The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

"So, was my guess during the day correct? About the so-called, 'fate shift'?"

Almost at the moment he pushed open the door of the Velvet Bar, Tang Ze directly asked his question.

Leon, who was standing at the bar wiping his wine glass, looked at him and gave him a helpless smile: "Why ask when you already know the answer? You have already come to the conclusion, you don't need me to give you an answer."

"No, I just think that you, the Velvet Assistant, have been somewhat negligent in your duties." Tang Ze folded his arms and accused unceremoniously, "I know that there are many things you can't tell me directly, because the Velvet Assistant is just a witness to the rebirth, and you can't interfere with the progress of events based on your own preferences, but you are an exception, a special case, and I don't see any strange long-nosed old man here... What's the point of you being a riddler?"

According to Tang Ze's understanding of the P series, the Velvet Dweller in the P series is a kind of existence constructed by the gaze from another level. Although it also has self-awareness and its own joys, sorrows, anger and happiness, it is different from the real human beings living in the world.

Because their main focus is companionship, the effect achieved is that of a riddler who seems to understand a little but says nothing.

Like him, a long-nosed old man who chases after his assistant all day and asks him about the basic settings of the world without just waving his hand is probably a very rare special case. However, precisely because it is a special case, Tang Ze is dissatisfied with Leon's concealment.

"You're not a proper assistant at all." Tang Ze sighed, "I'm not blind. No matter how you look at it, you look like a bigger version of myself, with different hair and eye colors and similar facial features. Not in an abstract sense, I mean, you really are myself."

In the past, Leon had said something similar, mixed in with the phrase "I am you and you are me" in the P series, which sounded a bit like the meaning of "self" in the psychological sense, but as mentioned before, first of all, if Leon was a serious velvet assistant, no matter how you think about it, even if his assistant was not a silver-haired little loli like in the original work, she should be a big sister, and such a situation is unlikely to happen.

Secondly, Leon’s face looks too much like Tang Ze’s.

Due to his attire, hair color, and bone structure, Leon's appearance is a little closer to that of a Caucasian than that of Tangze himself, who is of mixed race. His short blond hair and golden eyes make him look very lightly pigmented, and at first glance it is not easy to tell the similarity between him and Tangze, who still has obvious Asian features.

But Tang Ze has to face this face every night. Even if he is not sensitive to appearance in this life, he can almost see the familiarity.

"Plus, you can not only see my memories of this life, but also my memories of my previous life... Now that it has come to this, I have already guessed 70% to 80% of the possible situations. What else must you hide from me?"

Leon paused, put down the cup in his hand and looked at Tang Ze.

He did not deny Tang Ze's accusation, but replied softly: "Didn't you hear it, guest? Now, no one can know your future destiny. You have abandoned the track of the past and embarked on a completely different path. So I can't give you an answer. You are no longer what I can define."

It sounded like another round of riddles and rejections, but Tang Ze's mind worked quickly and he quickly figured out what Leon was describing.

"So, just as I guessed, this is not the first round." Tang Ze looked straight at Leon without dodging, "What you mean by a completely different path is that I went in a completely different direction this time. You can't answer with your old experience, right?"

In response to his sharp remark, Lyon simply bowed and did not answer.

And Tang Ze had already gotten the answer from his silence.

"I knew it... I knew it..." Tang Ze scratched his hair twice in annoyance.

His irritation did not come from the other party's acquiescence in his guess, but from the fact that when he followed up on this guess, he thought of something disturbing.

Why was his fate shifted and tied to cooperation?

Of course, he was influenced by them, and he also influenced them. It is true that he completed the upward spiral of fate through the interaction between people. However, no matter how you look at it, the feeling that this deviation of fate is strongly bound to the relationship between coop and others is like saying...

"Last time, their ending was terrible, right?" Tang Ze lowered his eyes, "And it was because of me?"

The moment he said this, some scenes suddenly flashed back in Tang Ze's mind.

The brief scene he dreamed of when he emerged from the cocoon of Noah's Ark.

And those vague sentences I heard while standing in that empty yet unsettling subway secret room.

What if, he meant what if.

If he hadn't changed his plan because of Hoshikawa Teru's appearance, if he hadn't changed his mindset because of Furuya Rei's sincerity, and even more so, if he hadn't recovered his memory earlier and was still a pure high school student, and hadn't been able to resist the pressure from the organization...

"Don't think about the past that no longer exists, guest."

Leon rarely came out from behind the bar.

He moved closer to the door and gently patted Tang Ze's shoulder.

"One thing you said is actually inaccurate. No matter how similar we are, I am not completely you. I am just a bystander. It doesn't matter even if your guesses are true. It is because you cannot accept that ending that you made the choice. The fact that you are standing here now proves that no matter what kind of desperate situation you are in, you will challenge the impossible in order to get the desired result. There is no need to recall the past that has already disappeared. You are the proof of your own efforts."

Leon lowered his eyes, his silver eyelashes covering his metallic pupils and hiding the regret in his eyes.

He will not be defeated by failure and setbacks. Even if he is covered in mud, he will eventually crawl out of the abyss little by little... This is Tang Ze's style, and it is also the most stable and resolute part of his personality. No matter how much he has experienced, whether he still has those memories, or how multifaceted his personality is, as long as he has not lost these characteristics, he is still Tang Ze.

And Lyon can only be Lyon forever.

Tang Ze, who had been lowering his head, slowly raised his head and looked at him silently.

Leon didn't say anything else, just quietly accepted Tang Ze's gaze.

After staring at each other in silence for a few seconds, Tang Ze suddenly spoke up: "Where's the poem? Tell me the poem?"

"What word?"

"The atmosphere is already like this, it would be inappropriate if I don't compose a rank up opening poem..."

"Huh? You suddenly come to my place and act crazy, and you expect me to give you some more skills? You want me to eat and take, right?"

As the two men were joking around, a series of crisp wind chimes were heard outside the bar door.

“Okay, stop sleeping.” Leon pushed Tang Ze unhappily. “Only you can suddenly come in and ask questions in the middle of a job.”

"Hey, what's your attitude? You're just kicking people out for no reason, right?—"

----

"File, file, find the list of contacts for file No. 3. Tsk, where did I put it..."

"Over there. You've been working for so long, but you haven't developed the habit of organizing your files properly, Zhenping."

"Huh? You, a newbie in the workplace, are evaluating me..."

"If you want to argue, you can do it tomorrow." Zhu Fu Jingguang raised his head in the strong smell of coffee. "If we don't finish cleaning it up tonight, Tang Ze will probably rush out again tomorrow morning."

Although Tang Ze has done a good job in this regard, it would be better to keep him away from those things as much as possible if possible.

He didn't know where Tang Ze's peculiar ease in dealing with these things came from, but no matter how he thought about it, it was not a good thing to let a child play the role of a gangster so skillfully, not to mention that Tang Ze's emotions did show unusual fluctuations.

It’s better to reduce this risk as much as possible.

Matsuda Jinpei's eyebrows jumped: "Tang Ze is still here, you say this in front of him..."

As he spoke, he looked in Tang Ze's direction, but his voice became lower and lower.

The other members who were still busy saw that he had stopped talking and looked in Tang Ze's direction.

Tang Ze, who was holding a dozen brown paper file bags in his arms, was originally responsible for summarizing and prioritizing everyone's files - a job that only Tang Ze, who had been working in these channels for a long time, could do - but he didn't know when he leaned back in his chair and fell asleep quietly.

The noisy war room gradually quieted down.

"Clap."

The ballpoint pen slipped from Tang Ze's hanging hand and fell into the scattered papers on the ground with a dull sound.

The few people who had been staring at this side silently seemed to be awakened by the voice and resumed their actions. They looked at each other and started talking in low voices.

"He fell asleep at just after 2 a.m.? Doesn't he usually stay up all night at this time..."

"What you said finally makes me feel that we are an illegal organization. Does this count as exploiting minors?"

"Ha, this counts as being exploited by a minor. When he stays up late, do we not stay up late? But he might be too tired. He's been working non-stop lately."

"It could also be due to emotional factors. Too much mood swings can be very draining."

“How rare…”

Several people tiptoed over and confirmed that Tang Ze was really asleep. Then they whispered to each other for a while and stretched out their hands.

Tang Ze curled up in the armchair in an awkward posture.

While observing Tang Ze's condition, they carefully supported Tang Ze's limbs and neck, maintained a steady movement, and carefully lifted Tang Ze up from the chair.

"You haven't woken up yet, you must be really tired."

"Maybe, but his sleep schedule has been pretty bad lately. Let's ask Shiho to get him some medicine tomorrow."

"The files have been sorted out, and the remaining Ireland may have been dealt with. Let him sleep."

It is a bit difficult for one person to carry away a teenager who is almost an adult male without causing any disturbance. Fortunately, thanks to Tang Ze's efforts, the Phantom Thieves no longer lack strong adults.

Several people supported Tang Ze's body, and Miyano Akemi carefully pulled the file bag out of Tang Ze's arms. The group of people maintained this strange posture and slowly carried Tang Ze back to the bedroom.

Although Tang Ze chooses to stay in the cafe most of the time and rarely returns to the base to spend the night, he also has his own room here, but there are not many things placed in it, and it lacks a bit of life.

"Looking at his harmless appearance, you really can't believe he's such a dangerous guy."

"Really? I think his face is pretty aggressive when he's not smiling..."

"But he smiles all the time, even now."

"Ha, I think this guy has too much baggage..."

"Shh... don't disturb him..."

After raising her index finger to warn, Miyano Akemi reached out to tidy up the hair that had fallen on Tang Ze's face, and then gently adjusted the quilt on Tang Ze's body, covering him tightly.

It's no wonder they were surprised at Tang Ze's condition. This guy who found it difficult to express his stress was too accustomed to and too good at playing the role of a reliable captain. It was very rare to see him fall asleep defenselessly in the noisy operations room.

After confirming once again that Tang Ze's breathing was still long and quiet, the few of them tiptoed out while talking in low voices.

"It's so rare to see him like this. Can I take a picture?"

"Stop it, Matsuda. Let him sleep well. He's been running around these past few days..."

As the bedroom door slowly closed, the doorknob turned at a cautious pace, slowly closing completely, and their voices disappeared completely.

It was not until the whole room fell into complete darkness and silence that Tang Ze, who was lying on the bed, opened his eyes.

They guessed correctly. Tang Ze would not do that. It was a beautiful misunderstanding.

He had almost finished organizing the files when he suddenly remembered the problem from the day. On a whim, he closed his eyes and went to the bar to torture Leon. To his teammates, it looked as if he had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Due to habit, he was a light sleeper in his previous life, and the slightest movement was enough to wake him up.

It is the same in this life. Perhaps in order to preserve this feature, his Velvet Room also has such a design. Any external noise will become the bar's welcome bell, reminding Tang Ze to wake up in time and make sure the surrounding environment is safe.

Almost at the moment when several people's hands touched him, his consciousness was pushed out of the bar by Leon.

However, it would be somewhat embarrassing to suddenly open his eyes at this time, so he just let it go.

"I'm really being treated like a child." Tang Ze shook his head, but had no intention of getting up.

Am I the proof of my own hard work...?

He tugged at the corner of the quilt, kept a smile on his face, and closed his eyes again while lying on his side on the bed.