Chapter 240: Chapter 240: His Real Vision… Was Dendro

Chapter 240: His Real Vision… Was Dendro

Ten minutes later, the bushes rustled.

Bai Luo emerged, casually hauling the unconscious Shinobu over his shoulder as he strode back into the hilichurl camp.

“All done.”

He plopped the completely knocked-out Shinobu in front of Yae Miko and made an OK gesture.

This sort of sneak-attack with a sap? He used to do it all the time.

Only after becoming a Harbinger did most of the assassinations get handed down to his subordinates, leaving no place for him to put that “skill” to use.

Who would’ve thought he’d need it again now?

“So long?”

Yae Miko narrowed her eyes at him.

Ten minutes… was more than enough to do a lot of things.

Don’t tell her he—

“I just wanted to see what she looks like under the mask.”

Bai Luo didn’t even bother hiding it.

He’d simply been curious about Shinobu’s face, so he quietly took her mask off.

But once he did… he had no idea how to put it back on properly.

It took him a good while of fumbling before he managed it.

“When will she wake up?”

Yae crouched to check on Shinobu.

To her surprise, there wasn’t a single wound on the girl.

But if Bai Luo had said he knocked her out…

“With my strength? She’ll probably wake up tomorrow at about… 8:30 a.m. or so. Until then, no matter what you do to her, she won’t stir.”

He tossed away the wooden club he’d borrowed from the hilichurls and puffed out his chest with pride.

Yae Miko: “…”

Down to the minute?

Why are you so absurdly experienced at this?! Don’t tell her this wasn’t your first time…

“Ahem— it’s just a little trick. Want me to teach you?”

The way his eyes lit up when he offered, the eagerness in his tone—he was already reaching for the club he’d just discarded.

“I’ll pass. I can already guess your method is that old routine: ’to learn it, you have to experience it yourself.’ Not falling for that one.”

Yae Miko easily saw through his ploy.

She’d long since learned that when dealing with Bai Luo, you had to think one step ahead.

Just imagine what you would do in his shoes—and nine times out of ten, that was exactly his plan.

Let him knock her out? Please. With his personality, there’s no way he wouldn’t take advantage of her while she was unconscious.

What she really wanted to know, though, was how he had such a handle on information.

From the moment they’d left his house, they hadn’t separated once.

Yet Bai Luo had moved as if he already knew exactly where Itto was.

Even when she used the nearby foxes to drive Itto and his gang elsewhere, Bai Luo still shifted course immediately, chasing them down without fail.

If she didn’t know every member of the Arataki Gang inside and out, she might have thought Bai Luo had planted a spy among them.

Unless… like how she could communicate with foxes, he too could communicate with something else.

The wind? The clouds? Or maybe—

Her gaze slid downward.

Ever since she crouched, the blades of grass had been brushing against her thighs, almost as if alive.

What was most abundant here in Byakko Plain?

Not the foxes roaming everywhere.

Not the lurking Fatui agents or the hilichurls.

But the endless flowers and grass covering the mountainsides.

And then, recalling the dossier that Ayato had sent her:

The “Anemo Vision” Bai Luo carried was nothing more than a glass trinket.

His real Vision… was Dendro.

Yae Miko’s eyes sharpened. She understood now.

“Hmph.”

She gave a sharp little snort, then deliberately ground her heel into the grass at her feet.

At the same time, her gaze flicked toward Bai Luo’s lower half, laced with hostility.

Bai Luo: “???”

Why is she looking at me like that?!

I didn’t even do anything yet!

At least wait until I actually cross a line before glaring at me like I’m guilty.

Otherwise you’re just making me feel like I don’t even deserve such a look.

After settling the unconscious Kuki Shinobu in a farmer woman’s house, Bai Luo and a freshly-disguised Yae Miko made their way toward Arataki Itto and his gang.

For some reason, Bai Luo noticed, every time Yae Miko passed through waist-high grass, she made sure to stomp it flat.

Did she… have a grudge against grass?

That didn’t make any sense.

. . .

Meanwhile, at the Arataki camp:

“Why isn’t Shinobu back yet? I’ll go check.”

After waiting a long time with no sign of her, Itto was starting to worry.

More importantly—their grilled lavender melons only tasted right when Shinobu made them. Without her, they were going to starve.

“Boss, let us go instead. You stay here and guard the melons, otherwise someone might steal them.”

Running errands was, naturally, a job for the underlings.

The three slapped on their hats, grabbed wooden sticks to use as weapons, and set off in the direction Shinobu had disappeared—shouting her name as they went.

But before long… their voices, too, vanished.

It was as if something strange, lurking in the dark fields, had swallowed them whole.

“Mamoru? Akira? Genta?”

By the time Itto realized something was wrong, the prairie was already silent.

Only the whimper of the night wind and the rustling of grass echoed around him.

“D-Don’t you dare scare me like this! If you don’t come out, I’ll eat all the melons myself!”

He gulped.

Truth be told, Itto wanted to go after them.

But…

The fox cries in the distance, the rustling all around…

He didn’t dare leave the safety of the firelight.

Funny, really.

Arataki Itto was an oni—yet he was terrified of ghosts.

If word got out, people would laugh themselves silly.

But his gang already knew it well.

Which is exactly why he thought… this must be a prank.

“I-I’m serious! I’m gonna eat them all!”

He snatched a melon from the fire pit and tried to shove it in his mouth—completely forgetting how blistering hot it was.

“Hot! Hot! Hot—!”

He dropped it instantly, clutching his scorched lips.

But before the sting faded, a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“Shinobu? You guys are back?”

Feeling the weight, Itto turned around in delight, ignoring the burn.

“Perfect timing! I almost ate all the—huh—UWAAAHH!”

Right behind him loomed a pale, grinning mask.

In the firelight, its mocking smile looked nightmarishly sinister.

“G-GHOST!!!”

Itto shrieked, abandoning the melons entirely and scrambling to flee.

The mask looked oddly familiar, but in his panic he didn’t stop to place it.

And then, stepping out of the grass ahead, came a kimono-clad woman with fox ears.

“Y-Y-YOKAI!!!”

Ghost behind him. Yokai in front.

The mighty Arataki Itto found himself herded back to the fire pit, despair etched across his face.

The two figures raised their hands in unison.

“Friend, have you heard of Miss Hina?”

. . . . .

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