"Phantom Thieves of Hearts"

"So sleepy—"

Tangze yawned at the mirror.

He felt weak all over, but he still had to walk back to the café, then secretly hide away to cut up newspapers for half the day to make the calling card, arrange for it to be delivered, and avoid being exposed to Tooru Amuro the entire time. Otherwise, once the news came out, his cover would be blown. His venture would collapse before it had even begun.

So when the café closed, his gaze as he watched Tooru Amuro leave was full of satisfaction.

Knowing someone else was even more tired than him put him in a great mood.

In the mirror, the boy wore a short double-breasted tailcoat on his upper body and knee-length shorts below. The scarf around his neck floated behind him against gravity, creating a strangely out-of-season sort of beauty.

The most ridiculous thing was still the mask.

"Is this even called a mask?" Tangze leaned closer to the mirror and fiddled with it. "This is an eye mask, okay!"

The upper half of his face was covered by a flat, semicircular visor without even holes for his eyes.

What a knockoff 9S.

He had no idea how it worked, but in any case, this mask—fine, he would reluctantly admit it was a mask—didn't obstruct his vision at all. Yet from the outside, it looked like a smooth leather eye mask, as though someone had blindfolded him with a strip of cloth.

After studying the mask for a while, then the softly floating scarf for a while longer, Tangze finally deactivated his Phantom Thief form.

In short, he had gained a new skin that could change his outfit with one click.

He could appear in the real world dressed as a Phantom Thief, and it even covered his distinctive eyes. All things considered, that was a new identity.

Good. All good things.

Tangze folded his hands over his chest and fell asleep in an especially peaceful pose.

Now there was only one thing left—shouldn't he give Lavenza a thorough grilling in his dreams?

While Tangze frolicked and played in his dream, many others were unable to sleep.

On the street outside the Maru family estate, passing residents whispered among themselves.

Because of the Maru family head's terrible temperament, none of the neighbors dared to actually step forward and watch. But the cards plastered all over the Maru family's outer walls and scattered across the streets were simply too conspicuous.

Quiet recitations could be heard everywhere.

"Maru Denjirou, you contemptible man of 'greed.'" A woman passing the mouth of an alley leaned closer to the paper on the wall.

"You have used money to torment those suffering hardship, trampled upon their dignity, and ground others' treasures and hard work into the dust. We have learned of every one of your shameless deeds." An office worker who had picked up a card leaned close to read its words.

"Tomorrow, we will make you bear the consequences of all your crimes." A servant held the card with trembling hands and read it word by word. "We accept your twisted desires. Sincerely, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."

"Bang!" Maru Denjirou slammed his fist onto the table, sending tea splashing from the teacup.

"Who did this?!" Though Maru Denjirou was over fifty, his roar was still full of force. "Tear down this garbage! Shred every last bit of it and throw it away!"

"I don't know, sir." The male servant lowered his head, not daring to look at his flushed face. "It's all over the outer walls, and there's more on the streets. The entire neighborhood is covered in them..."

"What about the surveillance cameras? The security outside?!"

"The cameras only caught a few children putting them on the door. They said they picked them up off the street..."

Maru Denjirou's face turned livid. He snatched the three or four slips of paper from the servant's hands, crumpled them into a ball, and hurled them at him. "Useless trash! Hurry up and clean it all away!"

"Yes!" The servant did not dare delay and fled as though escaping for his life.

Maru Denjirou panted heavily, slumping down beside the table as he glared resentfully at the paper balls on the floor.

His wife, Maru Inako, sat on the other side. She hid her smiling lips behind her teacup and coldly watched his furious state.

Maru Inako had vaguely noticed the sort of things he had been doing.

Was there anything wrong written on that paper?

The Maru Group's business was thriving. Maru Denjirou was not short a few million yen at all, yet he always insisted on resorting to shady tricks, as if earning dirty money gave him greater satisfaction.

"All right, dear. Maybe someone is jealous that the family business has been doing so well lately and is spreading rumors to ruin your reputation?" Mrs. Maru put on a fake smile. "It's all just arrogant nonsense. Don't be angry."

Maru Denjirou shot her a hateful glare. "What do you know? If this kind of rumor spreads, it will damage the stores' reputation! Forget it. Why am I even telling you this?"

This woman had been acting increasingly suspicious lately, distracted whenever she was home. Maru Denjirou suspected that she was keeping a lover outside and had hired a detective to investigate it. The sight of her smiling face irritated him.

Useless trash everywhere. Maru Denjirou stood up angrily and left, heading for the storage room where his collection was kept.

Compared to absurd claims like "bear the consequences of all your crimes," he was more willing to believe that this provocation issued in the name of the "Phantom Thief Troupe" had targeted his collection.

Though the methods he had used to acquire them might not have been aboveboard, Maru Denjirou never shied away from displaying his abundant collection. Besides being a successful businessman, he was also a renowned collector.

Could it be some lowlife scum who couldn't pay back their debts, hiring someone to steal my things?

Maru Denjirou brooded darkly.

On the other side of a world he knew nothing about, Shadow Maru Denjirou, clad in ceremonial robes, wore a terrifyingly grim expression. He took a katana from the wall and drew its gleaming blade.

"Damned little thieves, you dare covet my treasures? I shall ensure that none of you return!"

"The target has no relevant training background."

"Are you certain?"

"We gathered information on the target's life over the past decade or so. He had no records of prolonged absences during middle or high school, and his life trajectory perfectly matches that of an ordinary student."

On the top floor of an apartment building across from the café, Shuichi Akai, who had rented a place there, listened to the new information from his colleagues over the phone and furrowed his brow.

"For him to shake off all surveillance in such a short time, he can't be an ordinary kid."

Several photographs lay before Shuichi Akai. They were candid shots of the moment Tangze had been bumped into on the shopping street that afternoon.

One showed Tangze turning around in surprise; another showed him raising both fists as though to block; the last showed him reaching out to support the other person.

"You've seen the intercepted photos as well. The target instinctively made a defensive response. His hand and foot movements were coordinated and swift. He has a solid foundation in boxing or hand-to-hand combat."

If Tooru Amuro saw these photographs, he would immediately feel a strange sense of familiarity.

Wasn't this exactly Tooru Amuro's fighting habit?

"There were no gaps after middle school. What about before middle school?" Shuichi Akai asked thoughtfully.

"Shu, the target was only eleven or twelve years old then..."

"Don't forget that he is the Tang Ze couple's child." Shuichi Akai shifted the phone to his other ear, took out a lighter to light a cigarette, and casually placed the photographs before him in the ashtray before setting them on fire as well. "When the target was eleven or twelve, he had not yet left their side."

The other end of the line fell silent for several seconds before asking hesitantly, "Would the Tang Ze couple conduct experiments on their own child?"

"It wasn't an experiment." Shuichi Akai smoked as he leaned against the window, looking down at the pitch-black street across from him. "The Tang Ze couple began their research specifically for Tang Ze Zhao.

"If there was anything in this world that best reflected the results of their research, that result would undoubtedly be Tang Ze Zhao himself."