Ryunosuke passed by a mahjong parlor, executed a sudden brake followed by a slide, and slipped right inside.
Without waiting for anyone's permission, he found a mahjong table that was short one player, sat down, and immediately began to play. The people there stared at this snot-nosed brat in confusion but didn't think much of it. After all, sitting off to the side was a quiet little girl with long black hair who was also playing mahjong.
The adults in the room laughed at the child who had barged in.
"Do you even have any money?"
Without a single word, Ryunosuke tossed the debt collector's wallet onto the table. Everyone fell silent instantly. They then began to shuffle and arrange the mahjong tiles.
Ryunosuke discarded a random tile. After one round, the opponent across from him discarded a Two of Dots. He won immediately (hu).
"Daisushi (Four Great Happiness). Three sets for each direction—East, South, West, North—plus a pair of eye tiles, totaling 14 cards. That's 88 times the limit; thank you for your patronage."
"Ah..." Everyone drew in a cold breath.
For the record, Ryunosuke was acting as the dealer (zhuangjia), which was why he had one more tile than the others, totaling 14. Happily, he scooped up all the money on the table and declared that they could keep the change. The moment he saw the debt collectors catching up, he made a quick getaway.
The men and women playing mahjong could only gape in shock. It was clear they had been left utterly helpless by this young child. Only the little girl with long black hair and ruby-red eyes kept her gaze fixed on the direction where Ryunosuke had vanished.
That girl was Jabami Yumeko in her childhood.
Ryunosuke ran while shouting, "Crap, crap, damn it!" and various other words, yet his face looked incredibly joyful.
The debt collectors were truly unable to keep up the chase. They gripped their knees, gasping for air. One of them even had an asthma attack and hurriedly pulled out an inhaler, spraying it into his mouth to ease the wheezing.
Ryunosuke kindly bought three ice cream bars from a shop for them so they could rest, and simultaneously returned the wallet to the uncle from the debt collection crew. The money inside hadn't decreased by a single cent.
They had wanted to catch the boy, seeing as he was right in front of them. This was a rare opportunity!
However, Ryunosuke pulled out three 10,000 Yen bills featuring Yukichi's portrait—winnings from the mahjong game—waved them before their eyes, and gave each of them one bill as a bribe.
He tucked the money into their chest pockets and patted them.
The men knew when to quit and stopped the chase. Why bother? They wouldn't catch him anyway. This brat was like a walking cheat code; they had been chasing him for years and had never so much as seen his taillights.
Ryunosuke reminded the collectors not to chase him anymore today. Tomorrow he would wait here, and they could resume the chase from this exact spot. They agreed, as they were exhausted and wanted to go home to rest. A ceasefire agreement was reached; they would gather again tomorrow morning at 08:30.
Ryunosuke returned to the school where Eriri was. The money from winning mahjong wasn't much by his standards, but it was enough for him to have some fun for a while. He bought several bags of potato chips, a childhood favorite. Because his body was still small and he hadn't fully recovered the memories of his previous life, his nature was still childish, and naturally, he loved eating chips.
However, the environment he grew up in had forced him to become "precocious" enough to toy with a gang of debt collectors. Ryunosuke lay back down lazily on that familiar apple tree.
Driven by curiosity, Eriri approached him again.
"Hey, who are you exactly? Are you a little beggar?"
Because Ryunosuke was busy fleeing every day, his clothes were indeed tattered. It was only natural that he was mistaken for a little beggar. Sitting up in the tree, he wasn't angry; after all, he really hadn't bathed in a long time.
Eriri pulled out a pink lunch box with a cherry blossom petal motif. This was an extra portion she had asked her mother for to repay Ryunosuke for the apple he gave her yesterday. She had been taught by her mother, Sayuri, that kindness must be repaid with kindness.
Eriri placed the lunch box under the tree, then hurriedly left and hid behind some bushes to observe. Ryunosuke jumped down, looked around, and after making sure no one was there, he immediately began to eat. Once finished, he placed the empty lunch box back where it came from and set a fresh red apple on top of it.
Instantly, he vanished from Eriri's sight like a ninja. In reality, he had simply jumped back into the tree to sleep.
Eriri felt it was quite magical. She approached the tree and saw the red apple left for her. She took it as a gesture of goodwill and began to eat it without worrying about whether it was dirty or not.
Actually, Eriri was overthinking it. Ryunosuke only wanted to test a theory: could one red apple be traded for another lunch box like that one? After all, there were plenty of apple trees here. Even if the girl didn't give him anything in return, he lost nothing.
Sure enough, just as Ryunosuke suspected, Eriri came every day bringing a lunch box. And as usual, Ryunosuke would leave a single red apple for her. Though they never spoke, they had become good friends—at least according to their own individual versions of the story.
Ryunosuke viewed Eriri as a free meal coupon. Meanwhile, the innocent Eriri thought this was a pure friendship. This made Ryunosuke start to feel a bit guilty for constantly taking advantage of the girl.
Until one day, Eriri, who was eating her lunch under the tree, couldn't take it anymore and began to strike up a conversation.
"Hey, Little Beggar, what's your name? My name is Sawamura Spencer Eriri."
Ryunosuke protested briefly; he wasn't a beggar and he had a name. Then he introduced himself honestly. "My name is Akasaka Ryunosuke."
Eriri pretended not to care, even though she was actually very curious. She then asked, "Why are you... um, that."
She didn't know how to ask without offending him; was it impolite to ask why the other party had become a beggar?
Ryunosuke could seemingly read the girl's mind. He casually shifted his position up in the tree, propping his cheek on one hand and speaking lazily.
"You want to ask why I'm a vagrant like this, right? The answer is simple."
"Back home there's a useless father who has a lot of debt, and then used his son as collateral. Consequently, I have to run away every single day..."
Eriri fell silent instantly. This peer of hers lived a life that was far too tragic! If it were her, she might have wanted to just die already.
Eriri gripped her pink lunch box tightly, as if she had reached a major decision.
"Don't you have a place to go? How about coming to my house? I'll support you."
Eriri figured her family was very wealthy; there was no harm in adding one more person to care for. And so, she brought the tattered Ryunosuke back home with her.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
A few moments later...
Sayuri stood in front of her door with her arms crossed. She stared at her beloved daughter with a look of utter disbelief, as if saying: [You really just brought home a living human being like that?]
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