Tokyo Trickster

Kitagawa Vsuke, whose clothes had changed into that of a "fox", looked up at himself in the painting and felt a strong sense of absurdity.

"Leave quickly. Be careful not to be surrounded by shadows." Amamiya Ren patted the back of his head.

"Speaking of which...where is Morgana?" Since entering the gallery, Kitagawa Vsuke seemed to have not seen any trace of the black cat.

"We are here!" Morgana stood on the huge picture frame and patted the ventilation duct beside him. "Combat support materials go this way!"

Yesterday evening, Amamiya Ren had already brought Morgana into Madarame's palace. Through the ventilation hole on the top of the building, they found a room on the second floor of the palace that the other party had little knowledge of and used as a safe house.

In the Palace of the Soul, weak cognition meant that no shadows would appear, and unless someone pushed Madarame's head and pointed this place out to him, he might not even know that there was such a room in the art gallery.

Arriving at the safe house on the second floor from the ventilation duct, Kitagawa Vsuke widened his eyes, "What is this?!"

In the cleaning staff's lounge, the counter facing the door was filled with ferocious steel beasts.

Amamiya Ren held up a large gun. "The Spitfire is a fully automatic light machine gun produced by Siwhan Industries, one of the sponsors of the APEX League. Each magazine has 588 rounds of ammunition and is equipped with an infrared tactical sight. The maximum effective range is 3600 meters. The bullet speed is 687.5 meters per second...Okay, I made that up."

He patted the flamethrower in his hand, "But here it is a real killer weapon."

Kitagawa Vsuke certainly knew about APEX, or rather, as a phenomenal online game in Japan, it would be strange if no one knew about it -

Amamiya Ren interrupted him muttering, "Of course, this weapon is still my favorite. Take it, it's a bit heavy."

The thief handed over a long, heavy, high-tech rifle.

Kitagawa Vsuke's shoulders sank and he almost couldn't lift them up.

"Nemesis Rapid-Fire Assault Rifle. 32 rounds of ammunition. With 2~4x scope. Has a bullet speed of 812 meters per second..."

Amamiya Ren talked about the settings in the game. In fact, he didn't know what the plot settings of these guns were, after all, he didn't specifically learn about them. After thinking about it, he finally chose the Spitfire light machine gun and brought his favorite auxiliary pistol.

"We can't use guns!" Morgana began to yell. It also wanted to fight the shadows with cool high-tech weapons.

"Don't worry, here is a complete set of APEX heirlooms." Amamiya Lian began to distribute melee weapons.

What he reserved for himself was Bangalore's heirloom "Cold Steel", an extremely sharp Nepalese machete with a specially treated blade opening that exuded a brilliant golden halo.

Kitagawa Vsuke got the Secret Blade, a green and white folding straight knife. It looks like a layer of plastic blades that can be freely extended and disassembled. It is full of technological coolness and extremely light. The first impression is that it is a new toy model. In fact, it is a weapon that can easily kill people.

Morgana picked up the evil spirit's heirloom, a kunai with a sharp edge that looked like the deep texture of the starry sky. He shook his head and swung the kunai until he accidentally cut his beard, then he realized that this kunai was not a toy, so he put the kunai back into the leather sheath prepared by Amamiya Ren in a huff.

After selecting the weapons, Amamiya Ren put the guns and knives on the table into the crates.

"What exactly are these..." Kitagawa Vsuke asked stutteringly as he looked at the "Secret Blade" in his hand.

"Oh, because the typhoon came so suddenly and I got busy with various things, I forgot to tell you," Amamiya Ren took out three pairs of sunglasses and gave them to them.

"Impression Space is a 'world of cognition'. As one of the most popular online IPs in Japan, realistic enough models can be easily mistaken for 'real things' by those shadows," he explained. "Even other model guns will be transformed from fakes into real ones when brought here. If you run out of ammunition, you will find that you still have enough bullets when you meet a new enemy. Because it's the first time they meet, they will think 'the bullets are fully loaded'."

"In other words... start suppressing fire as soon as you go out?" Kitagawa Vsuke swallowed, as if some strange factor was awakened in his body.

Opposite the safe house was a showroom with numerous paintings on display, and dense guards were marching in formation in the corridor. There was a neat sound of footsteps, a click, landing and then lifting the soles of the feet, and another click, the rubber-soled leather boots stepped hard on the ground.

Amamiya Ren pushed open the door and snorted at him, "Fire~"

"Fire!!!" Morgana raised his cat paw and roared loudly.

"Fire!" Kitagawa Vsuke shouted, raising the Nemesis assault rifle in his hand and firing indiscriminately at the enemy.

Amamiya Ren was holding the flamethrower light machine gun, the strong recoil made her shoulders and elbows tremble. It lived up to the name "Flame", the blazing flames poured down like a river flowing backwards towards the guards who were patrolling outside the safe house.

five minutes later.

The two men and the cat, who had run out of bullets, ran for their lives in the corridor. Behind them were the armed guards chasing them, a huge crowd, with batons and rifles pointed at the ceiling, like reeds swaying in the wind in a lake.

Finally there is no way out.

Amamiya Ren stood in the blind spot and sighed.

"What a farce! He raised the flamethrower light machine gun in his hand high above his head and sneered at the approaching shadows.

"Orion!"

With a loud shout, a burly man appeared. His muscles began to tense, making a muffled sound like plastic deforming.

"Nine hundred and ninety thousand magnetic fields are rotating, Sea Tiger--"

"Burst Punch!!!"

In an instant, the wind was howling violently.

The guards stepped back timidly.

In this split second, Orion turned around and punched through the nailed-on entrance of the ventilation duct, then used his fingers as a knife to chop off the sharp edges.

Amamiya Ren, Kitagawa Vsuke, and Morgana. They threw their guns or heirlooms into it and then drilled in. With the help of [Orion], the whole process took only two seconds.

The black cat cut a passage with a kunai and made faces at the shadows.

The Phantom Thieves of the Mind retreated in a dignified manner.

Dry weather: 093. Self-portrait, Part

"Why do we have to protect these models... They're so heavy," Morgana, who had been praising the guns for being cool, began to complain.

"This is a gift from my fans," Amamiya Ren treasured her auxiliary pistol, which is also called a little helper. It has a capacity of eight bullets and is equivalent to the Desert Eagle in "CSGO" and the Sharpshooter in "Valorant"... In the hands of players with low technical skills, they often empty a magazine without even hitting the corner of the enemy's clothes.

"Well, it's a bit crowded," Kitagawa Vsuke looked at the large group of flamethrower light machine guns that were slowly being dragged in front of him, blocking the ventilation duct tightly.

"Oh, sorry," Amamiya Lian moved forward for a while, and explained after she had moved away from the man and cat behind her, "The magazine that comes with the model is too big, so it's a bit inconvenient to move."

"So where do we go?"

"If Madarame Ichiryusai wasn't a fool, he would have all the guards keep a close eye on the ventilation ducts." Amamiya Ren paused, took out a folded stack of "Madarame Art Museum Tourist Guide" from his coat pocket and spread it out, then unsheathed the Nepalese military knife named "Cold Iron" and illuminated it with the halo emitted from the blade.

He held the knife handle, took out a marker and pointed at the art gallery building map in the tourist guide, planning the route, "Now we are at the second-floor safe house. The shadow should be approaching all the visible ventilation ducts. The only ones we can go to are the 'invisible' ventilation ducts."

"Are there any other safe houses?" Kitagawa Vsuke asked cautiously.

Amamiya Ren put away the guidebook and said, "Of course not."

"Then let's..."

Morgana snorted and laughed, "It's an open robbery, an open robbery... If you steal a secret treasure, you will definitely run into the owner of the palace. So as long as you act quickly enough, you can succeed."

"The palace we operated in last time was a genuine medieval castle. It was very easy to get lost. We even had to figure out the route map by hand. In comparison, this art gallery is just short of having a sign at the door saying 'The secret treasure is here. Thank you for your hard work, brothers and sisters. Come in and have a seat.'" Amamiya Ren was making marks in the ventilation duct with a Nepalese machete.

Kitagawa Vsuke had a bad feeling, "Could it be..."

"That's right!" Morgana patted his thigh and approached him in a sinister manner. "Let's fight head-on!"

"Correction, I'm the only one fighting head-on," Amamiya Ren smashed the scabbard on the forehead of the big cat that was trying to tease his new comrade, "You and Kitagawa Vsuke are responsible for stealing the treasure and leaving, and I'm responsible for distracting Madarame Ikryusai's attention."

The Phantom Thieves' emergency operational meeting was held in a ventilation duct.

"Ah, here we are," the thief pried open a piece of iron and dug out a large square hole.

There is a spacious, pitch-black space underneath, and the electronic guardrail made of infrared lasers can be clearly seen in the darkness in the distance.

This is the painting exhibition hall near the main hall of the art museum. There are obvious signs of construction, and the scaffolding covered with dust vaguely shows its outline.

Ren Amemiya pulled out an elastic rope from her windbreaker, used the personality mask obtained from killing the shadow in the palace to make three iron needles, fixed the elastic rope in the ventilation duct, and then pulled the rope to fall down.

Morgana jumped down directly, since there was someone to catch him. Amamiya Ren grabbed its hind legs and threw the whole cat onto the scaffolding.

Kitagawa Vsuke hesitated for a moment, then imitated him and climbed down by grabbing the rope.

Seeing him shaky, Amamiya Ren was not in a hurry. He pulled out the "Cold Iron" and observed the surroundings with the glowing blade. He found a suspicious-looking control console with a switch on it, and pressed it without hesitation. This exhibition hall is also one of the "blind spots" of Madarame's spiritual hall, with huge blank canvases on the wall.

After the brake sound, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling of the hall lit up.

Someone has been here. Amamiya Ren's first reaction was to look around.

He thought that this hall was "deliberately sealed" in Madarame Ichiryusai's heart, but there were some strange footprints on the scaffolding, as if someone was sucked away by something while walking, and then fell from a high altitude and fell on it.

"Wow!" Kitagawa Vsuke uttered three rhythmic particles in a row. He was startled by the sudden movement, who was conducting a stealth operation for the first time. He failed to control the strength and pulled off the elastic rope along with the fixed iron nails, starting his free fall.

According to the acceleration of gravity, this guy will kiss the ground hard in a few seconds.

"Personality user, don't forget why you are standing here." The thief reminded him in time.

"【Ishikawa Goemon】!" Kitagawa Vsuke shouted, and a thief like a Noh actor appeared out of thin air. He slapped the floor hard, reached out and grabbed upwards, and in the whistling wind, he exchanged positions with his own personality mask and fell onto the scaffolding.

"The personality mask is a part of you, just like your paintbrush. Don't forget it at the critical moment," Amamiya Ren high-fived him. "As a newcomer, your performance so far has been excellent. On behalf of the organization, I recognize you."

"There are only four people in the organization now." Morgana wiped the non-existent sweat.

"You're a cat."

"I'm not a cat! I even have a personality mask, but I was ambushed and lost my memory and body!" The big cat said the story that only exists in light novels.

"Okay, Mona cat."

"We..."

"I hear you, Mona cat."

"Wow! I'm going to bite you!" Morgana couldn't stand it anymore and rushed over to fight with Amamiya Ren. The tension from escaping from the shadows just now subsided a lot.

This was the first time that Kitagawa Vsuke participated in this kind of battle. The last time he faced the shadow Madarame, he was dragged away by Amamiya Ren before he could show his ability.

The sense of urgency of treading on life-and-death crisis is let go, and replaced by a sense of trust.

He doesn't have many friends.

But these two thieves...

He looks cheerful, but he is actually quite reliable.

Kitagawa Vsuke, who lost his studio as a place to stay, stood at the crossroads of Tokyo Metropolis and was very confused. He looked at the people coming and going, not knowing where to go. Until a black cat broke the skylight, and the thief in a windbreaker pulled the rope and reached out to him.

Tick-tick. The traffic light changed color. An arrow moved along the shaky streets of Shibuya, pointing to a simple and old combat base. Kitagawa Vsuke suddenly understood his new home.

Glass fragments were scattered everywhere, and in the moonlight, there was a hazy mist. He stretched out his hand, wanting to touch the thief who broke the rules.

Boom...sound like sea waves.

Kitagawa Vsuke suddenly shuddered, he was awakened by the noise he caused. In the moment of distraction, he accidentally touched the huge canvas next to him, which activated this "dying" exhibition hall.

Dazzling blocks of color like those in Ukiyo-e quickly spread across the entire wall, like a proliferating colony.

Amamiya Ren and Morgana stopped fighting and looked at the change carefully.

Dry weather: 094. Self-portrait, Part

There are five huge blank canvases on the wall.

The canvases are now filled with content as they should be.

First of all, there are groups of camels walking in the desert, vermilion torii gates above the magnificent sea of ​​clouds, and quiet woods with sunlight shining through the branches and leaves.

Then there were the ships that were overturned in the raging waves and dragged over by the monster.

The last scene is a hazy Japanese-style room at dusk, with the paper door lit up by the wine-red afterglow.

Amamiya Ren and Morgana gathered their thoughts and tensed up again from the rare respite. The Phantom Thieves looked around. Only Amamiya Ren had made a thorough analysis of the entire museum's architectural structure. He said, "This is the 'gap' in Madarame Ichiryusai's heart. According to the map in the guidebook, this should be the only passage to the secret treasure."

The leader of the Phantom Thieves thought seriously for a moment, "Now we can't see any 'doors' leading to deeper places in this hall, which means that this is a 'deliberately blocked room' by Madarame. But the Palace of the Heart is a reflection of its owner's cognition――"

"So there must be a way to go deeper here."

The two people and the cat looked at the paintings that suddenly appeared.

"I heard that you art students like to use paintings to express your moods." Amamiya Ren murmured to herself.

"It's true." Kitagawa Vsuke had the answer in his mind.

Morgana curiously slapped the painting of "Desert Camel" with his cat paw, "Meow?!"

It let out a strange cry of fear.

"We can get in, right?" Amamiya Ren reached his hand into the painting. He was confident that he could respond to any emergency.

Kitagawa Vsuke followed him into the painting.

The whistling wind rang in my ears, the dust filled the air, two camels snorted beside me, and Morgana sneezed non-stop. "This place is too real!"

Amamiya Ren slapped the camel, and the camel ran away with a huff. "It's quite real."

Suddenly, a dull roar like thunder came from the sky, "Haha, this world is a desert, full of vulgar people who cannot understand beauty..."

This is... Madarame's inner monologue that he incorporated into the painting.

Does he regard everyone as a "camel"?

Kitagawa Vsuke's hatred for Madarame increased a little bit.

Morgana was somewhat uncomfortable with such a venue.