Paradise Branch: Happy Ending

Inside Shiori's room.

"Forget it...," Huanyue sniffed, trying to make her tone sound tougher, even adding a hint of threat.

But her voice at that moment was far removed from the word "threat."

"..."

Shiori quietly watched her, thinking that the sight before her—the girl curled up on the edge of her bed, her eyes red-rimmed yet still stubbornly raising her face to glare at her—

—was probably something she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Before she knew it, plenty of tears had streamed down her own face as well.

"Even if you say that... I still..." couldn't easily pretend she hadn't seen it.

"...That part of you, Shiori, is just..." Qian Huanyue looked away and said quietly, "both dense... and a little mean."

She was starting to be a little less polite to herself, Huanyue.

Shiori let out a soft sigh inwardly, yet somehow felt relieved. She stood up, walked to the table, poured a cup of tea, then returned and gently pressed the warm cup into Huanyue's slightly cool hands.

"So it's actually the next day now, and my situation... was that I temporarily went missing?" Huanyue held the teacup, her lashes lowered as she stared at the ripples swaying within it.

"Mm. Spirit Wave couldn't detect you, and your phone wouldn't connect either..." Shiori rubbed at the corners of her still-reddened eyes and gave a bitter smile. "Honestly, I nearly panicked. Even now, my legs still feel a little weak."

Qian Huanyue silently shook her head.

"It's not embarrassing." She spoke softly, her tone more serious and gentler than ever before. "Not... at all."

Then, as if remembering something, she raised her fingertips, and a feather-shaped Angel appeared.

[Featherheal Sovereign]

Layers upon layers of feathers covered Shiori's body, slowly dissolving into her skin.