(a)

"Whew-"

Kanako Yasaka opened her mouth and spat out a large puff of white smoke.

She leaned against the wooden railing of the shrine's cloister, one hand casually resting on it, and the other holding a slender smoking gun. A few wisps of green smoke slowly rose and drifted towards the distant moon.

The moon had risen to its top, and white light shone on her shoulders, draping the red robe with a white veil and turning her blue hair into silver threads. Kanako craned her neck and looked beyond the cornices of the roof to the deep blue night sky. After a moment, she hung her head again and sighed heavily.

"Hey—"

"What's the matter, Kanako, who is smoking a cigarette here alone and sighing?"

With these delicate and familiar words, a short figure walked up from the corner of the cloister and stood in front of Kanako. Through the silver glow of the bright moon, Kanako saw the other party's face clearly—it was her old partner, Suwako Fuya.

Kanako just glanced up at her, then turned her head to look away.

"Sanae, and the guests, are all asleep?" she asked, without directly answering Suwako's question.

"It's not so much 'sleeping'......" Suwako said with a wry smile, "It's better to say that I'm drunk......"

"It's good to be young, young ...... Get drunk when you want, and don't worry about anything. Kanako said, bringing the cigarette gun to her mouth, taking a puff, and expelling the smoke through her nostrils, like a dragon swallowing a cloud and spitting out mist.

Suwako looked at her face and didn't say a word. She could see that Kanako's eyebrows were full of loneliness and sorrow.

Kanako Yasaka has never been a person who is good at hiding her heart, at least, in front of Suwako Fuiya, she can't hide anything.

After a moment of silence, I only heard Kanako say quietly:

"Youkai and Humans...... The Shrine Maiden and the Magician...... Gods and Demons...... The illusory and the real, the past, the present and the future, all that exists and what does not exist, what should exist and what should not exist, can all come together and coexist peacefully...... If there really is such a paradise, don't you think, this is great, Suwako?"

"That's a good idea, so what?"

"When was the last time someone recognized you, or rather, realized your presence, Suwako?" Kanako asked rhetorically, "I mean, apart from Sanae and today's gang of little devils." ”

"This ......"

Suwako wanted to speak and stopped, she knew very well what Kanako said, but she didn't want to admit it......

Acknowledging the fact that the time for oneself is over.

"No, haven't you been in the last hundred years, have you?" Kanako continued, "And, at the end of the day, Sanae can see you because she has a slight blood relationship with you, and she was born with this ability. There is no one who can really pronounce your name and pray to you in the bottom of my heart, right?"

Suwako bowed her head silently, speechless. What Kanako said is the truth, the cruel truth.

Indigenous gods like Suwako, no matter how powerful, are nothing more than gardens floating in the air. They have neither a physical nor a soul, they exist only because of the faith of the people, and if they lose their faith, they can only weaken and eventually perish.

In the past, there were millions of indigenous gods, but now only Suwako is left. Soon, she will follow in the path of her friends, which is a certainty, and she can't escape.

A dignified god, who called for wind and rain in the past, is now about to die. She knew that she would leave alone one sunny morning, with no funeral, no mourning, no tombstones, no mourners, no one even knowing she was dead, and just disappear silently and invisibly as if it had never existed.

This kind of death is really ...... It's sad.

"To be honest, I don't care. Kanako ignored Suwako's gradually declining mood, and said to herself, "Even if there is not a single believer, I am at most a little weaker than before, the amount of alcohol is a little smaller, and there is nothing else, I should eat, sleep, and sleep, and no one can do anything to me after the days are over." But you...... You're different. ”

It's not the same, indeed.

Compared to Suwako, Kanako is a god of the Eight Classics, with a complete soul, and beyond life and death, except for gods of the same grade, no one can really touch her.

Suwako also understands this, but ......

"So what?" Suwako looked up, tears glistening in her eyes, "Did you say so much just to laugh at me?

"I'm not afraid of you stumbling, Kanako, I'll make it clear to you today!" she hissed and roared, with a slight cry in her voice, "I've accepted it! Whether it's the fate of perdition or everything else, I've accepted it!"

"I can die, I don't care! Didn't you come to destroy me in the first place? Now that you have done it, celebrate it!"

Kanako was speechless, quietly watching as the crystal tears crossed Suwako's face and dripped onto the wooden floor beneath her feet, but not even a single watermark was left - her connection to the world was already weak.

"Alas......"

After a while, Kanako sighed lightly. She flipped the cigarette and knocked it on the railing a few times, holding the ash in the field outside the cloister, and then said:

"Remember this sentence, Suwako, the tree moves to death, the person moves to live, and the poor think about change. ”

With such a sentence, she turned away and escaped into the darkness, leaving Suwako alone in the moonlight.

(b)

"Oh!"

After getting off the plane, leaving the airport, standing in the middle of this ancient street and alley, taking a deep breath, looking at the exotic scenery, Nalan Twilight was very sure that he had arrived at his destination.

Bucharest, Romania. The city has changed a lot since the last time he came, the roads and bridges have been repaired many times, the new buildings have a deliberately retro component, and the people have a very different appearance. All these changes, big or small, can't escape the eyes of him, a living fossil of human history.

In the whole city, only the smell of the north wind is still so kind.

"I barely recognize the city...... "Remilia, who was standing beside him, whispered, "I remember it wasn't that big and there weren't so many people before." ”

"It was before, and now it is now. Nalan said, "Why don't you say it, there were no planes before!"

"So, Nalan...... Mr. Twilight," Yanhua on the other side of the fire was a little unaccustomed to pronouncing Nalan Twilight's full name, "Where are we going next?"

"Now it's ......"

Nalan Yu habitually raised his hand, and found that there was no watch on his wrist, so he pouted, took out his mobile phone from his trouser pocket, clicked on it, and said:

"Ten o'clock in the morning. ”

"Let's rent a car first," he said, "and then eat and play as much as we want, and visit all the places in the city until night......fall."

"Yay!"

When Remilia heard this, she immediately raised her hands and smiled.

When her sister isn't around, she always acts more and more like her sister.

"But ......"

Yan Hua was about to ask a question, but was interrupted by Nalan Yu, only to see him smile and say:

"I said, 'Until nightfall,' and our work won't begin until nightfall. ”