I adopted a child demon from the Gap, and I'm a special agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Ab

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Section 182, Chapter 9: Arrival, and the Perspective of the Past

Black Continent, in a fragmented, abandoned town.

In the early hours of the morning, in the still-dark moment before dawn, two small figures quietly appeared on the dilapidated street.

"Wow, it looks so old and worn."

Cirno stared in astonishment at the collapsed houses around her, occasionally letting out a gasp of surprise. Shio, however, merely glanced at her surroundings, her expression slowly hardening into a serious one.

"Why are there so many dilapidated houses here? It feels like the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Beside Shio, Cirno was still shouting and yelling, even flying up to get a closer look at the broken buildings.

"How does this resemble the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

Hearing what the other person said, tide turned her head and asked with some confusion. Although her memory of the place Cirno mentioned was not very clear, she could still vaguely remember that it was a very grand and large villa, which was hard to connect with the ruins-like town in front of her.

“Because they’re all tattered and broken,” Cirno raised her head, looking proud. “You don’t even know that? What an idiot, hahaha!”

How could this guy call me an idiot?

tide stared wide-eyed in disbelief, a strong urge to pin the arrogant girl in front of her to the ground and rub her against the ground welled up within her.

"Every time the Scarlet Devil Mansion explodes with a 'bang,' it becomes dilapidated, just like the surrounding houses. But after a while, it turns back to normal on its own. This has happened many times; I've seen it several times."

Cirno floated in mid-air, waving her hands and speaking with great pride.

"So, these two are both tattered and similar, aren't they?"

Surprisingly... there's no way to refute it...

"Haha, you can't even figure this out? You really are an idiot, Cirno! I'm the genius!"

...But I still really want to hit her!

Suppressing her anger, Shio turned around, ignoring Cirno's shouts behind her, and walked along the broken road. However, Cirno quickly caught up from behind and resumed her chattering.

"Hey, is this what cars are like outside? Can they really run?"

"How could it possibly run away after being smashed flat?"

"Hmph, I already knew about this trivial matter. I'm the strongest!"

"..."

"Hey, is that the computer the shopkeeper mentioned? It's really glowing, it looks really cool. Should we take it back and show it to Dai-chan?"

"This requires electricity to start, and there are strict requirements for voltage and current. If you take it back, it will just be scrap metal."

"I already knew that, I am the strongest genius!"

"..."

It's probably best to ignore this idiot.

tide sighed, ignoring the blue-haired girl's incessant chatter beside her, and quickened her pace toward the road ahead.

Cheng, he has been here before.

Traces of his footsteps lingered in the air, and thanks to her unique abilities, tide could easily find these things that had already vanished. Purple light flowed in her pupils, and in the reflection of those eyes, the broken road seemed to have returned to a few days ago, to the time when that man walked on the road.

The principle of realms connects the duality of all things: cold and heat, light and darkness, sorrow and joy, even life and death, past and future. The traces Li Cheng left in this small town were laid bare in Xi's eyes. She watched Li Cheng's figure move through the city like a phantom, and quickened her pace to catch up with this phantom.

What are you looking at?

Cirno followed Shio with some curiosity, and then she saw Shio's pair of purple eyes shining brightly in the night, and couldn't help but exclaim.

"Wow, tide's eyes are so bright, so bright, they're practically glowing!"

"Quiet idiot!"

"I'm not stupid! I'm the strongest Cirno! You, come and duel me! I'll show you how powerful Lady Cirno is!"

Bringing this idiot out of that dilapidated building was definitely the stupidest thing we've ever done in our lives.

Covering her ears, tide stopped listening to Cirno's shouts and flew into the air, closely following the trail left by Li Cheng.

After wandering around the abandoned town, Xi saw Li Cheng arrive outside the town, kill the vicious local soldiers, save the family of three, and be regarded as an enemy by the leader of the resistance, Spartacus, thus having to engage in a fierce wrestling match.

Spartacus's fierce attack and Li Cheng's passive counterattack made Xi frown. Especially after realizing that he had mistaken Spartacus for someone else, Li Cheng didn't say anything and naturally forgave Spartacus. In contrast, Spartacus didn't offer a proper apology.

How can I forgive my opponent so easily? I got beaten up for no reason! I've decided, whenever I see that guy named Spartacus, I'm going to find a chance to beat him up!

After making a silent decision in her heart, Shio looked up and saw Cirno holding a rather large, dark green fruit, eating it while looking at Shio.

"……What are you doing?"

“If there’s fruit on the tree, pick it and try it,” Cirno said casually, pointing to a tall tree not far away. Then her expression suddenly turned sour. “But this fruit is so hard and bitter, and it’s really tough. It took me ages to bite it.”

Of course it tastes bad if you eat it with the outer skin on!

Although she really wanted to retort to her, considering Cirno's personality, she knew that Cirno would only get angry herself in the end. It took Shio a long time to calm herself down before she finally resisted the urge to punch Cirno into the ground.

"Oh right, we haven't fought yet! Hurry up, fight me, fight me! The strongest Cirno wants to challenge you!"

However, before tide could even check where Li Cheng was going, Cirno seemed to suddenly remember something, threw away the fruit she had just gnawed off, and immediately moved closer to tide.

"Nonsense! I clearly beat you up, I even pinned you to the ground and beat you up. How can you say I didn't beat you up?"

"Huh? Is that so? How come Cirno doesn't know about this? Hmph, I'm the strongest, how could I possibly be beaten down by you and pinned to the ground? You must have made that up!"

It's only been a few days, how could she have forgotten about it? This brain-dead idiot, I really want to beat her to death!

"Hurry up, hurry up, fight me!"

"No, I refuse!"

"No, you have no right to refuse!"

"No means no, go away, I still need to find someone!"

"Hey, looking for someone? What kind of person? Um, is it some kind of game of hide-and-seek? Can Cirno join in too?"

"..."

You were the one who persuaded me to come see him, but have you completely forgotten about it now? In a situation like this, what kind of expression should I make?

tide rubbed her head, feeling incredibly frustrated, and sighed. She felt like she had sighed the most today. It was because she had seen Li Cheng sigh so many times when he encountered frustrating situations, and now she had started to use sighs to express her exhaustion as well.

Spartacus, Li Cheng, and the family of three they had rescued were reflected in his deep purple pupils. They were heading out of the road and towards a distant forest.

Is that the place?

Withdrawing from the realm of observation, tide rubbed her eyes and prepared to head towards the forest.

"Oh, are they leaving again?"

Beside her, Cirno, who had somehow acquired another fruit with the same appearance as before, was asking questions while munching on the fruit's skin and complaining that it was too disgusting to eat.

"You just ate something similar and said it was bitter, so why are you gnawing on it again? Do you like this or hate it?"

"That one is bitter, but this one might not be bitter either. What if it's sweet?"

How could the same type of fruit taste different?

"What an idiot..."

tide muttered to herself, and this time Cirno didn't hear what she was saying clearly. She looked at tide, who was talking to herself, with some confusion.

But the next second, Cirno's eyes widened suddenly.

In a mere instant, Shio, who had been muttering to herself, suddenly looked up and, with astonishing speed, rushed in front of Cirno, grabbed her, and flew into the air.

There was no time to ask what happened, no time to react or struggle. Because, almost the instant that Shio grabbed Cirno and flew away, a violent burst of fire engulfed the entire area where they had been, the flames burning fiercely and with tremendous force.

Boom—

…………

Thank you to readers Dingye, Yusheng Linqing, Da Tuzi, Shuke67195465577, ZuimoyaowangEX, Xuanyuan, Moulei9hao, Yejilin, and Buzaideba for their recommendation votes.

Two even bigger failures...

Section 183, Chapter 10: The Color of Wisdom

The violent explosion created a powerful shockwave. The two little girls had only flown a short distance when the shockwave caught up with them and blew them away.

tide steadied herself and quickly regained her footing. But Cirno let out a mournful cry and flew out of control, like a kite with a broken string or a burst balloon. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, her whereabouts unknown.

Is this a bombing?

In the darkness, the flames burning everywhere were incredibly conspicuous, as were the violent explosions. tide hid in a corner of a house, listening carefully to the sounds outside. Soon, she heard shouts and gunshots that were barely audible amidst the explosions.

A battle is taking place nearby.

Without thinking too much, Shio ran towards the direction where Cirno had been blown away and quickly found Cirno buried under a pile of rubble, with only her head sticking out, struggling to climb out.

"Waaah, I can't get out! I can't get out!"

Amidst a pile of rubble, a little blue-haired girl, only her head peeking out, kept shaking, looking rather comical. tide glanced at her and her eyes narrowed.

"You idiot, are you here to help me or to cause me trouble?"

Helpless, Shio walked up to Cirno and reached out, using a portal to pull Cirno out of the rubble. However, Cirno was clearly not used to this teleportation method and fell headfirst out of the portal, landing back on the rubble. This time, she got her head stuck in the rubble again and had to struggle to pull it out.

"What was I thinking, letting an idiot like you come all this way with me..."

Unable to even feel depressed anymore, and only feeling mentally exhausted, Shio sighed and grabbed Cirno's ankle, pulling her out of the air.

"Whoa, who am I? Where am I? What happened?"

"You're an idiot. You're in your house, and you just did something really stupid."

"Huh, am I an idiot? No, no! I'm not! I'm the strongest, I'm a genius!"