True Friends

The afternoon sun in Eastsea City was somewhat languid, shining on the Spirit Pagoda's silver-gray alloy exterior and reflecting patches of slightly dazzling light.

Xie Xie slipped out through the side door, moving so furtively that he looked like a rat caught stealing oil, pretending he had merely wandered by. Both hands were stuffed into his coat pockets—he had left in a hurry and had not changed into formal clothes, and the hood of his sweatshirt sat crookedly over his head, exposing only half of his tense face. In his right pocket, his fingertips repeatedly rubbed over two stiff cards: single-entry passes for the Junior Ascension Platform.

Shadow wanted two passes.

Her reason was, "One for me, one for you. When you go in, stand farther away. Don't let my Feather Blades slip over and cut you. Or you can wait outside, but it's boring out there. It's more fun if you go in and I can watch you curl into a ball."

Back at the dormitory coffee table, Xie Xie's legs had still been numb when he heard her say that while draped over the back of the sofa. Her white hair brushed the back of his neck, her red eyes curved into crescents, and the short knife spun between her fingers, flashing in and out of sight. He had answered with a simple "Mm," as if someone had pressed his pressure points.

And so there he was now: Xie Xie creeping around like a nest-owner carrying stolen goods, walking back along the landscaped path outside the Spirit Pagoda while calculating how to get Shadow into the Ascension Platform without the duty deacon noticing anything strange. That girl had white hair and red eyes; with her hood pulled down to her nose and that personality of hers, it would be a miracle if the soul-guided scanner did not start blaring the moment she stood in front of security.

"Hey! Xie Xie! What are you sneaking around for?!"

The voice exploded from the cold noodle stall by the roadside. Xie Xie's shoulders jerked, and he nearly jumped straight into the air. He stiffly turned his neck around. Yun Ying stood there holding a disposable plastic bowl, her chopsticks lifting a clump of cold noodles soaked in red chili oil and garlic sauce while her cheeks were still chewing. The Flame-Reaver Spear leaned against the wall beside her, its shaft gleaming with a cold, hard sheen beneath the sunlight. Half a bandage was still stuck to her temple from where she had scraped herself after being blown away by the blast from Shadow-Tail Blade last night, but she was already full of energy again, her eyes burning with that familiar hunger for a fight.

"N-Nothing..." Xie Xie's expression looked worse than crying. His right hand clenched the entry passes tighter in his pocket until his knuckles turned white.

Yun Ying narrowed her eyes and slammed the bowl onto a stool, splashing a little oily broth. She pulled out a tissue to wipe her hands, her gaze cutting like a blade over Xie Xie's hood, his wrinkled pant legs, and the obvious card-shaped bulge in his pocket.

"Heh." Yun Ying sneered, loosening her shoulders as she hoisted the Flame-Reaver Spear onto one shoulder. "What did that psycho make you do?"

Xie Xie's Adam's apple bobbed. At most, he and Yun Ying were acquaintances who had been splashed with blood in the same midnight brawl. Last night, Yun Ying had thrown herself in front of Gu Yue to block half an attack, then flown out into the hallway like a battered sack, while he had curled up in the corner of the sofa and watched the whole thing. Someone like her could not be fooled.

"She... she said she wanted to go sharpen her blades in the Ascension Platform." Xie Xie lowered his voice so much that it was as though he feared the wind would carry his words away for someone else to hear. "Just... the junior zone. I'm responsible for getting the tickets and waiting outside."

Yun Ying's brows shot up, and even the red-oil cold noodles seemed to freeze. "Sharpen her blades?!" Her voice rose half a pitch, drawing a peek from the stall owner. "That lunatic wasn't satisfied after trading blows with Teacher Wu last night, and now she wants to use the Ascension Platform's Soul Beasts as whetstones?! Wasn't the red on her blades enough? She wants fresh blood too?!"

Xie Xie nodded, then shook his head, and finally managed only one sentence. "...She said her Feather Blades were getting dull."

"Dull my ass!" Yun Ying swung the Flame-Reaver Spear down from her shoulder into her hand, spinning it half a circle. "Let's go! I'm finding her! Forget waiting for Teacher Wu today—I'll hammer that little frenzy of hers back into her bones myself!"

She took a step toward the direction Xie Xie had come from. Startled, Xie Xie grabbed her forearm—his grip pitifully weak, more like he had seized a piece of red-hot iron and did not dare let go.

"Don't go!" Xie Xie was so anxious that the corners of his eyes reddened. "What if she gets angry... what if she really does something..."

Yun Ying shook him off. The Flame-Reaver Spear swept across, its shaft knocking against Xie Xie's wrist bone with a bang. It was not hard, but it hurt enough to make him pull back. She glared at him. There was no anger in her eyes, only something harder, something that allowed no argument.

"I can't stand seeing my friends get bullied. Got a problem with that?" Yun Ying enunciated every word clearly, lifting the spear tip toward Xie Xie's chest. "I saw the way you curled up in that sofa corner last night. Xie Xie, when have you ever been this scared of anyone? Not even Tang Wulin."

Xie Xie stood frozen. In the morning light, the edge of Yun Ying's temple bandage had curled up slightly, revealing the pale pink scar beneath. There was still a bit of dust from last night's hallway debris on her spear shaft. And she had said, "friend."

"Y-You think of me as a friend?" Xie Xie's voice drifted. "Not... a sucker?"

Ever since Shadow had pinned him in the dormitory, his role had always been "a fruit platter picked up along the way," "a board-game sparring partner," or "an Ascension Platform ticket dealer." Yun Ying had even cursed at him last night, before coughing blood and flying away: "You sure hid fast, Xie Xie." But now, that one word—friend—hit him, and his eyes instantly swelled with tears.

Yun Ying curled her lips, looked away, and muttered, "Since you offered to treat me to yogurt."

Xie Xie went completely still. That bottle of yogurt had been from a month ago. He had long forgotten it. Yun Ying remembered.

"Sister Ying..." His throat tightened, and the two entry passes in his pocket suddenly felt burning hot. "Sister Ying! If you can drive that psycho away—no, just drive her farther away, as long as she's not in my dormitory—you'll be my boss! Other than you and Tang Wulin, I won't acknowledge anyone else!"

He was so worked up that he nearly bowed. His hood slipped down, his hair stuck up wildly, and dark circles beneath his eyes mingled with tears. He looked ridiculous, yet utterly sincere.

Yun Ying burst out laughing. She slung the Flame-Reaver Spear over her shoulder, then reached over and rubbed Xie Xie's head so hard that she completely shoved his hood off. "Sure, Xie Xie. I'm in a good mood today. I can even help you blast that white-haired little troublemaker out of Eastsea City." She paused and nudged the plastic stool with her toe. "But let's be clear first. She's going into the Ascension Platform, and so am I. You have exactly two tickets. I'll go in and keep an eye on her, so she doesn't really bathe her blades in Soul Beast blood and then smile sweetly at you while saying, 'They're smooth now.'"

Xie Xie panicked. "But if you run into her—"

"Then I run into her." A glint flashed through Yun Ying's red eyes, identical to Shadow's in some way, but fiercer and more scorching. "My Flame-Reaver Spear needs a live target. Her Feather Blades are dull and need sharpening. Perfect—we can sharpen each other."

Xie Xie wanted to stop her again, but Yun Ying had already stepped onto the path. The spear tip cut a cold arc through the sunlight. "Lead the way. If you don't want to go in, fine—just stand at the entrance. Don't let her see you with me—no, she'll definitely see it. Then just say I kidnapped you."

Xie Xie followed behind her, pulling the two cards from his pocket. He held one in his sweaty palm and handed the other to Yun Ying. Yun Ying took it and flicked the word "Junior" on the card with her fingertip, then snorted. "Junior zone. The Soul Beasts are only a hundred years old at most. If she swings her Feather Blades around in there, won't it turn into a sheep-shearing workshop?"

The two headed down the path toward the dormitories. Behind them, the cold noodle stall owner called, "Miss, you forgot your bowl!" Yun Ying did not look back, merely waved a hand as her spear tip swayed in farewell.

Xie Xie's steps were unsteady. He had imagined a hundred ways to deal with Shadow: coaxing her to sleep, tricking her by saying Wu Changkong was checking the dorms, hiding the Chinese checkers... He had never imagined Yun Ying becoming his boss, shouldering a spear, and going to the Ascension Platform to intercept her. Yet somehow, this version made his heart race wildly. It was not fear, but the dazed sensation of being pulled half an inch free from the nail that had pinned him to the wall.

Xie Xie wanted to laugh, but he could not.

Dormitory building.

Morning light moved past the half-open window at the end of the third-floor corridor. Shadow was not sitting on the windowsill. She sat cross-legged on Xie Xie's sofa, with half a Feather Blade extended from her fingertip as she carved a glass marble. The shavings fell onto the knees of her sweatshirt. The dark red edge of the blade reflected the sunlight like a thin layer of frozen blood.

She suddenly looked up, her red eyes glancing toward the empty space beyond the window.

"Big brother slipped away for nineteen minutes and forty seconds." She spoke to herself, retracting the Feather Blade into her sleeve as the short knife spun half a circle in her palm. "He brought someone back? Mm... the red-eyed one. Sister Yun Ying, hehehe..."

She sniffed the air. A strand of white hair puffed out from her hood, perking up like a cat's ear.

"Interesting."

She did not rise. She merely pulled the small potted plant on the coffee table in front of her, touching the tip of a sprout with her fingertip. The dark red had dried long ago, brittle and hard. She crushed it between her fingers, powder clinging to her nails.

"The Ascension Platform..." She drew out the words, her red eyes curving.

She laughed softly, briefly, like a feather brushing over a blade.

Meanwhile, two streets away from the dormitory building, Gu Yue stood by the window of a study classroom with a pen in her hand. Her purple eyes were lowered as the pen tip unconsciously drew an arc across the scratch paper.

The pen stopped.

She lifted her eyes, her gaze passing through gaps in the plane tree leaves toward the dormitory building.

"Xie Xie..." Gu Yue murmured, and the cold glint in her purple eyes faded for an instant.

"That white-haired one... is tormenting him again?" Gu Yue spun the pen once between her fingertips, failed to keep it steady, and it fell onto the desk.

She had not sensed any Soul Power fluctuations or killing intent. It was only a faint tremor, as though some web of relationships had been tugged.

Gu Yue looked at her phone. The screen was dark. She did not intend to send a message. Wu Changkong allowing Xie Xie to rest did not mean he allowed him to get tangled up with Shadow in the Ascension Platform. But Yun Ying had gone, Xie Xie had followed, and Shadow was definitely there.

"...Boring." Gu Yue withdrew her gaze and pressed the pen tip back onto the scratch paper.

As if sensing something, she lifted her eyes again toward the shadows of the plane trees outside the window. On the distant path were two figures walking over, one tall and one short—Xie Xie with his neck hunched in, Yun Ying carrying her spear, sunlight making the spear tip glare brightly.

Gu Yue did not move. A faint ripple passed through her purple eyes, so slight it did not seem like an emotion.