Naga stood blankly at the crossroads for more than ten minutes, like a sailboat lost at sea. At last, she started walking and turned into a relatively secluded street.
The streetlights here were dim and yellow, like an old photograph, and the shadows of the roadside trees stretched long across the ground.
Several young men in studded leather jackets gathered at the mouth of an alley, their hair dyed in interwoven shades of purple, green, and yellow. Metal chains clinked as their bodies swayed.
One of them was especially burly and even wore short sleeves in the middle of winter, as though that could emphasize how tough he was. Blue tattoos gleamed with an oily sheen beneath the streetlights.
When Naga approached barefoot, they all stopped in their tracks. The sound of metal studs striking the pavement came to an abrupt halt. The youths stared blankly at the girl in the floor-length red dress. The vermilion marks at the corners of her eyes looked like two flickering flames in the dim yellow light.
"D-demon..." someone said shakily.
"She's a goddess..." another muttered in correction.
They often wandered these streets and alleys and had seen all sorts of girls, but they had never encountered a being like this.
She was so beautiful that she did not seem of this world. The streaks of red at the corners of her eyes seemed to contain the winds and snows of eternity, reminding them of celestial maidens flying across ancient murals, or enchanting spirits worshipped with incense in old temples deep in the mountains.
Normally, they would already have surrounded her with whistles, enjoying the sight of her panicking before bursting into raucous laughter.
But now, even their breathing grew quiet, as though they feared disturbing this illusion condensed from the night itself. The