Chapter 195 Long time no see
"Ah, speaking of which, this sister with glasses, you are the one who invited Moko and I to drink milk tea before... Hey, what happened to you two?"
While Lin Xiaolu was saying the shocking words, Bai Jingxuan was still feeling happy about having reunited with the "good man" in her memory. However, the greeting between her and Bai Ji had not even begun, as it ended because of Lin Xiaolu's words.
When the concept of "someone who takes a bath in the slime of dead animals" was thrown out, the atmosphere that had originally relaxed suddenly became quite subtle again.
Everyone's eyes were focused on her in an instant, and then inexplicably focused on the blonde girl next to her.
"Ah, you are the guy who was almost killed by the remnant of the snake-level beast..."
The blonde girl who was greeting everyone loudly a few breaths ago was stunned for a moment, then realized something belatedly, pointed at Lin Xiaolu and shouted: "No, who is taking a bath with the slime of the remaining beast?"
“…Isn’t it you?”
Lin Xiaolu blinked, gestured in the air with her hands, pointed at the other person's iconic golden hair and bald forehead and said, "If you think about it carefully, you look alike, your voice is alike, and you are both magical girls who recently came to Fangting City. It can only be you, right?"
"I didn't say that wasn't me! I said there's no such thing as 'taking a bath in the slime of a remnant beast'!"
The blonde girl shouted in annoyance and waved her fist: "That was an accident! It was an accident caused by the beast's self-detonation before its death. I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Your fighting method is aimed at making the remaining beast explode..."
"Who knew that after that thing exploded, there would be such disgusting things inside!"
It seemed that just recalling the relevant things made her feel sick. The blonde girl's face turned pale and she couldn't help but press her abdomen: "Can you stop mentioning such disgusting memories? To be honest, I'm going to vomit if I recall them again."
"Oh, sorry..." Seeing that the other party looked unhappy, Lin Xiaolu realized that her remarks seemed to be irrelevant, so she turned her eyes away and decisively ended the topic.
Just because the two of them reached a consensus, it didn't mean that the other teammates had nothing to say. The two of them opened up the conversation in this way, and of course the others also had a lot to say. Especially Bai Jingxuan and the girl codenamed Bai Ji, they had met before, so they were naturally more familiar with each other. In addition, Xia Liang was also quite curious about the magical girls in other cities, and the few of them immediately started chatting noisily.
Delphinium stood aside with her arms folded. Seeing that the girls were chatting animatedly, she had no intention of dampening their interest. She just leaned against the wall and looked at the lounge not far away, waiting quietly for the person she was waiting for.
After waiting for a few minutes, just as Delphinium was tapping his arm and feeling a little daydreamy, he heard a "click" and the door of the lounge was gently pulled open.
The sound of the door opening attracted the girls' attention, and the voices of chatting became much weaker. The real person who had not appeared in the lounge before - Aso Yuanxiang finally appeared in front of everyone.
At this time, she was no longer wearing her stage costume, and her gorgeous makeup was completely removed, but she did not lose her color because of removing the makeup. She held the door frame with one hand, poked her head out of the lounge, and glanced at the equally silent girls without saying a word, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised.
"tutor."
"elder sister."
“…”
Three girls from Baian City greeted the woman behind the door one after another. Although the attitude of one of them seemed a little wrong, it was enough to draw everyone's attention to the woman.
Aso Yuanxiang's eyes swept across the girls around her, first pausing on Lin Xiaolu, Bai Jingxuan, and Xia Liang respectively. After staying on Lin Xiaolu for a while, she then looked at the girls in Bai'an City one by one, and finally focused on Cuiqiao's face.
Likewise, Delphinium was watching her.
The two people's eyes met.
Long before leaving the stage, Delphinium had rehearsed in her mind many times, feeling that she would have to question the other party's behavior after meeting him in private, but when things really came to this point, she found that the atmosphere was completely different from what she had imagined.
She originally thought that the other party had pulled her onto the stage to play a prank on her, and was probably gloating over her misfortune with a malicious sense of humor. However, after seeing Aso Yuanka's expression, she realized that she seemed to have guessed wrong.
Because the expression on the other person's face was not one of gloating or mocking, but a smile of fatigue, nostalgia, and relief.
Even twenty years ago, Delphinium rarely saw such a gentle expression on the other person's face.
"Is there anything you want to ask?" After a brief silence and eye contact, it was Aso Yuanxiang who started the conversation first.
"…What do you want to do by putting on such a show?"
Not knowing what the other party was up to, Cuiqiao didn't want to waste her feelings, so she just said expressionlessly, "You suddenly called someone to the stage to cooperate with your performance. Is this some kind of evil prank?"
"Oh, a prank?"
Aso Yuanxiang looked somewhat innocent and asked, "Is this how you understand it?"
"…It might be better than a real prank."
Delphinium sighed: "I thought you were going to just loudly say 'This is my old friend' on stage, and then perform a series of pranks and so on."
"This is a misunderstanding, sister. Even I am not so far away from being unable to distinguish between ordinary jokes and embarrassing teasing. Inviting your friends to the stage and embarrassing them is not only a disregard for friendship, but also a blasphemy to the stage."
Madoka Aso raised the corner of her mouth and narrowed her red eyes slightly: "Especially for the fans in the audience, if I reveal our relationship on my own and then let you speak in the name of a friend, then the meaning of this matter to them will be completely different."
"What's the meaning?"
"To put it mildly, it's called 'neglect', and to put it more seriously, it's called 'betrayal', right?"
Aso Yuanxiang walked out of the lounge slowly, gradually closing the distance between her and Delphinium: "Whether it's singing or a concert. Although objectively speaking, it's distributing one's own songs to fans, in the fans' own experience, it's closer to a 'one-to-one' direct spiritual dialogue."
"In an occasion like a concert, if a singer clearly states that his concert has other purposes, or that he has other things on his mind, then it is a kind of snub to the fans who spend money to support him, and it is also a sign of incompetence."
She walked until she was half a meter in front of Delphinium, then she stopped where she was and lowered her head slightly: "Just like a competent magical girl needs to stabilize the people's hearts in addition to destroying the remaining beasts; a competent singer needs to resonate with fans at the concert in addition to producing good works. Emotional experience is very important, so I won't do anything too outrageous on important occasions."
Delphinium looked back at the other person in confusion: "...So?"
"So, I invited you to the stage simply because I wanted old friends to commemorate the moment of reunion together. I couldn't help myself. There was no more calculation, sister."
Aso Yuanxiang said softly: "You don't need to feel unfamiliar with me just because a lot of things have happened. No matter how many things are different from before, at least our previous relationship will not change."
"Is this also considered an 'emotional experience'?"
"Yes, you can think of this as an explanation or apology for my previous behavior because I am considerate of our old friend's feelings, because I didn't intend to make you unhappy."
Aso Yuanxiang said helplessly: "But my estimation may be a little wrong... No, should I say that your temper has become much worse? Sorry, I thought you wouldn't be angry at a joke of this level."
"I'm more confused than angry."
Delphinium frowned slightly: "You know, Aso, it's been thirteen years. You haven't been back to this city for thirteen years. You suddenly came back at such a time. I thought we should talk about more urgent things."
"More pressing matters...confusion..."
The woman with red eyes looked at Delphinium with a slightly confused expression, then nodded as if suddenly realizing: "Ah, so that's how it is. You think my joke is meaningless."
After she said this, she suddenly closed her mouth and hesitated for a moment as if she was thinking about something. Then, she showed a slightly complicated smile: "It's meaningless, it's meaningless. Alas... You have really changed a lot."
This sentence seemed a little abrupt in this situation, and it could even be said to be incoherent, but Delphinium still subtly followed the idea it wanted to express and responded out loud.
"After all, so many years have passed. If there is no growth or change at all, wouldn't it seem like time has been wasted?"
She looked up at her old teammate in front of her and said in a softer voice: "In my memory, Madoka Aso is not someone who would apologize for something like this. You wouldn't explain your actions to others before."
"Explain your behavior? Don't you? I thought I might never see the appearance of 'Delphinium' in my lifetime."
“…I thought so, too.”
Delphinium paused and said, "But a lot of things happened a while ago. I can't just sit there and wait for death."
"I heard that Fangting City seems to have been plagued by disasters recently."
"Who told you that?"
"Dean."
"She told you anyway?"
"I took the initiative to ask."
Delphinium glanced at her in confusion: "Why did you suddenly think of asking her about this?"
Aso Yuanxiang smiled inexplicably: "Of course it's because I heard that a former teammate who retired has made a comeback and even came to the city where I am stationed to show his skills. Even my juniors and students have received a lot of guidance from that person. Who do you think that person is?"
"…I knew that old woman had bad intentions."
After hearing what the other party said, and thinking about who had come up with the idea to send her to Bai'an, Cuique suddenly understood the crux of the matter and couldn't help but press her temple: "I shouldn't have accepted her request to resume her position."
"It's not nice to just call her 'old lady'. She seems to dislike being called that."
Unlike the sad face of Delphinium, Aso Yuanxiang, the beneficiary of this incident, looked more cheerful: "No matter what, the result is good. It is a rare happy event for old friends to meet. Or do you actually not want to see me?"
Delphinium pursed her lips helplessly.
Emotionally speaking, it is not a bad thing to meet friends you haven't seen for a long time, but meeting them at this critical juncture would only add to the trouble.
Or to put it a little more pretentiously, it's not that she's unwilling, she's just not mentally prepared yet.
She had some experiences that she was not so willing to tell her children and grandchildren about. Even Hong Siyu was not very clear about those things. Even if she knew a little, she would be cautious about her own thoughts and would not tell others easily.
But Aso Yuanxiang is different. This woman never minds if her words or actions cause any trouble to other people. She says whatever she wants to say without any hesitation.
The woman in front of him, named Aso Madoka, has one biggest difference from his former teammate Hong Siyu, that is, she was his companion when he first became a magical girl. Therefore, the two of them know a lot of secrets from each other.
From the time when they were rookie magical girls to the subsequent garden defense war, the more they knew each other, the more they understood each other, and the more casual their relationship became.
Can Aso Yuanxiang distinguish what can be said and what cannot be said? In fact, Kusanagi has no idea, but at this juncture, saying "I don't want to see you" seems too heartless. Obviously, it is inappropriate.
"...If I have to say, reunion is still a happy thing." After thinking about it for a long time, she came to this conclusion.
"So it's mutual?" After getting the response, Aso Yuanxiang laughed.
"Same here."
With a short sigh, Delphinium raised her eyelids slightly: "Anyway, long time no see, you look in good condition."
"You're in good shape, too."
Aso Yuanxiang echoed in return: "Or rather, seeing you standing here like this means that you are in better condition than when I left.
As she said this, she stretched out her right hand, clenched her palm, and made a gesture to invite a handshake: "Then, perhaps it's time for us to start working together again."
"Cooperation? What's that?"
"There are many things, things about protecting the city, the country, Anya, Su Shengzi, and even things between you and the Chief."
As she said this, Aso Yuanxiang's expression became more serious: "You said before that you wanted me to talk about serious things. Is this what you mean?"
"...Are you checking?" Delphinium stared into her eyes.
"I'm investigating. Or rather, I know the progress of the matter better than anyone else." Aso Yuanxiang also looked at her seriously.
"Really? Very good."
Nodding, Kuei-Jin stretched out his hand, held the other party's hands, and shook them gently: "In this case, let's cooperate."
"Magical girl, Hanaru certification number 21032, affiliated with the Investigation Institute, codename Margaret." Aso Yuuka suddenly said this.
Hearing her announce her number, Delphinium was stunned for a moment, then realized that this seemed to be a formality, and then she also spoke: "Magical Girl, Hana card certification number 41076, Delphinium."
After he finished speaking, the scene unexpectedly became quiet again. Not only did the two people who were shaking hands remain silent, but the girls who were watching the gossip on the side also concentrated and held their breath, and there was no unnecessary sound at all.
Then, Aso Yuanxiang suddenly laughed.
She smiled, bent her knees, maintained the handshake posture, and gently turned to kneel on one knee.
After her knees touched the ground, she changed the handshake to a support hand, gently lifted the back of Delphinium's hand, and then, before anyone realized what she was doing, she touched the back of her hand with her lips: "At your service, my lady."
The update is still a little slow, I'm really sorry for the long wait. Because the status is still being adjusted, the update frequency will probably be maintained at 2~3 days during this period. I will adjust it as soon as possible, please forgive me.
(End of this chapter)
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