Tokyo's Phantom Thief

It wasn't until Yoshizawa Kasumi had finally laughed herself out, flopping back with a sigh of satisfaction, that she managed to calm down a little.

Asakura Rinto seized the moment—before she could start up with something else—and got straight to the point:

"Sumire, can I take a look at that phone app of yours?"

His well-behaved little sister-from-another-mister nodded and handed over her phone, both hands cupping the device in its lavender case.

By the way, just like many twins, Kasumi and Sumire had matching items in different colors.

Kasumi was all about pink.

Sumire—true to the color her name evoked—favored violet and soft purples, giving her a quiet, literary vibe.

Asakura took the phone, and sure enough, the navigation app couldn't be deleted.

He opened it, then, using the recorded navigation history, began explaining what had happened the previous day to Kasumi.

Kasumi finally peeled the balloon she'd been playing with off her fingers and sat up properly on the bed, listening intently:

"...So you're saying Sumire used this app to travel to another world yesterday? And it works just by entering someone's name or a place connected to them, and then you can cross over?"

She took in the explanation of cognition worlds and Palace rulers in one big gulp, nodding several times.

Then she suddenly leaned forward, took Rinto's hand in both of hers, and shouted at the phone:

"I want to go into Rinto-nii's heart! Take me there!"

"—Onee-chan, what are you doing?!"

Sumire nearly had a heart attack. Her face went pale on the spot.

But thankfully—

The voice-sensitive navigation app quickly responded:

"[Target not found. Please try again.]"

"Tch~..." Kasumi pouted, puffing up her cheeks.

Rinto just shrugged, calm as ever.

"Too bad. Only people with extremely strong desires can form Palaces. Regular folks don't qualify. If everyone had one, the world would be a nightmare."

Then he grinned.

"But hey, try punching in a few celebrities or politicians. I'd bet the Palace hit rate is better than fifty-fifty. I used to use my Persona to search the collective unconscious—had a pretty high success rate."

Doing that kind of thing too often was a quick way to lose your faith in humanity.

Kasumi actually took his suggestion seriously. She and Sumire huddled over the phone, enthusiastically entering every famous name they could think of.

While they squealed over the app's reactions, Rinto continued gathering intel.

He was already sure of a few things.

First: this navigation app could instantly identify who had a Palace.

The app required three input fields:

The Palace ruler's name

The location where their desires manifested

The symbolic form of their distorted cognition

Using Kamoshida as a reference, that'd be: his name, Shujin Academy, and a castle.

But the app didn't require all three—just the name was enough to check whether a Palace existed. It would immediately confirm whether a valid target could be found.

That kind of utility made Rinto scowl.

After he summarized everything, Kasumi tilted her head, curious:

"So Rinto-nii, back when you were a Phantom Thief, you didn't use this app? Then how did you know who had Palaces?"

"That's the second thing," Rinto replied. "I was able to enter the collective cognition—what you'd call a public Palace. But I have no idea how this app manages such precise targeting."

Rinto then explained how his method worked.

Unlike the app's targeted crossover, he had to "kill" his own mind each time to cross into the cognitive realm.

That allowed him to enter the collective unconscious—a realm not tied to any one person.

Through exploration in that space, his Persona would react when it got close to a location warped by someone's desires.

The Persona emitted sonar-like waves toward chosen targets. If there was a response, it meant a Palace existed.

That signal would tear through the surface layer of the collective mind, and lead him into the deeper layer—the individual Palace.

The more intel he had on the target, the more accurate his Persona's sonar became.

Compared to the navigation app, this method had pros and cons.

The downside: Rinto had to invest more time and effort to determine if someone had a Palace.

At minimum, he needed intel on the person and a clear mental image to calibrate his Persona's detection.

For celebrities or public figures, that wasn't an issue—basic info was everywhere, enough to let his Persona do its work.

But with lesser-known criminals or private individuals, he had to dig deeper—investigate like a detective, gather names and photos, and only then could he confirm the existence of a Palace.

The upside was that once he did confirm a person had a Palace, he didn't have to guess its form or location.

His Persona's sonar would point him in the right direction.

Once he found the place, he could break in, no need to speculate about what kind of "castle" the person imagined in their subconscious.

He continued:

"Yesterday, I found Sumire's Palace because I knew her so well. I zeroed in on Shujin Academy without trouble. Then I just had to dive in. Simple enough for me."

"But if Sumire hadn't been in the Metaverse, I never could've found Shujin with how little I knew about Kamoshida. His subconscious might flag a bunch of different places—his house, the Olympic stadium where he won gold, the TV station where he did interviews, stuff like that. I'd have to go check them all, one by one, to figure out which one's his Palace."

"Ooohhh...!"

The sisters clapped their hands in admiration, doing their best to absorb everything.

They didn't catch every detail right away.

But just the fact that Rinto was willing to share all of this—the secrets of his Phantom Thief past—meant a lot to them. Deep trust.

It made them feel... kind of blissfully happy.

If he trusts us this much... maybe we really could just take him right here—

Thankfully, curiosity beat out lust for now:

"Then, Rinto-nii," Kasumi said eagerly, "what is this 'Persona' you keep talking about? It sounds so cool!"

"Mm. Easier to show you than explain."

Rinto had already planned for this.

He turned to Sumire and gave her a nod.

"Sumire, activate the app."

"Let's go back to Kamoshida's castle. I'll show you both how fights work in the Metaverse."