Volume 8 - CH 9

Chapter 9: The Past Intersection

Atlantis  8:45 PM

I was not surprised at all that I would be caught.

It’s only if I didn’t get caught that I would be surprised, I really mean it.

Gasai turned around and beckoned to me. I had no choice but to accept my fate, recover my steps that were about to head in the opposite direction, and walk toward him.

When I got near the balcony ledge, I heard a faint noise from outside.

“Did you follow me out here because you wanted to ask something?”

Senior Gasai’s voice brought me back to reality, “Uh…no.” It’s not like I have a question all the time, right?

“If there’s nothing in particular, it’s better to go to sleep early.” Pausing for a bit, he once again shifted his gaze over to the balcony ledge. “After all, with the situation as it is right now, if you don’t first keep up your physical strength…it won’t be so easy to deal with those things outside.”

Outside?

I followed senior Gasai’s gaze and looked outside, and for a second, my whole scalp grew numb.

It was completely black outside, as if ink was poured all over the sky and ground. Within the blackness, the sounds of water and ripples could also be heard.

But the thing that caused my scalp to grow numb wasn’t those. Instead, above the ripples, I saw many small, unknown things moving around, and it looks like a humongous group. That group of things were surrounding the hostel from a distance away.

“Right now, there’s a barrier blocking the fog’s invasion but once it’s morning, I don’t know what it will change into, so before the sun rises, all we can do is get a good rest.” He turned around, his purple eyes seemed a lot darker in the night. “Chu, this is completely different from the previous competitions. If you really can’t do it, no one will say anything about it.”

I nodded. I also understand my own worth.

Perhaps to everyone, I was just a passerby who accidentally became involved in this competition, the kind that you wouldn’t expect to make any contributions at all, and in times of danger will definitely be the first one to be told to run away and not interfere by everyone.

“I’m not saying that you’re not fit to participate in this competition. In my opinion, at least up to now, lcy Flame choosing you to be the backup player couldn’t be a better choice.” As if he saw through my thoughts, Gasai lifted up the corner of his lips. “I’m not saying this to be polite, but rather, you really do have the strength to participate. One day, when you reach the highest point in the school and look back at the past, you will think so too. It’s just that the you right now isn’t able to see this.”

In fact, I think he really is saying this to be polite. I don’t even know whether I can graduate from this school, let alone looking back at the past. And maybe, by the time I do reach that level and look back, I’d probably see an overwhelming number of deaths and the like, which just so happens to create the first school record for the person with most deaths.

“I won’t be able to do that…I can’t even properly use an explosive charm and whatnot. It seems like I’m wasting the spot by joining the competition.” I don’t know if it’s because of how late it is or because of a psychological reason, that I very naturally issued words that sounded a lot like complaints to senior Gasai. “I feel like, I’m different from the people around me. Having me here…is very weird.”

That’s right, having me here is very weird.

“Chu, about a couple of years ago, I thought about the same thing as you.” Senior Gasai walked over to the nearby sofa and sat down. Then he pointed to the empty space on the other side, motioning me to also sit down. “At that time, I was just like you, knowing nothing at all.”

“But one way or another, you will definitely become stronger than me.” Thinking about their origins that were considered to be quite powerful, no matter what, they would still be stronger than this ignorant newbie that I am, right!?

“I spent six years in the Yukino Clan.” Gasai didn’t answer me. Instead, he spoke about something else. “Within those six years, because I wasn’t a suitable heir, I didn’t have any tutors instructing me. It was mostly my mother teaching me some ordinary school curriculum, like writing, math and whatnot. However, she didn’t mention any other matters about the Yukino Clan. It was probably also due to this that I almost didn’t know about the Yukino Clan’s line of work and their spiritual abilities, much less the existence of the school.”

Nn, sounds rather like a normal kid’s process of growing up.

“After six years, one day, my mother took me back to the Yakushiji Clan, and on the seventh day, she died during the disaster of the assailant’s attack on the Yukino Clan Leader. I suppose Chifuyu should have already told you this.”

I nodded. Basically, Chifuyu even told me that your mom was the legal wife and got angered till she left.

“On the eighth day, I was living in a world that I didn’t understand. Mother’s corpse was quickly disposed of, because regardless of whether she was a Yakushiji or a Yukino, a corpse can reveal many secrets, so the body had to be destroyed as soon as possible.” As if he was talking about something totally unrelated to him, Gasai’s expression didn’t fluctuate at all “Back then, I was a lot younger than you, and just like that, I was kicked into this different world. I didn’t even have a chance to back out, because this is the blood that flows within my body.”

“Compared to you, I was even more clueless as to where my existence belongs.”

***

Maybe I was a little shocked.

I didn’t know that Gasai would suddenly talk about his own origin, and would never have guessed that they might’ve had a harder time than me.

“At that time, I didn’t inherit the Yukino Clan’s bloodline. After my mother died, I was forced to do an opening of the eye in the Yakushiji Clan, and in just a short night, after I woke up, the world I saw was already completely different from before.”

I suddenly felt a little sympathy for Gasai. Even though I didn’t know what kind of childhood he had, but after hearing him now, maybe I was a lot luckier than he was. After all, I’ve been seeing ghosts since I was little. It wasn’t unexpected at all, so instead, when I arrived at the school, I was slightly able to accept some of the things there.

This is a bit different from being able to see certain things all of a sudden.

“You can also understand that feeling of the things you’ve learned being no more, and that what you know is entirely different.” Peering outside the balcony, Gasai said an affirmative sentence that was also my answer. “After I studied in the Yakushiji Clan for five years, I learned about the school through my relationship with my grandfather, and after middle school, I entered the school to continue on with my studies.”

Middle school?

Then that’s a lot earlier than I did.

“Later on, I met Icy Flame in the school, and I was pretty much in the same situation that you are in.” Gasai smiled, as if he just thought of many things. “Icy Flame really is strong, no matter if it is now or then. That kind of strength would make one clearly feel that he has been left far behind, and he would sometimes not understand why he was living beside a bunch of strong people.”

That’s right, I currently feel like that too.

I’m standing beside a bunch of strong people like an ant within a herd of elephants that could flatten me with a foot just by being happy.

“Due to Icy Flame’s blessing, I also learned many things, so after entering high school, I went to test for robe levels. Although I failed a couple of times, I was finally able to catch up to their footsteps.” Smiling as he looked at me, Gasai patted my shoulder. “Your hidden ability is so much better than me, so don’t take yourself so lightly. You will stand beside everyone faster than I.”

I know that senior Gasai said all of these to help cheer me up.

I really know it.

“I’m sorry. I even made you say so much.” I’ve always known that the things I lack are called courage and confidence. It’s just that I still couldn’t grab onto those two things, causing a lot of people around me to try desperately to cheer me up.

Gasai was still smiling, “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. Advancing by yourself is much too hard. I have seen such a person before, so I don’t want you to struggle alone either. If there really is anything, you have to say it so that everyone can know. Everyone here will help you, and it’s fine even if you want to scream for help.”

Uh…I think I still won’t dare to scream for help, since it’s sort of embarrassing.

“Dong dong” sounds of little footsteps came over, and we stopped talking.

With a “pa,” the lights in the saloon turned on, and the surroundings became extremely bright. I once again turned to look at senior Gasai. He was already giving off that usual gentle but slightly estranged feeling.

If this was the situation just now, I guess I probably wouldn’t have dared to say anything.

No wonder some people say that when you’re going to chat with someone, it’s best to find a place with good lighting and atmosphere. Even though the atmosphere here isn’t that good, I can still somewhat understand this point.

“What are you guys hiding over here for?” That little pillow-fighting kid finally noticed that her master was missing and came chasing after him. “The people in the room are about to sleep.”

Xiao Ting jumped onto the sofa and bounced on it a few times before quietly sitting down. I noticed that the braids on her head were all in a messy pile, with feathers stuck inside them. There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that someone was definitely having a pillow fight just now until the air was full of snowflakes flying around.

I remember that Xiao Ting’s hair has always been taken care of by senior Gasai.

Also noticing that her hair was scattered into a mess, Xiao Ting tugged her braids that came loose and looked at senior Gasai with wide eyes, before she started scooting her butt over to her master.

“Come here.” Gasai patted the empty spot beside him. Xiao Ting immediately sat over there happily and even untied all her braids on the way, until her long hair hung down around her shoulders.

Very unbelievably, the little black snake MeiMei now looks no different from an ordinary kid.

Gasai very naturally helped tie her hair back into its original style that had several round braids. The whole process took only a few minutes from start to finish. The surroundings were silent and still. Even a pin drop could be heard very clearly.

Right now they look just like the most normal of siblings.

In fact, they shouldn’t be not that different from me, though not that similar either.

“Alright.” Gasai let go of his hands, and the little girl very happily jumped off the chair.

“Then, it’s time for you to go to sleep.” Xiao Ting bounced over in front of me, grabbed my hand, and tugged me up. “Now it’s Xiao Ting and Master’s turn to stand guard.”

Stand guard?

That’s right, I’ve heard them say something about how they’re going to stand guard and the like. “I can help stand guard too.” At least I can still do the kind of thing like waking everyone up when I see something, right?

“Listen, you!” Xiao Ting suddenly put her hands on her hips, and sternly stretched out an eyesore of a finger and pointed it at my nose. “Go, to, sleep.”

She gave me three very simple and neat words.

This caused me to really want to make fun of this brat.

Then I also mimicked her and stretched out a finger, poking her forehead. “Right now, it should be time for little kids to go to bed and sleep, Xiao Ting little MeiMei.”

There is a story that went like this: Some idiot forgot about the true nature of wild animals and recklessly went to provoke the wild animal. In the end, he got bitten back.

I suppose, that story should be talking about me.

“Ga——”

Xiao Ting, who got poked, opened up her bloody mouth in a second. In that second, I saw a black throat, and heaven was just before my eyes.

“Xiao Ting, you can’t do this.”

Senior Gasai’s voice drifted over from behind.

Closing her mouth in less than a second, Xiao Ting had already shut her mouth and put her hands up. “I didn’t eat him—”

The entire process took only a few short seconds, and I didn’t even have time to cry before I’d already made a trip around heaven and hell.

Cold sweat slid down my back.

Next time, I definitely cannot take my own life as a joke.

***

Just as I was getting ready to go back to the room, a commotion vaguely sounded from outside the balcony.

That wasn’t quite the same as the sounds from just now. It was a dripping noise like rain, and also similar to rocks spreading out ripples on the surface of the water.

“There seems to be some kind of noise.” Xiao Ting walked over to the balcony.

“Someone’s here.”

Originally sitting on the sofa, Gasai instantly stood up and held onto Xiao Ting to prevent her from advancing. “Someone is approaching the barrier, don’t go there.”

Once he said that, even I got tensed up.

Xiao Ting took two steps back until she stood beside me.

Wait a minute, someone is approaching the barrier? How could there be someone who would approach the barrier at a time like this? Isn’t the ground flooded with water? There’s actually someone who was so bored that he swam all the way here to approach the barrier!?

Gasai took out that white mask, put it on, and then at a bit of a slow speed, he started getting ready. I know about this, I’ve often seen it in the player’s lounge before. This is what he does to get ready before a job; from this we can tell that the one approaching the barrier is not one of us.

Speaking of a guy who isn’t one of us, there’s only one candidate I could think of: that face-changing person who disappeared on his own to some corner of the world after leaving behind some words.

If that face-changing person actually came, I kind of doubt that the people in this hostel would have any way of stopping him.

But having said that, I really do feel that guy is quite abnormal. I have no idea what he wants, just running behind Senior and me like that. And once in a while, he would also say things that leaves one in a state of confusion.

I realized that I really shouldn’t be distracted and start thinking nonsense again. The situation right now seems rather tense.

“Fēng zhī yín, shuǐ yǔ yǐng shuāngfēi lín, sānlù tàn lù yú.” Gasai formed a ring with his fingers, and I heard a certain very familiar hundred sentence song. Then a black fish-like thing leaped out through the ring formed by his fingers. After it passed through the balcony, it fell without a sound.

[T/N: Song of wind, water and shadow twin flying Lin*, the fish of three lands finds a path.]

[T/N: Lin as in Qilin/Kirin/Chinese unicorn]

After determining that the fish had fallen into the water, Gasai immediately squatted down, and then he opened his palm. On it was a bright, waterdrop-like object that looked rather similar to fish scales. “Jiāng nǐ suǒjiàn zhī wù chuán xiàn wǒ yǎnqián.” He flipped his hand, and the fish scale fell on the ground. The hostel’s carpet was like a water surface; the second that fish scale touched it, little ripples spread out. Next, a circle with a thirty centimeters or so radius appeared on the floor. After a few seconds of reflection, a black screen slowly emerged.

[T/N: All the things that you see, manifest them in front of me.]

Xiao Ting and I simultaneously squatted down on the other side of the circle.

To be honest, this thing called curiosity will always appear no matter what time it is, especially at the tensest moments; it will directly increase multiple times.

“That…Is it really alright to simply go over there?” I felt a little doubtful. That fish was just thrown down like this, so wouldn’t it be found by the unknown person approaching here?

Gasai nodded, and his voice sounded out behind the white mask, “It’s fine, the elven hundred sentence song is a spell-based technique that is created by cooperating with nature. It will perfectly assimilate with space, no matter when and where. In this situation right now, using this to investigate is the most suitable choice.”

Oh oh, I learned another lesson.

“It’s here.”

Following Gasai’s whisper, the waves on that screen drew out a couple of circles, and then a small picture slowly appeared. At first it was under the surface of the black water, and a soft silver ray of light gradually spread out. It was only after it had cleared up that I realized it was the moonlight above the water. The silver light penetrating the water cast the surroundings in a faint glow.

If it wasn’t under this kind of situation, such a beautiful moonlight would really make one want to imitate the ancients by praising it with a few words.

The scene under the water shifted for a while, and then its line of sight slowly moved up.

We saw a pair of feet.

Correctly speaking, it should be a person. His feet were standing on the surface of the water, and looked like a particularly big pair of feet through the eyes of the fish.

The person with those feet couldn’t be seen very clearly, and we saw a black cloth flying over the water. That unknown figure was wearing a cloak that was a bit similar to the black raincoats in my grandfather’s generation. Looking up from below, we could only see that person standing on the same spot. We had no idea what he wanted to do, as he stood there peering in the direction of the hostel for quite a while.

“He seemed to have originally wanted to break the barrier, but for some reason, he gave up.” Gasai tapped the water surface, and the fish’s eyes moved back a little, allowing us to see the person above the water more distinctly.

It was a weirdo who had his whole body tightly wrapped up in a cloak. Even his face couldn’t be seen clearly. But what is certain is that he definitely isn’t a player from one of the five teams that came to this town. Even when Andellar appears, he’s always so arrogant, so I suppose there wouldn’t be anyone who would do a stupid thing like turning yourself into a black mummy.

But if he isn’t one of us, then who is he?

That person only stayed for a few more minutes before he turned around and left, instantly disappearing around the corner of the street. After he disappeared, the fish’s eyes followed by closing, and the picture within the circle also disappeared along with it.

“Looks like the barrier has a somewhat intimidating effect on him.” Determining that the crisis was over, Gasai snapped his fingers, and I saw a bright thing expanding over the ground before vanishing without a trace.

“Intimidating?” I don’t get it, the barrier has an intimidating effect?

“Nn, an ordinary barrier exists to protect. However, Icy Flame said before that sometimes this would make the enemies want to break the barrier even more, so he created a type of power-compressing barrier that would make the hostile intruder standing outside feel a huge oppressive force…But of course, this is just an illusion, and in the state where they are unable to enter or determine the situation, most enemies would temporarily retreat to observe the situation.” Senior Gasai explained the barrier’s effect to me.

That really does sound like something Senior would do.

“Then what if that person really broke in?” I believe that not every one of them would definitely be idiots that get fooled by this.

“There’s a saying called being ‘too smart for your own good.’ ” Gasai removed his mask, and the face behind it curved into a smile. “Opponents who are too smart would first think about it before trying to break in. Those who don’t think about it and immediately charge towards it, unless they’re actually powerful experts, eight or nine out of ten times, they’re idiots who don’t use their brains. And based on levels, those kinds of idiots are easy to deal with, so there’s no need to think much about them.”

Sounds really, very reasonable…Even though it seems to have some kind of ridiculous feel to it…

“This is what Icy Flame said too.” In the end, he added on this sentence.

Alright, Senior was the one who said all of that, and he’s also the only one who would say such things.

“It’s fine now. You can go back to rest.” Gasai patted my shoulder, and then stood up.

“Okay.”

Right after I stood up and was about to return to the room, I suddenly thought of a question.

It’s not a question that I wanted to ask, but, I just suddenly thought of it. “Senior Gasai.” I looked at the person in front of me, and then I thought of someone else. “Your…work in the Yakushiji Clan is also to be someone’s substitute?”

I know that Chifuyu has always been very concerned about this issue.

Senior Gasai’s mother died due to being his father’s substitute, and Chifuyu has always wanted him to leave the Yakushiji Clan and return to the Yukino Clan. I guess it’s because he is also haunted by this possibility.

Then, he smiled.

“You really want to know the answer?”

I nodded hard.

“Yes, if you can, please tell me.” And even if I couldn’t tell it to Chifuyu, I also wanted to clarify it for him.

“While I was in the Yakushiji Clan…I actually didn’t become anyone’s substitute.” Senior Gasai lightly said, as if it was an answer that couldn’t be any more natural. “Yakushiji’s clan members with the direct bloodline can only have one substitute in their entire life, so my mother chose the person that she loved to be her substitute. Thus, even if we die, there wouldn’t be any complaints.”

Clan members with the direct bloodline…

I remembered that senior Gasai had once said he would inherit Yakushiji Clan.

“Then what about you? Who did you choose?” I know that I shouldn’t probe into this sort of private matter, but by the time I realized it, I had already asked the question.

His smile grew even deeper, “I’d decided this ever since a long time ago, that person who entered the school just like me.”

I know who it is now.

Although he looks very gentle on the surface, in fact, senior Gasai, who doesn’t mind anyone, has always been chasing after one person from then till now, and even became his partner later on.

The person who senior Gasai is substituting for, is Senior.

I suddenly felt a little relieved. At least Senior isn’t someone who would kick the bucket so easily, and this way, senior Gasai’s risk is greatly reduced as well. If Chifuyu knows this, I’m sure he’ll be a lot more reassured.

“Chu, this matter should end here, the things after this are not something you should know.” Terminating the topic, Gasai said to me.

I hurriedly nodded, and didn’t dare to continue inquiring.

As of now, knowing this is already enough. “I’m sorry to have bothered you tonight, then I’ll go back and sleep first.” I bent my body and politely bowed, and then I retreated toward the room.

“Nn, good night.”