Tokyo's Phantom Thief

Although he'd just been "threatened" by his future father-in-law (maybe?), Asakura Rinto honestly wasn't mad. If anything, he felt like he'd scored.

After all, it wasn't every day that a cute, youthful JK—a high school girl—stayed the night at your place.

...Not to mention, strictly speaking, school hadn't even started yet. Yoshizawa Sumire still technically counted as a JC—a junior high girl!

A JC on the brink of JK…

Just thinking about it felt criminal. Even Rinto had to mentally slap himself—Nope. Bad. Don't go there.

There were more important things to deal with. Doing his best to maintain a virtuous aura, Rinto stayed composed.

He gave the bed to Sumire and sat cross-legged beside it on the floor.

His gaze was serious—truly serious—as he looked at the girl in front of him.

"Sumire. Be honest with me. You really haven't had any thoughts of… suicide, right?"

"…Mm. Really, I haven't."

She nodded firmly.

Still fidgeting with her bare feet, Sumire pulled out her phone and handed it to Rinto.

"I was researching Kamoshida when I noticed this weird app had appeared. I filled in some information about him, and the next thing I knew, I was suddenly in that castle. That's all I know—really, that's everything."

Hmm…

Rinto furrowed his brow and opened the app she mentioned—the Metaverse Navigator.

…He'd never seen this thing before.

Crossing into the Metaverse using a smartphone app? That wasn't a method Rinto had ever heard of, let alone used.

And wasn't it a bit too easy?

He'd spent the last three years as a Phantom Thief, struggling to unravel how the Metaverse worked—every entry a ritual of self-inflicted torment.

What was the point of all that, then!?

Sumire tilted her head in confusion.

"So… then how did you get into the Metaverse, senpai? Like, when you were being a Phantom Thief before and all…"

"Well… no reason to keep it from you anymore."

With a sigh, Rinto pulled out his replica gun.

Sumire jumped in surprise!

For a moment, she panicked, thinking that maybe Rinto had more than one kind of "weapon" hidden on him!

Completely unaware of what was going through his kouhai's head, Rinto handed her the gun.

As she carefully felt its solid weight and realistic texture, he explained:

"The method I know to enter the Metaverse… is to get close to death."

"No matter what you use—like how I simulate suicide with this replica gun—as long as the psychological suggestion is strong enough, it works. If you can convince yourself I'm about to die, that intense mental spike can push you over into that world of collective cognition."

Rinto aside, he had met others who'd stumbled into the Metaverse before.

Most of them were people teetering on the edge of suicide, experiencing severe emotional breakdowns.

That was why, when Sumire appeared there out of nowhere, Rinto had assumed the same.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Still, the "close to death" method clearly spooked Sumire. She quickly returned the gun to him, nervously.

Then she recalled the situation from three months ago—how she and her sister had been saved.

"Back then, you jumped in to protect me and onee-chan, right? You brought us into the Metaverse with you. But… you didn't have this gun then, did you? …Ah! I get it! It was because that truck was about to hit us, so the crisis alone was enough to trigger it, right?"

"Smart. You really do have a knack for this, Sumire." Rinto chuckled.

The replica gun was just a reliable trigger—anything could work, as long as it produced the right psychological state.

But what had happened with Sumire was something else entirely… and far more dangerous.

If this so-called "Metaverse Navigator" app started spreading around, then anyone could stumble into the Metaverse with zero barrier. That was terrifying.

With her permission, Rinto tried to delete the app.

But just as he expected, anything involving the Metaverse wasn't so easily dealt with.

The moment he erased it, the app reappeared like a ghost—clearly not just an ordinary phone program.

While Rinto puzzled over the phone, Sumire sat nearby, kicking her little feet, still thinking aloud:

"But but… the world of the subconscious and those Palaces—are they connected? I mean, like, that Kamoshida guy's castle… is it tied to other people's subconscious too?"

Rinto didn't even look up. "Yes… and no."

"Someone like Kamoshida, a Palace ruler, can't influence the public's cognition all on his own. He just decided in his own head that the school was his castle. But to everyone else, he's just some volleyball coach, right? Not even the school principal sees himself as a king—and this guy decided he was one? That's just pathetic."

So under normal circumstances, Shujin Academy in the Metaverse looked just like it did in reality, like any other building on the street.

The reason Rinto and Sumire had seen it transformed into a Palace earlier was something else entirely.

"When I worked as a Phantom Thief, I had to collect intel before I could infiltrate someone's Palace. Like a detective—I'd unravel the core of their cognitive distortion, piece by piece."

"Once I understood the distortion point, I'd use my Persona to search for their Shadow. That's how I'd locate their Palace. These Palaces are hidden even deeper than the general Metaverse landscape—like peeling back a painted surface to reveal the real canvas beneath."

"...Persona? Shadow?"

Sumire tilted her head, full of question marks. These terms were still a mystery to her.

But she knew Rinto would explain them when the time came, so she wasn't in a rush.

For now, she had a more pressing question:

"But senpai… You didn't know much about Kamoshida before, right? You even asked me and onee-chan for info about him. Was that part of your investigation? Then… how did you find that castle and rescue me?"

"That was easy." Rinto finally looked up and gave his adorable kouhai a small smile.

"I didn't know Kamoshida. But I knew you. The moment I entered the Metaverse, I felt your presence. I heard your voice. You called out to me… so I came."

"—Senpai~! ( >ω<｡)"

Honestly—

In that moment, Sumire was so overwhelmed she could've eaten this man's heart whole!

How did he always manage to drop these insanely cool lines out of nowhere like it was nothing!?

People talk about slaying virgins—this man slays maidens!! (〃＞目＜)

The emotional impact on a lovestruck, pure-hearted girl like her was absolutely lethal! (.>?<.)

This hopeless lady-killer! Irresistible heart thief! My one and only guardian angel…

"Oof—are you okay?"

Rinto caught Sumire as she threw herself into his arms, completely unprompted, clearly overwhelmed by emotion.

As she squirmed in his lap like a kitten, Rinto instinctively held her and gently patted her back.

Why did girls' bodies always smell this nice…? Rinto couldn't figure it out. It was honestly kind of mystical.