"S-Self-Doubting Sakuramiya?!"
Petite Hitomi was startled and hastily hid behind Cool Sakuramiya, who was equally fully prepared for battle.
The ears atop Mouse Sakuramiya's head twitched slightly. She looked at them with a confused expression.
"Why... why do you refuse to stay in your own Barriers and insist on running over here?"
"Also, the President knows the true aning of the countdown tir and wants to stop the High Table Dinner. You guys egged him on to do that, did you not?"
Hearing this, Petite Hitomi flew to the top of Cool Sakuramiya's head and earnestly retorted.
"That is not true! The President wants Hitomi back!"
"What is so good about having Hitomi back? She clearly cannot do anything. She is incapable of this and incapable of that..."
Self-Doubting Sakuramiya clutched her chest and muttered.
"The President and all of you just overthink a small problem. You think that if I replace her, it ans killing Hitomi!
"But we are all a part of Hitomi. Even if I replace her, Sakuramiya Hitomi will still be Sakuramiya Hitomi.
"It is nothing more than eliminating everything bad inside her!
"A child breaking bad habits, an adult overcoming their flaws—these are all the exact sa process!
"It is just that we have added the concretized elent of the Barrier into the mix, which is why the President does not understand."
As she spoke, she could not help but take a deep breath before continuing.
"After the High Table Dinner, I will explain everything to the President properly. If he still cannot understand by then, it does not matter."
Listening to her, Petite Hitomi realized sothing. Her pupils shrank, and she asked angrily.
"Are you going to use mory Correction on the President?!"
"That is rely a last resort."
Petite Hitomi wanted to keep arguing, but Cool Sakuramiya had already seen through the essence of Self-Doubting Sakuramiya's actions.
She furrowed her brows and bluntly questioned her.
"So, that is why you want to kill off the rest of us Sakuramiyas who represent Hitomi's flaws?"
"..."
Self-Doubting Sakuramiya paused for a second, took a step back, and shook her head, speaking softly.
"No, I will not kill you with my own hands. I am not as foolish as the previous Perfect Sakuramiya.
"I will let you stay in your own Barriers to spend your final, happy monts, right up until the very end when all the Barriers shatter.
"It will be like a collective euthanasia. This way is much more efficient, is it not?"
Behind her stood the only entrance to the Barrier.
"The sa goes for you two.
"Since you refuse to return to your own Barriers and treat them as your graves, you can just stay here.
"However, I have slowed down the flow of ti in this Barrier countless tis over.
"In just a few hours here, the High Table Gala Dance in reality will begin~"
With that, Self-Doubting Sakuramiya offered an apologetic smile, turned around, and prepared to leave.
"You bastard!! How are you any different from that homicidal maniac, Perfect Sakuramiya?!"
Seeing that Self-Doubting Sakuramiya was going to trap them in here to die, Petite Hitomi shed tears of anger, roaring at her back with all her might.
Hearing this, Self-Doubting Sakuramiya suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Her shoulders trembled slightly. Then, she slowly turned around and stared straight at them.
"No, how could we be the sa?
"She did not do a good enough job, nor did she ever gain the President's favor. She had absolutely no way to replace Hitomi.
"I will be more excellent than her, walk a better path than her, and do things far more perfectly."
With every word she spoke, the mouse ears on her head and the tail behind her grew smaller and smaller.
Watching the mouse ears on her head and the tail behind her completely vanish, the expressions of the two Sakuramiyas changed slightly.
Because, as fellow Persona Masks, they profoundly realized sothing:
The very essence of Self-Doubting Sakuramiya was undergoing a transformation.
Off to the side, the countless television screens replaying scenes of Hitomi's failures were the root of her self-doubt.
And finally, breaking through the soil of that very essence...
Was her inner desire to beco better.
Precisely because she was just a mouse hiding in a wardrobe, she yearned to beco a fox capable of stepping out of those doors.
Precisely because she felt her true nature was so unbearable, she wanted to learn from the surveillance caras footage of the President to change herself, allowing her to perform better in front of him.
Precisely because she was so consud by self-doubt...
She wanted to beco so perfect!
"Rumble!!"
The mouse ears on Self-Doubting Sakuramiya's head and her tail fell away bit by bit. At the sa ti, the entire Barrier belonging to Self-Doubting Sakuramiya was struck by a violent earthquake.
It seed this Barrier had detached, turning into an ownerless public domain.
Because...
The appearance of the Sakuramiya before them had already beco identical to the real Hitomi.
But she was stronger, more elegant...
She was Yan Huan's partner for the High Table Gala Dance. She was the Sakuramiya who could truly replace Hitomi.
"So... the one who was killed before was not the so-called Perfect Sakuramiya at all."
This Sakuramiya—having shed her mouse ears and seemingly stepping into the complete opposite of self-doubt—narrowed her eyes, looked straight at them, and spoke softly.
"I am."
As soon as her voice fell, a terrifyingly short countdown tir, displaying only a few hours, abruptly appeared above the entire Barrier.
"Tick... Tock..."
As the countdown tir ticked down, it corresponded to the sun and moon cycling as if on fast-forward.
Ti was passing day by day.
"Rumble!!"
As the ti for the High Table Dinner in reality drew closer, the earthquakes within the Barrier beca increasingly frequent.
Yet within the Barrier, watching all this unfold, Self-Doubting... no, Perfect Sakuramiya showed no particular expression.
She simply turned around again, grabbed the doorknob, and opened the door.
"Click!"
"Halt!!"
Seeing this, Cool Sakuramiya hurriedly sprinted toward Perfect Sakuramiya amid the violent shaking.
But Perfect Sakuramiya did not even glance at her. She just took a step forward...
And, along with the iron door, completely vanished from the Barrier.
This abandoned, ownerless Barrier had suddenly transford into an indestructible cage.
"Crack!!"
"Dammit!!"
Looking at the violently shaking Barrier around her, Petite Hitomi finally realized sothing.
"Self-Doubting Sakuramiya and Perfect Sakuramiya are two sides of the sa coin of one Sakuramiya, so... killing Perfect Sakuramiya before was completely useless. I... I get it now!!"
Cool Sakuramiya stared at the blood-red countdown tir above, then turned back to look at Petite Hitomi, who was still rooted to the spot.
"What do you get?!"
"Right now, Perfect Sakuramiya's Barrier is in the exact sa location as the previous Perfect Sakuramiya's was. It is on her body!!"
After saying that, Petite Hitomi hurriedly flew onto Cool Sakuramiya and spoke anxiously.
"Quick, take out the surveillance cara! Send this ssage to the President! Even Perfect Sakuramiya will not reject the President. As long as the President touches her Barrier, he can enter it..."
"Even if you say that..."
"Hurry!! We have to let the President enter Perfect Sakuramiya's Barrier before the High Table Gala Dance begins!!"
"The ti dilation here compared to the outside is too massive! Even if you speak, the ssage the President receives might be incredibly blurry. By the ti it is fully transmitted, there probably will not be much ti left."
Petite Hitomi stared blankly at Cool Sakuramiya, but still could not help gritting her teeth as she spoke.
"We still have to try. If the High Table Gala Dance is ruined just like this...
"Hitomi will definitely be very sad."
Seeing this, Cool Sakuramiya sighed, but she still pulled out the surveillance cara.
"We are the ones who will definitely be very sad."
"Tick... Tock..."
As the countdown tir inside the Barrier ticked away second by second, the sun above Linn rose and set as if on fast-forward.
In reality, it was naturally impossible to know about the drastic changes happening to Petite Hitomi and the others inside the Barrier. Yan Huan was simply acting thodically, preparing according to his plan.
Ti passed day by day just like that. Only occasionally would a drawn-out, blurry sound suddenly transmit from the surveillance cara.
Yan Huan did not understand its aning, so he could only carry the surveillance cara on him at all tis, ready to record any ssages that ca through.
"Self..."
"...Doubting..."
"...Is..."
"...Perfect..."
When the fourth word popped out, Yan Huan's pupils shrank sharply, and he stood straight up from his desk.
"Clack."
Nearby, inside Examination Room No. 1 for Class A of the First Year, all the students who were writing rapidly stopped and looked at him.
At the podium, a bald head giving off a faint gleam under the setting sun also had its attention drawn by his sudden movent.
"Hey, hey, Yan Huan, I know you have finished answering, but double-check your work. It is not ti to turn in the papers yet..."
Yan Huan raised his eyes toward the lecture hall. In front of the chalkboard that read "Spring Sester Final Exam
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