A crisp clink echoed as a coin was dropped into the machine. Just as the intense sound effects began, an adjacent arcade machine was also activated by a coin, and complex sound effects erupted one after another amidst the excited shouts of children. On the large screen, accompanied by fire-burning effects, a burly Russian wrestler and a muscular American karate master stood facing each other in the dojo.
The boy's left hand made the joystick click loudly, and his right hand tapped rapidly on the buttons, controlling "Ken" to unleash a Hadouken before quickly closing in. He was about to execute a standard jumping combo on "Zangief," who stood foolishly still...
Awa Subaru was about to control her character to block, but found that her thoughts couldn't reach her body at all.
Just trying to lift her hand to touch the joystick in front of her felt heavily obstructed, let alone making her character counterattack through the buttons.
She watched her health bar rapidly diminish under the powerful punches and kicks of the karate master, and was instantly consumed by anxiety... What kind of joke is this? Hurry up and move!
Then, as if truly breaking free from those invisible restraints, her hands reached for the control panel of the arcade machine in front of her.
But when her fingers touched the game joystick, she didn't feel the expected smooth sensation. Instead, it was a cold, hard object with distinct edges.
That cold, hard object was immediately roughly pulled from her palm, and then pressed against her face the next moment.
The lively noise of the arcade instantly faded away, and the boy with a smug smile of victory also disappeared.
The back seat of the minivan was pitch black, and outside the window, blurred, frosted-glass-like scenery continuously flashed by. Occasionally, after several bumps over uneven road sections, the atmosphere turned chillingly desolate.
Torrential rain lashed against the car from all directions, making a pattering sound.
"It seems your 'sleep tolerance' is quite high; you woke up so quickly."
Awa Subaru, having woken from her sleep, trembled uncontrollably as she stared at the girl in front of her, who was aiming a pistol at her.
Fragmented memories from before she fainted all connected at this moment:
Today was Awa Subaru's seventeenth birthday.
After returning home, she used her phone to order a birthday cake from a nearby dessert shop, then waited for the delivery person to bring the cake while doing her homework.
Even an entertainment school requires students to complete some basic cultural courses.
However, compared to regular schools, cultural courses here account for a smaller proportion, and the assessment content is relatively simpler.
After about an hour of waiting, there was a knock on the door.
No matter how careful a high school girl living alone was, she couldn't have anticipated that the stranger on the other side of the door was a "supernatural power user."
As Awa Subaru approached the door, trying to look through the peephole to observe the person outside, a pair of pale hands passed directly through the door, covering her eyes and nose.
The hands sank into her flesh, gripping her thoughts and slowly tightening, causing her to gradually lose consciousness as if deprived of oxygen.
Before she completely fainted, she faintly heard the sound of a heavy object continuously sinking into a swamp, and everything before her eyes changed bizarrely, as if she had fallen into another world.
When Awa Subaru woke up again, she was already bound by a seatbelt in the back seat of the car. After finally breaking free from the seatbelt's restraint, a pistol was immediately pressed against her face.
The circular muzzle was dark and deep, like a dead person's eyeball, staring at her unblinkingly from close range.
The girl holding the pistol was unrecognizable in the darkness, but with the occasional faint light from streetlights shining through the window, her clothing could barely be identified as resembling a high school girl's uniform.
The other person spoke in a mocking and contemptuous tone, "You're really unlucky to be chosen as the 'last victim.' Today is my last day deployed in this city, and my last time picking a 'sacrifice' for that lecherous old man... But you're not entirely unlucky. At least you won't be a 'sacrifice' offered to a god, but rather a 'commodity' sent to that 'Castle'."
After speaking, she poked Awa Subaru's lips with the gun muzzle, "I can feel it, your fear, unease, anxiety, anger, sadness... and confusion."
"For your safety, it's best to obey everyone you encounter from now on, otherwise, if you're labeled 'unqualified,' you might not even be able to be a 'commodity'."
...
The minivan changed lanes several times in the camera-free suburbs, turning and winding its way into a very remote school.
The searchlights' blazing white beams pierced through the rain curtain into the dim interior of the car, like lightning suddenly illuminating the sky on a rainy night, allowing both girls in the back seat to clearly see each other's faces.
Her long, straight hair was as black and shiny as a pencil lead, and her dark purple eyes, like blooming roses in the morning, were misty. Her exquisite features, no less beautiful than a school drama idol's, took on a pitiful air with her tearful expression. Her long, slender, and well-proportioned legs, as pale and lustrous as ivory, were pressed together, and she huddled in the corner of the back seat against the car door like a princess in distress.
The girl with neat short hair tied with a red ribbon reinserted her pistol into the holster under her school uniform skirt, then revealed a dangerous smile. "Hmph, that expression... No wonder the old man decided to choose you."
At this moment, the car stopped.
The car door was opened from the outside, and a woman holding a black umbrella stood beside it, rain pouring down from the umbrella's edge. Cold, damp air rushed into the car, as if the hot tears that threatened to well up in her eyes would instantly freeze—
"Sagawa-sensei...?"
Awa Subaru looked in disbelief at the woman who had opened the car door.
She was the physical education teacher at the entertainment school; they had just met in the office today.
Sagawa ignored Awa Subaru's fear, merely humbly asking the short-haired girl for her opinion, "Yajima-san, a new 'customer' will be arriving here today."
"Where there's 'merchandise,' there are 'customers.' That's normal, why do you have to specifically tell me?"
"Because he's just a very ordinary high school student."
"A senator's son? Or the young master of a big conglomerate coming to experience life?"
"No, neither. He's just... an ordinary high school student who transferred to Tokyo from out of town and is traveling during the weekend."
The girl called "Yajima" immediately showed a subtle change in expression. "Is that how Shinba explained it to you?"
"Yes... yes."
"Have you met the new customer? Is his name Amamiya Ren?" Yajima asked the physical education teacher urgently, as if she had suddenly thought of something very important.
Sagawa shook her head. "Principal Shinba did not state his name."
Yajima clicked her tongue very loudly, then almost ran away, snatching the umbrella from the bewildered Sagawa's hand and striding quickly to the front of the car, acting as if she was about to kick the driver out and take his seat.
The rain was too heavy, and the occasional flashes of lightning were accompanied by deafening roars, blurring many sounds in the endless patter.
Even sitting in the back seat of the car, Awa Subaru could barely hear the conversation between the two people outside the car door.
Not to mention Yajima, who was opening the car door and hurrying into the driver's seat—she completely failed to notice Shinba Takakiyo, who had been waiting for a long time in the school parking lot a little further away, entering the rain with Kurusu Akira.
By the time Yajima inserted the car key and tried to start the van, Shinba Takakiyo had already approached and shouted loudly, "Yajima-san! I've found a very promising young man for you; you must take a look at him!"
With the help of the car's low beams and the distant building's searchlights, Yajima easily saw "Amamiya Ren" standing behind Shinba Takakiyo, holding an umbrella.
All thoughts and actions froze at this moment.
An overwhelming fear pierced Yajima's entire body, as if she had forgotten how to breathe.
A month ago in Tokyo, she had personally witnessed this boy die in the restroom of a barbecue restaurant near Setagaya Ward:
The moment "Amamiya Ren's" consciousness was torn apart by the judgment descended by the gods, all light left his eyes, and his empty shell of a body stood motionless.
His spirit was completely dead, with no possibility of revival.
Yajima Yuzuki, as a Persona user, had already confirmed it at the time through the 'World's Eye' bestowed by the gods—this generation's contractor of the Velvet Room, Amamiya Ren, his spirit and will, his 'heart,' along with his Persona, had all died together.
But now, this monster who should have died has not only successfully revived but has become more powerful and battle-hardened than ever before, unrivaled.
She didn't even have time to feel angry about Shinba Takakiyo's betrayal.
Fear and despair had already flooded Yajima Yuzuki's reason like a torrent, creating a chilling cold that pierced to her core.
...
Heavy rain slammed against the car windows and the road, shattering into countless fine splashes that permeated the air, forming a thick white mist.
A sudden silence fell inside the car, with only the wipers making a "clunk, clunk" friction sound as they wiped away the water.
The faint sizzling of a burning cigarette butt in the ashtray on the center console was audible.
Yajima Yuzuki sat as still as a wax figure.
Until the boy's figure slowly emerged from the mist, bathed along with the black umbrella in his hand in the waterfall-like curtain of water.
The incandescent headlights illuminated the dark, rainy night.
Heavy rain crashed onto the puddle-strewn road, creating countless ripples.
The string of sanity snapped at this moment, and Yajima Yuzuki hysterically roared something she didn't even understand at Kurusu Akira, then slammed the accelerator and swung the steering wheel, driving the car straight into him—
'So what if he resurrected? If he's so capable, let him resurrect in front of me again!'
In her rapidly dilating pupils, the boy in the windshield made no move to dodge, ignoring the screams and gasps around him, simply standing calmly in place, his eyes gleaming with the resolve to face death.
"Persona!"
A crimson demon unfurled its dark wings behind him, and huge sharp claws rapidly enlarged and approached in Yajima Yuzuki's vision, tearing the metal car body like paper with a ripping sound.
The entire torn-off driver's cabin was covered in deep purple flames; metal, glass, plastic... everything that seemed solid was instantly incinerated, leaving no ashes behind.
The severed rear half of the car body crashed heavily to the ground, and the screaming Awa Subaru was thrown out by the immense inertia generated by such a drastic change, then steadily caught in the arms of Kurusu Akira, who was wearing a school uniform.
Clatter.
A wristwatch fell from the driver's cabin, which had been completely burned away by the flames, and hit the ground. Even after enduring such an extreme temperature beyond physical concepts, it remained perfectly intact.
In the pouring rain, no one noticed its existence.
The single hand on the watch face suddenly dropped from the '1' position, falling to the second mark.
Then, time began to rewind—
The waterfall-like rain flowed backward into the sky, the structure of the driver's cabin reassembled in the flames, Awa Subaru returned to the back seat of the car, and the severed van reconnected.
Yajima Yuzuki, who had been burned to ashes, sat back in the driver's seat, her right foot lifting from the accelerator, then slamming down again!
This time, she sharply turned the steering wheel, trying to speed the van away from Kurusu Akira.
The pain and fear of death made her gasp for air as if having an asthma attack.
But in the next moment, that sound of "Persona" still rang out in the torrential rain.
An invisible slash instantly cut the van in half, and on Yajima Yuzuki's wrist, the pointer on the watch face jumped from '2' to '3'.
Third death regression.
Yajima Yuzuki rushed out of the driver's cabin, unhesitatingly raising her pistol and aiming it at the boy in front of her, emptying the clip with a nearly insane and ferocious smile.
Flashes of fire erupted, and in the dense gunfire, even the sound of summoning a Persona was omitted.
A giant demon appeared out of thin air, batting away the gun-wielding Yajima Yuzuki along with the bullets flying from the barrel with a single slap.
Fourth death regression.
The moment Yajima Yuzuki saw Kurusu Akira, she immediately raised her pocket watch, calling out her Persona with the spiritual power residing within it.
But what answered her was the dazzling muzzle flash from the blunderbuss raised by the blood-red demon behind the boy.
Fifth, sixth, seventh... twelfth time.
The continuous deaths brought Yajima Yuzuki's spirit to the brink of collapse.
That immense sense of powerlessness felt as if no matter what decision she made, it would be ineffective.
That resurrected monster could always instantly capture her true thoughts with an intuition and insight she couldn't comprehend, then formulate a countermeasure.
Even kneeling for mercy or pretending nothing happened and driving away would immediately lead to an attack from that terrifyingly unreasonable Persona.
Even with the blessing of the gods, there are strict limits to using Persona in reality... Why can he so easily unleash such powerful abilities?
Yajima Yuzuki could not understand any of what she was experiencing.
She sat in the driver's seat, breathing with difficulty.
Every muscle and bone in her body screamed and wailed; an indescribable pain, surpassing death itself, continuously assailed her brain, causing her eyes to be bloodshot and a thin, winding trickle of blood to slowly flow from her nostrils—
This immense pain made her wish she could immediately raise the gun and commit suicide.
But her remaining will to live made Yajima Yuzuki's fingers stop the moment they touched the gun handle.
She had seen too many Persona users blessed by the gods in that grand hall, but never had anyone like Kurusu Akira exuded such an almost overwhelming presence just by releasing his Persona.
Having lost all decision-making ability, she could only slump limply in the seat, unable to even conceive of lifting a finger.
Until footsteps sounded from the silence, gradually approaching, becoming clearer.
Pitter-patter.
Like rain hitting the car window.
Sneakers treading on the waterlogged ground...
Pitter-patter.
Every time a footstep sounded, it felt as if her heart would violently contract from fear.
Kurusu Akira followed Shinba Takakiyo to the front of the car, looking at the despairing and numb-faced girl in the driver's seat with a subtly puzzled expression.
Is this also a victim?
The Phantom Thief couldn't sense any hostility from her.
It's a bit strange; there seem to be traces of Persona power having existed in her body.
But this power feels far too weak.
How could a heart capable of manifesting a Persona be so frail?
It felt like she had, on this very day, successively experienced her parents being hit by a car and dying; her older sister being split in half by a sudden falling excavator bucket; her best friend being doused in gasoline and set on fire; finally arriving at school, only for armed thugs to suddenly burst in and start shooting wildly; abandoning all dignity to kneel and beg for her life, only to be kicked off the teaching building; miraculously surviving by clinging to a tree branch, but before she could land, a grenade was thrown from a window above and detonated terrifyingly close... and finally, half-dead, she was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, where the nurse tried to insert an IV for blood transfusion, failing to hit a vein after dozens of attempts—that kind of despair and helplessness.
After careful discernment, Kurusu Akira became even more certain that this girl should be considered one of the victims of the "out-of-control incident."
With such a weak heart, let alone driving a Persona into battle, she probably can't even summon one, right?
Kurusu Akira stood behind Shinba Takakiyo, holding an umbrella, watching him say a few things about the transaction to the girl, who responded feebly a few times.
Then Shinba Takakiyo went to the back seat of the car and, together with the physical education teacher, brought Awa Subaru out.
"It's you?" The Phantom Thief looked at the girl he had just exchanged contact information with today.
Teary-eyed Awa Subaru also stared at Kurusu Akira with an incredulous gaze.
"What's wrong, do you two know each other?" Shinba Takakiyo, holding an umbrella, impatiently tapped the heel of his leather shoe; it seemed some plastic granules from the playground had gotten inside, making it quite uncomfortable.
"We just met today."
"That makes things easier." Shinba Takakiyo gestured to the female teacher beside him to quickly restrain Awa Subaru's hands, then walked over and put his arm around Kurusu Akira's shoulder. "As I told you, once we go inside, don't ask any questions, just relax and enjoy."
The Phantom Thief nodded, his face full of conviction and sincerity, his phone in his pocket recording the entire time.
He only hoped the iPhone battery would last another hour.
Awa Subaru allowed herself to be held by the physical education teacher, whose surname was Sagawa, not daring to resist.
After all, there was a psychic sitting in the car behind her.
At this moment, Yajima Yuzuki, who had finally regained some sanity after the experience of continuous deaths, looked up and saw the group of people gradually moving away.
'I... survived?'
As she thought this, tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes.
"Monster..." she mumbled repeatedly, then tremblingly reached for the car key, wanting to immediately turn the vehicle around and escape.
'I must return to the Palace immediately.'
'As long as I can seek the help of that god, I can definitely...'
The moment a flicker of hatred and animosity ignited in Yajima Yuzuki's heart.
Kurusu Akira, who was walking towards the teaching building with Shinba Takakiyo, suddenly stopped upon hearing the engine sound.
He turned his head and looked at the starting van.
Immediately after, his attention shifted from the starting vehicle to Yajima Yuzuki, who was attempting to drive.
At the same time, Yajima Yuzuki also felt Kurusu Akira's attention.
Tears and snot flowed uncontrollably, she glanced at the wristwatch on her wrist, then cried and roared as she slammed the accelerator.
'I must escape.'
'I must live.'
'Even if I am blamed and punished by the gods...'
It had been a year since Yajima Yuzuki gained the power of Persona through the miracle bestowed by the gods, and this was the first time such a difficult and humble thought crossed her mind.
Kurusu Akira's eyes flickered with a hint of doubt, but he chose not to summon his Persona to force the van to stop.
It didn't matter whether the girl was a Persona user pretending to be a victim or had some other identity. According to the logic of the cognitive world, they would never dare to expose his identity as "Phantom Thief." And Kurusu Akira firmly believed that they would return at all costs... otherwise, this Palace would be completely plundered by him.
Anyway, there were no more victims in that car; all he needed to do now was to find all the culprits in the enemy's stronghold and make them repent.
The Phantom Thief followed Shinba Takakiyo into the pale light of the searchlights.
The windows and doors of the nearby teaching building were tightly covered with curtains or newspapers, and the deep shadows of the building stood out sharply in the light.
Walking down the dark corridor, everything was silent, with only the sound of rain like a waterfall above and below.
Compared to the red-light district he had in mind, this place seemed more like a villain's secret experimental base.
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