Volume Six: What She Lost, What I Gained - The Players of the Circus (Part Two)

"Waaaaaahh ..."

"Is everything going smoothly so far?"

"It's only just begun, so there's no question of whether it will go smoothly or not."

"Su Mengli has already revealed her identity to them."

"Where are Meng Li -Meng Li- chan Meng Li- chan? Where are you? Where are you? Where where where where where where where where?"

"Fais sisters ready?"

"Ready to go at any time; they should be approaching their target."

"Don't let them get too close. Although one of the purposes of attacking at the concert was to use the audience's Blood Energy to overshadow us, there's no guarantee that nothing will go wrong."

"I'm dying without Meng Li- chan to play with!!!"

"Judging from their physical constitution, Haoyue Tartaglia's constitution is the closest to that of an ordinary person."

"Ye, Urahara Sakura Dance, and Sin Annihilation all have very special constitutions, so killing them completely on a physical level would be a difficult task."

"That's why we need Casey. Yu Xun has already failed once, and I don't feel comfortable letting her be a key player again."

"Meng Li- chan is so much fun~~~~~ I want to recharge my account~~~~~~~~~~"

That's enough!!!

Fisher grabbed Wanhua Xing's head and slammed her against the hard wall, the point where her nose hit the wall making a crisp cracking sound.

"Meng Li, Meng Li, dream... Huh? My nose hurts?"

"You've only split up for a short while, don't be so disgusting!"

"If your brother's ability weren't so complicated to activate, why would he need to deliberately expose himself?"

"But, but, but! Meng Li- chan is definitely in deep danger!"

"No way!"

Even Yu Xun was getting impatient.

"Ye and his gang have already learned their lesson, so they'll definitely choose to play it safe now! If your brother reveals his identity to them directly, they'll immediately suspect it's a trap or something, and it would be crazy for them to chase after him and kill him!"

"But... Waaaaaah..."

Valentina patted her on the shoulder and said, "No matter what, as long as you two siblings carry out the mission well, 'completely incapacitate two of them,' then you're out of trouble."

"Anyway... your abilities have already been activated, and the Fais sisters' abilities don't have any activation conditions, so they should be taking effect soon, right?"

"Excuse me, miss, please show me your ticket."

"Yes, yes, yes... This is really troublesome."

A serious-looking ticket inspector held out his hand to a woman with a very sexy style, who impatiently showed him her ticket.

"Hurry up! I need to get inside and see my Oxe gods! You'll be responsible if you're late!"

"Okay, please... wait, miss, I need a ticket, not a hand..."

"Huh? Are you blind or what?"

"No, no... um... oh, right, it's the ticket."

The ticket inspector shook his head. What had happened to him? Had he been daydreaming? Or was his vision playing tricks on him?

He picked up the hole punch, which he had used countless times, and punched holes in the ticket the woman presented.

"Eee..."

The woman suddenly screamed, startling the ticket inspector, and everyone in the ticket-checking line turned to look.

"What the hell are you doing?! Why did you pinch my hand?! It's bleeding so much!"

"Hands? Please don't be unreasonable. I'm just checking tickets on official business!"

"Eh... ah?" Hand?

The woman frowned, but the momentary sense of unease quickly vanished from her mind.

"Ah... right... it's just ticket checking, that's strange, what's wrong with me..."

The woman glanced at her hand, which had been pricked by the punching machine, casually wiped the blood away with a tissue, and then entered the room as if nothing had happened.

Other audience members preparing to enter naturally extended their hands to the ticket inspector as if handing over tickets, and the ticket inspector, quite normally, punched bloody marks on their hands with a hole punch.

Nobody found this strange.

"A trap only becomes a trap after someone steps into it, just like a pitfall trap is just a hole before someone falls in."

I said something that seemed to make a lot of sense, all in a very serious tone.

So you mean to say?

"The situation is still under control."

"... Are you just trying to comfort yourself?"

"You found out? This is really embarrassing."

"Don't say things that sound like jokes or gags that I don't understand!" Xiao Wu said irritably.

"Yeah, I'd be really bothered if my Xiao Wu got infected by your bad influence~"

Haoyue rolled her eyes at me and handed Xiao Wu a cup of freshly brewed tea.

"Even though you say that, don't make things too difficult for Xiao Wu. As her companion, I still hope you two can get along well." Xiao Wu reluctantly picked up her teacup and took a sip.

"Oh? It tastes pretty good."

"Hey you two, with a formidable enemy at hand, why are you still all lovey-dovey?!"

Watching Ye sipping tea while being cuddled and snuggled by Haoyue, my irritation grew stronger. Seriously, that Su Mengli should be in some lounge not far from here, right? Don't be ridiculous. While waiting and seeing is the best option right now, if this drags on, who knows what she might do? And if innocent people get dragged into this...

"But so what? Even if you're a delinquent girl who says that, you still can't take any action, can you?"

Haoyue gave me another disdainful look. Ugh, this guy is getting more and more annoying. Is it fun for him to cling to Xiao Wu while simultaneously teasing me?

Is that interesting...?

Sticking to Xiao Wu?

She's clinging to Xiao Wu's name...

Etc.

And who am I, standing here irritably watching them?

I...

I... I... am?

The sense of incongruity reappeared.

Wait a minute, something important seems to have gotten mixed up since just now, but what is this "important thing"? Should I ask them about it? By the way, what are they doing?

Little Ying was still happily practicing her signature, the Sick Spider was fiddling with something with its thread, and the Qipao Woman and Ye were as inseparable as ever.

--That's the part that's wrong!

Qipao Woman? and Ye?

But... it was Xiao Wu just now...

Xiao Wu... Ye... Xiao Wu... Ye?

I... wait... what exactly...?

My name is... I think it's Urahara Sakura Dance Mai?

Yes, this is the name that has been with me for almost twenty-one years. Although I don't really like it, I still haven't changed it.

Honestly, what am I doubting?

The venue was already packed with people. The Ferruggio Silver Wolf Team, who had been hyping up the atmosphere, had left. The curtain on the stage slowly rose, and the audience welcomed the first group with thunderous cheers.

Hello everyone--

"--We are--"

"--The first one to appear--"

"--Goodnight Girls Group!!!"

"""""""""""Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!!!!!!"""""""""

Night had fallen, and the colorful lights illuminated the night sky. Under the spotlight, young girls in short skirts leaped onto the stage, flashing their most beautiful smiles to the audience.

"Thank you everyone for your support!"

"This time we're going to sing our debut song from back then--"

--Magic

Hour!!

"Wow!!!!!"

Amid cheers, the team leader first executed a beautiful Mike throw, then caught it steadily in her hand—a little surprise she'd done countless times to liven up the atmosphere. At that moment, the intro began, and she brought the Mike to her lips, ready at any moment—

Then she froze.

As the leader of a popular idol group, her favorite sight is the sea of glow sticks waving in the audience. No matter the time, concerts are always accompanied by countless glow sticks.

And at this moment...

(... Underwear? Why underwear?)

What appeared under the shifting lights was not a sea of glow sticks.

It's actually pantyhose.

Each audience member held their panties high above their heads, waving them vigorously like glow sticks.

It was such a surreal scene that one could easily mistake it for some kind of cult gathering.

(Could this be a new trend? But how could I not know? And waving underwear at my idol like a glow stick is just too... too...)

That's too much... So what happened?

What the heck is "like waving a glow stick"?

What the audience was waving were glow sticks, weren't they?

It was the same familiar scene, the same audience cheering and shouting for themselves.

As usual, nothing strange about it.

The captain immediately smiled again and began singing loudly to the background music.

Fisher looked down from the observation deck at the top of the building and saw idols singing and dancing, and audiences waving their panties like glow sticks.

"... It seems your superpower is functioning perfectly, Wanhua Xing."

"Ha~~~ I really want to see Meng Li- chan soon~~~~ Brother (Sister), I've already started the 'name change' feature, and once you start the 'blurred boundary' feature, we'll be done, so hurry up~~~~~"

"..."

Seeing his behavior, Fisher sighed, and the parrot Dastan on his shoulder chirped incessantly, "Sister-complex pervert, brother-complex fake man."

"But Wanhua Xing, why did you change the name of 'underwear' to 'glow stick'? It's so tasteless!"

"Huh~~~~? I just made a few minor changes, after all, it was just to test whether the superpowers would work properly~~~~ Since these idiot viewers have already been affected, it means Ye and his group have almost finished their work too~~~~~"

"Then let's stop dawdling and get going!"

"Set off...? Ah! I can finally go see Meng Li- chan?"

"Anyway, the effective range of your ability is related to your field of vision, right? How can you strike accurately if you're not close to the target? And if you and your brother want to coordinate, you also need to be close, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes! Meng Li- chan and I are an inseparable part of each other!!!"

"Snort..."

Wanhua Xing showed no sense of danger, but Fisher didn't intend to force this unreliable person to act according to his instructions.

"Then it's the Fais..."

If things go smoothly, Wanhua Xing Su Mengli should be able to disable the two people with difficult constitutions. Chi Ying is also prepared, and Casey will take care of them in one fell swoop.

The Fais sisters are tasked with dealing with the Qipao Woman, Haoyue, and the mysterious black-haired girl whose information remains unclear. With the Fais sisters' cooperation, these two will soon be thrown into chaos.

Then came Yu Xun and Valentina.

Everything is proceeding according to plan.

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Ah... I have a complex analysis exam tomorrow... but...