At the entrance of an ordinary subway station somewhere in Tokyo, the sweet voice of the broadcast system mechanically announced the station name.
Toyokawa Sakiko stood quietly at the edge of the surging crowd, her blue hair stirring lightly in the breeze.
According to the资料 in the Otherworld Navigation App, entering any subway entrance in the Cognitive World would transfer you into Mementos.
Because in Tokyo, Mementos took the form of a vast subway network coiled beneath the city.
And Mementos—the so-called "Impression Space"—was where the collective unconscious was stored.
In other words: everyone's Palaces.
In the Cognitive World, "Shadows" could be divided into three stages based on their independence.
Stage One:
Shadows roaming the subway network—free-floating negative emotions produced by the collective unconscious, aggregating into forms.
In the real world, they did not correspond to any specific individual, so defeating them would not cause anyone to become a "vegetable."
Stage Two:
Those with intense desires could break away from the collective unconscious and form independent Shadows. These often possessed their own exclusive rooms within the subway network.
Destroying this type of Shadow would directly cause the corresponding person in reality to lose all desire—resulting in "vegetablization."
The app's advice for these was: beat them up, untie the knot in their heart, and let the Shadow return to the collective unconscious.
Stage Three:
Like her father, Toyokawa Kiyotsugu—someone whose overwhelming desire completely escaped the restraints of the collective unconscious, forming an independent Palace at the location of their obsession in the real world.
It was important to note: these three stages were only a classification by independence; they did not represent a Shadow's strength.
Everything in the Cognitive World came from mass perception.
Perhaps influenced by the national-level game Dragon Quest, the Cognitive World operated under the idea that defeating Shadows could yield money, items, and even strengthen Personas.
Sakiko's goal today was extremely clear: using the power of her hybrid doppelganger, she would slaughter large numbers of wandering Shadows in the subway network, quickly amass cash, and—while she was at it—level up her initial Persona, Icarus.
In a gap between the waves of commuters, a chat-group pop-up suddenly appeared, hovering before Sakiko, who had been waiting for a long time.
[Notice]
[The group leader requests to travel to your world. Allow?]
[Yes / No]
Sakiko's gaze sharpened; her heartbeat sped up slightly.
Before today, she'd been nothing more than an ordinary person with no supernatural power. And now she was about to meet an existence that could overturn her entire world with ease—of course she was nervous.
She took a deep breath and forced herself calm. She didn't tap [Yes] immediately—instead, she quickly launched the Otherworld Navigation App and entered the Cognitive World first.
The familiar vertigo surged in.
The noisy voices of the crowd, the thunder of a train arriving, the car horns from the street corner—everything vanished in an instant.
The world was stripped of its vivid outer layer, coated in a dull, ashen filter.
Only the subway entrance behind her radiated an intense sense of presence now—like a garish stroke of bright oil paint embedded in a faded canvas.
Sakiko glanced back at the glow of the station entrance. According to the app, entering that station would lead her into Mementos.
Facing forward again, she hesitated no longer. Her fingertip precisely tapped the floating window's [Yes].
In the next instant, a very ordinary figure appeared before her—
It was Eisen.
"Welcome, Group Leader!"
Sakiko tried to keep her voice steady, but the slight tension in her shoulders still betrayed a hint of stiffness.
A gentle smile rose on Eisen's face. He nodded, his voice as soothing as a warm afternoon breeze.
"No need to be so formal, Sakiko. But before we test anything, let me first get a feel for this world."
As he spoke, he released the perception he had been suppressing.
A torrent of information flooded his consciousness in an instant.
Mm. A dual-world structure.
Above the material world lay a spiritual dimension formed by humanity's collective consciousness—what Sakiko had called the Cognitive World.
And more than that: an "Alaya-like" collective will had already been born here—a self-aware core of aggregated intent. For the Cognitive World, it was likely something like a god.
But in the end, it was merely a collective consciousness of a planet-surface-level civilization. It couldn't even interfere with the material world.
When using the First Flame to rewind the world, there was no need to account for such a minor god at all.
After confirming there were no hidden risks on the "world-rewind" front, Eisen's gaze returned to Sakiko, still gentle as ever.
"All right. Call out your hybrid doppelganger."
"Yes!"
Sakiko's expression tightened. No dragging her feet, no wasted movement.
She focused slightly. With a shift of intent, a figure appeared soundlessly at her side—identical in face to her.
The difference was that this Sakiko wore a sharply tailored pure-black suit, her posture straight, her eyes keen as a blade.
However, the moment the doppelganger manifested, Eisen—still keeping his perception open—let his eyes settle on "Hybrid Sakiko." His brow lifted almost imperceptibly, as though he'd noticed something interesting.
Then he chuckled easily.
"Mm. Interesting. If I'm not mistaken, when this doppelganger uses Blood Rage, it shouldn't cause you any trouble at all."
"Huh?"
At his words, a clear confusion flickered across Sakiko's pale-gold eyes.
"Try it first," Eisen said, catching her doubt. His smile stayed mild, his tone calm—oddly reassuring.
"Don't worry. If there's a real problem, I'll step in."
With Eisen's assurance, Sakiko steadied herself and took a deep breath, her gaze instinctively sliding to her left wrist.
Beneath her school uniform cuff, a cheap glass-bead bracelet rested quietly against her skin.
She'd bought it specifically on Rin's advice—and earlier, she'd also purchased Ominous Premonition from the group shop.
In theory, when facing danger, the glass beads would crack, and the number of beads that broke would indicate the severity of the threat.
Now she planned to use it as a "divination tool," imagining in her mind that she would have the hybrid doppelganger trigger First-Stage Blood Rage.
The beads remained still.
Second stage. Third stage.
The bracelet stayed quiet as ever.
Even when she imagined having the hybrid doppelganger skip first and second stage entirely and forcibly plunge straight into the taboo of Third-Stage Blood Rage, the glass beads still showed no reaction at all.
Sakiko's thoughts churned.
Was it really as the group leader said—that Blood Rage carried no hidden dangers on this doppelganger?
Or was it simply because Eisen was here—so even if something went wrong, he could cover it?
Either way, it meant she was not in danger.
And Toyokawa Sakiko had never been the indecisive type.
Having confirmed safety, she formally issued the command.
"Third-Stage Blood Rage—activate immediately!"
The hybrid Sakiko's body convulsed violently. Her suit was instantly torn apart by swelling mass, scraps exploding outward like black butterflies.
Countless gray-black dragon scales with a metallic sheen erupted from beneath her skin!
They didn't merely spread across the surface—they hardened, extended, and interlocked at high speed, biting into each other like plates being assembled.
In the blink of an eye, an entire set of savage, heavy dragon-scale exoskeletal armor covered her from head to toe.
With a bone-grinding screech, her frame grew visibly, surging up to one meter eighty in an instant.
Her pupils contracted. Cold golden slit-eyes replaced human irises. Along the edge of her once-delicate face, jagged draconic bone contours punched through skin, carving sharp, chiseled lines.
From the ends of her scale-covered fingers, claws snapped out—glinting with lethal frost-brightness.
Her knees cracked with a sickening pop, completing a full reverse-jointed transformation into a true draconic hind-limb structure—packed with feral explosive power.
A heavy, berserk pressure burst outward. An invisible shockwave crushed and spread from her as the center!
Eisen stood motionless. Not even the hem of his coat fluttered. He watched the draconic metamorphosis with obvious interest.
But Sakiko—Sakiko's true body—couldn't ignore that terrifying draconic pressure.
"Ugh…!"
A muffled, painful sound squeezed out of her throat.
Almost the instant the dragon might erupted, her beautiful pale-gold eyes ignited into blazing, radiant Golden Eyes!
The light and shadow across her face warped—then Icarus, in the form of a gorgeous mask, flashed into existence, tightly covering the upper half of her face.
Her everyday school uniform was engulfed in a brilliant scarlet flame that ignited out of nowhere, transforming instantly into Ave Mujica's gothic, ornate stage costume—her battle-state marker within the Cognitive World!
Even so, the oppressive pressure still forced her body to wobble; she had to step back half a pace to stabilize herself.
Her long blue hair whipped wildly in the unseen airflow, the skirts and edges of her stage outfit trembling as if being shredded by a gale.
She didn't have the luxury to care.
All her attention locked onto the doppelganger—and her left wrist.
But just as Eisen had said—and just as the silent glass-bead bracelet had foreshadowed—there were no signs of loss of control. Apart from the drastic change in form and raw power, nothing else happened.
No berserk killing intent eroding her mind.
No immense physical burden from Blood Rage.
Not even the slightest trace of sliding toward becoming a Dead Servant.
This doppelganger, pushed to the extreme of Third-Stage Blood Rage, retained absolute obedience to Sakiko's will. The golden slit-pupils were cold, but disciplined.
That monstrous body stood steady—like it could fight all day without tiring.
She could even faintly sense it:
Third stage still hadn't reached this body's limit.
Try it?
The moment the thought surfaced, she acted on it.
Without the slightest hesitation, her eyes sharpened and she issued an even deeper command:
"Fourth-Stage Blood Rage—open!"
Hybrid—let me see where your limit really is!
A more shrieking sound of rupture tore through the air. The thick gray-black scales covering the doppelganger's body shattered and detonated, piece by piece!
Fragments of scale mixed with scorching dragon blood, blasting outward like bullets in every direction!
With a scalp-prickling sound of muscle tearing, two massive pairs of dragon wings ripped from her back, tearing through flesh and bursting through the remaining armor. They unfolded with the force of a dragon tearing free of a cocoon—so vast they blotted out the sky.
Each wing spread easily exceeded two meters. The wing membranes were a pure, vivid azure, threaded with complex silver-white energy patterns—like a galaxy flowing across the night.
Her height surged again, crossing an astonishing two meters thirty in a blink.
Her scales completed a total molt. The gray-black vanished completely, replaced by a deep, noble azure like boundless sky itself.
The huge wings slowly folded, draping elegantly behind her. Their edges glittered with a razor-cold sheen—like a king's majestic blue cloak.
The draconic bone structure on her face continued to swell and warp, sealing her right eye entirely beneath heavy armor. Only the left eye remained—its golden slit blazing like a sun.
Her mouth split backward with a ripping grin all the way toward her ears, exposing rows of interlocking, icy-sharp fangs.
Above her head, two thick, curved azure horns punched through the armor and rose proudly—like a crown.
The katana clenched in her hand seemed to come alive. It melted instantly, flowed like liquid metal, and fused completely into her left forearm beneath the savage scales—
Finally solidifying into a streamlined, murderous azure energy arm-blade.
Her legs' reverse-jointed structure became even more exaggerated. Her feet abandoned human shape entirely, transforming into massive dragon talons plated with thicker scales, the hooked claw tips like curved daggers. The sheer weight of her body drove those talons into the ground of the Cognitive World, carving deep gouges.
Behind her, a dragon tail—covered in azure scales and studded with sharp bone spines—swung slowly. It was nearly four meters long, each motion shrieking through the air like a tearing whistle.
Across the azure exoskeletal armor were multiple structures resembling engine nozzles.
Now, those vents intermittently spat out visible strands of blue exhaust-like airflow, hot enough to distort the air. A low, continuous hum rumbled from her body—like the breathing of a sleeping behemoth.
The fourth-stage hybrid doppelganger stood there in silence.
Just looking at her was enough to make Sakiko understand what pure violence meant.
She even felt that with this terrifying power… maybe she really could cross a 256-fold gap and forcefully defeat her father's Shadow.
But why?
Why did her doppelganger's reality conflict so violently with the chat group's information about how dangerous Blood Rage was?
To be honest, it made her confidence in the chat group's authority start to waver.
Right as Sakiko's thoughts roiled, Eisen—who had been watching the whole time—spoke at exactly the right moment.
"Looks like it's just as I suspected."
His gaze shifted from the monstrous hybrid doppelganger back to Sakiko's masked face.
"The moment I saw what your doppelganger really is, I noticed something off. She's been… completed."
"Completed?"
Sakiko tilted her head unconsciously, confusion seeping from behind the mask through those golden eyes.
She'd never heard that term before. It was outside her knowledge.
"Yes. Completed," Eisen said firmly.
"Your hybrid doppelganger—back in her original world—most likely established a fate-level connection with a higher-order draconic existence. Something like symbiosis… or subordination. That superior dragon is probably an essential support pillar of her strength now—an irreplaceable component in her power system."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 30
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 30
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