"I-I'm sorry, everyone..."
Hyacine lowered her head, not daring to meet her companions' eyes. Her voice grew smaller and smaller, thick with a nasal tone and an unconcealable, profound guilt.
"I might have to... withdraw from this Wardance tournament."
The morning light filtered through the lush branches of the courtyard, casting fragmented sunspots over the girl's slender shoulders, but it utterly failed to dispel the gloom and depression clinging to her.
Hearing this, Fuli and Mimi blinked. They exchanged a glance, and then blinked again.
"EH?!!!!" x2
A scream of sheer shock that nearly blew the tiles off the courtyard roof finally shattered the heavy, stagnant air.
Just as Fuli was about to frantically ask why, his gaze landed on what was in her arms.
The usually chubby, energetic little Pegasus—who loved to flap its tiny wings, fly in circles around everyone, and make soft, adorable 'doo-doo' sounds—was currently curled up limply in Hyacine's embrace, looking utterly drained of life.
Its body temperature was dangerously high, and it seemed to ache all over—looking exactly like a certain unlucky author when they were ganked by the Type-A influenza virus.
Seeing this, Fuli rapidly calmed down.
Last night's intense "sparring" with Jingliu had drained a significant amount of his energy. Combine that with his basic respect for his companions, which meant he didn't casually leave his perception abilities active at close range, and he hadn't noticed Little Ica's terrible condition immediately.
"Little Ica?! Mi, what's wrong with him?"
Mimi also flew anxious circles around Hyacine. Her fluffy pink tail flicked uneasily, and her star-shaped pupils were filled with worry.
"He woke up around 4:00 AM looking like this," Hyacine said, trying desperately to suppress her sobs. "I-I used every method I know to examine him, and administered every potion I could brew... but the results show that Little Ica's internal organs and physical indicators are completely healthy! It's just... his life force is draining away at an impossible speed for no reason at all..."
She lowered her head. Her clear, bright eyes—usually as radiant as the morning sun—were now clouded by a thick layer of tears.
She looked like a gatekeeper holding a massive ring of keys, only to find that none of them fit the lock, leaving her completely powerless as she watched something precious dying behind the door.
"So, you're saying this isn't a natural illness?"
Fuli didn't waste another word. His right hand clamped onto the icy hilt of Evernight at his waist.
"Setsuna Blade: Divine Mirror."
The Form of Analysis and Reason silently expanded outward from him, instantly unfolding an utterly transparent microscopic world inside his mind.
A vast, ocean-like torrent of information flooded his consciousness. Within it, naturally, was the blindingly anomalous scene superimposed over Little Ica.
Through the feedback of his all-seeing, omniscient domain, Fuli saw that the pure light symbolizing the Pegasus's life force was being deeply constricted and pierced by a sinister, crimson thread, which was continuously siphoning away its vitality.
The other end of the thread extended outward, stretching beyond the ten-meter detection radius of his domain.
So it is an external cause... No wonder Hyacine, an expert healer, was completely helpless.
Understanding the situation, Fuli shot a glance at Mimi.
The little creature immediately understood. She floated to the front of Little Ica, raised her tiny front paws, and a light resembling a flowing galaxy bloomed around her.
"Draw back the curtains of memory—"
"Stir the ripples of the past!"
The immature yet crisp chant rang out. The profound power of time rippled outward with Mimi at the center.
Under the spell's effect, the little Pegasus's time began to flow backward.
Its dull fur regained its luster, its burning body temperature rapidly dropped, its unfocused eyes grew clear, and its lethargic posture perked up...
In just a few breaths, Little Ica was reverted to its state prior to 4:00 AM—completely healthy and unaffected.
"Doo? Doo-doo!"
Little Ica let out a slightly bewildered chirp. Instinctively, it flapped its wings, soaring in a quick circle before happily diving back into Hyacine's arms, nuzzling her affectionately.
"Thank goodness! Little Ica!"
The girl wept tears of joy. She hastily wiped the corners of her eyes and opened her arms wide, wanting to hug her fully recovered partner tightly.
But the very next second, the vitality that had just returned to Little Ica began fading away at a visible rate.
It let out a short, pained whimper. Its body violently stiffened mid-flight.
Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, it plummeted straight down, right through Hyacine's still-open arms.
"Careful!"
Fortunately, Fuli had been watching closely. He lunged forward and securely caught the falling Pegasus.
"Doo..."
The little creature in his arms was once again burning hot and impossibly weak—even worse off than before.
Sure enough, within his omniscient domain, Fuli saw that the crimson thread from the depths of the void had instantly reattached itself.
Logically speaking, even if Divine Mirror only had a ten-meter radius, Fuli and the others could simply follow the direction the red thread was pointing to track down the mastermind behind this.
Unfortunately, the "thread" Fuli was seeing wasn't a physical line with actual spatial directionality. It was just the Divine Mirror's way of visualizing abstract concepts that his human brain couldn't comprehend into a form he could understand.
It clearly indicated the concept: [An entity is draining Little Ica's life force]. But it couldn't provide a direct coordinate or vector to follow.
"Little Ica!"
Watching her childhood companion struggle out of weakness only to immediately plunge back into agony was devastating.
"Li-bao, Mi-bao... it seems I really do have to withdraw this time..."
Hyacine bit her bloodless lips. Her voice carried the desperate resolve of someone risking everything on a single throw of the dice.
"I can't just watch Little Ica die... I have to take him and search for another way to save him. I can't keep holding you guys back—"
"Honestly, our Hya is such a painfully sweet, foolishly good-natured girl."
Fuli's sigh suddenly interrupted her unfinished words.
He walked over and gently patted the cute, round hat perched on Hyacine's head, which was slightly askew from her panic.
"Little Ica is this sick, yet you didn't just run off on your own. You actually stayed just to officially say goodbye to us..."
"Little Li! Stop saying mean things!"
Immediately, Fuli was subjected to Mimi's tiny ORA ORA barrage of paw-slaps. "You make it sound like Hyacine doesn't care about Little Ica!"
"But I was literally just pointing out that Hya cares about us just as much!" Fuli protested, feeling wronged.
Without a doubt, Hyacine was gentle and kind to a fault.
She was the kind of girl who would unhesitatingly give a starving Foxian slave her incredibly expensive, premium Momotaro Riceball.
She was the kind of girl who worried that asking for the Reins of the Heroic Mount would cause Fuli to compromise his own plans, so she simply kept quiet about it.
"You're obviously burning with anxiety, and you have the most justified reason in the world to immediately leave with Little Ica. Yet, because you care about your teammates, you forced yourself to stay just to give us a proper explanation, and even blamed yourself for holding us back... Sometimes, I don't know whether to praise you or call you an idiot."
Fuli crouched down, bringing his eye level even with the kneeling Hyacine.
"But looking at it from another angle... doesn't this prove that, in your heart, you already view us as comrades you can rely on?"
A clean, haze-dispelling smile bloomed on the boy's face. "That's exactly why, when you felt the most helpless and terrified, your instinct was to come to us for help. Because you know perfectly well that we would never abandon you, and we would never abandon Little Ica."
"W-Well, examining Little Ica and thinking I might be able to solve it myself did take some time... that's why it took so long to tell you..."
The girl mumbled a quiet defense, seemingly still trying to find excuses for why she hadn't decisively left.
Yet, the icy fear of total isolation gripping her heart was unknowingly melting away beneath Fuli's words and smile.
A surge of warmth, mixed with an indescribable, throat-tightening sense of being moved, welled up from the deepest depths of her heart, gradually spreading through her entire body.
Li-bao...
"So, from now on, stop saying things like 'withdrawing from the team' or 'holding us back'."
Fuli dropped his smile, his expression turning entirely serious.
"We agreed right from the start that we would advance and retreat together! Didn't we say it during the team-naming vote? Little Ica is an indispensable member of our team! Where is the logic in abandoning a sick teammate, or pushing away the people who care about them?!"
The life of the God of Shinobi: Hiruzen might have been a complete meme, but there was one quote he got absolutely right:
Those who break the rules of the ninja world are called trash. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash!
"Little Li is right!"
Mimi flew right up to Hyacine's face, nodding vigorously.
"Little Ica is our partner, and so are you! When a partner is in trouble, we face it together! Who cares about the Wardance sprint or the championship rankings?! In the face of our partner's safety, all of that can go screw itself!"
Of course, the decision Fuli made was also supported by his memories from the previous timeline.
Golden Mead—the miraculous creation invented by Hyacine that allowed ordinary humans to safely traverse the Imaginary Tree, the Sea of Quanta, and regular realspace. Until the moment Fuli died in the last loop, that invention had remained completely unknown to the world.
Clearly, in the previous timeline, Hyacine had met an untimely demise before she could popularize her era-defining creation.
Combine that with something the girl had casually mentioned before: If she hadn't participated in the Wardance, her original plan was to use the records left behind in the Twilight Courtyard to explore an ancient ruin related to the origins of the Sky Clan, as detailed in her ancestor's journals.
Add in Little Ica's sudden, bizarre illness, and the fact that the Pegasus race were the divine beasts that once fought alongside Hyacine's ancestor, the "Sun-Thunder Knight: Ceneus"...
It was absolutely certain that something catastrophic had occurred within that "ancient ruin," directly affecting the creature so closely tied to it.
Furthermore, within the feedback categories of Divine Mirror, "red threads" explicitly symbolized bloodlines and genetics.
Putting it all together, Fuli was highly confident in his deduction: In the previous timeline, Hyacine likely died while exploring that ancient ruin.
Knowing full well what was waiting for her, how could Fuli possibly let her and Little Ica walk down that path of no return again?
If the entire Memory Battleship team went together, it would be a completely different story! Setting aside the mascot Mimi, both he and Castorice were powerhouses fully capable of threatening S-Rank entities. Handling a mere "ancient ruin" would be a walk in the park!
Hah! Come on, it's not like every random side quest I stumble into is a world-ending apocalyptic crisis, right?
Even the Lone Star of Calamity couldn't possibly be THAT unlucky!
As for the practically guaranteed Wardance Championship, and the massive rewards and prestige that came with it...
"You can't have both the fish and the bear's paw," Fuli let out a thoroughly villainous chuckle, intentionally using an exaggerated tone. "Compared to a measly first-place trophy, I'll gladly throw the fish away to save our Hya—who is exactly like a soft, sweet, kindhearted strawberry shortcake!"
"Li-bao! Y-You're spouting nonsense again!"
Two bright red clouds bloomed on Hyacine's cheeks, the heavy, suffocating pressure on her heart largely washed away.
Strawberry shortcake...
She chewed on the phrase internally. Lowering her head, she gently pressed her burning cheeks against Little Ica's cool, soft fur.
Hyperion, Massive Electric Headquarters—
"I see. A continuous, cross-spatial extraction of life energy, highly suspected to be operating on a genetic level. The target is a legendary-tier Pegasus hatchling."
Looking at Fuli—who was currently flashing her a deeply flattering, ingratiating smile—Mei thought for a moment before standing up from her plush, ergonomic office chair.
"To trace the source of this genetic resonance—which operates on principles similar to quantum entanglement—we need a specialized, broad-spectrum tracing radar. It will also require the target organism's real-time life fluctuations to serve as a guiding beacon."
She didn't even ask for further details. She simply took the comatose Pegasus from Hyacine's arms.
"Wait a moment."
Leaving those three words behind, she turned and walked deeper into the laboratory, heading straight for an analysis pod surrounded by state-of-the-art equipment.
The automated doors slid open silently and closed behind her.
Seeing this, Fuli let out a sigh of relief. He turned to his nervous teammates and said, "Don't let Mei's aloof exterior fool you. Deep down, she's incredibly warmhearted. If someone she considers 'one of us' is in trouble, she will never just stand by and watch."
"Is that true, Your Excellency...?"
Castorice, who had been the last to arrive, replied quietly.
For some reason, ever since stepping into Massive Electric, she felt like Miss Mei was periodically staring at her. It was a cold, condescending, highly scrutinizing gaze that made the Reaper girl inexplicably nervous and guilty.
Especially whenever Mei's gaze swept over the energy-conversion ring on Castorice's left ring finger... the pressure became suffocating...
Clearly, Fuli had not informed Castorice about who the original owner of that ring was, nor had he detailed Mei's specific attitude regarding the matter.
This henpecked husband simply didn't dare.
But putting that aside—
"Mimi, you can talk normally now?"
Castorice tilted her head, looking at the pink fluffball floating in the air.
"Eh? You're right!"
Hyacine only just realized it as well. Blinking her still slightly red, swollen eyes, she looked at Mimi. "Mi-bao, your language abilities are back?"
Thanks to the continuous comfort from her companions, and her own strong mental fortitude as a healer, the girl had largely returned to normal.
At least, on the surface.
"Hmph! But of course!"
The adorable fluffball did a triumphant spin in mid-air, her bushy tail wagging happily.
Then, she planted her tiny paws on her hips, looking utterly arrogant. "I bet in just a few more days, I'll transform back into that dazzling, eye-catching, ultra-charismatic beautiful girl!"
"I still think Mimi's fluffy form is cuter," Fuli muttered quietly.
There were plenty of beautiful girls in the world, but there was only one pink, fluffy mammal!
She's so warm when you hug her! And most importantly, she doesn't shed!
"Hm?"
Mimi's ears perked up in alarm, and she glared fiercely at Fuli.
"I-I'm not saying I don't like Cyrene's look! Great-Auntie is cute no matter what! I just mean, it would be perfect if you could freely switch between all your forms!"
Terrified of triggering his Great-Auntie's wrath, he hastily corrected himself.
"What do you mean, freely switch?"
A cold voice cut through the discussion.
"Between the Cyrene form and the Mimi form, obvious—"
Fuli stopped mid-sentence and turned his head, realizing it was Mei returning.
"Did you forget something?"
He asked instinctively, reaching out to take the object the girl was handing him.
It was a flat, circular device with a highly sci-fi aesthetic. The front featured a slightly convex, transparent crystal panel. Inside, golden pathways of light pulsed like a neural network. Overall, it looked remarkably like a Dragon Radar.
"This is what I just mentioned—the specialized tracking radar designed to lock onto genetic resonance," Mei said. She handed Little Ica back to Hyacine, then calmly walked back to her command chair and sat down. "As long as the entity draining Little Ica's life energy enters within a 100-kilometer radius of this device, the crystal panel will trigger an alarm and display the location."
"That fast?!"
The members of Memory Battleship were utterly dumbfounded. Sis, it hasn't even been five minutes!
"With a clear objective and a live sample provided, reverse-compiling a tracking algorithm is merely a matter of time for someone like me, who has already established multiple Aether Supercomputing: Sentient Nexus nodes within my brain."
Mei explained in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. Her gaze swept over their shocked faces before finally resting on Fuli. "So, what is your specific operation plan going forward?"
Regarding her boyfriend's decision to abandon a nearly secured championship trophy, the girl—having learned the full context—wasn't angry in the slightest. Instead, she felt that this was exactly the kind of person he was.
As for the first-place rewards? She had already joined Kiana's team anyway. She'd just hard-carry the Everlasting Flamescion squad to the top and claim the prize herself.
"Next, we're returning to the Real World."
Fuli snapped out of his shock, rubbing the cool, smooth surface of the radar in his hand.
"Through the observation of Divine Mirror, even though I couldn't get direct coordinates, the 'scent' of the origin point felt incredibly ancient. It carried an aura deeply connected to the sky and divinity. Combining that with what Hya mentioned before about an ancient ruin related to the Sky Clan located somewhere on Earth... I'm 80% sure that's where our problem is."
In reality, he had just logically deduced this using his knowledge of the previous timeline loop. But since stating that outright would be way too shocking, he conveniently blamed it on his omniscient domain, making up complete bullshit to explain it.
"Now that we have the tracking radar, once we return to Earth and combine it with Hya's clues, we should be able to narrow down the search area very quickly."
He looked at Hyacine, his tone carrying a trace of curiosity and a subtle premonition.
"So, my girl. While we still have some time, could you tell us a bit more about the history of the Sky Clan? And more specifically... about the legendary 'Sun-Thunder Knight', Ceneus?"
"Even though it might sound a bit like a jinx to say this out loud... I have a very strange premonition that we're going to be dealing directly with this ancestor of yours, or at least whatever she left behind..."
"Of course."
Prompted by Fuli, Hyacine began rapidly organizing the information in her mind.
As the inheritor of the Twilight Courtyard, she had been exposed to those ancient, obscure journals and legends since childhood.
Previously, she had been too panicked, her mind entirely thrown into disarray by Little Ica's sudden, critical illness. Now that she had calmed down, those dusty fragments of memory automatically began piecing themselves together.
...