Who was it that once said she would absolutely never wear this dress?
Ningning declared she remembered no such thing. That was all a hallucination.
Oh man, this dress was the good stuff.
So amazing.
In over five years since crossing into this other world, it was the first time she'd gotten such a light, blissful experience.
The wind grazing past her ears was no longer a blade that stunned her.
The fluttering of her robe was no longer a cat-treat stick teasing her.
For the first time in five whole years, Ningning felt that this body, with every stat maxed out, truly, wholly, completely belonged to her.
She was riding such a high!
WRYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
And so, while savoring this long-lost freedom with her whole being, Ningning put on a flashy display of tempting fate right in front of the panting Baiye, venting all the resentment she'd stored up over these past few days of being drilled half to death.
At last, the heavenly five-lap run came to an end.
Ningning, who'd crossed the line a full hundred meters ahead, walked up to Baiye, whose breathing had gone completely ragged, bent down, and reached out to pat her head:
"There, there, don't be down, dizziness is perfectly normal."
Having by now firmly concluded there was some trickery afoot, Baiye testily raised an arm and swatted away Ningning's roving hand:
"...Ningning! Are you sick in the head?!"
"Hey, hey, hey, whether I'm sick in the head is a discussion for later."
Perhaps out of a guilty conscience, or perhaps because she knew she'd gone a bit far in her excitement, Ningning didn't fire back at Baiye right away. Instead she crouched down before her and dropped the grinning-monkey act:
"The bet, you're ready to make good on it, right?"
"I bet, and I lost, and I'll take it," Baiye said through gritted teeth.
Ningning gave a heh-heh chuckle:
"See, I knew our honorable Captain wouldn't weasel out."
"I'm not that kind of person!"
"Of course I know that."
Ningning smiled faintly, and at last showed her true aim:
"Then would our honorable Captain please explain: these three days you've spent drilling us here like your life depended on it, was that actually necessary, or were you just venting your resentment?"
The question snapped Baiye awake all at once, but, mule-stubborn as ever, she refused to admit it:
"Of course training you was necessary."
"Really? But if this keeps up, by tomorrow we'll have no money left to eat, no money left for lodging, will we, Captain?"
"Baiye, are you really so certain we can scrape together enough to live on tomorrow, instead of ending up out on the streets?"
"I..."
Baiye wanted to keep talking back, but a familiar scene suddenly surfaced in her mind —
Ningning crumpled boneless on the ground, her fate unknown; the Hero's minced flesh raining down in a dripping shower; Biluo nowhere to be found as usual; leaving only her and a Leilei who clutched her head and sniffled, standing together, struggling not to be broken by these surreal teammates.
This morning, it wasn't as if she hadn't thought about the money problem.
But the moment she recalled being nuzzled all over by a slime-goo-covered Ningning, Baiye got contrary again and decided she didn't care.
She — Captain Baiye — was supposed to be the most reliable one in the whole Hero's Party.
Why?
Why had she suddenly lost control like this?
"...It's all your fault."
So Baiye muttered under her breath.
"Huh? What did you say?"
"I said it's all your fault!"
Hearing this unusually fierce accusation from Baiye, Ningning couldn't help freezing for a second, then thought, sure enough:
"Because I ruined your date outfit a few days ago?"
"Exactly... it is not!"
Baiye nearly got led off track by Ningning, and hurriedly corrected herself:
"That night I didn't sleep a wink. I lay there tossing and turning, thinking for a long time."
"I think you were right; we're comrades, not anything else."
"So I was the one in the wrong, harboring all that resentment toward you."
"I wanted to apologize to you. And to thank you, too."
Baiye's voice dropped lower, carrying her gradually calming breath and a nearly clumsy candor.
She bowed her head, staring at her sweat-soaked toes as if she wanted to dig a coffin in the ground with her foot and bury herself in it:
"So... that morning, I... I just..."
"I just... wanted to show you."
Ningning blinked, and repeated it without thinking:
"Show me?"
"You wanted me to... see?"
"Mm." Baiye nodded, still not daring to look up. "Maybe I just wanted to let you see... me, not the 'captain' me, and not the 'assassin' me. Just... just..."
She drew a deep breath, as if steeling herself with enormous courage, yet her voice came out light as a feather:
"...just me, the way I really am."
"So I worked up the nerve to try it once. Dressing myself up."
"I thought, at the very least I wanted you to feel that... the person apologizing and thanking you looked like... she meant it."
Having said this much, she finally lifted her eyes, her grey gaze looking straight at Ningning, no longer holding its usual sharpness or fury, only a nearly guileless, faintly awkward sincerity.
"And then... you came flying at me." Baiye pursed her lips, that awkwardness now tinged with a touch of childish grievance. "Out of nowhere, covered head to toe in slime goo, and ruined the outfit I'd just changed into, and the courage I'd just worked up... every bit of it."
She gazed into Ningning's eyes, word by word, as if laying out evidence of a crime, or lodging a complaint long pent up in her chest.
Ningning suddenly felt the training ground had gone unnaturally quiet.
In the distance, Leilei had even forgotten to retrieve her blackboard, watching this side warily, holding her very breath.
Wind, carrying stray blades of grass, swirled through the space between the two of them.
Crouched there, the teasing smile that had lingered on Ningning's face from her victory froze solid, then slowly faded away.
She looked at Baiye.
Looked at the sweat-damp hair at her brow, the faint red rimming her eyes, her tightly pressed lips.
Looked at the openness in those clear eyes, and the light in them, a mix of grievance, sincerity, and a little hard-to-untangle resentment.
She opened her mouth to say something, only to find her throat had gone, for some reason, a little dry.
All those reckless taunts, all that idiotic smugness, all those petty little schemes to get back at Baiye, in this moment, they suddenly seemed unbearably childish.
She'd thought she was fighting a beautiful comeback battle.
She'd never imagined that what she'd kicked over was a sincere heart Baiye had cupped in her hands and offered up so carefully.
"...I'm sorry. I did get a bit carried away too."
This time, it was Ningning's voice that dropped low.
Watching the Ningning who'd been so insufferably cocky a moment ago suddenly wilt like a frost-bitten eggplant, Baiye felt a great deal lighter:
"You call that just now 'a bit'?"
"Very, extremely, super, take your pick." Ningning huffed and turned her head away.
"Then let's call it 'a bit.' I don't mind."
Hearing Baiye forgive her so readily, Ningning was overjoyed, never expecting the other still had a second half to her sentence:
"...But Ningning, could you tell me, why did your strength suddenly shoot up so much today?"
Ningning's smile stiffened:
"Did it? I've always been at this level..."
"Is that so? Then why does it feel to me like you turned into a whole different person after you came out of the changing room?"
In Ningning's eyes, Baiye's smile was growing more and more sinister:
"No-no-no-no... no, of course not, how could that be? Really, I've always been at this level, I was just acting before..."
"Acting? Then your acting's awfully good."
Baiye walked up to Ningning with a cold smile and reached out to hook a finger under the pink dress strap peeking out at her shoulder, exposed because Ningning had been too cocky while running:
"If I'm not mistaken, this is the dress that seductive scumbag named Lilith showed me a few days ago, isn't it?"
"And by the feel of it, it seems to be a magic item too."
Seeing her secret already seen through, Ningning broke out in a cold sweat, trembling all over like a leaf.
She knew full well Baiye had misunderstood the effect of this magic underwear, but, terrified the other would detonate a second time if she learned the truth, she didn't dare say a word of it and could only keep playing dumb:
"Ah-ha-ha, I just thought it'd be a shame not to wear it..."
Seeing Ningning caught red-handed yet still stubbornly refusing to repent, Baiye's fury, long since arrived at its peak, finally, utterly erupted:
"Shameless!"
"Come to the changing room with me!"
"This outfit is coming off!"
"Nooo, Baiye! This is my dignity on the line, kya!"
"What kind of weird dignity is that?! Right — now — take it — off!"
"Wait, Baiye, don't pull at my dress! I-it's going to show!"
"There are only girls here anyway, what's there to worry about!" (blushing)
"Yameteee—"