“Aaaah!!!!!”

Yue Liuyi roared, a storm breaking from her ribs like thunder over a dark sea.

Muscle bloomed along her limbs like ivy after rain.

Power swelled inside her like a rising spring tide.

Her sight climbed higher, heat ripples shimmered around her like mirages at noon.

She hadn’t used this power in a long, long time.

Because of LittleSnow, Yue Liuyi never dared to touch it, like a moth shunning its own flame.

But in the end—

For LittleSnow, Dongfang Chen had to use it!!!

In a heartbeat, Dongfang Chen snapped back into a boy’s shape, like a blade slotted into its sheath.

Strength filled his frame, and his eyes tracked motion like hawks on wind.

More crucial was…

That feeling coiling in his palm like warm sap.

…

To suppress the white-haired girl’s power should’ve been a mountain to move.

Dongfang Chen felt it—inside those lightning arcs, a vast life force surged like a river in flood.

It meant pure destruction, the spawn of the Electrode Sect’s twisted experiments.

But…

That sky-wide lightning sea broke against him like foam.

The instant it kissed his skin, it vanished like frost under a naked sun.

No matter how fast the charge.

No matter how dense the force.

In front of Dongfang Chen, it was ice on a forge.

It melted. Instantly.

“So… it really is like this?”

…

Yue Liuyi had never solved one knot.

What was the World Tree Maiden, truly?

He grew up as a boy, a sapling trained straight by hand.

So Yue Liuyi always thought he was a boy.

Her female form felt like a one-of-a-kind gift, a mask she could wear.

But if she really…

If she truly was the World Tree Maiden…

Then Dongfang Chen’s form existed like bark over a sacred core.

A cover to hide the World Tree Maiden.

…

Suppress. Hide. Switch.

Those hard things?

He’d done them a thousand times in older storms.

So now—

The white-haired girl’s power couldn’t scratch him.

Instead, he bent it like wind bends grass.

He converted it, and drank it as his own strength.

…

The boy sprang forward, a spark leaping across dry tinder.

Time seemed to glass over.

The white-haired girl raged, lightning screaming from her like a hive of hornets.

Around her, a sphere of plasma swelled, so hot the air wouldn’t enter.

None of it could stop Dongfang Chen.

His fist rode a wave of heat.

It punched through the crackling mesh without a pause.

It landed heavy.

It crashed into her body like a falling meteor.

Black mist burst out in ragged clouds.

With a thud, Dawn Sky shot backward.

She slammed the ground and lay still, a snowflake silenced.

One punch.

Dongfang Chen ended the danger that had everyone’s breath in a knot.

But the boy’s body—

Reached its limit.

“Eh?”

Dongfang Chen spoke with a girl’s voice, a bell rung in a different temple.

His large fist shrank before her eyes like a tide drawing back.

It became a girl’s hand.

Her legs slimmed, long and slight, reeds where oaks had been.

Too slender to catch her fall before it came.

“Yaa!!!”

Thud.

Yue Liuyi face-planted, like a kite cut from its string.

“Ow… that really hurts.”

The blue-haired girl rubbed her nose and brow, wincing; her skin was tender as spring petals, and one scrape had marked it.

Other spots stung too, but only as shallow cuts.

“Phew… at least it’s over. And I think I changed back, so I won’t get exposed… huh?”

A gaze pressed on her like a fingertip on water. Yue Liuyi turned.

Dixue lay sprawled, yet her eyes held steady on her, clear and unblinking.

She hadn’t blacked out.

“Li… LittleSnow…?”

Yue Liuyi froze.

“M-My Little Moon… you… just now…”

“Um! L-LittleSnow… I-I’m sorry…”

The blue-haired girl went blank, thoughts and feelings rushing her heart like birds startled into flight, tangling her mind into knots.

“M-My Little Moon… so, it was…”

Dixue now looked more crushed than when the white-haired girl fell.

Her green eyes brimmed like a lake before rain, and her mouth opened, whispering a low, broken sound.

“I’m sorry, LittleSnow! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have hidden that I grew up a boy! I shouldn’t have bathed with you!! I shouldn’t have turned into a boy to get close to you!!! I—I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!!”

Yue Liuyi didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. Beyond apology, she had no words.

Her worst fear had stepped out of the fog.

Dixue knew who she was, and she must hate her.

Next, she’d probably be thrown away without mercy.

But if it were only being thrown away, that’d be too kind…

So Yue Liuyi thought, bitter as tea left to cool.

These months together, she’d snatched too many small blessings from Dixue.

With Dixue’s help, she entered the Rainbow Sanctuary.

She got care down to the smallest thread, and ate and lived for free, day after day.

Most of all, partners don’t lie.

So Dixue would surely resent her to the bone. At least, without a doubt…

“Hmph… so that’s how it is!”

“D-Dixue…?”

Still panicking, Yue Liuyi didn’t notice that Dixue had stood up and walked to her.

The silver-haired girl lowered her face, features sunk in shadow, a dark tide of pressure rolling off her, as if she’d gone pitch-black inside.

(Am… am I going to be killed?!)

That chill cut to the bone. Yue Liuyi squeezed her eyes shut like a leaf in a storm.

But… the pain never came.

Instead, warmth touched the corner of her lips, soft as dew.

“Mm?”

She opened her eyes.

She was in Dixue’s arms, her lips caught and claimed.

“Hmph!!!!”

Seeing Yue Liuyi’s eyes open, Dixue tightened her hold, locking her in, leaving no room to slip away.

“Mm? Mmmph! Mm? Mmm…” (I can’t breathe…)

Only when Yue Liuyi’s face flushed crimson did Dixue seem satisfied. She eased her hold and let her go.

“Hah… hah…”

Yue Liuyi gulped air like a fish tossed back into water. Relief loosened her shoulders.

It seemed Dixue didn’t hate her after all. The thing she feared most was Dixue turning around and walking away forever.

Like this, even if she was a little breathless, she was still with LittleSnow.

That meant she had a chance to make it right, without hurting LittleSnow forever.

…

But naive Yue Liuyi underestimated the payback to come.

Because for this silver-haired girl… Little Moon was everything, a treasure she would never let the wind take.

“U-Um… LittleSnow…”

“My Little Moon being a boy? I absolutely refuse!”

Dixue stared into the blue-haired girl in her arms, and lifted a finger to tilt up Yue Liuyi’s chin like a moon rising.

“Eh? D-Dixue, you mean…?”

“Don’t call me Dixue. Call me Big Sis. Since Little Moon can turn into a boy…”

“Eh?”

A chill ran down Yue Liuyi’s back like cold water. A bad premonition bloomed.

“Heh-heh…” Dixue’s smile turned impish as a fox. She hugged Yue Liuyi closer, savoring the despair flowing in those blue eyes. “Since Little Moon can turn into a boy, I’ll let Little Moon taste a girl’s joy. I’ll make you never want to change back.”

“J-Joy? W-Wait, LittleSnow, what are you— mmph!?”

“Stop resisting!”

In an instant, Yue Liuyi was trapped in Dixue’s embrace again, snug as silk.

She couldn’t struggle at all. Even after a brutal fight, the silver-haired girl’s strength dwarfed hers like a mountain over grass.

“L-LittleSnow? N-No…”

“How does it feel here? A boy would never know this.”

Dixue’s cool, soft fingertips traced a place that lit Yue Liuyi’s spine like lightning.

“Ah!?”

Her whole body shivered, a harp-string plucked to a bright note. She held on hard and swallowed the embarrassing sound.

And because this was her fault, Yue Liuyi couldn’t fight back. On a normal day, she could jab Dixue to protest.

Now the blue-haired girl was only a warm pillow, helpless in Dixue’s teasing hands.

“Mm… ah! M-Mmph, LittleSnow, don’t! I know I was wrong!!”

“I don’t care! I don’t care! I’m teasing Little Moon! Little Moon is a girl, absolutely a girl!”

“I… I’m not…”

“Still denying it? Looks like I wasn’t using enough strength…!”

“Eh…? Wait! No—”

Yue Liuyi was pushed down by Yue Dier, the motion smooth as a wave tipping a boat.

Two girls in torn clothes—Dixue scorched by lightning, Yue Liuyi by her own change—

Entwined like vines under spring rain.

The scent of lilies drifted around them.

What followed can’t be told.