Tokyo Psychic

Toyokawa Shoko helped her stand in the waiting room for the new tram and said somewhat subtly, "It's a relationship where we can entrust our lives to each other."

An and Subaru's eyes trembled for a moment, then gradually turned into a hint of confidence and pride.

It seems I'm ahead this time... An and Subaru thought to themselves.

*

*

*

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(Final exam review is really taking up too much time, so I'll split it into two chapters from the "four-in-one" study guide for now. If I'm really busy tomorrow, I can probably use it to make up for my perfect attendance record. If I'm pretty sure I'll do well, I'll update as usual.)

103. Singaporean and Malaysian virtuous and upright officials, repent! (Two-in-one)

It rained heavily.

Gray rain streaks swirled and tangled in the sky, with dark clouds seeping through the gaps, creating an oppressive atmosphere that was hard to breathe.

Xinma Xiaolian stood in the corridor opposite the office for a long time.

It wasn't until the cold rainwater splashed through his glasses and into his eyes that he rubbed them, leaned against the wet railing, coughed a few times, and then returned to his office.

He pulled a cheap, unassuming old-fashioned smartphone from his pocket; the screen lit up with a heartwarming family photo.

Looking at the familiar woman's face in the photo wallpaper, and at his own still youthful appearance, Xinma Xiaolian remained unmoved.

A hint of nostalgia flickered in his eyes, and thinking of her fate, he felt a sense of relief.

He unlocked his phone, checked the timestamp, and then dialed the number of the student union representative. "The anonymous feedback letter for today can be sent over now."

After giving a brief instruction, Xinma Xiaolian hung up the phone, sat down in his office chair, and rested the back of his head on the chair back.

A quiet wait began.

*

Five hours ago.

Akira Kurusu, having filled up his motorcycle with gasoline, parked it under a awning in a deep alley near Shujin.

Wearing a school uniform, she stepped out of the awning with her arms outstretched.

Akira walked alone into that secluded alleyway where no one paid attention, letting the heavy rain pour down on her.

The square eaves cut through the rain curtain, and the cold water vapor spread overhead, gradually awakening the personality mask that slumbered in the deepest part of his consciousness.

He didn't think about anything, closed his eyes, and listened to the rain tapping on his forehead—like the sky knocking on a door.

Then, surprisingly, a door emitting a deep blue light actually opened in the void.

When Akira Kurusu opened her eyes again, the azure flames that had been burning in her pupils were extinguished in an instant.

His deep gray eyes were filled with the glow of the moon and the determination to face death.

He looked at the velvet room in front of him and took a step toward it.

......

Clang.

The metal cell door slammed shut with a short, sharp thud.

Like gears turning, or like the brakes of a chariot.

But there were neither gears nor chariots here.

In the cramped cell, the mind thief calmly surveyed his surroundings.

Unlike his own velvet room, this place was completely prison-style.

Dioscurius did not appear, but images kept flashing back in his field of vision.

One by one, strange yet familiar fragments of memory were forcibly crammed into Qi Xiao's mind. Sometimes it was the silence of a prisoner seeking redemption, sometimes it was the transformation and growth of a phantom thief... but without exception, the characters involved in the memories were the phantom thief and two girls dressed as prison guards.

The final scene still revolves around those two adorable silver-haired little girls.

They seemed to be standing to the side of the cell door, wearing dark blue suit jackets, black leather skirts, knee-high white stockings, and black square-toed leather shoes. Their eyes were wary, and they wore black single-sided eye patches positioned opposite them. Their appearances were practically identical to Ravenda's.

"Hey, thief," the stun gun suddenly slammed against the cell door, making a crisp sound, and the girl on the left spoke in a fierce tone, "fraud, theft, trespassing, these are serious crimes!"

The girl on the right said calmly, "Death penalty."

Then they looked at Akira Kurusu from the left and right, but saw a rapidly expanding flame in Akira Kurusu's eyes.

The girls immediately turned around in disbelief.

The manager of the Velvet Room, "Igor," who carried out the will of Ferremont, raised his right hand and opened his palm towards "Ren Amamiya" in the cell.

In His palm, a sun-like flame burst forth instantly.

Wherever the flames passed, the blue velvet carpet was burned to ashes, the metal bars of the cell melted rapidly, and the decorations on the walls began to burn at an extremely fast speed. The two prison guards instinctively stepped in front of Akira, but their hasty reaction was no match for the opponent's long-prepared all-out attack.

In an instant, the guests in the velvet room, as well as his contracted secretary, were engulfed in flames.

......

Akira Kurusu reached out and grasped the pistol at her waist. The cold, heavy feeling of the gun traveled through her hand to her consciousness, and all the illusions shattered.

The velvet room was completely devoid of that hellish scene; all kinds of decorations and facilities were complete, brand new and exquisite.

The phantom thief kicked open the cell door, and with a loud crash as the lock snapped, "Igor," who was sitting behind his desk, looked up at the guest who had come back from the dead.

His eyes quickly filled with agitation and panic, but he still managed to maintain his composure and put on a kind smile.

Welcome to Velvet...

"Shut up, Yardabait."

A giant gun pierced through the ceiling in an instant, crashing down from the sky and smashing the desk. With irresistible force, it crushed Yaldabite, disguised as "Igor," to the ground, the dark muzzle brimming with a god-slaying bullet.

Akira approached Him, then bent down and picked up an astonishingly thick roster from the wreckage of the desk.

Open it, and inside are three names: [Carolina], [Restina], and [Ravenda].

Under each name are written texts that humans cannot decipher, proof that they existed in countless timelines, preserved in this velvet room because the evil god abused "time reversal".

Aldabait seemed to have regained his composure as well. "As expected, you are not 'Amamiya Ren'."

Akira Kurusu closed the roster in her hand. "You're wrong... I am 'Ren Amamiya'."

He looked down at the “creator” who had created the space of impressions. “Different experiences will still nurture the same awareness and courage. As for an evil god like you, born from the collective unconscious of mankind, you probably cannot understand this fateful unfolding, right? So, as a god who attempted to dominate mankind from the very beginning, do you have any last words?”

Yardabait suddenly laughed, still wearing the shell of "Igor," his laughter sounding hoarse and strained. "Being killed by a monster from outside the world like you, of course I have nothing to say."

"Then there's no need to say anything more." Akira Kurusu pulled the trigger, and the armor-piercing bullet instantly shattered Aldabait's skull.

He didn't even have a chance to summon his true form. His body continued to disintegrate into crystalline fragments and dissipate. Just before he was about to perish, he stared at the phantom thief in front of him with his unwilling eyes and uttered a curse-like murmur.

"Even if I die, the Impression Space will not perish; everything that belongs to me has already been inherited..."

The evil god's unfinished words vanished.

Without the evil god's deliberate maintenance, the velvet room, now devoid of its contractor, quickly began to collapse.

As Lai Xixiao turned to leave, he heard a weak meow coming from the cell next to him.

......

Five hours later.

During lunch break, at the gate of the private Xiujin Academy.

The students' guardians and reporters who had gathered nearby were all driven home by the sudden downpour, and the windows of the security booth were covered with a layer of white mist.

"lotus?"

Toyokawa Shoko looked at Kurusu Akira, who was accompanying An and Subaru out of the school gate, and asked, "Is the operation about to begin?"

An and Subaru pretended not to hear Toyokawa Shoko's somewhat intimate way of addressing Kurusu Akira, and walked to the front with their umbrellas. "Why do we have to go to a public restroom?"

Akira glanced at her. "I've found a decent temporary base near the school. Let's infiltrate the palace from there."

The two girls followed him into a deep alley a little further away.

Shoko Toyokawa saw Akira Kurusu's motorcycle under a canopy on one side of the alley.

The bright red color scheme is particularly eye-catching.

An and Subaru noticed it too, and the two girls' gazes met on the back seat of the motorcycle at the same time.

“Wait, what’s that…” Toyokawa Shoko followed the front wheel of the motorcycle and saw that there was a cardboard box hidden under the canopy.

As she got closer, she peeked inside... and there was a clean-looking black cat with white fur around its mouth and paws, staring at her with its bright blue eyes.

“Its name is Morgana,” Akira Kurusu casually introduced the black cat’s background. “I found this stray cat this morning.”

An and Subaru squatted down next to the cardboard box, holding an umbrella. "Do you want to keep it?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"I see..." An and Subaru looked at its pitiful appearance, soaked by the rain, and couldn't help but feel sorry for it. However, thinking of the gecko and snake that their roommate kept in the living room, they couldn't bring themselves to adopt Morgana.

Toyokawa Shoko also doesn't have the means to keep a cat... Her father has recently taken on several part-time jobs, getting up very early every day to go out and work, while she also has to take care of her studies, so she simply doesn't have time to take care of a pet.

“How about we keep it at STARRY?” Shoko Toyokawa suggested.

“Then let’s wait until we’ve conquered the palace, and then take it to Miss Ijichi for a consultation.” Akira Kurusu bent down, reached out and rubbed Morgana’s head, then withdrew her hand amidst its resisting struggle. “Mind Thieves, let’s go.”

He put away his umbrella and smashed it against the wall in front of him, actually cutting out a passage to the level of consciousness.

Akira Kurishi was the first to rush into the passage.

Toyokawa Shoko and Anwa Subaru exchanged a glance and then entered the Palace of the Mind.

Morgana, inside the cardboard box, watched their departing figures and instinctively tried to get up and follow them, but after swaying for a while, she weakly slumped back to the bottom of the box.

......

【PM. 1:02】

The student council president, with her elegant appearance, walked into the office carrying a thick stack of proposals and behaving with restraint.

She lowered her head, not daring to look Xinma Xiaolian in the eye.

Xinma Xiaolian leaned back in his office chair, looking at the girl who had become president only after making many "promises" to herself due to pressure from her family and studies. A murky look swirled in his eyes.

"Take apart all the proposals and read them to me... Stand closer." Xinma Xiaolian beckoned to her.

“...Yes,” the girl bit her lip, then took a difficult step toward Xinma Xiaolian’s side.

She took out stacks of proposals from her arms, organized them, and placed them beside him.

Suddenly, a red and black letter caught the eye of Xinma Xiaolian.

The inscription, written in red ink, reads: "To Mr. Xinma Xiaolian, personally."

When Xinma Xiaolian saw the notice, he thought of all the rumors circulating in society about this thing, and his expression immediately became extremely awkward.

Following the other person's gaze, the student council president, who had noticed the unannounced letter, hurriedly explained in a panic, "Mr. Shinma, I don't know where it came from... It must be a student's prank. I'll go and investigate for you right away!"

Xinma Xiaolian waved his hand with a gloomy expression, signaling her to hurry up and take action. He had no intention of carrying out those filthy thoughts.

He watched with a hint of regret as the girl's slender figure quickly disappeared into the office, then picked up the notice letter with a mixture of shock and anger and opened it.

What comes into view are crooked words made by cutting up newspaper and pasting them together.

[Dear Singapore and Malaysia Admissions Officer:]

[You, a heinous criminal who colluded with evil forces, abused your authority as an educator to impose your twisted desires on students who could not resist, and indulged in debauchery and greed, are fully aware of your many evil deeds. Today, we have decided to steal your twisted desires and force you to confess your crimes yourself.]

[Respectfully presented by Phantom, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.]

......

at the same time.

Having fled back to the classroom, Inoue Rina opened the beef tongue curry bento she had bought at the convenience store with a guilty look on her face. Sending a pre-announcement letter was still too exciting for her.

With each step I took, I could almost hear my heart pounding faster than ever before.

She opened her carrying cutlery box, took out chopsticks, and mixed the curry evenly into the rice.

Suddenly, a fierce wind blew in through the window, and the rain became even more torrential and heavy. A flash of lightning followed by a deafening clap of thunder startled the girl so much that she shoved her chopsticks into the bottom of the disposable lunchbox, almost making a hole in it.