Sunlight, as clear and rippling as a large lake, swayed in the empty music classroom with the curtains fluttering in the breeze.
Kurusu Akira smoothed out a printed sheet of paper and neatly wrote "Mementos Evacuation Guide" on it with a pen.
Combining the information he had gathered so far through various channels, it could be confirmed that the "Metaverse Navigator" had lost its original function and become a trap secretly set by the enemy.
At the same time, there was a high probability that the student named "Ishihara" who had mysteriously disappeared in Tokyo City was captured into the Mementos because the enemy had actively triggered this trap... According to the information provided by Awa Subaru, she should have been sent to a research base located in the outskirts of Kawasaki City, which had mastered the mass production of Persona users.
But with the sudden typhoon attack the night before last, all clues were cut off midway—
Those who called themselves "gods" would rather send Awa Subaru, a super-powered individual who also possessed time-reversal abilities, to his side than let him go to Kawasaki.
Once the heavy rain ended, it was unlikely they would leave any weaknesses for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to exploit.
Awa Subaru said that they must have been terrified by Kurusu Akira in the last time reversal:
An invisible demon held a massive gun, loading it with bullets woven from human desires, and a rainbow-colored glow emanated from the muzzle. Gnostic classics described a great demiurge "Yaldabaoth," and ancient Egyptian Memphis mythology also had a similar demiurge "Ptah," but neither "Yaldabaoth" nor "Ptah" would fail to tremble upon seeing this Sinful Shell, which seemed capable of destroying even Heaven.
If such a terrifyingly powerful move were a one-time trump card, it would be one thing. Two gods of equal standing launching a sneak attack side by side, treating it as a game of "Russian roulette," with one dead and one alive, might still be acceptable.
Yet, this illogical monster, Kurusu Akira, could, just before being killed, have his demon-shaped Persona behind him suddenly pull out a second gun loaded with Sinful Shell and perform an extreme counter-kill.
In fact, even with things developing to this point, it wasn't truly a "dead end."
The gods could completely rely on countless time reversals to find better solutions.
Until that girl named Awa Subaru suddenly also gained the power of time reversal...
Great, now everyone has to pack up and run.
The strongest version answer, "Intelligence Phantom Thief," is logging into "Earth Online."
What's the point of playing with human schemes and tricks? First, figure out how to move all your belongings from Kawasaki City, then ponder over it.
Thus came the overwhelming downpour and the typhoon that almost severed all roads between Kawasaki and Tokyo.
The crisis outside of daily life thus temporarily came to an end.
Upon returning to campus life, Kurusu Akira immediately began meticulously planning a strategy to reveal various supernatural dangers to his familiar friends to the greatest extent possible, while avoiding exposing his identity as a "Phantom Thief."
After all, with the example of Iseri Nina being captured into the Mementos, he simply couldn't rest assured about his friends whose phones had been secretly installed with the "Metaverse Navigator."
Therefore, taking advantage of this "club meeting" to provide special training to the new members, Kurusu Akira also discussed with Lavenza a series of measures to prevent attacks and minimize danger in the Mementos, then tried to list them all on a piece of paper.
As for this "Mementos Evacuation Guide," he planned to wait until the qualified girl in the band truly awakened her Persona, then have her distribute it to the girls in the band as a member of the Phantom Thieves—
Kurusu Akira truly dared not explain his identity as a "Phantom Thief" to ordinary people; this involved an unspoken understanding between him and the enemy.
The identity of "Phantom Thief" is undoubtedly Pandora's box for ordinary people; once opened, seeing what is sealed inside will inevitably bring about unpredictable disasters.
Now, carrying Iseri Nina with him was already very taxing on his energy. If there were more burdens, besides being tied to them as a constant bodyguard, he might also face the risk of "cognitive diffusion."
Fortunately, the Phantom Thieves had a network expert.
At Kurusu Akira's request, Sakura Futaba stayed up all night to write an alert program, which was implanted into the mobile phones of everyone closely related to Kurusu Akira through hacking. Once any of them were attacked by a Persona user, the program could immediately send a distress signal with their location to Kurusu Akira.
...
Finally, it's done.
The Phantom Thief put down the pen in his hand, looked at the entire "Mementos Evacuation Guidebook" spread out before him, checked it carefully, and then handed it to the two girls sitting beside him to read.
Iseri Nina carefully poked Awa Subaru's shoulder.
"Do you think this is a bit like..."
"Like what?"
"It's a bit like the 'sexual health education' and 'STD prevention' leaflets distributed by the physiology teacher in class."
Awa Subaru didn't know how to respond to her excessively erratic thinking for a moment.
She looked at the "Mementos Evacuation Guidebook" in front of her, wondering why the current topic was so serious, and how this girl managed to associate it with physiological knowledge leaflets?
Well, it does seem a bit like it.
After all, once this kind of knowledge is understood, it's almost impossible to forget, and it will have a permanent impact on certain cognitions and concepts.
Seeing their reactions, Kurusu Akira felt his blood pressure soaring...
He finally held back.
"Today's meeting ends here. You all go back to class."
A brief parting of ways.
Kurusu Akira locked the door of the clubroom and then leisurely walked towards the Dean of Students' office.
It was the time of the second class in the morning, and there were few people to be seen along the way.
He quickly found the independent office that Ito Misui had approved for him in the teaching building.
Bang bang bang.
Polite knocking.
Ito Misui's resonant voice sounded from inside, "Please come in."
So Kurusu Akira pushed the door open.
As soon as he entered, he saw the Dean of Students sitting at his desk, facing him in a posture similar to Commander Ikari from "EVA," with his hands intertwined below his nose. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes overlapped, and his deep eyes stared unblinkingly at Kurusu Akira as he entered the office, creating an impression of unsmiling strictness and coldness.
"Regarding the club members, I heard from the student council that it's already under review. Is it okay now?"
Kurusu Akira skillfully pulled out a stool and sat opposite Ito Misui.
The middle-aged man's bald head gleamed under the light. He pushed up the glasses on his nose, "It involves many students from other schools, and even an unregistered female university student... The verification process will be very troublesome. We can only try our best to complete this matter thoroughly before school ends."
"I plan to hold the first club activity today. Where should I get the club funds from?"
Ito Misui pondered for a moment, "I'll contact the finance department immediately and have them transfer the money to the bank account number you provided."
Kurusu Akira was instantly shocked, "No! Absolutely not!"
"Hmm?" Ito Misui looked at him with some confusion, "Is the bank account number you registered in your transfer application incorrect?"
Kurusu Akira gave a bitter smile and began to recount how his more than ten million yen in debt had evaporated his hard-earned money out of thin air through an ATM machine that night.
After listening to Kurusu Akira's story, even the experienced Ito Misui felt a lingering fear. "It was my oversight; I didn't consider this special situation."
However, he was also a bit puzzled, "How did such a large debt fall on you? Was it coercion from the underworld? If you have difficulties, you must communicate with the school. We will do our best to help you negotiate."
"It's probably due to inheriting an 'inheritance.'"
"What kind of inheritance could be worth over ten million in debt?"
"An abandoned shrine that has been around for many years. I think its name is 'Kenzane.'"
"Kenzane Shrine, I haven't heard of that name." Ito Misui stared at Kurusu Akira with a strange look, "For this, you have to bear such a large debt? Is it because the land under the shrine is very valuable?"
"That land isn't valuable. It can't be cultivated, and the shrine's buildings are so dilapidated from long-term neglect that demolition would be a complete loss. There would also be a large expense for clearing construction waste and paying taxes... It's the type that even if you sell it cheaply, no real estate developer would want to take it on."
Speaking of this, Kurusu Akira really wanted to dig open the original owner's head and see what he was thinking at the time to inherit a shrine that had been abandoned for almost half a century in a hot spring tourist town.
The details of this inheritance were also mentioned in a call he received from his "hometown" some time ago, from someone who claimed to be the town mayor.
Regarding "Kenzane Shrine," it was actually an inheritance that Amamiya Ren actively requested to inherit.
This excessively absurd decision at the time made many relatives and friends think that he had developed some psychological problems after a family upheaval, or that he had been incited by some invisible ghost.
In the last century, Hoori was not the hot spring resort town that is now completely focused on tourism.
Kenzane Shrine was a very historically significant shrine in the town at the time, with abundant incense offerings. Legend has it that there were so many monks and shrine maidens that they could not only support themselves but even additionally enshrine an antique-grade sacred sword.
However, with the rapid development of the times, this shrine was completely abandoned half a century ago due to various social problems.
And Hoori, relying on its beautiful scenery and abundant hot spring resources, quickly reaped the benefits of the internet, transforming from a low-income mountain village into a developed hot spring resort town.
His parents, as well-known local merchants, found the town mayor and proposed to rebuild this shrine and restore Hoori's traditional culture, hoping to get a share of the prosperous tourism business in the hot spring town.
However, unforeseen circumstances arose. They had just bought the dilapidated land where the shrine was located when they passed away, and the plan to rebuild the shrine came to nothing.
Kurusu Akira was deeply puzzled by this.
Did his counterpart in this world really experience a mental abnormality after the ups and downs of life?
If he didn't accept this inheritance, could the debt still be arbitrarily placed on him?
But since he had already transmigrated into this body, no matter how absurd and unreasonable the original owner's decisions were, he had to try to resolve the consequences they caused.
Kurusu Akira said to Ito Misui in a joking tone, making light of his suffering, "Perhaps I was indeed bewitched by some invisible ghost at the time, so I inherited this inheritance in a muddled way."
Ito Misui's face was full of regret, "Amamiya, can you even say a word like 'ghost'? It's 2022! Don't try to fob me off with plots and settings from fantasy novels or comics! If you really saw a ghost, I guarantee you'd run faster than anyone!"
Kurusu Akira was also speechless for a moment. "What if at that time, a beautiful girl ghost suddenly appeared, and then pitifully begged me not to give the shrine to anyone else?"
Seeing him like this, Ito Misui finally couldn't help but sneer, "I've lived for so long, do you think I'd believe that? I'd rather believe that you're actually the Phantom Thief from urban legends! At least that's a more novel urban legend setting recently!"
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