121

"How did you know?" said the young girl sullenly.

After trying and failing to get away by strength alone, she had suddenly given up struggling and now resigned herself to being imprisoned.

"My disguise should have been impossible to see through! Even her closest family could never detect the difference, so how did you?"

"Not important right now. Instead, answer me this: why have you been impersonating her time and again?" countered Bai Zhi, turning his attention from the person in the seat across the aisle to the girl sitting in his lap, who was so small that he could pin both her arms to her sides with one arm.

Nothing had prepared him to learn that this was the true form of the supernatural entity that had been haunting him all this time. She had scarlet eyes set in a face so refined she gave off the air of a princess in perfect makeup, and her snow-white hair matched the dress she wore. In short, it was light-years away from how he had expected her to look.

Then again, there was that little boy that Wu Hua had dispatched with his explosive punch... So perhaps it should not have been so surprising.

"What do you mean time and again?! I only ever did it once! This is only the second time..."

The girl squirmed uncomfortably within Bai Zhi's vice-like embrace.

"To think she's so enamored with you, but you so distrustful of her that you even set a trap like this! Are you not ashamed of such despicable, underhanded conduct?"

"Enamored?" Bai Zhi looked quizzically at her. "You must be mistaken. Why should she be... 'enamored', as you say, with me? Every time she's seen me, she can't seem to get away fast enough... How about you tell me about every single time you've approached me in a disguise, down to the date, time and who you disguised yourself as?"

Bai Zhi frowned as he scoured his own memories for clues.

"Including this time, I've only approached you three times! The first was that teacher, Mr. Something-or-other Wong—then you turned me into your house servant!

"The second time was that morning at the bamboo thicket, I even did everything according to tried-and-true horror movie tropes, but you must be crazy— you greeted me..."

The young girl made a face and sighed in exasperation.

"After you became a Verified Player, I've basically been keeping my distance from you, unlike that fool who keeps getting themself involved in Player business. If it weren't for that Shadowland Deed in your hands, who in their right mind would want to waste any more time on you?"

"...Just those times, really?" Bai Zhi's face was contorted in bafflement.

"Yeah, duh." The girl sounded weary. "After all my effort to raise my abilities... I thought I'd take a risk to see if I could steal the deed from you with them, but I never expected you to be so mean... Here, you have a girl who's gathered up all her courage to ask you out, and what do you do but suspect her very identity... You deserve to have been dumped seven times! Have you never trusted anyone in your life?"

"Trust isn't something one simply expresses in words, but has to be earned over a long period of mutual understanding."

Bai Zhi shook his head dramatically for no-one's benefit in particular.

"In any case, you're mine now. Considering I owe you one for warning me about the Hell Coach, I'll spare your life, but you have you answer my questions honestly."

"I'm happy to talk, but could you let me down?" The young girl squirmed again, looking quite agitated. "Don't you know your actions make you look like a pervert right now? I think I even feel a long, hard thing pressing against me..."

She was aware, of course, that the reason she had lost her powers was that accessory around her neck, but she had no way to remove it while her arms were pinned.

Bai Zhi silently brought Radiance out from his pocket and waved it before the girl, but did not take his finger off the trigger as he put the revolver back.

"It's my Rare weapon. Just a precaution. The first shot is guaranteed to hit, so don't try anything funny."

"...What would you have done if I screamed earlier?"

"Kill you without hesitation, of course. Your kind don't leave a corpse when you die, isn't that right? Just like the boy. They can't pin anything on me," said Bai Zhi flatly. "You know as well as I do, Players get special treatment."

A brief silence, then, "...Would you mind making a little adjustment, then?" The girl saw no choice but to play along. "I'm not comfortable with you hugging me like this. Don't you find anything at all inappropriate about this situation? Or do you mean to admit that you are, in fact, an incorrigible lolicon?"

Bai Zhi raised an eyebrow. "Huh, do supernatural entities care about such things?"

"It's rude to call me a supernatural entity, you know. I mean, you're not wrong, but I was once also a princess." The young girl frowned unhappily. "I was once... human."

"You? A princess?"

Bai Zhi instantly realized a connection and narrowed his eyes.

"…Of Shadowland?"

"Indeed, I was the youngest princess of Shadowland..." Something occurred to the girl and she twisted around to look at Bai Zhi in disbelief. "Wait, you haven't used the Deed, have you? There's no way a human... Are you really human?"

"…What, is it that hard to get 100 Sanity?"

Bai Zhi exuded confidence as he retrieved a pair of handcuffs from his Inventory, which he had prepared to use in tandem with the Chains of Binding.

"Of course I'm human. Head to toe and inside out, yes-siree Bob."

"You lie! There's no way a human could use the Shadowland Deed! In that ruined world, our world… The only reason that guy and I could even use the Deed alternately… But we're of noble blood! What 100 Sanity? It has nothing to do with Sanity!"

The young girl's emotions were running high, and she barely managed to string a sentence together.

"So it's true? You are beings from another dimension? You claim to be human, so tell me, how did you come to be this?"

As he cuffed the girl, Bai Zhi gently lifted her and plopped her down on the seat next to him, finally wrapping her hands in a jacket to prevent her from grabbing any tools.

"What exactly happened to your world, anyway?"

"How did you know?" said the young girl sullenly.

After trying and failing to get away by strength alone, she had suddenly given up struggling and now resigned herself to being imprisoned.

"My disguise should have been impossible to see through! Even her closest family could never detect the difference, so how did you?"

"Not important right now. Instead, answer me this: why have you been impersonating her time and again?" countered Bai Zhi, turning his attention from the person in the seat across the aisle to the girl sitting in his lap, who was so small that he could pin both her arms to her sides with one arm.

Nothing had prepared him to learn that this was the true form of the supernatural entity that had been haunting him all this time. She had scarlet eyes set in a face so refined she gave off the air of a princess in perfect makeup, and her snow-white hair matched the dress she wore. In short, it was light-years away from how he had expected her to look.

Then again, there was that little boy that Wu Hua had dispatched with his explosive punch... So perhaps it should not have been so surprising.

"What do you mean time and again?! I only ever did it once! This is only the second time..."

The girl squirmed uncomfortably within Bai Zhi's vice-like embrace.

"To think she's so enamored with you, but you so distrustful of her that you even set a trap like this! Are you not ashamed of such despicable, underhanded conduct?"

"Enamored?" Bai Zhi looked quizzically at her. "You must be mistaken. Why should she be... 'enamored', as you say, with me? Every time she's seen me, she can't seem to get away fast enough... How about you tell me about every single time you've approached me in a disguise, down to the date, time and who you disguised yourself as?"

Bai Zhi frowned as he scoured his own memories for clues.

"Including this time, I've only approached you three times! The first was that teacher, Mr. Something-or-other Wong—then you turned me into your house servant!

"The second time was that morning at the bamboo thicket, I even did everything according to tried-and-true horror movie tropes, but you must be crazy— you greeted me..."

The young girl made a face and sighed in exasperation.

"After you became a Verified Player, I've basically been keeping my distance from you, unlike that fool who keeps getting themself involved in Player business. If it weren't for that Shadowland Deed in your hands, who in their right mind would want to waste any more time on you?"

"...Just those times, really?" Bai Zhi's face was contorted in bafflement.

"Yeah, duh." The girl sounded weary. "After all my effort to raise my abilities... I thought I'd take a risk to see if I could steal the deed from you with them, but I never expected you to be so mean... Here, you have a girl who's gathered up all her courage to ask you out, and what do you do but suspect her very identity... You deserve to have been dumped seven times! Have you never trusted anyone in your life?"

"Trust isn't something one simply expresses in words, but has to be earned over a long period of mutual understanding."

Bai Zhi shook his head dramatically for no-one's benefit in particular.

"In any case, you're mine now. Considering I owe you one for warning me about the Hell Coach, I'll spare your life, but you have you answer my questions honestly."

"I'm happy to talk, but could you let me down?" The young girl squirmed again, looking quite agitated. "Don't you know your actions make you look like a pervert right now? I think I even feel a long, hard thing pressing against me..."

She was aware, of course, that the reason she had lost her powers was that accessory around her neck, but she had no way to remove it while her arms were pinned.

Bai Zhi silently brought Radiance out from his pocket and waved it before the girl, but did not take his finger off the trigger as he put the revolver back.

"It's my Rare weapon. Just a precaution. The first shot is guaranteed to hit, so don't try anything funny."

"...What would you have done if I screamed earlier?"

"Kill you without hesitation, of course. Your kind don't leave a corpse when you die, isn't that right? Just like the boy. They can't pin anything on me," said Bai Zhi flatly. "You know as well as I do, Players get special treatment."

A brief silence, then, "...Would you mind making a little adjustment, then?" The girl saw no choice but to play along. "I'm not comfortable with you hugging me like this. Don't you find anything at all inappropriate about this situation? Or do you mean to admit that you are, in fact, an incorrigible lolicon?"

Bai Zhi raised an eyebrow. "Huh, do supernatural entities care about such things?"

"It's rude to call me a supernatural entity, you know. I mean, you're not wrong, but I was once also a princess." The young girl frowned unhappily. "I was once... human."

"You? A princess?"

Bai Zhi instantly realized a connection and narrowed his eyes.

"…Of Shadowland?"

"Indeed, I was the youngest princess of Shadowland..." Something occurred to the girl and she twisted around to look at Bai Zhi in disbelief. "Wait, you haven't used the Deed, have you? There's no way a human... Are you really human?"

"…What, is it that hard to get 100 Sanity?"

Bai Zhi exuded confidence as he retrieved a pair of handcuffs from his Inventory, which he had prepared to use in tandem with the Chains of Binding.

"Of course I'm human. Head to toe and inside out, yes-siree Bob."

"You lie! There's no way a human could use the Shadowland Deed! In that ruined world, our world… The only reason that guy and I could even use the Deed alternately… But we're of noble blood! What 100 Sanity? It has nothing to do with Sanity!"

The young girl's emotions were running high, and she barely managed to string a sentence together.

"So it's true? You are beings from another dimension? You claim to be human, so tell me, how did you come to be this?"

As he cuffed the girl, Bai Zhi gently lifted her and plopped her down on the seat next to him, finally wrapping her hands in a jacket to prevent her from grabbing any tools.

"What exactly happened to your world, anyway?"