In the gloomy basement beneath the shabby little house, a middle-aged man with black hair and a square face drove a fist into a teenager’s stomach.
“Did I ever say you lot could take private jobs without permission?” Wei Shi narrowed his eyes at Ishine Hayato, who was crouched down clutching his stomach in pain.
Settling scores after the fact.
“You never said we couldn’t, either.” Hayato looked up and split his mouth into a grin all the way to the gums.
Wei Shi seized him by the hair and hauled him up.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that when you find candy from a stranger, you ask your parents first whether you can eat it?
If you kill someone we weren’t supposed to kill and leave a trail, then cutting off your backside and tossing it in a urinal to be flushed still wouldn’t be enough to make up for it.
You know how the other teams punish someone like you?
Three fingers.”
Wei Shi flung him aside; that was as far as this lesson would go.
Ishine Hayato, freshly beaten, didn’t seem to mind in the least, and quickly slipped back into his grinning demeanor.
It was deeply unsettling to look at.
Wei Shi turned to look at Hermit, who was pinching Mi Xiaoliu’s fingers to trim her nails for her.
Noticing his gaze, Sister Hermit hurriedly set down the nail clippers and set about fixing Wei Shi’s phone.
“Hey Siri, spit out the charging cable.”
No response.
Hermit gravely handed the phone back to Wei Shi.
“I did my best.
Buy a new one.”
“…” Wei Shi shot her a glare and walked out with his cigarette.
Mi Xiaoliu seemed to have dodged a bullet as a result.
Out chasing someone in the dead of night—even if it earned her no credit, she’d at least put in the hard work.
“Good morning, Master.” Not until Mi Xiaoliu was seated at her desk in the classroom did Sasha belatedly offer her morning greeting.
That good-for-nothing little spirit needed sleep too, and she’d gone to bed late last night as well—the difference being that she had the privilege of sleeping until she woke on her own.
“Old Six, you play mobile games?
That one that’s been really popular lately—Demon Impact.” Bright and early, Jim couldn’t stand the boredom and struck up a conversation with his deskmate.
“Demon Impact?” Mi Xiaoliu looked at Jim in confusion.
“You don’t play?
Never mind then—let’s just add each other on WeChat first, or QQ works too.” Jim pulled out his newly bought Durian 14.
That’s right—he just wanted an excuse to show off his new phone.
Mi Xiaoliu paused, then took out her own old keypad phone.
“Bro, don’t mess with me—even grade-schoolers all have a smartphone each these days.” Jim was taken aback too.
“Oh, right—you’re not much older than a grade-schooler yourself.
I’d suggest you ask your family for a smartphone.
Look—”
He began demonstrating the phone’s features to Mi Xiaoliu.
“Come to think of it, smartphones do seem to be a necessity these days,” Sasha said.
“How much is a smartphone,” Mi Xiaoliu asked.
“A cheaper one runs somewhere over a thousand, probably.” In a situation like this, Jim naturally wasn’t about to quote the price of his own phone.
Mi Xiaoliu abandoned the idea of buying a phone.
Putting his phone away, Jim leaned in close to Mi Xiaoliu’s ear and asked in a low voice, “Did you do something lately?
How come the mind-reading girl’s been staring at you more?
She wouldn’t happen to have a secret crush—”
“Badmouthing people behind their backs isn’t very nice, you know.” Yiwen came over and cut him off with a smile.
“Sorry.” Jim apologized awkwardly.
“The apology shouldn’t be to me, you know.” Yiwen shook her head.
“Your arm.” Mi Xiaoliu looked at her hand, puzzled.
Yiwen’s right arm was wrapped in thick bandages and held in a sling around her neck, which had the girls who often stole glances at her aching with sympathy something fierce.
“I got bumped into by accident yesterday.” Yiwen touched her own arm.
This was the first time she’d ever been hurt this badly.
Fortunately, thanks to research on Self-Healing espers, the world’s medicine had reached new heights—otherwise she probably wouldn’t have been able to touch a tennis racket for two whole months.
As it was, it only looked frightening; in another two or three days it would be fully healed.
She had underestimated her opponent last night.
The main thing was that Physical Enhancement-type espers were usually conspicuously muscular, yet seeing how thin and frail the black-robed figure was, she’d assumed it was just some agility-type esper…
Luckily, as she was sent flying backward, she’d quickly cut the force by a hundredfold; she’d only crashed through two wooden walls because the cowshed walls were flimsy planks to begin with, further weakened by years of neglect.
In the end the result was no more than a fractured right arm.
All in all, that black-robed figure last night was truly terrifying—in raw strength alone it had definitely reached Level 4.
She absolutely could not underestimate anyone again—especially when she of all people was the natural counter to strength-type espers.
Last night’s “Night Demon” had been a fake too; the real Night Demon had probably long since fled without a trace.
On examination, aside from the fracture in his right leg, a long rusty nail was found lodged in the joint of the fake Night Demon’s left leg—the true culprit behind why that leg couldn’t bend.
Which was to say, the mysterious black-robed figure was the true perpetrator of the Spatial Esper Murder Case, and it could also be more or less confirmed that this was the person who had saved Lu Mingxue from the men in black.
That being so, he had to be someone from Carry Out Justice on Heaven’s Behalf—no mistake there.
As for why, among people both acting in that organization’s name, one side had kidnapped Lu Mingxue while the other let her go, there were plenty of possible explanations—for instance, that hunting Night Demon made it inconvenient to drag a captive along.
The interesting part was that, although the black trench coat had wrapped the figure tightly enough that not much could be made out, in terms of build that person was, one could say, identical to the deskmate right in front of her.
It should be…
but it had only been a single glimpse, so she couldn’t be sure.
“How scary.” That was Mi Xiaoliu’s assessment of Yiwen’s arm getting snapped.
“Right?
If I could catch the culprit, I’d absolutely never let him off.” Yiwen sat back down in her seat with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, unable to read anything from Mi Xiaoliu’s expression.
Mi Xiaoliu nodded.
“Somebody absolutely has to pay up.”
“Mm, absolutely, absolutely.”
“…”
Sitting in the back row, Lu Mingxue watched the two of them and wanted to laugh, but couldn’t.
With her mind-reading ability, she understood that last night’s rescue had been nothing more than a coincidence.
The little girl had had no intention of playing the hero; however much she, the rescued party, might want to romanticize the event, the facts wouldn’t bend to it.
But this girl truly hadn’t silenced her the way she’d feared—even though it would’ve taken no more than the twitch of a finger, hardly any time at all.
Reason told her she ought to report the facts to the police; that would be best for everyone, and it would also save a wayward underage girl who’d lost her path.
But she didn’t do it, and she couldn’t understand her own behavior either—humans were, by nature, complicated creatures.
Perhaps it came from a notion of “you mustn’t repay kindness with ingratitude”—for now that was the only way she could frame it.
Like how so many people, unable to stand someone else’s behavior, still don’t tell them to stop, and merely say to themselves or to others, “I can’t be bothered with him.”
But was it really “can’t be bothered”?
Forget the whole thing.
What mattered was that the sight of her having wet herself had actually been witnessed by a girl younger than her—that alone was enough to make her want to relocate to another planet.
From now on she’d have nothing to do with this little girl; and as for whether the girl got caught herself down the line, that would be no concern of hers.
“There’s no class tomorrow, Saturday—want to go out shopping together?” Yiwen asked Mi Xiaoliu.
Close-range surveillance.
“What are two guys doing going shopping together?
Ugh, gross~” Jim rubbed his arms.
Yiwen turned her head away, blushing a little; she’d forgotten that what was perfectly natural for a girl came off as odd for a boy.
She hurried to change tack.
“There’s an arcade on that street near your place—let’s go check it out together tomorrow.”
“Master, an arcade is a place for playing games—it costs money,” Sasha explained to Mi Xiaoliu.
“Not going.” Mi Xiaoliu.
“My treat.” Yiwen took out a bill, looking somewhat reluctant.
“I’ll treat you to a meal too—eat whatever you want.”
She’d just been paid yesterday.
“Going.” Mi Xiaoliu.
On this one point, at least, she was easy to understand.
Jim looked at Yiwen with a strange expression—like that meme of the old man squinting at his phone.
Thank you all so much!