Tokyo Psychic

The thief pulled aside the curtains and looked at the serpentine stream of water coating the glass. "My 'Mental Health Education Department' still has a lot of staff shortages. I'll just find an opportunity to recruit them all."

Jing Qin Rencai asked Kurusu Xiao hesitantly, "But, we are all ordinary people. If we encounter danger, we will definitely drag you down."

Kurusu Akatsuki glanced at her and said, "By the time we return to Tokyo next week, someone in the band will have awakened their personality mask. Even if I'm not around, you'll be able to guarantee your own safety to a certain extent."

This was also his plan.

Since there's no battle-hardened personality user, and no esper with fully developed abilities, I might as well just train one myself.

As it happens, there is a girl in the band who meets the requirements for awakening the personality mask.

If Shoko Toyokawa, who is deeply in debt and has given up too many important and precious things, were to face her father in the memory space, whose desires were distorted by the "abyss" and who destroyed the entire family single-handedly... In such a situation, it would be strange if she could not awaken her personality mask?

Jing Serina was shocked by Kurusu Akatsuki's answer.

But soon, she looked at Kurusu Akatsuki with some anticipation, and then poked herself with her fingers, making it clear that she also wanted to be a "superpower person".

Kurusu Akatsuki looked her up and down for a moment, a little disdainful. "You're living a very happy life now, aren't you? Where did the deep hatred and vengeance come from that made you awaken your personality mask?"

"Didn't they say that as long as you have a 'rebellious heart', that's all..." At this time, Jing Qinrencai remembered what the other party had taught in the impression space the day before yesterday.

"Simply running away from home to protest against school bullies or parents doesn't qualify as 'rebellion,'" the Phantom Thief patiently replied. "At least you have to have your 'most treasured possessions' taken away, or face a desperate situation, and still persevere in resistance—at least that level of resistance would qualify."

He thought for a moment, "However, I do remember two other ways to awaken a Persona."

Jing Qinren, who was originally very disappointed, immediately looked at Kurusu Xiao with surprise.

But the Phantom Thief's next answer quickly refuted her inner hopes. "The first is to possess the qualifications to awaken the 'Personality Mask' while also possessing the courage to face death. The second is to use some kind of medium to overcome the most twisted and dark side of one's heart in the alienated world of consciousness."

"They are much more difficult than the awakening method I mentioned at the beginning."

Kurusu Akatsuki looked out the window at the slightly lighter rain. "Of course, there's no need to be too discouraged. After all, no one can predict the future... Next, we should go and check out that arts academy."

"There have been quite a few disappearances and suicides there lately."

"Is it like Ishihara-san from Class A?"

"Well, it's as if they've simply vanished from the face of the earth. No matter how hard I try, there's no trace of their existence."

Kurusu Akatsuki asked Jingqin Renna to blow dry her hair quickly, and he walked out of the room and started contacting the dean of studies using Line, asking for Principal Shinma's personal phone number.

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at the same time.

"New Kawasaki Arts Academy".

After a body shape class, the instructor in gymnastics clothes left the classroom.

The pretty girls in the dance studio, who had been tense for almost an hour, suddenly relaxed. They gathered in groups of three or four, walked out of the classroom, and began chattering in the spacious corridor about their future career paths and development directions.

But this lively and cozy atmosphere soon froze. It was as cold as a cold winter, and everything was quiet, with only the whispers between friends.

They all looked at the staircase with different expressions. An He Subaru, who had put away her umbrella and changed into dancing shoes, walked in, as if she was holding a blood-stained samurai sword. The shiny blade reflected the light, ready to cut down the next enemy at any moment.

"Hey, hey, hey, that guy is..."

"Hush! I heard she's been hooking up with a powerful director at the film festival lately."

"I remember she's the granddaughter of the famous An and Tiantong, right?"

"Actors' family, what a filthy place!"

"She's so shady! Don't chat with her, or you'll lose your innocent persona..."

It wasn't until An and Subaru followed the stairs to the second floor that the students' voices returned to normal, intentionally or unintentionally forcing a sense of "relief" for having "survived a disaster." As if this would make them more sociable and avant-garde, catering to the topics of their friends and classmates.

An He Subaru heard the discussions around him and couldn't help but raise his beautiful eyebrows. He began to imagine whether he could pull out a samurai sword from his umbrella and chop those guys who were buzzing like flies into pieces. But the umbrella was just an ordinary umbrella. If he pulled the umbrella handle hard like the plots in various spy movies, he would only destroy the Kumamon and Sword Art Online joint peripheral that she bought at a discounted price of nearly 20,000 yen.

She could only hold her sword like a samurai in the Edo era, holding back the sharpness of her sword, walking through the eyes of the crowd, amidst jealousy and disgust, heading straight to the mansion where her lord was.

"An He, you missed today's physical education class."

An He Subaru tried hard to straighten his back and maintain a polite and elegant smile.

But before she could explain, the lecturer waved his hand in annoyance, "Go back to class. The 'Performance Experience Class' is coming up soon. Don't miss it."

"Yes..." An Hesuba kept exerting force on the palm of his hand that was holding the umbrella handle, and he really wanted to pull out the knife right now.

Walking out of the office, I listened to the discussions along the way.

Her mood grew worse.

Let’s skip class.

This thought has been lingering in my mind over and over again for the past two weeks.

I don't know where the rumor came from, but it spread like wildfire in just one day, becoming the talk of the town in this arts academy, and even showing signs of spreading to his original high school.

Both classmates and teachers began to look at him with strange eyes.

Even seeking help from family members was of no avail. Not only was it the source of the rumors, but even their containment was impossible.

Discussion posts of all sizes began to appear on the Internet, starting with "Anhe Tiantong's granddaughter" and fabricating some fictitious things that made people feel sick.

An and Subaru looked at the raindrops dancing wildly on the corridor windows.

Today is April 27th...it's my birthday.

Congratulations, An Hesuba, you are now seventeen years old.

Perhaps it was the accumulated irritability from staying up late playing games, or perhaps it was the depression caused by the heavy rain during the spring-summer transition. The emotions accumulated for various reasons finally erupted, and she could no longer tolerate the strange looks and noises around her - she simply walked down to the porch, changed into her rain boots, opened her umbrella and walked into the rain.

She decided to be willful for once.

An He Subaru is the owner of the dark "Sticker Monument" deck. Now she is going to the card shop to randomly draw a lucky duelist to start a thrilling game of "Yu-Gi-Oh".

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A softly lit space.

The sound of cards rustling.

The entrance of the "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" card shop.

The thief, who had been sinking in the impression space for half an hour but found nothing, left his child in the coffee shop to play with his mobile phone, and found this dangerous arena and decided to vent his inner irritability and depression by playing cards.

"Boss, rent a set of Pearl Tears Lament."

"Boss, I need an empty table."

Two voices rang out simultaneously beside the counter.

Kurusu Akatsuki saw that the other person was a very beautiful girl, but he didn't care about her appearance at all! His eyes were fixed on the deck in her hand... and he saw it! It was the purple border that symbolized a "Fusion Monster"!

Fusion? The most effective fusion deck in this era must be Pearly Tear Lament, right?!

Humph, it must be the same type of world-destroying power.

He took the already prepared deck from the boss and looked at the girl who had already received the table card.

The girl, whom he had never met before, actually responded with a look of mutual understanding, "Want to play cards?"

"Hit." A resounding answer.

"My fusion is definitely stronger than yours." Such confident words made Kurusu Akatsuki furious.

I have suffered the same injustice in the impression space, can I suffer it again at the poker table?

Are you kidding me? !

The two found an empty table in the corner of the card shop and began to shuffle the deck according to the procedure.

Then, it's the turn to draw cards.

It was as if we were on the set of a western cowboy duel, with both sides taking seven steps back before starting a fight to the death.

It is so romantic to devote life and death to the moment of drawing a card. The electric-like stimulation spreads from the fingertips that touch the deck to the whole body, making people tremble uncontrollably.

At this moment, Kurusu Akatsuki understood that the game he had been waiting for was not the illusory data streams and stickers, but the real-life excitement of shouting "Duel" and waving his cards.

Just like a duel begins with the drawing of a gun in an instant.

The winner is revealed in an instant——

"I'm activating the effects of 'Spear of the Divine Monument' and 'Dimensional Crack' now. Do you have a timing?"

Kurusu Akatsuki looked at the two green formations in his hands, Shadow Beast, Sword Priest and Field Magic, and his blood froze instantly.

Then he watched helplessly as the girl, with a look of relief on her face, searched for the Fountain of the Rune Monument and activated the effect of the Golden Dewdrop Monument... The Rune's great spells began to exert their extraordinary resource recovery capabilities in the cemetery—

The duelists' will to win decayed in an instant, their fighting faith collapsed in an instant, and the rune spells used their evil power to erode Kurusu Akatsuki's limbs and body at all times.

Even the powerful force of Pearl Tears Lament cannot be fully exerted when the hand is stuck.

The one who's weak isn't the deck, but me as a duelist... right?

The moment his deck was emptied, he could only stretch out his right hand blankly to express his surrender.

The only thing that could comfort Kurusu Akatsuki at this moment was the beautiful girl who smiled and reached out to touch the fingertips of his right hand. "An He Subaru, nice to meet you."

An and Subaru smiled brightly, as if all the pent-up bad emotions were completely released at this moment.

(032.webp)

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(I ran into a blocked word demon late at night + the number of modification times was limited. I tried my best but couldn't defeat it. I'm done.)

(I will never again insult the reviewer. Tomorrow at work, please show some mercy and stop reviewing me. I apologize.)

048.she's a Kid (two in one)

(Chapter 047 has been extensively revised, including the card game and some plot timelines. Click "Refresh this chapter" in the upper right corner to see the latest version.)

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"You mean, today you met a sweet, quiet, gentle, and considerate girl from the acting department who loves playing games? Because she's quite competitive, you two played Yu-Gi-Oh for half an hour at a card shop on your first meeting, then went to the arcade and played Street Fighter 5 for nearly two hours. Finally, you had dinner at McDonald's because you felt a mutual sympathy for each other, and exchanged contact information before parting?"

In the coffee shop, the hungry Jing Qinrencai was biting on a plastic straw, and her empty lake-blue eyes vaguely reflected the figure of Kurusu Xiao sitting across from her at the table.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but Kurusu Akatsuki actually sensed a sense of resentment in her eyes.

"That's roughly the process." The thief ordered an iced American coffee and an iceberg lava cake. The rain outside the window was now lighter.

The beeping busy tone of her cell phone made Jing Qinrenai too busy to pay attention to Kurusu Akatsuki's perfunctory answer.

In her mind, Kurusu Akatsuki is undoubtedly a "super popular guy", and it is normal for him to have ambiguous relationships with many girls.

The coffee shop was quiet and the sound of rain could be clearly heard.

The streets outside were enveloped in a deep, cold darkness, the car high beams shattered in the pouring rain. Countless ripples and round puddles on the asphalt reflected the bright lights between the tall buildings, as if the universe were refracting its boundless mystery and vast brilliance onto the night city through this curtain of water falling from the sky.

But such a broad topic as the universe should be a unique stage for scientists from space agencies to display their talents and imagination.

The city nights have long been filled with the busyness of life.

The word "life" is too short, can say too little, and cannot contain the greatness of the universe.

The waiter brought coffee and cake.

Looking at the "Iceberg Lava Cake" in front of him, Kurusu Akatsuki's eyes suddenly became nostalgic.

Thinking about it carefully, he seemed to have met a person with the "universe" in his heart in his life, and it all started during the summer vacation of the sixth grade in elementary school.

Due to an accidental encounter, the eleven-year-old Kurusu Akatsuki met the girl with long reddish-brown hair and pupils that resembled an "iceberg lava cake" in the high school dormitory of the private Gekkoukan Academy. She was the captain of "SEES" and the leader who led Kurusu Akatsuki, who was still in elementary school at the time, out of his ordinary daily life.

With her help, Kurusu Akatsuki came into contact with the "Personality Mask" at an early stage and mastered the skills to drive this power.

For the next year, Kurusu Akatsuki followed the young girl's "SEES" at night in another world. They defeated countless enemies along the way, even breaking through a towering tower and averting a catastrophe that would have destroyed the world.

But until the end of this story, he did not have the chance to thank the other party. He could only go to junior high school in his ordinary daily life with this gratitude and excitement.

The junior high school and high school departments are very close to each other, but Kurusu Akatsuki will never see that cute but sinister senior with some devilish attributes again... She only recalls that extraordinary past when she occasionally looks up at the moon.

It was not until six years later that Kurusu Akatsuki entered the Velvet Room for the first time and signed the contract.

At that moment, he finally understood what kind of heavy responsibility and mission the girl named "Shiomi Kotone" had shouldered six years ago, and what kind of lofty consciousness she had to reach the realm of the [universe].

Kurusu Akatsuki, who inherited this awareness, also grew rapidly with the help of the remaining members of SEES. As the Phantom Thief of the Mind, he repeatedly made those sinners who attempted to subvert the social order repent.

The spoon pierced through the cake and poked the bottom of the porcelain plate, making a crisp sound.