The sailor uniform on Toyokawa Sakiko's body burst into crimson flame without warning.
Starting from the collar, the fire spread downward, devouring the white sailor blouse and dark pleated skirt.
In the blink of an eye, the flames swept over her. Her everyday school uniform burned away, replaced by Ave Mujica's stage costume.
At the same time, a layer of shadow surfaced across her cheeks, and an exquisite lace mask appeared on her face, fitting perfectly against her skin.
Then the mask flashed.
It turned into light and shot into the air.
The radiance exploded overhead. Countless motes of light interwove, reassembled, and transformed into a gigantic angelic girl.
This angel possessed a shattered beauty so intense it nearly stole the breath.
Behind her spread broken golden wings. Chains coiled around her body, their other ends vanishing into the void. With even the slightest movement, the iron links struck one another with dull, heavy sounds.
In her hands was a broken harp, half its strings snapped, drifting in the air with the wind.
Her pale skin was covered with burn marks, as if scorched by a sun of unbearable heat. Ashes constantly flaked from her body and fell in silence.
Nagasaki Soyo tilted her head back. The angel's figure reflected in her pupils as the ash drifted down.
"So beautiful…"
Even with chains and scars, that unyielding will from the depths of the soul made it impossible to look away.
Kocho Shinobu, standing nearby, also lifted her gaze slightly. Looking at the scarred angel who still radiated a sacred aura, she nodded, her tone carrying a hint of wonder.
"I knew Personas existed, of course. Sakiko, you've mentioned them many times. But this is my first time seeing one with my own eyes."
Hearing their comments, Toyokawa Sakiko felt a little embarrassed and could only pretend she hadn't heard.
Her Persona, Icarus, was originally an unclothed female angel. And since a Persona and its user were two sides of the same existence, Icarus was Sakiko herself.
Every trait on Icarus was the truest reflection of Sakiko's inner world.
That made her somewhat shy about summoning it in front of others.
It always felt as if she were letting others see her naked—no, even more intimate than that.
Having her body seen was only physical exposure.
Right now, she was revealing her soul.
Sakiko took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the discomfort in her heart.
Then she skipped over Soyo and Shinobu's curiosity and praise, stiffly changing the subject as she said,
"Actually, as long as Shadows in the Impression Space are killed, a Persona can grow."
Soyo nodded seriously.
"Mhm, I see."
But then, as if she had suddenly realized something, her brows drew together. She tilted her head slightly, then said in surprise,
"Huh? If that's the case, then why did you react so strongly after seeing the result of Cursed Spirit Manipulation?"
If killing Shadows in the Impression Space was enough to grow, then Sakiko shouldn't have been so shaken just now.
Shinobu, however, spoke thoughtfully from the side.
"Is it because it reached its upper limit?"
Sakiko looked at Shinobu, a trace of approval flashing through her eyes.
Then she nodded slowly.
"Yes."
After a pause, she explained.
"With the help of my Potential Avatars, my speed in killing Shadows is actually extremely high. But I discovered that after Icarus reached a certain level of strength, it was as if she had hit a bottleneck. No matter how many Shadows I killed afterward, she no longer grew stronger."
Sakiko sighed.
"I think that's probably an issue of talent."
In the cognitive world, cognition was everything.
Sakiko's mental will was indeed extremely high.
When her family collapsed and she fell from the clouds into the mud, she had relied on her obsession with not abandoning her father to grit her teeth and hold up her life. She had even used her own strength to build a new band.
That tenacious willpower had allowed her to awaken a Persona through sheer determination.
However, exactly how strong a Persona could become—and how terrifying its upper limit was—often depended on the magnitude of its owner's desires.
Extreme obsession. Mad longing. Twisted greed. Or a despair that wanted to destroy everything.
Those were the most fertile soil for power.
The deeper the desire, the greater the distortion of cognition, and the higher the Persona's ceiling.
In that regard, Toyokawa Sakiko's talent was somewhat lacking.
Of course, she had desires.
She wanted money.
She wanted to save her broken family.
She wanted to pull her ruined father out of his current mire.
She wanted to recover her dignity and ideals.
But her desires had not reached the level of bottomless greed.
Whether in thought or action, she did instinctively start from herself—but she could never become absolutely selfish. She could never sacrifice others without limits for the sake of her own goals.
At her core, she was only an ordinary person with slightly more pride than most.
If one were to use the world of Jujutsu Kaisen as a comparison:
Toyokawa Sakiko's talent and potential in developing the chat group item known as Potential Avatars might not quite reach the level of Itadori the Heavenly Emperor, but she was absolutely a genius on the level of Gojo Satoru and Ryomen Sukuna.
However, on the Persona path—a path that used extreme desire and the soul as fuel—her talent was probably closer to Atsuya Kusakabe.
A normal person without an innate technique, who relied entirely on New Shadow Style swordsmanship, barrier techniques, and acquired effort to climb to the level of a top-tier Grade 1 sorcerer.
Effort was certainly useful.
But without an innate technique, one's achievements were indeed limited.
That was why, when Wakaba Mutsumi displayed the power of Cursed Spirit Manipulation, when a path that allowed one to devour Shadows endlessly and stack power almost without limit appeared before her, Sakiko had been shaken so severely.
It was the instinctive reaction of an ordinary person who had crashed into the ceiling, only to suddenly see a true shortcut and a cheat tool.
But she had refused it.
Because she knew very clearly that if she lost her bottom line, then she herself would lose all meaning.
Fortunately, she had held fast to her true heart and anchored herself.
After listening to all of this, Kocho Shinobu stood silently in place. Complicated emotions churned in her eyes.
She understood that feeling far too well.
That despair and helplessness of colliding again and again against the wall called talent—until one was battered bloody, biting through one's teeth and shedding every tear in the dead of night.
Her physical constitution was too poor.
She was too small. Barely over one hundred and fifty centimeters tall.
No matter how desperately she trained, the muscle mass in her wrists was never enough.
Even though she had learned Flower Breathing with everything she had, even though she had brought Total Concentration Breathing to its limit, even though her speed ranked among the Hashira—
Her innate lack of strength meant that she would never be like the other Hashira.
She could not cut off a demon's neck in a single stroke.
And if she could not sever the neck, she could not truly kill a demon.
All effort looked terribly pale before the word talent.
So after discovering the path of poison, she poured everything into it.
To kill an Upper Rank demon, she had even turned herself into a vessel, accumulating wisteria poison in her body year after year, day after day. Through constant pain, she forcibly changed her body's tolerance to poison.
And she succeeded.
She became the Insect Hashira.
But sometimes, when she looked at herself smiling in the mirror, she would fall into a daze and wonder:
If her sister Kanae were resurrected in heaven, perhaps she wouldn't recognize her anymore.
The corner of Shinobu's mouth twitched. She tried to show her usual smile.
In the end, it became only a nearly inaudible sigh.
After hearing Sakiko's explanation, Soyo nodded from the side, her expression somewhat blank.
She had only been an ordinary high school girl before this. Although she had been dragged into all these bizarre and dazzling events, she still did not fully understand the undercurrents in Sakiko and Shinobu's hearts, nor did she understand the dangers behind the cognitive power system.
She could only vaguely sense from Sakiko's slightly heavy tone and Shinobu's unusual silence that Xiao Xiang had run into a very serious problem earlier.
And she had solved it herself.
Soyo didn't want the atmosphere to stay so heavy.
So she took half a step closer, clasped her hands together in front of her chest, and asked in a brighter tone,
"Then, Xiao Xiang, what did you mean by a blessing in disguise?"
Then her eyes lit up, as though she had figured it out, and she asked with excitement and expectation,
"Could it be that because of the impact just now, your Persona broke through its bottleneck and became stronger?"
Sakiko smiled and nodded.
"Yes. What happened just now was dangerous, but it also allowed Icarus to surpass that bottleneck and grow stronger. And not only that."
She turned slightly and lifted her head toward Icarus in the air.
Shinobu, Soyo, the quiet Wakaba Mutsumi, and Mortis all followed Sakiko's gaze.
The angel suspended in midair suddenly began to change.
A clear metallic clinking rang out.
The black iron chains that had once tightly bound Icarus's neck, arms, waist, and ankles suddenly shone with dazzling golden light, as if something were melting them from within.
One heavy chain after another slid off the angel's pale skin.
As they fell, they transformed in a burst of golden light into flowing golden ribbons.
Those ribbons wove and extended through the air, becoming golden musical staves glowing with a soft radiance. Countless notes leapt from the staves, producing ethereal, gentle tones whenever they collided.
The ribbons wound lightly around Icarus, fluttering and rotating with that silent melody, dragging brilliant trails of light behind them.
At the same time, the harp broken in Icarus's hands also changed.
Golden light surged from the fracture, spreading along the cracks and filling in the missing structure.
The snapped strings reconnected and tightened within the light, releasing a clear, lingering hum.
Those chains represented the shackles Toyokawa Sakiko had borne.
They came not only from the outside world, but also from herself.
And now, Icarus had broken free from those chains.
That meant Sakiko's self had gained a further degree of independence and freedom.
She understood herself more clearly now.
She acknowledged her own ordinariness.
And she held fast to her bottom line.
In myth, the boy who made wings from wax and feathers forgot his father's warning because he was enchanted by the warmth and brilliance of the sun. In the end, the wax melted, and he fell into the sea.
But the Icarus of today still admired the sunlight that shone upon all things.
She still possessed the desire to fly upward, still took that as her goal and climbed toward it.
But she would no longer be deceived by that beauty and power.
She would no longer forget everything, ignore her own safety, and fly madly and recklessly toward the sun.
Toyokawa Sakiko understood the change and the metaphor behind it.
But she would not theatrically dissect her inner heart in front of everyone, nor explain her weakness and growth aloud.
She did not need words to advertise her maturity.
She simply gazed at her Persona with complex eyes. Deep within them, waves known only to herself surged violently—then eventually settled into calm, becoming a faint release.
In the eyes of Soyo and the others, Xiao Xiang's Persona seemed to have completed some kind of transformation.
The shattered despair that had once clung to it had faded.
Golden staves and musical notes now circled that scarred body—sacred, sorrowful, and breathtakingly beautiful.
The golden light gradually stabilized.
Icarus hovered in the air, and the golden score around her flowed like a slowly rotating ring of stars.
Sakiko withdrew her gaze, turned toward her companions, and pointed at the angel behind her.
"As you can see, the current Icarus can freely switch between Chain Form and Movement Form."
She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
In the air, the golden score around Icarus instantly withdrew. Its radiance dimmed, turning once again into heavy black iron chains that wrapped around the angel's body. The broken harp appeared again.
"Chain Form is the original form."
"In this state, Icarus possesses two special abilities on the level of rules. They are called Unyielding and Link."
She paused, giving everyone time to digest that, then explained in detail.
"First, Unyielding."
"When I lose in a spiritual confrontation or mental check—in other words, when I would normally suffer complete mental collapse, lose the ability to fight, or even die—Icarus can forcibly activate this ability."
"She sacrifices part of herself—whether that is a skill, a portion of her base attributes, or a piece of equipment she is wearing—as the price to stand up again and continue fighting."
"This process can be repeated four times."
Everyone inhaled sharply.
They were all shocked by how terrifying this ability was.
Standing back up four times in battle.
And it was rule-level resurrection.
It was absurdly unreasonable.
Even Ryomen Sukuna could only transform once!
Seeing their shocked expressions, Sakiko did not look smug.
She pointed to the chains on Icarus and continued,
"The second ability is Link. In Chain Form, I can bind these chains to one or more targets and use them to transfer or absorb injuries."
"Specifically, I can transfer injuries I receive along the chains to the other side. Or, conversely, I can actively absorb injuries from others and transfer them onto myself."
"However, this is not a rule that takes effect by force like Unyielding."
"If the target strongly rejects the chain's connection and transfer, either subconsciously or consciously, then at the moment of connection, we must engage in a direct spiritual clash."
"Only if my will overwhelms theirs will the transfer succeed and determine the direction of the injury."
Everyone nodded silently.
Even with that restriction, even though it wasn't a rule-level compulsory ability and could be resisted, it was still an extremely powerful battlefield support skill.
Combined with Unyielding's absurd four-time resurrection mechanism, in team combat, as long as Sakiko linked her chains to her teammates, she could continuously absorb the damage they suffered.
Even if she took in too much damage and reached the verge of death or collapse, she could trigger Unyielding, sacrifice some unimportant attribute, stand up again, and continue absorbing injuries—preserving the team's core fighting strength.
As long as Sakiko was there, and as long as she still had resurrection charges remaining, her teammates were nearly immortal.
If she won the clash of wills, she could even return everyone's injuries to the enemy.
It had mechanics.
It could shield.
It could carry.
Its role could not be called anything but enormous.
In truth, Icarus's two seemingly unreasonable abilities had not appeared out of nowhere.
They were the reflection of Toyokawa Sakiko's past struggle in the mire.
Unyielding's four revivals represented the major blows she had suffered again and again.
She had failed.
She had despaired.
But she had never submitted to fate.
Even as she continuously lost everything she once possessed, even as she grew weaker and was stripped of pride and dignity until she was covered in wounds, she had clenched her teeth and stood up every time.
And Link represented the way she had survived for so long.
She had always been accustomed to taking everything onto her own shoulders—the debt, the mess left behind by her father, the pressure of forming a new band.
Even if it crushed her to pieces.
After calming her emotions slightly, Sakiko lifted her head again and snapped her fingers crisply.
In the air, the heavy chains instantly disassembled and transformed into flowing golden staves and notes. The ruined harp repaired itself. Bathed in golden light, Icarus returned to her free form.
Then Sakiko pointed at the angel surrounded by golden notes and continued,
"In Movement Form, Icarus completely loses the injury-transfer ability brought by the chains."
"But by playing music, she can grant allies absolute peace on a spiritual level, allowing them to resist external cognitive temptation and mental pollution to an enormous degree, while continuously dispelling negative statuses already attached to them."
"For enemies, this music does the opposite. It invades their consciousness, forcibly amplifies the desires within their hearts, causes their minds to lose stability, throws their self-cognition into chaos, and makes them no longer act like their usual selves."
After she finished explaining, everyone looked at the angel in the air and nodded one after another.
This was an ability in no way inferior to Link.
In fact, when facing mental-type enemies or large-scale group battles, it might prove even more decisive.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 165)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
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Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 248
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 230
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 125
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 145
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 115
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 110
My Harem Is Indescribable 100
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 105
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
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The Most Filial Son Under Heav 85
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 78
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 80
Checking In in Demon Slayer 85
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 100
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 85
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What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 75
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 85
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The Gacha Merchant Who Started 80
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 100
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 60
The Uma Musume Who Became 60
I'm Definitely Not the King of 80
After Maxing Out Every Class 80
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 44
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I, the Elden Sword Saint 50
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I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 45
From Trilobites to Titans 45
Chainsaw Man: Contracted with 55
DanMachi: My Party Members Are 60
An Anime Heroine Darkened 55
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