Aoyama Nanami reminded him in a low voice:
"Mr. Kira is indeed a student. We attend the same school."
Yuzo Kameda was immediately left speechless, his expression turning somewhat agitated:
"Then what do you want?!"
Kira Yoshikage looked down at him from above:
"I've only worked here for half a year, and I'm not even a full-time employee. Calculating it according to N+1 would be excessive, so I'm not asking for much. Just one hundred thousand yen."
Yuzo Kameda's breathing became incredibly rapid, and he clenched both fists:
"You little brat, you—"
He could barely restrain himself from reaching out to teach the brat a lesson. However, when he saw that Kira Yoshikage's gaze remained calm, he ultimately held back. Reality was right before him: he clearly couldn't defeat Kira Yoshikage, who had effortlessly taken down three robbers.
"I admit defeat. Here!"
Yuzo Kameda gritted his teeth and pulled a stack of bills from his wallet. After counting carefully, he had exactly ninety thousand yen, not including the loose change.
Adding the bill from earlier, it totaled one hundred thousand yen.
"Thank you."
Kira Yoshikage accepted the money and politely thanked him. Then he turned around, picked up the backpack he had left on the counter, and walked out of the bookstore without looking back.
He could actually have asked for more, but Yuzo Kameda only had one hundred thousand yen on him.
Kira Yoshikage also had other things to do. He couldn't waste too much time.
Yuzo Kameda had a bellyful of anger with nowhere to vent it. He turned around and glared at Aoyama Nanami, berating her harshly:
"Aoyama Nanami, look at what you've done! You—"
"Store manager."
To keep her job, the usually meek Aoyama Nanami interrupted him. The girl raised her head, her gaze resolute:
"I quit."
"You..."
Yuzo Kameda's face was filled with disbelief, but before he could react, Aoyama Nanami had already rushed out of the bookstore.
She had been thoroughly disappointed in the bookstore and its manager. She only wanted to hurry after Kira Yoshikage. After all, even now, she couldn't be sure whether he had been injured during the fight.
However, when she ran out of the bookstore, Kira Yoshikage had already disappeared.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! That little brat!"
In a dark alley near the bookstore, three men dressed in dust-covered white clothing supported each other as they walked toward the other end of the alley, cursing furiously all the while.
"Boss."
The timid robber raised the money bag. "At least we still have the money. We made a huge profit this time!"
They had only taken a beating. At least they still had the money.
"Can you see me?"
The Evil Spirit, wreathed in black smoke, doggedly followed beside them, occasionally snarling the question.
Hearing this, the robber called Boss seemed somewhat comforted, and his expression softened considerably.
"Indeed."
"For people like you, one hundred and thirty thousand yen is quite a haul."
A calm voice sounded beside them. The tall boy stood at the end of the alley, and under the dim light, the shadow he cast swallowed the three of them.
"You!"
The three robbers' pupils contracted sharply. They immediately drew their knives and pointed them at Kira Yoshikage, gnashing their teeth.
Kira Yoshikage approached them step by step, his expression utterly peaceful:
"My name is Kira Yoshikage. I'm sixteen years old. I live in Ota Ward, Tokyo Metropolis. I'm unmarried."
"I work at Kame-tomo Bookstore..."
Kira Yoshikage paused, a trace of regret seemingly appearing in his eyes. "Although I've been fired now."
"What are you trying to do, brat?!"
The robber gritted his teeth and demanded angrily.
"Can you see me?"
The Evil Spirit continued asking insistently.
Kira Yoshikage's expression remained unruffled, and his speech was still unhurried:
"I always get home by ten at the latest. I don't smoke, and I only drink a little alcohol. I go to bed at eleven and make sure to sleep a full eight hours every day. Before bed, I drink a glass of warm milk, then do twenty minutes of stretching to relax my body before lying down. That way, I almost always sleep straight through until morning."
"When I wake up, I feel like a baby, without the slightest trace of fatigue or stress. The doctor even says I'm perfectly healthy."
The robber angrily interrupted him:
"What are you trying to do by saying all this nonsense?!"
Kira Yoshikage remained unmoved and continued speaking to himself:
"What I mean is, I'm someone who always seeks a peaceful life. I don't concern myself with victory or defeat and troubles. I don't create enemies that keep me awake at night. That is my attitude toward life in this society, and I know that this is my happiness."
"And you are the troubles that obstruct my sleep—in other words, my enemies."
As he spoke, Pink Panther emerged beside Kira Yoshikage. His voice remained perfectly calm:
"Killer Queen. That's the name I gave this fellow."
"Before you cause me even greater trouble, I'm going to eliminate you. That way, I can sleep peacefully tonight."
Chapter 3: Don't Splash Blood on Me
"Kill him!"
The three robbers had no idea what Kira Yoshikage was talking about. They merely exchanged glances before gritting their teeth and making up their minds.
They knew that only one side would walk out of this alley alive today!
And now, their opponent was alone, while the three of them had knives. They clearly had the advantage!
They had only lost earlier because they had been unprepared and had been ambushed by their shameless opponent. Now that they were ready, they definitely wouldn't lose again!
With that thought, the three robbers charged at Kira Yoshikage at the same time, brimming with confidence.
Until they saw Kira Yoshikage press down his right thumb.
Without a sound, one of them turned into black smoke and vanished from their sight.
There had been no warning, no disturbance, and not even the slightest sound.
He disappeared along with the dispersing black smoke, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
The remaining two men's expressions changed drastically. Fear of the unknown and death finally forced them to face reality.
But they were already too close.
Two clouds of black smoke bloomed in succession, then quickly dispersed, leaving no trace in the already silent, dark alley.
Kira Yoshikage calmly stepped forward. Pink Panther had already picked up the money bag from the ground and taken out the loose change.
Not a penny more or less—it was exactly one hundred and thirty thousand yen.
Adding the one hundred thousand yen he had received after being fired, he now had two hundred and thirty thousand yen in total. It sounded like a lot, but in truth, it was fairly ordinary.
In Tokyo, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, even a simple bowl of ramen cost eight hundred yen. Two hundred and thirty thousand yen wouldn't last very long.
So...
"I should find another job tomorrow."
Kira Yoshikage put the money in his bag and looked up at the sky.
"Can you see me?"
A monster as bloated as a giant catfish, standing five meters tall, blocked his path. Dozens of arms grew chaotically from its "body," and strange black smoke radiated from it as it doggedly repeated the question.
The monster stared fixedly at the boy below, who was looking up at the sky. Its gaping maw blocked his view.
Boom!
Kira Yoshikage pressed down his thumb.
Amid a soundless explosion, the monster turned into black mist and dispersed.
Kira Yoshikage continued looking up at the sky. A star-filled expanse appeared in his vision, and a brilliant deep-purple Milky Way stretched across the heavens.
It was like a huge scar, splitting the sky in two.
Ever since the Great Rift tore apart the Milky Way, the psychic energy of this world had become increasingly "active."
Evil Spirits were born from human imagination, roaming the earth without restraint in search of humans who could see them—
In other words, Evil Spirits existed because people believed they existed. The same was true of gods.
If this continued, the entire world would become a paradise for Evil Spirits and be dragged into the abyss of Supreme Heaven.
Fortunately,
most people couldn't see Evil Spirits, nor could they see the rift stretching across the sky.
As long as they couldn't see it, they wouldn't be harmed.
Even if they were only pretending.
As long as everyday life hadn't yet collapsed, the world remained within reality.
Even if it was a false reality.
Kira Yoshikage withdrew his gaze, turned around, and left the alley, heading toward the subway station.
Although his workplace was in Shinagawa Ward, the school he attended was Shuchiin Academy in Minato Ward, while his residence was in Ota Ward.
Shinagawa Ward happened to lie between Ota Ward and Minato Ward, making it quite convenient whether he was going to or coming from school.
On top of that, Ota Ward's rent was another major advantage.
To provide accommodation for students from other cities, the "Mixed Academy" students, Shuchiin Academy had built large apartment complexes in Ota Ward. Not only were the facilities quite complete, but the prices were also very reasonable.
However, Kira Yoshikage didn't go directly to the nearest subway station. Instead, he chose to walk to Ebaramachi Station.
Because at this station, it was easy to pick up a wild "girl who had lost her footing"—
In the literal sense of the phrase.
A year ago, large numbers of terrorists calling themselves the "Anti-Intellectual Cult" appeared throughout Japan. They didn't kill people or take hostages. They specialized in bombing schools.
The Anti-Intellectual Cult believed that knowledge harmed people, so they were determined to help young people escape the sea of misery that was knowledge.
As a result, in less than a year, over a hundred schools across Japan had been destroyed by the Anti-Intellectual Cult. Although the Anti-Intellectual Cult specifically struck on days off and hadn't caused too many casualties, many students were still unable to continue their education.
In response, a large number of Tokyo high schools, led by Shuchiin Academy, jointly issued a statement declaring that they could accept students from the bombed schools.
This led to a large influx of students into Tokyo over the past year.
But the influx of students also brought a new problem: Tokyo's suicide rate began climbing steadily as well!
Over the past six months, more than two thousand suicides had occurred in Tokyo Metropolis.
Although Japan's suicide rate had always been high in previous years, with more than twenty thousand suicides nationwide each year and over two thousand in Tokyo, calculations based on the past six months' data still put the suicide rate at more than twice its usual level!
Of those two thousand suicides, six hundred had involved jumping onto the tracks, and most of them had been students. They would often jump just as the subway was about to arrive at the platform, meaning that even when the platform had dedicated rescue personnel, they often had no time to save them.
And Kira Yoshikage's targets were those "girls who had lost their footing" and were trying to jump onto the tracks.
It wasn't that he wanted to save them. He mainly hoped they could make use of their remaining value before dying—
This was the only way Kira Yoshikage could think of to obtain their hands without breaking the law.
The Ebaramachi Station Kira Yoshikage was heading to was one of these "holy grounds of suicide."
Every night, he passed through here, hoping he might pick up a "girl who had lost her footing" and was trying to end her life.