Persona: Devil Summoner

Since Ryuji is here, Takamaki An will definitely not be far away. Even outside this dark art gallery, Takamaki An's red tights are particularly eye-catching. As she whipped the ground, a person stood out behind her, with red skin and a red long skirt. It was Takamaki An's persona Carmen.

When writers describe girls, they often use the word: fiery passion. Gao Juanxing is of course a girl, and a girl among girls, so naturally her passion is also a flame among flames. As she poured her magic power, a wall of flames rolled up around Jiang Tianwei, blocking the enemies who were about to attack from behind.

The passage opened by the lightning was blocked by the flames, and a relatively safe straight passage was formed. At the end of the passage, Yu Gonglian, dressed in black, waved to Jiang Tianwei and said, "Let's go."

"Understood, Captain."

Jiang Tianwei smiled, lifted the hem of his loose Peking Opera robe, and ran over with Fang Zexia. As the two ran, the flames and lightning quickly shrank, like a scene from an American blockbuster.

As if unwilling to give up, several shadows around them forced their way through the lightning fence opened by Long Si! Jiang Tianwei did not stop, and there was no need to stop. Because he was not fighting alone.

Opposite him, Morgana had already summoned a persona, which formed a huge contrast with the small stature of the cat-man. The huge black-clad persona Zorro drew a Z in the air with the rapier in his hand, and a gust of emerald wind turned into a sharp blade, tearing towards the enemy's back.

"Inugami!".

Amamiya Ren, who has the ability to switch personas at will, summoned a completely different persona this time, a persona named Inugami, which has a particularly slender body and looks like a fierce-looking Doberman with an elongated body.

The Inugami was summoned not for fighting, but for - the Inugami's slender body flew towards Jiang Tianwei according to Amamiya Lian's command, and went around his and Fang Zexia's waists. The Inugami's body turned into a rope, pulling the two of them back quickly.

The shadows were about to give chase, but just as they turned around, they were hit by the Wind Blade summoned by Morgana. They took several steps back and their bodies collided with the Lightning Corridor summoned by Long Si, and were knocked out again.

"Hey, Jiang Jiang! Why did you disappear all of a sudden?"

Ryuji asked once he saw he was out of danger.

"That doesn't matter. Have you completed the investigation? Retreat?"

"Ah, well, I've understood almost everything! Let's get back to reality! I'll explain it to you in detail when we get back to reality."

Long Si slapped Jiang Tianwei hard on the back. Jiang Tianwei laughed and punched him in the chest. Then they gathered together and quickly fled the palace.

Just like Kamoshida's previous situation, since he escaped from here, he would of course return to the entrance.

It has been confirmed that people in reality, if they are too close to each other, may be pulled into the palace together. But enemies or things in the palace cannot be transported to reality - you ask why I know the latter point? Of course, when it was Kamo Shida, Jiang Tianwei tried to move some valuable things from the space he knew, but it was just a waste of time.

Back to reality, a few people found a beverage shop, ordered a drink each, and chatted while walking.

After all, the dilapidated tin house was too far away from the station, and everyone had quite a long way to walk.

To put it simply, just before Jiang Tianwei went after Amamiya Ren who had his butt kicked, and ended up being caught in the Demon War, Long Si and the others investigated the interior of the art gallery.

There are two things worth mentioning. The first is that, in the eyes of Long Si and the others, it seemed that Amamiya Ren was just standing there in a daze. No one saw such a shocking kick in the butt by the little loli in blue clothes, and no one could see the iron railing door.

The second thing is...the artworks on display in Madarame's art museum are all portraits.

At first, Jiang Tianwei didn't care, thinking that Madarame had a special hobby for portraits. As Amamiya Ren finished her "daze", several people went deep into the art museum to investigate and looked for Jiang Tianwei by the way. As a result, they accidentally discovered the secret of these portraits...

Those people were all Madarame's former disciples.

That's Madarame's work too.

A little deeper into the entrance of the art gallery, there is a sculpture with a very bad taste.

It's called "Infinite Inspiration".

The content is that on a golden base, golden spring water spirals upward like a ribbon, and countless people are immersed in the spring water, struggling...

The pedestal is engraved with the work description: Lord Madarame has bestowed these mortals with grace, and mortals should repay them with their life's inspiration and works. If they cannot do so, it will be meaningless.

"This is definitely plagiarism!"

Ryuji made an excited sound. This was not to say that Ryuji had a problem with his character or that he was gloating over other people's misfortunes. His excitement was mainly because he, as a phantom thief, had finally found his next target and was eager to try. In addition, he had a sense of mission to punish evildoers.

"But, Ryuji."

Jiang Tianwei had to remind him.

"Is plagiarism the only evidence now? Is there more evidence? For example, abusing disciples or something?"

Nowadays, people often like to take things out of context. If you say "It's a nice day today", it may be interpreted as "naive girl" by people with ulterior motives and then be interpreted as sex discrimination. Jiang Tianwei is afraid that his words will be interpreted as a defense of plagiarism.

Is plagiarism a bad thing? Of course it is a bad thing.

But if you look at all the crimes, you will find that plagiarism is not a particularly serious crime in the judicial system. Even when elementary and middle school students are writing essays, teachers will tell you that "there is a lot of plagiarism in the world, it depends on whether you can plagiarize or not", and then ask you to buy the collection of nouns and famous paragraphs recommended by the teacher or the full-score essays of the college entrance examination in the past, and then memorize the good words and sentences in them.

In ancient China, there was a saying that if you can read 300 Tang poems, you can recite them even if you can’t write them. When writing articles, the ancients used various passages from their predecessors’ articles. How to perfectly define plagiarism, tribute, paraphrase, quotation... Even the art circle itself can’t come up with a strict standard for implementation, let alone the Phantom Thieves, a group of vulgar people who don’t play art.

Moreover, as we all know, in any country, thoughts are not a crime. Even if you kill someone in your mind, as long as you don't actually do it in reality, no police will arrest you. Therefore, the fact that Madarame has a palace only shows that his [heart] is very twisted. Whether there is a crime [in reality] - especially the crime of abusing his disciples - requires solid evidence.

In this regard, Kitagawa Yusuke's testimony seems very strange.

As a disciple of Madarame, this person should be the one who was abused, but he denied it in his testimony. This is very strange. This is also the main reason why Jiang Tianwei hesitated.

"Wow, I didn't find much useful information in the palace."

Perhaps someone had also mentioned Jiang Tianwei's worry, and Long Si's tone seemed very helpless.

There is no way around it. If a person with power cannot properly control his power, then it is very likely to develop into one-sided tyranny. Spider-Man said this: With great power comes great responsibility. If you only have power and only want to use it to solve problems, but are unwilling to take responsibility, then that is definitely not what the Phantom Thieves want to become.

It is not uncommon for a dragon slayer to become a dragon.

Therefore, the Phantom Thieves had a rule from the beginning that all members had to agree to.

"Well, you noticed the point. So, I think we should check with Kitagawa Yusuke. Especially the allegations of abusing disciples."

The person who spoke was Morgana. No one knew why it was in the form of a black cat. It was it that first proposed the Phantom Thieves, and everyone just went with the flow and formed the group.

"Well, don't worry too much. That twisted bastard must have done a lot of dirty things to make money. We just need to find a way to expose it. It's just that the time of action will be delayed a little. Don't worry, any evil will be brought to justice~"

Jiang Tianwei patted Long Si's shoulder comfortingly.

Long Si also looked back at him gratefully, and then said abruptly:

“Did you see this sentence on TikTok?”

"Screw you!"

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 97: Visit Kitagawa Again

If you want to investigate Kitagawa Yusuke, then there is a particularly good excuse.

That's the model.

Judging from Kitagawa's previous attitude towards Takamaki Anne, he probably really needs Takamaki Anne as a model.

After Takamaki Anne sent the message, Kitagawa's joy could be felt even through the screen.

However, no matter what, after the awkward verbal exchange today, it was still a bit awkward to talk about being a model right after that. Moreover, everyone had just come out of the palace, and everyone was extremely tired, and had no energy to continue investigating. Therefore, the appointment was made the next day after school.

After everyone went back, they made some preparations and rushed to Madarame's studio together after school the next day.

Kitagawa Yusuke also performed a perfect face change today. He switched perfectly between the excitement on Takamaki An's face and the disgust on the faces of the other gentlemen.

Kitagawa arranged for Takamaki Anne to sit down and said gratefully: "When I received your message, I thought it was a prank, but I didn't expect you to really come. That's great, Ms. Takamaki. If I don't finish the work quickly, there will be a lot of trouble."

Kitagawa said as he stretched drawing paper on the drawing board, taped the edges with adhesive tape, and casually opened the scroll beside him. Inside the long silk cloth were countless pencils, ranging from 2H to 8B, covering almost all pencils that can be used. Next to them were buckets and brushes, as well as a box full of paint, which looked like gouache.

This posture made everyone feel that this Kitagawa Yusuke was indeed an artist!

"But I didn't expect that besides the models, there would be other people who would spoil the fun."

The second half of the sentence was undoubtedly directed at Long Siyu, Gong Lian and Jiang Tianwei.

"What did you say?!"

How could Long Si, who had such a bad temper, tolerate such a wrath? He quickly retorted: "Of course we are here to prevent you from doing anything beastly!"

"Tsk... How many times do I have to tell you before you understand? I have no interest in Ms. Takamaki other than as a model!"

Kitagawa Yusuke retorted seriously.

"If you don't believe it, just do as you please. Just don't disturb me."

Takamaki An sat down on a chair, and Kitagawa picked up a pencil and began to sketch on paper.

Of course, I’m not here to meet Yusuke Kitagawa today just to draw.

When we got back yesterday, everyone in the Phantom Thieves discussed that if they wanted to prove Madarame's crime, the most convenient channel would of course be the people around him, that is, his disciples.

If Kitagawa had not lied before, then he was the only disciple in Madarame's family now, so naturally the breakthrough could only come from him.

If we want to find the other disciples who have escaped from Madarame, it would be too difficult, and we don’t know if they know the inside story of Madarame’s current situation.

Judging from the resistance that Kitagawa Yusuke showed before, there is no hope if you ask directly.

So, everyone discussed it and came up with a plan: Sometimes people will accidentally say something they shouldn't say. For example, when they are mentally tired, or when they are highly focused and have no time to be distracted. Or when they are very emotional and lose their judgment. Then, they just need to find a way to put Kitagawa Yusuke into this state.

Since he is a painter and is so obsessed with Takamaki, why not just let Takamaki be his model? When he is painting, he can suddenly ask him about Madarame, maybe he can get some inside information.

So there is the opening scene.

When Kitagawa Yusuke doesn't talk, he still has the potential to be a handsome guy, especially when he is fully focused on painting and has no distractions.

He carefully picked up the pencil, started drawing, and used straight lines to cut out a rough outline of the model, then changed to another pencil and began to outline.

(That’s about it, right?).

Seeing his expression gradually calm down because of painting, Jiang Tianwei took the opportunity to ask: "Speaking of which, Kitagawa-san, how do you think we should define plagiarism between paintings?"

"..."

Kitagawa remained silent, and the pencil in his hand wrote faster and faster.

"Um, and also, do you think that treating people as works of art is inappropriate?"

Ryuji tried to get the question from Kitagawa according to the words they had discussed before, but to his surprise, Kitagawa still ignored him.

Takamaki An felt something was not right and said, "Wait, Kitagawa-san, you..."

"Don't move. Don't mess up your posture."

Kitagawa then said something, letting people know that he had not turned into a statue, but was still a living person.

"What the hell is this guy! Is he kidding me?!"

Long Si slapped his thigh in anger, making a crisp sound. Gao Juan An was startled by the sudden sound. Looking at Kitagawa Yusuke, it seemed that he didn't hear it at all. His concentration was frighteningly high.

Jiang Tianwei had heard that there seemed to be people with incredible concentration, but they were usually in animations and games. This was the first time he had seen such a weirdo in real life.

No matter how you try to start a conversation, Kitagawa Yusuke will just say, "Don't make any noise! ​​Don't move!" If you want to ask him something, he won't say anything. It's meaningless to come here to make him relax, but he doesn't communicate with you at all.

There was nothing we could do, so we could only wait for Kitagawa Yusuke to finish. While waiting, the best way for high school students of this age to kill time was, of course, video games.

In order to kill time, Jiang Tianwei opened the game of One Two Three Shogi again. This time, he still couldn't remember the rules or the moves, and still had to rely on the electronic AI to play chess normally. It is said that chess games can broaden your horizons and exercise your thinking, but Jiang Tianwei didn't think they had this effect.

For painters, they often don't pay much attention when painting, and time passes by in a flash. It takes several hours, dozens of hours or even hundreds of hours to finish a painting, but it seems like just playing.

The only thing to be thankful for was that Kitagawa Yusuke didn't draw for that long. Jiang Tianwei had just played one more game of shogi when Kitagawa put down his pencil.

“Finished the painting?!”.

Gao Juanxing said excitedly. She quickly stood up. It was really tiring to keep the same posture for such a long time. Gao Juanxing only felt her elbows, thighs and waist were sore.

Although she is a professional model, she is a flat model. She won't maintain the same posture for such a long time. Models are also allowed to move a little.

“…I can’t draw it.”

Kitagawa closed his eyes, and his straight sitting posture suddenly collapsed. Jiang Tianwei secretly looked at his drawing board. The Gao Juan An on the drawing board... How to say it, eyebrows are eyebrows, eyes are eyes. From his layman's point of view, it's actually quite good-looking. The face is rich in details, but for some reason the body under the head is drawn very sloppily, and it can only be barely seen that it is a sitting posture. He hasn't even started to outline the outline of the clothes.

"Are you kidding me?! How long do you think we've been waiting for you here?"

Ryuji already felt that staying here was a waste of time, and he was already annoyed. After waiting for a long time, Kitagawa said, "I can't draw anymore?" He immediately became angry.

"I didn't ask you to wait."

Kitagawa frowned. After all, painting is an art that requires calmness. Ryuji's noisy personality makes it difficult to communicate with him, so it is normal that he is not liked by Yusuke.

"I'll just say it straight! You are actually being abused by Madarame!"

As soon as Long Si said this, Jiang Tianwei felt that this scene sounded very familiar! Don't do it again! Don't let this kind of line be engraved into my DNA!

"Huh? It's time for such boring words again. I..."

"It's no use for you to lie! Madarame treats you as his work of art! He steals ideas from his disciples and constantly squeezes money from them. That's the kind of person he is!"

"…What's wrong with that?"

Facing Ryuji's excited tone, Kitagawa Yusuke just looked at him calmly. Although he still had a poker face, there was an indescribable will surging in the depths of his eyes.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 98 Art is shirtless!