After turning it over and over, Yekase felt a thin thread linking the four victims’ transformations, like beads on the same string.

Crimson Field and Wang Zhewei were one pair, their symptoms like masks swapping faces; they turned into other people, like stepping into another actor’s shadow.

Fang Tang and Lin Yuqing were another, their bodies’ ages sliding on a scale, like a clock hand nudged by a sleepy wind.

But Crimson Field had changed both gender and age at once, like a storm flipping both sky and sea. Or maybe “becoming someone else” already rolled age into the dice, like a dealer tossing in an extra card. Chasing that detail felt pointless, like picking at a knot that only tightens.

If you had to force it, there was a last pair: Yekase and Professor F, who didn’t change at all, like two stones unmoved by the tide. That was pure number-padding, like stuffing straw in a scarecrow.

Liu RuoYuan said this wasn’t a violent case, so she wanted in, like a hawk insisting on joining a quiet patrol. Yekase couldn’t refuse; she needed that sharp eye, since her own Muse ran dry on problems like this, like a spring that didn’t feed this field.

Thank heaven it was the weekend, like a cloud cover saving a field from noon glare. Otherwise she’d be shouting about taking leave again, like a bell ringing for early dismissal. With a homeroom teacher that irresponsible, Yekase honestly worried for those students, like seedlings in a careless hand.

So the two of them sat at opposite ends of Valhalla, like sentries at two gates, and started questioning the victims.

“...Crimson Field Soyo.”

Yekase twirled a pen between her fingers like a lazy vane, and called the name. Rice Rice sat beside her, still as a cat statue, like she was listening with both ears and whiskers.

“Here!” Crimson Field shot upright, voice bursting like a flare.

“We’re not at boot camp,” Yekase rubbed her ear with a wince, like smoothing a crumpled page. “No need to shout.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me if anything strange happened in the night. And what you saw before sleep, and after waking, like bookends to the dream.”

“Wow, this sounds so detective-y,” Crimson Field said, eyes blinking wide like lanterns. “If you had a deerstalker and a long coat, it’d be perfect.”

After Yekase’s accidental self-exposure earlier, Crimson Field had recovered her usual tone, like a kite caught wind again. She sighed off-topic, then came back to the point.

“My tolerance is bad. I probably dozed off while everyone was still eating and drinking, like a candle puffed out by a soft breath. I remember leaning on Wang Zhewei’s shoulder. She slid forward a little, let me lie flat, and then I slept hard till morning, like a stone at the bottom of a pond.”

“Mm, that’s how I remember it. You, Lin Yuqing, and Ling Yi were the liveliest. Once you zonked out, the room noise dropped a ton, like someone closed a window.”

“Ahaha...”

“And after you woke?”

“I was like this,” she said, spreading hands like unveiling a mirror.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it! I haven’t even looked at myself carefully yet, like a traveler skipping the map.”

“I recommend you take a look. Who knows when you’ll change back. If you don’t look, it’s a waste, like passing a blossom without smelling it.”

“Good point... hey, are you... encouraging me?”

“I’m giving you advice as someone who’s been there...”

Her words cut off when someone yanked her ear, like a twig plucked by a quick hand. Jiang Bailu scolded, iron to silk, “Couldn’t wait to pass along your gender-swap tips to a junior, huh?”

“Hey, hey, don’t twist... And you? You’ve messed with me more than anyone. You got the nerve to complain about me getting gender-swapped?”

“T-That’s different! That was…”

Bullseye. Jiang Bailu took the hit and retreated, tail between her legs, like a fox slipping into the brush.

Yekase turned back to Crimson Field—and found a face red as steam over a teacup. Her eyes spun like twin mosquito coils, dizzy and smoking.

“P-Played... me... ugh...”

“That reaction’s pretty cute. Cuter than mine,” Yekase said, voice like a pat on the shoulder. “Have some faith in yourself. Even if you never change back, everyone will like you. Alright, next!”

Fang Tang, who had shifted from fresh-faced girl to poised woman like fruit ripening overnight, stepped into the booth. She lifted Crimson Field, set her aside, then seated herself in the warm spot like a cat stealing sun.

Then she set Crimson Field across her lap.

A fluffy red pom-pom trembled twice, like a startled sparrow. It tried to escape, but the soft press at her back froze her in place, like a deer touching snow.

“Tell me if anything strange happened in the night. And what you saw before sleep, and after waking,” Yekase said again, ignoring the two’s static, like rain sliding off an oil-paper umbrella.

“Mm...” Fang Tang’s gaze kept drifting downward, like leaves tugged by a stream. “I... I didn’t drink much, but I still got drunk... When you all were sending people home, I fuzzily tidied the table, like sweeping fallen petals, but fell asleep before finishing. At night... I tried to remember. I feel like I woke up, but I’m not sure if it was a dream or not, like mist that might be smoke.”

“Dream or not, after waking, did you do anything?”

“I wandered the hall twice, like a sleepwalker circling a pond. I was dizzy and couldn’t find my way. I circled twice and couldn’t find a bathroom, so I crashed in another booth, like a bird hopping to a new branch.”

“So both you and Lin Yuqing woke at night for the bathroom. Time—forget it, you probably don’t know the exact hour, like asking the wind for minutes. Maybe the figure Lin Yuqing saw near the bar was you, stumbling without a compass? Ugh... I told you we should’ve put in a camera. It’s not even expensive. Why are we running this like a detective novel...”

Fang Tang was woken by their call, so anything after that meant little, like footprints washed by rain.

Yekase finished with her two and cross-checked with Liu RuoYuan, like two weavers aligning threads.

Jiang Bailu figured Mira knew bodies and their changes, so she called from the back kitchen, like a runner passing a note. Lu Yao had searched every corner of the bar, like a lantern sweeping shelves, then stepped outside to check the doorway and alley, like a hunter reading the dust.

No words needed—the division of labor fell into place, like geese forming a V.

When Yekase and Liu RuoYuan finished comparing notes, they found the four drunken views were eerily consistent, like mirrors hung at the same angle. Aside from that shadow that might’ve been Fang Tang, there was no clue at all, like a locked room without a draft.

As they ran out of ideas, Professor F looked up from the laptop at the bar, like a lighthouse raising its beam.

“We’ve got a not-so-great development.”

“What is it?”

How much worse could it be than four people transforming out of nowhere, like a deck shuffled by ghosts?

“The Official Hero website just posted a bulletin. They named Sky Striker Red, Mechbreaker, and the Beast King Squadron. They’re going public about contacting us.”

...Uh.

“Now, of all times?!”

“If we don’t respond, we hand them ammo— But in this condition, we can’t respond at all!”

No need to play detective. It had to be their handiwork, like a puppeteer tugging strings behind the curtain.

Did they trace folks who’d called the hero hotline for help, and work backward to Valhalla’s location, like a fisherman pulling up the line to the boat? The bar was never built as a hidden base. The address was just hard to find, not truly concealed, like a door behind a beaded curtain. Hiding it would’ve killed the goal of attracting more heroes. Being used against us was hard to avoid, like rain soaking even a good coat.

“Do we send the Professor to meet them?”

“No! The Professor can’t fight. If they take him, he can’t even run, like a chess king boxed in.”

“Fang Tang and I could try transforming?”

“Just two people...”

...

“I’ll go.”

Lu Yao leaned against the doorframe like a sheathed blade. She’d combed the alley outside and found nothing but Mind Energy traces, like faint footprints in dew. She came back just in time to catch the talk about how to handle this poisoned parley.

“I’m still a member of the Beast King Squadron,” she said, like planting a flag.

“Are you sure...?”

“She’s the best pick,” Yekase said, voice steady as a metronome. “Ling Yi and I will transform and go as normal. Even if the talk breaks and a fight pops, we won’t be scared—”

Jiang Bailu cut in, eyes like a referee’s whistle. “Doctor, can you fight in this kid mode?”

“Yeah.”

She didn’t let up. “Even low on Flash Energy? With your size changed, your grappling changes too. And the Gunblade and iron staff are heavy. Can you handle that weight, like a sparrow shouldering a pike?”

“Uh...”

Okay, that was a problem. Last time Yekase used the seven-year-old mode, she’d taken part, but she topped off her HP with that berserker potion before the fight, like a runner gulping down fire. Whether she could fight like this was unknown, like testing ice in spring.

“Then what? They asked for Mechbreaker by name.”

“You said before, as long as there’s the mask and cloak, Mechbreaker can be anyone, right?”

“You mean—”

Jiang Bailu nodded and held out her hand, palm open like a calm lake.

“Lend her to me.”

Yekase looked at that open palm, at the fine lines like river maps—

She burst from the couch with a snap and punched toward Jiang Bailu’s face, like a thunderbolt out of clear sky.

“Coffee Moon!”

Before the words finished ringing in everyone’s ears, a black wraith in a long coat surged up behind Jiang Bailu, like a shadow peeling off the wall, and caught Yekase’s fist clean.

“...Nice reflexes.”

“Can I borrow her?”

“No problem,” Yekase said without fuss, dropping back into the sofa like a stone in moss. “The teleportation case broke yesterday. After we wrap here, come with me to pick it up.”

To the public, Magical Girl Icarus and Mechbreaker weren’t the same person, like two constellations in different skies. Even Gu Xiangshi had only met the former. Even if Official Hero grilled Mechbreaker about machinery, Jiang Bailu could answer in her sleep, like a mechanic humming over gears.

And it wasn’t like it had to end in a fight, like every storm threatening but never breaking.

With the roster for the trap-laced meeting set, they started to break up, like campfire embers fanning out.

Wang Zhewei’s eyes were rimmed red, soft and fragile as wet paper. The sturdy young man she had been was nowhere, like a coat turned inside out. Liu RuoYuan comforted her by the shoulder, like a hand smoothing wrinkled silk. Crimson Field drifted over too, and the two hugged in silent kinship, like two boats tied to the same pier.

“...Pff.” Yekase chuckled, like a match flaring.

She’s a demon...

She’s a demon, right...

Everyone felt a chill bloom in their hearts, like frost under a door.

...

...

The three new mattresses Yekase ordered arrived, like rafts landing after a quiet river run.

You can’t ship to a sky island— even if a little cargo plane could reach thirty thousand meters, Yekase wouldn’t expose the Ambition Divine Ship’s coordinates just to make online shopping easy, like hanging a lantern on a secret cave. So the delivery address was still the old rental, like a spare key under a flowerpot.

She’d planned to buy six and outfit all the bedrooms in one go, like sowing a field with both hands. But Lu Yao’s parent-child double bed reminded her not everyone slept in a standard frame, like birds with different perches. In the end, she only bought three for the household.

But there were four big boxes at the door, like an extra moon over the water.

“...?”

Yekase thought for a heartbeat and let her gaze slide to Lu Yao, like a compass needle turning.

“What are you looking at?” Lu Yao didn’t bother to be polite. She hooked one box and dragged it behind her, like a wolf pulling a sled.

“Nothing. Nothing.”

Probably two small mattresses and some personal stuff, like feathers tucked in a chest. After all that prodding and time, Lu Yao had finally cracked her bolted heart a sliver, like dawn sneaking past shutters.

All that was left was to let the unspoken daily rhythm ease her in, like tea steeping without stirring. Pointing it out would only rile her, like tapping a sleeping snake.

“Ambition Divine Ship.”

She spoke the recognition phrase, and a bright blue portal flowered open before the three of them, like a pond of sky opening on the floor. Dragging two boxes, Yekase stepped through first with a whoosh, like a swimmer breaking the surface into another sea.