Chapter 91: The Youth Who Lost Their Youth

“Exposed, exposed, exposed, absolutely exposed!”

The few people from the ninth group gathered in the “Industry-Academia Collaboration Building” near the Kasuga Gate of the University of Tokyo. Fatty squatted on the ground, his hands on the windowsill, muttering desperately.

At his feet, the book “Decisiveness—Starting from Tomorrow! Practical Training” was scattered on the ground.

Although the others were not as flustered as Fatty, their faces were all very ugly, as if they were people who usually didn’t exercise and had just run five thousand meters in one go.

“The officials are definitely waiting for us outside!” Rabbit closed her eyes tightly and thought desperately, but couldn’t think of any way.

There was one more thing she couldn’t figure out: “How did Minamoto Kiyomoto find us?!”

In the silence where the air was so thick it was about to drip, Yuka’s voice trembled as she said, “It’s me, I’m the one who harmed everyone.”

Except for Fatty, everyone looked at her with confusion.

“Actually… I’ve met Minamoto Kiyomoto,” Yuka lowered her head.

She told them everything about how she worked at a hand massage shop, was mesmerized by Minamoto Kiyomoto, and went to a love hotel.

“…I changed my hairstyle, my makeup and dress style also changed, and I was wearing sunglasses, sitting behind him. I didn’t expect him to still be able to recognize me,” she leaned against the wall, slowly slid down, and sat on the ground.

“I’m sorry, everyone,” she covered her face with her hands and began to cry.

Everyone looked at each other. After hearing this bizarre story, the panic in their hearts lessened a little.

Rabbit squatted down beside Yuka, just like she comforted children in kindergarten, and gently held Yuka in her arms.

“It’s okay,” she said in Yuka’s ear. “Before we came, didn’t we all prepare to die together?”

Carp also sat beside Yuka, held her trembling shoulder, and rested her forehead on her hair.

Looking at the three of them hugging each other, the monk said in a deep voice, “Now is not the time to discuss whose responsibility it is. Let’s think of a way to escape first.”

“Should we ask the group leader to save us?” Horse Face said tentatively.

“No!” Rabbit and Carp shouted at the same time.

Horse Face averted his gaze and lowered his head.

Monkey said nothing, walked to the corner, and called his son’s school.

Fatty wiped his tears, took out his phone, and began to format it.

“I don’t know if it’s useful, but please let me stay behind for everyone!” Yuka wiped her tears. Her voice was still choked, but her tone was firm and determined.

“A Divine Miko, an Ise Miko, and Minamoto Kiyomoto who can turn into a yokai. What’s the use of one person staying behind? Don’t do anything stupid!” Rabbit said anxiously.

“Should we… surrender? Maybe…” Horse Face looked at everyone’s faces.

“Don’t say stupid things. The officials will never let us go!” the monk said.

“Then what do you say we do?” Horse Face’s face darkened. “I said we shouldn’t have come in the first place! With just the few of us, what can we do to save people?!”

“Then what can we do?” Carp asked back. “Watch the group leader’s sister, like the family of the second group’s leader, be framed with a false charge and executed? Sister Sayaka is not the second group’s leader. If her sister is treated as a criminal, she will definitely go and save her.”

“But it hasn’t happened yet!” Horse Face shouted. “Itomi Yuki is living well. She can even run to Tokyo alone and go on a date with Minamoto Kiyomoto!”

“Then why did you come in the first place? Didn’t you say it was voluntary?!”

“You all came, how could I not come?! And Yuka! You met Minamoto Kiyomoto, such an important thing, and you actually hid it from us! If I had known in advance, I would have died rather than come!”

“You!”

“Stop arguing!” Monkey finished his call and walked back.

Horse Face’s face was ferocious and terrified. After taking a few deep breaths, his face returned to normal. He barely said, “Sorry.”

He walked to the window and sized up the students and tourists on the campus. Everyone looked like they were coming to arrest them.

Horse Face felt like he was now a grasshopper in a box. The giant of the officials was enjoying their fear from above the box…
“When we fight later, if there’s a chance… Carp and Rabbit run first,” Monkey said.

“I—”

Before Rabbit could finish, Monkey interrupted her, “Your child is only three years old and needs you to take care of him.”

Rabbit wanted to say something, but had to be silent.

Monkey continued, “Yuka, me, Monk, and Horse Face will stay behind and prepare to… die.”

“No problem!” Yuka nodded vigorously.

“Amitabha,” the monk put his hands together.

Horse Face glanced over here, then looked out the window, and did not object.

“Fatty,” Monkey patted the crying Fatty’s shoulder again. “You go with Rabbit and Carp. If they’re in danger, it’s your time to be a hero.”

“I… I know,” Fatty replied while crying.

Monkey looked at everyone one by one, was silent for a while, and said, “I’m glad to be friends with everyone.”

After saying this, he took a deep breath, “Let’s go!”

The group split into two and walked out of the building, trying to maintain a natural expression.

Fatty was flipping through the book in his hand. The book listed as many as eighty suggestions, but none of them were useful and could give him enough courage.

“This damn book, it wasted two thousand of my yen!” he cursed in a low voice while wiping his tears.

Leaving the “Industry-Academia Collaboration Building,” Monkey, Horse Face, Yuka, and Monk were wary of their surroundings.

Fatty, Carp, and Rabbit were slightly behind, twenty meters away from the four who were leading the way.

“Fortunately, I don’t have鸫’s contact information. Otherwise, I would have harmed him too. Ah, I really want to see him again,” Rabbit said to Carp in a low voice, pretending to be chatting.

Carp was not as strong as her psychologically and kept swallowing her saliva nervously.

The seven of them walked out of the Kasuga Gate and came to the Kasuga-dori Avenue.

In front of the “Inageya Main Store,” a white truck was parked. Three young people who were not sure if they were students of the University of Tokyo were surrounding the red vending machine in front of the store.

The sun was bright, and the white buildings on the street reflected the light. The few pedestrians were all holding umbrellas.

The seven of them walked and walked, until they reached a place where they had to separate.

“What do we do?” Carp took out her phone and asked in the group chat.

“Separate,” Monkey replied immediately.

“No, they might be waiting for us to separate to reduce the damage to the city,” Rabbit typed back while observing the surroundings.

“With our skills, it’s useless to stick together. Are we going to take ordinary people as hostages? Let’s separate. Maybe there’s still a chance,” Monkey said.

The chat history paused for a while.

“Okay.”

The group dispersed. Yuka, Rabbit, and Carp, the three women, walked together again. Monkey, Monk, and Horse Face were in a group of three.

Only Fatty, with his face buried in the front page of “Decisiveness—Starting from Tomorrow! Practical Training,” walked quickly with his head down.

In the afternoon.

“We’re home safely!” Rabbit sent a message.

“We are too!” the monk replied immediately.

“What about Fatty?” Carp asked.

“I shouldn’t have deleted my phone!!! Sob, sob, sob!!! Crying, crying, crying~” As soon as this style of text appeared, everyone knew it was Fatty without looking at the name.

“What on earth happened? Why didn’t they act?”

“Could it be that they want to use us to lure out〖〗?”

Not mentioning the group leader’s name was something everyone had agreed on from the beginning.

“Maybe they didn’t find us at all,” Horse Face said. “That person didn’t find Yuka either.”

“Then didn’t I cry for nothing?!” Yuka replied immediately.

“It’s good that you came back. The next time something like this happens, don’t call me,” Horse Face’s words were not kind.

“You say that, but at the critical moment, you also stood up. Hehe,” Rabbit sent a smiley face.

“Hmph, that’s because I thought everyone would not survive.”

“Don’t be too optimistic,” the monk said. “We all didn’t feel wrong. Yuki did indeed look at all of us.”

“Could it be that I’m too handsome, so Yuki couldn’t help but look at me? Hehe~~, men who read books really attract girls!!!”

“I said, Fatty, why do you become so self-conscious as soon as you get on the internet? Disgusting.”

“Disgusting.”

“Disgusting.”

“Disgusting.”

Yuka also casually sent a disgusting message, but a strange thought arose in her heart:

Minamoto Kiyomoto let me go last time, and this time too… Could it be that that heartless scoundrel still likes me?
“No, no, no!” she shook her head vigorously.

Isn’t this the same as Fatty? Self-conscious!

“What’s wrong, Yuka?” Rabbit, who was beside her, looked at her strangely.

“Nothing,” Yuka replied quickly.

Although she knew it was impossible, what if Minamoto Kiyomoto let them go because of her… Her hatred for Minamoto Kiyomoto instantly halved, and a painful sweetness faintly felt in her heart.

She even had a crazy idea—to run to Minamoto Kiyomoto, deliberately let him find her, and see if he would catch her.

This was just a thought.

After experiencing today’s events, she cherished life even more.

She typed on her phone:
“The development of things is not something we can decide. Now we can only relax and ‘practice’ hard. Whatever it was like before, it will be the same in the future.”

“Okay.”

“What about Yuki?”

“What else can we do? We’ve already tried our best.”

“That’s right. If we act rashly again, not only will we be in danger, but we will also cause trouble for〖〗.”

“Why did Yuki look for that guy? I don’t think it’s as we guessed before, just to ask about〖〗’s situation.”

“Could that guy have taken the opportunity to comfort Yuki and deceive her feelings???”

“Very likely!” Yuka immediately agreed.

“Yuki, you have to see that guy’s true colors!!! That’s a bad person!!! Handsome guys are not to be trusted!!!”

“Why hasn’t Monkey said anything?” Carp admired Monkey’s performance just now.

Monkey replied, “Just now, I transferred all the money in my account to my son’s teacher and asked her to take care of him. Now I’m thinking of a way to ask for the money back.”

“A female teacher???”

“A female teacher, very gentle,” Monkey said.

“A female teacher agreed to take care of your son, and now you’re thinking about how to get the money back?” Horse Face asked.

“What’s wrong?”

Yuka: “…”

Rabbit: “…”

Carp: “…”

Monkey: “Everyone?”

“I can understand why you got divorced now, but I can’t understand how you got married,” the monk’s avatar was a Maitreya Buddha.

“Even the monk understands, but the monkey still doesn’t.”

“Even the monk understands, but the monkey still doesn’t.”

After surviving the catastrophe, everyone was in high spirits for chatting.

Here, Minamoto Kiyomoto had skipped a day of class and was teaching Itomi Yuki curses in the cafeteria. He had no idea that the ninth group had cried and argued, and had also experienced a life-and-death crisis.

“That’s it for today. Come back next week, and I’ll take you to the cultivator academy to register,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

The Tokyo outside the window was already soaked in the orange juice-like sunset.

“Thank you, big brother,” Itomi Yuki closed her notebook and stroked the cover with satisfaction.

She had finally been pulled out of the deep well by Minamoto Kiyomoto. As long as she worked hard, she could go to her sister’s side and help her.

“Go back early. Don’t make your parents worry.”

“Okay,” Itomi Yuki raised her head, about to speak, but her gaze was attracted by a person who walked into the cafeteria.

Her age was hard to tell, maybe fifteen, maybe twenty-five.

Her milky-white cheeks glowed like jade, her delicately lined lips, and her beautiful neck.

Her soft, dark hair swayed with her steps, giving a beautiful and elegant feeling.

The young girl in front of her was like a goddess illustration from a book.

Seeing Itomi Yuki’s dazed expression, Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head and saw Kamibayashi Miko holding a book.

“No class tonight?” he asked.

“No,” Kamibayashi Miko replied. “Are you done?”

“I’m done,” Minamoto Kiyomoto stood up. “But I have to take Yuki to the station. The guys from the ninth group are stupid and cute. I’ll let them go today.”

“Then I’ll go back first.”

“No, come with me.”

Kamibayashi Miko ignored Minamoto Kiyomoto, and her black hair flew as she turned, disappearing from the cafeteria.

Minamoto Kiyomoto took Itomi Yuki to the station.

Waiting on the platform, Itomi Yuki said softly and affirmatively, “Big brother, you’re so good to me. It’s not just because of my sister, is it? A fickle person usually doesn’t have a good end.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at her and said nothing.

Her appearance was not at all like Kamibayashi Miko’s, but her temperament was somewhat similar.

“The youth who have lost their youth, you have to be prepared,” he said instead.

“The youth who have lost their youth?”

“I also had three friends, but later… forget it,” Minamoto Kiyomoto smiled with a hint of nostalgia. “You’ll understand soon.”

The train pulled into the station.

When Itomi Yuki returned to Chiba, school was not over yet. It was club time.

She went to the teacher’s office, apologized to the teacher, and explained why she was absent today…
The excuse she used was that she was in a bad mood and suddenly wanted to go for a walk, so she bought a Seishun 18 ticket and went to Tokyo.

The teacher also knew about her family’s situation and understood her feelings. She comforted her not to take it to heart and to find her if she had any problems.

“Goodbye, teacher,” Itomi Yuki left the office, turned around, and saw Hayashima running over, and Takashi walking behind.

“Yuki, where did you go? I was so worried about you!” Hayashima pounced on her.

Itomi Yuki couldn’t help but smile. For the first time, she didn’t push her away.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” Takashi said from the side.

“After all, I haven’t seen you all day. Of course I’m in a good mood,” Itomi Yuki replied with a smile.

“Even if you’re in a good mood, you still speak harshly.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t be enthusiastic about people I dislike.”

“That’s enough, don’t say anymore! My heart is already hurt enough!” Takashi clutched his chest dramatically.

Hayashima looked at the two of them bantering, and a smile appeared on her lips. She said happily to Itomi Yuki, “Yuki, let’s go back to the club~”

There were still fifteen minutes before the club ended.

“Sorry,” Itomi Yuki said apologetically, “I have to go back first today. My mother is very worried about me.”

She just wanted to go home now, comfort her mother, and then hurry up and get familiar with the new world.

“That’s right. You must be tired today,” Hayashima was a little disappointed.

“Stupid, what’s there to be disappointed about?” Takashi said. “Can’t we start our activities normally tomorrow?”

“That’s right, hehe~” Hayashima was a little embarrassed. “Yuki, you rest well today. See you at the club tomorrow~”

“Tomorrow…” Looking at Hayashima’s excited eyes, Itomi Yuki changed her words and said softly, “Okay, see you tomorrow.”

After parting with the two of them, Itomi Yuki walked on the empty stairs, and she could hear the shouts of the sports clubs on the playground.

In these shouts, and in the sound of her own footsteps, she suddenly understood why Minamoto Kiyomoto said she would gradually lose her friends, lose her family, and understood what it meant to be a youth who had lost their youth.

“Sister,” in the strong loneliness, she placed her hand on her chest and called out softly.

(End of Chapter)