(a)

"Drink...... Ha...... Drink......"

By the time Pache Norreki had crossed the last step of the long staircase, she was already drenched in sweat.

The swimsuit-like shape-shaped tights on her body, and the black blazer that Nalan put on her, if you were more specific, you have to add her long hair and the hat on top of her head, all of them, soaked and washed, and there was not even a dry thread left. There were still strings of water on her cheeks and chin, as if she had just come out of the sauna.

As for the smell on her body, it was sour...... Have you ever drunk blueberry yogurt, the sweet and sour girly kind? Put a large cup of blueberry yogurt in the midday sun for noon, until the flies have eaten and drowned in it, and then hold it up to your nose and take a sharp sip - warm and sour, it's like a cup of Patchy armpits.

The people who traveled with Pachouli, five vampires, a cat, a napping monster, a little devil, plus a particularly dashing maid chief, each with a more beautiful nose than the other. Pache climbed all the way up the mountain, and her body smelled like a cat in estrus, opening and closing her mouth, which was almost engraved in the DNA of these people. What's even more exciting is that later, Patchouli will also participate in the banquet in this image. Considering that the purple and white robe she wore had turned into rags, she lay quietly at the entrance to the underworld...... So, that's right, this time, no matter how the script is written, she has to make a "blood cost" for her weight loss plan.

However, at this time, Patchouli could not care about that.

Because......

"I--accomplished--la-"

Because she succeeded.

Succeeded, relying on her own strength, she walked the entire mountaineering trail. This is just a small step for all mankind, but for her, it is a big step towards a healthy life.

She was like a marathon runner who had crossed the finish line with the first place, with her arms outstretched, shouting loudly and crying with joy. Even her companions...... The friends couldn't help but applaud her with admiration.

"Congratulations!"

Behind her, in the form of solitaire, they "congratulated" one by one:

"Long Trek ......"

"Finally arrived at ......"

"The end of life!"

"My Friend Patchy ......"

"Exhausted to death here......"

"At the age of 200......"

"Weighing 300 ......"

"500 ...... body odor"

"Her last words ......"

"'Forward, Davarich!'"

"Settle in the earth for ......"

"Congratulations to ......"

"You ......"

Pache was trembling, like a volcano on the eve of an eruption. These creatures who don't know how to live or die know to joke about her weight all the time, as if they weren't going to gain weight...... Actually, not really!

But that doesn't change the fact that her anger has built up to the top.

Patchouli's face flushed, and she looked like she was about to have a seizure.

Patchouli was about to have a seizure.

Patchouli is definitely going to have a seizure.

Nalan Twilight dared to bet five cents with the people around her, and Patchouli would have a seizure in the next three seconds.

Three......

Two......

One......

"Ahem, uh, ahem!"

After a pause, Pache had another attack of asthma.

At that moment, before Pache could take a breath, suddenly, a burst of excited, fast-paced guitar solo disturbed the lifeless atmosphere of the underworld, setting off a violent wind that blew across everyone's cheeks. The music immediately attracted everyone's attention, especially Nalan Twilight's, which he recognized.

"It's a fucking Stargazer, Rainbow's one!"

He almost jumped to his feet, then strode forward. In a position not very far from the main army and with a wide enough field of vision, he stood on tiptoe and took advantage of his height to overlook the courtyard of the White Jade Tower, which was about to become the main venue of the banquet.

He saw that under the shade of the many cherry trees in full bloom and the westbound demon cherry blossom, which was the head of ten thousand cherry blossoms, and in the falling cherry blossoms like spring rain, the tables and chairs for the banquet had been arranged. The three Prizmliba sisters, who had arrived first, were standing on a makeshift stage, rehearsing the repertoire of the banquet. And the night sparrow monster who can sing and dance, Misia Loreira, stands at the front of the stage, holding the microphone in her hand, and is the lead singer.

Two guitars, played by Lilica and Melulan, and a bass, with a deep tone to Lunasa, who is also gloomy. These three modern instruments, connected to electricity, replaced the original trumpet, keyboard and violin, and became the new toys of the Spirits. Finally, the girl embraced heavy metal, which is like a man hugging the sea, natural, just, and logical.

"It's a bit of a banquet now. ”

Nalan Yu closed his eyes very intoxicated, and couldn't help but make a "demon horn" gesture in his ear.

"And yet ......"

However, after listening for a while, he opened his eyes again, frowned, and expressed his only dissatisfaction:

"There are no drummers. ”

Rock without a drum beat, just like eating Guilin rice noodles without sour bamboo shoots - eat a fart!

Despite this, there are still drum kits, which are placed behind the three sisters of Sao Ling. However, the seats were vacant, and there were no drummers, so I don't know if they were late or not.

Hawkers, no matter what the specific reason is, it doesn't matter, after all, the substitute player Nalan Twilight on the sidelines has begun to warm up.

"I think ......," he said, looking at the empty seat behind the drum kit from afar, rubbing his itchy palms, "that seat was reserved for me." ”

He was about to run to the stage to become the last piece of the puzzle of the nascent band of the Spirits, when he suddenly heard a rather heavy, "pop" like a hemp bag falling to the ground, and he turned around to see Patchouli lying motionless on the ground in a comical position playing the corpse.

"Ahh

Remilia exclaimed, and hurriedly rushed forward, taking off a shoe next to the unconscious Pacully, and poking Pache in the side of the face with her little white silk stockings.

"Patsy is dead!" she looked up, her big watery eyes open, and looked at Nalan Twilight, "Kiss her!"

"I'm not the Frog Prince...... No, it's the other way around!" Nalan Yu smiled helplessly, "Speaking of her medicine...... Oh, yes!"

Halfway through his speech, he slapped his head and remembered the scene when Patchouli went crazy and threw medicine before going up the mountain. It seemed that she had dropped the only bottle of asthma spray she had brought out.

"It's okay, it's okay!" Fran behind him clipped his hand and grinned widely, revealing her little tiger fangs, no, it was a small fang, "This is the underworld, the soul can't get out of the body, how can I die!"

"But she's already cold......" Remilia pouted, "maybe we can throw a small memorial service for her during the intermission of the banquet, while everyone is ......"

"I'll write the eulogy!" shouted Hongmisuzu and raised her hand in high interest, "I haven't read a book, but it sounds interesting, doesn't it?"

"This cat can be a master of ceremonies," Sir Chakolos also smiled and raised his hand, "I played a few hardcore games with wild cats a few days ago, and I have a little experience. ”

"You guys......"

Nalan sighed with his waist crossed.

"Pache will be sad if she knows it!" he said, "So, in order to put her at ease, I'll leave the work of playing the music to me! I'll borrow a soprano electric guitar ......."

Later, in the middle of that small memorial service, just as everyone attending the banquet was having fun playing the dark game of "matching Pache with a shroud", Patchouli Norregi, who had died, suddenly came back to life in anger for some reason, and reprimanded Flandrew, who was kind enough to paint her makeup.

Later, it took Pache two hours to wash off the oil-based brushes of the mustache on her face — her cherry blossom viewing trip was largely spent in the bathroom.

At best, at least, her experience has brought great joy to people other than her, and it has also left her with memories that she will never forget, and she can't forget if she wants to.

(b)

"The banquet began. ”

The little boy Jaeger Extrow, staring at the crystal ball in his hand, muttered. The magic crystal ball with the power of insight was reflecting the scene of the Sakura Drinking Banquet somewhere in the distance.

"Hiccup—"

The drunkard sitting next to him, Ibuki Suika, dropped the gourd that had been growing from her mouth and gave a long hiccup.

"It's a good party, it's so good......," she said, drunkenly and smiling, "we really want to go to the banquet......

"Don't worry," said Jeeger, smiling as he put away the crystal ball, "we have a bigger and more exciting banquet waiting for them here." ”

"You are the highlight of this 'banquet', and there will be an opportunity for you to make trouble. ”

"Reasonable......"

Cui Xiang replied casually, then picked up the wine gourd that could never be drunk, and drank it.

"Whoa—"

The sliding door of the Japanese room where the two of them were located was opened, and a tall woman walked in, so that the two young men and girls sitting cross-legged on the mat, with a relatively "pocket" figure, invariably raised their heads and looked up.

That's the host of this place, the head of the moon, and the eight meanings of Yonglin.

"It's so laid-back, two ghosts. ”

Yonglin smiled lightly, pulled a cushion, and knelt down squarely opposite Jaeger and Cuixiang. While drinking wine, Cui Xiang glanced at Yonglin from the corner of her eye, and found that even if this guy was sitting, he was more than a head taller than her, so he pretended not to see anything.

"Obviously 'mutation', or rather, the 'feast' of the bad boys is about to start, aren't you all nervous?" Yonglin continued.

"There is no need for that," said Jaeger, "but you have surprised me more. I have long known that there will be an internal response in this Gensokyo, but I can't calculate it by a thousand calculations, and it is you who stand on our side. ”

"Hehe......" Yonglin's eyes narrowed into thin slits and laughed, "If you think so, then it's a big mistake." ”

"We don't need to take sides, and no one can force us to take sides. Yonglin said, "We ourselves are a team, we have been like this before, and we will be like this in the future." ”

"Also, you need to understand that I didn't choose you because I thought you had a better chance of winning. It doesn't matter to us whether we win or lose, because it makes no difference to us whether the winner is you or them. They can't threaten our existence, you can't, no one can. ”

"Still," she added, "I have to say, if you guys were the winners, I'd definitely miss my rabbits – they're really good." But compared to the pleasure of the 'banquet', it is a small matter. ”

"It sounds so cold. "But why would you get involved if you don't care if you win or lose?"

"Animals talk about survival, and laypeople talk about profit, and for us, these are worthless. Yonglin said, "There is only one thing I want, and that is the answer." ”

"Answer?" said Jeeger, curling his neck, puzzled, "What is the answer?"

"First, the answer to the question, 'Is this Gensokyo worth it?' I think the most concise and intuitive criterion for evaluating the value of a place and a group of people is whether it has a strong enough combined force to resist an external force that can completely destroy it. ”

"Most of the changes in the past were nonsense, and they didn't pose much of a threat, and they didn't even have the most basic reference value. But this time is different, this time it is the most sinister mutation that can really threaten the existence of Gensokyo—it is fully worthy of my long-term experiment that has taken thousands of years, and it is the last and most critical experimental material. ”

"If Gensokyo is destroyed by your hands, it means that it is nothing more than that, and that old woman's vision of Yakumo Purple is completely in the air. Such a fragile thing, even if it perishes, there is nothing to regret, we just need to leave this place and find a new place to go, we have been wandering for more than a thousand years, we are not in a hurry. ”

"Second, 'the end of that man', I want to see it, I just want to see it, there is no other reason. What I want to know, I must know, no matter the cost, no matter the consequences, no matter the means, no one can stop me from revealing it. ”

"For these two reasons, I feel that I am going to start this 'banquet' no matter what, even if it will objectively assist you and betray them. Then again, if they really think I've 'betrayed' them, that's a big mistake. After all, we weren't their friends in the first place, and if they felt betrayed, it was a sign that they were naïve, stupid, and self-inflicted. ”

"What a madman. ”

Jaeger thought so.

He looked at the eyes of the woman in front of him, the inky black pupils were like two bottomless whirlpools, from which he could not read the slightest emotional fluctuation, nor the slightest bit of rationality. It was as if the whole world was nothing more than a "big enough" laboratory for her, and all the creatures in it were guinea pigs at her mercy.

He understood at once that what dominated this woman was the most primitive madness, but it suppressed it within the epidermis with absolute calm. She's a cold machine, a sane monster who does the craziest things with the calmest of attitudes. She was definitely the most terrible enemy he never wanted to encounter once in his life. Compared with her madness, the willfulness of "that adult" is nothing more than a child's temper.

Thankfully, whatever the reason, they are now allies, which is enough to give Jaeger a temporary sigh of relief.

"Bang!"

Ibuki slammed the gourd on the floor, interrupting the conversation and preventing further conversation.

"It's so stuffy in the house, I'll go out for a walk!"

She stood up, and spoke in a bad way, and Jaeger could understand. The source of her bad mood, Bayi Yonglin, was very inopportune, and reminded with a smile:

"Don't go too far and miss the opening ceremony of this 'banquet'!"

Cui Xiang ignored her, carried a wine gourd, and strode out.