Tokyo Heart Thief's Daily Life

Takamaki An: "What's going on?! The whole palace is crawling! How disgusting!"

As Gao Juanxing said.

The magnificent art museum palace that was originally in Madarame's subconscious is now continuing to collapse and reorganize like the movement of a living organism.

Just looking at it from the outside, you can tell that the place has become completely distorted, and there are no longer the customers who used to line up at the door.

The palace showed an aura of collapse and was obviously much more dangerous than last time.

Luo Zhen nodded with emotion:

"It's pretty much what I suspected. Because of the shock of his secret being exposed today, Madarame's mentality has been unbalanced, and his emotional breakdown has probably affected the palace as well."

This is something that is easy to understand.

The palace is constructed by the person's subconscious mind, and changes in emotions and cognition will of course affect this place.

If it were just an ordinary little thing, it might be okay.

But when Madarame's crimes were made public and he was targeted by the police, the impact on him was incredibly huge.

This was an impact that would not be surprising if the palace itself collapsed, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that people with weaker tolerance would go crazy.

The fact that a person's madness could be seen so intuitively shocked the novice thieves.

"Everyone, brace yourself. The palace is definitely more dangerous today than before."

Luo Zhen tightened the gloves of his Phantom Thief Suit:

"Madame Ichiryusai, he's seriously mentally unbalanced right now, and he'll definitely refuse all outside contact. Think of him as having a super-thickened wall around his heart, and be careful not to get swallowed up."

""--oh!""

The group followed their own thief boss and began to challenge the palace cave which was super-enlarged during the special period.

-------------------------------------

the other side.

In reality, Madarame is indeed in the midst of an emotional breakdown.

After Luo Zhen and the others left, Akechi Tamako was not as tough as imagined.

She excused herself by saying, "Mr. Madarame is so old, it would be inhumane to detain you. So please continue to live a good life at home." She didn't make things difficult for him and left quickly.

But after such a violent impact, the door of this secret studio was still collapsed and damaged, and it was naturally impossible for the person involved to recover.

"teacher......"

Kitagawa Yusuke entered Madarame's bedroom, feeling mixed emotions and not knowing what to say.

He was also greatly shocked, and the facts before him were still difficult for him to accept.

The teacher I admired for over a decade turned out to be a smuggler who stole from the company and sold out the artist's soul...

Although Kitagawa had long known that his teacher had plagiarized students' works, he had also "submitted" his own works to the teacher several times.

Including the painting symbolizing "anger" that Luo Zhen praised highly at the art exhibition during the day, it was indeed painted by Kitagawa himself.

But even so, Kitagawa continued to hypnotize himself.

I used excuses like, "This is just temporary, the teacher is just going through a bottleneck," to convince myself to trust the teacher...

But when it came to what happened today, he really couldn't deceive himself anymore.

Kitagawa, feeling as if he was about to vomit blood, asked his teacher, who was hunched over,

"Teacher, did you really stage the theft of Sayuri? In fact, the painting was never stolen, but hidden by you?"

"You've been making fakes of Sayuri and selling your own fake paintings? ... Please tell me this isn't true! You're not that kind of person. How could a great artist like you do something that defames art—"

"Yusuke."

Madarame's voice was surprisingly calm, not as panicked or hysterical as it was when he was facing Akechi Tamako.

He didn't look back.

The old man's hunched back was also eroded by the dim light, looking heavy and dark.

He just spoke in a low voice:

"You are my most proud student. I have taken care of you for fourteen years, starting when you were three. You are also the best painter among my students, and you even received an art scholarship at school, right?"

"Your painting skills are already among the best of your generation. In time, you will surely rise to prominence in the art world. With the support of a great mentor like me, all you need to produce a single outstanding masterpiece is a meteoric rise to fame, ensuring you a comfortable and secure life."

"...Teacher, what do you want to say?"

Kitagawa was confused...and uneasy at the same time.

He seemed to be able to hear his own heart beating in his chest, the sound was so harsh.

Madarame turned his head.

In Kitagawa's eyes, that bloodshot and gloomy gaze was like a strange monster:

"Yusuke, please take the blame for me."

"—?!"

Before Yusuke could come to his senses, Madarame continued to talk:

"It was you who forged 'Sayuri'. I was simply blinded by my old age and was deceived by your beloved disciple. Since you're still a minor, you won't receive a heavy sentence, will you? I'll also do my best to intercede for you and present this as a heartbreak story that the media loves most."

"You'll still have opportunities in the future. I promise you that I'll support your debut even more in the future. Isn't this a good deal?"

Kitagawa: "Teacher... what are you talking about——"

"In the final analysis, it's all because your disciple is such a loser!!!"

Madarame suddenly jumped up, twisted anger erupting at once!

Kitagawa was so frightened that he trembled all over, and Madarame, who had jumped up, pointed at his nose and cursed:

"It's all your fault for letting those brats into my house. That's why this embarrassing thing happened! My reputation and all the achievements I, Madarame Ichiryusai, have made over the past decade have been ruined by you, brat!!!"

"You think I feed you, clothe you, and send you to a prestigious high school? What's all this for?! You should have been my sustenance, like all your seniors, and I should have been squeezing your work out of you! And this is how you repay my kindness?!"

Bang, bang, bang... Madarame kept smashing the furniture, using up all the last bit of strength in the old man's body to vent his anger.

He was panting like a leaky boiler, and his trembling hands kept pointing at the desperate Kitagawa:

"Your last value now is to take the blame for me! Only in this way can we preserve the reputation of our Madarame lineage in the art world! Otherwise, Yusuke, you will only be my accomplice! I will drag you down with me even if I die! Your life will be completely ruined! Do you understand?!"

"..."

To Kitagawa's complete astonishment, Madarame Ichiryusai slammed the door and left his so-called "hut".

He still has a lot of things to deal with.

Before the police investigate the matter thoroughly, he has to deal with his other properties as much as possible and communicate with many people.

"......Ha ha."

“Hahahaha…hahahahaha…!!!”

Kitagawa laughed silently and slowly sat down in the corridor against the wall.

He felt like a valve in his heart had broken, and the dark sludge that had accumulated for more than ten years leaked out.

I have been an accomplice to the evil...

Knowing that the master was a person who exploited and stole students' works, he continued to help the evil...

When the brothers and sisters left the hut, I just watched coldly, ignoring their pleas and cries...

[I will be like this one day]... Why have I ignored such a simple thing all this time?

"Master is right...I am just an accomplice."

I am not a victim, so why should I feel sad about this?

"Sayuri," which he regarded as his life belief, was nothing more than a tool for its author to make money.

These absurd seventeen years of my life have been completely meaningless... meaningless...!

"...?"

In the dizzying coldness, Kitagawa felt that the scenery around him was shaking.

The old, dilapidated house is twisted and frequently flashes between the gorgeous golden art gallery, and the picture is so grotesque.

Then, Kitagawa heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice:

"[Are you here to help the teacher protect the art museum too? Great, come join me!]"

"You are......?"

Kitagawa felt like he had gone crazy.

He saw himself, smiling at him attentively.

That was the disciple that Madarame Ichiryusai knew, Kitagawa Yusuke.

The mascot of the palace still spoke with that infinitely admiring smile:

"[Teacher's art gallery is facing a crisis. Thieves are trying to destroy the teacher's exhibition!]"

"[We are the teacher's disciples and have received his kindness in raising us. We cannot repay him enough! Right now, it's time for us to sacrifice ourselves! Even if it costs us our lives, we must stop those bandits!]"

Kitagawa: "Teacher's, kindness...? ... Kindness, yes..."

The light in Kitagawa's eyes disappeared, and he had given up thinking.

He knew all about his mentor's downfall, the slander against art, and his illegal and criminal acts.

But the values ​​of propriety, righteousness, integrity and honor that he learned since childhood, and that a teacher is a father for life, are still deeply engraved in his mind.

No matter what, he is the benefactor who raised me.

Even if he plagiarized his own work, even if he damaged the sanctity of art in his heart...that cannot change this fact.

"...I should dedicate myself to my teacher. I should return this life that my teacher saved..."

"【......Ha ha!】"

Kitagawa Yusuke, the fake cognitive being, showed a wild laugh that he should never have.

The fictional humanoid appearance was distorted and shattered, revealing the twisted beast inside.

"I am the Wish of Destruction, the Tentacle of Erebus."

"[Pray to the desperate, let me answer your wish!]"

The monster with terrifying golden eyes opened its huge mouth filled with black mud and swallowed Kitagawa Yusuke in one gulp.

161.For My Mother and My Own Desires (8k)

"—By the way, there's only one [NPC] in this palace, Yuusuke Kitagawa."

During the attack on Madarame's palace, Miss Fangze Xia, the idea queen of the Luo Zhen family, suddenly said.

Her "Ice Queen" froze the twisting and wriggling black mud in the palace, forcing a straight path out of the chaos.

Perhaps because she was also someone who had actually visited the art museum, she now had a little more insight.

My younger sister Sumire Yoshizawa also discovered:

"Indeed, whether it's Kamoshida or the principal, there are many NPCs in their palaces that are created by wishful thinking. Kamoshida is the students who are treated as slaves by him, and the principal is the faculty and staff who completely obey him."

"But this art gallery only has these portraits... Does this also represent the understanding of the hall master Madarame himself?"

Everyone in the group felt a little creepy.

In Madarame's now madly twisted palace, there were as much black mud and shadows as one wanted.

This made it difficult for the Phantom Thieves to move forward, and they consumed a lot of energy in advancing.

But at the same time, no matter how distorted the scenery is, the paintings in the art gallery remain the same.

These are all portraits of young people, ranging in age from their teens to their twenties.

No matter how distorted the scene, these portraits remain motionless like real dead objects, and their faces are not distorted at all.

Futaba, who was protected by Jina in the cockpit of the Tin Woodcutter, spoke sharply: