*Special episode*
Chapter 11: The Warm Diary
Location: Atlantis Time: 2:01 PM
In this world, there are many things that are just so wonderful.
Under the situation where you"re caught off guard, anything can happen.
After leaving the residence for one day to carry out a mission and other ch.o.r.es and so on, Gasai was thinking about cleaning up first and then sleeping to restore his strength, as he wearily returned to his room. After seeing an unexpected extra thing in his room, he was actually stunned for a full three seconds.
That"s a bowknot.
No, correction, that should be a snake that was tied into a bowknot and placed upright on the small desk that he uses for his daily reading.
Fiercely glaring at him with golden eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with such murderous aura that they were about to turn red.
He had seen this thing not too long ago, when it was pulled out of one of Alis Academy"s representative players, and then tied into a bowknot by his partner/good friend. Ever since then, its whereabouts were unknown.
Gasai didn"t even have to think about why this bowknot would break through the Purple Dorm"s barrier to appear on his desk. He very clearly understood that to be able to do the sort of thing that completely disregards the Purple Doom"s rules plus barrier, like forcibly sending a large-scale curse over here, there could only be one person—his greatest black robe partner.
Wait a minute, if you calculate it like this, then this bowknot should"ve already maintained its shape for a few days, right?
Really has an admirable perseverance.
Ater taking off his purple robe, not in a hurry to untie that bowknot, Gasai slowly sorted out his clothes, before pulling out clean clothes from the cabinet, taking off his hairband and heading toward the bathroom. Completely disregarding the black snake"s vivid-to-the-highest-point expression of adding fire to fire, he leisurely walked into the bathroom.
About ten minutes or so of a simple bath later, he once again leisurely strolled out of the bathroom. That black snake was just like some kind of monitor sensor, as it firmly glared at him from start to finish.
"It"s useless for you to look at me like this. Since you"re the enemy"s curse body, based on regulations, you should"ve already been eliminated and decomposed by now." Taking out a water bottle from the small refrigerator, Gasai poured himself a cup of cold water. "Then, I"ll untie you, and you behave, how"s that?"
The black snake was still glaring at him.
Putting the cup down, Gasai stood up at the side. "Then, here you go." Saying that, with a snap of his fingers, the black snake immediately released from its bowknot posture.
In the same instant, as soon as it was released, the black snake immediately charged away from the low table, and suddenly rushed up to the ceiling. Its entirely black body was coiled in a corner of the room"s ceiling, glaring at him aggressively with its golden eyes. Then, it once again changed its form, distorting into a black lizard that bared its teeth to demonstrate itself.
"You might still be unaware of something." Pulling out a sheet of paper and taking out a pen to draw some pictures on it, Gasai didn"t cast any glances at that black guest. "A curse that is forcibly extracted, other than having its own power halved, once it loses a body to rely on, it will quickly die off."
A cold wind blew past his neck.
Gasai stopped what he was doing, and turned around, just so happening to face the curse"s golden eyes. "Work under me to help me do more things." In front of the golden eyes, the totem formed by the paper emitted a blue glow, so weak that it was like a waterdrop. "Reverse curse, inverse array."
As if shook by gravity, the black snake abruptly fell onto the ground, and then, it expanded out like a pool of water. Bit by bit, an array was drawn out, layer by layer, on the ground, before gradually stopping once until it covered the whole floor.
Words were revealed on the black array, high-level text mixed with some strange symbols. It was something that they shouldn"t learn, an evil curse.
Gasai sat kneeling on the same spot, and carefully looked over the array once, before stretching out his hand. "Gēnggǎi, zhuǎnyí jiù zhī xíng, tuōlí qūtǐ, gǎi wèi tīng wǒ mìng zhī xíng, zhòng rù qūtǐ." His fingertip knocked on the black words in front of him, and the words and totems of the array beneath slowly began to shift their positions according to his finger.
[T/N: Change, transfer into old form, detach from the body, become a form that obeys my command, re-enter the body.]
Little by little, Gasai spent a long time correcting the dark array, until the sky outside gradually darkened, and he finally finished the last word.
After modifying the array, it started to slowly turn again, and then a deep black dot floated up from the array, to hover in front of him.
"This is…" Narrowing his eyes, Gasai slightly hesitated for a moment, "The original owner"s blood?"
As if agreeing with his words, the black array issued a faint golden light.
Few people have deep black blood. He thought for a long while, but other than that clan, he honestly couldn"t think of any other clan with this paradoxical color. However, this does indicate that the person who attacked Alis Academy"s player, eight or nine out of ten, is part of the Ghost Tribe. "This doesn"t belong to you anymore, so give it up."
At the same time that his words ended, that drop of black blood burst, and dissipated in the air.
After relaxing slightly, Gasai let out a breath of relief, "This should be enough for now." He looked to the ground. The black array above had already started gathering in the center, and bit by bit, it returned to the form of a snake. "Then, come here." Biting his fingertip, a red drop fell on his palm. Once the body of the black snake was formed, its small, little head laid upon his palm and drank that red drop.
In that instant, the earlier fierce aura seemed to have completely disappeared.
After finishing the last step, Gasai collapsed on the room"s tatami flooring.
The sky was already black. Outside the window, it was as if thick ink had been spilled all over, making it almost impossible to see the scenery. At some point in time, the automatic lights had already switched on, illuminating the whole room. He watched as that black snake, whose curse incantation was just modified, circled him a few times before stopping in front of him and meeting his line of sight.
He knew that right now he should be giving the curse body a body to stay in. But, he was a bit tired, after returning from a mission and spending the afternoon modifying this curse incantation. These things made him feel sort of unable to get up from the floor, and even his eyelids felt so heavy that they were about to close.
The black snake was blinking its big, golden eyes as it looked at him, puzzled.
"I stored a couple of dolls in the cabinet that you can use, tomorrow, tomorrow I"ll take them out for you." Closing his eyes a little, he let the darkness infiltrate.
He knew that the black snake was still watching him, but there"s no harm, because it"s no longer dangerous.
That"s right, I still need to give it a new name…
He heard a song.
The slow, low reverberation of a cradle. A woman"s hand lightly patted the baby on the crib as she sang a song, sometimes softly and sometimes gently, causing one to can"t help but want to quietly close his eyes along with the song and enter dreamland.
There was a door separating them. He stood behind the door watching that woman and the baby.
After that person was born, everyone warned him that he was the next master of the house, and that he himself was born just to a.s.sist him. And after that, Father didn"t even look at him and Mother anymore.
The baby was in a deep sleep.
The woman inside silently covered him with a soft blanket, and quietly left the room through that door. At the same time that she came out, she saw him standing by the door. Not surprised, she simply smiled gently, turned around, and left.
He walked inside. The song seemed to still linger in the air of the room, gently and softly.
The baby in the crib was sleeping sweetly. He stood beside that baby and peered at him, his tiny neck…
That song, after a long time had pa.s.sed, he would occasionally recall it, but he had already forgotten what kind of song it was.
When Gasai woke up, it was the next day.
While he was still half-conscious, he first felt that he was covered with a thin layer. This was the summer blanket that he keeps in from the small cabinet, and before he fell asleep yesterday, it didn"t seem to be there.
As soon as he thought up to this, he was immediately wide awake.
Getting up, the first thing that entered his sight were some books scattered on the floor, and then the papers and pens. These items had always been kept neatly on the desk, and the next thing he saw was that his room was rather messy. There were some little things were scattered everywhere, whether they were handicrafts or clothes, decorations, etc., as if some thief had invaded.
Of course, there definitely wouldn"t be any thieves invading the Purple Dorm.
Gasai only used three seconds to blankly stare at the room"s mess, before he took off the summer blanket and stood up. The messy trail led to the inner resting room.
Without even entering the room, he immediately knew with one glance who the culprit that caused this chaos was.
A pile of spare clothes and blankets were pulled out, and inside that tangled-up mess was something slowly rising and falling. At the very bottom, a pair of legs was revealed, the size of a child"s calf.
Silently entering the room, he carefully removed the cloths covering it on the top, until the thing fast asleep underneath them appeared before his eyes—
It was a little girl, about ten or eleven years old. With fine, soft, black hair spread all over the floor, the small body was wrapped in a layer of black clothing.
He had no idea the curse"s knowledge had actually included dressing itself.
Gasai glanced at the magazine thrown to the side. It was opened to a page with a photo of a girl wearing a kimono and her family, and that was the family photo of a multiple murder case. The little girl sleeping so sweetly in front of him was wearing the same style in the magazine.
Just as he was considering how he should discuss the accommodation rules with the possible-future-roommate in front of him, the girl on the floor made a few strange sounds, and then her eyelashes fluttered. Small golden lights appeared beneath the black eyelashes, and so, she slowly opened her eyes.
Golden eyes met purple eyes.
A long while pa.s.sed, before the girl revealed a silly smile, "Nn…Master…" After giving him two words, she wrinkled her small face, as if she was hesitating on what to say next.
"My name is Yakushiji Gasai." Brushing away the debris beside him, Gasai sat down on a random spot on the tatami. "You found the sacrificial doll and used it by yourself?"
"Nn." The girl"s face widened into a big smile. In a blink of an eye, the black snake instantly sprang out into the air, and with a "kou dong" sound, it was a tiny doll that fell onto the ground. After letting the other person vertify it, the black snake once again went back into the doll, and the same girl reappeared. "Very comfortable, very comfortable, much more comfortable than the thing I stayed in before."
"It"s good that you like it. The sacrificial doll always comes with a small spell that can let the body possessing it smoothly a.s.similate. If it"s not accidentally injured, it can be maintained for a long time." After briefly explaining the sacrificial doll, Gasai noticed that there were also several little dolls scattered in the opened small cabinet. And so, he got up, walked over, and began to slowly clean up the mess.
"I"m sorry. I didn"t know where they were put, so I had to search through every place." The girl stuck out her tongue, and then she crouched down beside him, and helped pick up the little objects and pa.s.s them to him.
"It"s fine. It"s almost time to clean the room anyway. Please help me get the summer blanket from outside." Responding easily, Gasai quickly returned the little objects that were scattered everywhere to their original positions. Small running sounds swiftly came behind him, and without turning, he took the summer blanket, neatly folded it, and put it into the cabinet. "That"s right, is there any name in particular that you want?"
"Name?" The girl tilted her head, her golden eyes blinking puzzledly.
"Nn, name." After properly organizing most of the things in the cabinet, Gasai turned around, just in time to see the girl"s head on the bottom and her legs on the top, doing a strange upside down exercise. "For example, my name is Gasai. Do you have any favorite words that you want to use as your name?" Although asking a curse body like this is quite weird, he still feels that he should respect the "person"s" opinion on the matter.
The girl immediately shook her head, "Nope, does that mean I won"t have a name?"
"It won"t be as bad as that, otherwise let"s choose a name together?" Closing the cabinet, Gasai stood up and walked out of the inner room. Outside the room, there were still things strewn around. He bent down and started picking them up one by one. "Can you read?"
"Nn, I can read. My previous master added word recognition inside." Bouncing out of the inner room along with him, the girl trailed behind him and picked up the objects too.
"Good then." After roughly finished cleaning the room, Gasai took out a thick dictionary that hasn"t been used for who knows how long, and brewed tea for both of them, before he sat down in front of the small desk.
"How do I get a name? Lying next to the small desk, the girl curiously asked.
"Let"s look at the dictionary while searching for a word you like, okay?" Opening the thick book full of dense words, Gasai said in an unenthusiastic tone.
"Okay."
At the same time that the girl was concentrating on staring at the words in the dictionary, the room"s door was lightly knocked twice.
"Take your time flipping through it. I have a guest, so I"ll leave first." Noticing that the girl was concentrating and didn"t answer, Gasai stood up and walked toward the direction of the door. As soon as he opened it, standing outside the door was another friend.
A purple robed friend like him.
A large wooden box appeared in front of Gasai.
"These are some desserts that someone in the Winged Clan asked me to give you." A pale face appeared behind the wooden box, with almost penetrating amber eyes that showed no impurities at all, and long, supple, brown hair tied into a ponytail at the back of his head, letting one feel a tranquil aura radiating from his body. "Other than that, the Winged Clan will be holding a tea party soon, and they also asked me to pa.s.s the invitation card to you. I hope you can find the time to do us the honor of attending."
"Sorry to have troubled you, Aragami." Taking the wooden box, Gasai gave a slight nod. "I will attend the Winged Clan"s tea party."
"Then…" As if he was about to say something, the youth"s line of sight suddenly lowered.
Following his gaze down, Gasai saw the girl, who was supposed to be inside flipping through the dictionary, appear next to his legs; she even looked up at them, staring as she blinked her big, golden eyes. "Hey…"
"Your experiment?" The youth raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Nn…You could say that, but she won"t endanger the Purple Dorm." Gasai rubbed the girl"s head, and started thinking that he should sort out her messy hair.
"I can see that." Not especially expressing his opinion, the youth nodded slightly.
Peering at the box in Gasai"s hands, the girl tilted her head, and looked back at the visitor outside the door.
"This is Aragami, Kiri Aragami." Patting the girl, Gasai fulfilled his responsibility as the room"s owner to introduce the guest to the new roommate. "He"s the messenger of the Winged Clan."
"h.e.l.lo." The girl was fairly cooperative as she obediently bowed.
"h.e.l.lo." The youth also nodded quite naturally, to indicate a greeting, "That"s right, they said that you can"t let the desserts they sent this time stay there for too long, so don"t leave them there until they expired like last time."
"I understand, thank you." Pausing, Gasai suddenly thought of something else, "How long will you be staying this time?"
"I"ll rest for one week, and then I"ll continue taking missions." Answering every question that was asked of him, the youth glanced back at the girl on the floor before withdrawing his gaze. "Since there are no courses this semester for me to take over, I can spend more time on missions. There"re some long-term missions that I"ve always wanted to challenge, so it just so happens that I can use this opportunity to take a few trips."
Nodding, Gasai curved into his usual smile, "I see, then I wish you all the best in your missions."
"Thank you."
Nodding at each other, the youth went down the other end of the corridor.
After closing the door, Gasai carried the wooden box as he walked back to the room, and the girl trailing behind him quickly followed. "Then, then, Master, can I eat that person?"
"No, you cannot." Answering the girl in less than half a second, Gasai put the thing on the small low table in the room, and sat down next to it. "Aragami is a full-time course teacher in the school, and mainly guides the middle school, and high school students in the Primary Racial Course. When you see him, you have to be respectful, got it?"
"Nn, I got it." The girl nodded her head very forcefully.
Did you really get it?
Gasai was holding onto a rather big doubt as he opened the wooden box. In that second, the room was immediately permeated with a slightly sweet fragrance. "Nn…I haven"t even finished the ones from last time yet, and they made new ones so quickly?"
Just when he was about to close the box, he noticed an eager gaze coming from the side. Turning his head, a pair of big, watery, golden eyes was staring nonstop at the dessert box.
"Want to eat?" Gasai didn"t know if a curse body could be fed.
"Nn." The girl nodded her head, using a gaze that was full of hope to look at him. "What is this?"
"This is the Winged Clan"s dessert box. They are a race that loves the sky, and every month, they make these dessert boxes to worship their guardian G.o.ds. In the past, I had resolved some matters for the Winged Clan, so every month, after they finish worshipping their G.o.ds, they would always send a box to me when they distribute the dessert boxes." Carefully explaining the dessert box"s origin, once Gasai raised his head, he realized that he"d said a bit too much, because the girl"s expression and reactions had already been fully captured by the desserts, with no interest in its origin at all.
"Then can I eat?" Sure enough, completely ignoring those words from just now, the girl very innocently asked.
"Sure, I"ll go make some tea…" Reopening the dessert box, Gasai stood up and headed towards the small kitchen. He remembered that there were still some tea leaves from last time, so pairing them with the desserts should taste very nice.
In just a few minutes, he came out with the tea tray, and as soon as he saw the scene before him, he froze on the spot.
That little girl formed from a curse body had pulled her mouth open until it was almost bigger than her head, and her other hand that was holding the half-empty dessert box was pouring it into her mouth.
Gasai was stunned, and he wondered whether he still needed to bring the tea out.
He deeply believes that tomorrow he should go to the library reserved for purple robes to look into the probability between curse bodies and food, since he did see a curse body eating something, and moreover, this is the first time he had ever seen that kind of eating method.
Likewise noticing that he had come out, the girl immediately put the dessert box down, closed her mouth, and looked at him with a look of innocence.
"Having desserts with tea would be better." Thinking for a bit, Gasai still brought the tea with him to the table, and elegantly sat on his knees as he set the tea tray down.
"Nn." The girl still nodded her head very obediently.
Looks like he"ll no longer have to worry about leaving the desserts until they expired.
This was Gasai"s first conclusion after seeing how the curse body eats.
"That"s right, have you chosen a word yet?"
Taking out another box that was rather old and putting it on the table, Gasai looked at the food from last month that wasn"t even halfway finished, and offhandedly asked.
"Any word is fine?" The girl continued to stretch her hands out to the desserts, though this time she didn"t blatantly pick up the whole box and pour it down.
"You have a word you like?" Seeing how she seems to already have a word she wanted, Gasai lifted the tea and breathed in the aroma.
"Nn." Nodding hard, the girl quickly swallowed the desserts in her hands in one gulp, and picked up the dessert box"s lid from across the table. "I like this one."
The lid that was raised up had a flamboyant word portrayed on it.
Of course Gasai recognized it. That word is the name of the maker of the dessert boxes used for worship. "You like that word?"
"Nn, because it"s very tasty." The girl gave him a weird answer.
At least tasty is better than having no interest at all…
"Then, we"ll use this as your name, alright?" Gasai felt a slight apology in his heart toward the friend who made these desserts.
"Nn, alright." Revealing a brilliant big smile, the girl hugged onto the box"s lid as she jumped up, and then she hopped around the table in a big circle. "Name, name, my name."
In fact, this name is actually rather elegant, and it is a lot better than something like "kitty" or "doggy." Gasai looked at the very happy girl in front of him, and started feeling thankful that the Winged Clan didn"t bring over a box of sausages or other strange fresh foods. Otherwise, if the curse body told him that she wanted to be called something like "top-quality shark" or "squid," he could hardly imagine how he could convince her otherwise.
The girl brought the wooden box"s lid over to him, golden eyes eagerly looking at him. "Master, read it to me."
Taking that lid, Gasai looked at the word on it, "Ting." Just a single word, one of the characters in that maker"s name.
"This is my name." The girl once again started bouncing up and down.
In fact, the word "Ting" isn"t bad. At least it can be used for both male and female. "In that case, your name will be Xiao Ting, okay?"
"Nn." Nodding hard, the girl who just received a new name had a radiant expression of excitement on her face. "My name is Xiao Ting, my new name."
Looking at the girl who became so happy over her name, Gasai suddenly remembered that it"s been a long time since he grew out of the age of when he would get happy over a small matter. And despite how much he tried to remember that distant past, it was difficult for him to recall it.
"Master, you don"t like this name?" The girl went around the table, and tilted her head to meet his gaze.
"Not at all. It sounds very nice." Curving into that familiar smile, Gasai beckoned to her, and then he took out a small box from underneath the table. "Your hair is all messed up, I"ll help you comb it."
The girl immediately jumped onto his legs and sat in a spoiled manner. Her golden eyes watched as that box opened. Inside was a beautiful wooden comb and a small mirror. "Does Master use this comb too?" She liked the style of the comb, as it looked like a beautiful dessert.
"I don"t. This is my mother"s item. It"s usually stored away." And he guess he"s not quite suited to use these things. Neatly helping the girl comb her hair, Gasai took out two strings from the small box. Swiftly, he tied her hair into braids, circled them, and fixed them on both sides of her head. "If Xiao Ting likes it, then I"ll let you use it."
"Xiao Ting likes it a lot." Jumping off his legs, the girl held her braids with both hands, and gave another wide smile. "And also Master, Xiao Ting likes the most."
Gasai was still smiling, then he put the comb back into the small box, and handed that wooden box to the girl.
Taking the wooden box, the girl smiled brightly. Her two short hands hugged onto the wooden box as she burrowed into his arms.
"Xiao Ting likes Master the most. As long as Master has something, Xiao Ting will definitely help, whether it"s killing people or eating people, and even cursing someone. And if you want Xiao Ting to disappear, that"s fine too."
Patting the girl"s back, Gasai gave a faint sigh, "I won"t ever want you to disappear."
"Nn." The girl raised her head, smilingly looking at him. "Master, Xiao Ting will always stay by your side, okay?"
"You can, for as long as you like."
"Always, always together?"
"Nn."
After that day, Gasai"s room had a new little roommate.
Although her appet.i.te was a little big, but later on, this new roommate really did help him out a great deal.
With the pa.s.sing of another length of time, their feelings became one step closer after Xiao Ting finished reading a magazine one day, and posed a cla.s.sic question to him.
"Master, when Xiao Ting grows up, Xiao Ting will marry you, okay?"
This question caused Gasai to be affected for a long time and be unable to answer.
When he mentioned this to his partner/good friend some time later, the other person was quite ruthless as he returned him a cold and mocking sentence:
"Congratulations on being promoted to daddy."
And so, from that day on, he started worrying about education plans too.