Anime, but the Phantom Thieves of Heart

Compared to Tina who was a little bit bewildered, Emilia, who was directing others to arrange the tea sets, turned around with surprise after hearing Tina's exclamation.

"Narukami-kun, why are you here?"

Halfway through her words, she seemed to realize that there was some ambiguity and quickly began to explain.

"I thought you would come around the same time as usual today~"

"I happened to have nothing to do today, so I came here early..."

This is what I said seriously. After all, I usually either study, work, or kill monsters and push the temple. There are not many days like today when I have nothing to do.

"So, where do we put the stuff?"

Although Emilia was a little surprised by Lan Ke's appearance, she still smiled and instructed Lan Ke to put the things on the table.

It's just that Emilia and the others originally planned to let Lan Ke and Tina wait at the table together, but Lan Ke said that he wanted to move around after a long time, so he and his own "Zhong Mo" set up the captain's room.

However, although it is called decoration, it is actually just changing the tablecloth, and it is more about organizing the "by-products" produced by everyone.

There were a wide variety of 'flower teas', 'snacks' and even 'incense'. It was obvious that many of these things were made in advance. It seemed that they had made a lot of preparations for today without Lan Ke knowing.

And he actually didn't know this the whole time... No, maybe he deliberately didn't want to know?

This surprise made Lan Ke, who was originally in a bad mood because of the spoils of others, smile on his face continuously since he came on the "Velvet".

Lan Ke and Emilia sat at the two ends of the not-so-big table. As for the others, there was no need to strictly arrange their seats due to their body shapes. Everyone could just find the seat they liked. There was even someone like 'Pixie' who sat directly at the table.

Of course, the most popular seat among them is naturally Lan Ke’s arms, so popular that you even have to queue up.

Lan Ke did not stop this, but just watched with a smile as many cute demons played finger-guessing games or traded cookies for a higher priority team.

Lan Ke was tasting all kinds of strange-shaped snacks and giving comments.

Lan Ke's so-called "reviews", which really didn't know much about food, were actually a bit dry. To professionals, they were just nonsense. However, the "second-level demons" whose small shops were reviewed by Lan Ke would look at Lan Ke nervously, and only smile shyly or proudly when they received praise.

It is obvious that they feel happier when their efforts are responded to than when they simply give.

It was as if the smile was contagious. Lan Ke's mouth began to smile at some point, and even his body in the 'material world' smiled unconsciously.

It's strange to say, although he has only been "traveling through time" for more than a month, he seems to have unknowingly established more and more connections with this world.

Whether it was Jotaro Kujo who took care of him, or the 'mid-demons' who chose to follow him, they made him more and more accustomed to his current life.

It was as if the memories and life in the past were just a bubble, and everything in front of me was the "real".

"Mr. Kakyoin, good morning~"

Early in the morning, Lan Ke, who had changed into sportswear, greeted Noriaki Kakyoin in the living room.

And Noriaki Kakyoin seemed a little surprised why Lan Ke did this.

That's right, although Lan Ke went out early on the pretext of "going to the Kendo Club for morning training" and used the so-called "commuting time" and "training time" to kill monsters, as his level increased, the low floors of his "impression space" could no longer meet his upgrade needs. As the exam week approached, Lan Ke basically went out at normal times in the morning, and today's sudden early start surprised Kakyoin Noriaki.

Lan Ke explained with a smile.

"Morning run..."

Chapter 5 The 'moon' does not emit light, but it reflects the light of the 'sun'.

For Lan Ke's current physical condition, ordinary exercise has no effect on him. But strangely enough, the short distance from "Kujo Mansion" to the shopping street near to meet "Lucy" made Lan Ke feel a lot more relaxed.

It was as if the stopped gears started turning again.

Unfortunately, he soon had no time to think about it, because he saw Lucy waiting for him there.

Unlike Lan Ke who looked fine, although Lucy was wearing a hood, she could still see sweat dripping from her temples. Even though her physical fitness was not as outrageous as his, she must have been running for a long time to be able to run like this.

It became even more obvious when we came to Lucy's front. Although she was wearing special clothes that were not revealing, the curves brought by the slim clothes still made her look more charming.

Although Lan Ke was only stunned for a moment, Lucy's sharp attention caught Lan Ke's gaze.

The only difference between her and ordinary people who would turn a blind eye and dodge the gaze was that she was not embarrassed at all. She even took the initiative to adjust the angle so that Lan Ke could observe her better. This made Lan Ke feel a little embarrassed, and her originally sneaky glances became even more evasive.

This made Lucy's face, which was a little tired from her morning run, even more smiling.

'really……'

It was obvious that she had just done it on purpose.

Yesterday, neither Lan Ke, Emiya Shirou nor Lucy went to the 'Cognitive World' to kill monsters. It was not only because the 'stealing hearts' the day before consumed too much of everyone's mental and physical energy, but also to adjust their mentality.

Although the "cognitive world" is indeed very magical, in Lan Ke's view, the "material world" is more important.

After all, his original purpose was to make this already distorted world a better place by 'stealing hearts', and he didn't want to put the cart before the horse.

But Lucy obviously didn't think so much. For her, she had done nothing all day yesterday. She even thought about going to the "cognitive world" more than once, but considering that she was just a "beginner", for her own safety, she chose to wait for Lan Ke's instructions.

But since she had nothing to do, she did a lot of things, including but not limited to continuing to erase the traces left by the previous fight with the "Black Organization", or gradually leading their target to the other side of the ocean.

Lucy couldn't do it before, but now that she has obtained another 'fragment of the holy relic', her computing power has also increased, so she can naturally do it.

This can be considered as clearing up the small tails left before she joined the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts'.

After that, she was bored and started investigating Lan Ke and Shirou Emiya, which made her notice a clue.

First of all, there is no problem with Shirou Emiya's records and those of his family, but there is a "gap" in the records of the man who adopted him. According to the official statement, it was because he went abroad to work. But strangely, this man who died at the age of 34 was said to have "died of illness" according to official records.

He died of illness at such a young age, it must not be a minor illness, but there is no medical record. This is strange. Doesn’t he seek medical treatment?

The only explanation is that the other party's condition does not allow him to go to a regular hospital for examination, coupled with the shooting ability demonstrated by Shirou Emiya and the account used before.

She came to a reasonable inference. Indeed, Emiya Shirou was not the 'legendary mercenary' she initially thought, but his adoptive father should be. And it was not surprising that after becoming a 'Phantom Thief', he possessed strength that was not inferior to his adoptive father.

In contrast, Lan Ke's information was extremely ordinary, and there was almost no discrepancy between it and the information about Xi that she had checked not long ago. The only thing that concerned her was that according to the "police" records, when Lan Ke was detained for compulsory examination for "intentional injury", he seemed to have a burn on his body, but there was no related record in his own records.

This made her even more confused.

After all, just looking at the information, it is really impossible to understand why Lan Ke has become like this.

'Trying to use special abilities to change the world' is easy to explain. After all, boys always have similar ideas when they reach a certain age. The real problem is that the other party's maturity is very different from that of his peers, and this kind of maturity requires time to settle.

"Is it really just because of losing your parents?"

Lucy couldn't help but think this way, but Lan Ke's reaction made her feel that maybe she was overthinking it.

If Lan Ke knew that the doubts about himself were dispelled because of this, he wouldn't know whether to cry or laugh.

But Lucy asked Lan Ke out today not just to tease him, but for something more important.

While motioning Lan Ke to follow her, she handed a micro USB flash drive to Lan Ke.

"L... Narukami-san, this is what you wanted."

While handing the detailed information to Lan Ke, Lucy also described to Lan Ke the detailed information she had found.

"Baijiu Pharmaceutical was once a fairly large pharmaceutical company, but 25 years ago, it declared bankruptcy due to a failed investment and stock market fluctuations. However, its subsidiary, the 'Baijiu Research Institute', did not close down. Instead, it later re-established 'Baijiu Pharmaceutical'. However, this time it did not go public again, and has been operating half-dead..."

In fact, just looking at this information is weird enough. After all, most people would not choose to open a new company with the name of a company that has gone bankrupt.

One reason was that the omen was not good, and the other reason was that they were worried that the bad reputation of the previous company would affect the new company.

But it is not ruled out that the founder of the company did this out of sentiment.

However, when Lan Ke told the other party that there was a special "Black Organization" in this world, everything seemed to have an answer.

The only thing that puzzled Lan Ke was whether the goal of the "Black Organization" was still "rejuvenation"?

Not to mention that according to the 'other-dimensional navigation', 'Karasuma Renya' is no longer around. There must be better things to pursue than 'rejuvenation', right?

You know, Saburo Arasaka has already started thinking about 'cyber immortality' and 'world domination', so the Black Organization should have more than just these pursuits, right?

However, if such a research institute wants to operate normally, it definitely needs financial support.

It's not that direct cash transactions are not possible, but since the "Black Organization" has put "Baijiu Pharmaceutical" out in the open, they must have their considerations. Therefore, in order to prevent attracting attention, the financial transactions and taxation aspects must at least be disguised.

So Lan Ke hopes that Lucy can follow the clues through "Baijiu Pharmaceuticals" to see if she can find peripheral members of other organizations, or even code-named members.

As for Lan Ke himself, he continued to try to lock onto the location of Miyano Shiho's palace through the "extra-dimensional navigation", and then used the information of the palace and its owner to "bloom at the center" of the other party.

Although he did not get the upper hand in the last "Arasaka Case", Lan Ke has not forgotten the resentment of being almost ruined by the opponent in his "debut battle".

Who told Lan Ke to be so narrow-minded?

In addition, there is also some information about the "Eighth Generation Group". It is obvious that since Lan Ke intends to take action against the "Eighth Generation Group", he will definitely not waste Lucy as a "source of intelligence".

I have to say that compared to relying on detective reasoning and personal surveillance before, the efficiency of collecting intelligence has increased a lot with Lucy.

Lucy didn't care about the next target. Anyway, for her now, she didn't have any specific goals except to 'repair' the chip and 'awaken Johnny Silverhand's electronic soul'. If she could fulfill Johnny Silverhand's last wish in the process, she naturally wouldn't resist.

Not to mention that the person who assigned this task was Lan Ke, who saved her.

This so-called "rescue" was not just about Lan Ke pulling herself out of the double attack of the "Black Organization" and the "Arasaka Group", but also because Lan Ke helped her find her original intention when her heart was completely distorted by "revenge".

What the other party saved was her 'soul'.

In hindsight, if she had really blown up Arasaka Tower for revenge, how many innocent people would have been dragged into it?

If she really did that, would she still be able to say with such pride, "I am Johnny Silverhand's daughter?"

For her, Lan Ke is her current 'sun', and she is willing to silently reflect the other's 'light' like the 'moon' to provide more help to those in need.

So she would not refuse any order from Lan Ke.

But Lan Ke’s next words made her feel a little uncomfortable.

"By the way, how's that 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts Support Website' doing?"

Speaking of the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts Support Website', Lucy initially intended it as a bait, but she never dreamed that not long after the website was established, it would actually attract the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts' and even become the opportunity for her to join the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts'.

But in her opinion, this 'support website' is basically useless.

She really didn't expect that Lan Ke would still care so much. When Lan Ke sent her a message last night asking her to help investigate the "Eighth Generation Group", she thought Lan Ke was just saying it casually. She didn't expect that he would mention it specifically today. Could it be that the other party is the kind of person who hides behind the screen every day to watch fans praise him and then feel happy?

Faced with Lucy's increasingly strange gaze, Lan Ke probably guessed what she was thinking and let out a helpless sigh.

"This 'support website' is more useful than you might think. I'll explain its specific uses to you this afternoon."

"Explain together? That person... doesn't know either?"

"No, Shirou knows everything, but it's just like what I said before..."

"Is it your well-built senior from Narukami?"

I don't know if it was Lan Ke's illusion, but although Lucy's voice was the same as always, he seemed to be hallucinating his own cat in her...

Chapter 6: Accompanying Death, this holiday is destined not to be peaceful.

Lan Ke, who was carrying a bag and sword bag in one hand, felt a lingering fear when he thought of Lucy's smile before.

Although the other person was smiling all the time, for some reason he always felt that there was more to his smile than just a smile.

Lan Ke was certainly not a fool. He didn't know what Lucy thought of him, but he was sure that she at least had some feelings for him.

But what is strange is that he who always said that he wanted to "start a big harem" became anxious and worried at this moment.

Because he was worried that Lucy's affection for him might be because he helped her fulfill her 'wish'.

Although he said that he wanted to "start a harem", Lan Ke, who actually had no experience in love, had very simple ideas.

He hopes to receive the 'love' that belongs to others, not other things.

This also caused Lan Ke to appear a little absent-minded on the way to school. He was even stunned for a moment when Kudo Shinichi and the others called him. This is something that would never happen under normal circumstances.

However, when he saw Kudo Shinichi, he quickly composed himself. After all, he didn't want other people to know about this for the time being.

Shinichi Kudo is very sensitive in some aspects, but very dull in some aspects. With his hands in his pockets and his handbag under his armpits, he raised his right hand and greeted Lan Ke.

"Yo~ Narukami~"

"Good morning, Kudo and Mori-san."

"Good morning~"

Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran are inseparable as always. Lan Ke is worried that Kudo Shinichi will notice something unusual, so she takes the initiative to speak.

"Kudo, you seem to be in a good mood today?"

"Of course! Narukami, you still remember the story of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, right?"

"What's wrong? Kudo, did you catch them by the hair?"

Lan Ke looked calm, as if he was not the one being talked about, but Kudo Shinichi, who had not checked at all, shook his head.

"That's not the case. The only publicly known information right now is that 'Phantom Thief V' is the 'daughter of American rock singer Johnny Silverhand.' However, she hasn't publicly revealed her partner, which makes the investigation very difficult. It seems they're confident they can keep this secret."