Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

Once the spell was complete, Jiu carefully removed a piece of cake from the pyramid before her and put it into her mouth.

Both its texture and the fullness she felt after swallowing it proved that what she had eaten was not an illusion, but an actual piece of cake.

Swire lifted a glass of bright red juice and took an elegant sip. Her eyes immediately lit up, and she reached for a waffle to taste it as well.

After examining the bite mark, she confirmed that the cookie felt, tasted, and smelled real, as did the sensation of it sliding from her mouth down her throat and into her stomach.

"Are these all real?" Chen took a slice of pizza as well. Feeling the crisp crust, sweet cheese, and salty ham, she could not help asking in shock.

"Of course. I don't know where this stuff comes from, but it's definitely real." Suika happily stuffed grilled meat into her mouth from a plate.

She had discovered it last night. The food and drinks created for the feast by this ability were all real. Although anything left uneaten vanished once she stopped using the ability, whatever had been eaten truly remained in one's stomach.

She had remarked at the time that Reimu would probably love this ability.

After all, everyone knew how poor she was.

As the shrine maiden in charge of Hakurei Shrine, her empty Offering Box was as clean as her face.

That meant she did not dare waste food at all.

If she had this ability, then called over that black-and-white mouse who lived on mushrooms every day, and grabbed someone else at random—say, her own original self, who also loved throwing banquets—then in less than a month, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame would probably both gain a whole round of weight.

Swire and Chen had different views on this ability.

Swire felt the spell was quite interesting. It could create visible, tangible food without any cost, saving a huge amount of money.

Chen believed that spells always carried risks. Though she did not know the spell's origin, there was no such thing as a free meal in this world.

She suspected there was a hidden price attached to it, one that simply had not been discovered yet.

Moreover, she had never even seen many of these foods in Victoria, so she could not confirm whether they were safe.

She was also worried that if whoever stood behind the spell added something to the food, the consequences would be unthinkable.

In response, Suika only wanted to say that Chen was overthinking things. The abilities of Gensokyo had never been something that could be explained through reason and logic.

Take her own ability of Density and Sparsity. If an engineering student possessed it, they might be able to make a nuclear bomb by hand.

Yet in Gensokyo, in the hands of Ibuki Suika, one of the Four Ghost Kings, it had become an ability for gathering crowds conveniently for banquets and cleaning.

Just as neither side was willing to back down, Jiu spoke.

"Here's the thing. Suika's ability is very powerful, and if it is exposed, it may attract the covetous attention of others.

"So for now, keep it hidden. I need to study it carefully, and I'll let you know the results later. What do you think?"

Once Jiu, their superior, stated her position, the two stopped arguing.

Seeing that nobody was interested in continuing, Suika withdrew her ability. The room, which had just resembled a banquet hall, returned to normal, and the dazzling array of food vanished before their eyes.

Yet everyone noticed that although the food outside had disappeared, what they had eaten remained.

You Need a Strong Backer to Make It in the Underworld

After leaving, Suika said goodbye to the others and walked out through the Guard Department's main gate.

Seeing that it was only two o'clock, and that she would pass the post office on the way back anyway, she headed in that direction.

She figured that since she was already here, it would be a shame not to take a look around.

After arriving at the post office, she browsed around the counters and found no new mail. Just as she was about to leave, the manager called out to her.

"Young lady, could you do me a favor?"

Suika looked over and found it was the same manager from when she had joined, so she walked over.

The man smiled when he saw Suika.

"You're in luck. I have an urgent letter here that needs to be delivered to this address. Each urgent letter pays a full ten dollars, and this recipient is quite generous too. You might even get a handsome tip from him.

"I don't know the others around here very well, so I'll leave this good job to you."

Suika had originally intended to refuse, but when she saw that the recipient was Emperor and the address was Penguin Logistics, she accepted it.

She checked Penguin Logistics' location and found that it was not far from the district where she lived at all. It was only three streets away, and taking a shortcut would take just over ten minutes.

After putting away the letter, Suika politely bid the manager farewell and walked out.

After Suika left, a young man came over.

"Boss, didn't we agree that all these lucrative jobs would go to me? Why did you give it to an outsider?"

The manager shot him a glance, his face filled with disgust.

"I'm warning you. Don't go looking for trouble with her. The people behind her aren't someone a little punk like you can afford to offend."

After returning inside, the manager watched coldly as the man ignored him and chased after Suika. He had already sentenced him to death in his heart.

This fellow had worked at the post office since childhood. Back then, the manager had pitied him and given him the more valuable urgent letters. Yet after a long time, the fellow had started taking it for granted.

If anyone else accepted the job, he would do everything he could to stop them.

Once the manager learned of this, he fired him. Yet not only had the man failed to feel grateful, he had gathered a group of street punks and blocked the entrance to the post office, specifically intercepting couriers carrying urgent letters.

As the saying went, it was easy to fight the King of Hell but hard to deal with little devils. These punks loitered around the area. Even if he called the police, the Guard Department could do nothing once they arrived.

After all, the Guard Department could not control people merely for wandering around outside.

Their method of threatening couriers was simple. When Guard Department officers were around, they would trail behind the courier. Once the officers left, they would surround them, or follow them home and splash buckets of filth at their doors during the night.

Over time, those highly profitable urgent letters had become his private property.

The manager had deliberately stopped Suika outside this time and handed her the urgent letter in broad daylight precisely because he had his eye on the forces behind her.

Whether it was the Guard Department or the Swire Family, crushing those punks would be no harder than crushing ants.

Previously, there had been no excuse. But if something happened to that little girl who had a good relationship with Officer Swire, that officer probably would not let the matter go.

His own actions were lawful, reasonable, and followed procedure. He had no fear of being held accountable.

Naturally, he was not afraid that those behind Suika would come looking for trouble with him.

And as for his earlier "warning," he was certain that fellow would not listen. The script had already been written; now all that remained was to watch these people perform.

With that thought, he poured himself a cup of tea and savored it with satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Suika walked along the road while considering which "acquaintances" might be in Lungmen.

By now, she knew that it was the winter of 1093, with only a little over a month left until 1094.

The main Arknights storyline would begin in the winter of 1096, three years from now.

And another major event in her memories—Alina's murder and Talulah's descent into darkness—would probably happen at the end of next year or the year after.

So if she wanted to change the fate of the Reunion Movement, she still had one year to prepare.

Though Sister Talulah, corrupted by The Black Snake, had ceased acting like a human being, Suika still greatly approved of Fighter Talulah.

After all, so much suffering and so many desperate situations had failed to shake her resolve. If Alina's death had not torn open a crack in her heart, The Black Snake's powers of persuasion alone could never have changed Talulah's personality into what it later became.

Looking at the Battle of Chernobog, the initial objectives of Rhodes Island and the Reunion Movement had not conflicted either.

If not for Mephisto, those Reunion Movement members who had lost their minds, and The Black Snake's ambitions worsening the situation of the Infected, perhaps Rhodes Island and the Reunion Movement could even have formed a powerful alliance.

After all, both were organizations seeking a path to survival for the Infected. This situation, where they should have joined forces but instead fought one another to the death, should never have happened.

And in Lungmen, Lee and his Lee's Detective Agency should already have settled down here.

It was simply that Lungmen was so large, and she had not been here long, so she had yet to encounter any of their people.

But since Uncle Dong's Fish Ball Shop was here, Lee's Detective Agency had to be somewhere in the nearby districts as well.

Another person connected to the fish ball shop was Jie.

Suika had only visited the fish ball shop twice and had not met him, but Jie should have already had ties to Uncle Dong's Fish Ball Shop. Meeting him was only a matter of time.

As Suika pondered these matters while walking down the road, she suddenly felt the light ahead of her disappear.

Looking up, she saw several ill-intentioned people staring at her with sinister expressions.

"You're blocking my way. Could you move aside?"

Considering that she had only just obtained her residence permit, Suika did not want to cause trouble that might affect Hoshiguma, who had vouched for her. So even after noticing that these people meant no good, she remained polite and hoped they would back off in broad daylight.

"Little girl, do you know the rules? Every urgent letter in Lungmen belongs to us. You're just some newcomer, and you dare steal this business?

"If you know what's good for you, hand over the letter and compensate each of us one hundred dollars for our trouble. Otherwise...

"Heh heh heh..."

Suika looked at the little punks with some speechlessness.

"That's it?

"I thought you were Crow's underlings, acting so arrogant.

"You gave me quite a scare...

"I roll with Brother Haonan. Are you sure you want to mess with me?"

Looking at these men who all had the appearance of street punks, Suika decided to tease them.

"Brother Haonan? Have any of you heard that name?" The girl's fluent Lungmen underworld slang made the young men uncertain about her backing.

"What? You people in the underworld haven't even heard of Brother Haonan?

"Chen Haonan, the kingpin of Causeway Bay..."

Seeing them at a loss, Suika found it even more amusing.

"Causeway Bay? Where's Causeway Bay?" The men, thoroughly bluffed by Suika, quietly asked one another.

Yet they discovered that none of them knew of anywhere in Lungmen called Causeway Bay.

A Thousand Reds and Myriad Purples: Divine Shit, Ghostly Poison

"Damn it, you little bitch, you're screwing with us!" The leader was that young man. He knew every street and alley in Lungmen well, and he was certain that there was no place in all of Lungmen called Causeway Bay.

Remembering how Suika had just bluffed him and what he must have looked like, rage rose in his heart.

"So what if I scared you? Are you going to hit me?" Suika looked at the flushed young man before her, a faint smile curling at the corner of her lips.

This was a main road, and their earlier commotion had already drawn the attention of the people nearby. Judging from how easily these men had been bluffed by just a few words, they were nothing more than ordinary hooligans and street punks.

They might not even be as capable as the small thieves who had robbed Granny Wang before.

So Suika was not worried in the slightest that they would choose to attack here.

Sure enough, just as the man raised his hand, the others quickly held him back.

"Boss, boss, you can't do it! Everyone around us is watching."

Hearing his underlings, the man glanced around from the corner of his eye and saw that the surrounding people had indeed turned their gazes toward him when he raised his hand.

The reason he had thrived around here was that he never used direct methods against his opponents. That way, even if people found him disgusting, they could do nothing to him.

But he knew he had offended quite a few people because of this. He had simply been cautious enough not to leave any evidence in their hands. If he beat someone in the street, however, those people would definitely send him to the station.

Thinking of how he had provoked the Guard Department before, he did not believe he would have an easy time after going in. So he gritted his teeth and endured it.

"Ooh, you can even hold that in? Are you a Petram?"

He had just managed to calm himself down when Suika's words made him feel as though the temperature across his body was rapidly rising.

"Why don't you go take a bath first?"

Seeing the young man's face turn as red as a boiled shrimp, Suika's remark nearly made the underlings beside him fail to hold him back.

"Forget it. Looking at how cowardly you are, you probably don't have the guts to fight here.

"How about I give you a chance?

"Underworld rules. We settle underworld matters in the alley ahead."

Suika remembered there was an alley not far ahead. She had seen the malice in his eyes. If she did not deal with someone like this directly, he might cause even greater trouble for Hoshiguma from the shadows.

So Suika decided to strike first.

The man said nothing. He simply stood there and stared at Suika intently.

Smiling, Suika took the lead and headed toward the alley. As she passed a tea shop, she picked up a paper cup.

"Sir, may I borrow a cup?"

The old man at the tea shop was about to refuse when he saw Suika holding the cup and giving him a sweet smile.

As the saying went, one did not strike a smiling face. Faced with a polite little girl younger than his own granddaughter asking for a paper cup worth only a few cents, how could he bear to refuse?