Anime, but the Phantom Thieves of Heart

I don’t know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that the boy next to him seemed familiar?

As if noticing Lan Ke's strange gaze, the equally tall young man also smiled and stretched out his right hand towards Lan Ke.

"Kudo Shinichi."

"?!"

Just a simple self-introduction made Lan Ke tense his muscles instantly.

Kudo Shinichi? The 'Grim Reaper' who dies wherever he goes?

Why is he in Class B, Year 1? Shouldn't he be in the second grade?

Obviously, although Lan Ke was aware of the other party's existence when he saw "Beihua Town", he was still not mentally prepared to meet the other party so early.

So when faced with the hand extended by the 'God of Death', Lan Ke instinctively shook it.

"I've admired you for a long time."

After saying that, Lan Ke sat down.

Fortunately, because of the class, Kudo Shinichi didn't seem to want to continue asking questions, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

As a 'Phantom Thief Reserve', he didn't want to be targeted by detectives so early.

For Lan Ke, the first math class was extremely boring. After all, even though he had graduated for so many years, the sweat he shed to get into his target university had already engraved everything in his memory and body. Even without any advance preparation, the class ended easily.

But the subsequent developments were somewhat beyond his expectations.

He remembered that in ACG works, transfer students were often surrounded by a group of students, but in reality, even though classmates passing by would occasionally nod to him, no one came up to talk to him.

It was obvious that Lan Ke seemed to have forgotten one thing. The real world was not an ACG work. He was not a beautiful blonde girl, and he deliberately wore thick-framed plain glasses to conceal his appearance. Who would talk to him for no reason?

After all, the semester is almost over, and small circles among classmates have already formed.

At this time, Lan Ke could only secretly hope that a cute, hardworking black-haired squad leader would come to talk to him, but unfortunately he was only half right.

Someone did talk to him, but the other person was neither cute nor the class monitor. The only thing he guessed right was that the other person had black hair and was serious about his work.

"Hello, Narukami-san~"

Kudo Shinichi's face was filled with a bright smile at this moment, but for some reason, Lan Ke always had a bad feeling...

Chapter 6 'Mute Beauty'

It turned out that Lan Ke's intuition was very accurate.

Earlier, when Lan Ke introduced himself... no, to be more precise, it was when Fujimura Taiga introduced the 'transfer student' that Kudo Shinichi realized something was wrong.

First of all, there is only about a month left until winter break, and now is the last semester of the first grade. In theory, most transfer students will choose to complete the transfer with the spring semester of the following year.

But the other party chose to transfer schools during this awkward period, and the only reason was that he had "reasons to transfer schools".

A family member's job transfer?

No, this is not a remote mountain village. Being transferred to Tokyo from other areas is definitely a promotion. Even if it is a single-parent family, there is no need to rush to transfer schools given the child's age. You can wait until the holidays to move.

What misfortunes happened to the family?

It's barely possible, but the other person seems to be very emotionally stable, so it doesn't seem like it?

For Kudo Shinichi, a "detective", campus life is too boring. Compared to things that can be learned just by flipping through books, Lan Ke's existence itself will undoubtedly attract more of his attention.

He spent almost half of the class observing Lan Ke.

First of all, the other party's academic ability is not bad. He answered all the questions asked by the teacher fluently and took care of himself meticulously. Just now, he took the opportunity of shaking hands to confirm that there were no special calluses on Lan Ke's palms, so he probably didn't learn kendo or even shooting.

In short, according to his character profile of Lan Ke, this is an ordinary male high school student with a serious personality, but the other party appears in such an incredible way. This is really full of contradictions~

However, just as Kudo Shinichi tried to test Lan Ke further, a hand grabbed his collar and pulled him back to his original position.

"Sorry, Narukami-san, this guy always seems to be a bit off-key. Didn't he scare you?"

Compared to her childhood sweetheart who had no sense of distance between them, Mao Lilan obviously had more common sense and directly prevented Kudo Shinichi from making further attempts.

Also appearing was Suzuki Sonoko, who has always been known for her wealth and status.

"That's right, that's right~ This idiot always likes to cause trouble~"

It is obvious that Suzuki Sonoko is very unhappy with Kudo Shinichi. Although she has not spent as much time with them as Mori Ran and Kudo Shinichi, as they are also childhood sweethearts, she can be said to have witnessed the two of them "marching" for a full ten years.

From the initial "Great! I want to spend money!" to the current "Why don't you confess your feelings?!", she is becoming more and more annoyed with Kudo Shinichi.

Everyone knows about the feelings of his lovely best friend. When he was in junior high school, someone occasionally confessed to him, but after high school, no one confessed to him at all. However, this bastard took advantage of his best friend's feelings to attract many women. I heard that he was even having an affair with the manager of the senior school in his club.

This made her extremely angry!!

But when she saw Lan Ke, her eyes suddenly lit up.

Suzuki Sonoko is an extremely pure person, one who is detached from high-brow interests. Her first impression of the opposite sex is always "face"!

With her years of experience as a fan, she was sure that Lan Ke had a good face, but it was a pity that it was mostly covered by those big black-framed glasses. However, since it was the first time they met, she was embarrassed to ask Lan Ke to take off his glasses, but her attitude was obviously much warmer.

While Suzuki Sonoko was holding Lan Ke back, Mao Li Ran couldn't help but complain to her childhood sweetheart in a low voice.

"Shinichi! Narukami-san just transferred to this school, you can't bully him!"

It was obvious that Lan Ke's brief self-introduction, coupled with his somewhat silent appearance, successfully gave everyone the impression that he was "not good at speaking".

Faced with the complaints of his childhood sweetheart, Kudo Shinichi, who did not want to destroy his image in the other's mind, hurriedly explained and told her the "contradictions" he found in Lan Ke, but Mao Li Ran did not care about it at all.

"Mr. Narukami must have his own reasons for transferring schools, but since he was able to transfer successfully, it means that he passed the entrance test and interview. You are just overthinking it."

Although he felt that his childhood sweetheart was a little too naive, the reason given by the other party barely convinced him. After all, as a member of Teitan, he had some understanding of the school's history and knew the school's management principle of being lenient on the outside but strict on the inside. This helped him suppress his curiosity for the time being.

However, he did not intend to give up. He took the initiative to invite Lan Ke to have lunch with him. Lan Ke did not refuse. After all, Kudo Shinichi had other purposes, and he was almost the same.

Although he fell asleep not long after going to the Velvet Room for the first time last night, he also tested the so-called "system" during class this morning.

This 'system' is much simpler than in the game, with 'skills', 'items', 'personas', 'team', and 'assistants'.

Instead, the three options of 'View Requests', 'View Schedules' and 'Settings' in the original game disappeared.

His skills were completely blank, and he couldn't try anything even if he wanted to. He could take and put items at will, but there was a size limit, which had to be the size and weight that he could hold with both hands. Naturally, there was no bug of storing a big stone and then using "Rolling Stone" on the enemy. The "Personality Mask", "Team" and "Assistant" were naturally empty.

Lan Ke was still hesitant about whether to recruit others. After all, the "Muffin" in the original novel had disgusted him for a long time. It would be better not to recruit others than to recruit a traitor to stab him in the back.

But he attaches great importance to 'helping people'.

After all, each different 'assistant' will give the protagonist in the game different 'abilities' after reaching a certain 'RANK', and he is very envious of this.

Kudo Shinichi and Mori Ran, the protagonists of "Detective Conan", were undoubtedly his first targets.

The former is good at reasoning, and the latter is extremely powerful. If they can become his 'assistants', the abilities they provide will definitely be very useful.

As the saying goes, a man has feelings... no, it should be said that it is a two-way effort. Lan Ke had just been in school for half a day, but he had found his own small group. For lunch, everyone accompanied Lan Ke directly to the cafeteria.

What surprised Lan Ke was that Kudo Shinichi and Mao Lilan both brought 'bento', but Suzuki Sonoko actually went to the cafeteria with Lan Ke to buy lunch by swiping a credit card.

This may seem like nothing, after all, it is normal to eat in the cafeteria without bringing a lunch box. But Lan Ke knows the other party's identity. As the heir to the Suzuki Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Japan, Lan Ke would not be surprised if he heard that the other party's lunch was specially prepared by a chef.

But the other party not only came to the cafeteria with Lan Ke, but also enthusiastically introduced to Lan Ke what delicious food there was. Finally, under the other party's enthusiastic suggestion, Lan Ke chose the most classic "Tonkotsu Ramen Set".

Looking at Suzuki Sonoko who was carrying the same lunch, Lan Ke couldn't help but sigh that the other party was really "approachable".

Strictly speaking, this 'Tonkotsu Ramen' was a bit subtle. The soup and side dishes were good, but the noodles lacked any chewiness. It felt like everything was ready, but it lacked the finishing touch. However, he didn't say much. At least it was pretty good compared to the takeout he had eaten before.

Compared to Lan Ke who was eating in silence, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran talked about last night's TV series. What surprised Lan Ke was that Kudo Shinichi also joined the conversation. However, compared to Mouri Ran who thought the plot was touching and Suzuki Sonoko who thought the leading actor was handsome, Kudo Shinichi mainly complained about various plot flaws.

Looking at Ran Mouri who was becoming more and more silent, even Lan Ke, who had never been in a relationship, realized that the other party seemed to be in a bad mood. But when he was about to change the subject, Suzuki Sonoko spoke first.

"Come on, Narukami-san, you were just looking at your phone. Is there something wrong?"

Looking at Suzuki Sonoko who kept winking at him, Lan Ke roughly guessed that her main job was probably to serve as a lubricant between Kudo Shinichi and Maori Ran.

Even though she was merciless in criticizing Kudo Shinichi, she obviously supported the two of them, but was a little angry at their inefficiency.

As for mobile phones?

"No, I was looking up 'cat'."

"cat?"

"Yes, actually I picked up a very 'cute' cat a while ago, but I'm not sure about its breed, so I wanted to check..."

Obviously, Lan Ke was not interested in topics like TV dramas and celebrities. It just so happened that his 'assistant' asked him to help come up with a name. He had been thinking about this problem during the break in class. However, he was not very good at coming up with names. He couldn't come up with an answer after thinking about it for a whole morning, so he decided to look up some information at noon.

After all, although Teitan does not prohibit students from carrying mobile phones, they are not allowed to take them out at other times except during lunch breaks and after school.

However, this topic aroused Kudo Shinichi's curiosity.

"Do you have a photo?"

“I forgot to take a picture.”

"Hmm...what are the characteristics of that?"

"It's mainly white, with light grey patterns on it..."

Lan Ke's words made Kudo Shinichi couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth. After all, it was almost the same as if he hadn't said anything, but he still keenly noticed one characteristic: "cute".

"What's the color of the tail?"

"It's mostly white, but the tip of the tail is gray."

"Then it's most likely a 'Silver Tabby'. The most distinctive feature of this type of cat is its tail. Because of its personality, it's very popular with girls. Many people in cities keep them..."

As he spoke, Kudo Shinichi searched for a photo on his phone and handed it to Lan Ke.

"That's right! Kudo-san, you're amazing~"

"No big deal~!!"

In the face of Lan Ke's praise, Kudo Shinichi seemed very calm. After all, he was the man who wanted to become the "Sherlock Holmes of the New Century". Isn't it a piece of cake for him to identify the species of a cat?

However, the slightly raised head was enough to show that he was quite pleased with Lan Ke's praise.

Because Mao Lilan's mother also has a cat, Mao Lilan enthusiastically shared some tips on raising cats with Lan Ke.

In this regard, although Lan Ke felt that his "assistant" should not be an ordinary cat and this ordinary trick should not work on the other party, he did not refuse in disappointment.

During the lunch, everyone had a great time chatting and chatting.

The afternoon classes went more smoothly than Lan Ke had imagined. School was officially dismissed after two classes ended before 3 o'clock.

Perhaps because they had a pleasant chat before, Kudo Shinichi even invited Lan Ke to visit the football club, obviously wanting to introduce Lan Ke to the "joy of football."

However, even though Lan Ke really wanted to improve Kudo Shinichi's favorability, after careful consideration, he chose to refuse.

According to his original plan, his primary goal today was to "go to the Impression Space to awaken his own Persona". For this purpose, he even searched the locations of "hardware stores" and "model stores" online in advance. However, his encounter with "Bukujima Saeko" this morning made him change his plans.

As the saying goes, "sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood." Considering that you may not be able to awaken the personality mask immediately, you may have to fight with the "shadow" in close combat, so it is necessary to master certain close combat skills.

The reason why it was not in the plan was simply because he didn't know whether the instructors of the kendo or gunmanship clubs of Teitan High School were reliable.

He didn't know whether Fujimura Taiga's kendo skills were good or not, but Busujima Saeko's skills were definitely good.

According to the 'Wikipedia' that Lan Ke checked during lunch break, the other party can be said to have a family background in kung fu, and his family has inherited the 'Tenshin Shinden Katori Shinto-ryu', and the 'Bushima Family's' kendo field is one of the largest kendo fields in the whole of Tokyo.

As for Busujima Saeko, although she did not obtain the 'Menkyo Kaiden', it is said that she already possessed the corresponding ability, but her father did not award it because he wanted her to learn humbly.

Lan Ke was very self-aware. There were no skill books in the 'P5' system, and he had no intention of becoming a kendo master. He had only one goal, which was to at least learn how to hold the weapon so that it would not fall out of his hand when he swung it.

With anticipation, Lan Ke followed the path pointed by Kudo Shinichi and came to the outside of the kendo hall.

"Noodles!! Noodles!! Noodles!!"

When he was still about ten meters away from the kendo hall, he heard the sound of cheering coming from inside.

Lan Ke didn't think much and directly opened the sliding door of the kendo hall, and then——

"Snapped!!"

"What are you looking at! Keep swinging your swords!!"

"Yes!! Guidance!!"

Because of Lan Ke's appearance, some freshmen who were practicing 'Su Zhen' looked over unconsciously, but almost at the moment when they were distracted, a crisp sound drew everyone's attention back.

Fujimura Taiga, wearing a blue sportswear, was leaning on a bamboo sword with both hands and staring at everyone with a serious face.

Only after the newcomers practicing 'Suzhen' continued to swing their swords did Fujimura Taiga strode towards Lan Ke.

It is obviously the same person, but perhaps because of the difference in clothes, Fujimura Taiga seems to look a little younger at this time. Of course... it may also be because her aesthetic is so unique that it is not even as good as sportswear.

It’s a pity that the awe-inspiring feeling disappeared without a trace after only a few seconds.