The smoke from ME Corp's headquarters still felt like it clung to their hair, but Nagazora City's night wind had already blown away most of the bloodstink.
Beep.
The villa's electronic lock chimed softly.
The door had only cracked open a sliver when the bright indoor light came spilling out impatiently—along with a wave of noise so loud it felt like it could flip the roof over.
"PRIIIIISON—BOOOOSS—!"
That voice was way too familiar. Familiar enough to make your scalp tingle.
Before Bai Qian could even see the entryway tiles, a white blur slammed into him with the force of a heavy artillery shell. There was no room to dodge—more like she never intended to let him dodge in the first place.
"Ugh—!"
Bai Qian's chest tightened like he'd just been tackled by an overexcited husky.
Kiana was already hanging off him, arms locked around his neck, legs wrapped around his waist. She clung to him like a koala—stuck fast.
Hadn't this happened before?
It didn't hurt as much anymore… but getting elbowed in the middle of it was still not something he'd been prepared for.
"We saw it! We saw everything!"
Kiana's eyes were practically searchlights, cheeks flushed red with excitement. She shook Bai Qian by the shoulders and babbled at machine-gun speed:
"That huge one! The black one! Was that a Persona?! Was it Sataniel?! How did it get that big?! It was so cool!! And—and you transformed too, right?! That was the legendary Sparda Devil Trigger, wasn't it?! Why's it different from the manga?! I wanna learn it too! I wanna transform!! Why didn't you take us with you, aaagh!"
Her breath was warm and smelled faintly of cola-sweetness mixed with body wash, puffing right into his face.
"Stop, stop, STOP! What are you, a glue patch? Get off me!"
Bai Qian scowled, planting his right palm right onto Kiana's increasingly invasive face and shoving—fingers spread wide, absolutely merciless, pushing her head away like a basketball.
Her cheeks were surprisingly squishy.
This idiot's face was… unexpectedly fun to pinch.
"Waaah, let me nuzzle one more time! Let me borrow some luck! Just a little!"
Her features were getting mashed sideways under his palm, but she kept mumbling through it, and somehow clung even tighter, like she was trying to meld into his body.
"You're already lucky. If you don't believe me, go pull blind boxes yourself!"
By the coffee table, Sakiko Toyokawa sat cross-legged, still holding that rusty little sickle, staring at the chaos with the expression of someone whose worldview was collapsing.
"So that was also a gacha ability…? Devil Trigger?"
Then she looked down at her own weapon—an item that seemed to have zero special effects beyond letting her roll around on the floor—and her beautiful amber eyes filled with class-struggle levels of bitterness.
"Why?! Why is it that we both opened blind boxes, you get to become a demon hunter and summon a Persona hundreds of meters tall, and I—Ashen One—can only roll around like a maniac on the ground?! Is that reasonable?! Is that fair?! This is like a whale player slaughtering the newbie village while I'm still practicing my human roll!"
The more she spoke, the angrier she got, gripping the sickle tighter, poor-kid resentment practically leaking out of her pores.
"And every time I die, my account balance drops by one-fifth! What kind of hell-difficulty punishment system is this?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to save money?! Even capitalists aren't this vicious!"
"And that rolling…" Sakiko covered her face in despair. "It's really dizzying. And it gets my clothes dirty. Dry cleaning is expensive."
"That's just a skill issue. The Ashen One can link the fire, okay? It's sacred."
Bai Qian finally peeled Kiana off him—physically peeled; her grip strength was ridiculous. He tugged his crumpled collar back into shape and shrugged.
"Besides, it was just killing Cocolia. Why are you acting like it was the apocalypse? That kind of trash isn't even worth me looking at. If I brought you lot along, I'd lose ten years of my life just trying to keep you from stepping on landmines."
He flopped into the sofa, sinking into it with the kind of relaxation that came from dumping your entire body weight into furniture.
Not being able to loot the place was a shame, but thinking about it, Cocolia didn't really have anything good besides Titans anyway.
"Now that Cocolia's dealt with… Bronya's situation—"
Rin Tohsaka glanced at Bronya, who'd been sitting in the corner the whole time without a word. "We should talk properly now, shouldn't we?"
"I'll keep my promise to Bronya. I'm not going to string a little girl along with empty words."
Bai Qian stretched, then thought seriously for a moment.
"We can ask Herta about this, but it'll take time. Herta still owes me a favor."
He flicked his gaze toward the silver-haired 'Bronya'—the little 'duck' was sitting with her head lowered, hugging a Homu plush tight to her chest, expression hidden.
…Better to let Bronya breathe for now.
So what about everyone else?
Bai Qian pulled a bottle of cola from the fridge and scanned the living room.
Talulah was perched on the arm of a single-seater, one foot on the carpet, the other swinging idly. In her hands was a book thick as a brick, brows furrowed, fingers occasionally rubbing the bottom corner of the pages.
Bai Qian was drinking when his eyes drifted over the cover.
Black hardcover. Gold-stamped title.
"My Struggle."
He almost choked on his cola.
He coughed twice hard, then thumped the can onto the coffee table with a dull thunk.
How the hell did she even get that book?
No—wait—are you seriously preparing to do speeches and turn into "Seele" or what?
At this rate Bronya shouldn't even go looking for Seele anymore—you're about to become Seele!
"Um…" Bai Qian stiffly pointed at the book. "Where did you get that?"
Talulah lifted her head. Her golden eyes held only confusion. She closed the book halfway, making the cover fully visible.
"I asked Miss Mei to help."
She tapped the spine lightly, producing a heavy, muffled sound.
"I told her to find me some books about war and building organizations. On the Ursus tundra, paper is rarer than gold. Knowledge is hard to come by."
She paused, reopened to the page, and looked down at the dense German translation.
"The chat group has built-in translation. Maybe these books can give me inspiration for Reunion. If you want to change the status quo… you need this kind of will."
Bai Qian opened his mouth.
He looked at Talulah's earnest, studious face—then his mind flashed a certain mustached silhouette—then he looked back at her eyes, still clearly untouched by modern internet contamination.
…Forget it.
Explaining what Nazis were and what "crimes against humanity" meant to someone who'd only just learned how to unlock a phone screen was probably harder than teaching Kiana advanced calculus.
"Sure." Bai Qian forced out the words dryly and lifted his cola again. "Just… read critically. Some things are fine to look at, but don't believe everything."
Talulah nodded like she half-understood, then buried herself back in the text.
Bai Qian looked away.
The image was too beautiful. He couldn't bear to keep staring.
He turned and noticed Herta didn't seem to be downstairs—and there was no movement upstairs either.
"Where's Herta?" Bai Qian asked. "Did she go back?"
Rin Tohsaka was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, carefully painting her toenails. Without looking up, she just jerked her chin.
"She went back ages ago."
She blew lightly on the fresh polish, the red liquid shining under the lights, then glanced at Bai Qian.
"Kept saying the mission's done, this place is whatever, and she has to hurry back to deal with those two Stellaron Hunters."
Rin set the brush down, extended her legs to admire her work, then looked at Bai Qian again.
"Fastest runner in the universe. But whatever—she's always been like that."
"When you went to kill that Cocolia woman… didn't you find anything valuable? Like… loot?"
"No. I shot her and that was that. You people really wanted to raid her house that badly?"
Bai Qian rubbed his forehead. He'd wanted the fastest possible resolution, so he'd gone alone—meaning he speedran it and didn't get to loot.
"Of course! That's spoils of war! We're broke, okay? I've got a Holy Grail War to fund, Sakiko needs living expenses, Talulah has a whole army to feed, Melina is dirt-poor, and Kiana—honestly, she looks like she's about to squat here forever!"
Rin shifted position and started counting on her fingers seriously.
"If she had this world's currency lying around, we could buy food for Talulah, gemstones for me, and Sakiko wouldn't have to panic about money for a while. So next time, you have to take us. That way we can help—and collect spoils with a clear conscience."
She looked at Bai Qian.
"And you don't want to become Herta—always solo, always acting like a lone wolf. We're groupmates now. Stop trying to solve everything alone."
"…Yeah. You're right."
Bai Qian was—annoyingly—convinced.
It really was a rare chance to help the gang get rich.
He'd love to go back and loot, but Schicksal had probably noticed the incident by now, so that was a no-go.
Still… it'd be great if Schicksal sent someone to stir trouble. Better yet, someone important. Then he could extort them openly and finally fulfill his "looting dream."
How could he eat his fill and let his people go hungry?
They needed to eat so they could keep their batons charged and swing sixteen times per second the moment they saw someone!
"Ciallo~ (∠ω<))"
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Bai Qian pulled it out. It was a chat group message—familiar purple avatar, with a bright red @ ping.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: @PhantomThievesBoss — I'm back. What are we doing with Silver Wolf and Kafka?
What to do…?
Oh. Right. He'd nearly forgotten that was still a thing.
But locking them up? Not great. Killing them? Also not great.
Bai Qian's fingers started tapping quickly.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: Huh? Why are you asking me? Genius Herta, this is your turf. That's your space station. I'm just a guest mercenary. Shouldn't the "what to do with prisoners" high-level decision be yours? Or just hand them over to the IPC and trade them for credits for me.
His message had barely been sent for two seconds when the reply popped up—fast like she'd predicted his prediction.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Idiot. They're your spoils, don't dump this on me. Do you know how much time the IPC will waste interrogating me if they hear about this? And I'd have to make up a whole story explaining where your "Persona" came from. I'm busy. If I have time, I'd rather refine the Simulated Universe.
Bai Qian tugged at the corner of his mouth. Yep. That was Herta.
To her, the unknown was an aphrodisiac. Known trouble was garbage.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: Then like I said before, package them up and hand them over? Kafka and Silver Wolf have insane bounties, right? Turn that into credits and we can pay off Sakiko's debts for life—she could probably buy the whole Earth.
From the corner of the room, Sakiko suddenly looked up. Her eyes were terrifyingly bright, like the word "money" had summoned her soul.
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: Moron! The moment you turn them in, Blade and Sam will come tear my station apart and break them out. I'm not afraid of them, but repairing the station costs money and time. I don't care what they're plotting—if they want to destroy the universe, do it somewhere else. Don't fight in front of my lab. All I feel is trouble. Massive trouble!!!
Three exclamation points in a row. Herta's irritation level was obvious.
Bai Qian scratched his head, helpless. He knew he couldn't actually hand them over—those two still had future trouble to cause on the Xianzhou Luofu. If they got stuck in the IPC's hands now, the whole "script" would derail.
He sighed and typed again.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: Fine, fine. Honestly, I don't want to kill them either. I actually kind of like those two.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: Silver Wolf's mouth is nasty, but at her core she's just a gaming-addict shut-in girl. As for Kafka…
Bai Qian paused. In his mind flashed a figure holding a violin—along with how she'd carried herself on the train.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: She's useful. Later there'll be messes—like the Luofu situation—that still need her to push things along. If we kill her now, a lot of things won't move.
The group fell silent for a few seconds.
Then Rin Tohsaka cut in.
[Rin Tohsaka]: If you don't want to kill them—because killing feels good but gains nothing—and you don't want to lock them up—because then you have to feed them and worry about jailbreaks—
[Rin Tohsaka]: Then teach them a lesson, squeeze something valuable out of them, and let them go.
[Rin Tohsaka]: You're a thief, not a cop. You don't have to send everyone to prison. Make them pay in something useful—tech, intel, or… money. That's "equal exchange," isn't it?
Bai Qian raised an eyebrow.
As expected of the head of House Tohsaka—this abacus was loud enough to hear across worlds.
He stroked his chin.
Make the Stellaron Hunters suffer a bit… then charge them a ransom?
Honestly?
That sounded amazing.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: I already deleted all of Silver Wolf's game accounts, but it's still not enough… How about this: you write a script that signs her up for every online PvP game, then has her cheat, and then spreads the story that she's the type who turns into a cheater the moment she can't beat someone.
[Phantom Thieves Boss]: Make it so whenever people think of Silver Wolf, their first impression isn't "legendary hacker" or "Stellaron Hunter," but "the loser who cheats when she can't win." That's the ultimate humiliation.
On the space station—
Herta rubbed her chin, eyeing the utterly miserable Silver Wolf with a dangerously pleased look.
…You know.
That really did sound a lot more fun than just banning her accounts.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (261 Chapter) (Ending)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (190 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (130 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (200 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (89 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (140 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (90 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (150 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (70 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (70 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (130 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (80 Chapter)
DanMachi: Why Did My Dungeon Turn Into a Soulslike Game? (130 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (120 Chapter)
I'm Gotou Hitori—Who Are You? (40 Chapter)
Were You Ever Even a Uma Musume? Stop Making Things Up! (78 Chapter)
Moon Project: A Full-Time Love Adventure for the Lobotomy Corporation (75 Chapter)
The Leisurely Days of the Hyuga Main House (65 Chapter)
Arknights : A Draco Surviving in a Matriarchal Terra (189 Chapter)
Arknights: What if My Luck Is Too Good? (135 Chapter)
Honkai: The Romance System Only Shows Up After I Marry Mei (55 Chapter)
Arknights: Who Are You Calling Repressed, X?! (145 Chapter)
The Chat Group Only Arrived After I'd Cleared the Game (102 Chapter)
Gojo Satoru Flat-Out Refuses to Admit He's a Supporting Character (40 Chapter)
Chat Group Isn't Supposed to Be Like This! (30 Chapter)
If You're Moriarty...then Who Am I? (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: Since I "Can't See," They Take Turns Stealing My Underwear (50 Chapter)
Arknights: Why Are All My "Brothers" Girls? (54 Chapter)
Danmachi: Start Training Haki (59 Chapter)
Emiya Shirou's Rebirth (30 Chapter)
I Can Get Stronger Just by AFK'ing—So I Joined a Chat Group (50 Chapter)
Endfield: I Can Always Pull Out One Yuan (65 Chapter)
Limbus Company : I Started a Company in Project Moon (50 Chapter)
Lobotomy: Do Cooks of Alley 23 Dream of Bloodfiend Knights? (50 Chapter)
DanMachi: Freya Familia's "One-Blade Shura" (60 Chapter)
DanMachi: Emiya, the Great Hero Becomes the Protagonist (90 Chapter)
TYPE-MOON: One Special Instance Every Week (40 Chapter)
From Danmachi: The Abundance Apothecary (70 Chapter)
Lord Shadow Descends on DanMachi (90 Chapter)
Fuse with Me, Exusiai! (41 Chapter)
Honkai: Star Rail — After I Die, I Forge Their Madness (60 Chapter)
DanMachi: The Last Zeus Familia (95 Chapter)
Endfield: Arknights Heroic Spirit Summoning (75 Chapter)
Toyokawa Family Finances (105 Chapter)
Starting From DanMachi to Become Stronger (90 Chapter)
DanMachi: My Familia Is Made Up Entirely of Heroines from Every World! (75 Chapter)
Arknights: My Intel Refreshes Daily (110 Chapter)
Digimon : I Never Meant to Do Evil, Even Though I Wasn't Chosen (40 Chapter)
Miss Holmes Could Never Be the Losing Heroine! (40 Chapter)
Takayama Gamu at Tracen Academy (40 Chapter)
Legendary Trainer Takes on MYGO (40 Chapter)
Arknights : Yandere Game: The Operators Have Come Knocking (100 Chapter)
Arknights: This Dating Sim Is Seriously Wrong! (120 Chapter)
Arknights : Ch'en Hui-chieh, I'm Done Being the Good Guy! (50 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Wasn't This Supposed to Be a Family Simulator? Why Am I the Family Heirloom? (40 Chapter)
Honkai: Star Rail : The Trailblazer Only Wants a Peaceful Life (45 Chapter)
Arknights: The Unlucky Dad? But I've Got the Chronicle of Time! (55 Chapter)
The Wheelchair War God Is Speedrunning Hogwarts (50 Chapter)
DanMachi: The Elemental Blaster of Orario (45 Chapter)
Playing Honkai in Star Rail (30 Chapter)
As an Alien, I'm Solo Leveling in Warhammer 40K (30 Chapter)
Arknights: A Symbiote's Survival Guide (65 Chapter)
My Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Is Built Entirely from Stuff I Picked Up (30 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it