Prompted by March 7th's question, Fu Zhu actually found himself subconsciously thinking back.
"Do you want the honest answer?"
March 7th squinted at him, a half-smile on her face. "I do."
"Probably about... a thousand?"
Fu Zhu thought it over carefully. No matter how you looked at it, Tribios was a beautiful girl. Since she had split into a thousand Fragments of Tribios, that meant a thousand versions of her.
The logic was sound!
March 7th, who had still been a little angry, immediately rolled her eyes at his answer. She rolled off of him and hugged his arm from the side.
"A thousand? Do you have that much time? Even if you met one beautiful girl every half a day, that would still take over five hundred days. How is that possible!"
"Actually, I met all one thousand in a single day."
"You don't really think I'm that gullible, do you! Go to sleep, go to sleep!"
March 7th huffed, then pulled the covers over herself and squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to speak to him any longer.
Fu Zhu said nothing, just chuckled softly.
Honesty truly is a finishing move. The ancients speak true!
---o---
"Phew, we're finally here... It's a good thing the dressmaker linked this village with her golden threads, saved me the effort of making something up. Still, I can't shake the feeling that something's weird..."
Cipher gazed at the distant village silhouette and stretched her back. The long sprint with Castorice in tow had exhausted her. Then, she frowned, carefully studying her surroundings.
She felt like something was off... but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Castorice timely retrieved a waterskin from her pack, uncorked it, and passed it over.
"Thanks, Homebody Princess."
Cipher said her thanks and took a long, refreshing drink.
Castorice stood to the side, surveying the area just as Cipher had, but she couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary either.
"Cifera, do you feel like something's wrong?"
Cipher shook her head while drinking. If she had figured it out, she would have said so already.
"If I can't figure it out, I'll think about it later. Let's go see Cyrene first. The sun's up, she should be awake by now."
Cipher casually reached to take the cork from Castorice's hand, but Castorice's hand suddenly tightened around it.
"Eh? Homebody Princess, what are you doing? Let me cap the waterskin, or the water will spill."
Cipher mumbled, trying to pry Castorice's fingers open, but Castorice suddenly whipped her head around to look at her.
"What did you just say?"
---o---
"Me?" Cipher looked baffled, scratching her head. "I said, give me the cork so I can cap the waterskin."
"No, the sentence before that!"
"The one before... 'Let's go see Cyrene, the sun is already up, she should be awake by now'?"
"That's it! The sun is up! This is the place we failed to notice before!"
Castorice raised her head to look at the blazing sun high in the sky. Though the light was blinding, her heart was filled with joy.
It wasn't just because the sun's appearance guaranteed that the other city-states wouldn't be attacked by the massive Black Tide. More importantly, based on their previous discussions, the mastermind, Lygus, would never allow Amphoreus to remain sunlit.
So, the fact that it was daytime now could only mean one thing: Fu Zhu was back!
Cipher instantly realized it too. Her face lit up as she grabbed Castorice's shoulders and shook them.
"That guy's back? Homebody Princess, where do you think he is?"
Castorice looked away and shook her head.
She had only spent a brief two or three days with Fu Zhu, and that was when she was still a child. She didn't know him well enough to guess.
But one thing was certain: Fu Zhu had returned to Amphoreus!
Cipher figured as much and shook her head.
"Whatever! Let's go see Cyrene first, then we'll find Fu Zhu!"
"Mhm."
The two of them walked side-by-side down the weed-covered path into the village. They had been here a few times before and were used to its desolate state.
With a clear destination in mind, they made their way to the Sacrament Courtyard. Before they even stepped through the gate, they heard Cyrene's familiar voice from inside.
"Good morning! But you two should hurry up and wash. We're having guests later!"
This was followed by a completely unfamiliar female voice.
"Good morning, Cyrene. We're going to wash up now. Honey, you hurry up too! You woke up at six this morning, how are you still not washed up?"
Cipher and Castorice, standing outside the gate, were still wondering who the strange voice belonged to when, in the next second, a voice they would never forget for the rest of their lives rang out.
"Waking up isn't the same as getting out of bed. Staying in bed for a few more minutes is human nature!"
"Stop trying to hard-code random things into human DNA! You stayed in bed for an hour! Go wash your face!"
Hearing that familiar voice, Cipher and Castorice didn't hesitate for a second. They pushed the gate right open.
The moment it swung open, they saw Fu Zhu, holding a willow-twig toothbrush and a wooden cup, getting water. In the courtyard, two other unfamiliar pink-haired girls were also preparing to wash up, just like him.
The three of them heard the gate being pushed open and instinctively turned in unison to look.
---o---
When Fu Zhu's gaze fell upon Cipher and Castorice, he froze.
It had been a long time. The two of them had grown into graceful young women, no longer the little children they once were.
Fu Zhu looked at them quietly, and they looked back at him.
Before this moment, Fu Zhu had imagined countless tear-jerking lines he might say upon reuniting with everyone, but when the words reached his lips, they came out as the simplest of phrases.
"Long time no see. You've grown up... you've both become beautiful young women."
That single sentence was enough. Tears welled up in the eyes of the two girls standing at the gate, and without a second thought, they both rushed toward him.
Startled, Fu Zhu quickly dropped the toothbrush and cup in his hands and opened his arms to catch the two who were throwing themselves at him, afraid they would fall.
Two soft figures crashed heavily into his embrace.
"Where did you go! I looked for you for so, so long!" Cipher's voice, thick with tears, came from his chest.
Castorice simply buried her face in his chest and said muffledly, "Big Brother, long time no see."
"Yeah, it's been too long. I've made you worry."
Meanwhile, March 7th, with toothpaste foam still clinging to the corner of her mouth, stared wide-eyed at the scene. She subconsciously swallowed the toothpaste in her mouth, then pointed a trembling finger at the two girls.
"You-you-you... you two, let go! That's my boyfriend! I haven't even hugged him this morning!"
A red light flashed in the eyes of Evernight, who was standing nearby. Two red, jellyfish-like entities quietly materialized and squeezed between Fu Zhu and the two girls, pushing the three of them apart.
Only after being separated did Cipher and Castorice realize there were other people around. They gave March 7th and Evernight an embarrassed greeting.
"Hello there..."
Author's PS: Haven't written for two days, a bit rusty. Starting to get back into the swing of things.