Fried beef ribs drizzled with honey mustard sauce, melted cheese and chopped bacon mixed with corn kernels in the rice, and small pieces of starch sausage embedded in the center of the bento, carefully arranged into a heart shape—just looking at it, one could almost feel the explosive calories within. If paired with a bottle of beer and a cigarette, one could pretend to be an adult.
According to Kurusu Akira's life experience, a lunch like this, heavy in sugar, salt, and oil, was usually something blue-collar workers doing physical labor would occasionally consume.
A normal person would feel greasy after just a few bites, and if it were the standard for daily meals, they would likely face serious obesity issues with high blood sugar and high cholesterol.
Kurusu Akira watched the two impeccably slender twin sisters sitting across from him devour such a caloric bomb, and couldn't help but feel astonished.
"Do you usually eat like this?"
"Mmm-hmm," Yoshizawa Sumire responded indistinctly.
Calling it "devouring" was actually a bit inappropriate. They ate very gracefully, and also carefully paid attention to the amplitude of their movements, not letting rice fall out of the lunchbox.
Each movement, slowed down, was as elegant as a young lady from a noble family, yet when strung together, they formed an extremely fast eating speed. Not only did they eat quickly, but their proper posture and serious expressions made it highly covert. Often, one would blink and suddenly realize that a portion of the food in the lunchbox had vanished into thin air.
Even with the Phantom Thief's eyesight, one had to be fully concentrated to discern the process of the food's disappearance.
Otherwise, they would vanish from sight in an inadvertent moment.
And looking up to observe Yoshizawa Kasumi and Yoshizawa Sumire, one would find them still chewing rice or side dishes in small bites.
Kurusu Akira had wondered more than once if this pair of sisters had awakened a spatial anomaly ability.
It was just so mysterious.
Ultimately, it was because his self-respect as an adult office worker didn't allow him to stare at two young girls eating with such overly impolite eyes.
He took out his phone and checked the time; it was almost 1:20.
When he looked back at the corner of the music classroom, a tiny girl was sleeping peacefully on a makeshift bed made of two chairs, covered with a school uniform jacket.
The warm breeze of late spring turning into summer blew in from outside the window, accompanied by the chirping of birds and the clamor from the playground, forming a tranquil and leisurely melody, so pleasant that drowsiness seemed to sprout and grow like rice in one's heart.
But rice would ear and flower; Iseri Nina, sleeping in this atmosphere, also seemed to be having a beautiful, almost heartbreaking, daydream.
Two chairs pushed together were barely the length of an adult's outstretched arm, but her figure was petite. When she curled up, she could just about fit most of her body, leaving a small section of slender ankle connected to lace-edged white short socks and palm-sized delicate black patent leather shoes suspended in mid-air, swaying up and down with the owner's mood.
Her brown shoulder-length hair was not tied into the somewhat childish low twin ponytails as usual, but spread out like a handkerchief, lying flat on the seat of the chair, allowing the sunlight from outside the window to pour down, dyeing her delicate strands with a slightly golden luster.
Her eyes were tightly closed, her pearl-colored lips slightly pursed, her nose trembling faintly, a faint blush floating on her cheeks, and her still-childish face exuded a kind of innocent romanticism, oblivious to the ways of the world, rarely seen in high school girls nowadays.
Kurusu Akira had sighed more than once that this girl was indeed cute. If she usually paid more attention to dressing herself up and tried to remain quiet, she would definitely become a popular and even sought-after figure in school.
Perhaps debuting as an idol would also be a promising path.
He looked for the right angle, then reached out to the napping Iseri Nina... he pushed aside the hair near her ear, then took off a Bluetooth earphone. The earphone was playing "Black Moon Rising," the number one trending song recently.
"Iseri, stop sleeping. Class is starting, it's English class this afternoon."
The girl lazily hummed twice, but her eyes wouldn't open. Instead, as if afraid of the cold, she huddled her knees closer to her chest, like a small cat in a winter night unable to find warmth, trying to curl herself into a ball, head to tail.
Kurusu Akira shook her shoulder, trying to urge her several times, but couldn't wake her up.
No longer disturbed, Iseri Nina quickly lost the little bit of consciousness she had regained, swiftly falling back into the embrace of sleep.
The two first-year gymnastics specialists had already quietly left, tidying their lunchboxes.
The two yoga mats stacked together were quite heavy, so Yoshizawa Kasumi asked Kurusu Akira if he could store them in the club activity room.
The girl's little thoughts were not hard to guess; she simply wanted more reasons and opportunities to meet Kurusu Akira.
One couldn't help but marvel, beautiful girls indeed had privileges.
With a pretty face, a sweet smile, and a humble request, coupled with her usual well-behaved and polite impression—it was hard for anyone to refuse such an offensive.
The person being asked would convince himself with reasons like "she just wants to talk to you more" to continuously lower his bottom line.
Yoshizawa Sumire was meeting Kurusu Akira for the first time. She held her lunchbox, nervously looking back at him, then followed her sister step by step out of the club activity room.
Clang, the metal door closed with a muffled, trembling sound.
The music classroom returned to quiet.
Four sparrows hopped onto the windowsill together, chirping and eyeing the boy and girl in the classroom.
Today was the school's volleyball team tryout day.
Kamoshida, leveraging his connections as a former Olympic champion, had brought in an entire active school team from the neighboring Koyo High School as opponents.
Mishima Yuki, who had been relentlessly mocked by Sakamoto Ryuji for half a month, seemed to have had a sudden burst of power on the spot. He abandoned all morality, dignity, and conscience, and the devilish training he had received from Kamoshida for an entire academic year erupted with extraordinary effectiveness the moment the game whistle blew.
As the main attacker, Mishima Yuki ended the match in the decisive set with nine consecutive vicious and powerful spikes, completely overwhelming the active school team.
It was said that this matter had already made it onto the campus forum of the neighboring "Koyo High School," ranking second in popularity, only surpassed by the post about the "Shujin Legendary Transfer Student."
It was rumored that some busybodies there had given Mishima Yuki a chuunibyou-filled nickname, "Mishima Who Spikes the Sun," after the ancient Chinese myth of "Hou Yi Shooting the Suns."
This is the charm of sports competition.
Compared to the cruelty and bloodiness of math competitions, constantly chasing the limits of mental agility and the ultimate point of innate talent, those boys who ran and cheered on the field could truly win games by sweating and working hard, then shouting about "guts" or "bonds," exploding with astonishing performance through willpower when exhausted.
Kurusu Akira sat at his desk, holding his phone, congratulating Mishima Yuki on joining the school team along with his classmates in the class group chat.
Just then, the class bell rang, lingering over the campus through the broadcast, and a series of hurried footsteps immediately followed in the corridor outside the music classroom.
Class had already started.
Kurusu Akira looked at Iseri Nina, who was still sound asleep at the back of the classroom despite the class bell, and couldn't help but fall into thought.
Recalling when they first met, Iseri Nina, who didn't want to join a band, wouldn't play games, didn't dare to read manga, and constantly clamored about studying hard to get into university, and then seeing her now, peacefully asleep and motionless even if she was late for class, he felt how unpredictable things were.
She had already lost the passion for improving her academic ability; what was she going to do in the future? Kurusu Akira dared not think about it.
'Did I harm her?'
The Phantom Thief pinched his chin, his expression somewhat grave.
This girl seemed to really enjoy playing in a band; her smile never disappeared when she went to STARRY's recording studio every day.
Thinking about it carefully, she was indeed very talented at singing. Her voice was clean, something even an amateur could feel, and she could maintain her breath while jumping and dancing near the microphone... Could it be that she would directly imitate Kawaragi and drop out to become a band vocalist?
That would truly be the end.
Iseri Nina's idol, the former professional singer Kawaragi Momoka, now worked several jobs a day to make a living.
Thinking of this, Kurusu Akira put the Bluetooth earphone back into Iseri Nina's ear, then clasped his hands together, "It seems you've integrated well into the atmosphere of this club…"
That's what he said, but he had already leaned closer to Iseri Nina, pulled out the phone from her pocket, skillfully entered the unlock password, searched for the famous "worst song ever," "Lost Rivers," in the voice app, turned the volume to maximum, and then clicked play.
"Ah!" Iseri Nina practically shrieked as she sprang up from the chair, then hit her head on the back of the chair, and looked at Kurusu Akira, who was holding his phone and pressing "pause," with a bitter expression.
Even though she was being teased, she didn't feel angry or sad, just a strange sense of grievance.
Kurusu Akira threw the phone back, and Iseri Nina hurriedly fumbled to catch it.
Then she saw the timestamp at the top of the screen.
[13:34]
It was already the first class of the afternoon.
It was English class, where the teacher loved to call out student numbers in the first few minutes of class to have students answer questions on stage... Students who were often called on in school for this kind of student number drawing would understand that there was no such thing as randomness; it purely depended on the teacher's mood and habits, as well as their impression of students associated with certain numbers.
As luck would have it, Iseri Nina, the transfer student, as the newly arrived "27," was one of the student numbers the English teacher loved to call out most often.
Thinking of the teacher calling roll and finding someone missing, and how the situation might escalate to tardiness, truancy, expulsion, disciplinary action, probation… Iseri Nina's eyes instantly lost their light.
"Why are you still sitting here?"
Kurusu Akira found two hair ties in his drawer and threw them to Iseri Nina. "Tie your hair up and go back to class quickly."
"But… I'm late." Iseri Nina said with a tearful face, looking at him with a helpless and dependent gaze.
She truly resembled a small dog or cat accustomed to human care; the first thing she did when encountering a problem was not to think about how to solve it herself, but to ask for help from her owner standing nearby.
Kurusu Akira saw her like this and knew that this girl definitely had no experience skipping class or playing hooky.
He remembered that Iseri Nina's upbringing was quite strict, and her father was even a teacher... That made sense; she probably had been taught "don't be late for class" since she was little.
"Tell a small lie, be sincere, look a bit more dejected, then apologize to the teacher, and just go sit in your seat. No one will care that you actually overslept in the club activity room during lunch break."
Kurusu Akira instructed Iseri Nina in the tone of someone who had been there before.
Iseri Nina took it all in, looking at Kurusu Akira with a look of awe, then shuffled towards the door of the music classroom.
"Um, I'll be going now," Iseri Nina said cautiously, bidding farewell to Kurusu Akira.
Her fussiness made Kurusu Akira laugh in exasperation.
"Get to class, now!"
"Yes, yes!!"
The girl responded loudly and ran off.
By the way, although Awa Subaru couldn't understand the class content, she still insisted on staying in the classroom. In a sense, she was indeed a good student.
She had returned to the classroom before the end of the second period in the morning and continued with classes. She had no free time during lunch break, being almost immediately surrounded by the girls in her class asking all sorts of questions, and finally being enthusiastically taken by them to tour the campus.
The leisurely Kurusu Akira was too lazy to sit in the music classroom anymore. He locked the door, tossed the keys playfully, and walked out of the school building.
On the nearby sports field, after the volleyball team tryouts, Kamoshida, the experienced physical education teacher, had arranged a "post-match review" specifically for the new members of the school team.
A group of boys sat cross-legged on the grass. The muscular man, wearing a short-sleeved shirt that revealed his broad, solid muscles, pointed a finger towards the sky, a confident and cheerful smile on his face, and spoke eloquently. He talked about his own past competition experiences, as well as the training content of previous school teams and their embarrassing moments.
The afternoon sun beat down on the synthetic track a meter away, kicking up layers of white heat waves. Under the light green shade of the trees, occasionally, when something interesting was heard, the boys laughed loudly, their minds as clear as water.
Mishima Yuki also sat among them, his sportswear soaked with sweat on his back. He saw Kurusu Akira passing by with his hands in his pockets, and excitedly made an exaggerated fist gesture at him.
"Amamiya! Did you see the message?!"
"Congratulations, Shujin's ace," Kurusu Akira approached and fist-bumped him.
Kamoshida also waved at Kurusu Akira, "Amamiya-san, since you have nothing to do, would you like to listen for a while?"
He still remembered Kurusu Akira's outstanding performance in the gym that day, and was eager to pull this legendary transfer student into his school team, form a dream team, sweep through all levels of leagues, break out of Tokyo, out of Japan, out of all of Asia—
"No, I have some urgent matters outside."
"Hey, just listen for a bit. We're actually going out for dinner after school anyway; come along, my treat."
Kurusu Akira still declined, "I have club activities to attend after school. Let's talk about volleyball another time when there's an opportunity."
Saying this, he walked gracefully towards the school gate, leaving behind a solitary and uninhibited figure for the school team members.
The Phantom Thief was now preparing to take a ride to Chiyoda to return the 110,000 yen he had borrowed from Kawaragi Momoka that day.
After all, these matters were indeed not suitable to explain during band practice.
During class time, there wasn't a single person to be seen on the narrow, long road outside the school.
He bought a can of "MAX Coffee" flavored with condensed milk from the vending machine.
It was as sickeningly sweet as ever.
However, compared to when he first arrived, the Phantom Thief now had 700,000 yen in his pocket as operating funds.
He was finally starting to feel the familiar rhythm of life.
Kurusu Akira thought, the richest he had ever been in his previous life was when he had two or three hundred thousand in cash.
After all, the Phantom Thief operated in secret, and during the day, as a freelancer, he had to find inconspicuous jobs.
Thinking about it carefully, Togawa Sakiko seemed quite similar to him in some ways.
After all, her colleagues at her part-time job probably couldn't imagine that this girl once ran a well-known band at Tsukinomori Academy.
He walked out of the Aoyama-Itchome station platform.
At this time, clear sunlight streamed down from the surface of the prism-like skyscrapers, gently enveloping pedestrians in the streets and alleys like the Danube, coming from the steel forest, rushing towards the high sun in the sky, with white flowers blooming in the blue sea.
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