At the entrance to the seaside villa, Xia Zili and Ke Mingqing stared blankly at each other.
The brother and sister froze in place. Bright, sweltering sunlight beat down on them, the overlapping roar of cicadas and crashing waves leaving them in a daze.
Kuroki Hitomi fell silent.
She stood at the door, quietly watching Ke Mingqing. A trace of confusion flickered across her small face, accentuated by a teardrop mole. After a long moment, she sent him a message through the player panel.
[Kuroki Hitomi: So when you said your sister was a magical girl earlier, you meant Magical Girl Ember?]
An Youlu rested her chin on her hand. She looked at Xia Zili's astonished face, then turned to glance at Ke Mingqing. She hadn't expected Miss Kuroki's boyfriend to actually know Xia Zili. It seemed the world really was incredibly small.
An Youlu remained expressionless, but she lowered her head and let out a soft sigh.
Why does this pig who stole our young miss know Senior Ember? she lamented inwardly. And more importantly, why is this pig actually wearing one of Senior's fan T-shirts? That's the weirdest part of all.
She took two steps forward and lowered her voice to ask Xia Zili, "Senior, you actually know him?"
As she spoke, An Youlu's bright, dark eyes remained fixed on the side of Ke Mingqing's face.
"Come on, she's my younger sister. How could I not know her?" Ke Mingqing turned his head to meet her gaze.
An Youlu ignored him, as if waiting to hear the answer straight from Xia Zili's mouth.
"Yeah, he's my brother." Xia Zili frowned, lowering her small face and turning her head. "It's not like I can deny..." Her voice suddenly cut off, the last word catching deep in her throat.
Only then did she finally get a clear look at exactly what kind of T-shirt Ke Mingqing was wearing.
Looking as if she had just seen a ghost, she silently cast a sidelong glance, fixing her eyes on the shirt.
On the front of the T-shirt was an image of a girl in a gothic dress. Her arms were crossed, her head turned to gaze out at the distant horizon. The girl's eyes were melancholic and distant, the sea breeze catching the hair by her ears.
A sudden smack rang out as Xia Zili slapped her own forehead hard.
She shook her head, seriously suspecting that she was either at the end of her lifespan or suffering from heatstroke to be seeing such a mirage. Why on earth was something this bizarre happening? Why had her own brother shown up at her magical girl colleague's house wearing a fan T-shirt printed with her own picture?
Fortunately, a cool breeze blew in from the coast just then, lifting Xia Zili's skirt and hair, gently dispelling the dizzying summer heat.
She let out a long sigh, her complexion softening slightly.
I definitely saw that wrong. I must have seen it wrong...
With that thought in mind, Xia Zili took a deep breath to brace herself. She blinked and looked forward once more.
She saw Ke Mingqing turn halfway around as he explained his relationship with Xia Zili to An Youlu and Kuroki Hitomi.
An Youlu listened in half-doubt, while Kuroki Hitomi nodded continuously.
Because his back was facing Xia Zili, the design on the back of his T-shirt caught her eye in the sunlight.
Magical Girl Ember held up a black umbrella with one hand, while her other formed a finger-gun. At the same time, she gave a very reluctant wink.
The design directly faced Xia Zili, making it look as though Magical Girl Ember were winking right at her, the index-finger pistol aiming straight at her.
It felt as if her past self had pulled the trigger, only for the bullet to strike her future self squarely between the eyes two years later.
Xia Zili was stunned.
She froze in place like an ice sculpture.
In a second—just a single second—her face flushed crimson from forehead to chin, her ears turning blood-red.
At that moment, she resembled a broken robot, her head practically venting steam with a hiss.
A moment later, she suddenly raised her hand and gripped Ke Mingqing's shoulder tightly. Utilizing the outstanding physical strength of a magical girl, she forcefully dragged him aside.
Seeing Ke Mingqing being hauled away, Kuroki Hitomi and An Youlu exchanged a glance, a strange expression in both their eyes.
Kuroki Hitomi thought for a moment before whispering, "Shall we go inside first and let the siblings talk?"
"All right. It's too hot out here; we can't let you stay outside, Miss Kuroki, or you'll get heatstroke," An Youlu nodded.
"Why do you look so disappointed?"
"It's nothing," An Youlu shook her head. "I just never expected my best friend to be the younger sister of the Young Miss's boyfriend. This relationship is really making me feel conflicted."
She now had no idea whether she should hate the boy who had stolen her Young Miss away or not.
She had originally planned to fly to his house on a sleigh one night and use her identity as magical girl Little Red Riding Hood to deliver a "Christmas present"—serving as a physical threat to make him leave Miss Kuroki alone.
If he adamantly refused to leave, she would activate Plan B: the assassination plot. As a magical girl, assassinating a muggle would be child's play, though killing someone carried the risk of corrupting her into a witch. Still, for the sake of the Young Miss's safety and happiness, she wouldn't have minded falling and becoming a witch.
But Little Red Riding Hood had never imagined that the Young Miss's boyfriend would turn out to be her senior's family member. Now, all of her plans were dead in the water.
"It is a bit..." Kuroki Hitomi agreed softly, then turned and walked back into the villa.
The front doors remained wide open for the two out on the coastal road, the bells at the entrance swaying gently in the sea breeze.
"What exactly do you want?" Ke Mingqing sighed helplessly, leaning against the guardrail of the coastal road.
Her face flushed red, Xia Zili interrogated him, emphasizing every word. "Setting aside why you're here, what in the world are you wearing?"
"A fan T-shirt. It was really expensive, and you almost tore it."
"Take it off."
"Are you sick in the head?"
"Didn't I tell you not to buy it?" Xia Zili's voice grew cold. "I even said I would disown you as my brother if you did. Why don't you respect me at all?"
"What does it matter to you who I like?" Ke Mingqing retorted dismissively.
Xia Zili suddenly froze. The sea breeze lifted the hair by her ears, letting it fall against her cheeks. The fine hairs on the girl's forehead swayed in the wind like bird feathers.
She lowered her eyes and then raised them again, looking at Ke Mingqing as she stammered, "W-Wait until you find out who exactly it is you like! You're definitely going to regret it!"
"Then I'll just regret it when the time comes."
Both of them fell silent. The sea breeze gently brushed across their cheeks, and a yellow bus drove past along the coastal road.
"Whatever... I don't care about you anymore," Xia Zili said softly after a long pause.
Ke Mingqing sighed. "You were being too nosy in the first place."
Xia Zili glared at him, then thought for a moment. "Getting back on topic, why are you here?"
"I came to hang out at my girlfriend's house," Ke Mingqing answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Xia Zili was slightly stunned. After a long moment, she recovered her wits and looked straight into Ke Mingqing's eyes.
"...Girlfriend?"