The figure on the left gave a reluctant "Oh," took another step toward the bed, and leaned down toward her.
She was wearing a modest set of pajamas. But with the mid-summer heat still lingering and her room being poorly ventilated, she wasn't sleeping under any covers. In other words, there was nothing between her and the dark shadow.
Anxious sweat beaded on her skin and her breathing came in short, quick gasps, but she was utterly unable to move. She couldn't even blink, let alone try to fight back.
Two hands emerged from the darkness, cautiously reaching for the collar of her pajamas. Slender, almost nervous fingers undid one button, then another, taking extraordinary care not to touch even a speck of her skin.
'This... this... doesn't seem very... lecherous, does it? It's illogical. But the more illogical it is, the more terrifying it becomes. Could the situation be even worse? Perhaps... these two psychos want to dissect me!'
Just as she was thinking this, the shadow straightened up and said to the other, "Your turn."
"The person who starts a job should be the one to finish it."
"Absolutely not!" the shadow refused flatly. "We always take turns. I get the odd-numbered ones, you get the even."
The other shadow sighed. "Until now, I'd been clinging to the faint illusion that you possessed some intelligence."
"What is it now!" the shadow snapped.
"I thought you could at least count," the other shadow said sarcastically.
"Of course I can count!" the shadow said indignantly, pointing at Xin Huohuo's pajamas. "That... um, I undid the second button for you."
"Thank you. Please, continue," the other shadow said coolly, taking a step back to show the matter wasn't up for discussion.
If the third button were undone, Xin Huohuo's pajamas would fall wide open. After all, who wears underwear to bed? She was completely bare underneath...
The shadow hesitated by the bedside, his hands hovering over her for a long time, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
Just then, Xin Huohuo suddenly felt a prickling pain, like feeling returning to a numb limb. She was already frantic, her entire body straining to resist. The instant the invisible restraint vanished, she practically shot up from the bed.
"Help! Help! Fire!" she screamed, bolting for the door like a whirlwind.
The room was small, so it was only a few steps to the door. But...
'Wait, why didn't I hit anything? I should have crashed right into one of the shadows, but I passed straight through him. It was as if he was just an illusion.'
As if compelled by some unseen force, Xin Huohuo stopped and turned around.
The two shadows were still standing by the bed, and they turned in unison to look at her.
"She passed right through!" The taller one sounded surprised. From his voice, she recognized him as the one who had been unbuttoning her pajamas.
"I saw," the shorter one replied, as terse as ever.
"But last time she collided with us solidly. Why is it different this time...?"
"I don't know."
"Is there a fire?" the taller one asked, abruptly changing the subject and looking around.
"There isn't."
"Then why did she shout 'fire'?"
"Because people these days are too selfish. No one pays attention if you yell for help, but if you yell 'fire,' everyone will come running out."
"Oh? This girl is pretty cunning." The taller one actually chuckled. He and Xin Huohuo stared at each other for a moment, then he suddenly whirled toward his partner. "She... she can see us?!"
"Apparently so."
"This is so not normal."
"Has anything about this assignment been normal?"
"No, it hasn't." The taller one admitted, shaking his head. He turned back to Xin Huohuo and smiled again. "In that case, little lady, you won't be leaving here alive!" With that, he lunged, giving her no time to brace herself or prepare.
Xin Huohuo's nerves were already stretched to the breaking point. She'd finally confirmed that ghosts were in her room. Now, startled by the taller one's lunge, her body couldn't handle the immense psychological shock and promptly entered self-preservation mode.
In other words, she fainted.
"Why did you have to scare her?" Mr. Hei walked over, his tone reproachful. "She did us the kindness of a meal, at least."
"She saw me naked! It was basically me trading my good looks for that food, so what kindness are you talking about? With my status and my handsome face, all I got was a bit of milk and egg yolk. I got totally ripped off!" Bai Qi shot back, unconvinced. "Besides, if I didn't scare her, were you just going to let her run outside and start screaming?"
"I put up a ward. She couldn't have gotten out."
"You also cast the Immobilization Skill. Did that work? She still jumped up all of a sudden and gave me a heart attack."
For once, Mr. Hei was choked with frustration and couldn't find a single word to say in response.
After stewing in silence for a long moment, he finally spoke again. "While she's unconscious, let's hurry and check how our Mana ended up in her body."
But Bai Qi frowned. "It's gone."
"What's gone?"
"The feeling of the Mana."
Mr. Hei was choked into silence again. After another long pause, he asked, "Is it possible your senses were mistaken?"
'She's a mere mortal. Even if something went wrong with their Mana, how could it transfer to her? A mortal body could never withstand it. So Bai Qi's earlier judgment just didn't seem logical.'
"Impossible!" Bai Qi cut in decisively. "You might mess up casting a Spell, but my senses are never wrong."
"I messed up the Spell because most of my Mana has vanished!" Mr. Hei finally lost his temper and roared.
The two stared at each other.
After a long moment, Bai Qi reached out, hooked an arm around his partner's neck, and gave him a little shake. "Calm down, Ba. I can lose my cool, but you can't. I still have to rely on you for all the thinking. As for this chicken-and-egg bullshit, we can discuss it later."
Mr. Hei closed his eyes for several seconds, forcing himself to calm his heart and mind.
When he opened his eyes again, his icy face was devoid of any of his previous agitation. "First, let's get Xin Huohuo back onto the bed. Then we'll find a way to erase her memories of tonight. And after that, we're staying here. I can't shake the feeling that she's the key to solving this entire puzzle."
"And your basis for that is?"
"When we thought she'd pass right through us, she ran into us solidly. When you thought she'd run into you, she passed right through. In the mortal world, our forms are Spiritual Bodies, yet she can see us. It seems she can hear us talk, too. Ever since we met her, the Yellow Springs Road has disappeared, the ghosts are gone, and when we just went for a walk, the human world seemed to be operating as usual. There might not be any solid proof related to her, but she's the only connection we have. On top of that, according to your 'unreliable' senses, our Mana is hidden inside her. So you tell me, should we stay?"
Mr. Hei rarely said so much at once, leaving Bai Qi momentarily stunned. But he quickly thought of something and pointed at Xin Huohuo. "Could it be that the feeling of the Mana disappeared because she fainted?"
"Do you think she's a cell phone? She powers down and loses her signal?"
Well... uh...
Bai Qi scratched his head awkwardly and decisively changed the subject. "Well, with your Mana in such a poor state, you're not going to mess up erasing her memory, are you?"
Mr. Hei gritted his teeth. 'How he longed to beat the living daylights out of his unreliable partner!'
As for whether the memory-erasing Spell was successful...
A few hours later, Xin Huohuo woke in the morning light, bolting upright the moment she regained consciousness.
She looked down. She was in her bed, her pajamas perfectly neat. Her phone lay on the floor beside the bed, surprisingly screen-up. A sliver of light from an air vent illuminated the cracks from the last time she'd dropped it, making them shimmer with an eerie, rainbow-colored light.
A vague sense of terror lingered in her mind, and fragmented images flashed nonstop. But her memory felt as if it had been stuffed with a thick paste that muddled everything. It was like nothing had happened, but also like something uncertain had occurred, far, far away.
She took a moment to feel, but there was nothing unusual about her body. The room showed no signs of being disturbed.
'Was it all just a nightmare?'
She turned her head and saw her pets, Seven and Eight, perched on the corner of the bed, looking at her with "serious and worried" expressions.