like Amamiya-kun?"
"Something unexpected came up when I came to Tokyo, and it set me back."
Amamiya Rin said indifferently.
"Unexpected, hm..."
Toshiyuki drew the word out, wearing a look of understanding tinged with regret.
"Tokyo's a fast-paced place—plenty of the unexpected, too. Coming up from the countryside, it's hard to adjust all at once, isn't it? It can't have been easy for your family to send you off to study, either; it's a real shame to have it set back. What are your plans going forward? Wait and take the exams again next year, or find some work to do first?"
Toshiyuki's gaze swept over Amamiya Rin's attire, and a few shades of contempt seeped through his words, spoken and unspoken alike.
Everywhere outside Tokyo was the sticks—once again Amamiya Rin felt the weight of that chain of condescension.
He'd said no more than that he'd come to Tokyo, and just like that he'd become a country bumpkin in this man's mouth?
For a moment Amamiya Rin was at a loss for words.
After a beat, he finally spoke.
"Not decided yet. I've got some troublesome matters to deal with—I might not have the time for university when it comes to it."
Whether this world would even hold out until tomorrow was anyone's guess.
"Time is precious, young man. Especially in Tokyo—the opportunities may look plentiful, but if you can't grab hold of them, they slip away in the blink of an eye. Not like those of us who've clawed our way up over the years and finally found solid footing. An occasion like tonight—it'd do you good to look around a bit, Amamiya-kun, to get a sense of what the real Tokyo is like. Who knows, it might just kindle a little ambition in you."
The corner of Toshiyuki's mouth lifted slightly as he spoke in earnest, weighty tones.
In Toshiyuki's mind, Amamiya Rin had already been filed away alongside the unemployed drifters.
No—not even a drifter, just a lowlife hoodlum of the basest sort.
Toshiyuki Eide thought scornfully.
A man like this—if it weren't for Miss Tomie, what right would he even have to ride in his car?
He'd have the servants give the car a thorough wash afterward, lest the shabby reek of such a country bumpkin linger behind.
____
👻🔥+40 ch on Pátreon: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: DanMachi: But I am a Monster — read it on The_Mikudayo
📚 Forty chapters of advanced reading at Walnut-chan, and it goes straight into keeping the translations on schedule
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