Chapter 822 has nothing to do with me

 The next few days will obviously be difficult for the Phantom Thieves.

 Akechi Goro’s speech on the show naturally caused a lot of discussion, but the most controversial thing was obviously Duanmu Ai’s merciless rebuke and ridicule. For a time, there was a lot of excitement about Duanmu Ai on the Internet. Most people thought that Duanmu Ai was too unsympathetic, but some people thought that Duanmu Ai just said things that no one dared to say.

So, what do the members of the Phantom Thieves think of this?

 “She is full of nonsense!”

 Sakamoto Ryuji punched the table angrily, indignantly.

"We obviously did good things and saved so many people, but she actually said that our existence is meaningless? Shouldn't those people we rescued deserve to be saved?"

“What she said is not unreasonable, but...I think most people don’t have the courage to stand up.”

 Another member who had just joined the Phantom Thieves, Kitagawa Yusuke, shook his head.

“That’s why we, the Phantom Thieves, need to exist, isn’t it!?”

 “Longji, your voice is too loud.”

Ren Amamiya gave a silent reminder while looking at the pictures on the TV. The hosts and experts were still arguing over these issues. Although Duanmu Ai's remarks are controversial, they have to admit that these remarks are very bold. On the one hand, you can't say that she was wrong, but on the other hand, this is indeed not the kind of point of view that people can accept.

Of course, Duanmu Ai doesn’t care about this.

At this moment, Takamaki Xing sighed.

 “I think...maybe we really did something wrong?”

"what are you saying?"

 Sakamoto Ryuji stared at Takamaki Anzu dissatisfied.

“Don’t you think we shouldn’t do this? Shouldn’t we send that **** Kamoshida to jail? And that liar Madarame!”

"I don't mean that, I mean... think about it carefully, the reason why we have to deal with Kamoshida is because we ourselves are threatened by Kamoshida, right? The situation at that time was that if we didn't resist, Kamoshida would They forced us to drop out of school...that’s why we fought against Kamoshida, right?”

"so what?"

"But...after that, I think everyone's minds seem to have changed, especially you, Ryuji, you seem to think that with this kind of power, we should mind our own business..."

"How can we call it nosy? We are fighting for justice! Moreover, wasn't it because of us that Yusuke learned the truth and was liberated from Madarame?"

“But, what is our purpose? What exactly is the Phantom Thieves trying to do?”

Takamaki Anzu also raised his head at this moment and looked at Sakamoto Ryuuji.

"On the website, everyone wants us to solve the troubles and injustices they encounter. Why? Just because we are the Phantom Thieves? What do they think of us? Ryuji, we risk our lives to do this, but All I got was gratitude and thanks - they didn't even know who we were... I felt like that was wrong."

“What? Do you mean we need to charge for helping others?”

Hearing this, Sakamoto Ryuji also darkened his face.

"No, I just feel that... there is something wrong with our current situation. Those people support us and appreciate us, and we just go as they say... It seems that now, we are also thinking about how to deal with those who are more serious. A well-known person, and then making a name for the Phantom Thieves... I don’t think this is what we should do.”

 “What? Are you scared? Want to quit? Coward!”

　　Hearing Takamaki Anzu's answer, Sakamoto Ryuuji snorted softly and spoke. And upon hearing Sakamoto Ryuji's words, Takamaki Anzu suddenly raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, I may be a coward, but I am much better than a fool like you! You have no brain at all and have no idea what you are doing!"

 After saying this, Takamaki Xing stood up angrily and walked out of the family restaurant. Looking at Takamaki An's retreating back and Sakamoto Ryuuji's nonchalant look, Ren Amamiya and Kitagawa Yusuke looked at each other, and then sighed.

How could things become like this?

Angrily walked out of the restaurant, Takamaki Xing gritted his teeth and felt angry inside. After getting Madarame to repent, Takamaki Anzu found that the atmosphere in the Phantom Thieves had become a little strange. They cared more and more about what people said on the Internet, and were even willing to "sanction" someone through requests on some websites.

 Maybe others didn’t notice it, but as a model, Takamaki Anzu instinctively sensed the danger. After all, she has been in this industry for a long time, and she knows what it means to be praised more highly, and she will suffer more miserably. Is it really a good thing to blindly follow the public’s wishes?

 Takamaki Anzu doesn’t see it that way.

 “Tick tock…tick tock…”

At this moment, Takamaki Xing felt a cold touch on her face. She raised her head and saw raindrops falling from the sky. So Takamaki Anzu hurriedly put on her hood and jogged all the way to a nearby station. When she took off her hood, she saw a familiar figure not far away.

 “Classmate Duanmu.”

 “Hello, Gao Juan.”

Hearing Gao Juanxing's voice, Duanmu Ai turned around and nodded to her.

"How will you be here?"

"I... was at a party with other people just now, and I am planning to go home now. What about you?"

“Something happened. I just went to the police station.”

Speaking of this, Duanmu Ai frowned. She didn't go to the police station for anything else. It was Dot who contacted her, and the reason why she came to the police station was very simple, that is, the fat short guy who was arrested before was in prison. Died - the cause of death appears to be purely physical.

To be honest, this may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but the problem is that according to the clues collected before, there is a big fish behind this guy.

Furthermore, Dot also told her that a few days after Fatty was arrested, the apartment where he lived caught fire.

It’s hard not to think there’s something wrong with this.

  It is a pity that, at least on the surface, there is nothing wrong with all this. The autopsy results were normal. The fire in the apartment was caused by a short circuit in the wires. There was no sign of arson. It can only be said that it was quite unlucky...

Originally, Dot wanted Duanmu Ai to investigate by the way, but Duanmu Ai was not interested in adding more workload to herself. After all, she had to go to the subspace for a period of time through TV after returning home every day to conduct investigations, so she naturally had no intention of working overtime on her own.

 “That’s it…”

Takamaki Anzu didn’t know what to say, so she could only respond casually, and then fell into silence. The two of them just looked at the street in front of them. At the same time, heavy rain poured down, hitting the surroundings, and the whole world seemed to be isolated by a rain curtain.

 “Duanmu classmate...”

 Takamaki Xing seemed to have mustered up the courage now and looked at Duanmu Ai.

"I would like to ask...what do you think of the Phantom Thieves?" "Isn't my attitude made clear on the show?"

“That’s not what I meant, I meant...what do you think the Phantom Thieves will become in the future? There are more and more people supporting the Phantom Thieves online..."

"after?"

Facing Takamaki Xing’s inquiry, Duanmu Ai glanced at her.

"There will be no future. The Phantom Thieves will be finished sooner or later. No matter how many people support them, it will be useless."

"Useless?"

"That's right, as I said, only those who are cowards, who dare not formally realize reality, and dare not stand up to fight on their own, will support the Phantom Thieves. But cowards are cowards. No matter how fierce they shout online, in reality they are still They are useless trash. Even if I hang the Phantom Thieves in front of them, these guys who are called free-spirited on the Internet will definitely not dare to let go of anything."

Having said this, Duanmu Ai snorted softly.

"In the final analysis, they just regard the Phantom Thieves as their psychological sustenance, just like Cinderella in the fairy tale. They always dream that one day Prince Charming will rescue them from the sea of ​​misery - but the reason why fairy tales are fairy tales is because of them. It’s an illusion. There’s no prince on a white horse coming to save anyone unless they’re willing to stand up on their own, and if they continue to choose to kneel – then kneel, that’s it.”

Speaking of this, Duanmu Ai remembered Zorro, a TV series he had watched before. Zorro in it was a character who punished evil and promoted good. Whenever people were abused by the Spanish colonists, he would appear to help the people fight against the colonists. , and left after defeating the colonists.

Of course, at the time, the plot was very enjoyable, but it was useless.

After Zorro left, didn’t those people remain the same?

The same goes for heroes in martial arts novels. Punishing corrupt officials and saving people may seem cool, but what’s the use?

 Now that the hero is gone, won’t the people still live in dire straits?

 If you have the ability, you can lead a group of people to revolt?

 Because of the great ambition of sacrifice, I dare to teach the sun and the moon to change the sky.

 You don’t even have this ability, so what’s the use of walking around like a lone ranger?

Of course, if you can be like D and one person is more powerful than a city, then that is another matter.

 But in fact, even D found a lot of people to formulate new rules and order, and then led this team to fight all over the world, thus laying a new foundation for the civilized society of the current human world.

So Duanmu Ai sincerely despises Grand Theft Auto and Phantom Thieves. In her opinion, this kind of thing simply satisfies their own psychology of punishing evil and promoting good, but in fact it does not really bring about any change.

It's like a neighborhood where crime is rampant and gangs are fighting. The so-called hero comes forward, that is, defeats a few gang bosses and stops the gang fighting.

 But will this solve the problem?

Of course not. To fundamentally solve the problem, we must provide more jobs for this neighborhood, reduce the unemployment rate, and improve public security. This will prevent new gangs from emerging and continuing to fight. Can a hero do this? Can Rogue do it? Can the Phantom Thief do it?

 It can’t be done.

 This is why Duanmu Ai said that the existence of the Phantom Thieves is meaningless at all. They can only change individual cases, but not the environment. The inability to change the environment means that a large number of cases will continue to appear, and they will only be exhausted and eventually die of exhaustion.

Like the previous school bullying incident, the teacher involved went in, but what’s the use? Without a proper set of rules and regulations to complete the guarantee, who knows how many similar things will happen in the future. Will they all be handled by the Phantom Thieves?

 So, it is not Batman, Robin, or Zorro who maintain law and order, but the police.

 It can be seen that procedural justice and result justice are equally important.

Every time Duanmu Huai issued an extermination order, he had to stamp it, and the Inquisition did not say that he would just casually label people as heretics without asking any questions.

 The process that needs to be followed still needs to be followed.

So the reason why the Inquisition rarely interferes in the internal affairs of other countries is this. This is really a long and arduous task, and the Inquisition has no time to do this kind of thing. So as long as the other party doesn't involve heretics, aliens and demons. No matter how cruel and inhumane the other party's rule is, it has nothing to do with the Inquisition.

 But on the other hand, as long as you have anything to do with these three, regardless of the fact that you have many countries and people in peace, the Tribunal will praise you.

　　　…………”

Hearing Duanmu Ai's words, Takamaki Xing was absent-minded for a moment. She didn't know how long it took. When she came back to her senses, she realized that the girl beside her had disappeared, and not far away, a bus was slowly coming. Coming.

Perhaps, I really have to consider whether I should continue to stay in the Phantom Thieves.

Takamaki Anzu got on the bus while thinking about this problem.

Just when Takamaki Anzu was worried about whether she should continue to stay in the Phantom Thieves, Duanmu Ai, who had returned to the office at this moment, was looking at the big TV in front of her with a twitching face and the indescribable sounds coming from it. .

 “Ah~~It’s so hot~~~It’s so hot~~~”

A young man wearing only a loincloth was posing and squirming in the TV screen.

"What should I do with my extremely hot body? Now that it has become like this, I have no choice but to go deeper... Break! Enter! Let's go!"

While shouting, this lunatic turned around and rushed into the door in front of him. Then, the TV screen turned dark again.

　Until then, Lumière tilted her head and looked at Duanmu Ai in confusion.

“Your Majesty, is this late-night television?”

"I guess so………"

Duanmu Ai helplessly stretched out her hand to hold her forehead and sighed silently.

"Obviously, this man should also be someone's soul projection..."

 “Are you going to help?”

　　　…………”

Facing Lumière’s inquiry, Duanmu Ai remained silent for a moment.

"No."

 Then she gave her answer.

"I think they can solve this problem themselves - or, it would be better if he died..."

 (End of this chapter)