Tokyo Psychic

"Your blind self-confidence will hurt you sooner or later. No one can tell how cunning and dangerous the enemies you will face in the future will be." She was obviously not a talkative person, but when she saw Kurusu Akatsuki, she couldn't help but think of the girl who sacrificed herself to save the world. It was as if the softest part of her heart was pierced, and many warm things flowed out.

After hearing this advice, Kurusu Akatsuki just smiled confidently and proudly, just like the girl who once stood on a high tower brandishing a naginata, "Don't worry, I'm invincible."

He turned back to Kirijo Mitsuru and said, "After all, no matter what, Shiomi-senpai will be watching me... I absolutely have no reason to fall down before I fulfill her expectations."

Kurusu Akatsuki dragged his suitcase, passed Kirijo Mitsuru, and headed towards the artificial island pier where snow was falling all over the sky.

That Christmas, there was a heavy snowfall at Moonlight Pavilion.

The young man who took the initiative to embrace loneliness did fulfill his promise.

From then on, no matter how formidable the enemy was, he never flinched or retreated, and never lost...

The boy named "Kurisu Akatsuki", all his hesitations and regrets were left forever in the small dormitory of Gekkoukan.

Born from this lonely body was the invincible Persona user known as the "Phantom Thief of the Mind."

......

On the Ferris wheel at Disneyland.

Kurusu Akatsuki shared his past experiences and lessons with Toyokawa Shoko.

"I understand your current situation very well... You must be careful about the overflowing love in your heart in the future, so as not to regret it in the future."

Toyokawa Shoko pinched the cushion on the seat. "That sounds like some scumbag's self-declaration."

Kurusu Akatsuki smiled with some regret, "There's nothing I can do..."

"After all, a lonely person is always eager to reach out to someone he meets."

Picks and Strings

001. Time travel is sometimes unexpected

Kurusu Akatsuki stood in front of the mirror on the bathroom sink for quite a while.

The familiar yet unfamiliar young face in the mirror always made him feel terrified no matter how long he looked at it.

In the indescribable feeling of separation and strangeness, I vaguely remember that just a few minutes ago I was in the dark on the West Coast fighting against an enemy that the public could not perceive.

Even a young hero with supernatural powers couldn't escape the human urge to urinate. Having drunk too much sports drink, he was forced to sneak into the restroom of an upscale roadside restaurant. After a brief respite, he pressed the flush button. His zipper still unfastened, he found himself in another restroom, seemingly a different one, yet dreadfully filthy.

The cold, hard touch of the metal chain still lingered on my fingers.

The "fresh" smell of disinfectant and mothballs is gone from the air.

Instead, there was a deadly stench, like canned herring fermenting in the open air, after alcohol mixed with a large amount of fish and a mess of sauces had been digested in the stomach all night.

The originally clean white floor tiles were now covered with black shoe prints, crisscrossing each other, like a sketch paper where a beginner painter had practiced lines and made many corrections.

After a slow reaction, Kurusu Akatsuki subconsciously reached into his trouser pocket, but the expected personality mask summoner did not appear.

There was only an old smartphone there.

Without a lock screen password, just press your finger on the bottom of the screen and slide upwards to immediately enter the desktop.

The desktop wallpaper is a photo of an unrecognizable girl idol group performing.

But Kurusu Akatsuki had no time to care about the stage names of these beautiful girls. He nervously opened the browser, and several news items that were at the top of the search volume list immediately caught his eye.

No. 1. "Popular legislator Shi Tong Zhengyi was shot dead in the street. The suspect has been arrested."

No. 2. "Renowned detective Goro Akechi has been in a coma for a week."

No. 3. “‘Detective Prince Returns’ may never be revived.”

No. 4. "The Shaolin team represented China, decisively defeated the Japanese national team, and swept Asia to advance to the FIFA World Cup."

No. 5. "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jotaro Kujo Confirmed Dead."

No......

Today's date is... He returned to the main interface on his phone and opened the calendar app. It clearly read:

【2022年3月31日，22：17】

Where is Japan? In history books, the term "Japan" has long been replaced by "the 11th Special Administrative Region."

Isn't Jotaro Kujo a star professor at Shinto Marine University? How did he suddenly become a comic character?

And what about Shido Masayoshi and Akechi Goro... weren't their scenes supposed to have wrapped six years ago? Their endings are just too tragic.

It was obvious that I had traveled through time and this was not the world I was originally from.

And it was only ten minutes since I traveled here and lost all the wealth, fame, love, and friendship that I had accumulated in my life.

Kurusu Akatsuki raised his head again and looked at his young and tender face in the mirror.

With messy short black hair and a face that rivals the protagonists of campus romance dramas, and a pair of sharp and intimidating dark grey eyes blurred by large square glasses that reflected the light, he appeared harmless, quiet, and timid...

At first glance, he looks like someone who is very suitable for being bullied.

This is me in high school.

Outside the toilet, I could hear a few drunk men laughing and cursing unrealistically, as if being drunk would give them the courage to refute all injustice and filth.

But drunkenness only temporarily numbs the mind. When they wake up, the completely unknown future will once again loom over their lives, and then fear and confusion will penetrate into their hearts, making them so depressed that they can't help but bang their fists on the table.

boom.

Kurusu Akatsuki, feeling extremely depressed, slammed his fist on the sink.

The mottled puddles of water, large and small, that reflected the turbid light suddenly caused countless ripples to spread.

Then he turned on the faucet and immersed his red palms in the cold water.

The flames of anger and irritability boiling in my heart were extinguished in an instant.

*

Re-introduce yourself.

Kurusu Akatsuki, originally 23 years old, a college dropout, is a "superpower".

It has a stand ability similar to that in "JOJO's Bizarre Adventure", and can drive the materialized product of mental power called "Personality Mask" to fight.

After graduating from high school, he joined the supernatural phenomenon countermeasure organization "Shadow Incident Special Suppression Force (abbreviated as Shadow Patrol)" and carried out secret activities around the world.

Through special means, I can sneak into the inner world of others and steal the "secret treasures" condensed from the sinful desires in their inner world, so that they can wake up and truly atone for their sins.

With the help of my "persona", I successfully completed "mind theft" time and time again. I persuaded notorious gangs to surrender, single-handedly wiped out the city's hidden criminal gangs, and even dismantled powerful tycoons...

Once upon a time, I single-handedly made "The Mind Thief" a world-famous urban legend.

*

Of course, it could also become the first urban legend of someone starving to death in a parallel world.

The empty abdominal cavity emitted a deafening roar at the right time, and the intestines complained that this body had not taken in food for a long time.

Kurusu Akatsuki turned off the faucet, feeling weak all over his body, and couldn't help but miss the omnipotent self he once was.

He searched all the pockets of his clothes and finally found a few coins and a thousand-yuan bill. Together, they were enough to buy a meal of instant noodles and a bottle of Coke, and to spend the night in the Internet cafe.

The efficiency of collecting intelligence using mobile phones is still too low. We must use the shortest time possible to understand this new world. Internet cafes are currently the most suitable choice.

If only I could have the memories of this body...

Kurusu Akatsuki, who is 23 years old in mental age, was once a battle-hardened personality mask user. Even when faced with unimaginable and life-changing disasters, he can quickly regain his composure.

Kurusu Akatsuki walked out of the bathroom. The cold early spring night wind was surging nearby, and he immediately felt an indescribable weakness.

Damn it, this is a barbecue stall and I’m about to faint from hunger.

The smell of fat and protein burning in the flames successfully awakens the human body's desire for calories.

He tightly grasped the only 2,100 yen in his hand. The nearby barbecue stall seemed to have turned into a boiling hell. A group of scantily clad female ghosts danced in the sea of ​​fire, twisting their graceful waists to seduce the lost survivor.

If you look closely, you will see that it is actually just chicken wings skewered with iron sticks and sprinkled with cumin and pepper, flipping back and forth on the charcoal fire.

Drops of orange-red oil fell into the burning charcoal, left for the fire snake to lick.

Kurusu Akatsuki only regretted that he couldn't bring his wallet with him when he traveled through time.

In the end, willpower overcame the physiological impulse, and it was a difficult turn.

He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, held his cell phone and banknotes, and walked towards the dark and deep street without hesitation.

The barbecue stall owner's enthusiastic shouts soon faded behind him, and the dim light of the street lamp blurred the boy's thin back.

*

The shadows of the street lamps were like thorns, intertwined in the ground. In the dim night, there were occasional wild cats screaming at the top of their lungs, and the sound of cars passing by could be heard in the distance.

The hungry Kurusu Xiao sat down against the wall, turned on his cell phone, and flipped through the empty phone book blindly, imagining that words like "parents" would appear in it, so that he could return to the warm harbor where he would have no worries about food and clothing with just a few clicks.

Next to him was an internet cafe that had been closed for some time. Through the dusty glass door, he could see a messy aisle. The computer cases and monitors had been sold out, and only a few dirty mouse pads lay on the tables, blending in with the dust.

I drove the navigation system and staggered through the old alley for half an hour, draining my phone's battery to 3%. Then, seeing such a desolate scene, even a heart as strong as steel would twitch violently.

"Who the hell is so wicked as to upload a closed-down store to the navigation..."

Kurusu Akatsuki could only helplessly curse at the night sky to vent his inner anger.

The cold reality of the real world can always shatter all illusions and dreams in an instant.

It was obvious that in a few years he would be old enough for his children to look up and call him "Uncle", with a successful career, a house and a car, and healthy parents. But fate kicked him into a life of wandering because he was fucked by a dog while going to the toilet.

It's like when DNF was first launched, you spent seven years and invested countless money to painstakingly raise a super monster character with full enhancements. As a result, before you could even have two days of fun in the duel arena, you found out that the official chose to force the server to be recalled to the day of the launch for unknown reasons.

After the callback, he didn't forget to clean up your character panel and added a few mysterious negative entries.

So, Earth Online is the most shitty game ever.

Kurusu Akatsuki thought listlessly. If I go back to the restroom next to the barbecue stall now, will I still have a chance to travel back to my original world?

"Boy, it's so late, why don't you go home?"

In the darkness, a flash of orange-red flame flickered.

A middle-aged man with a goatee and wearing pink overalls approached with a garbage bag in his hand and looked strangely at Kurusu Akatsuki, who was sitting under a streetlight and talking to himself.

This boy's temperament is too clean, making it impossible to associate him with any possibility of committing any crime.

"Probably homeless."

"I see... What's your name?"

"Kurisu Akatsuki."

"My name is Sakura Sojiro."

Sakura Sojiro took out his cell phone, actually wanting to help Kurusu Akatsuki call the police.

But the finger paused on the screen for a few seconds, and it didn't fall down.

If a middle school student is sent to the Metropolitan Police Department at night, no matter what the reason is, all kinds of bad news will surely spread around the school, right?

Thinking of his daughter who was isolated in her bedroom because of school bullying, Sakura Sojiro couldn't help but sigh.

"The loft in my coffee shop is pretty big. Since you can't find a place to stay, why don't you stay with me for the night?"

002. I went out to throw away the trash and found a high school boy

PM11:04.

Sunken plaza, Sixuan Tea House.

The streets were silent in the darkness of the spring night. The thin moonlight filtered through the gaps between the banyan tree branches and hit the red and white awning of the coffee shop, allowing one to clearly see the name of the shop: "LeBlanc".

Sakura Sojiro rubbed the soles of his shoes on the doormat, then turned the doorknob, walked into the store, and pulled the light cord on the wall.

Click.

A row of sealed cans of coffee beans on the counter were immediately bathed in a golden halo. Dozens of magazines and newspapers were neatly stacked in a pile, with a coffee pot on top.

The wooden tabletop was wiped clean and shiny, vaguely reflecting half of Sakura Sojiro's body.

He went into the kitchen to wash his hands, and at the same time asked Kurusu Akatsuki outside, "Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

"I don't eat beef."

"There's no beef here either." Sakura Sojiro pointed to the two menus hanging on the counter. "On the left is coffee, and on the right is rice and dessert. The ingredients are clearly written."

Kurusu Akatsuki sat down on the dark green sofa next to the dining table, and looked sideways at the two menus. The handwritten hiragana and Arabic numerals with artistic effects were squirming in his field of vision like earthworms.