After adding Moqu on Feixun, Mo Bai left the Academy square.
Looking back, he had no idea why he had suddenly taken the initiative to exchange contact details with Moqu.
It wasn't as if Moqu had faced a life-or-death crisis alongside him, the way Rover and Lynae had.
"Maybe his determination rubbed off on you."
A familiar voice sounded beside Mo Bai's ear.
It was already past midnight. Nearly all the students, worn out from the day, had returned to their dorms. There was no one around him.
"You're awake," Mo Bai said to his shadow.
Only Mo Hei, whom he had taken into his shadow and made into a Shikigami, could read his thoughts and speak to him like this.
"Just woke up. If you're hoping to use me in a fight already, forget it. That'll take a while."
Mo Hei spoke leisurely from within the shadow.
Mo Bai figured it was because Mo Hei's body was more complex than an ordinary Shikigami's.
After all, Mo Hei had to recover inside his shadow while gradually changing from a creation of Sonoro into a Shikigami that belonged entirely to him.
The fact that Mo Hei could already talk to him from inside the shadow meant his recovery was going fairly quickly.
"Wait. You said Moqu influenced me?"
Mo Bai steered the conversation back to Moqu.
"Of course. I'm you, after all. You might not see through everything, but as your opposite, I can spot it at a glance." Mo Hei sounded rather proud.
He did have a point, though.
Seeing Mo Bai deep in thought, Mo Hei spelled out exactly what had moved him. "His determination. His determination," he said helplessly.
"Jujutsu Sorcerers aren't just sensitive to negative emotions. Positive ones affect us too. The way Moqu never gives up on his ideals really is moving."
"I see..."
After hearing Mo Hei out, Mo Bai rubbed his forehead with a headache.
So am I the kind of person who likes sticking his nose into other people's business?
He had thought he understood his own nature. Now, thanks to Mo Hei, he realized he might have been wrong.
"All right, talking to you is exhausting for me right now. I need to rest..."
Mo Hei's voice cut off halfway through.
"Good night."
After bidding his former imaginary friend good night, Mo Bai continued wandering around the Academy.
There was still some time before curfew. He might as well keep walking.
As he wandered, Mo Bai noticed that the doors to the Academy's Screening Room were still open.
Strictly speaking, the place should have been called an auditorium. He had heard that the Academy held its graduation ceremonies there too.
Normally, its doors would have been shut long ago. Was today some special occasion?
With nothing better to do, Mo Bai went inside.
To his surprise, no one was there.
"Did whoever was in charge forget to shut the door?" Mo Bai wondered aloud.
That worked out nicely for him.
He had recently found two fairly well-reviewed movies on the Academy forum.
Because Resonance existed in this world, most people who had survived the Lament were pretty sharp. The entertainment they came up with was interesting too.
In his old world, he had just been an ordinary college student and a homebody.
Aside from avoiding gacha games because their online communities were so toxic, he was familiar with most forms of online entertainment.
Watching movies had been one of his favorites.
Especially when he had an entire auditorium to himself, like a private screening room.
Click.
Mo Bai shut the auditorium doors, sat down alone, and started a movie.
The Tyrannical Magistrate Falls in Love with Me. How Sad It Is to Fall in Love with a Resonator.
"Why are they all romances..." Mo Bai stared at the titles he had saved, at a loss for words.
Still, he believed in trying things for himself, good or bad, so he started watching.
By the time a huge "The End" appeared on the screen, Mo Bai's face had darkened.
He hadn't expected much from those titles, but did the endings have to be so... shitty?
In the first movie, Jinzhou's Magistrate had apparently turned into someone who cared about nothing but romance. Did she even know this movie existed...?
As for the second one...
Its plot made sense, but he didn't like its style.
The romance was so tangled it hurt to watch, and it had a bad ending.
He was a sucker for happy couples.
"Hmm... Both movies have plenty of room for improvement."
A woman's voice sounded beside Mo Bai.
At some point, someone had sat down next to him.
She was dressed in a distinctly modern, urban style. She had the air of a mature woman and the authority of an Academy leader.
What caught his eye most, though, was her top hat.
The stars lining its brim made it look as though she stood beneath a real night sky.
It was Principal Losera, who had questioned Mo Bai earlier.
Somehow, she had taken the seat beside him and was now earnestly reviewing the two movies he had watched.
"Since the first one is a romance, its protagonist could stand to be a little more assertive. At the very least, the audience needs to believe he's worthy of that Magistrate.
"The second has no problems with its plot or content, but its title draws in too many viewers expecting something entirely different. In Huanglong, they'd call that bait and switch."
She offered her suggestions with the seriousness of a professional.
Then she turned to Mo Bai.
"But as an outsider, I'm more curious what you think. You're the one who chose both movies."
Losera smiled as she asked.
"I... Honestly, neither was really my thing. I found them pretty boring."
"And yet you were so absorbed that you didn't notice me come over. You must have been watching closely."
"..."
Mo Bai had no excuse for that.
As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, Mo Bai could normally react to an attack under any circumstances.
But Losera had shown no hostility, so he hadn't sensed her approach. He really had been engrossed in the movies.
In other words, the movies hadn't so much bored him as kept him watching to see how bad their plots could get.
A bad plot stirred more emotion than a boring one. It also made him want to know just how much worse things could become.
"Let's watch a movie I recommend next."
With that, Losera took out the small blue Projector she carried with her.
And so an Academy suspect and its principal sat together in the auditorium after midnight, watching a movie in perfect harmony.
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