Four-year-old Aya Ikegami knelt in the center of the dojo, her small hands gripping a bamboo sword taller than herself. Misaki Ikegami, Aya's teacher, looked down at her with cold eyes.
"One more time." Misaki's voice was like a blade scraping across ice. "The illusion is not child's play; it's a battlefield where you have to live or die."
Xiaoling bit her lip and nodded, sweat trickling into her eyes, stinging them. She closed her eyes and, following the instructions, channeled the unfamiliar energy within her. The image of a cherry blossom tree gradually appeared in her mind, pink petals beginning to fall...
"Too slow!" A bamboo whip lashed her back. "Do you think the enemy will wait for you to slowly weave your illusion?"
The illusion shattered instantly. Xiaoling curled up in pain, but stubbornly refused to let the tears fall. She knew her father was listening in the next room. If she cried, she would be punished again by not being allowed to eat that night.
On her sixth birthday, she finally succeeded in making the entire dojo rain cherry blossoms. Aya ran barefoot to the study, wanting to surprise her father. But when she opened the door, she heard him on the phone:
"...Her talent is mediocre, far inferior to her aunt's back then..."
Xiaoling gently closed the door, and the cherry blossoms silently withered behind her.
At ten years old, she could already trap five adults in a basic illusion simultaneously. At the family banquet, her uncles patted her head and praised, "Truly worthy of being the heir of the Ikegami family." She stole a glance at her father's expression, but only saw a face calm to the point of being indifferent.
"That's not enough," her father told her after the banquet. "The Ikegami family's 'Thousand Illusions Silk Robe' requires controlling an illusionary realm of a hundred people."
That winter when she was fifteen, Aya Ikegami made a bold decision. She packed her bags, left a letter, and boarded a flight to M country alone. As the plane broke through the clouds, she looked out the small window at the city gradually shrinking and vowed to return after completing her studies, so that her father would never be able to ignore her again.
The university campus in country M was like another world. No one there knew about the Ikegami family, and no one required her to practice illusion magic for eight hours a day. She chose a double major in psychology and neuroscience, attempting to use scientific methods to unravel the family's secret arts.
The dormitory was a two-person room. Her roommate was named Mu Xiaoxiao, a Chinese girl who always wore black gloves. At first, they didn't talk much, until one late night, Chi Shangling was awakened by a nightmare and found Mu Xiaoxiao standing by her bed, her eyes glowing with an eerie blue light in the darkness.
"Your brainwaves when you have nightmares are very interesting," Mu Xiaoxiao's voice had an inhuman quality, "like you're weaving something..."
Aya Ikegami instantly regained consciousness and instinctively activated her illusion magic. The entire room was immediately filled with a blizzard, and the temperature plummeted.
Mu Xiaoxiao smiled. She took off one glove, and with a light touch of her fingertip, the illusion shattered like glass.
"I see... a successor from an ancient martial arts family in Country R." The blue light in Mu Xiaoxiao's eyes intensified. "What a coincidence, I've been looking for someone like you."
Over the next six months, Mu Xiaoxiao demonstrated an unusual understanding of supernatural phenomena. She could always offer precise advice when Ikegami Aya practiced illusion magic, and even improved the energy circuits of several ancient spells. Ikegami Aya's illusion magic skills improved by leaps and bounds, but she also began to have more nightmares—in her dreams, there was always a blue moon and countless shadows reaching out to her.
"Join us." One rainy night, Mu Xiaoxiao suddenly suggested, "The Moon Goddess Organization needs a genius like you."
"Moon God... Organization?" This was the first time Aya Ikegami had heard this name.
Mu Xiaoxiao opened a drawer and took out a silver brooch—a crescent moon encircling the Earth. "Our goal is to create a new era," she said, her voice carrying a seductive rhythm, "and your family's martial arts techniques are precisely the key technology we need."
Aya Ikegami felt a wave of dizziness. The blue moons from her nightmares suddenly became clear; she realized it wasn't a dream, but...
"Have you been spying on my consciousness all this time?" She jerked back, knocking over the lamp.
Mu Xiaoxiao didn't take it seriously: "It's just a small test. Think about it, the Ikegami family has declined; they can't even rank in the top three in R country. Follow me, and you can gain power far greater than any family inheritance."
The desk lamp flickered on the floor, casting shifting light and shadow on the two faces. Aya Ikegami recalled her father's cold face, the standards she could never reach, and Misaki-sensei's words: "The greatest taboo for an illusionist is losing their true self."
"I want to go back to R country," she finally said, her voice more determined than expected, "to make my family look at me with new respect."
Mu Xiaoxiao's smile vanished. She slowly put her gloves back on, her tone suddenly turning icy: "You will return. When you learn the true face of this so-called family..."
Three days later, Aya Ikegami boarded a flight back to Japan. Before takeoff, she received a message from an unknown number:
"Remember, when the blue moon rises, the gates of the moon goddess will always be open for you."
As the plane broke through the clouds, she deleted the message. Outside the window, the sun shone brightly, turning the sea of clouds golden. Aya Ikegami stroked the family jade pendant she always carried, imagining the possible expression on her father's face when he saw her newly mastered illusion magic.
Unbeknownst to her, the Chishang family was just welcoming a group of uninvited guests. Meanwhile, Mu Xiaoxiao stood in the airport control tower, watching the flight become a black dot on the horizon, a cruel smile curving her lips.
"Soon, my dear Aya..." she murmured to herself, "you will know what true despair is."
---This is the dividing line---
Inside the Japanese-style room of the Ikegami family residence, Ikegami Aya knelt on a futon, her fingers unconsciously tracing the rim of a teacup. Outside the window, the cherry blossoms had faded, leaving only lush green leaves rustling in the wind.
"Miss Ling, Young Master Makino has arrived," a maid announced softly from outside the door.
Aya Ikegami closed her eyes briefly, and as she placed the teacup back on the tray, her fingertips left a tiny damp mark on the glaze. She straightened the hem of her furisode kimono and forced a perfect smile onto her lips.
The sliding door opened, and Makino Tenki's narrow eyes immediately locked onto it. He was wearing a dark-patterned haori today, which should have made him look dignified, but the moment he saw Ikegami Aya, he ripped open his collar, revealing an unhealed scar on his collarbone—a scar inflicted by "Zhang Qian" from the Chinese delegation half a month ago.
"Sister Ling." Makino Tenki sat down directly beside her, so close that she could smell the strong ambergris emanating from him. "I heard your father is considering our marriage?"
Aya Ikegami subtly shifted half an inch to the side: "Mr. Makino is too kind. Such an important matter naturally requires discussion between the heads of our two families."
"Discuss?" Makino Tenki scoffed, his fingers suddenly gripping her chin. "Don't you know what situation your Ikegami family is in right now? If it weren't for me taking a liking to you..."
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