"Mm!" The sudden hug left Terahara Mari at a loss. She stood there blankly as Kimura Tatsuya pulled her heavily into his arms.
She hated him—for trampling on her love, for ignoring all her efforts, for the cruel insults and cold treatment he gave her… But the Kimura Tatsuya in front of her now was completely unfamiliar.
"Don't go…" Kimura Tatsuya buried his face in her slender shoulder and whispered, "Don't go, Mari."
"What are you saying, Tatsuya?" Terahara Mari chuckled through her tears and patted his back. "Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
"Come back, Mari, come back to me, I'm begging you!" Kimura Tatsuya tightened his arms around her and suddenly began to cry.
Everyone in the private room froze.
Kimura Tatsuya's tears flowed like a flood. In just a few dozen seconds, his wet tears had soaked Terahara Mari's neck. The cold dampness snapped her out of her daze, and she struggled in shock.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sob sob… why, why did you leave me…" Kimura Tatsuya's tear ducts completely collapsed. He cried out in a jumbled mess, his whole body unable to stand, all his weight pressing onto Terahara Mari. "Come back, please, I don't want you to become like this, Mari, Mari…"
He was gasping between sobs. Terahara Mari couldn't support his weight anymore and fell backward onto the couch. Kimura Tatsuya, still holding her, collapsed to his knees and fell face-first onto her lap.
Terahara Mari instinctively caught his head, nearly hitting the corner of the table, and her mind went completely blank.
Kimura Tatsuya kept muttering things, but between the crying, she couldn't understand him at all. He ended up just hugging her legs and bawling his eyes out, tears and snot smearing all over her stockings—he even blew a bubble out of his nose.
Mouri Ran, who had just raised her phone again to record the idol's singing: "…"
It seemed like she had been recording all kinds of shocking footage today…
Suzuki Sonoko, frozen on the spot at the sight of the handsome guy completely ruined by tears and snot: "…"
She silently covered her eyes, trying to erase the memory from her brain.
Conan, stunned by the sudden turn of events: "...?"
This band sure has some complicated relationships…
In the background, no one cared about the music as it reached the chorus. In the accompaniment, Kimura Tatsuya's recorded anguished scream blended perfectly with his current gut-wrenching sobs.
Terahara Mari looked at his messy face in confusion, and only then noticed the jacket he was wearing—her jacket.
What's going on with Tatsuya…
She definitely had applied poison, intending to kill him—not some kind of love potion, right?
After crying through an entire song, Kimura Tatsuya finally managed to calm his emotions a little. Although he was still sniffling, at least his words became understandable again.
He nervously grabbed Terahara Mari's hand and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry… I said a lot of really awful things to you, didn't I… I'm sorry, Mari. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just… I just didn't want to see you like this."
He sniffled, lifted his tear-covered face, and looked at her.
"You didn't want to see me? Didn't you always love calling me an ugly freak?" Terahara Mari gave a bitter laugh.
"That's not what I meant, Mari!" Kimura Tatsuya tightly clutched her wrist again, tears flowing once more. "I didn't want to see you getting plastic surgery for me, hiding in the background for me. That's not the Mari I love. That's not the real you. Come back, please? Where did my Mari go? Come back…"
After finishing this whole sentence, Kimura Tatsuya's emotions started spiraling down again, and his voice began to tremble.
Terahara Mari was shocked by what he had just said. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she repeated, "The Mari you love?"
Kimura Tatsuya was dazed for a second, then suddenly realized he had just blurted out something huge. His face, already red from alcohol, flushed even more, and he reached up to cover his mouth.
Terahara Mari's expression changed drastically. She quickly grabbed the hand he was trying to cover his mouth with. "Stop! It's poisonous!"
She had applied poison to the zipper on Kimura Tatsuya's jacket. Right before every performance of this song, he would grab that spot and throw the jacket off. That would coat his right hand in poison, and then just one bite of food or drink would guarantee death.
Earlier, even though they hadn't officially started the performance, he had already done the motion to grab his jacket.
The word "poisonous" instantly snapped Conan out of his drama-watching daze. He rolled off the couch and ran over. "What do you mean by poisonous?"
Kimura Tatsuya blinked at his own hand, which Terahara Mari had just grabbed.
Terahara Mari closed her eyes, and finally began to understand the twisted logic behind everything.
She felt lost. It was laughable… All those painful moments spent staring at old photos, all those nights of crying in bed after smiling through the day—were all because…
She let out a cold laugh. Exhaling sharply, she gave up and flung his hand aside, saying coldly, "It means I was trying to poison this immature idiot! His right hand is covered in cyanide!"
The Chaos in the KTV—did Kazawa anticipate it?
Of course he did.
The moment he saw Kimura Tatsuya's shadow crack open and reveal a mountain spirit inside, Kazawa's annoyance hit a peak.
While a familiar doesn't necessarily dictate one's exact personality, the masks within a shadow usually give a rough outline of a person's temperament and behavior.
And as someone who had pointed a gun at many masks and talked them down, Kazawa had a general understanding of how different familiars behaved.
A mountain spirit? That's basically a prank-loving weak little kid!
Oh, so we're talking about an elementary school boy, huh? The type who pulls on a girl's pigtails and calls her ugly because he likes her?
Honestly, dying over something so childish isn't even unjust.
Still relaxing on the Beetle, Kazawa imagined what must be going down on the other end.
Physically persuading a shadow into change has immediate results—especially in this world.
For reference, see Maruden Jiro. One punch, instant confession. That kind of "accept defeat" attitude is peak Persona 5 and very Conan.
It was easy to predict: whatever Kimura Tatsuya was doing at that moment, the second his shadow faded and rejoined his heart, the "personality correction punch" had already landed. He would immediately clutch his head in agony, scream about everything he had done, and dramatically break down crying to apologize to the girl he had been hurting for years.
Perfect. Just the effect Kazawa was hoping for!
Hopefully someone records it. Hopefully it goes viral. Hopefully he makes it to the scene in time to catch the drama from the front row.
"We might not be able to go any lower," Xingchuan Hui said, carefully holding the steering as they slid into a station platform.
Kazawa returned to his senses and looked out through the windshield.
"There really is no path down." He was a bit disappointed that they couldn't just drive all the way to the bottom of the Palace, but it wasn't unexpected. It matched his expectations.
They had already gone down eight whole layers. The scenery had changed from black and red. According to the original Persona setting, he had already passed through more than one major section. That was good progress.
Kazawa jumped down from the car, stretched, and walked toward the dark wall ahead.
He might really need to follow the original route—raise the Phantom Thieves' fame as much as possible.
Given the kinds of wild media outlets in the Conan world, Kazawa figured it wouldn't be too hard.
Once the Phantom Thieves became a household name, he could definitely hit full speed to the final floor.
With that in mind, he looked up at the tall wall stretching to the ceiling.
And to his surprise—he saw three red arrows around the edges of the wall.
One pointing up, one pointing inward, and one pointing left.
"K…" Kazawa stared at the wall, dumbfounded. "Kazawa Ichikawa's mark…"