Worldline: [β]

...

...

Two hours earlier.

"Making you cry—that's allowed too, isn't it?"

Ye Weibai smiled as he asked, like a lake holding a secret ripple.

Behind a whooshing spiral of gray particles, Little Ash blurred like mist, silent, watching him with a lip-curve of warmth and eyes iced over.

Yet Ye Weibai, in that breath, knew she wasn't truly smiling, like a moon masked by cloud.

"Little Ash." He kept his voice light, letting calm rise before words. "I'm good at reading faces—shown or hidden. I pick up threads with ease. In psychology, that's called empathy."

"So even if you're 'smiling' now, I can see behind the veil. Right now you're K—"

"Enough!!!"

Her bark hit like thunder, a drumbeat cracking the sky.

Skirt and hair flared like banners; [Misfortune] rose, a hawk taking the wind.

Boom—!

The revolving gray storm burst like a tsunami, rolling at Ye Weibai, a spear of pressure. It hit the shore of his smile, then folded back and vanished like tide withdrawn.

Little Ash hovered midair, austere and breathtaking, a crane above snow. She looked down at him. "You—"

She didn't finish. Ye Weibai answered, calm as stone in rain. "I trust you'd dare kill me."

"..."

She stared, twin pupils burning with gray motes, waves surging inside them, reflecting his placid, smiling face like a mirror-lake.

"Tsk." After a beat, she clicked her tongue, gathered every particle like leaves pulled to root, turned back into a fragile high-school girl, and drifted to the sofa like a petal.

"Xiaobai~" She set her neck on the armrest, face tipped toward the white ceiling, voice soft as down.

"Mm."

"I'm kinda regretting picking you. What should we do?" Her sigh floated like smoke before the flame.

"It's fine. We win this game, and our contract ends," he said, steady as a compass.

"..." She went quiet, then smiled with a thorn of sugar. "True. But I still gotta say it—Xiaobai, I very much, very much, very much, very much dislike you~"

She stacked four weights of dislike, like stones in a brook.

Ye Weibai laughed, a twig-snapped sound. "Got it."

"Tsk." She tilted her face and cut him a sidelong glance, a blade of moonlight.

"Alright~ Stay put. I gotta go to [Trade] and fix a thing," she said, light as a kite talking to wind.

"How long?"

"Mm, quick if nothing goes wrong," she answered, like a promise tied with string.

...

...

However.

Something went wrong.

...

...

"Whoa~!"

Flat on the sofa and bored like a gray afternoon, Ye Weibai heard a cry fall from above like a dropped bell.

He didn't even look up before a shadow swooped like a hawk, and something soft fell from the sky and slammed into his stomach like a sandbag.

Thud!

He almost lost his breath, chest a crushed accord. "Ow—so heavy."

"Hey, rude!" chirped the petite girl sprawled across him, none other than [Misfortune], Little Ash.

She lifted her head with a smile bright as frost-spark. Ye Weibai saw her face and went grave, like clouds dragging over sun.

She looked in bad shape, a lantern guttering in wind.

Gray hair was dusted with soot-like motes, like ash on snow. Her sailor uniform was slashed, holes of all sizes opening like torn leaves, pale skin showing beneath.

Threadlike, deep-black scars crawled across her like inked snakes, dense and chilling. No blood, yet the sight stole breath like cold water.

It felt like some nightmare virus had claimed her body, winter seeping through bone.

She was badly hurt, like a reed bent by storm.

Little Ash lay limp on him, slender legs tangled with his like vines. The once-fair limbs were wrapped in black patterns like serpent scales.

Her chin rested on his chest like a fallen bird. She panted in heavy gulps, gray irises trembling like moth wings, yet she still smiled at him, leaf-thin and brave.

"You're a mess," Ye Weibai said, voice trembling like a plucked string.

"Mm, long story," she deflected, eyes sliding like fish. She braced on the sofa to rise, a sapling trying to stand.

"You got beat up, right?" Ye Weibai was blunt, a needle through silk.

"Leave me some face~" she huffed, breath snagged like thread. Her hand softened, and she fell onto him again like rain slipping off eaves.

"Ow—so heavy."

"Hey! I said that's rude!" She trembled like a bowstring, forced a smile like a painted fan, lifted her head, and glared, sparks in gray.

"Too heavy. One more drop and I'll lose breakfast." Ye Weibai paused, eyes drifting up like smoke. He spoke softly first, then action followed. "So don't try. Just stay like this."

He set his hand gently on her head, palm a warm cover against winter.

He stroked, lightly, like smoothing fur.

Mm. Soft as mist on river. So this is a Deity's hair—no wonder, he thought, awe like starlight.

At his touch, her body went rigid, a deer hearing snow break. Gray particles puffed from her in a visible burst, then she drew them back at once like tide reversing.

And with that, the stiffness melted, ice turning to stream.

"Mm…"

Her head dipped again into his chest, voice coming muffled like thunder under blankets.

"Forget it… you're basically mine anyway. Letting you be a pillow is fair."

Ye Weibai smiled and said nothing, hand moving through gray hair like wind through grass.

Sunlight poured in like water, flowing over both of them.

Dappled light wove together like latticed leaves.

Silence held, a pond without ripples.

...

...

"All—right~!"

Two hours later, the gray-haired girl burst with a shout like a firecracker, spirit back like spring.

Impatient, she backflipped off Ye Weibai like a swallow, landed on another sofa, and sprawled at an angle like a cat.

"I'm resurrected~!"

The black markings had faded like night before dawn, leaving pale skin. She looked fully restored, a porcelain cup whole again.

Yet for some reason, the skin behind her ear flushed faintly, a cherry petal hiding blush.

"Good."

Ye Weibai breathed out and sat up straight, spine a bamboo rod.

"Was it [Nightfall]?" he asked, gaze steady as a candle.

"If it were her, that's fine." Little Ash smiled, a crescent over water. "Can't beat her, but if I run, she can't catch me."

"That—"

"—won't help." Little Ash paused, tone dropping like a stone. "Even if I tell you, Xiaobai, you won't hear it."

"..." Ye Weibai went quiet, a shadow under a bridge. "Again, not enough level?"

"Mm. And I don't want to say Its name. Say it, and It 'hears' us. Then It appears instantly, like lightning. That'd be bad."

"That scary?"

"Mm~ that's how scary. That's why I'm this wreck, like a kite torn by gale. I really almost died. But I made it home. At home, we're safe~"

Little Ash let out a long breath, exhale like wind through reeds. "Alright. Leave that. I have something else to ask."

"Go ahead," he said, calm first, then breath.

Her tone turned strange, a cat's tail flick. "Xiaobai, do you know [Trade]?"

[Trade]—the one they called the strongest among Deities, a mountain among peaks?

"Don't know them," he said, blunt as rain.

"Then [Time]?" she asked, ticking like a clock.

"Who's that?"

"Okay, so not that either. Last one, the Moe King—ever heard?"

"Shana?" Ye Weibai blurted, spark jumping.

Little Ash shot back, quick as a slap, "Then I'm Sakura!"

"...You actually know!" Ye Weibai was surprised, eyes bright as glass.

"Please. My [World] has anime too," Little Ash facepalmed, palm a fan. "Alright. So you don't know any of those Deities."

"Uh, not knowing is normal," he said, shrug in his tone like a loose sleeve.

"Fair. But… they told me to pass some [Things] to you. Isn't that odd?" Her smile curved sly, a fox in moonlight.

Ye Weibai froze, heartbeat a drum. "To… who?"

"You." Little Ash smiled, eyes narrowing like crescent blades.

Honestly, that look screamed a girlfriend catching her boyfriend flirting outside, storm-cloud curling before rain.