Night, Part Two

"The stars are beautiful tonight~" After helping set up the tent, Oshi sat on the beach not far away, one hand braced behind her and the other resting on her knee, and sighed.

"A river of brilliant stars, nothing less." Obe sat beside Oshi as well, hugging her knees.

"There's only one moon, too." Ra said as she faced away from them and arranged the inside of the tent.

"Sister Ra, don't casually say something that terrifying~ I don't want to go to Terra, no matter which one!"

Oshi shuddered, her tone grave.

"Come to think of it, haven't we gone to the bathroom all day? I wanted to try using a girl's body to pee and see what it feels like."

Obe was rendered somewhat speechless by Oshi's abrupt leap in topic.

"Just as I thought, your head is full of weird garbage. If you want to try it, go ahead now. Just remember to do it farther away."

"Never mind. Now that you put it that way, I'm not so curious anymore."

"Still, I feel like there's something wrong with my mentality right now. I still think of myself as a guy, but when I look at you and Sister Ra, two little beauties, I don't feel anything at all." Oshi casually dropped another outrageous remark.

"?!"

"My sister and I look like we're only eight or nine right now, okay? What kind of interest are you supposed to have?! How dare you have that kind of interest?!

People with thoughts like yours should be dragged out and executed by cannon! If you don't like girls anymore, then go be gay, you perverted idiot!"

Obe was clearly frightened by the red-haired girl's successive outrageous remarks. Firing off words like a machine gun, she hurriedly patted her butt, got up, and fled into the tent.

"With men..."

Oshi mentally reviewed several beloved works, such as "The Runaway," "The Witch from Mercury," and "Song of Filial Righteousness," then shook her head like a husky flinging water from its fur.

"Ururu... No, no, absolutely not!"

"Sigh~ I can't accept men, and I don't feel anything for women either... Oh no! Am I going to awaken some weird Indian-style fetish in the future?!

Gah! Sister Ra, use your invincible, earth-shattering wisdom and think of a solution!"

"My suggestion is that you obediently go to sleep first. Perhaps one day, you'll meet someone charming enough to transcend gender~

After all, gender has never been a necessary condition for love." Ra replied without turning around.

"Charm that transcends gender... Wow~ Sister Ra, I didn't know you were so open-minded. I thought you were a steadfast heterosexual~"

"It doesn't matter. As long as it doesn't affect me, I will respect and bless other people's sexual orientations, including yours.

All right, go to sleep." Ra lay down and closed her eyes.

"But I can't sleep~ This body is full of energy right now. It feels like I'd be fine even if I never slept.

Won't we become ultimate lifeforms that don't need to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom in the future?

Hiss~ That actually sounds pretty convenient."

"Shut up, Oshi. My sister is already very tired today. If you really can't sleep, then stay outside and keep watch."

After lying down beside Ra, Obe spoke to Oshi.

Ra said nothing more. She had accidentally expended too much energy while exploring the Millennium Puzzle today, and she had also been maintaining everyone's clothes with divine power while dealing with these two live treasures' bizarre questions from time to time. Even she felt somewhat tired.

For Ra, who was in what was effectively still her childhood, her body almost never grew fatigued, nor did she need to recover her energy through sleep.

Yet lying quietly still remained a good way to relax, like how you might eat snacks even when you weren't hungry.

Closing her eyes, Ra's consciousness gradually returned to her soul. Amid the soft light, she unexpectedly slipped into a dream.

The night was very dark. Countless colorful things, like soap bubbles, floated sparsely through the air, stretching beyond sight.

Ra dreamed that she had become a tiny bird, furiously flapping her wings as she weaved between bubble after bubble, as though searching for something.

She felt exhausted, as though the countless bubbles could never be searched through;

She felt lost, unable to find her direction of flight in the darkness of night;

She felt cold, as though the chill in the air were about to freeze her;

She felt lonely, as though her own heartbeat were the only sound in this place.

[Isn't it dawn yet?] This was Ra's only thought at the moment.

"Sister Ra! Big Sister! Wake up, breakfast is ready!" Two somewhat childish voices woke Ra.

When she opened her eyes, two delicate little faces filled her vision, with a crimson-gold morning sun behind them.

"Sorry, I slept for a little too long." Ra gave the two of them a heartfelt smile.

"So, so dazzling! That smile... Could this be the legendary one-million-horsepower beauty attack—Pure Beauty Explosion Strike?! Gah! Obe, fall back!"

Oshi covered her eyes with both arms and shouted as she retreated.

"?"

Ra looked at Oshi, who was fooling around again, in puzzlement, then shifted her gaze to Obe.

"Mm, beauty capable of toppling kingdoms and cities, peerless loveliness—she definitely has the bearing of a Grand rank!"

Obe also blushed and looked away. This time, she rarely agreed with Oshi.

Seeing this, Ra decided to skip the subject entirely and asked instead, "By the way, did you two make breakfast? I'm looking forward to it."

"That's right. We guarantee it'll give you a huge surprise, Sister Ra!"

As she spoke, Oshi quickly ran outside the tent, then returned shortly afterward carrying a stone pot.

"Ta-da! Oshi's special Seven-Colored Magical Auspicious Cloud Soup!"

Oshi lifted the lid, and a golden beam shot straight into the sky... Well, no golden beam appeared. It was merely an ordinary mushroom egg-drop soup.

No, calling it ordinary was not quite accurate either, since every mushroom inside looked brightly colored and flamboyant.

Ra: "..."

"Hey~ Don't dismiss it so quickly, Sister Ra.

Now that we have the Innate Mushroom Saint Body that countless Yunnanese dream of, aren't you curious what these mushrooms taste like?" Oshi continued to egg her on.

And indeed, Ra's curiosity was faintly piqued.

In her previous life, You Ling had also liked all kinds of mushrooms. Whenever he had hot pot, he would order every kind of mushroom available.

"Very well, I'll have a taste."

Ra used a bamboo spoon to scoop up a small mouthful. After blowing it cool, she put it into her mouth.

After savoring it carefully, Ra gently set down the spoon and asked with a smile, "Did either of you taste it after cooking it?"

"No, but it smelled quite good to me."

Seeing that Ra had not made any grimacing expression, Oshi was reassured and answered decisively.

"I was saving the first bowl for you. Obe wanted to try it first, but I wouldn't let her! Hehe~"

"Big Sister, I tried my best to stop her," Obe explained from the side.

"I understand. You worked hard, Obe."

Ra then said to Oshi, "You are my little sister now, so this matter is naturally of no consequence. But next time you offer someone else food you made yourself, remember that you must taste it first. Understand?"

"Huh? Is the soup really that bad? That can't be possible~ I clearly calculated everything in detail."

Oshi found this fact hard to accept.

"Uh, what did you use to calculate it?" Obe could not help asking.

"Imagination!"

Oshi answered immediately, then added, "A rich imagination."

"By the way, where did you get this pot?" Having moved past the soup, Ra noticed that the stone pot in her hands clearly bore signs of craftsmanship.

"Oh, there seems to be an ancient ruin south of the forest. We dug it out of there. Blech~ Ugh~~"

Oshi took a sip of her own creation, then immediately spat it back out.

"Sigh~ Even a genius like me can't succeed on the first try? Heaven really is demanding~ Obe, do you want to try some too?"

"Unfortunately, that place has already been badly damaged. Otherwise, we could have moved there to sleep." Obe completely ignored Oshi and continued adding details.

"Still, since there is one ruin on the island, there may be others elsewhere. Take me there after breakfast so I can have a look." With that, Ra continued drinking the mushroom soup.

"Sister Ra, the soup is so awful, so stop drinking it. Let me take it and pour it out." Oshi tried to snatch the stone pot away and dump it.

"It's fine. Since you made it yourself, and it's your first time cooking, as your older sister, I should naturally drink all of it.

Besides, it isn't exactly bad. It's merely a little strange."

Spoonful after spoonful, Ra calmly and elegantly finished the entire pot of soup, then wiped her mouth with flame, leaving Oshi deeply moved as she washed the pot by the sea.