"You seem to really dislike Bronya, constantly interrupting and preventing the other Seele from talking to Bronya... It seems you've inherited Seele's dissatisfaction towards Bronya, while the other Seele inherited the intimacy towards Bronya."
Ren Amamiya ignored Veliona's overly exaggerated performance. Recalling the situation he had observed earlier, he made a thoughtful deduction.
"....."
Veliona's body suddenly froze on the spot. Her blood-red eyes unnaturally averted their gaze.
Although she didn't reply to Ren Amamiya, Veliona's behavior clearly indicated that Ren Amamiya's deduction had hit the bullseye.
"I-Is that so? My other self, do you hate Sister Bronya?"
Noticing Veliona fall into a guilty silence under Ren Amamiya's words, Seele, who had regained control of her body, blinked her ocean-blue eyes and cautiously asked her other self.
"....."
Facing Seele's inquiry, Veliona didn't react at all, as if she had disconnected.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'another Seele'? Don't tell me there's more than one Seele?!"
Listening to the conversation between Ren Amamiya and Seele, Bronya felt her brain, which had become sluggish from staying up all night, go completely blank, as if it had crashed.
Ren Amamiya and Seele seemed to be talking about something only they knew, while Bronya felt excluded, unable to enter their exclusive channel no matter what, unable to understand what exactly had happened to Seele.
"Just as you understand it, this is also one of the side effects of Cocolia's human experiments on Seele."
Ren Amamiya shifted his gaze from Seele and explained to the still bewildered Bronya.
As Seele's close older sister in the orphanage, Bronya naturally needed to know everything that had happened to Seele.
"I awakened before that damn experiment. Cocolia's damn human experiment on Seele only further accelerated my awakening process and enhanced the power I control..."
The azure eyes were quietly tinged with crimson. Veliona came back online, her lips curled in disdain as she retorted to Ren Amamiya.
Although Cocolia's human experiments had greatly increased Veliona's power, because forcibly developing Seele's potential endangered Seele's life, Veliona clearly held no goodwill towards Cocolia.
Before Veliona was "another Seele," she was Seele's Shadow. It was only because of Cocolia's human experiments that she was split off. The Shadow was born earlier than Seele underwent human experimentation; this wasn't something to be surprised about.
"To put it simply, there are now two Seeles. One is gentle and likes you, the other is irritable and dislikes you... or rather, is jealous of you."
Ren Amamiya explained Seele's current situation to Bronya.
Recalling the Will Seed of Envy he had collected in Seele's Palace, Ren Amamiya specifically added a supplement for Bronya.
"----Who said I'm jealous of Bronya?!"
Ren Amamiya's added sentence was like detonating a landmine, instantly causing Veliona to react violently, like a cat whose fur stood on end. She widened her eyes, baring her teeth and claws, and shouted at Ren Amamiya, her ferocity belying her inner weakness.
...Seeing Veliona's such obvious and direct reaction, Ren Amamiya finally understood where the deadly sin of Envy in Seele's Palace came from.
"So, there really are two Seeles..."
Quietly listening to Ren Amamiya's explanation, Bronya raised a hand to her forehead. Her somewhat chaotic thoughts finally began to settle down.
She gradually began to accept reality.
Back in the orphanage, Seele had vaguely shown two different styles of behavior. Now, the situation had merely intensified, directly evolving into a split into two Seeles.
The thought that the gentle Seele from the past, who liked her and whom she also liked, still existed.
Seele hadn't completely given up on herself and neared a mental breakdown due to the dark and hopeless time in the Sea of Quanta, nor had she developed a closer relationship with Ren Amamiya than with herself, as she had previously feared.
A strong sense of relief and contentedness suddenly welled up in Bronya's heart.
"Sister Bronya, like this... will Seele seem very strange?"
Her biggest secret having been revealed to Bronya by Ren Amamiya, a worried expression, fraught with gains and losses, appeared on Seele's exquisite, flawless face. She spoke softly and cautiously to Bronya.
During their time in the orphanage, Seele wasn't able to accept Veliona's existence as she did now. She could even be said to be very resistant to this other self, who exuded strong malice like a "demon."
But no matter how much Seele resisted, Veliona was still another self within her heart. She couldn't abandon Veliona.
In the eyes of others in the orphanage, Seele was probably like an unstable bomb suffering from symptoms of schizophrenia.
Therefore, to maintain her image in Sister Bronya's heart, Seele had hidden Veliona's existence from Bronya, fearing that Bronya would distance herself because of Veliona.
"No... Bronya is very happy. Seele is still the Seele Bronya knows. Welcome back, Bronya has finally found Seele."
Bronya shook her head gently, her calm voice carrying a hint of relaxation and joy. She slowly raised her slender white arms, and just as she had done in the orphanage in the past, she opened her arms to embrace Seele.
Great, the Seele from the past is back!
Back... huh?
Bronya maintained her posture of open arms, wanting to embrace Seele. However, Seele's pupils were instantly dyed crimson. She nimbly dodged Bronya's embrace and, with a swift movement, hid behind Ren Amamiya.
Gazing at Veliona, who peeked out from behind Ren Amamiya's lower back, a smug and mocking expression on her delicate face.
Bronya remained frozen in her air-hugging posture for a few seconds.
Then, she coughed lightly as if nothing had happened, slowly lowered her outstretched arms, and sat back down at the dining table. She quickly typed a few times on the laptop keyboard, her eyes fixed on the computer screen, as if she had discovered some negative comments and was now launching a fierce counterattack to defend Ren Amamiya's Phantom Aficionado Website.
...Alright, now is now. It's still different from before.
Bronya suddenly felt somewhat fortunate that she had lost the ability to express emotions, becoming a kuudere with a deadpan face incapable of any expression.
Otherwise, Bronya couldn't imagine how awkward she would have been just now.
Or perhaps, it was already awkward enough. So awkward that Bronya wished she could dig a three-bedroom apartment out of the ground with her toes and move in at lightning speed.
"Ah, I'm sorry, Sister Bronya! My other self, please stop throwing tantrums at Sister Bronya..."
Seele stepped out from behind Ren Amamiya with a panicked expression. She nervously clenched her small fists in front of her chest, trying to mediate the conflict between her other self and Sister Bronya.
Unlike the situation in the Sea of Quanta before, it wasn't Veliona clinging to Seele's body now. Instead, Veliona had proactively, through a bug-like method that even surprised Ren Amamiya, allowed Seele to occupy this body projected by Ren Amamiya into the real world.
Therefore, in terms of control over the body, Veliona had even stronger control over this body than Seele did.
Of course, Ren Amamiya's control over Seele's body was even stronger than Veliona's.
After all, he was the true Persona user.
"Big Brother Ren, please talk to my other self. She's completely ignoring me now..."
Seele tried to mediate with Veliona within her heart, but Veliona completely pretended not to hear Seele's words, acting as if she didn't exist and giving Seele no reaction.
The only one who could directly manage Veliona was Ren Amamiya, who had signed a contract with her.
Therefore, after Veliona unilaterally disconnected, Seele subconsciously lifted her delicate, fair face and naturally asked Ren Amamiya beside her for help.
Crack----!!!
Listening to Seele's extremely natural plea for help to Ren Amamiya, her tone revealing a deep and profound sense of attachment and trust.
Bronya's slender finger, pressing the mouse, inadvertently applied a bit too much force, nearly breaking the mouse button.
Damn it. Now, not only the other Seele, but even the original Seele can't go back...
A wave of sorrow washed over Bronya's heart.
While typing on the keyboard, working for Ren Amamiya to maintain the Phantom Aficionado Website, she felt a strong sense of loss due to Seele's subconscious display of dependence on Ren Amamiya.
In the orphanage, Seele would only show this subconscious dependence and attachment to Bronya. But now, there was one more person Seele could intimately depend on... and it was still questionable whether it was just "one more person."
Bronya actually hoped that Seele had merely gained one more person to depend on. That way, at least it wouldn't mean that her unique position in Seele's heart had been replaced by Ren Amamiya.
After all, Ren Amamiya had found Seele in the cold and void-like Sea of Quanta and found a way for Seele to return to the real world.
Bronya hadn't been able to do anything.
Seele's rescue was entirely Ren Amamiya's merit.
It was only natural—and beyond reproach—for Seele to see Ren Amamiya differently because of this, to regard him as her hero.
Although she knew these reasons, a sense of frustration still arose in Bronya's heart.
Her resentment towards Cocolia, who was holed up in the guest room of the Raiden residence, refusing to come out, grew even stronger.
"Veliona, stop messing around. Let them talk properly... Bronya, let me see the current requests on the Phantom Aficionado Website."
Bronya was a key talent helping him maintain the Phantom Aficionado Website. Ren Amamiya naturally didn't want her to be discouraged because of Veliona and lose her motivation.
At Ren Amamiya's request, Veliona pouted impatiently, but in the end, she obediently handed over complete control of the body to Seele, allowing Seele and Bronya to begin their formal conversation.
Ren Amamiya, on the other hand, took the laptop from Bronya and carefully read the mission requests posted by visitors on the newly created Phantom Aficionado Website.
Perhaps because it was just starting out, although visitors had posted mission requests on the new Phantom Aficionado Website, they were mostly trivial matters. There was even a request to find a lost pet cat or dog... This should be a detective's job; phantom thieves didn't do this.
Bronya's programming skills were extremely high. Ren Amamiya only needed to click the mouse lightly to unilaterally accept the mission requests on the Phantom Aficionado Website and create task files locally, eliminating the tedious process of manually recording mission targets.
After some searching and reading, Ren Amamiya only found ten legitimate phantom thief requests. After he completed these requests, and people realized the Phantom Aficionado Website was serious, those joke-like, ridiculous requests flooding the mission board should completely disappear.
If someone dared to mess around on the mission board knowing that Phantom Thief Joker was real, maliciously occupying the channel for victims to send help requests, then Ren Amamiya could only have Bronya use doxxing attacks and personally let the prankster experience the phantom thief's change-of-heart package.
"These ten targets all look like small fries. None of them should have a Palace... After conquering the Herrscher of the Void's Palace, I'll take care of these Shadows in Mementos along the way and make their real-world selves repent."
With the help of Seele and Bronya, Raiden Mei brought out bowls of sumptuous breakfast from the kitchen, soon filling the entire dining table.
Ren Amamiya took a sip of the mackerel miso soup. While enjoying Raiden Mei's improving cooking, with the breakfast dishes tasting more and more to his liking, he spoke to Raiden Mei and Seele at the dining table about his upcoming schedule.
"Before formally exploring the Herrscher of the Void's Palace, I plan to make a trip to the Velvet Room first... Bronya can stay home for now. Maintaining the Phantom Aficionado Website and consolidating Cocolia's remaining Anti-Entropy forces, I'll leave that to you to work hard on."