Tokyo Psychic

Page 115

Jing Qinrencai nervously looked out the window at the sky, which was flashing between light and dark. The school flag of "Xiujin High School" was fluttering rapidly in the storm.

She clasped her hands together and prayed for the boys and girls who were moving around in the Impression Space.

We must win... Jingqin Rencai hoped so.

Then she looked at the lunchbox in front of her. Even though she was quite hungry, she had no appetite and seemed even more preoccupied.

*

*

*

--------

(Persona is a series that emphasizes daily life over battles. Battles only take up a small portion of this book. If you don't understand it or don't have the energy to learn about the various related settings, it won't really matter. Just start reading the daily life tomorrow. The story of the first palace will end with one more chapter of "three-in-one".)

(By the way, I'd like to recommend a book by one of our group members:)

104. "A bunch of lousy cheaters" (four in one)

A deathly silent ancient castle.

The Phantom Thieves stealthily made their way through the corridor, not encountering a single guard along the way.

What happened here?

Toyokawa Shoko asked Kurusu Akira, who was at the front, in a low voice.

It seemed like a heavy rain had just fallen; the rainwater had soaked the broken windowsill and accumulated on the floor near the window. The dusty, dull-colored blanket, soaked with rainwater, emitted a damp, musty smell.

Anwa Subaru, pinching his nose and crouching low, followed behind them. Upon hearing Toyokawa Shoko's question, he offered his opinion: "It rained here not long ago... The shadows in the palace seem likely to be affected by the rain."

Akira Kurusu straightened up and ran her index finger across the carpet through her glove, discovering some signs of corrosion on the surface. "This is the 'Mind Palace,' the enemy's headquarters. They clearly possess a degree of weather manipulation, and this ability is amplified to a level beyond our comprehension within the palace..."

“But now the rain has stopped.” Toyokawa Shoko walked to the window, gazing at the sky that was turning blood red. “Is it because you saw the proclamation that you're intentionally concentrating your power to protect the treasure?”

“As expected,” Akira Kurusu said. “Based on the existing intelligence, we can deduce that the enemy’s true form is hidden in the room where the secret treasure is kept. When the palace master’s twisted evil manifests due to his real-life experiences, he will be able to respond immediately.”

He flung his robes aside and strode toward the throne room. "We must speed things up; we can't allow the enemy any more time to prepare."

"Yes." Toyokawa Shoko quickly followed the phantom thief.

An and Subaru hurriedly chased after them, and soon found themselves panting heavily, kneeling and resting on the spot, forcing the two phantom thieves ahead to stop and wait...

“It’s time to work out, Pleia,” Akira Kurusu sighed softly.

Shoko Toyokawa had only recently awakened her Persona, and her physical abilities were not yet significantly different from those of a normal person.

However, sixteen-year-old Toyokawa Shoko had delivered newspapers, worked as a food delivery driver, customer service representative, and kitchen worker. Her physical fitness was naturally incomparable to that of Anwa Subaru, who had a disrupted sleep schedule and preferred to stay in his bedroom and slowly grow hair.

After a brief rest in the enormous throne room, the Phantom Thieves set off again.

"There really isn't a single guard left."

Toyokawa Shoko's expression grew increasingly cautious. She stood constantly in front of An and Subaru, wary of any shadows that might suddenly appear from their surroundings.

However, until the group arrived at the treasure vault, which was perfectly preserved due to the time reversal, they didn't encounter a single shadow along the way.

"We've arrived." Facing the magnificent golden gate, Lai Qixiao looked at the unlocked door, her expression gradually becoming serious.

He turned to look at the girls behind him, "Pleia, Oblivionis, get ready..."

As she spoke, Akira Kurishi reached out and pressed on both sides of the unlocked door, slowly pushing it forward.

Both Toyokawa Shoko and Anwa Subaru held their breath at that moment.

*

The scene behind the door shocked everyone.

There were no crystal chandeliers, no iron boxes piled with jewels, no religious-style stained glass windows and candlesticks... and the building itself had even lost its architectural form. The three members of the Phantom Thieves stood in front of a lighthouse on a deserted island, surrounded by the boundless sea.

Vast black clouds devoured everything in the sky, and giant bolts of lightning darted rapidly through the gaps in the clouds as thousands of tons of water plummeted toward the sea.

The world was submerged in a deafening, apocalyptic cacophony.

Amidst the surging waves, a metal throne floated in, and Xinma Xiaolian, dressed in a luxurious gown and wearing a crown, held a framed photograph, gazing with dark golden eyes at the three uninvited guests who had come to visit this world.

The gaze fell upon Anwa Subaru and Toyokawa Shoko, and a hint of filth crept in.

In the deepest space of the subconscious, Xinma Xiaolian, as the shadow, cast aside all the hypocrisy and dignity of reality, and every word and deed was filled with distorted dignity.

"Thief! Offer the two girls beside you as tribute, and I might consider pardoning your crimes!"

His answer was a gunshot that surpassed even thunder.

The "Supreme Magic Bullet" fired by "Arsen" arrived in an instant, aimed directly at the throne beneath the feet of Xinma Xiaolian—

If it weren't for the heavy force of the rain constantly slowing down the bullet, he would probably have fallen into the sea the next moment.

The arrogance on Shinma Hsiao-lien's face vanished instantly, replaced by a bewildered and horrified gaze at Kurusu Akira beside the lighthouse.

The rain poured down, quickly soaking the phantom thief's entire body.

Lai Qixiao completely ignored Xinma Xiaolian's meaning and just stared at the photo frame in his hand, "That is the secret treasure."

"Why did the room where the secret treasure was stored become like this?" Toyokawa Shoko was very close, so Kurusu Akira could barely hear her voice.

"Perhaps it's because the palace's owner himself was aware of the 'parasite' in his subconscious, so he subconsciously tried to protect the treasure in this way... Of course, there is another possibility, that is, his subconscious space has been completely occupied by the 'parasite' and transformed into its own territory."

The icy water soaked his hair and dripped down the gaps in his mask. The phantom thief calmly said, "In short, we must finish this quickly. This rain is very strange; it's constantly weakening us."

Anhe Mao stood behind them, looking at Shinma Hsiao-lien holding the photo frame on the sea, her eyes filled with a mixture of anger and hatred.

Akira Kurusu and Shoko Toyokawa rushed side by side toward the throne on the sea. Since the master of the palace had the treasure firmly in his hands, the only way was to seize it by force.

Xinma Xiaolian looked at the two thieves rapidly approaching him, then glanced down at the photo frame in his arms. He gritted his teeth, raised his head, and roared at them, "Why did you thieves come here? Was it for the woman over there?!"

He pointed at An and Subaru and shouted, "I have as many girls like these from performing arts schools as I want, I can give you as many as you want..."

Those words filled with filthy desires were drowned out by the sudden increase in the sound of rain and thunder. In the torrential rain, like a waterfall, a white mist spread across the sea, and people could no longer even see his figure.

Akira Kurusu, guided by instinct, pulled Toyokawa Shoko's arm and jumped into the sea, simultaneously firing his grappling hook gun towards the direction of the fog.

Xinma Xiaolian, who was hiding in the thick fog and still feeling shaken by his narrow escape, immediately saw a metal grappling hook land on the armrest of the throne with a "snap".

Then, the crimson demon swung its claws and pinned him to the throne, rendering him immobile.

Akira Kurusu jumped onto the throne, kicked Shinma Hsiao-lien's arm away amidst his screams, and then snatched the photo frame and threw it behind him.

Toyokawa Shoko's persona "Ninroku" immediately caught the photo frame and, with the help of the lighthouse's light, launched it from the towering mist toward the lighthouse.

"Give it back to me!" Xinma Xiaolian desperately reached out in the direction the photo frame had left, his roars gradually veering off the line of humanity.

"Let's go." Lai Xixiao hurriedly ordered, slapping Xinma Xiaolian across the face, and then jumping into the water without paying attention to the other party's almost beast-like roar.

While waiting in the ocean waves, Toyokawa Shoko manipulated the Persona "Ninlu" to play a "chaotic" melody, controlling the direction of the waves to quickly push the two towards the lighthouse.

"You bunch of thieves!" Xinma Xiaolian screamed from his throne, his voice filled with anguish. "None of you will leave here today!"

With this roar that completely lost his human voice, jet-black air burst forth from his body, and his limbs twisted and expanded rapidly as if inflated.

......

The picture frame, which was flying through the air and being constantly battered by the rain, was about to fall into An and Subaru's hands.

At that very moment, a strange phenomenon occurred.

A massive bolt of lightning struck the picture frame with tremendous force.

An and Subaru instinctively covered their eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, a giant hand had already stretched out from the sea, reached over the picture frame, grabbed at her, and lifted her high into the sky.

The wet, long hair was squeezed and pulled as the giant hand closed in, and the bones in the whole body seemed to scream in agony under such enormous force... But compared to the pain accumulated from hundreds and thousands of deaths, this pain was nothing at all.

An and Subaru stared intently at the enormous humanoid figure before them, hating this evil god who had nearly ruined their lives and thrown them into countless cycles of death.

Vishnu!

The "Vishnu" transformed from Xinma Xiaolian immediately turned to stare at her, his lantern-like pupils flashing with distinct confusion. This confusion of self-identity conflict even surpassed his intense emotions and twisted desires. "Vishnu? I am Xinma Xiaolian... I am..."

At the same time, His other arm had already grabbed the falling picture frame and uncontrollably lifted it above His head.

In the picture frame struck by lightning, a man in a suit and wearing earrings struggles to climb out. He laughs and jumps onto Vishnu's head, then takes out a tongue with an eye on its tip and uses it as a dagger to stab Vishnu in the forehead.

"Lord of the ** Palace, your twisted desires are precisely the opportunity to turn the tide!"

The tongue instantly sank into Vishnu's forehead, and the eyeball rapidly expanded between His forehead, with dark blood constantly seeping from the gaps in His skin.

Vishnu immediately bent over like a snake, and burst into a hysterical roar.

In an instant, countless bolts of lightning crackled in the sky, and a vast divine light illuminated the entire world!

The sea was surging, with waves crashing up to the clouds layer by layer. The isolated island was shaking violently, and the boundary between heaven and earth was flipped upside down, as if the sky were collapsing!

Akira Kurusu pulled Shoko Toyokawa ashore and immediately noticed the change in her.

The Hindu god with four arms and three eyes... He is now "Shiva"!

In Hinduism, the main god representing destruction is shown in his complete form: a colossus hundreds of meters tall, standing on an endless, vast ocean, with boundless thunderclouds above his head, and lightning flowing across his iron-blue skin.

Holding a trident and a war drum on its four arms, its tightly closed third eye surging with world-destroying power.

Rainwater seeped through the gaps in the white lark's mask, blurring Akatsuki's vision.

The phantom thief forced himself to abandon the urge to summon "Satanyel" immediately, and instead reached for the pistol at his waist.

......

Shiva looked at the photo frame in his hand, then put it in his mouth and swallowed it.

With this action, the figure of "Toudou Naoya" lying on His head also quickly faded away.

An unusual clarity and rationality quickly emerged in Shiva's three eyes. His words, like thunder booming throughout the world, resounded in everyone's ears: "'Time reversal' is truly terrifying. Even gods would be terrified by this incomprehensible ability to gather information... But I will not give you another chance."

As soon as He finished speaking, An and Subaru, whom He held in His raised hand, immediately let out a painful cry. Countless bolts of lightning entangled her body, becoming tangible chains that imprisoned her at the top of the lighthouse.

Shiva released his hands, clasped them together, and instead of performing the world-destroying dance as in mythology, he opened his third eye towards Akira Kurusu and Shoko Toyokawa below.

A torrent of flames erupted from his pupils in an instant—a furious fire powerful enough to evaporate an entire ocean, the most prominent symbol of "destruction" in Hindu mythology!

In this apocalyptic scene, Akira Kurusu shouted the names of his companions.

“Oblivionis!”

“I know!” The “Ninglu” behind Toyokawa Shoko had already begun playing.

First is the piece for "Freedom," which can unleash the demons within. Nimrod's body rapidly expands, and the speed of his piano playing suddenly increases.

Then came the "Rebellion" piece, which could amplify the will and fighting power of those in the same group—Kurasu Akira drew his pistol and rushed towards the giant in front of him.

Finally, there's the "chaotic" track, which can forcibly imbue the target with the concept of "reversal"—

The sea of ​​fire that was supposed to fall from the sky failed to land.

Incredulity flashed simultaneously in Shiva's three eyes.

Rule-based abilities? Why is it a Persona of this level...?

Flames collided with flames, exploding into a terrifying heatwave. If Shiva hadn't deliberately manipulated rain to envelop the space around the lighthouse, the isolated island, along with An and Subaru on it and the surrounding seawater for several kilometers, would have evaporated in an instant!

Amidst the torrential steam, He was startled to find that Akira Lai had somehow arrived at his feet.

A tarot card appeared in the phantom thief's hand. As he clenched his fist, the tarot card shattered and turned into a bullet.

He loaded the bullet into the pistol, then raised the muzzle to his forehead and pulled the trigger without hesitation. "Persona!"

The moment the bullet left the barrel and pierced the thief's skull... the moonlight burst forth from those deep gray pupils, and the original sin, almost solidified, entangled his entire body!

The moment Shiva lowered his head, his gaze met that of Akira Kurusu...

He saw a human-shaped reflection in the phantom thief's eyes.

His head is composed of "Supreme Crown," "Wisdom," and "Intelligence"; his right arm is composed of "Love"; his left arm is composed of "Power"; his body and heart are composed of "Beauty"; his right leg is composed of "Eternity"; and his left leg is composed of "Majesty"...

This is a perfection that cannot be described in words or writing; it can only be vaguely described through symbolism.

Because this is the image of God!

Having once been a contractor of the Velvet Room, He immediately deciphered all the information of this Persona through the gifts Ferremon had given Him in the past.

-

"Adam Cadmon, the Great Sinner"