Even past midnight, utterly exhausted.
Kurusu Akira, back in the LeBlanc attic, still forced himself to complete an hour-long workout.
Push-ups, planks, sit-ups, jumping jacks…
Until his remaining stamina was completely drained.
Persona is the materialization of inner strength. As modern psychology research deepens, there are countless ways to strengthen the "mind," from various forms of meditation to diverse training methods… Among them, fitness is undoubtedly the simplest and most effective.
Gaining a sense of accomplishment and self-identity through physical growth and gradual improvement in physical condition indirectly enhances Persona's stats, allowing it to perform better in combat.
Kurusu Akira showered and lay down on the bed, now too tired even to pick up his phone and play games.
He opened Line and found that at 2:30 AM, the class group chat was still lively.
[Yes, I'm the Demon Sniper (Mishima Yuki): So annoying! Why do we have "Campus Safety Training" tomorrow?!]
[Clover is good (Takamaki Ann): Is tomorrow the volleyball club's school team tryouts?]
[Yes, I'm the Demon Sniper: Yeah! I've been preparing for it for a long time!]
[What do you want (Sakamoto Ryuji): How come the self-proclaimed "athletic all-rounder" Mishima-sama still hasn't been selected for the school team? Was it because you didn't want to before?]
[Yes, I'm the Demon Sniper: Shut up! Don't you dare compare Shujin's ace club to your track and field club, which is so unpopular that you can't even put together two teams from all three grades!]
[What do you want: Hmph, no matter what you say, the fact that I became a school team regular in my first year is undeniable~]
[Yes, I'm the Demon Sniper: Sakamoto Ryuji! You dare to push your luck!]
[What do you want: Haha. (Kakyoin Noriaki eating cherries.jpg)]
Seeing that the two were about to start a big argument over this topic, the classmates who were originally discussing the Ishihara disappearance case in class 2-A finally lost their patience.
[JM409244: Are you guys planning not to sleep tomorrow?]
[Daylight Fireworks: If you want to argue, do it in private. Don't disrupt the group chat.]
[…]
Ah, truly high schoolers. Even if they only sleep three or four hours a day, they can still be full of energy when they go to school the next day.
'Old folks like me, who are already at the age of a corporate slave, can't pull all-nighters anymore.'
Kurusu Akira felt his intracranial pressure was almost at maximum, so he turned off his phone, buried his face in his pillow, and waited for peaceful sleep, after which his brain's hippocampus would help release cached information—
Actually, he entered the Velvet Room through a dream.
A luxurious and mysterious aircraft cabin, this was the current layout of the Velvet Room.
Lavenza was flipping through a stack of Tarot cards behind the wide desk, with The Hierophant, The Emperor, Faith, and The Devil spread out and glowing on the tabletop.
Noticing Kurusu Akira, she lifted her face and gave a sweet smile, "Welcome back to the Velvet Room, Master."
"I've obtained information on the enemy." Kurusu Akira went straight to the point.
Lavenza also put away her smile, her small face tensing slightly, "Please explain."
"The enemy most likely possesses super-normal abilities like 'time travel,' even reaching the point of manipulating timelines."
The little secretary nodded thoughtfully, "It sounds like they are the masterminds behind all the events we are currently experiencing."
"And according to the information provided by Gaen-san, this time the enemies might be multiple 'gods.' This means that our every movement in the Mementos from now on will be fully exposed to Their gaze, and we will be at risk of being ambushed at any time."
Kurusu Akira sat across from her. "However, it seems we only have one path left: returning to our original profession."
"Hmm… Are you planning to start by sweeping through City Hall?" Lavenza looked at the Tarot cards in her hand, easily uttering astonishing lines.
The Phantom Thief was instantly speechless. "Sweeping the center of power right away? Wouldn't that make it too easy for the enemy to ambush us… This time, there won't be any Shadow Operatives to provide supplies and support in the Mementos."
He reached out and ruffled Lavenza's hair. "I'm going to Kawasaki the day after tomorrow, and Tokyo Station is located in Chiyoda Ward. I plan to stop by the City Hall's Mementos to test the enemy's reaction when I pass through Chiyoda."
Lavenza didn't mind Kurusu Akira casually messing up her hair at all… Anyway, he would comb it neatly for her before he left. She just slightly narrowed her eyes, like a white dove being stroked on the head, enjoying the warmth and touch left by his fingertips passing through her hair.
Kurusu Akira withdrew his hand. "According to the last piece of information, the last known activity location of those who call themselves 'gods' was in Kawasaki City."
To this, Lavenza showed no signs of worry, only gazing at the Phantom Thief across from her with trusting and expectant eyes, "May your martial fortune be prosperous."
In the thick stack of Tarot cards in her hand, a Major Arcana symbolizing The Lovers was faintly glowing.
...
That same night, in the deepest room on the second floor of the Sakura Residence, a small wooden plaque hung outside the soundproofed wooden door, reading "Sakura Futaba's Secret Base."
Behind the door was a darkened bedroom. In the dim light, the outlines of various sized stuffed animals could be vaguely seen, piled on the messy bedsheets, along with figurines and plastic models filling the shelves against the wall, quietly observing their owner across from the bed. The walls were covered in posters of mixed colors, forming a ukiyo-e-like background.
It was a girl enveloped in a mist-like halo, curled up in a soft chair, wearing only a thin dress, her citrus-colored long hair fanned out behind her narrow shoulders.
Before her lay eight large monitors, displaying chaotic pages of code and cascading function graphs. The computer case's cooler hummed as its fans spun, expelling hot air. The main monitor was connected to an infrared surveillance camera, which captured a clear image of the attic of the LeBlanc coffee shop.
Unlike the "father" who ran the coffee shop in this house, and Iseri Nina, who lived on the first floor and had transferred to Tokyo from Kumamoto—Sakura Futaba, at only 15 years old, was an absolute genius.
After a series of major family upheavals, Sakura Futaba, who had lost her mother, successfully became a shut-in with severe social anxiety after graduating junior high. Even her guardian, Sakura Sojiro, dared not enter or exit her room casually, fearing he might provoke her into actions that would harm both of them. Everyone thought she was holed up in her room using novels and anime to soothe her emotional wounds and was glad she found a way to vent her emotions after the family tragedy.
But in reality, in this small world undisturbed by anyone, Sakura Futaba, who had been exceptionally intelligent since childhood, freely exercised her talents. She delved deep into the internet's vortex, diligently learning hacking techniques to escape the nightmares of reality, and gaining a sense of security by absorbing vast amounts of information online.
It seemed no barrier could hinder her exploration. Driven by a certain fear, Sakura Futaba diligently, even desperately, studied knowledge in fields such as programming and network intrusion, until she mastered professional and even master-level hacking techniques. With these, she could easily breach the Police Department's computer databases to obtain information. It was as if only by doing this could she sleep soundly at night.
At this very moment, this genius hacker girl was terrified by her discovery.
Sakura Futaba, who had only recently gained some sense of security from her invariably successful computer skills, continuously replayed the surveillance footage.
Forget "security," she felt like the sky was falling now.
Iseri Nina had vanished into thin air from her bedroom; the discreetly placed cameras around the Sakura Residence had captured no trace of her.
Yet, just half an hour later, she and Kurusu Akira appeared out of thin air on the street behind the Sakura Residence.
What was this? Teleportation? A super-powered individual?!
Sakura Futaba bit her thumb, staring intently at the footage playing frame by frame on the screen.
She had bought the cameras with commissions earned from writing programs and then secretly installed them inside and outside the Sakura Residence and LeBlanc during the night.
Sakura Sojiro had recently taken in two high school students, and Sakura Futaba, always lacking a sense of security, had already been quite critical of this, so she had been secretly monitoring them...
The result was the astonishing scene she witnessed tonight.
Sakura Futaba found a mint candy from a plastic jar nearby and popped it into her mouth. Her pale, slender hands typed rapidly on the keyboard, blurring into dancing afterimages. She skillfully hacked into the Police Department's database, searching for the life histories of Kurusu Akira and Iseri Nina.
However, even as her eyes became bloodshot and the sky outside the window turned a faint fish-belly white, with sunlight piercing through the curtains into this space that had been awake all night—
She still found nothing.
All the black-and-white records showed that Kurusu Akira was just an ordinary high school student who liked playing in a band, and the other, Iseri Nina, had the same result; they seemed to have no connection whatsoever to so-called "superpowers."
Sakura Futaba struggled to stand up, leaning on the computer desk. The fatigue of staying up all night suddenly overwhelmed her, and a momentary "orthostatic hypotension" clouded her vision with a black shadow.
After a brief dizziness, she stumbled somewhat towards the bedroom door.
'Go to the bathroom, then eat breakfast... The girl named Iseri had a fever yesterday and went to bed so late; she must still be asleep now, right?'
Thinking this, she found the courage to push open the bedroom door.
...
Iseri Nina, dressed in her school uniform, opened her bedroom door and walked out, her eyes still heavy with sleep.
Sakura Futaba, with her MAX social anxiety level, stood at the top of the stairs, staring blankly at this "suspected super-powered individual" she had just encountered. A scream got stuck in her throat, turning into broken sobs.
The living room was empty, and the person who had been awake all night met the person who had just woken up, ready to start a new day.
----------------
There is an ordinary yet subtle happiness in life:
You didn't think about eating, then someone brings you food, and only then do you realize you're hungry. You devour it ravenously, then space out for a while, thinking of nothing.
Kurusu Akira, who had accidentally overslept, sat blankly on the edge of his bed. An empty bowl with a bit of egg custard residue, along with half a cup of coffee, lay on the tray beside him. The timestamp on his phone had already jumped to "8:12."
His shift at LeBlanc had long passed.
But Sakura Sojiro didn't seem to mind the absence of a server at the shop this morning; he even made time to prepare breakfast and bring it up to the attic.
Since Ijichi Seika asked her sister to post the news of Kurusu Akira working part-time at STARRY on the school forum, fewer and fewer female students had been coming to LeBlanc to check in and join the fun recently.
It seemed business had returned to its usual quiet state.
Kurusu Akira, hastily changing into his school uniform, carried the tray into the kitchen to help Sakura Sojiro wash the dishes.
He had put his guitar in Kawaragi Momoka's back seat before leaving last night, so he could go to school unburdened today.
"Sakura-san seems to be in a bad mood?"
Kurusu Akira turned on the faucet, and the cold water rinsed the ceramic cup in his hand, then he asked Sakura Sojiro, who looked somewhat gloomy.
Sakura Sojiro immediately recalled the intense atmosphere in the house that morning, as if a war was about to break out at any moment. The corners of his eyes, wrinkled with age, trembled slightly, "I think I told you before, didn't I? About my daughter..."
"She didn't argue with Iseri today, did she?" Kurusu Akira couldn't imagine how an autistic person could argue with a patient who had a fever and lost consciousness last night.
"No argument, but she's very afraid of Iseri," Sakura Sojiro shook his head. "The first time they met, Iseri didn't say a word, and Futaba immediately cried and ran back to her room."
"I see. Iseri can go to school already?"
"She's much better. It just so happens that Takemi Medical Clinic in Yongen-Jaya opened today, so I took her there for a check-up on the way... Well, I also got lectured by the doctor. Iseri is currently on an IV drip at the hospital." Sakura Sojiro stacked the clean dishes. "Amamiya, you should go to school now, or you'll be late."
Kurusu Akira grabbed two sheets of kitchen paper and wiped his hands. "Should I visit Iseri on my way?"
Sakura Sojiro looked at the time on the wall clock and hesitated for a moment, "Then you might as well help take care of Iseri at the hospital. Take her to school with you after she finishes her IV. I'll call the school to explain."
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