"If you've got something to say, just say it. Don't make that awful face... Did something happen?"
Nanahoshi spoke with the air of a close friend saying, "Don't play dumb with me."
"Was my expression that awful? Sorry about that."
Cui Ciyou spoke, instinctively raising a hand to touch his cheek, responding with an equally goofy air.
Yep, I really do get swept along by other people that easily.
All right, enough messing around.
Cui Ciyou walked over to the seat opposite Nanahoshi Shizuka, pulled out the chair, and sat down. Standing up to say certain things had been a show of courtesy.
He cut straight to the point. "I'd like your help, Shizuka."
Nanahoshi Shizuka said irritably, "Don't act so familiar and call me by my first name."
After saying that, she set down her pen and sat up straight.
"What do you need me to do?" Nanahoshi Shizuka asked just as directly.
They knew each other well by now, and their relationship was rather like that of two same-sex friends who constantly ribbed each other.
"First, sorry for the trouble, but please hear me out."
"What you're about to hear might sound bizarre and absurd."
"You might even find it unbelievable and wonder whether I've gone mad."
"But these things really happened. This isn't some story I made up or exaggerated."
"I swear on my soul and everything I hold dear."
Hearing how solemn Cui Ciyou was, Nanahoshi Shizuka placed both hands flat on her knees and gave him her most attentive posture.
"All right."
Cui Ciyou began his account. "It all started with a rat carrying Magic Stone Disease..."
He started with Roxy contracting Magic Stone Disease, then explained how the Roxy from a doomed future had arrived here. After that, his own counterpart from a Parallel