The lights in the public lounge had been turned off, and the curtains drawn.
The entire room was pitch-black.
Yuri stood alone at the back of the lounge, his bright eyes fixed straight ahead. Though he could not actually see anything in the darkness, he had a vague premonition that Youyou was standing there.
"Is she ready?" Yuri swallowed, his throat somewhat dry as he asked.
After several seconds of silence, Angel's voice came from the darkness. "She's ready. You... can begin."
As Angel's voice fell, Yuri immediately summoned the magic book and rapidly flipped to one of its pages.
The page depicted a glowing butterfly dancing gracefully in a dim courtyard.
This was—
"Fashion Demonic Beast: Chasing-Light Butterfly."
Yuri lightly tapped the illustration with a finger. The Chasing-Light Butterfly within the picture flew out from the page, drifted into the air, and then... transformed into a Chasing-Light Ceiling Lamp.
A bright beam of white light shone down from the lamp, aimed directly at the front of the lounge.
As the light fell, a figure appeared beneath the spotlight.
She was a slender girl in a white dress, around fourteen years old, with loose flaxen hair draped over her shoulders, fair skin, and faint freckles scattered across her face.
The girl was not particularly beautiful, but her eyes were remarkably distinctive—moist and innocent, like the eyes of a baby, without a trace of distracting thought.
There was no doubt that the girl making her entrance beneath the Chasing-Light Lamp was... Youyou.
Seeing Youyou's fair skin, slender body, and curious expression as she looked from side to side... Yuri's eyes instantly brimmed with tears.
This was Youyou.
Youyou...
Yuri walked forward step by step, emerging from the darkness and into the beam of the Chasing-Light Lamp. His hand clasped Youyou's, and