I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

"If Saori-san still has the idea of ​​further 'collaboration', please don't refuse my kindness this time."

Saori hesitated for a moment before accepting the 'huge sum'.

The starting point is a valuable item worth 500,000 credits... If it can be sold for a very high price, then the problems with supplies and daily life should be significantly alleviated.

With this huge sum of money, I should be able to buy more supplies for the team and improve everyone's lives a little...

Although their team hasn't been wanted or forced to flee everywhere yet, their current living conditions are still quite dire.

They had virtually no living expenses or activity funds—they had to earn everything themselves, from the cost of firearms and ammunition to their daily necessities.

The task of 'earning a living' was taken on by Saori without hesitation.

If this precious and unique artwork can be sold for a sum of money, then the weaving business can reduce a lot of 'meaningless busyness'.

"Thank you, Se(四)0企2事VI寺nsei."

【~???~】

'...She firmly grasped Saori's heart!'

"Well... that's enough time, let's end this conversation here."

After the brief and hasty conversation, Amamiya watched as the four-person team quietly left the park.

After his gaze lingered for a moment on the hooded girl who never removed her mask but stared at him with those strange red eyes almost the entire time, Amamiya once again reviewed the symbolism of the "Hope" card in his mind.

This card... is quite extraordinary.

Hope originates from the Visconti Sforza deck.

Its upright meaning is: long-term, steadfast hope or belief; philosophical or spiritual hope and perseverance. It represents a positive and enduring, deeper expectation or trust in a brighter future.

As for the reversed position, it symbolizes despair, false hope, and negative and pessimistic emotions.

Overall—this is a card for 'the heartless'.

Why do I say that?

The previous holder of the "Hope" card that Amamiya knew was an AI girl named 'Sophia'.

She is a highly talented engineer named Ichinose Hisane, who developed the super artificial intelligence EMMA, which is her 'flawed failure' (or rather, EMMA's source code).

She created Emma, ​​a demon lord who almost 'takes control of the world,' and a prison for humanity's collective unconscious.

But at the same time, it also created Sophie, humanity's best friend.

And Sophia... is clearly the 'heartless one' in Amamiya's perception.

Born with a high level of intelligence, even 'self-thinking ability', she has always been curious about 'what the human heart is' and 'what human emotions are'.

To satisfy his curiosity, Amamiya invited this peculiar AI girl to join the Phantom Thieves' journey.

During the journey that lasted only a month, Amamiya witnessed firsthand how this AI girl, who initially had only a vague understanding of the world, truly learned many human emotions and developed her own 'heart'.

In the world of the evil World Tree, she was once controlled by Ichinose Hisane because of her AI life, and was used by her to attack Amamiya and the members of the Phantom Thieves.

It was at that time that Sophia's accumulated "human emotions" and "inner world" broke through the constraints of the code layer in an unbelievable way, truly awakened, and became a "data life with its own thoughts and inner world".

Currently, the source code of this AI girl is still lying dormant in Amamiya's phone, in a standby state.

She truly lived as a 'good friend of mankind,' and from then on, she chose to witness a wider world with Amamiya.

That being said... since arriving in Kivotos, Amamiya hasn't really woken up the AI ​​girl sleeping in his phone.

Considering Kivotos's technical capabilities, Amamiya decided to first upgrade her phone, see what kind of cutting-edge network code technology the engineering department could come up with, or consult with the celebrity Himari, before doing so.

From the technology of Kivotos, Amamiya saw the possibility of giving Sophia a truly unique 'human body'.

...Ahem, that's a bit far.

'Azuko…'

'The Tarot of Hope...'

'as well as……'

'The title of a victim who went to the disaster...'

This squad has titles related to "calamity," and everyone except Akiko is terribly bad, even Akiko's card is full of uncertainty and confusion... these are the characteristics.

With so many debuffs, it's hard for Amamiya not to worry.

Based on Saori's previous mention of the Arius branch school, we can connect the dots using the logical thinking of basic factorization...

It turned out to be the case.

Will the Ariane branch take some special action on the crucial "Eden Treaty"?

No... perhaps it's not just that.

Amamiya had a peculiar premonition regarding the "Eden Treaty".

Perhaps—it's not just the Arios branch that needs to take action.

There may be people within Gehenna or Trinity who disagree with the signing of the Eden Treaty and are preparing to do something.

Combining what I had seen in the other world before—the shadowy worship of the tea party members for the founder of the Kirito Nagisa tea party, and their actions…

'If we're going to deduce the truth behind this, this information is probably not entirely comprehensive...'

'It seems I really need to pay a visit to the tea party and get some information from them.'

Chapter Thirty-Six: Ye Zhu: I'm tired, let's destroy...

As evening approached, the sunset glowed like fire on the horizon.

"Well... thank you for your work today, Hifumi-chan. That concludes today's duties..."

Seeing that Xia Lai's office had been cleaned spotlessly, looking 'spotless', Amamiya put down the bucket of dirty water and casually draped the rag he used to wipe the table over the rim of the bucket.

"call……"

Upon hearing his words, the blonde girl, who was already showing signs of fatigue, visibly let out a soft sigh, as if she was relieved that her 'duty' had ended peacefully.

"It's about time... Hifumi-chan, are you going to stay here overnight? Or should I take you to the station now..."

Hifumi's relieved expression froze on her face the moment Amamiya uttered those words.

Hey?

What did Sensei say...?

Staying in Xialai...overnight...?!

Some scenes that needed to be censored seemed to float into her mind, and Hifumi was directly 'sunk' by this seemingly natural yet ambiguous sentence.

Spending the night with Sensei or something...

Although I've already agreed to develop a special relationship with Sensei, but... but...!

Isn't this a bit too early...?

We need to get to know each other a little better before...

Wow……

But since, since it's this kind of invitation, if I accept it, then...

No, I think I should wait a little longer...

You should at least be mentally prepared!

After a brief moment of confusion, Hifumi's expression became surprisingly calm.

"Um... ahaha~"

"Staying overnight... I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer, at least I need to be prepared... Let's talk about it later..."

She had thought that her 'polite refusal' would elicit a rather obvious sense of disappointment, or other subtle signs of dissatisfaction, from the young man who had suddenly extended the invitation.

However, Amamiya only gave her a strange look.

"...What I mean by 'staying overnight' is that if, by some unfortunate coincidence, Hifumi misses the last evening train back to Trinity for any reason, she can stay in Xialai and go back tomorrow morning."

【~???~】

Why……?

Did I misunderstand the meaning?

“Ah, ahahaha…”

"It seems there's been a mistake..."

With an awkward smile, the girl then used a small 'head-tapping' motion to try and conceal her extreme panic and confusion.

"Th-that...Sensei..."

"I...I...I'll go back first!"

"Regarding those tea party members who were targeted for 'repentance,' I'll try to find them when I get back and then monitor their progress... Goodbye, Sensei!"

The overly flustered girl inadvertently displayed many subconscious reactions that Amamiya found quite adorable.

She first took out her backpack, which was full of Perolo merchandise, and dumped all the leftover magazines, ammunition boxes, and throwables from the battle onto the ground. Then she neatly sorted and put away all her merchandise.

Seemingly wanting to escape all along, she hurriedly took a step the moment she zipped up her backpack—and then, due to her overly excited or chaotic emotions, her body momentarily lost coordination, and she fell flat on her face with a 'thud'.

“Ugh…”

After letting out a soft cry of pain, Hifumi seemed to realize something—immediately ignoring the pain of falling, she quickly gathered her backpack and other small items, composed herself, and stood up.

After falling flat on her face and getting up, Hifumi seemed to hesitate for a moment, and at one point wanted to turn around and observe Amamiya's reaction.

In the end, she covered her face with her hands in extreme shame, burst through the door, and left quickly.

It has to be said that ordinary 'cuteness' is also a kind of cuteness.

I changed out of my dusty clothes from cleaning, took a shower, and changed into a clean and refreshing outfit.

'On a late night during the transition from autumn to winter... the weather really gets cold very quickly.'

Hopefully, these students will remember to wear more clothes.

Alright, I still have a little free time tonight, let's see who I can spend it with...

With anticipation in mind, Amamiya stretched as she stood at the entrance of the Xia Lai Building.

Looking up at the star-studded night sky and the strange patterns that stretched across the night curtain, Amamiya picked up her phone and began scrolling through the messages sent by the people who had helped her.

"First, let's see which students sent us invitations this evening..."

Amamiya opened MomoTalk, and a huge pile of newly refreshed unread messages was immediately visible.

[Wakazama: Darling...Wakazama always has time...]

After thinking for a moment, Amamiya gave Wakazama a brief reply: "The equipment at Xia Lai is currently being added. If possible, in the near future, it might be able to provide a stable place for students who are homeless—Wakazama, if you'd like to come, I'll reserve a spot for you anytime."

【Wakazama: ...!!!】

After sending three exclamation marks, there was no further reply from Ruozao, and it's unclear what she was doing.

……

"Chief, something terrible has happened! Another intrusion has occurred at the police station!"

Ye Zhu, who was sitting on the edge of her bed in her room and preparing to go to sleep, answered the phone. Listening to the voice coming from the other end of the line, she glanced at the uniform hanging on the clothes rack next to her.

After a few seconds of silence, Ye Zhu stood up and put on his uniform. He then asked the voice on the phone, "...What happened?"

"...It's like this, the police station was invaded by that 'Seven Prisoners,' the 'Fox of Calamity'...and her purpose in invading..."

"It seems like it's just to beat up those helmeted gang members in prison?"

"So what other moves does the Calamity Fox have?"

"Reporting to the Director, after giving those helmeted group members a sound beating, the Calamity Fox simply retreated..."

Having already changed into his police uniform, Ye Zhu silently hung the clothes on the hanger.

After watching the video recording sent by the students who were stationed at the police station on night shift, she decisively plugged her phone into the charger and lay back down.

'How dare you threaten my personal safety... Unforgivable...'

The Calamity Fox, seemingly possessed by some unknown ailment, burst in with some nonsensical slogan, smashing open the prison gates. It grabbed the Helmet Gang members imprisoned together and brutally beat them until they were all unconscious. Only then, still unsatisfied, did it swish its tail and nimbly disappear into the night.