Gloom

For Duanmu Ai, stirring up trouble was as easy as lifting a finger. In fact, when she arrived at school early the next morning, she heard her classmates gossiping all along the way.

"Have you heard? That Phantom Thief sacrifice?"

"I have. The lives of the chosen sacrifices have to be offered up in order to bring about justice, right...? Well, that's hard to say."

"That's just a rumor. How could the Phantom Thieves possibly do something like that?"

"But haven't there been rumors for a while that those people were forced by the Phantom Thieves to turn themselves in? It makes sense now, doesn't it? Maybe the victims of those serial murders were killed by them, and then they threatened other people—If you don't turn yourself in, you'll be killed like that too. That's why all those people turned over a new leaf and turned themselves in, one after another, right?"

"If that's really true, it's terrifying. Why would the Phantom Thieves do something like that?"

"Who knows..."

Listening to the discussions around her, the corners of Duanmu Ai's lips lifted slightly into a smile. That's right. This was the scheme she had come up with. Duanmu Ai had Rumiere leak some so-called "secret information" to several third-rate tabloids and websites, claiming that beside the bodies of the serial murder victims were words written in red lettering on a black background: "Sacrifices to Justice." It also claimed that the police were currently investigating the connection between the Phantom Thieves and the murders, and so on...

Of course, it was all baseless nonsense. But to those third-rate tabloids and websites, the news was explosive. Some especially proactive reporters had even rushed straight to the police station that very day to ask questions. Naturally, when faced with such pointless inquiries, the