The Yongen-Jaya sky at 4 AM was a desolate sight.
The never-ending neon lights were too far away, thick clouds flowed in front of the dim stars and moon, the streets were silent, and a few sparse streetlights emitted a hazy, dim yellow glow in the darkness.
Kurusu Akira pulled back the curtain, then sat back down on the bed with white bedding.
He had been woken up by his phone ringing.
The same number had been calling him non-stop for the past five minutes.
Kurusu Akira opened the schoolbag at the foot of the bed and took out his notebook.
He looked at the number on the phone screen, which showed eleven "missed calls," and began to cross-reference it with the IOUs in his notebook.
"October 2020. Togawa Family family, Tokyo, two million yen. This is the largest single debt in the diary."
"The phone number is..."
Kurusu Akira unlocked the phone on his bed and confirmed that the person calling him was indeed the major creditor.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.
Just then, the phone screen froze for a moment, then returned to the "call waiting" interface.
Calling so frequently at 4 AM, Kurusu Akira couldn't think of any other possibility besides debt collection.
If he couldn't pay the money back, would he be cornered and beaten by gangsters?
He looked at the phone hopping around next to his pillow, wishing he had a Persona summoning device in his hand...
"It's just a mere ten million yen in debt, watch me pay it all off before I graduate high school!"
The ambitious words he had uttered before sleep came back like a boomerang, piercing through time and space to hit him.
Kurusu Akira felt that if Igor didn't come to him with the Velvet Room's "employment contract" soon, they would most likely lose a perfect worker with six years of experience, ready to start at any time.
Should he try to save himself?
He clenched his fists, feeling the surging power deep within his body.
As a seasoned Persona user, Kurusu Akira naturally possessed the technique to forcefully summon a Persona into the real world, even when at his wit's end, by incurring huge losses—
But there was a crucial point that needed to be clarified now.
That was, the Persona he brought from a parallel world had not yet been registered in the Velvet Room, so if he were to forcefully summon a Persona into reality, he could only rely on the traces of the mind that Amamiya Ren left in his body to reproduce a power completely unknown to Kurusu Akira.
He didn't know what kind of abilities the Persona he summoned would possess, or what kind of destruction it would cause.
It was possible that an urgent summoning could lead to the Persona, without careful control, causing the situation to completely spiral out of control due to a sudden burst of power, resulting in various tragedies.
This would also completely violate the various principles of the Velvet Room and go against the series of Phantom Thief rules he had set for his identity as a Phantom Thief.
In other words, answering this call now was the best option.
To get real information immediately, and then use as much time as possible to think of a solution to turn danger into safety.
Kurusu Akira picked up the phone and pressed the answer button.
Instantly, the receiver exploded with the sound of glass bottles shattering on the ground. Men were arguing, and in the background, there was faint, intense music playing from "Pachinko" machines, overly lively.
Soon, a drunken voice came through.
"Oh, it finally went through."
"Hello, this is the Amamiya residence."
It certainly was the "Amamiya residence." The family register only had Amamiya Ren's solitary name; his personal phone was the family phone.
"No matter who you... uh, are," a clear burp, the man shouted incoherently on the other end of the line, "Anyway, give me back my money!"
Confirming that the creditor's mental state was not normal at the moment, Kurusu Akira's emotions, on the contrary, quickly calmed down.
He turned on call recording and then said into the phone, "Yes, the Amamiya family owes you a total of two million yen. According to inheritance law, I should repay the entire two million yen debt to you."
"Good that you know!...Money! Hurry! I need money now!" The voice in the receiver suddenly became urgent and agitated.
"How much do you need?"
"One million! Two million! Bring as much as you have!"
"I apologize, but it's four in the morning, so I'm afraid I can't fulfill your request."
"Who cares what you, you idiot, want to do? I want my money back now!...Don't make me call the police!"
The voice on the phone grew louder, as if the stench of alcohol could be sniffed through the receiver, and the ugly, drunken spitting instantly burst into Kurusu Akira's imagination.
He carefully distinguished the noisy background sounds on the phone, and after a few seconds of silence, he questioned.
"You're at a casino, aren't you?"
"Where I am is none of your business! You incompetent, inferior paupers, if you dare not pay me back, I'll sue you immediately!..."
Kurusu Akira deliberately responded with interjections expressing "agreement" and "apology," but he made no explanation or rebuttal regarding the "debt repayment."
This humble and cowardly attitude, on the contrary, fueled the drunkard's desire and impulse to boast.
As expected, the content coming from the phone quickly devolved into seemingly endless vicious curses.
As a Phantom Thief whose goal was to steal the "evil" from the hearts of criminals, Kurusu Akira was skilled at provoking the emotions of criminals.
After confirming that the recording could serve as evidence, clearly expressing the fact that "the creditor's mental state is abnormal and he may be engaging in illegal activities," Kurusu Akira began to wrap things up.
"I apologize, your current state is not suitable for communication. Please contact the Amamiya Residence again during business hours after you have calmed down."
Then he hung up the phone.
Muting message notifications, blocking the number, all in one smooth motion.
The slightly hot phone was tossed under the pillow.
Kurusu Akira lay on the bed and couldn't help but give the ceiling the middle finger.
The burden of the strength training he had done just a few hours ago, coupled with lack of sleep and physical weakness, made him feel a clear soreness in his arms and abdomen.
He hoped that the next time he woke up at four in the morning, it would be on a basketball court, diligently training according to Kobe Bryant's "Mamba Mentality."
Instead of being verbally abused by a debt collector.
It was now 4:03 AM, and in two hours, he would have to go downstairs to clean.
Kurusu Akira buried his face in the pillow in utter agony...
Oh well, no more sleep.
He got out of bed and started changing his clothes.
Since he was already awake, he might as well go to the Shujin High School campus forum to research how to get a scholarship as quickly as possible.
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